Water
The opening credits of the film feature the names of people who worked on the film being washed away by waves crashing onto a sandy shore. After the opening shooting scene, the second scene of the film is one in which Mildred briefly contemplates suicide by jumping off a pier into the dark waters below. She is saved from this decision by a passing cop who uses the excuse of not having any desire to jump in after her to save her. When Monte courts Mildred, he invites her to his beach house for a swim and we see them jumping into the waves together. This is one of the few moments that we see Mildred doing anything with any kind of sense of abandon. Water, and in particular the ocean, represents the stormy narrative of Mildred's life, and the crashing of the waves can be seen as symbolizing the recurring abuse by Mildred's daughter Veda.
Deep Focus
Nearly every scene in Mildred Pierce is shot in what is known as “deep focus.” This is a technique in which objects in the background and the foreground are in equal sharp focused. It is more common in movies that the foreground is sharp and the background blurry—such as the close-up scene when Veda is explaining to Mildred why she shot Beragon—but in an unusual number of scenes in this film, both the background and foreground are sharp.
Wedding Announcement
One of the most evocative and memorable images in the film is short in length. After a newspaper announcement (with photo) reads, “Successful Businesswoman married Beragon heir," the camera pulls back to reveal the silhouetted shadow of Beragon sitting in a plush chair trashing the newspaper in his hands. The image shows that the wedding is completely symbolic, a business transaction rather than a celebration of love, and it reveals the extent of Beragon's shallowness.
Light and Shadow
The first scene of the movie is classic film noir, in that it takes place in a modern and beautifully furnished beach house, under dim lighting. The glamorous locale is lit starkly, creating an effect of chiaroscuro, a heavy contrast between light and dark. This heightens the suspense of the moment and shows that the mysterious plot and discovery of the murderer will include moments of clarity, as well as moments where the viewer feels "in the dark."
