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05 English Advanced + Extension > Critical Study: Pleasantville (Scene) > Flashcards

Critical Study: Pleasantville (Scene) Flashcards

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Proverbs and Idioms flashcards
1
Q

Allusion to Infomercials

Opening Montage

A
  • Commercialisation of nostalgia
  • Satirising, but also revering
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2
Q

“Once upon a time…”

Opening Montage

A
  • Positioning us to the post-modernist construction
  • Subversion of fairy tales by setting us up for a happy ending that won’t occur
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3
Q

Shots of High School in the 90s

Opening Montage

A
  • Overexposure of images and language
  • Rough and messy to contrast with the neatness of Pleasantville.
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4
Q

David ‘Talking’ to Girl

Opening Montage

A
  • Collapse of space (flat film)
  • Where does fiction begin? David appears to be in the real world, but he imparts his fictional fantasies onto it. Ross draws attention to the subjectivity of the world and how people project their fantasies.
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5
Q

Montage of Class Lectures

Opening Montage

A
  • Exaggerated representations of anxieties and constant change.
  • Employment, fatality, environment etc.
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6
Q

David Mimics Pleasantville

Opening Montage

A
  • David represents the American public glorifying a simpler time.
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7
Q

“What’s a mother to do?”

Opening Montage

A
  • Double meaning (Betty VS David’s mum)
  • Juxtaposing the two parents’ situations and projecting David’s feelings about his broken family onto Pleasantville
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8
Q

Reversion of the Roles of Parent and Child

Betty in the Bathtub

A

Projected values

  • Housewives to be naive and uninterested in sexuality
  • Neat and pleasant

America’s construction of women for sex to be an entirely different ‘world’.

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9
Q

Milk and Cookies

Betty in the Bathtub

A
  • Safety of the domestic sphere
  • American idealism and social security
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10
Q

Cross-cutting Between Betty and George

Betty in the Bathtub

A

Betty represents the emergence of change.
George represents routine and cultivated married life.

  • Infantilisation and endearment of incapable husbands
  • Political motive behind the nuclear family in post-war America
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11
Q

Birds and Flowers Imagery

Betty in the Bathtub

A
  • Birds → ‘the birds and the bees’ → procreation
  • Flowers → ‘deflowering’
  • Freedom, growth and new beginnings
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12
Q

Burning Tree

Betty in the Bathtub

A

Dominant interpretation: Ignition of passion
Secondary interpretation: Moses and the burning bush

  • Connotations of sin and condemnation by God
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13
Q

Oblique Aerial Shot of the Yard

“Where’s My Dinner?”

A
  • Post-modern reminder that Pleasantville is a constructed set and George a character
  • George is doll-like —powerless— and the emptiness around him emphasises his vulnerability without stability
  • Fragility of domestic life
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14
Q

Open Gate

“Where’s My Dinner?”

A
  • A breach to the domestic sphere
  • Disruption to the vector line represent a disruption in Pleasantville
  • Has something left (Betty) or has something come in (progress/change)??
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15
Q

“Honey, I’m Home!”

“Where’s My Dinner?”

A

Chiaroscuro - light and dark contrast

  • Stark contrast to the usual lightness of Pleasantville → uncertainty and isolation
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16
Q

Rain and Thunder

“Where’s My Dinner?”

A
  • Authentic, human experience to unite those at Lover’s Lane
  • Overcoming of the fear and unease established in the previous scene
17
Q

Consecutive Shots of Bowling Splits

Bowling Club

A
  • Embodiment of Pleasantville’s controlled and repetitive experience
  • Deviation from perfection can be eliminated
  • Comparable to basketball scene
18
Q

Dishevelled George

Bowling Club

A
  • Juxtaposes bowling club’s perfection
  • Tangible representation of chaos
19
Q

Big Bob and the Scoreboard

Bowling Club

A
  • Low angle shot is visual metaphor for authority and ideological underpinnings of perfection
  • Reminiscent of political figures who strive to uphold “American values” → perpetuation of Pleasantville’s stasis
  • Ross critiques the glorification of past eras with patriotic imagery, forcing reconsideration of nationalist and traditional values.
20
Q

Absence of Light

Bowling Club

A
  • Verbal and cinematic emphasis on the absence of light
  • Abnormal behaviour seeps into their ‘safe place’
  • Visual representation of the incoming aberration
21
Q

“It’s going to be fine, George. You’re with us now.”

