Marie Antoinette

 

Storytelling

    Marie Antoinette tells a story of sudden fame, lavishness, and obsession. 14-year-old Maria is the daughter of royalty in Austria when she is suddenly pulled out of her home country to marry the prince of France Louis-Auguste. Immediately the overboard fancy lifestyle is too much for Maria and she also struggles to connect with her new husband. After the king dies, Maria and Louis have to take on more responsibility but Maria uses this to overindulge in luxuries like parties, clothes, and a massive garden. The way the story is told makes the audience want to side with Maria because she truly is a kind person, but she has no idea how to hold power or run a country. The audience is happy for Maria because she can finally do whatever she wants but there are constant whispers about how she overspends and isn't focused on the country and people of France.

Cinematography

    Director Sofia Coppola uses mise en scene in a way that shows how the French royalty live life by overindulging. In every scene, people are seen wearing extravagant dresses, uniforms, and costumes. The furniture and decorations are luxurious and everything is meticulously placed. There are several wide camera shots that center Maria and Louis surrounded by over-the-top foods, desserts, and drinks which often go to waste. I also appreciate the focus zoomed-in shots when people are eating or putting on jewelry because it shows how much they can carelessly indulge which contrasts the people of France who can barely afford food. Coppola also uses close-up shots to focus on people's faces to show when they are feeling lustful to create intimate moments and tension between them.

Cultural Relevance

    One part of this film that I found to be culturally relevant was the modern pop music that was used in place of the traditional classical music that is normally used for films that take place in the 18th century. I think this helped the audience feel more connected to Maria and made her seem more like the young teenager that she was. Something else I thought was relevant was how throughout the entire movie people are constantly whispering about other people and trash-talking behind everyone's backs. I thought this was interesting because typically we view people from this time period as very proper, and these people are supposed to be of royalty so we would expect them to be more mannered but they're not. Lastly, I think an element of mise en scene that helps the film is the vibrant colors and pastels used in the costumes, props, and setting make the movie more lively and current instead of the very serious dim tones used in movies from this time frame. 

Chapter 2 How to Watch a Movie

    

MOONLIGHT | BLUE from Russell Leigh Sharman on Vimeo.

    Chapter 2 of the book Moving Pictures talks about cinematic language in films. Often times we don’t notice cinematic language but we always feel them and its effects. We can notice patterns in the sound and music, narrative storytelling, and dialogue, which are all called motifs. What is special about film versus still photography is that film has the added effect of movement. Movement can be the camera movement, objects, props, scenery moving, and especially the actor’s movement. These help make the story more dramatic and help pull the audience into the story.

    One element of cinematic language that I like most is the use of color in Moonlight (2016). The entire film is color graded to have vivid deep colors and in deep important scenes the coloration is very blue, or sometimes pink. This gives the audience a distinction between good moments in the movie and intense serious moments. This use of color is called composition which (Sharman) defines as an “arrangement of people, objects and setting within the frame of an image”. The colorations used in Moonlight also served another purpose. As almost all of the actors in the film are Black, it was important to not wash out their skin tone. The deep blue tint enhances the Black actor's faces making them appear more clearly on screen.

    The most important element of cinematic language is theme. This is the deeper indirect meaning behind any film that shapes all other elements of the cinematic language used in the movie. It changes how the cinematographer uses camera angles, filters, and camera movement. How the sound designers use sound effects, music, and ambient noises. Finally how the actors say their dialogue, body movements, and facial expressions. This is also why good casting is important, because you may have a great actor, but their style may not always fit the theme of the movie you are working on. It is critical when analyzing cinema to find the theme or themes as they appear throughout the movie.

Narratives and Cinematography

     

    One thing that I learned in chapter four of Moving Pictures is that the movie script can differ almost completely from what we see on screen. The script must be written efficiently and there is no room for much additional detail. It isn’t the screenwriter's job to say what camera angles, props, costumes, or exact sounds and music should be used. All of those elements come down to the cinematographer and the editors in post-production. Leaving room for imagination and extra details in the script allows the cinematographer to take their creativity and put it on screen. It also allows changes to be made if the script doesn’t quite make sense when they actually go to film a scene.

    Looking at the script for Animal versus the film clip for it, I noticed a lot of differences that make the filmed scene a lot more dramatic. First, the scene of the boy riding the bike is very dark and dim. The sky is overcast and you can hear thunder rumbling in the distance. Secondly, there is no alarm that goes off like it says in the script. Instead, we get a shot of the woman rustling in bed with little light peaking through and then it immediately cuts to the woman standing in front of a window doing the dishes while it begins to rain. Eerie music plays in the background and gives the audience a feeling of uncertainty, or that something bad is about to happen. What is in the script is the jump scare of the boy standing in the room before the woman embraces him with a hug, and asks what is wrong because he doesn’t seem right and the boy responds “What am I?”. The change in scene isn’t in the script but it pans to the woman standing in the front doorway with people urgently getting out of their cars while she says “My sweet sweet boy.”.

    This scene comes to life because of the cinematography used. The camera angle is low almost as if the audience is always having to look up at the characters. The camera is also a little shaky which gives the impression that the audience is standing there with the characters, instead of just watching a movie. The scene becomes even more complex when you add in the actor's own style, props, set design, sound, and music. This was also just a one-minute clip, there is even more that goes into making an entire movie such as a good narrative. The chapter tells us that the parts to a good story are; “1 protagonist, 1 goal, and a whole bunch of obstacles.” (Sharman). Across almost all genres of film, these are the base elements of good storytelling even before the cinematography comes into play.