English Ib Sl - Sherlock Holmes

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ENGLISH ASSIGNMENT ‘The Circus’ is quite subtly portrayed in the film, “Sherlock Holmes”. We see various circus-like elements in the film. Like, the bar fight Sherlock had, or, the gypsy woman and also the ‘actual’ circus. All of them have a robust effect on the film and its viewer. Lets look at our first idea. It is the same one mentioned above, the fight scene. During most of the fight, we here the light, comic and ‘Irish’ tune playing in the background. It perhaps signifies Sherlock’s current mental state, which is carefree, and confident. That however, stops when he sees Irene Adler. Another circus like element in the same scene is when Sherlock treats his contender like an animal. He is clapping to attract the latter towards him [we usually clap our hands in front of an animal to get its attention]. We see the use of shot-reverse-shot to see the furious, agitated face of the contender and the amused face of Sherlock. The next idea is of ‘fire’. In the ‘actual’ circus scene, one can notice the presence of fire almost everywhere. It may symbolize the “fiery” relation of Sherlock and Adler. Or it may also be seen as a dangerous, fire-like situation Sherlock might get into if he keeps following Irene. Logic v/s Superstition is also a ubiquitous theme present in the film. Sherlock Holmes depicts the logic side, whereas, the hokum fortunetellers represent the superstition side. In the ‘actual’ circus, we see various fortunetellers while Sherlock passes through. The next theme is of disguise. Sherlock uses an eye patch and a hat taken from the circus’ site. The use of various cuts and also the use of close-up on the eye patch can be seen. These various props become the aid for Sherlock’s disguise, an attempt to hide from Irene. Unducation

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