The film "The Return" does a masterful job using cinematic elements to enhance the story to the directors will. One of the major techniques that is used is the use of mainly natural lighting. This gives the film a little more of a gritty and depressing feel to it. After the first twenty minutes or so I could have told you that the film was not a generic son and father fishing trip with a happy ending, based almost solely on the lighting choice of the director. If I had to choose one overwhelming color theme used throughout the film it would have to be grey for this reason. Everything about this film is grey in the sense that even the characters are neither good nor bad, they are just simply characters. The father is a prime example of this. At times he is very hard on his sons, even resorting to hitting them on a few occasions, but it is undeniable that he did care for his kids. In my opinion he was so critical and hard on them in an attempt to toughen them up. It is apparent after the scene where they get mugged that they are not very tough, and their father uses tough love to try to change that. Also if he really was a pilot there is little doubt that he is used to a certain amount of hierarchy, which Ivan rebels against every step of the way. This is what eventually leads to the demise of their father. His death however seems to accomplish his goal, to toughen up his children. Once he is dead they carry out what needs to be done without hesitation with very little complaining.
Their mother on the other hand is a stereotypical motherly figure. She tends to pamper her children a little more than their father but it is not without saying she is not a little tough on them as well. She does not seem to be to thrilled about their father returning to their lives but seems to understand that they need a father figure. She lives with her mother in a rather large house that is apparently on the outskirts of town. Her house is large and made of concrete, with none of the walls painted and little decorations in it. It is a nice house but it is almost a minimalist home, due to the lack of very much inside despite all the space. Many of the buildings shown in this film are quite similar to this is, in the sense that they are large, grey concrete, and almost completely baron inside.
I think the empty buildings maybe are meant to imply that they are not really homes, just empty illusions of them
ReplyDeleteI really like your sense of seeing things as lights and settings. That help you have a out come of the story. In the sense were they get mugged, don't you think the father should of helped his sons out. If i had a son and hes was getting mugged i would of should him how to handle things. Then maybe next it happens they'll know what to do. It's impossible to expect a kid to be a man in situations like these if they never had a formally man figure in there lives. Monkey see monkey do. I just think if he first tried to show them that he was there father first ,then showing tough love second. Things would of token a different route in Ivan head.
ReplyDeleteIt is interesting to wonder how Andrei would (or will) react the next time he gets picked on...would he have benefited from the way his father treated him here or not?
ReplyDeleteI agree very much that the living spaces in the film are strikingly barren...filled with the absolute essentials and little else...yet there's a real strange sort of beauty in this simplicity.
Did you also notice the oddly simple meal they have at the house when the father has dinner (and wine) with the family?