Mimesis and Catharsis

Since the beginning of human civilization in ancient Greece, theatre has been an art form of self expression,  not only as entertainment but also a way to help people cope through their own problems and emotional build-up. Which is why people love to watch horror films curled up in terror and sad stories to bawl their eyes out. More often than not, people struggle with facing their true self and feelings; in watching and connecting with events&characters with in the film through the concept of mimesis, they can then work through their own emotions in achieving catharsis and heal through the film.
In the 1990 film American Beauty directed by Sam Mendez, the just-below-average, coward suburban father lusts over his daughter's best friend, but really just the concept of being in touch with his youth again, ultimately coming to his end as he finally find himself and finds beauty within those that truly matter. When Lester first lay eyes on Angela during his daughter Jane's dance team performance, the director sets the scene in an anticipatory set up, tilting the shot in a smooth, upward motion and the entire dance team flares out to reveal princess-like Angela in the center. The shot begins to slowly zoom in on her from a long shot to a medium closed shot; emphasizing her significance later on in the film and as the shot is zoomed more and more upon her, it's literally Lester's attraction to her as he becomes more focused on her, zoning out everything else within the shot just as zooming in on her cuts out the distractions in the scene with her. The music in the gymnasium also fades from the upbeat and innocent dance music to a tense, off key, and atonal chime as the the crosscut close ups showing Lester's first fantasy about Angela, watching her dance seductively and winking at him; in intend to make the audience incredibly uncomfortable.  As Lester has more interactions with Angela, some real and some only in his head; in finding sparks of youth through Angela, he finds a new joy in life in trying to relive his younger years and preserving those feelings. Lester speaks as a non diegetic voice over in an ariel establishing shot of the neighborhood, his house, and then himself running out the door saying "Remember those posters that said, "Today is the first day of the rest of your life"? Well, that's true of every day but one - the day you die." with The Seeker by The Who also playing in the background. This foreshadows his ultimate fate of dying in search of himself, the lyrics of The Seeker “I’m looking for me. You’re looking for you. They call me the Seeker. I’ve been searching low and high. I won’t get to get what I’m after. Till the day I die." also signifies his death in that he isn't actually in love with Angela, but rather the thrill he feels. The running Lester is completely unaware of the non-diegetic sounds and his only concern of the moment is to have a good work out to look hot for Angela. Through out the film, the use of color and lighting strongly help support Lester's internal emotions. The roses can be seen in nearly every shot, being the high contrast of the only bright warm tones in shot of bland cool tones, although the roses are planted by his wife, he only associates them with Angela; only in the last scene, seconds before his death does the associate them with his family for the first time. The high key lighting of his face is also in contrast with the low key lighting of his face from the beginning of the film, suggesting the positive effects of his search for self but also getting closer to the "light at the end of the tunnel" in which his face is fully lit in a soft but bright light. The soft piano music used at the scene of his death is used as characterization in that it's also played during the plastic bag scene when Ricky talks about there's beauty within everything, he finally found the real beauty in his life even though he's dead; he died happy and beautifully. In watching this film, the audience goes from being incredibly uncomfortable and awkward to shocked by the bullet that went through Lester's head; through a series of up and downs on the emotional roller coaster ride, they are in the end at peace and mournful for Lester; released of the anger and bitterness to truly appreciate the beauty with in life.

