Week 6 film review 'A Series of Unfortunate Events'

A Series of Unfortunate Events 2004

The author of the series, Lemony Snicket (the pen name of American novelist Daniel Handler)

Director: Brad Silberling

Plot

The story follows the turbulent lives of Violet, Klaus, and Sunny Baudelaire after their parents' death in an arson house fire. The children are placed in the custody of their distant cousin Count Olaf, who begins to abuse them and openly plots to embezzle their inheritance. After the Baudelaire's are removed from his care by their parents' estate executor, Arthur Poe, Olaf begins to hunt the children down in various disguises, slaughtering a multitude of the children's relatives in the process.

My chosen scene

In the scene I have chosen the children are brought to their third relatives house. The house of Aunt Josephine. I chose this scene because I found the eccentric Aunt Josephine to be quite funny. She means well and is very kind to the children but her need to be overly cautious makes the living conditions quite difficult.

Characters

Violet: 'The Inventor'. The eldest of the children. Violet can invent things out of scraps for usual household technologies or in many cases saving the children from tricky situations throughout the film. You know Violet is about to invent something by how she ties up her hair with a ribbon. Violet is dressed in a long black dress with lacey designs. Violet seems to be the more emotional and hopeful out of the Baudelaire children. She also takes on the motherly role for her youngest sister Sunny can carries her around and holds her hand.

Klaus: 'The Reader'. The second oldest of the children and the only son. The Baudelaire children's parents had a massive library in the house containing every sort of book and Klaus liked nothing more than to spend the day in the library absorbing all the knowledge from those books. Everything Klaus read, he remembered. Klaus' brain is always active, questioning everything around him for answers, especially the spy glass all his relatives seem to have. Klaus was bitter towards his parents because they had no plans for them after they died, but I believe he was just lashing out in his own way mourning his parents.
Sunny: 'The Biter'. The youngest of the three. Sunny would practically bite anything around her. Extreme teething I suppose. She spoke only in goo's and gaa's, baby language that no one could understand but to her, she speaks quite well (according to the subtitles). She spends most of the time close to Violet, either in her arms or holding her hand. Sunny seems to have no sense of danger and is actually quite brave and brazen.
Aunt Josephine: The third relative the children go to live with. She is an overly cautious woman, obsessed with the slightest and ridiculous and often impossible dangers. This woman once was a brave outgoing woman who worked in a circus taming lions etc. But when her husband died she secluded herself in her house, living in fear of any possible danger around her. She lives  in a strangely unbalanced house hanging off the side of the cliff. She is dressed in a long black dress with large material masses on each shoulder. Her clothing looks difficult to move in. Her biggest interest, besides being overly cautious, is her love of grammar ... which is her downfall in the end.

Setting

My scene begins at 48:14 to 50:46 on the timeline. The scene is set at Aunt Josephine's house. Her house is strangely built so that the whole house is suspended off the side of a cliff over the lake Lacramose, which looks very structurally unsound. Otherwise the house has a nice homey interior where the living and dining area share the same space. The house is freezing cold because Josephine is too afraid to turn on the heating in case it explodes. The scene is mainly set at the front door and the kitchen table. The interior of the set is built in the studio. I imagine it's physically shaken during a certain point in the film where the children walk in the door the the house shakes. As for the exterior of the house I imagine computer graphics definitely made or enhanced the set. Overall I think this set, aunt Josephine's house is amazing. Such a crazy structurally unbalanced house that also reflects the mental state of aunt Josephine.

Mise-en-scene

The glass door knobs, cooker and the fridge are obvious props that are there for a reason. Although Josephine's fears are somewhat ridiculous later on in the film these props do exactly what she feared to the childrens disbelief.

Camera Work

• Establishing high angle shot of the house.
• View of the door.
• High angle loking at the children. 
• View of the door.
• Over the shoulder shot looking at children
• View of the door.
• Over the shoulder shot looking at children
• Over the shoulder shot looking at Josephine. 
• Over the shoulder shot looking at children.
• Over the shoulder shot looking at Josephine.
• View of the children.
• Establishing. One point perspective shot of children entering the house.
• Close up of Josephine.
• Close up and pan shot following Josephines movement. 
• Close up of Josephine.
• Close up of children.
• Close up of Josephine.
• One point perspective looking at the characters.
• Close up of Josephine.
• One point perspective looking at the characters.
• Close up of soup.
• Over the shoulder shot looking at Violet.
• Over the shoulder shot looking at Josephine.
• Over the shoulder shot looking at Violet
• Over the shoulder shot looking at Josephine.
• Over the shoulder shot looking at Violet
• View of Josephine's back as she leaps out of her seat
• View of Klaus in the kitchen
• Close up of Josephine
• View of Klaus confused looking at the fridge and then Josephine.

Sounds and Music
There is no music in this scene. Just sound effects and dialogue.