Directors: Amanda Forbis & Wendy Tilby

Year: 1999

Notes:

• Anthropomorphized short film
• Explores the intertwining of everyone’s lives
• Use of circles to emphasise the intertwining of everyone’s lives e.g. circle glasses, circle biscuits, circle drain, circles that help make the tap’s pipes, circle handle of the blinds
• Non-verbal story telling
• Motif of the lemon – symbolises bitterness in life?
• Open ending?
• Explores mortality

How the protagonist and other characters are established and developed

• The Cockrill is portrayed as being sad, contrasting to the pig who is joyful and singing. However, after their interaction their emotions switch. The pig is then sad after the day has broken, and she has witnessed a death.

How time and place are established and represented

• Everyone is shown as connected through the wires and pipes, as well as their actions effected each other’s lives. As well as through the use of circles to symbolise everyone and everything being connected.
• Time – life can change in an instant, everything changes so quickly. They show their family albums showing how their long life has ended in a second.
• Place – the pigs home seemed so happy before, the chair falling was part of the song and happiness. After the incident, the chair on the floor feels sad.

The use of enigma and narrative crisis and resolution

• The narrative crisis causes a flip in the pigs’ life. It causes all happiness to go, and causes her to shut herself away from society
• The resolution is her opening the blind to see the sun shining, suggesting she is ready to open herself up to the world again, understanding that we are all connected (unplugging the wire)

 An exploration of binary oppositions in the film

Happiness and Sadness

• The pig’s house at the beginning is full of happiness, but after the incident it was sadder, and emptier.
• The contrast of the pig and the Cockrill’s emotions, and the pig becomes sad after interacting with the Cockrill

Humans and Animals

• The usual binary opposition of human and animals is brought together in this short film, as the animals act like humans.

Isolation and being open to society

• The pig opening up her blind at the end of the movie suggested that she was opening herself up to society again, which gave a sense of hope to the audience that she will be happy again
• The pig isolates herself when sad
• The film shows how even when we try and disconnect ourselves, everyone in society is still connected