The Book Thief: Film Analysis

The Book Thief, directed by Brian Percival, is a film adaptation of a book by Mark Zusak centred around adolescent girl Liesel Meminger (Sophie Nelisse). Set in Germany during the early-mid 1940’s, leading up to the war, Liesel is sent away from her family to live with foster parents since she is at risk of being killed due as her parents are communists. Percival uses skilfully chosen aural and visual elements as well as cinematic techniques such as lighting and camera angles to communicate and explore the central theme to the audience: the power of human spirit, especially when dealing with adversity.
Percival designs the aural elements in the scenes that make up the film The Book Thief to communicate and allow the audience to explore the power of the human spirit when dealing with adversity. Percival does this by using the aforementioned techniques to create juxtapositions, contrasting the power of the human spirit against adversity. For example; during an air raid the town is huddled together in a bunker.

For example, during the book burning scene, a variety of high to mid-low shots are used to position the audience in the crowd or as one of the speakers up front. In addition, the way the objects in the scene are positioned and the frame are composed creates an intimidating effect. All the large Nazi flags are positioned symmetrically around the town square, yet the camera is framed slightly off centre, making the whole shot feel off and like something is wrong [Fig. 5]. This certainly shows that Percival utilizes Percival employs cinematic techniques such as camera angles and the framing of the shots used to communicate and allow the audience to explore the power of the human spirit when dealing with adversity in his film The Book