The Talented Mr Ripley

Mise - En - SceneIn this shot from the opening of The talented Mr Ripley, they use low key lighting. The low key lighting makes it hard for the audience to see the characters facial expression, this makes the audience feel uneasy and also creates a sense of enigma around the character as we are unable to form an opinion on the character or distinguish whether the character is a protagonist or antagonist.

The low key lighting could also imply that something bad involving this character has happened or could be foreshadowing that something bad concerning this character will happen in the future.

We can also see in the shot that the character is looking downwards whilst sitting in a darkly lit room. This suggests that he may be he is deep in thought about an event that has will happen. It could also imply that he feels remorseful about something that he has done.

EditingIn the opening of the film when we are first introduced to Tom Ripley, parts of his face a revealed price by piece before we get a complete shot of his face. This could suggest that he has multiple sides to his personality and that these side of his personality will manifest themselves throughout the film.

The way the audience is introduced to the character could also imply that the audience will have to piece together different aspects of what the see of this character to figure out what his true intentions are.

In the beginning there is a shot of Tom Ripley with his face in the shadows, which makes him seem ambiguous. It then cuts to a scene of him outside playing the piano. This also makes him seem ambiguous as we can only see one side of his face in the shot. Additionally, the contrasts with the previous shot as this shot uses more naturalistic lighting and this could represent the fact that the audience hasn’t and can’t make a clear judgement on this character.

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