Practical task 2

Compare and contrast camerawork in the opening and closing

scenes of a non-Hollywood film of your choice.

In this paper I am going to contrast camerawork in the opening and closing scenes of
“Qu'est-ce qu'on a fait au Bon Dieu?” This film is a french Comedy directed by Philippe de
Chauveron, published in 2014. The film is about a french conservative couple that has four
daughters. Their problems begin when 3 of the 4 daughters marry a man from other
nationalities and religions, a Muslim, a Hebrew and a Vietnamese. Their last hope is that
their youngest daughter marries a french boy. Out of the blue their youngest daughter tells
them that she has a new boyfriend, and when they get to know him, he happens to be a
black African. This was the straw that broke the camel's back.
The fist scene of this Comedy shows the three marriages of the siblings. It begins with a
low camera angle of the city council of Chinon. Then the camera goes inside and we see
all of the guests thanks to a pan shot (a horizontal movement of the camera in which it
does not change position). Then appears the brides family and the camera goes from a
long shot to a mid shot, this means from focusing on the whole body to an image from the
hips to the face. From that Mid shot on the camera focuses on the bride and groom and
then again to the brides parents with the same type of shot while the image stays static.
Back to the parents the camera zoom's until it is a close up (we only see their shoulders
and head). We see a mid shot from the mayor who is marrying them and then again a mid
shot from the protagonists. All those images are static, the camera only changes position,
no other movement is involved.
During this scene we can see other two weddings happening. In both of them the camera
does the same movements than in the previous wedding. They begin with a low angled
shot of the church, a pan shot of the guests and a mid shot that turns to a close up from
the bride's parents. This first scene ends with a photographer making a photo in front of
the building. First the guests and family appear in a long shot in front of the camera and
when the camera turns to the photographer as he speaks in a mid shot and goes back
again to the protagonist the long shot changes to a mid shot of the parents in front of the
church. This is how the first scene ends.
The last scene is set in a garden where the wedding celebration of their firth daughter is
taking place. The first shot of this scene is a low angled shot that shows us the garden
where the action is taking place. The camera focuses on several guests with a static mid
shot. While the African father is giving a speech the camera moves constantly in very short
shots from one guest to another. The same happens when the father of the bride is giving
his speech. The scene ends with the camera going backwards until it leaves the garden
where the celebration is taking place and it gives us a last shot of the sky.
In both scenes, the first one and the last one, appears more or less the same type of
camera movements. The movements that appear almost all the time are mid shots and
close ups from the characters, this is because the director wanted us to focus on their
facial expressions to express their feelings. It is noticeable that at the beginning the
duration of the shots were longer than in the last scene. This is due to the fact that we
already know the characters and we do not need time to get accustomed to their faces.
The last scene completes the first scene as it is the celebration of a wedding. It is as if the
cycle was finally closed. Four merry couples and many worries later everybody is happy.