Wild Tales: Pasternak
Narrative Structure
Pasternak is a short film about two passengers who are on a plane and begin a conversation and as their conversation progresses they discover that they both know the same man named Gabriel Pasternak. As the man Darío Grandinetti and the women María Marull continue talking about this person that they both know, the women in front of María chimes in and explains how she know Pasternak and as the conversation continues more and more people explain how they know this man and eventually María asks everyone on the plane if they know Pasternak, with that they all reply that know who he is. The flight attendant breaks down in a state of panic and explains to everyone that Gabriel is flying the plane and is going to crash it but before they can do anything the plane begins to shake and everyone begins screaming and crying. All of the people on the plane are people who have a some point in Gabriel’s life caused his anger and like all the other short films in the collection of Wild Tales the idea of excessive revenge is displayed. Some examples of what the people have done to Gabriel is María Marull has sex with his only friend Darío Grandinetti and his therapist heightened the prices and he was unable to pay. Gabriels former psychiatrist tries to reason with him to stop but, he’s refuses to leave the cockpit of the plane. And while killing everyone on the plane he also crashed the plane into his parents.
In this case of narrative flow the information is revealed to us as it is revealed to the characters, and the point where they realise something is going wrong is towards the end of the film and the point at which they realise they are going to crash, the pace of the film begins to pick up and the crash of the plane appears to have arrived faster than the audience anticipated because of the build up of tension. There are no flashbacks or flash forwards in Pasternak and this film is a linear narrative, meaning we see the events of the story unfolding in the order in which they occurred.
In some ways there is an enigma in Pasternak as they are all left till the end to believe that they are just on a normal flight, until the story begins to unfold and as the audience and the characters themselves we begin to realise that they need to get through to Pasternak in cockpit of the plane before they all die, but they are too late and the common theme occurs again and it end its a tragic event of revenge. The framing of the sequence has been done specifically to show the reaction of those on the plane and the fact that it is set on a plane restricts the space they have but yet allows creativity of positions which is what the director has done to allow view of different characters at different points.
In this film there are clear lines of conflict between Pasternak and the characters involved in the incident as it would not have been so tense if not. There are binary oppositions between the good and the bad but in some cases what the good has done to the bad could be misinterpreted. The audience has been shown what is happening as the characters are and the film is a linear structure film as everything happens in the ‘correct’ order.
Cinematic Influences
Pasternak is a film based in Argentina (like the rest of the films in Wild Tales). Argentina is known country for being extremely corrupt, this is subtly shown through the stories, like Pasternak. This idea is shown through the form of corruption like peoples representation of others being damaged, it is also shown tough the craving for extreme cases of revenge. The themes throughout every short film in this completion (definitely including Pasternak) is the political anger.
The director of this film, Damian Sxifron has said that the events could be set “in any country and at other period of time”, meaning there is no specific time it is for the audience watching choice as to when they think it was made and also, this statement has the suggestion that perhaps the contexts of this film are much broader than just Argentina and that they are implying how all humans have the capability of these revengeful events but we wouldn’t think to do so for moral and important purposes.
Wild Tales was co-produced by three Argentine studios also, Agustín's and Pedro Almodóvar's Spanish company El Deseo. During the time this was filmed Argentina was a democracy which had a huge influence on each individual film production due to the film showing the directors opinions and views of Argentina this was rather than the views of the government. Wild Tales as a whole was rejected by the bigger film production producers which impact the financial support (being much lower) and the fact that the film was also shot in eight-weeks again is to do with the budget of the film.
Cinematography
There is a specific shot on the plane, where multiple people are in on one discussion and we see an extreme one shot from the back of the plane and it is almost like an over the shoulder shot of the plane seats, this shot shows the audience a view of what the setting is like and allows us to involve ourselves in the films and understand the reality of the situation about to occur.
The reality of the situation is reinforced by the jolt of the camera (hand-held camera) as the plane begin to decline and head for the crash. This creates effects and enhances the audiences feeling of understanding and empathising with those in the film. After this there is a tracking shot of Gabriels former psychiatrist as he runs to try and help as much as he can, this has been done to show the significance of this character. This is significant because it explains to the audience how something is wrong with Pasternak as he has previously needed a physiatrist and that this is a act of revenge rather than accident.
