FONTYS ACADEMY FOR CREATIVE INDUSTRIES

Home university: European Humanities University

Bachelor program of information and communication

ВА Media and communication

Spec. Visual culture and creative industries: audiovisual media

(television and cinema)

NASTASSIA YAROMENKA

exchange student, group COAC 4 A

ASSIGNMENT

Combining theory and film

“Coming of age in “Stoker”

WRITTEN PAPER

ON SUBJECT “FILM STUDIES”

EXAMINATION CODE 2259YADV28

Revised by:

Ton te Slaa

Tilburg, 2015

CONTENTSIntroduction..................................................................................................................................3

Summary......................................................................................................................................4

Thesis...........................................................................................................................................6

Analysis........................................................................................................................................8

Sexual maturity.....................................................................................................................8

Turning 18............................................................................................................................9

Filling life with meaning......................................................................................................9

Ability to act.........................................................................................................................9

Sound..............................................................................................................................10

Cinematography..............................................................................................................10

Editing.............................................................................................................................12

Mise-en-scene.................................................................................................................13

Conclusion.................................................................................................................................14

LITERATURE.............................................................................................................................15

Annex.........................................................................................................................................16

Timeline notes on the process of maturing as the movie develops....................................20

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INTRODUCTIONThinking of the visually astonishing movies Stoker pops into mind instantly (Park, 2013).

And compared to truly breathtaking pictures like Lovely Bones (Jackson, 2009) or The Fountain

(Aronofsky, The Fountain, 2006) Stoker stands out in a way that it seems so real, that you

believe the story and the teller.

This assignment is a combination of a theory about coming of age formed through different

perspectives: biological, cultural, societal, juridical and, most importantly, philosophical. The

accent on the latter was made due to the fact that the director of the chosen movie is a philosophy

degree graduate and supposedly uses his knowledge in his moviemaking practice. Hence, such

authors as Immanuel Kant, Plato, Aristotle and Giovanni Pico della Mirandolla have become the

form-shapers of the theory which was further analyzed through film practices.

Roland Barthes, by writing “Death of the Author”, basically opened up about the possibility

of meaning being created by the receiver of any kind of message, rather than being put into the

message by the author. The domineering nature of determining meaning while reading the

message, gives me a relative degree of authority to suggest that my attempt to analyze the

message of “Stoker” is worth a try.

In my assignment, the theory of maturing was deliberately expanded to several approaches, as

well as characterized by a number of significant traits. Those approaches (age of majority, sexual

maturity, ability to act and fill life with meaning) are suggested as principle signified, while

filmographic methods are seen as signifiers. I have used the basic structure of mise-en-scene,

sound, editing and cinematographic methods, which were taken from the course on “Film

studies”, so that to be able to articulate meaning with the help of common notions.

In the result, the assignment presents a brief look at some of audio-visual manifestations of

the phenomenon of maturing. In my view, the chosen picture is so brilliant in bringing theory

onto the screen, that analyzing the whole of it, would take pages, because the whole movie is

soaked with meaning which cries from every single aspect of it. I have tried to draw an outline of

it through the above-mentioned categories of sound, editing, cinematography and mise-en-scene.

Overall, there is still place to dive into the subject, but I have taken a good free fall header to

make clear assumptions about the matter, so that to decide whether it is worth going for it with

an aqualung.

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SUMMARYThe story, composed by three main characters of India Stoker, who at her eighteen’s birthday

finds out that her father died in a car accident, Evelyn Stoker – India’s mother who was struck by

the same news, and Charles Stoker, who arrives with it, the plot gets tricky with the main

storyline of India figuring out what happened, uncle Charlie being there for her help, and her

mother, being pushed into participation in this journey of self-discovery. It is full of twists,

thanks to undeniably brilliant montage and to-and-forth storytelling, where the story is being told

in forward and reverse modes simultaneously, creating the unique world of the family we were

not supposed to find secretes about. That pretty much resonates in a slogan of the movie which

goes like “Do not disturb the family”.

As far as the teller of the story is concerned, the capturing beauty of visuals has been achieved

through sweat and blood of the whole team of costume stylists, interior designers, and director of

photography, cameramen, actors and director Park Chan-Wook himself. Stoker has become his

first English spoken film, and even though he hardly spoke English, he was able to communicate

through his visionary (Порочные игры, Stoker, 2015).

