The 1999 movie Girl, Interrupted presented life in a psychiatric hospital from the perspective of its patients. The main character is Susanna Kaysen, a girl who has graduated from high school, decided not to go to college and attempted suicide. The last incident became the reason why her parents sent her to a mental institution, where she was diagnosed with borderline personality disorder. The way Susanna was portrayed in the movie using lighting, music, external and internal factors, messages, and relationships with others presented her as a teenager with a severe but not hopeless psychiatric condition.
The protagonist is a beautiful thin girl with short hair, pale skin, and a unique sense of style. As the plot reveals, Susanna is talented in writing, painting, and music. However, this framing was created in the movie to demonstrate that even individuals like Susanna may struggle with multiple emotional issues, including low self-esteem, nonadherence to societal rules, and anxiety. Still, some elements of this character’s appearance suggest that the girl is sad and anxious. Specifically, her eyes rarely express happiness, especially at the film’s beginning.
Lighting was also a critical element in Girl, Interrupted , but it was not used to highlight one character. Indeed, during night or day, the light was shed on those involved in a particular conversation or silent scene rather than on one character. This technique probably was used to show that even though this story was mainly about Susanna, she was a small part of this world, where people self-harm, starve themselves, lie to others, and be violent.
Music in Girl, Interrupted is primarily depressing to reveal the protagonist’s state of mind. Susanna’s conversations with therapists always accompany the clock ticking, which usually means that the character is in danger. In this case, the girl is haunted by her mind, several months or weeks from harming herself again. Although most of Susanna’s communication does not have musical framing, there is dramatic music when she makes crucial statements and decisions about her future.
The film’s editing was made to represent Susanna’s unease about her memories and thoughts. The story’s timeline is not linear but goes backward to show the girl’s flashbacks about difficult moments in her life. Moreover, the movie starts with one of the final and pivotal situations where the main character sits in darkness with other patients. It changes to the scene when doctors try to save her life after her suicide attempt when she claims her bones have disappeared. This transition wanted to demonstrate that Susanna was unsure if she was sane or crazy.
The movie creators used exterior and interior factors to build the character. For instance, although Susanna, an unconventional and dramatic name, is beautiful, her appearance, attitude, and behavior suggest that this teenage girl may have emotional problems. Indeed, she looks anxious around people and wants to make herself invisible by putting more powder on her face to make it paler and wearing clothes that can maximally cover her body. Susanna’s inner world revolves only around drawing and writing about random situations without any specific purpose. Still, her relationships with Lisa reveal that the main character is lost, but she is against cruelty. Even though her interaction with Lisa initially made her violent and rude, Susanna later realizes that she does not plan to stay in the hospital forever. Thus, her final message was that she wanted to be a part of the ordinary world despite its ambiguity, which set her path to recovery.
In summary, Girl, Interrupted is not only a movie about psychiatric patients but also the story of a teenage girl who struggled to find her place in the world. Susanna was a beautiful and talented but anxious young woman. Her framing, interaction with other characters, and the film’s editing were made in such a way to show that the protagonist was aware of her mental issues. However, only true acceptance of these problems allowed her to recover.