Cinema Cinema Cinema Cinema Cinema Cinema Cinema Cinema Cine m 68 THE U.S.A. module 4 Film THE TRUMAN SHOW Soap operas & reality shows Nominated for 3 Oscars in 1999 Production: USA 1998 Director: Peter Weir Starring: Jim Carrey, Ed Harris, Laura Linney, Noah Emmerich, Natascha McElhone TV soap operas (the original sponsors were cleaning-product companies), began in the 1970s and were first shown daily in the afternoon for housewives. They were usually about glamorous, successful people whose lives are traumatized by dramatic, improbable events (Beautiful, for example). They have evolved into shows like Desperate Housewives. Reality shows are more recent: groups of people in a closed environment are continuously filmed as they interact while the public watches. There is a progressive elimination of participants and a prize for the survivor . Examples are Big Brother and VIP Island. BEFORE VIEWING file 4 The setting of the film is Seahaven, an idyllic island example of American suburbia . What do you expect the place to be like? A synopsis Truman Burbank (Jim Carrey) has always lived in Seahaven. He doesn t know that his little world is actually an immense Hollywood stage set where even the sun and the weather are special effects controlled by his creator Christof (Ed Harris) from a lunar base. His wife Meryl (Laura Linney), his best friend Marlon (Noah Emmerich), his mother, everyone in Seahaven except Truman is an actor. Every minute of his life is followed by 5,000 minicameras a nonstop telethon for a worldwide public which is hungry for pathos and vicarious emotion. Truman cannot leave Seahaven because of his psychological programing: when he was quite young, his father died during a storm on a boating trip and so Truman has developed a phobia about traveling on or over water. He has occasional periods of wanting to change his life, but they never come to anything. That is until Day 10,909 The cast and crew of his life make small mistakes that are difficult to explain; then he is attracted to a mysterious woman (Natascha McElhone) that tells him the truth before being taken away. Truman comes to the full realization that his world is false when an attempt to escape with his wife shows him that even she is part of the show . He therefore tricks those who have tricked him all his life by conquering his terror of the water and sailing away from the island. But Christof will try anything to get him back which means creating a storm that almost kills the young man. After its end, Truman discovers an exit from his world . In a last effort to persuade his creation to return, Christof talks directly to him. Truman turns to the camera, repeats what he says at the beginning of the film and walks through the exit door. The film doesn t quite end there, however. We see Christof crumple up over his computer, Truman fans worldwide applauding and shouting, He made it! Last of all, we see two snack-munching security guards in their closed-circuit TV cubicle, where they have always watched The Truman Show to relieve the boredom of their jobs. One says, Let s see what else is on. The other replies, Where s the TV guide?