I wrote this essay for my Literature and Film class, which is a biteen above my level, so I kinda went overboard on this, but whatever. If this goes over well, I will post a ton more essays that I have in my backlog.
I had to use specific terms that my prof laid out for me, so here's a guide to character proxemics if anyone is a bit confused by what I mean when I say public, social, intimate, etc: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Proxemics
In Drive, Danish filmmaker Nicolas Winding Refn paints a grimy landscape of dark, neo-noir textures, which explore the seedy underbelly of a modern dream Los Angeles, while simultaneously painting an 80’s electric sheen that exudes light, hope, and Romanticism. This precise juxtaposition is evident throughout every shot of the film. The main thematic binary of the film, which is bolstered by the constant concurrence of light and darkness, is that of hope versus destruction. It is not often that a filmmaker is able to compose every shot into a form that both immediately captures the binary of themes present and immediately enraptures the viewer into an almost hypnotic state.
All of this is most evident in the infamous elevator scene. Here, the main character, Driver, is at the end of his rope. His naive dream of having a simple life with Irene is at an end. His violent nature has caught up with him once again, and he knows that he must flee Los Angeles forever. But in his final, fleeting moments with Irene in that claustrophobic elevator, he allows hope to take over and kisses her, passionately, for the first and last time. Immediately following this kiss, the man in the elevator with them pulls a gun, intending to kill them both. Driver is too quick for this man, however, and proceeds to stomp his head into a bloody oblivion. Irene is shocked and appalled. The dream has died. Hope is ended. Driver, now covered in blood, simply stares into Irene’s eyes, almost pleading with her for another chance at the simple life. She stands in the ominous grey of the parking garage, never to see Driver again, as the elevator door permanently separates the couple.
Through Refn’s mastery of mise-en-scene, in twenty-eight shots, he expresses the characters’ emotions, which are running at an all time high; he expresses the maximum tension of the scene, which has been boiling throughout the entire film, gearing to explode at precisely the correct moment; and he expresses the greater thematic binary of hope versus destruction, all while maintaining the consistent mood, tone, and look of the film. Shots, angles, form, character proxemics, and lighting all play a major part in conglomerating this climactic scene.
The first shot in the sequence is an open, medium shot of the now open elevator door, a man inside says, “Sorry, wrong floor,” and already mystery and tension are established. The angle is straight on, not ramping up the nervousness yet, leaving the mood levelheaded. The shot is lit normally, with the light of the elevator pouring out of the door a little bit, but remaining even. Character proxemics begins at the social level, leaving a good distance between the characters.
The second shot moves to an open close up of Driver’s face, from a slight low angle, already giving Driver a sense of power, but also a sense of uneasiness. The light of the elevator emphasizes the faces of both Driver and Irene, as if the man’s suspicious words have manifested themselves as light. The characters remain at the social level of distance, but Irene exits the shot at the end, teasing us with the next action of the scene.
The third shot is a closed medium shot, allowing us to see the entire space of the scene, as Driver and Irene awkwardly enter the elevator with the mysterious man. As they enter the elevator, everyone suddenly moves to the personal level of character proxemics, ramping up the tension slightly. In addition, the strained movement of Driver’s arm to close the door breaks the man’s personal space, bringing the interaction to the level of intimate for a brief moment, again ramping up the tension a small amount. As the elevator door closes at the end of the shot, a light’s reflection makes the top half of the door extremely bright and the bottom half extremely dark, already subconsciously beginning the juxtaposition of light and darkness, hope and destruction. The elevator goes down, in the direction of the darkness.
The next shot is a low, open close up that establishes the perceived power of the man and the ominous nature of his presence. The high key lighting creates shadows along his face and body to emphasize the mood, while reflecting light onto Irene’s face, making her soft and innocent, again, an early foreshadowing of hope versus destruction.
The next shot mirrors the previous one, only now Driver is the subject. The same amount of power and the same dark, ominous feeling pervades Driver’s persona. We cannot see the entire elevator and the low angle maintains the tension.
