The location and the field where the scene has taken will play a vital role in a movie or a series like the plot, twists, and characterizations in it. The entire art and architecture in a film can lift the story and also ruin the whole feel of an onlooker. Architecture is a highly influential element in a movie or a series. For this article, I picked the most disturbing but essential movie for this society, “The Platform.”
The Plot | The platform
The platform, directed by Galder Gaztelu – Urrutia, a cruel and necessary movie that showcases the actual circumstances of the society we are living in, it showcases yourself to you. The entire movie is set inside a prison, this time it is not a prison with cells but with platforms that depict the class differences in our society. There will be more than 200 platforms. Each platform will accommodate two prisoners or volunteers. There is a moving platform in the middle that contains food for all the prisoners. Inherently, a person at the bottom-most platform will get nothing to eat as there is no rationality in the prison. Also, if a person steals food and hides it, the temperature of the platform rises to represent that the particular person is consuming more than he needs.
Every month the administration will decide which person should be there on which platform according to their performance. If a prisoner kills their cellmate to feed themselves, that prisoner will be transferred to the upper cells. This indicates the brutality of humans to reach a dignified position in society. Meanwhile, if both the prisoners live peacefully, they will be moved down. The moving platform contains each prisoner’s favorite food. If the prisoners consume only what they want, none will be left starving. This portrays the greedy mentality of humans.
The prison consists of all sorts of people whom we meet in our day-to-day life. There are limited characters to carry the movie till the end. An old man who supports the system and prepares himself to any extreme for his survival. There is a girl who would like to change the system but in a peaceful movement that is futile. There is one more girl who exploits the system and kills her cellmate. She travels down to the last platform every month to feed her and check whether the kid has enough food to survive the next month. Then the main protagonist will be resistant and kill those who are not cooperative to provide food for each prisoner equally.
The Characterization
The characterizations are at best in this movie. The main cast Ivan Massague, Emilio Buale, Antonia San Juan, Alexandra Masangkay, and Zorion Eguileor have done a phenomenal effort. Though there were very few characters, they exuded the movie brilliantly. Every character justifies their respective role and all the emotions in the movie like cruelty, anger, empathy, selfishness, agony, and humanity phenomenally. Each character symbolizes the people of this society.
How architecture influences the movies
Architecture had exclusively controlled the movie single-handedly. The director used architecture as a principal element to symbolize class differences throughout the movie. The idea of leaving the moving concrete platform open is extraordinary. The open lift helps to bring out the outrage of humans and the extremes they can go to save themselves and their class. The entire movie was filmed inside a cubical concrete box.
The concrete structure of the platform gives us a plain emotionless feel at the beginning. Since concrete has the competence of getting adapted to any kind of design motif, it got adapted to all kinds of human emotions that was layered in this movie. Along with the concrete structure, the colors that were used added extra spice to the characters and scenes. For example, an old man dies in the movie but the main protagonist will have an illusion of an old man. Whenever the protagonist has a dream, the entire scene will be laminated with red color to differentiate the dream and reality. Though the movie doesn’t have grand and modern architectural elements or bright colors to attract the audience. The art director Azegine Urigoitia rationalized the plot with simple architectural forms.
The furniture used in this movie is also minimal. The maximum luxury that has been given to the prisoners by the administration is a bed for each and a minimal accessory along with it. The only impressive and fanciful feature of this movie is the moving platform which looks offbeat with the theme of the movie. The platform will be well organized with attractive food and lavish cutleries, to show how humans sabotage it even though they have enough of what they want.
