The Graduate (1967)
The Graduate, directed by Mike Nichols and released in 1967, is a drama comedy about growing up, becoming an adult and the internal struggles that comes with that. Ben Braddock, portrayed by Dustin Hoffman, has just graduated from college, but does not know what he wants to do with his life. He gets seduced by the older Mrs. Robinson, portrayed by Anne Bancroft, and falls in love with her daughter Elaine, portrayed by Katharine Ross. Throughout the film, Nichols uses expressionism and symbolism to show the internal struggle Ben is going through.
Mise-en-scène is a term used to describe the design aspects of a theatre or film production. The term is French and translates to “what is put into the scene”. When we talk about
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the mise-en-scéne in film we are therefore referring to what is in front of the camera, everything that is in the frame; sets and props, composition, lighting, costume and makeup, and movement and acting. (Bordwell et al., 2013, p.113) Stylizing anything means heightening it to accentuate its impact beyond what we recognize as normal. (Rabiger et al., 2013, p.140) By doing this, the director can create meanings beyond the action that is psychically seen on the screen. This is called expressionism. By using a stylistic mode one can show the internal state of a character, his/her psychology and emotions. Nichols is aware of and facilitates this to show what is going on inside Bens head by not only stylizing certain aspects of the mise-en-scéne; composition and lightning, but using water as a both prop and more importantly a symbol. Composition is the visual placement or arrangement of the objects and subjects in the frame. Nichols uses composition and internal framing to create a feeling of confinement and/or being trapped and/or caged. Internal framing is when something or someone is being framed by objects or subjects within the frame, like for example a doorway. There are plenty of examples of Nichols use of internal framing and composition in The Graduate, but I have chosen a couple that shows how he uses it to say something about Ben. At his own graduation party, Ben is sitting in his room in front of an aquarium. (See shot list: shot 1) Ben is framed by the aquarium and water, as if he is submerged in to the water, creating a feeling of being not only caged but also drowning. Later in the shot, Ben’s dad enters the frame, partially blocking the view of Ben before his mom enters and blocks the entire shot, making the camera having to pull back. They are invading his space, both his screen space but also his personal space. In the rest of the shot, Ben is placed between his parents, as if he has no way to go, he’s trapped between them. In the next shots (See shot list: shot 2 and shot 4), Ben is constantly framed or blocked in the frame by either his parents or his parents middle class friends in close-up shots by a handheld camera, creating a very intruding feeling. This represent how Ben is feeling, he is feeling trapped not only by his own parents, but also the middle-class society that surrounds him. He does not want to be like them, he wants, as he says himself, to be different, but his surroundings are invading, caging and drowning him. Another time Nichols uses internal framing is when Ben is over at Mrs. Robinsons house after driving her home. Mrs. Robinson offers Ben a drink, even though he clearly does not want to be there, before she starts acting proactive against him. Ben then says the famous line “Mrs. Robinson, you’re trying to seduce me.” while being framed by Mrs. Robinsons leg. Not only does the framing of Ben by leg show how Ben is trapped in this house right now, he does not want to be there, but it also foreshadows how she will later trap him with the affair. Lightning is the many ways an object or subject can be illuminated. The light can either be natural from the sun, or artificial from for example a lamp. Lightning is a way for the director to direct attention to certain things in the frame, or to create a certain atmosphere or feeling. A well-lit scene can create a different feeling than a low-lit scene and Nichols uses this to create dualistic lightning schemes on Ben. By leaving one side dark and one side light he creates duality and conflict. Dualism means something consisting of two parts, for example good and evil, body and soul, etc. Lighting Ben’s face dualistic therefore shows the conflict within him. A good example of this is when Ben is sitting in his room in front of the aquarium at his graduation party. (See shot list: shot 1) Ben’s right side of the face is lit, the left side is in shadows. On one hand, Ben has just graduated from a prestige college where he was an accomplished athlete, student leader and he won a fellowship to graduate school. He should have a promising future in front of him. But on the other hand, none of that matters to Ben right now, he does not know what he wants to do about his life, he is worried about his future and he feels alienated from his family and their lifestyle. A symbol is a sign, an object, an action or something that has a deeper meaning, it refers to something other than themselves.
