Wasp - Social Realism

 One way Arnold uses film techniques to show a form of social realism by the use of camera, Arnold uses a lot of close-up shots to show how Zoe's life is. Arnold's use of close-up shots reflect how Zoe's life is disorientated and shows how she's in poverty as the lack of space in a close-up shot portrays Zoe's lack of financial stability. Arnold's close-up shots show how Zoe was walking barefoot, diaper-less baby and in the kitchen scene we get a close-up of how badly Zoe's situation is as we see her counting her pennies along her mouldy bread. Because Arnold is using close-up shots this can mirror a sense of turbulence and unrest since there is no establishing shot, the close-up shots as an audience we are confused since we don't know where they are because we can't see the entire picture. Furthermore the use of close-ups amplifies the sense of separation as Zoe's kids are left alone outside the pub. In addition Arnold uses handheld camera to add a sense of realism suggesting that this is a harsh reality in society, which furthermore backs my point of how Arnold uses the camera to show social realism. 

Another way Arnold uses film techniques to show a form of social realism is by the use of sound, Arnold uses no music throughout the entire film (aside from the one coming from the pub) which in a sense shows how Zoe's life is. Arnold's use of no music indicates that Zoe's life has no freedom, her freedom is taken away from her due to her duty of having to take care of her kids and having no financial stability. The use of no music add a sense of realism since (obviously) in real life there is no background music constantly playing, this is actually one of Arnold's typical way to display an "organic" feeling as her auteurship is no music and handheld camera to reflect social realism and to portray her characters.

Moreover, another way Arnold uses film techniques to show a form of social realism is by the use of dialogue. The dialogue that Arnold uses is very realistic as we are shown that Zoe swears in front of her kids, which reflects bad parenting. Also we are shown how Zoe can speak casually to Dave whilst completely lying to him casually when she talks about her "babysitting" the kids when in fact they're hers, this indicates the hard social realism that shows us that the hard truth in society that anyone can lie to you.