Lai Cheuk Yin Arthur

3035571486
CLIT2007
Rosetta – one-page journal
I think to me, Rosetta(1999) is like Chaplin’s Modern Times(1936), but filmed like The Blair
Witch Project(1999). It’s a also story about lower class people struggling to get a job and
kept getting into trouble and getting fired like Modern Times(1936), but totally shot with
handheld camera, feels like a documentary, and just like The Blair Witch Project(1999), filled
with chaotic and horrifying scenes where nothing very special seemed to have happened.

I think there’re one scene that showed the most about Rosetta. It is where Rosetta was
hesitating to save Riquet, after he fell into the water. After Rosetta slipped and dropped
Riquet into the muddy water. Rosetta fell down and sat on the floor, camera looks
downwards on her (slightly high angle) when Rosetta was considering to run away, we only
have close up on her reaction, but the camera never show how Riquet is struggling, we can
only hear him shouting for help.

I think the camera follows Rosetta so much in the movie, behind her or over her shoulder,
that the camera kind of shows what Rosetta wanted to see, and don’t show what she didn’t
want to. Obviously, she didn’t want to see Riquet struggle, so we can’t see how Riquet was
struggling in the water at this point, but she also didn’t want to save him, in order to take his
job. So after a cut, she quickly ran away. And we cut to another shot of her thinking should
she help Riquet or not, also high angle close up shot, basically she is “looking down on
herself” again, thinking she’s doing an immoral decision. And then there’s the cut again, she
quickly found something to pull Riquet up.

And Rosetta ran back to the river bank, this time the audience finally sees a high angle wide
shot of how Riquet was struggling in the water, because Rosetta was trying to save Riquet
this time (camera shows what Rosetta wanted to see). After she pulls him up, the camera is
only on Riquet. He stood up, tried to get the water out of his clothes with Rosetta’s help.
However, Rosetta’s face is never shown by the camera, it’s like she’s “embarrassed” to show
her face to the camera after she tried to abandon Riquet in the water, like her mother did to
her. After Riquet rejecting her further help, we finally see a glimpse of her face, the guilt on
her face, but she soon turned away from the camera and watched Riquet left with the
motorbike.

This sequence is shot with natural lighting, handheld camera, and no music, to add the extra
realistic feeling to the scene. It has very few cuts, the cuts are to show her quick actions after
thinking about them, maybe emphasizing time is running out for Riquet in the water. There
are cuts only when Rosetta ran away, got a stick, ran back, threw the stick to Riquet, and
other times there’re no cuts. Fewer cuts can provide a greater sense of reality too, making the
movie more like a documentary. The scene is always slightly high angled, never lower than
eye level, actually the whole movie almost never had a low angle shot on Rosetta, perhaps
emphasizing her lower class status, that she’s always struggling and defeated.

Back to my point of this being the one scene that showed the most about Rosetta. This shows
how far she would go to get a job, which is according to her, a requirement of a “normal life”.
Killing her only friend to get a job, almost. Although there’s another “betrayal” scene
following this scene, with arguably a stronger emotional impact. However, this 3-4 mins
scene shows her entire character and her arc. Does whatever she can to get a job, to get away
from poverty, or get a “normal life”, which not only showed the terrible effect of the
economic inequality, but it also sounds like an extreme result of capitalism. And like in the
ending, she has her sort of “redemption”, realizing she’s doing immoral decisions for a job, or
 Lai Cheuk Yin Arthur
3035571486
CLIT2007
Rosetta – one-page journal
maybe she just doesn’t want to be like her mother (one of her great motives in the movie),
who left her in the water too. If she left Riquet like that, she will be like her mother, all that
can be seen in this scene.