Movies and Architecture

A poster designed by Rohan Patankar and Varun Bajaj

FEEL IT OUT!

In real life, space can affect people. In reel life, people can affect space. A shaft of light for hope, a mosaic for confusion - the cinematic setting can boost any emotion. No wonder Jean-Luc Godard once said “a movie is the most beautiful fraud in the world”.

A light hearted rendition of a gravely serious political situation, and an exaggeratedly dark depiction of a city – sieve through the two and you get a good mix of emotions and an appropriate architectural setting to enhance the impact.

 The former, a 2007 animated film, Persepolis, is the journey of Marjane Satrapi, from an innocent childhood in war-torn Tehran, during the Islamic revolution, to an eventful adolescence in an alien Vienna and a mature step into adulthood. It explores mixed emotions of various characters, ranging from cheer in happier times, to fear during the war and freedom in escape.

The latter is a 2005 edgy, crime caper, Sin City. The movie explores interwoven tracks involving characters with more than average endurance and strength, in the dark and mysterious Sin City.

The movies are extremely different in terms of theme and depiction but are comparable as both have been adapted from black and white graphic novels. Since the use of colour is negligible, the emotional fabric has been explored primarily through spatial quality, lightness and darkness.

To illustrate the theme, one can look at the instance in Persepolis, where a woman is pleading helplessly for a visa in front of  a government official in Iran, and all one can see is a bare window with a web of mullions and transoms, which feel like the bars of a prison cell, enhancing the feeling of captivity experienced by the woman. The sheer scale of the window and the expanse of the room humble the woman and her plea, symbolizing the dictatorship.

During the night-bombings in Tehran, the obvious fear that engulfs the Satrapis is enhanced by the scene in which they are going down the seemingly secure, windowless staircase to seek refuge. The  strong silhouette of the staircase gives the feeling of rigidity and protectiveness.

While in Vienna, Marjane falls in love and this seems to affect everything around her, from the street furniture to the trees, softness and effeminacy seems to invade her surroundings.

One of the most powerful scenes of the movie is the one in which a lonely Marjane hangs up after talking to her parents on the phone, and the phone is shown in a haze, lit by a solitary hanging lamp. Marjane’s inability to adjust and her longing to go back to her family is depicted very effectively by showing an incorrect, impossible perspective, with two misfitting planes. On a similar note, in Sin City, one of the protagonists is imprisoned in a cell for 8 years, absolutely alone, and the way it has been shot is extremely metaphorical. The cell is shown as a solitary unit surrounded by total darkness, stressing on the protagonist’s loneliness and a zoomed out shot shows the cell as a very tall but small structure, magnifying the feeling of hopelessness, somewhat like the bottom of a deep well.

Doorways have been used very interestingly in this movie. A dark wall with a bright opening as the only glimmer of hope shuts and squashes all desire. A  closed door in an imposing brick wall to foretell an obvious danger. Sin City, being from the genre of Film Noir, relies heavily on shade and shadow to create this impact.

On comparing animated and conventional cinema, one can say that firstly, every scene in a conventional film has to be defined in all respects, whereas animators can take the luxury to leave things hazy, under-detailed and vague as they can draw freely and highlight what is important. Secondly, despite the bareness of the backdrop, animated movies tend to exaggerate the spatial quality in terms of scale, light and shadow. On the other hand, in conventional cinema, apart from certain camera tricks, the architecture stays more in touch with reality.

Another conclusion that can be drawn from these points is that an architect designs a space according to a person’s personality, and the way he/she would use the space. On the other hand, a set designer gets the opportunity to design according to the character’s feelings, his state of mind, no matter how transient they might be.

 Written by Varun Bajaj & Rohan Patankar