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[tires skidding].
(Elena). Oh my God, stop!
(Jim). Are you okay?
(Elena). Yeah, yeah I'm okay..
[engine revving, tires spinning--no dialogue].
[no dialogue].
(Julia). So, the two elements
come together, distasteful sex and the advancing ice storm.
After these scenes comes the climax,
the surprising and disturbing coincidence that throws these
families' lives into disarray.
I won't tell the plot development about that,
since many of you are going to see the film tonight,
and I don't want that spoiler for those of you who didn't
see it yet, but just to indicate that the increase in
the drama, in the environment, in the throws of this ice storm
sum up the emotional coldness between the characters.
I want to turn now to a different film, "Pleasantville".
In it's structure, the film combines comedy and melodrama.
It has a very serious theme and the sections oriented around
this particular theme are the most melodramatic ones.
There are two teenage protagonists,
played by Reese Witherspoon and Tobey Maguire,
and they're put into the world of a black and white
television show, where they assume the daily lives of the
characters Bud and Mary Sue Parker.
So I'm going to use the names Bud and Mary Sue
when I refer to them.
Now when they're in the world of Pleasantville, Mary Sue
continues her regular flirtatious ways.
In that world she gets a new, cute boyfriend named Skip,
but she introduces him to sex in Lover's Lane and it's at that
point that some small changes to color in the environment begin.
Other disruptions happen because of sex.
The basketball team doesn't play perfectly anymore,
because Skip tells his friends about sex.
In the meantime we see a scene where Mary Sue's mom,
Betty Parker, played by Joan Allen,
is washing dishes with her daughter one night
and she asks the girl, what happens at Lover's Lane?
Mary Sue says sex, and the confused mother asks what's sex?
At which point of course, we the viewer do a double take.
It's not the usual way the birds and the bees discussion goes.
So we get a big clue as a viewer, about what's wrong
with Pleasantville and the rest of the sequence
will re-enforce that first impression.
Well, Mary Sue explains and the mother adds,
after that explanation, your father would
never do anything like that.
So Mary Sue, unphased, goes on to explain about
how to enjoy yourself alone.
We don't hear all the details, but just that's enough
to let us know she's explaining ***.
Then we see the father, played masterfully
by William H. Macy, climbing into his single bed with his
glass of warm milk, asking his wife when she's coming up.
Such an image is like a tableau--it's a visual,
almost static image that sums him up as a type.
And it leads us to make a judgement about him,
thinking that he's out of touch and ineffectual.
This tableau both foreshadows later plot developments with him
and establishes a contrast, implicitly a contrast about what
are better and worse ways of life
in terms of the next scene to come.
Unlike George, Betty Parker is curious, sympathetic to others,
open to change--she's perhaps the character who changes the
most in the course of the film.
But most spectacularly in this scene, the psychological theme
of finding personal identity through *** expression
is tied to thrilling visual articulations of that theme in
the mis en scene, especially in the films early shifts to color.
[no dialogue].
(Betty Parker). Mary Sue?
(Mary Sue Parker). Yeah?
(Betty). What goes on up at Lover's Lane?
(Mary Sue). What do you mean?
(Betty). You hear these things lately
since kids are spending so much time up there.
Is it holding hands, that kind of thing?
(Mary Sue). Yeah.
That and...
(Betty). What?
(Mary Sue). It doesn't matter.
(Betty). No, I want to know.
(Mary Sue). Well, sex.
(Betty). Oh...what is sex?
(Mary Sue). Sure you want to know this?
(Betty). Yes.
(Mary Sue). Okay, well you see mom,
when two people go to Lover's Lane, they...
[no dialogue].
Are you okay?
(Betty). Um, yes.
It's just, your father would never do anything like that.
(Mary Sue). Well you know mom,
there are other ways to enjoy yourself without dad.
[no dialogue].
[faucets turning and water running].
(George Parker). Sweetie you coming to bed?
(Betty). Yeah, I'm just going
to take a bath first.
[no dialogue].
[background music--angel's voices].
(Betty). Oh my goodness.
Oh my goodness!
[breathing heavily].
Oh my, oh my, oh my, oh my, oh my!
[explosion in the tree].
(Bud Parker). Oh ***!
Oh god!
[no dialogue].
(Dr. Lesage). I didn't want to tell you about
the most spectacular element of all.
And notice how the fire bursting into flames is
what we would see in melodrama, a complete coincidence, okay.
There really is, you could say the energy released in the air
caused the tree to become the tree to go on fire
but it really is a symbolic element of the environment.
Furthermore, another thing which I had forgotten to mention is
the chorus of angel voices.
Again, not a realistic element,
but an emotional element, alright.
So you see both the chorus of angel voices and the
tree bursting into flames create a visual parallel
to the quality of the emotional experience.