It is clear that Wentworth Miller – the author of the script – draw his inspiration from Alfred

Hitchcock’s film “Shadow of a Doubt” which hit the screen in 1942 (Hitchcock, 1942). Stoker

has become his first script written and suggested for screening. Having ranked fifth in the "black

list" of the top ten unrealized scenarios in 2010, it was withdrawn from it in September 2011,

when the shooting of the film started in Nashville, Tennessee, not far from Nicole Kidman’s

residence. It took them 40 days to shoot the film, and in 2013 it was released to big screens

around the world, hardly matching the initially invested budget.

Nevertheless, the film is a visionary masterpiece, in spite of a weak box office performance.

Every single member of the team invested their best qualities in the final project we now refer to

as “Stoker”.

The golden trio of Nicole Kidman, Matthew Goode and Mia Wasikovska created almost

physically perceived tension on the screen. Even though all of them were second choices, after

Jodie Foster, Colin Firth and Carrie Mulligan, respectively, in one of the interviews Wentworth

Miller confessed that he saw Matthew Good as uncle Charlie when working on the script. In the

end, it worked quite well (Порочные игры, Stoker, 2015). Nicole Kidman contributed the

subtle, chilling motherly touch now and then reminding the viewers of her role in “The Others”.

Matthew Goode, handsome and detached, filled the story with mystery, which was fostered by

striking performance of Mia Wasikovska. 4

The soundtrack is a story teller itself, and it is as multi-layered, as the characters of the film. It

might be the result of a forced collaboration between two artistically strong composers Philip

Glass and Clint Mansell. The former has written the melody for the major piano scene brought to

life by the characters of Wasikovska and Goode, the latter covered the whole picture with

musical tension which can be compared to that he created for the Black Swan two years earlier

(Aronofsky, Black Swan, 2010). There is also a chance, that it was the artistic touch of Thérèse

DePrez, who, as Mansell, worked on the Black Swan, but something in the visionary, or the

sound, was constantly reminding me of that psychological drama by Darren Aronofsky.

And Park Chan Wook, the philosophy degree graduate of Sogang University, accompanied by

Italian master of montage Nicolas De Toth were able to fill the cinematographic gaps with

meaning which is so deep and diverse, that it would take the whole research to cover all of it

(Порочные игры, Stoker, 2015). But I will use this assignment as an opportunity to review at

least the glimpse of the meaning those masters were able to provoke for me to see.

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THESIS And as much as the film is proclaimed to be about a strange family, I see it as a story about

maturing or coming of age. There are many ways to define the above stated process, for instance,

biologically, an adult is a human being or an organism that has reached sexual maturity1. In

human context, the term adult additionally has meanings associated with social and legal

concepts. Socially, coming of age is a young person's transition from childhood to adulthood.

The age at which this transition takes place varies in society, as does the nature of the transition.

Legally, age of majority is the threshold of adulthood as it is conceptualized (and recognized or

declared) in law. It is the chronological moment when minors cease to legally be considered

children and assume control over their persons, actions, and decisions, thereby terminating the

legal control and legal responsibilities of their parents or guardian over and for them. Most

countries set majority age at 18 (which will be considered as the age majority in Stoker film

analysis due to the fact that it’s an American film, and the USA, mainly, agrees on it2). Nature-

of-the-process-wise, maturity emphasizes a clear comprehension of life's purpose, directedness,

and intentionality, which contributes to the feeling that life is meaningful (Adler, 1997).

But as the film was directed by the carrier of philosophical degree, I feel almost obliged to

address the issue from the corresponding angle. In this way, Plato portrays the final point of

maturity as a light source, high and dangerous for the eyes of a person who has spent the whole

life in a cave of ignorance. The source of light is one and only, and is alien to a human being.

One should be lead from this cave onto the road towards the light which brings maturity (Plato,

360 B.C.E). Kant, on the other hand, sees maturity trigger as the light within each and every one

of us, and the road towards its discovery lies in the transition from minority into adulthood by

the means of public usage of one's own mind. In this case one might be led by no other man but

oneself, by becoming strong and eager, by overcoming laziness and fear (Kant, 1784).

