I Stand By My Mistakes

We Need to Talk About Kevin (2011)

Not many films of 2011 have appealed to me, however, We Need to Talk About Kevin (dir. Lynne Ramsay) affected me the most encouraging a vast contrast of emotions from confusion to pain and joy and including themes of the nature-nurture debate. The film takes a stance on aspects of American culture and its society. This includes consumerism, corporal punishment for youths and the media. It is full of such clever, teasing juxtapositions as thematic links are made between past and present

An underlying theme of this film, though hidden well, I believe is love. The reoccurring theme of red as shown in the screen caps above underline a colour usually associated in filmography with romance. We Need to Talk About Kevin plays on this idea until the end of the massacre where we learn Kevin (Ezra Miller) has used a 'crossbow' and 'arrow', objects typically considered as symbols of childhood play and love. Many critics believe that this hidden theme is perhaps a statement relating to the relationship between Kevin and his Mother and what it was lacking.

It is worth considering literary tradition and the presence of such classics as Mark Twain’s The Adventures of Huckleberry Fin and JD Salinger’s The Catcher in the Rye. In both cases the authors used the mask of childish innocence to expose hypocrisy within American culture and society.

Sergei Parajanov

The Color of Pomegranates (1968)





Sergei Parajanov is known for being a Soviet Armenian film director and artist. Within his work he creates visual fantasy worlds with colourful backdrops and vivid outfits. Parajanov preferred to work in a short format style, achieving thematic cohesion through the aggregate of vignettes and/or nocturnes rather than a traditional narrative.

Porcile (1969)

Trailer for Pier Paolo Pasolini's "Porcile"/"Pigpen"/"Pigsty" (1969)

Two dramatic stories. In an undeterminated past, a young cannibal (who killed his own father) is condemned to be torn to pieces by some wild beasts. In the second story, Julius, the young son of a post-war German industrialist, is on the way to lie down with his farm's pigs, because he doesn't like human relationships.

Starring Pierre Clémenti, Jean-Pierre Léaud, Alberto Lionello and Ugo Tognazzi.