Mise-en-Scene Analysis in Romantic Comedies

The term Mise-en-Scene originates from the french meaning 'what is put in the frame'. The term discusses the  types of lighting and colour, props/costumes,hair and make up, body language and facial expressions, position of the characters and anything else in the frame.

Their are certain colour's that can connote certain things:-
                                                          Red: rage,danger,danger,love,passion,desire,lust
                                                          Blue: calmness, tranquility,cold
                                                          Yellow: radiance, happiness,summer
                                                          Green: nature
                                                          White: purity,
These colour's typically are found in romantic comedies in order to associate certain things such as thoughts or feelings of the characters.

(500) Days of Summer (2009)      

In this scene from the film we see high key lighting an convention found in romantic comedies, used to brighten the atmosphere and add to cheery element of the rom-com. The colour's that are found in this scene are hints of yellow's and whites showing a livened up surrounding. The two characters in the scene are dressed up smartly indicating they are on date. The body language suggests they are comfortable with each other as they are staring into each others eyes and holding hands. There facial expression shows they are happy to be in each others company.

Notting Hill          

The lighting used in this scene is high key but in the middle, to set a warm ambiance to the scene. The colours used in the scene are majorly white in the background, in order to brighten up the scene, in this case not necessarily to connote something.The characters are dressed smartly again indicating to an gathering of some sort. However their body language and facial expression suggests they are comfortable with each other as they are smiling and two characters are shaking hands with each other.


Posted by Bansari Raval