Context 

Richard Wilson’s 20:50 Artwork 

• “20:50 takes its name from the type of recycled engine oil used. It is thick, pitch black, and absolutely indelible.”
• The 20:50 artwork is similar to the abyss that Laura leads men into 
• It is possible that the film used this artwork as a basis for the abyss room and it’s possible the director did this to explore the ideology of environmentalism 

Caspar David Friedrich’s ‘Wanderer Above the Sea of Fog’

• “Wanderer above the Sea of Fog, also known as Wanderer above the Mist or Mountaineer in a Misty Landscape, is an oil painting c. 1818 by the German Romantic artist Caspar David Friedrich. It has been considered one of the masterpieces of Romanticism.”
• The extreme long shot of the motorcyclist on the mountain is a reference to this painting (probably)
• The painting links to the sublime, and it is used to as irony to show the audience how the motorcyclist cannot feel or appreciate the sublime or nature as he is not human, or like a human. This contrasts to Laura who can, e.g. the super imposed image of her sleeping among the extreme long shot of the trees suggesting the can feel connection to nature and she has become more human 

 

Themes:

• Isolation – Laura is often alone, this contrasts to the humans who are often together 
• Exploitation – linking in with the ideology of capitalism. The exploitation of the aliens. 
• Gender – the binary opposition of men and women, how they are represented, and the narrative repetitions and narrative flips
• Nature – links to the Romantics ideology, used to shows that Laura is becoming more human. Also, part of the representation of Scotland as the river and road were shown as if they were the same thing during the opening. 
• Ambiguity – We don’t know allot of things, but don’t need to know. Such as, what the abyss is, what happens to the victims, if Laura is an employee, people’s names, what characters are thinking (such as Laura) etc. 

 

Cinematography: 

Opening Sequence

• Extreme long shot of alien when picking up the ant
• high key and high contrast (ant etc)
• Extreme close up of the ant is jarring 
• Close up of Laura holding the ant 
• high key white background makes dark figure (cold/empty/emotionless)
• extreme low key to high key is jarring, it challenges the viewer. It makes you unsettled at question what you’re watching. It also separates the viewer from the film in the same way that Laura is separated from society.

Shopping Centre Sequence 

• Over the shoulder, high angle shot with Laura in the centre – places her above the others which makes her seem superior and predator like, it could also be how she sees herself. The people in the background aren’t as relevant – like a herd

Middle Sequence 

• face close up in the fog – high key low contrast – lost herself
• close up during the crossfade of Laura
• Light shines on the mirror – back lit and low key. You see her silhouette and obscured face then she steps closer to the mirror and her face lights up – moving into the light/finding herself/change in identity/analysing herself/comparing herself to the man
• Point of view shot of the fly on the window

Ending Sequence 

• long shot of her hiding makes her appear small and vulnerable, and like we are spying 
• Camera tilts up to the sky – heaven/death/a better place

 

Mise en Scene: 

Opening Sequence

• exploded projection with a planetary feel or an eye being made
• black eye (no soul) being formed/squashed in (‘eyes are the window of the soul’)
• road and river seen near/next to another and presented like they were the same
• white background suggests the woman is a ‘failed’ alien. Cycle is ended at the end of the film.
• Woman’s face looks like Laura’s at the end of the movie – narrative repetition 
• Don’t know where they are but it doesn’t matter
• Scotland represented as cold/wet etc

Shopping Centre Sequence 

• Fur coat – predator
• She’s alone contrasting to the majority of others who are with other people 
• Clothes – the clothes are bold and picking out clothes is a very human thing for her to be doing. It can be interpreted as her adapting to being on earth or her purposefully wearing what could be considered to be sexually provocative clothing

Middle Sequence 

• Laura is facing the other way to the alien in the cross fade suggesting her change of direction/path in life
• Fly on the window – point of view shot – flies individualistic unlike the ant at the beginning, she’s evolving from what she was/she compares the fly to Adam’s character and how he’s trapped somewhere he doesn’t want to be/representation of her trying o get out and wanting to be free. Feels empathy for people who are vulnerable now.
• The camera remains in the empty van after she has left and walked/ran out of shot – she’s left her position and her old ways/life
• Fog – she’s lost literally but could represent morally as well/white suggests clean slate
• The man has to walk from what looks like countryside back to civilisation (town) (Romantic’s links?)

