SHORT FILM ANALYSIS 7- NEXT

FLOOR

INTRO

Next Floor (2008) is directed by Denis Villeneuve, he posted this film onto Vimeo and then went on to win several awards. During the film we see 11 guests been given unlimited amounts of food by waiters, the guests eat this food endlessly. However, this constant eating leads to the guests falling to their deaths. I therefore believe that this film is a social realism film as it tackles the real world issue greed. Furthermore the film has a moral to it that too much greed can lead to someone's downfall.

• The entire film is set in a dark setting with low key lighting, this therefore causes many shadows to appear and makes the guests appear as dark characters. This is due to the colour black connoting evil and therefore makes the guests appear to be antagonists to the audience. Furthermore throughout the entire film none of the guests say a single word or do anything other than eat. This therefore shows the effectiveness of using low-key lighting as the audience is able to figure out that the characters are bad without the need of the film actually telling them.

At the beginning of the film we see one of the waiters staring into the camera, he appears to go cross eyed and due to the dark lighting makes the waiter feel menacing. Next we cut to the guests sitting round a table, with lots of food in the middle. The guests eat the food given to them instantly and begin to eat non stop as the waiters continue to give them a unlimited supply of food. This eventually leads to the guests eating so much that they fall to the floor bellow. As soon as this happens we see the waiters rush down to the lower floor where they dust of the guests and then continue to feed them. I believe that this scene is very effective as it clearly shows that the greed of the rich will eventually lead them to fall and it shows their selfishness's as well as they don't offer anything to the waiters. This also suggests that the further the guests fall they closer they get to hell where they could be punished. This scene also suggests that Villeneuve believes that the rich have no consideration for the poor and only care about themselves. And don't think to offer the poor anything or help them even though the rich have lots of stuff.

• The rest of the film is very similar to this first scene where the waiters continue to feed the guests and this causes the guests to fall further and further down. Throughout this the guests continue to eat non stop and even appear to speed up at points further highlighting their greed. The only words spoken in the film are "Next floor" which is what the waiters say each time the guests fall. This highlights the effectiveness of the film as it even thought the characters don't talk the film is still able to deliver a message to the audience. This eventually leads to the guests falling so far that they fall into a bottomless pit which leads to the end of the film. I believe that this bottomless pit represents hell with the guests being sent there for their greed and selfishness. I believe that this is effective as it shows that the guests have the power to stop themselves from falling any further as they can tell that it is their eating that it is causing them to fall but they still continue to eat anyway. This could be representing the rich who could share some of their wealth but they decide to keep it for themselves anyway.

Overall, I believe that this is a very effective social realism film with a powerful message that greed can lead to a persons downfall, the film also has a moral that you shouldn't be greedy and should share with others when possible.