I want you to think about the mise-en-scene in Let the Right One In. Examine all aspects of mise-en-scene: lighting, composition, set, properties, etc. This would include colors as well. Discuss the concept of "monster" through the mise-en-scene of the film. This exercise will help prepare you for your Independent Study. Examine CLOSELY and offer me many details and examples. Think about what the director is trying to say IMPLICITLY. Please do this in 2 well-developed paragraphs.
The concept of ‘monster’ (or ‘monster within’) through the mise-en-scene in this film is very obvious. This is evident in the costume and props. For example, the appearance of Eli is quite ‘monstrous’ through her extremely pale skin and very black and life-less (color-wise) eyes. She looks very ill and sickly, and this represents the monster inside of her, how it’s taken a toll on her life (how she cannot live like other children and is eternally twelve) and appearance (she looks constantly tired and miserable, except when with Oskar). Blood is used for the concept of ‘monster’ as well, because when Eli kills someone, she is covered in blood, but with the body of a twelve year old girl. She, in a sense, has two sides, the ‘normal’ twelve year old and the ‘monster’ vampire who kills reluctantly. The blood on Eli is used to represent her two sides and how she is innocent, and yet, is a ‘monster’.
ReplyDeleteThe lighting and set help add to the concept of ‘monster’ as well. The lighting is very dark throughout the film, and this adds a very creepy tone. This is because darkness causes uneasiness, due to the fact that things are not as visible and creatures (monsters) could be lurking within them. All of Eli’s kills (except the pool scene) take place in darkness, and all the shots with Eli contain no sunlight. This is because Eli is a vampire, but it represents the darkness inside of her, the ‘monster within’. It represents the evil in her. She killed Jocke in an almost pitch black environment (at night under a bridge, avoiding the glare of the moon), and killed another man in the extreme dark of her bathroom. Yet, Eli is shown in her apartment flat, and Oskar’s, in bright light, and looks as sweet as any other little girl. The contrasts through the lighting represent how Eli is innocent, and a killer. The set plays its part in relation to the concept of ‘monster’. The places where Eli kills are quite isolated places (especially during the time they take place). Not many people walk home in the middle of the night as Jocke did, and not many people go into a bathroom (it’s generally one, for privacy reasons). This represents how the ‘monster within’ comes out when someone is alone. Eli did not kill anyone in front of Oskar until they became very close with each other, and this represents how a person does not know another’s flaws or dark secrets until they spend more time with them. As Oskar grew to know Eli, he was exposed more to her ‘monster within’, first when she killed the man attempting to kill her, and then when she killed his bullies.
The lighting in the film tends to be very dim and dark. Many of the scenes in the film take place during the nighttime. Scenes that are set in the daytime seem to use as little unnatural lighting as possible, which makes even those scenes somewhat dark. The use of colors in the film adds to its dreary, and at times sinister, atmosphere. Black, white and light blues dominate the film. The deep red color of the blood seen in the film is purposefully in high contrast with the other colors in the film. These dark reds are, for obvious reasons, only displayed in scenes with Eli. This displays how different she is (i.e. a monster) from the rest of society.
ReplyDeleteFor the most part, the film is set in wide open spaces. The majority of the shots are outdoors. However, any shots that are indoors tend to have a claustrophobic feeling, giving them an atmosphere of anxiety. Any props in the film reflect the film's dark color scheme.
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ReplyDeleteAs Oskar walks away from in his gym shorts, his pants being un-wearable after having been shoved in a urinal, he is physically exposed to the cold as he is vulnerable to the torments of his bullies. As throughout the film, the shot is drained of color (his pale blue gym shorts matching the pale blue car, the dull green of his backpack and red of his jacket, the white snow, etc.) Oskar’s world is drained of happiness, particularly here. The shot is longer than average, allowing the viewer to feel Oskar’s miserable walk through the snow as something long and unpleasant that he must endure. There’s a final shot of what is presumably the school at night. It’s dark and the sky is covered in black clouds; however, the sources of light scattered through the shot suggest Eli’s role in bringing Oskar happiness.
There is then a cut to a scene in Eli’s house. The first shot establishes its emptiness, importantly its lack of people by the absence of even Eli in the shot. The fact that Eli lives in such a bare house, her bed nothing more than a pillow and blankets on the floor, indicates that, despite being more than able to afford material comforts she finds no pleasure in them. She’s spending her time playing with her fingers, purposeless without Oskar. The next shot is a long take that only introduces Eli after focusing on a nurse for 4 seconds. The long take is frequently used in the film, constructing a sad, forlorn atmosphere to match the lonely characters. The shot here is symmetrical, balancing the nurse on one side and the door where Eli will enter. When the nurse perceives her, we momentarily see Eli as she is seen by others: a sad looking twelve-year old girl with tangled black hair, barefoot, wearing a sweater and pajama pants. When she leaves, the nurse is shown again in the balanced shot of the hallway, Eli absent from her side once again. The nurse then gets up and walks out of the hospital: her sympathy for Eli has driven her to follow after Eli, to join her past the other half of the screen. The viewer may briefly wonder whether Eli will exploit her sympathy to claim another victim as she killed the man earlier in the film. The nurse, however, is not the Eli’s victim in this scene. Instead she will kill her faithful companion on the seventh floor. As sentimentality was the death of the earlier man and as it has killed her companion more gradually, in Let the Right One In the viewer is ultimately left to wonder whether Eli’s pathetic appeal will destroy Oskar.
The monsters of the film are pathetic and helpless on their own. Oskar is an incipient serial killer and Eli is a vampire who's caused the deaths of an uncountable amount of people but both do what they do out of necessity. In fact, it's more appropriate to call Oskar's antagonists "monsters" since they seem to torment Oskar out of pure sadism. In both cases the monsters are children who, although immediately seeming more vulnerable, make victims out of each other and the adults; the fact that they are young seems to make their actions all the more perverse.
Let the Right One In has a peculiar, color-drained aesthetic that makes the film look rather "bloodless," quite like Eli's victims. The film is low-lit, with little on the screen appearing vivid. It lends an ominous look to the film, making the pale vampire blend in with the strange looking residents of the town. It also makes the bursts of violence more surprising, as Eli can just appear from nowhere to prey on the unsuspecting. The sound design is also designed for maximum shocks - there is very little nondiegetic music, which makes sequences with loud sound (the cat-attack scene, the woman bursting into flame) seem sudden and shocking.
ReplyDeleteCostume design and lighting are used to contrast the "monster" - the fragile vampire Eli - with the truly monstrous bullies that haunt Oskar. Eli is portrayed as ultimately harmless for much of the film - she wears outdated, girly clothes that hang off her. Her hair hangs on her face in a way suggesting helplessness. She is poorly lit in a way that suggests paleness without making her seem threatening - she simply appears lifeless. The bullies, however, are pale and menacing, with finely coiffed hair that suggests robotic evil. The bullies are well dressed, made to resemble the gangsters of fifties films. They are lit much more than Oskar and Eli. Though all characters are pale, the bullies' paleness appears menacing due to the lighting - they are made to look truly inhuman. Let the Right One In uses lighting, costume design and sound design to designate between the reluctantly monstrous Eli with the callously monstrous bullies Oskar needs protection from.