Love Actually (2003)

 

Love Actually

Love Actually is a 2003 Romantic-Comedy film directed and written by Richard Curtis. The films cast is rather large, but consists of a wealth of well-known British actors such as Hugh Grant, Alan Rickman, Emma Thompson, Colin Firth, Keira Knightly and Liam Neeson.

The film revolves around the lovelives of 10 couples in the lead up to Christmas, as well as a epilogue set one month after Christmas. Most of the stories intertwine with the other stories in the film as we find that nearly all of the characters are linked in some way. 

The film was produced on a budget of around £30,000,000 and made a gross profit of around $247,472,278 worldwide making the film a huge success. It was nominated for a large number of awards and won a host of them.

Opening Sequence

Camera Angles 

In the opening sequence there are a lot of close-ups used to show happiness in the faces of the people, which shows their love for the people returning to the airport. Then as the characters are introduced we again get a lot of close-ups used to show the expressions on the faces. In some cases they are happy expressions meaning that there is love in their life, but there are some sad facial expressions to suggest that the love is gone from their lives.

Mise-en-Scene

The first letter of each actors name is in red type, red is often a sign of love and passion so it fits with the title of the film.

  The wedding at the start of the film epitomises what the film is about as to get married is the ultimate sign that you love someone. There is a lot of light in the church which shows that it is something good happening. In fact, all throughout the opening a lot of high key lighting is used.

  At the very start, there is a montage at the arrivals gate of Heathrow where we see real people meeting their partners, family and friends and you can see the love and happiness of everyone.

Editing

There are a lot of cuts used in the montage so that the audience can see just how many happy people there are at the airport. There are also a lot of cuts used to introduce all of the characters which has to happen due to the number of them.

Sound

There is a voice over from Hugh Grant, who is one of the main characters, as we see the montage and he talks about how love is part of everyday life, and no matter what bad things may happen, love is always a prominent thing. He also says the words "love actually" which then turns into the title.

  As we see the montage there is a very soft, quiet piano playing a song to show the delicacy of love.