Mise-en-Scene

 

The mis-en-scene I analyzed is from the movie “The Departed”. This is one of the climax scenes in the movie where the police captain is brutally murdered after being thrown off a roof. The scene starts with a series of alternating low angle and high angle shots, to display that DiCaprio and the police captain are at the top of the building, while they watch the mob race up the stairs in an attempt to catch them. At 0:22, there is a medium close-up of the police captain doing the sign of the cross, which is meant to emphasize to the viewer the extreme danger that he is about to be in. At 0:45, you hear the shattering of glass and the camera switches to a low-angle shot of DiCaprio descending the fire escape as the escapes the building to prevent his cover from being blown. The scene continues with a long shot of DiCaprio walking towards the camera, with the camera then following the captain all the way down from the roof as he falls to the ground. DiCaprio keeps walking closer, emphasizing how unexpected what he is about to witness is to him. The glass shattering at 0:45 was foreshadowing the death of the police captain, who was thrown out of the window. As the camera goes high-angle over DiCaprio to show him hunched over the body, there is then a close-up of his face to display the sheer horror of what he has just witnessed and that he fully realizes the severity of the situation he has put himself in.