Mise En Scene Analysis

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Mise en scene is a French theatrical term meaning “placing on stage,” or more accurately, the arrangement of all visual elements of a theatrical production within a given playing area or stage. The exact area of a playing area or stage is contained by the proscenium arch, which encloses the stage in a picture frame of sorts. However, the acting area is more ambiguous and acts with more fluidity by reaching out into the auditorium and audience. Whatever the margins of the stage may be, mise en scene is a three dimensional continuation of the space an audience occupies consisting of depth, width, and height. No matter how hard one tries to create a separate dimension from the audience, it is in vain as the audience always relates itself to the staging area. Mise en scene in movies is slightly more complicated than that of an actual theater, as it is a compilation of the visual principles of live theater in the form of a painting, hence the term “motion picture.” A filmmaker arranges objects and people within a given three-dimensional area as a stage director would. However, once it is photographed, the three-dimensional planes arranged by the director are flattened to a two-dimensional image of the real thing. This eliminates the third dimension from the film while it is still occupied by the audience, giving a movie the semblance of an audience in an art gallery. This being so, mis en scene in movies is therefore analogous to the art of painting in that an image of formal patterns and shapes is presented on a flat surface and is enclosed within a frame with the addition of that image having the ability to move freely within its confines. A thorough mise en scene evaluation can be an analysis of the way things are place on stage in...

... middle of paper ...

...ng able to properly diagnose the symbolic implications of the mise en scene in not only this shot but the entire movie goes a long way in being able to completely understand the films underlying message. The mise en scene of the film arguably had more impact on the story than any of the dialogue did and was medium through which this director decided to tell his story.

Works Cited

Giannetti, Louis D. Understanding Movies. Boston: Allyn & Bacon, 2011. Print.

http://lisathatcher.files.wordpress.com/2013/12/gravity_bullock_2-crop-promovar-mediumlarge.jpg

"Gravity." IMDB.com. Ed. IMDB. IMDB.com, n.d. Web. .

Collin, Robbie. "Alfonso Cuarón: There's More to Gravity than 'Look Mum, No Hands’." Http://www.telegraph.co.uk. TheTelegraph, 3 Mar. 2014. Web. 10 Mar. 2014.

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