room, and the prince’s dance with her is a sign to
everyone at the ball of just how far the society has
been transformed. He blesses the marital union as
he accedes to the larger societal change. You can see
and hear this transformation occurring, just as you
can almost feel the silken texture of the gowns and
the wall coverings and almost taste the wine and the
food. Visconti’s moving camera and changing angles
bring us into the action and make us a participant,
yet his control of the compositional elements keeps
us focused on the main character. Throughout The
Leopard, Visconti helps us to understand not only
how his mise-en-scène has been constructed but
also how it guides our reading of the scene’s mean-
ing. That room of colors, rituals, and music is a per-
fect lens through which to understand the change
both inside and outside.
However, not all movies offer a mise-en-scène
that successfully complements the movie’s narrative
and themes. Others overwhelm us with design,
including Andy and Larry Wachowski’s The Matrix
(1999; production designer: Owen Paterson), Martin
Scorsese’s Gangs of New York (2002; production
designer: Dante Ferretti), Michael Polish’s Northfork
(2003; production designers: Brandee Dellaringa,
Del Polish, and Ichelle Spitzig), and Christopher
Nolan’s The Dark Knight(2008; production designer:
Nathan Crowley). Baz Luhrmann’s Moulin Rouge!
(2001; production designer: Catherine Martin)
aspired to reinvent the Hollywood musical for the
twenty-first century, trying to match the inventive-
ness and spectacle of earlier high points of the genre,
including Francis Ford Coppola’s visionary musical
One from the Heart(1982; production designer: Dean
Tavoularis). Luhrmann blended these influences and
others into a pastiche of musical references from
many periods, movies, and styles. But the result has
provoked some viewers to ask how much is too much176 CHAPTER 5MISE-EN-SCÈNE
Mise-en-scène as perfect complement to narrative
in The Leopard Luchino Visconti, one of the world’s great
masters of mise-en-scène, was at the height of his creative
powers when he made The Leopard. Practically every setting,
particularly the interiors of Prince Salina’s palaces, is
characterized by opulence and color. The rebellious activities
in the streets outside are equally colorful. When Giuseppe
Garibaldi, intent on unifying Italy and Sicily, swept through
Sicily with his red-shirted forces [1], the aristocracy was
overwhelmed. Princess Salina faints in her parlor as she
hears the news, the orange flowers ironically echoing the
rebellion outside [2]. But life goes on: the prince reads aloud
to his family in a sumptuous parlor, notable for the muted
browns and purple tones [3]; supper is served in a
magnificent dining room with walls covered in alternating
orange and green fabrics [4]; the prince relaxes in his study
with its red leather sofa, books bound in red, and red velvet
draperies [5]; the family travels by coach through the
comparatively barren landscape to their mountaintop
palace [6], where Angelica, in a shocking pink dress, wanders
through some of its abandoned rooms [7]. But it is in the
45-minute ballroom sequence that Visconti creates a virtual
microcosm of how aristocratic Sicilian life has been altered
in this time of great social transformation. This still image
[8] from a sequence full of movement——swirling dancers,
officers in splendid military uniforms with gold braid, active
guests, and an almost constantly moving camera——features
three of the principals: Tancredi (Alain Delon), in the far-left
background in white-tie formal dress; Angelica (Claudia
Cardinale), in a beautiful white gown; and Prince Don
Fabrizio Salina (Burt Lancaster), dancing a waltz in the left
middle ground. All of this is in a ballroom that has never
changed, its walls covered by gold brocade fabric and lit
entirely by candles. The prince stoically accepts the social
changes, including the marriage of Angelica, who comes
from a family of new wealth, and Prince Tancredi,
his nephew, for his motto is “Things will have to change in
order that they remain the same.”An overpowering mise-en-scène in Moulin Rouge!
The Moulin Rouge nightclub in Paris is allmise-en-scène:
fabulous sets and costumes, spectacular production
numbers, and beautiful dancers. Baz Luhrmann’s
interpretation of the nightclub’s famous cancan dance is
different from any other version ever seen on the screen,
giving a contemporary twist to the swirling dancers, colorful
costumes, and uninhibited choreography of the original.