Jean-Luc Burch Film Studies Blog

I enjoyed Jigsaw however there were several things that blatantly made no sense to me and I thought I'd list them here. Warning there will be spoilers. 1. How did he collect the bodies. Okay so just for clarification at the end of the film it is revealed that the film takes place across 2 times. The game being played 10 years ago that was not when Jigsaw was alive but also his first true game and also in the present day where a police coroner sets up an identical game to see if he can be as good as Jigsaw who was his mentor. Throughout the film we are led to believe that they are happening at the same time as after each person in the game dies a new body turns up when in reality the bodies are those of the victims of the new game who we never even see play their game. With that out the way my question is this. How did the get from the game to the open without any of the players noticing somebody dragging out the corpses? Not only this but how did he know that his game would pla...

The Return of Saw The wait for this film has been extremely long for me. Whatever possessed me to order the DVD instead of go to see this film in cinema is a mystery to me. But here I am 4 long months after the films release and I finally have my copy of Jigsaw. I have somehow justified my DVD purchase to myself by watching every last second of special features and behind the scenes interviews as well as re-watching the entire film with directors commentary, which did make me feel better about my decision. I should start by clarifying that I am a huge Saw fan and despite the gradually declining quality of the films I have remained loyal to the series, perhaps in the hopes that they would find a way to emulate the brilliance of the first film. I plan to go into quite a bit of detail here but I'll try to keep this from being too much of a drag to read. First things first I feel I should give a brief synopsis of the story of Jigsaw for those unfamiliar with the series. Th...

Less Leading Ladies According to the Center for the study of women in TV and film despite many films with female leads dominating the box office in 2017 the overall number of films with sole female leads dropped to 24% from 29% in 2016. 29% was already a shamefully low number but for it to dropeven lower is both shocking and unexpected especially when looking at all the top grossing films of 2017 such as The Last Jedi and Wonder Woman which both had female leads. So what is the cause of this? Firstly this could be down to the production. According to this  BBC article  45% of protagonists were female when at least 1 female was a writer of director. Compare that to just 20% from male directors and writers who are far more likely to sideline women to secondary characters. As well as this most women who played large roles were in their 20s and 30s whereas men were in their 30s and 40s which suggests that the sex appeal of younger women is a big part of casting pr...

Get Out It took me far too long to get round to watching this film and it was well worth it. The film is brilliantly clever and all of the characters act just how a human would act rather than typical horror film idiots. Not only is it great but it also has one of the most satisfying endings I've ever seen in any film. It's also interesting to see how far Daniel Kaluuya has come since his small role in Skins as Posh Kenneth back in 2007. The cinematography is one of the things that immediately shows this film to be a horror. Like most horror films its very fond of close up shots on faces to show the characters reactions. Horror films do this in order to engage with the audience and provide an emotional response. To an audience it's much easier to be emotionally invested in a scene if the characters reactions are showcased. These types of close ups are seen much less in genres such as comedies where they serve much less purpose unless they're in an emotional sc...

Three Billboards Outside Ebbing, Missouri Three Billboards is the new highly reviewed black comedy crime thriller that has come into view especially after its recent wins at the golden globes. It follows the mother ,Mildred Hayes played by Frances Mcdormand, of a murdered girl who rents 3 billboards in order to express her distaste at how little the police are doing for her daughter's case. Setting: Although the time period is never specifically stated it would appear that Three Billboards takes place in the modern day due to some of the technology seen. However all the modern technology is only ever seen out of focus or in the background. I believe that this was done very deliberately because despite the film being set in the modern day it would be very easy for an unobservant viewer to think the film is set in the 1980s or 90s. This is down to the fact that the film takes place in Missouri which is in the middle of the USA which is an area known for not ch...

A Cure For Wellness This dark and creepy film goes out of its way to mess with even the audiences sense of sanity. Even after re-watching this film I am still unsure as to what genre it fits into. Never before have I been so unsettled by a non-horror film. The visuals in this film are astonishing. It carries its theme with such grace. Even though the film is set in the modern day, the entire aesthetic of the film portrays this image of a mid-20th century insane asylum with clean white coats and basic machinery really adding to the disturbing nature of the film. The whole experience of this film is one that makes the audience work for their answers. The acting of almost all the characters is this emotionless and blank performance that brilliantly conveys the brainwashing and unethical practices happening in the sanitarium. The lighting this film is superb. The bright white and seemingly cheery outside is contrasted by the dark and terrifying treatment ro...