Boogie Nights is a film that documents the rise of fictional adult film star Dirk Diggler and subsequent fall when his ego and life of excess overtakes him. The scene I will be looking at in this post is the beginning of the climax in the narrative, as the climax is split into two parts. It is a creative take on linking two story lines into one climax to show the rough life that these porn actors lead after the fallout of changes within the industry and Dirk Diggler’s downfall. This is director Paul Thomas Anderson’s first film, and in the beginning of it he establishes his key traits as a director with breathy cinematography with vibrant colors. However in this scene in particular he proves to be a versatile director in changing the tone vastly from a bright life of excess in the porn industry, to a darkened and gritty climax of violence.
This scene uses a plethora of film tricks to further the audience’s experience in this seminal scene from the film. Every piece of this scene plays a central role, especially regarding lighting and the score for this particular scene. As I had mentioned before, this scene in particular is a stark contrast from the first act of the film, which is characterized by a use of a vibrant color grading and long, patient photography. Instead this scene instills fear for the characters in its careful use of lighting and interesting camera filters and fast paced action sequences.
To start, the audience is introduced to the first characters in this scene through a key use of camera filter and frame manipulation. This gives the sense of watching the actual footage filmed by the emergence of vhs tape cameras. This has some cultural significance along with it being that the VHS camera was gaining wide popularity around the time that this scene is set, in 1983. To add to this effect, the cinematography looks very unpolished with odd camera zooms and a jagged movement which just furthers the feeling that the viewer is watching an under-produced porn film.
After we are greeted to our first two characters in the scene, Jack and Rollergirl, and AB pattern begins between these two and the once porn superstar Dirk Diggler. There is stark contrast between both these characters in the mise en scene alone. Jack and Rollergirl are seen inside of a limousine looking sharply dressed in a tux and a nice silk dress respectively, compared to Dirk who is seen outside an unsubscribed storefront wearing jagged jeans and a worn jacket that looks as if it came from a greater time. The makeup work also expertly represents where these characters are in their lives, once again Jack and Rollergirl are done up with stylish hair (at least for the time) and Rollergirl has hot red lipstick on, characteristic of lust and the porn industry. Meanwhile dirk has a five o’clock shadow, bags under his eyes and what look like scars on his face. The mise en scene tells the story for us by its manipulation of the look of these characters.
A further contrast can been seen in the lighting as well, with the light of the limousine lighting up both Jack and Rollergirl but darkness and shadows shroud Dirk Diggler, the light both literally and metaphorically placing him in a dark place in the story. A lot of the lighting is mostly natural on Dirks part, with a careful detail to the placement of light on his face with only his eyes being subjected to the light in the scene. Aside from the light in the limousine one can see later on in the scene a use of artificial lighting in particular when filming Jack and Rollergirl during the shooting of this new scene. The camera work takes this a step further in manipulating film quality and cinematography to portray perspective.
As I had mentioned before, there is a strong use of parallel editing in the AB in between Jack and Rollergirls story line and Dirks. At first this is characterized by different film lenses, one portraying realism with Dirk, and one that sets the audience in a period accurate viewing perspective of the porn film with Jack and Rollergirl. This AB is interrupted by a shift back to realism for Jack and Rollergirl as the man having sex with Rollergirl gets violent. The lighting for them now is seen as dark and the camera and frame is changed to a similar one as used with Dirk’s story line. This highlights the change in tone and mood for Jack and Rollergirl as their story line is unified with Dirk’s in realism and brutality.
Perhaps the centerpiece of this scene however, is the use of non-diegetic sound and music. To accurately portray the shift in the mood from the beginning of the film, one has to understand the context of music in the first act in the narrative as it makes use of pop songs of the time quite frequently in every scene. However leading up to this scene there is a lack of music leading up to this very moment. The music doesn’t appear until about the halfway through the first time Dirk is introduced to the scene. This score sounds like something straight out of a John Carpenter horror film as it alternates eerily between two notes, and only two, slowly building up to the climax of this scene. This is perhaps the first unifying element in both the story lines as it looms over both narratives featured in this scene. Though very slight at first, it’s importance is graced by a finale characterized by brutality and blood.
Anderson expertly combines all of these elements he has used throughout this scene by both expanding and contrasting the tricks he has used throughout the beginning of the scene. The AB is broken by a change in camera filter and sound quality for Jack and Rollergirl, and the audience’s expectations of these characters is broken by their unification. The stark realism from Dirk’s story line is now seen in the exact same fashion as another key use of parallel editing occurs between Dirk getting beat senseless and Rollergirl crushing the face of the man that got a little too rough with the scene. Suddenly the viewer realizes these two story lines aren’t too different, as the music continues to loom over the end of the scene and two characters are left beaten and bloodied, unified in violence and bloodshed.
Sources Used:
Barsam, Richard Meran, and Dave Monahan. Looking at movies: an introduction to film. New York: W.W. Norton & Company, 2015. Print.
Boogie Nights. Dir. Paul Thomas Anderson. Perf. Mark Wahlberg, Julianne Moore, and Burt Reynolds. New Line Cinemas, 1997. DVD.