Set Text: Billy Elliot
Billy Eliot is a motherless boy growing up in a mining community in Northern England. Sent by his father to boxing lessons at the local youth centre, he soon takes an interest in the girls' side of the building - where ballet lessons are taking place.
In addition to issues of gender and belonging, the film also targets family relationships (Billy's relationship with his brother, father and grandmother), class issues (a minor's strike) and sexuality (the stereotype that boys who do ballet are gay). The cinematography and soundtrack are particularly important in communicating one boy's attempt to fulfil his dream of belonging in an unfamiliar world.
Reading the script will help you focus on the dialogue which is essential when you are looking for important scenes and quotes. The script can be found here [http://www.facebook.com/note.php?note_id=186878671344123]
For words from the composers' mouths, try
For reviews from different perspectives, try
Study guides can be found below. Be aware that Billy elliot has been used in other parts of the HSC, so some of the study guides are NOT about Belonging. However, they may give you useful ways of looking at the film techniques that you can adapt to discuss how the composers communicate the concept of belonging.
WARNING: DON'T PLAGERISE. YOUR TEACHERS USE THIS SITE TOO!
For words from the composers' mouths, try
- Interviews with the director, the teacher and the actor who plays Billy can be found here {http://www.billyelliot.com/pages/interviews.html]
- An interview with the screenwriter [http://pubs.socialistreviewindex.org.uk/sr247/mitchell.htm]. This is from a very left-wing perspective, so it concentrates on the class issues in the film.
- The review at Spliced Wire is based on interviews with Stephen Daldry, the director, and Jamie Bell, the actor who plays Billy. [http://splicedwire.com/00features/jbell.html]
For reviews from different perspectives, try
- Rotten tomatoes [http://www.rottentomatoes.com/m/billy_elliot/] Scroll down to "Critics reviews" and click on a dialogue box to read the full review.
- New York Times [http://www.nytimes.com/2000/09/10/movies/film-lives-transformed-by-leaps-and-bounds.html?pagewanted=all&src=pm]
- World Scocialist Website [http://www.wsws.org/articles/2000/dec2000/elli-d18.shtml] this is a left-wing analysis which focues on class relationships.
- If you are a member of the State Library of NSW, you can access interesting articles at [http://belonginghsc.wordpress.com/infocus/]
- "Cinderella Dances Swan Lake" is an academic essay from the Journal of Poplar Culture ( Journal of Popular Culture, Vol. 39, No. 5. (October 2006), pp. 709-728) which looks at the fairy tale elements of Billy Elliot. You can read it online through your Auburn library.
Study guides can be found below. Be aware that Billy elliot has been used in other parts of the HSC, so some of the study guides are NOT about Belonging. However, they may give you useful ways of looking at the film techniques that you can adapt to discuss how the composers communicate the concept of belonging.
- Macquarie Uni's slide show gives the context of hte film. [http://www.slideshare.net/Buxtonator/billy-elliot-270095]
- Sean Conlan [http://www.film-studies.net/study-guides/billy-elliot]
- British Council [www.britishcouncil.org/argentina-literature-billy_elliot.doc]
- Ali Nikat Eken [http://alinihatekenblog.wordpress.com/2008/04/02/discussion-questions-for-billy-elliot-stephen-daldry-2000/]
WARNING: DON'T PLAGERISE. YOUR TEACHERS USE THIS SITE TOO!
