Theories and concepts applied to our coursework

BINARY OPPOSITION

Night VS Day 
We decided to use the concepts of night vs day, which are related but very opposite in their meaning and significance in the film. During the day, the man is harshly brought back to reality out of his fantasy world that he lives in at nighttime in his room. In other words all of the scenes involving the made up scenarios in his mind and the made up bond between himself and the woman are shown when he is in the evening in his room, but some are filmed during the day (the forest scene, the school scenes) Likewise, all of the scenes that take place in reality are set and filmed during the day, like the train station scene.

Fantasy VS Reality
As previously mentioned, the concept of fantasy vs reality is represented through the different times of day (fantasy scenes during the day, and reality scenes at night). The blending of these concepts which are polar opposites show the interesting element of how there are two sides to every person or how you never know whats going on behind closed doors. It is during the train station scene set in reality that the fact that he is a stalker is revealed to the audience. The gap between fantasy and reality is quite wide however it is easy to move between the two when fantasy scenarios or desires influence the behaviour of an individual as is the case in this film.

PETRARCHAN LOVE
The concept of Petrarchan love can be applied to the plot of our coursework film. There is a list of criteria of the Petrarchan lover:

• The speaker or individual of focus suffers from an unrequited love (a love which is not returned) - this can be applied to our project considering the recipient of the man's love is unaware of his existence meaning it is impossible for her to return his love
• The person idealises his lover (falls in love with an ideal, a vision of perfection) - this can be applied to our project as the man does not know the woman on a personal level, he only registers her appearance which is what he is attracted to. Basically he cannot be attracted to her for her personality as he doesn't know the woman on a friendship or even an acquaintance level.
• He idolises his lover (he turns the lover into an idol, an object of worship and elevates her on a pedestal) - this can be applied to our coursework since the level of obsession he has for the woman is so strong and it has taken over his life
• He may be infatuated (he is in love with the idea of love) - this can be applied to our project on the basis of his creation of made up scenarios which involve them together as a couple.
• Petrarchan love is not a sexual love - this is similar to our project since sexual love needs to be consensual and consist of two people.
• Watching from a distance - this is very applicable to our project since none of the interactions between the two characters are real and the man is going through this movie as though he is watching through a window