Wild Tales: “Wedding sequence”

Key tip: consider and name this sequence a shirt film, and split this short film up into sequences within itself, such as the rooftop sequence, etc.

Cinematography:

The scene begins with a frame within a frame, where a picture of Romina as a child is kept-centre frame to bring our attention to it. The camera pulls out to reveal that it is part of a slideshow and being showed at a party. The camera then crabs to the right to show off all the guests and the scale of the wedding party. We then cut to a shot from even further back to reveal the full-scale of the party. A handheld camera shot immerses us in the scene, as it is being filmed by a cameraman, making it feel more real. The frame is repositioned to have the archway centre-frame to signify the importance of the people coming through it. The camera pulls back to follow the couple, almost making it a tracking shot to show us how important they are. As they begin to dance the camera follows them to keep our attention on them. The camera also glides around to show them from different angles, and they are shown to be facing away from one another in parallel edited cuts. This also implies that the couple are married more so for the sake of appearances, rather than actual love.

Another wide shot of the whole room displays the expense and glamour of it all. The handheld camera shows that they know they are being recorded, hence, putting on a false face of happiness. The camera pushes forward to keep the couple centre frame bring our attention to their false happiness. The next shot of people sat at a table is framed like a photograph, showing that Romina feels observed and recorded. After she realises what has happened to her, she is left alone in the shot, showing her feelings of isolation and fear. The camera tracks her alone, signifying that she is the only character of importance at that moment, and comes to rest on a short of her looking in the mirror to symbolise self-reflection. This also allows the woman Romina calls have room in frame, showing her importance but also Romina’s concentration on her, and desire to keep herself hidden from her. We then see Romina’s reaction as we push in to focus on her face. The camera then arcs around into an over the shoulder shot to show what Romina is focusing her anger on, and the look on her face.

We then have our attention shifted from Romina to the girl by a focus pull, and the second phone call is shot with Romina in the background to show what the woman’s perspective is like, how she does not notice Romina but Romina has not stopped looking at her. It also shows her grieving process. As Romina walks away from the dance, a canted angle shot symbolises how her world has fallen apart. We then see a POV shot from her perspective to emphasise how observed and frightened she feels. We see her calming down when the camera is at eye-level and more steady, but when shots are more frantic is shows the breaking down of this perfect facade the couple has created. This communicates the themes of superficiality, power and obsession.

A birds-eye-view shot tracks her and leads to the audience thinking that she is about to commit suicide, raising the tension of the moment, and also emphasises the sheer size of the building, and thus, the danger of the fall. A shallow depth of field keeps Romina in focus and everything else out of focus, showing that she is the only thing of importance in this moment, and is very deep in thought/grief. This also reflects how things look when you are crying. The camera stops moving around and the editing slows down as the chef consoles Romina, showing how he is sensible, wise, and how his words are calming Romina. After Romina storms back into the hall, the camera is shaky, reflecting her anger and broken facade. We see a shot of the chef in the kitchen, centre frame to bring our attention to him, and how he is laughing at the encounter he had. We then see a reaction shot of how humiliated and distraught Romina is. The dancing is shown as more chaotic by the camera staying on Romina and the woman she hates, showing her obsession with her and her desire for revenge, and how everything else is out of focus for her. It also makes the audience feel dizzy and match the feeling of Romina and the woman she is spinning with.

Lots of canted angle shots emphasise the mayhem of the scene and the escalation of events. The camera moves unsteadily around the scene to match Romina’s drunken haze, and a series of two shots of Romina and her husband show their faces close together, that they no longer love each other, and are desperate. This communicates the themes of gender inequality and barriers, more specifically those set up by male power complex’s, being overcome/destroyed.

