Anatomy of a Scene: THE MANCHURIAN CANDIDATE (2004)

showing us who Marco is by how he lives

“Man buys groceries, goes home, eats dinner while watching the news” sounds pretty straightforward, but attention to set dressing, props, camera move, and lighting can make it compelling.

In this The Manchurian Candidate dialogue-less sequence we learn about Marco (Denzel Washington) through his surroundings.

A swooping camera through the grocery store opens the sequence — note the movement of the pedestrians ‘drawing’ the camera, and how the movement of the cashier draws our attention to both the noodles and the NoDoz, both of which will carry over into the next scene.

The TV is already on when Marco enters, it’s a constant droning presence.

I love the mirror in the entryway, perfectly angled and lit (and Denzel perfectly blocked) to picture Marco all the way through.

As Marco leaves the entryway, the camera pans right before dollying left. This movement shows us the ‘clothes rack’ of uniforms hanging in the hallway, one still in dry-cleaner plastic, and in general Hollywood film grammar this means it’s going ‘forward’ before moving ‘backward’ which ties into Marco’s confusion about when he is.

The lighting, too, shows confusion and time distortion. The entryway is warm orange hues; when the camera pans across the wall of newspaper clippings, it’s completely blue; when the camera emerges to see the dining room it’s orange between the blue hallway wall on either side; as Marco enters, his blue shirt stands out against the bright orange of the kitchen; the overall coloured lighting of the scene flashes between those two, motivated by TV.

Often in Hollywood film grammar, yellow or orange lighting is the colour of nostalgia and the past, while blue is more of a present colour.

The camera and changing colours demonstrate how Marco is having confusing moments as his past and nightmares blend into his present, often unsure when he is.

Marco is opening the NoDoze he bought, and we can see along with stacks of newspapers, the house is stuffed with full and empty Cup O’ Noodles — stacked in the kitchen, next to the TV, on the desk, it’s like Where’s Waldo with Cup O’ Noodles.

Finally, the scene transition gives us compare-and-contrast between Marco’s dinner and Shaw’s (Liev Schreiber) fancy one.

They’re both watching the same TV coverage, but facing opposite ways; one sitting in a dim room eating from a styrofoam cup with chopsticks, the other in a brightly lit fancy hotel eating from china with a spoon.

Holding the pencil is a great lil add, which tells us Shaw’s still working, but also visually echoes Marco’s chopsticks.

Takeaways

Showing is often telling, particularly the way you show things. We’re told about Marco’s life and mindset through the sheer volume of Cup O’ Noodles; the stockpiled newspapers; how Marco moves through the house; how the camera moves and lighting changes. All of these show us Marco is a creature of habit, a planner and/or paranoid, confused about some things but persistent in attempting to find the truth. Then the edit between Marco and Shaw tells us how they are similar and different.

Whether you’re talking to your set designer, asking props to include chopsticks in one scene and a pencil in another, working through a shotlist with your DP, talking to actors about their physical performance, or planning your scene transitions, consider not just what all these things show the audience in isolation, but what the parts add up to tell the audience about the characters.