How do the two films Inception and Shutter Island break the rules of
Classic Hollywood Narrative (CHN) and independent (Indie) through there style.
Both the films are similar in many ways with there style. Inception is the
Hollywood film directed by Christopher Nolan, this should follow the rules of
the CHN and have a clear cause and effect, and have no questions left at the
end, but towards the end it starts to leave the rules of the CHN and starts to
become an indie film. Indie films are meant to ask more questions and leave
the audience questions at the end and have the audience creating there own
ending. The two films are in a 1st person narrative with one character being a
schizophrenic and one who is caught up in dream world. Although my main thesis
is about style, narrative will come in and help justify and backup the point
that the two films juxtapose in that they need to be CHN and Indie films.
A point of comparison for
how the two films protagonist help present the style of film it is, is by
giving them similar back-stories. The scenes too compare are from Inception,
Cobb’s wife is about to jump off a building, and in Shutter Island, Teddy’s
dreaming of his wife’s slow death. Both these scene help link
the two characters of a dream world nut and schizophrenic to how they both have
someone in their lives who has been killed. In Inception the death of Mal is
heart braking for Cobb's, the problem with that is that as she is always in the
back of his mind, she can come out of his subconscious and cause problems,
which is what happens. The style of the scene is quite dark, the main lighting
is only by the light in the hotel room, and they are also both wearing dark
clothes, linking to death with the darkness that will overcome everyone one
day. This scene is here to help drive the protagonist forward and try and
overcome the death of the wife. Compared to Shutter Island when Andrew is
dreaming of his wife's death, the scene is completely different. The lighting
of the scene and say a lot of what is going on. The beginning starts with them
in the room with the city in day light, and then Dolores walks over to the
other window and then the lighting outside goes all dark and grey because it is
then starting to show her slow, possibly painful death. Style helps more in
this case of getting how each scene is either CHN or Indie because the way a
scene is presented, the scene could be answering or questioning the rule of CHN
or Indie, this is a good example of a challenging representation of style.
Both the endings of the
films summaries how they are either a CHN film or an Indie film. The point for
when Cobb’s is in limbo trying to get Saito back, is the point where questions
are answered. Same as Shutter Island, when Teddy finds out that he is who he
really is. Both the near endings of the film sum up on how each film is either
CHN or Indie. It's because of the way that they have finished it off, have they
either answered all the important questions or have they left a cliff hanger
and want the audience to create an ending. By doing this it has complicated the films and makes in harder to tell whether or not it is a Hollywood film or independent. In the final scene of Inception it
shows Cobb getting off of the plane that they were in and getting picked up
from his dad, it's the very last bit that when he gets home and spins
his totem, his children walk in. At this point the camera has zoomed in to
the continuous spinning totem and then cuts to black. A Hollywood film ending
with probably the biggest question of all isn't normal, it doesn't follow the
general CHN rules, and the question that’s being asked is if Cobb is in reality
or exactly still up in limbo. Going to Shutter Island this scene is where Teddy
Daniels has just found out who he really is and finds out that the women who's
life that they got background on, was his life, he has just found out that he
has been giving parts for people to play in his life story. This part acts out
as if it is a CHN film, answers all the question like who is the woman and girl
that he has been dreaming of? Probably the biggest one would be who was the 67
patient? He found that it was him. Both these scenes in there style are
different, in Shutter Island the lighting and colouring is bright, having it
bright could be having Teddy excepting and having his eyes opened to what has
happened. In Inception, when it is looking at the totem, the colours are quite
dark, blacks in way showing the darkness. Having it show darkness could be
saying that he is in limbo, and that the totem will continue spinning.
The disruption in both Inception and Shutter
Island determine the point being made. Is it Hollywood or Independent? The
styling of how they have done this helps back it up. The two scenes of
comparison will be the one where the train comes through the middle of the
streets and no one knows why, that’s the Inception clip, and the Shutter Island
clip is when Teddy and Chuck are discussing what there plan was and why they
were on the island in the first place. These scenes
here help display how the style can help discuss what the disruption and what
kind of questions it is lining up. The disruption for Inception would be when
starting there perfectly planned out plan and then having Cobb's subconscious
come into play with what they are doing. The scene is raining and the sky is
quite dark and blue, giving the sense that something bad is going to happen.
When Ariadne gets into the car, out of no where, a train comes flying down the
road, and you look at the expression on Cobb's face and you can see that he
knows where that is from, it’s in the back of mind because it's a memory from
his wife. Not just that bit but when Fischer is in the taxi and has a gun put
at him, he gives the style that he just doesn't in a way. He gives them money
and his wallet and just says: "'Might as well drop me off at my
stop'", just not caring. Asking the question of does he actually know what
is going on? But then with all those dark colours showing that there
could be conflict, a shooting scene evolves. The colouring and lighting of this
scene is very important to the style of how it presents CHN, there’s always
meaning behind their style of narrative. Now the Shutter Island scene starts
off dark as to say that they have no idea what they are doing there. Chuck is
discussing all the factors what they could be doing there and then the door
opens up and the bright lights from the car light up the scene. Lighting up the
scene at that moment when they have discussed why they are they, gives the
impression that its hit them and they know what they must do. Linking this to
the style of CHN and Indie films these are quite typical of having the
colouring and lighting etc. helping disassemble the meaning behind everything
that happens in a scene. It helps us determine how a scene can challenge or
re-enforce the rules of both CHN and Indie films.
Overall, both of the films use their style and also
their narrative to break the rules of CHN and Indie films. Both the films show how the protagonist is seeing everything in a different light, a different style. This is showing how they could have an unstable mind set. Now although Inception
is a Hollywood film and is produced by a Hollywood company, it shows greater
signs of being an independent film from the way the disruption and ending are
presented. Style is a big factor in showing the difference between CHN and
Indie, and these films are two great examples of how the style can change the
rules and give different prospective. In Shutter Island being the Independent
film, the style of how both the disruption and ending sum up how it breaks the
rules of an Indie film and then moves towards more of a CHN film. Main aspects
that show this is the lighting and colouring. These two factors are most
important because it can show how certain characters are feeling and can get
across the messages trying to be determined either through a Hollywood approach
or an Independent film approach.
