Cinematography

• blue lighting
• yellow lighting from the candle on their face – warm then angry
• close-ups of faces to show emotion/performances
• Close up of finished record – based in reality contrasting to previous fantastical scenes
• Mid-shot unstabilized, handheld camera of Mia sitting (lingering shot). This is different from the rest of the film with its dreamlike stable cam.
• Opens with a tracking shot of Mia
• As the argument starts the camera gets closer

Mise en Scene

• Use of colour – blue and yellow (changes in meaning)
• based in reality contrasting fantastical scenes
• burnt food is representative of their relationship coming to an end, as is the finished record
• Seb’s background/side is darker than Mia’s

Editing

• slow editing pace when Mia is walking home
• action-reaction shots
• Editing pace picks up during the argument

Performance

• ‘Do you like the music you’re playing?’
• ‘This is the dream’ ‘This is not your dream’
• Talking to yelling
• Emma Stone conveys Mia’s emotions without saying anything
• Sebastian looks at his food a lot instead of at Mia – he knows that he is wrong?
• Smiling at the start – hiding the cracks in the relationship?

Sound

• non-diegetic tinckly bell music turns into diegetic jazz music
• The music suddenly cuts to silence – symbolic of their relationship and the tension reaching it’s highest then falling
• The diegetic fire alarm sound
• City of Stars is being played but a faster version – upbeat
• Use of silence

Gender

• Mia voices her emotion

Context

• Vertigo: green/blue light through the curtains during a key scene

Spectatorship

• Partly aligned with both of them. But we mainly align with Mia because we are inclined to agree with her. Plus, we align with Mia after the mean stuff that Sebastian says. But, Seb is clearly beaten down by life. He’s realising the reality of life and the magic between him and jazz and him and Mia is fading

Ideology

• traditionalism
• feminism – ‘Anywhere you are?’
• traditionalism vs progress