Ralph micro features review// Ralph The short film Ralph was made in 2008 and it was directed by Alex Winckler. The film is within the romance genre and has a sub-genre of drama. A romance drama is a genre that explores the complex side of love. The obstacles in this genre can range from family disapproval, to forbidden love to one’s own psychological restraints. The obstacle within the film Ralph is commitment mismatch. The main character Ralph travels to Marseille to declare his love for his best friend Clare. But Ralph finds out that Clare does not like him in the same way. Which leaves Ralph to make a decision at the end of the film. Either, carry on with being a best friend with Clare and staying secretly in love with her or become friends with the waitress that he met in the restaurant and leave Clare. Ralph choses to leave Clare and become friends with the waitress. I believe that there is three main themes within the film. There is love and loneliness. Love is displayed through the mes en scene and the performance factor. The mes en scene feature is the character Ralph wears a red t shirt. The colour for love, passion and desire is red. This is a constant reminder to the audience that he is in love. The theme of love is also displayed through performance. The Character Ralph does not stop trying to call Clare, he tries to call Clare on different numbers and he asked the restaurant manager for a phone card then having to pay for food to use a phone card. All of these things which Ralph does shows devotion towards Clare. Another thing I would like to add about love is the movement of the suit case and the suit case its self represents Ralphs love for Clare. During the first scene the suit case the suit case is clunky, gets in the way and difficult to move round this represents how his love for Clare is only one way, he loves her but she doesn’t love him which is why it is difficult for him to drag the suit case around. In the middle scene the waitress trips over the suitcase. This represents how Ralphs love for Clare could get in the way of normal life. It is only at the end of the movie where the audience sees the suit case move smoothly. This suggests that Ralph’s decision to become friends with the waitress and leave Clare suddenly made his life become less of a struggle. The micro feature sound creates the theme of love. When Ralph gives up all hope of calling Clare he bangs of the phone box several times. This then attracts the waitress over therefore starting their relationship. Without the banging noises from Ralph hitting the phone box he wouldn’t have met the waitress. Loneliness is displayed through the cinematography. Within the first scene in the train station most of the close up and mid shots of Ralph, he is on his own in the frame. This illustrates his loneliness. All of the establishing shots within the train station are very wide and tall shots creating the space in the frame very large which emphasizes his loneliness. There is a very high and wide angle shot of Ralph in the train station with people around him but yet he is placed in the centre of the frame on his own looking around himself, creating a sense of emptiness. Another shot is a panorama of Ralph crossing the bridge. No one is with him in the shot even though he surrounded by traffic and people constructing a sense of emptiness. In summary I believe that themes in the short film Ralph were displayed and conveyed very well by lots of factors.