Film Analysis Essay Example

The film Ilha das Flores (Jorge Furtado, 1989) is an incredibly interesting film that toys with your emotions in order to be able to get its message across. Furtado is able to get his message across by using both narrative and documentary formats to tell his story.  

Many times throughout the film this very tactic of narrative formats tends to confuse its audience on what the tone of the film really is. One of the first narrative formats used in the Ilha das Flores was the introduction of characters and is done by introducing Mr. Suzuki to the story. This first introduction is done in a very humorous way that makes the audience believe that the story will somehow revolve around  Mr. Suzuki. When In reality the story is just building in order to begin to talk about the life of the tomato. Another thing that was used in a very humorous manner was at the beginning of the film and ties into the documental elements and that would have to be the acknowledgment of the camera.

This occurs during the introduction of Ms. Anete family as they all look directly into the camera. Looking or acknowledging the cameras presents is a common format used in documentaries that breaks the fourth wall however, in this particular scene it made to look cheesy. Lastly, another element of documentary used in Ilha das Flores would have to be the use of reenactment. Though some of the event seen in the film is clearly staged they are events that obviously talk place in normal peoples day to day lives. The element of reenactment also noticeable adds to the dark theme of the film by showing the contrast of a reenacted luxurious life of the middle class to the lives of the children digging in there trash for food that is very much real.

As stated before the introductions to the characters tend to be more humorous as well as the first half of this film. However, Ilha das Flores seems to strategically change the tone from humorous to dark very abruptly multiply time in the film that often catches the audience off guard.  This tactic of abrupt changes has a lot to do with the pacing of the film.  Ilhas das Flores is a very fast pace film that hit many different topics in a very short amount of time. However, Furtado is able to use the pacing to his advantage by expressing multiple different ideas that may at first seem unrelated but tie perfectly at the end of the film as the audience is shown the Island. Therefore the director spends as much time as need on each object in order make is the final point. 

In conclusion, the combination of both narrative and documentary format help express the director Jorge Furtado’s tone of the film as well as getting his message across to the audience.