Another important issue on the journey of coming of age is the reason behind it, or, in other,

words, why one chooses to mature in spite of all the difficulties that will inevitably come along

the way. Once again the authors are giving me a hand with searching for the answer. They give

rather different explanations, but they are very clear and precise. Mostly this call is considered to

be natural, as if we are born with irresistible driving force of thinking and discovering, which

will inevitably bring us on to the road towards the light. The humanistic approach emphasizes

the creative, active nature of human beings, and Aristotle further elaborates that the virtuous

1 As quoted in biology-related online dictionary; retrieved from: http://www.biology-online.org/dictionary/Adult 2 Definition taken from online database of uslegal.com; retrieved from: http://definitions.uslegal.com/a/age-of-majority/

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habit of action is always an intermediate state between the opposed vices of excess and

deficiency, for example, with respect to acting in the face of danger, courage is a mean between

the excess of rashness and the deficiency of cowardice (Aristotle, 384–322 B.C.). Plato

emphasizes the fact that even in cage of ignorance one cannot, but give names to the shadows

he/she sees in front of oneself (Plato, 360 B.C.E). Such an action is seen by Hannah Arendt as

the basic principle of cognition – articulating thoughts and ideas in a word form (Arendt, 1958).

Kant names the inevitable coming of age as a sacred human right, which basically means

something a human being is born with and is destined to deal with (Kant, 1784).

And the process of maturing turns to be a tough one. Plato uses the metaphor of being blinded

by the light (Plato, 360 B.C.E), Kant mentions the pain of standing straight on one’s own

inexperienced legs (Kant, 1784), and Ecclesiastes writes, that we are programmed “to study and

to explore by wisdom all that is done under the heavens. What a heavy burden God has laid on

mankind!” (Ecclesiastes 2) It seems like a man has been included in some kind of a program of

constant struggle for survival, as if there were no possibilities of escape. But the truth is that

most probably we have mistaken predetermination for absolute freedom that has been given to us

by Creator, as stated in Oration on the Dignity of man by Giovanni Pico della Mirandola

(Mirandola, 1486 ). That what scares Man the most and makes him run from the greatest gift, yet

the greatest burden on Earth.

Obviously, it is possible to elaborate on the matter further and further, but even by now I see

the notional shape of defining coming of age.

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Source/authorbiologylegal systemhumanismnature

Defining traitsexual maturityturning 18ability to actfilling life with meaning

n e e d fo r c u s to d ia n (P la to )

o v e rc o m in g fe a r/ la z in e s s (K a n t )

b e in g b lin d e d /h u rt (P la to , K a n t)

a rti c u la ti o n o f th e e x p e r in c e (A re n d t)

a c ti o n b a s e d o n c o u ra g e (A r is to t le )

"ru n in g fro m th e g re a te s t g ift " (M ira n d o la )

ANALYSISStarting to speak “Stoker” terms in the drawn framework of the coming-of-age concept, I

suggest defining basic signifiers that stand for basic maturity traits:

• sexual maturity – the image of mother, shoes;

• turning 18 – India’s Birthday;

• ability to act – the whole timeline of the movie;

• filling life with meaning – the quote in the end.

Sexual maturityLeaving aside the basic biological definition of sexual maturation3, which means the physical

development of feminine sexual traits, I would like to elaborate the on-screen meaning of this

process. In this case, we may speak about realizing one’s sexuality, which in case of India’s

character happens in defined stages:

1. experiencing sexual sensation when playing the

piano, results in her desire to go out with a boy;

2. The follow-up experience in the woods, brings her

to the actual sexual stimulation in the shower;

3. Symbolically, India transgresses into female hood

by accepting high heels from her uncle;

4. And finally she uses her sexuality to attract/distract

the policeman.

All those events take place one after the other, contributing to the journey of maturity, but not

excluding other components of this process.

3 Definition taken from merckmanuals.com; retrieved from: http://www.merckmanuals.com/professional/pediatrics/growth_and_development/physical_growth_and_sexual_maturation_of_adolescents.html

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sexual maturity

turning 18

ability to act

filling life with meaning

sexual maturity

Turning 18The film starts with the disclosure of the fact that India’s father dies on her 18th Birthday. And

seems like on purpose the opening credits introduce the Birthday cake with 18 burning candles

being covered with a glass cap, which slowly kills the light on each and every candle, as if

putting on hold India’s coming of age. It might be a vivid attempt of the director to make it clear

that maturity does not happen overnight, but rather is the result of the personal struggle and

decision an individual makes along the way. So, legally, India comes of age at the beginning of

the film, but in fact it takes her over 1 hour and half of the movie timeline to reach the point of

making sense out of her life with the closing quote.

Filling life with meaningThe sense is being stated in a literal form of voice-over spoken by India herself, as if we hear

the thought flow in her head while she’s executing the first free-will action of her life.

