trauma

The film "Mysterious Skin" uses blue lighting throughout to represent memory and trauma. The blue light is connected to Brian's molestation and his memories. The narrative is influenced by Brian's trauma and memory loss, showing how memory shapes a scene. The film uses lighting to override the narrative and create suspense for the audience. The main idea is that trauma can alter one's memory and perception. The presentation of memory and mysterious skin is like the Dune Generation, schizophrenic, but in a more bludgeoned by trauma way, certainly for Brian. Blue is all over this film, specifically lighting. It seeps around the edges of shots, behind the characters until it's right in front of them. The film begins with a very muted grey-blue in the title sequence. The UFO scenes are washed in bright blue neon lights. When we find out that Brian was molested and imagining the UFOs, it takes us right back to that blue light. The blue begins to make sense. It's Brian's memory seeping through it, leading up to that commentative scene where Neil explains everything to him as Brian lies on his lap. And a bluish hue tints the screen as the most devastating lines in cinematic history are recited. If we once again apply formalist theory, we see that Araki is using the technical aspect of lighting as a way to override the narrative, making it not necessarily an unreliable narrative because we're told early on what has happened, but one where the audience wait until the last moments of bated breath. The narrative falls behind the blue tinge in the film, exploring how memory informs a scene, but the narrative is at the whim of Brian's trauma and memory lapse. The abstract idea of her trauma informs the narrative. Her trauma changes the very layout of her brain.