A Detailed Analysis of Taika Waititi's 'Two Cars, One Night' Film

This report provides a detailed analysis of Taika Waititi's short film, 'Two Cars, One Night.' The analysis begins with a synopsis of the movie, which tells the story of three young children who form an unlikely friendship while waiting for their parents in separate cars. The report then explores the director's aim, which is to capture the small, impactful moments of childhood, focusing on themes of friendship, rivalry, and kindness. The narrative is examined through the lens of Todorov's theory of equilibrium and disequilibrium. The report also delves into the film's editing techniques, including the use of black and white, color, lighting, time-lapse, and slow-motion, highlighting how these techniques enhance the storytelling. Furthermore, the report analyzes the cinematography, including camera shots and movements, to demonstrate how the film engages the audience. The analysis includes references to supporting materials that provide context and further insight into the film's elements and techniques.

Running head: Two cars one night
two cars one night
A short film by Taika Waititi

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Table of Contents
Synopsis of the movie.................................................................................................................................2
Aim of the director- Taika Waititi...............................................................................................................2
Narrative......................................................................................................................................................2
Equilibrium..............................................................................................................................................3
Disequilibrium.........................................................................................................................................3
Recognition..............................................................................................................................................3
Repair......................................................................................................................................................3
New equilibrium......................................................................................................................................3
Editing.........................................................................................................................................................3
Cinematography..........................................................................................................................................4
References...................................................................................................................................................5

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Synopsis of the movie
Two cars one night is a story of three Young kids named, Romeo, Ed, and Polly where
the two boys were waiting for their parents sitting in a car parked at a hotel. Another car
comes beside them where the girl, Polly is also kept to wait for her parents. The boys and
girl start talking to each other. Initially, there was some kind of cross-car rivalry between
them which soon turned into a budding friendship.
Aim of the director- Taika Waititi
In childhood, there are a few moments which have a life-lasting impact because an
unexpected happiness is found from those moments.
The director has here explained that his aim for this movie was to capture and show those
few small things which happen to all in their lives (Marubbio, 2013). He has captured
small things like friendship, rivalry, and kindness which generally are not noticed. Waititi
has shown through the eyes of children, that the moments that are having a ‘lasting
impact’ does not really occur through large actions but occurs through the purity of heart,
mind, and soul.
Narrative
The narrative of ‘two cars one night,' at the beginning of the movie, seems to affirm the Theory
of Equilibrium and Disequilibrium given by Todorov’s which later on shifts away from the
theory

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Equilibrium: the equilibrium is shown through the boys waiting for their parents in the car
outside an empty car park.
Disequilibrium: the disequilibrium is shown when a car pulls up beside their car where a girl
was also waiting for her parents.
Recognition: the disruption is being recognized, and the boys yell at the girl and are rude.
Repair: in order to repair the disruption caused, the girl shouts back on boys in a rude tone.
New equilibrium: now when the boys and girls are again at equilibrium, they start
introducing themselves to each other.
The narrative now half way the movie fails to follow the theory as there are no significant turns,
twist or happy ending in the film. The story just simply ends. This method gives a naturalistic
ending to the film which depicts the real life where not all the things are ‘planned.'
Editing
With the great editing techniques and cinematography used in the movie, the director is able to
explain life through the eyes of a child. In the movie when the boy meets the girl for the first
time, he calls her ‘ugly' instantly which is natural as a 9-year-old boy will understand beauty in
terms of appearance rather than understanding in terms of inner qualities. This shows the small
understanding of life that children have.
Editing of the film in black and white was very effective as it reflects how children are able to
see life in black and white which suggests seeing the things either one way or the other. While

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editing, the director has also focused on the color and light to be used. Lighting that is used is
very dark, and the color design chosen for the movie is monochrome. Light colors and bright
lightening are used to show that normally the mood of children should be of celebrating their
youth, but in this particular movie, a dark tone is used as the children here want to become old
soon.
The time-lapse technique of editing was used by the director to speed up the action of the
scenes in the movie. This type of editing is also used very effectively to show the passage of
time. This technique is really important to be used especially in a short film as through this the
audience is able to understand each and every aspect of the movie in this very short duration
(Mercier, 2013). In particularly this movie the director chose to use this time-lapse technique in
order to emphasize on the impact of the action of the boy thereby allowing for the narrative,
more time to develop. In the movie, microelements in terms of technical aspects of editing are
used very cleverly beginning from the very first shot of the movie where the clouds are moving
across the evening sky so fast and quickly, which shows the audience that there has been a
distortion in time in the movie. This is basically the theme of this movie that the children wanted
it so badly to grow older as they believed that this would give them power, authority, and
freedom.

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Besides using the time-lapse technique, the director has also made use of the slow motion
technique of editing. For example- at the end of the movie, when the girl was leaving from that
place with her parents and was looking at the boy, the director used the slow motion technique. It
was done so to clearly focus on each and every reaction of both the girl and the boy and their
inner feelings when they were getting apart and never knew they will ever meet again or not.
Through showing this scene in slow motion, the director could convey it to the audience that this
meeting had a lasting impact on both the boy and the girl.
Cinematography
Besides great editing, a cleverly used cinematography was also seen in the movie. The children’s
movements have been edited and shown beautifully thereby making the audience feel like their
own eyes are keeping track of their every movement. It is done by establishing close-ups,
medium shot, two shot, tilt, eye level, low angle and high angle. Another aspect of technical
editing didn't through the wise use of camera shots. Wide shots along with some long shots have
been used in the movie while showing the two cars parked near each other and while showing
the children in the cars wide shots were used to make them look small which depicted their
insignificance and weakness and this was basically to show how the children used to feel and
why they wanted to grow old.

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References
Mercier, O. Ripeka, and Challen Wilson. "‘Everybody's Putting Their Heart and soul into that
One Weekend’: Six motivations for entering the 48-hour film competition." Studies in
Australasian Cinema 7.1 (2013): 61-75.
Hearne, Joanna. "" This Is Our Playground": Skateboarding, diy Aesthetics, and Apache
Sovereignty in Dustinn Craig's 4wheelwarpony." Western American Literature 49.1 (2014): 47-
69.
Marubbio, M. Elise, and Eric L. Buffalohead, eds. Native Americans on film: Conversations,
teaching, and theory. University Press of Kentucky, 2013.
Shaw, Caitlin. "Remediating the Eighties: Nostalgia and Retro in British Screen Fiction from
2005 to 2011." (2015).