Film Analysis Blog Post - Part 1

400 word minimum analysis breaking down four aspects of the scene (mise en scene, cinematography, editing, and sound)

An additional 100 words about how this film compares to your project that you have been working on.

Knives Out (2019) - A Confession Scene (10/10) | Movieclips

The mise-en-scene of this scene contains props of a murder mystery with the background, such as knives, old books and bookshelves, along with the feeling of home where someone resided before they died. The dialogue helps build up tension with the characters (suspects and detectives) where they confront the killer, who confidently confesses to the murder (unaware it is being recorded, which to note, is a common characteristic in these mystery-like films where a suspect unwittingly gives a confession and does not know they are being recorded. The cinematography of close ups during conversations demonstrate tension as the character in the blue sweater gloats about murdering a character and then bragging about how he will get away with it. Then, after the female character pukes (a trait as she pukes when she knows someone is lying), and it is revealed that his confession was recorded on audio, he moves to grab a knife and to try to stab and kill her. This sequence of events happens in alternating cuts of close ups in slow motion, which arguably allows for the weight of the actions onscreen to resonate with the audience rather than if the events took place at normal 1x speed without slow motion to build up tension to what would occur next. The audience would then expect the female character who played a role in securing the confession to be stabbed and killed, however, the prop used in the house is not a knife with a real blade, but a retractable one that saved the female character from being stabbed and killed. The cuts are not too frequent on the scale of an action film, but not a single whole take. Rather, alternating cuts are used to see the reactions of each character during the tense conversation leading up to the attempted stabbing. This small element of the retractable knife serves to play a role in this scene where it is a classic foil to a suspect's plans to try to cover their tracks and/or cause more destruction before they are inevitably caught. The scene uses non-diegetic sound with dramatic stings in the film's score during the slow motion sequence before the female character faces an attempted stabbing by the male character suspect (person in the blue sweater). This adds to the tension in the scene and creates a meaning of surprise the audience did not expect, creating drama that is quintessential to any mystery of sudden turns that change the plot and drive it forward. 

This film compares to the project I am working on by building tension to a moment where the tension explodes (or leads to something unsettling), where important information is revealed as a result. I did not originally plan to use any dramatic music or stings to emphasize an unsettling moment I plan to include in my opening sequence, but seeing this clip has left me with an impression how subtle music notes that with weight to the actions onscreen can help enhance the meaning, interpretation, and understanding of an audience to truly get the intentions and the weight of a scene to be understood if an audience was to watch the opening sequence.