Bowling Club

A
  • Inclusive language to create political divide
22
Q

Dutch Angle of Bowling Club

Bowling Club

A
  • Feeling of unease and ominousness
23
Q

Roy’s Iron Burn

Bowling Club

A
  • Resembles mutilation
  • Reemergence of the gender hierarchy → recognisable example of oppression and resistance to viewers
24
Q

“If George doesn’t get his dinner, you could be next.”

Bowling Club

A
  • Fear mongering to maintain the town’s constructed identity
  • Climate of fear with conformity as defence mechanism
  • Communal peril
25
Q

“It’s a question of values. It’s a question of whether we want to hold onto those values that made this place great.”

Bowling Club

A
  • Perpetuation of American ideals
26
Q

Coloured George Cries

Courtroom

A
  • Acceptance of ‘unfamiliar emotions’ → “men don’t cry”
27
Q

“People are turning colours…Men stay home and cooked!”

Courtroom

A
  • Big Bob had never felt anger as he went unopposed and unchallenged in his ideals
  • Patriarchal and close-minded (UNPACK)
28
Q

Coloured People in Upper Gallery

Courtroom

A
  • Visual juxtaposition to divide the groups emotionally and symbolise conflict
  • Visual dichotomy represents the tension between progress and tradition
  • Coloured are symbolically above the other for having personally awakened to their full range of emotions
  • Evokes historical parallels with racial segregation in the US
29
Q

Courtroom Setting

Courtroom

A
  • Symbol of judgement and power
  • Critiques the way power structures resist change by punishing deviants
30
Q

“Let’s keep these proceedings as pleasant as possible.”

Courtroom

A
  • Big Bob’s facade of peace and shifting blame onto David for disrupting it
  • Bob frames himself as a saviour with the moral high ground, juxtaposed by denying David and Bill a lawyer
31
Q

Mirror/Reflection Motif

Courtroom

A
  • Confrontation of the truth
32
Q

David and his Mum

Final Montage

A

Mum: “I used to think this was it. This was how it was always going to be. I had the right house. I had the right car. I had the right life.”
David: “There is no right house. There is no right car…It’s not supposed to be like anything.”

  • Societal expectations and ideals of a “good life”, with steady career and nuclear family → product of indoctrination by a conservative society
  • David encourages embracing differences in life and dismantling a singular ideal → mature understanding
33
Q

Mr Simpson Watering Flowers

Final Montage

A
  • Environment and perspectives have changed but daily lives do not have to
  • Familiar and unchanged from times of Pleasantville → some find contentment in predictability, and the new world allows this choice
34
Q

Boy and Ice Block

Final Montage

A
  • Relatable and messy shot breaking the confines of previously rehearsed and tidy Pleasantville → taboos, cultural values and social stereotypes ‘melt away’
  • Vibrant colours provide youthful, energetic atmosphere
35
Q

Jennifer Reads ‘Manhood’

Final Montage

A
  • Medium close-up shot reads ‘Manhood’ → maturity and rediscovery of what it means to be human
  • Jennifer teaches and inspires others, embodying change and intellectual freedom
36
Q

Jennifer and David Talk

Final Montage

A
  • Medium close-up shot shows newfound intimacy and tenderness between the twins
  • “I did the slut thing, David. Got kinda old.” → deconstruction of her previous idealised, superficial state and microcosm of larger societal shifts
37
Q

Close-Up Shots of George, Betty and Bill

Final Montage

A
  • Exhilaration in freedom, opportunity and uncertainty
  • Challenges the need for a fixed ending by reminding viewers of the unpredictable nature of life

05 English Advanced + Extension (3 decks)

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