Inception (2010)
Inception is a sci-fi film, which strongly presents the worlds between the real and the dream. In many scenes, the director intends to give the audience many implications through the music, the editing, even the incredible CG. And I am here to analyse the greatest scene in my thoughts.
According to the thought of “photogenic”, in “On Certain Characteristics of Photogenie”, Jean (1923) mentioned that a great film should achieve “mobility” and “personality”. He also described that photogenie was called “filmic reproduction” and it aesthetically “transformed” the aspects of things, beings or characters in realistic to the virtual medium, film. More simply, Louis Deller called the process of filmic reproduction as “the art of cinema”. In this scene, the concept consisted of switching between the real world and the dream repeatedly. More technically, it is through a strong crosscutting to establish the relationship between the real world and the dream. The cutting skill, Montage, in here is to assemble a lot of fragmental shots from different angles and also provides a nervous tension to the audience. Thus, an intensive cutting (180 degrees, from the actor’s back then, instantly change to front repeatedly) does not look strange in this scene. Here is an example from the clip (0:16-0:24), if we put that effect into a “relax” clips, it may bring the cutting tempo negatively.
The idea of Montage in this scene is opposite to our previous classes, all we were learning about the concept of “decoupage”, which was tended to a long take. In comparison, the idea from Matching For Continuity, the week 5 reading, the department would need to spend more time on setting and making sure every single shot are exactly the same as the continuity of the script. As we know, every film is shot by a single camera, so every cut in the scene is involved a massive coverage by different camera angles and various setting.
As I mention the scene was built between the real world and the dream, so how do the audience identify which is which? The answer is, through the “mobility” and background switching. The director effectively distinguishes the two worlds by utilising slow-motion, such as the scene from 1:04 to 1:14, when the real world is sliding the car, the passengers are also thrown out due to the centrifugal force of physical theory, meanwhile, in the world of the dream, the fighting clip is being messed up by the changing of gravity. Back to the camera angle, in the film, Inception, most of the scenes did not use POV angle, instead of the objective angle, which leads all the audience is able to be entertained by the third-person angles.
In this video, everything can be explained by this huge factory.
Actually, the idea was inspired from 2001: A Space Odyssey (Stanley Kubrick)
Reference List
- Epstein, Jean. “On Certain Characteristics of Photogénie.”, French Film Theory and Criticism 1907-1939. Vol. 1: 1907-1929.
- Ed. Richard Abel. Princeton, New Jersey: Princeton University Press, 1988. 314-18.