Prompt: Watch a narrative movie for the first time - from a mise-en-scène point of view. Write a two page paper that explores in detail how miss-en-scène was used in two scenes, one from act one and one from act three.
When most people discuss the elements of
mise-en-scène, they refer only to movies that handle them well – movies like
American Beauty that have complete control over each minute element of the
frame and have a total understanding of that element’s importance to the
narrative. However, it is equally important to discuss movies in which the
mise-en-scène elements are not
handled properly for, while firm control can make a masterpiece, a loose grasp
can be catastrophic and can even actively work against the narrative.
On March 22nd, 2013, the film Admission was released. The film, a Tina
Fey/Paul Rudd vehicle concerns the attempts of a Princeton admissions officer
to get a gifted teen, Jeremiah Balakian, an acceptance – a teen that she
believes to be her long-lost son. While the characters were likeable enough,
and the plot fluffy and harmless, it was very clear that the director had very
little understanding of the workings of mise-en-scène.
Take a scene from the first act of the film – Tina
Fey’s character, Portia Nathan, is at home working on reading a stack of
student essays when her coworker unexpectedly drops by, leaving her to watch
over her two screaming toddlers while she runs to handle an emergency. The
emotion at the center of the scene – Portia’s frustration at being pulled away
from her work – is by no means complex, but is clumsily mishandled.
The lighting is a basic wash, with no additional
technical elements other than those that indicated that it is, in fact, late at
night. The scene was shot almost exclusively in a closed frame wide shot that
was almost exclusively negative space. The actors were so small in frame, in
fact, that it almost felt like watching a staged play from not too great seats.
This, combined with the very simple lighting, effectively detaches the audience
completely from feeling any sort of relationship with the character’s
struggles.
The scene is set in an imposing Victorian
mansion-like home that in no way reflected the character’s personality or
sensibilities (in fact, in the very next scene, she mentions her joy at living
a “simple life.”), and any feelings of comfort that could be used to indicate
her desire to return to work are completely destroyed by the vivid orange color
of the essay folders. Orange is one of the most jarring colors to the human
eye, a fact that further alienates the audience from relating to the character.
The only positive element is the costuming, which seems organic and natural to
the characters in question, but the authenticity of the wardrobe only
emphasizes how cut off one feels from the narrative.
The sound design was likewise lacking. There was not
even a note of non-diegetic music to stir the audience’s emotions and the
screaming of the children was somewhat muffled and nonthreatening, as if the
foley artist accidentally left a sock on the microphone. The children that are
supposed to annoy us end up feeling more like a background presence in the
scene.
In short, what we have is a scene that is designed to
make us feel at home, then pull us out of that feeling with discordant action.
However the hopeless mismanagement of mise-en-scène elicits almost the exact
opposite response. The opening “homey” shots are discomforting and the annoying
children do not have enough force in the frame to have a true presence.
An emotionally charged scene from Act 3 fares
slightly better, but still suffers from sloppy mise-en-scène. This is the scene
in which Portia makes her arguments for accepting Jeremiah into Princeton. His
grades are low, but he has proven himself to be a gifted prodigy. Portia must
convince the firmly traditional Princeton Review Board to overlook his scores
and admit him to the university over other, more qualified, applicants.
The lighting is once again a very simple wash, but in
this case it is actually effective. Combined with the setting, a claustrophobic
and drab white room, it evokes a sense of rigid compliance with norms,
reflecting the environment into which Portia is presenting her case. The orange
folders actually work in this scene, reflecting the discomfort and anxiety that
she feels, and the costuming works in much the same way as the previously
discussed scene. It is organic and believable, but nothing special.
The scene also features a fresh and clever use of
open framing. When each applicant is being discussed, he or she can be seen
waiting nervously behind the reviewers’ shoulders. This unique touch is
inconsistent, however, and has much less emotional impact because not every
applicant discussed appears, sometimes they appear too late or too early, and
one even appears incongruously behind the wrong reviewer. This is tremendously
distracting and bothersome, pulling focus away from this scene – one that the
audience is supposed to be intensely invested in.
The sound likewise suffers from the somewhat muffled
quality that invades the whole film and the music sputters and starts,
halfheartedly punctuating the sad moments. Fey’s performance carries the entire
emotion of the scene on its own, and while she does a commendable job, she is
no match for the haphazard and awkward mise-en-scène that absolutely buries it.
Word Count: 1055
No comments:
Post a Comment