title: Fargo
Director: Joel Cohen "Coen Brothers"
Setting: USA 1996
Genre: Crime/Drama/Thriller/Comedy??
Fargo is an excellent piece of film making especially in the sense of Mis-en-scene, the way that the Coen brothers used landscapes, costumes and lighting for significance to the film.
For example the "main" character Jerry, who is introduced at the beginning of the film straight away you see how the colour of his clothes reflect not only his personality but the mood he is in for most of the film. He always wears beige or brown dull coloured suits, shoes and casual clothing, which reflects exactly to his personality, the fact that he is a passive aggressive person, as we see when he is angry he bottles it until he is alone and lets loose, his body language shows that he fades into the background when he's with someone, and that he is quite weak and a pushover. In the end he does himself more harm than good. Marge the Police officer is mainly dressed in her uniform signifies that she is a figure head in the film and "in power" as people call her chief a lot in the film as well. The costumes are also used for impact in The other Boleyn Girl which is the work of director Justin Chadwick, the costumes in this is also used for firgure headed people such as Henry the eighth.
We also see that there is a lot of bland snow landscapes where there is nothing to be seen except for one car on the road, and it relates back to Jerry as we follow his story through out the film, the blandness of the landscape signifies isolation ,which is what Jerry feels constantly, loneliness and vastness which also signifies Marge the police officer's journey towards solving the long line of crime all linked to Jerry. Using landscapes to reflect to characters is also a favourite mis-en-scene aspect of Alfred Hitchcock, especially in North By North West.
The lighting through out the film is also of significance because it mirrors the personality of the characters e.g there is dark light constantly on the "Henchman" they are very dangerous and vicious people and are in on the set up formed by Jerry. The light on Marge the pregnant police officer is quite soft at first to show her delicate state but when she catches one of the henchmen at last, putting his accomplice in the wood chipper the light is bright symbolises triumph as well as power. The lighting to invoke impact to the spectator is also used in Speilberg films a lot particualrly in Jaws, where lighting is usually used to impact sinsism.
The props that are used by the Henchman are quite signifcant as well because both of them never go any where without a gun, which symbolises the fact that they are quite dark people and dangerous as well as sinster. The blonde henchman constantly has a cigarette in his mouth as well which represents the fact that he is either trying to maintain his "tough guy" image or that he is trying to calm his nerves as the situations that he finds himself in are quite stressful and dangerous. The brown haired henchman is the foul mouthed talkative one and he is contantly trying to talk his way out of everything whislt trying to matian his "tough guy" image. Both men's body language and language show that they are dark, sinister people and that they will talk down to anyone that stands in their way.
I think that film making wise this is an excellent film, however my reponse is that this is one of the stranges and most mentally disturbing films ever made. The plot does not make any sense at all and it is hard to follow the stories of each indivdual character. The director used most of the scenes gore and violence to shape my reaction to this film. The film making however has taught me that film making is an art and the plot doesn't have to make sense to be make the film a good one, also that many aspects of mis-en-scene can have a lot of impact to the spectator views.
Director: Joel Cohen "Coen Brothers"
Setting: USA 1996
Genre: Crime/Drama/Thriller/Comedy??
Fargo is an excellent piece of film making especially in the sense of Mis-en-scene, the way that the Coen brothers used landscapes, costumes and lighting for significance to the film.
For example the "main" character Jerry, who is introduced at the beginning of the film straight away you see how the colour of his clothes reflect not only his personality but the mood he is in for most of the film. He always wears beige or brown dull coloured suits, shoes and casual clothing, which reflects exactly to his personality, the fact that he is a passive aggressive person, as we see when he is angry he bottles it until he is alone and lets loose, his body language shows that he fades into the background when he's with someone, and that he is quite weak and a pushover. In the end he does himself more harm than good. Marge the Police officer is mainly dressed in her uniform signifies that she is a figure head in the film and "in power" as people call her chief a lot in the film as well. The costumes are also used for impact in The other Boleyn Girl which is the work of director Justin Chadwick, the costumes in this is also used for firgure headed people such as Henry the eighth.
We also see that there is a lot of bland snow landscapes where there is nothing to be seen except for one car on the road, and it relates back to Jerry as we follow his story through out the film, the blandness of the landscape signifies isolation ,which is what Jerry feels constantly, loneliness and vastness which also signifies Marge the police officer's journey towards solving the long line of crime all linked to Jerry. Using landscapes to reflect to characters is also a favourite mis-en-scene aspect of Alfred Hitchcock, especially in North By North West.
The lighting through out the film is also of significance because it mirrors the personality of the characters e.g there is dark light constantly on the "Henchman" they are very dangerous and vicious people and are in on the set up formed by Jerry. The light on Marge the pregnant police officer is quite soft at first to show her delicate state but when she catches one of the henchmen at last, putting his accomplice in the wood chipper the light is bright symbolises triumph as well as power. The lighting to invoke impact to the spectator is also used in Speilberg films a lot particualrly in Jaws, where lighting is usually used to impact sinsism.
The props that are used by the Henchman are quite signifcant as well because both of them never go any where without a gun, which symbolises the fact that they are quite dark people and dangerous as well as sinster. The blonde henchman constantly has a cigarette in his mouth as well which represents the fact that he is either trying to maintain his "tough guy" image or that he is trying to calm his nerves as the situations that he finds himself in are quite stressful and dangerous. The brown haired henchman is the foul mouthed talkative one and he is contantly trying to talk his way out of everything whislt trying to matian his "tough guy" image. Both men's body language and language show that they are dark, sinister people and that they will talk down to anyone that stands in their way.
I think that film making wise this is an excellent film, however my reponse is that this is one of the stranges and most mentally disturbing films ever made. The plot does not make any sense at all and it is hard to follow the stories of each indivdual character. The director used most of the scenes gore and violence to shape my reaction to this film. The film making however has taught me that film making is an art and the plot doesn't have to make sense to be make the film a good one, also that many aspects of mis-en-scene can have a lot of impact to the spectator views.
