How far do the films you have studied for this topic offer an analysis of the social issues they present?

How far do the films you have studied for this topic offer an analysis of the social issues they present?

None of the films are analytical about the social issues. They all show a lifestyle and how the people
 are trapped in a revolving problem. in Chung king express (CHE) the social issues that are shown are how the people of hong kong lack an identity as they are stuck between western culture and having to go back to chines rule, even though this is not mentioned it was very relevant when the film was made. the pace of the film, the songs , the shots and dialogue are repeated throughout the film to show how monotonous their lives are. visually the film offers a lot to the audience, for instance the cinematographer used a unique style at times called 'smudge motion'; this is where the subject in focus moves slowly and all the background blurs past. this represents the passing of time and how nothing has happened, and also the boredom people have. the shot is used a few times throughout the film, tying the different stories together. 'The midnight express' food bar also is a key place in the film. we see how the different characters revolve around the bar; the miss en scene in the kitchen and around the counter displays an array of noticeable, familiar and western logos and items. for example we see the coke logo stuck on the drink dispenser which is always in shot when we see Faye behind the counter, also there is MnM stickers near the phone box; all this shows the attachment these people have to the western culture. having a stable place where the stories revolve around is a good way for us to see the change and lack of change that goes on. one moment there is a girl who works their, suddenly she has left and is replaced. the whole film is about change, the characters even ask for change. the policeman only known as 663 asks for change at the counter, this goes un-noticed but it is one of many references to the fact that change is good and sometimes inevitable.

this is a very different case in City of God(COG) as the change we see is much more drastic and violent.

Romeo is me!!

"Romeo is me, and Knock Knock, his next door neighbor was my next door neighbor, the guy I wrote it with [Paul Fraser]. Romeo Brass was the most autobiographical thing I’d done until This Is England. The whole ‘taking chips out of the chip packet on the way home’ was me. The chippie my mum worked at in Uttoxeter was my favorite. That’s got a special place in my heart. We didn’t have a lot of money so in the summer holiday as a kid I’d have to have my tea there, and when my mum wasn’t working I’d take my friends there and put it on her tab. At the end of one week she had to give them money just to pay for the food I’d eaten, so she didn’t earn anything. She wasn’t happy."

quote to look at!!

Richard Maltby, 'Hollywood Cinema 2nd ed...'.
Page 46

Choosing Himself

Q: What's the hardest thing about directing someone who is playing a version of you?

A: The important thing to remember when you're making a film that starts out autobiographical is that you have to make it work for the actor. But I supposed I naturally picked someone who reminded me of myself. When I went to get this guy Andrew (Shim), he was obsessed about food. All he's bothered about is eating, and that's me from the age of 5 until -- well, still! If I don't eat, I'm the worst person on earth! Blood sugar goes out the window, I could cry my eyes out. People bring me cakes and chocolate bars on a regular basis because if people see me going down...
Anyway, this guy's the same. The first time I met him, he's got an ice cream bar in his pocket. He brings it out, squeezes it, and puts it back in his pocket. I said, "What are you doing?" He says, "Oh, it's an Oreo ice cream sandwich. I always leave them for about half an hour because they taste much better." I mean, that obsession to the delicacy of the worst kind of junk food reminded me so much of myself that I was really drawn to him. So once I'd found the right guy, directing him was never a problem. It was just a case of choosing that person that felt like you.

Q: So casting Andrew was all about the Oreo sandwich then?

A: [Laughs] I'd been going to this workshop (he was in) for a couple of weeks, and this guy said, "Look, I know you like this kid, but he's got some rough edges." And that did it for me. That just stamped his job application. Because I was that kid. I had loads of energy and a really great sense of humor, but there was a rough edge to me that people didn't want to cope with. They didn't want to give a chance to that. So when I was told this kid had an edge, I was like, "Right. You're on then. Let's get you in there."

A Meadows experience

Meadows says plenty of creative license was taken in the film's plot, but he admits there was a period when he didn't see his own best friend -- Brian Fraser, who co-wrote the "Romeo Brass" screenplay -- because of something stupid he did when they were impish youngsters. The details of this event was where our interview began:

Q: The kids in this movie are mischievous, but the way I hear it, you and Fraser were worse. Did you really shoot Fraser with an air rifle at some point and you didn't see him for a few years after that?

A: [Half-sheepishly, half-devilish grin] Oh, definitely.

Q: I take it his mom pulled the plug on your friendship for a while.

A: She'd caught me going out of the house with my Wellington boots full of his soldiers about two or three months before this shooting incident, so I was on pretty shaky ground. So when he went 'round home with a giant red mark and bruise on his stomach, that was the end of that for quite a while. She took him up the whole street, knocked on every door, "Shane Meadows, up the road, blah, blah, blah, look what he's done. Pull your top up Paul" -- pulled his top up, showed them the bruise -- "Put your top down Paul." Next house.

