“THE BOOK THIEF” By Brian Percival
By: Antía, Ainara and Marta.
TABLE OF CONTENTS:
1.Introduction
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2. Information about the film
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3. Synopsis
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4. Poster analysis
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5. Trailer analysis
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6. Dialogue
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7. Characters
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Rudy Steiner
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Liesel Memminger
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Hans Memminger
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8. Conclusion
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9. Bibliography
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1.Introduction We are going to talk about the film “The book thief�, by Brian Percival, then we will analyze the poster and the trailer. Finally, we have to write a dialogue with a phrase of the film. We choose this film because we think that it is very interesting to analyze and to know how life was in that century.
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2. Information about the film The director of “The book thief” is Brian Percival. It is a film based on a book written by Markus Zusak and adapted by Michael Pretoni. The principal characters are:
● Geoffrey Rush is Hans, Liesel’s adopted father. ● Sophie Nélisse is Liesel. ● Emily Watson, Liesel’s adopted mother. ● Nico Liersch is Rudy Steiner, Liesel's best friend and love interest. ● Ben Schnetzer is Max Vanderburg. ● Heike Makatsch is Liesel’s mother. ● Barbara Auer is Ilsa Hermann. ● Roger Allam is the Death, the film narrator.
3. Synopsis The film tells the story of Liesel Memminger, a 9 year-old girl adopted by a german family in the Second World War because his mother was communist. She learned how to read and write with her friend Rudy. During the film we see how Hitler creates the Hitler Youth, which includes the two children protagonist of the story. In a part of the film, while the nazis burned a mountain of books, the people had to throw a book to the bonfire to demonstrate his loyalty to Nazism and the girl, Liesel, at the end of the “event” took one of the books that didn’t burn. Then the Night of the broken glasses, that is a night where the Nazis broke all the windows of the streets while chasing the Jews. We can see Max, a Jew hidden by the Hubermann in their house, because his father had saved Liesel’s adoptive father in the war, that tries to escape from the Nazis. Max becomes a good friend of Liesel because they both hate Hitler. Later the bombs come and one night the alarms didn’t sound and the bombs fall down in Himmelstrasse, the small town where Liesel lived.
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4. Poster analysis
We see a girl, in the middle of the foreground, who is holding a book. In the background, you can see a lot of people going around a big fire, where a mountain of books were being burn in the middle of the street because they want that all the people can see this. In the other side there are Nazis flags, a general and over him you can see the title of the movie. The light comes from the left and this fact makes this part stand out, also makes that the books jut out like the girl. The relation between text and image is that the books are repeated the poster also in the text. The colors are very dark because this poster wants to represent sadness. When you see this poster you can speculate that it is going to be a drama. The film shows us the perfect german prototype of girl. We choose this poster because we think that it’s the best sign which represents the film.
5. Trailer analysis The trailer has these scenes because some of them are the most important of the film and it intrigues you because you don’t know what is going to happen afterwards. This causes, In the audience, intrigue, sadness, fear and in particular moments tenderness because, Rudy and Liesel, are very cute and they look very happy. 4
In the trailer Nazis’ flags appear a lot of times and this shows a lot of fear for the war. This trailer is shot in a German village and this contributes to know the people and to know what happens in the film.
6. Dialogue The phrase is in the minute 65, when Liesel was going out of the Mayor’s house with a book and Rudy catches her and says the phrase “I’m not stealing, I’m borrowing”. We invent a scene that takes place in a bakery when Liesel is borrowing food and Rudy sees her.
Liesel is leaving the bakery and with a scary face says: -Liesel: Oh my god! Why are you here? -Rudy: I know it! I know that you are stealing. She looks to other side. -Liesel: No no… I'm not stealing, I'm borrowing. -Rudy: You have to return that food because it is not yours. -Liesel (worried): But… we need it, our food is not enough for all of us and Max is very sick. -Rudy: Okay, I will help you but this is the last time you do it. She is happy and she hugs Rudy. -Liesel: OH I LOVE YOU RUDY! -Rudy (flushed): Me too... -Liesel: I can win you in a race! When Liesel starts to run, the boy says whispering. -Rudy: If I win, you have to kiss me… I think that the end is going to be very good.
