Rebel Without a Cause: film form in key sequences — Eduqas GCSE Film Studies C670
Eduqas GCSE Film Studies · C670
Rebel Without a Cause: film form in key sequences
Rebel Without a Cause
What you need to know
Key sequences to know in detail: the opening at the police station, the chickie run, and the family argument on the stairs.
Cinematography: canted and low angles, an upside-down point-of-view shot, and three-shots that trap Jim between his parents in the family argument.
Mise-en-scène: Jim's red jacket, the toy monkey, the venetian blinds of the police station, and the staircase as a barrier.
Editing and sound: long takes that let the performances play out, and music that underlines the drama.
How the film represents young people, masculinity (Jim's fear of becoming like his father), gender (Judy) and Plato.
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.
