Fish Tank (Dir. Andrea Arnold) 2009

Sebastian Black                                      Film Studies A Level                        Monday 5th October 2015

Fish Tank (Dir. Andrea Arnold) 2009

Fish Tank was directed by Andrea Arnold, wirtten by Andrea Arnold & produced by Kees Kasander. 
Fish Tank’s genre is drama & the sub genre is social realism. The protagonist in this film is Mia Williams (Katie Jarvis).

Similar to the film Wasp (Dir. Andrea Arnold) 2003, both films start with a conflict. In Wasp, Zoe goes over to her neighbour’s house to start a fight because the neighbour lady slapped one of Zoe’s children. In Fish Tank, Mia has fallen out with her best friend Keely & goes over to Keely’s estate & insults her & her friends dancing which then leads to Mia head butting one of Keely’s friends.

Fish Tank’s production companies were:

·       

•      BBC Films
• ·       UK Film Council
• ·       Kasander Film Company

Fish Tank & Wasp have one production company in common & that production company is the UK Film Council. Fish Tank was distributed by IFC Films (American film Distribution Company).

At the end of Fish Tank, there is an equilibrium. Mia is packing to go to Wales with Billy; she goes downstairs & finds her mum dancing. For once Mia & her mother are dancing together & there’s a silence, they’re just dancing. As Mia is about to get in the car, Tyler hugs her & says “I hate you” this tells us that they both do love each other however they just won’t admit it in the traditional way. After that, as Billy is driving away Tyler says “bye you skank! Don’t forget to text me. Say hello to the Wales for me.” This makes Mia smile & we see the love they have between each other.

I believe that the film is called Fish Tank because Mia represents the fish. The moment someone gets too close to the glass, she'll get scared. Mia can only watch what is happening in the world, she can't do anything about it. She really wants to help the horse, have a dance career however she has no power to so. represents the barriers she puts up to surround herself. The tank represents the barriers Mia surrounds herself with in order to protect herself from harm. 

Micro Features

Mise-en-Scene:

Fish Tank is located in a lower class area in East London. When the audience realise that it’s based in East London, they may be shocked because to the audience, a lower class area would not be somewhere like East London, in fact, anywhere in London because people have this assumption that everybody in London is wealthy. This makes the audience realise that there are lower class people around especially in London & the film shows what the reality is for people like Mia & her family.

Mia’s costume show’s that she is a stereotypical representation of a lower class British teenager. The way that she applies her makeup is also a representation of her class.

Mia lives in number 75 (blue door) with her mother & her sister. They live in council flats in East London. The inside of the house is relatively messy, in the kitchen there are loads of dishes in the sink, this implies to the audience that Mia’s family are lazy & they can’t be bothered to clean the plates despite how much dishes are in the sink or it could imply that the household are busy doing their own things so they haven’t even thought about cleaning the dishes. Mia is dancing in an abandoned flat, Joanne is too busy with Conor or getting drunk & Tyler just watches the TV.

When Mia see’s the neglected horse, she wants to set it free to help the horse.  It’s as if the horse is a reflection of Mia but in a different form. Mia does not want the horse to be suffering anymore & it’s similar to her because she doesn’t want to be suffering anymore, she wants to do what she loves but she can’t without somebody commenting on it. Billy tells Mia that he & his brothers shot the horse because it was getting too ill, Mia breaks down. It is the only time in the film where she breaks down in front of somebody & she’s not being stubborn or rude. Although Mia did not know the horse for a very long time, she felt like she was close to the horse because there were similarities between them. The horse was Mia’s motivation.

There is a huge contrast between Conor’s area (Chadwell) & Mia’s area. Chadwell have nicer houses than the council flats in Mia’s area. The area is clean & by the looks of it, there are less anti-social behaviour going on in Chadwell.  

The location for the dance auditions was held in what seems to be a strip club. The women there were wearing the appropriate clothing for a strip club however Mia did not know & she was dressed in tracksuit bottoms & a hoodies. After realising that the auditions were for a strip club, Mia left.

Edit:

Being a film about social realism, the pace of the film will represent time in reality. Some would say it’s slow however it is supposed to be like this because its purposes is to show reality on a whole, so the pace is going to represent the reality.

