The Curious Case of Benjamin Button & Vertigo
Grief/Loss
Belonging
Relationships
Hummingbird symbolises living in the moment/symbol of healing
“You can be as mad as a mad dog at the way things went, you can curse the fates, but when it comes to the end, you have to let go.”
Evolution of the score echoing Benjamin story therefore his feeling of belonging
Tone of the scene/Captain Mikes death
Storm also echoes tone of his belonging
“It's funny how sometimes the people we remember the least make the greatest impression on us.”- Benjamin
Paradox of Benjamin's fear of birth due to his condition and Anna & Luke's fear of death
‘We’re meant to lose the people we love. How else would we know how important they are to us’- Miss Maple
"She had left a note. She wrote, it was nice to have met you.” That was it."- Benjamin
Read with a low angle shot
Not all relationships are permanent (similar to Anna & Luke's relationship with the boy
Dialogue of "Some things last forever" (Caroline) despite the Benjamin's state of being at peace with where he is does not last often
‘For what it's worth, it's never too late or, in my case, too early to be whoever you want to be’- Benjamin Button- Narration of Benjamin realizing he does have control of where he feels at home
Belonging
Relationships
Grief/Loss
"But in the numbness of their grief, no name presented itself and thereafter they had come to think of him as 'the boy'. It seemed so much more intimate than any given name"- Chapter 3
alludes to close connection which demonstrates the large amount of loss they dealt with as well as shaping Anna & Luke's life story hence the move
Narrative voice/3rd person
enables Lohrey to shift perspectives from Luke to Anna. This shows how different their experiences with the loss are
Luke pushes the grief of his individual aside although they come together to share the experience after living through the bushfire ordeal
"In the weeks that follow Anna begins to resent her husband"-Chapter 2
symbolises her state of vertigo and feeling out of step
"But the rain doesn't come. Nature is out of whack, thinks Anna, even the birds can't read the signs"
-metaphor for the environment and their relationships, their relationship is out of whack
a hope for something to change which doesn't
literally meaning the rain but figuratively meaning the relationship
Rule of thirds for Anna
grief over the boy, relationship with Luke and find a sense of belonging
"Now she belongs in neither place, like some migratory bird that has lost its bearings"-Chapter 2
simile, birds represent their own migration, lost her sense of home
Motif of the birds
sighting of parladote reflects their migration
suggest the couple are in constant state of motion
bushfire symbolises renewal and transformation
Lohrey uses their experience with bushfire to change their attitudes
Environment is romanticized by Luke - pastoral
Luke belongs to nature
Common Wattle bird that stares reflects Luke's common and boring mindset
Common Wattle found dead represents Luke shedding his skin and changing his attitude symbolising healing (alike the hummingbird)
"Here they could live, and simply be"- Chapter 1
Contrast between chapter 1 and 3
Anna expecting to find peace in Garra Nalla but instead is faced with the feeling of vertigo
"But what about the boy, she groans, we can't go without him, we can't leave him behind"- Chapter 3
shows her mother instinct of not wanting to leave the boy behind
emotive language affects the tone