Pleasantville
1998
New Line
Dir. by Gary Ross
advertisement opening, colour, tv in present
Pleasantville, b/w, for now
parraellels between current and “the past”
-perfection
-no one’s homeless
-great parents etc.
it seems kinda odd that a teenage boy would
be into something like “happy days” but I guess I can see the escapism of it
all
David (mc) / Bud Parker
-instant loser, outcast
Jennifer/Mary-sue
-“rebel”, “slutty” defiant, not sure if I really
like her arc, p. insecure revealed in pleasantville
brother/sister, embarrassed and irritated by
each other
type of magic: going through tv, “can’t be
possible” but whatever it is
problems/discussions, interrupted a lot
Lisa-Ann, Peggy-Jane, Skip etc
“what’s outside of Pleasantville?”…silence…
basketball practice, constant perfection, on
script
off script, misses basket, oh no
“all the books are blank”, “nothing burns”
Parking, Lover’s Lane, around lake
constant cricket noises
gradual inclusion of colour
-rose, car, gum, cherries, tongues
-change to rock music
Mary-Sue instigator of change
Bud, trying to hold onto continuity,
accidently brings change. warms up to it
Books become unblank, pages filled in
- by remembering story, as it goes
-goes for art too, discovering the outside
world through books and pictures
I really like Bud and Betty’s relationship,
mutually helping each other, it’s nice
expressing love through food – berries,
cookies, apples
thunder/lightning (trouble is afoot) –
beginning, remote broken
and
honey, im home
First occurrence of rain
(does it rain in a musical? …well yeah,
singing in the rain and others, but what about just in the town?? maybe only in
other towns?)
honey. im home.
where’s my dinner…
where’s
my
dinner.
no dinner.
only married white men are freaking out later
on, obviously
after rain, there is a rainbow
(everything’s colourful!)
“all TRUE citizens”
“I don’t want it to go away”
betty (teaching dinner) fitted, slim, dress
“where are you going to go?”
I get the attempt at racism metaphor, it
still falls a bit flat when eeeeeveryone’s white though
town smashes coloured window picture (and
whole shop), and cheers
book burnings, obvious allusion
valuing “continuity over alteration”
“nothing went wrong, people change”
where the fuck are the “minors”?! I haven’t seen
one child this whole movie?!
TV, turns to colour shows the world
“I did the slut thing, it got old” / ew, that’s
badly worded and thought out
Jennifer stays in weird town
David returns home
Back to “reality”
back to swearing!
de-saturated colouring
“there is so right house, there is no right
life”
back to Pleasantville
“do you know what’s going to happen now?”
“no, I don’t”
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