Comparative Analysis Of The Films Children Of Men And Punch-Drunk Love In Terms Of Cinematic Language

In Alfonso Cuarón’s 2006 film Children of Men and in Paul Thomas Anderson’s 2002 film Punch-Drunk Love both films demonstrate the power of cinematic language through music and color. Even though these films are drastically different in genre, actors, and plot these cinematic elements are used to effectively show the character’s emotion and put the audience in their shoes. In Punch-Drunk Love in the opening scene, the audience as well as the main character Barry Egan are introduced to an odd-looking piano of sorts, a harmonium. After Barry gets it to work, he will be in the presence of the harmonium and there will be a soft overlay of whimsical music, which is reinforced by Barry actually playing the harmonium. This sequence creates almost a feeling of peace, love and essentially harmony. It’s calming to the audience in the beginning scene and also after the scene of Barry finding out he can’t use his pudding points until after six weeks. This whimsical music decreases the tension and allows the audience, as well as Barry to take a break from the chaos.

In Children of Men almost the same kind of sequence happens, but only once. Towards the end of the film, after the main character Theo finds Kee and her baby in a building surrounded by refugees and outside militia, they begin to make their way out to the street as the baby cries. A woman in the building sitting on the floor is singing a religious sort of hymn while touching the baby’s foot and while the ambient noises of gunfire are going off. Her singing is overlaid and taken over by the reoccurring operatic music in the film. Just like in Punch-Drunk Love this music allows the characters as well as the audience to take a break from the outside conflict for at least a moment. The whimsical music as well as the operatic music in these films gives a sense of relief from tension for the characters as well as the audience. From the very beginning of Punch-Drunk Love, the color blue makes an appearance throughout the film. Blue can be associated with sadness, loneliness and emotion which ties to Barry because he is quite an emotional and lonely man. He wears a blue suit, the wall at his work is blue, there are numerous blue camera flares and almost the whole hue of the movie is blue. This reflects the way Barry feels into his daily life and this shows he “wears his feelings on his sleeve” and doesn’t easily hide or repress how he is feeling.

In Children of Men the hue of most of the movie is grey and dreary, which shows how the world has changed, but also reflects how Theo perceives the world. In the opening scene in the coffee shop a crowd of people horrified at the death of the youngest person on the Earth is seen, Theo steps into the frame, buys a cup of coffee and carries on. Grey symbolizes emotionless and numbness and that is exactly how Theo responds to the world around him. Theo’s numbness reflects on practically the entirety of the movie and everything in frame is grey and drab. The hue of the film is grey even until the very end, when Theo, Kee and her baby are all in the boat. Unlike the whole film though, the water is abnormally blue even with the grey hue. This heightens the emotional value of this scene as Theo is slowly dying and Kee is terrified she will lose him and not be rescued. The character’s emotions in both films are reflected into the outside world through color. Even though Children of Men and Punch-Drunk Love are two completely different films, both use cinematic language to connect the audience with the characters and their emotions. The feelings of the characters are reflected into the outside world through color throughout both films and music is used to give the audience as well as the characters a sense of peace in a hectic situation. These techniques put the audience in the character’s shoes and allows them to feel the same emotions felt by those on the screen.