Setting in V for Vendetta

The setting is the place where the scene takes place, and what this means to the message of the movie, or the characters of the movie. Scenes in the film V for Vendetta in which setting was very important, where the scenes where Evey was in prison. The director effectively used setting in these scenes to give a felling to the audience, help show Evey’s changes and also help to show some of the movies themes.

 

In the scenes from 1:07:49 in the film, Evey is being held in prison. The prison is in an unknown location, there is no evidence as to where it is. It is dark, with no natural lighting, which in itself sends a very cold and unpleasant feeling through the audience.  The walls, floor and ceiling are all grey concrete, which creates a cold, and very unwelcoming environment. Evey’s cell is isolating and scary, to Evey and the audience. When Evey first arrives in to her cell, there are some eye of god shots which show Evey feels like she is unimportant and feels small inside. The setting of the cell and prison make her feel scared and frightened and also make her feel terror for what will happen soon.  She is surrounded in a scary and sad setting, and all she has is fear.  The setting of the cell helped the director show how the main character of Evey is feeling, and what she is thinking, and this gives the audience deeper in insight into her character. The dark and cold, altogether give an unpleasant feeling to the scene, but this changes when Evey find the letter.

Evey finds a letter from another prisoner, Valerie. It details of Valeries life, and the director changes the setting of the scene entirely by showing snapshots of Valerie life. It cuts from the terror of the cell, to a warm, lighten home. It shows Valerie in the sunshine on a farm, and Valerie happy with her girlfriend in a flat. The lighting changes dramatically as it cuts from Evey in darkness, to Valerie in the warm beautiful life she once had. However, Valeries is captured and the setting in her story becomes bleaker. The contrast in the two settings is very important because it showing Eveys changes. It is showing how the world once was, happy, beautiful and loving, to what it now is, unfair, scary and oppressive. It is showing that for the first time, Evey is realizing what is really happening and what has happened in her country, and that change really does need to happen, so that no more innocent people like Valerie are hurt. The setting shows how the experience in enlightening Evey, and creating what she wants, and what she wants to fight for. The contrast of the setting shows how much the society has actually changed, and what a terrible place it is now. The most important thing the two settings do is create more reason and means for rebellion, and the audience really understands what has happened. To Evey, the scenes show she is realizing what she should fight for, which is peace and happiness, rather than continuing to live under fear and terror. These two settings are crucial in creating who Evey is, and help her make decisions in what follows.