Realism is important in creating a character the audience can more easily relate to, which is fundamental to texts attempting to create a reflection on such figures found in the real wold. This higher degree of verisimilitude is a staple of British social realism cinema, which represented characters in a documentary-like manner in order to evoke an audience reconsideration of marginalized or disadvantaged peoples or classes. Andrea Arnold’s film ‘Fish Tank’ (2009) utilises its depiction of place and use of ambient sound or music to create this realism in its depiction of its main character, fifteen-year-old Mia (played by Katie Jarvis). The depiction of Mia’s experiences in the narrative of the film ultimately asks the audience to understand
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Dance and music are intrinsically inter-connected, and Mia’s passion of dance, crucial to the development of plot in the film and her character, allows for an interesting dynamic of music or diegetic sound within the film. There is in fact no musical soundtrack to the film, and any song played originates from within the world of the film, rather than from the editing room. The final scene of the film features a song called “Life’s A Bitch” played over the radio, to which Mia, her younger sister Tyler and her mother all dance. The songs heard are real, popular songs of the time, once more blurring the lines between the world of the film and the world it represents. Moreover, diegetic sounds dominate the film, stripping away the conventions of Hollywood cinema and instead making the narrative more realistic and sometimes difficult to watch. Long silences or heavy breathing take away the cinematic quality of the film and instead ground Mia’s character in the same world as the audience, where music is only heard with the aid of headphones or other devices. In this way, music and ambient sound create the sense of realism that brings the audience and Mia’s character closer together for the duration of the film, making her more approachable and her struggles more relatable.
In conclusion, Fish Tank’s realism pervades the construction of Mia’s character, ultimately to position the audience next to her as she struggles so they can approach her narrative with a sense of understanding, rather than from a distanced, privileged
Dance and music are intrinsically inter-connected, and Mia’s passion of dance, crucial to the development of plot in the film and her character, allows for an interesting dynamic of music or diegetic sound within the film. There is in fact no musical soundtrack to the film, and any song played originates from within the world of the film, rather than from the editing room. The final scene of the film features a song called “Life’s A Bitch” played over the radio, to which Mia, her younger sister Tyler and her mother all dance. The songs heard are real, popular songs of the time, once more blurring the lines between the world of the film and the world it represents. Moreover, diegetic sounds dominate the film, stripping away the conventions of Hollywood cinema and instead making the narrative more realistic and sometimes difficult to watch. Long silences or heavy breathing take away the cinematic quality of the film and instead ground Mia’s character in the same world as the audience, where music is only heard with the aid of headphones or other devices. In this way, music and ambient sound create the sense of realism that brings the audience and Mia’s character closer together for the duration of the film, making her more approachable and her struggles more relatable.
In conclusion, Fish Tank’s realism pervades the construction of Mia’s character, ultimately to position the audience next to her as she struggles so they can approach her narrative with a sense of understanding, rather than from a distanced, privileged