Louis Theroux - Analysis

Louis Theroux’s Behind Bars in San Quentin is an actuality documentary by Theroux about the inside life of maximum security prison San Quentin. The documentary involves interviews with some of the inmates of the prison and some of the guards that take charge over the inmates, as well as facts and statistics about the popular prison.

 

The documentary starts with a fade from black to an establishing shot of the large prison which communicates the quantity it can hold due to its size. We are then shown Theroux and an inmate who appears to be in a cage-like cell. They are shown with shot-reverse shot in a handheld manner. They are discussing what ‘thrills’ the inmate and then Louis delivers the line: “But maybe the things that thrill me aren’t things that are going to get me 500 years in prison”. We are then introduced to the hook of the documentary which is: What has the inmate done? Is this he sort of prisoner that is held here? Are we going to find out more about him?

 

It then cuts to a shot of Theroux walking through the prison entrance which connotes that this is the first time he walked through the prison doors. Again this is shown with a handheld camera which is popular with documentary films as it more practical especially in this case where a tripod would be hard to operate and set up in a high security prison.

 

There is use of anchorage in this shot as both contrapuntal music, which does not match the situation Theroux is in, and the BBC studio logo appear at the same time. Due to the BBC logo and the high reputation that it upholds, it is assumed that this documentary will be of a high standard.

 

Theroux then is heard in a voiceover where he unveils facts and statistics about San Quentin prison such as it being one of America’s oldest prisons which is famous for its death row. Theroux also states that for two weeks he is/was allowed inside to access information about the prison. The fact that he is allowed inside such a notorious and sometimes dangerous prison reveals his status within the documentary field.

 

The title screen appears on screen 1:17 minutes into the documentary. The titles consist of the name of the documentary and Theroux’s silhouette behind bars. It gives a very cartoon-like image as it is animated and is presented as a different tone to what the audience would have assumed the documentary would be like.

Short film analysis: 'Gasman' and 'Wasp'

A short film is a film that is not long enough to be classed as feature length and it often offers a ‘slice of life’ of characters facing a specific situation. Filmmakers often use short films to explore and discuss political matters, as we see in Andrea Arnold’s Wasp, the storyline revolves around being a parent and the responsibilities it entails such as constant supervision of your children. A short film is often around 5-10 minutes in length but can be any time under 35 minutes as from around there on, films are classed as feature length. This can prove hard for filmmakers to show a narrative that is interesting which is why most short films contain a plot twist to make the short film more captivating.

In Arnold’s Wasp we see the narrative of a British mum struggling to cope with the tasks she faces as a parent looking after four children, such as constantly watching over her children and balancing her parental duties with her social life. Most use of the camera is handheld as it places the audience in the storyworld, specifically in the place of the children and allows the audience to sympathise with them. It gives realism to the shots that are shown to the audience.  This is completely different to Lynne Ramsay’s Gasman as most shots are steady from the use of a tripod. Ramsay also shows parents facing problems; this time being that a father has children from two women ad has to see both children.

Wasp shows a common misconception about British parenting. Due to shows like Jeremy Kyle and stories that are shared, people are often led to believe that single parents, specifically mothers, are incapable of being good parents. In the case of the mother in the film, it is clear that she is struggling with how to be a mother and so appears as if she is unfit to be looking after children, especially four at once. Mise-en-scene is used in this short film to  show her as an unfit mother such as the moldy bread she has in her cupboard, her expletive language and the children eating food off the ground as they haven’t been fed.

 In Gasman it appears as if British parents have children with more than one person and often favour one side of children which is another perspective people have of the UK. It could also give people the idea that British adults are not traditionally monogamous and parent from more than one person often.

One scene that shows the mother as being incapable of looking after her children properly is when she abandons her children to go and sit in a car kissing a man. The wasp then lands near the baby’s mouth and enters the mouth while the mother just watches. The wasp here could represent the mother, as earlier on the film there was a wasp trying to escape from the family’s kitchen window and here it is shown crawling into the baby’s mouth. This could represent the mother as, like the mother, it feels constricted in certain situations and confined, whilst also damaging her children (like the wasp) by using bad language around them, abandoning them and also feeding them inappropriate food.

An example shot in Gasman showing how British parents, or any in fact, may favour one ‘set’ of children rather than the other if they parent children from more than one partner. Here we can see the two girls fighting as the girl in the yellow dress doesn’t understand why another girl is sitting on her dad’s lap. This connotes that children may be psychologically impacted by parents being around children they don’t consider to be their siblings or someone they are usually surrounded by.

Gasman is set in Glasgow during the 1970s which is also where Ramsay grew up which suggests that perhaps she drew inspiration from her childhood and she could have experienced or witnessed a situation like in Gasman. It is also thought that Wasp has bibliographical references to Arnold’s life as she also had a mum who was only 16 when she had Arnold and her mother also had to support Arnold on her own along with four other children as her parents separated.