Stylistic Perspective Analysis Fight Club Movie Essay Example
Stylistic Perspective Analysis Fight Club Movie Essay Example

Stylistic Perspective Analysis Fight Club Movie Essay Example

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  • Pages: 4 (1073 words)
  • Published: March 30, 2017
  • Type: Essay
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Fight Club is a movie where the director and cinematographer employ heavy use of computer graphics and use of camera angles and color. In this paper, I am going to analyze how the film director and cinematographer employ the use of camera angles, color and narratives to help convey a subliminal message to the audience that the narrator in the movie is suffering from insomnia and thus have developed an alter ego. The alter ego he has created is just a mental projection on the narrator's part and the cinematographer has made it possible for audiences to pick up hints or be foreshadowed by the cinematography that the narrator and his alter ego is the same person.

In this paper, I am going to use a stylistic perspective to analyze the film in depth. How the piece of work is p

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resented to the audience is what stylistic perspective is all about. In this case, in films, stylistic perspective will focus on how the director uses the camera, lighting and other tools like narratives to help emphasize a theme or plot to the audience.

During the opening part of the movie, when the narrator’s insomnia worsens and he is unable to sleep, we can see a projection of Tyler Durden appearing at the photocopy machine when the narrator is working. Another time when the narrator is at the cancer support group, in the corridor when the narrator is visiting the doctor and also when the narrator sees Marla leaving a meeting. The projection seen in these scenes were very brief that it can be seen as a subliminal message to the audience that the narrator is handling hi

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problems by projecting an alter ego and these few brief projections were the beginning before Tyler Durden is fully projected by the narrator at the airport.

Another scene that I would like to point out is after where the director shows the narrator is waiting for his luggage and has a conversation with the lost and found employee. After the narrator spoke with the lost and found employee regarding his vibrating luggage, the camera slowly moves to the side and shows Tyler Durden jumping into a car and drove off. The interesting part of this scene is that the scene actually shows the owner of the car yelled “Hey! That’s my car!” and then shows the narrator slowly walking off the camera in an almost sleep induced state. I believe in this scene shows us that the Tyler Durden persona has taken over the narrator to go and blow up their condo and the narrator speaking with the lost and found employee was just a projection of him in his mind.

The director also manipulates camera angles in the scene where the narrator is in the phone booth trying to call his persona Tyler Durden. In the scene, when the narrator could not get a hold of Tyler and he gave up and put down the phone, it is shown that the telephone rang. As the pay phone continues to ring, the camera moves slowly to the pay phone’s label which says “Incoming calls not allowed.” This camera move towards the label should signify the audience that an Incoming call would not be possible and it is just what the narrator imagined in his head.

The movie uses

a lot of natural lighting during the filming process. I believe this is to give the film a more realistic feel in some scenes and it also makes the dark underground places like the basement in the house or the fight club meeting place a more naturally dark lighting. This can be used to emphasize how the character perceives the world around him when he is with Tyler Durden and when he is alone at work. The scenes where he is interacting with Tyler are generally at night to emphasize to the audience that this is the narrator’s dark side. While scenes where he is working in his office were a lot staler with less color compared to scenes where the narrator is with Tyler.

The cinematographer also uses computer graphics to give the characters during the scenes with Tyler an unnatural glow. This effect can be assessed as how the narrator feels when the Tyler persona is taking over. The glowing characters signify the euphoric state that the narrator is experiencing during his mental state of projecting an alter ego. The filmmaker also adjusted to contrast of the film to increase the density of the color black in the movie, giving it a more darker feel.

This Fight Club movie relies heavily on narration to help deliver the story. It uses narration as tools to convey to the audience what the narrator is thinking when he is not in his Tyler Durden persona or when he is projecting Tyler Durden. It also uses narration to help foreshadow the dual personality theme. For example, at the airport scene the narrator said “If you wake up at a

different time, in a different place, could you wake up as a different person?” This narration definitely foreshadows the reality in the upcoming events that the narrator continues to falls in and out of consciousness as an entirely different person every time.

There was also a scene where it shows Tyler Durden’s face close up talking to the camera as if he was narrating. In the scene, the cinematographer used a lot of effects to the sides of the screen to give a film reel effect. The act of Tyler Durden talking as if he was narrating also presents a new light to the audience that perhaps Tyler and the narrator is the same person. The use of narration in this film is also very centered towards what goes on in the narrator’s mind, much like the narration style in Film Noir. It is also designed to be very bland to give a contrasting effect with the narrator’s alter ego persona.

This film definitely employs a lot of cinematography technique as a tool to help the story carry more substance. The subliminal effect and foreshadowing effect are both achieved in this film through the use of camera work and narratives. Through extensive use of cinematography, the movie has successfully embedded these elements that can be used by the audience to derive that the narrator of the movie is suffering from dual personality problems.

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