Ending Sequence 

• Sleeping in the tree’s shot – free/at peace/nature is big/nature plays a role/nature is powerful/she is connected with nature – both Laura and nature are unpredictable etc. It also links to the Romantics. 
• Her face when she is holding it looks like the woman’s/alien’s from the beginning of the movie
• Fire – stands out, like she’s been cremated. The fire standing out from the white snow could suggest her loss of innocence
• The forest man has dirty clothes
• Mise en scene/trees in the foreground partially obscuring Laura – outsider/spying/creepy/vulnerable if you feel someone is watching
• The motorcyclist on the mountain looks like ‘wanderer above the sea of fog’ – Romantics link

 

Performance: 

Opening Sequence 

• motorbike man doesn’t speak and quickly and easily finds the woman (unnerving/ emotionless/focused)
• The woman’s morality is off as she seems to be more interested in the ant when the audience is concerned for the human
• The woman’s curiosity when looking at the ant suggests a childlike innocence that is lost as the movie continues 
• The unconscious woman cries (alive/paralysed/emotion)
• The woman is emotionless when undressing her and drops her head down (focused/emotionless)
• because Laura exhibits coldness and doesn’t show empathy for the woman, we don’t feel empathy or sympathy for her but this changes as the movies continues

Middle Sequence

• Examining her face in the mirror and moves towards mirror – examining her eye/comparing herself to the man/examining who she is as a person and is the pivotal turning point in her character where she begins to feel empathy. Pivotal moment for her identity. Epiphany.
• The man looks around and speaks – not just interested in having sex with her. He is the person who shows her not all humans just want sex and sparks her change of heart
• Laura leaving the van shows her leaving her life/her job and Laura walks out of shot when she leaves the van – left her position and identity shift (proxemics)
• Laura looks panicked
• An old woman see’s the motorcyclist put the man in the trunk of a car – she does nothing – shows that not all humans feel humanity
• The man walks back to civilisation from the countryside to the town
• Motorcyclist is fast and vicious/aggressive/concentrated/emotionless

Ending Sequence 

• gets in the car (symbol of her old life) but it doesn’t start (symbol that she isn’t who she used to be) – a human thing to run to what should have been comforting
• he’s forceful and brutal
• face still blinks like the woman still cried
• The way that she stares at the face shows empathy which contrasts to the beginning
• Looks at the face like it’s a mirror – see’s what she isn’t/wanted to be
• He’s chewing gum – gross/emotionless
• Motorcyclist has lost Laura – because she became so different, he doesn’t know how to
• The way that Laura killed people was less violent (leading them) than the man

More

• When she goes to the castle, they have to descend some stairs. Laura is scared and the man wants to help her. But the proxemics are the complete reversal of before when she trapped the men. He’s in front of her and encouraging her to follow him. Laura fears that it is a trap.

 

Sound: 

Opening Sequence

• Speaking noises – possibly learning how to speak 
• hard to listen to non-diegetic noises that are fast paced, like it’s building something and it’s mechanical and inhuman which is jarring
• close sonic perspective of the woman when clothes are being removed (muffled) which is uncomfortably intimate and could be from the unconscious woman’s perspective

Shopping Centre Sequence 

• The alien is quiet which contrasts to everyone else being very loud (diegetic/murmuring/indistinct) which makes Laura seem emotionless and isolated

Middle Sequence

• non-diegetic eerie noise follows her footsteps – ritualistic and builds tension – hunting music (luring men/rape etc)
• drumming like eerie sound when motorcyclist is catching the man and eerie noises – heartbeat/anxiety/anger
• lack of sound (not silent) during the mirror scene

Ending Sequence

• calm music when Laura is sleeping in the trees
• no music when she is running because it is scary enough already
• she makes scared noises – emotion/shows brutality of the man
• eerie noise – reversal of previous scenes
• Quiet when it’s the smoke and the snow
• diegetic sound fades away when eerie noise comes on

 

Editing: 

Opening Sequence 

• Graphic match/match cut of circle to eye being made

Shopping Centre Sequence 

• Montage and fragmentation – when picking the clothes which makes it seem as though Laura knows what clothes she wants already
• Montage of others – the camera shows the aliens view of the world and learns from others. Also emphasises how Laura is alone contrasting to the others who are with other people

Middle Sequence 

• Parallel action of Laura, the man and the motorcyclist
• Cross fade/super imposed image alien to/and Laura where Laura is looking in a different direction to the alien suggesting she has a changed/new path in life/she has changed her morals/shift in identity etc or maybe she’s looking inside herself or it shows that she is becoming human/she feels she’s becoming humane
• Editing pace is slowed down during the mirror scene
• Long duration shot – the mirror

