"London to Brighton"

Director: Paul Andrew Williams

Year: 2006

Locations/settings:

• central London
• moving through the countryside
• scenes in London are cramped
• scenes in Brighton are wide and open
• Duncan's house- white wash and clinical- indicates creepiness

Narrative structure:

• over-the-shoulder camera angle- make the spectator feel part of the conversation
• director uses the train journey to Brighton to pass the time
• the story covers two days

Characterisation:

• Kelly isn't Joanne's mother but she acts like she is. She takes it upon herself to do this
• Derek seems to be the leader but by the end of the film the spectator can clearly see that he's not
• Joanne- the red lipstick that she wears could represent either lust and passion or danger and blood
• Joanne and Stuart are similar; they both don't have mothers and both have cruel fathers
• Stuart having cigarettes at the end- represents his freedom from his dad

Ideology:

• all the characters are white
• the men control the women- the women are victims, the film is from their POV
• all the characters smoke
• all the characters swear
• the characters are altogether but they are entrapped individually
• characters are working class- like Sweet Sixteen
• this film shows the exploitation of prostitutes
• there is a hierarchy: the girls, then Derek, then Stuart and Duncan

Genre features:

• matching shots
• documentary style film-making
• the London scenes are dark while the Brighton scenes are bright- could represent the amount of freedom the characters have
• the Moonlight Sonata playing in Duncan's house while the action is in slow-mo reflects his wealth and status- this seems to be a defining moment of the film
• this film is more cinematic than Sweet Sixteen or Bullet Boy
• the director unravels the story via the use of flashbacks, not like Bullet Boy or Sweet Sixteen (These films show the story unravelling as it happens)
• at the end of the film there is a sense of hope as Joanne goes to her grandmother