Almost Famous by Cameron Crowe is a 2000 film that tells Crowe's experience in his teenage years through the story of 15 year old William Miller and his journey of finding his way through the world of sex, drugs, and rock n' roll. When William's sister leaves to become a stewardess, she tells William to look under his bed for a bag of records; it then cuts to a medium ariel shot of William finding the records and a note Anita left for him to "Listen to Tommy with a candle lit, it will change your entire future." suggesting as if Anita or God is watching from above, that it's all in his destiny to find his way in rock n' roll and music.  The scene then cuts to William playing Tommy on the record player and the shot slowly dissolves in to William lighting the candle, and by the end of the song, William is a 15 year old drawing band logos on his notebooks in high school. As Tommy begins to play filling the silence in his room, it's also filling his heart, ridding of the boring and uptight life he had; emphasizing the literally change the song had on him, acting as a turning point in his life. When William meets Lester Bangs, they sit and eat together at a diner in a dense and tightly framed medium close up, showing clutters of food and condiments communicating that either of them has their life straight out and that there's so much in life and isn't a perfectly smooth road and that's ok. Their dialogue is presented with shot reverse shot cutting, showing their reactions to each other and an insight to the character's point of views. This is the scene where Bangs assure William that it's ok to be uncool, and that popularity doesn't matter for that "you'll meet them again on your way to the middle." that it doesn't matter how cool one is today, for that everyone is going to be just ordinary. When William first meets Penny Lane and Still water, the proxemic patterns are thrown out the window, Penny first introduces herself in a loosely framed full shot as a band aid, someone thats there to inspire the music, for the music; not a groupie just to sleep with rock stars, she stands at a public proxemic distance, giving William his personal bubble. The second time William sees her, roughly 30 minutes later, the shot is focused only on Penny as she becomes closer and closer, with everything else blurry behind her, showing William is already noticing her and seeing only her in a environment of chaos.  Penny takes it to a more intimate level reallll fast, not going by the "normal" rules of slowly becoming close with someone, she sits closely to William and caressing his face or more specifically his eyebrows in a tight and high key shot. This communicates her character's carefree and un-ordinary nature, the ability to just let go and love in contrast to the polite and formal lifestyle William is use to.  This film allows the audience to see through the eyes of "the enemy", seeing rock n' roll in a different perspective and the efforts of uncool thats behind the mask of glamor and cool. In seeing William as well as Stillwater's struggle to be cool, giving other people the perception of cool, only to realize in the industry of cool, the uncool is the real cool in being different and real; the audience then can reflect upon their own life and become at peace with the concept of cool vs uncool and looking for the more important things that they may have been taking for granted.

 Memento by Christopher Nolan is a critically acclaimed film that went outside of the box in both realms of editing and catharsis, letting the audience see the film and the plot as the character discovers more about himself. Nolan does not follow in the traditional sense of editing and cutting film in the order they happen in in this film, but rather in a series of scattered jump cuts of black and white scenes and scene in color. Toward the end of the film, the audience is presented with a scene of  Leonard pulling up to the empty ranch house(in black and white) previously seen at the beginning of the film, the shot off balanced with only his truck on the right side as a weight. He then goes into the warehouse and ends up killing a man he believed to be his wife's killer, he strips him down and takes his cloths; as he is putting on the suit, the scene slowly goes from black and white. Only then the audience is aware that the film is cut in a way that plays backward in color and black&white in the chronological order of the events happening; Nolan presents the film i such a way that the audience is watching the beginning and end at the same time, they just don't know it till the end of the film. In one scene where Leonard actually discovers that Natalie is only using him to help her kill off people to her advantage, however, desperate to remember, he fails to find a pencil and write down this vital information. The scene follows the 180 degree rule in a very tight close up shot, clutters out of focus in depth emphasizing Leonard's unstableness and a literal representation of his mind: messy and chaotic. Forgetting Natalie's lie, he goes back to being her personal hit man, the scene cuts to a tight close up reverse dolly of him running from someone accompanied by non diegetic sounds of gunshots and car alarms.  As the audience only sees him running but not the destination, leaving the audience lost and confused, just as Leonard is in that he doesn't know where he is, who he is running from, or why he is running from them; the noise adding even more to the already confusing scene. This film takes the audience through mimesis from the very first scene, knowing no more than Leonard himself due to his condition, it steps outside the box in the concept of catharsis in that it never actually gives the audience a solution; the entire film is built up of suspense yet in the end there's no set resolution therefore there's no release of emotion, leaving the audience in question and having to look for the catharsis outside of the film, looking more into their own lives.

Through watching film and seeing the imitation and representations of different aspects of one's life, experiencing things and finding solutions where as it might be difficult to find in real life, one goes through the process of healing through the release of those most of the time negative emotions, a purgation of the darkness that exists within everyone; and in that cleansing their soul to continue through life with a clearer mind and positive outlook. Through mimesis in film people can overcome the resistance to face their raw emotions to achieve catharsis, purifying their mind.

