The Curious Case of Benjamin Button (2008 Film) Literary Elements

The Curious Case of Benjamin Button (2008 Film) Literary Elements

Director

David Fincher

Leading Actors/Actresses

Brad Pitt and Cate Blanchett

Supporting Actors/Actresses

Taraji P. Henson, Julia Ormond, and Jason Flemyng

Genre

Fantasy/Romance

Language

English

Awards

Nominated for thirteen Academy Awards and won three: Best Picture, Best Director, Best Actor for Pitt, Best Supporting Actress for Henson, Best Adapted Screenplay, Best Cinematography, Best Editing, Best Costume Design, Best Original Score, Best Sound Mixing, Best Makeup (Winner), Best Art Direction (Winner), and Best Visual Effects (Winner)

Date of Release

25 December 2008

Producer

Cean Chaffin, Kathleen Kennedy, and Frank Marshall

Setting and Context

The United States (Primarily New Orleans), 1918 - 2005

Narrator and Point of View

Through the point of view of narrator Daisy

Tone and Mood

Romantic, somber, funny, scientific, inquisitive, thrilling, and fantastical

Protagonist and Antagonist

Benjamin vs. life

Major Conflict

The conflict between Benjamin and his strange aging process, which results in significant alienation

Climax

When Benjamin and Daisy meet up and are the same age

Foreshadowing

Daisy and Benjamin falling in love is foreshadowed early on in the film.

Benjamin becoming excessively detached and living alone as a teenage-looking boy is foreshadowed by him leaving Daisy and his daughter and several other situations.

Understatement

The strangeness and profound effect the disease has on Benjamin is constantly understated throughout the film.

Innovations in Filming or Lighting or Camera Techniques

The film used a very unique camera system called Contour, to capture facial deformation data from the real-life, live action performances.

Allusions

Allusions to history, popular culture, mythology, literature, F. Scott Fitzgerald, natural disasters, war, dance, and other things - famous and otherwise.

Paradox

Benjamin's entire situation (aging backwards) is paradoxical. Particularly when social services found him, seemingly a teenager, suffering with dementia, a disease for older people.

Parallelism

No significant instances of parallelism.

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