3 Act Structure Analysis - Bharat.

Act ONE
The first act in itself is pretty simple in the structure but leaves certain foreshadowing for a more complex and layered next act.

Act I
The story begins with a shot of the platform. It’s a still frame with extremely minimal moment until an old woman and a boy come into the frame and the camera follows them. On the train the woman looks really tensed and stressed out while the boy appears to be extremely passive. The characters are mainly set in the beginning when Filippo is staring at a girl and the old woman on noticing this exchanges his seat with him and at the same time makes up a lame excuse for a very obvious act. She also blames him for not knowing what she prefers. He asks her permission to go to the bathroom and leaves.

Act II
Filippo comes across a young girl and they exchange a dialogue. Another girl enters and both of them whisper to each other while looking at Filippo. (Foreshadowing to later events that establish that there is some connection between these characters.)
Filippo enters the bathroom and a man comes out of it, who goes on to take Filippo’s seat by mistake and mistakes the old lady’s phone as his. A small quarrel ensues and the old lady is adamant to not show him the phone and sort of ignores him. The man has to ask the ticket inspector for help but still the old lady refuses to show him the phone.

Act III
The ticket inspector calls the number the man gives him and the phone rings on the seat behind him. He realizes his mistake and moves back to his original seat saying that people do make mistakes and things happen. Filippo is back on his seat. The old lady looks at him and says she is disappointed in him. She asks him to get water for her medicine and he leaves. While leaving he comes across the two young girls again and through a short dialogue they realize that they know each other from before but Filippo doesn’t remember the girls two well as they were really young.

Act TWO
This act is the act which is complex and has three different stories going on. The first and the main one being of the Old Lady and FIlippo. The second one being of the interaction between Filippo and the young about the past. The third one, the one that sets up this act, of the two gentlemen entering the train who rightfully own the sits the old lady and filippo are sitting on.

Act I
The train stops at a station and two men enter the train on whose seats the old lady and Filippo are sitting. They tell the lady that she is sitting in their places and she should move but lady refuses to move saying its her place. During this quarrel Filippo comes back but the lady orders him not to sort out the situation and sit quietly. The inspector again arrives to solve the situation and informs the lady that she is indeed sitting in the wrong class. The lady refuses to move saying she is unwell. The inspector arranges a different seat inside a cabin for her in first class only. Settled in the new place, Filippo walks out and notices the girl he knows from before. He starts a conversation.
Note: I think this particular section can be further broken down into a 3 act structure. It has the introduction of characters, a conflict and a small resolution.

Act II
One small issue gets resolved and both the main characters get relocated. Right at the beginning of this act an issue of history and memory comes up as Filippo and the girl start interacting.
They start talking and Filippo finds out that she is his sister’s friend and when he used to live in the town of Bracciano he used to know her but she was very young then. Filippo asks her if she has a boyfriend but the girl instead of answering this tells him that his sister was upset that he didn’t show up at his father’s funeral and called home about two months later.
Suddenly the old lady calls out to FIlippo and rebukes him for getting out of sight constantly. She doesn’t want anything from him but tells him to respond whenever she calls.
Back with the girl. She talks about his past girlfriend and narrates an old event that happened. Again the lady interferes here and calls out to Filippo. Filippo is obviously annoyed by her constant nagging and unappreciative behavior but responds to her. She again spits out some a bit of abuse and asks him to get a coffee.
He goes out to get the coffee and from a small dialogue we learn that he is with the Lady for some community service work. She is a widow of an army officer and is going to attend his death anniversary. (Here an interesting thing happens. The character of the lady suddenly builds up a bit of sympathy and instead of looking at her as this constant nagging old hag, we look at her as an helpless old lady. This is extremely important for the end of the story I think. And the fact that it comes near the end of the story is also important because if we would have known this fact from the beginning we would have lost sympathy for her by this point.)
He goes back and gives her the coffee.

Act III
He again comes out and is barely able to start the conversation with the girl that the lady again calls him out.
(This particular scenario of interruption happens here for the third time. By now as soon as Filippo starts the conversation with the young girl we know what is going to happen. It’s a pattern by now. Since it’s a pattern we also expect something different to happen this time at the end.)
The lady asks him to help him get dressed which he does. In the process the lady is constantly disrespecting Filippo and abusing him verbally and the tension builds up.


Act THREE
This is a fairly short act compared to the previous two.

Act I
Pissed off and tired of taking her abuses, Filippo leaves her and runs of somewhere. After Filippo leaves the Old Lady rushes out to follow him but as she is still putting on her shoes the boy has disappears. She starts following where he went looking for him.

Act II
The lady passes through different carriages and looks into different restrooms to find Filippo but she can’t find him anywhere. She comes across different characters who had been already seen in minor roles here and there. She reaches the end of the train and she still hasn’t been able to find him. She stands dejected, knowing for sure that he is gone. She peers down onto the tracks and notices the track diverging into two new tracks. The train driver can be seen in his carriage taking a call and putting on his shirt. We get to know that the journey is about to end. The Old Lady starts making her way back to her place.

Act III
Announcement for the train station arrivals are made. The lady is seen struggling with her heavy luggage. The man with whom she had the quarrel about the phone sees her plight and helps her to get her stuff off the train. At the end, the young girl who was talking to Filippo is seen looking at the Old Lady who is standing alone on the platform with her luggage, looking here and there. The train starts to move and the Old Lady sits on her suitcase. She is the only person there and Filippo is nowhere to be seen.