Director Dee Rees and Cinematographer Bradford Young have made good use of colors, mise-en-scene, lighting, particularly to bring out the themes of Alike’s journey on searching for her identity, community, and family values.
The film breaks the traditional rules by illustrating the non-mainstream society to emphasize uniqueness in each person. It also uses contrasting colors, tones, dark shadows, and lighting to effectively express and reflect the characters’ roles and emotions, which contrasts with Classical Hollywood Cinema style films.
Mise-en-scene: Setting
The story is set in a neighborhood in New York. Almost all characters are African-Americans. The film jumps out of the box and emphasizes the sexually-driven, women, lesbian society, and sees this as the mainstream society right at the beginning of the film, which is rare in films nowadays.
Although the film emphasizes gay, African-American women, it still portrays every characters’ identities differently. For instance, although Alike is a lesbian, she is still looking for her position within the lesbian community. This allows the audience to see each person as individuals and understand that everyone has different identities, is unique in their way, and belongs to different categories. There is no one specific group that suits all people.
The last scene on the rooftop of Laura’s apartment building sets the tone for the ending, representing reconciliation, acceptance, love and hope.
Costume and Makeup
The film seems like not putting a lot of effort into makeup and costumes to show the typical, repressed teenager. The costumes and makeup in the film show natural and realistic in one’s character, which also reflects one’s personality and values. They also show Alike’s desire to define her gender and sexuality during her teenage years. E.g., When Alike wears the pink shirt her mother (Audrey) buys, Alike doesn't feel like herself.
While Alike’s regular/go-to outfit shows her real self and shows a more developed sense of style. At this point, Alike has accepted her lesbianism, but she hasn't come out to her family. E.g., When Alike is spending time with Bina or Laura.
Lighting and Shadows
The film shifts between bright and dark lighting and shadows to illustrate the character’s emotions. E.g., When Alike goes deep in thought on the bus, school, club, etc. The film uses dark lighting and shadows to explain the pessimistic and repressed feelings further Alike is having.
In contrast, the film uses bright, yellow, warm lighting when Alike becomes optimistic and finds hope in life, finds her identity, values, and community. E.g., The kissing scene: The warm color tone and dark lighting help bonding Alike and Bina together. Surprisingly, Bina turns out to be not gay, so the scene uses dark shadows and lighting instead of a bright setting to show the reality behind the romance.
E.g., The rooftop scene shows Alike with his father, who stands up for Alike and protects her thinks he failed because he doesn't stop Audrey from hurting Alike when Alike reveals her sexuality. The bright, warm, vibrant lighting from the sunset helps visualize Alike appreciating the beauty in life after going through pain and suffering.
Blocking
The social blocking of the conversation between Alike and Arthur brings Arthur down to a more human level.
Although Arthur's position in the frame is put slightly above Alike to present his male dominance, he supports and respects his daughter's decision. Alike and Arthur face opposite directions to illustrate a realistic interaction between them and explain the picture subjectively.
Color
Color is the most crucial element in Pariah. Cinematographer Bradford Young shifts between dark, cool color tone, and bright warm color tone. It allows the audience to experience interchange moments between optimism and pessimism and reflect Alike’s search for identity.
The dark shadows, lighting, and cool color tone represent the struggles of Alike, while the bright, warm yellow color tone and lighting illustrate how Alike finds love and hope in her life. The color balances of the yellow/orange spectrum are displayed aesthetically to help provide a strong sense of optimism.
E.g., The kissing scene is a very optimistic time for Alike. The yellow/orange color spectrum illustrates this scene, but with darker shadows and tone, Alike’s optimism gets destroyed after Nina tells her she is not gay. During the rooftop scene, the brighter tones allow the audience get more of a sense of closure.
At the club, Alike is reflected by the dim, purple lights. She is difficult to recognize among the other people there. Different color reflects on Alike symbolizes that she is struggling to understand where she belongs. The color also represents different environments Alike is going through and adapts herself to varying colors. She struggles to stick to a stable color/environment. E.g., Red lights represent Alike’s anger towards her mother as Alike wants her mother to leave her alone.
Towards the end, as Alike comes closer to understanding and appreciating who she is, we start to see her through clear, white light. E.g., When she is reading her “Heartbreak” poem to her English teacher, and when she is on the bus.
Comparison with conventional Hollywood narrative filmmaking
Themes:
- The characters in classical Hollywood cinema are comparatively active, and the story is protagonist-driven, motivated by personal, psychological matters.
- While Alike’s motivation is inspired by surroundings/societal matters, her struggles to search for her identity, community, and family values, other characters reveal their connection with Alike later in the story. The situation in Pariah is relatively more realistic.
- E.g. The actors in Footlight Parade show clear motivation to present clear ideas to the audience. For instance, this film is full of vigorous activities such as banging the door and pushing people. While Pariah uses colors to indicate the characters’ emotions.
Visual aspects/elements:
- Pariah uses dark shadows and lighting instead of high-key lighting that appeared in Classical Hollywood Cinema films.
- It also contrasted with the Classical Hollywood Cinema style in terms of blocking. Pariah uses the rule of thirds and depth that allows the audience to see the development of Alike’s perspectives instead of putting all characters in the center/foreground.
Conclusion
Pariah have made good use of setting to picture the non-mainstream society, which emphasizes the major elements of the film (gay, African-American, women’s role). The costumes and makeup shows Alike’s desire to define her own gender and sexuality during her teenage years.
The film shifts between bright and dark lighting and shadows to illustrate the character’s emotional changes. Different colors in the film reveals the interchanges between optimism and pessimism, and reflect Alike’s search for identity. Different tones of color reflects on Alike symbolizes that she is going through different environments, adapting herself to different colors.
Pariah greatly contrasts with Classical Hollywood films in terms of themes and style, especially Alike’s actions are motivated by her surroundings, while dark lighting and shadows are used instead of high-key lighting.
Works Cited
Archer, Ina. “Review: Pariah.” Film Comment, Film at Lincoln Center, 9 Aug. 2016, www.filmcomment.com/article/pariah-review.
Ebert, Roger. “Pariah Movie Review & Film Summary (2012).” Roger Ebert, 4 Jan. 2012, www.rogerebert.com/reviews/pariah-2012.
Elias, Debbie Lynn. “PARIAH.” Behind The Lens Online, 19 Oct. 2014, behindthelensonline.net/site/reviews/pariah.
“Pariah.” The Feminist Spectator, The Feminist Spectator, 3 Feb. 2012, feministspectator.princeton.edu/2012/02/03/pariah-2.