Except for very short shots (e.g., Tony in the crowd yelling scab), the POV stays with Billy during the BH to firmly establish him as the protagonist. With respect to Billy Elliot, you will need to examine the various experiences that each of the characters face, and how these speak to broader human experiences that the audience can connect with. We think its because internally and externally were in the same Needs Tank (Esteem and Respect), so the changes will be similar. A wise man once said that cursing degrades the level of human interaction by reducing people, things and situations to the scatological, the base or the animal. A January 2020 New York Times article about the latest touring production of Matthew Bourne's "Swan Lake" profiled four male dancers in the show. Once the strike was called, the union membership came out in force. See also TWMs Historical Fiction in Film Cross-Curricular Homework Project and Movies as Literature Homework Project. For instance, Italian Neorealist films a cinematic movement which often focused on depicting stories of working class, ordinary people in post-war Italy often had a similar emphasis on naturalistic, unfabricated lighting. Benny Hill scene with laundry and English back gardens, a scene type thats typically farcical but has an extra edge of real danger as the riot-geared police chase Tony down. Bethesda, MD, Camp Director at Traveling Players Ensemble The clothes of Billys family his brother and father in particular are generally oversized, dark and more masculine. This then leads into Billy jumping up into the screen and his exhilaration and excitement increases, as does the screen and it lengthens until his whole body comes into view. Billys father and brother start out powerfully on strike, but the union caves in at the end, and they go, impotently, back down into the mine during the resolution. Later, when Billy is exasperated and bashes his arms to the beat of hard rock music, his internal frustration is made external in the sound. He practises the piano without encouragement or guidance, and continues to play after the scene in which his father has slammed down the pianos lid. Assignments and Projects. This clearly is the far more difficult way to tell story. Large parts of Easington Colliery, where most of the filming took place, were demolished shortly after the movie was finished, including the house which stood in as Billy's home and the entire surrounding street. During Billy Elliot, there is a scene where Billy cannot do a consecutive turn of pirouettes and falls down. He complains that he cannot do it and Ms Wilkinson tells him this is because he is not concentrating and not even trying. Why did Billy show his mothers letter to Mrs. Wilkinson? Describe any experiences you or people you know may have had in breaking out of the traditional roles that their family or society had set out for them and charting a new course based on their own interests and goals. Mower also went back to the London stage musical to play the dream ballet's "Adult Billy" in Billy Elliot the Musical Live (2014). The production shot in the working coal mine in Ellington, England. Billy defies his father and surreptitiously attends dance classes. In one of them, the father, pushed to his limits by not being able to support his family, by the strike, by the recent death of his wife, by having to raise a child he cannot understand, and by many other events beyond his control, throws Billy against a wall. Billy Elliot study guide contains a biography of director Stephen Daldry, literature essays, quiz questions, major themes, characters, and a full summary and analysis. How else would we see the inner conflict? The film has a playful, heartwarming tone from the start. The film depicts a young boy facing the challenge of overcoming traditional Over two thousand boys auditioned for the role of Billy Elliot. The spectrum of values is best embodied by Billys father, a coal miner with traditional working-class male values who is ashamed of his sons love for ballet, and whose eventual respect for it is the huge payoff. It is a gesture of friendship, telling Michael that Billy loved him as a friend even if Michael was a homosexual. The film Billy Elliot directed by Stephen Daldry, is set in the miners town of Durham in the north east of Engand in the 1980s. But perhaps the most prominent example of wardrobe comes through Michael, Billys friend, who uses crossdressing in one particular scene as a way of expressing his sexuality. See Website for the Royal Ballet School. A striker moons the police. The easy way is to hopscotch through time and space, picking up bits and pieces to facilitate exposition, but this makes story sprawl and lose tension. Billy Elliot is Stephen Daldrys 2000 film about a boy becoming a ballet dancer, and gained acclaim for its promotion of individual identity, its challenge to restrictive gender norms and its celebration of artistic pursuits. And that question is only answered definitively in the last few seconds. 