Sweeney Todd is a great movie to look at for examples of shots and angles and their meanings. At one part of the movie Mrs. Lovett walks into Sweeney Todd’s barber shop after he has killed a rival of his, Pirelli. This medium shot shows general information like the setting (barber shop) in addition to letting the viewer know that Todd has just killed Pirelli by the blood on his sleeve and the razor he’s cleaning. We also see just who’s inside the room: Todd, Mrs. Lovett, and Pirelli, who we know is stashed inside the chest shown in the foreground. We can also see the faces of Todd and Mrs. Lovett which shows us that Todd is calm and unaffected by the murder he committed, and Mrs. Lovett does not know what has happened yet.
In this close-up shot of Mrs. Lovett after she opens the chest and discovers the dead Pirelli inside, we see that she is looking at Todd in horror. She cannot believe that Todd has just killed this man, and thinks he has gone crazy. Understandably, she is also frightened by the sight of the dead body, which she did not expect to see.
This low angle shot serves to give Mrs. Lovett power. She is no longer frightened by the sight of Pirelli’s dead body; indeed, she is now quite indifferent to it. She even takes Pirelli’s purse as he won’t be needing it anymore. The low angle is also from Pirelli’s point of view, showing that he doesn’t have power anymore. In fact, Mrs. Lovett even decides later to use his body to make meat pies. That has to be the ultimate example of Pirelli losing power and Mrs. Lovett gaining it.
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