An excellent site HERE to practise reading, listening and practising English from the movie.
This is an interesting analysis.
Sidney Arthur Lumet (/lu??m?t/loo-MET;[1] June 25, 1924 – April 9, 2011) was an American actor, film director, producer and screenwriter. Lumet started his career in theatre before transitioning to film where he gained a reputation for making realistic and gritty New York dramas which focused on the working class, tackled social injustices and often questioned authority.
Paramount pictures have released twelve awesome posters showing the pebble-shaped alien crafts hovering ominously above a different location in each, which in the right order show the ships spinning, a cool little easter egg I’m sure most will agree. See it spinning HERE.
THE DIRECTORAND THE ACTORS
It’s a film by Denis Villeneuve. Learn more about the director and the film on the IMDB website HERE.
Denis Villeneuve is a French Canadian film director and writer. He was born in 1967, in Trois-Rivières, Quebec, Canada. He started his career as a filmmaker at the National Film Board of Canada. He is best known for his feature films Arrival (2016), Sicario (2015), Prisoners (2013), Enemy (2013), and Incendies (2010). He is married to Tanya Lapointe.
The film stars Amy Adams and Jeremy Renner as lead actress and actor.
THE STORY
A linguist works with the military to communicate with alien lifeforms after twelve mysterious spacecraft appear around the world.
DIFFERENT THEMES
LANGUAGE
Language has the power within it to destroy or bring help.
TIME
For the heptapods, time is not linear as it is for humans. Their language allows them to perceive time in a non-linear manner which gives them the ability to alter their choices in the present moment to obtain a better outcome in the future. The film poses the question, « If you knew the future would you change anything? » We are all subjects of Time and what we choose to do with it is our own, regrets and all.
DUALITY AND BALANCE
Louise and Ian embody the theme of opposing forces working together in order to create balance. However, despite their opposite way of thinking, it is clear that both characters need each other in order to succeed in the task of communicating with the heptapods.
Finally, the theme of duality is reflected in the names given by Ian to the two heptapods, Abbott and Costello, a popular comedic duo characterized by the opposite personalities of each man.
Their comedy routine was « Who’s on first ». As the bit starts, Abbott states « Who’s on first, What’s on second, and I don’t know is on third » several times. Costello doesn’t understand and his questions of which player is on which base are taken as true or false statements needing affirmation or correction. For example « Who’s on second base? » – « No, Who’s on first. » – « I’m not asking what’s the guy on first. » – « What’s on second. » – « I don’t know the guy’s name on second. » – « No, he’s on third base. » – « Who’s on third? » – « No, Who’s on first. » – « Who’s on first? » – « Yes » and so forth. Both Abbott and Costello’s bit and Arrival show the ease of misunderstanding while communicating.
Inside the Shell, the only colors shown are black, white and gray. This can be related to the theme of duality and balance featured in the movie, as black and white are usually associated with opposites: good and bad, light and dark, even yin and yang. Furthermore, gray is the combination of these colors, and thus represents the union between said opposing forces.
GEOMETRICAL SHAPES
Squares and circles are used in the movie to represent order and a lack of it. In photography, squares are associated with stability and structure, while circles are a less rigid shape, often tied to cycles. For this reason, the imagery of squares is prominently featured in Louise’s life before the arrival of the heptapods – for example, in the university, her office, even in the opening shot of the window of her house. On the other hand, from the Shell to their language, circles are associated with the alien creatures, which in turn represent a challenge for the systematic view of time adopted by humans.
THE SAPIR-WHORF HYPOTHESIS
“Ian Donnelly: If you immerse yourself into a foreign language, then you can actually rewire your brain.
Dr. Louise Banks: Yeah, the Sapir-Whorf hypothesis. It’s the theory that the language you speak determines how you think and…
Ian Donnelly: Yeah, it affects how you see everything.”
This theory is controversial but one of its arguments for it is that Chinese-speakers for example tend to think of time running from top to bottom, as opposed to English-speakers, who think of time running left to right.
MORE TO SEE
‘Ma classe au cinéma’, a video in French about language HERE.
