Introduction to Film Studies Miseenscne Props Props become

Introduction to Film Studies Mise-en-scène

Props • Props become a motif of film action, when they are given cinematic significance. In Hitchcock’s Psycho the shower curtain hides a murderer from our sight and later it is used to wrap up the dead body.

Props • The volleyball that a castaway discovers among the wreckage of a ship becomes his companion. He is separated from the ball during his raft voyage from the island. Props become a ‘character’ in the film, Castaway (2000). castaway

Costume • Costume is also an important section of mise-ensène • Costume designer design costume and costume department make and supply costume • The range of how costume is used is wide • It brings to a historical drama authenticity, when the costume of that period is found or recreated.

Costume • Eric von Stoheim accurately reproduced period costumes. • Greed (1924) based on Frank Norris’ naturalist novel (1899) on lives of middle-class people at the turn of the 19 th century.

Middle-class costume: a dentist and his wife

Impoverished people in Death Valley

‘… pure white on sets and in costumes. . . everything up to then had been painted a dull brown’ to mask the scratches on worn-down film prints. Historical authenticity.

Costume • Costume drama (= historical drama / period drama – a film genre in which stories are based on historical events and historical figures. The lavish use of period costumes is one of the most important aspects of the genre. The faithful reproduction of the costume to the period style is essential, but there are differences in its degree of faithfulness.

Costume • Portrait of the young Queen Victoria by Franz Xavier Winterhalter (1847) and one of the costumes designed by Sandy Powell in Young Victoria (2009)

Costumes • Research at the archive of Queen Victoria’s clothes at Kensington Palace, London. • ‘I researched in the usual way which is looking at paintings and other contemporary sources, although there were no photographs of Victoria until she was much older in the 1860 s. ’ Young Victoria

Costume • Braveheart by Mel Gibson (1995) is a epic historical drama on William Wallace, a 13 th century Scottish warrior who led the Scots in the First War of Scottish Independence against England. One of the most historically inaccurate films.

Costume • Costume was designed by Charles Knode, nominated for the best costume Academy award. Kilt was a garment not developed for another three centuries.

Design is almost closer to that of Gibson’s Mad Max than to that of the 13 th century

Costume • Masahiro Shinoda’s Double Suicide based on Chikamatsu Monzaemon’s puppet play and its story set in the Genroku Period, the early 18 th century. • Reproducing the costume in the Genroku style too costly and time-consuming

Costume • Instead, Shinoda settled in the mid-19 th century Edo kimono style • Costumse were designed after wood prints of Keisai Eisen

Costume • In Blazing Saddles (1974) – a comedy Western set in 1874 contains many anachronisms • Black sheriff wearing Gucci-style costumes and carrying a Gucci bag • Comic anachronism video clip

Stylized costume • Costumes may be stylized drawing the audience’ attention to their purely graphic qualities. • Cabinet of Dr. Caligari The sleepwalker Cesare wears a jet-black leotard, whereas the woman he kidnaps a white negligee.

Make-up • No make-up applied on the face of Renée Jeanne Falconetti, a stage and film actress in The Passion of Jean of Arc • Hollywood stars are requested to get their teeth capped, eyebrows plucked and make-up applied.

Erich von Stroheim – the first director to have made the actor to wear no make-up.

White Queen (Anne Hathaway) in Tim Burton’s Alice in the Wonderland (2010) with many layers of foundation and powder finished with pink blusher.

Elizabeth Taylor plays Cleopatra with plenty of green and blue eye shadow. Joseph Mankiewicz’s Cleopatra (1963)

Daryl Hannah’s panda eyes in Ridley Scott’s Blade Runner (1982)

Make-up • Monster is created by applying heavy make-ups • According to Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein, he has ‘watery glowing eyes’ and ‘flowing black lips’ • Definitive visualization of Frankenstein (1931) with flat head and hollow eyes. Girl at pond

Make-up • One of the greatest make-up that has ever been applied in film. David Lynch’s Elephant Man (1980) John Hurt played Joseph Merrick and his make-up was based on a real-life cast made of Merrick’s head after his death. Train station

Make-up • Whenever disguise takes place, make-up is the most significant way to do so. • Jack Lemon and Tony Curtis disguise as female musicians in Billy Wilder’s Some Like It Hot (1959) station

Make-up • In The Curious Case of Benjamin Button (2008) Brad Pit is born as an old man and dies as a baby. The curious narrative requires different make-ups are applied to Pit’s face.

Make-up • The heavily painting make-up in The Cabinet of Dr. Caligari fits not only the characterization in the narrative but also the other aspects of mise-enscène: lighting and expressionistic set design

Lighting • Lighting – more than just illumination • Lighter and darker areas create an overall composition of each shot • They guide attention to certain objects and actions • A bright patch draw our eye to a key gesture • A shadow conceal a detail or build up suspense • Lighting articulate textures

Standard three point lighting: key, fill and back lighting

Key lighting

Fill lighting 3 point lighting

Lighting • Highlight – a patch of relative brightness on a surface • Part of a woman’s face in Matter of Life and Death and metal grills in 400 Blows display highlights • Highlight shows the texture – the woman’s soft skin and hard and cold surface of the grills

Lighting Shadows • An ‘attached’ shadow occurs when light fails to illuminate part of an object, because of its shape or its surface feature • Patches of a girl’s face and body falls into darkness in Spirit of Beehive Frankenstein

Lighting • A ‘cast’ shadow occurs when a source of light projects shadows because something in front of it blocks out the light • Kurosawa Akira’s The Stray Dog, cast shadows of bars between the actors and the light source.

Lighting • Lighting shapes a shot’s overall composition • A pool of light cast by a hanging lamp sets up a scale of importance. The man the most clearly lit is the prominent gangster in Asphalt Jungle.

Analyse how effectively attached and cast shadows are created in Robert Siodmak’s The Killers (1946)?

Lighting • ‘The proper use of light can embellish and dramatize every object. ’ Joseph von Sternberg • 4 major features of film lighting • QUALITY; DIRECTION; SOURCE; COLOUR • QUALITY - The relative intensity of the illumination • Hard lighting (noon day, summer sunlight) – strong shadow • Soft lighting (overcast, winter day) – defused illumination and soft shadows