One of my more favourite films is Atonement
The film is a memoir of a story that reflects on Briony’s eternal regret, the tragedy of a momentary emotional fever that resulted in irreparable regret and unforgiveness. Briony is faced with countless days and nights of mental anguish, regret and guilt for the mistakes she has made.
About 8 stages
1.You
Briony is a young girl with a vivid imagination and a love of writing, sensitive and curious at the age of puberty, with all the ignorance of a thirteen year old girl.
2.Need
Briony has rehearsed her new play and wants Robbie to come and see it, so that she can be sure of her secret love for him.Because of the “truth” she has seen with her own eyes and her jealousy over her sister Cecilia’s affair with Robbie.
3.Go
Briony happens to stumble upon her sister Cecilia cheating on her with Robbie in her study. Her sister barges in and sees the scene and cries in horror, thinking that the hero is bullying her sister. When Briony’s cousin Laura happens to be raped that night, Briony imagines that the rapist is Robbie and turns him in to the police. Robbie is then unjustly imprisoned.
4.Search
Robbie goes to prison and later rushes off to war, along with his sister who leaves home in anger and doesn’t see her family. Sister and Robbie are constantly creating opportunities to see each other, yet the war is brutal and each meeting is short.
5.Find
This perjury by her sister not only ruined Robbie’s and her sister’s lives, but equally ruined her own. She will be blaming herself deeply for this lie for the rest of her life
6.Take
To atone for her sins, Briony came to work as a nurse in a hospital instead of entering university.
By chance, she attends a wedding, that of Lola and Paul, and in return, he marries her. Then Briony vividly recalls that the man who raped Lola that summer had made a move to turn back, and he was the man in front of her, Paul. She wants to go over to her sister Cecilia and Robbie to confess, but reality doesn’t give her that chance.
7.Return
Briony lived her whole life in deep remorse, having lost the lives of two people whose happiness was ruined by her momentary stubborn prejudice.
8.Change
The only thing Briony could do was to tell their story and put it in the book. Filled with a deep sense of remorse and guilt in her heart.
Characters
Briony:, an outgoing, self-possessed yet imaginative, eccentric and elfin young girl
Cecilia: she is the image of an opinionated independent woman dignified, cool in appearance and resolute in character
Robbie: he is intelligent and gentle, he shows his infatuation for the person he loves through his eyes
Create a timeline for the main character starting before the film start.
Robbie’s unjust imprisonment(Original story line)
After an internal struggle Briony found a way to confess and make amends. She confessed to the world that she had perjured herself and sent Robbie to prison, but she herself had to suffer the scorn of all. So she went to the pond where Robbie had saved her and thought once more of the time when she had jumped into the river and Robbie had rescued her, and she wanted to put an end to it all. So she jumped into the pond once more and it was Robbie who rescued her just as she was about to sink to the bottom of the river. Celie and Robbie chose to forgive Briony. In the end Briony chose to go to college to study writing, Robbie joined the army because of the war and Briony waited for Robbie’s return at the beach house. Briony saw Robbie off with her sister Briony, but it was the last time the three of them were reunited. Eventually they waited for Robbie to be notified of his death in action and his sister Cecilia, unable to accept the fact that Robbie would not return, soon passed away. Briony writes the story through her writing, and she goes to the beach house where her sister and Robbie agreed to continue to wait for a Robbie who will never return….