SP 472 American Film History, Week 3

8/3/2019 SP 472 American Film History, Week 3

1/64

Mise en Scne French for placing

on stage

Taxi Driver


2/64

Mise en Scne Staging of the action

Physical setting &

dcor How these elements

are framed

How these elements

are photographed

Manhattan


3/64

Mise en Scne Frame dimensions

Aspect Ratio

1:33:1 (Pre-1950s &TV)

1:85:1 (standard)

2:35:1 (widescreen)


4/64

Mise en Scne


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Mise en Scne


6/64

Mise en Scne


7/64

Mise en Scne


8/64

Mise en Scne Dominant

Where is our eyeattracted first?

Bend It Like Beckham


9/64

Mise en Scne

Silence of the Lambs


10/64

Mise en Scne Subsidiary contrasts

What are the main

eye-stops after

taking in the

dominant?

The BlackSwan


11/64

Mise en Scne

Deuce Bigelow: European Gigolo


12/64

Mise en Scne Lighting key

High key?

Low key?

High contrast?

Some combination of

these?

The Philadelphia Story


13/64

Mise en Scne

The Grifters


14/64

Mise en Scne

The 40 Year-Old Virgin


15/64

Mise en Scne Shot and camera

proxemics

What type ofshot?

How far away is

the camera from

the action?



16/64

Mise en Scne

Manhattan


17/64

Mise en Scne

The Hurt Locker


18/64

Mise en Scne

Austin Powers


19/64

Mise en Scne Angle

Are we (and the camera)

looking up or down on

the subject? Or is the camera neutral

(eye level)?

Red Eye


20/64

Mise en Scne

Red Eye


21/64

Mise en Scne

KillBill


22/64

Mise en Scne

The Last Picture Show& The BlindSide


23/64

Mise en Scne

Silence of the Lambs & Ondine


24/64

Mise en Scne Color values

American Beauty


25/64

Mise en Scne

Cinderella Man, Red &

Taking Woodstock


26/64

Mise en Scne

KillBill


27/64

Mise en Scne

Raging

Bull, The Last Picture

Show

&M

anhattan


28/64


29/64

Mise en Scne Density

How much visual

information is packed into

the image? Is the texture stark,

moderate, or highly

detailed?

The Scarlet Empress


30/64

Mise en Scne Density

How much visual

information is packed into

the image? Is the texture stark,

moderate, or highly

detailed?

The Good, the Bad & the Ugly


31/64

Mise en Scne

The Kings Speech


32/64

Mise en Scne

The Scarlet Empress


33/64

Mise en Scne

The Godfather


34/64

Mise en Scne

From Here to Eternity


35/64

Hud

Mise en Scne Composition

How is the two-

dimensional space

segmented andorganized?

What is the underlying

design?


36/64

Mise en Scne


37/64

Mise en Scne Composition

The Rule of Thirds

From painters of the

Renaissance (14th

century)

Interest should be at

the interersecting lines

as our eyes do not go

to the center of a

photograph

Botticellis Venus & Mars &

Up in the Air


38/64

Mise en Scne


39/64

Mise en Scne


40/64

Mise en Scne

The Godfather


41/64

Mise en Scne

The Departed


42/64

Mise en Scne

Hot Tub Time Machine


43/64

Mise en Scne

The BlackSwan


44/64

Training Day

Mise en Scne Form

Open or closed?

Does the imagesuggest a window

that arbitrarily isolates

a fragment of the

scene (character is

very inportant) while

the world outside ofthe frame continues?

(Open also

considered realistic)

Have you been

invited in?


45/64

Mise en Scneor a proscenium

arch, in which the

visual elements are

carefully arrangedand held in

balance and the

frame defines the

world? (Closed canbe considered more

formalist)

The Departed & Hugo


46/64

Mise en ScneDoes the composition

suggest action or

confinement?

Beauty vs truth

Traffic

M


47/64

Mise en Scne


Framing

Tight or loose?

Do the charactershave no room to

move around, or

can they move

freely without

impediments


48/64

Mise en Scne



49/64

Mise en Scne

Midnight

Cow

boy

Depth

On how many

planes is the imagecomposed?

Does the

background or

foreground comment

in any way on the

mid-ground?


50/64

Mise en Scne

The Grifters


51/64

Mise en Scne

Citizen Kane

Character placement

What part of the

framed space do thecharacters occupy?

Center? Top?

Bottom? Edges?

Why?


52/64

Mise en Scne

Double Indemnity


53/64

Mise en Scne

.

The Graduate

Staging positions

Which way do thecharacters look vis-

-vis the camera?


54/64

Mise en Scne



55/64

Mise en Scne

The 400Blows


56/64

Mise en Scne

Double Indemnity

Character proxemics

How much space isthere between

characters?


57/64


58/64

Mise en Scne

Broken Flowers


59/64

Mise en Scne

The WeddingCrashers


60/64

Mise en Scne

Notes on a Scandal


61/64

Mise en Scne The Last Picture Show, 1971

Directed by Peter Bogdanovich

Starring Ellen Burstyn, Cloris

Leachman, Cybil Shepherd,

Timothy Bottoms, Jeff Bridges

Dir. Of Photography Robert

Surtees first mainstream

Hollywood film shot in b&w since

the early 60s

Homage to Howard Hawks &John Ford as well as friend

Orson Welles

Largely unknown cast - Oscars

for Cloris Leachman & Ben

Johnson


62/64

Mise en Scne

Peter Bogdanovich,1939- Began as an actor

A rabid cinephile, heprogrammed films forMOMA, wrote manyseminal books on earlycinema (bios of JohnFord, Howard Hawks &

Orson Welles) as well aswriting for the esteemedjournal Cahiers duCinema

LPSreleased when hewas 32


63/64


64/64

Mise en Scne While PaperMoon & Whats up Doc?

Were critical & box office successes,DaisyMiller & At Long Last Love(both with Cybil Shepherd) werecritical & box office disasters

Murder of girlfriend and PlayboyPlaymate Dorothy Stratten andsubsequent marriage to his youngersister a huge factor in later career

Considered an ultimate autuer, itcould be also considered that if he

were a real auteur, he would havebounced back & made some bettermovies

Returned to acting & writing hisunrealised potential echoes that ofhis admired friend and fellow

Documents

SP 472 American Film History, Week 3