Truthfully, I’m not too confident in writing this post, seeing that I have difficulty distinguishing between angles and noticing any striking mise-en-scene details for film noir. However, I will attempt to answer this prompt as best as I can. The aspect of film noir that I chose to focus on in Christ in Concrete is directorial style: anti-traditional mise-en-scene. The anti-traditional mise-en-scene style generally consists of effects that portray instability (Example: Dutch angles). This style also includes objects that push their way into the foreground of the frame and often overpower the characters. There are several examples that I will use to demonstrate how the film uses this style in order to get their points across.
The first example that I think is significant is a scene where Geremio is sitting in a chair while a woman [that he is having an affair with] is washing off the blood from his hand. After hitting his wife he is now positioned in the frame as being “above” the woman, revealing his lack of appreciation for women. This view is contrasted in the second example (38:12) where his wife is the main focus of the frame and is standing up while he is seated. In this scene, Geremio is putting his wife on a pedestal and truly loving her. These two scenes show how relationships can be represented through character positioning.
The third and fourth examples involve lone shots of the characters that clearly reveal their emotions to the viewer through their facial expressions. (1:27:54) We see Geremio’s wife close up with an extremely worried expression on her face as she speaks to Geremio and at (1:35) we see a close up of Geremio. Geremio’s close up is during a very dramatic part of the movie. In this scene, we see him outside, angry with himself, and stabbing his hand through the gate as a punishment for what he did to his wife and children. The close ups do an excellent job of intensifying the two characters’ emotions.
The last two examples involve the concepts of irregular shots and overpowering objects. At around 20 minutes in, we see a Dutch angle, the camera is looking upwards at Geremio. Then at around 30 minutes in, Geremio and his friend are talking at the wedding. The interesting part is that the fence is overpowering the frame and it looks as though they are caged in. This may have been a foreshadowing of what was to come with the Great Depression in the rest of the movie. All the elements described contributed to the impact that the movie has.
