MMCC1005 Week 2 – Mise-en-scène

Lecture Overview

Course: MMCC1005 – Introduction to the Cinema
Week 2 focus: Mise-en-scène
Lecturer: Dr Jane Simon
Two-part structure:
• PART ONE – Sofia Coppola, surface, politics, definitions of mise-en-scène
• PART TWO – Detailed study of four canonical elements (Bordwell & Thompson)

Learning Goals (3 Key Ideas)

Provide context for Sofia Coppola’s cinema: perceived superficiality, fashion aesthetics, political weight.
Master the term mise-en-scène both as:
• a filmmaking practice (choices made on set)
• an analytical tool (what you will apply in tutorials).
Gain fluency with the four key elements of mise-en-scène (setting, lighting, costume & make-up, staging & performance).

Recap: Art vs Entertainment

Revisit the perennial question “What counts as cinema?”
Position of Sofia Coppola:
• Critiqued as image-driven, frivolous, fashion-oriented
• Alternatively praised as serious art-film author.
Key tension: Must a film be either commercial spectacle OR worthy art? Coppola’s corpus often blurs this binary.

Critical Framework: Rosalind Galt on “Pretty”

Book: Pretty: Film and the Decorative Image (2011).
Thesis quotation:

“The rhetoric of cinema has consistently denigrated surface decoration, finding the attractive skin of the screen to be false, shallow, feminine, or apolitical.”
Implication: Surface aesthetics (colour, texture, decoration) can harbour gendered and political meanings, challenging ideas that prettiness = trivial.

Defining Mise-en-scène

Literal French: “putting into the scene.”
Theatre origin → adopted by film studies.
Concise scholarly definitions:
• Bill Nichols (2010): “Arrangement of what appears in front of the camera.”
• John Gibbs (2005): “The contents of the frame and the way they are organised.”
Often shorthand for director’s control over the framed world.
Debates:
• Too broad? Risks vagueness.
• Can it be isolated from sound or editing? Sceptics say no → encourages holistic thinking.

Sofia Coppola – Creative Process Snapshot (from Sofia Coppola Archive 1999-2023)

Parallel scripting of Lost in Translation and Marie Antoinette – oscillated when blocked.
Motivations for Marie Antoinette (2006):
• Humanise a villainised historical figure; present her as a teenager coping with overwhelming circumstances.
• Adopt her subjective POV – “almost as if she had made the film.”
• Emphasise emotion & pleasure over explicit politics.
Intertextual inspiration: 1980s New Romantics (lavish, decadent styles) vs 1990s grungy realism.
Casting: envisaged Kirsten Dunst while writing; choice supports character range.
Fashion influence: John Galliano; access to Met Costume Institute pieces → brighter colour palette than typical period films.
Production coup: Filmed at the actual Palace of Versailles; camera gear stowed in Antoinette’s real bedroom.
Reception: Initially faulted as non-serious & anachronistic (music choices), yet gained long-term audience affection.

Four Canonical Elements (Bordwell & Thompson)

Setting
Lighting
Costumes & Make-up
Staging & Performance

Mise-en-scène as Cinematic Practice (Production Side)

The tangible choices filmmakers make to compose on-screen space.
Includes nuanced control of each canonical element (plus props, depth cues, colour, lens choice, etc.).

Mise-en-scène as Analytical Practice (Reception Side)

When analysing, ask how elements shape:

Visual Style – overall look/texture.
Tone – emotional atmosphere.
Cultural-Historical Location – period, geography, politics.
Narrative Themes – what concepts are foregrounded.
Characterisation – personality traits, arcs.
Point of View – whose story/world we inhabit.

Element 1 – Setting (& Set)

Set = purpose-built environment; Setting = any location (constructed OR found).
More than backdrop: conveys mood, psychology, politics.
Can interplay with genre expectations (e.g. noir alleys, sci-fi megacities).
Illustrative examples:
• Blade Runner (1982) – hyper-urban dystopia, rain-soaked neon; foregrounds themes of decay, hybridity, and alienation.
• Lost in Translation (2003) – upscale Tokyo hotel interiors vs sprawling city vista; heightens protagonists’ displacement.

