Rage

Today, I'd like to talk about rage. Not the emotion, a film that I watched last night, I mentioned it on here back in september. I don't generally talk about films on here, and I should because they teach me like they wouldn't teach others; a lot of people just see films as entertainment, as they are, but as my amazing friend Eleanor is able to do with books, I can read beyond the entertainment. I can read the structure and messages within colours and angles of shot, sure, you learn that in media. What you don't do, is step back and look at the narrative, and the style as a whole and say "what did we learn here?". I do.

Rage isn't like other films, it makes you think. It does not have explosions and car chases, it merely has one character in the foreground and one colour in the background. That's all there is visually. The grand effect of this is that we are forced to focus on the characters (there are fourteen of them in total), they all have their own story within the story, their own opinion, their own angle. Because of this, we can learn a lesson from each of them, and then take a larger lesson from that. You can try and concentrate on the background, but the only intention of the background is to further project the character.


The entire film is shot through what looks like a mobile phone camera, you never hear the voice of the boy who holds it, you're just given general hints of his image and actions by the characters. It's set backstage at a fashion show, which is very significant because the film is very much about breaking image. The film shows what lies behind the image, it shows the different angles and positions of life and different mentalities that they provide. A few of those viewpoints are broken throughout the film, a character may come back and explain that events have changed their viewpoint.

Up to this point I imagine that you're thinking "such an indie film can't have much talent to it". Wrong. You'll find names such as Jude Law, Eddie Izzard, Steve Buscemi and Dame Judi Dench. So that's one question answered, the other will most definitely be "What did you learn?". I'm actually not going to tell you, because the lessons I learned from the film were personal to me, and when I watch the film again I will learn more lessons. I know that this film is individual, and will teach individual people differently, that's almost a lesson in itself.

Of course, in order to watch this film again I'll need a copy of it, but I don't just want any copy of it. There are 250 (and only 250) special edition DVD box sets sold for £30 on the official website, I do not care for the special edition of the film, I want the signed shooting script that comes with it. I don't even care about the fact it's signed. The set has lots of other stuff too, looks pretty cool, but I want that, more than the rest.