Looking for Alibrandi Themes

Looking for Alibrandi is the story about Josephine Alibrandi’s last year at her exclusive girl’s school. This is the year she deals with many different things. Many new relationships, her families’ beliefs and culture, death, learning new things about who she is as a person, different leadership roles and responsibilities that she has to deal with in her final year of school. Between film and book, there are many differences; nevertheless they are portrayed in different ways to receive a range of audience’s attention and depending on the author or the writer’s perspective.

Relationships play a big part in both the movie and the book. In both the film and the book relationships are shown through friends, crushes, boyfriends and annoying and nosy mothers and grandparents. In the book there are more characters than in the movie, for example in the movie Sister Louise and Sister Gregory are the same person, and this is also the same as Carly and Ivy in the movie. Also in the movie one of the characters is left out, and this of course is Lee, who is one of Josie’s main friends in the book.

People’s beliefs and culture are heavily shown in both the book and the movie. In both of them Nonna has a strong hold on Josie’s mother and on Josie as well. In the book Josie is visualized to me to be wearing long shirts, jumpers and pants, but in the movie Josie goes around wearing short skirts and spaghetti strap singlet tops. In both the book and the movie Josie is always very cautious of what she does, if she does something that goes against Nonna’s rules and one of Nonna’s “spies” sees, it will immediately get back to Nonna and Josie will get in trouble.

Death is something that takes its toll on everyone in Looking for Alibrandi. In both the book and the film Josie is left to deal with the death of one of her close friends, and long time crush John Barton. In the film Josie deals with the death a lot better, it is over a lot quicker, there is almost no time of mourning