Mis-en Scene: The Godfather

Michael Kelleher

Professor King

Com 241

16 September 2012

Mis-en-Scene The Godfather

            In a thirty second scene from The Godfather, Mama Corelone steps up from the crowd at her daughter Connie’s wedding to sing. While the scene may seem trivial, it features many aspects of mise-en-scene. The scene begins with a wide shot of the band, two male wedding singers, and some wedding guests shown all near the dance floor. The director uses the rule of thirds, focusing on the wedding guests in the left third of the frame, the band in the back middle, and the two male singers closer to the right of the frame. The director also gives a sense of depth perception, as the band is further back than everyone else in the scene.

            The set for this scene is mostly focused on the dance floor and the stage behind the dance floor where the band is playing. However, in the beginning of the scene, there are bushes and vibrant green plants and flowers shown in the corners of the top frame, which contrast well with the cream-colored dance floor. There is also a stone wall that goes from one side of the frame to another.

            The first noticeable image of the scene is right as the scene begins, a little girl wearing a yellow dress comes out from the right of the frame and begins dancing. Your eyes are immediately focused on her as she moves across the dance floor and frame. This was the first noticeable costume decision made by the director. All the other guests are wearing colors that don’t really stand out (mostly black and some khaki) but the little girl in the yellow dress is a notable standout. The yellow attracts the eye immediately on the frame, and the girl’s dark hair contrasts with the dress, and makes her pop. She also has a large yellow flower in her hair as well, which even more adds to her standing out in the frames. 

From beginning to end of the scene, when Mama Corelone is in the scene, she is shown in the center of the frame. After the frame with the girl in the yellow dress, we see Mama Corleone for the first time in the scene; she is in the center and happily clapping to the music with mostly men surrounding her. As one of the male singers comes out on the dance floor to grab her and get her to sing, there is great use of mise-en scene shown. She is surrounded by men all around her trying to get her to go up and sing, and they continue to accompany her as she reluctantly walks up to the stage. Firstly, the men she is surrounded by are all shorter than her, and Mama Corelone is probably heavier than most of them as well. With this setup, along with her being in the dominant center of the frames, it gives the audience the impression that Mama Corelone is a woman of power. However, as she is wearing a light pink simple dress, it gives the impression that she is gentle, as opposed to if she were wearing a fire-engine red or black dress. Her hair is also pulled back in a sort of bun type hairstyle, with areas of gray hair showing, presenting the impression that she is aging, and not  completely focused on her looks, as she is also wearing light make-up. The last ten seconds of the scene are one take of Mama Corelone singing with a man on both sides of her. As she remains in the center of the frame, the shorter men by her sides are positioned and angled in a way that shows that they are inferior to her. For this sequence, the director again uses the rule of thirds, and effectively uses two men in the background playing instruments to focus on Mama Corelone even more than before (see picture).

One of the most important factors in this scene is the lighting. The scene was obviously taken outside and not in a studio, and the director utilizes the sunny day, as the whole scene is incredibly bright and highly lit. While I’ve only seen some scenes from the movie The Godfather, the scenes I have scene are mostly dark, or use chiaroscuro lighting. However, I believe for this scene, the director chose the scene to be so bright because it fit well with the high energy and happiness of the scene.

The design influences for the scene are most closely shown to be Italian neorealism. The film is based off of an Italian family, so that design influence would be the best choice to use for the film. The scene also depicts mostly open framing, as it would have been very difficult to get all of the wedding guests into one frame, so some of the non-important faces are cut off during the scene. The scene mostly uses static composition instead of dynamic, however there is one scene where one of the male sings cuts diagonally across the dance floor to retrieve Mama Caleone.

The lastly most important aspect to the scene is the movement; the whole scene depicts a lot of movement from the characters. The beginning of the scene, which features the most people shown in a frame, shows almost everyone either dancing or clapping along with the music that is playing. Even as Mama Coreloeone sings and is standing still, she continues to clap her hands and bob her head hapilly.