Love Actually Deconstruction

Love Actually

Release date: 14^th November 2003

Directed by Richard Curtis

Budget: £30,000,000


Follows the lives of eight very different couples in dealing with their love lives in various loosely and interrelated tales all set during a frantic month before Christmas in London, England.
http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0314331/ 

·      The music to the start of the film is soft and quite loving. This connotes to the audience that this is going to be a romantic film.

·      Medium shots of embracing family’s and couples symbolizes again to the audience that this film is going to be about romance and love. 

·      The voice of over of a man with a soft voice talking over shots of loving people, gives the story more meaning and makes the film opening appear very sentimental.

·      Subtitle and voice over: love actually …. is all around. This includes the title of the film and highlights the love in red in the subtitle. It does this so it stands out to the audience and engages the viewer into the film more.

·      The subtitle love actually is the only thing left on the screen as the background dissolves into blackness. The love is still highlighted in red. The red signifies (obviously love) romance, deep feelings and warmth.

·      The subtitle fades out. The shot then fades in on a man signing in a recording studio. The background music of the studio is playing so the viewer can hear it.  

·      The opening credits of the actors are in the bottom left hand corner of the screen. Whilst you can still see the man in the recording studio singing a Christmas rendition of Love Is All Around by Wet Wet Wet. 

·      The first letter of every actors name is highlighted in red. The constant colour scheme seems to be white and red. This signifies romance and brightness and a new beginning.

·      The comedy aspect of the film is introduced when the recording artist keeps using the word love instead of Christmas. Which they have to keep redoing until he sings the song correctly.

·      On the second attempt of singing the words wrong are followed by lot of swearing, like in Four weddings and a Funeral.

There are some aspects of the film Love actually that I have incorporated into my production.

One being the use of swear words for dramatic effect, and response from the audience. In Love actually the character Billy Mack played by Bill Nighy swears repeatedly when sings the wrong lyrics to his song.  When my main male character wakes up late for school, he will look at his alarm clock and swear reputedly.

The film Love actually explores many different types of love such as marriage, partnership and non official relationships.

My film explores the different aspects of love as it looks at the common boy liking girl scenario. My film as looks at heterosexual relationships as towards the end of my film the audience finds the main girl to be interested in women instead of men. This leaves the male character confused and annoyed.

The audience would not expect the female character to be lesbian as her stereotype is portrayed as the pretty, popular girl who everyone loves. This character normally has a good looking boyfriend who is similar to herself. I did not want the girl to be a normal stereotypical girl because I wanted to give my film a different, unexpected edge.