Steven Soderbergk Scene Analysis Contagion

In Steven Soderbergh’s 2011 hyperlink movie, Contagion, the scene that I felt was the most significant was the scene when the main character of the movie, Mitch, witnesses his wife, Beth, collapse in their kitchen which occurs within the first 20 minutes of the film. The significance of this scene is that this is the first time as a spectator of the film, that one realizes how truly sick Beth was. We also are able to realize that up until the point of Beth collapsing and seizing in her kitchen, Mitch and Beth thought Beth had the common diagnosis of the seasonal influenza virus. We know this to be their misdiagnosis of the virus when Mitch asks Beth, “What happened to you, did you take too much of that flu shit?” which follows with Beth plummeting to the floor and seizing. With this movie being a hyperlink film the movie allows the audience to piece the connection of the story together by
The scene opens up with the camera pointing directly down to a cup of coffee that Beth had just made, this allows the audience to feel as if they are experiencing Beth’s point of view. Also, to allow the viewer to feel in the point of view of Beth the camera begins to become fuzzy to show how Beth’s vision wasn’t very clear at the time of the scene. The camera then switches upward to focus only on Beth’s facial expression which appears disorderly and fatigued. The angle switches again to show that Beth was having difficulty with her fine motor skills (picking up her cup of coffee). The camera continues to stay in the angle of an on looking spectator up until the part of Beth falling to the floor. It is from this point of the scene until it ends that the camera switches back and forth from Mitch’s point of view to their son Clark’s point of view. This allows the audience to feel more touched by the scene by viewing all three character’s perspectives as such a traumatic scene is