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Mise-en-scène roughly translates to "putting in the scene." This term refers to the choices the director makes about what is seen in the film frame. Common elements of mise-en-scène include setting, lighting, costume, and staging.
Introduction: Mise-en-scène in Sunrise
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"Setting" describes the physical environment in which a scene takes place. This includes the size of the space, the decor, the colors, and the objects that fill this space. These elements can tell us about the situation the characters are in, or even about the characters themselves.
Definition: Setting
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This country setting is quiet, contains few people, and is full of trees and lakes.
Example: Setting
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This city setting is full of people, cars, lights, and music. Things move at a chaotic pace here.
Example: Setting
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"Costume" can describe a character's clothing, hair, and make-up. A director can use these elements to communicate the nature of a character.
Definition: Costume
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The wife has neat, conservative hair, light makeup, and a modest light-colored dress.
Example: Costume
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The city woman has a short fashionable haircut and a stylish hat, darker makeup, and a dark-colored dress.
Example: Costume
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This scene places the city woman and this country inn-keeper right next to each other, which emphasizes the strong contrast in their costume. This difference in costume also represents the differences between the city and the country.
Example: Costume
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"Lighting" refers to all the choices the director makes when using light to compose a shot. This most often entails using lighter and darker areas within the frame to guide our attention to certain objects and actions.
Definition: Lighting
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High-key lighting refers to an overall lighting design that has low contrast and even lighting. The light quality is usually soft, keeping shadows from being too dark or defined.
Definition: Lighting--High-Key Lighting
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Notice how the family is lit evenly on all sides. The shadows that fall on the woman in bed are mostly transparent. There are no dark areas on the family.
Example: Lighting--High-Key Lighting
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Low-key lighting refers to an overall ighting design that creates strong contrasts between light and dark as well as sharper, darker shadows.
Definition: Lighting--Low-Key Lighting
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The man and woman here have low lighting on their faces to make sure they are distinguishable, but this strongly contrasts with the overall darkness of their figures. Notice the high contrast between the parts of their hair/hat the moonlight is illuminating and the rest of their bodies.
Example: Lighting--Low-Key Lighting
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An attached shadow occurs when light fails to illuminate part of an object because of the object's shape or surface features, such as when a person's nose casts a shadow on one side of their face.
Definition: Lighting--Attached Shadows
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Because the man is holding the latern off to one side of his body, only that side of his face is illuminated; the other half is covered in shadow.
Example: Lighting--Attached Shadows
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Cast shadows occur when an object blocks light and creates a shadow on something else.
Definition: Lighting--Cast Shadows
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Notice how the man with the lantern creates shadows of his body as he runs down the hall, and how the bright light coming from outside the house creates shadows in the shape of the window pane.
Example: Lighting--Cast Shadows
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"Staging" refers to the placement, movement, and behavior of figures in the frame. This includes people, animals, and even objects.
Definition: Staging
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In this shot, the man is large in the frame while the woman is smaller. This is due to him being closer to the camera, him standing while she shrinks in her seat, and his body also being phsycially bigger than hers. Besides their size difference demonstrating her vulnerability to him, her face is also filled with terror as he slowly lurches towards her with zombie-like movements. Both their bodies in the frame and their movement/performance shows the danger the woman is in.
Example: Staging
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As the film cuts between shots of the woman/baby pair at home and the man/city woman pair by the water, we notice that the characters' placement and actions in the frame are similar. We see the city woman (on the right side of the frame) embracing and kissing the man as the country woman (also on the right side of the frame) embraces and kisses her baby. This creates a comparison between the two women - the city woman is involved in infidelity while the country woman is taking care of her child.
Example: Staging
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The man and woman are placed in the frame so that their reflection is superimposed over the photos of happy newlyweds. This symbolizes their reconciliation as a couple.
Example: Staging
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- How do all of Murnau's choices in mise-en-scène work together to communicate a main theme in the film?
- Why are the characters in the film not named?
- What do the characters represent (and how do we see this through mise-en-scène)?
- How does Murnau use mise-en-scène to communicate his beliefs about certain values and ideals?
Possible Discussion Topics: Mise-en-scène and Theme