Symbolism, narrative structure and special effects are

significant features of film. Focusing on ONE OR MORE of

these features, discuss the extent to which you agree
with this view
Your response should include close reference to one or
more films you have studied.

Features of film include symbolism and narrative structure. Both these

features are present in the film, The Lives of Others directed by Florian
Henckel von Donnersmark, but they have different levels of significance.
In this particular film, the narrative structure is very important, whereas
symbolism has a presence but it is not so important.
A very important and significant feature employed by the director is
narrative structure. An aspect, which makes it significant is that it
provides a chronological order of events, which enables the audience to
see Wieslers change from an average Stasi chump to a good person.
More specifically, in the exposition, Wielser is seen as almost evil. He has
this impression because he believes that all subjects are enemies of
Socialism. He also believes that all in torture as a normal part of his job,
where a student of his claims that the treatment received by the liar
was inhuman. Wiesler disagrees by crossing his name indicating that
the student must be watched because he has sympathetic emotions. To
further compound Wieslers tyranny, he attempts to ruin the lives of
Dreyman and Sieland by letting Dreyman know some bitter truths when
he sets Dreyman up to view Hempf tak[ing] care of Sialand. From this
examples, it is clear that Wielser is initially set up as on of those bas men
who put people in prison. Moving to the complication, the audience sees
Wiesler beginning to change, after his encounter with the prostitute to be
inadequate display of affection compared to the lives of Sieland and
Dreyman. When he makes this comparison in his mind, he realises that he
is lonely and his life lacked a certain secret as the director comments
that Dreyman and Sieland had. The audience sees his change as Sonata
of a Good Man is played; Dreyman posses a question: can anyone who
has head this music, I mean truly heard it, really be a bad person? In the
case of Wielser who has truly heard it, indicated by his tears answers
Dreymens question with a resounding: no! In other words, Wielser has
transitioned into a good man. Later, into the dnouement, Wiesler is
now and truly a good man a complete polar opposite from what he
was at the start of the film. Although Dreyman is too emotionally

distraught to write again, his knowledge of Wieslers senseless heroics

inspires him to release a memoir titled Sonata for a Good Man. For the
film, it is vital that audiences understand this, and this is only understood
through the narrative structure. It is significant because it permits
audiences to see what makes a good person and whether there is good
in the darkest of people being the partys shield and sword in this case.
Furthermore, a less significant feature in this film is symbolism. It is
employed by the auteur to show Wielsers humanisation into a more
heroic chracters. It is an aid to establishing the themes developed in the
narrative. In the film, there are two key examples of symbolism. The most
effective is where Wiesler trespasses through Dreymans apartment. There
is a close-up of a pen and a beautiful backscratcher received by
Dreyman as birthday gifts. These gifts act as symbols, where Dreyman
takes those lightly, claiming that his friends dont have much taste. To
Wielser, however, he views these symbols with great meaning. They make
him realise that he is lonely as possibly a facet of his life that was missing.
This is important because for the film to reach any purpose it must first
show that Wielser is able to feel lonliness becoming human through
realisation of human emotions. Another key symbol is the book which is a
poetic compilation of texts written by Brecht. It acts as a symbol
because it is a text admired by the two engineers of the soul, Dreyman
and Jerska, and this is stolen by Wiesler who is seen reading it. Because
poems require emotional intelligence, Wielsers reading of these poems
and deep concentration in the book, allows the audience to view Wieslers
humanisation, but this time he has developed emotions like humans do.
The eloquent features such as narrative structure and symbolism are both
significant, but narrative structure is more significant than symbolism. The
narrative structure showed the audience Wieslers transition from a bad
m[a]n to a good man showing the audience that anyone can be good.
On the other hand, the lesser dominant feature of symbolism explains
Wieslers humanisation and acceptance of emotions. The directors usage
of these two features proves that a film is a petrified fountain of thought
as Jean Cocteau would say.