Mildred Pierce Clip- Analysis of scene.

Mildred Pierce Fight Scene

The colours in this scene are of course white, grey and black. Mildred and Veda’s black dresses stand out amongst the backdrop of the white walls and so the viewer acknowledges these women are the focal points of this scene. The black also signifies strength and power, which is fitting with this scene as the women are having a stand off; they cannot fade into the greys and whites of the background because this would not be in keeping with the striking and feisty nature of their argument. The high contrast lighting also accents these tones and makes the black areas seem darker and more shadowed whilst brightening the whites to an almost washed out appearance. This makes the women’s faces appear pearly white, radiant and flawless so that despite their argument they are still feminine. Their femininity could not be lost sight off as this would have been something the audience of the time would expect, ladylike women.

The lighting also makes the contrast between the women’s black dresses and their ghost-white faces more striking and therefore makes them and the scene appear more dramatic. This gives a stunned effect to everything, nothing is calm about this high contrast lighting and so the audience is set up for an unsettling scene. Despite the colour black giving both women a dominant and almost aggressive feline quality, it is clear that Mildred is the more dominant of the two. Ignoring the fact that Mildred is Veda’s mother and therefore would be perceived as more authoritative anyway, the camera movement and angles imply from the get go that Mildred holds more superiority regardless of her maternal status. At the start of the scene the camera follows Mildred as she moves and not Veda. This suggests that the audience should be following her rather then Veda. Even at the beginning the camera does not follow

Veda sitting up on the sofa, but it pans out to reveal Mildred in the shot. Furthermore the first non-establishing shot is a mid shot of Mildred where she stands directly in the centre, her black dress cementing her to the middle and drawing the viewer in. Whilst the argument gets more heated and the camera swaps between the two characters using shot reverse shot, the camera angle behind Mildred’s shoulder is low angle so we are looking down at Veda. Similarly, whilst behind Veda the camera is high angle so that we are looking up at Mildred, iterating further her command over Veda. Toward the end of the scene, when Veda runs away, the camera stays behind Mildred; the viewer is under Mildred’s control, we see Mildred’s back as Veda gets further away; she gets smaller with her distance and her weakness compared to Mildred is again conveyed. Mildred’s strength is only further shown by her black figure standing strongly in front of the viewer in the foreground.

There is non-diegetic sound throughout this scene and the music is used as a tension builder. The music seems to be rising as they argue and heightens the sense of a forthcoming thunderous climax in the audience. We anticipate this crescendo but the music seems to quieten when Veda begins to raise her voice. Diegetic sound is used here as its own tension builder; her rising voice is not dissimilar to the effect the rising music had on the scene. It is as if we are waiting for the scene to burst as the music does. The music too seems to back the idea of Mildred’s supremacy to Veda as when Mildred moves hurriedly towards Veda on the stairs, the music gets louder. This adds force to Mildred’s movement that was not given to Veda.