3 Favorite Film Openings
Matilda
Summary
Matilda Wormwood is a gifted girl with crude and distant parents. Matilda loves to read and always wanted to go to school. Her father, Harry Wormwood, sells a car to a powerhouse woman, Agatha Trunchbull, who happens to be the principal of a school near by. They make some sort of deal. Harry informs the young girl that she is starting school soon and is ecstatic about it. Do to Matlida reading at the library so frequently before she started school, she knows a lot for her age. On her adventures, Matilda discovers she has telekinetic powers and puts them to good use. She scares away the principal. Ms. Honey Matilda's teacher, walks her home where they find out the Wormwoods are moving to Guam. Matilda takes adoption papers out her school bag so Ms.Honey could be her mother. Her mother and father, Harry and Zinina, sign and get in the car with their son Micheal and drive off. Matilda and her new mother live happily together.
Time stamp
7:16
Summary for opening to plot
The opening shows how from such a young age that Matilda can hold her own and take care of herself without the help of her parents or older brother. It also shows that as Matilda gets older, her love for books never faded.
Purpose
The purpose of this movie opening was to show how Matilda's parents never liked her since she wars born. It then travels to how Matilda would take care of herself. And it would also show how Matilda grew up loving books.
The Sound of Music
Summary
Maria is a postulant at an Austrian abbey who then becomes the governess for a widowed naval captain who has seven children. Maria and the von Trapp children form a bond, the governess teaches them how to sing, the von Trapp children's father, Captain von Trapp plans to marry Baroness Elsa Schraeder. The children do not wish have the baroness as their step mother. Maria realizes that she has feelings for the captain and the baroness notices quickly and scares away the governess back to the abbey. The captain finally realizes his love for the Fraulein but it was too late. The children go to the abbey but Maria has been locked into her room for days and not talking to anyone. With the help of the Reverend Mother, Maria decides to go back to the von Trapps. She goes back and marries the captain. The Nazis force Georg (Captain von Trapp) to join their naval service but he doesn't agree. He and the family prepare to run away to avoid this. They get caught and lie saying that they were trying to preform at the Salzburg Festival. After they preform, they sneak out and run to the abbey once they find out that the Nazis are searching for them. They hide out in the abbey and escape into the mountains where the coast is clear.
Time Stamp
5:00
Summary for opening to plot
The opening shows how Maria loves to sing and in the movie, she teaches the children how to sing and the family gains something off of it.
Purpose
The purpose of this movie opening was to show Maria's love for singing and to give an idea of the setting for the movie. It then ties into how Maria is late and always forgetful and gets in trouble at the abbey.
Five Feet Apart
A 17 year old girl spent majority of her life in the hospital due to cystic fibrosis. In her time at the hospital, she meets this boy who also has the condition. They fall in love through strict restrictions and keep the required distance from each other.
Time stamp
0:34-1:33
Summary for opening to plot
In the opening scene, we see clips of numerous people living the lives they do and voice over from Stella discussing the importance of human touch. She talks about how you don't realize how important touch is until you can't have it. It connects to the plot because in the opening because the voice over she says that two people with cystic fibrosis can't come in close contact with each other.
Purpose
The purpose of this film opening is to give the viewer an insight on Stella's life.
Comparison/contrast of the films
Visual elements
In Matilda, The Sound of Music, and Five Feet Apart the cinematography used in the films are long shots, medium shots, close up shots, and extreme long shots. The Sound of Music and Matilda use a lot of natural light, panning, cutting on action, occasional low key lighting and a lot of scenes are outside. Five Feet Apart also uses high key lighting but more frequently and the setting is a hospital.
Auditory elements
Five Feet Apart and Matilda uses voice overs and dialogue but the dialogue in Matilda is from a person who isn't named in the film while in Five Feet Apart, Stella does the voice overs. The Sound of Music uses dialogue but no voice overs but instead has background noises like birds chirping, rain falling, the echo of the house, and the slamming of things.
Character
In Matilda, character of importance are: Matilda, her parents, her teacher, and the principal. But in the Sound of Music and Five Feet Apart, there are many characters introduced and they all have significance in the stories but the characters with the most importance are Stella and her lover.
Representation
In Five Feet Apart, the sickness puts limits on thing Stella can do. But in Matilda, her powers allow her to do things you can only imagine.
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