Leon Mise En Scene

 

Mise en scene	How are each of these elements presented in Leon? Are they conventional?
Costume	70’s type costumes, bright colours, leather jackets and beige suits as if part of a gang. Hard to tell whether this is conventional or not although it is quite unusual for most thrillers to have these sort of costumes apart from the gang thrillers where this sort of costume is usually worn.   Dresses quite casually, the mother looks slightly like a tart as if she could potentially a prostitute. Shameful way of dressing from the child’s point of view.   Matilda is also dressed quite tarty but this is probably due to the way her mother dresses so she wouldn’t know any better.   See what the suit means to the man as he keeps shooting the guy that was already dead because he ruined his suit.
Lighting	The lighting from the windows highlight Leon as this is the first time we have seen the whole of him. The lighting highlights him and the plant as he is caring for it whereas it darkens everything else so that he stands out.   Natural lighting shows normality and realism. Big contrast between Leon and Matilda’s house.   Natural lighting highlights the plant as central thing in his life and shows how much he cares for it.   The darkness of the hallway portrays evil and shows that something bad is about to happen.   The lighting shining on her through the door shows her relief.
Props	Young girl smoking cigarettes, shows that she is treated quite badly and she has to hide it from her dad showing fear.   The plant shows that Leon has an innocent side as well as his killer side, meaning that he can care for things and he isn’t all bad.   A lot of weapons and holsters on Leon’s belt, which is quite conventional of a thriller as it means people have and will die during the film which makes the audience feel uncomfortable and it builds tension as the audience have to wait in anticipation to see who will be killed.   Has a lot of care for the plant as he is carefully cleaning and spraying some sort of insect killer on it to protect  it.   The glasses he is usually wearing show how he tries to hide his identity. Religious picture with a gun in front which is quite ironic as there is a large contrast between gun crime and religion.   The clock shows time ticking away as if something potentially critical to the film is about to happen.   Emergence through the curtain of beads show that this man is full of his own self-importance and that he is clearly not a good character.
Setting	Fairly normal flat block.   Kitchen fairly messy where Leon looks sad and lonely, the non-digetic depressing music shows the audience he doesn’t live a very social life too.   The cinema scene is very different from what has happened so far in the film, it is very unconventional of a thriller after all the killing that he was doing earlier on in the film.