Scene from 'Notting Hill' - "Seasons" - Analysis

This is a scene from Notting Hill which depicts a long passage of time (a year) passing in a matter of minutes. This relates to the opening scene of my film which presents the idea that the protagonist Kevin can never change his lazy, "bad-boyfriend" habits even if given a long period of time. My scene tricks the audience into thinking they are watching one argument between Kevin and his girlfriend, however as the scene unfolds we realize that it is the same argument happening on numerous occasions between three different girlfriends over the years. 

   In this particular scene in Notting Hill we see Hugh Grant's character walking through a market after breaking it off with a love interest. The passage of time passing is cleverly depicted by the changing seasons and as Hugh Grant's character walks the length of the market in a minute and a half we see summer turn to autumn to winter to spring before finally back to summer again, telling the audience that a year has passed. These transitions are smoothly executed; for example the camera moves past a white van and suddenly we are in winter with snow falling, covering the street and the screen.

   When he begins walking we know that it is summer from the high key lighting as shown in the picture above. Another way of showing the audience that we are in summer is by the fruit stall. The sign says 'Ripe Peaches' so this tells us that they have been freshly picked and peaches are, most commonly, ripe for the picking during late spring/early summer time.

    As he continues his walk it begins to rain and then a flurry of leaves blow past him.  This then signifies the transition from summer to autumn.

    As he walks on, he passes a white van. When he passes the white van snow suddenly appears all around the scene and we understand that it is now winter. Having the protagonist walk past a white van made the transition a lot smoother. Because the van is white, it blends in cleverly with the snow.

While we are in spring the lighting is slightly dull, making the setting seem cloudy.

The tracking shot shows a man walking in front of the camera.

The light brightens as we go from spring to summer, emphasized by bright
blooming flowers.

    We also see the transition from spring to summer in the following techniques:

  

    The flowers are displayed on sale to illustrate bright colours which you find on blossoming flowers in the summer months. You can almost see the glow from the bright blooming flowers reflect on the protagonist's face in the first image. The majority of the flowers are yellow like the sun to show it is summer and how hot it is. In the second image he has taken his jacket off due to the possible fact that it is too hot in this season.  Also he seems to be happy whereas he didn't seem particularly happy in the beginning of the scene when he approached autumn. Overall I feel that the scenes above are trying to show that people are generally happier in the hotter months of the year and this is portrayed by Hugh Grant's character in the clip.

     If we go back to the beginning there are many different ways to present the seasons changing. In the fifth second we see a pregnant woman looking at items on the market stall. If we cut to 1:29 minutes we see the same woman, this time holding a baby which we assume is hers. This is a clever way to show that at least 9 months has passed.

    Another indication can be seen in the eleventh second when Hugh Grants character's sister is standing, cuddled up to her boyfriend. By 1:20 minutes we see her once again, this time crying with her boyfriend walking away from her. He has broken up with her in the space of a year. This shows the passage of time, cleverly highlighting the fact that a lot can change in the space of a year.

    Some of the props and costumes that are used in this scene are the following:

    We see a Christmas tree and a Christmas stall selling items for this specific season. There is also a man dressed up as Father Christmas to highlight the winter weeks leading up to Christmas. They are all wearing warm cloths such as big puffy coats for the cold winter season.

   We see here that the protagonist has put on his jacket to shelter himself from the bitterness of autumn and we also see umbrellas in the background sheltering people from the rain.







    The song which is playing over the scene is the 1971 song 'Aint No Sunshine' by Bill Withers. I feel that this song has been used because the protagonist's love interest has left him making him upset and depressed. Having the song playing over this scene re-enforces the point that without her in his life he is miserable.

     I believe that Richard Curtis has presented the passing of time in an intelligent and original way. I would take into consideration a lot of the techniques and stylistic choices he has used such as the costumes and the pacing of the scene. The majority of the scene would be almost impossible for me to make unless I had a large budget. The way he has created the scene without any editing is smartly executed and would be almost impossible for an AS student to produce without the proper equipment and funding.

    My group and I talked about using a tracking shot in our opening scene which would depict Kevin walking from room to room and in each room a different girl appears. The girls would serve the same purpose as the seasons in this scene from Notting Hill.  Just like the seasons, the girls would be changing as he moved from room to room, highlighting a period of time passing.  The problem with this is, in order for it to be effective and smooth like it is presented in this scene we would need expensive equipment like camera tracks to get a first-class dolly shot and would also probably have to knock some holes in the walls of my parent's house!  Strangely, they are not okay with this.  The ideas and elements that I would take from this scene would be the tracking shot, but sadly I don't think we will be able to execute this in our opening scene.