The document discusses character development in the film Ossessione through three topics: scenery, photography, and sound. It analyzes how the rural Italian landscapes and vast emptiness depicted in the scenery relate to the characters. It examines how close-up photography of the characters' faces provides insight into their mysterious pasts and developmental trajectories. It also explores how the dialogue, music, and lack of background noise in the film's sound design reveal clues about the characters' feelings and development over the course of the story.

2.  We will explore character development in
Ossessione via these three (broad) topics:
 Scenery
 Photography
 Sound

4.  Vast emptiness
 Long, winding, dirt roads
 Rural landscapes
 Few animals and plant life
 Barren
SCENERY

5. SCENERY
•Long
•Winding
•Desolate

6. SCENERY
•Vastness
•“World at his fingertips”
•The loss of a lifestyle

8.  Our first impression of a character begins
with their appearance, priming our
expectations for what may or may not come.
PHOTOGRAPHY

9.  The Close-up shot generally depicts a small
object; frequently, the object is a human face.
 Close-up shots are used to magnify and the
symbolic significance of the object in
question.
PHOTOGRAPHY

10.  These dark close-up shots remind us that we lack
information about the mysterious and shady pasts of the
main characters (with the exception of Giuseppe)
PHOTOGRAPHY

11.  How well can we really say weknow these four
characters?
 What questions about these four are left unanswered?
PHOTOGRAPHY

12. PHOTOGRAPHY

13. •Giovanna’s most striking close-up shots are of her looking at
her reflection
•Twice (by our count) she is gesturing to her neck, with a
somewhat frightened or chilling expression on her face.
PHOTOGRAPHY

14. What insights do these close-ups give into the
developmental trajectory of Giovanna’s character?
PHOTOGRAPHY

15.  Show a figure from the knees or waist up
 Used for shooting exposition scenes
 Variations of the Medium Shot
 The two-shot
 The three-shot
 The over-the-shoulder shot
PHOTOGRAPHY

16.  The two-shot is about the couple: romantic or otherwise.
 From start to finish, we see a varied amount of interest that Gino and
Giovanna have for each other. We can see this via two-shots
Red Tint: Affectionate ; Blue Tint: Distanced
PHOTOGRAPHY

18.  Sound in movies can be broken into three
categories: spoken word/dialogue, music, and
noise / sound effects.
SOUND

19.  Content of the actors’ dialogue is our biggest
insight into their development.
SOUND

20.  Subtext can add depth to characters’
identities, allowing imagination to fill in
where dialogue leaves off.
SOUND

21.  Timbre (n): the character or quality of a
musical sound or voice as distinct from its
pitch and intensity.
SOUND

22.  Music can supplements meaning in
film, giving insight into what the characters
may be feeling.
SOUND

23.  As in the final beach scene, music can create
a disconnect from the characters’ dialogue
and what we perceive they feel.
SOUND

24.  What wasVisconti’s motivation in having
Giuseppe perform on screen in the
restaurant?Was it simply a background for
Gino and Giovanna’s conversation?
SOUND

25.  Sound effects can explain an action when
words might be too strong or obvious (e.g., a
rooster crowing to indicate morning).
 In Ossessione, a lack of background noise
illustrates intense emotion for Gino and
Giovanna.
SOUND

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