Winters bone

Winters bone

"Winters Bone" is an independent film made in 2010 and directed by Debra Granik It is a set in an area of the Ozark's has a different society to the rest of the world where women do hard labour and the men are in power. Debra Granik was insistent in the movie being Neo-realistic and she accomplished this with a budget of $2million by using handheld shots making the film look like a documentary adding verisimilitude to the film.

"The little sparrow scene." Starts bright and jolly this juxtaposes the rest of the film so far as it has been very dark with very hard light as lots natural light has been used with less artificial this makes the movie look more realistic, however in this scene there is allot brighter colours reflecting the happiness of the people in the room, all the sets used in the movie were actual houses of families in the Ozark's, these houses could be a long distance apart so Jenifer Lawrence and the other actors would walk to the next set making increasing the Neo-realism of the film as the actors would actually look worn out and tired when they entered scenes which would also sometimes be improvised by actors or be changed hours or minutes before the scene was shot. Here we are met with Maribeth Sisco and Blackberry winter a band who live in the Ozark's as the same with many other people in this film they are not actors, they live in the area where the film was shot or in the houses the film crew used assets to increase the verisimilitude of the scenes and make them seem less fake. The band is performing a classic folk song "fair and tender ladies" a song popular in the Ozark's, also the lyrics of the song also tie heavily into the themes of Winters Bone as it says "Take warning how you court your men Take warning how you court your men They're like a star on a cloudy morning First they'll appear and then they're gone" this shows the power men have over women and how they can control them and "You could make me believe by the fall of your eyes That the sun rose in the west" showing how manipulative men are. It also foreshadows the convocation Ree will have with April minutes later about Ree's father and how she slept with him and them pretended like he had never met her. Despite the happy and bright colours of the scene all the people preforming the song look very sad and unhappy with their current situation they are in, showing that in the Ozark's the people are very sad due to the way society treats them. The scene begins with close-ups of all the Band members singing then it cuts to people playing cards while drinking alcohol presenting them as addicts. The camera then follows Ree around the house after she is invited in, the camera in winters bone is handheld this is common in independent cinema as it is more affordable and adds verisimilitude to the film making it look more realistic and this can help amerce themself in the film.

Personally I could empathise with the band in this scene as they look like they are in Melancholy while singing and it was heartbreaking to watch an elderly woman singing about being alone and used by a man, overall I struggled to empathise with many characters in this film including the main character Ree as her journey failed to captivate me as there was not much exposition provided and the story provided didn't captivate me, I can understand the reason for this is because it doesn't provide much escapism which is an aspect I look for when I watch a movie. Also I have never had an experience viewing independent cinema therefore i came into this movie with an active viewing and an oppositional reading for the films narrative, as well as my negative viewing my films narrative it also subverted my expectations because as a mainstream film viewer I didn't expect the bland ending and the end bored me as it lacked the suspense and twists of a mainstream film, however, this lacking makes the movie succeed at its goal of Neo-realism.