Difficult Relationships The cinema of Andrea Arnold

One very distinctive topic Arnold likes to explore is difficult relationships - especially within the family. Her award winning short Wasp tells a story about a single mother who seems distant from her children because of her young age. Raw and powerful, Wasp is about unconditional love just like Red Road, which won the Jury Prize at Cannes Film Festival, and captures the relationship between a woman and her loss of loved ones.

Similar to the first two, Fish Tank has a mother daughter relationship, in addition also gives an important central relationship between a teenager and a father figure. An unknown girl was picked for the lead character (Katie Jarvis), who not only played the part but lived it as well. This could also be considered as a directorial choice because Arnold likes to pick inexperienced actors (or just ordinary people) to play important roles. In some ways, these choices feel more right in the contexts of her plots and it also makes the audience concentrate more on the character rather than on the person acting the role.

Similar to others, a complicated relationship known from English literature, already on the screen in many versions (in 1939 by William Wyler, in 1992 by Peter Kosminsky etc), tortured love story is unraveled in Wuthering Heights. It also marks a kind of a new beginning for Arnold (first adaptation) and also for Heathcliff’s character, which first time ever is portrayed as black. To add a cherry on the top, two actors picked for the role (younger version of Heathcliff by Solomon Glave and older by James Howson), have never been on the big screen before. Talking about new directions for Arnold, compared to her first movies that depend more on the well-thought verbal conversations, Wuthering Heights has definitely, with a stripped down script, the biggest emphasis on the cinematography so far. This of course might be the result of a long time partnership with Robbie Ryan, who has been behind the camera and lighting since the beginning of Arnold’s directorial career.

Looking closely at Wuthering Heights and the first part of this movie, it is mostly delivered through scenes of landscape, rain, together with the sound of strong wind: these dominate the screen. There is no doubt that the mood is set as depressing and gloomy. The more intriguing situation rises from the sharp and rough changes between the scenes, sometimes so extreme that when the black screen goes white, it makes you flinch. In many ways it symbolizes one of the main characters, young Heathcliff, having so few lines in the beginning, is shown as mysterious, but he also acquires certain wildness to his characteristics from those scene changes. It is interesting how Arnold manages to create strong feelings using only the visual elements: branch hitting against the window, bugs in the mud and birds flying under the sky. All which add content to the story, like mentioned previously, is carried mainly by the images on the screen.

Considering her fast success and being consistent with making powerful dramas with realistic and believable characters, Andrea Arnold is building herself a solid career as a director. The best choice for her has been staying true to her unique style which is allowing Arnold, from movie to movie, to find better and more pleasing ways to communicate with the audience.

By Getter Trumsi