3 key scenes from We Need To Talk about Kevin

- Kevin's mom gets home to find the dead husband and daughter
- Kevin transitions to fifteen years old
- Mom tries to teach Kevin to count

Supermarket Scene:
Cinematography 

High key, Artificial lighting suggests coldness which contrasts with the red lighting in the flashbacks, creating an eerie atmosphere.

Tracking down the aisle, Mid shot, eye line. Eva is positioned centre-frame, acquire's the spectators sole focus. This creates a calm atmosphere and suggests that Eva is trying to control her life. Ironically calm, but with underlying tension created in the editing. The narrative calm atmosphere is contrapuntal to the editing. Camera movements in the supermarket contrast with those in the flashback.

Shot 35 mm anamorphic (very wide screen) , creates a lot of dead space (empty part of the shot). The emptiness of the screen creates volatileness and tension.

Slow zoom of when shes in front of the tomatoes presents her isolation and the world is closing in on her
-Flat scene: the camera goes out of function
-Deep depth of field when she's walking down the shopping aisle. Once again brings forward the idea idea and feeling of intimidation.
-can relate to ideology: red light is very saturated when the dead bodies are being pulled out- psychological oscilation - where you link the colour red to Eva's guilt.

 The role of women in society: maternal instincts: IT CHALLENGES THE ROLE OF WOMEN IN SOCIETY AS HAVING A ROLE OF BEING A MOTHERLY FIGURE. 
It takes the horrific act of violence to make her become a mother. Throughout bringing up Kevin, she is never passionate about conforming to a societal expectation.
Both films end with a reconciliation with the mother, tension between child and parents and finding a ground in which reconciliation can be achieved.


Kevin and the Oedipal trajectory;
In this film, the idea that kevin performs the masacre in the film, kevin tries to get the mother's attention.

Paranoid of

Extreme Closeup to mouth when Eva eats egg shell and extreme closeup, is she torturing herself? Maybe she thinks she deserves to eat cracked eggs, the spectator is made to feel uncomfortable and disgusted. Therefore we questionWhy does she stay? Guilt? She realises only after Kevin commits the shooting how she was not a good mother.

Extreme closeup on feet


Sound
The muzak is contrapuntal to the scene, it isolates Eva, and creates fear from sympathising with Eva's danger.
The flow of the music is parallel to the speed of Eva's walk, causing the audience to sympathise with her. (Lullaby-esque).
Diegetic sound of the Trolley wheels over music - about consumerism (references consumerism, need for buying).
Huge empty supermarket also references consumerism.

The crunching of the egg shells is hyperreal.
References fertility or a metaphor for a bad egg. References conception/ birth and they are all broken.
white noise in the background has hallucinogenic quality; Eva reminiscing

Non diegetic dialogue - mirrors Eva's internal thoughts (Franklin's echoic voice, talking to Kevin) - sinister phantasmagorical, dreamlike.

-Sound bridge at the end of the scene, w/ Eva's non-diegetic words to Kevin ("Can you say Mommy?")

Mise en scene

Eva wears a large over coat
long raincoat acts as a disguise; makes her fit in? Makes her stand out? She is an outsider, marginalised - dressed differently from the others; drab colour - shifts focus  from her clothing; she doesn't care what she looks like
-consumerism- Eva centre frame and  whilst ambushed by all the products - surrounded by props

Colour palette - pale, cold colour, towards the blue, very de-saturated -> Eva has a monochromatic feel to her

-Tomato soup - Eva centre frame, saturated, the background wall is of red, soup.

-Eggs - Lost fertility and maternal instinct, bad egg metaphor, can also represent the grieving mother and the death of her children
-Wine stained table - shows this routine is repetitive, she only walks away with bread/eggs/bottle of wine. Iconography of eggs with red wine - deeper meaning of holy communion, trying to expunge her own guilt.

When eva hides behind the soup cans, its not a coincidence that they're bright red, as the colour suggests danger / red alert


Editing
Constant flashbacks throughout, gives info about character, however its through an enigma code because information was gradually relieved only gradually.
Use of intercutting between Eva eating eggs and the aftermath of the shooting, use of slow motion and fast cutting, Kuleshov effect provides egg eating with meaning.
-Pacing - slow and tense, when showing flashback cutting is a lot faster,