Scene Analysis
Le Feu Follet (1963); 10:29 – 12:25
After the segment of “two people at a bar” clips from Tuesday, I was left intrigued by the especially elaborate scene from Le Feu Follet. Seeing as I wasn’t in the class and wasn’t there for the discussion, I thought I’d have my own go at analysing this scene.
My immediate thoughts after watching the scene back a second time was that the cuts were even more sporadic and more confusing than I remembered. The shots jump all over the place without any real pattern, breaking the 180 degree line from the get go.
To help me understand the set up, I have created the following diagram:
Not including the first two shots, the shot list is as follows:
- Close up of the woman.
- Wide shot of the three characters in the scene shot front on from behind the bar. Slight pan around surrounding area.
- Mid two shot, angled side view of two main characters from woman’s side.
- Medium close up, two shot of man and woman, front on. Tilts up as man moves from leaning on bar to standing straight.
- Close up of man, side view from woman’s side.
- Close up of old man, front on.
- Wide shot of all characters, front on.
- Medium close up of woman, front on. Pans left into medium close up of both man and woman.
- Close up of woman, side view from man’s side.
- Close up of woman’s bag and her hands.
- Medium close up, two shot, side view from woman’s side.
- Close up, two shot, front on view from opposite side to the bar.
- Close up, two shot, side view from woman’s side.
- Close up of woman’s hands, writing. Pans up, following her hands as she puts the piece of paper into the man’s suit pocket.
- Medium close up, two shot, angled side view from man’s side.
For such a mundane situation, the coverage of the scene is wildly complex and unconventional. It seems as though fifteen shots of almost all different shot lengths and angles is a bit excessive to cover a simple conversation between two people that are not moving. The frequent cutting and angle changes due to the 360 degree coverage may be confusing, but the film does it with a confidence that makes it unique.
As a whole, the scene begins with a series of unconventional shots. Instead of starting with a typical establishing shot of the whole cafe, the director, Louis Malle, chooses to begin with three close ups of each of the speaking characters in the scene. The first is a close up of the old man who is unimportant in the grand scheme of the sequence, followed by close ups of the two major characters Alain and Lydia. These shots are then connected when all of them walk into the same frame in a wide shot, subsequently connecting the characters. It’s interesting that Malle chose to set a large focus on the old man, as he is merely a bystander in the two main characters’ conversation.
The rest of the scene is a comprehensive coverage of Lydia and Alain. Apart from close ups that measure when a characters has a particularly emotional response, there is no real structure to the cutting between different shots lengths and angles.
Despite being unconventional, I find that way Malle has chosen to capture this scene fascinating. it shows that coverage is a largely subjective matter; although there are some rules that dictate a ‘traditional’ way of coverage, changes from these setups can form refreshing and cinematic products.