Sound:

You have the diegetic sound which is the dialogue used in conversations. The accent & slang used in the dialect makes the audience assume they’re from the east, this links in with the location. The dialogue has an impact on the audience, the dialect emphasises Mia’s family’s & the area’s class. It would have been strange for Mia’s family to been very articulated in their language if they’re supposed to be representing a lower class family. Conor on the other hand has a different accent compared to Mia’s family & he doesn’t use as much slang or foul language as Mia’s family does. This tells the audience that he comes from an educated background & that his class is higher than Mia’s family.

When Mia is trying to free the horse, three men try to stop her, two of them assault her & take her belongings & the other man however tries to stop his brothers by releasing the dog. The dog is constantly barking in the background & the sound of the bark heightens to emphasis the tension & the rush Mia is feeling.

When Mia is at the audition, she uses the song "california dream" & this song was introduced to her by Conor. This song no longer has any meaning to Mia & it no longer reminds her of the happiness she felt with Conor. Mia walks out of the audition & this emphasises on the fact that there's no longer a meaning for the song. 

During the end, Joanne is dancing & listening to a song called "life's a bitch" this is what you call parallel sound. The song reflects the atmosphere in the family & how they are currently feeling thus makes it a parallel sound. The song was used intentionally to make it parallel.

Cinematography:

Throughout the film, we see handheld shots. Handheld shots are one of the conventions of a social realistic film. Handheld shots also make the audience feel like they are in the film, & the handheld shot makes the film seem more realistic because they movements represent what our movements are like.

Performance:

Mia represents normal teenage behaviour, she has mood swings & she’s confused. During some parts of the film, Mia gets along with Conor however there are times (usually after she’s getting along with him) she suddenly dislikes him. Her behaviour towards him confuses us as the audience but it’s also confusing Mia herself because she is attracted to Conor however Conor is seeing Mia’s mother so throughout the film, the audience is questioning the relationship between Conor & Mia. Throughout the film the audience believe that Mia is not young & this is because of her behaviour & her use of language towards people however it’s only when Conor leaves Joanne (Mia’s mother) & Mia travels to Chadwell to find Conor & Conor states her age as 15. This shocks the audience because they assumed she was older & then the audience understand why Conor left because if anybody found out, Conor could have been charged with rape.

Joanne Williams is Mia’s mother. She & her daughter Mia use foul language towards each other when talking & this explains to the audience that Joanne is partly the reason why Mia is the way she is. Joanne’s behaviour towards Mia changes when Conor is around. Mia asks her mother why she’s talking differently & we as the audience get the impression that Joanne wants to show Conor that she’s a good mum. Even when Tyler (Joanne’s other daughter, younger than Mia) calls Joanne a dog, Joanne does not react the way she normally would & that was because Conor was present. Joanne is constantly insulting Mia’s dancing & Mia becomes offended & often doubts her dancing because of this. The only person encouraging Mia is Conor.

Tyler Williams is Mia’s younger sister. They have a love hate relationship. They are constantly insulting each other. There’s no guidance between them two. Tyler smokes in front of Mia when Tyler is at a friend’s house however Mia doesn’t say anything. The audience reacts to this differently because we assume that the older sister should say something however because of their upbringing it’s a different matter.







Conor is introduced as Joanne's boyfriend. He has an irish accent & he is more articulate with his words compared to Mia & her family. Through Conor's character, we get the idea that he has feelings for Mia. They way that he looks at her & he's too kind to her as a stranger. His kindness can be confused with his feelings towards her. As Mia is drunk in Joanne's bedroom, Conor carries Mia to her room. Mia pretends to be asleep to see what Conor does. Conor removes her shoes & her her trousers not knowing that Mia is watching. In my opinion, I feel that Mia was expecting more from Conor when he removed her trousers however Conor did nothing & he covered her with her duvet. This makes the audience think that maybe Conor doesn't like Mia in that way however it is then confirmed when Mia & Conor have sex. Conor talks to Mia about how Billy is older than Mia. Billy is 19 years old. The audience can feel the jealousy Conor has with Billy. During when Mia & Conor had sex, it didn't occur to Conor that Mia was underaged. He knew Mia was underaged however this didn't bother him until they stopped. The next day Conor left Mia's family to be back with his family & he feels guilty because of what he has done. It does make it worse that he has a daughter who in a few years time could get involved with a man who is almost twice her age.