Matilda (1996) and Pulp Fiction (1994)
In this essay I will be critically analysing the genre, content and narrative of the films Matilda and Pulp Fiction.
The genre of Matilda is comedy/fantasy, which is a hybrid of both the comedy and fantasy genres. Within the comedy genre the audience expects to find humour, for example slapstick comedy. Matilda includes slapstick comedy throughout the film, an example of this is when Matilda puts 'Super Superglue' onto the rim of her father's hat - he then puts his hat on and there is a whole scene in the film where he tries to take it off while at a posh restaurant. During this process, Matilda's mother tries to remove the hat from his head, but she pulls so hard they both end up falling backwards onto other peoples tables, sending food flying around the restaurant while Matilda chuckles to herself.
Matilda's Mother falling backwards onto a table after trying to pull off Matilda's father's hat.
Pulp Fiction is again another hybrid genre film, falling under the genres crime/drama/thriller. Pulp Fiction also includes a lot of comedy, however unlike Matilda this humour is very dark, being delivered through dialogue and not grand physical gestures such as slapstick comedy. An example of the humour in Pulp Fiction is when Honey Bunny and Pumpkin attempt to pull an armed robbery at the diner Jules and Vincent are at. With Honey Bunny pointing a gun at Jules, and Jules pointing a gun at Pumpkin in a highly tense situation, Jules delivers the line "Normally both your asses would be dead as fucking fried chicken, but you happen to pull this shit while I'm in a transitional period so I don't wanna kill you, I wanna help you." This line is a subversion because it momentarily breaks the tension, and makes the scene funny because of how Jules can say something so funny while someone is pointing a gun at him. Typically an audience wouldn't expect to find comedy within a film that falls under the genres of crime/drama/thriller, which makes the dark humour within Pulp Fiction a pleasure to see.
In Matilda, the film starts at a hospital in a room full of new born babies, a nurse picks up a baby girl, and shows her to her father. The baby girl's father takes a look at her and disapprovingly grunts at the child and pulls a disgusted face. This is a powerful opening scene because it establishes the dynamics of the father-daughter relationship, and instantly portrays Matilda's father as not a nice person. The scene has a hint of dark humour because it's unnatural for a father to react to his newborn child in such a manner, and his childishness is funny.
"...but you happen to pull this shit while I'm in a transitional period so I don't wanna kill you"
Other iconography an audience would expect to see in a comedy/fantasy genre film like Matilda is high-key lighting to create an up-beat and light hearted mood. Most of the shots in Matilda are filmed on sunny days so the natural sunlight gives the film a warm feel. Comedies also usually star an already established comedian. In Matilda's case, the screenplay was directed by and starred the comedian Danny DeVito. The fantasy part within the hybrid genre of 'comedy/fantasy' makes the audience expect to see elements of magic within the film, whether that's supernatural powers, mythical creatures, or a land never heard of. The fantasy icons in Matilda are that she has magic powers, first demonstrated when she breaks the TV in her living room purely through the power of her mind. Add these two genres together and you get Matilda; a film about a little girl with magic powers and hilariously horrible parents.
Pulp Fiction has a complex narrative consisting of 3 seemingly unrelated stories becoming intertwined with each other throughout the film. The 3 main stories revolve around these main characters:
Story 1: Vincent
Jules
Mia Wallace
Story 2: Butch
Marsellus Wallace
Story 3: Honey Bunny
Pumpkin
Vladimir Propp came up with a theory that there are only 8 types of characters in a narrative, and here's who I would say each of the characters within Pulp Fiction represent:
1. The Villain - Marsellus Wallace. Marsellus Wallace is the boss of all bosses with the most power and control over the other characters. He is the man whose orders are obeyed, and if they are not, there are serious consequences. He has a team who will assassinate those who have done him wrong.
2. The Hero - Butch. Butch is a boxer who is paid by Marsellus Wallace to lose his next fight, however he ends up killing his opponent causing Marsellus to lose the money he bet on Butch losing. With Marsellus after him, Butch has to save himself and his girlfriend before they are killed. Later on in the film when Marsellus tries to kill Butch, they both find themselves captured by a pair of sadistic shop owners who drag them to the basement of the shop and begin torturing them. Marsellus is taken to a back room and raped by the men while Butch is tied up. Butch breaks free but instead of leaving and saving himself, he rescues Marsellus too, the man who had just tried to kill him.
