Use Of Mise-En-Scene In The Graduate

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 use of mise-en-scene in this film gives the audience subtle hints during the film. Toward the beginning of the film Mrs. Robinson makes Ben bring her home from Ben’s coming home party. Although Ben had no intentions of going inside with Mrs. Robinson, she profusely urges Ben to walk her inside since she is scared of the dark and no one is home. Ben ends up walking her inside when he then tries to leave again, but she wants him to have a drink with her. The audience can sense Ben is getting uncomfortable with the situation and begins to think something is weird about what is happening. Nichols captures a shot that we can detect both Ben and Mrs. Robinson conversing in the living room while, through the window in between them, they have trees and bushes as if they were in the wild. The audience observes that Mrs. Robinson is wearing an animal printed dress. The way that Mrs. Robinson is talking to Ben and treating him it is as if she is the predator and Ben is her prey with whom she is trying to seduce. All the shots during this scene we notice Mrs. Robinson at a higher height than Ben which furthermore represents her dominance over him. The scene finishes with a shot of Ben. The camera is placed where the shot is coming from between the legs of Mrs. Robinson, which suggest what will happen later in the film. Throughout the film the audience notices that we never

Ben is sitting in his room while his welcome home party is going home downstairs. His parents come up to get him to mingle with their families’ friends, but Ben wanted to just be alone. As they are walking down the stairs the camera stops on the clown picture on the wall. The clown is dressed up and does not have any sign of happiness on his face. The viewer can assume Nichols was trying to explain Ben is feeling he has to act like someone that he truly is not and he is not pleased about doing what his parents are making him do. A significant shot that could foreshadow future action is when Ben is bringing Mrs. Robinson’s purse upstairs to Elaine’s room. As he walks in we have a still shot of a dark room with all the lights off except a light over Elaine’s picture. The shot cuts into a close-up shot of Elaine’s picture, but the audience can detect the reflection of Mrs. Robinson walking nude into the room. This scene, that is taking place in Elaine’s room, is the first time Mrs. Robinson approaches Ben about having an affair. The setting of this scene furthermore puts suspicion in the viewer’s mind about the