Fish Tank - British Social Realism

Fish Tank - British Social Realism

• Fish Tank was released on the 11th of September 2009 (UK)
• It was located in Barking, London, England
• It won a BAFTA award in 2010
• Also was nominated for The British Independent Film Award in 2009 which it won!
• Its box-office takings on the 13th September 2009 was shown on 47 screens and it recieved £103,108!!

Themes and situation= The main theme of this film is about a young girl aged 15 called Mia, and she wants to become a dancer, she wants to make something of herself. This is social reaslism because alot of people aspire to becoming a dancer. However she lives in a really run down area, she doesnt have any money and her mum barely takes care of her. She's not in any sort of education, and she is a bit of a trouble maker. Her living situation is that her mum likes to invite loads of people round to throw parties whilst she leaves her two children one aged 15 and the other between 8-9 upstairs smoking and drinkning beer. This is social realism as in some of the worst cases parents dont care about their children and so they are brought up badly. Lateron in the film Mia mums boyfriend gives Mia a camera to record her dance, but she doesnt know how to work it as she doesnt have all technical up-to-date electronics. Mia also witnessed her mum and her mums boyfriend having sexual intercourse. This was a very explicit scene and was innapropriate for the mother to be having sex whilst her two children are in bed 'supposidly' asleep! Mia lateron begins to have a crush on her mums boyfriend and they end up having sex. This is social realism as many people are having underage sex, however she was only 15 and he was a grown man so many will see it as him being a pervert!

Representation (stereotypes & archetypes)=  Some main stereotypes are for Mia...

• Chav
• Tramp
• Rude girl
• Rebel
• Drinker

For her mother...

• Bad mother
• Drunk
• Alcoholic

All these stereotypes relate back to social realism as in the real world many people are drinkers and quiet rebelious however we dont always call them by their stereotypes. As she lives in a council fat on an esate she is stereotyped as being a trouble-maker and all the other ones i have mentioned above!

Dialogue= There is a huge amount of sweaing involved in this film for example 'fuck off', and 'bitch'. Its very unformal and very un-lady-like! As Mia is a teenager alot of slang is used for example 'whatever', 'init', etc...

She has a very distinctive essex accent, and she comes across as very aggressive from the tone and the vocabulary she uses. This again realates to social realism as its the way she has been brought up, however she has to mainly take care of herself as her mum doesnt really help. Nowdays alot of teenagers use slang as it shortens down words and they think they are cool doing it, they also swear alot as they think they are cool. The dialogue used throughout can been seen as a very negative impact for Britain as people may get the idea that everyone living there is the same. Some people wont want to watch this film because of all the harsh words used and so it wont attract a mainstream audience, the audience it will attract would be Britsh and niche!

Music & sound effects= Alot of rapping and gangster music is used throught this film. Also RnB. Some famous artists are in it, although the songs were a little bit old and not so much up-to-date like the music we have now, but they were still by two famous artists called 'Jarule' & 'Ashanti'. Also Cassey who was on the Tv at the beginning of the film. This music is good for a mainstream audience as they are very well known singers and so it will attract more people to watch it!

Mise-en-scene= She lived in a flat which was for the working class. Mia was extremely violent for example there is a scene where she head butts a girl for her trying to dance and she actually breaks her nose. Mia is a theif as she steals money from her mums boyfriends wallet. Mia tends to dress like a chav as she constantly wears big looped earings and tracksuits, or a vest and track bottoms. She quiet tom-boyish, shes not your average teenage girly-girl. This is social realism as some people cant afford to buy expesive clothes, and some people do dress like Mia. In one scene Mia is in an internet cafe on a website 'www.youtube.com' This is very much realistic as many people use internet cafes to go on things such as youtube. The lighting in this film is very dull and dark, which tends to set an atmosphere for every scene and it makes where she lives seem scary.

Camera work & editing= Many close up are used on Mia in particular. This allows us to see her facial reactions/expressions, which tends to tell us she's unhappy, tense, moody, upset etc...

We get a 1st person view from Mia when she falls asleep in her mums bed and her mums boyfriend carried her into her own. Hear she has her arms covering her face and through the little gap she see's what he is doing, we got to see this scene as if it were us peeping through the gap. Social realism because it allows us to see what she going through, and helps us see what she see's!