Re: Multiple responses: Mirrors in movies?

From: Kristof Van den Troost [[email protected]]

Johnnie To's Mad Detective (2007) stages the final showdown in a
"hall of mirrors" kind of space. It's basically a retake of The
Longest Nite (1998), nominally directed by Patrick Yau, but probably
mostly directed by To himself. In both films mirrors are violently
shattered to express the characters' shattered identities/duplicity,
and for sheer visual effect.

Kristof Van den Troost
Visiting Fellow
Department of Asian and International Studies
City University of Hong Kong

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From: Jadwiga Biskupska [[email protected]]

There is also a mirror scene in The Ring (the American version) where
a mirror is shown straight on, completely empty, and the
inconceivability of the empty mirror shot is proof of the film's
power.  Little eerie touch.
Jadwiga

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From: Brian Locke [[email protected]]

Nancy Kwan singing "I Enjoy Being a Girl" in Flower Drum Song (1961).

Brian Locke
Ethnic Studies
University of Colorado, Boulder

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From: Nils Bothmann [[email protected]]

Hello everyone.

One scene that comes to my mind is from John Woo's "Face/Off". Agent
and terrorist are standing both with their backs to opposite sides of
a wall(thereby replaying a classic Woo moment), which is in this case
also a mirror on both sides. When they turn around to shoot each other
they have to fire at their own reflection - carrying the face of the
other.
The terrorist wearing the agent's face also says at one point "It's
like looking in a mirror... only not".

This is one of the scenes best visualising the Lacanian concepts of
the Other in oneself and the mirror stage, which can be used when
analysing the film.

Best regards, Nils

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From: Swagato Chakravorty [[email protected]]

Dear Professor Jackson,

Aronofsky's "Pi" has a climactic scene involving mirrors (the
tormented mathematician drills into his head).

On a lighter note, the final Harry Potter film involves a narrative
strand of two fragments of a mirror acting as a visual portal to each
other. This comes from Rowling's story.

Alexandre Aja's recent horror film, MIRRORS (2008) is entirely built
around the concept of mirrors as portals between worlds.

In an interesting aside, mirrors was a very prominent motif in the
television series LOST. It often served to highlight the changes
undergone by characters between timelines, or to present already-shown
incidents in different ways (ie, by switching the timeline around, or
by indicating how the experience has changed a character). Toward the
end of the series, mirrors became especially dominant as past and
present narratives rushed ever closer, and at times there were
distinct indications that events occurring simultaneously in parallel
timelines were being refracted through mirrors.

Cocteau's Oprhic films, of course, famously used mirrors as portals  
again.

TAXI DRIVER's "You talkin' to me?" scene relies on mirrors.

Hope this helps.

Best,
-Swagato.

Swagato Chakravorty
MA Cinema and Media Studies
The University of Chicago.

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From: alena williams [[email protected]]

Dear Tony,

There is a short film by the German filmmakers Christoph Girardet and  
Matthias Müller-- it's called Kristall (2006). Their work emerges out  
of the Braunschweig film school, and brings together pivotal shots  
from older films, often melodramas, into new narratives, commenting on  
the entire genre and the medium through their selection of scenes and  
editing. Though use of the word is contentious-- this work is often  
classified as "experimental" and it brings together many different  
shots of mirrors from numerous sources:

http://films.arsenal-berlin.de/index.php/Detail/Object/Show/object_id/8771

Best wishes,
Alena

___________

Alena Williams
Art History and Archaeology
Columbia University

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From: Enrica Picarelli <[email protected]>

Don't forget the Ed Norton's monologue in the bar's bathroom in The  
25th hour.

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From: Andrea Mensch <[email protected]>

Aronofsky's recent film  Black Swan has a great intertextual mirror  
moment at the end when Nina stabs herself/Lily with a broken shard  
after she has shattered the mirror.