Lamb

Lamb is a film that deals with issues that people come across every day. It has a non linear narrative which means that there isn’t a simple beginning, middle and end. Themes that appear in the film are issues such as relationships, friendships, boredom, innocence and jealousy. The film is very silent and calm but manages to convey different messages through the various techniques the director uses. The soft lighting adds to the ambience and allows the audience to take in the scenery. At the beginning of the film, the fast tracking shot filmed from the point of view from the protagonist opens the scene it travels down a large field; this also establishes the setting at where the film is being shot. When the main character is first revealed, he is shown riding a bike towards his destination. The camera follows him through his journey in a wide and long tracking shot. This reveals his loneliness and isolation from everything around him. The lack of cuts in the scene shows his alienation from his surroundings and the tedious of the journey he has to take in order to have company. A jump cut is then used to progress the scene. This represents the remoteness of the location and this eventually establishes the boredom that is a major issue of the film.

A strong theme that appears in the film is the theme of sexuality. Sexual tension occurs during the various meetings between the main character and his friend’s mother. During the film, there is a lot of close up of hands. Hands are very sexual parts of the body and so represent one of the five senses. The close up of the boys hands touching the cake that the mother made implies that he wants to touch her in the same way. A close up of his face then reveals his emotions. Here, he looks fascinated by the cake that she has made. The close up of the hands and face were used to portray his interest in her. As soon as the mother walks in, tension rises between them both. She is shocked to see him standing there instead of him being with his friend and suddenly realises what he must be thinking. The lack of speech here shows that they don’t have a normal relationship it emphasises his tepid nature towards her. The presentation of the mum is quite controversial. Her clothes are mature yet slightly revealing and it shows that she is older, but in good shape. The young boy is interested in her youthfulness and the director establishes her as a trim older woman. The point of view is shown through the boys eyes. The camera focuses mainly on the mother’s eyes, mouth and body which are the most sexual parts of the human frame. Women in this film are represented as an item and she represents the typical female figure of what a woman should look like.

There is obvious acknowledgement of each of the characters behaviour. They are both old enough to realise that what they are thinking and doing is wrong, but they are still tempted to feel these sexual emotions towards each other. It could also be seen as payback towards the boy’s best friend. He came there to visit his friend, but he was neglected by him so that he could spend time with his girlfriend. The frustration of the boy and his friends behaviour towards him is apparent by his sudden outburst when he his calling him from downstairs. He is ignored by his friend, and his disappointment is shown through a close up of his face. He feels rejected and leans away from the stairs to show his reluctance to make any more effort with his friend. He then looks for other things to do and that is when he goes into the kitchen and finds the bread. Again, there is a close up of the boys hand as he is playing with his jeans. This also emphasises his frustration. The focus on his hand gestures are tension shots and greatly increase meaning in the story without adding dialogue.

The lack of sound raises tension. When there is sound, its diagetic and is quite soft, for example, the sound of the river flowing and birds tweeting. However, these sounds do not create any excitement and contribute to the remoteness of their location. The sudden burst of sound from the video games and also the sound of the classical music from the radio show the slight bit of excitement that is shown in the film. These are from two different worlds and represent the two different reasons why the boy was here, to visit his friend and to see his friend’s mother. This links to the representational area of sexuality.