Hall of mirrors 2019 analysis

 

Hall of Mirrors (2019)

This clip starts off with a long shot where the contrast of low key light in the foreground and high key exciting light in the background which makes the girl a silhouette, this connotes an idea that she is isolated and alone compared to the background showing people on the rides, this makes her seem alienated and as if the circus itself has trapped her. After this we start to be able to hear this Asynchronous sound of people laughing and having fun and of the circus music, this sound doesn't match the dark themed imagery, this will make the audience feel uncomfortable and resonate with this girl in the shot. Sound is also used effectively to create tension when we see the closeup of the candy apple hitting the floor and pleonastic sound is used to emphasize it and it almost sounds like a punch, this connotes that this innocent thing has something darker beneath the surface, along with this the apple is shown as this dark red which evokes a violent kind of imagery that we would not expect to see in a normal circus scene. I think that shot in particular is almost like a metaphor for the circus as somewhere that seems fun and for kids but has something creepy about it and the fact that it's for a younger audience such as kids makes it more scary.

Mise en Scene is used to hint something is not quite right when we see this pathetic fallacy of rain that starts just as she walks in the funhouse that has connotations of a sign to not enter. Editing has also been used effectively to show that the girl as the scene goes on becomes more and more scared, this is shown by multiple eyeline matches that canote she is trying to be aware of her surroundings and is frightened by what she may find, along with this at the start when we see tracking shots from behind her this further pushes the idea that there may be somebody in there with her. However I do think that not once does camera specifically present her as actually scared but instead just brave and overly curious, she is never shot in a high angle and is often shown in a shot with movement this represents her as not scared and the movements shows how she keeps on going forwards and only gets scared because her curiosity gets the better of her and she goes too far. As the audience we fear for this young girl but she herself is unfrightened.

Towards the end we can see that different film language is used to emphasize the climax, As I mentioned above we start to see many eyeline matches, this also increases the pace of the edit and suggests something big is about to happen, the audience will anticipate something as the energy keeps on rising due to this fast edit. Along with this I would say that towards the end the lighting becomes very low key and this creates tension as it connotes a feeling that we cannot see what is around her or who is around her which makes us as the audience curious. In this clip towards the end there are these blue tones which connote sadness which creates a creepy feeling within the edit because there is an idea that within circuses which are meant for kids there is a lot of sadness and makes us feel like there is more to circuses than what we know.