Scene Analysis – Billy Elliot

Resource Description

Scene One: Opening Scene: The opening shot of hands shows fingers that tremble whilst placing the record onto the record player. This then leads into Billy jumping up into the screen and his exhilaration and excitement increases, as does the screen and it lengthens until his whole body comes into view. The screen enlarges again which makes Billy seem and look much smaller. 

ANALYSIS: This displays Billy’s love for music and symbolises the way in which it embodies him. We are given a hint here that music will provide him a pathway into a wider world, but also make him susceptible to the dangers and prejudices that exist in the world.   

Scene (Introduction of Billy’s brother and father): Billy playing the piano

ANALYSIS: Billy is struggling to make music on the piano, showing his early desires for self-expression. He practises the piano without encouragement or guidance, and continues to play after the scene in which his father has slammed down the piano’s lid.  These scenes allow the responder to infer that Billy will face further struggle and opposition as he attempts to make his transition into the wider world and although his journey into his artistic expression will be difficult, that he is motivated to succeed. Also, the photographs placed on the piano offer us a look into a family which was once whole but has now been fractured by the death of a mother and wife, plus the hardship which results from the miners’ strikes.