Madness and Cinema: Cinematography as a Projection of Madness and Mad Max

Studies on Cinematography and Narrative in Film

Introduction

Madness is seen as a mental illness by the wider society, equated with insanity (Fletcher-Flinn, 2016), and is the term ordinary people use for what they call mental illness or psychiatric disorder (Weinstein, 2007). This view, which experts often share in sociology and medical science, is spread and popularized by many mass media, such as books and movies. Accordingly, a disordered mind, irrational or incomprehensible behavior, extreme mood swings, disturbed emotions, anxiety attacks or a dysfunctional personality are the definition of a state of madness. Madness, thought to be as old as humanity (Porter, 2002), is thought to be either threatening the existing order or aiming to reconstruct the order in its way by crazy people who have different value judgments and goals from society. Therefore, madness is a sociological phenomenon that not only concerns the individual and his/her immediate environment as an illness but also affects society in terms of the consequences it causes, and there have been many cases of madness in history.

Those who are mad have long been stigmatized in society, and the mass media has played an important role in disseminating negative representations (Morris, 2014). Mass media and popular cinema have largely portrayed madness as violent, dangerous, dysfunctional and, worst of all, insane (Azhar, 2020). The concept of madness, which differs according to the society, the changing norms of the society and the periods, has been a frequently used tool in the narrative genre. Different forms of madness have been depicted in different art pieces.

Out of all these arts that still exist today, it is undeniable that cinema has the most profound and most intense impact on the audience, as it is the most realistic art discipline and the most constant and effective source of emotions (Masini & Vidoni, 2017). Therefore, cinema, which has a history of approximately 130 years, has frequently resorted to depictions of madness. When the history of cinema is examined, characters, places, situations and events related to madness can be seen in many films. Within the scope of the stereotypes used in these films and many more, madness has taken on many characters, such as a rebellious free spirit, a homicidal maniac or sociopath, a seducer, an enlightened member of society (Vermeulen, 2008), a narcissist, a psychotic, schizophrenic or bipolar person, a former warrior or soldier detached from reality with a desire for revenge, a savage idiot, a genius who enjoys eating human flesh. In all these films, directors and cinematographers have different cinematographic approaches to the mad characters and madness. Each sought to visualize the character’s psychological state and the delusions he or she was experiencing. The filming of madness is much more than a succession of scientific words and a definition of madness (or mental illness). The priority of directors has been to visually reflect the characters' emotional states on the screen, thus enabling the audience to participate in the narrative.

In this study, firstly, the contribution of cinematography in Mad Max films (1979, 1981, 1985, 2015) to the overall narrative structure of the film is analyzed. In this direction, the lens angle, focus and depth of field, camera angle, camera movement, shooting scale, composition, lighting and exposure in the four films are analyzed in terms of how they play a role in the reception of the madness that the director tries to convey to the audience in all films. In addition, the four films are analyzed comparatively within the framework of the same elements to reveal how cinematography is used to visualize madness in the Mad Max films.