To be honest, I had never seen or heard of this film before it was an option for class. However, I am glad that I had the opportunity to view it because I enjoyed it and it had some very interesting photography within it.
The first scene I want to talk about is this one:
Photo courtesy of: wondersinthedark.wordpress.com
This scene depicts Joel and Clementine laying on a frozen pond. At first my eyes are drawn to them, but then they want to tug away from the couple and stare at the giant crack in the ice for a bit. To me this shows tranquility, even if something around someone is broken. The lighting is low, giving the scene an intimate feel, like they are the only two people in the world. The shot itself is a birds eye view, looking down on the couple and seeing the full length of their bodies. I believe that the dominant color used here is gray. I think the gray is supposed to represent how quiet the scene is, there isn’t noise at all while this is going on except for them talking. There isn’t much to look at after looking at Joel and Clem and the crack, my eyes kind of rove around the screen and look at the little patches of snow on the ice, but they end up right back on the couple and the crack. For the most part this image is stark and simple, showing a couple and their own thoughts without really any distractions. This scene is very open with no framing and I think that has a lot to do with them being outdoors lying on ice. The characters do have the room to move about if they please, which also describes the scene as loose. They are at the center of the shot so that they are focused on with a full frontal view because they should really be the only thing viewers should be looking at. The characters are touching shoulder to shoulder, which also adds an intimacy to this shot.
The second shot I would like to discuss is this one:
Photo courtesy of: cinemablend.com
In this scene, Joel and Clem are in Joel’s mind so to speak, running away from the men that are trying to erase all of Joel’s memories of Clem. My eye is first attracted to Clem, because she is the brightest object in the shot. There is a lot of contrast in this shot, with the black background and the brightness of Clem and the ground. The shot is a long shot, showing their full bodies, and they are half turned away from the camera to show that they are running away even though we are looking right at them. I think that black is the dominant color here, showing the darkness and sadness of erasing memories that they are trying to get away from so that they can keep each other. The brightness of this shot distorts the couple a little, which kind of adds to the stress of the shot. There aren’t any more eye stops after I look at Joel ad Clem because there is nothing else to look at in the shot. There isn’t a lot of visual information in this shot. I think the framing is in between tight and loose. It’s loose enough for them to run away, but tight enough to make their running tense because the darkness is closing in on them. Again the couple is in the center of the shot because as a viewer I should be rooting for them to get away from the bad thing that’s happening to them. Again, the are halfway turned away from the camera, and there isn’t too much space in between them because they are holding hands, but they are still running which shows the anxiety they are facing.
Courtney's Film Blog 