Ralph analysis

Ralph

In ‘Ralph’ the first scene we see is the character stepping off the train. The camera shot is distinctively obvious as it’s a long shot. In addition, the character, Ralph, is significantly smaller in size compared to the many other objects around him such as the vehicles and the current setting. This tells us that at first glance Ralph is a tourist who is lost and trying to navigate to a location that he is unsure about.  At times the jitter cam is often used in scenes where Ralph is in a conversation with someone or unsure about what to do. Using this technique, it gives us the audience the implication that Ralph is at unease because everyone is different around him and is in disarray due to the fact that he can’t find the person he’s looking for. This also adds realism to the film as it seems as if we, the audience are there with him.

The props in the mis’en scene actually have a deep role that relates to the actor in the short film. Normally when people try to call other people, they use a fairly small mobile phone for contact. However in this short film the director chose to use a pay phone with a phone that was much bigger than usual. I could say that the director chose to use this because Ralph is in dire need of help and because he has a big problem, the phone is meant to empower how big his situation currently is. The editing in this film is minimal, but works well in terms of when each scene is cut. This doesn’t make it seem like the clip order is random which would confuse the audience; the camera shot order is executed very well. In the short film, Ralph seems to constantly go through a continuity of problems throughout his fairly short journey while in France. Ralph has a pen and paper with him, which he uses to write down a series of telephone numbers in order to try and get into contact with his lost friend. This signifies how much of a problem his struggle is and how much he is willing to go through in order to achieve it.

During the film, most of the characters are speaking a foreign language, which leaves the audience baffled as to what’s going on and what’s being said. However this is also used to our advantage as it leaves it up to us to decide what’s going on and what is going to happen further on in the film. This also applies to when Ralph sometimes doesn’t make any speeches in reply to others trying to talk to him in a different language. This makes it quite exciting to watch and keeps us occupied as it leaves it up to us to decide whether he’s going to catch up with Clare or not.

There are many themes that occur such as him being lost, confusion, despair, love and jealousy to name a few. All these themes link up with one another to help us focus about the plot of the film. However it’s quite difficult for the average person to try and notice what genre the film is from first glance. In my opinion, I’d say this is an Adventure film due to the adventure the main character Ralph is having, with various other elements such as suspense, anxiety and being self aware of his surroundings.

The ending of the film is surprisingly very well executed, as it includes a plot twist to when Ralph finally meets the person he has been meaning to contact, but rather has made short contact with another woman and chooses to disregard all that hard work in order to try and find the character ‘Clare’ and just go off with the woman he just met.