How Does Quentin Tarantino Use Camera Angles In Django Unchained

Quentin Tarantino is a very controversial director and receives a lot of criticism due to his directing style and directing techniques such as the gore he includes in his films. Tarantino uses a directing style known as the auteur theory, which showcases a director's personal and usually creative views on the films they direct. Tarantino uses many camera shots and angles to make the audience feel suspenseful and often times are left in anticipation. Tarantino’s Django: Unchained and Inglourious Basterds use a lot of camera shots and angles to show characters feelings and emotions. Tarantino uses a lot of gore due to today’s society’s thirst for the ‘full picture’ he also uses gore for the simple reason that he likes it.

The camera shots and
The Phrenology scene, featuring, Django, Shultz and Candie, uses a lot of expression showing camera angles to make the audience feel like they are present and can relate to the character’s emotions easily, for example Tarantino uses a medium close up camera angle to show the angry and determined look on Candie’s face as he saws open the skull of Old Ben. When the camera angle is used the audience gets a nervous feeling and feels agitated by the sound of the skull being sawn open. While Candie is sawing open the skull, the camera switches to a mid two shot to show the reaction and emotion of Shultz and Django, as Shultz turns his head away and looks at the table then looks at Django who shares a similar expression to Shultz. This shows us that they feel uncomfortable by the situation he’ s in. Another example of the use of camera angles to show emotion in the same scene is when Candie is displaying the skull of Old Ben and talking about the phrenology of African Americans, Tarantino uses a mid shot which is zoomed in just enough to show Candie’s angry, but calm, facial expression but zoomed out far enough to show Candie’s body language and how it represents his emotions and overall character traits. The body language used also gives us a more full and descriptive view on Candie as a character showing us that he’s in
In the opening interrogation scene SS Colonel Hans Landa visits a french dairy farmer’s house to look for Jews, he sits down at the table with the dairy farmer and interrogates him on whether or not he is illegally hiding jews. A similar mid over the shoulder shot, which is also used in Django: Unchained, is used to show how calm and relaxed Landa is, but you can only see half of the dairy farmers face to leave the audience wondering what he is thinking, after a while it cuts to a medium close up of the dairy farmers face showing the tension and how nervous Landa is making the dairy farmer. The scene cuts back and forward to each person who is talking so you can see the action and reaction of the other person but also keeping the viewer in suspense of how one character is going to react before they speak. Later in the scene a two shot is used to clearly show the emotion on both characters faces whilst Landa and the dairy farmer are discussing the missing Jew’s names and ages. After the dairy farmer has given Landa the names and ages of the jews, a panning shot is used to show the jews hiding underneath the floorboards. The shot pans down the dairy farmer’s leg to show the jews are hiding underneath where he is sitting and not under Landa, like they’re being sheltered by the dairy farmer. The scene quickly cuts to a close up two shot of