Ralph Review

RALPH The short film focuses on a young boy from London named Ralph. Ralph takes a trip to Paris with no knowledge of the language and is set on finding his accommodation and what to do in the city based on a phone number, which later on turns out to be missing a digit. Ralph uses different algorithms as a way of finding this extra digit, for example writing out the number given multiple times and adding extra numbers at the end. However his results came up short. It came to the point where Ralph had decided to search for a phone card as an alternative. He visited a local bar/restaurant and asked if they sold phone cards, however the owner was unable to provide him with anything unless he bought something to eat. Ralph agrees and his food is delivered to him, but not before he trips up the waitress whom I assume is the daughter of the owner of the bar/restaurant. Ralph apologises and leaves the restaurant with a large tip for the waitress and goes back to dialling the wrong number multiple times, growing angrier with each dial. The waitress notices and speaks to Ralph; he then explains that he is here to see a woman he cares deeply about, however Clare does not feel the same way. The waitress offers to take Ralph to see the city but just as she does Clare comes out to greet Ralph. He later realises that she has found somebody new in Paris and decides to leave Clare and go off with the waitress, who has left her father at the restaurant after getting into a heated argument about Ralph. It is clear from watching this that the Genre is a Romance Drama; this is because it focuses on Ralphs love for Clare but also his new infatuation for the waitress at the bar/restaurant. It is also a Drama as we are able to see the tension and conflict within the relationship of the waitress and her father, but also the Drama between Ralph and Clare. The movie Ralph uses extreme close ups on Ralphs face whilst he is dialling Clare’s number. This is used to display Ralph’s expression so the audience is able to see and understand the frustration that Ralph is feeling, it also creates tension as we do not actually hear any dialogue at this point in time but by seeing his face we are able to understand Ralph’s desperation. The movie also uses a long shot when we first see Ralph; this is done to let us see Ralph’s appearance and also gives information, just by including everything in the frame we are able to see the situation, before Ralph even spoke the audience could tell he was from London based on his clothing and that he was foreign by the large suitcase he held. Ralph used more Digetic sound than Non-digetic sound, this for example would be the noise of the cars passing by and the sound the phone makes as he dials the numbers. This is done as a way of displaying reality, it is everyday noises that are being recognised which makes the movie seem much more realistic and also involves the audience as they feel as though they are right there because of the sounds that they recognise.