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The Square (2008)

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clip The house burns

Original classification rating: MA. This clip chosen to be PG

Clip description

Hired arsonist Billy (Joel Edgerton) sits on a hilltop watching his handiwork – a house burning in the distance. Carla (Claire van der Boom) and Greg (Anthony Hayes) pull up outside their burning home. Greg runs off to try to find his mother. He looks for her first in a waiting ambulance and then runs towards the fire, but is held back by firefighters. Carla watches, looking extremely troubled. By morning, the fire has burnt itself out.

Curator’s notes

by Lynden Barber

Here we see the terrible result of Carla and Ray’s plotting. Due to a miscalculation, and unknown to Billy, Greg’s mother was at home when Billy set up the fire. Greg has been established as a gruff and not especially sympathetic character, but his panic and distress on realising his mother was in the burning house humanises him.

Nearly the entire scene at the burning house is filmed in a long, complex shot using Steadicam – a camera strapped to the operator employing a gyroscopic mechanism to eliminate camera shake. This allows the spatially complex scene to unfold exceptionally smoothly.

The two brief hilltop scenes not only provide a sense of symmetry but also a God’s eye viewpoint, both literally (God is usually understood to be on high) and metaphorically – giving a sense that Ray, Carla and Billy have been playing God with another person’s life.

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australianscreen is produced by the National Film and Sound Archive. By using the website you agree to comply with the terms and conditions described elsewhere on this site. The NFSA may amend the 'Conditions of Use’ from time to time without notice.

All materials on the site, including but not limited to text, video clips, audio clips, designs, logos, illustrations and still images, are protected by the Copyright Laws of Australia and international conventions.

When you access australianscreen you agree that:

  • You may retrieve materials for information only.
  • You may download materials for your personal use or for non-commercial educational purposes, but you must not publish them elsewhere or redistribute clips in any way.
  • You may embed the clip for non-commercial educational purposes including for use on a school intranet site or a school resource catalogue.
  • The National Film and Sound Archive’s permission must be sought to amend any information in the materials, unless otherwise stated in notices throughout the Site.

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ANY UNAUTHORISED USE OF MATERIAL ON THIS SITE MAY RESULT IN CIVIL AND CRIMINAL LIABILITY.

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