The Editing of Atonement

Amy Shannon

8/17/08

Multi Media           

 

“Atonement”

 

            Director Joe Wright’s timeless piece Atonement is the story of a little girl named Briony; although filled with suspense and mystery at the beginning it slowly becomes tragic in it’s closure. What she first considered to be the assault of her sister Cecelia by the family’s servant son, Robbie, later proves to be the beginning of a love story. 13-year-old Briony accuses Robbie of a crime in which he did not commit and then slowly realizes how wrong her decision was.

            The editor of Atonement contributed to making the film it’s own style by the way he choose to edit. Rhythmic editing was definitely used in collaboration with the movie’s score and added sound.  The score was already authoritative and then the sound of Briony’s typewriter added even more to the buildup of the drama. The opening titles team with the beginning of the score and for the first few minutes of the film we see Briony. The audience can tell from her action with the score that she is a character of presumption. The same typewriting sound effect can be heard in her adult introduction as well. 

            Through the use of spacial editing the audience can observe Briony from many points of view, there are times when the camera is directly on her and times it is following her from a long distance. But possibly the best spacial shot was focusing on Briony’s eyes. The actress does a lot of acting in her eyes and really doesn’t need a lot of dialogue. Through temporal editing the audience follows the story of Briony first when she is 13, then as an 18-year-old war nurse and again at the end of the movie when she is an old woman in a book interview. Between the three Briony’s is the love story between Robbie and Cecelia and it can be argued weather those scenes are real or imagined through Briony as she writes about them.

The first temporal edit in the film is the fountain scene in which Briony witnesses Robbie and Cecelia from the inside of her bedroom window. Briony opens the window to let a bee out that drew her attention in the first place and when she does the camera is then on the outside of the window. Once on the opposite side the fountain scene starts over, this time from the point of view of Cecelia. The fountain scene was so carefully constructed, it proves multiple purposes. The main purpose is to give Briony the idea that Robbie wishes her sister harm when in reality Robbie is in love with Cecelia. 

When Cecelia jumps out of the fountain to face Robbie the editing followed the 180-degree rule and without breaking that line it also included some interesting shots. For instance, Robbie has a vase handle in his hand, when the camera cuts from the frontal shot of Robbie to Cecelia’s cross shot, it is through Robbie’s hand. Although the characters don’t say anything at that moment, you can see the tension through that shot of Robbie’s hand because he is gripping the handle so tightly.

One of the most beautiful close up montages follows the fountain scene between the lovers as she prepares for dinner and he attempts to write her a love letter. Cecelia’s light is reflected through a mirror that gives her an angelic effect, almost as though Robbie is picturing her that way. The lighting of the mirror was a graphical choice on the editors behalf and is the only bright scene in the entire film. This scene is followed by one of the better temporal edits of the film with a shot of Robbie giving Briony the love letter to give to Cecelia. He realizes in a flash back that he gave her the wrong letter and the suspense leads from there to his arrest.

Temporal editing was a popular choice throughout the film especially since the plot goes through multiple periods of time. There is a lot of fast forwarding and flashbacks through Robbie’s story, especially when he goes to war and reflects on his Cecelia. It is heartbreaking how he carries his anger and his pain for, what we assume to be, his dead mother. There a vital images of Cecelia and Briony through Robbie’s POV that give purpose to later scenes. For instance when Nurse Briony tells her fellow nurse about how Robbie saved her from drowning, the audience has already seen the memory through Robbie’s flash back. Ironically this flash back was placed after a scene where Robbie comes across a field of slaughtered schoolgirls.

Atonement did one thing as a film that I believe is hard to achieve through editing and placement, it lead the audience through a false sense of illusion. Warning plot spoiler, the scene when nurse Briony goes to apologize to her sister and to Robbie was actually all through her imagination. Then through the flash backs of the old woman Briony she informs us that in reality both Robbie and Cecelia died during the war without having been re-united. It was an excellent way of deceiving the audience and then breaking the painful truth through editing choices.

For such a heartbreaking story, Atonement was also a story of the mysterious mind of a little girl and how that led to her greatest guilt. It is testimony that the power of how deceiving our minds can be no matter the age. Through editing it created a story that will stay with audiences for a very long time.