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creation of Expressionist theatre which centred on abstract or overtly theatrical
representations of social life; influenced by ancient Greek rhetoric, they adopted the decision
to produce art that was both symbolic and rhetorical. In Partner both aspects are present. The
mise-en-scene is overtly theatrical, a sense of the abstract emerging in Giacobbe's workplace
where the presence of a few chairs, a door frame standing in the centre of the room, and a
canvas evoking Mondrian's primary colours which dominates the background, are used
symbolically to represent the desire for a less conventional approach to art and ultimately to
life, hi another room the ceiling, decorated with a pattern resembling the American flag,
imposes itself sinisterly when framed in close-up and again when it is framed in the
background as it hangs over a gigantic black guillotine. The two features function as
metaphors for the violence generated by and derived from repressive power. The American
flag pattern implies an oppressive presence determined from above, an allusion to American
imperialism in Vietnam. By contrast, the guillotine emerging from the foot of the frame
alludes to the inevitable counter-violence produced by popular insurrections, a process fixed
in people's collective memories by the French Revolution. This exemplifies the way the
film's intellectual resonances are conveyed via visual and spatial arrangements that are
disturbing from a sensory perspective.
Other aspects of mise-en-scene replicate this effect of combining intellectual
articulations of the human condition with an affective charge; the set representing Giacobbe's
house evokes expressionist themes related to the human conditions of isolation and
precariousness, in which individuals act out their despair as a consequence of their lack of a
clear individual and collective identity. This is emphasized by the dusty piles of books which
symbolize how the culture of the older generations no longer has significance for the young.
The presence of two pictures highlights a metaphysical sense of loss; the painting on the left,
in a surrealist style, shows a girl walking in a deserted city, and it intensifies Giacobbe s
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