What is Mise-en-scène?
Mise-en-scène means, literally, “put in the scene.” It refers to almost everything that goes into the composition of a shot: framing, movement of the camera and actors, lighting, set design and even sound. It can be defined as the articulation of cinematic space.
If the editing of images together (see ‘Montage) is about time; mise-en-scène is about space. Specifically the area of space framed by the screen. Editing is a way to create a narrative through a rhythm of forward action; for example through rapid shifts of point of view between the participants in a dialogue sequence.
By contrast, conscious use of a mise-en-scène technique in filmmaking directs our attention to the space of the shot itself. We are invited to really look at what is in front of us and find meaning in the composition and arrangement of its elements.
Typically there must be time to do this and the characteristic of this type of film-making is a long, lingering shot that happens without any cutting away.
For this reason, it demands a lot more careful attention and planning at the production stage. There is no room for mistakes because there is no opportunity to fix them in editing. If a mistake is made, the entire shot must be taken again.
It also requires more from the audience in terms of active participation – to get the most from a film of this kind, you have to pay attention and sometimes even analyse and think about what you are seeing.
Unsurprisingly, for mainly economic reasons, this type of film-making is not seen often in mainstream commercial cinema. Films that use a directional, forward-moving editing style – one that leads the viewer through the narrative – make far fewer demands on an audience and are far more popular.
Case study: La Grande Illusion (1937)
“There is a sequence in (this) film by the director Jean Renoir in which a group of WWI POWs receive a carton of gifts. Among the gifts is, unaccountably, some women’s clothing. One of the soldiers puts the clothing on, and the rest stare at him in stunned silence.
Renoir creates their response by gently, slowly, panning across the men staring. The movement yields up the space the men inhabit, suggests that it extends beyond the frame, and delicately emphasizes their confused sexual response to this sudden appearance of a man in a woman’s clothes.
Had Renoir cut from face to face, the effect would have been quite different, suggesting the isolation of one man and his emotional response from the next person in the group. If he had offered only a wide shot of all the men together, their individual expressions would have been lost. The pan joins individual to group, making the revelation of space not only physical but emotional and communal, and the response more generally and genuinely human. It allows us to understand the response and not lose our perspective. Closeness and comfortable distance remain.” ( By Robert Kolker)
(Full text available online here)
Lawrence of Arabia
This scene from David Lean’s epic film became famous because of the demands it made on the audience’s attention. The camera remains still as Omar Sharif’s character slowly materialises from the desert in one long, sustained shot. This style of film-making was not unprecedented but it was very unusual to see it in a mainstream commercial feature at the time the film was released. Although the scene is not that long, it felt much longer the first time you saw it.