'Love Story' is a
classic love story with a very interesting opening, full of enigmas! The film
is a great, critically acclaimed film that won an oscar for Best Original Score
and was nominated for another six, including Best Lead Actor, Actress,
Supporting Actor, Director, Writing and most prominently Best Picture. In other
words, it was nominated for all the biggest awards, but only won one of the
lesser ones.
The opening scene to 'Love Story' is beautiful and touching. The dialogue is emotive and pulls at all the heartstrings. The camera-work is smooth and simple. The narration is tear-jerking and brilliant, the setting picturesque and reminiscent, and the music is outstanding. 'Love Story' shows how such a simple scene is so effective and beautiful, and by the end of the first scene the audience is already attached to the lovers through sympathy and an understanding that they do not have. It is so connectable and yet so distant. The audience long to have an understanding of the pain; in a strange way they almost long for something so dramatic to happen in their life, yet at the same time they hate the thought of it happening. This is the impact of the opening to 'Love Story'.
The music is very very beautiful, and one of the big factors in the success of this scene. It is classical piano music accompanied by an orchestra, and it adopts the minor key in order to evoke a feeling of melancholy and reminiscence. Being classical music, it relates to the line of dialogue 'she loved Mozart and Bach', and it also foreshadows one of the main features of the film - Jenny's musical talent. It is filled with passion, and really brings the scene forward in it's beauty and effectiveness. The pianist plays with true emotion as if they are one of the lovers, and this shows through in the soundtrack. You can see why it won the award for Best Original Score!
Cinematography-wise, the camera work is kept very simple, so it does not intrude in the scene or the story. It is all one shot, panning down from a town in the snow to a man sitting on the floor facing away. This keeps an element of continuity about the scene, and is the best way to present the scene, as fancy cinematography would take away the raw emotion of the scene.
The acting is incredible. So much passion is put into the voice-over, and you can hear that the character is struggling to retell a story with so much pain in it. There are pauses in just the right places, and you hear the character talk as if talking through tears. It hits it's high point right on the pause before he says '...and me', which is simply beautiful.
'What can you say about a 25 year old girl who died, that she was beautiful and brilliant, that she loved Mozart and Bach, the Beatles...and me'
It is also successful as it presents the audience with a number of enigmas. They want to know why she dies, who she was, what their story was, and what course the film is going to take next. These make the audience want to watch on, if only to find out the answers to these questions. The opening obeys a few of the conventions of the romance genre, such as the idea of 'doomed love', which is used in many romance films such as 'Titanic' and 'A Walk to Remember'.
Overall the opening scene was truly brilliant, and would make some people cry before they even see the film. Right from the first piece of dialogue the film has connected the audience to the characters, and they already empathise with them.
Both films had strong beginnings, and both gave the audience something to think about. 'Love Actually' starts the audience off with a positive, happy frame of mind, whereas 'Love Story' starts them off in tears! Both techniques work well for the films they are a part of, and both set up the mood of the film very clearly.
The opening scene to 'Love Story' is beautiful and touching. The dialogue is emotive and pulls at all the heartstrings. The camera-work is smooth and simple. The narration is tear-jerking and brilliant, the setting picturesque and reminiscent, and the music is outstanding. 'Love Story' shows how such a simple scene is so effective and beautiful, and by the end of the first scene the audience is already attached to the lovers through sympathy and an understanding that they do not have. It is so connectable and yet so distant. The audience long to have an understanding of the pain; in a strange way they almost long for something so dramatic to happen in their life, yet at the same time they hate the thought of it happening. This is the impact of the opening to 'Love Story'.
The music is very very beautiful, and one of the big factors in the success of this scene. It is classical piano music accompanied by an orchestra, and it adopts the minor key in order to evoke a feeling of melancholy and reminiscence. Being classical music, it relates to the line of dialogue 'she loved Mozart and Bach', and it also foreshadows one of the main features of the film - Jenny's musical talent. It is filled with passion, and really brings the scene forward in it's beauty and effectiveness. The pianist plays with true emotion as if they are one of the lovers, and this shows through in the soundtrack. You can see why it won the award for Best Original Score!
Cinematography-wise, the camera work is kept very simple, so it does not intrude in the scene or the story. It is all one shot, panning down from a town in the snow to a man sitting on the floor facing away. This keeps an element of continuity about the scene, and is the best way to present the scene, as fancy cinematography would take away the raw emotion of the scene.
The acting is incredible. So much passion is put into the voice-over, and you can hear that the character is struggling to retell a story with so much pain in it. There are pauses in just the right places, and you hear the character talk as if talking through tears. It hits it's high point right on the pause before he says '...and me', which is simply beautiful.
'What can you say about a 25 year old girl who died, that she was beautiful and brilliant, that she loved Mozart and Bach, the Beatles...and me'
It is also successful as it presents the audience with a number of enigmas. They want to know why she dies, who she was, what their story was, and what course the film is going to take next. These make the audience want to watch on, if only to find out the answers to these questions. The opening obeys a few of the conventions of the romance genre, such as the idea of 'doomed love', which is used in many romance films such as 'Titanic' and 'A Walk to Remember'.
Overall the opening scene was truly brilliant, and would make some people cry before they even see the film. Right from the first piece of dialogue the film has connected the audience to the characters, and they already empathise with them.
Both films had strong beginnings, and both gave the audience something to think about. 'Love Actually' starts the audience off with a positive, happy frame of mind, whereas 'Love Story' starts them off in tears! Both techniques work well for the films they are a part of, and both set up the mood of the film very clearly.
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