Today in lesson, as a class, we watched 'The Selfish Giant.' What an incredibly predictable yet extremely distressing ending. What I thought was very clever, was despite it being clear 'Swifty' was dead, the use long paced shots and the lack of non diegetic music, made us feel as grievous and as heart broken as poor old Arbor having lost his best friend.
The scene illustrated with the photo below was by far one of the most powerful moments in the film. The flashback of the first opening minutes when Swifty was seen comforting Arbor by holding his hand, was replayed whilst Arbor was mourning the death of his companion in the same location; underneath his bed.
It's one of the only films I've watched that uses camera angles, editing and mise-en-scene to create real verisimilitude of real life, especially in England. It being set in Bradford and all. Such as cheap and damaged clothing, and the long paced establishing shots of the landscape.