Noticeably, the film opens with the same shots, but they are put on hold, each of them is paused

for us to question the natural flow of the story. In the beginning, there is no action shown, but in

the end, we see what brought India to the way she thinks, and we see the action (killing the

policeman) preceding this particular manner of making sense of the life path she “chose”:

My ears hear what others cannot hear; small faraway things people

cannot normally see are visible to me. These senses are the fruits of a lifetime

of longing, longing to be rescued, to be completed. Just as the skirt needs the

wind to billow, I'm not formed by things that are of myself alone. I wear my

father's belt tied around my mother's blouse, and shoes which are from my

uncle. This is me. Just as a flower does not choose its color, we are not

responsible for what we have come to be. Only once you realize this do you

become free, and to become adult is to become free (Stoker, Quotes, 2015).

This voice-over is another signifier for one of the peculiar features of maturing that were

stated above, it corresponds to the idea of Hannah Arendt, who emphasized the significance of

articulation of one’s experience when coming of age (Arendt, 1958).

Ability to actBefore elaborating on the ability to act, I must cast the light onto important signifiers of this

process – Charlie as a custodian and Mirandola’s idea of “running away”, and then will proceed

with action-based theories through the main film features: sound, editing, cinematography and

mise-en-scene (David Bordwell, 2010).

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We may see Charlie as a custodian – someone who guides the maturing person along the way

– who assists India in every action she is about to take on her own. As if he was a teacher, who

was showing how it is done, before the student could go outside and implement those skills in

practice on her own; he pushes India into new experiences, he breeds her curiosity and fosters

her courage in taking actions independently. His signifiance is purely diegetic: he orders India to

go to the fridge, where he has hidden the corpse; and even thought she doesn’t discover it for the

first time, the second time she takes the same action on her own, she makes the initial discovery.

Moreover, Charlie is a direct contributor to India’s sexual maturity: he is the first one to bring

her to climax while playing the piano, he is the one to show her how to operate and push her into

trying; he is also the one to put her into her “mother’s shoes” by literally assisting her out of her

habitual flats into Laboutin high heels. And he also pushes her to the limit by becoming her

target at the end of the movie. Just like Kant states the inevitable necessity of getting rid of

custodian so that to become free, India shoots Charlie’s head off so that to finally come of age.

And Charlie, here, has executed his custodian job to perfection.

Another important signifier of taking the action, or maturing, is Mirandola’s “running away”,

or, if I may anticipate the formal usage of the quote – going in circles. I may suggest that this

signified finds its portrayal in the film in several signifying forms, which all send us back to fear

or laziness which will inevitably have to be overcome:

SoundSound is as important story teller as any character in the film. India, being blessed with the

gift of hyper sensitivity, hears everything, and the sound editing shows it well. In the framework

of coming of age, sound falls into the role of instrument of signifier of India’s maturing journey.

If in the beginning she was using her gift to shuts the world out (the egg scene), then with the

story development, we hear sounds that prove her will to concentrate on what is happening. To

put a simple example, in the piano scene, we hear the engine of the fridge which refers us to

India’s memories from before, but we also hear the separate hits on piano keys, overlapping the

off-screen sound of the fridge, as if the psychological attempts of the character were audible. In

the end, the piano sound becomes dominant over the fridge sound, which slowly fades to non-

existence, and we are introduced to the piano melody played by India.

Cinematography The Kantian coming-of-age is vividly portrayed through the use of camera in at least two

scenes:

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1. India enters the room holding a tray with tea and finds her mother asleep in a chair. The

camera enters the room from India’s perspective, then circles around the sleeping mother and

ends up as a middle shot of India, on the face of whom there is a certain degree of realization,

which is rapidly projected through the camera’s directing onto the mother’s close-up, as if

creating the minimal sign4 between the two = India recognizes feminine maturity in herself

through the image of her mother. We arrive to the point from which we started, as if the

knowledge was already there (see Storyboard 1 Kantian Cinematography. The scene with

mother).

2. The viewer is introduced to India lying on a bed surrounded by the shoe boxes. The

camera captures a close-up of India’s face then slowly moves to the right where we see the first

out of 17 boxes. Even though cross-fade transition is used in between the shots (editing), we see

the camera slowly tracking to the right when the shoes in the boxes shrink in size, accompanied

by the sound-over of the running feet respectively of the shoe size; the camera does not stop

moving rightwards until we end up on the same close-up we departed from, as if the knowledge

has already been there, but we needed this cinematographic journey so that to realize it (see

Storyboard 2 Kantian Cinematography. The scene with India).