Ending Sequence 

• long duration shot of the snow
• super imposed – tree sleeping image
• Slow editing/low cutting rate when running away which is unusual for a tense scene but it doesn’t need to tell the audience to feel tense as it’s already scary enough

 

Representation: 

Gender 

• Men such as the motorcyclist and the man at the end are shown as emotionless and cruel
• Women such as Laura at the beginning and the woman at the window (who just watches as Adam Pearson’s character gets taken) are shown as emotionless 
• Women such as Laura after the acknowledgment of disequilibrium and the unconscious woman at the start are showed to be emotional 
• Men largely shown as only interested in sex 
• Both men and women are shown as predators and prey which links in with narrative repetition 
• The clothing choice that Laura makes
• Women objectified – Laura hardly speaks and is used to entice men with the thought of sex
• Alien’s gender is ambiguous 

Age 

• The age of the alien is unknown, but at the beginning it is as if she is just born/is growing up and learning. Such as, the voice over of what sounds like her learning how to speak, and the eye being formed. She also stares at the ant with a child like curiosity as she had never seen one before (presumably). 
• Her life ends suddenly and early 

Scotland 

• Shown as wet and cold
• The people that live in Scotland stand in for all of humanity. They are the only people that Laura interacts with when on earth, it’s the only idea of humans that she is given
• The nature and man-made – the roads presented the same as the river/lake

 

Narrative: 

Human and Alien 

• Laura, an alien, is shown to become more human through the ideology of Romanticism, as her closeness and connection to nature allows us to identify her as human, unlike with the motorcyclist where we feel he cannot appreciate or feel the sublime. 
• Humanness is often associated with empathy and caring, as Laura becomes more caring when she becomes more human. Plus, her exposure to people being nice like the people who help her when she falls and the man she saves encourages to become more human. However, humans are also shown as cruel, such as the woman who watches Adam Pearson’s character get taken away but does nothing and the man at the end. 
• Her human form against her alien form, and what is associated, and what we associate with each and depending on the part in the movie 
• The aliens are shown as more independent and isolated than humans. For example, during the shopping centre sequence, the montage of the others shows how the public are interacting with others, but Laura is alone. Plus, a group of women take Laura who is alone. 
• Laura picking out clothes is a very human thing to do 
• Laura’s conversations aren’t like normal interactions 
• Laura trying and failing at doing actions that are considered to be human (e.g. eating cake) shows that there’s more to being human than that 

Men and Women 

• Women are shown as both emotionless (Laura at the beginning, the woman at the window) and emotional (the unconscious woman cries, Laura at the end)
• Men are mainly shown as emotionless and/or violent (motorcyclist, man at the end), usually through performance but also other film form elements like sound. Such as, the drumming, fast paced sound when the motorcyclist finds Adam Pearson’s character, and the lack of sound at the end because the scene is scary and horrific enough already 
• Both men and women are shown to be predators and prey. This involves the narrative repetition of Laura leading in men, and the end of this cycle. Then, the flip of this such as when the bus man takes her to the castle, and she is following him. 
• Men are mainly shown as only interested in sex, apart from Adam Pearson’s character. 
• Objectification of women – Laura hardly speaks (unconscious women never speaks), and Laura lures men in by convincing them that she’ll sleep with them 
• A possible interpretation is that the clothes that Laura picked were purposefully sexually provocative 

Light and Dark, and Black and White

• The white background/mise en scene during the opening when Laura is taking off the woman’s clothes 
• The black abyss room that Laura leads men into 
• The white snow at the end and the grey smoke 

Nature and City/Town

• Links to the ideology of the Romantics – being close to nature. Foe example, Adam Pearson’s character chooses to escape through the country route instead of taking the road. 
• Representation of Scotland as cold, and run down
• Nature links into the theme of Isolation, as the characters tend to be alone when in nature contrasting to the public being together in the city 

Natural and Unnatural 

• The alien’s abyss contrasting nature. Such as, the ocean and the forest
• The high key and high contrast lighting at the beginning with the white background feels very unnatural and causes a jarring experience for the audience. This contrasts to the shopping centre and town where the world seems more natural and normal 
• The alien form of Laura against the human form of Laura 
• The performance of the motorcyclist man and the man at the end are very unnatural due to their emotionless and very cruel nature 
• Use of the environment (natural) like the ant, the fly, the snow, the forest, the ocean etc. 

