Commentaire sur Des Souris et des Hommes

Résumé du document

Commentaire sur une scène du film Des Souris et des Hommes (Of Mice and Men). Scène : Mort de Lennie. En anglais. 2 pages, 14/20



Of Mice and Men is a novel, written by the novelist John Steinbeck, which dates back to 1972. The scene takes place on a ranch in the Salinas Valley in California during the Great Depression of the 1930's. The two main characters of Of Mice and Men are George and Lennie. Even if George is small and slim he wants to protect the huge and absent minded Lennie, he feels responsible for him.

Extraits

[...] The scene takes place in a clearing lines with a calm river. It begins with a close shot respectively of Lennie and George. Lennie is face to the camera; George is sideways and looks darker than his friend. That reveals their mood, George could be lost, and Lennie couldn't realise the gravity of his act : he killed a woman despite his will. There's no music, we can just hear bird's song, that's reassuring and brings hope. Then the camera moves and shows us a full law angle shot of Lennie and George who are sitting down, they seem to be on an equal footing when Lennie apologizes and George forgives him. [...]

[...] As soon as he bends down and cries, we can hear a soft song. The scene ends with an extreme long high angle shot of the clearing where George is kneeling next to the dead Lennie near the river. This scene makes us feel the dramatic situation of the two characters. George couldn't stand no more this weight on his soulder, and Lennie's acts pose an interesting question : can there be violence without hate ? Due to his mental condition, he's devoid of these emotions; his nature is, as a human being, completely innocent. [...]

[...] The two main characters of Of Mice and Men are George and Lennie. Even if George is small and slim he wants to protect the huge and absent minded Lennie, he feels responsible for him. He's paternalistic, like a big brother, because since Aunt Clara died he must care about Lennie. Indeed he's commanding, industrious and square in his behaviour, but conversely this fact he's sensitive such as he promises a puppy though gets angry. As for Lennie, he's childish in his behaviour, gullible, and he can't control his strength such as he killed his mouse by petting it too hard . [...]

[...] Eventually the huge Lennie kneels down back to his companion like a prayer while he tell their dream once more. The camera moves and zooms forward slowly. We can see that George looks down; he's searching a solution, a mental strength . Suddenly George stands up, points his gun at Lennie's head and shoots him dead before he ended his sentence. At the same time, the camera zooms quickly backward to do a catharsis (figurative cleansing of the emotions, in theatre), and returns on a close shot of George until he expired. [...]