Sound:

The upbeat and popular song titanium plays in the diegetic, compiled score. This matches the couples apparent happiness, but also links to the theme of Romina standing up to her terrible husband later on. The song also enters the pre-chorus’s as the couple enter to build suspense and signify their importance. As the song builds up to a crescendo, the pace of the editing speeds up to match/reflect it. After a temporal cut, the more music is more classical and traditional, to symbolise the grand and expensive nature of the wedding. It is quietened after a temporal cut to let us hear the dialogue. As Romina looks on at her husbands mistress, we can hear their conversation, though we know that she cannot, showing that she is probably fearing what is being said. The diegetic sound of her breathing rises in the diegetic score to bring attention to her state of panic.

The next diegetic complied music played is very light and airy, but the volume increases as she touches hands to signify the importance of this moment. Her quavering voice is also contrasted by the romantic music playing, making the scene feel more ironic and grim. The diegetic sound of the door closing matches the end of the song, making way for complete silence on the roof. Our attention is brought to her conversation with the chef by the silence, the only sound other than the two characters the sounds of the cars below, immersing us in this environment on the roof, reflecting the isolation and safety there. Little music is played when Romina begins causing chaos in the ballroom, making the events seem much more serious and embarrassing, adding emphasis to to them. It also makes the diegetic sound of the bottle popping more shocking, and also makes it seem more like a gun shot has happened, similar to earlier when we were tricked into thinking that Romina has jumped off the roof.

Mise-en-scen:

The background of the image of Romina as a child symbolises anger and danger, a foreshadow to her later outburst. The couple sat at the table are completely surrounded by food, wine, expensive times that show how rich and elaborate this wedding is, and the expectations placed on the couple. The party lights are flashy and bright, showing excitement and reflecting feelings of joy and ecstasy. The party smoke and beautiful chandeliers show that a lot has been spent on making the wedding seem nice, which reflects the couples fake joy together. Their entrance is also made more theatrical by the red carpet, making them look like royalty, almost. Romina’s dress looks expensive, intricate, beautiful, and so does her husbands, showing their want to look happy and successful as a couple.

The colour palette is very light and blue, filled with cold colours that foreshadow bad events. In the new setting of the roof the palette becomes filled with more orange colours to signify a change in atmosphere. The ball room is filled with cameras to show how Romina feels observed and without privacy, and how much expectation is on the new couple. As Romina becomes more frustrated, hair makeup is drained away by her tears, and her dress and hair becomes ragged and dirty, where it was once so delicate and elegant. This symbolises her spiral and descent from a false face of happiness to her real emotions of grief and frustration. Communicates themes of superficiality, or rather the destruction of it.

There always seems to be a camera on screen, showing that this entire wedding is almost just for show. As her husband walks up the stairs, the colour palette is made green by the lighting there, symbolising envy and jealousy, the negative qualities of his character. As Romina delivers her monologue, lighting strikes to symbolise her rage, an example of pathetic fallacy. The white dress and chef’s uniforms match, showing a similarity between the bride and him, and also implying honesty, which makes the chef’s later telling of the story all the more crushing for Romina.

When the groom’s mistress is thrown into a mirror, the entire room is specked with glass to emphasise the severity of the moment, as-well as how much blood the woman is covered in when we next see her. The entire ballroom is in a state of disrepair by now, with tables toppled over and food littering the floor, emphasising how everything has fallen apart, and the facade has been shattered, also symbolised by the mirror breaking. As Romina rips out her hair extension it symbolises that she is completely done with her facade of happiness, and is at the final stage of her descent into disarray. An example of expressive costume that communicated the theme of superficiality.

Editing:

The camera cuts from a shot of the slideshow to a happy couple at a table to show how fond people are of the newly married pair. There are various cuts to people laughing and having fun to create a happy and up-beat atmosphere. This cutting also shows off the glamour of the wedding, and fits the pacing of the song. There is also one long shot of the couple entering to signify their I’m portable in this scene, over everyone else there. The scene is parallel edoted as the camera cuts between both of the newly weds in their separate friend groups to show that they are not as close as it would seem. A shot of the couple kissing has a camera interface edited over it to make it look like its from the perspective of a camera, putting the audience in the position of bystander to these awful events, forced to watch but not interfere, much like the on-lookers at the party. Shot-reverse shots do not show who is talking exactly all of the time to also show other peoples reaction to what is being said. This is seen on the roof when Romina and the chef talk to show that she is taking in all that he is saying.

