The story of Cinema Paradiso directed by Giuseppe Tornatore released in 1988 is nostalgic in nature as it uses flashbacks of the present character to tell its story. Other than that, it promotes the feeling that cinema brings, both physically and mentally, to a community in a small town in Sicily, Italy that were in post-war and where western culture was seen as a privilege. The purpose of this essay is to analyse how the mise en scene have resulted in a more in depth meaning towards the emotion that the characters were experiencing.
Mise en scene is an important aspect in movie making as it is the director’s control over what appears in the frame and in turn what would the audience retain through the use of lighting, performance, setting and costume/make up used (Bordwell and Thompson, 2009). The particular segment that will be mentioned follows the story of young Salvatore “Toto” Di Silva, played by Marco Leonardi, heartbrokenly reading a letter from his lover, Elena Mendola played by Agnese Nano, after she had moved away by the river during an open-air cinema viewing.
The establishment of space for the setting was created by the use of wide angle and a pan. This pan was deliberately used by the director to establish the space and also to show the contrasting emotion between the audience and Toto. The physical boundary between the two is seen to be the cinema projection building and this can also present how boundary between them is stationary at that moment, like how Toto is at that moment in time, stationary in terms of emotion and feeling as Elena have moved away. In contrast, the opposite end of the building, the audiences are full of life and emotion. This was done to enhance the notion of Toto being sad as he is pulled away from the reality and from the crowd.
As Cinema Paradiso (Tornatore, 1988) is set mostly on flashbacks done by the present adult Toto, the type of lighting varies towards the perception of Toto for that particular moment in his life. As this particular scene is sad and maybe to a point depressive for him, the lighting is more dimmed, and the color scheme is cooler (Pappas, 2010). This is done so that the audience can be directed to the feeling that the character is feeling. The surroundings of Toto were dark as it sets in the night yet there is a single source of light where Toto is, but he is facing away from it. White soft light is mostly used to show hope of the future or the innocence/purity of the future (Przybyla, 2017) as shown in a lot of programmes relating to heaven and its portrayal yet as Toto is facing away, it can be seen as him rejecting the future or he is not accepting the current fate that he is in to the point that he can’t move on. The situation in hand is too hard for him to comprehend after the difficulty he had trying to court Elena.
The realistic performance of Leonardi in this scene fits with what the character was experiencing. Toto’s body posture is bent when holding the letter with the only movement present in those few seconds is only the projected wind movement on the letter. This posture symbolizes how he is defeated or disappointed in the situation he is in. The choice of making this realistic would make the audience connect with the character better compared if the scene was done stylistically, it can come off as fake and the audience might disconnect from the character and not reach the emotion that the director would want the audience to be in.
Toto’s outfit in this particular scene is different from the ones that he used before. He had on a white wife-beater with black pants which is not the usual button-up shirt that he usually has. This can be seen as though he is tired or exasperated with the situation he was in and trying to figure out what he will do as he reads the letter. As usually men would wear a wife beater shirt under their clothing, it can be also be said that he had peeled away the thing that he was sure of before and now he is bare of that protection.
In conclusion, the goal of the director to show how Elena leaving have impacted Toto dearly was seen by analyzing the mise en scene that was available in the segment. By establishing the meaning of the choice in performance, lighting, setting and costume, we are exposed to the overall theme of the movie being this melancholic nostalgia that adult Toto had when he remembers the time he grew up to the point of his life at that moment.
