Mise en Scene

Mise en Scene:

The Godfather

For this blog I am doing a Mise en scene on “The Godfather”. I am going to pick out the opening scene and the wedding scene as the link between the two scenes are very nice contrasts, as well the scenes come right after each other and they take place at the same time.

Mise en scene is the most recognizable attributes of a film, it is the collective of the setting, actors, costumes, make-up, props, lighting and all the other natural and artificial details that characterize the spaces in the film. The term is from a French theatrical expression meaning “put into the scene” or “placing on stage” depending on who you ask. In other words, Mise en scene describes the stuff in the frame of a scene and the way it is shown and arranged.

Opening scene:

“The Godfather” open with a black screen fading in very slowly, with one man speaking, in a soft spot light. The soft spot light creates a mysterious and tense feeling to the scene. With the light only shown on the man’s face. the background is completely black, building on the dramatic and intimidating tone of the film. The very slow and precise zoom out in the opening explains to the audience that there is something about to be introduce to the story, something very important. Although the scene does open with the man talking to Don Corleone off screen, it is clear that Don Corleone is the main character through the use of the zoom out.

The zooming stops once Don Corleone enters the frame with an over the shoulder of him at his desk. The next shot is of Don Corleone in the same soft lighting but its brighter to show the important of his character. The light coming from behind Don Corleone’s face, which is from the window, highlights Don Corleone to show him looking down as he answers the question, this shows him as a powerful man. In addition, the characters are all facing Don Corleone and he is literally the center of attention.

The ending scene of “The Godfather” is another scene composed of interesting Mise en scene elements. The ending scene starts with a deep focus shot, presenting Kay in the front and Michael in the back. Although Kay is in the front of the shot, Michael is the one who is in focus. Furthermore, even though both Michael and Kay are in the shot, the two characters are spread incredibly far apart from each other, creating a mood of disconnection. The long distance between Kay and Michael, along with Michael being the character in focus, creates a wanting to see more of Michael. This longing for a closer view of Michael is answered by a cut away to a medium shot of the room that Michael is in. The shot shows three other characters surround themselves around Michael, once again presenting that Michael is the center of attention. The lighting within this scene is also pretty minimal. Although there is a long hallway between Kay and Michael, the hallway has almost no lights on it, and most of the lighting in the entire scene comes from the window behind Michael and in front of Kay.

In its entirety, “The Godfather” has a very dark mood. The lighting is operated very precisely, which usually only shows the characters and their faces, and leaves the rest of the setting minimally lit. The camera angles vary from first person, which presents the scene as if you are there, observing everything that is going on, to a more distant point of view, as if you were stealthily watching the characters in action while trying not get caught. The placement of the characters in scenes are also used very purposefully. The staging of the characters in each scene convey to the audience who is the main character of the scene/film. Usually, the main character will be sitting down, while everyone else is standing up, or the main character will be at the center of the group of people.