Think about the film's mise-en-scene. Choose a scene in the film and discuss the mise-en-scene (costumes, set, properties, etc.) and its relation to the scene and the film as a whole. Use at least 2 hearty paragraphs for your discussion.
Also, please post your favorite line from the film.
I picked the scene when Jerry comes to see Lucy and she tries to hide her piano player/ vocal coach (I don’t know which one). It ends when Dan leaves after seeing Jerry chase the piano/ vocal man. The mise-en-scene in this scene is similar through the rest of the film. The characters wear these very classy and high quality outfits. Jerry and Dan with their suits (and the piano/vocal man) and Lucy, Aunt Patsy, and Dan’s mother with their dresses. Also, the nice houses and apartments that the characters live in are very glamorous with the fancy furniture and expensive things around the place (busts and plants). The way everything looks and is presented on screen gives this scene and the film as a whole this angelic and heavenly look. The hat is meaningful as well. It represents Lucy’s bad luck and poor decision making. Lucy is not doing anything wrong with her piano/vocal guy, but she tries to hide him and keep it secret. This act makes the situation worse than if she confessed. It shows her desperation as well. She still loves Jerry and if he finds out that she was with him then she feels that her chances with a new future with Jerry will be lost forever. It also represents how Jerry is wrong in his decisions, because he does not realize that he is wearing the wrong hat and he thinks that his wife’s cheating on him when she’s not. Jerry has made some bad calls that have impacted his life. When he goes in the same room as the piano/vocal man, it represents him feeling that he’s competing with this guy for Lucy’s love.
ReplyDeleteThis mise-en-scene is relation to the scene, primarily the hat, adds a very light-hearted comical element to it. A simple act of him putting on a hat that he thinks is his own while the audience knows it isn’t is very effective, especially when he hides in the same room as the man who was hiding from him so that he could hide from someone. In relation to the film as a whole the very glamour, angelic and heavenly look of the mise-en-scene represents this fantasy world that the audience can escape to. This wonderful world where one can escape from reality. This was made during the Great Depression so it is no surprise that people want this very shallow fantasy world where everything is funny and looks glamorous, rich, expensive, and angelic. It comforts the audience.
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ReplyDeleteThe scene I have chosen starts 30 minutes into the film. In the scene, Jerry, Lucy and Dan are talking together at a nightclub. All three of the characters are depicted wearing black, and lit softly. Shortly thereafter, Dixie Belle Lee, a woman whom the three had been talking with before, comes to the front of the room and begins performing her musical act. She appears to be the only one dressed not in dark colors -- she is dressed in white, in stark contrast to everyone else in the room. The scene alternates between shots of Dixie Belle Lee performing, and the three at the table who are becoming increasingly embarrassed at having to see her act.
ReplyDeleteThe contrast between the black and white attire of the four characters is symbolic of their emotions in the scene. Dixie's dress is white, a pure color, because she is unaware of the ridiculousness and uncomfortableness created by her act. On the other hand, the three characters at the table are aware of both of these things, and become gradually more embarrassed as the scene progresses. The black color of their outfits reflects that they have this knowledge, while she does not. As well, the black outfits also seem to reflect the mutual uncomfortableness and frustration in the situation of the three of them having to sit together, as all three of them have some sort of problem with each other.
The scene I have chosen is the one in which Jerry's ex Lucy crashes Jerry's dinner with his new fiancee and her family. Lucy pretends to be Jerry's brother in an ill-conceived attempt to turn the night to shambles. The mise-en-scene of the scene is in line with the rest of the film - the scene is set in a beautiful, lavish dining room (clearly the product of old money), the costumes are appropriate for the upper middle class bourgeoisie of the 1930s (expensive suits and ornate dresses, replete with sparkling jewelry), and the props reflect what said bourgeoisie would have in their rooms (record players, a piano, beautifully constructed clocks and furniture).
ReplyDeleteThe scene is also important for its characterization of the protagonists - Lucy and Jerry, as well as the heiress' family, prove themselves to be supremely superficial and malicious in the scene. The Awful Truth is ultimately a parody of upper middle class mindsets of the 1930s, and the archetypes are all represented in the scene. Lucy is privileged, obnoxious and is portrayed to take nothing in life seriously, lying to strangers and making the room uncomfortable under the guise of a personal joke. Jerry is portrayed as caring only for his image - as Lucy tells embarrassing (presumably nonfactual) stories about him the camera continually cuts to a shot of Jerry becoming more and more flustered and embarrassed. His concern is not of his ex crashing the engagement, but more that it will reflect poorly on him. The heiress' parents are the archetypal depiction of old money incarnate - they do nothing but silently huff and turn their heads at the procession. They are portrayed as snobbish and vane - personified jewelry. This scene depicts all the characters as equally foolish and vane.
My favorite quote is when Lucy tells Jerry "Things could stay the same if you'd change." The line is simultaneously humorous in its seeming contradiction (static=change) and disarmingly poignant in its simplicity.
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ReplyDelete49:06 has Jerry bursting into a room where Lucy is singing. The fact alone that she is characterized as being a talented singer, something that has no bearing on the plot outside of this scene, reaffirms how she represents what everyone wants to be: attractive, wealthy, sought-after, talented, etc. In terms of mis-en-scene, her clothing, magnificently white, highlights how splendid she appears to Jerry at this moment as he constantly embarrasses himself. The chair and table near Jerry become the materials of a gag as he leans back in his seat and topples to the ground. His frantic attempts to reassemble the table and his mussed up hair reveal his embarrassment in such a thing happening in front of his wife, and thus reveals the emotional connection he still feels for her.
ReplyDeleteIn the next scene, Lucy is discussing her rejection of (blank's proposal with Patty. The apartment is extravagant, containing leather couches, potted plants atop expensive-looking stands, white fur rugs, etc. Lucy even holds the letter with a certain affectation, presenting it daintily between her thumb and forefinger.
The masseuse arrives and Jerry soon follows; their hats become the subjects of another gag. The women attempt the hide the other man's hat from Jerry, representing the lies, betrayal, and promiscuity of Lucy. Although Lucy has called for the masseuse that he might set things right with Jerry, his presence only ends up exacerbating things. A perpetual flaw in the film's characters is their inability to simply tell the truth to one another, a persistence in piling lies upon lies. "Mr.Smith", a symbol of truth and fidelity, seems to work as a foil to this as he threatens to expose Lucy's secret.
My favorite quote was also the "Things could stay the same if you'd change" line.