Examines the file "A Beautiful Mind".

Essay by jmt901University, Bachelor'sA+, November 2003

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The shots of A Beautiful Mind consists of manly medium, high angle and low angle shots. John Nash is often shot in a medium shot. The film uses color as symbolic of good and evil. During scenes where the lead Nash was in a good mood or was having something happy happen to him, the colors were all saturated with a golden hue. The lights looked gold, and it was as if all the actors' faces were covered with golden morning sunlight. During the sad times there was a lot of desaturation going which gave it a pale blue or gray tone. At one point when his wife discovers he has reverted into deep schizophrenia and is about to accidentally kill their child, it is of course raining, there is a fierce wind blowing, the house is devoid of any color and everything is gray. This treatment does however; influence the mood of how we are supposed to feel.

High angle shots are used to show freedom and low angle shots to show hope. His relationship with Alicia is often shot in high and low angle shots.

A Beautiful Mind elegantly uses small, nice effects early on. When Nash is lost looking at geometric patterns, they dance across the screen of their own accord; when he looks at a page of numbers, digits float up to greet him. It is a smart visual, both suggesting the abstract joys of thought and the visual hallucinations to come.

The look of the film was very crisp and clear. There seemed to be no originality in the mise-en-scene and that was perplexing. In the school environment you saw school things, in a work environment you saw work things. It was as if they were more concerned with dating and the period of the...