In Tomboy, French director and screen writer Céline Sciamma makes use of various film elements in her portrayal of gender and sexuality. By using different production techniques, she has been able to develop intimate character studies of her protagonists by embedding all the tiny details for the young viewers in this film. This has enabled her to draw out organic and nuanced performances in this work by incorporating various elements in different scenes.
Camera Shots
The film opens with a low-angled close-up camera shot of the back of Laura’s head. This is taken on a level angle against a verdant background that has been blurred by motion. The child in the screen is portrayed as a male figure based on the viewer’s judgement of the cropped hair and blue t-shirt she is wearing. The camera then cuts to a shot of the sun flitting through the treetops and a close-up view of Lure’s hand wafting in the breeze. The camera is close to wind-swept head and shoulders floating through space with a back drop of the trees, cloud and sky. Eventually, the viewers are able to see that this is a child who is standing up through a car’s open sun roof. The title of the film gives the character’s gender away, even though it is hard to determine her sex from the first look. At this point, the camera jumps to a close-up shot of Héran’s face as it drifts up and down in the air and her eyes closed in mediation.
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Mise-en-Scene
The staging and scene settings in Tomboy are richly developed and presented in a manner that provides the viewers with an insight of sensitivity. The first image that is portrayed by the director is that of a French family. In the film, mise-en-scene is a basic technique that is used in almost all the scenes. The use of this element is evident from the way Laura’s flat, the lake and the park/forest are presented to the viewers in a colorful manner with good video quality. Most of the scenes in Tomboy were shot from a long distance, with only a few close-up camera shots of Laura and Lisa. It is important to note that the use of close-up camera shots enabled the director to foreshadow the type of relationship that exists between the two characters.
Cinematography
The cinematography used in the film is minimalist, as the director makes use of long takes with little dramatic cutting. This style drives the audience to focus on the events of the story as they unfold, creating a simplistic and excellent film that captures and portrays significant factors of life and childhood. The use of music was very limited throughout this film. One song called Always by Para One, a French electronic music producer and film director was, however, used to develop the theme of the story as it developed.
The cinematographer does a really good job capturing the Laure’s character with high contract and sometimes dimmed lighting. The viewers can note that even though the camera had a lot of long shots, it still seemed to focus on the body language and facial expressions of Laura and other kids. The cinematography and narrative structure of the film work effectively in portraying the routines and lives of the children.
