Case Study Mis-en-scene

 Hello! Welcome back to another blog! This week, we were asked to choose a scene from a movie and analyze its mise-en-scène. I decided on a scene from one of my favorite horror movies, Pearl. Here is my take on it! Hope you enjoy! 

https://youtu.be/DmbWQJpFDHY?si=xfOcdNZVR1MpfGaG   (start at 48 seconds)

    In this scene, we open with our main character, Pearl, auditioning for a dance group. After giving it her all, she has a big smile on her face, unfortunately, she is rejected. This takes place in a church with a stage. The judges are seated directly in front of the stage to have a good view of the dancer. The stage is large and separates the dancer from the judges, leaving them looking alone and vulnerable. The lighting for the judges is lowkey, but when the camera is on Pearl, the lighting is chiaroscuro. This foreshadows how the darkness behind her will consume her. Our main character is wearing a bright red dress. The stark contrast between the red of her dress and the black of the background demonstrates her descent into madness. The red represents the blood she has on her hands from killing three people already, while the dark background represents the darkness she has descended to. The bow she is wearing can represent the little innocence she has left and how being chosen for this dance group could have preserved that. The style of the dress, as well as the judges', is old, representing the early 20th century time period in which this movie is set. The makeup isn't flashy; it is natural. Mia Goth, Pearl, does a great job of embodying the character's emotions through her facial expressions. When watching this, you can truly see the hurt she feels. Through her tears and trembling lips, we can see how this rejection crushed her spirits completely. We can see how this sadness slowly turns into madness as she starts hallucinating about her victims when looking at the judges. As Pearl screams her iconic line, we can see on her face that this is the moment she has almost completely become mad. As she is dragged off the stage, we see her almost clawing to retain her sanity, represented by her love for dance. 

    The mood created is melancholic; her dreams have just been crushed. Pearl is represented as crazy, which is prevalent at the end of the scene where she is dragged off. I think the audience is encouraged to sympathize with her. We are hinted that she is not in her right mind through her hallucinations, and with her screaming and crying, the audience has no choice but to feel sympathetic. You can watch the scene without any noise and gather all of this information through her facial expressions alone. 

Thank you for reading! I hope you enjoy! I had a lot of fun creating this blog because this movie is a favorite of mine! Stay tuned for more!