The Boy in the Striped Pyjamas

FILM TECHNIQUES.High & low camera angles .Bruno pretending to be an aeroplane and shooting (irony) .Contrast between the Berlin & Auschwitz homes .Stairs look like prison bars/cells .Use of music (or no music) .Exploring motif (piano melody) .Pile of dolls- symbolic for pile of bodies .Shots framed with barbed wire .Symbolism- Pavel spilling the wine (Pavel spilling blood) .Propaganda film (making the camps look fun .Shot of shaking hands through the fence .SFX- thunder storm coming (death coming) .Music becomes louder and more threatening .Aerial shot, spiralling up from Bruno s mother screaming, slow reverse from the gas chamber door showing the piles of pyjamas left outside, and Bruno falling off the swing (sideways shot/blurry)

1. A timeless story of innocence lost & humanity found - How does the director Mark Herman use film techniques to show this?Mark Herman shows the loss of innocence when Bruno says to Shmuel that we are superior when they are on the subject of Germans and Jews and then he shows the humanity found when Bruno see s that this has hurt Shmuels feelings and that he may not have been right.

Also through the use of James Horner s music the movie helps to show the emotions that Bruno feels. For example- when Bruno is happy and free exploring the music is a happy and soft piano progression that grows in sound by adding a choir as Bruno is even more joyful. When Bruno feels guilty or upset the music will change to low bass strings like cello and double bass in a minor key. When Bruno is scared the music becomes louder with the bass strings and uses a lot of augmented chords. When Bruno finds his humanity the film plays a rhythmic piano progression that is in a major key. Mark Herman also uses camera angles and lighting to show how Bruno is acting and feeling. When Bruno feels upset or has done something bad the lighting becomes dark and dull and the camera angles are often behind things (stair case/fence) giving the audience a sense of a barrier between them and Bruno whilst also making him look trapped. 2.Which did you prefer and why? Film or Book? I preferred the book over the film because there was more detail in the book but also the reader had to think carefully to get a real sense of the historic setting where as in the movie the audience could easily see that the book was set in World War II. In the book the reader also gets to understand Bruno more and his character and other characters become more interesting. 3.Which was more moving? Why? I found the movie more moving and upsetting because it was much more graphic and also during the death of Bruno the audience can see all of the other Jewish victims of the holocaust and not just Bruno. The movie has more visual impact and is much more graphic than the book is which made a greater impact on me than the book did. FILM . Less detailed .Less character development .Music .Very Graphic .Disturbing MOVIE .More detail .More information on characters and personalities .No Music .Innocent (only seeing what Bruno saw)