Cinematographic image in the context of photographic aesthetics: An analysis of the film The Tragedy of Macbeth

Abstract

Today, the arts of cinema and photography emerge as two major visual disciplines that draw upon the same aesthetic and technological infrastructure yet possess different narrative possibilities. Each film frame constituting the moving image reveals an independent visual structure that can be evaluated in line with the aesthetic principles of photography. Within the scope of this study on this meaningful relationship between the arts of cinema and photography, the interdisciplinary similarities and differences between the fundamental principles of photographic aesthetics and the production processes of the cinematographic image have been detailed through exemplary film studies. In this context, the award-winning film The Tragedy of Macbeth (2021), directed by Joel Coen, was selected using the purposive sampling method. Rejecting the illusionist perception of reality offered by the established visual codes of traditional cinema, this film distinguishes itself by functioning as a photographic exhibition space from beginning to end with its choice of black-and-white (monochrome) tonality, minimalist studio atmosphere, and abstracted set design.

In order to analyze the photographic and cinematographic structure of the film within an objective and systematic framework, a qualitative dataset was generated based on Heinrich Wölfflin’s five pairs of opposed concepts (linear - painterly, plane - recession, closed form - open form, multiplicity - unity, clearness - unclearness). In this regard, twelve critical scenes of the film that highlight its dramatic conflict points were identified and analyzed. As a result of the findings obtained, it was determined that a contrast is created between the rigid architectural linearity in the film and the painterly elements of storm clouds and shadows, frontal camera angles and the background reduce the image to a photographic planarity, and the 1.37:1 aspect ratio produces a closed form that feeds the characters' guilt psychosis. Consequently, the findings obtained in this study contribute to rendering the aesthetic relationship between photography and cinema intelligible, while introducing an original study to the literature by evaluating the cinematographic image from the perspective of photographic aesthetics.