I am the director of the award winning movie Looking for Alibrandi. In this movie I construct a main character called Josie, a teenager who is struggling to find her identity and her place in life. I present the message that sometimes when things don”t turn out the way you want, they can actually turnout better. By the use of themes and issues, language and social class throughout the movie, I was able to demonstrate this statement. Josie thinks negatively towards her father Michael Andretti because of what he did to her mum.
I don”t care about him, I wouldn”t care if he was sitting in this room with us now”. I used this quote to position viewers to hold sympathy for Josie, taking on her opinion of Michael Andretti and also seeing him negatively. As the story unfolds and the conflict at school with Carly Bishop arises, Josie realises that having a father around isn”t such a bad idea. Josie calls Michael Andretti and he comes to the school to save Josie from being expelled. Josie through the conflict with Carly Bishop begins to like her father.
In this scene I have successfully portrayed the idea that things may not turn out how you want them to, but turn out better in the end. The setting of the school added for quite a few conflicts throughout the novel. The line “My biggest problem is being stuck at a school full of rich people” is used as an example throughout themes and issues, language and social class. By the use of Josie as the narrator I was able to use her to demonstrate my main message. Themes and issues are addressed in the movie by the plot and the conflicts.
Looking for Alibrandi has many conflicts, dealing with many different themes and issues relating to today’s society. One of these conflicts is individuality, relating to Josie as she is very individual in appearance and culture but is trying to be like everyone else. Josie’s main conflict at the start of the novel arises at school, where she is finding it hard to fit in, because she is seen as an individual. “My biggest problem is being stuck at school full of rich people. ” She sees this conflict as a problem because she isn”t like everyone else and isn”t associated to “upper class”.
This then helps to position the viewer to create sympathy for Josie and to then side with what she is saying. Social class throughout Looking for Alibrandi was seen as one of the major and important issues situated in the film. I categorized Josie into middle class, however Josie was not happy and didn”t like being in middle class. But though the use of plot, conflicts and characterization throughout the novel, I was able to persuade viewers to believe that middle class was the ideal class to be in.
The construction of Josie as the stories narrator made it easier for me to reveal the emotions and struggles that Josie goes through. ” My biggest problem is being stuck in a school dominated by rich people”. Josie wants to be upper class like the people who dominate her school causing sympathy from the viewers. I have used social class as a major issue in Looking for Alibrandi to create sympathy and antipathy towards characters social class and the characters themselves.
Throughout the film I aimed to portray middle class as the class of choice and in succession have done so and that both working class and upper class are shown in a negative manner. In the movie Looking for Alibrandi I have used language to influence the viewers response. The use of specific language techniques encourages our sympathy or antipathy towards people, place and events in the novel. There are 4 types of language I used, cultural accent, middle class, lower class and emotive to represent specific characters.
Josie being the narrator of the story receives sympathy because her thoughts and struggles are revealed to the viewer. Josie is characterized as intelligent, well spoken and caring. “My biggest problem is being stuck at a school dominated by rich people”. By the use of this language technique, I was able to exaggerate and hype the struggles and problems that Josie has to face, perceiving what she says as a greater issue. The use of language techniques such as cultural accent, middle class, lower class and emotive can position the reader to feel sympathy or antipathy to people, places and event.
I used the techniques of language to influence the viewer response. As the director of Looking for Alibrandi, I was able to successfully portray the main message that sometimes when things don”t turn out the way you want, they can actually turnout better. I did this by use of themes and issues, social class and the use of language. I wanted the film to be like the audience was looking through a window at Josie’s life, and I feel that I have successfully achieved this goal.
