ABSTRACT
Most viewers are not consciously aware how lenses impact the look of the images they see on the screen, but after years of watching movies they are familiar with the various cinematic “lens aesthetics” that are part of the visual language of movies. Likewise, the blurry backgrounds often used in character close-ups is so well established that showing one of these shots with a sharp background can readily communicate something unusual is taking place. This familiarity with cinematic aesthetics is routinely exploited by filmmakers when they want to suggest that something of an incongruous or even disturbing nature is happening, by introducing unconventional imagery that audiences are not used to seeing. The Constant Gardener , Fernando Meirelles’ film adaptation of John le Carré's novel by the same name, uses a tilt-shift lens at a critical juncture to visualize the trepidation and nervousness a character experiences as he is about to go past the “point of no return”.
