Love Me Or Leave Me Alone- Analysis

Love Me or Leave Me Alone is a short film based around a young teenage couple’s relationship, following them from their initial break up to a vague hint at their reunion. One of the main themes throughout the film is that of youth, and the relationships that are created in teenage years. This it the most prominent of the themes, though others are hinted at through the use of technical methods. For example, there is a theme of light and dark, represented by the different environments that both the characters find themselves in throughout; often the young boy in the film is seen in darker environments, while the young girl is seen in brightly lit rooms.

This film was not particularly enjoyable in my opinion due to the fact that I found it difficult to understand whether it was successful or not, considering the objectives of the director were not particularly clear. There is no build up to the young couple’s break up and therefore there is a hint that this film is meant to be representative of a break up on a whole at first, though it is clear that the two end up reuniting by the end of the short film. It is not particularly representative of youth on a whole as they are stereotypical to a lower class, and even this aspect of their lives is not explored fully as there is little information given about their lives outside of each other.

One of the most obvious techniques used in the film is the difference in lighting created for each character. The light is often bright and warm when the girl is on screen, while the boy is often surrounded by extremely dark lighting to the point where he is not visible from time to time. While this creates an interesting contrast between the two, there is little in the plot of the film that gives us indication this may be representative of their characters. It could be construed that the lighting gives the audience a hint that the young man is to blame in the break up of the relationship, though without backing of any sort this is a theory that could go amiss by many viewers. Another technique that is used frequently throughout the film is keeping the characters central in the camera shot throughout the film. While this would be a useful way in most cases of bringing a sense of importance to the central subject in the shot, it is a technique that is used too frequently without explanation throughout the film and so it does not serve the purpose it should.

The theme of youth and relationships is one that is clearly portrayed through the style of the film, as the young couple are the only two characters that the viewer is able to see. There is a scene in which the young boy goes home, and we hear the voices of his family, but do not see them at any point, this emphasising the fact that he is of the most importance in this family to the story. By isolating the two from human contact, the story is centred entirely around them with nothing to distract the audience from them.