Short Film Analysis - Love Me or Leave Me Alone

In this week's seminar we watched a variety of different short films and analysed them after we watched them. In this blog post I am going to analyse one film in particular named 'Love Me or Leave Me Alone' directed by Duane Hopkins and explain how the content relates to different aspects of the film form.

  The focus of this film is about two young teenagers discovering the problems and challenges with first love. The film starts with a young couple arguing and shouting about how much they hate each other and that they never want to see/speak to each other ever again. This goes on for quite a while until the couple get back together and seem to have sorted out their problems towards the middle of the film. Although this is normally where a romance would end, on a happy note, the couple then start to have problems again and the film ends without any resolution to their problems.

  This films challenges many conventions of its genre as usually in a romance the film will start with an equilibrium, then this would be disturbed towards the middle of the film and at the end the equilibrium would be restored. However, this film starts and ends with a disequilibrium which is very uncommon for its genre.

  The techniques used in this film are very interesting, which allows the viewer to become a lot more involved in the story. The technique that I found most interesting about this film was the editing used for some of the scenes. An example of this would be that the opening shot is of a boy facing the camera then turning and spitting, which is all shown in slow motion. The next shot is of the spit from the boys mouth landing in a girl's face. She then starts shouting about what had just happened causing an argument between the two. This scene had a lot of very quick cuts from different shots including different angles, zoom length etc.
  Quick cuts are used in filmmaking as it suggests energy and chaos, which is relevant in this scene as the editing matches the chaos of the fight. The reason that I find this technique even more interesting is because of the contrast of the two shots, the slow-motion and the fast paced sequence. This makes the fight seem very sudden and shows that it has escalated very quickly without much incentive.
  This same technique is used during the sex scene between the couple. The shots go from an over the shoulder view of the couple where they are being quite slow and quiet, to fast pace cuts where the couple get a bit more energetic. These shots go from one to the other for a while to show how it has escalated.

   The sex scene itself though does not seem very intimate throughout all of the shots. This links back to the facts that the couple is very young and this is their first love so they don't really know how to feel during those moments. This scene also takes place in what looks like an abandoned shed. The reason that they are using a shed, which is not a very romantic setting, once again links to the fact that they are a young couple which means that they have nowhere to go, as they don't want to stay at home all the time but they are not old enough to go down to the pub. This is a recurring theme throughout the film as it is set in the countryside, many of the settings are outdoors including places like the shed, a shelter, along a country road etc.

  As the location of this film is in a rural setting during the winter, everything seems very grey and dull. Even the clothes that the characters wear are very plain and are mainly colours like grey or a dirty white. The lack of colour in the film relates back to the fact that these teenagers are bored and this is reflected in the clothes they wear.

  The lack of colour in the film is even reflected in the lighting used. This is shown especially at night as the couple are barely visible in the dark. An example of this is towards the end of the film when the teenagers are discussing whether they should remain a couple; they are barely visible under a street lamp. This causes the camera to only see half of their faces as the rest of the frame is filled with darkness.

  Another interesting technique that Hopkins has used is the way that he builds tension during the film only for it to lead nowhere as the film does not match what you expect to happen. This happens a couple of times during the film, an example is when the young girl tries to hitch a ride along a country road. Once a car stops for her and she gets in, you do not see the driver's face which seems mysterious, the boy is then seen in the wing mirror trying to catch up to the car. The boy seems frantic and desperate to catch the car, which then makes the viewer think that something bad is going to happen involving the girl and the car's driver. However, this then leads nowhere as the girl gets home safely. Another example of when the director used this technique is right at the end of the film, the last shot is the boy riding his bike home in complete darkness and all you can hear is the squeaking of the wheels as he pedals. The squeaking then stops for the boy to catch his breath as a car comes up behind him, suddenly illuminating the boy as he is looking over his shoulder. As the camera is focused on him, the tension builds as this leads the viewer to believe that the boy is going to be involved in an accident, although once again this does not happen, thus challenging the audiences expectation of the films ending once again.

  The camera shots used in this film are also very interesting as a variety of different techniques are used. An example of this is when the boy is in the shelter deciding if he should follow his angry girlfriend or not, half of the screen is filled with the field and the other half is in complete darkness. I find this shot interesting as it looks like it could be a split screen, each side relating to how the boy is feeling about whether to follow her or not.

  Throughout the film the characters do not use much dialogue apart from when they are arguing and shouting at each other or when one of them is pleading for the relationship to work. This made me think that the couple don't have much to say to each other as whenever they are talking it is always seen in a negative way, e.g. shouting at each other or questioning whether the relationship should continue. Once again this links back to the theme of boredom in the film as they don't have anything positive to say to each other, therefore they seem to be creating drama for themselves.