American beauty

In the critically acclaimed film directed by Sam Mendez and written byAlan Ball, American Beauty  tells a story of the facade of a suburban American family losing themselves, ironically, in search of themselves. Music and sound play a major role in the film in constructing character perspectives and revealing raw emotions, both in which help the audience interpret and connect with the film. Sound in film can be generally categorized in two: diegetic sound, sounds that can be heard by both the characters and audience, like dialogue and source music ; and non-diegetic sounds, sounds that are heard by the audience but not the characters with in the film, typically background music and voice overs. An example of diegetic sounds being the dinner scene after Lester quits his job, the family sits together and eats, much like the first dinner scene, the use of silence communicates the awkwardness and lack of connection that exists with in the house hold. However, this time around much more dialogue is present, Lester is arguing with Carolyn and as the argument becomes more and more heated, Carolyn speak with herself interrupted by Lester's yells, something that's happening for the first time in the film. Carolyn's speaking in third person and answering to herself emphasizes her stress and desperation while Lester for the first time feels in control and empowered, both vocally and physically; through all the chaos Carolyn's classy, romantic tunes still play in the background as always, but this time Lester actually voices out his anger and mocks it. After Lester meets Angela and he feels the sparks of being young again, he begins to work out; one non-diegetic music score sticks with him. An upbeat, xylophone-like sound that plays whether he's lifting weights in the garage or running in the neighborhood. Lester himself isn't aware of this music but its clear to the audience that he is on his way from the coward, middle aged man to becoming self-empowered. One sound sticks out to the audience more than any sound or song in the film: the non-diegetic atonal sounds that play during two scenes of where Lester fantasizes about Angela. The first scene being close up crosscuts of Lester and Angela in the gymnasium and she begins to strip off her jacket, revealing her body but roses fly out and covers her breasts; the second scene is the bathroom scene where Angela baths in a tub completely full of rose petals. Atonal sounds are sounds that are off key, not easy to listen to, and often harsh to the ears, both scenes intend to make the audience very uncomfortable, accompanied with atonal chimes, both the content and music make the scene cringe-worthy.

The use of music in this film not only help set the tone and theme for the characters, it also help the audience further understand and connect with the character's emotional state. Every song used in the film was thoroughly examined and picked out to be best fit and representation of a certain character during a certain development. During the first dinner scene, the long shot shows the family eating together, at first sight the scene gives off awkward tension; Lester tries to make conversation but fails Carolyn is pushy and harsh,  and Jane is the typical rebel teen daughter complaining about her mother's taste in music,  Peggy Lee's Bali Ha'I . 

"Here am I your special islandCome to me...Come to me Your own special hopes, your own special dreams Bloom on the hillside and shine in the streams If you try, you'll find me" 

Although Carolyn puts up a front of a strong willed women that supports the family and authority figure of the household, her taste in musics gives away the sensitive side of her away. The lyrics reveal her desire for love and emotional connection, reaching out to Lester in her own unique way.

Lester on the other hand, is becoming more and more distant as he lusts over Angela. In one scene right after Lester quits his job and drives to get a burger at his teenage workplace, he sings along to American Women by The Guess who.

"I don't wanna see your face no more. I got more important things to do. Than spend my time growin' old with you."

American women represent everything dull, old and ordinary in Lester's life, including his wife. He's high on his new profound love(or rather lust) over young and beautiful Angela, the thrill of getting in touch with his youth, and finally having the courage to stand for himself and do what makes him happy. However, every high must come down; in the scene of a bird eye view of the neighborhood, Lester runs out the door and his own commentary of "Remember those posters that said, "Today is the first day of the rest of your life"? Well, that's true of every day but one - the day you die." fades in the The Seeker by The Who.

“I’m looking for me. You’re looking for you. They call me the Seeker. I’ve been searching low and high. I won’t get to get what I’m after. Till the day I die."

The lyrics of this song sums up the film quite literally, by the end of the film, Lester finally sees his daughter in Angela and no longer lusts after her; finally being able to look past the hype and realize what he'd been looking for this entire time was right in front of him, his family. By the time he sees this, finally found what he'd been seeking, he comes to his end.