Symbols are used as in communication between people and its premises is that the people using and reading the symbol have the same conventions. This is because what a symbol means is built upon conventions and this may differ within social groups and cultures. Nichols uses water as not only a prop, but more importantly a symbol in The Graduate several times throughout the film. The first time is when Ben is sitting in front of the aquarium at his graduation party (See shot list: shot 1). As mention earlier, the composition of the frame make it look like Ben is submerged in the aquarium. This symbolizes how he is “drowning” in the decisions he has to make; he does not know what he wants. Later at the party there is a scene where he is standing in his room looking down at the pool. (See shot list: shot 6.) This symbolizes how he is just trying to “stay afloat”. Moments later Mrs. Robinson throws the keys in the aquarium in his room, symbolizing and foreshadowing how she will “take him down with him” later. Later, at his birthday party, water plays a big role as well. Ben gets a scuba diver suit from his parents that they make him put on before pushing him into trying it in the pool. The whole shot is a POV shot from Ben’s eyes and we can see him submerge in to the water. At one point he tries to emerge, but his parents push him back under, symbolizing their role in Ben’s life He’s trying to stay afloat, but they are pushing him under. He is trying to find a different path, but they are pushing him to become what he does not
want. After Ben starts the affair with Mrs. Robinson, which can be looked like a rite of passage in to the adulthood, the relationship with the water changes. Instead of being submerged in it, he’s floating on a raft. He’s not happy though, and that is because it is doomed. There is not much that has to happen for a small raft to be pushed over and for the person that is on it to fall into the water. This is exactly what happens when Ben falls in love with Elaine. Mrs. Robinson will not allow it, forcing Ben to tell Elaine about the affair he has with her mother. It is raining heavily when this scene takes place, and when Ben finally reaches Elaine to tell her, he is soaked like he was pushed in to a pool. The raft is gone. This is just several examples of how Nichols uses water, and there are more of them like when Ben is at Berkeley sitting at the fountain or when he is driving over the bridge. Nichols even used the song “Bridge Over Troubled Water” by Simon & Garfunkel in the film, making “Troubled Water” not only a symbol, but a theme in the film. The Graduate is an excellent film. To show the internal struggle Ben is going through, Nichols does not only facilitate expressionism in certain aspects of the mise-en-scéne; composition and lightning, but he also uses water as a prop to symbolize how he is feeling. As you might have noticed I used the same frame, when Ben is sitting in front of the aquarium, as an example three times. This is because it shows how brilliant Nichols is and how one can make a shot mean so much more than just the action happening in the frame through expressionism. This shot is not only a guy sitting in front of an aquarium in his room. It’s a guy who feels trapped, a guy who feels like he is torn between two things and a guy who feels like he is drowning. It is no wonder why Nichols was nominated for both a Golden Globe and an Oscar for his directing for The Graduate and won both.
As I mentioned earlier, the clutter in the Gunderson’s home does speak volumes about who they are as people. Well very proud and honest people, they are very flawed and blue collar. This clutter is continued on in the kitchen. The shelf behind the kitchen table is filled with pictures and other nick-nacks. This clutter is eerily reminiscent of the middle class household portrayed by the MacGuff’s in the film Juno. These families both are not going to make sure everything in their home is pristine, but their way of life is really not too uncommon. It really does embody a lot of blue collar America. Another good use of mise en scene in this sequence was the very gray and desolate skyline during the murder investigation. Murder obviously is not a light topic, so the dark atmosphere in the sky very much fits into the theme of this scene. The last thing I’d like to mention about mise en scene and staging takes me back to the opening zoom of this sequence. Along with the visual theatrics zoom, the sudden appearance of nondiegetic music also insinuates this is quite an important scene in the film. Once we hear the dramatic strings, we know something dramatic is about to happen, especially because the music is clearly not coming from something on the screen. This nondiegetic sound can be a useful tool to setting a scene and properly utilizing mise en scene and at the end of day, setting the scene is key in a naturalistic
Giannetti defines mis en scene as, “the phrase that refers to the arrangement of all the visual elements of a theatrical production within a given playing area” (50). This French theatrical term provides an understanding of the meaning of arrangements the director chooses to place in the frame and where they are located. While mis en scene can be analyzed in any film, we looked at The Sandlot and The Longest Yard for strong examples. The Sandlot (1993) directed by David M. Evans is a film about a new kid, Scotty Smalls, moving to a new town and trying to befriend the local boys and finding a love for baseball while playing for the Sandlot team. On the other hand, we have The Longest Yard (2005) directed by Peter Segal, which is about Paul
Mike Nichols, the director of The Graduate (1967), was considered an ordinary director before he took the challenge of directing The Graduate. After his work was complete, he was the winner of the academy award for the best director of a film. Mike Nichols had only directed one other film before he had directed The Graduate. Ben Braddock, the main character of the film, had his whole life ahead of him after recently graduating college. Although he had no idea what he wanted to do with the next stages of his life, his parents knew that he would be successful and do something that he loved. A dear friend of his family, Mrs. Robinson, pressures him into having an affair with her, even though he had much hesitation about the outcome. Ben
The mise en scenes in this film are unique because it gave viewers the ability to have a sense of how the characters are feeling. For example, low lighting was used throughout the film to express a sense of the unknown and/or fear. Another great example of how mise en scene was used is how human shadows for night shooting were used to increase the feeling of mystery and a threating atmosphere (Awjingyi). And one of the most important examples of mise en scene used in this film is in the last scene where mirrors were used (aka the “funhouse”) to
Elements of mise-en-scene in Wendy and Lucy help to convey aspects of the story that are never explicitly expressed in the narrative of the film. Wendy and Lucy does not present a large amount of background story information, for instance, the scene where Wendy calls her brother may cause some viewers to wonder about their strained relationship and his role in Wendy’s current financial situation. Moreover, Wendy’s financial situation is never truly discussed in the film, only implied, yet the viewer is still aware of it. Facets of mise-en-scene helps to convey the information that fills the gaps left in the story. Kolker defines the concept of mise-en-scene as a way to “explain how images, through composition, camera movement, lighting, focus and colour, generate narrative event and guide our perception through a film” (Kolker 1998, p.17). An essential element of mise-en-scene is setting and sets. Wendy and Lucy is presented in an entirely naturalistic setting. The small town Wendy is passing through gives the fi...
