Thursday 20 December 2012

Film Analysis - Short Film "Right Place"



This is a short film which I decided to look into as research for my psychoanalytical study, it concerns a  young man with OCD (Obsessive Compulsive Disorder) working at a small supermarket. The film focuses on his condition as it renders him unable to leave anything out of place or unordered and shows various quick shots of him constantly checking and rearranging shelves, even if customers are in his way. This also leads him to follow a few customers rearranging the shelves as they go along, such as making sure every item is facing outwards and is a set distance apart from each other and appears tidy. This continues until he comes across a female shoplifter in which he grabs the item she was about to try and steal and places it back on the shelf and sets about in rearranging the shelf it's on, then when he turns to reprimand the woman he notices the woman has socks that are uneven so without even thinking he kneels down to straighten them out to make them both the same height. This event leads him to be slammed against a wall by his supervisor in which even as he is being yelled at he cannot stop himself from straightening his bosses glasses as they are slipping down his face, which ends in him being fired and forced to look for work elsewhere, and he ends up seeing an advert for a bonesetter at a museum which could actually make use of his obsessive tendencies.

The film focuses heavily on the characters obsession to keep things ordered and perfect, his obsessive drive to try and control his environment and keep it in order. This is shown constantly thought he quickly edited close up shots of the man rearranging shelves and items within the supermarket, and shots of his face reveal his annoyance when things are taken out of place and are not properly replaced. His obsessive drive also leads him to perform actions that would be considered socially abnormal such as him almost instinctively reaching down to adjust someones socks if they were uneven, and also even when he is being punished his obsession takes over his actions as he adjust his bosses glasses for him. The film also uses a non diegetic music soundtrack that seems very rhythmic and is timed well with the quick close ups while the character indulges in his obsession, although the music does seem clunky and doesn't really fit well with the setting of the film even though it does fit with the character as the music seems very ordered and repeats itself.


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