In this blog post I will be analyzing a scene from Birdman, directed by Alejandro González Iñárritu. The scene is from 1:25:20 when Riggan walks out of the bar after his quarrel with the famous play critic Tabitha Dickinson, to 1:27:50 when he looks up to the night sky. I will be mainly focusing on sound, lighting, performance and camera movement.
At 1:25:21, when Riggan walks out of the bar, a man with a strenuous and husky vocal goes ‘Tomorrow, and tomorrow, and tomorrow. Creeps in this petty pace from day to day. To the last syllable of recorded time, and all our yesterdays have lighted fools. The way to dusty death’, which is from Macbeth, Act 5, Scene 5. The use of Shakespeare’s play here is to reflect the protagonist’s feeling of despair, which was essentially caused by the declined favor of asking the critic to write a positive review on his play. The use of the play could be a comeback to Tabitha’s comment ‘you are no actor, you’re a celebrity’ as the form of the art could represent Riggan’s career and aspiration and with the voice of the man being powerful and even aggressive, it seems to be shouting out Riggan’s silent rage towards the critic for her rejection to understand his situation and his disappointment towards himself for his talents not being recognized by the outside world.
The interesting part about this is that we do not find out that the man’s performance of the voice is diegetic until 1:27:00 when we see Riggan walks out of the liquor store and sees a drunk man performing the part of Macbeth with full on emotions. Riggan looks like he is shocked by how great the performance is and how much control that man has over his skills. By this point, the atmosphere suddenly switches to another kind of depressive for now it evokes Riggan’s biggest fear as an actor and an artist – being average. For a moment he’s expression is pure panic and horror as if he is not as talented as the drunk guy. He fears that he might not be as good as he thinks he is and that the voice in his head that tells him he can do it is just a quaint hallucination. The process of the man’s voice goes from non-diegetic to diegetic is a process of Riggan’s development of emotions. From anger and disappointment to fear for being an average artist, which links the section to the bigger picture of the story – Riggan using the play he created to prove that he is a qualified and talented actor to the outside world. The section echoes the theme of an actor going against all odds to make his talents and skills recognized by the audience and the critics.
Low-key lighting is used in order to produce strong black and white contrasts, dark tones and shadows that enhance the sense of disappointment after he failed attempting to persuade the critic to write objective critique about his play.
Even though the whole film looks like it was taken in one shot, it was simply edited exquisitely to create the continuity. To achieve that, the camera movements are mainly tracking shots. In this scene, the camera follows Riggan from the back and switches to following from the front when he starts pouring the alcohol into his stomach. Until he finally sits down on a stair in front of an apartment, the camera is having a medium close up of him drinking again from a low angle, and as he progressively looking up to the night sky, the camera follows his eyes doing a tilt to show the lights above him. The yellow-sepia light casts onto him from above, making his figure back lit, creating a sense of solitude.
The liquor store is the only place along the street and in the entire scene that looks bright and colorful. This indicates that Riggan takes alcohol as a method of relief and only in a moment like this, are his worries and anger away.