O Brother Where Art Thou Mise en Scene Analysis

The scene shown above is the scene where the three escaped prisoners pull over to find three beautiful women who appear to be washing clothes in a river bed. In the foreground, there is a basket holding the jug of "XXX" water that the women use to drug the men. Only the top of the jug can be seen, and the viewer does not yet know at this point that the jug is drugged. In the middle of the scene are the three women. who are all attractive and are all wearing wet, white clothes. The women are all singing the same song in sync and do not speak otherwise. The important part of this scene lies below the women and behind them. Below them, there is a river bed that they are washing their clothes in. This is significant because the women here are clearly meant to represent sirens, which are characters from greek mythology, specifically the Odyssey. In Odyssey and greek mythology, sirens are beautiful women who lure sailors into shallow/rocky waters (to their deaths) via beautiful singing. Here, we notice that the women are beautiful, sing beautifully, and are luring the men into shallow, rocky waters and could end their journey abruptly. The quite, beautiful, and peaceful background are in place here to suggest that everything that happens in this scene will be good and that nothing could be wrong with the situation at hand. However, the men are deceived by the scenery and the women here.

The vanishing, 1988 vs 1993

The two versions of "The Vanishing" are very similar, being the same plot, but they are also different in some ways. There are some underlying themes in both that change and are not necessarily very easy to see.

The original version of "The Vanishing" uses more imagery and foreshadowing of events than the later version. In particular, there is a scene where Rex and Saskia run out of gas in a very dark tunnel. Rex goes to fetch gas, while Saskia waits in the car. As Rex comes back, he notices that she is no longer in the car and is at the end of the tunnel where daylight can be seen. This is heavy foreshadowing of death because of the phrase "light at the end of the tunnel" which is often used when people are on the brink of death and claim that as they slip away, they can see heaven or the after life. Later in the film we discover that Rex shares the same fate as his girlfriend in the end - death. This scene is not in the American remake at all because of the fact that the ending is completely different (the boyfriend and girlfriend do not die).

In addition to ending and the tunnel scene being big differences, another difference is the golden egg scene. While driving their car, Rex is listening to Saskia explain a dream she had recently in which both of them were trapped in seperate "golden eggs" floating on through eternity, never to meet one another again. The golden eggs seem to represent loss and also do a bit of foreshadowing. Saskia's death is foreshadowed in the tunnel, and Rex is trapped in a coffin, which may be what golden eggs were supposed to symbolize. The coins that the lovers bury in the dirt could also be what the golden eggs are supposed to symbolize because both coins are buried in the dirt, just as people are when they die, and the coins aren't buried directly next to each other. The golden egg scene is also not in the remake because of the fact that the two did not die.