Mise En Scene – The props of the movie scene is very important because it sets the theme of what era the characters are in, the place they are in, and what they might be doing, or what will happen in the next scene or in the future. Like the clock that was put up at the start of the movie when Benjamin was born, it was built to count time backward, connecting it to Benjamin’s aging backward throughout the movie. It also shows the era and time the main character was born in, just after the war when all of the young men went to war and never came back. The post-war party that was happening out in the street can also create the scene as to how people did things back then and what the atmosphere was around the characters at the start of the movie.
Symbolism – Clocks are put up to show what time it is and to direct and dictate what happens in your day and for how long. The clock that was put up at the start of Benjamin’s life and was wired to go backward in time, just as his life went backward. Throughout the movie, there are many clocks that have their own camera shot, like the time when he was having an affair with the lady who wanted to swim the English channel, and the clock was shown when he was waiting for her. This might have meant that time will go on even when you are waiting. When Benjamin got the letter from the lady saying that she had a nice time, the clock wasn’t shown again until the next significant scene. The clock represents his life and when it was taken down and replaced with the new clock in 2003, this represents that his life was going to end soon, just like the clock had met its end at the train station. At the end of the movie when the clock is flooded in the basement, it was still ticking, the water represents time, and the clock was still ticking meaning that time will still go on no matter what.
The big idea that I get out of this scene is that time dictates everything you do. For Benjamin, this is quite literal, when he goes out to anything, he has an expectation that he was going to die soon and so he took many more risks than his mother would want him to. This was all because he saw that he had limited time, and didn’t want to waste it. When he went back to the old people’s home, and he was five when Daisy moved in with him, he was playing with a clock and it was going off, that was a symbol that life was running out and the wake up call was going to come, and Benjamin was going to lose his life.
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