Movie Poster Analysis: Mortdecai

Mise-en-scene, the French term for “placed in the scene” helps to detect several elements within a shot; props, costume (hair & make-up), facial expressions, lighting & colour, positioning of characters/objects within a frame, and setting & location. All these elements help the audience to gain an understanding of what the scene in the frame displayed is about, or what is going on. In this case, mise-en-scene helps to pick apart a movie poster, to, with only a few keypoints, be able to pick apart what the movie is about. A movie poster can give one person just as much information as a trailer can.

            Starting off with the actual props in the movie poster of “Mortdecai”, One of the characters played by Johnny Depp, is holding a glass of alcohol in his right hand, and in his left hand he is holding a cane. Both the glass of alcohol and the cane he is holding in his hand suggest that he is a very wealthy man; his cane could also be an indicator that he is either old-fashioned, as canes are rarely seen/used today, or has a walking impairment. It also suggests the time frame of when this movie is taking place, however the costume of Gwyneth Paltrow’s character suggests otherwise.

            In comparison to Depp’s costume and hair, which is a well-tailored, clean suit, which also connotes that he is a wealthy man, Paltrow’s costume is modern. She is wearing a beige/gold leather jacket, and has her hair down. The reason why this suggests that the time frame of the movie would be around the year of 2015 is because of the way she is dressed. If the movie were set in the time frame to which Depp’s character is dressed, Paltrow would be in a dress, her hair would be up and she would probably be sitting, and Depp would be standing.

When looking at the way the characters are positioned, it looks like Paltrow’s character is a powerful, empowering, in-control and know-it-all character (this is also derived from her facial expression, which connotes that she knows exactly what is going on, and that she also knows that she is always right). It also looks like that Paltrow’s character could be an important person in the life of whoever Depp’s character is, and that she could most likely be the one to save him when he dug himself a five-foot hole in the ground. Depp’s character, on the other hand, is lying on the couch in front of Paltrow, which suggests that even though she is towering over him, and seems to be the one to tell him what to do, that he is still more important than her. His position on the couch is a very calm, yet careless one at the same time, connoting that he really couldn’t care less about what is going on around him, and that when he’s made a mistake, he wouldn’t really mind. His facial expression combined with the pose also connotes that he is making fun of something; that could suggest that his character is rather comical, which then suggests that the genre of this movie is comedy. By seeming to be such a carefree character, he is most likely going to do a lot of things that could get him into deep trouble; by looking at both of the characters together, it is obvious that they contrast one another, yet work very well together at the same time.

The lighting and colour in this movie poster suggest that the movie isn’t going to be very dark, and isn’t going to be depressing. It suggests that the movie will be rather joyous, and that there would most likely be elements in the movie that will make you laugh; again, this ties in with the facial expression that Depp’s character is pulling – it suggests that the movie is going to be a comedy (what also suggests that it will be a comedy is the actor himself, Johnny Depp). The bright lighting and background also suggests that the two character shown on the movie poster are going to be our protagonists.

The setting of this scene within the movie poster is completely white, and seems to be in a big mansion that probably cost a lot of money. Again, this suggests that the two characters, or at least one of the characters, has a lot of money. When tying the white background together with the lighting & background, it gives us the impression that the characters we see in the foreground are most likely going to be the protagonists, rather than the antagonists of the movie, as white connotes peace, and the good side in life.

Without ever having seen the movie, having read a summary, or even seen the trailer, I can depict that this movie will be a comedy, that it will be a movie set in modern times, and that it will be about someone who has a lot of money, or even looks like he has too much money, or who is going after money, who keeps getting himself into trouble, always knows better, always feels like doing whatever he feels like doing at that moment, and who has someone beside him who is always right, and is always able to save his butt just in time.