river kept by Rachel Cooper (Lillian Gish), a kind of
fairy godmother devoted to taking in homeless
children. When Harry tracks down the kids and
begins to threaten the safety of Rachel and her
“family,” Rachel sits on her porch, holding a shot-
gun to guard the house, while Harry, lurking out-
side, joins her in singing a religious hymn, “Lean on
Jesus.” Laughton uses backlighting that has a hard
quality associated with the evil, tough Harry, but he
also uses it on Rachel—not to equate her with his
evil, but to intimate that she is a worthy adversary
for him. Later in the same scene, she is suddenly lit
differently—softer light, from a different direction,
creates a halo effect through light behind her—
because at this moment in the movie the director
wants to emphasize not her resolve or her ability to
stand up to Harry, but her purity of spirit.
The story and emotional tones of Fernando
Meirelles and Kátia Lund’s City of God(2002; cine-
matographer: César Charlone), to cite another
example, are closely linked with the movie’s use of
light. The codirectors and production designer,
Tulé Peak, work with the contrasts between bright
sunlight on the beach, the various kinds of lighting
in the houses and apartments in the Brazilian
slums, and in a climactic moment in the movie, in a
crowded disco. The lighting in the disco is true to
the source: the flickering spangles that come from
the revolving mirrored ball high above the dancers;
spotlights that are moved restlessly; banks of
bright lights to which the camera returns again and
again rhythmically, increasing our awareness that
the situation is getting out of control. During this
scene, Benny (Phellipe Haagensen), a drug dealer
who has decided to go straight, is murdered by
Neguinho/Bluckie (Rubens Sabino) after a heated
quarrel. The pulsating strobe lighting ramps up the
chaos of the scene, and although it is perfectly
natural to the world of the disco, it underscores the
violent struggle between Benny’s desire to get out
of the terrible world in which he has been involved
in order to lead a good life and the evil forces that
want to stop him from accomplishing his goal.Costume, Makeup, and Hairstyle During the
years of the classical Hollywood studio system, an
actor’s box-office appeal depended on that individ-
ual’s ability to project a screen image that audi-
ences would love. Makeup and hair were the two
most personal aspects of that image. The studios
frequently took actors with star potential and
“improved” their looks by having their hair dyed
and restyled, their teeth fixed or replaced, or their
noses reshaped or sagging chins tightened through
cosmetic surgery. Such changes were based on
each studio’s belief that its overall look included a
certain “ideal” kind of beauty, both feminine and
masculine. To that end, each studio had the right to
ask actors under contract to undergo plastic or
dental surgery to improve their images on and off
the screen. Today’s audiences have learned to love
actors for their individual looks and styles, not for
their conformity to ideals determined by the stu-
dios, which, as a result, led to the typecasting of
actors in certain kinds of roles with which they
became identified. An actor’s ability to break out of
stereotyped casting, when possible, was often due
to the work of members of the studio’s design staff
who gave the actor a new look.
Today’s actors, unfettered by rigid studio con-
tracts, tend to play a wider variety of roles than
they would have in the 1930s and 1940s. Although
the actors’ range and skill are important in making
these different roles believable, perhaps even moreDVDThis tutorial analyzes lighting in Charles
Laughton’s The Night of the Hunter(1955).DESIGN 187