Anton Marco N. Mercado

Sherlock Holmes: A Game of Shadows

In this movie, Mise en Scéne was absolutely used carefully by the

director because of the film’s investigative nature. There is a scene in this

film wherein Holmes acted as a butler for Moriarty. In that sequence,

Holmes attempted to grab Moriarty’s diary. The camera was positioned in

such a way that the audience would not see the diary. As a result, the

audience would perceive this grabbing motion as to taking the piece of

clothing that Moriarty was holding instead of the diary that was hidden

beneath his coat. This will not only aid the film’s aim of telling the story

without having a predictable ending, it also embodies the very essence of the

theme of this film. It truly was a Game of Shadows, because shadows are

things that cannot be identified properly. The actions of each character,

Holmes and Moriarty specifically, were shadows in themselves. The act of

subtly taking the diary from Moriarty was a move that was truly unidentified

by the audience.

After this sequence, Holmes continues the story and the shot finally

shifts to Moriarty feeding pigeons. This is an extremely important shot,

since at the end of the film it was due to this that Holmes figured out about

the diary of Moriarty. Yet, there is something unique about this particular

shot because it was a wide one. A wide shot wherein only a single person

should have been the focus, and yet it was shot this way. This was a

deliberate and intentional shot made by the director to shift our attention at

the pigeon feeding of Moriarty. Instead of asking about the diary that he was

reading during that shot, those questions were not the one raised by the

audience. The questions that they raised instead were, “Why does Moriarty

feed pigeons?” Indeed, if it were a close-up shot the audience would’ve

figured out why Moriarty spends time feeding pigeons. This then further

solidifies the theme that what we are seeing are just shadows of what is

really there. The director shows us something but hides from us what is

really there in order to give us a surprising ending at the end of the film.

Finally, there is this scene where Holmes successfully takes

Moriarty’s diary and replaces it with a fake one. At the initial shot, Holmes

was lying on the ground, terribly wounded. Moriarty draws near to him, and

then draws even closer as to hear what Holmes’ had been whispering. The

director took the shot sideways, revealing only the faces of the two

characters and a little bit of their upper extremities. Later on, when Holmes’

was dictating to Moriarty how he got the diary, the same scene was shown

again but with different shots, revealing the other side of the initial shot.

This scene absolutely translates well to the shadows theme of the film, as

what has been truly occurring during those moments was on the other side of

the shot. Had it been done in another way, had the director revealed the

switching of diaries during the former parts of the film, the effect of shock

and awe will not be achieved. This is because the theme no longer holds, the

shadows have been revealed of their true identity.