Movie showdown: Little Caesar vs Wizard of oz

Little Caesar – 1932

Directed by  Mervyn Leroy.

Studio: Warner brothers

Film noir: Black and white, mafia, gangsters, crime, murder

Start of a quote @ fall all they take the sword shall perish”, there is a car arriving at a gas stations, I hear gunshots, the lights go down, the car leaves. The scenes fade always.

Establishing shot outside a casino with a neon light billboard, Caesar goes in and talks to the boss, he seems like to be asking something to the boss, and is represented like a little boy by the he stands since he has his hat infront of him. The boss looks high class since he has a handkerchief and whine.

The lightning in this scene is done in a way so that you can see lots of shadows and verticals. The shadowing kind of cover a little bit Caesars face, also, the fact that there is a shadow at one corner makes it easier to see a flickering light outside, so it tells you that you are in the same building.

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Wizard of oz, 1939

Directed – Victor Fleming

Studio: MGM

Scene where they follow the yellow big road, it’s in bright colour, quite spectacular in those times. Loads of midgets (children) used.

Mise en scene

 Lots of sets used, very expensive. The big difference from both of these scenes is the mise-en-scene, part of film aesthetics. It means putting on stage. Comes from the theatre world, it is basically everything that is there before the camera starts rolling, just to make it look like reality. That means images, character movement, and lightning, set designs, motifs. It tells us a lot about te socio historical and institutional content of the scene.

Mise en shot

Means, the way the filmed events are filmed, it literary means “putting into shot”

Little Caesar	Wizard of oz
Lightning, the lightning is very very dark, and it focuses partially on the gangsters so that you have a closer look. Set design – Naturalistic, simplistic, just a typical old fusion office. Just	It is super bright and brilliant colours, just to illustrate how happy the world is.

Little Caesar

Wizard of oz

Lightning, the lightning is very very dark, and it focuses partially on the gangsters so that you have a closer look. Set design – Naturalistic, simplistic, just a typical old fusion office. Just Costume – Very classy and elegant costumes used in those days, notice that the bosses costume (specially the handkerchief in his pocket) symbolizes that he has money. Also, little Caesars has a long robe, like the one of a detective. Images, motifs – hats, desk, gas station, cars

It is super bright and brilliant colours, just to illustrate how happy the world is. Set design, a huge set with large paintings to give an illusion of depth, like hills. Costume – Fantasy costumes (used by the munchking), they are colourful and exaggerated. The girl’s costume is quite ordinary however, making a big contrast between her and the munchkins. Images – ruby slippers, munchkins, yellow brick road.