Fight Club – Hand Burning SceneAnalysis

I have chosen Fight Club as my film to study, and in that film I have chosen the hand burning scene to analyse. Here is what I could depict, analyse and connote from aspects of the scene such as the mise-en-scene and cinematography.

Mise-en-Scene

The mise-en-scene in this particular scene is a dark, gritty scene, which I think reflects the whole premise of the film extremely well. The house the two main characters are in is uncared for and falling apart. I think this is because it reflects how Tyler Durden sees life, and sees how men should be living.

As the scene begins we see Tyler Durden kiss the hand of ‘The Narrator’, and in the background we can see bars of soap, and homemade soap making equipment. This connects with the rest of the film as soap plays a crucial part in the narrative of the film. Throughout the scene we see flashes of the word ‘searing’ and ‘flesh’ and ‘The Narrator’s’ cave and his power animal. (A tactic he learnt from support groups to block out pain, a flashback from the cancer support group scene) In my opinion this is done to help the audience understand the feelings of ‘The Narrator’ while he is going through this painful experience. In this scene, the dominant part of the mise-en-scene is Tyler, our eyes are drawn to him as he stands out from the background, because of his clothing. He is wearing a red Hawaiian shirt whilst ‘The Narrator’ is wearing a grey sweater. This helps us draw our eyes to Tyler as he contrasts the background. There is an intimate distance between the two characters, which helps us to establish the relationship between them, and what exactly they mean to each other. The subsidiary dominant part of the mise-en-scene, the secondary object our eyes are drawn to, is ‘The Narrator.’ Although his colour of clothing is grey, and blends in with the background to a certain extent, the size of him and the fact he is in kept in focus from the rest of the background suggests a degree of significance. Also, the amount of space he takes up in each shot is also related to his importance in this scene.

The fact that the bars of soap in this scene are bright pink, it contrasts to the rest of the background, and suggests significance and importance, as we can tell when Tyler says ‘The first soap was made from the ashes of heroes.’

Cinematography

The scene begins with a close up shot of Tyler kissing ‘The Narrator’s’ hand. This helps us to establish that this is the beginning of ‘The Narrator’s’ journey, and that this is the beginning of an intense moment for him. As soon as the close up of the kiss is shown, the non-diegetic soundtrack of the scene’s music is heard. Over the shoulder shots are used constantly throughout the scene. The over the shoulder shot keeps one character in the main view of the screen, while still keeping the other character in view, to constantly maintain the relationship between the two characters on screen. The camera sometimes cuts away to an extreme close up shot of the burning hand, to further project the intensity of this scene onto the audience 1. A close up shot is used on Tyler Durden, to help the audience feel closer to him and his words 2. In my opinion, this increases the intensity of Tyler’s words and emotions right now. A high angle shot of Tyler and ‘The Narrator’ is used to establish the power that Tyler has over ‘The Narrator.’ 3

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By Avinash Beghi

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