Don't ask me who said this one. There's way too many internet debates on who to credit for this famous answer to the three most important factors when determining the desirability of a property. There's a show that happens to have this exact title and deals with... wait for it... determining the most desirable home for buyers on a weekly basis. Lucky for me, this is made somewhat more relevant in that it happens to be a show made in the UK. I say that because, if it wasn't already clear, Atonement is pretty darn British: written by an Englishman, directed by an Englishman, and (who would've guessed that it's) set in England. I choose to connect this idea of "location" not because the actual location of the filming happened to be in England as well, but mostly because, in the other sense of the word, the movie was filmed "on location". This is to say that, as opposed to an in-studio simulation, the movie is filmed in an actual place or natural setting. The importance of this, and how it effected how the viewer interprets the adaptation by comparison, is what I choose to go into detail about in this particular blog post.
Part One:
Everyone has an idea in their head of what the setting looks like as described by the author and how it relates to their own experiences. Maybe it was because of the immense detail in this first part of the novel, or maybe it's because Wright and I see things the same way, but the setting is exactly how I'd imagined it. For the sake of humility, I'll stick with the attention to detail argument, but, either way, credit deserves to go to both because the adaptation of the setting to screen fits the description as well as allowing for theme development through cinematography.
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| The grandeur of the estate and the relation of the fountain to the mansion are exactly how I imagined it. |
What I mean by allowing for thematic cinematography is that certain shots displayed perfectly the playfully imaginative quality of how Briony must have viewed her property and this seems only possible given how surrealistic certain areas of the landscape exist.
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| This shot of a garden tunnel is as if we are embarking on a journey into the playfully dreamlike thoughts of Briony. |
Part Two:
Here again there is a very accurate adaptation of the descriptions made in the novel. Part of the novel's premise is to put on display the horrors of wartime and more than anything the setting was meant to reflect that with pathetic fallacy. The one scene that sticks out more than any when you discuss both cinematography and setting has to be that of the one on the beach. Again, this is an intelligent choice of location and landscape design because the setting of the beach being riddled with the destructive souvenirs of wartime is exactly how I would've imagined it as a reader of the original novel. As I discussed in my "Pacing" blog post, the director has made it clear here that he chooses to focus on the topic of war much more in comparison to the original. One look at the sets of this second part and you wouldn't have to have watched the movie to make the assumption that the focus is here. I mean, just look at it; Joe Wright would need to have been related to Uncle Pennybags to make this scene happen. Plot twist: Joe Wright is actually Jack Tallis.
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| Very Chernobyl-meets-Saving Private Ryan |
Part Three:
This third part mainly revolves around Briony and her time spent at the hospital. It took me until my second viewing but I was able to note that there are similarities of significance between this part and the first that should be addressed when discussing symbolic importance of setting. Because of the colours, the misery and even the music, the hospital scene is interpretable as being depressing, at least from the perspective of Briony. When I was creating notes for this second viewing I discussed, it was in the first couple of scenes that I noted that parts of the Tallis house resembled some kind of a hospital with its similar choice of dreary colouring.
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| It was this shot specifically that made me feel as a viewer that there were comparisons that could be made. |
As the movie went on, I was astonished to find that the hospital that Briony works in is almost a replica of this exact wall painting and lighting:
Because of this similarity I couldn't help but make the comparison between the two and they might be perceived in the same light - by Briony at least. To say that her childhood house acted almost like a hospital stays accurate to the point McEwan was trying to get across in his novel: that Briony felt isolated, closed-off from the rest of the world in a bleak loneliness - like an insane asylum (to refer to some points made in earlier blog posts again).
To conclude, I think that the setting plays an important role in assuring a seamless adaptation from book to screen. If the author is able to create a relatable image of the of whatever you might have come up with on your own when reading it by yourself, then I consider that a sucess. Joe Wright does that and more with his careful selection of location.
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