Study Guide THE PERKS OF BEING A WALLFLOWER www.britfilms.de THE PERKS OF BEING A WALLFLOWER German certification minimum age 12 recommended for 14 years and older Language English, English with German subtitles Country, Year U ! 2"12 #unning time 1"2 min$ %irected by te&hen Chbosky tarring Logan Lerman (Charlie), Emma *atson ( am), E+ra ,iller (-atric'), ,ae *hitman (,ary Eli+abeth), .ate *alsh (,other) and others What THE PERKS OF BEING A WALLFLOWER is about !/er the suicide of his only friend, Charlie is in dee& crisis. 0e feels alone and he dreads the 1123 days that are ahead of him at his new high school. 4ut soon a/er joining the school, he ma'es contact with am and her half brother -atric'$ am, who is surrounded by rumors of her su&&osed relationshi&s, and the homosexual -atric' are outsiders, just li'e Charlie$ 4ecause of that they a&&roach him without &rejudice and include him in their grou&$ 7ere, Charlie finds a&&reciation and a feeling of being connected with life$ 0owe8er, things get complicated, when Charlie falls for the a9racti8e am, who is already in8olved with someone$ te&hen Chbosky directs his own boo' on growing u& and dealing with the obstacles of youth as a melancholic and sometimes tragic comedy that ca&tures serious moments as well as amusing ones. !s a director he understands how to translate the complicated feelings of his &rotagonists into images and sounds. Charlie:s le9ers to an anonymous friend ser8e as a dramati+ing frame and deli8er a direct 8iew into Charlie:s mind 8ia 8oice;o8er$ %uring the course of the film, the intro8erted outsider Charlie e8olves into a self;confident young man whose &ath through life becomes a li9le more stable and he can e8en start to co&e with a traumatic e8ent of his youth< the death of his aunt 0elen, who abused him sexually$ =ragmented memories of 0elen:s and Charlie:s relationshi& 'ee& blending into the film seamlessly, brea'ing its chronology$ 4ut the whole truth about Charlie:s &ast is not disco8ered until the end of the film. 7e following work sheets deal with · the young &rotagonists, their &roblems and how they deal with them · how the feeling of being imprisoned and the desire for freedom and infinity are translated into cinematic images · how the soundtrac' complements and comments on the film’s &lot Publishing information -ublisher< !uthor< !G Kino – Gilde deutscher Filmkunsttheater tefan Stile9o #an'estra?e 31 stile9oBfilme;schoener;sehen$de 1"@2A Berlin -hoto credits: Capelight (!ll the stills are from the Blu;ray of CDELLEDC0E LDE4E# MO#GEG, published in Germany by Capelight. They ser8e as image quotations, to enable study of the film’s content, and not as illustrations.) 2 Titl !omparison 7e film E0E -E#. F= 4EDNG ! *!LL=LF*E# retains the title of te&hen Chbosky:s no8el. Dn Germany, the no8el was &ublished under the name CDELLEDC0E LDE4E# ,F#GEN and also %! D E !L F ,EDN LE4EG$ Compare the different titles to each other$ *hat e6&ectations do they raise? *hat themes are they referring to? !/erwards, &lease discuss which one of the titles fits the film &erfectly$ # P r$s of Being a Wall%o& r Vi ll i!ht li b r morg n (as ist also m in L b n *ork in &airs and find an alternati8e title$ E6&lain, why you chose this one in &articular$ In High S!hool E0E -E#. F= 4EDNG ! *!LL=LF*E# follows Charlie during his first year at high school. E6&lain the following terms from school life in the U !$ Fr shman S nior Hom !oming Prom Night 1 )harli , Sam an+ Patri!$ Each of the three &rotagonists has their own &roblems. %escribe, in short, what Charlie, am and -atric' ha8e to deal with and how they feel about it< )harli Sam Patri!$ T lling a stor, through imag s Dmage 1 is ta'en from a scene following a conKict between -atric' and his secret boyfriend 4rad, in which Charlie had to inter8ene$ Dmage 2 shows am’s goodbye shortly before lea8ing for her studies. *hich 8isual element can be found in both images? LLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLL LLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLL %escribe the intended meaning of said element and what it tells you about the characters. 1 2 LLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLL LLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLL LLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLL LLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLL LLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLL LLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLL LLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLL LLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLL 4 Hero s Fne night, Charlie, am and -atric' dri8e through a tunnel while listening to %a8id 4owie:s M0eroes“$ am gets u& on the loading &latform and we see the following images: 1 2 1 4 3 O E6&lain the importance and meaning of this scene for the whole film. LLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLL LLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLL *hat is told through images 1, 3 and O? *rite a sentence from Charlie:s &oint of 8iew, describing his thoughts. LLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLL LLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLL 3 %escribe the images 2, 1 and 4$ -ay a9ention to the &erspecti8e we ha8e of am and how she a&&ears. !lso describe am’s feelings in this 8ery moment$ LLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLL LLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLL #esearch the lyrics to %a8id 4owie:s M0eroes“$ Eranslate them into german and select &arts that correspond &erfectly with E0E -E#. F= 4EDNG ! *!LL=LF*E#$ E6&lain your selections. LLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLL LLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLL A Mi.ta" *hich songs would you choose to go along with the story of E0E -E#. F= 4EDNG ! *!LL=LF*E#J Dn small grou&s, compose a mixta&e of 3 songs and e6&lain why you &ic'ed those songs. 1 2 1 4 3 )harli /s 0olution Dllustrate Charlie:s de8elo&ment throughout the film by comparing his character at the beginning and the end$ *hat are his Hualities and characteristics? 0ow does he deal with other &eo&leJ 0ow does he feel about himself, what are his ambitions and what has he achie8ed at the end of the film? B ginning of 1lm En+ of 1lm 2.