"The most beautiful man in the world"

This short film was written and directed by Alicia Duffy in 2002. Due to its success a year later, it won a BAFTA for best short film. The story revolves around a young girl, who is we see in the shelter of her home, but neglected by her own mother, who provides now stimulation of interaction. We then see her lying on the floor beside her dog, and we see her mother leave to answer the phone. This shows the mother and daughter were in the same room, which would in many other mother daughter relationships, bring cause for interaction. We then see the daughter’s temptation to go outside when she looks out the window; we then see her outside on her bike, riding in circles and her dog watching her. The girl begins looking towards the wild land and looks back to the house entrance, to see if anyone is there. Her mother is not supervising her so she decides to explore the wild land. We see her experiencing the sensual stimulation we gain from our five senses, showing her to feel free. She hears her dog and turns to where the sound originated and finds a man with her dog. She states that the dog is hers, the man remains silent but moves his hand to her shoulder where a bug crawls, and he picks it up and places it in her hand. This ends when the daughter looks back to her house where her mother is staring, she returns home, sits on the step staring towards the door, trapped from the liberating experience she just experienced. The minimalistic features used within a short film allow our imagination to explore the issues raised within the short film. This is important when studying short films as many characters can have ambiguous features, allowing us to explore different aspects of them. As people with different backgrounds, have radically different interpretations from the same thing. Leaving the character open for different interpretations brings fulfilment, stimulation and intrigue to a short film.

The key representational theme of this short film is youth, which links to different issues, such issues as child neglection, stimulation, innocence and boredom. We can see how these different issues link to the theme of youth through the four technical areas of camera, sound, editing and mise-en-scene.

In the first shot, we see a tilt in the camera, showing us the young girl’s attire; through the mise-en-scene we can see her economical status as her clothing is old and dirty. This shows the girl is not receiving a good level of care. This is increased by the lighting of the room; the only source of light is from the television, which is artificial showing us how unnatural the setting is. The young girl yawns from the boredom of the artificial form of stimulation she receives, indicating that it is typical in her life that she is placed in front of the television for entertainment. In the next shot we see the girl lying on the floor, the room is silent, the television isn’t present and the lighting of the room is brighter but is a dull colour, this signifies her boredom. We also see the mother’s legs in the background, as we see only her legs; this indicates her minimalistic presence in her daughter’s life. Also we see her laying beside her dog, in contrast to the small appearance of her mother in the shot, the dog may be the girl’s main source of interactivity.

We can again see the shot of the girl in the dark room, lit by the television, we here a dialogue between the mother and another woman having a conversation about hair and the price for it. When the woman mentions the price, the other woman rebuttals in a surprised tone, which again shows her to be of a low economical status. The shot shows the young girl in front of the radiator, the radiator is a metaphor for the want of warmth, which she does not receive from her mother, showing the audience that she neglects her child. Also we can see that the girl’s eyes are cast down from the view of the television, showing us her lack of interest in it. In the next shot, it shows her on the floor again, the phone rings and the mother leaves the shot, leaving the girl alone. We see the girl get up and move towards the window and looks outside; this signifies her entrapment within the house desire to leave. We then again can identify them as a low economical status, as their house is run down and all of the furnishing is not of a modern style.

We see a wide shot of the girl riding her bike, the wide shot shows her how big the world is compared to her, it shows us her innocence. As she is in the big area, anyone can come and do harm to her, she is playing on a road and you can hear the sound of cars, which leaves her venerable to harm. She is also riding her bike in circles showing us her boredom, but also symbolises her daily routine being repetitive, indicating it is a cycle. This strongly highlights the issue of child neglection as no parent should leave their child left alone when outside. We also see the dog watching the girl; this shows him as her guardian. As the girl has suffered so much boredom and due to the lack of interactivity between her and her mum, she would turn towards the dog for comfort, this comfort would develop a bond between them, making the dog protective of her. This highlights the issue of child neglection even more, as the position of supervision of children is the parent’s responsibility, but the mother fails to fulfil her responsibilities and instead the dog does so instead. We then see her in a medium shot, where she is on the right side of the screen and her house door on the left. The door is open and no one is there, when the mother should be there, making sure no harm comes to her daughter. In a close-up the girl looks back to the door, her facial expression remains empty, showing us she is not surprised by her mother’s absence, but thinks it to be a typical thing. She turns back again by the sound of the birds song, luring her gaze like a siren to the wild grassland, but we see a motorway bridge in the distance, showing her vulnerability, as if she decided to go there she would most likely be harmed.