3. The Dispatcher - Marsellus Wallace. Marsellus Wallace sends both Butch and Vincent on different missions. For Butch, the demand ordered by Marsellus is for him to purposely lose his next fight. For Vincent, the task is to take Marsellus' wife Mia out and keep her entertained while Marsellus is out on business. Both of these events disturb the peace and harmony of the storyline, creating their own problems. Butch wins his fight, and Vincent almost kills Marsellus' wife.
4. The False/Anti Hero - Vincent. Vincent appears to be a nice guy, he comes across a bit slow and like he couldn't really do any harm. However, he is a hit man. He manages to resist the temptation of Mia Wallace when he takes her out on Marsellus' demands, which makes the audience think he is a good guy who has morals... But, when he first meets Butch he greets him with a hostile reaction, and later on in the film breaks into Butch's home to try and kill him. This automatically makes the audience think that Vincent isn't the good guy after all, even with such likeable qualities.
5. The Donor - Esmerelda (the taxi driver). After Butch's boxing match, Butch gets into a taxi driven by a lady called Esmerelda. She asks him if he is the boxer that has just fought a match, he reluctantly says yes as he doesn't really want anyone to know because he won the match and he wasn't supposed to. Esmerelda says "You killed the other boxing man" to which a shocked Butch asks "He's dead?". He didn't know he had killed his opponent, and this means the news will get out quickly to Marsellus that not only did Butch win his boxing match, but killed the man he was fighting. Because Esmerelda gave Butch this information he is now able to know that Marsellus and his hit men will definitely be out to kill him, so he goes into hiding to avoid imminent death.
6. The Helper - Fabienne (Butch's girlfriend). Butch's girlfriend Fabienne is supportive of him and stays by his side when he goes into hiding. She has his best intentions at heart and packed both of their belongings for them to skip town, however she forgets his grandfather's watch. Butch then goes on a rampage in their motel room, sending things flying and smashing up the TV, scaring Fabienne. But she still stays by his side and helps him to escape from Marsellus.
7. The Princess - Mia Wallace. Mia Wallace is Marsellus' wife. She is the 'damsel in distress' in the sense that she is married to a controlling gangster, and she has a cocaine addiction. The fact that Marsellus picks and chooses who Mia spends her time with says a lot about her lack of freedom, and lack of her own friends. She had a friend appointed to her by Marsellus in the form of Vincent taking her out while Marsellus was away so 'she wouldn't get bored', and Vincent has to obey Marsellus so has to be careful what he says and does around Mia. She is the 'prize' because she is so desirable to Vincent who has to restrain himself.
8. The Father - Jules. I would say Jules is the 'father' character type in Pulp Fiction. Not because he is the father of the 'princess', but because of how he is towards Vincent. Jules is more like a father figure towards Vincent and sorts things out when they go wrong. Jules knows the task in hand and gets them done and leads and guides Vincent during the tasks. An example of this is when Vincent accidentally shoots a man in the face in the car they are driving, Jules tries to sort the situation out while scolding the juvenile Vincent as a father would do. Jules also diffuses the situation at the diner with the armed robbery attempt by Honey Bunny and Pumpkin.
The narrative in Pulp Fiction is non-linear, with scenes not following in regular chronological order. The film starts in the diner where Honey Bunny and Pumpkin plot to hold up the diner and rob the customers.
The film ends during this very scene, but when Honey Bunny and Pumpkin actually hold up the diner, but we see that Vincent and Jules are in there.
However, we know that the ending scene of the film chronologically happens before the scenes that have appeared during the mid-section of the film. An example of this is when Butch shoots Vincent, obviously if the narrative was in time-order Vincent wouldn't be at the diner in the ending scene because he would be dead, but we know the robbery at the diner happened before Butch shot Vincent, but the scenes have been placed jumbled up within the film.
The characters featured within the 3 main storylines become linked with each other in ways one wouldn't think was possible. Honey Bunny and Pumpkin meet Jules and Vincent in the diner they attempt to hold up, Jules and Vincent meet Butch in a club where Marsellus Wallace pays Butch to lose his fight, Butch meets Vincent in his own home where Vincent has been sent to kill him, and Butch meets Marsellus out in the street when he is supposed to be in hiding from Marsellus. These events all happen at various different time-frames, and are shown un-orderered within the film. This gives the film a chaotic feel which relates to the chaotic situations the characters find themselves in.
I think Pulp Fiction is a genius film because of the narrative as it's so much easier to work on a narrative in chronological order, but to jumble the time-frames up and have the narrative still make sense is so complex and to pull it off makes it a work of art. I absolutely adore the way Pulp Fiction ends with the scene it started with, and leaves you feeling like everything will be okay for Vince and Jules, even though deep down we know it won't be, because Vince is actually dead.
