How has an ideological critical approach given you a deeper understanding of binary opposites in the narrative of your chosen film?

How has an ideological critical approach given you a deeper understanding of binary opposites in the narrative of your chosen film?


fish tank plan:

2 scenes
mother and daughter scene dancing -end of act 3
mia and Connor sex scene -end of act 2 climax of the film

we need to talk about

In both fishtank directed by Andrea Arnold and we need to talk about Kevin directed by Lynne Ramsey there ideological approach to feminism given a deeper understanding of binary opposition. The recurring themes of binary opposition that appear in a fishtank and talk about Kevin are old vs young, man vs women, and parent vs child. Binary opposites allow the spectator to dissect the underlining messages in the film such as the societal ideals put on women, which puts them in a position of inferiority.

Specifically, in fishtank the sex scene between Mia and Connor, this was the halfway point through the film, in terms of the classic three-act structure, it took part in the midpoint climax of Act two.
in this sequence the audience is encouraged to view Connor from mia perspective, this is because of the cinematographic effect. specifically, when mia is standing and Connor is reclining backwards, the camera is angled down but within Mias line of sight. This effect encourages the spectator to identify with mia by distancing from Connor, thus seeing him as an object. Also, Mia is constantly in the shot, there is no singular shot without her in this emphasises her importance in this scene and full focus should be on her. In this scene, the binary opposition is old vs young. This is emphasised through the camera shots of Mia's non-sexual, innocent body parts such as her ankles and hands and lack of visuals of the genitalia during a sex scene. Arnold did this to represent Mias youth and to exemplify that mia is still a child and Connor is an adult preying on an underage girl. Also, the closeup of Mia's damaged ankle reminded the viewer of when Connor acted very paternally by helping her when she was hurt in the lake scene. This furtherly aligns the spectator with Mia's confusion on whether she sees Connor as a father figure or a potential partner. Also begs the viewers in questioning Connors true intentions for her and question if he is using his male dominance and power to abuse her naivety and innocence so he can please his sexual desires.


Another key scene in Fishtank is at the end of act 3 where Mia and her mother both dance in synced and have what seems to be a restoration of there relationship. The dance almost seems like a tribal reconciliation of love and understanding between them, and the binary opposite of mother vs daughter is resolved. The dance was so in sync it resembled a reflection. Arnold may have used the dance to symbolise mia entering womanhood. this means mia has come to the stage where her mother can no longer facilitate her and mia no longer wants or feels the need to be mothered and looked after by her mother. But instead a man(billy) the reasoning could also be because of Connor and Mia's relationship. The dance may also symbolise her mum contentedly wanting her to leave home. The long cuts between the shots made the scene more intense and had a more realistic feel, and gave a sense of sincerity and genuineness between mia and her mother. However in Oedipal terms, the female child never fully stops the desire for her mother. Instead, in order to conform to society, she must simply suppress her desire. This can be seen in the dance that Mia and Joanne share together. a mating ritual that in this case stands for the consummation of desire between mother and daughter. But after this scene, Mia goes off into the sunset with billy and therefore becomes normalised in society.


In we need to talk about Kevin the scene in act 2 where Eva tries to impersonate a mother figure and attempt to establish a relationship with Kevin by playing with him by rolling him a ball. the binary opposition is mother vs child and memory vs truth.  Both characters are mirroring each other by the way they're sitting on the floor a metre apart, this gap symbolises there lack of relationship. they're are also positioned in a medium close up over the shoulder shot-reverse-shot before cutaways reveal them to be in a medium closeup in posing stances. Kevin 'taunts' Eva by copying her facial expressions and bodily actions. Also in terms of mise-en-scene, the room is decorated with African heads presumably from Evas travels from her youth before Kevin which would represent her personality. the Shot reverse shot makes both characters seem intimate however the cutaway shot reveals how separate they actually are and this symbolises the illusion of Eva trying to perform the maternal role due to the social pressure to conform to the patriarchal society. Previously she has gone against the patriarchal ideals, being the main breadwinner and travelling solo around the world shows her independence and lack of strings attached. However, it seems Eva has to be there out of necessity and not out free-will. Also because Evas unreliable narration its hard to distinguish memory and truth, from her recollection Kevin 'taunts' her, however, this could be her manipulating the story so it makes sense for the reasoning behind why Kevin committed the crime. The spectator response is encouraged to align themselves with Eva simply because it's her story. However Eva is an unreliable narrator, she represents Kevin as a predestined murder who has innate psychopathic tendencies, but an active spectator may have found a fault within her storytelling and choose an alternative idea of why Kevin committed the crime.



Another key scene in we need to talk about Kevin is the golf scene in which Eva invites  Kevin to miniature golf as part of there date night. Eva and Kevin have a recurring conflict throughout even into his adolescence. This idea is demonstrated through the mise-en-scene specifically through costume and colour palette and framing. Kevin is wearing a blue t-shirt and a red jacket whilst Eva is wearing a purple jumper. These colour are monochromatic with blue and red combining to make purple, emphasising that, regardless of how much Eva resists it, she and Kevin are similar. Also Kevin top is very small for him, it was presumably an old shirt he wears from his younger adolescents. This could mean Kevin wants to feel looked after and comforted like a child, and he is carrying on wanting to feel comforted because he had a lack of comfort as a child. This is also implied via the framing with each other. the binary opposition in this scene is mother vs child 
Eva wants to establish a relationship with Kevin by materialistically taking him out for dinner and golf. This shows she cant spend time at home with him normally or else it would seem abnormal in their relationship.  instead, she needs a whole intense day out to rekindle a relationship that was never there. After  15 years of mothering him and she still trying to have a relationship shows she is trying, but it could be too late is the relationship already ruined from the beginning. from Kevins confused facial expressions throughout the date, it seems as though he doesn't know how to react to the attention he's getting. the spectator response is still aligned with Evas unreliable narrated point of view.


in conclusion, in we need to talk about Kevin and fishtank the ideological role of feminism plays a role of establishing binary opposites, in ways both films convey women struggling to come to terms with conforming to societal standards of the patriarchy that women need to uphold. in the fish tank, the struggle is within mia as she is in the never-ending cycle of needing to settle with a man is seen as the end goal. However in we need to talk about Kevin the nuclear family is disrupted therefore the social ideal is disrupted, arguably because Evas always felt comfortable being independent rather than a stay home mother. Therefore, she disrupts her own families live to relive her prime time as an independent women. Another binary opposite could be found between the two films which are conformity to the patriarchy vs nonconformity to patriarchy