Mise-En-Scene in Classical Hollywood Narratives - Essay Example

Mise-En-Scene in ical Hollywood Narratives ical Hollywood narrative is the style of filmmaking with which most mainstream movie audiences are familiar. Films produced in this style are structured with the narrative as the unifying force behind all other aspects involved in the mise-en-scene. The mise-en-scene in this style of filmmaking seeks to integrate aspects of the medium from costuming to the blocking of actors into a unified whole with the prime directive being that nothing should draw the viewer out of the artificially constructed reality of the story. During the golden age of the studio system in Hollywood, actors were rarely seen addressing the camera, and historical accuracy in terms of costuming and props often been pursued to an obsessive degree. Classic narrative style has been characterized as a cinema of the obvious where the ultimate sin lies in making the narrative incomprehensible.1 And yet most of this conventional wisdom that pigeonholes a homogenized approach to mise-en-scene in the classic Hollywood movies don't really apply to one of the most commercially and critically viable of the film genres of the period that instituted contemporary perspectives on the methodology of Hollywood mise-en-scene. Casablanca and Singin' in the Rain may be the ultimate examples how the idea that only one approach to mise-en-scene is representative of classic Hollywood narrative ideology. Both films are iconic examples of a traditional Hollywood studio production from the era when everybody involved in filmmaking was under contract to just one company. The studio executives, and not the director, determined the final result, which had to be created while facing obstacles such as star demands, daily rewrites, and an eye toward the bottom line of profits. As a result, both movies possess such typical Hollywood narrative elements as a protagonist, an antagonist and a clearly defined plot that utilizes such narrative concepts as rising and falling action. The opening sequence follows the cinematographical template that marks most Hollywood films by commencing with a series of establishing shots and signals intended to promptly inform the audience of such necessary elements in mainstream storytelling as setting and time, pointedly eschewing irony and non-diagetic distancing devices. The opening sequence of Casablanca also serves the more subtle means of establishing ideology and lends credence to the suggestion that setting can "dynamically enter into the narrative action". 2. The exotic locale of the city of Casablanca with which the majority of filmgoers are doubtlessly unfamiliar is effortlessly exploited to heighten the sense of chaos and disorder that will shortly become vital to both the narrative and message that the movie is meant to convey. The film moves quickly to follow the logical cinematic progression that tracks from universal to the personal. After successfully introducing Casablanca as a foreign port on another continent that seems to have little to do with the interests of its American target audience, the link is made explicit as the city is revealed to be a vital point on the route of those attempting to escape the Nazis by fleeing to America. The lighting is low key, dominated by shadows that reflect the shadowy world of shifting allegiances and ambiguous morality. Those shadows work effectively to symbolize the idea of the shadow of fascism lurking over the rest of the civilized world while also intensifying the realism that is a necessity in a propagandistic film3. The mise-en-scene choices behind the entirety of the opening sequence of Casablanca is motivated by the narrative functions associated with imparting to the audience such vital information as the time and historical context of the film for its ideological message while simultaneously creating the necessary mystery that surrounds the character of Rick Blaine and the activities that take place inside his cafe. Likewise, despite the rapidity with which the film has moved from its establishing shots to the shooting of the man attempting the flee, Casablanca also relies upon another highly traditional device associated with dramatic films, that of keeping pertinent information unrevealed until it is absolutely necessary. The narration that is utilized at the beginning of Casablanca is a standard device for imparting information. In this particular case, the narration is intended to create an emotional response between the characters who are immediately distanced from the audience as a result of their foreign ethnicity for the purpose of empathy. Equally important to this narration is that it underscores the conflict that is elemental to the ideological purpose; it creates the Nazis as the real foreign and alien invaders and gives the audience a clearly defined villain to root against. The opening of Singin' in the Rain stands in direct contrast, consistently undermining the contention that all Hollywood narratives aim for the obvious. Throughout this musical, ironic distancing devices encourage the audience to refuse accepting a cinema of the obvious. Both textually and subtextually, Singin' in the Rain deflates the pretensions of those who make movies by ridiculing the very idea of realism in movies. Singin' in the Rain opens with what is almost a clich about Hollywood falsity: the glitzy movie premiere. The glitter of the Hollywood types is