DR. STRANGELOVE...

“You can’t fight on a war room”. It sounds a little sarcastic right? Well this kind of sarcasm is part of the elements than make the movie “Dr Strangelove or: How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Love the Bomb” one filled with humor and satire. This movie also combines a lot of elements of cinematography such as lighting effects, camera angle, movement and others.
For example, there is a scene in which Group Captain Lionel Mandrake is in General Ripper’s office trying to convince him to stop the “Plan R”. Dr Ripper had no intention to stop the plan and then comes a close up to General Ripper’s face. This close up emphasizes an important dramatic moment to come. Also the DP combines this close up with the lighting. First we can see that the quality of the lighting is a hard one, because it reaches Ripper’s face directly from the source. The source seems to be a lamp, so it comes from a normal direction. Then we found that it have a fill lighting because although we can distinguish very well General Ripper’s face there remains some shadows. Actually all the background looks to be in shadows. This helps to make the scene one more intense. The camera angle is a key in the director’s objective in this shot. We can see that it is a low camera angle; it looks like if we were looking General Ripper from the bottom. This kind of angle helps to create a sense of superiority on the character, and he is really playing a superior role. General Ripper is the only one who can stop the Plan R so stop the possible war, depends on him. By other way the point of view of this scene is from the Group Captain because, first, he was the only one in the office, and second, the Captain was afraid, what makes him felt inferior in front of Ripper, just like the low angle camera suggest.

Mise- en-Scène for Lolita

The group of scenes that I’ve selected from Lolita was the ones that start with Charlotte waking up and looking for Humbert. In this scene Humbert is not in the room but by the way the bed sheets are over the bed we know that Humbert decided to be with Charlotte. Humbert is a man with a perverse mind who writes his secrets on a diary with games of sophisticated words. We can see in the same group of scenes, when Humbert was over Charlotte in the bed and he is looking a picture of Lolita while he is kissing Charlotte. I assumed that he is imaging that the women he is kissing is Lolita and not his wife. I also supposed that every time they were together in the intimacy, he was thinking about Lolita.
We can also hear the rain outside the house, which can be associated with Charlotte’s style of life. Although Charlotte get what she want (get married with Humbert), we can appreciate she is not happy at all. We can perceive insecurity, loneliness and sad eyes in her. The group of scenes ended with the death of Charlotte, after she discovers the truth about her husband. I think that Kubrick use a rainy day to emphasize the miserable life of Charlotte.
The design of the scenes helps us to feel that they are true. The way Kubrick uses all the elements around the house make it a credible one. The posters on the wall, the localization of the bed, the nightstand tables, lamps, and all the accessories of the bed room make it a real one. The costumes of the movie also make us to travel to those times.