Tim Burton is one of my favourite film directors, as i love his own artistic style and characters. His storylines are always interesting, and i think he is a really good example of the idea that dreams can be mixed with reality, for example Alice in Wonderland and Edward Scissorhands. His animations include characters and settings that are unique and different, which creates a familiar feeling in his films, but also with an alienated gothic mood.
All of Tim Burton's films feature one common theme, which may be described as an archetypal romantic conflict - the confrontation between the inside and the outside, between the worlds of fantasy and reality. Burton's central characters create a world for themselves according to the design of their imagination, a world in which they live withdrawn lives. This artificial environment is the reflection of their inner selves.
Merschmann, H (2000), Tim Burton - The life and films of a visionary director, Titan, page 27.
Clip from Tim Burton's story of The Nightmare Before Christmas
Tim Burton creates dream-like films, often sometimes like a nightmare, which helps people to escape from the real world when watching them. His characters often find themselves entering into a vibrant and colourful world, in a stark contrast to their own. For example, Vincent entering the Corpse Bride's world of the dead, which is full of colour compared to the grey world he lives in, or Jack Skellington entering Christmas town in contrast to his Halloween town, or even Willy Wonka walking into his chocolate factory, and Alice entering wonderland.
In his films, Burton requires only a few takes to sketch out a grotesque version of the American Ideal of equality and community (for example Edward Scissorhands). He only needs to exaggerate a little to make the familiar seem strange to us. And thus we see the picture of a treacherous idyll, threatening to implode at any time. He plays such cliches and narrative conventions against each other, he misuses and undermines them, as he wants to draw attention to a reality which represents a constant offence to the imagination.
Merschmann, H (2000), Tim Burton - The life and films of a visionary director, Titan, page 31.
Scenes from Edward Scissorhands
His films play with many juxtapositions, Edward Scissorhands being a good example. Such juxtapositions are colourful scenes compared to dark gothic ones, good/evil, beautiful/ugly, closeness/distance, affection/rejection, creation/destruction, as well as Edwards dark and dingy home juxtaposed with a stylised view of suburbia*. These juxtapositions ultimately help to give his films the feeling of being trapped in a dream or nightmare, and fits the idea of altered states the best in my opinion.
References:
*Page, E (2006), Gothic Fantasy: The Films of Tim Burton, page 81
KungFuKuya (2017), TIM BURTON: A Study Of The Strange, Available at: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nDDQUUhLWrk , (Accessed 18/11/2021)
Comentarios