7. Set against the background of the 1984 Miner's Strike, Billy Elliot (Jamie Bell) is an 11-year-old boy who stumbles out of the boxing ring and onto the ballet floor. The result is more empathy and emotional involvement between the audience and character. His mother has just died. The film centres on his struggles with various forms of authority his father, the police, the government and social gender norms. The first release from Working Title's low-budget WT2 division. Both Jackie and Tony are coal miners out on strike. Jackie attempts to cross the picket line to pay for the trip to London, but Tony stops him. Billy and his friend, Michael Caffrey, stand outside the school, Billy with boxing gloves around his neck. However, with the change in setting, the contrast between the clean, spacious dance spaces and Billys cramped, grubby bathroom reinforces the constant tensions of socioeconomic class that surround him. 4. Remember the scenes in which Billy dances into walls? It also sets up the subjective experience of the film, something very important to note (it is discussed further in the sound techniques section). Facing not only the wholesale loss of jobs but also destruction of the many mining communities that were dependent on the mines as their sole source of employment, the union leaders called a strike. Helpful Background from other boys of the same age. Rather than focusing on one side and entirely demonising the other, he illustrates the tolls and virtues of these experiences for a wide range of people, providing a greater range of empathy and appealing to a wider base of audience experiences. The character of Billy Elliot was able to set boundaries to his relationship with Michael that permitted them to be friends but stopped at any sexual relationship between them. Many of the characters are seen as products of their environment. Sandra adjusts him in a pose, then dismisses the class. 13. We are given a hint here that music will provide him a pathway into a wider world, but also make him susceptible to the dangers and prejudices that exist in the world. Part of the humor and charm of the narrative is the fact that Billy knows that he wants to be a dancer in his body before he can admit it to himself in his mind. How could Billy have resolved this situation and complied with the ethical principle of trustworthiness? This resistance to traditional notions of gender or sexuality is not just seen in Billy it is expressed through his best friend Michael as well. Was it right for Billy to be given responsibility for caring for his grandmother? It ran until April 2016 and was nominated for 9 Olivier Awards, winning the award for Best New Musical. But some of us thought it was Worldview > Education. 11. The British coal industry at the time was very poorly organized and inefficient. Sandra tells Billy that he seemed like he enjoyed ballet, but when he cannot admit he did, she drives away, frustrated. POV is primarily Billy, but also shows the story from Jackies and Tonys POV occasionally (E.g., Jackie finds out that Billy hasnt been going to boxing as hed thought). Obviously, Billy didnt obey the ethical principle of respect for others when he hit the ballet student who was trying to talk to him after the tryout. Billy's dreaminess and passion for the arts are soon given a focus when he accidentally encounters a ballet class taking place in the same gymnasium where his boxing lessons take place. In a field he finds his grandmother, clearly confused, wandering around. Will the beleaguered Elliot family pull together and heal? This time however he fights back, eventually running free from the compound. Julie Walters, Jamie Bell, Jamie Draven, Gary Lewis (III), Jean Heywood, Stuart Wells, Mike Elliot, Janine Birkett. 9. What would have happened to Billy and what kind of life would he have led, if it had not been for his teacher, Mrs. Wilkinson? After he's left, Billy puts his mattress back on the bed. We see the films treatment of this friendship as a strength of the movie.

He did poorly in trying to stop Billy from dancing, and he did well when he decided to help his son find the career that he loved. Human experiences may be collective, individual or a combination of both. Did Billy do the right thing in lying to his father about going to ballet class? He thinks hes blown it.

She appears seemingly from nowhere in one shot she isnt there, and in the next she is. 6. (but a fantastic dance sequence follows!). Note also that the scene takes place at the setting of a lake. Many of the local Easington extras were repeating the way they behaved when the pits were actually on strike.

