The Most Beautiful Man In The World was written and directed by Alicia Duffy in 2002. The film has been nominated for several awards and even won a BAFTA award for best short film in 2003. It follows a story of a little girl looking for something on a summer’s day outside, but in the process comes across a stranger.
The director's combination of the slow tilt up the torso of a little girl as her image fades up and the framing of her waxy, clamy face as she yawns introduces one of the film's key issues, the sexualised representation of young children.
and elements which will be explored through-out the remained of the film. such as the sexualisation of the character, which is shown through camera as well as Mise-en-scene within this shot
child neglect which highlights lack of stimulation, this is shown through her expression of boredom.
at the outset of the film chooses to fade up to a close-up of a little girls face and capture her expression as she yawns. the choice of shot is intresting The film begins with a close-up of a little girl, which fades up from her yawning to a black fade of her lying next to her dog on the floor to watching TV. An ideological view from this is it is said ‘children watch too much TV’. Through theses shots we can identify she’s bored and also entrapment within her own house. We hear the diegetic noise of a telephone ringing, and a woman who we presume to be her mother walks out the room to answer it, leaving the little girl alone. The wide shot used here shows their class/status as being low, from the mise-en-scene of props we can see that they only own a chair and TV in the living room. This reinforces the child’s lack of stimulation as all she can do is watch TV. When the mother answers the phone she speaks in a weak voice, this not only communicates her age but possibly depression. Through dialogue class/status is again shown when she says’£95 is too much’.
Mise-en-scene is extremely important, such as the characters costumes and props. The little girl is wearing a cream top which has connotations with purity and innocence. This reinforces her youth when she is juxtaposed with the older characters.
The long wide shot when the girl is outside riding her bike communicates her loneliness as well as vulnerability. An important ideology that we get from this is ‘children shouldn’t play alone’ but others may disagree and say ‘children need to have space to explore’.
Next we see a close-up shot of the girl looking back to check if anyone is looking out for her. Then it pauses and we pan across the field. The next shot is of the girl looking out behind the fence, the fence within this is a symbol of the girl’s boundaries. She next edges slowly along the fence; she walks slow than quickly into the fields this is shown through camera and editing of the jump cuts. They are used to show her exploring and how suddenly her stimulation is rising. This is also shown through mise-en-scene of lighting. The lighting in the opening is the reflection of the TV on the little girls face but this is than contrasted by the low lit room. The low key lighting used when the little girl is in the house communicates depression and boredom but also lack of stimulation.
Through out the film the prop of the dog acts as a sign of missing guardianship as there’s no male model and also the fact that we see an absence of the mother until the last scene.
Eyeline matches which are part of continuity editing are used as the girl speaks to the man. The only spoken dialogue within the film is from the little girl when she speaking to the man, she says ‘that’s my dog’ and smiles. Several ideologies’ from this is ‘don’t talk to strangers’, ‘don’t wander off’ and ‘children should always have parental supervision’.
Next we see a close-up shot of him carefully removing a beetle from her shoulder and hands to her. His movements show no hesitation which maybe shows their familiar with each other. The next shot is very important, it’s a long shot of the two standing which cuts from the man’s face to a close-up of the mother looking out for the girl. From this we can pick up on a familiar hate look maybe communicating they now each other. The girl runs back home and sits on the staircase in which no sound can be heard.
The last scene is after the credits. It’s of the girl watching TV. From sound we can hear children shouting with excitement. We next see a shot of the expression on the girl’s face which is off jealousy.
Dialogue is important to create representation of age as it allows the audience to know that the girl may have speech problems. Hence showing the issue of child neglect, but from this people could say its hard being a single parent which takes the responsibility away from her and puts it on the social services who are not present but from this people could say they are overstretched. The overall ideology we get from this is ‘children should develop in a positive way.
Overall the director Alicia Duffy wants to see the different responses but due to loss of innocence within some audience members it’s hard to establish whether the man is a paedophile or an estranged father. The director also is communicating the theme of danger throughout. Through lack of community and through the over the shoulder shot of the bridge. The diegetic noise of the cars shows it’s a dangerous road. Maybe hints at possible ending.
There are many issues present within this film such as child neglect, lack of a father figure and child stimulation. Various ideologies are then explored through the micro elements of camera, sound, editing and mise-en-scene.
