AMERICAN PSYCHO

2001

CONVENTIONS• There is something similar to

the fake scare in most horror movies but more subtle, seen in the beginning. There is a hint that the film is going to be a psychological thriller, and have things to do with delusions of the mind: in the titles, you believe that you are seeing drops of blood splayed and dripping on the screen when in fact you find out it was only raspberry sauce.

SOUND• It begins off jerky, and has the

conventional string music of thrillers. It sounds classical, sophisticated and almost as if it were done in an operatic style, a type of music associated with well off middle class. It sounds very smooth and soothing – when all of a sudden a shrill note here and there will interrupt, disrupting the mood, again and again although it disappears when the titles end and the footage begins. Then the music remains without and only seems upbeat. This is an indicator that although everything may appear to be pleasant and happy underneath the surface there is something not quite right, a little off, disturbing.

USE OF TITLES• The background is off-white, almost grey – it should

have been white but it looks tainted with something else, something dirty.

• The text isn’t still but it doesn’t move smoothly either – it’s shaking, as if about to fall apart although it seemed well constructed. Perhaps a character seems as if he’s organised and together, but in the same way too will fall apart – lose his grip on reality.

• There are drops of blood falling on screen, coming out of nowhere to drip onto the background. The film’s title AMERICAN PSYCHO is surrounded by sudden splatters of it, the blood being quite messy whereas previously it had been in neat little drops and surrounding the title entirely. The film’s killer character could have a control on his urge to kill then slowly over the course of the film as happened over the duration of the titles, end up losing his control and get messy, not cleaning up after his kills.

• A large kitchen knife moves across the screen appearing over and introducing the name CHRISTIAN BALE: suggesting that his character could be the dangerous one.

CAMERA TECHNIQUES• After the titles end, the camera focuses on the food which we

see from an aerial angle. There isn’t much of a focus on actual people, as the camera is mainly panning over the food as if to highlight the extravagance of all this exorbitantly priced small portions of gourmet good. It dehumanises everyone else.

• There is a mid level shot of the waiter, tracking him as he passes by with dinner for a customer. The close up of him first is not of his face but rather his hand that serves food. This suggests that the most important thing about him is not him as a person but that services are all that he is worth – in this setting, he is beneath the customers.

• The couple in the beginning sitting at a table with others are seen from a tilting shot which begins from the bottom then tilts up – showing their superiority.

MISE EN SCENE I• The first thing seen after the titles end, linked directly with

them as the ‘blood’ from the beginning is shown to only be raspberry sauce squirted on a plate of meat. The meat has already been sliced up in advance for the customers – an added luxury which they are no doubt paying for. Meat all sliced up with red liquid around them here is food but may make the watcher feel somewhat uneasy as the jerky music and ‘blood’ from earlier has already put in thoughts in their head of killing and death. This gives the audience an insight into the main character’s mind – he may see everyday ordinary things differently to other people, more morbid.

• The couple at the table look classy, more or less facing each other. He is in a businessman’s suit with pinstriped shirt, neat tie and collar with his hair combed back meticulously, every hair gelled in place. She is in a fuchsia dress, with dangling golden hoop earrings that look real, with blonde hair and make up. There is an air of extravagance around them – this is the clientele of this restaurant, these people who must be rich and their appearance itself screams ‘money’. Despite seeming to be on a double date and therefore romantically involved with one another, the expressions on their faces are quite reserved. They are dispassionate, polite, distanced – emotionally cold. Being divorced from real emotion could be a common theme in this film. Another coupe, also with the man in a sharp suit, tie and slicked hair with a blonde woman in a classy black dress with gloves and straight hair; both cold expressions.

MISE EN SCENE II• Everything about the setting, the people and the

situation denotes money. There is a huge focus not on the people but the different kinds of food on the type which although small has been designed with almost extreme attention to detail. You don’t see the faces of most of the people who are eating as if the product not the person is what’s important – it’s impersonal and desensitized.

• The hands seen holding the cutlery are pale and manicured – not the hands of a working class person who is more likely to be doing more manual work and less likely to be able to afford a manicure. Everyone here is self-indulgent. There are pink roses in vases, wine glasses, an expensive watch on a man’s wrist, a cigarette lazily tapping off the ash, double sets of cutlery, someone eating their dessert delicately with their leather gloves on. The atmosphere is hedonistic, nobody having anything better to do than pursue their own pleasure – although nobody looks truly happy.

• There’s a face reflected, flashing in the breadknife briefly – but it’s subtle, done very quick. You’d have to be looking for something amiss to have seen it, and this gives the suggestion subtly of there being a killer present.

MISE EN SCENE III

• The waiter is wearing a white jacket with fancy gold buttons and a waistcoat. Working in a restaurant where you are constantly surrounded by food, it’s unpractical to be wearing white and extravagant; but he does so anyway and it is completely clean. He is wearing a high collar, buttoned up to the throat and a bow tie – this must be uncomfortable in a job where he is moving a lot the entire day serving people and helping out the restaurant. The high collar is restrictive and all of this gives the impression that keeping up appearances here is what is most important.

• There’s a prop in the restaurant of a menu which looks as if it’s handwritten – which shows the restaurant employees took that extra effort for their customers, and shows the attention to detail, the level of care here is high; again, unpractical, extravagant, this says ‘money’.