After I watched the film “A Single Man” I read an “A Single Man” review by Betsy Sharkey. The review did a good job at making the movie seem interesting and viewer worthy. The review mainly offers a plot synopsis and only mentions very little about the artistic elements of the film. The author tells us about George’s character and the different meanings within the film. There was nothing negative said about the film in this article possibly because review might be trying to sell the film. The review does not have the two elements that Susan Sontag says is desirable in criticism. The author could improve this review by focusing her writing more on the appearance of the artwork in the film. This would do the film justice because in my opinion the visuals in “A Single Man” were beautiful and is one of the main components that make the movie.
The mise-en-scene element that stood out the most to me was the film’s composition. The film plays with color throughout the entire movie and uses it to convey messages to the audience. The director sets the mood of the narrative by using desaturated colors for George’s life. George’s lover has just died and these washed out colors give a feel of no life to the set which how George feels about life now. When George encounters moments in life that make life worth living for, the colors in the shot become saturated. Whenever George has flashbacks to life with his lover the picture is saturated with vibrant colors. The saturated colors symbolize life unlike the desaturated colors that symbolize lifelessness. This use of color schemes in the film is linked specifically to how George perceives the world. Such use of color makes it hard for viewer’s not to notice. The director also uses slow motion in the car scene as well as on the hands of the clock to relate to how George feels about life. Life is going by so slow and is dreadful without his lover. The film’s composition plays a major role in telling the story.
The mise-en-scene element that stood out the most to me was the film’s composition. The film plays with color throughout the entire movie and uses it to convey messages to the audience. The director sets the mood of the narrative by using desaturated colors for George’s life. George’s lover has just died and these washed out colors give a feel of no life to the set which how George feels about life now. When George encounters moments in life that make life worth living for, the colors in the shot become saturated. Whenever George has flashbacks to life with his lover the picture is saturated with vibrant colors. The saturated colors symbolize life unlike the desaturated colors that symbolize lifelessness. This use of color schemes in the film is linked specifically to how George perceives the world. Such use of color makes it hard for viewer’s not to notice. The director also uses slow motion in the car scene as well as on the hands of the clock to relate to how George feels about life. Life is going by so slow and is dreadful without his lover. The film’s composition plays a major role in telling the story.
In my opinion, the Sharkey review does not follow the claims made in Sontag's "Against Interpretation." I feel that she overly analyzed specific points of the movie, losing sight of her goal, to give a subjective review. I agree with you, Rayah, when you stated that in order to achieve the elements of Sontag’s paper, Sharkey needed to focus more on the artistic integrity of the film. Instead, she tends to focus more on a plot synopsis and discussing meanings of the film. This takes away from allowing the audience to make their own conclusions and flags only the meanings she finds important, limiting interpretation of the movie. Furthermore, whenever I, as an objective audience member, look up reviews, it is usually before seeing a movie. With all the interpretation that Sharkey writes about in her review, this spoils an audience member’s perception of the movie because they are not given the chance to observe and make their own mind up about the film. Whenever a situation has light shed on it, the viewer cannot unlearn what they know and they approach the situation in a more close-minded manner than being open to interpretation.
ReplyDeleteAs Rayah mentioned, the visual composition of this film is breathtaking. I really loved the contrast in saturation throughout the film. When certain beautiful moments of life happen, we experience a flush of emotions that are hard to put into words. However, Ford finds a way to portray these emotions visually, a hard feat to accomplish. I really enjoyed how the low saturation allowed the audience to experience George’s world through his emotions and his turmoil. The low saturation represents all joy and happiness drained out of George after the death of his lover, Jim, and the moments of deep saturation are the times that life takes your breath away. I felt the saturation contrasts were also cool because they reminded me a lot of the Indie/hip photographs that distort saturation with elements such as flashpop that were typical during the 1960s. I enjoyed this movie a lot and I felt the visual composition thoroughly enhanced the experience for me.