Cinematography: camera movement, angles and shots
Let's face it: no matter how much we deny it, at some point or other we all gave in to the little voice in the back of our minds controlled by a little devil (or not) by the name of curiosity. Many a time have we watched a film purely based on an intriguing title. Well, that is exactly what happened to me this time round.
Directed by Clint Eastwood and featuring the flawless talents of Angelina Jolie, Changeling is set in Los Angeles in 1928. The film, based on real events, is about a single mother - Christine Collins (Angelina Jolie) - who returns home from work one day to find that her five-year-old son Walter Griffith is missing. When she files in a report, the LAPD are not too eager to help a single mother. Five months later Christine is reunited with her son, only to find out that he is an imposter. When she points out that the child is not her son, Christine is faced with accusations that she is a liar, an unfit mother. Despite the effort of the police, a doctor and the boy himself to convince her, she continues to fight to find her real son. When she joins a minister in his public criticism of the police, she is sent to a psychopathic ward to silence her. Christine plans to show the LAPD for what they really were. She succeeds but still does not find Walter. Later she finds out that he was part of kidnapping and murder case, but he was one of the lucky ones to get away. This gave Christine hope to continue looking for Walter. In a nutshell, this film is a pure example of police corruption, female disempowerment, child endangerment and the consequences of violence.
The emotion of the characters is essential to set the mood for each particular scene in the film, and this is effectively done through the camera shots and angles.
For example, in the beginning of the film, when we can see the interaction between Christine and Walter, the camera angle is directed upwards, to show that the child really did look up to and love his mother. The same can be seen when the mother looks down to her son. The feelings of affection, warmth and love can be seen through the lighting used in these particular scenes.
In other scene of the film, such as when Christine found out about her missing son and when she was taken to the psychopathic ward, the camera would zoom in on her face to show her tears and facial expressions so that the viewer could also feel the emotions along with the characters.
The camera angles and choices also showed dominance between the LAPD and Christine. When the police and Christine were in the same scene together the cameras angle seemed to be an upward angle toward the police and a downward angle toward Christine to show the police had dominance over her and all other females.
With regards to camera movement, we can see they were not fast-paced unless it was a scene full of suspense. The camera angles and choice of shots were more slow and steady to show emotion and realism of the situation that was happening to Christine.
In my opinion, Clint Eastwood did a brilliant job on the film since despite the effective, simplistic acting of the actors, the light and shadowing, scene selection and camera angles were excellent in capturing the attention and heart of critics and viewers alike.
