Return to Intro to Film syllabus
Updated 20 February 2007
ENGLISH 114: INTRODUCTION TO FILM, Fall 2006
Section 2: Monday, 6:00-9:30 p.m., Professor Larsson
Week 6, February 19, 2007
Film narrative is conveyed through the film’s stylistic elements
· Mise-en-scene (and acting)
· Cinematography
· Editing
· Sound
Mise-en-Scene
§ What has been “placed in the scene” (term derives from theater)
§ Narrow definition: what we see on the screen without direct concern about how it has been photographed
§ Broad definition (Barsam, p. 122): “what is placed before the camera and how it is photographed”—includes cinematography
§ The visual elements composed and arranged within a shot
o Kinesis (Greek for “movement”)—of people and objects—or camera, including acting
o Design: The film’s overall look and the use of individual design elements
§ Settings (where action occurs) and props used by characters
§ Costumes, make-up, hairstyle, and props provided by costumes
§ Lighting (also involved in cinematography)
§ Framing—How the borders of the image define the area being recorded (also a consideration for cinematography)
o “Open”—The world extends beyond the borders of the frame
o “Closed”—the world is contained within the frame
Examples:
Lumiere Films (1895-1897)—Auguste and Louis Lumiere (France)
· Exiting the Factory
· Arrival of a Train at La Ciotat
· Baby’s Lunch
· The Sprinkler Sprinkled
Georges Melies (France 1902)
· A Trip to the Moon
Key Questions in Considering Mise-en-Scene:
§ What are we seeing on the screen?
§ How does what we see
o convey narrative
o define character
o provoke emotional/aesthetic responses
o suggest meanings?
Examples of Mise-en-Scene in Films Already Seen
§ A Star Is Born
§ Bonnie and Clyde
§ Tootsie
All three films aim for high degree of verisimilitude—convincing sense of reality, but each does it in a somewhat different way
§ Settings define locations, provide contrasts, establish emotional contexts, provide props for action, possible symbolic meaning
§ Costumes suggest changes of in life and fortune, define and affect characters, provide props for action, possible symbolic meaning
§ Lighting evokes time of day, place but also helps to set mood, suggest meaning
§ Acting and movement define character, suggest mood, evoke meaning, create contrasts
· Realism
· Stylization
· Expressionism
· Fantasy
Terms are all relative and may overlap within a given film
Example:
How are setting, costume, props, and action used in this short film?
Duck Amuck (1953),
Directed by Chuck Jones
Story by Mike Maltese, Voices by Mel Blanc
Mise-en-Scene in Duck Amuck
· Film plays around with all components of mise-en-scene except lighting
· Setting keeps changing in arbitrary and ways (unmotivated except for whims of “animator”)
· Props change unexpectedly (parachute becomes anvil becomes bomb)
· Costumes are not in keeping with settings, Daffy keeps trying to change to appropriate costumes
· Entire “body” changes and disappears
· Stylized “performances” by animated figures reflect development of Bugs and Daffy as characters by Chuck Jones
· Film also plays with elements of cinematography (borders of frame) and sound (silence, substitution of wrong sounds)
Mise-en-Scene, Character and Narrative in Duck Amuck
§ Daffy defined by voice and actions (but his character can exist as a body without a voice or as a voice without a body)
§ Two narrative lines
o The one that Daffy wants to start—any narrative will do
o The one he’s trapped in
o Resolved by revelation of Bugs Bunny as animator who is tormenting him
§ Plays on audience knowledge of animation as drawn pictures (but pretends that changes can be made almost instantly)
§ Plays on audience knowledge of the two characters, especially as directed by Chuck Jones:
o Daffy—eager to please and entertained but easily provoked, obsessive in behavior
o Bugs—cool, intelligent, in control, ready to torment Daffy
Examples of Mise-en-Scene at Work
Historical Verisimilitude:
Les enfants du paradis (Children of Paradise (France 1945), directed by Marcel Carne
· Sets and costumes represent early 19th-century Paris, in theater district
· Moving camera, crowds, suggest busy, crowded (and dangerous) urban environment
· Background performers set world of entertainment and theater with world of crime
· Four major characters introduced briefly, leading to accusation that Garrance (woman) is pickpocket
·
Baptiste (mime)
saves
Garrance while exhibiting own talent
· Realism and artifice, life and theater intersect throughout film
Mise-en-scene Defining Character:
Lawrence of Arabia (1962), directed by David Lean
· Scene begins after Lawrence has led group of Arab guerrilla fighters across the desert to attack a Turkish stronghold
· Settings mix soundstage and location sets
· Costume (robes, knife) plays key role in helping to define, complicate Lawrence’s character
Mise-en-scene and Symbolism
The Return (Russia, 2003), directed by Andrey Zviagintsev
· Boys discover that their father has finally returned after being gone for about 12 years
· Realistic, but sparse settings with few props suggest economic hardship, barren lives
· Photograph confirms father’s identity
· But two images suggest symbolic overtones
“The Lamentation over the Dead Christ,” Andrea Mantegna (Italy, 1490)
“The Sacrifice of Isaac,” engraving by Julius Schoor von Carolsfeld
(Germany, 1850s)
Metropolis, directed by Fritz Lang (Germany 1927)
· First major science fiction film to use extensive special effects to create vision of future
· Inspired by Lang’s first view of New York City skyline
· Combines plausible vision of technological future with Expressionistic elements
· Expressionism—outward portrayal of inward emotional states, use of stylized settings, costumes, performances
· Underground world of workers contrasted with clean, efficient world of rulers
· Subjective vision by young man of machine as “Moloch,” pagan god who demanded human sacrifice
Acting in Film: “Method” acting and Hollywood Star
Marlon Brando in On the Waterfront
Kirk Douglas in Spartacus