Comment

A boss of a large company throws a party at his house and invites one of his employees, his wife and children. After dinner he projects a short homemade film for his guests. At the start of the film the children are proud to see their Dad performing the company’s collective physical movement exercises in the space in front of the company’s offices. This slowly turns to shame as they see their Dad making silly faces, belittling himself just to make the boss and his guests laugh. This sense of shame leads them to walk out of the room, then leave the house and make their way on foot back to their own home in darkness. The scene, which could be seen as being funny is taken as belittling by the boys as it symbolically undercuts the image that the brothers hold of their Dad. They experience the situation as if they were being socially humiliated by their Father’s boss, who is both publicly mocking and degrading their Dad’s status.

Walking back alone, the boys express their change of opinion about their Dad. They show how they are going to revolt against the sense of social order, of which their Dad was supposed to be the perfect embodiment, inspiring them to aim for his level of standing, by modifying their clothes very slightly, lead by the older brother, followed on by his younger siblings.

This new alliance that they have forged sanctions the loss of their Dad’s level of social prestige and symbolic authority.