Classicism In The Book Thief

Every film can be placed into three categories. Throughout the course of this semester, the topics of narratology, cinematography, and editing have been discussed and reviewed. In each topic, there were the sub-topics of realism, formalism, and classicism. Each of these plays a role in determining the theme and tone of a film. Each “-ism” can be broken down into the facts used to determine them. Depending on what the director is trying to demonstrate to his or her viewers, he or she might pick one way to shot the film over another. The book, The Book thief by Markus Zusak, was put into a film and directed by Brian Percival. He made this overall a very classicist film.

The Book Thief is about a young girl named Liesel Meminger who was orphaned at a young age and sent to live in Germany with another family. Throughout the story, she is presented with many challenges to overcome such as not being able to write or read, not having any family anymore, and being in a strange city with no friends. Then Max shows up, a Jew who Liesel’s new father promised to help. They hide Max and in the process, Max and

There are the three categories within Classicism; narratology, cinematography, and editing. What makes The Book Thief a classic film in the narratology section is the fact that it ends with a clear resolution. In the final minutes, Death tells the audience about how Liesel lived to be an old woman and had children and grandchildren. Also, the “boring” parts are edited out. In the beginning, the viewers do not see all of the train ride and of the car ride to the Hubberman house. There is a clear and present central conflict and there is a clear distinction between the good and bad plots. It is a classic film in its cinematography due to the fact that it avoids the extreme ends of filmming, strong on the story aspect, and follows the classical paradigm. However classicism is only one of the three