There is no use denying the fact that art is a very powerful remedy which influences minds of people and makes them think about certain issues. Nowadays, many different kinds of art exist. However, under modern conditions, cinema obtains especial significance. In the modern world, it is one of the most popular and influential kinds of art which has a great number of admirers (Worsnop, n.d.). There are many methods and ways in which a movie and its director can influence a person and make him/her think about some certain issue.
However, not only modern cinema is able to add some changes to the mind of a person. Since its appearance, this kind of art became very influential, obtaining a great number of remedies to influence a viewer (Silverblatt, Miller, Smith, & Brown, 2014). The film Battleship Potemkin can serve as the best example of the perfect work of its director and usage of different elements of film style.
It is possible to analyze the scene from the film to understand the peculiarities of the whole work. It begins with the description of peoples glee (International School History, 2014). They seem happy and careless. The director uses a strong remedy to underline universal delirium. Different people are shown. A viewer can see a rich woman and legless soldier, children and elderly people. There are many mothers with their babies. It becomes obvious that representatives of different layers of society are shown here.
The director wants to underline the fact that men on the battleship have support from all people. Additionally, the film is black white, though there is one bright spot there. It is the red flag of the ship. It helps to understand who are the main characters of this video and who are loved by people.
However, the mise en scene changes. It becomes obvious that something scares people. Happy faces are replaced by scared ones as people are in panic. A viewer cannot understand the reason of this change at once, though the atmosphere influences him/her and some feeling of anxiety appears. It is a very powerful remedy used by the director as uncontrolled and unreasonable fear is a very strong emotion. However, later, it becomes obvious that people are afraid of soldiers who are marching downstairs.
Again, different small mise en scenes are used to make the feeling of anxiety and panic even stronger. One of the most powerful artistic devices used by the director is the scene with a child and his mother. They run down in horror, however, a child fells, though, mother is so scared that she does not notice it at the beginning. Some associations with animal fear come into mind.
Additionally, the director also tries to show that people try to overcome their fear which was their first reaction. They try to organize and stop these soldiers, following the mother who carries her killed son. However, all their efforts are useless. Soldiers are merciless. The scene with the baby carriage is obviously the culmination of the whole episode. It falls downstairs with the child in it, symbolizing the collapse of czarist regime and the end of Russian Empire (Ebert, n.d).
It should also be said the music for the film is chosen perfectly. It underlines some strong feelings and emotions. making a viewer feel the atmosphere and empathize people who run in fear.
References
Ebert, R. Battleship Potemkin. Web.
International School History. (2014). Eisenstein – Odessa Steps Sequence. Web.
Silverblatt, A.,Miller, D., Smith, J. & Brown, N. (2014). Media Literacy: Keys to Interpreting Media Messages. Santa Barbara, CA: Praeger.
Worsnop, C. Media Literacy through critical thinking. Web.