The Selfish Giant.

THE SELFISH GIANT

Key Cast:
Director: Clio Barnard
Writer: Clio Barnard
Genre: Drama
Themes: Friendship, Poverty, crime
Release: October 2013
Budget:.......

The Selfish Giant is a drama about two 13 year old boys (Arbor and Swifty) living in the UK who try and make money by working for a local scrap dealer. As the boys get deeper into the business they become more greedy (especially Arbor) which leads to a tragic accident.
It has themes of friendship and exploitation throughout the film.

The two micro-features that are important within this film are sound a cinematography.

Cinematography is important in The Selfish Giant especially in the first and last scenes. The Director uses an establishing shot of Arbor under his bed punching at hitting the bed. This is to show the audience from the beginning that Arbor is an angry child which could cause problems throughout the rest of the film. Whilst Arbor is under the bed, his friend Swifty lays down besides him and calms him down by holding his hand. This introduces the audience to the friendship between Arbor and Swifty. Then at the ending of the film it shows arbor under the bed again but he is more relaxed. He creates the image of the Swifty holding his hand like in the first scene, but then it shows them letting go. This symbolises the end of their friendship due to the death of Swifty. It also shows that after everything that Arbor has done he still ends up back where he started.

Sound is important as it is used to build up the idea that something bad is going to happen. In the scene leading up to Swifty's death, when Swifty goes to get the copper from under the ground you can hear the hum of the live wire. As it becomes louder it starts to become more significant and the audience starts realise that something is not right. The noise of the wire getting louder is used to put the audience on edge and create suspense in the atmosphere. As Swifty climbs back out of the whole the live wire explodes and electrocutes both the boys. After the explosion everything goes really silent and the only noises the audience can hear is the live wire and some birds in the background. Everything is really quiet and calm. This shows to the audience that there is no one around to help. The silent is used to show how everything has ended.

Key Scenes: A key scene within this film is when Swifty is killed trying to steal some copper wiring. This is an important scene as it is the ending of the friendship between Arbor and Swifty. This is important as the whole film is based around their relationship and how they did everything together. Another important scene is when we see Arbor under his bed at the end of the film. This is important as it is the same scene we see at the opening. The film ends how its starts, instead this time Arbor isn't their to calm him down and hold his hand. Instead we see inside Arbor head when he is imagining holding Swifty's hand one last time before he then lets go. This is important as the film ends the same way it starts but instead of meeting Arbors friend the audience says goodbye to him.

Comparable: This film is similar to