Review of Ralph by Alex Winckler

Review of RALPH

This short film was impressive due to the two languages being emitted, which were French and English but throughout it you would expect to have difficulty on understand what is having however it was the complete opposite because throughout it you felt connected to both the people.

The story seemed to be well thought through and the portrayal of all the characters was clean and controlled. From the onset of the story you are shown the story of a boy travelling to see the girl he loved however after arriving and being hauled by an obstacle which was a main factor to finding the girl he loves, but in the end this obstacle ends up leading ralph to a  perfect ending to a misleading story. 

Throughout the story many themes become to emerge. When Ralph arrives in France to find the girl and tries to contact her this shows a sign of love and commitment because he has travelled all this way to find her but something goes wrong but he does not give up therefore showing commitment. Then there is a sign of lose when Ralph finds the girl he has been longing to find when he finds out she has found herself a new man, this also shows power on his part because he sees that he has found the one he wants but she is walking away, he shows power as he leaves the one he thought he “loved” for the one that he knows loves him back. There is also partially tension when he is unable to sequence the number making each time a drawback and this creates tension leading up to the moment.

The genre i feel best reflects RALPH is either a drama due to the story line which creates a sense of drama as he has travelled all the way to Paris to find that his love has another man, the lead up is portrayed like a drama. Although there is also a sense of the genre to be romance as he has travelled all this way to find the girl and through all the drawbacks with the number he perseveres until he reaches his goal, this shows a sense of love and romantic feelings he has towards her. Another example of the genre being love is the fact that he find someone he loves when he is there, this shows that although you are reaching for a certain goal anything can stop you in your way and change the path you thought you were heading on.

Throughout the short film the shot sizes differ, the intro begins with a close up of Ralph on the phone and then the shot opens to a longer shot to show where he is which is a train station, this happens because it is opening the scene to show you the character and then it shows you the environment to give you the visual context. Through the film you begin to understand some of the content about Ralph and why he has venture to France and what he is striving to achieve. The shot vary in my opinion from Mis-on-scene to close ups to show the certain emotion the various characters are feeling in the certain moment in the film. The shot and camera angles in this film show you things and capture a true feeling of the place and also some straining and secretive emotions of each character, for example the final scene when he has just found Claire you see his emotion change straight from happy to foolish and life changing as the one he has had is one he has wanted all along just not knowing it. The shot size in this scene was powerful as it shows Ralph’s head turn towards the distance where Julie is walking far from him and he goes leaving everything he wanted for that one moment and in my opinion that is shot very well.

The lighting does not seem to differ in this film due to it being shot in the day and the natural light being perfect for the scene of the film, although in the last seen it shows  that the cloudy lined skies change to a glowing and bright sky maybe showing how everything bothering him and shadowing him is now cleared as his mind has cleared of all the things that were clouding over him. The sound for this short film was extremely well thought about because in the final few seconds the music goes from a harsh hitting note to the peaceful tune which fills your mind with happiness and joy as Ralph is walking after Julie with the sunset ablaze in the distance, this made this scene for me very picturesque.

overall the whole short film really opened my eyes and made me grasp the story and the emotions it was trying to present, this is why i felt the character’s truly made this film remarkable and worth a watch.