British Film Review

The British Film i have choosen to watch and review is Four Weddings and a Funeral.

The plot of the film is basically the film follows the adventures of a group of friends through the eyes of Charles played by (Hugh Grant), a debonair but faux pas-prone Englishman, who is smitten with Carrie, an attractive American played by (Andie MacDowell), whom Charles repeatedly meets at weddings and at a funeral.

The camerawork used within the film was excellent, which included, medium shots to show the main character talking, also there was a lot of long/establishing shots to show each of the locations for the four weddings and then for the funeral. There was wide shots to show a lot of the actors and extras when there was like a party, this kind of shot was used to show us everyone having a fun time at the weddings. There was also the use of over the shoulder shot which was use when the two main actors where having a conversation between each other and we were able to see the facial expressions of each of them and how they reacted to what one another were saying. There was also the used of 180 degree angle used when the american actress was walking towards the englishman. There was the use of zooming up on the characters to show what kind of facial expression was been shown when talking to the other character, this was then used as a close up shot of the character to show the happniess of the englishman charles and to show us that he has actually fallen in love with the woman. There was also medium close ups used to show both the characters in bed together. In beginning there was a use of extreme close up on the main character which is the englishman. There was also bird's eye shot when the englishman was looking down on the american woman and there you get the sense of love and affection especially when she looks up at him.

There was lot of digetic sounds and non- digectic sounds. The digetic sounds include the following:

• Alarm clock ringing at the beginning of the film
• Egg being fried, which makes a zilling noise
• Zipping up a suitcase
• Flash of a camera, at the first wedding and the rest of them
• Church bells for the four weddings and the funeral
• Clapping hands
• Crowd talkind and laughting
• Shoes tapping
• Crying in the funeral
• Laughing
• Wispering
• Rain poring down at the end

The non-diegtic sounds include:

• Music in the beginning of the film, with the credits
• Wedding Music
• Romantic Music
• A lot of celebrational music
• More relax quite music to show love and affection
• Music to show death and saddness
• Happy music at the end
• Music when the brides enter the church

The wheather in the film is very clearly thought of becasue when it is the  four weddings the wheather is very sunny and reflects the mood everyone is in, so it shows that it is a day for everyone to be happy the sun is shining and people are getting married. Whereas, when the funeral is happening the wheather is dull, miseriable and raining which reflects the mood everyone is in becasue they are saying goodbye to someone and they will never see them again. But what is very clever is the fact that towards the end there is a romantic chase between the englishman and the american woman and true movie style it is raining so it kind makes it more romantic because he is willing to do anything to be with her and chasing her through the rain shows true love and they just stand in the middle of the street alone and here there is romantic dagloue followed by the obvisious which is kissing the middle of the street alone just them in the scene alone.

As always mise-en- secene is always used in films. In this film the location is in England where the man lives and he is the main actor but it does also give us a glimples of america in the beginning becasue that is where the american woman lives but will only see this at the beginning of the film.  The costumes used in the film is as followed for the men when going to the four weddings is suits to look like they are going to a wedding but when it comes to the funeral the men wear black suits to look like they are morning the dead person. For the women when attending the four weddings they where beautiful bright coloured dresses to show that they are going to a wedding. When it came to the funeral they wore black dresses to show depression and reflect the mood they were all in. At the end it shows pictures from all the four weddigns that they atttended. The make-up that was used made them look like they were going to a wedding and when it came to the funeral the women didnt wear as much make-up as they did to the wedding. There was artifical lights used at night time and then at day time when it was daylight there was no extra lights needed to be used, which meant it was ambient lights which comes naturally from light giving throught out the day. When the romatic chase happened and then charles catched up with the woman it was just the two of them in the scene which made it look really nice and romantic and at that point i really felt for them both.

Throught out the film obvious there was a lot of diagloue which included romantic, chuch vows, words said when someone dies and then just a lot of taslking needed to make the film what it is. There was a lot diagloue in an english accent.

I think with all the camerawork and sounds, also the mise-en-secene the film was amazing and it really is a good romatic comedy to watch i really enjoyed watching every moment of it.