Almost famous

Music is presumably one of the most powerful things in the world , it is the universal language,  connecting people and helping them find themselves and a peace of mind in this crazy world. Sound and music are important elements that manipulate and control emphasize on plot to create the director desired effects and feelings expressed by the film. Almost Famous by Cameron Crowe, based on his own experiences touring with bands and writing for Rolling Stones in high school; which is exactly what the main character, William Miller does in the film. In the beginning of the film, William's sister, Anita Miller, leaves home to become a stewardess, as she leaves she plays America by Simon&Garfunkel synchronously and says it explains why she is leaving. The lyrics of America "So we bought a pack of cigarettes and Mrs. Wagner pies And we walked off to look for America" speaks for Anita in that she needs to be free of the restricted environment she was brought up in and herself to a road of finding her place in the world and living life. Before she gets in the car, she whispers in young William's ear telling him to look under his bed and it will set him free. The scene then cuts to William pulling out a bag of records from underneath his bed and running his fingers along the records and finding a note from Anita that says “Listen to Tommy with a candle burning and you will see your entire future.” America fades off into a silence as he takes Tommy out to put on the record, the song begins to play, filling the silence with upbeat, loud rock n'roll suggesting the music fills the silence just as it is fills his heart and the empty places of boredom and ordinary.  The scene then cuts to close ups of the record player, William's face, and the candle to emphasize the change turning point to the film and his life by the end of the song he is in high school drawing band logos on his school folders, this quite literally changed his future, leading him to a life of music and passion for writing.

In the film William meets his mentor Lester Bangs and he guides him through the crazy life of drugs, sex, and most importantly, rock and roll. In one scene of purely synchronous sounds and dialogue, Bangs talks to William about his writing and school. Bangs asks William about school and William say "they all hate me." in which Bangs responds with “You’ll meet them all again on their long journey to the middle.” The middle can be interrupted in two ways; one, the middle as in the middle class, that although the "cool" kids at school think of themselves above William, none of that will matter in 10, 15 years, they will all just be ordinary, living life as the average american working nine-five jobs and paying off their house and car.  Two, the middle as in the middle of the earth, buried in the ground...death; that everyone meets their end one way or another, it doesn't matter how they lived or how cool they are, it simply does not matter.  

Later on in the film, William calls Lester as he is on tour with Stillwater trying to write for the Rolling Stones and Bangs says "the only true currency in this bankrupt world is what you share with someone else when you're uncool." he means when one is stripped away their ego and social status, they can then truly connect with another person on a profound level.  Everyone is all in the game of life in the bankrupt world together. When the band found out that William wrote the story of them, the singer, Jeff Bebe rants about how he knew he couldn't trust the writer. He was so focused on the perception of being cool to the fans, that he'd forgotten what it's really all about; the music and experience. He belts out "is it that hard to make us look cool!" and Russell replies "maybe we just don't see ourselves the way we really are". The irony is that William sees himself as being uncool and StillWater being the coolest thing he'd ever seen, yet they are feeling uncool themselves.  However the fans and the Directors at Rolling Stone loved the story and the band in that they are different and raw. "In America you can ease into middle age with the accoutrements of adolescence still prominent and suffer relatively minor embarrassment: okay, so the guy's still got his sideburns and rod and beer and beer gut and wife and three kids and a duplex and never grew up. So what? You're not supposed to grow up in America. You're supposed to consume." The real Lester Bangs says this in the clash, backing up the Bangs quote from the film about "the middle". Middle class and middle age,  that America is ordinary, and through rock n' roll, one can find a different lens to view the world through, to find common ground with, and procrastinate their journey to the middle for as long as possible.

Editing and Movement

             Vision is one of mankind's most treasured senses, people rely on their eyes to take in information visually, that information then is processed into their own thoughts and perspectives, creating an one of a kind reality. In film, directors manipulate the use of editing and movement within the film to create such realities for the viewers, as well as the characters within the film; and using such realities to tell tales and illustrate the different perspectives that exist within the film that help move forward the plot                                                

                                

                              

                              

                Movement can be categorized as the movement of the camera or actors, often both simultaneously.  In the film Snatch(2000) directed by Guy Richie, the use of slow motions captures and sets the mood for the particular scene when Mickey, a bare-knuckle boxer is fighting in a rigged boxing match; he is lifted into mid-air with one punch and stays in air. The slow motion of this scene emphasizes his fall into calm waters rather than the boxing ring floor, the water represents his sub-conscious as he is emerged, ready to strike back; knocking out his competitor in one punch. The popular French film Ameile(2001) by director Jean-Pierre Jeunet,  shows a different side of movement, creating a fluidness that can slightly change the perception of time for the viewer. In the scene where Nico asks Amelie if the girl in the photo is her, she pretends to casually write the menu on the glass window behind Nico; as she is admiring him from the behind, the shot is focused in a close shot of Nico dipping his fingers in sugar in a soft, slow, dream-like motion; but as Nico becomes aware of Amelie's presence, things speed up in a jumbled manner, snapping both the viewer and Amelie back into reality. After Nico leaves, the camera cuts to a close up of Amelie's face looking back at Nico, and the pull back tilt shows Amelie literally melting to the ground; as her heart melts for Nico and she suddenly becomes more vulnerable as a puddle of goo on the floor because she is in love.  Across the Universe(2001) by director Juile Taymor is the story of Lucy and Jude's love story as they discover life together through a series of Beatles songs, movement of the film is psychedelic in it nature, fitting for the 70's theme. In the scene above, all the characters are laying down in a circle, and it's a close up aerial shot of the characters, the camera itself spins creating the feeling of unity and harmony.
                                   
