Mise-en-scene

 Brandon Ricardo

Professor Saphire

10/23/20

Topic 3

The scene I chose for this paper was from the movie Knives Out. In the scene the main character Marta is receiving a phone call regarding the condition of Fran, a maid in the story who was found nearly dead by Marta. She tells everyone including Ransom the man who committed the crime that she survived. Cocky and angry Ransom tells Marta he will come for her knowing the crimes he commited will only keep him in jail for a very short time and admits to attempting to kill Fran. All of a sudden Marta pukes on Ransom, a fact that tells us she was lying as she can’t lie without puking afterwards which was explained in the beginning of the film. This means that Marta lied about Fran surviving and revealed she is dead. Ransom angry and despirate that he just admitted to the murder of Fran tries to kill Marta with a knife because he was so angry at her for defeating him however he doesn’t know it was a prop knife so Ransom was arrested and failed to frame Marta. The audience now knows Ransom is the murder and the man who tried to frame Marta for killing Harlan after believing pretty much for the whole film she accidently kills him. 

This scene was so well written and performed by the actors and actresses involved but that wasn’t everything that made the scene great. If you watch the movie to its entirety you will see a display of knives from a movie the man who died Harlan created as he is a famous author in the film. I noticed the knives throughout the film as they were always in the background when the detective talked to the family of Harlan. At the beginning of the film a character makes a comment about the knives saying that you can tell they are fake which foreshadows the scene with Random not knowing the knives are fake. That was the design. The lighting was very bright as it was the final conclusion to the story and provided the long awaited reveal. The sound was very intense when the audience believed Ransom killed Marta as he slowly tackled her down and stabbed her. This scene was so great also because throughout the whole film Ransom was in the driver's seat about to complete his framing of Marta until she out smarted him using his cockyiness against him. The kninisis was also very well done as Ransom’s movements towards Marta and the eventual throw up that Random tasted and the whole action portion brought the whole scene together. This is by far one of my favorite scenes ever as it had me at the edge of my seat made me laugh and shocked me at the same time. Knives Out is one of my favorite movies of all time and I was glad I got to analyze this scene for this class. The scene had everything humor, drama, and mystery all tied together. Therefore in conclusion this scene from Knives Out was well written and performed and is a great example of a scene to break down and find the parts of Mise-en-scene. 

https://youtu.be/YpOuuX8PXFA