And the Platonian vision is also achieved in the scene of India’s realization of the reason

uncle Charlie came into her life. As soon as she answers his question “what day it was?” with her

“It was my 18th birthday” the camera slides down to the low angle shot disclosing the lamp in the

background and charging India’s character with diegetic power above her uncle, who’s

consequently shown from a higher angle, as if India did not need him anymore (see Storyboard 3

Platonian Cinematography. Dialogue).

Furthermore, there are at least two meaningful usages of pull focus:

1. The scene where India sharpens her pencil after defending herself from a classmate ends

up with the extreme close-up of her profile, with the focus on her eye; then it gradually travels to

the razor-sharp pencil point she’s holding as if at the ready for attack. That is another minimal

sign of decision-making process: conscious intention becomes charged with active potential (see

Storyboard 4).

2. When India talks to a policeman about Whip disappearance matter, we can see the

camera moving from the two then introducing Charles standing by the mirror, looking at them.

The focus moves from the talking to Charles, and returns back when the story takes the leap of

faith, where Charlie’s intervention into the dialogue becomes crucial (see Storyboard 5).

4 These are signs the expressions of which cannot be broken down into units which are themselves expressions, i.e., which convey meanings (Schlichtmann, 2009).

11

The whole meaning of the movie is constructed with cinematographic means of angles and

camera movements. I have mentioned here the basic examples of how this meaning can be read

from the picture; some of the further elaborations can be also seem in the notes section.

EditingThe most significant method of montage in the film is a graphic match through transition.

And most surely this method was chosen to create meaning, as we can see in the egg scene

giving a thought about India looking at the world from an egg shell (see Storyboard 6); or in the

road scene, where she’s being followed by a “ghost” of her uncle, as if he was a burden of hers,

or a “custodian” (see Storyboard 7).

The film is incredibly powerful editing-wise, because it’s built on back-and-forth story loops,

which literally create the visual portrayal of psychological process of maturing. There are several

examples of it:

The bath scene is the tensest scene of the movie. Compared to other loops, this one is

more or less whole, because it takes place as a consequence of the previous scene – the messing

in the forest. As we see India getting ready to take a shower, we see her dirty clothes come off,

the plot jumps back to show the exact reason why they got dirty; as we see her confused

reflection in a mirror – we jump to the actions she had to take in the woods; as we see her crying

in the shower – we are being shown the shots from the attack; and as we see India climaxing –

the picture is cut to the breaking of Whip’s neck; finally realizing the nature of the main

character. The shots, that the main story is being cut to, are introduced in a reverse manner; as if

India were reverse playing the events in her head – that is another signifier for Mirandola’s

“backwards” intentions in the process of maturing (see Storyboard 8).

The hunting shots seem to be non-diegetic cut at first, because when watching a movie, it

is complicated to understand the importance of the shots till last but one scene, where we see

India with the same rifle we saw in hunting scenes. Nevertheless, those shots are introduced into

the story during the crucial moments of decision making, provoking in the viewer a feeling of

waiting for the right moment. The same graphic match through transition occurs between the

scene of India brushing her mother’s hair and the hunt, where the hair gradually becomes the

long grass fluttering in the wind. This insert is necessary for the story, because it denudes India’s

nature for her mother for the first time (see Storyboard 9).

The spider scene, according to the director, was planned as an opening scene in the

movie, but later on it was agreed to be too erotic for the beginning, and it was partially

introduced in the beginning, and cut into the middle, right after the piano scene – the first time

India discovers her sexuality; then, probably, it seemed logical to bring the erotic component of 12

the initial scene where spider crawls under the skirt; and combined with the middle shot of her

mother, there was a meaning created on the border of the two – mother, as a signifier of female

maturity, and India’s realization of her own sexuality – sexual maturity became possible. And it

was executed further in the film (see Storyboard 10).

Not to mention small diegetic inserts which refer us to India’s revelations and realizations of

Charlie’s deeds (some of them were covered in notes section).

Mise-en-sceneThere is no particular development of lighting and setting as far as India’s maturing is

concerned. But there is a significant scene where the lamp light source is used as signifier of the

undiscovered knowledge. When uncle Charles and India meet each other privately for the first

time, Charlie is standing at the top of the stairs, in the background there is a switched on lamp.