                                   
                                   
                Editing is a technique often overlooked in film, however, it is one of the most important things in the creation of film in that editing alone determines the way viewers perceive the film. Memento(2000) directed by Christopher Nolan is a film that went outside of box in the realm of editing, the film does not follow in the traditional sense of reality of playing in order. The final cut of the film is divided into two segments, black&white and in color out of order leaving the viewer confused, just as the main character in that he has no memory and the viewer only knows as much as the character throughout the film as more is revealed. Towards the end of the film, viewers find out the film have been playing in reverse from the end(in color) and normally from the beginning(in black&white) simultaneously at the same time till they collide at a point in time when the black&white scenes fade into the colored ones. Vanilla Sky(2001) by director Cameron Crowe, on the other hand, uses the traditional technique of shot reverse shot cutting to illustrate the conversations between characters. Crowe uses this technique many times through out the film, from David talking to Sophia and to his psychiatrist/father figure, it alternates between over the shoulder shots talking  to each other. Richard Kelly uses editing to his advantage distorting reality for the viewers and main character Donnie in the film Donnie Darko(2001). The film is full of jump cuts of when Franks shows up telling Donnie to do terrible things, creating a lack of continuity by leaving out parts of the action and the viewer does not get to see the damage till it's already done.
               In the world of film, many different details of movement and editing are thrown at the viewers without them knowing, these details are picked up by the sub-conscious into further understanding of the film as well as moving the plot forward in the direction if the director's wish.  Those details are also prominent in that character development fully depend on it because they're their entire reality.

               

Vanilla sky

In the movie Vanilla Sky, the main character David goes into a state of lucid dreaming after his death, the audience as well as himself does not find out about this till the end of the film. Through out the film David lives in a state of distorted reality, in which is a jumbled mess of his dreams and the cruel reality of the real world. David's love interest before his accident, Sophia, remains to be the focus of his dreams and fantasies; she is beautiful, goddess like, and David treasures her as true love. However, this love only exists in his dreams, and when he is aware that they are just merely dreams, the shots reflect his self-awareness. Both shots are of Sophia looking straight into the camera as though look into David's eyes; as the audience is watching through David's perspective. Both shots are medium shots with warm colors in the background with highlighting, the first shot focuses on Sophia smiling at David as the camera slowly tracks from a medium close up to a long shot. Suggesting David's physiological self realization and the distance between himself and reality. The second shot is vice versa  slowly tracking from an long shot to a medium close up of Sophia, revealing David's self-acceptance of  the situation and making his last moments before waking filled with love and joy as he leans in to a kiss with Sophia. The emphasize on the sky plays a major role throughout the film, also hence the title, Vanilla Sky. In almost every scene of David's dreams where the sky can be seen, they are low angle shots with the sky being in the top portion of the screen, sometimes tilting up to reveal more sky to his emotional and physiological changes, belittled and surrounded by paranoia of losing all things with value in his life; within those shots, the sky is always a vanilla-caramel color, something that would not be natural in the real world, especially in New York. However, towards the end of the film when David's tech support takes him to the roof with the truth of his lucid dreams, the sky is shot from an eye level being most of the background of the shot for the first time through out the entire movie. This suggests David finally being in control of his choices,  standing above the city with everything beautiful and clear, and the freedom he holds to be free from the nightmare and step into the real world, 150 years later.

