Place Beyond The Pines Analysis

Place Beyond The Pines Analysis Notes:

Barren, low key lighting, washed out, juxtaposition because a fayer is supposed to be happy and loud but here it looks empty and abandoned. equal height shots of two people to show that they have the same amount of power or that they are equal. Ryan Gosling's character is lighting a cigarette in front of his boss this implies that he is relaxed and doesn’t really care about what people think of him. Ryan Gosling’s body is covered in tattoos, could show that he doesn’t care about his appearance and that he has given up on himself. Holy Bible is on his hand. Maybe a Christian On his cheek he has a knife with blood dripping down the blade. This could show his dark and evil side. “I’m quitting” “You can’t quit” “I just did” This shows that he is rebellious. Gosling’s white bike has lots of black marker drawings on it, this is almost resembling himself through his bike. Gosling also has a red jacket which may show he bad or violent He also doesn’t wear a helmet while riding his bike, this shows that he is rebellious and doesn’t really care about his safety. We get a shot of him looking around as he parks in front of a house as if he feels like he is being watched. We then get a over the shoulder shot of Gosling and we can clearly see that his shirt is inside out. This shows that he doesn’t have any spare clothes and that he hasn’t got much money to spend on clothing. Maybe clothing isn’t his maiy priority. We see to start off this segment a desolate and deserted fairground. This is a clear representation of juxtaposition. How fairgrounds should be happy and lively but in this scenario it shows the opposite. These two contrasting things really emphasise the stale atmosphere that the film is in. We get a shot reverse shot between Ryan Gosling and his boss. Ryan is talking to him about him leaving his job. The first shot is of his boss. We are at eye level and it is a close of of his head, neck and shoulders. “Just pay me for half the week alright?” Gosling says this to him and we then cut to Gosling as he finishes his line. He is lighting a cigarette inside his bosses office. This shows that he is rebellious and or careless. Both of the shots between the two people are the same distance from each other and the same height. This shows that these two are at the same status. We then cut to him on a motor bike biking towards the camera while the camera is slightly higher than it. (on the porch of the house) The bike is white and full of black stickers. He has lots of tattoos on his body. His bike could represent himself as he has marked his body like he has marked his bike. Gosling also has a red coloured jacket, this shows that he may have a violent side to him red representing blood. Also to back up this point there is a tattoo on his cheek of a knife with blood dripping down it. This could also have another meaning which I’ll go on to later. While Gosling is riding his bike he doesn’t wear a helmet. This shows that he doesn’t care for his safety and doesn’t follow the laws. While Gosling pulls up to the side of the house he looks around the houses around him implying that he may have to watch over his shoulder all the time. Maybe he has messed with the wrong people and owes them. This also shows that he is not a safe man and is dangerous. The lighting is low high key. It’s not high key or low key it’s in the middle with normal daylight. While Ryan goes up the stairs to go to the house we get a over the shoulder shot of Gosling and we can clearly see that his shirt is inside out. This shows that he doesn’t have many clothes and not particularly cares about his appearance and that clothing isn’t his main priority. He must have money because he has lots of tattoos. Still with the camera being over Goslings shoulder we hear a woman’s voice in a different language. Gosling knocks with his 2 middle fingers. This shows that he is different and not like everyone else. The woman opens the door and Ryan is talking to her. Gosling is taking to her and she seems to want him to leave and not come to her house. Gosling wants to see a child and play with him. “Maybe I could sit on the porch with him?” He gives other things that he could do with the kid. “Maybe we could go to the park?” This shows that Gosling's character isn’t just someone who is disturbed and unreliable he actually has some sort of sane side to him. She then says”now's not a good time, we’re going to church” Gosling's character then looks up and sees her husband come out the door we get a close up of Gosling's face. And we get a shot reverse shot of his face and the husbands face. They have a convocation and the shot is at the same eye level to show that they are equal. Goslings facial expression changes from looking some what happy to how he was with his boss. The man says to Gosling “what are you doing?” He responds with”what did you say?” We then cut to the husbands face as he walks out of the door. We then cut to the same close up of Gosling but not he has a cigarette in his mouth. His emotion has drastically changed back to rock bottom like he was at the start of the clip. Gosling has the cigarette hanging out of his mouth as he watched him walk into the car with his family. The family all of into the car and we cut to a shot from Goslings perspective of them leaving the house. We then cut to inside the church we get a shot of down the aisle and in the distance we see the baby getting baptised. The lighting is high key to show that this place is a place of peace and holiness. The priest gives his speech over this entire segment. We then cut to a shot of Ryan Gosling coming through the door. The shot is from inside the Church the shot is a mid shot. We see him slowly walk to some of benches away from everyone else. The Church is full of family members on the top left side but Gosling decides to sit on the top right side away from everyone else. This shows that Gosling's character is an outside to this family and doesn’t really belong with everyone else. We get s close up of Ryan sitting down looking at the christening. We then cut to a shot of the baby being christened. We get a close up of the water being poured over the baby. We then cut to Gosling and he is starting to tear up while watching. There is also a shot of the window out of focus. There is very high key lighting from outside and it's blurry. This could show that Gosling had some light to his life but it's starting to blur away. Gosling looks away to cry as if he doesn’t want to let anyone see that he is crying. This shows that Gosling is ashamed that he is crying or the face that he didn’t realise that he had it in him. Once the priest’s say is over we then get a shot of Gosling's face as a guitar string gets played. This could show that Ryan Gosling has completely broke and changed. The tattoo on his cheek could now represent that face that he is crying. The dagger and the blood looks like a tear. This could mean that he has two sides a more caring side and a more violent side. Harry Harling