I love these “Anatomy of a Scene” pieces from the New York Times movie section. Although I highlighted one already in my previous post, “Anatomy of a Scene: The Revenant,” I wanted to share and comment on this one too because I actually was hoping to do a post on this film related to music, and the ability the music has to editorialize a story, or be “emotional fascism.” Unfortunately, because it’s so new there aren’t very many isolated clips available yet, but take a look at the trailer or listen to this interview with director, Barry Jenkins and Vice media. “Director Barry Jenkins on creating empathy through his film Moonlight.” Skip ahead to 7:22.
http://www.nytimes.com/2016/11/24/movies/barry-jenkins-narrates-a-scene-from-moonlight.html
I like this scene because there is something very spiritual about water, about the ocean, and I like the immersive experience I have as a viewer because the lens is in the water. Deeper still, in listening to Jenkins, and finding out that the child actor Alex Hibbert can’t swim and is actually learning in the process of this scene, it resonates with me in a way it may not to non-African American viewers. There’s something I can’t quite articulate but it’s something to do with watching these two Black males together in the Atlantic Ocean, the body of water that carried so many to the shores of America, and took so many lives, the Middle Passage. Watching the young boy learn to swim really does hint at some element of survival on a deeper level. It’s tragic, and beautiful, and hopeful at the same time… It is as, Jenkins says, “a baptism” and I feel the “spiritual transference” he is talking about.
In terms of the visual language, what struck me right away was the use of the water, and cutting on the action of the water to make less jolting jump cuts, and to transition match cuts more easily too. If you look closely there are a number of examples; one of the most easy to spot happens at 00:45. It’s a match cut. There’s a jump cut at about 1:05, and it’s cut perfectly on the point where the water crests the lens.
I’ll be seeing Moonlight in full this weekend at Cinema 21. I’m looking forward to watching the rest of the film with a keen eye.
Hopefully leaving a comment on my own post counts.
At the time I posted this I had not seen Moonlight. I recently did though, and it’s no wonder the film is racking up the awards and accolades.
I already highlighted the music, but one thing that stood out even more after watching the whole things was the use of color in communicating tone and emotion. One scene that stands out is during part one when Chiron’s mother walks into her room with presumably to smoke crack and have sex with a stranger. The use of the redish purplish light from her room, and the way it changes with the music heightens the drama.
Go see it if you have not!