The ending scene of the film has a rather positive vibe compared to the rest of the movie, warm colors and highlighting along with soft, light music leading up to David's final awakening. As David pulls from the kiss and runs to the edge of the roof, the scene speeds up and moves to an aerial shot of New York. The camera cuts swiftly but quickly from Sophia to David through each other's perspectives; the shots captures Sophia at a high angle as sort of a goodbye, and David at a low angle looking back at Sophia with high key back lighting behind him, bright light seeping through the clouds of the vanilla sky, creating David in a Christ like figure, in control and powerful. The cut shows the switch of power in the relationship and David's life, Sophia is belittled and no longer the primary focus in his life and he is about to leap into the rest of his life in complete control of himself, literally. The leap is in slow motion as he is falling to the ground, the scene is cut to different flashbacks of his life, dreams or not,  as he is falling. The different flashbacks speeds up and become more jumbled and chaotic, his life all flashing before his eye as he is falling to his end, or rather beginning;a bright white light that silence the screen as the light at the end of the tunnel. Flashbacks  are also sneaked throughout the film as David is being questioned about what happened and what did not; quick, distorted cuts of David rolling on the floor in misery right before his death, images of the Ellie, and tech support offering him the contract. These quick flashes are often accompanied by muffled noises in that to confuse the audience as well as David to the distortion of reality.

Memento

Mystic River

                    

  

Mystic River is a mysterious drama based on the novel by Dennis Lehane. it tells the story of three childhood friends Jimmy, Sean and Dave, reunited by the murder of Jimmy's daughter.Through out the film, an important underlying diegesis is constantly brought up and invokes many critical actions of the characters, that when Dave got into the strangers car as a boy, he was molested. Dave says he was thrown into the basement with a sleeping bag and finally escaped after four days. Later on he killed a child molester on his way home from the bar and he is overly protective of his own son. All his actions that made him the way he is can all be traced back to that one single event. Director Clint Eastwood produced the film with masterful mis en scene, one of the most evident and powerful being the parallel shots of Dave sitting in backseat of a car, driving to his end. The first shot is when Dave was forced into the car of two child molesters whom he thought were cops when he was just a boy, frightened and young, Dave does nothing to protest except look back at his friends as the car drives off. The paralleling shot is when Dave as a grown man sitting in the back of the car with Jimmy's friends to get a couple drinks, he looks back in the back seat of the car in suspicion. In both shots after Dave gets into the car, the person on the passenger seat turns around to look at him, the action is a tightly framed close up, giving the viewer a suspenseful and suffocating feel. This also parallels in that the car drives to his death, twice. It's mentioned many times by Dave himself that he died, that "whoever escaped from the basement then wasn't Dave." After the got in the car as a boy, he was stolen from his innocence and it planted something in him, he wasn't and he could never be himself again. After he got in the car with Jimmy's friends, he was taken to the river and killed by the hands of Jimmy and thrown into the river. Both times he dies, once spiritually and mentally, and once physically, when he died mentally, it ultimately led to his real death because Jimmy thought Dave was so messed up in the head that he killed Jimmy's daughter. No doubt Dave experience as a boy has planted a seed in him that eventually caused his downfall, everything he does wrong is thought to be linked with the trauma. 

             Many factors contribute to Mystic River being a great example of mise en scene, factors like color, focus and contrast. Color plays a major role in creating the dark, mysterious theme of the film, it sets the tone and increases suspense as the viewer watches.During the scene of Dave's final moments as he pleads to explain to Jimmy that he did not kill Jimmy's daughter Katie but rather a child molester, the setting was underlit and dark.  the scene is dim and dull with only black and white. The men's faces are mostly hidden by darkness of shadows and only the left side of their faces could be seen, the contrast in this is a direct reflections of the men themselves, with darkness and goodness. Dave's darkness had been planted inside him and theres nothing to change that, but he used his darkness to help other people from experiencing the same darkness he did. Jimmy however, his darkness was his past of killing people and dumping the bodies into the river, the goodness was Katie, when he fully lost and gave into complete darkness, his face entirely covered by the shadows, is when he stabbed Dave and killed him. He stood tall above Dave as Dave lied on the ground, its a low shot putting Jimmy higher than he already is, suggesting at the same time that Jimmy will not being losing his power, he will get away with this murder.  Contrast is also obvious at the parade as Celeste looks for Dave in the crowd of people and showing support for his son in the parade as well. Sean is seen reunited with his wife, happily together holding hands, and Jimmy's wife having a great time with her daughters. This scene emphasis's Celeste's feeling of lost and hopelessness, she is surrounded by people she didn't know, desperately searching for her husband, a close up shot of her being the only person in focus.