Inception is an action/thriller film about a man who has the ability to enter peoples dreams and is trying to plant an idea in someone's mind.
The chosen scene shows mostly one continuous shot, rarely changing angle etc, of a cafe, which seems pretty normal at first. It shows a man and a woman sat outside at a table in the cafe having a conversation about dreams. Everything starts off normal, however, when he woman realises she is in a dream, crates of fruit and windows and other everyday street objects begin to explode around them, however they seem totally unaffected by the glass flying around them.
The main character is featured in this scene of the movie, as well as the woman he is sat with. The man is presented as quite a scheming character, as he is leaning forward on the table as if he is telling some secret and the medium close up of them both shows the difference between his attitude and her more innocent, relaxed one.
There is mostly just a few long establishing and medium close up shots in this scene of the film, which is typical of the action/thriller genre as it gives the audience a good chance to both get to know the setting, whether it is a fantasy setting or somewhere realistic and also who the main characters are and what kind of people they are. The establishing shots in Inception show the viewer that it is set in a realistic setting, in real places, however it also shows that some of the events that happen, such as things exploding and the fact they are in a dream to be fantasy and of a world that does not really exist. The main characters are presented as normal, average people until we are told that this part is actually set in a dream, which makes it a bit more fantasy-like. Using average people but with strange abilities makes the movie more relatable for the audience than if the characters were mythical-looking as their appearance makes the viewers think the characters are just like them.
There is some fairly smooth cutting from one shot to the next in Inception to create the idea of a flawless, flowing, dream-like state in which one thing seems to merge into the next, even if it doesn't make sense, which makes the audience feel more as though they themselves are in a dream and it is an easy thing for the audience to relate to as everyone has dreams and so they are used to the confusion of it. The smooth transitions contrast sharply with the violence of everything exploding everywhere, to continue to create the not-quite-making-sense effect of the dream.
The lighting and setting throughout the film is quite realistic in appearance as it is set as though it is in real life places featuring ordinary people, however, the weird camera angles and shots at times, as well as actually being told that they are in a dream makes the setting seem a little less realistic. This is typical of dreams as it seems as if we are somewhere we know, however, things happen which we know shouldn't, which confuses us.
The narrative of the film is a bit weird, as it is very confusing as to what is and isn't a dream and what time and place they are in, because everything switches around a lot. However, there are some fairly straightforward bits, it's more the changing between each scene that makes it confusing, not the narrative of the scene itself.
A very naturalistic style of acting is used in Inception and all the characters seem to be relatively normal and average-person like. I think this is used to make it seem as real as possible to make it more relatable for the audience if the characters are just regular people with regular families, apart from the main character's unusual ability.
There is a lot of diegetic sound in the film such as characters voices and explosions in the cafe scene. Yet again, I believe is is used to continue the natural and dream-like effect of the film. There is also some non-diegetic sound such as dramatic music, which is very typical of films of this genre as it helps to build tension and create drama, as well as potentially foreshadowing coming events.
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