Schindler s List Film Technical Review
Schindler’s List
The function of choosing black and white in Schindler’s List is to provide authenticity to the film, as a result it induces the imminence of the Second World War and increases the overall effect of the story. Moreover the viewers are stimulated both visually and psychologically due to the film noir style, providing a deeper impact on the audience, enhancing the brutality of the incidents, as well as the opposition of good and evil”the dominant interpretation offered by critics of Schindler’s List is that it mimics the depiction of real history through a fictional framework”(Caroline Joan Picart,David A. Frank, 2006:2).Spielberg cannily employs color in order to accentuate key scenes in the movie which contribute to the emotional impact and offers symbolic substance”light and color are some of the most powerful tools in the cinematographers arsenal [..] they have the ability to reach people at gut, emotional level. This is the very definition of cinematic language as we use the term here: visual tools that add additional layers of meaning to the content of the story”(Brown Blain, 2013:15). The medium close up has the purpose to evoke an emotive response of the subject regarding the circumstances of the events that take place. He gazes helpless and is appalled by the atrocities that are in motion”the medium shot, like the wide shot, is relative to the subject. By being closer in to the action, we can see people’s expressions, details of how they are dressed, and so on. We thus become more involved in what they are saying and doing” (ibid:23). As the camera shifts to a high angle, the audience can observe the scene from the character’s point of view; Schindler realizes, during the liquidation of the ghetto, the dread of the Holocaust, the image of the little girl in the red coat is the highlight of the scene, the use of a child as a symbol
The function of choosing black and white in Schindler’s List is to provide authenticity to the film, as a result it induces the imminence of the Second World War and increases the overall effect of the story. Moreover the viewers are stimulated both visually and psychologically due to the film noir style, providing a deeper impact on the audience, enhancing the brutality of the incidents, as well as the opposition of good and evil”the dominant interpretation offered by critics of Schindler’s List is that it mimics the depiction of real history through a fictional framework”(Caroline Joan Picart,David A. Frank, 2006:2).Spielberg cannily employs color in order to accentuate key scenes in the movie which contribute to the emotional impact and offers symbolic substance”light and color are some of the most powerful tools in the cinematographers arsenal [..] they have the ability to reach people at gut, emotional level. This is the very definition of cinematic language as we use the term here: visual tools that add additional layers of meaning to the content of the story”(Brown Blain, 2013:15). The medium close up has the purpose to evoke an emotive response of the subject regarding the circumstances of the events that take place. He gazes helpless and is appalled by the atrocities that are in motion”the medium shot, like the wide shot, is relative to the subject. By being closer in to the action, we can see people’s expressions, details of how they are dressed, and so on. We thus become more involved in what they are saying and doing” (ibid:23). As the camera shifts to a high angle, the audience can observe the scene from the character’s point of view; Schindler realizes, during the liquidation of the ghetto, the dread of the Holocaust, the image of the little girl in the red coat is the highlight of the scene, the use of a child as a symbol