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The Elements Of Mise-En-Scene In What Dreams May Come

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The 1998 fantasy and drama movie, What Dreams May Come incorporates many specialized film features throughout the entire film. The mise-en-scene was one notable element that caught the audience’s eye the most with its significance to the film’s story. In connection with the mise-en-scene, the element of lighting was used frequently during the movie and the various types of lighting used played an important role in the story and has expressed a lot about the overall environment and feeling of the story in the movie. Additionally, props were another element of mise-en-scene which had magical powers, and were used as metaphorical props to indicate the power behind them. One element of mise-en-scene, also known as the lighting, was one of the …show more content…

From the moment that Chris finds his father, flashbacks in high key lighting of Annie and Chris laying in the grass on a sunny day are captured, and then the camera films the present moment in which Chris whispers Annie’s name in a diegetic sound, and the audience cannot hear him whispering her name, yet they can read his facial expressions whispering Annie’s name. After Chris whispers to look for Annie, he then slips on the slushy ground of faces and then drops into a deep tunnel, and the audience then sees that it is the gates of Hell. After Chris drops into the deep tunnel of Hell, he explores it and is still attempting to find Annie, and to achieve his goal of finding her, he walks to the door, opens the door, and he finally notices Annie and successfully finds her. When Annie first appears on the screen when Chris notices her, her shadow is only shown, which shocks the audience and has them at the edge of their seats, because the shadow does look like Annie, yet it may have been an imposter even though it was Annie. Throughout the time that Chris and Annie are in the tunnel of Hell when he rescues and finds her, flashbacks of their wedding are correlated with the parallelism of the present moment, indicating the difference between their past …show more content…

For example, when Annie is creating her painting, it marvelously comes to life and the overall setting of the painting that has come to life appears as a legitimate painting. In addition, Annie is widowed and she is struggling with despair and misery because her husband and children have all passed away tragically, meaning that she is living on her own. Her painting also has many shades of gray which expresses the depression that Annie is going through with heartbreakingly losing her loved ones. She also paints a purple tree and this particular tree stands out to the audience because it is so vivid and bright and adds color to the painting against the shades of gray. This purple tree also represents that she is still trying to have faith in herself even though she is miserable of sadly losing her family, and as she pours water on the purple tree in the painting, the purple tree in the painting that has come to life also loses the leaves and follows the motion of the water poured on the tree in Annie’s painting. Likewise, in relation to Annie’s painting, it is also inspired by Chris’ own Heaven. For instance, Chris wakes up in Heaven, and the overall setting is in high-key lighting and then he understands that using his own thoughts, he has the power of his own direct atmospheres and environs. The setting of the painting of Heaven that has come to life emphasizes the peacefulness and

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