Nicolas Winding Refn’s 2011 action movie Drive based on a 2005 novel of the same name follows an unnamed Hollywood stunt driver who moonlights as a getaway driver. The movie earned $81.4 million worldwide. It earned a total of $35.1 million in North America, and on opening weekend it earned $11.3 million. The international release earned $46.3 million. It was one of the highest ranked, and most featured film on critics’ year end top 10 list and was ranked fourth best film of the year.
The elevator scene is one of the most iconic and intense moments in this movie. It showcases the tension and violence the run though the narrative. It is a masterclass in tension building and visual storytelling by utilizing mise en scene elements like setting, character placement, sound design, cinematography, and lighting to create an unforgettable scene in the movie.
A dimly lit elevator in the apartment building is the setting for this scene. The most important part of this scene is lighting, and they use lighting to be able to differentiate the two separate parts of the scene. They use low lighting that casts shadows against the characters faces and is able to highlight certain parts. The beginning of the scene they use the lighting to create this romantic environment that is like their own world during the kiss between Driver and Irene, then the lighting changes so that they are able to turn the focus back onto Driver and assailant in the elevator.
This movie puts great importance on the soundtrack and sound to show the feelings of the characters and the intensity of scenes. With this scene it is marked with an eerie silence, with only the sound of the elevator and the quiet sounds of footsteps approaching. The absence of music and dialogue intensifies the tension and allows the viewers to really focus on what is happening in the scene. Also, the low noise is able to create a romantic atmosphere right before the violence starts.
The character placement is helpful in this scene as the protagonist Driver, stands very calm in the elevator with his back against the wall, while Irene is positioned near to him. The arraignment of the characters shows the protagonists protectiveness over Irene because he puts himself between her and the assailant.
The costume that Diver wears is his signature scorpion jacket, that symbolizes him being a predator and a protector towards people. The calm demeaner that he has and the hold on his toothpick show of his readiness to attack if need be.
When the elevator doors open two masked assailants armed with guns enter the elevator, and their presence is felt immediately. Driver without hesitation starts attacking by brutally taking care of the attackers in a flurry of violence. The sudden explosive nature of the attack adds to the shock and intensity of the scene.
Inside the elevator there is a medium close-up shot with presence of the three terms with low angle, but only the assailant is in focus, the protagonist is blurred but reflected by the scorpion jacket. This shot shows the importance of the assailant and with his gaze it shows that he realizes that the protagonist is the goal in the shot. This shot is then reversed, and now the protagonist is the important part and his gaze that is examining the assailants’ intentions. This is showed through a close-up of the unknown man, with a tilt down movement to show the gun, which confirms that the protagonist realizes that unknown man is ready to attack them. With the silence, tension and gazes it suggest that something bad will happen, so the camera movements increase with the expectation and tension that is building. But then an intense low speed movement emphasize the emotion, a close-up of Drivers hands and a tilt up movement until their mouths, give way to a slow kiss. The close-up of their faces is very long, but suddenly returns the light and the violence begins. The fight highlights the high angles when Driver hits and low angles when focusing on the assailant that is getting beaten up, all of it combined with close-ups of Irene scared, with the last shot of her emphasized with a slight zoom in. She leaves the elevator with a medium shot of him turning slowly to look at her and a medium shot of Irene in the garage and the final shot being of his iconic scorpion jacket. In the scene there are 26 cuts from right when the elevator doors shut to show Driver, the assailant, and Irene in the elevator to right when the elevator doors shut and Driver is left alone in the elevator, while Irene has exited into the garage.
Bibliography:
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“Drive – Box Office Mojo.” n.d. Box Office Mojo. https://www.boxofficemojo.com/title/tt0780504/.
Lathrop, Gail, and David O. Sutton. n.d. “ELEMENTS of MISE-EN-SCENE.” https://blogs.baruch.cuny.edu/latinxscreens/files/2021/02/Elements-of-mise-en-scene-G.-Lathrop-and-D.-Sutton.pdf.
Maddock, Daniel. 2018. “Reframing Cinematography.” Media Practice and Education 20 (1): 44–66. https://doi.org/10.1080/25741136.2018.1464735.
Phillips, Ivan. 2022. “Cinematography of Drive: Light, Shadow and Composition | Raindance.” Raindance. May 2, 2022. https://raindance.org/the-cinematography-of-drive-light-shadow-and-composition/.
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Sydney Fairlie
Having only partially seen this movie, the mise en scene description and all around editing context allowed for me to fully understand the scene. With that, I do agree with the assessment as they have meticulously depicted the play-by-play of the scene in its’ entirety to fully grasp what is happening based on the screen grab. Every small detail, including the description and meaning behind the jacket, to the detailed description of the shots used frame-by-frame within the elevator allowed optimum context for someone who may have never seen or heard of the film.
The use of the scholarly sources further impacted the analysis. Not only researching the film in question for other’s input and analysis to enhance the writer’s ideas, but the research of other movies with the same type of film technique rounded out the analysis as a whole. Further researching film techniques as a whole greatly struck their writing to take in all concepts and perceptions.
As a whole, the analysis was well written to allow full context on the scene.