Silent Things Analysis - (Ella)

 Short Film “Silent Things” – Representation – write an in depth analysis about the representation of disability. 

Silent Things begins with a fade from black transition into a tranquil scene of a beach with the diegetic sound of the sea combined with non diegetic music. This music with plays throughout the film parallels this scene as it is peaceful, quiet and relaxing. We see an extreme long shot of two characters standing alone on the beach flying a kite. We then see a medium long shot of these two characters, it is a male and a female which we assume to be the protagonists. 

The man wears a simple costume conveying him to be an average man, it does not suggest that he may have a disability. However his dark clothing combined with his slouched posture and solemn face could connote that he is a darker, negative or person. This could reflect a negative representation of his disability later in the film. Contrasting to this the woman wears brighter clothing, with pink colours and red hair. She continually plays with her hair and appears to be in her own thoughts this suggests an innocence to her character.

A fade to black is used to show the passing of time as we are then shown the same long shot of the male character on the beach, although this time with his back to the camera however without the woman. His loneliness is emphasised through the use of shallow depth of field as we can see him clearly in a medium close up but in the background we can see a group of friends together. We hear diegetic sounds of them laughing together which highlights that the male protagonist is alone which could convey that his disability limits and isolates him.

We see a shot of his purple kite flying in the sky then back to a long shot of the man, a girl with a large backpack walks in to the shot behind him. We she her looking at him and his kite, pleasantly and curiously. Then murmured jeers from the group of friends blurred in the shot behind the man are heard. They are teasing the male protagonist, laughing and asking him “is that your girlfriend?”. Then girl responds by shouting and swearing back, to which the group leave. This again further suggests a negative representation of this man and his disability. As he doesn't stand up for himself and seems used to the teasing communicated by his facial expression and body language. However the audience are still unclear on whether he has a disability at this point. 

He then talks to the girl, telling her he has asperges syndrome and she tells him how her father is dead and her mother “sleeps a lot”. There friendship appears to grow as they are both seem lonely and have no where else to go or anything else to do. This communicates a more positive representation as he is making a friend. The female from the first shot returns and questions him about who this new girl is. She suggests that the new girl might not be the right friend for him implying that the new friend doesn't understand his disability, the situation and what comes along with having a disability. 

The female character leaves the man and the girl with the backpack and we see time pass again. They sit and discuss ferrys, the girl explains how she is going to leave for France and asks the man to join her convincing him someone who knows so much about ferrys should at least go on one. The audience can sense the lack of understanding in the consequences of his decisions as he decides to join her, a complete stranger, because he knows how ferrys work. The girl clearly has power over the male, despite being considerably younger, this representation could be suggesting that able bodied people are more powerful and capable than disabled.

She seems able to clearly think about her actions, this is also shown by her voice being much louder and in control in the dialogue. This is also emphasised through close ups conveying the disabled man to be quite confused in his facial expressions.

Various disorienting close ups of the man are shown when he is on the ferry combined with shots of the people moving all around him. We can also hear muffled echoing voices and a high pitched beep, he is holding up one hand and twitching his head with his face scrunched up. It is evident that having a lot of people around him is causing him to have some kind of anxiety attack. We can see his disability through the mind of him at this point as the diegetic noises are blurred out and harder to understand.  Conveying to the audience the aspect of Asperges syndrome thats finding it hard to have social interaction. This is shown as a negative representation of his disability as he is struggling with a normal life aspect. He is also then taken advantage by the girl as she lies saying she just met him and he asked her to come on the boat with him, leading to him being escorted away by the police. This represents him with a lack of understanding, venerable and weak.

We finish with a scene of him back on the beach again where they started showing the narrative to go in a loop. The kite that has been shown in many scenes doing repeated loops and flying in a smooth steady consistent motion this could reflect the characters need for routine as he is joined again by the original female and they begin again to sort out the kite.