The sixth shot is a close up, which moves slowly down to feature a gun in the man’s suit jacket. The high angle that the shot rests on feels as if Driver is peering into the man’s jacket. The lighting remains high key. Refn is building and maintaining tension.
The seventh shot is the same as the fifth, only this time Driver moves his head out of the key slightly and into the shadow. Irene remains softly lit. This tiny movement into darkness almost serves as a trigger for what is about to occur.
In the following shot, Refn releases some of the tension, while simultaneously ramping it up by raising the stakes. It is a closed, medium shot from a level angle. No one has yet lost his or her cool, although time seems to be running short for Driver’s window of opportunity. Slowly and deliberately, he reaches back and gently nudges Irene back into the wall, breaking the tension of first contact, moving from the personal to the intimate, just as the high key lighting intensifies further, shrouding the man in darkness and bathing Driver and Irene in hope.
The ninth shot is a closed close up from a slightly low angle. It employs closed form in that the world of the elevator seems to have ceased to exist. The strange man is not merely off-screen. Driver and Irene have left this dimension altogether. The hopeful high key lighting combined with the slight low angle, creates an almost mythical image, allowing us to be in the moment with the couple, but also remain in awe of their larger-than-life moment. And then Driver breaks the intimate plane and moves to what could be called the extreme intimate plane by kissing Irene passionately and painstakingly slowly. When the embrace ends and we move back to the intimate plane, Driver hovers next to Irene’s face, as if he may move back to that extreme intimate plane, but alas, the lights have already come back up, and the man exists once more. This was their only moment together. Hope is ended.
The next shot breaks the spell, releases all of the tension, reverses the pacing, and lets destruction off the leash. After an abrupt cut, a closed medium shot of the elevator greets us, but we only have a moment to take it in, as Driver grabs the man and slams him into the front wall of the elevator. The world exists again and we are there to witness all, the slightly low angle and normal lighting allowing the destruction to speak for itself. The abrupt cut served as a hard snap to the personal plane, while Driver’s abrupt action snaps straight back into the intimate plane. Only this time, destruction is intimate, not hope.
The eleventh shot is a close up of Driver’s intimate struggle with the man, as he slams him into the back wall. In this quick series of shots, the lighting remains even and the shots remain open, continuing to allow the destruction to speak for itself.
The twelfth shot is a slightly low angled close up of Irene, who is backing away from the action. She is still lit in high key, soft light, but this time and every time we return to this type of shot, Driver is engulfing a large chunk of the frame in shadow. The pair remains as far apart as possible, while still restricted to the personal plane. A direct conflict between hope and destruction is occurring here.
The next shot is a medium shot, which moves form a level angle to a high angle as Driver slams the man into the floor. The move to a high angle serves to emphasize the impact of the blow and forces Irene to the outskirts of the frame, while featuring the intimate contact between Driver and the man.
The fourteenth shot is a repeat of the twelfth, but Irene makes a larger retreat, recoiling from Driver’s engulfing, jerking shadow as he begins to stomp brutally on the man’s head.
The fifteenth shot is a high angle close up of the man’s prone and bloodied body on the floor, under high key lighting, to emphasize the destruction. The high angle guarantees that the man has no more power, and the quick movement from the personal plane to the intimate with another stomp to the face from Driver’s boot sends the point home further.
The sixteenth shot takes the fourteenth and twelfth shots and ramps up all of the elements further still. Irene remains at a personal distance from Driver, pressing herself against the wall, as the intimate, incessant, squelching stomping continues off-screen, solidifying intimacy’s association with darkness and destruction.
In the next shot, we move to a level, medium shot with Irene and Driver’s back turned to us, his body jerking with every stomp. Hope shines down on the pair in the form of the high key elevator lighting, but destruction seems to be creeping up along the walls from the floor in the form of darkness.
The next shot changes the pattern with an open, level close up of Irene in profile, staring dead eyed at the horror unfolding in front of her. She remains in her soft, high key lighting, but a tiny, creeping shadow remains on the wall behind, jerking with every stomp. The