The Content Value of the Line as a Visual Element in Cinematic Mise-en-scène (Case Study: Asghar Farhadi's Films)

If we look around through an artist's investigative eye, we shall perceive every object and element as a combination of lines, points, surfaces and volumes; Elements which are referred to as visual elements in visual arts. Each visual element of frame and image composition can play a distinct role in conveying a specific meaning. Unquestionably, line is the most readily available and the most important element found in our environment. Each frame of our world is packed with lines that make up the surfaces and volumes of our surrounding areas. Each line infuses its own meaning and concept in the frame. For example, horizontal and vertical lines are in conflict, a vertical line is exactly in an upright position on horizontal line, conveying a sense of dynamism and height in the picture. In contrast, a horizontal line conveys a sense of coldness and stillness in the frame. Now if we analyze frames making up the body of a movie by transferring illusion of motion to the audience through an analytic view and an approach to the visual arts, we may realize that each such frame itself can serve as a window that conveys a concept to the audience. In this respect, the use of visual elements can play a significant role in conveying the image sense to the audience. In other words, the director can employ a mise-en-scène arrangement of the scene objects to convey a sense of uneasiness, dispersion or altered mental or social space to the audience by creating segments, broken and angular lines. This article endeavors to demonstrate the impact of visual arts in cinematic mise-en-scène through analyzing Asghar Farhadi’s movies such as “The Beautiful City”, “The Past” and “A Separation”. The reason for selecting Farhadi’s movies as case study in this paper is that when a director such as him obtains lofty awards like the Academy Award for best Foreign Language Film, he has definitely been able to convey the sense and concept of his movies in the form of image to the audience who don’t understand the movie’s original language. Consequently, analyzing the mise-en-scène of his films with an approach towards visual arts can be of great assistance to this research. In this study, the impact of lines created by objects or actors have been studied via examining the movie frames in these three films and also by analyzing mise-en-scène and the impact of lines in creating depth of field in the semantic space. In addition, this study aims to illustrate the significance of the implication of visual arts' principles in cinema through combining the features of visual arts in cinema and studying the mise-en-scène of these three movies. The study also endeavors to display the fact that visual elements, specifically lines, can help convey feelings through mise-en-scène in cinema. Also, the use of mise-en-scène based on and through the employment of a variety of lines and their features as well as their psychological, visual properties can assist directors transmit feelings. As the one determining the mise-en-scène, the director should have comprehensive information on the features and effects of visual elements and particularly line, as one of the most important elements, to be able to use an appropriate stage setting and proper arrangements to convey feelings to the audience. Therefore, the result of this research reveals a new dimension of the key role of visual arts in cinema.