We then see the girl walk up to the fence that separates her from the wild grassland. The fence acts as a barrier, between her dull, boring cage and her freedom. The fences also have spikes on them, which indicate the danger of crossing the fence; it also highlights the fact that her mother should be there to stop her from even going near the fence. The girl stands at the fence for a while before crossing, showing her hesitation and that she has never experienced what is on the other side, that she doesn’t know anything of the world except for the limited information she gains from it from her own home. When she does decide to cross she disappears from the screen as if she ceases to exist, but when she reappears, it could be a sign of rebirth. Leaving her old world behind and entering the new one as a baby, new to everything and extremely venerable. Next we see her balancing, showing us she is new to this world and learning to walk in a new kind of life experience. A wide shot reveals her surrounded by the wild grassland and a small pond, which she could easily fall into, bringing forth the reoccurring issue of child neglection, as her mother shouldn’t let her child be playing around there, whilst all alone and with no supervision.

In the next few shots we see the girl going through a sensual revelation, as she explores the wild grassland using the senses. Senses she hasn’t has much use of, when being in the same place constantly. In the wild she is experiencing new smells, new textures of touch, new things to look at and lots of new sounds. The positivity of these shots show through the lighting as we have natural day light, on a non cloudy day, showing a contrast between the dark and dull lighting of the house and the clear, bright and positive lighting of the grassland. We see a underwater low angle shot of the young girl, the low angle shows the girl as empowered, in contrast to her old self. Water has many different connotations, such as, healing, rebirth and cleansing, which all fit into the girl’s feelings.

The girl’s attention is diverted behind her through the sound of her dog, she sees him with a stranger, but as the dog is a guardian figure and trusts this stranger, which gives the assumption that he has not bad intentions with the girl. We can identify the girl’s new found courage in life when she directly states that, the dog is hers. The man responds by stepping up from the dog, his towering height and the dark exposure on his face would lead the audience to the assumption that he is a bad person. But that assumption may be put aside by his next act, he removes the bug from the girl’s shoulder and instead of killing it, he sets a good example by placing it in her hands, showing her that it is harmless and showing her compassion, he becomes a role model to the girl. He interacts with her more in that short space of time than her mother does in the beginning. A few close-up shots of their faces show them smiling at each other, the lighting becomes a sunset shade, which is a more gentle light, showing the innocence in this scene. We see them both together in a wide shot of the wild grassland, we see a contradiction that this stranger is there to supervise a child and her mother not in sight, as this stranger may be dangerous but as there is no supervision, the girl is extremely venerable.

We then see a exchange in glances between the stranger and the mother, but through the media language, we can tell that the looks they share are familiar and indicate hate. Bringing forth the idea that he may be the girl’s father but not allowed to see her due to parental rights. The girl sees her mother staring and quickly glances back at the stranger, but we can notice a difference in her complexion, before in the house her complexion was sweaty and she looked ill, now it’s clear and bright, showing how her experience has rejuvenated her. The girl runs back to her mother, showing us she recognises her as a figure of authority and we see the stranger’s disappointment and sorrow with her leaving, indicating deep emotional feelings for the girl, father indicating him as her father. We then see the girl trapped in her home again, a door separating her; the door has glass panels on it shining light through to the girl, contrasting her experience outside with her experiences indoors. A wide shot of the stranger in the grassland is shown, showing the audience is sadness and showing the similarity between him and the girl. Her life is trapped in an small environment with her mother but feeling alone and the man living in the world free to go where he wish but feels empty without the girl. We again see a contrast in the girls experience when she is sitting on the step, with complete darkness behind her and shining light in front. The last shot shows the cycle that was mentioned earlier, she was trapped watching television offering her little stimulation, then goes outside where the boredom is slightly eased, then she enters the wild grassland where she experiences all these new things and is stimulated but then returns to her home where she again has to watch television, which is now worse now that she has experienced something much better. Her complexion also becomes ill looking again and the radiator is shown again, symbolising the warmth she desires, the warmth she experienced from the stranger.

In this short film the director shows the issues surrounding the theme of youth, using only three characters to achieve the successful portrayal of the issues. This short film would raise different ideological positions, especially in terms of the issue of child neglection. Obviously most people think that it is wrong but there are people who believe that if a child is left to entertain themselves or care for themselves, then they would develop better. But from what we see in the short film the most rational assumption of what ideological position does the mother take is, one that doesn’t care, who show little interest and show no acknowledgement in the failure to fulfil their parental obligations. Another ideological issue raised is the question of the stranger’s identity, with careful analysis; he is clearly a father, who we assume is denied rights to see his daughter due to the mother. But for people watching without the analytical perspective would just assume he is paedophiliac or a person who will bring violence to this girl. I think that his non obvious identity was created purposely by the director to shows us our instant negative preconception of other human beings, especially the preconceptions of people in regards to the current national issue of child abusers.