Naturalistic mise-en-scene in The American (2010)

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The setting of Anton Corijn’s The American (2010) is Castel Del Monte, Abruzzo in Italy. The mise-en-scene is a beautiful area filled with breathtaking sunsets that light the town, and plush green trees, bushes and bright, pretty flowers that, to me, looks like something of an Italian painting. These are all naturalistic traditions; the way the sun and trees reflect off of Jack’s windshield as he drives in one of the scenes; the way the shadows behind the community's people is so apparent in the bright and sunny afternoon is also natural. The way the sounds of the butterflies, bees and lake together fill the air at Jack and his prostitute’s oh so “special spot" is, too, naturalistic (Clooney, George).

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In another scene, the rain on the street is clearly seen, as the street lights reflect off of the wet ground, and the sounds of the footsteps and/or car tires quietly splashing through is clearly heard, making the mise-en-scene very real. This scene takes place as Jack is being followed by the Swedish, and right before Jack breaks the guy’s neck, (Clooney, George). These are all naturalistic traditions, as this is what is really real, in real life, and the film conveys it nicely. To confirm this, Corrigan & White (2009) explains this Naturalist concept in the following quote: “If mise-en-scene is about the arrangement of space and the objects in it, as we have suggested, the naturalism in the mise-en-scene means that how a place looks is the way it is supposed to look” (86).

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In other examples defining the text's quote: in the beginning of the film, Jack is sitting with his “lover” while slow, romantic piano music plays in the background. The light is dimmed and the woman is happy, but Jack looks cold, uncomfortable and in a world of his own. All of these objects count as naturalistic mise-en-scene. After "Mr. Butterfly" shoots the love of his life in the head, (and two others) he drives down a grayish road while in pursuit of Rome to hopefully get away from the madness he helped create. The mise-en-scene now is a “sapian” sky, and it most likely symbolizes Jack’s emotional and depressive state in that very moment. In no particular order, I've gathered a few more examples, and this also includes apart of the introduction. In the beginning of the film, Jack is driving through a tunnel with a shade of yellow flashing everywhere (Clooney, George).

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Jack reaches the light at the end of the tunnel, and that’s where the scene ends, and transitions onto the next. Many people think that the scene represents the beginning of the end of his life, but was this tunnel scene before or after he had already shot his aloof lover in the head? Frankly, the "beginning of the end of his life" started back at the cabin, and the ending to “the end of his life”, and yet instead a new beginning and a new life, sparked at the end of the tunnel where he was given a second chance at life. The audience knew what they were about to experience in the main character before he did, and it is all because of the tunnel scene.

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In The American (2010), why this transformation occurs has a lot to do with a special prostitute he meets while in the midst of going crazy. In the middle of being miserable and trusting no one, he meets the real love of his life, a woman whom he feels he can open up to, be himself with and let his guard down to finally (he asks her to run off with him in the end). This prostitute took his heart, and before he could embrace his second chance at life by running away with her by his side, he tragically dies in the end by a gunshot wound, leaving his potential lover-to-be behind to rot on a street corner.

In what ironically looks to be a joyous and mesmerizing place, sadness mostly  dominates the entire film, and torment slowly kills Jack’s (George Clooney) paranoid, over-active mind, right up until what seems like a fateful death; it is tragic and bittersweet, and yet beautiful at the same time; and I am not talking about the prostitute.

Works Cited:

Clooney, George, perf. The American. Dir. Anton Corbijn. 2010. Focus Features. CD-ROM.

Corrigan, Timothy, and Patricia White. Film Experience: an Introduction. 2nd ed. New York, NY: Bedford/St. Martins, 2009. Print.