Props (Properties)

Objects within the set that serve narrative or symbolic function (not mere decoration).
Drive plot (e.g. the Maltese Falcon) or operate as metaphors (e.g. snow globe in Citizen Kane).
Recurring props → visual motifs building thematic cohesion.

Coppola Example – Marie Antoinette

Shoes, fans, patisseries = anachronistic commodity discourse.
Rosalind Galt: film “stages the fetishistic status of the royal body as a question of production design,” linking feminised objects with class & gender politics (2011, 22).
Food becomes a visual motif – indulgence, excess, impending backlash.

Element 2 – Costumes & Make-up

Aid scenic realism (historical accuracy) or deliberate anachronism for commentary.
Reveal character traits (personality, status, transformation).
Function as narrative markers: drastic wardrobe change can signal plot turn (e.g. superhero suits, mourning dress).
Coppola’s palette: bright pastels vs muted earth tones → communicates youthful vibrancy over dusty museum-piece history.

Element 3 – Lighting

Key variables:

Highlights / shadows (modeling of volume).
Quality: hard vs soft.
Direction: frontal, back, under, side, top.
Colour / hue (e.g. sodium-vapor orange streets vs cold blue daylight).

Lighting Styles

High-Key: abundant fill & backlight, low contrast between light/dark → clarity, buoyancy, classic Hollywood musicals, sitcom brightness.
Low-Key: minimal fill, high contrast, pronounced shadows → suspense, noir, horror.

Element 4 – Staging & Performance

Spectrum: expressive naturalness ↔ self-conscious theatricality.
Comedy/slapstick can foreground superficiality; dramas seek invisible realism.
Consider:
• Character proxemics – spatial relations (intimacy vs distance).
• Blocking – actor movement patterns.
• Camera distance adjustments – do actors adapt gestures for close-up vs long shot?
Performance style entwines with genre expectations and director’s aesthetic.

Depth Cues & Spatial Design

Help viewers read 3-D space on 2-D screen.
Plane logic: foreground / mid-ground / background.
Shallow-space: compressed planes, minimal depth (can feel claustrophobic, painterly).
Deep-space: extended planes, overlapping action (e.g. Citizen Kane – characters on multiple planes within sharp focus → thematic richness about power dynamics).

Mise-en-scène in Practice – Summary of Film Examples

Blade Runner (Ridley Scott) – neon noir futurism; environmental story-world acts as character.
Lost in Translation (Coppola) – liminal hotel spaces echo emotional limbo.
Marie Antoinette (Coppola) – opulent Versailles interiors, pastel colour scheme, pop-rock soundtrack; melds 18th-century aristocracy with 20th-century youth culture to comment on privilege & adolescence.
Citizen Kane (Orson Welles) – deep-focus staging; spatial hierarchy reflects political/social hierarchy.

Application Exercise – Film Log Prompt #1

Choose a scene from Marie Antoinette.
Analyse two key elements of mise-en-scène (e.g. setting & colour; costumes & staging).
Connect them to:
• Visual style
• Cultural-historical context
• Narrative themes
• Character portrayal.
Aim for detailed observation + interpretive linkage.

Looking Ahead

Next lecture: Cinematography spotlight via Celine Song’s Past Lives – prepare for shifting focus from in-frame arrangement to camera operations.

Core References (for Further Reading)

Bordwell & Thompson (2023) Film Art: An Introduction.
Galt, R. (2011) Pretty: Film and the Decorative Image.
Gibbs, J. (2002) Mise-en-Scène: Film Style and Interpretation.
Leadston, M. (2019) “Letters from an Austrian Woman: Adapting Transhistoric Girlhood in Sofia Coppola’s Marie Antoinette.” Modern Language Review 114(4): 613-628.
Martin, A. (2014) Mise En Scène and Film Style: From Classical Hollywood to New Media Art.