- Examine all aspects of mise-en-scene (lighting, composition, set design, properties, etc.). This would include colors as well. Discuss the concept of "monster" through the mise-en-scene in each film. This exercise will help to prepare you for your Independent Study and your Oral Presentation. Examine CLOSELY and offer many details and examples. Think about what the director is trying to say IMPLICITLY. Tie both films in with each other. Discuss similarities and differences in the mise-en-scene in both films. Please do this in 4 well-developed paragraphs.
OR
- Choose a five-minute scene in both films and examine the role of women and how they are portrayed in your selected scenes and in the films as a whole. Be sure to discuss this topic CINEMATICALLY. How does the director show us? Do this in 4 well-developed paragraphs.
Due: Monday, October 13
The aspect of a Monster in life is a varied one. It ranges from the supernatural form of the word that is Sadakow in Ringu. To the more realistic monster that is Jack in The Shining. Although Jack is not the most realistic monster he is realistic in comparison. Monsters are the physical depiction of fears. This monster has no defined form, or shape, and can appear in any way. Both The Shining and Ringu present this intangible monster in a quite real way. They present the monster in a multitude of ways, showing how women in both films are subject to many horrors through their lives, both by a sexist culture and an abusive husband.
ReplyDeleteIn Ringu, the horror takes the form of a small girl who comes back from the grave to haunt those who watch a film. This is presented cinematically in a bunch of ways. The best scene in which this is presented is when the girl climbs out of the TV to fulfill her destiny to kill. We see the protagonist watch as his tv comes on, showing the film. This shot is shown through the bars on his staircase, giving the viewer a premonition of him being trapped, leaving an uneasy feeling. As the girl climbs out of TV, she is shown in an extreme close up, giving the feeling of being trapped in this scary shot. Her face is not shown, but her fingers are, clawed to the bone. This further shows the monster, and those it traps trying to escape its horror.
In The Shining, the father is the monster, as he abuses his family. He is shown in dark hallways, chasing his son, who is terrified. Dark shadows are shown on his face, by lighting it from odd angles, particularly from underneath. When he is chasing his son in the maze, the snow presents a odd contrast between it and his shadow, and the ever present shadow of the maze that is trapping them in.
In both films, the monster is shown in different forms, as a form of mental fears that the characters have and are trying to escape from, both in reality and mentally. These fears attempt to surround them and kill them, literally or emotionally. It is a tough reality that these characters have to face, and worse then that some of these exist in real life.
The portrayal of women in “Ringu” and “The Shining” are somewhat similar. Both films feature female protagonists who at first appear weak, but are shown to have breakthroughs as the result of life-or-death situations, and then become stronger and resolve their own problems. In “The Shining”, Wendy’s turning point is when she discovers the piles of meaningless papers that Jack has typed. While realizing that she and her son are in danger, she is shown from a low angle. Low angles are typically associated with characters in positions of power, but here it is used to show her disconnect from the normal and the hysteria about to set in. We see her from Jack’s perspective as he approaches from behind a wall. For us to see her trapped from behind like this, she is represented as a timid animal being hunted down. When she turns at his voice, he moves toward her and his back is transformed by shadows to make him appear much larger and more ominous than he would be in reality. The portrayal of Jack as some inhuman monster further establishes Wendy as a helpless victim at this point. As he continues to approach her, the camera moves with him, keeping him in position at the center of the frame. This shows us Wendy’s point of view, as she cannot afford to take her eyes off of him for fear of her life. This shows us that he is inescapable. As he forces her to back up to the stairs, there is a shift in balance of the way the two are presented cinematically. Now Wendy is above him looking down, and although she can hardly speak coherently, she has more control of the situation than she did before. She finally builds up the courage to hit her husband with the bat, and the next scene opens with her dragging him to a storage space. From this point on, she is still terrified, but able to rationalize and do the best in her situation.
ReplyDeleteIn “Ringu”, Reiko’s shift occurs when she discovers Sadako’s body in the well. She has just nearly collapsed from doing too much demanding physical work and now she is forced into a creepy, closed off space. The closed framing of the well shows that Reiko is trapped physically, and this is reflective of how she is trapped situationally with only a few hours left before her predicted death. She responds calmly when Sadako’s hand suddenly grabs her arm. She looks at the skeleton with compassion instead of shock and holds it in her arms. This change in her mood shows how her willingness to cope with her situation has developed. In a way, she has communicated with Sadako, or come to understand her motives. Soon after this climactic scene, Reiko’s ex-husband, previously portrayed as the stronger one in their relationship, dies. From this development, Reiko realizes the pattern involved in deaths related to Sadako’s curse. In making a strong decision on how to save her son, she is shown from a low angle shot, establishing how control of the situation has shifted to her character. The movie ends with her driving on her way to carry out her plan.
In both of these films, the female protagonists are first established as being vulnerable to their situations, later overcoming the life threatening obstacles as strong individuals. The weakness that is cinematically attributed to both of these characters is not necessarily a bad thing, since it is balanced by the decisive actions they take later in each film. Both vulnerability and empowerment are established cinematically so that each character is portrayed as a complex, realistic woman.
THE MONSTER MASH UP
ReplyDeleteMonster is something common to all horror films no matter if they are supposed to have one or not. There is always a terrifying and powerful force that seeks to terrorize or unintentionally terrorizes the characters of a horror film. In both "Ringu" and "The Shining", monsters are present in different forms that drive the plot and cause the characters to be in terror.
