Symbols and Cinematic Symbolism

Symbols and Cinematic Symbolism

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Symbolism is a system or the ways people extend an object's meaning to something else such as abstract ideas or concepts. The words or objects taken are called symbols. Symbols can be referred to complex meaning. Their functions and meanings extend to something much more than their ordinary definitions.

Difference between symbol and sign: Signs have practical, unambiguous meanings: Private, No Smoking, Danger. Symbols have greater imaginative resonance and more complex, sometimes ambiguous, meanings: darkness refers to death, white refers to purity.

Cinematic Symbolism

Cinematic symbols may be represented in objects, scenes, color, action, shooting angle, etc. However, symbolism in a film can be so indirect that the viewer may be unaware of its existence. Whether a symbol is effective or not depends on its cultural context. Film creators integrate symbols with plot, theme, character, sound effect, and art design. Many of today's use of cinematic symbolism are based on Carl Jung's theory of collective unconscious. About how a symbol can work on the observer, Jung said:

The symbol is alive only as long as it pregnant with meaning... Whether a thing is a symbol or not depends chiefly upon the attitude of the observing consciousness; for instance, on whether it regards a given fact not merely as such but also as an expression, for something unknown...There are undoubtedly products whose symbolic character does not depend merely on the attitude of the observing consciousness, but manifests itself spontaneously in the symbolic effect they would have on the observer. Such products are so constituted that they would lack any kind of meaning were not a symbolic one conceded to them. (C. G. Jung, The Collected Works, Vol 6, 814?18.) The effect of a cinematic symbol thus relies on the observer's response. An image or an object can work as symbol only when it, in the viewer's mind, can be expanded to bring about the collective unconscious, or consciousness, feelings evoked by the image or object.

For more information about the meaning of symbols, check the Dictionary of Symbolism:

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Symbols Water Shower River Fountain Rain Wells

Black

Snakes White

Some Frequently Seen Cinematic Symbols

Meaning Life, rebirth, renewal, to start over, and sometimes love, or romance. Water can be a representation of subconscious. Splashing water can be a vivid symbol for fulfilled sexual activity.

Cinematic Examples

Janet Leigh's attempted cleansing in Psycho(1960)

To take a shower often symbolizes washing away sins, a cleansing ritual, like baptism.

Andy Dufresne's showering under the rain after breaking prison in The Shawshank Redemption(1994).

River may represent a journey of revelation in life.

Fountains, wells and shower heads represent male's will for domination.

Rain may represent internal crying, sadness.

Well can represent knowledge, source of life, or places of healing Death, evil (Scull, Wolf howling, Butterfly at nigh, Clock stops can also be related to death.)

Snakes may symbolize something evil, Satan, temptation. Innocent, emptiness, honest, cleanliness.

In Apocalypse Now(1979), the journey on the river is more of a journey downwards, into The Heart of Darkness, as the title of the original novel suggests.

The rain as repression of affection in In the Mood for Love(2000)

The gushing oil in There Will Be Blood(2008)

Black cloaks as mystery and danger in Eyes Wide Shut(1999)

The snake scene in Natural Born Killers(1994)

The death of something bad, victory of good, cleanliness in The Shining(1980)

Sterile, clean, and devoid of life world in space in 2001: Space Odyssey(1968)

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Red

Blue Green Orange Yellow

Red means danger. The sight of red blood is signal for an accident or something bad.

The wearer of red clothes is perceived as hot-blooded, sexually challenging, or in rebellion to social norms.

The main color of every scene in The Shining(1980)

Red in the scenes connected with computer HAL9000 in 2001: Space Odyssey(1968)

Red as desire, love, but also danger in Eyes Wide Shut(1999)

Red may mean something under threat, or one's will to live.

Rotten red as desire, rottenness and negative emotions in Eyes Wide Shut(1999)

James Dean's red jacket in Rebel Without a Cause(1955)

Open space, infinity, emptiness, peace, loneliness, depression

In Schindler's List(1993), The red dress of the little girl symbolizes the Jews' will to continue living. The loneliness and cold feelings in The Shining(1980)

New beginning, calm, natural, illness, envy.

Loneliness, fear and doubts in Eyes Wide Shut(1999) The "cold" colors, green, blue and gray, portray Ofelia's harsh world of reality in Pan's Labyrinth(2006)

Vibrancy, joy, life, warmth. Moment of affection

Green gives the feeling of old, hand-tinted postcard in O Brother, Where Are thou?(2000) Ofelia's fantasy world of golden and orange suggests warm, organic and nurturing in Pan's Labyrinth(2006)

Golden in the restaurant fighting scene may suggest not only racing for power

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Betrayal

but also mutual attraction and youthfulness in The Grandmasters(2013)

The Phallic Symbols: Guns Rockets Fireworks Bombs Spears Sword Trains

Elevators Stairs Spiral Stair Actions of climbing up or down

The phallic symbols represent male power, patriarchal power, ambition, dominance, conquest, imperialism.

Sword: authority, justice, intellect, light emblem of magic

Train rushing full speed ahead into a tunnel may be phallic symbols.

Train moving sometimes represents time going by.

Sending someone down with an elevator as a metaphor for sending them to Hell

Climbing stairs represents sex.

An elevator, or a bridge may represent a spiritual or psychological development.

Yellow as betrayal in Eyes Wide Shut(1999) Guns in James Bond and gangster films.

The National Day firework in Brokeback Mountain(2005)

The sword as phallic symbol in Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon (2000)

Cary Grant and Eva Marie Saint are finally united, through the metaphor for consummated sex--the train through the tunnel in the end of North by Northwest(1959).

The train moving fighting scene may symbolize the passing of time and innocence in The Grandmasters(2013)

In Hitchcock's Vertigo(1958), Scottie is not able to climb stairs because of his fear of heights, which symbolizes that he is afraid of sex.

A spiraling staircase may be some kind of spiritual or psychological ascent or descent into the mind.

Climbing up or down may represent the movement of power, social

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Costume Clothing

status, fortune, life, or spiritual condition. Characterization

The Superhero Movies

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