Explain how a director like Gillian Armstrong, through the use of open and closed forms, tackles the problem of period films having a tendency to look stagey and researched

What will be an ideal response?

Answer: The ideal answer should include:
1. Period films often have a tendency to look stagey and researched, especially when the historical details are too neatly presented and the characters are posed in a tightly controlled setting.
2. In Mrs. Soffel Gillian Armstrong avoided this pitfall by staging many of her scenes in open form, almost like a documentary caught on the run.
3. Armstrong photographed the main character and her children in such a way as to almost obscure them with the surrounding foreground and background environment and unimportant details like extras.
4. A more formalist director would have eliminated such foreground and background “distractions” and the clutter and brought the principal characters toward the foreground.
5. Armstrong achieves a more realistic and spontaneous effect by deliberately avoiding an “arranged” look in her mise en scène through the use of open forms.