Obligatory Over-The-Shoulder Mirror Shot

Thanks, BALISTIC— Nice additions. Mann’s mirror-edge compositional choice is definitely an aesthetic one, but I’m not convinced it conveys a different sentiment; we’re still hooked on that sense of self-acknowledgement. I recently read something about how the direction in which a person’s hair is parted reflects heavily upon how they are perceived, respected and viewed in terms of power (Clark Kent had his hair parted to the right, Superman’s hair is to the left)…wonder if, subconsciously, the mirror shot also derails this aspect of a character, since we are viewing their hair also in the reverse…

Mann’s mirror-edge compositional choice is definitely an aesthetic one, but I’m not convinced it conveys a different sentiment; we’re still hooked on that sense of self-acknowledgement

Well in those cases it’s more about the reflection than the act of looking at the reflection (the real body is out of focus and barely visible). Those compositional choices add some nuance and create a slightly different meaning.

Visual clichés as old as storytelling itself are called archetypal images. You can try to escape them, but they will keep coming back. Plus films are made with actors, a special kind of human beings who like to watch themselves.

“Killing you is killing myself. But, you know, I’m pretty tired of both of us.”

Here again the cliché shot in the opening scene of ‘Rare Birds’ by Sturla Gunnarsson:

Even Hitchcock used it once in Psycho. But clever as he was, he used the cliché in the first part of the movie …

…just as a build up to ‘a good scare’ he wanted to deliver in the second part: