How Nic Roeg makes meaning through Mise en Scene and

Cinematography in a sequence from Dont Look Now.

Zoe Dixon
Director Nicholas Roeg entices us in the opening scene from Dont Look
Now, with mise en scene and the use of cinematography, which creates an
atmosphere of uncertainty through to the audience. As the sequence
starts it shows a little girl in a very bright red coat wheeling a wheelbarrow
towards the left side of the screen. This is
significant because the red colored coat
contrasts heavily against the green
landscape of the grass that surrounds her
and the direction she is heading towards
is a dark forest. The colour red is also
usually associated with danger, and will
reappear constantly throughout the rest
of the sequence. A white horse then
appears shortly after, galloping to the
completely opposite direction the little
girl is heading towards, this could be
foreshadowing that wherever the girl is heading towards; there is
something wrong off screen.
The next shot is of a boy who we presume is
the girls brother, weaving in and out of the
trees on his red bike. This could symbolise
how the young boy is meant to be the little
girls knight with his red bike as a horse,
there to protect her but doesnt succeed as
he is on a red bike, which again symbolises
danger and death. Its a long shot, which is
static, and the boy looks very innocent
contrasted with the background where the
lighting is darker. The innocent music
suggests that everything is normal about the
scene but that there is a sense of impending danger.
Parallel action is used between the boy and the girls separate actions as
the camera cuts from a shot of the girl in her red coat to a shot of the boy
on his red bike. The next shot is of the little girl holding a toy soldier action
figure, which she pulls the string, attached to it in which it says something
along the lines of action man patrol, fall in. This is significant because it
overlooks the period the film is set in, most likely when a war had or is
happening, but also fall in symbolises the soldiers falling in line, but more
literally the girl falling into the water. The soldier can also represent
danger as soldiers usually go into dangerous territory in war, so the little
girl holding the soldier could also represent her death. The little girl then
picks up a red ball and throws it in. Roeg then shows us the lake in which
the little girls red ball lands. This foreshadows the safety of the girl as she
is wearing red and the ball is of the same colour, which shows that she is
represented by the ball. There is a sense of fate that the ball lands in the
water as it signals what could next happen.

Another shot of the young boy riding his bike is shown again with the
camera angle pointing straight at him instead of a side view. Roeg cuts
again back to the little girl and this shot is showing her trying to retrieve
her ball from the lake, in which the camera tracks in towards the water
surrounding her.
Director Roeg makes use of effective camera movement; as the girl
approaches the edge of the lake, shows her reflection in the water, this
makes the audience uneasy as it disorientates us and also the reflection
could quite literally be the foreshadowing of the girl under water. It then
cuts from the red reflection of the girls coat to the red flickering of a fire.
This takes us to a change of scene from
exterior to interior; and shows the audience
the house and the lounge within it. Mise en
scene is created by the atmosphere in the
lounge as books, papers, ornaments are
strewn everywhere creating a very safe,
traditional family lounge.
In this scene a man and a women who we
believe are the childrens parents are
shown, the man is controlling a projector
whilst the woman is sat near the fire reading a book. This is significant as
the man asks the woman what she is reading in which she replies with I
was just trying to find the answer to a question, if the worlds round, why
is a frozen pond flat? This again foreshadows the fate of her daughter by
reminding the audience of water and it also breaks the fourth wall by
asking the audience a question, which relates to the ending of how the girl
actually died.
Another main focus in this particular scene is the projector, which the
character of John uses to look at Polaroid photos. Shot lengths are used to
great effect in this scene to highlight key points and play with the
audiences emotions and perceptions. Different shots are used in this
scene as tension rises. Roeg starts with a long shot of the room; with the
projected image only filling up the right corner of the frame then the
length gets pushed further in, showing the projector screen taking up
more of the frame. This pattern continues until the shot length is a close
up on only a specific part of the image on the screen, which appears to be

a girl in the red coat. This is also significant as the photos show the girl in
the red coat in what looks to be a church, which is supposed to be gods
home and a very safe place but funeral
services are also held in churchs which
again foreshadows the little girls death.
The audience now starts questioning
through curiosity making them feel very
uncertain. As the scene progresses the
shot is cut back to the little girl also in a
red coat through the reflection of the
water, which is again disorientating for
the audience. As she runs she steps in a
puddle, which cross cuts to the boy
riding over smashed glass and falling off
his bike. We are then shown the little boy
looking at his bike tires to see if there
had been any glass in it, in which in the
background the little girl in the red coat
can be seen so vividly against the green.
We are then shown John, knocking over a
glass of water on the projector. This could
represent the end of his daughters life as
the girl had been surrounded by water in
the earlier shots. As the red ink from the
girls coat starts to spread on the photo it
seems to represent blood or more spiritually
as if the daughters soul is leaving her body.
The scene cuts back and forth to the father
figuring out whats happening to the little
girl slowing plunging into the water.
The colour red is largely absent from the clip
and when it is evident it clearly stands out.
In this particular clip red is only evident in
the little girls raincoat and tights, the ball
and in a muted form on the boys bike
perhaps implying that all three are
responsible in part for the death of the little
girl. The raincoat may have weighed her
down, the ball was her reason for being on
the edge of the river, and the bike provided
the distraction for the boy who was possibly
supposed to be watching her.
Unlike the ball, the girl slowly sinks beneath
the waters surface. The lack of energy in
this scene implies a sense of inevitability a
parallel of the hopeless lack of recognition of
danger displayed by the young girl along the
rivers edge.
Roegs use of costume worked well
throughout the opening scene, as it was clear to the audience that red in a
horror film always represents something bad. Also another perception of
the use of color in costume would be that it linked the little girl with

heaven and death and the blue from the young boy in the foreground was
meant to be an angel or a watcher, something peaceful.
All of these techniques build up an idea for what will happen throughout
the film. Nicholas Roeg having a past background as a painter highlights
the sinister red colours that are repeated throughout making the opening
scene a very tense, thrilling extract.