A Thousand Times Good Night (2014) - Official Trailer [HD] and Film Analysis

 

1. Abstract

This report analyses the film “A Thousand Times Good Night” directed by Erik Poppe from a perspective of gender as a key source of identity. Release in August 31^st, 2013, the film star casts Juliette Binoche, Nikolaj Coster-Waldau, Maria Doyle Kennedy, Larry Mullen Jr. and Mads Ousdal.

 

2. Short Summary of the Film

The plot of A Thousand Times Good Night revolves around the life of a photojournalist Rebecca (played by Juliette Binoche) who takes photographs of people and the society in dangerous war zones of the world. The film opens with a scene in Kabul documenting a group of female suicide bombers. She most bravely films how bombs are strapped on the body of young woman. She decides to complete her story by following the female bomber to the city. She is overcome with fear and anxiety. It is a strapping scene! During this time, the premature denotation of a bomb severely injures her. As a result of which she is taken back to her home in Ireland by her husband (played by Nikolaj Coster-Waldau), where she heals herself back to fitness. Owing to the dangerous circumstances of her work, she is faced with the task of choosing between her family and her work. Overcome by the love of her family, Rebecca chooses family.

However her eldest daughter Steph is taken aback by the intense photographs of the war zones and decides to get involved in a humanitarian work in Africa. Rebecca along with her elder daughter decides to take a photography trip in a refugee camp in Kenya. There she faces a similar situation as her camp is attacked by a group of armed men, who murders camp member by the lots. Remembering situation in Afghanistan, Rebecca decides to stay back in the camp to document the event while she sends her daughter to safety.

Critically this film explores Erik Poppe’s autobiographical work as a photojournalist in the 1980s in various parts of Central America, Middle East, Africa and Southeast Asia.

 

The scene that I like is when Rebecca says that she cannot do that. When asked what by her husband. She answers “normal”.

This is a crucial line in shaping up the gender identity theory given by Woodward. For generations our society has a concept of the female gender. Since birth the women and men are segregated based on their gender. In all aspects be it with education or livelihood, women all around the world have formed separate identities like a mother, a wife, a daughter and so on. The “normal” scenario described in the film refers to a woman’s role in attending to the welfare of her family. Rebecca is seen to be a happily married woman with her husband and two daughters. Traditionally a woman is expected to be with her family and be happy in such a situation. Most often what makes a woman “happy” is overlooked.

Rebecca still tries to adopt the traditional gender role of a mother and a wife, when she decides to quit her dangerous work scenario. She says “I have two kids and a husband, I wasn’t thinking”. She chooses to sacrifice her happiness for the sake of her family. But fate had other plans because she was a dedicated photo journalist who was passionate about her work. She vowed to make the world see what she saw. She says “I want people to see and feel the suffering, the horror”. She was moved by the feeling on anger which led her to be a passionate photographer. This is also a reference to some childhood incident which made her angry when she saw the suffering and effects of war. She wanted the world to see the same. Referring to the word “normal”, we can clearly see how she could not fit into normal norms of the society because she was overcome by the emotional effects which was brought on by her work.

 We see how she is torn having to choose between the work and the family. The film sends out a critical message of family value as opposed to own personal happiness. We also see the thought process of the husband who is accustomed to the concept of a “happy family”. Her husband says in the car that he had expected her to come home and be happy with the family. But she is so obsessed with the photographs that she is always waiting for the next shot. It has been evident that her husband was responsible for taking care of their kids and bringing up the girls, while she was busy with her photography career. This breaks all the traditional gender role of a woman, who is supposed to be taking care of her family. Choosing a career or going after their work has always been done predominantly by men.

The film shows that no matter how she tries to come back and fit in the “normal” lives of the society, her mind was able to forget that it was her fault that the young suicide bomber detonated the bomb early. She hopes to receive some comfort from her husband, but he doesn’t approve the family risks that his wife was taking. Throughout her film it is seen that Rebecca created an identity for herself through her work, and the failing identity of a mother and a wife.

The real horror in Rebecca is shown which breaks the relationship between her husband and her daughter, when the editor refuses to publish those photographs and questions the intimacy of the scenes. It creates a sense of identity crisis within her and shatters all concepts of what a woman should be.

Towards the end of the scene, we see how Rebecca’s daughter Steph is introduced into such a gender biased world when she turn the camera towards her mother. The moment is rather melodramatic, but the scene is saved by the character Rebecca who then tries to imbibe the same crisis within her daughter. Every click forms a weapon of brutal invasion of privacy and identity theft that the film discovers.