D1 - Mise-en-scene: Clothing, hair, make-up (Assessment) Flashcards
Barbara Stanwyk’s costume as Phyllis is most noticeable as it carries the iconography of the femme fatale. From her first entrance, clad only in her towel, her _________ is foregrounded. When she enters the room, she is still buttoning her dress, implying a lack of propriety.
Sexuality
As she sits cross-legged the combination of the ludicrous pompoms and the anklet draws Neff and the audience’s attention to her legs. In her visits to Neff’s apartment, Phyllis’s liberated, independent qualities are signified through dress, particularly the trousers she wears. The contrast between her black trousers and white blouse embody quintessential noir sensibilities and complement the stark _______ of the scene.
Mood
The emphasis on sexuality is retained through the tight, transparent sweater that Phyllis wears. Some of the __________ of dress can be seen when Neff first meets Dietrichson to gain his unknowing signature on the accident insurance policy. Neff wears his usual lightly shaded suit, but looks slightly more officious in a plain white shirt compared to the slightly lined shirts he has previously sported.
Semantics
In her short-sleeve blouse buttoned to the neck and her calf-length skirt, Lola is an image of propriety, although her subsequent rebellion belies her _______ appearance.
Prim
Phyllis is perhaps more obviously the black widow here than in any other scene. She wears a black dress, the skirt of which consists of numerous tassels which she flirtatiously plays with as the signature is written, a motif for the ensnaring taking place. The elaborate dress, expensive brooch and refocus on her _______ once again emphasize her sexuality.
Legs
Phyllis appears more conventionally as expected, in her supermarket liaisons with Neff. Yet, in their final meeting, as Keyes’s investigations burden them further, her _________ is captured through the sunglasses she wears indoors.
Duplicity
In the supermarket, as Neff fails to persuade to stop her claiming, she removes the sunglasses to fix him with an icy stare to underscore the force of her threat to ________ him, should he try to wriggle out now.
Frame
In her final appearance, the flowing silken house pyjamas provide an image of flowing sensuality and we return to the iconography of the lit __________ as she contemptuously listens to his attempts to achieve the final double-cross.
Cigarette
The feminine appearance contradicts the mettle of her actions: the gun which shoots Neff is hidden in a silk ______ beneath the sofa.
Scarf
Barton Keyes, from his first appearance, sleeves partially rolled, waistcoat pockets bulging with pens, papers and tables, is every inch the persistent and purposeful claims investigator. His rejection of formal niceties is marvellously captured in his exchange with the priggish ________ prior to the latter’s unsuccessful interrogation of Phyllis.
Norton
Norton, on the other hand, wears a three-piece suit, embellished by a carnation in his lapel and a handkerchief neatly folded in his top pocket. Clothing becomes a _________ for the differences between them as Norton’s formal, stilted, questioning backfires, leaving Phyllis in the ascendant, something Keyes’s dogged acumen would never have allowed.
Metaphor
Minor characters also transmit messages through their dress. Gorlopis, with his shirt stained with sweat and oil, symbolizes the lower orders trying to get ahead through a minor and obvious insurance scam. ________ should represent a telling threat to Neff but somehow that wide-rimmed, Stetson hat reduces him to comic caricature, a rural hickster out of place in this quick, cosmopolitan city, who is unable to identify the suspect right under his nose.
Jackson
_____-___-_____: ‘what is put into the scene or frame’
Mise-en-scene
_________: a term derived from Propp to describe acts of characters, which have particular significance on the course of action.
Propp
__________: a pointed distinction between light and dark areas of the frame achieved by the use of low-key lighting.
Chiaroscuro
