Thoughts on a Shot

For this journal assignment, I will be writing about a shot which you can find here: http://picasaweb.google.com/ctrova/Litnfilm?feat=embedwebsite#5514370494933834466

and here is my analysis

First a few technical notes:

-it is a wide shot

-it is one of the very few time that Janusz Kaminski chooses to stay on a still shot rather then move the camera

-two of the three people are on the lines of three while the third who is an outsider is not

And now my opinion of the shot:

The shot is very well set up, as we see Max Von Sydow up front, checking his tie, because for him his image is everything. We see the other woman who is sitting on the couch looking at something else, completely unaware of what Max Von Sydow is doing, just as she is with Von Sydow's secret. Another interesting thing to note is that Von Sydow is turned away from the light and yet it is still striking him. This is because he is standing in front of the mirror and in a very obscure way, this is foreshadowing. Just like the end of the film, Von Sydow has turned his back on the light or the morally correct side, but he is unable to escape it. The final thing worth mentioning that I have noticed is that everything (clothes, architecture, decorations) are very old fashioned. This is contrasting from the idea that Von Sydow was revolutionary in creating the Department of Pre-Crime. Perhaps it is that with the scenery, Kaminski and Spielberg are showing us the elegance of these old fashioned looks and sometimes things are not worth adjusting. This follows the "if it ain't broke, don't fix it" philosophy. Now obviously this is just speculation, but even if I am dead wrong, it says a lot about the shot's complexity that one is able to analyze it so deeply like this.

MK