Miss Congeniality - Film analysis.

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Charlie Hearn

Miss Congeniality Analysis.

For my analysis of mise-en-scene and sound of a seven-minute sequence, I chose one of the final scenes from Miss Congeniality (Sandra Bullock, Benjamin Bratt, Michael Caine and Denise Burgen).  

The film is about The Miss United States pageant – a scholarship programme seeking beauty and grace from all it’s contestants.  That is until tomboy Gracie Hart (Bullock) enters the running.  Forced to go undercover as to investigate a threat from one of the country’s most infamous criminals ‘The Citizen’, Gracie has to change her image from rough and tough agent to exquisite beauty queen.  In such desperation, the head of the FBI operation Eric Matthews (Bratt) hires Victor Melling (Caine) to transform Gracie into a beautifully convincing Miss New Jersey.  When the killer is suddenly captured, Gracie suspects that there is more to The Citizen’s threat and insists on staying at the competition as an anonymous guardian to the contestants.

The sequence begins when the Miss United States beauty pageant starts.  The music ‘One in a Million’ sang by Busson starts to play, and the curtain rises to reveal the all the contestants except Gracie aka Gracie-Lou Freebush who is waiting at the side to run into her position as the girls walk onto the stage from the stairs.  The sequence I am analysing ends when Gracie finds out that Matthews a fellow FBI agent, and Melling, her make-up man have agreed with her that the Miss United States pageant is going to be the victim of an attack.  The FBI, whom both Gracie and Eric are agents for pulled out of the investigation.

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The sequence begins with the curtain on stage rising to reveal the contestants from each of America’s 50 states on the steps.  The curtain rising would not only mark the start of the show, but also signifies that the hopes of the contestants are being raised by going on stage, because their dream of being on the stage of the beauty pageant is becoming a reality.  The music being played is ‘One in a Million’, this to me is supposed to indicate Gracie as being ‘One in a Million’.  Just before Gracie rushes onto the stage, we see a ...

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