Cinematic Codes in Moulin Rouge Essay - 1968 Words

Cinematic Codes in Moulin Rouge All four cinematic codes work together in a film to inform the audiences understanding of a film and to convey meaning and the ideology in a preferred reading favoured by the film-maker so that the audience interprets the film in the way intended. In the film Moulin Rouge (Luhrman, 2000, US) the cinematic codes, mise-en-scene, sound, cinematography and editing all work well together in the opening sequence to set up the film-makers preferred reading. The film opens with a conductor on a stage in a grand theatre, signifying a show which links well with the idea behind Moulin Rouge, informing the audience that it is like a show. The curtains behind the†¦show more content†¦The music is loud and orchestral, immediately capturing the audiences attention; the tempo is also quite slow to begin with. Suddenly changes to a song with a much faster tempo, The Can Can. This song is also a famous one and helps inform the audience that the film is set in Paris. All the way through this shot, the camera is slowly zooming in very slightly, and this camera movement helps to draw the audience into the action. It stops when the stage frames the shot perfectly. The song ends abruptly and as it does it links with the editing as Paris, 1900 appears on the screen to inform the audience of the time and place it is set. This shot then dissolves into a much darker shot, informing the audience that maybe this film isnt about the celebration of love, and that something sinister is going to happen, the sound also links well with this as it is quite melancholy, this song signifies to the audience that the story beginning to unfold is a tragic one. The character singing is directly addressing the audience as he narrates the story through song, and the contrast between the sound here and the sound in the previous shot is extremely noticeable as it is much more depressing. It is known as parallel sounds as it matches the action in the shot and emphasized by the morose characters and the shadowy lighting. The character singing is placed in the corner ofShow MoreRelatedGlee Essay9324 Words   |  38 Pagesand it has needed to introduce new strategies to survive. There are periods when it nearly disappeared before coming back in a new form (Hayward 2000). This essay is structured in such a way that it describes the periods of the genre and how its codes and conventions have been applied in each, and then analyses the main ideas from a social and theoretical point of view. But first, it may prove useful to discuss genre theory. Genre can be considered a strategy created by the cinema industry to identify