Opening scenes

 When Sheriff Tom Bell is introduced, we hear a voiceover being played over Chigurh being arrested. He talks about being proud to follow in his fathers footsteps of being a Sheriff and that the role of the sheriff to him is to die in action and as a hero. As he's arresting Chigurh, hes in a position of power above Chigurh with the glasses giving him authority and the blank, intimidating expression on his face.

When Chigurh is introduced, only his back us shown. Even when he's at the back of the car his face is hidden in the shadows which makes the overall tone of the film a Horror. At the police station, there is a use of a two shot angle where  Chigurh is placed in the background, hidden among the shadows while the officer is placed at the front of the screen to show dominance. As he's strangling the officer, we get a quick glance of his face with a crazy, possessed look on his face. In the bathroom scene, the camera is facing down so we still don't get a clear shot of his face. The camera is angled that way as if the we could only see the back of him we would still see him in the mirror.

When Moss is introduced, we see him hunting the deer. Unlike Chigurh's introduction we get to see Moss's face as a close-up shot is used. This is very different to Chigurh's introduction as we hardly see his face and his back is always facing the camera. Moss is seen to be blending in with the western environment with the brown clothes making him feel like he belongs here and fits right in to the wild west. A camera angle that is used a lot is a shot-reverse-shot where it cuts from a close up shot of Moss to the stretching miles of sand and then back to Moss. Although, both Moss's and Chigurh's introductions are quite similar as they both say 'stand still' to whoever they're trying to kill.

No Country For Old Men Ending Scene.

 Ending to 'No Country for Old Men'

I do not think this film has a satisfying conclusion as right from the start we can guess there's going to be a epic showdown between  Chigurh and Moss but 20 minutes before the film ended, Moss was killed offscreen by secondary characters who haven't had that much screen time which is a disappointing end to his character. We then thought we would get a showdown between Chigurh and the Sheriff but that didn't happen at all and these two haven't actually crossed paths at all. The film does not conform to the traditional western genre with the showdown which happens between two opposing characters. Another way in which it doesn't conform to the western genre is that it doesn't take place in the Wild West as it is set in 1980 even though, most western films in the 40s and 50s are set in the late 19th century. I also found it strange that throughout the film, Chigurh is an unstoppable killing machine who even causes an explosion just to rob a pharmacy to fix himself up but at the last few minutes of the film he is not stopped by a bullet but a car crash leaving him with a broken arm and a bloody face. This is quite an anti-climatic ending as I would've expect a thrilling showdown between the Sheriff and Chigurh. He even bribed the kids to not tell any of them but being the only witnesses to the crash, I believe they're bound to tell someone eventually. 

I believe the main villain was killed offscreen so we get that scene with Moss's wife and Chigurh as at this point she has lost everyone: her Husband, her mother, so now she's got nothing else to lose and isn't afraid of confronting Chiguegh and is the only character that has kept him talking for long enough and put a stop to his coin toss by saying 'he cannot pass blame to luck' as his coin toss trick decides who will live and who will survive. Although as Anton Chigurh leaves the house and checks the soles of his shoes for blood, it is implied that he murdered her even if it wasn't shown onscreen as the has already lost her husband and mother to Chigurh so has nothing else to lose. This has been done before with the accounting guy where we don't know if he's been killed or not but I believe he, unlike her, did not get murdered as he would've admitted he didn't see him there. I believe the showdown did not take place between Anton and Sherriff Tom Bell as it sets up the final emotional scene between Bell [now retired] sharing two dreams with his Wife. This is the final scene and leaves us with Chigurh, still alive even if he's damaged really, really badly, he lives to kill another day. 

Meshes in the afternoon

 Reality             

- A hand is shown to place a flower on the ground.

Thee is a shadow around the garden. 

In the film, death is shown to be a silent killer always behind her. This 'mirror-like person could be her husband. Some events are repeated throughout the film which suggests it's a dream. The establishing location for this is a 1940s garden with the old fashioned telephone giving the setting away. The film ends with the woman dead and the ending is open up to interpretation as we are left wondering 'Did she commit suicide? or did the strange figure murder her?'. Originally there was no soundtrack to it at all but later on after the film had been released, they added in a soundtrack. This is an experimental film as it pushes the boundaries of filming. Lynch was inspired by this short film and went on to direct classics like 'The Grandmother' in 1970 and 'Blue Velvet' in 1986. This inspired the Grandmother with the use of black and white in these films.  There is a binary opposite of the nightmarish vs the ordinary in this film and this contrast would be seen in Lynch's films. When we get a close up shot of the women's eyes they slowly close as we get a POV shot of her eyelids closing. This is the point where it turns for being reality to a dream. W e then get  shot of a figure with mirror for a face which adds to the dreamlike state she's in. We then get a shot of a knife on the stairs. We see she is being blown away in a claustrophobic, trapped like position. This links to the title with mesh being used to trap things in it. We get another POV shot off the woman looking down at her sleeping body from above. This is known as an out-of-body experience for the character. We then see the mysterious cloaked figure walking up the stairs but very slowly as he places a flower onto her bed. This could represent the mirrored figure as a grim reaper or as someone coming to mourn her on her deathbed. I believe the crisis occurs when she falls asleep and that cloaked figure is walking up the stairs slowly. The whole point of this was to get an emotional response out of the viewer or make them feel trapped or claustrophobic which links to 'meshes' in the title which is used to trap things in it. They use subjective camera editing with POV shots throughout when she is looking down at her sleeping body.

