Mise En Scene in Manhattan

A detailed Summary of Mise En Scene in Manhattan

This past week I watched Woody Allen's Manhattan and was blown away from his full use of the frame throughout the movie. This may be a bit of a biased view since I am a fan of nearly every movie Woody has made, but watching this movie with special attention to mise en scene made me feel reaffirmed on what a great filmmaker I think he is. I had read in the book, "Woody Allen on Woody Allen" that there is a clause in the studio's contract that says that this film must always be shown in letterbox format in any home video or broadcast. Having read this, it was obvious that he did not want anything cut from the picture and he was going to be using the full frame. IMDB.com states that this is his first and, to date, only film shot using the 2.35:1 anamorphic Panavision process.

This movie is shot entirely in black and white. This combined with Gershwin's score gives New York a fairytale-like quality in the film. Manhattan itself becomes a character in the movie. The title of the movie is taken off of a street sign that blinks "Manhattan" as we are first brought into the movie with Isaac's monologue over shots with no actors, just location shots further establishing New York

While watching this film I noticed that there weren't as many cuts in this movie as I've noticed in other films. Many shots are long shots with no cuts involved. One scene in particular that brings this to mind is the scene where Isaac and Mary are walking around after they meet for the second time at the party. This entire conversation is one long continuous shot. Another example of a long shot being used is in the scene where Isaac is explaining to Yale (Michael Murphy) his nervousness about quitting his job. The scene takes place within a bookstore, but it is one long continuous shot as the camera follows them around the store. Most of these scenes in Manhattan are loosely framed. An exception is the first shot of the actors after New York City is introduced. This tightly framed scene takes place at an intimate bar with Isaac, Tracy, Yale and Emily (Anne Byrne) talking around a table. Another exception (which is one of my favorite scenes in the film) is the scene where Isaac and Mary are talking in the planetarium. They are talking close to each other with the planetarium's "stars" in the background as they are starting to fall for each other. The camera stays clo

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Approximate Word count = 798
Approximate Pages = 3 (250 words per page double spaced)

Category: Movies

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