Lone Scherfig an Education

Lone Scherfig employs the technique of lighting in the scene when Jenny arrives home after uncovering the truth about David and his marriage, to convey the idea that David is a vague, mysterious and untrustworthy by always having David partially in the dark. The scene emphasises the value of trust within relationships, by using lighting to like David’s untrustworthy status to the conflict taking place in the scene. This technique encourages the audience to contradict all of what David has proclaimed to be true and therefore allowing the audience to relate to the situation Jenny is in. High camera angles are use in films to disempower objects and people, Lone Scherfig uses high camera angles to do just this. The scene where Jenny instructs David to reveal the truth about his family, his past and his lies to her parents, it shows David resorting to his stolen alcohol in search for Dutch courage.

The high camera angle looks down on the crate of wine, indicating that alcohol is a low unrespected way out. This encourages the viewers to see David is childish and inadequate at handling his own problems let alone realising the severity his absurd behaviour has on Jenny’s life. In films character actions can be used to convey meaning without the aid of dialogue. The scene when Jenny is informing David’s friends, Danny and Helen, about the tragic news received the night before, Helen walks around the apartment grinning showing no sign of sympathy towards Jenny. Helens actions vibe the idea that Helen is comfortable around the subject.

This gives the viewers the impression that Helen has experienced the same events before, encouraging the viewers to dislike Helen and Danny as they watched David destroy Jenny’s life without out enforcing the truth. In the film An Education Lone Scherfig applies the convention of dialogue to convey various meanings, one example of this is the scene where Jenny goes to visit David concealed wife at her house, while they are talking David’s Wife quotes, “You’re not in the family way, because that’s happened before”. This promotes the idea that Jenny is not the first person David has targeted and defiantly not the worst off, this encourages the viewers to feel sympathy for Jenny, David Wife and all of David’s other victims