When Harry Met Sally: film form in key sequences — Eduqas GCSE Film Studies C670
Eduqas GCSE Film Studies · C670
When Harry Met Sally: film form in key sequences
When Harry Met Sally
What you need to know
Key sequences to know in detail: the first meeting and the drive to New York, the scene in Katz's Delicatessen, and the New Year's Eve ending.
Cinematography and lighting: two-shots and mid-shots of the couple, natural high-key lighting, and long shots of New York landmarks.
Mise-en-scène: costume, hair and make-up that mark the passing years, and the public places where most scenes happen.
Editing and sound: split-screen telephone calls, documentary-style interviews, sound bridges across montages, and old standards such as 'It Had to Be You'.
How the film represents gender: Harry's and Sally's views of men and women, and how far the film challenges or keeps stereotypes.
The few short lines of dialogue that matter most in these sequences, a few words each.
A worked answer to a practice stepped question on one element of film form in a key sequence: identify an example (1 mark), explain it (4 marks) and explore it in at least one key sequence (10 marks).
How to answer each part: the marks, and what the short identify and explain parts need as well as the extended answer, since naming a technique instead of a specific example from the film loses marks there. Practice questions to try, each headed 'Practice question' with its marks.
Quote only short lines of dialogue you're sure of, a few words at a time, and base every point on what happens in the finished film.