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7. Characters -
Rudy Steiner
Rudy is the Liesel’s friend and his neighbor, he has the same age as her. He has blue eyes, her hair is blond and he is thin. He is from a big family so he starved and he is dressed with cheap clothes. He is rebellious, is in love with Liesel, he is very intelligent and also funny. Rudy wants to be black, because he loves to run and the fastest man in the world is black (Jesse Owens) so he wants to be like him, but in that time being black is not good. He Is part of Hitler’s Youth but he hates Hitler (like Liesel), there is the cause of many
problems and the Nazis want to take him to a physical training school. We know how Rudy is in all the film because of his expressions and his actions. The form that the narrator describes him is important because it reflects the perfect german prototype.
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Liesel Memminger
I’m going to describe Liesel the protagonist of the story. Leslie Memminger is a little girl, she is 9 years old, she has long, curly and blonde hair. She is around 1.50 meters tall. She has green eyes and round face.She is pale. She is a very hard worker and she has a big heart. She loves to read That is why she stole
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the books in the mayor’s house. At the beginning of the story Liesel was very nervous because she didn’t know the family. The character changes when the movie starts she is very shy and quiet and when the time passes Liesel changes into a talkative person. She loves very much her father, Hans, because he is a good person and she loves listening to him playing the accordion.
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Hans Memminger
The character that I will describe is Hans, he is Liesel’s stepfather and he was very empathic when Liesel arrived in Molching. Normally, he wore a waistcoat with a shirt and corduroy trousers. The light, for Hans, is very important, because in the film there are a lot of different moments with him, for example, when the bombs were falling all the people were in a refuge and the light was weak and when Hans started to play the accordion the light focused on him. The director created a very beautiful relationship between Hans and Liesel because when she arrived he is the person that treated Liesel with respect and with a lot of empathy. Hans shows, with her way to speak, that he is very nice and loving person and he transmits confidence, also he acts in a way that you can easily understand the same that with his way of speaking. In the film there are some clues by which you can understand how the character is, for example, he likes to return the favors, apart from that he is very hospitable. There are some actions that show how the character is, as when Liesel arrived he doesn't know who she is. Apart from that, when he plays the accordion in the refugee he makes the noise of the bombs more pleasant if this could be possible... Hans is represented as a very intelligent and very realistic man, because in the film he thinks the same about the people that he needs to help. In the film, it is very important to represent Hans this way because you can know a lot of him and you
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can judge that his way is very positive because he has a very positive attitude. Hans is consistent with the situation that he and his family live in their city, he is a very believable person for the way he acts out. Hans is a straightforward character because from the start to the end we know how he is and he doesn't change.
8. Conclusion In this project we learned a lot of things, for example to be more critical with films or to read between lines. On the other hand we liked it because we love films and is very interesting to stop to analyze it. The most difficult part for us was to write the dialogue because we have never done anything like that and the easiest part was to analyze the trailer.
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9. Bibliography -
Keith, REVIEW “The book thief” (December 13, 2013) <https://keithandthemovies.com/2013/12/13/review-the-book-thief/> [ Accesed May 4, 2018]
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Metascore, “The book thief”, IMDb < https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0816442/ > [Accesed May 18, 2018]
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Movieclips Trailers, “The Book Thief” Official International Trailer ( October 23, 2013)<h ttps://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6dRuGwS1gWU > [ Accesed May 8, 2018]
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Sarahmailee, “The book thief” (Januray 29, 2014) <https://thevaultpublication.com/2014/01/29/the-book-thief/ > [Accesed May 25, 2018]
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“The book thief”, Rudy Steiner <https://lieselthebookthief.weebly.com/rudy-stiener.html > [Accesed May 25, 2018]
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The city at our feets, #thebookthief set: Geoffrey Rush <https://www.pinterest.com/pin/65372632064725288/ > [Accesed May 25, 2018]
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Virginiathedomina, Tilly and her books (December 8, 2013) <http://tilly-and-her-books.tumblr.com/post/69319536312/beaucoupbooks-liesel-meminger-coat-appreciation > [Accesed May 25, 2018]
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