Scene Link – https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=i5ufgkJ-uVE

Drive (2011) was directed by Nicolas Winding Refn and stars Ryan Gosling and Carey Mulligan. Nicolas Winding Refn uses interesting lighting choices throughout the film and more specifically in the Elevator Scene. The scene opens with three characters in the elevator; the driver, Irene and Henchman sent to kill the driver. The lighting is extremely warm in the elevator and is lit from above with tungsten down lights providing the key. While there are two tungsten lamps on either side of the elevator with some sort of diffusing sheet panel in front of them which act as a fill on the actors faces. The lights from above are hard yet the lamps are very soft. The driver notices the Henchman has a gun and puts his hand over Irene to protect her. The lights quickly dim and sort of isolate the pair as they share their first kiss. During the Kiss the pair are lit by what seems to be one downlight from above and an edge light from behind, coming from the lamp on the side of the elevator. This takes the characters out of the tense environment they are in and into their own sort of visual universe. Once the kiss is over, the lights return to their normal warm conditions as the driver begins to beat the other man in the elevator to death. The elevator stops and Irene, who is horrified, steps out into the cool toned, overhead fluorescent lighting of the carpark. while the driver remains separated in the warm tones of the elevator. Creating a visual separation between the two characters through lighting temperature.

I liked the use of lighting temperature as a tool of visual separation. I thought this was interesting and I also liked the decision to use warm tungsten lighting in the elevator. As throughout the film Nicolas Winding Refn has used warm lighting only in safe and trustworthy situations. While this scene in the elevator is graphically brutal. Emphasizing the unpredictable and dangerous nature of the driver through that Irene has never seen.