Cinematography technique · used in 8 films
Repeating one shape or image, such as circles, an X or a fragile natural sight, throughout the film. Each return adds meaning and quietly signals themes or fate.
Examples
François Truffaut · 1970
Windows mark the line between the closed rooms of Itard's house and the outside world. Victor keeps returning to them. Each time, you sense the tug between life inside civilization and the life he left.
Where to see it: The windows. Victor stands where the house meets the open air, between rules and nature.
Isao Takahata · 1988
The fireflies appear in the film's gentlest scenes, and they are tied to Setsuko's joy and innocence. Like her, they are beautiful and don't live long. When she buries them and asks why things die, everything the film wants you to feel is in that one image.
Where to see it: Setsuko burying the fireflies. She asks why they die, which is the film's main question in a child's voice.
Roger Allers, Rob Minkoff · 1994
The film opens and closes with the same image at Pride Rock: the same ceremony and the same raised cub. The circle is the point, both in how the story is built and in what you see. Life returns to where it started and the cycle continues. So when Simba takes his place again, it feels like nature going back to normal.
Where to see it: The closing image. Simba's cub is raised at Pride Rock, exactly as in the film's opening.
Martin Scorsese · 2006
Scorsese and production designer Kristi Zea hide X shapes all through the film (in tile patterns, window frames, parts of buildings). They show up near characters who are going to die. The idea echoes Howard Hawks's Scarface, and it rewards you for watching closely the second time.
Where to see it: Sullivan's office, where a lit X on the wall shows up during his call with Costello. An X of cross-beams also appears in the airport walkway during Costigan's call with Dignam.
Isao Takahata · 2013
The moon comes back as a quiet sign of where Kaguya truly belongs. Seeing it makes her sad, and you know something is coming. By the end it has become a symbol of loss and fate.
Where to see it: The full moon night. A procession from the moon arrives to take Kaguya back, and she looks back at Earth.
Nicolas Winding Refn · 2016
Triangles come back again and again. At the fashion show, Jesse sees glowing triangle shapes and her own reflections. The shape starts to feel like a symbol of beauty and the way it traps people.
Where to see it: The fashion show. Jesse has a hallucination of triangles and mirror images and begins to take on a more self-centered attitude.
Joachim Trier · 2017
Birds, snakes and water keep returning. Each one hints at Thelma's hidden power, her guilt or her fate, and you notice the signs before she does.
Where to see it: The window birds: a bird strikes the library window during Thelma's seizure. Later she brings a dead bird back to life.
Osgood Perkins · 2020
The house and its imagery lean on triangles, which show up in the design and in the look of the film. The repeated shape makes the cottage feel built by a rule you cannot see. Each time you notice one, it suggests the trap is closing.
Where to see it: The cottage. Gretel and Hansel follow the smell of cake to a triangular house where Holda takes them in.
Questions