Director Baz Luhrman’s 2013 remake of The Great Gatsby not only focuses on the chasms between the newly rich and the old money of New York, but also the struggles the characters experience as their secrets are exposed to those around them. The early scenes in The Great Gatsby where Tom’s mistress is revealed to Nick when he is at dinner with the Buchanans and Jordan Baker (9:45-11:03), and the following discussion between Daisy and Nick over her wishes for her daughter’s future and her personal bitterness towards the world (11:03-12:39), highlight an overarching theme of the film which is that all of the characters have deeper, darker secrets than what they portray to those around them.
By using specific care with the mise-en-scène and montage …show more content…
The music is continuous throughout the scene up until Tom begins to speak (9:18-9:42), where it is cut off and replaced with loud asynchronous cricket chirps and the synchronous tinkling of the silverware and the crystal centerpiece. This sudden lack of music puts all of the focus on Tom’s words and actions, making the ringing of the telephone sound more invasive and jarring when it enters the scene. The piano begins again after the second ring of the telephone (9:50), breaking the frozen moment of silence and progressing the scene along with Tom’s departure from the dining room. It again fades out as Daisy leaves the room, the Buchanans’ bickering taking its place as a sound within the scene. However, their heated discussion is synchronous with the scene as Jordan attempts to eavesdrop on them through the glass door where they are visible arguing (10:15). The large distance between Tom and the rest of the diners, especially Daisy, is highlighted in the moment they return as his seat is set opposing theirs across the large table. The table setting implies not only a physical distance between Tom and the others, but also an emotion one caused by his infidelity, a dark secret he poorly attempts to keep even though “everybody knows”, as Jordan …show more content…
Neither Daisy or Nick could have legitimately seen all the way across the bay, alluding that the shots after they look to the green pier light are a distorted reality based in imagination. Sigmund Freud claims that a structure created within a dream “combines the features of both objects into a new image and in so doing makes clever use of any similarities that the two objects may happen to posses in reality” (Freud, 359). The impossible pan across the bay, then, could have been a dream or created memory of Nick’s after the event that combined the green pier light with both Daisy and Gatsby, the light acting as a kind of bridge between the two. Also during the pan, the asynchronous piano music becomes louder and more climactic than previous, concluding with a quick scene dissolve from Gatsby’s pier to Nick arriving back at his house (12:38-12:47). The lens used for the pan was very high gloss with a focus for colors, as even with the high contrast between the dark sky and waters and the pier and castle lights individual colors are still visible on the pier and in the windows. These high contrasts, with focus on Gatsby standing upon his pier gazing out to Daisy, foreshadow the gradual unraveling of his wall between the shiny, rich façade he had created
By using specific care with the mise-en-scène and montage …show more content…
The music is continuous throughout the scene up until Tom begins to speak (9:18-9:42), where it is cut off and replaced with loud asynchronous cricket chirps and the synchronous tinkling of the silverware and the crystal centerpiece. This sudden lack of music puts all of the focus on Tom’s words and actions, making the ringing of the telephone sound more invasive and jarring when it enters the scene. The piano begins again after the second ring of the telephone (9:50), breaking the frozen moment of silence and progressing the scene along with Tom’s departure from the dining room. It again fades out as Daisy leaves the room, the Buchanans’ bickering taking its place as a sound within the scene. However, their heated discussion is synchronous with the scene as Jordan attempts to eavesdrop on them through the glass door where they are visible arguing (10:15). The large distance between Tom and the rest of the diners, especially Daisy, is highlighted in the moment they return as his seat is set opposing theirs across the large table. The table setting implies not only a physical distance between Tom and the others, but also an emotion one caused by his infidelity, a dark secret he poorly attempts to keep even though “everybody knows”, as Jordan …show more content…
Neither Daisy or Nick could have legitimately seen all the way across the bay, alluding that the shots after they look to the green pier light are a distorted reality based in imagination. Sigmund Freud claims that a structure created within a dream “combines the features of both objects into a new image and in so doing makes clever use of any similarities that the two objects may happen to posses in reality” (Freud, 359). The impossible pan across the bay, then, could have been a dream or created memory of Nick’s after the event that combined the green pier light with both Daisy and Gatsby, the light acting as a kind of bridge between the two. Also during the pan, the asynchronous piano music becomes louder and more climactic than previous, concluding with a quick scene dissolve from Gatsby’s pier to Nick arriving back at his house (12:38-12:47). The lens used for the pan was very high gloss with a focus for colors, as even with the high contrast between the dark sky and waters and the pier and castle lights individual colors are still visible on the pier and in the windows. These high contrasts, with focus on Gatsby standing upon his pier gazing out to Daisy, foreshadow the gradual unraveling of his wall between the shiny, rich façade he had created