Babel

So here’s what I’ve got for my pissy 800 word Babel essay (once I’ve dealt with the cinematography I’ll expand it to discuss how the message(s) of the film do/do not work)

Before we start, though, I’m disappointed to say the most interesting part about this film is the title. The tower of Babel – biblical tale of humanity being united with one language. Until god found out, he bust that party right up. Let’s go…

Alejandro González Iñárritu, Rodrigo Prieto and the design team constructed Babel [2006] in such a way that the visuals are what tells much of the story. Each setting (Morocco, Japan, Mexico) had its own look, however Prieto said “It was important to us that the film be visually unified, but with subtle differences that could emphasize the emotional state of the characters.” They achieved this through use of colour, movement, depth of field, film stock and lighting. I’ll examine the way these things convey character and situation within their separate sections and the occasional transfer of the styles.

Mexico

Mexico is stylised by colour, most particularly black and red, which was a deliberate colour link between the three sections by Prieto and Iñárritu. These choices give the Mexican segments two things: vibrance and danger. In the first Mexico scene when all his happy at home, the colours are warm and strong – notably the primaries (yellow, red and blue) which are bold in everything from the costume to the set to the sunlight. There is a subtle blend between sections, Morocco and Mexico, when Amelia is told (in a phone call from Morocco) that she cannot attend her son’s wedding. The colour fades, becoming more akin with the Moroccan sections, and the scene shows her room and everything around her in a colder light until she settles on a plan that will allow her to go. Then the colour returns in the form of a red dress and red ride.

Upon entering Mexico the shots are flooded with colour and movement. The composition becomes more full of objects and the editing aids this happy chaos – fast quick shots of everything around them. Mexico becomes a vibrant adventure of movement right through the wedding until the cross back over the border. At this point black dominates the screen, what was a lovely, rich accent in earlier scenes becomes visually oppressive as the characters are lost, confused and being tracked by border patrol.

Japan

Japan is distinctly different from the other two sections, and the farthest removed story as well. Everything in the Japanese sections seeks to create distance between the viewer and the isolated Chieko, while at the same time an attempt for understanding her. “For the Japanese story… [Prieto] tested different methods of achieving shallow depth of field to represent the point of view of the world of a deaf-mute girl.” In this way the camera sticks very closely to her face and only includes in focus what is important to Chieko at any given time. There is colour present in the Japanese sections but mostly artificial and largely derived from man-made light sources. This is both accurate of big-city-Japan and a stylised depiction.

For my part I found the club scene to be the most successful at conveying Chieko’s view – a complete focus on the lights and intermingled silent sections, as well as the chaos around her teetered between being exciting and potentially unnerving. This, and the final shot of the film (Chieko and her father on the balcony), clearly depict the isolation for which Iñárritu was aiming.

Morocco

Morocco’s visual style is immediately established in the first shot of the film – the vast, desolate landscape with a slightly warm sunlight at odds with the blue-shadowed valley. The aim of this section (I include Yusuf and Ahmed’s tale along with Richard and Susan Jones) is to convey the harshness of the setting. Morocco, Prieto felt, “had to have a sense of difficulty and a ‘dirty’ texture. We decided to use film grain and contrast to characterize their story.” The gritty texture coupled with the washed out palette creates an inhospitable look to the area. What is interesting is the use of red,. In Morocco the red was to be a burned umber, but when the place becomes more hospitable through its people taking care Susan, it is increased to a vibrant deep red of the costume of the old woman. Also at play  in this scene are the deep blacks that were mostly reserved for Mexico, here they provide the contrast Prieto mentioned, while outside the room and especially the people on the bus remain in cold, washed-out colours.

Camera movement can also be noted in the Morocco parts for having the least movement of the three. While it is largely handheld (I struggled to spot a moment in this film that is not handheld) it generally contains the most vista views and lingering shots, at least in the opening. In earlier parts this conveys a slow, contemplative existence until the shooting upsets that balance. Self-proclaimed culture blogger Barnaby Haszard Morris singled out an instance of this which he says demonstrates the purpose of the film. “Iñárritu wants to show us that our distrust of each other – especially those from different cultures – is keeping us from reaching common ground. The whole movie is summed up in the look on Brad Pitt’s face as he looks at his long-suffering guide and translator, just before he gets into the helicopter.” The drawn out moment had become rare in these parts as faster movement and cutting created tension both in the conflict between Richard and the others on the bus as well as the police hunt for Yusuf and Ahmed. This moment on the helipad transforms and gives meaning to so much mess.