Kevin Smock
29 August 2013
Any experienced
screenwriter knows that the development of their script lies in their ability
to write in a cause and effect fashion. By looking at writing in such a way,
the audience is forced to participate actively in what’s occurring on screen.
For instance, say there is a white collar, hardworking man who is on his way to
a promotion once he finishes up a case study for his firm. Let us also say he
has a wife who is well aware the case study is not the only thing he is doing
at the office after hours. Given this knowledge, let’s go: The angry wife
sneaks into her husband’s office late at night and deletes the case study off
his computer (CAUSE). Now, being that we know the importance of this case
study, we’re going to anticipate the husband’s reaction (EFFECT), we might even
have some expectations regarding how the husband will respond. This is a
convention. A man like Mr. Woody Allen, after being in the game for forty years
or so, is bound to play around with it, and he certainly does in his latest
film, Blue Jasmine.
Instead of starting off
the film with a cause, Mr. Allen kicks it off with an effect: Jasmine, our
protagonist, is venting to an elderly woman about her ex-husband on an
airplane. Shortly after, we learn Jasmine doesn’t even know the elderly woman
she’s rambling to, which is really saying something about her instability early
on. Given this effect, we learn about the CAUSE throughout the whole setup
portion of the film via flashback. This is also a nice way of dealing with
exposition/ back-story. Also, the way in which the flashbacks occur are very
unique. For instance, the first time we see Jasmine walk into her sister’s
home, Jasmine’s temporary home, we flashback to one of the many homes she used
to live in. Her old home was much more luxurious than what she’s living in now,
establishing a nice parallel. Theses instances occur many times throughout,
giving us a nice sense of repetition.
About midway through,
the narrative stops depending so heavily on the flashbacks and the other
conflicts start to really take off. Such as: Jasmine and Dwight’s relationship
and Ginger’s loves life with Eddie that’s crossed by Al. In the end, Ginger
ends up happy with Eddie while Jasmine ends up stuck in her xanax dependent
ways. Although the ending is sad, it’s fair. Jasmine never learns her lesson.
She blows off the struggle of work and school at her first opportunity to gold
dig again. Jasmine has a shot at self-made happiness, she just isn’t willing to
work for it.
Since I’ve been doing
nothing but praising the film, one would find it hard to believe that when the
film first started I was prepared to resent it. I’m all for opening a film on a
visual note for many reasons: It lets viewers perceive and take in what they
need to in order to enter the world of the film. Also, opening on action is a
great way to light a dramatic fuse, and then later scenes can offer any exposition.
Furthermore, they’re great for raising expectations, something that concrete,
spoken words cannot do as well. Although Mr. Allen opens with dialogue, he pays
much respect to the art of editing. He compresses the time it takes from being in
an airplane until the moment you leave the airport with your bags to just a few
a few shots. Each shot is spatially different than the shot before and after,
yet very specific to the whole airport process. In each shot Jasmine is
rambling to a perfect stranger about her life. The snappy, rhythmic cuts convey
to us that Jasmine has not shut up. Very fun; very comical.
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