Moonlight Flashcards
(5 cards)
Mise-en-scene: Ocean, symbolically tied to rebirth and baptism, is presented as a site where racialised bodies can experience liberation outside of white supremacist structures. The bare, minimal mis-en-scene symbolises the complexity of urban poverty and violence.
Cinematography: Handheld camera floats with the characters, the gentle, fluid camera movements mirror Little’s body in their passivity, the relaxation in Juan’s care. The camera itself becomes part of the elemental experience.
Editing: Long takes elongate time, contrasting the hurried, survivalist rythm of Little’s day-to-day. Dreamy - the cuts match the cadence of the water, interspersed with emotional close up
Performance: Juan (Mahershala ali) is tender and paternal (rejects the usual cinematic coding of Black Masc.) Little (Alex Hibbert) communicates through microexpressions - subtlty of trans. from fear to trust
Cinematography: The camera uses close ups on Naomie Harris’s face capture the erratic desperation of her performance. The shallow depth of field lends to the incoherence and stress of the scene: detachment
Performance: Naomie Harris conveys layers of anger, fear, shame and love: portraying the complexities of the oppressive nature of poverty, addiction and single motherhood. Alex Hibbert’s muteness isn’t merely passivity but survival instinct.
What in Moonlight (2016) encourages active spectatorship?
Episodic narrative structure introduces ellipses
“embodied vision”—where the camera’s movement mimics bodily and emotional states
Negative space repr. isolation
diegetic sound; clinking of dishes, ambient conversation, and jukebox music ( Barbara Lewis’s “Hello Stranger”) = rich sonic environment that grounds the viewer in present while evoking shared past. The gradual diminishing of background noise as the conversation intensifies - “selective aural focus”—mirroring how emotional intensity narrows perception.
Kevin lets the song speak for him, in a nurturing feminine voice he can’t command physically - he looks on chiron and lets him know what it means
“intensified continuity,” - conventional continuity editing is maintained but with increased psychological emphasis through (slowing) timing
