Edward Scissorhands - Ice Dance

EDWARD SCISSORHANDS: ICE DANCE MISE-EN-SCENE

Mise-en-scene is comprised of the setting, the hair and make-up, the costume, the props, the lighting and character expression & movement within films. I shall be analysing the mise-en-scene for the Ice Dance scene in the 1990 Tim Burton’s film Edward Scissorhands. I shall also be including the other micro elements of cinematography, sound and editing.

At the beginning of the scene we see Kim, a teenage girl played by Winona Ryder indoors in an artificially well-lit room. She is wearing a white, off the shoulder figure hugging dress, with three-quarter length sleeves and numerous small front button fastenings. There is a wide satin ribbon on the cuffs and at the top which leads into an off-centre wide buckle detail on her upper chest. The white symbolises purity and innocence. Kim is wearing her long blonde hair down with just the sides pinned back on either side of her short fringe – this style portrays her as being youthful. Her make-up is subtle and natural looking focusing mainly on her lips which are red but not a strong shade to overpower her appearance and black mascara emphasising her wide inquisitive eyes. She is kneeling attending to a small box of decorations on a low coffee table when something grabs her attention. We can hear Danny Elfman’s Ice Dance orchestration playing which sounds very delicate with an angelic Christmassy feel to it especially when the women’s choir softly starts to vocalise. 

As Kim walks forward towards the audience the camera pulls back to follow her movement. The lighting dulls and casts a shadow onto her features and we can start to hear soft metallic blade noises as she slides the patio door open. As Kim walks outside her hair starts to be illuminated by a light coming from the left (out of shot) and this fully lights her up as she progresses forward. Small snow like objects appear to be falling down and they settle softly onto her hair. The camera changes angle which gives the audience the view from Kim’s perspective as it travels forward – we see the white ‘snow’ cascading down in front of the edge of the eaves of the roof with a green, a blue and a red coloured Christmas light attached to it. The camera takes us around the side of the building on the left to reveal the source of the ‘snow’. A rear shot of Edward Scissorhands, played by Johnny Depp, is standing nearly at the top, on the right side of a tall A-frame double sided stepladder and he is carving a large snow-angel sculpture – he is working in the area between the angel’s head/hair and the top of the right wing. The camera stops moving for a brief moment to display the scene laid out in front of Kim of Edward positioned on the left of the sculpture. He is using his Scissorhands which consist of a multitude of different sized blades that would normally look extremely threatening and weapon-like yet here he is creating something of sheer beauty and it is evident to Kim and the audience that he is very skilled at using his abnormal appendages. The ‘snow’ is generated by the fine ice chippings that are flying up and swamping, slightly more than the right side of the screen. It is night-time yet the snow-angel sculpture and Edward are illuminated. In the background the neighbouring properties on the opposite side of the road are in darkness apart from the Christmas lights glowing on their roofs.

Kim looks in awe and wonder at his skill and creativity - she is wide-eyed with her mouth slightly opened. The camera cuts to a high shot revealing the back of the top of the angel’s head and upper parts of the wings in the foreground, off centre to the left. Edward is on the right of the screen busily carving fragments of ice, shaping the detail into his masterpiece with ‘snow’ flying up to represent the intensity of his actions. He is wearing a white shirt with a large collar that is opened at the neck to reveal a black top underneath. Black braces are worn over the top of his shirt to hold his dark trousers up. Edward has a mass of straggly black unkempt hair that is covered in ice chippings. He is deeply engrossed in his sculpting and he doesn’t notice Kim’s presence – we can just make her out as a small figure in a white dress seen walking in the ‘snow’ to the middle of the left of the screen. The camera cuts to a low angled shot of Kim with a gaze directed to the right when she immediately raises both of her arms and starts to rotate in a clockwise manner. At this point the music and vocals increase in volume. She looks really happy and seems to be caught up in the moment as she is has a large smile on her face. As she dances around gracefully swaying her arms and hands the camera pans slowly to the left to show us the large dinosaur topiary and Edward working on the sculpture in the background. Kim is bathed in artificial light. This cuts to a low angled shot which gives added height to the already tall ice-angel that has a bowed head looking down onto her hands in a praying position. There is no interruption to Edward’s concentration or to his pace of work. The sound of the blades slicing plus the music and vocals continues to be heard throughout. The camera then travels up towards Kim from the low angle to show her in close up. There is a slight fade which cuts to an angled rear close-up of Edward on the left and the angel on the right dominating the screen. This cuts to a front close up shot showing Edward constantly and energetically sculpting and carving with such focus. We can see his white complexion with dark eye sockets encircling his deep brown eyes which all assist in giving him a deathly appearance. He has black lipstick on making us believe that he has a dark side to him, and he has scars on his face. 

The next close up of a smiling Kim dominating the centre and left side of the screen shows ice flakes settled onto her face, eyelashes and in her hair – she gently raises her left hand to her left cheek to brush away a flake as she rotates clockwise. A close up of the blades working on the angel’s dress is briefly shown before cutting to a close up of Kim’s raised left hand in the centre of the screen collecting the delicate ice flakes set against the dark night with the falling ice shavings. This tender moment soon comes to an abrupt end by the presence of Jim, Kim’s boyfriend shouting out just at the same moment that she stands in front of the sculpture and Edward starts to descend the steps. Edward loses concentration and swipes down with his right arm accidently cutting Kim on the palm of her left hand.