Martyrs (2008)

Written, produced & directed by Pascal Laugier

Scene analysis

Demographics
Type E demographic group
More likely students, unemployed or casual/part time
workers with more time to watch movies
Obviously not for pensioners
Foreign film More likely to be seen by people with
time to dig deep into their favourite genres

Unemployed, students, pensioners,

casual workers

Themes
Loneliness
Desperation
Vulnerability
Character journey Starts off
scared and lonely, becomes
ambivalent and accepting of
her situation

Realist or Formalist?
Bit of both Shot as realistically as a
scene like this deserves to be
Realist Camera never leaves the
room, viewer is a silent observer to
awful things
Realist Long takes, relatively
unknown actors
Formalist W/S to show her isolation
+ C/U to heighten emotion Music
creates strong sense of emotion All
ingredients of formalist film

Cinematography
Wintery look in terms of colours
High colour contrast and natural light
Long cuts circling Anna like a shark circles its prey
She is alone in the frame vulnerability
Held shots and fades Time passage visual device
met with Lucies voice in her head - Shes been
broken
Doesnt end when the viewer expects it to keeps
going and showing the brutality
Beautifully shot in a calm way This is her life now

Sound design
Strong themes of sadness and loneliness
Takes all sense of hope from the viewer

A moment of beauty, melancholy

Bizarre contrast between visuals and
soundtrack
Little diegetic punch sound effects sense
of removal from the events

Mise-En-Scene
Chair is almost a potty set-up creates a sense
of vulnerability which the audience can relate to
she is almost as vulnerable as a child
Costume revealing but non-sexualised. Her
captors arent interested in her body, only
breaking her mind
One less bargaining chip She cant persuade
them to release her by offering her body
Hair cut She isnt even allowed an identity as a
female destruction of stereotype

Lighting
Naturalistic lighting She is spot-lit, viewers
focus always on her Creates empathy
Makes sense to have high contrast between
the dark room and her Not her natural
environment & no natural sunlight
She is cast in light Almost angelic

High contrast photography creates strong

mood and sense of isolation/chlaustrophobia

Editing
Slow shots Viewer cant look away
Shows passage of time How long
has she been down there?
Simply cut = Simply Horrific
2-shots show her captors are her only
company
C/Us accentuate her journey from
terror to acceptance of her new life
and her potential end

Colour Grade
High contrast Light vs dark, relates to characters
Blood on tiles Very strong colour contrast between white
and red, makes blood pop in the frame, violence more
visually affecting
In the scene the grade is primarily dark sombre, sad and
hopeless tone.

Flavours of death and doom She is down in the dark

basement, ideas of hell and the afterlife?

Thanks and goodbye