Think about the film's mise-en-scene. Choose one scene in the film and discuss at least two aspects of the mise-en-scene (costumes, set, lighting, props, framing) and its relation to the scene and the film as a whole.
Choose a cultural context and frame your response through that as a lens. Use at least 2 paragraphs for your discussion.
And please post your favorite line from the film.
And please post your favorite line from the film.
“But don’t you find it a bit chilly without a gun, Elizabeth?”
ReplyDeleteTime stamp: 1:04:40-1:09:40
In the scene I’ve chosen, David and Susan navigate the woods in search of a lost dinosaur bone. They each encounter obstacles either physically or between them. The set design during this scene is the woods and it includes obstacles such as sticks to trip on and a misguiding creek as well as a cliff. These encounters cause difficulties physically but also in the two protagonists relationship. They constantly argue because it is Susan who has gotten them entangled in this mess, but she always finds a way to twist it onto David. Susan is from the upper class while david is presumed to be middle class. Socially I believe their relationship is a metaphor towards the social issues happening in the United states at the time. This was produced shortly after the great depression were the middle class was mostly affected but the upper class remained slightly bothered. Their dynamic is david placing the blame on Susan while she reverses it onto him. The set helps reinforce this idea by including no clear path, as there was no clear path to end the depression and it also includes natural elements that create issues, which can be alluded to the dust bowl, an unpredictable and devastating event during the depression.
The lighting in this scene is particularly interesting because david is lit dimly while Susan is always brightly lit. This could again indicate a connection to post-depression. With david being dimly lit he is always left in the shadows which can be compared to the middle class during the depression. Susan on the other hand, is always brightly lit meaning she is very well off and was still provided for even during the dark times. Overall, the lighting can draw comparisons to the post-depression world and the characters of David and Susan represent the classes.
0:11:30 - 0:16:30
ReplyDeleteThe scene that I chose to analyze is the one in which Susan and David are in the restaurant/bar. In this scene, the costumes and props are used to enhance the comedic effect and further progress the overly-dramatized plot. As the film progresses and the audience is introduced to its eccentric characters, Susan is established as a ditzy and out of touch aristocrat. As the film was produced at the end of the 1930s, a time when families with new money crashed along with the stock market and the upper class became more and more distant from the rest of the population. Though a more narrow idea to create Susan’s character as rich and living a life of excess (clear with her lack of questioning about receiving a leopard and her aunt just handing out $1 million), it is typical of the time to do so, as well as make Susan’s male counterpart her antithesis. The reflection of Susan’s seemingly carefree lifestyle in its historical setting is shown by David’s bewilderment at Susan’s attitude as well as how she is not taken seriously by anyone else in the film.
One of the ways that Susan is portrayed as scatterbrained is in the restaurant/bar scene. As Susan is walking around, it becomes clear that she stands out from the other women she is surrounded by, purely based on her costume. Susan is adorned in a gaudy silk (or a similar fabric) dress and a loopy hairpiece to match her personality. Her costume is used once again towards the end of the scene, when David steps on the back of her dress and rips it, effectively using physical comedy to represent the absurdity of her character. As Susan’s underwear shows from behind and she becomes increasingly annoyed by David’s insistence of not leaving her alone, the comedy is at Susan’s expense and she is once again seen as humorously idiotic. Another use of mise-en-scene to create comedy is that of the props in the scene. The main prop used is Susan’s purse and its duplicate that is owned by another woman. The confusion that follows of Susan having misplaced her own purse, mistakenly grabbed the other woman’s instead, handed it off to David, and left him to deal with the situation is a archetype for the similar mistakes Susan will make throughout the rest of the film. However, in this particular scene, the adamancy of David and his refusal to give over the purse passes as comedy, only at the expense of Susan being dopily forgetful and leaving it behind.
One of my favorite quotes would have to be “He's three years old, gentle as a kitten, and likes dogs. I wonder whether Mark means that he eats dogs or is fond of them?”
The props in the scene where David is let out of jail and Susan is sent to retrieve the wrong leopard help Make these two dangerous situations feel like the joke that they are.Half the shots in the county jail show a background with a colorful calendar , a radio , a table with two chairs, and a wood burning stove.The composition of this portion of the the Jail makes it appear somewhat hospitable.Seeing that this is a somewhat affluent neighborhood it's likely that the cartoon like portrayal of the jail is in accordance with low crime rates.The walls of the foyer which Susan walks into when she returns the wrong leopard are lined with old wood and dirty wallpaper.The building as a whole is much dirtier than the other settings of the movie.A likely reason for this is that it is a public institution and not the property of an aristocrat like the other settings in the movie.
ReplyDeleteThe set in this scene is equally quaint;It consists Of a room with a few small cells a foyer and the corner which I had just mentioned.The quaintness of the jail not only contributes to its humorous relationship with the story but it contributes to the panic of the situation seeing as a dozen characters are in this space with a dangerous Leopard.Conversely this scene is in open frame for the most part with characters leaving and entering the frame freely.For this reason it's difficult to feel worried for these characters.The open frames which persists throughout the movie communicates freedom.The ease with which the upper classes avoided adversity is a theme better supported by an open frame than a closed frame which is why it makes sense for this comedy.