http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hQhpansqN1k&feature=relmfu
The Color of Paradise (Rang-e Khoda) by Majid Majidi is an Iranian film about a blind boy named Mohammed. Mohammed is the protagonist, who goes to a school for the blind in Tehran, and he is contrasted sharply with his father, whose values spiral downwards as he seeks to take a wife at the expense of eradicating any indication of having a blind son.
There were so many great sequences
to choose from in the film for this mise-en-scène blogpost, but I selected a
clip that perfectly contrasts Mohammed to his father—from the beginning of “part
3 of the clip sequence” till 3:12.
The clip opens with a medium
close-up shot of Mohammed’s grandmother as Mohammed is giving her a gift. His love for the women in his family is
clearly evident as is his sensitive nature.
The shot cuts from a group shot to a MCU of each relative then to
close-up shots of the gift given by Mohammed.
The close-up is done to allow the viewer to see that Mohammed gives
thoughtful gifts of beauty though he is blind. Since he is blind, his other
senses of touch and hearing are enhanced and this is evidenced throughout the
film through enhanced sound effects which allows the viewer to be in the shoes
of Mohammed.
Mohammed is always seeking to
decipher the “language” of his environment. The scene where the grandmother and
Mohammed are walking towards the tree that he planted the previous year uses
the rule of thirds with the placement of the tree. The bond of the grandmother and
Mohammed is further elaborated through a wide shot cut of them walking through
the farm of planted grains. As Mohammed
asks his grandmother what she planted, the camera cuts to a shot of the
grandmother’s hand guiding Mohammed to “see” through the sense of touch, the
grains planted. Overall there is a sense of discovery and hope with Mohammed.
From Mohammed there is a cut to a
high angle, extreme long shot of Mohammed’s father shaving at a river. The distance from this character is
significant as it translates to the viewer not knowing and/or understanding
this complexly flawed, but forgivable character. While preparing for shaving at the river the
shots change from ELS to medium close-up, to extreme close-up. The extreme close-up coincides with the
father hearing an ominous sound and nicking himself with the razor blade. The sound is only heard by him as evidenced
by the juxtaposed shot of the horse that stands calmly by the riverbed. The ECU of the father’s image in the broken
mirror also serves as an omen of negative things to come in the film.
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