BLOOD SIMPLE Opening Scene Analysis

BLOOD SIMPLE’s mise-en-scene starts off with the lighting of the car ride, it is dark, the characters’ are draped in shadows, the outside world is a blur, and the mood is being set for the follow on scenes. BLOOD SIMPLE’s opening composition also establishes a central theme for the audience that this movie will be gloomy, have immoral implications and be filled with betrayal. The lighting in the movie is constant throughout with heavy shadows, low backlighting, which is until the last scene where the light brightens as the action falls.
Key props were found throughout the film, however one of the major props was Abby’s hand gun. Investigator Visser shot Marty with Abby’s pistol, which he has stolen from Abby. The pistol reappears with Ray and Marty during the grave scene, where Marty tries to use

Each character had a color theme assigned to them which developed the audiences’ attribute of that particular character. A minor character, Maurice wore white for a majority of his scenes which conveyed that he was innocence of the main plot. One of the antagonist Julian, wore browns and greens, which secured this character as unscrupulous and as a jealous person. The investigator Loren Visser’s suit was yellow-green, it produced a feeling of an agitated state of mind towards that character, and which amplify this character’s deeds and words. Ray and Abby’s costumes were a blue tint color. The blue, was chosen to present to the audience a sense of grounding for the characters. For me, I felt an aversion to Ray and Abby as they were violating the trust of marriage by committing adultery, therefore I had a difficult time finding a protagonist element in them.
Mise-en-scene in BLOOD SIMIPLE is abundant, however at times somewhat surreptitiousness. This film moved me to look at the aspects of the moving frame scene to see what the director and production designer’s vison of this film to convey to the