In his literary work, A Long Way Gone:Memoirs of a Boy Soldier, Ishamael Beah uses symbols to underscore his central theme of oppression and/or freedom.
Baruch Spinoza once said “Experience teaches us no less clearly than reason, that men believe themselves free, simply because they are conscious of their actions and unconscious of the causes whereby those actions are determined.” He compared free-will with destiny and ended up that what we live and what we think are all results of our destiny; and the concept of the free-will as humanity know is just the awareness of the situation. Similarly, Kurt Vonnegut’s Slaughterhouse-Five explores this struggle between free-will and destiny, and illustrates the idea of time in order to demonstrate that there is no free-will in war; it is just destiny. Vonnegut conveys this through irony, symbolism and satire.
When it comes to films most people think that the filmmakers just draft up the script, hires some actors, films and edits some scenes, then releases the next number one movie in America to the world (or select theaters near you). In actuality, there are a lot more details that go into film than that. Filmmakers are constantly making decisions in regards to a films narrative and cinematic style and making sure a film comes out as well as it can. One of those decisions fall under cinematic style and is called mise-en-scene. Mise-en-scene has four elements: lighting, costume/makeup, sets/props, and figure expression and movement. The three that will be focused on when analyzing the film Modern Times are costume/makeup, sets/props, and figure expression
Mise en scene generally means everything within the shot, everything that the camera is showing. Mise-en-scene is all about the film staging, all that is visible in front of the camera and all its design included; trim, music, clothing, environment, camera movements, makeup etc. Every director in the world uses their own different kind of techniques when making movies, and it is very common that a director becomes famous and well-known just because of that; their own style of making movies. As directors worldwide are working in different ways, and using their own, special style, they also use ”mise-en-scene” in different ways.
Mise-en-scene includes everything that appears in front of the camera. The director generally controls these elements. The mise-en-scene affects if the audience perceives the degree of realism or fantasy in the film. Broken Blossoms clearly aims for realism, however, the actors needed a more expressive style in order to portray their characters without sound.
...this scene an enraged Alonzo yells at a group of locals in a neighborhood in which he was once well respected and had power over everyone there. To his surprise the crown of people betray him by refusing to comply with his orders. Every element of the mise-en-scene work in harmony and well meticulously placed. The dark lighting, Alonzo frantic movements, the fact that Alonzo was in the center of crowd, and even the scene being set in the middle of a worn down project complex all play their parts in the mise-en-scene and presenting the filmmakers vision.
Charlie Chaplin created amazing films with his career as a director, screenwriter, actor, producer and musician. City Lights is a story of the tramp who falls in love. He is blown away by the unexpected love affair with the flower girl. He does everything in his power to help her and along the way befriends the millionaire. The story shows the contrasts between the two very different worlds of the rich and the poor. The tramp befriends the damsel in distress millionaire and sparks a friendship where the tramp then sees the lives of both worlds. The mise en scene is a way that shows how different each scene is by the way each character lives their life. Not only in the contrast between the rich and the poor, but also a contrast to happiness verses the unhappy. The mise en scene shows symbols of props that represent how the characters are feeling and what we are suppose to be feeling as we watch what is going on onscreen. Mise en scene is used to tell the story and there are many aspects that come together. The composition, props,
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...
Mise-en-scéne is something that we see in movies all the time. It’s translated from French and means the staging the different aspects of a movie such as setting, lighting, subjects, or almost anything else. Any common movie, such as Inside Out, shows Mise-en-snéne in it. Three big parts of Mise-en-scéne that are shown in the movie Inside Out are cinematography, sound, and editing. Inside Out uses all of these by describing a plot in which there are feelings in our brains which connect to different memories that we can remember at any time. There were five main emotions that controlled the person on the outside whose name was Riley. The five emotions were named, Joy, Fear, Anger, Disgust and Sadness. They helped Riley as she moved away from
Mise-en-scene is used in many different parts of the movie to help the viewers feel as if they are a part of what is going on. An example of the use of mise-en-scene and also lighting used throughout the movie is when the characters are inside the matrix. The camera has a slight shade of green on everything during the scene. This could be identified as mise-en-scene. The green lighting is used to inform the viewers that the scene is taking place inside the matrix and it could also be a form of a lighting technique. The computer code is green, also which links it to the matrix. Then it changes to a blue light when they are back in the real world. Another technique of mise-en-scene is used when Neo first enters the matrix. He is in a room that is completely solid white and appears to be never-ending. This technique is used to show that