Framing in cinemascope and Narration

[Manish Singh Baghel]

What are the similarities and difference in the ways in which Truffaut and Kurosawa use cinema-scope in the movies 400 Blows and High and Low respectively?

[Bruce Greene]

Why do I get the feeling that this is your homework assignment? Why don't you give us your opinion?

[Manish Singh Baghel]

François Truffaut and Akira kurosawa both are the master of modern cinema, the style of film they made are still seems contemporary after 50 years. Truffaut’s 400 Blows (1959) and Kurosawa’s High and low (1963) both were shot in widescreen (Aspect ratio of 2.35:1). 400 blows is the first French film to use widescreen. The use of cinemascope (i.e. Widescreen) adds up in the narrative structure of both the films. In 400 blows wide screen is used to emphasizing in the character it also enhanced the Mise-en-scène in the frame. From the framing of the very first sequence of Eifel tower to the last sequence of the Sea beach, every frame has nice composition in it, especially the PT sequence from the roof top angle. The other sequence which were enhanced by the wide screen were when Antonio was running with his friend in the street, when they were outside a shopping mall, the spinning sequence, the sequence of the little kids watching puppet show , the extreme close-up of Antonio’s mother when she has come to meet him in remand home, and the beautiful landscapes in the background of Antonio when he is running away from the remand home, in all the sequences we can see everything but emphasis from the character wasn’t going. Whereas the use of cinemascope in Kuosawa’s High and low was very much like a Noh theater’s stage in the interior sequence while in the exterior sequences it showed the whole industrializing Japan , the slums the factories, the chimneys that was on other hand was juxtaposed by the Mt. Fuji other landscapes(from bullet train) etc. the composition was similar to the Noh theater where there is main stage central stage and the background stage and characters are spread all over the stage still viewer’s can see each of them from their respective positions. Each character was given equal importance. By the time of High and low widescreen was quite popular in cinema.