The Royal Tenenbaums Essay

Using “Mise En Scene” select one character and analyse and explain the way your chosen character is represented during ‘The Royal Tenenbaums’.

The Royal Tenenbaums was directed by Wes Anderson in 2001 with a certificate of 15. It’s about a family with 3 children: Chaz who is business orientated; Margot is adopted and Richie who likes playing tennis. I am going to analyse the way Richie is represented in this film using Mise en Scene. Mise en Scene is the term for everything you see on screen. It is separated into 5 sections: lighting, props, setting, camera angles and acting. During the beginning of the film the lighting is very bright and welcoming which suggests a very friendly atmosphere in the house. Richie is always shown in bright light wherever he is; this makes the audience feel that he is a happy boy. Richie is dressed in tennis kit throughout the sequence although he is sometimes shown wearing a brown suit over the top, this connotes his future life to the audience because he is dressed to look like Bjorn Borg whose tennis career started failing and continued to retire at the age of 26. At the beginning of the sequence the camera scans down on the three children sitting on a different floor of the house. Richie is sat on the ground floor which suggests he has the closest relationship to his parents. This idea is then re-enforced twice later on, at first when the three children are with their mother, Richie is sat on his mother’s lap while the other two are further away. Then again when we see Richie does out with his father but the invitation is never extended to his siblings. Richie is always seen with a tennis racquet which suggests to the audience that in his future life he will be a tennis player or something tennis related. Richie is represented as a nature lover for his walls have pictures of animals on them, he also likes to collect things for on his door there is a collection of butterflies and in his room there are collections of cars, trophies and tennis bakks. His room is decorated using the Wimbledon colours and his walls are covered in paintings he’s done himself. Richie paints lots of pictures of his sister Margot which connotates to the audience that he looks up to his sister or maybe he loves his sister more than a sibling should. Throughout the sequence Richie is associated with Africa, for example when he’s performing in Margot’s play, he is dressed as a cheetah, and I feel this represents his athletic ability as well as his love for Africa. Richie is also shown sitting on his mother’s lap with an atlas open showing Africa also, Richie runs away with Margot to the African animal section of the museum, this re-enforces the idea of Richie’s love for his sister. Richie is also the only one of the three children who is shown with a friend, Eli, this who’s that Richie is the most normal out of the three children. Richie is always shown with a childish grin on his face which shows he’s happy and could seem slightly naive. This is in contrast to when Royal is sat talking to the children, Richie seems to be mirroring his father’s body language which shows he understands but his eyes are closed, his face is sad he seems to be questioning a lot, this makes him seem insecure.

Richie is always shown in either a long shot, mid-shot or over-head shot with him being in the middle which makes him the centre focus to the audience. This represents his importance. When he is shown to be sitting with his brother and sister he is always shown to be on the right, this makes him closer to the camera to emphasize his importance over his siblings. Throughout the sequence, the enigma code presented to the audience is “what happens o the children when they grow up?” this is because each character is so unique that it’s nearly impossible to tell what they’d turn out like. The semantic code for Richie is the fact he paints his sister a lot which could present two meanings to the audience about his feelings towards her. The action code is similar to the semantic code; we wonder what actions he will take on his feelings. In conclusion, the role of Richie is represented as a fairly ordinary child with a love of tennis, Africa and a strange admiration for his sister.