When a person goes through a major life-changing experience, they usually have very strong emotions. In Snatch, Amelie, Across the Universe,Vanilla Sky,and Donnie Darko, the filmmakers use various techniques of movement and editing to help convey the powerful emotions of the main characters who are all experiencing life changing events.
In the climactic fight scene that takes part near the end of the movie Snatch, Mickey is in a grueling bare knuckle fight against Horace who is much bigger than Mickey. Mickey begins the fight with the expectation that he will let Horace win because that was the deal that Mickey agreed to, but when he is getting badly beaten he is overcome by a strong desire to beat Horace, partly out of revenge for his mothers death and partly out of self pride. When Mickey takes a very brutal punch from Horace, the filmmaker uses the technique of slow motion to show Mickey falling backwards and sinking into his subconscious, which is then represented by Mickey being underwater fighting his way back. Because the motion is slowed down, there is more emphasis on Mickey's powerful survival instincts kicking in.
In the movie Amelie the title character is an unusual person who has many difficulties and goes through strange events through the course of the film. She means well but has social issues that sometimes cause problems for her in a variety of ways. However towards the end of the film she finally finds love with Nino, an offbeat young man who is a kindred spirit. Towards the end of the film, we see Amelie and Nino zooming down the city streets on his scooter.The filmmaker uses the technique of fast motion to convey their joyfulness and excitement of being together. As they speed along everything around them is a blur.
In Across the Universe Jude and Lucy are two young people living in New York in the late 1960's. They get caught up in the many social and cultural changes of the time. At a hippie gathering they fall more in love with each other. The filmmaker uses the technique of lyrical movement combined with musical background to show the strong emotion of love between Jude and Lucy. We see their bodies entwined around each other as they move in a slow flowing motion that looks as though they are under water.
Towards the end of the film Vanilla Sky the main character David is becoming unfrozen. As he is experiencing this, we see him standing on the edge of a building about to jump off. As he is falling, the filmmaker uses the technique of flashback to show rapid images of his past. Literally his life is flashing before his eyes as he is falling from the building. David is feeling a mixture of sadness, relief and happiness. He is feeling sad because he won't be able to live his life with Sofia anymore, his relief is that he doesn't have to worry about the stress of work or his love life and happiness because he knows he will be with Sofia soon. The technique of flashback gives intensity to these emotions.
The movie Donnie Darko was about a disturbed young man who commits a number of violent acts, frightening and upsetting the people in his life, yet in the end he redeems himself by sacrificing his life to save theirs. After he dies, we see the reactions of these people that he knew. The filmmaker uses the techniques of cross cutting and left to right movement in a sequence that moves slowly from person to person as each shows a response to his death. This techniques accentuates the sad and regretful emotions of the people in this scene.
In conclusion the editing and movement techniques used in Snatch, Amelie, Across the Universe, Vanilla Sky and
Donnie Darko helped emphasize the strong emotions experienced by the main characters at key turning points in their lives.
