Shots and Angles in The Man Who Wasn't There

     Angles and shots can be used (as mentioned in the notes in reference to There Will Be Blood), for ironic effect as well as dramatic.  In one of the early scenes of the Coen brothers' 2001 film The Man Who Wasn't There, the dour barber protagonist gloomily describes his wife's fondness for going to church on Tuesdays–Bingo Night. While this voiceover proceeds, the camera slowly descends from a low angle shot of a crucified Jesus Christ to another low angle shot of a bored priest calling out Bingo numbers. These combined low-angle shots provide an ironic juxtaposition of the gravitas and dignity of the savior of the Christian world with the silly indignity of a man of god reduced to playing game show host with the same awe-inducing perspective.
    In another scene, the Coens use a long shot of Scarlett Johannson's character playing piano with her back turned to the camera to show her isolation from the party that is going on in the house around her. As the barber, a distanced character himself, approaches her, listening in appreciation, the camera tightens to a medium shot and then to a close shot. When the barber finally sits, he is on eye level with her, and as their dialogue begins, a series of eye level shots occur. The effect of this sequence is to establish a similitude and a building relationship between these two characters who both find themselves apart from society.
    Later, as the stoic barber puts his drunken wife to bed, he contemplates the circumstances of their marriage and gazes down at her. He is shown in low-angle shots, and she in high-angle shots. In these, she is shown to have fallen from her position of domestic power to pathetic inebriety, and seems a much smaller and less potent figure indeed.