Film Still Analysis
1 The 400 Blows

The mise en scene of Figure 1 from The 400 Blows shows two youths scattering a flock of pigeons in the streets of Paris. The centermost youth is the main character Antoine Doinel. He and the boy beside him and tramping through a city that is full of adults—but the adults are all in the backdrop, away from the action of the still but not unaware of it. A few of them look over to the boys who are causing the birds to suddenly take flight. Their looks of disapproval seem to suggest that they are out of sympathy with the rambunctious nature of boys with their desire to interact and engage with the natural world. The adults seem to suggest that their world does not condone such behavior as that of disturbing the peace and calm, the status quo, of traipsing through the middle of the street just to upset the birds there.

One adult in the background stands at the corner of the sidewalk staring censoriously at the youths. The other adults are mostly or partially obscured by the birds taking flight—but not him. He is the only still figure—the other adults are all in mid-step. He alone looks on like a stern authority figure who hovers over the boys like an avenging angel who will have his way come Hell or high water. The boys have their backs to him and are oblivious to his nefarious presence.

The still captures the essence of the film, which is a character study of the main character Antoine—a dreamy but rebellious youth, who has no place in the world as he has no father and no sense of a home or of a purpose in life. He does not understand the purpose of school or of the rigid structure of Parisian social life. He wants to walk in the street and disrupt the stillness because he feels a great disruption within his own soul.

2 Get Out

The mise en scene of Figure 4 from Get Out shows Rose Armitage seated dead center in the middle of the frame sipping milk from a glass and she sits cross-legged at the foot of her bed looking down at her laptop. She is illuminated by the computer screen and the lamps on either side of bed tables illuminate the dimly lit room. The frame contains perfect symmetry except for two items—one a teddy bear on the left bed table; the other a tray for items on the other bed table. Aside from this difference, the left half of the frame reflects perfectly the right half of the frame, right down to the row of photographs framed and hanging on the wall behind Rose’s head over head board of the bed.

The...…geometrical shapes that dominate the still.

There are the square patterns of the checkered red and white table cloth, the rectangle of the TV in the background, the rectangles of the art frames hanging on the wall beside the TV, the rectangles of the panes of glass in the sliding wall behind the elderly person seated at the table, and then there are various cylindrical and cone shaped objects on the table, from a bottle of wine to candle holders and candles, salt and pepper shakers, bowls of soup and a bowl of fruit. These are complimented by the cone-shaped lamp shade in the background that sits just behind and above Polley’s head as she squints at the viewer. The effect gives a dramatic sort of dim halo visual over Polley, as though she is heroic for delving into her own personal history and origin story.

Here squinting through her own camera at the lens through which the viewer looks is a reflection of the main theme of the documentary, which is that everyone sees through their own lens and sees and tells their own story. Polley, in assembling the parts of the documentary about her family, shows the viewer that this is essentially how she sees it—even though she allows others to tell their story, she is still the one putting the documentary together and determining how each person is permitted to come across.