Classical Realist Texts: American Films between 1916 and 1960

Mise-en-scène

Table of Contents

1. Visualizing methods in classical American films

2. Mise-en-scéne in classical American films

Visualizing Methods in Classical American films

(Mise-en-scène = ‘put it in the scene’; what is filmed, and how it is shot. It includes the directing of performance, the placement of cameras, the movement of the camera, lighting, the choice of lenses, set design, property, costume, location hunting, etc.)

Visualizing Methods in Classical American films

(Montage = editing, how to present shots. It

includes cutting, mixing sound effects and

music, and dubbing)

Mise-en-scéne in Classical American Films

• Classical Hollywood films aimed to make the spectator think that they were not watching a film but reality. They do so through telling a plausible narrative.

• In making narrative the dominant force in a film, the classical Hollywood cinema chose to subordinate mise-en-scène and montage (film form) to narrative.

• It lets mise-en-scène serve for the ‘invisible’, plausible and realistic narrative.

Mise-en-scéne in Classical American Films

• They achieve reality and truth effects by concealing filming techniques through sophisticated filming teachniques MISE-EN-SCENE and MONTAGE

• Unartificial → natural → real• Use of arts → make a film look artless →

natural → real

Mise-en-scéne in Classical American Films

• Film arts which are employed to make a film artless

• No unusual angles, eye-level placing of camera, follow-focus (follow shot), no strong contrast, choice of normal size lens (35 to 50 mm), balanced composition, verisimilitudinous camera movement, etc.

Mise-en-scéne in Classical American Films

• ANGLES OF FRAMING

• Straight-on angle shot• High angle shot• Low angle shot

Mise-en-scéne in Classical American Films• Straight-on angle

• Following the point of view of a character - the most natural way to deciding an camera angle

• Orson Wells, Citizen Kane (1941)

Mise-en-scéne in Classical American Films

• ANGLES OF FRAMING

• High angle shot• Low angle shot

• Camera angle can suggest either the vulnerability or power of a character.

Mise-en-scéne in Classical American Films

• HIGH ANGLE SHOT• A character or an object

seen ‘from above’• It looks smaller• It can be seen as

✓weaker

✓less powerful

✓less superior

Mise-en-scéne in Classical American Films

• LOW ANGLE SHOT• A character or an object

seen ‘from below’• It looks larger• It can be seen as

✓more powerful

✓more dominant

✓more important

Mise-en-scéne in Classical American Films

• Expressive angles

• Extreme low-angle shots used in Citizen Kane

• Formalist approach

Extreme high angle shots in Stanley Kubrick’s Clockwork Orange and Tarantino’s Reservoir DogsTarantino

Mise-en-scéne in Classical American Films

• LEVEL OF CAMERA• Eye-level shot – the camera is placed at the level

of a character’s eyes• Little or no psychological effect on the spectator

Mise-en-scéne in Classical American Films

• LEVEL OF CAMERA

• Low-level and high-level placing of the camera

• Following the eye level of a character - the most natural way to decide the place of the camera.

Mise-en-scéne in Classical American Films• However, eye-level

positioning of camera becomes expressive and formalistic, when it is set at an extreme level.

• Expressive level

• Danny Boyle’s Trainspotting (1996)

Mise-en-scéne in Classical American Films

• Dutch Angle Shot – the camera is set at an angle on its roll axis. Vertical lines at an angle to the side of the frame and horizontal lines not parallel with the bottom of the frame.

• Make strong psychological effect on the spectator

Carol Reed’s The Third Man, an expressionistic and formalist film noir, uses Dutch angle shots throughout the film.

Mise-en-scéne in Classical American Films

• COMPOSITION• The important figure should be place in the

slightly off-centre of the frame

Mise-en-scéne in Classical American Films

• Slightly off-centre composition in a widescreen format: Wim Wenders’ Paris, Texas

Mise-en-scéne in Classical American Films

• Yasujiro Ozu’s famous composition in which a character comes right in the middle of the screen

• Unconventional composition stands out in his films - more formalist stylistic element Autumn Afternoon 1.10.00

Mise-en-scéne in Classical American Films

DEPTH OF FIELD: FOCUS• SELECTIVE FOCUS or SHALLOW FOCUS

= only one plane in a shot is in sharp focus• To direct the viewer’s attention to that plane.

Mise-en-scéne in Classical American Films

• RACK FOCUS• Changing of focus within a shot in such a way

that one plane of the frame goes out of focus and instead another plane comes into sharp focus.

• Peking Young Victoria

Mise-en-scéne in Classical American Films

• FOLLOW FOCUS• Keeping a moving object or character in focus

More natural focusing Paths of Glory

Mise-en-scéne in Classical American Films

• DEEP FOCUS • Keeping elements at different depths of the field

in focus, by using a relatively wide angle lens, strong lighting and a small camera aperture.

• Preferred by realist film makers

Mise-en-scéne in Classical American Films

• Deep focus photography is normally associated with film realism. It could be used for expressionistic and formalist purpose. Citizen Kane

Mise-en-scéne in Classical American Films

• Watch the two film clips and identify the types of focus used in them.

1. Francis Ford Coppola’s Godfather

2. Bernardo Bertolucci’s The Last Tango in Paris

What types of focusing serves better to the creation of truth effects? Which one(s) are more formalist shot(s)?

Mise-en-scéne in Classical American Films

• Camera movements• The camera moves following the movement of a

character - the most natural way to move the camera

• Tracking shot or dolly shot – the camera moves when a character or an object moves North by Northwest

• Martin Scorsese, The Age of Innocence• Is the camera movement in the opening scene

realist or formalist?

Mise-en-scéne in Classical American Films

• LIGHTING• High-key lighting: all areas of the image are

equally lighted.• Low-key lighting: create strong contrast between

light and shadow e.g. A Touch of Evil

Mise-en-scéne in Classical American Films

• Mise-en-scene ought to be motivated as narrative does. The chain of cause and effect shoould dictate mise-en-scène.

• e.g. When a character is a hero, he may be placed in the centre of the frame. When he walks into a room, the camera also moves with him. When he is walking in the darkness, no strong light is cast on his face.

Mise-en-scéne in Classical American Films

• However, Mise-en-scène should not let itself stand out.

• e.g. A protagonist must be placed in the centre of the frame, but not in the dead centre. When he walks into a room, the camera also moves with him rather than it uses rack focus. When he is walking in the darkness, not too much contrast between light and shade.

Mise-en-scéne in classical American films

• F.W. Murnau, Sunrise: A Song of Two Humans (1927)

• Travelling shot from a tram• Motivated: when the

characters and the vehicle on which they are on move, the camera moves.

• Sunrise