Cinematographically, he’s shown from the low angle, which only strengthens the Platonian

theory of the light source “high and dangerous”. India is shown from the high angle, and her

setting is darker, compared to Charlie’s one. She has to climb the stairs to actually talk to him,

and so she does (see Storyboard 11).

Another interesting Platonian setting is used after India returns from the basement and

actually talks to Charlie’s shadow, as she has not yet discovered his nature, as people in

Platonian cave were giving names to shadows of the things they could not actually see, India still

has no idea what her uncle is (see Picture 12).

The vivid transformation, however, takes place in India’s way of dressing. She chooses

button-up shirts up until the moment she goes out with Whip, where she puts her sexuality into

practice for the first time. In the end she wears her mother’s blouse, slightly transparent, light

and open, which can be seen as her reaching of maturity. The vivid transition is also seen in

India’s decision to put on the night gown her mother gave her as a present. In the brushing scene,

we see both women wearing the same gown, as if India grew into it, because of the experience

shown in the previous scene, she even takes charge of the brushing, being portrayed standing

above her mother who has to sit, consequently giving power to the maturing character of India

(see Storyboard 13).

The shoes are actually the leading maturity signifier in the picture, because obviously there

were so many at first sight unnecessary accents on them. Even by looking at shoes only

introduced to us chronologically throughout the film, we could assume that the character came of

age by the end of the picture (see Storyboard 14).

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CONCLUSIONIn the end, I can assume that the whole film is a signifier to the process of maturing. In my

assignment I have concentrated on several vivid examples which are supposed to prove a thesis

of mine. But if we look at the picture as the whole, the timeline of the events shown, as well as

the directorial decision to arrange them into the unique plot, once again shows the journey of a

girl whose coming of age was literally put on hold for 1 hour and a half for us to stick to the

story, and executed perfectly by the end of it.

The fact that the film starts and ends with the same set of images with slight adjustments

acknowledged by me above, might be another attempt to show the cyclical approach towards

explaining the process of maturing according to Immanuel Kant, who believed that the

knowledge has already been there, we only had to be courageous to realize it, or so to say, to

take a free independent action towards self-awareness.

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LITERATURE1. Stoker, Quotes. (2015, April 7). Retrieved from IMDb:

http://www.imdb.com/title/tt1682180/quotes?ref_=tt_ql_3

2. Порочные игры, Stoker. (2015, April 7). Retrieved from kinopoisk.ru:

http://www.kinopoisk.ru/film/535254/

3. Adler, N. (1997, November). Research Network on SES & Health. Retrieved from

http://www.macses.ucsf.edu/:

http://www.macses.ucsf.edu/research/psychosocial/purpose.php

4. Arendt, H. (1958). Vita Activa and the Human Condition (Chapter 1). Retrieved

from http://genius.com/: http://genius.com/Hannah-arendt-vita-activa-and-the-human-

condition-chapter-1-annotated

5. Aristotle. (384–322 B.C.). Aristotle: Ethics and the Virtues. Retrieved from

philosophypages.com: http://www.philosophypages.com/hy/2s.htm

6. David Bordwell, K. T. (2010). Film Art: An Introduction. New York: McGraw-

Hill.

7. Ecclesiastes 2. (n.d.). Retrieved from biblegateway.com:

https://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=Ecclesiastes+2

8. Kant, I. (1784). An Answer to the Question: "What is Enlightenment?".

Konigsberg: Prussia.

9. Mirandola, G. P. (1486 ). Oration on the Dignity of Man. Retrieved from

http://bactra.org/: http://bactra.org/Mirandola/

10. Park, C.-w. (Director). (2013). Stoker [Motion Picture].

11. Plato. (360 B.C.E). The Internet Classics Arhcive. Retrieved from

http://classics.mit.edu/: http://classics.mit.edu/Plato/republic.8.vii.html

12. Schlichtmann, H. (2009, November). OVERVIEW OF THE SEMIOTICS OF

MAPS. Regina, Saskatchewan, Canada.