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Join StageAgent today and unlock amazing theatre resources and opportunities. Here are some lesser-known facts about the film. Billy Elliot is one of the most critically acclaimed and culturally significant British movies of the past several decades. Set in the 1980s during the miners strike, the film follows a young boy as he finds a new love for ballet, going against his family's working-class traditions. Pay special attention to the setting, props and wardrobe employed in the film. | | In addition, the juxtaposition of Billy, who dances and is heterosexual, with Michael, who is homosexual but does not dance, demonstrates the fallacy of stereotyping the sexual orientations of male ballet dancers. Not all of the lighting in the film is entirely naturalistic. SERIOUS. Through Billy and Michael, he displays forms of individualism that suggest that our identity comes from a more mysterious and unique source. Download the Math of Storytelling Infographic. Every teacher dreams of being the agent for allowing a child to find him or herself. Yes to both questions. No gore is shown, and there is no thrill factor to the violence in this film. Although very nervous, Billy performs well, but he punches another boy in frustration at the audition, fearing that he has ruined his chances of attaining his dream. Im just there flyin like a bird like electricity, yeah, like electricity. Do you get that type of feeling from anything that you do? Ask the Quick Discussion Question. Also note the colour symbolism of yellow is emphasised. Billys grandmother has a tendency to wander off and cannot take care of herself. SOCIAL-EMOTIONAL LEARNING Breaking Out; Families in Crisis; Father/Son; Courage; Grieving; Friendship; Parenting; Grandparents; GLBTQ; Education; MORAL-ETHICAL EMPHASIS Caring; Responsibility; Respect; Trustworthiness. In this way, the film provides an excellent model for the maintenance of friendships between people who are substantially different. See Discussion Questions for Use With any Film that is a Work of Fiction. Which character showed the most emotional growth? Billys father doesnt approve of boys taking ballet, while Billy finds that he would rather dance than do anything else. . When Mower saw this movie as a small child, it inspired him to become a dancer - specifically to aspire to a role in the New Adventures Dance Company's all-male production of Swan Lake, which is the ballet that the adult Billy performs in at the end of this movie. Later that day, Billy sneaks into the library, which is a small trailer near the school, and looks at a book about dancing. The switch to Jackie/Tonys POV is to reinforce the personal conflict (i.e., show the audience just how serious the financial pressures are). We watch him as he tends to household chores and prepares for his day, and it is all informed by his love for music and dance. He happens upon a ballet class that is using the gym while their usual basement studio is temporarily being used as a soup kitchen for the striking miners. themes in billy elliot - info and analysis, DOCX, PDF, TXT or read online from Scribd, 100% found this document useful (3 votes), 100% found this document useful, Mark this document as useful, 0% found this document not useful, Mark this document as not useful, Save themes in billy elliot - info and analysis For Later, Billy Elliots world is very different to the one in which we live, England, however it is thoroughly reflected through, these miners overcomes social prejudice to make his dream of, houses on either side symbolise the restrictive nature of. In the town where he is from, boxing is for boys and ballet for girls, yet Billy's deep love for dance draws him towards What do all the characters have in common? "Those were my dad's gloves, you'd better take better care of them," says Jackie, leaving the room. In the end, Dame, In the final scene, the ballet in which Billy performs is. We had some disagreement about the internal genre: On the one hand, Billy himself, though he eventually earns social and artistic respect, is almost untouched by shame at any point in the story, which makes, the more likely internal genre. As people and editors, we bring our own worldview to the story and identify with different aspects of the journey the characters take. A dancers body has been compared to a perfectly tuned instrument: extraordinarily coordinated, limber, strong, and musically responsive. Another interesting example is also provided however, in a short but important scene of the film. This incident distracts a librarian while Billy steals a book on ballet that the librarian would not let him check out. Throughout the scene, the shots There may be, as Linda Aronson notes, mentor-antagonists, which are characters that stand in the protagonists way at certain stages of the story, but who ultimately shape and nurture the protagonist as well. The salty dance instructor, Sandra Wilkinson, lights up a cigarette and tells the pianist to play "The Sun'll Come Out Tomorrow," as Billy tries to say something to her. Billy hits another child. Inciting incident opportunity: Mrs. Wilkinson (dance teacher) gives him ballet shoes and tells him to join in with her class. "Fuck off," says Tony brusquely, and they go to bed. The fact that he is a young boy who just wants to dance is subversive socially, especially in a coal town, but it is also what is meant to immediately endear the viewer to his plight. Was he ultimately a good father? Learning how to box is another of the activities passed down along the male lineage of the Elliot family. When