Red.

Red.   A color commonly associated with blood and passion.  Red is of religious significance in the Jewish culture (check out: http://www.jewfaq.org/signs.htm).  It is the color of aggression, fear, violence,  intolerance, but most importantly in this case, ambition.  Ambition is not only a theme in Schindler’s List but an ideology about how people behave in relation to survival. No scene demonstrates this better than the famous scene of the little girl in red.

*Shot from the movie

Girl in red scene: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=j1VL-y9JHuI

As it is one of the most memorable scenes from the movie, I feel obliged to break down the mise en scene and photography from the clip of the girl in red.

As the camera looks down upon the street, the audience’s eye becomes attracted to the subtle hint of red walking in densely packed streets. The scene is filled with dark movement, which is the subsidiary contrast to the little girl. Angle used goes back and forth between looking down upon the havoc in the streets, and up to the hillside where Schindler is positioned to the right of the shot.  The little girl is positioned to the left of the shot during the entire scene, even when she hides under the bed. The lights are brighter and even though it is a close up shot of Schindler the sky creates a sense of openness in the scene. The opposite is true when the camera is on the little girl. The streets are darker, and the frame gradually closes in on the girl, as if she can’t escape. The movement and zooming of the camera creates a sense of tension in the audience.

The camera angle as well as the zooming in on the girl creates sense of tension, but the color of the coat, I argue, is what makes the ideology of the scene prevalent.The little girl is going with the flow of the crowds, and suddenly goes against the flow. Her ambition to survive by hiding is ultimately reinforced to the audience by the color of her coat. But the color of the coat also signifies what is about to happen to her. The ambition to survive is not enough.

Lastly, the photography in Schindler’s List has a particular style. In the last scene, while Schindler is saying his goodbye’s the shot is structured in a very specific way to make the audience emotional and understand the dramatic shift in the power of the characters.

Schindler is positioned to the right throughout the entire movie until the very end. At this point, Schindler is positioned in the first plane, however to the left and Itzhak Stern who is positioned on the right with the other workers in the planes behind him. The angle is over the shoulder of Schindler, which helps to represent the shift of control from Schindler to the workers. The focus of the lenses are on the first and second plane, but the images in the third and fourth plane are still somewhat clear as if they are a representation of all the Jewish workers, making this a very powerful shot.There is a dark shadow on the back of Schindler and brightness in the center of the shot helps the audience understand the shift; the freedom of the Jewish workers.

By the end there is a realization that you could have always done something differently. The little girl had the ambition to survive; this ideology is reinforced at the end of the film by Schindler.  Although portrayed as the hero at the end of the film, Schindler was confronted with his deeds and all he could say was that he “could have done better.” In the eyes of the Jewish workers, Schindler was ambitious to keep them alive; in Schindler’s eyes he wasn’t ambitious enough. Through writing, story, mise en scene, and photography Schindler’s List confronts the audience with this idea. Although it is disheartening, the notion of being ambitious, is just that. It is a human instinct, and an aspiration, but never a fulfillment.

For more on, “what does “red” mean?”: http://www.catalogs.com/info/gadgets/what-does-the-color-red-mean.html, http://www.empower-yourself-with-color-psychology.com/color-red.html