As the scene progresses, the camera focuses more on Romina than her husband, which puts us in her position and makes us sympathise for her more. The separate movements of Romina and her husband are parallel edited to keep them separate, showing their secret desire to stay away from each other, which manifests as their physical distance now that the wedding is ruined. There is a glance-object of the shoe on the floor to show it’s importance as a symbol of false public appearance being dropped. After the woman is thrown into the mirror, a temporal cut slows the pace of the scene and gives the moment more gravity, and the atmosphere a more tense and thick feeling. It also serves as a cut to a new time period. The scene does not cut at all towards the send, making the audience look on at what is happening, immersing them in the moment.

Performance:

Everyone in the scene seems happy, almost to an ecstatic extent. As the couple walk through, they do not talk to each other at all, which implies that they are only doing this for public appearance, not actual love. They don’t even look at each other, and immediately separate when they have the chance. Everyone around them is so happy that it almost looks fake and put on like the couple themselves. The couples friends are also acting in stereotypical ways, with the men begging up their mate and the women ecstatically screaming in excitement. They are almost acting the way that they are supposed to as friends at a wedding. Romina’s husband, Ariel looks straight at the camera, implying his obsession with how he looks and acts when being watched.

The smiles for the camera look fake, acted. This is seen in how Romina smiles at people talking to her. Romina also try’s to walk away but is forcefully dragged back, which shows that she is not really choosing to be there. Her frequent mentions of Facebook also represent her artificiality and attention to appearance. We only see her joyful expression change as she sees someone she doesn’t recognise, which signifies that what she has noticed is of importance. We see Ariel lean over and touch the woman, which makes it clear that something has occurred between them. We also see this in how she turns around to grin after he has left. She also acts suspiciously as she quickly begins talking to someone else after accidentally making eye contact with Romina. For the first time, Romina does not look happy at all, emphasising just how concerned she is, and how important this moment is.

Even after being exposed by Romina, Ariel plastically smiles in front of everyone to keep his image happy and perfect. His eyes also frantically dart around to show that he is trying to see how other people are viewing him. Even though he has been caught cheating on his wife, he is still more concerned with maintaining his perfect image. Romina’s voice trembles after her fear is confirmed, and she stumbles and staggers around to show that she is disoriented and confused, shocked. She is visibly broken out of this hazy stupor when someone tries talking to her, showing how distracted she was.

After cheating on Ariel, Romina has a sudden newfound confidence which come out as she has her monologue, but there are also notes of sadness and grief in her voice, showing that she is doing this in self-defence. Ariel looks scared and mortified by his wife standing up to him, and at the threat of his perfect image being ruined, he cannot handle it, so breaks down and cries, completely ruining his image. Romina clearly enjoys this chaos she has caused, where Ariel does not, showing that she believes she has nothing left to lose. Her joy is clearly bittersweet though, as she revels in the madness, but obviously misses the pace she had before, and the happiness, whether real or not. Ariel is clearly beneath Romina as he is cared and consoled by his friends and family, whilst she does not care and walks around alone, done with her fake identity. She seems to take a certain peace after the mirror incident, accepting the chaos of her life, and the tatters of her image and marriage. She mocks her husband and the wedding itself, which she now admits was a facade, as she goes through the usual wedding traditions like cutting the cake and throwing the bouquet. Ariel is clearly resentful of her for ruining his life, and no longer cares to look happy and perfect for the cameras. As the couple makes up, they seem to take excitement and eagerness to repair their lives, or simply live them, now that they can take peace in the fact that they can’t fix it.