DEAN COSTELLOE

'The Most Beautiful Man in the World is a short film written and directed Alicia Duffy in 2002 and was produced by BreakThru productions. It won the TCM prize at the London Film Festival and 'Best Narrative Short Film' at the Chicago International Film Festival.

 

The film begins with the camera panning up the body of a young girl yawning, with the diegetic sound of a television heard in the shot. The way the camera work portrays the little girl creates a sense of mystery about the girl already, leaving the audience wondering what the little girl is here for and what will happen to her. The camera work also exhibits the girl rather provocatively and maybe even sexually, which adds a sinister tone to the movie as it makes the audience aware that something bad is going to happen. The shot fades to black and then fades back in to the girl laying on the floor of her living room next to her pet dog. She rubs her eyes and sighs as if she is becoming tired or has just woken up. The shot fades to black again, but this time when it fades back in, the girl is sitting upright, still watching TV, but this time looks very bored and lonely. The shot once again fades to black, but this time, the words 'The Most Beautiful Man in the World' appear on screen in a white text on a black background. 

 

From what we have already seen from this movie, we can assume that this film istrying to highlight problems with (what looks like) lower class children in a modern society, which is incredibly important, because not only does the movie give an idea of the class and also the status of the characters within the movie, but also the background and the environment in which the girl grew up and lives in. This point is further exemplified through the use of mise-en-scene in the movie, the most notable being her costume, with her outfit sexualising her by dressing her in a short, skin-tight top and skirt, which could reveal ideas of neglection in the young girl, and is shown evidently by her boredom. 

 

The film continues with a phone ringing and the girl waking up next to her dog, which is seen walking away. The sound in this scene contrasts the previous, with a phone ringing loudly, unlike the other dull, quiet scenes. This could symbolise the struggle of everyday boredom and the aggravation of doing nothing. Some interior shots of her house follow, with the girl walking to look out of her window, and is then outside circling on her bike. This shot is rather colourless, with two small buildings on one side of the road, practically empty roads and noone around. The derelict town she lives in could portray the social class of her and her family, with the low-key lighting creating a dull environment. Again, many elements of regret and loneliness are used, such as the shot of her hugging her dog and the slow pace of her actions inside the house, in order for the audience to feel empathy and understand the loneliness the girl is experiencing. After the longshot of her on her bike, in which we can see her desperately trying to cure the boredom, (maybe due to the fact her mother does not make time for her) by playing around like a child would. Next, we see a close up shot of the girl staring into an overgrown cornfield. We can see that she is secluded from the space in front of her by a meter high fence, which connotes her isolation from the rest of her family. The close up is used so that we can see her facial expression which allows us to judge her feelings based on her expressions she shows. When she turns around very quickly, it seems as though she is looking back to her house as she knows she is not supposed to be playing in the cornfield, but we can assume she is going to anyway, which is then confirmed by her making her way past the fence and towards the cornfield. We then see the girl inside the cornfield, playing and exploring and the shots have been edited so that they cut to the next a lot quicker, building tension amongst the audience. As well as this, the natural sounds in the scene such as the crickets, are heard to be a lot louder the further along into the field she goes, which evokes a fearful reaction in the audience as if something bad is going to happen to the girlm who seems oblivious to any sort of time or where she is as she is so engaged in what she is doing.

 

Another character is introduced in the same way as the first, as the shot pans up from his stomach to his face. The full shot shows a topless man stroking a dog, which suggests the man has been sexualised for the movie, much like the young girl was. To the audience, it could mean something towards the relationship of the two, and that he is not merely a stranger. The man looks up at the girl, who says 'That's my dog', and we see the man leave the shot. From this scene, the audience may become fearful at the fact that such a young, sexualised girl has been exploring in an unfriendly place and has come across a topless man, which would instantly evoke the reaction that this man may have some rather sick motives, as abuse is something thatmany people can relate to in modern society, so at this moment in the film, the audience are beginning to fear the worst for the protagonist. The man is seen to be looking down at the girl, and the look in his face does not seem friendly. Followed is a shot of the girls' shoulder which has a bug crawling around near the strap of her top. As we see the mans' hand grow closer to the strap of her top, we fear that this man is about to do something horrible to the girl, however he just picks up the bug and puts in into the girl's hands. From the point of view of the audience, this situation seems weird, as we never fully understand why the man is there or what his real motives were. What was the bug meant to symbolise? In my opinion it seems that the man was trying to portray a father figure to the girl, helping her out by keeping her dog company, but also it could be that Alicia Duffy was trying to confuse the viewer as it is likely that the audience presumed the worst was about to happen, but instead, created an intimate moment between man and young girl, that was in so way sexual or morally wrong. 

 

We then see a woman, which we can assume is the girl's mother, staring out at the girl. The protagonist then runs back through the fields, but this shot is quickly cut out by an interior shot of the door slamming with a loud noise to follow, symbolising what is the end of her temporary freedom. All the sounds of crickets and the other natural sounds are now gone, as well as the door symbolising prison bars, which again heavily portrays the idea of loneliness and imprisonment. The shot switches to the man standing alone in the cornfield, and the contrast between the low-key, dull interior of the house compared to the bright shot of the cornfield shows the happiness in which she felt while she was outside exploring, and the loneliness she feels being trapped inside. 

 

We see a shot of the young girl supposedly being looked at from the top of the stairs, which shows her as weak and unimportant, which is further exemplified by t dark lighting, creating a dull mood. The young girl turns her head to face the camera, and in doing so, 'breaks the fourth wall' as she is seen staring directly at the audience, which crams many ideas and questions into the viewers head as the screen fades to black. Due to the vast amount of questions left unanswered, it makes the viewer think very hard about the issues raised in the film such as the lack of a father figure; stranger danger and even sexualisation of the youth.