Fish tank (2009)

How is the narrative represented in social realism?

In the film fish tank it tends to present the text in the way in which real life is presented with all its difficulties this links with the theory of Todorov as it cannot really be applied to the whole situation with the films story line mainly because there is a lot of issues involved in the film, including the scene where the horse is chained up and Mia has a connection with it to herself so she attempts to break it free however gets caught by gypsy's and tries to escape.Lots of equilibrium breaking scenes happen throughout the film trying to represent that not everything goes well in life in comparison to other genres of films for example romance always has a good ending.The only time in the film that shows a re equilibrium is at the end of the film this is presented by the first time she is on equal terms with her mother because they dance together and respectively say farewell to each other,when leaving the house a clip of a balloon flying away from her house is shown this shows a sense of relief that she is finally able to escape from being trapped in the situation she was in and finally able to start a new life which may be for a much better life style and environment.

The theory of Propp cannot be really applied to this text because there is no main hero's and main villain's its just a reflection on what real life is and in real life its not like a fantasy where people have set roles they change there roles through there actions.However in a particular scene Mia kidnaps Connors daughter because she is angry that he has left problems onto her and ran away without telling her, so Propps theory can be applied here because Mia is appearing as a villain forcing his daughter to come along dragging her by her arm whereas Connors daughter is dressed like a princess and is weak,struggling and in need of help.

Strauss's theory isn't found much within fish tank because of its genre being a social realism film there are no strong binary oppositions that do occur but it does reflects of some oppositions that might be strong .An example of this is in the sense of Mia always wanting to be different than her mother every time they meet they are opposites to each other and Mia always tries to find another way to try to escape from her life to gain a better one but in real life everything doesn't work out as it is mean to. Such as in the scenes where she practices to be a hip hop dancer then once she gets a chance at the audition she gives up and realizes that this isn't the path for her in life.

How is genre represented in fish tank?

The genre of social realism is represented in various ways one of the ways is within the type camera shots they use.In the first opening scene is when Mia walks out of the house the main shot is a tracking shot this is very good to show its genre as it presents it from as realistic point of view as if you personality were there walking behind the character watching everything in her life take place,later on in the scene it gives us a point of view shot this is another great way of making the audience appear to be there by seeing what Mia is viewing in her life making it real.Another important connotation they used to make it sound real is using little or no non diegetic sound at all however diegetic sound will be improved to make important or off scene actions clearer but for the most part the film bases of real life sounds of the surrounds for example when she is walking down the highway cars are heard which seems to over lap her voice just like in real life.

How is representation presented in fish tank?

Throughout the film a lot of representations are shown both of males and females.The females in it are mainly sexualised by the males this is shown in the scene where Mia dances in front of Connor his eyes focus onto her body as she dances the camera does this process too which makes it appear to the audience that they are looking straight at the male gaze from the eyes of the character Connor. In another scene female gaze is present too this is against muvleys theory when Mia observes Connor when he walks into the kitchen topless the camera does the same process as to when the males look at the women focusing on body part making the audience see what she is seeing.Most females are shown as sexualised objects even from a young age this is clearly shown when there is a gang of young girls  dancing wearing lose fitted and revealing clothing in front of a gang of older guys also being rather sexualised but the focus is generally males gaze towards females because  the gang of older guys are watching the girls dance in front of them and we know this because of the use of the shots looking at the men who are watching then towards the girls who are dancing..