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ANNEX

Storyboard 1 Kantian Cinematography. The scene with mother

Storyboard 2 Kantian Cinematography. The scene with India

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Storyboard 3 Platonian Cinematography. Dialogue

Storyboard 4 Pull Focus: The Pencil Scene

Storyboard 5 Pull Focus: Charles Scene

Storyboard 6 Graphic match through transition: Egg-eye

17

Storyboard 7 Graphic match through transition: The road

Storyboard 8 Editing: The Shower scene

Storyboard 9 Graphic match through transition: Hair-grass

Storyboard 10 Editing: The spider scene

18

Storyboard 11 Platonian setting: The stairs scene

Picture 12 Platonian setting: Charlie's shadow

Storyboard 13 India's maturing through clothing

Storyboard 14 India's maturing through shoes

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Timeline notes on the process of maturing as the movie develops:

“Tell me what it open” – India finds the key, she is overwhelmed with childish curiosity.

“Come and say hello to uncle Charlie”, India remembers first seeing him at the funeral, but

she saw only the silhouette of his, and he was standing in the distance on the hill against the sun,

India was blinded by the light in the attempt to look at him. And now she sees him closer.

Lying in a womb of shoes combined with the off-screen sound of running feet across the

house, the sound moves backwards from bigger feet to the smallest ones, as if she was running

away from what was destined to happen.

An egg – transition – the eye of India, as if she looks at the world through the shelf. And

even though she tries to run away from her uncle, she still finishes up facing him. She’s standing

below him, he’s at the top of the stairs, he’s being portrayed from the low angles. He’s

positioned on the right hand side of the screen, in the background there is a light a source, and it

is on. India is being shown from the high angles. The long shot shows that she has to climb the

stairs towards the source of light. Only by reaching her uncle, the camera angle is straight –

balanced.

India reads the book backwards. She tries on her father’s glasses, and tries to see the world

through them for the first time, curiosity brought her once again to trying new things. She is

driven by it, she finds the box in her uncle’s back, she is very curious, but she doesn’t open it,

she is not ready yet, not ready to act yet. Probably she is not able to act, because of the previous

experience (montage flashback to the time when she discovered a key in her birthday box, and

she felt frustrated, confused by misunderstanding, or the lack of knowledge). But the changing

sequence of shots from her first discovery proves the fact that has become hungry for

knowledge, we see the close-up of India’s lips, she tasted the key, and the shot is followed by the

a lips close-up, India licks them, because she can almost taste it now, she’s metaphorically

hungry for discovering new information.

Ice-cream scene: she’s doing what she’s told. Uncle is a custodian here. She tries to enjoy

her journey by swinging the lamp, but as soon as she opens the fridge, she’s not there, she’s not

in the action, she looks back, and puts the ice-cream into the fridge without looking, and hurries

back upstairs. As soon as she enters the kitchen again, we do not see the uncle. We see India

talking to his shadow silhouette; we do not see the actual character, only shadow. This might be

a clue for the viewer to remember when India discovers the corpse in the fridge, when she goes

there by herself later that day. She needed a custodian at first, but being guided or told does not

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contribute the actual developing or coming of age, but it eases the free decision making which

might follow.

The dinner scene. Charlie offers India a glass of wine, the wine dates back to the year she

was born, as if the knowledge has already been there, and all she has to do is to taste it so that to

bring to the surface the knowledge in herself. She takes a sip, and her eyes become watery, as if

she it – the knowledge – has burnt her throat; she then speaks more freely to her uncle, she

makes a mature statement in his direction for the first time. “We don’t need to be friends. We are

family”. He hears her. The scene ends with the log straight shot showing both characters sitting

in the same postures, smiling at each other.

In school India still in “non-acting” safe mode. And as she returns home, she’s walking on

the road alone – transition – she’s flowed by her uncle in a car, driving on the same pace as she’s

walking, as if she’s being haunted by something she’s is still not ready to understand.

India sees her sleeping mother. The camera movement starts on India, then makes a round

around the sleeping mother, as if she sees herself in her mother, who is conveniently represents

maturity – the camera finishes the round trip with a close-up on India, whose face is

overwhelmed with this realization.

When her uncle offers her umbrella anticipating the rain to come further the same day,

India does not accept the offer, which states the natural decision-making process of the

individual on their way to maturity making their own mistake, and to learn from them through

the hurting and struggle.

The pictures scene. We see India rotating pages in the book, we see two different images

on a sea shell and a riptide. She turns the pages back and forth on increasing pace until she

realizes that combined together they mean something bigger then both taken separately.

Combined with sound-off of the clashing waves, we realize India’s understating of the both

images bigger meaning – the seaside. This overwhelming realization strengthened by the sea

sound-over, encourages India to take the action towards the already known path to the fridge, but

now she’s going there by her own, she does not need instructions from her uncle, and this time

she’s looking in the fridge, and this time, she sees, she discovers the knowledge.

