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Film Analysis Of Mommy And Ida

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Xavier Dolan’s Mommy (2014) and Pawel Pawlikowski’s Ida (2013) epitomize visual masterpieces. Mommy won the Jury Prize at the Cannes Film Festival and competed as a nomination for the Palme d’Or; Ida won the Academy Award for Best Foreign Language Film. In relation to the synopsis, the films are dichotomous, the former depicts the relationship between a single mother and her teenage son; the latter follows a young nun and the legacy of the Holocaust in post-World War II Poland. Also, in terms of color and visual style the films diverge, Mommy utilizes bright colors and multiple closeups, whereas and Ida is in black-and-white and uses a multitude of cinematographic techniques. Both films represent divergent styles, but contain myriad elements for a visual analysis. Mommy is ultimately about an intense mother/son relationship. At the beginning of the film, Diane Després picks up her son Steve from a juvenile detention facility, from which he had been expelled. Steve’s impulsive and violent behavior led to his temporary incarceration. Throughout the 2 hour and 19 minute run time, Diane and Steve attempt to rebuild their fraught relationship, with the major barrier being Steve’s behavior and Diane’s inability to provide him assistance. The introduction of the Després neighbor, Kyla, attempts to heal the relationship; however, the film concludes in an act of impulsively suicidal desperation. Pawlikowski’s Ida takes place in Poland in the 1960s, with the effects of the

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