Persepolis Identity

In Persepolis, Marjane Satrapi is growing up in a time where brutal Iranian regimes fight individuality with rules and regulations and imprisons those who do not comply to them. In school she is taught to wear her veil, obey orders, and speak only when spoken to and told that the regime is God's work. While at home, her free-thinking parents tell her otherwise. Marji grows up being pulled between two sides. Marji is forced to make her own judgements because she cannot rely on the ones around her. Her self-understanding evolves by becoming involved with her parent's political conversations, and paving her own way to maturing. Her parents become a large influence because she admires their self-confidence and rebellion against the system and aspires to join them in their fight. Through everything that is culturally changing and fighting she tries to make the most sense of it as she can while people try to keep her at arm's length from the large issues that she so desperately tries to fight for. She directs her own future because Marji is a strong, stubborn character which believes in her causes and thus, she evolves herself from a naive girl to a intelligent and insightful adult.

This frame is the embodiment of Marjane's inner confusion about her role in her life. In the text she states how torn up she is because she has two separate sides which pulls toward different beliefs, and she doesn't quite understand how she fits into it. What draws your eye most in this frame is the divide. This is the only frame like this in the book and the one that most visually states the divide Marji carries within herself. Everything is in opposition except for Marji's face which seems to appear sad. One the left side is wheels and measurements and what appears to be tools in white against a black background while she wear white clothes. On the opposing side she wears a dark black veil against a white background with intricate and beautiful swirls. What I also find interesting about this frame is that it almost seems to speak to the left-brain right-brain roles - wit the left half being more mathematical and the right half more creative. Her face is an important aspect to this shot as well.  It's the only whole thing in the frame and the most separate from anything else which proves how distant she feels from these two opposing sides. This is quite a beautiful abstract close-up on how Marji feel internally by bringing it externally on the page. 

This is a more literal scene than the previous frame, but it still holds some abstract elements which we more often see in the beginning of the book than the end. I think this frame is one of the most important in the entire novel because of how significant this moment is. This is right after her Uncle's execution where she is feeling more sadness than she's ever felt in her life. She's angry, upset and just heartbroken. She feels let down by God and almost blames it on him for this tragedy. Against a black background, you can see the distance and the anger she holds towards God, with her biting speech the focus of the frame. This shot is the last time you see "God" in Marji's life. Up to this point, God serves as almost this imaginary comforting friend to Marji - and God always wraps Marji up in her arms and tells her everything will be alright. But now, in a previous frame, she starts to tell herself that. This is one of her major steps in becoming an adult. This bitter moment that has let her realize that she's a black background, you can see the distance and the anger she holds towards God, with her biting speech the focus of the frame.

 In this particular scene of Double Indemnity, the characters Phyllis and Walter secretly meet up and converse over grocery store aisles. The mis-en-scene in this shot is very interesting. Without even seeing this movie you know that they are inside a grocery store. The background has numbers of different cans each with their own label and stacked very neatly together. There's a tomato sign to the left of Walter's dark hat, which almost blends into the actual wall of the store. The background is darker than the foreground, and it makes the actors the more central focus of the picture. They're illuminated by a white light, but they both still have dark eyes. Walters are shielded from the light from the help of his hat and Phyllis is wearing sunglasses, in fashion of being incognito, inside a store. Phyllis and Walter are both dressed according to their wealth, and are fashioned to the 40's, when this film was released. In this moment, Phyllis is grabbing on and pleading with Walter to help her kill her husband, and I think serves as a good still to summarize their relationship.


In this scene of L.A. Confidential it depicts an intimate moment for Lynn and Bud. Hence, why there is little in the background except for a hallway exampling the rules of thirds. The mis-en-scene in this shot is pretty bare, with the exception of a piece of art on the right side of this narrow hallway and light from outside on the left side. The two actors are dressed in white or creams, much like the walls on either side of them. The coloring is warmer from the light and makes it seem soft and intimate. Yet the character's actions in this still say otherwise, Bud looking away from Lynn. The positioning of these two individuals is very interesting - its such a narrow hallway, yet, they seem to have a distance between them, with Lynn looking at Bud from farther back and him simply looking forward. This shot makes it seem like a tense, yet vulnerable, moment.

What made me connect these two shots from these two movies together is that I felt like they both said something about the characters' relationships with one another. Phyllis and Walter, where Phyllis seduces and uses Walter to kill off her husband and how Lynn tries to help Bud out of his shell and open up to her. These two stills, with their own respective mis-en-scenes really capture each of their relationships.

Minority Report Frame

The focal point for this shot is the house where Agatha and the twins live out the rest of their days in Minority Report. Because it contrasts with the warm, yellow of the rest of the shot, it makes it stand out that much more. It could say something how the people in the house had led dark lives, but personally, I think that's reading a bit too much into it. I think this ended shot is a perfect symbolism for " And they lived happily ever after."

It's also the only man-made thing in sight and there's nothing else to distract our eye with, except for maybe the lens glare or the land masses in the background.  It's simple, yet the house makes a big and strong focus.The house is in the foreground, and really the only thing that's in it because it's the main focus. Everything else is in the foreground, making it a little bit less insignificant.

While the focus for this shot, the house, doesn't follow the "rule-of-thirds" rule, the background certainly does. The land mass beyond the patch of water is framed to be on the top horizontal of the rule of thirds rule. And while the land mass that holds the house extends past the bottom horizontal, the house (the main focus) is on the bottom horizontal. Although it's for the most part centered, it makes the audience feel comfortable and easy and leaves them with a feeling of completion at the end of the movie.

Summer Movies of 2013

Recently Seen Movies:

- Silence of the Lambs
- Audition
- True Lies
- Wet Hot American Summer
- Minority Report
- The Fall
- The Diving Bell and the Butterfly
- Shelter
- Martha Marcy May Marlene
- Fruitvale Station
- Vicky Cristina Barcelona
- Young Frankenstein
- Watership Down
- Warriors
- Zoolander
- What to Expect when You're Expecting
- Super Troopers
- Double Indemnity
- Jackass
- Happy Go Lucky
- Zack and Miri Make a Porno
- The Conjuring
- Winter's Bone
- Rebecca
- The Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind
- The Truman Show
- Back to the Future
- Happy Gilmore
- Insidious 2