ABSTRACT

The human universe: social, political, economic, religious, and moral. Social milieu and rules — at one with wider society?; old/new; stable/unstable; attitudes to love, violence, death, guilt, pride, shame, identity, gender, intimacy, sex, privacy, space, territory; threats, fears; conflicts, contradictions, strengths/weaknesses; generational tensions; individual/family, individual/community, tribe vs. tribe, gender friction; governing concepts; contemporary/historical; factual/invented; rules of invented worlds; are rules clear? (I, Daniel Blake). Economics — how regarded; impact; degree of wealth/poverty; ease of obtaining wealth; attitudes to money; used for good/evil; stability of economic factors. Status — criteria. Morality — of characters vs. audience; taboos, transgressions; principle vs. expediency; new morality discovered by protagonist; moral conflict, choices; nature of moral conflict; moral cost; morality of character and narrative point of view; morality in the context of genre; moral surprises (Phantom Thread); screenplay moralizing or exploring; plausibility (Son of Saul, The Godfather); moral cosmos of noir. Meaning — sense of meaning for the characters; sense of meaning gained; founded in milieu or character; reassuring/uncomfortable; founded in identity, reward, success, honor, tradition, hope; meaning and death. The collapse of the moral system (Shoplifters, American Honey, Breaking Bad). Relationship of cultural canvas to style: subversive/complementary (The Favourite, Barry Lyndon). Effects of cultural canvas on pace, emotion. Accuracy and cultural canvas. Relationship to visual language.