In “The Mirror”, the camera becomes the mirror – it reflects the life around us and ourselves with our thoughts, dreams, anxieties. We question, what is the real world and what is the imagined one? What about the people we encounter – are they genuine or are they pretenders? As we look in the mirror Panahi holds up to us, we wonder where the fantasy starts and where it ends and whether it even matters what’s real and what is not. (Bois de Jasmin)
Discuss these ideas through a detailed analysis of a scene in the film.
If you could please review the previous homework i assigned you please follow that style of writing i mentioned previously when answering this question i need you to write two paragraphs the first paragraph answering the questions and the second paragraph replying to my classmate’s response to the question, here is my classmate’s response to the question that i need you to reply to:
“The Mirror is an interesting film, not just for its ability to use children but for the way it breaks the fourth wall. The scene that leads up to the midpoint of the second act, the reveal of the filming, is one which reflects the ideas of a mirror. After Mina has gotten off at the wrong stop, a bus driver agrees to find a colleague that can drive her. But when she gets on the bus, she is told that “this isn’t the women’s entrance” and to get off the bus. Mina is in the middle of the frame in this medium shot during this sequence. As she gets off and tries to run to the other bus, the camera pans as she runs and we see the men getting on at the front of the bus, from the side of the frame, which reminds the viewer of the rest of the world and those we don’t see. Once the bus she was initially on leaves, Mina runs after it and the camera moves in on her in this long take. We hear the sounds of other buses moving and cars honking as Mina steps up onto the traffic island, her back facing us and the smoke in the background. To the viewer, she appears mythologized, the smoke in front of her, but not covering her and her stature and height elevated in the frame. As another bus passes by behind her, covering her body, the camera makes a cut-on-action and we turn to face her, as she looks behind herself in a medium close-up. Once again, the viewer doesn’t see Mina’s face; rather we see her seemingly avoiding the gaze, the mirror, as she moves back and forth, her anxieties palpable in her avoidance. After turning around, a POV shot frames the woman from the bus, in a zoom, as the buses pass in front of the woman. It’s a spooky shot, as the buses create smoke and cuts off our ability to see her until the bus moves, revealing her. Cutting back to Mina, a man comes up to her and takes her hand, telling her the bus had been waiting for her. It’s a weird change, which cuts off the continuity editing, as neither the viewer nor Mina saw the bus. This begins to clue us in to the film’s breakdown as a normal narrative. After she is taken to the bus, she sits back in the spot she was in initially on the other bus, in the middle of the frame in a medium shot. As the bus moves and they question her, Mina’s silence is loud and when she is told not to stare into the camera and she says she’s not acting anymore, the camera’s color and movement changes to a brighter tone and to handheld, no longer stationary. Suddenly the mirror is not as it once was as the film becomes more reflexive.”
