Classical Realist Texts: American
Films between 1916 and 1960
Mise-en-scène
Visualizing Methods in Classic 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, camera movement, lighting, the
choice of lenses, design, costume, location
hunting, etc.)
Visualizing Methods in Classic American films
(Montage = editing, how to present shots. It
includes cutting, mixing sound effects and
music, and dubbing)
Mise-en-scène in Classic American Films
• Classical Hollywood films aim to make the
viewer not notice that they were watching a film.
They do so through telling a plausible narrative.
• In making narrative the dominant force in a film,
the classic Hollywood cinema chose to
subordinate mise-en-scène and montage to
narrative.
• It lets mise-en-scène serve for the ‘invisible’,
plausible and realistic narrative.
Mise-en-scène in Classic American Films
• They achieve reality and truth effects by
concealing filming techniques through
sophisticated filming techniques MISE-ENSCENE and MONTAGE
• Unartificial → natural → real
• Use of arts → make a film look artless →
natural → real
Mise-en-scène in Classic 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-scène in Classic American Films
• ANGLES OF FRAMING
• High angle shot
• Low angle shot
• Expressive and formalist
arrangement of angles in
Citizen Kane (1941)
• Camera angle can suggest
either the vulnerability or
power of a character.
Mise-en-scène in Classic American Films
• Straight-on angle
• Following the point of
view of a character the most natural
positioning of the
camera – angle and
level
Formalist Mise-en-scène
• Expressive angles
• Stanley Kubrick’s
Clockwork Orange
(1971)
• Extreme low-angle
shots
Mise-en-scène in Classic American Films
• LEVEL OF CAMERA
• Low-level and highlevel placing of the
camera
• Following the eye level
of a character - the most
natural placing of the
camera.
Formalist Mise-en-scène
• 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-scène in Classic American Films
• COMPOSITION
• The important figure should be placed in the
slightly off-centre of the frame
Mise-en-scéne in Classic American Films
• Slightly off-centre composition: Douglas Sirk’s
melodramas, All that Heaven Allows and Written
on the Wind
Formalist Mise-en-scène • 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
• Ozu’s influence on
Kitano films
Realist and Formalist Mise-en-scène
DEPTH OF FIELD: FOCUS
• SELECTIVE FOCUS or SHALLOW
FOCUS = only one plane is in sharp focus
• To direct the viewer’s attention to that
plane.
Realist and Formalist Mise-en-scène
• RACK(ing) 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.
•
CSI
Realist and Formalist Mise-en-scène
• FOLLOW FOCUS
• Keeping a moving object or character in focus
Realist and
Formalist
Mise-en-scène
• 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-scène in
Classic American
Films
• Camera movements
• The camera moves following the movements of a
character - the most natural way to move the
camera
• F.W. Murnau’s Sunrise (1927)
Realist and Formalist Mise-en-Scène
• In Martin Scorsese’s The Age of Innocence (1998),
the camera moves following the movements of a
character (point-of-view shots)
• Are these camera movements more realist or more
formalist.
Mise-en-scène 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-scène in Classic American Films
• Mise-en-scene ought to be motivated as narrative
does. The chain of cause and effect should
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