What filmmaking techniques does Welcome to Marwen use?

CineCode breaks down 5 techniques in Welcome to Marwen (2018): Animation as Emotional Amplifier, Protective Fiction, Unreliable Protagonist Vision, Symbolic Object and Performance Capture Pioneer.

Who directed Welcome to Marwen?

Robert Zemeckis directed Welcome to Marwen, released in 2018. CineCode also covers Romancing the Stone (1984), Back to the Future (1985), Who Framed Roger Rabbit (1988), Back to the Future Part II (1989), Back to the Future Part III (1990), Death Becomes Her (1992).

What films are similar to Welcome to Marwen?

Films that share techniques with Welcome to Marwen include Joker (2019), Pan's Labyrinth (2006), The Curious Case of Benjamin Button (2008), The Hobbit: The Desolation of Smaug (2013).

Drama · Fantasy · Biography

Welcome to Marwen

Robert Zemeckis, 2018

After a brutal attack leaves him with PTSD and memory loss, Mark Hogancamp builds a make-believe World War II village of dolls and photographs it. The film moves between his real life and the doll world. Worth watching for how it uses animation to show what a damaged mind is protecting.

1 Editing 1 Psychology 2 Narrative 1 Cinematography

At a glance

Welcome to Marwen is a 2018 drama, fantasy and biography film directed by Robert Zemeckis. This breakdown covers 5 techniques (1 editing, 1 psychology, 2 narrative and 1 cinematography), each with the scene where you can see it. If you like how it is made, Joker uses several of the same techniques.

Editing

Animation as Emotional Amplifier

Using animation, for a whole film or for short sequences inside live action, to make emotions hit harder. Drawn images can show inner feelings that realistic footage can't reach.

How this film uses it

Short animated sequences let the dolls of Marwen act out Mark's feelings. His attackers become Nazi soldiers and his female friends become the women who rescue his pilot. Dolls can show his fear and hope in a way live footage of Steve Carell alone could not.

Where to see it

The opening: A doll pilot crashes his plane and is confronted by doll Nazi soldiers. Doll women then rescue him.

Psychology

Protective Fiction

Having a character invent and keep up a false version of reality to shield someone they love, or themselves, from a truth too painful to bear. The lie is a way to survive.

How this film uses it

Mark imagines the dolls are alive so he can cope with his trauma and memory loss. In Marwen he is a hero who gets the revenge and the love real life has not given him. The film shows the fiction helping him and also keeping him stuck.

Where to see it

Mark's village: Mark photographs scenes in his model town of Marwen, where he is the pilot Cap'n Hogie.

Narrative

Unreliable Protagonist Vision

Showing scenes as real that later turn out to be the main character's fantasy. It happens throughout the film, so the line between what they live and what they imagine never settles.

How this film uses it

The first scene plays as war fantasy, and only afterward do you learn it is Mark's creation. Later, the film shows his attackers as soldiers shooting at him, so you see the courtroom as he does. You learn to question what you are seeing.

Where to see it

The court hearing: Mark sees his attackers in court as Nazi soldiers shooting at him. He becomes terrified and flees, so the hearing is postponed.

Narrative

Symbolic Object

Returning to the same physical object again and again until it means more than what it is. It moves the plot and also stands for the film's main ideas.

How this film uses it

The women's shoes first appear in the doll world when the pilot finds them after his own shoes burn. The doll Nazis taunt him for wearing them, which echoes the real attack that began after Mark told men he was a cross-dresser. The shoes carry the story's idea of shame and acceptance.

Where to see it

The doll pilot's shoes: After the crash, the pilot puts on women's shoes he finds, and the German soldiers taunt him for it.

Cinematography

Performance Capture Pioneer

Recording an actor's body movements and facial expressions and using that data to drive a fully digital character. The human performance survives inside a non-human form.

How this film uses it

Most of the cast play a real-world character and a doll version of that character, using motion capture and their own voices. You can see an actor's expression inside a plastic doll's face. That keeps the dolls emotional.

Where to see it

The doll world: The cast appear as both real-world characters and their doll versions, who protect Cap'n Hogie in Marwen.

Questions

Welcome to Marwen: quick answers

What filmmaking techniques does Welcome to Marwen use?: CineCode breaks down 5 techniques in Welcome to Marwen (2018): Animation as Emotional Amplifier, Protective Fiction, Unreliable Protagonist Vision, Symbolic Object and Performance Capture Pioneer.
Who directed Welcome to Marwen?: Robert Zemeckis directed Welcome to Marwen, released in 2018. CineCode also covers Romancing the Stone (1984), Back to the Future (1985), Who Framed Roger Rabbit (1988), Back to the Future Part II (1989), Back to the Future Part III (1990), Death Becomes Her (1992).
What films are similar to Welcome to Marwen?: Films that share techniques with Welcome to Marwen include Joker (2019), Pan's Labyrinth (2006), The Curious Case of Benjamin Button (2008), The Hobbit: The Desolation of Smaug (2013).

Keep watching