In the next story-turn, she finally takes an action in school. Later on we see the pull focus

scene, from the eyes of India to razor sharp pencil point, as if her intentions can become actions

from now on, because she knows what to do and how to do it. She opens the pencil case – cross-

fade transition – she open the fridge – she realizes that knowledge can be a weapon, or the means

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to act. She shuts the cover. The next shot we see India opening the piano, and the shot is half

transparent, and we also can see her opening the fridge, the sound-over of the fridge engine

makes it clear, that the memories of her downstairs are more dominant for the moment then the

actual piano. India tries to bring her consciousness back to now-here “piano” scene”, but kitting

the piano keys, the sound overlaps the sound of the fridge, until the latter fades out. The

transparent shot of the fridge changes to another memory of Charlie stepping on the stone plate

in the garden, but his step now coincide with the piano keys, so India is able to bring her mind

back to “now-here” reality.

The piano scene. The turning point of the film. Indian does set her pendulum, she plays on

her own, she acts by herself. Charlie joins in, she’s is surprised, but the shot is flowed by the

middle shot of India playing the piano, and her reflection can be seen in the plays when Charlie

is supposed to be sitting, so she accepts his presence in a sense of understanding that he’s not

that alient to her,. On the contrary, he is her. He is only there to push her to her personal limits.

He literally makes her climax, and by the end of the scene, we are left with uncertainty whether

he even was there, or was it in her head.

The spider scene: She remembers something she didn’t understand at once, because there

were not enough notions to explain what exactly was happening. The scene is cut into pieces, it’s

played in the opening, but we see the same spider crawling under her skirt only after the piano

scene, and the scene is interrupted by the middle shot of the mother, who was previously

introduced as a signifier for female maturity. And having climaxed when playing the piano, India

now understands sexuality better than before. And seeing her mother in the act of sexuality

(kissing Charlie) brings India to the edge of the necessity to act. She sets herself on the journey

of discovery of her own femininity, but she gets lost along the way. But then again her custodian

uncle Charlie assists her on this journey, which she is able to understand and re-enacted only in

the following plot scene.

The shower scene. Constructed in back-and-forth shots of events that are taking place at

the moment (India takes shower) and that happened earlier the same night (killing Whip and his

burial in the family yard); the scene is the vivid metaphor for the process of coming of age.

There is an element of getting blinded or numb by the actual events and being able to see the

facts only later when “the eyes” are already adjusted; India is obviously hurt by it, because she is

crying, but as the scene develops we see that she is actively proceeds on her journey of

discovering her female sexuality – she touches herself, and the climax happens as a response to

the total realization of what happened. The sequence of flashback events actually showed

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backwards, which once again points to the knowledge which is already there but which needs to

be realized.

The brushing scene. India “matured” into the night gown, the same gown her mother is

wearing; moreover; she ends up brushing her mother’s hair, they switch roles, which for the

glimpse of the moment, makes her even more mature than her mother. And the realization of this

dominance fills the character with courage and maturity to understand the purpose of the key,

which was so recklessly introduced at the beginning of the movie. She goes to her father’s office

and finds the holder which is locked, and she conveniently realizes the purpose of the key. She

finds the letters from Charlie, she realizes that they are alike, she knows herself better, and this

realization makes her loosen her hair. When she does that, the camera chows the action from the

low angles, making the character grown, consequently, India matures into the deeper knowledge

of herself, of her nature.

The shoes scene: now India stands at the top of the stairs, Charlie climbs towards her. He

helps her into high heels. “Happy Birthday”, he says to her, even though it is not her Birthday,

but he was waiting for to actually come of age. She has turned 18 at the beginning of the film,

but it took the whole movie for her to mature into the age which is considered as such. The

shoes, once again overwhelm her, as any previous experience, she trembles, but she catches the

vibe, and finds herself comfortable after all, Charlie is still there for her support if needed, which

is further proved in the scene with the policemen.

Her maturity is questioned in the last but one scene between Charlie, her mother and India,

where she makes her own decision to act and liberate herself from her trustful custodian – uncle

Charlie.

In the final scene India is free and mature, she drives the car, she now sees the world

through her father’s glasses, she wears her uncles belt and her mother’s blouse (the same blouse

we saw in the circle scene when India saw her mother as the signifier for maturity for the first

time), and she acts, she shoots the policeman. And we see a complete, grown up personality, able

to make her own choices, free in her will.

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