Worker and Employee 

• This links to the ideology of Capitalism (and the possible exploration of a Marxist critique on capitalism)
• The extreme close up and close up of her holding the ant is important as it could symboliser being a worker possibly like Laura 
• Laura is damaged by what may be her job, she loses her identity and ends up dying
• Motorcyclist represents the people that she works for, which are represented as emotionless, cruel and evil 
• Narrative repetition of the unconscious woman and Laura suggests that the company keep putting more aliens on the job and using/exploiting them 

 

Some Narrative Devices/Techniques/Structure Examples and More:

• The opening equilibrium is purposefully jarring (through the cinematography) to detach the audience from the film in the same way that Laura feels detached from society and eventually herself. Plus, it makes the audience questions what they are watching which is important to start at the beginning as the film requires allot of thinking and consideration. 
• Narrative repetition – the woman and Laura, Laura leading men into the abyss (and the break of this repetition), the bus man leading Laura contrasting the narrative repetition 
• Comparing the opening and ending equilibrium shows the films ideologies such as the exploration of existentialism, feminism, and the Romantics 
• Linear Narrative 
• Film starts with her creation and ends with her death – full circle
• woman and Laura comparison – circular structure
• We associate with Laura as an audience by the end of the movie and feel empathy/sympathy for her 
• narrative flip- she was like the predator and she becomes like the prey 
• narrative flip – men and women
• alien – human – alien — we feel sympathy for her from human and onwards
• super imposed images – tell the audience something specific e.g. something to do with ideology or binary oppositions 
• The effect of long duration shots e.g. the long duration shot where Laura analyses herself and looks in the mirror marks the moment where she realises she needs to change what she has doing, she has changed as a person, and marks the acknowledgment of the disequilibrium 
• Symbol of the white van 
• The music repetition/motif that’s used when she is luring in men, and when she is chased

 

Ideology: 

Capitalism (and a possible Marxist critique of Capitalism)

It could be interpreted that this film explores capitalism through showing us exploited workers. For example, the unconscious woman at the beginning has clearly met a bad fate and end and can be considered to be the worker alien before Laura. Plus, Laura completely loose herself and who she is by carrying out her job, which is shown through the mise en scene of the van, the super imposed/cross fade of her and the alien form, and more. Because of her job, Laura no longer fits in anywhere and is fearful of the motorcyclist. The extreme close up of the ant can be interpreted as a way of helping to start the exploration of this ideology, and set it up, as ants are workers like Laura may be. 

Feminism and Feminist Critique 

It can be interpreted that Laura is objectified in this movie. This is because she hardly speaks, and her job involves luring men by tricking them into thinking she will have sex with them. Laura’s clothing choice may also be interpreted in certain and different ways, which sometimes may link back to the exploration of this ideology. Laura is shown as both the predator and the prey and overall a strong character. The women are represented as more emotional than the men, for example, the unconscious woman at the beginning cries, and Laura feels fear. But the men tend to be shown as emotionless. 

Romanticism (and nature)

This ideologies exploration shows the audience that Laura is becoming more human. A part of the Romantics was closeness to nature, and feeling a connection to nature, which Laura does. The super imposed image of her sleeping on the trees shows this, contrasting to the motorcyclist who is presented as not being able to feel the sublime through the reference to Caspar David Friedrich’s ‘wanderer above the sea of fog’ painting. Also, when Adam Pearson’s character runs away, who runs into the country and walks thought nature rather than the road. 

Romantic Primitivism 

This is the idea that we are born innocent but society corrupts us. At the beginning, it is as if Laura is born suggesting she is a child (e.g. sounds like she is learning how to speak, the making of the eye). At this stage in her life, she is shown as innocent through the extreme long shot of her looking at the ant with a childlike curiosity. This innocence in her is corrupted by the end of the movie, as she looses herself and her identity. Plus, her body on fire contrasts greatly to the mise en scene of the white snow, and as white has connotations of innocence, it could suggest that she has lost her innocence. It would make sense for the film to have explored this as it also explored the Romantic’s in general. 

Existentialism 

The audience is left wondering if Laura’s life had any meaning or purpose. The circular structure of the unconscious woman and Laura (*) suggests that Laura will just be replaced by another alien, possibly therefore suggesting that her life has no meaning as she lost her identity, died and is then replaced.  

(*) The circular structure is formed because of the similarities between the two characters. Not only do they look the same, but the performance of the unconscious woman crying at the beginning suggests is similar to Laura’s face still blinking once she has taken it off. 

Environmentalism 

It’s possible that the reference to Richard Wilson’s 20:50 was used to explore the ideology of environmentalism, and how damaging the planet is bad.