ON FILM AND FILM

LANGUAGE:

THE
HOURS
 OVERVIEW:

 Director: Stephen Daldry

 Writer: Michael Cunningham (novel), David Hare (screenplay)
 Release Date: 14 FEBRUARY 2003(SUA)
 Genre: Drama-Romance
 Language: English
 Setting: USA, UK
 Cast: Meryl Streep, Julianne Moore and Nicole Kidman. Supporting
roles are played by Ed Harris, John C. Reilly, Stephen Dillane, Jeff
Daniels, Miranda Richardson, Allison Janney, Toni Collette and Claire
Danes.
 Awards: Won 1 Oscar. Another 41 wins & 121 nominations
 VERTICAL STRUCTURE:

 The three characters in The Hours are intertwined, even

though they are from various time periods. Sometimes the
thread that connects them is the book, Mrs. Dalloway. At
other times, the common thread is the issue of unrequited
love, longing, and despair. All of these issues are explored in
this well-crafted look at life and despair.
 The three layers give the filmic text in-depth and announce:
 the complexity of inter-human and cross-cultural
relationships
 the net (trap) that the broader social context lays out for
individuals and individual lives
 HORIZONTAL PATTERNING:

 The collision between worlds is actually manifold, supported by

numerous dichotomies:
 West / East
 Old money / new money
 (upper) middle class / lower class
 rich / poor
 married / single
 urban / suburban
 good / evil
 young / old
 non-violence / violence
 All induce the notions of split, break, fracture, conflict,
opposition and thus define the hard core of the filmic text.
 STORYLINE(1):

 In 1951, Laura Brown, a pregnant housewife, is planning a party for her

husband, but she can't stop reading the novel 'Mrs. Dalloway'. Clarissa
Vaughn, a modern woman living in present times is throwing a party
for her friend Richard, a famous author dying of AIDS. These two
stories are simultaneously linked to the work and life of Virginia Woolf,
who's writing the novel mentioned before.
 The film concerns three women each suffering from depression.
Virginia Woolf is starting to write her book 'Mrs. Dalloway' in 1923
England. She is coming to the realization of her sexuality and fighting
her pure despair of life and headaches. Virginia receives a visit from her
sister Vanessa and Vanessa's two sons and daughter. The daughter
places a strong influence on Virginia's emotions through the death of a
bird. Eventually, Virgnia must face the decision to run away to London,
stay with her beloved husband, or move to London where the doctors
forbid her to go.
 STORYLINE(2):

 Laura Brown, is a mother fearing her ability to be a mother again. She

is reading 'Mrs. Dalloway' in 1951 Los Angeles. Laura is trying to throw
a wonderful birthday party for her husband. The very pregnant Laura
thinks she won't be an adequate mother to her son and current baby
on the way in a few months. Laura must make the decision to run away
from it all or live miserably with her happy husband. Clarissa Vaughan
is a career publisher living in present 2001 New York. Her nickname,
given by her poet-friend, Richard, who is dying of AIDS, is Mrs.
Dalloway. Clarissa is also throwing a party but for Richard who is
receiving an award for his poetry. Like Virginia Woolf, Clarissa is also
a lesbian but also wonders if she is in love with Richard with whom she
once dated. At the end, the whole plot twists and comes together. The
basic theme of the film is wondering if it is better to live your life for
your own happiness or others.
 STORYLINE(3)

 In 1923 England, ailing novelist Virginia Woolf is starting to write her

novel, 'Mrs. Dalloway', under the care of doctors and family. In 1951
Los Angeles, Laura Brown is a pregnant housewife whom is planning
for her husband's birthday, but is preoccupied with reading Woolf's
novel. In 2001 New York, Clarrisa Vaughn is a lesbian publisher
planning an award party for her friend, an author dying of AIDS.
Taking place over one day, all three stories are interconnected with the
novel mentioned before, as one is writing it, one is reading it, and one is
living it.
 Recuperating from a nervous breakdown, Virginia Woolf begins work
on her depression-themed novel "Mrs. Dalloway", which goes on to
play a key role not only in her own life but in the lives of a 1950s
housewife contemplating suicide and a new-millennium posh lesbian
publisher caring for her dying friend.
GUIDELINE FOR ANALYSIS:

 Theoretical background
 Description of genre
 Narrative
 THEORETCAL BACKGROUND:

 Cultural texts contribute to building imaginative geographies, mental maps

of the world (not territories).
 The main contributor to this kind of cartography is the media, under its
many contemporary guises (film included). Empowered by its social and
communicative role, the media now controls the political and economic stage.
Its truth controlling apparatus shows in the grammar of its language and the
structure of its narrative.
 The universal modelling filters involved in the process of map making are
(Katan):
 generalisation - reduces choice, oversimplifies, imposes viewpoints and lacks
specific context.
 deletion - involves omission, works on presupposition and generates
mismatch of world representations.
 distortion - transforms what is real or objectively verifiable so that it fits
preconceptions
 DESCRIPTION OF GENRE:

 Format/medium: film, drama/romance, 114 minutes

 Historical Period: 2001/1950s/1920s
 Covers (events): The plot focuses on three women of different generations
whose lives are interconnected by the novel Mrs Dalloway by Virginia
Woolf.
 Generic Plot: see slides 3 and 4
 Geography: New York, California, The UK
 Iconography (the content of images):
 setting: Sussex, England; Richmond, a suburb of London; Los Angeles; New
York City
 key visual signs: streets, buildings, rooms (as the camera zooms in on
significant locations)
 key sounds: incidental, urban and domestic, public and private;
 kinesthetic icons: movement, behaviour (specific to social roles)
 NARRATIVE:

 The film is a complex semiotic event, which

makes meaning inside its audio-visual textuality, as
already suggested, through the use of words,
gestures, sounds, music and pictures – all narrating
the imaginative, possible world of intercultural
conflict.
 Its cine-poetics lacks linearity (despite its
sequential nature), the three layered narrative
pattern reflecting on the invisible area of the cultural
iceberg more than on its manifest tip.