ALIEN Aesthetic (Pt 3) - Framing Ripley
“Ripley’s… never been in this position of leadership before. She doesn’t really know what’s doing and yet she has to convey that sense of command. So, as an actor, no matter how many times the rug was pulled out from underneath my feet by Ridley, who did it constantly to us, in a constructive way, I had to not show it was a big deal”. — Sigourney Weaver1
Part 3 of our deep, deep dive into the aesthetics of Alien (1979) takes a look at Ellen Ripley — and how the film frames her, visually and literally, in a few key scenes.
Meanwhile, Part 2 looks at how ALIEN frames its excellent ensemble cast. And we started off in Part 1 with a breakdown of the film’s general visual strategies.
Isolating Ripley
Infamously, Ridley Scott kept Sigourney Weaver isolated from the rest of the cast. He wanted to take her personal outsider status (this was her first feature) and make it drive Ripley’s transformation over the course of the film.
"Ridley repeatedly told me, ‘No, no, don't start cozying up with Sigourney’. He wanted me to annoy the crap out of her, and be on her back, which I did. He told me to get on Sigourney's nerves. 'Stop speaking to her on the lunch breaks; when she's in the dressing room, leave don't do your makeup with her,' etc."
— Yaphet Kotto (Parker)2
As Ridley explains in this interview his goal was to transform Ripley from someone who was disrespected into someone who has authority.
Content Warning: Ridley does talk about this in terms of gender, but given the (as Mel put it) “industrial-militarised setting of the spaceship, this is true from a practical standpoint, not something inherent in male-ness”. And that awareness is probably what made it feel so progressive and transgressive in 1979. And honestly, still does.
Ripley in Close Up
Let us start with one of the most defining scenes of the franchise: when Ripley refuses to let Dallas, Lambert and the unconscious Kane on board.
Ripley remains calm and her tone even, but her determination & desperation is underscored by increasingly tighter shots. When Ash finally ignores her, we cut back to a wider shot, making us feel like she does: shocked, concerned, and possibly powerless.
Note that though the conflict is between Dallas and Ripley, we cut to a few listening shots of Ash. This profile shot is a particularly great one:
As discussed below, I (Stu) feel that there is an impersonal quality to profile shots. And cutting to Ash in this moment as he’s listening makes him feel sinister BECAUSE of how unemotional he looks and, well, acts.
Ripley Gets Slapped vs Softened
One of the most interesting changes between the theatrical and director's cuts of ALIEN is a simple swapping of takes in scene where Ash & Dallas examine Kane and the facehugger.
In the Director’s Cut (which is now 21 years old!), we spend a moment with Lambert, Parker and Brett watching the examination before Ripley enters in the far background. Lambert slaps Ripley, and Ripley exchanges tense words with an off-screen Dallas. It's all done in one, static shot with strong composition and dynamic blocking. Ripley feels authoritative and defiant.
Interestingly, they've had to use an L-cut off of Parker's "...what that thing is?" cross-fading into Dallas' dialogue to massage the rather dramatic shift in emotional intensity — like Dallas is (once again) ignoring Parker.
In the theatrical version of this scene, they've used the same setup but a different take (fun to think about what was different at the head of this one). Here, Ripley eye-balls Lambert before approaching camera and asking, with genuine concern, after Kane. The others shrink away from her.
The staging takes advantage of Sigourney Weaver's height: she's bigger in frame, the others diminished. It's a subtle difference in how her character is presented: she feels strong, empathetic yet isolated.
Which version do you prefer? Let us know in the comments~
Ripley invades Ash’s Space
This scene, where Ripley confronts Ash for the first time since he broke quarantine, is fascinating.
Now, in the video we speculate that the angle on Ash was shot without Sigourney Weaver, and a stand-in (possibly Cartwright?) was used to make the frame dirty; while the reverse angle on Ripley was shot later as a clean single. Discussion on Twitter and YouTube makes us unsure, it could be Sigourney, they just shot it this way because they didn’t know they’d get the reverse.
Regardless of which it is, the cumulative affect really works: 1 Ash feels suspicious, and Ripley feels strong.
Facehugger attacks Ripley
This scene where Ash, Dallas and Ripley search for the facehugger is a masterclass in quiet tension. But what makes it so good?
A low-angle, POV-esque shot makes us feel they're being watched by the facehugger.
While the absence of music, the minimal dialogue and the rhythmic breathing puts us on edge. And the mis-directs cause our eye to jolt over frames and cuts.
It’s just solid, horror filmmaking that makes us feel Ripley is in danger.
Ripley takes control
After Dallas has died, Ripley is next in command, but being in command isn’t the same as having control. So Ripley needs to assert herself. Which she does, definitively.
The performances in this scene are absolute powerhouses and do a lot of the work (thanks to Ridley Scott’s manipulations) but Ridley does support these performances with some very effective visual strategies —
There is only one angle on Sigourney / Ripley, which creates a kind of call-and-response cutting pattern where the shots of Ripley anchor the scene and that makes it feel like she has control.
Thanks for joining us for Alien Week (and a bit more) 2024.
The Aesthetic of ALIEN:
Shot Zero is written/edited by Mel Killingsworth & Stuart Willis and presented by Draft Zero. You can find us on Instagram, Twitter, Facebook and YouTube.
Quoted page 221 in Rinzler, J. W. (2019). The making of Alien. Titan Books (US, CA).
Quote page 190 in Rinzler, J. W. (2019). The making of Alien. Titan Books (US, CA).