Q: [Laughing]

A: I swear! She went the whole street. The whole street turned on me. She reported me to the police. It was only an air rifle, but shooting someone, well, it's not great is it? If I'd hit him in the eye, I could have blinded him. So the police took me to a young offender's center and showed me around and told me if I ever did anything like that again, this is where I'd be coming. It was deadly serious.

The man himself!

The best answer to a good question!!

Would you work with Hugh Grant if he agreed to wear a shellsuit?

Oh yeah man, definitely! Just so I could set fire to him.

Shane being interviewed

Shane Meadows interviewed by Joe Field, Edinburgh, 21^st August 2004

Did you ever feel that you were indulging in this dark part of yourself?

Yeah, it’s quite cathartic really because you’ve got all these pent-up feelings that every now and again you examine or you look at - me and Paddy were talking about it and we still feel rage for things that went on ten years ago. It’s nice to find a way, an avenue where you can express it, get it out.

Like I say, it’s these unpaid crimes that I can’t cope with - it’s one thing someone getting done for burglary and going through the justice system but how do you get people done for someone that’s hung themselves? How can you quantify what their involvement was? So they’re all just walking around and they don’t feel guilty because they think he’s just got a weak mind, so it’s his fuckin’ fault - whereas in the film someone actually comes up and says “No, it was you.”

Your films usually have strong female characters, Dead Man’s Shoes is an almost exclusively male world.

Yeah and the girl who is in it is just abused by this crowd. As bad as it is, there was always a girl like that when you were hanging around with lads: she seemed to go out with everyone in the gang - and one of them’s going out with her but he doesn’t mind if she goes upstairs and has sex with someone else. That’s the sadness with them people, there was never any respect for women - I was brought up in a very male-dominated environment where it was all about masculinity and girls were just brought in to have sex… there was no fuckin’ respect there.

You draw inspiration for your films from the world directly around you; do you still find characters and stories where you live in the Midlands?

Uttoxeter, where I’m from, I’m probably about one percent through that lot. It’s quite incredible, for such a little place it breeds all sorts - there’s still 100 people that I’ve not even touched on. One of the films I’m writing next is a film called Mary, which is a true story based on my uncle who’s an ex-heroin addict. It’s about this girl who he saved from a good hiding in the street, because she was a prostitute and her pimp was beatin’ fuck out of her and me uncle basically stepped in, knocked this guy out.

But with him doing that and stepping in, she’d suddenly got nowhere to live, so he’d involved himself and he got stuck with her. So I’m writing that, and that’s based on my Dad’s brother so I’m still looking very close to home.

You’re an advocate of guerrilla-style filmmaking and the do-it-yourself ethic. Do you think this is how British cinema needs to evolve to survive?

It’s a good way for people to get started, definitely, but not all projects need to be shot in that fashion. The sort of films that I’m gonna start making now, some of these harder-hitting stories, if you can do it with a small crew, with minimal lighting it means you’re getting a lot more on screen - you’re not wasting money on shit equipment that’s sat in a van somewhere.

My Question!

To what extent does Shane Meadows use his past experiences as narrative themes in his films?

'My memories have more meaning than that. As a kid growing up in Uttoxeter, Staffs, it was a time of great music, brilliant fashion and a vibrant youth culture that makes today's kids look dull and unimaginative by comparison. It was also a time of massive unrest when British people were still prepared to fight for the stuff they believed in. My new film, This Is England, is about all of these things.

Set in 1983, this is the first period film I have made. A great deal of it is based on my own childhood and I tried to recreate my memoirs of being an 11-year-old kid trying to fit in. It was a time when Uttoxeter, like the rest of the country, was awash with endless different youth tribes. There were new romantics, heavy rockers, smoothies, punks, goths, skins and mod revivalists who were into the Specials and 2 Tone. Then there were those pop culture kids who came into school wearing one green sock, one pink sock and some deely boppers on their head. '

shane taks about this is england and him

http://www.guardian.co.uk/film/2007/apr/21/culture.features

Q n A

What is the importance of mise en scene and/or sound in creating meaning and generating response in the films you have studied?

City Of God (COG) and La Haine (LH) are both full of contextual mise en scene throughout. it is very important that the shots include these messages in the background as it explores the issues in the location at that time.
in COG the movie starts off in the most present day and we see the favellas in brazil are dark, dirty and closed in. when the film goes back to the same place in the sixties we see a huge change in the cities structure. the is alot more space and less houses, meaning that there was alot more opportunity for the people and freedom. we also see the control the police have as whenthe woman is found dead there is a crowd of people and police.