In "Ringu", Skadadow is the main driving force of the film and a terrifying monster. Unlike in "The Shining" she has some very redeemable qualities as a character, but is nevertheless scary throughout the movie. The real portrayal of Skadadow is that she is unseen. This is done through both costume design and through composition. We never see Skadadow for most of the film, so she remains an extremely powerful off-screen presence. Even when we do see her, she is in a mere video, which while scary, is not threatening. The real power of Skadadow comes when she emerges from the TV at the end of the film. The use of off-screen space has been building up to this moment and causes it to be even more terrifying. Also the use of her hair is important. Since we never see her face, which is part of the legend as well as an important element of costume, she is more terrifying and terrifyingly mysterious.
In “The Shining”, the monster is in our face a lot of the time in contrast with the elusive Skadadow. Jack Torrance is the main monster in the film and he is present in almost all of the film. However, this doesn’t make him any less terrifying in my opinion. Jack is always in close-ups and medium shots either talking to Lloyd, Wendy, Delbert, or Danny. And it is his slow removal from reality that creates the true fear in the film. Always shown with shadow or at low angles or upside down, Jack’s deteriorating state of mind becomes more and more apparent as the ending of the film becomes more and more fated to happen. His terrorization of Wendy and Danny is more of a monster than the house, or even the ghosts that may or may not inhabit it.
The monsters in these two films, although different, manage to do the same thing. They terrify characters in the film and the audience.
Francis Giordano
ReplyDeleteTying it all together
In “ The Shining” we see a huge character development with the female character Wendy. Wendy is a shy girl with a son and a husband. im her relationship with her husband, he is perceived more dominant than her and she has no power over him whatsoever. when her and her family start to live at the hotel she is automatically put to work in the kitchen and starts doing the jobs her husband was assigned to do, while he is taking all of his time for writing his book. Her husband always asserted his dominance even though shes the one doing most of the work. In one of the scenes Wendy goes with a bat, all scared of her husband. When she and her husband are in the same shots she is at a lower angle than him. he then starts coming after her strongly making her scared and has to back up to get away from him. when she starts going up the stairs she is now above him. shes still terrified of him and hes still coming after her but she is now on top of him and has the upper hand. its a pretty clear shift in power and it comes to life when she strikes him with the bat showing that she has the power over him. he has now fallen down the stairs making her so much higher than him on the stairs and cinematically showing that shes bigger than him now.
In “let the right one in” we see two main women the film. One is a child and the other is an older women. Both Vampires, monsters. Im going to focus on the child vampire “Elsa”. in the film we see a huge character development in this character. Elsa goes from a child vampire who was never to leave her house and depended on her father for practically her life, to a child vampire who took care of herself. Elsa was basically in a woman's role. while the man went out and hunted she would stay home and was powerless without the help of the man.
When Elsas dad dies it left us questioning who she would cope with now being alone. But even though she is a child she has to be a grown up. so now we see that Elsa can take care of herself this whole time she never really need the man to take care of her.
Prompt 1:
ReplyDeleteThroughout The Shining and Let The Right One In, mise-en-scene plays an important role in creating the concept of “monster.” In The Shining, this monster would be Jack, as demonstrated by many elements of mise-en-scene, beginning early in the movie, foreshadowing his upcoming change. When Jack is sitting at the bar alone, talking to the bartender Lloyd, he is lit from below, creating inverse shadows so that areas normally lit would be shaded and those normally shaded would be lit. This switch represents his danger and violence. When Jack approaches the bathroom door with an ax to kill Wendy, he is lit from below as well, creating the same effect in him. When he is using the ax to break the door down, Wendy is shown in focus in the middle ground, as the ax is slamming through the door in the foreground. While Wendy is the one in focus, capitalizing on her fear, this ax is shown in front of her, giving it some control over her. In addition to this, the ax is not just breaking down the door cleanly. It is moving wildly and violently, almost out of control. This is a symbol for Jack’s downward spiral out of control. Lighting is also used to represent “the shining” throughout the film. When Jack first interviewed for the job, he was brought into an office with a huge amount of light shining into it. The light almost took over the shot, and this same lighting is shown later in the film when Jack first begins to threaten Wendy and he follows her up the stairs while she swings the baseball bat. This repetition of a unique lighting style creates a connection between the two, allowing viewers to understand that the mental breakdown of a former custodian discussed in the interview is now happening to Jack as well.
Mise-en-scene throughout Let The Right One In has a similar effect, in regards to creating a monster. During the scene in which Oskar tries to mix blood with her, Eli is exposed as a monster. This is greatly caused by mise-en-scene. The room that Oskar and Eli are in is very dark, but light shines on Eli and Oskar. However, when Oskar slits his hand, her breathing and swallowing becomes audible to convey her inner struggle not to hurt him. Initially, Eli stays lit and controls herself. However, this soon changes as drops of blood fall quickly from his hand. The speed of these drops adds to the anxiety of viewers and Eli, causing her to lose control. When this happens, Eli is no longer lit fully. Instead, a shadow comes across her face. Oskar stays well lit, implying that he is still innocent in pure, but a change has come over Eli to take this away from her. When she dives at the puddle of blood on the ground, she is only a silhouette, no longer lit from the front. This takes away her facial features and makes her less human and more monster. With this change comes growling and slurping as she laps up the blood left on the floor. However, she is shown from a high angle, implying that she is not in power, but that she has lost control and despite appearing stronger, is actually weak.