British Cinema

Today's lesson was surprisingly interesting. We started FM2, in which we are looking at the theme Identity in British films. I don't know, I wasn't too keen on looking at British Cinema. I guess there are other British films other than This Is England. It turned out to be quite a good lesson. First we did some brainstorms, where we were asked a question and had to think of words/phrases that were relevant.

First brainstorm was to think of things we think are associated with Britain.

British
Poor weather
Houses of Parliament
Pie and mash
Fish and chips
Full English
The Queen
The British bulldog
LANDAN

You know, this was surprisingly difficult!

We were then asked two questions

How does it feel to be British?
Pessimistic
Angry
Proud
Moaning
Conflicted
Stereotyped
Judged
Intolerant
Fed-up
Stabbing
Hoodie Culture
Underdog
Better than everyone else (JAKE)
Racist

What do you understand about the term 'multicultural'?
Sub-culture
Stereotypes
Diversity
Racism
Religion
Judgemental
Race
Fear
Embrace
Division
Mainstream Culture
Duality of life
Poverty

We discussed these things and all sorts of points were made. I find it fascinating to see other people's views and opinions.
We then watched the beginning of Yasmin. It is a film about Muslim culture, and is set in parts of Keighley. It looks at before and after the 9/11 bombings. Whilst watching the opening I noticed many things and I made some notes about it as we are going to be returning to this.

Immediately I noticed the mise-en-scene. It looks like a run-down town. Barely any money is spend on the community. The first thing the camera shows us is their houses, what does that say about them? This little community is dedicated to the Muslims that live in this town. There is a nice shot of a Muslim man scrubbing off racial abuse which appears to be on his garage door, I think. This shows that they are the minority in this town and that the rest of the town are intolerable. I found it sad in a way, because you will probably find places like this in Britain.

We then cut to a Muslim woman (the main character) changing out of her culture clothing into something we wouldn't expect her to wear. She is getting changed in the middle of nowhere, randomly on grass. The first thing I thought is that she has to hide this from her family, and that she is trying to fit in. She takes off her scarf. It seems to me that she is going against her beliefs JUST to fit in.

Next we see her at work, talking to a colleague. I liked this scene. I love how she was picking up on the typical British mannerism as she says to her colleague, "I'll buy you a pint". She would never speak like that in front of her family. At this point I felt like this character was leading two different lives. Interestingly enough, the tagline for this film is 'one woman, two lives'.

When we are introduced to the rest of the family briefly in between but more so after, we can tell the director or writer is playing on the stereotypical Muslim. The accent, of course is a dead give-away and the use of the word 'bloody' is very common. Her father comes across as a very traditional religious Muslim. He disapproves of her buying a car, to me this shows how dated religion is, not just the Muslim culture. It is just my view on most religions.

The main character came across as very interesting to me. People relied on her because she seems more independent than the rest of the community. She is the representative of the divide as she is leading these two separate lives. She translates for people, when she comes home she is in the kitchen, the men in the house don't seem to be doing anything. Her relationship with her family doesn't seem very strong. She is different from them and we can tell she isn't really that religious. She is also married, but only for a VISA. Very stereotypical, isn't this a little offensive? I don't know. All I know is I am intrigued and can not wait to return to this film.