Slumdog Millionaire

This film was a complex story told through constant flashbacks.  Even though much of the film deals with tragic events in Jamal's life, it is baasically a love story.  Jamal's life revolves around Latika.  My husband says it is a serious version of the Joe Dirt film.

The film is in color, which helps you see the poverty.  All the roofs were rusty, galvanized steel and showed how rundown and neglected the homes were.  The school scene is in blue and white and lets you see how packed the kids were in a classroom and how all the kids wore blue and matched the bottom of the walls while the teacher wore white and matched the top half of the walls (The Art of Watching Films, p. 92).  A lot of blue color is shown thoughout the film.

The film was shot for a wide screen which suits the story because it let's you see a lot of the background.  This was important, since there were a lot of people in the scenes, and it showed how overcrowded Mumbai is.  Panning was also used to show the expanse of poverty.  Scenes were shot in both smooth-grain film stock and rough-grain film stock.  One that comes to mind for rough-grain is the scene at the dump ground when Jamal and Salim were living in a tent (The Art of Watching Films, p. 93).

The setting for Verisimilitude was the setting.  The film created a sense of real time and a real place and a feeling of being there (The Art of Watching Films, p. 102).  You wanted the down and out to triumph, especially the ones that were being use by Maman, who seemed like a good guy, but was a villain.  You could relate to the scenes of poverty and cruelty.

Lighting was generally made to look natural, but a lot of shadowing was used.  In the scene where Jamal gets his picture autographed, the lighting changes from natural while the actor is signing the photo to a yellowish color to show Salim as being jealous that Jamal got his photo autographed.  Most close-up scenes were shot using side lighting (The Art of Watching Films, p. 116).

The objective point of view was used in the scenes at Jarved's house.  The subjective point of view was used in the scenes where Jamal is being interrogated and when the boys are being chased off the runway (The Art of Watching Films, pp. 127-128).

Zoom lens were used in a lot of the scenes for the game show as well as Jamal's interrogation (The Art of Watching Films, p. 140).  High angle shots and low angle shots were used in the film (The Art of Watching Films, p. 152).

At the end of the film it shows you the answer to the question posed at the beginning of the film.  This was cool because you had already forgotten about the question by the end of the film, and the answer made you remember it.