Billy is indignant, saying that all the men who do it are gay, Debbie tells him that they're not all necessarily gay. But theres still a big unanswered question at that point: Was it worth the sacrifice Billys father made? Tony is like a second father and if anything, is even less supportive than Jackie. When analysing this film for the common module, it is critical that you link all your discussion back to notions of human experience, and to the formal features of the text. Connections The police are a constant and malevolent presence. The screen enlarges again which makes Billy seem and look much smaller. Can a straight person maintain a friendship with someone of the same sex who is a homosexual? The story was turned into a hit stage musical a few years later. Various forms of authority exist in the film. What is the basis for these friendships? These are matched by the visual motifs of feet and fists. Some parents may object to anything other than a negative portrayal of homosexuality. And then, at nineteen, Mower joined the New Adventures company, where (as of 2015) he has danced in ballets including Nutcracker!, Sleeping Beauty, Edward Scissorhands, and Swan Lake. This is made all the more remarkable by the fact that Billy has had no feminine role model for most of his life, at least until Mrs Wilkinson takes on the role of a near-adoptive mother. Gain full access to show guides, character breakdowns, auditions, monologues and more! In class-conscious Britain, loyalty to the union was very much associated with the workers loyalty to their class, the working class. Billys family had a lot of problems, but they had one big thing going for them. Explicit all is lost moment the protagonist must understand that there is no getting around their imminent failure: All is lost moment is when Billy is at his audition and thinks hes completely blown his chances. He gets knocked down soon enough, as his father watches from nearby. In keeping with the subjective experience of the film, Daldry sometimes exaggerates spaces through light such as when Billy arrives to the gym for his first one-on-one lesson with Mrs Wilkinson. The strikers protest and the police attack. Best summary PDF, themes, and quotes. When Billy was asked, What does it feel like when you dance?, He answered It sort of feels good. How does Billy Elliot portray the theme of being masculine? Research Playwrights, Librettists, Composers and Lyricists, Billy Elliot is based upon the successful 2000 film of the same name. Special Scene Types, Outstanding Tropes, clear tie-ins to other genres? Available from Amazon.com. Grossed over 109 million internationally from a 3 million budget. When it was shown at the Cannes Film Festival. 8. Do you agree or disagree? Instead, his fellow miners and the neighbourhood raise some money and Jackie pawns Billys mothers jewelry to cover the cost, and Jackie takes him to London to audition.

That night, Billy talks to his brother, Tony in their shared bedroom.

Billy Elliot discovers his passion for dance and joins a class, but when his father finds out, he must decide whether to be true to himself or follow his father. 6. For Boys: If you wanted to be a ballet dancer, how do you think your schoolmates would react? A young boy in boxing gear doing a pli is a striking image, and the film includes many comic instances of Billy mirroring the elegant movements he sees, when what he is supposed to be doing is becoming a tougher boxer. At school, Michael and Billy do a run for gym class, and Michael leads him to a hiding spot so they can get out of the run. Billy might not have found what he loved to do. House Manager at Imagination Stage The musical version of this movie, which hit the West End in 2005 to rave reviews and numerous awards and nominations, reportedly cost 5.5 million to make: around 3 million more than the movie version. With music by Elton John, the musical opened at the Victoria Palace Theatre in London in 2005. The spectrum of values is best embodied by Billys father, a coal miner with traditional working-class male values who is ashamed of his sons love for ballet, and whose eventual respect for it is the huge payoff. WebAnalysis of scenes in Billy Elliot Discovery idea Scene Example Technique Effect/ explanation When we are firstly introduced to seeing Billy in action at the Everington Boxing Club Boxing teacher, George: Not again. Sign up today to unlock amazing theatre resources and opportunities. Sandra quickly comes over and tells him he needs to remove his boots if he wants to dance. The differences are that for dancers the result is art, and for other athletes, the result is doing well in competitions. The framing of the elevator gate in the foreground, the staging of all the miners packed together and the low-key, desaturated lighting suggests that while Billy has experienced a transition into a brighter and more positive future his family remains trapped and under broader authority. ; Always do your best; Use self-control; Be self-disciplined; Think before you act consider the consequences; Be accountable for your choices). Billy Elliot Wikimedia Foundation, accessed October 23, 2017, https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Billy_Elliot. Billys family is under tremendous strain. Perhaps he wishes to demonstrate both sides of these complex experiences. Another important theme expressed in the film is the relationship between ones context i.e. Example from Billy: Billy is hesitant to enter the boxing hall, as he acknowledges his desire to. The final scene, which takes place fifteen years later or so, serves almost as an.