Inception

"Don't you want to take a leap of faith? Or become an old man, filled with regret, waiting to die alone..." (Saito, Inception)

Inception  is one of my all time favorite movies - it is not only one of the most interestingly developed in both literary and dramatic terms, but it also consists of brilliant cinematography. Directed by Christopher Nolan (my favorite director), and starring lead actor Leonardo DiCaprio (one of my favorite actors), this movie reigns as one of the best movies I have ever seen - and no, it isn't overrated. For this blog, I wanted to discuss some of the ideas that I was doing for my cinematic storyboard project. I wanted to get started on two specific shots, I feel, represent the essence of this movie. 

In this scene, Arthur (Joseph Gordon-Levitt), must provide a “kick” for his team in time but is required to fight with the dream’s defenses in order to complete his task. The director employs a wide shot to provide a view of the space around the body from a distance – this type of shot is integral in showing the peculiar nature of the rotating walls and changing environment of the dream. The director uses an eye-level camera angle to give the audience the impression of watching this scuffle within the action. By giving us an eye-level view, the audience is visually enamored by the character’s changing positions relative to the spinning maze-like environment. 

The camera moves on a boom crane in order to give the audience

full view of the action quickly and smoothly. As Arthur and his opponent jump and move from side to side, the camera follows the action with quick sweeps, similar to the way our eyes move when watching the shot. Basically, this scene is able to capture the very peculiar and unfamiliar sense of this movie - as well as portray some insanely well developed cinematic elements to a scene. 

In this long shot, Ariadne is creating a never ending image by making two mirrors reflect one another. I think the director chooses this type of shot to give the audience a full view of what the characters are seeing, and to draw attention to the fractured nature of Cobb’s reflection(s) in the shot – a very symbolic idea. In this scene, the director uses an eye-level camera angle, most prominently to make the audience feel as if we were standing there with Ariadne and Cobb. In this scene, the camera moves on a dolly, moving with the action, by moving around Cobb’s face and then onto the mirror scene. I think the swift and shaky camera movement is meant to mimic how Cobb feels in this situation – very curious but also very scared. The non-diegetic music in the background is interesting as it has two separate pieces of music going on at once – one is a slow dragging tune while the other is fast paced. These two tunes seem to represent the workings of Cobb and Ariadne’s minds. Where Ariadne is cool and calculated, Cobb is struggling to see what Ariadne is going to do next. I thought this shot was very interesting, as it not only showed us the fractured nature of our male lead, but also emphasized the relationship between two major characters. 

A true masterpiece, one must watch Inception to appreciate it for what is it - once you watch it, the idea will never go away! (See what I did there?)

"You mustn't be afraid to dream a little bigger, darling" (Eames, Inception)