 Subjective filming is :

focusing on one character central to that scene. We are immersed into the characters perspective with the use of POV shots so the audience can see what the character is seeing, the use of character movements like causing a spin to show a character is dizzy and camera angles such as a close up shot of the character so his face fills up the screen and we can get a sense of what he's feeling. This is done effectively in 1998 'Saving Private Ryan' to show the after effects on shell shock. Sound is also used in that film to show he can distinctively hear what's going on around him like the explosions and but the other shouting at him 'what do we do?' sounds completely muted to him.  An extreme close up can also be used and this highlights the character facial expressions even more. The soundtrack is used to show the character's perspective like in 'Apocalypse now' with 'The End' by the doors plays over him having a mental breakdown.

westerns

 The western genre is usually set in the mid 18th century until about the early 19th century in the old west. It can be found in other countries and other genres such as science fiction, comedy and horror. The popularity of the genre took of in the late 1930s and the 40s when major studios started to have success with these westerns with the peak era in the 50s. All western films began to get more violent in the 60s and 70s and developed themes where the hero motive's were not as heroic as it was in the early western films. Recent popular films include Quentin Tarantino's Django Unchained and the hateful eight and the film No Country for Old Men. The typical setting for a western is with a mountain, desert known as the wild west.

In most Westerns, two binary opposite characters have a showdown in the middle of the desert. A close up shot is used to show there hand hovering over their holster ready to shoot. A close up shot is also used to show their eyes as they are ready to shoot. 

The Grandmother work

 In the grandmother, a young boy is trying to escape abusive parents by planting a seed that turns into an old Grandmother. The boys parents are constantly barking at him and have an animalistic behaviour. A few times in this film, the Father comes in and grabs the boy violently to rub his face in wet patches on the bed. This leads him to plant a bag of seeds on the bed and a shell is formed leading to the Grandmother being born. She cheers the boy up until the end when she suddenly dies.

The film takes place on a very dark film set. On lynchnet.com, the director said he painted walls in his house black to film 'The Grandmother'. By having a dark background he was able to contrast this with bright colours to make it more  disturbing like the boy having red lips and a red patch on the bed to show that he's wet the bed.

The film is silent but there are whistling sounds and barking sounds. The sound effects were done by Alan Splet who worked with Lynch on many other films. The location of the house is really dark and unsettling which makes it look like it's seperate from reality especially with his parents constantly barking when he's around. The boy's face is very pale and dresses in a black suit throughout which foreshadows the funeral scene at the end. The pale face may suggests he's emotionally dead as he's received so much abuse from his parents for so long.

How does David Lynch portray ordinary life as nightmarish?

Lynch has presented this with a naturalistic setting although the location of the house feels very claustrophobic as if it's seperate from reality with the disturbing an unnerving sounds especially at the beginning with the growling and animalistic behaviour of the parents making it feel very surreal and dreamlike. Lynch uses animation against live action to show the boy being grown through the roots makes it feel very grotesque and disturbing. The father rushing over to the boy as soon as he was born could suggest he doesn't want him here and he's taking his anger out at the boy. The walls of the set were painted black by David lynch and mixed with the gloomy, pale expressions on their faces makes it feel very disturbing. The pale face of the boy contrasts nicely with the bright  red lips to make the bright colour stand out and the pale, zombie- like expression could represent that he is 'emotionally dead' on the inside and that there is no hope for him as he has received abuse for a long time. The use of colours is also done with the red patch on the bed interpreting the boy has wet the bed which comes into the plot later on with the father rubbing the boy's face in it.

As soon as the boy sprung up from the roots, he has a suit on. This could foreshadow the funeral of the Grandmother at the end of the film as he was very close to her and she was the escapism for his constant abuse. It could also be a premonition that she is going to die later on. The film ends with the boy still getting the abuse from his parents and he has not escaped it and represents that the boy has nothing left to lose as his Grandmother, who cheered him up is now dead.

An example of surrealism would be the boy living with his parents as normal until we find they are anything but normal as they start making animalistic grunts and sounds so the boy is actually living in constant fear from them. Another example of surrealism would be the boy seeming normal and much more humane than his parents but perhaps this boy really is strange and abnormal as we see him wearing a suit as soon as he was born. Then the funeral scene comes at the end and we find out the reason for this boy wearing a suit is that it's to mourn for his 'Grandmother'. Lynch might be putting the message across that the Grandmother was distracting him from the violent way his parents are treating him and was form of escapism from the abuse. Now that the Grandmother is dead, Lynch puts across that the abuse will carry on. The parents are acting very violent and at the beginning are shown tone crawling on all fours like animals. The contrasts with them being human but their grunting and growling suggests they are not at all human on the inside.