Mise-en-scene
The majority of this film is set on an aeroplane and overall everything is quite small and cramped which is reflective to the way Pasternak is feeling he feels that everyone around him have done something to personally attack him, so making the world smaller in some sense will solve the situation for him specifically.
Editing
There are multiple occasions throughout this short film of people having discussions and we see shot reverse shot to show the conversation taking place, with this we can see both the reactions of the people and the way they are speaking to one another.
The faster pace cuts, create the sense of pace and panic in the film and with the other key elements it is enhanced through the pace and screaming sounds from the passengers.
Sound
As the tension begins to pick up there is this squeaking sort of unsettling sound which becomes more intense and exaggerated as the scene goes on to reveal a deep secret. In this case the sound is there to create tension and keep the film flowing. When the plane begins to decline the screams passengers reinforces the fear they all withhold and as the scene goes on and the fear increases the scream as get loud again reinforcing this fear they all have.
Performance
At the beginning of this short film, th performance is portrayed very positively and everyone appears to be happy as they are yet to know what they are in for. The positivity is portrayed through the characters performance: there smiles and way they come across to one another. But, as the film progresses they become much more panicked and to themselves, now in wonder for what they are in for.
This film is overall a tragedy film (like most) as it shows the tragedy of the lives taht have been lost through the act of an individual. In terms of sub-genre this film could be described as a melodrama. The obvious genre conventions ate the message behind the film as the end result literally shows what is meant by a tragedy film.
Creating meaning and effect
This short films in the compilation Wild Tales (Damian Szfiron, 2014) do come across to have events that could happen but are unlikely to happen in the real world due to the violence portrayed, however Pasternak does a good job of expressing some stereotypes, for example María Marull is a model and through her performance she is showing a confident women, stereotypes of a model. In this film there is an aspect of higher authority. A women is shown to be looking up at María from a low angle shot, which shows how ‘superior’ she is. Although, María is objectified by the man sat opposite her on the plane, while he tries to hit on her as she is putting her bag in the overhead storage. In conclusion to this it shows how in this film the men have superiority against the women but women from higher ranks have superiority than middle class women.
The elements of film form are used to construct representation in Wild Tales in multiple ways, for example the mise en scene of the plane (mentioned below) and the way the film is edited together to created this fast paced film which because of make the film feel over so fast because it feels to the audience that everything happened so fast. The look of the film is also created through the elements of film form.
Colour shows an ordinary scene which contrasts the unordinary scenarios, luring viewers into a false sense of security, which makes violence and revenge more unexpected and graphic.
In terms of aesthetics in this film the plane communicates a theme of normality through using calming and bland colours, this is to emphasises the violence when it is to later appear. There is a lack of bright colour which creates an influence on the audience to think everything is normal this is juxtaposed with the reality of the violence. The interior of the plane is white and blue which are traditionally calming colours with a touch of red which could signify violence. The protagonist woman is mostly wearing black to and the main man has a dusty brown blazer. In terms of what colour is the most striking on the screen, the black is and this may be to serve a purpose. Of which could be to draw attention to the woman for some specific reason.
Personal Opinion
I personally thought this short film flowed really well and was really captivating, when lining it up against the other Wild Tales films I wouldn’t say it is my favourite but with that being said I still really enjoyed it and the fast pace of the film was great as it kept the story flowing along. The plot of this film sticks in my mind the most as it is a very unique story line and the way the film makers pulled it off without revealing loads of information to the audience was very interesting, and I personally found that is what stuck in my head the most. In terms of my emotional response I found the plot very bold and unexpected especially the fact family and friends were in the mix and I found it sad because of what we gather the outcome but again it is interesting as to how the producers have created it.
The crisis is majorly conveyed through the performance of the characters and the panic they are struck with in the time of the crisis but also through the camera movements as they created the sense of the audience being part of the film.
Overall I would rate this one: