Inside A Beautiful Mind

On this scene of A Beautiful Mind our tragic hero is waking up after being doped when entering the mental 
institution.

 

        The very first shot is of John’s point of view. The angle of the camera, the blurriness and the quick closing of the lens, gives the viewer the notion that what we are seeing is through our protagonists eyes. While his vision is readjusting itself, we hear an echoing voice. At the very end of this shot, we get a glimpse of John’s hands twitching as if he is just waking up and then we are directed to a shot of his medicated facial expression.
      
     As he is awakening, he hears whispering voices and creaking furniture, giving it a thriller tone. He turns his face to figure out where the noises are coming from, and then the cam is directed in a quick and rough manner to where he is looking. Therefore, the audience follows the noises along with John. When he first sees this imaginary man, a dark toned melody plays in the background and lets the viewer know that this is bad! The melody playing in the background suddenly transforms into a sad piano tune at the moment the doctor and the audience realizes that John is in fact hallucinating and having a conversation with no one. 

     When the doctor comes in the picture, the organization of the shots is clearer. When John is speaking we are set behind the doctor and seeing John within a distorted background. Once the doctor talks back we see John’s sitting position from behind while getting access to the doctor’s clear front view. As the conversation goes on, we get close ups of John alone and the doctor when they are speaking toward one another. These shots of their short conversation are determined by the length of their phrases, it’s really just a back and forth. This back and forth is also used when the imaginary man joins the picture. I felt like the cuts in the conversation scenes were not as seamless as to when he jumped out of the wheelchair or was being dragged out of the office. But, perhaps its just because I was following the assignment too carefully. 

     The arrangement of the scenes, from the moment John jumps out of the wheelchair, is essential to the emotion that the scene sparks. We first get a medium front shot of John jumping, and then we see him falling from a long side shot. When John is on the floor he sees one of his hallucinated characters in a corner sitting and looking down at him, while John is looking up at him from the floor. Then we as the viewer are split into two… One shot shows us John and his reality which is him on the office floor of the doctor who is standing behind him seeking help. On the other side, we are once again placed in John’s point of view by seeing this imaginary man who is a product of John’s illness. 

      The scene takes place around earthy colors with a dark tone. Even the last shot in which the surrounding characters, the floor and the walls are all white, there is a darkness accented with shadows. The shots of the imaginary man are purposely set in an even darker area of the room and he is set behind big furniture and a black pillar giving us a sense of shame and hiding. I also feel that the fact that John is on the floor and most of his point of view shots are from a lower angle looking up, is a significance of this character hitting a low point in his life/on the film. John’s POV are indispensable in order to sympathize with him and to understand what is real and what is not, since he cannot.