Journal 2: Dissecting a scene

For my analysis I chose to work on the movie clip I’ll be using for project one. This is a clip from Little Women (1994) when Beth and Jo, sisters, have their last moment together before Beth dies. Jo is back from studying away from home, visiting her sister, Beth. Like old times, Jo reads in her humorous manly voice from a book to Beth, who is in bed.

This scene first shows outside revealing it is night time where they are. The light is dim inside with one or two candles lit, creating an intimate scene between the sisters. Beth is in bed and Jo is kneeling beside her. This shows a difference between the sisters where Beth is sickly and Joe is healthy. As Jo is reading, there is an obvious difference between the characters vitality in the scene, where Beth is quiet and doesn’t move much and Jo is lively and funny and gestures along with the story she’s reading. The scene is light filled for a moment while Jo is reading the book, but then Beth changes the distractingly fun moment into a intimate and real conversation when she says, “I feel stronger with you close by.” It is intimate as they are both in the camera shot staring at each other. Jo becomes more equal with Beth’s demeanor as she takes off her top hat, put down the faux-carrot-cigar and book and holds Beth’s hands. Joe gets real, as she was a jokester before.

As Beth tells Jo how she’s not afraid to die, her eye contact is strong and doesn’t waver from her sister, unlike Jo where often she looks down at their intertwined hands or closes her eyes. This makes the watcher see that the two aren’t equal at the moment: Beth is not scared to be honest and to die, while Jo is still uncomfortable with the reality of her sister imminent death. This motif appeals to watchers because of how real this feeling is in real life situations. After a loved one’s death, the hardest part is for the people left behind.

The eye contact changes, when Beth looks away saying “why does everyone want to go away?“ Showing a moment of questioning her earthly life and wonderment of her sisters going off into the world to explore. Roles reversed here where Beth looks away at nothing and Jo’s watching Beth, eyes fixed. As both eyes are on each other again, camera occasionally flipping back-and-forth, Jo recedes once Beth discusses missing her from heaven showing, naturally, how this is hard for Jo.

A shift in the scene happens, when a distraction of the wind and the open window disrupt the sweet silence between the two sisters. The camera shot on both sisters moves with Jo as she leaves the bedside to shut the window, leaving Beth behind and out of the shot. The camera is outside of the window looking in to the room and at Jo who, with trouble, shuts the window. At this moment, soft piano music starts playing (while it was silent before) and Jo pauses at the window. She is caught thinking about something and the camera slowly zooms in on her face. Jo remembers her sister behind and her and slowly turns around to look at Beth. Without the camera on Beth, the viewer can assume Beth passed away by just watching Jo and her reaction after looking towards Beth (a deep sigh, and silent tears). Joe lays next to her in the bed, saying nothing and holding her face and touching her hair and the camera slowly zooms out and gets darker and fades away.

Scene cuts to daytime, suddenly bright red flowers are being ripped from their stems. Seems almost barbaric ripping something so beautiful and fragile apart. The housemaid/friend is using the petals to sprinkle on Beth‘s bare bedroom. In a way, the roses are a symbolism of Beth’s life and death. Although it seems so unfair to have someone so beautiful and fragile taken from this earth in their prime, Beth’s death is a beautiful lesson for the people around her and it is not in vain. Just like the flower petals being taken off the stem, their life source, the petals are used to make Beth’s room beautiful and to honor Beth’s death. The petals are sprinkled atop Beth’s shut (quieted)piano, and across her white, stripped bed. Lastly the camera zooms in on a line up of dolls at the foot of her bed, focusing particular on the middle doll. This doll was Beth’s favorite and looks like Beth a little bit. The maid sprinkles red petals on the dolls and closes in on Beth’s doll and squeezes the arm sweetly, as if saying, “I love you.”