juxtaposed with fans frantically aiming to see their favorite stars Don Lockwood and Lena Lamont who are treated like royalty. Further undermining the haughty false faade behind which seamy reality takes place is the brilliantly conceived sequence in which Lockwood recounts his rise to fame. Irony is the driving force behind the mise-en-scene in this segment as Lockwood announces that his motto is "Dignity always dignity" and thereupon launches into a series of narrative voiceovers about the high quality of his childhood and his entertainment background. This collision between perception and reality is heightened by the attention given to making each visual commentary about these events so palpable. For instance, when Lockwood is speaking about how and his friend Cosmo were well-received entertainers performing in the highest quality halls, the visual accompaniment utilizes props like seltzer bottles, while they are dressed as outrageously costumed clowns, while clearly not being received with joy by their audience. Because Casablanca is not just a drama, but also a piece of propaganda the costumes must be used in a non-ironic fashion. The costumes are, in fact, used to consistently reinforce the power of setting. Renault is particularly impressive, attired in his smart military uniform. The attendance Renault in his uniform is an opportunity not just to present him as an authority figure, but to heighten his human ambiguity. That Renault's allegiances shift alongside his own personal morality is intended to convey the danger of continued isolationism which is the film directly attacks. Renault's duplicity as he wears a uniform and acts as a police force is contrasted with the seeming amorality of Rick Blaine who is usually attired in a white tuxedo. The tuxedo and the nightclub milieu of gamblers, prostitutes and other shady characters lend itself to the acceptance of a shadier moral sense within Rick, while the military uniform of Renault is a traditional symbol of a stronger moral compass. Both are strongly at odds with perhaps the only character in the movie whose moral center is never questioned. Victor Laszlo wears a conservative outfit befitting of an austere heroic figure. The realism of not just the costuming, but of everything that takes place within the confines of Rick's nightclub are utilized for the purposes of sustaining the idea of setting as a dynamic narrative character that drives the narrative. It is an example of realistic attention given to mise-en-scene to strengthen the audience's emotional attachment to the ideological message.4 Singin' in the Rain is also quite interested in the function of realism as it purports to tell the story about Hollywood's difficult transition from the silent period to the talkies. In many ways, in fact, Singin' in the Rain contains elements that extend beyond formalist reality and almost embrace a Brechtian style of meta-textuality through the inclusion of props in the background, and often at the center of the frame, that draw attention to the art of moviemaking itself. At various points throughout the movie, the audience witnesses that equipment that standard Hollywood forays into realism struggle to hide: constructed sets, Klieg lights, giant fans, wires, and microphones. One scene in particular undercuts the idea of classic Hollywood realism. Don Lockwood uses the tricks of the studio to dramatize his growing feelings of love for Kathy Selden by singing to her within the confines of an empty, cavernous movie studio the mise-en-scene is devoted to pulling back the camera to reveal the unreality of the filmmaking process. Massive lamps are turned on to reveal throw unnatural color on Kathy and one of those huge fans is used to make her hair flow. The effect is one of utter illusion to counterpoint the very real emotions being expressed by the song. Further contributing to the sense of unreality is the music which accompanies their singing is non-diagetic. This particular sequence, as well many others in this and other classic big-budget color musicals, serves to reveal that the realism that is famously a driving force behind the ideology of Hollywood musicals is not predictable. Classical Hollywood narrative is typically considered in terms of style being "subordinate to narrative: shots, lighting, colour must not draw attention to themselves any more then the editing, the mise-en-scene or sound. All must function to manufacture realism."5 In addition, most lighting and photographic effects are designed to be used in the pursuit of realism and verisimilitude. Hollywood narrative cinema has been described as a cinema of the obvious, but this is clearly not always the case. The musical genre may stand alone as being one in which the predominant filmic ideology is one that confronts these commonly accepted ideas, but the fact that this genre has produced multiple Best Picture Oscar winners, blockbuster business and critical acclaim is enough to consider that convention ideas regarding the formalist approach to realism in the mise-en-scene attitudes in Hollywood film to refashion these ideas6 . While perhaps not as challenging as Soviet cinematic techniques or the avant-garde, the introduction of non-realist techniques not just in Singin' in the Rain but as a matter of course in the genre as a whole should naturally lead to a reconsidering of the very idea of defining something as classical Hollywood narrative mise-en-scene. Read More