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'Notes On The Cover Design: Ministry Of Fear' By Fritz Lang

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Notes on the Cover Design: Ministry of Fear
Ministry of Fear is one of the most underrated and overlooked films produced by Fritz Lang, especially in comparison to his later works such as The Big Heat (1953). However, it strongly demonstrates many of the characteristics that define film noir, notably through its use of lighting and psychological instability. For this reason, I have chosen to feature Ministry of Fear as the inaugural film in this film noir classics series, and have highlighted these film noir characteristics in the cover design.
The first element of film noir that I chose to highlight was the lighting; more specifically, the use of dramatic contrast between light and dark, also known as clair-obscur or chiaroscuro. A hallmark …show more content…

But Eisner in her particular rereading of German Expressionism stresses not only lighting, the famous clair-obscur as the epitome of its stylistic definition.
In this redesign of the DVD cover, I chose to demonstrate this lighting technique in three ways: the contrast of white text on a black wallpaper, the stark contrast in the spiral stairs on the front, and the partial covering of Stephen Neal’s face in shadow compared to the fully illuminated face of Carla Hilfe on the back image. The other key element of film noir featured throughout this film and in the DVD cover is the use of psychological instability to create a sense of tension and fear. In his book on the background of film noir, Andrew Spicer outlined many of the key characteristics of film noir, with this instability being one of them. He wrote, “The noir universe is dark, malign and unstable where individuals are trapped through fear and paranoia, or overwhelmed by the power of sexual desire.” I chose to highlight this through the front image of the spiral staircase circling down into the center of the frame. Paired with the quote “Don’t bother with the past, tell me about the future,” this elicits the general paranoia that Stephen Neal feels throughout the entire film. Not only is he afraid of his past catching up to him, but also is unsure of where he is running to, as if he were spiraling out of control. This concept is

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