mise-en-scene

Developed by Bruce Timm, whose mid-’90s “Batman: The Animated Series” was also something of a throwback, featuring Batman and Robin in their classic gear and a chronologically indefinable mise-en-scene.

In a crisp white gallery space on Great Jones Street, in Manhattan’s East Village, a large wooden box contains a meticulous mise-en-scène: a midcentury roadside motel room constructed at puppet scale, which means it’s half of human scale.

“The House of Mirth” remains my favorite of Davies’ films for many reasons, from its air of tragic futility and inevitability to the spare, ghostly beauty of its mise-en-scène, which resists Merchant-Ivory sumptuousness at every turn.

With this mise-en-scène, let us return to the original question of how a machine might become conscious, starting with the first of the two theories.

“Nobody wants to come to a store and buy anymore,” Ms. Constantinou said — except set decorators looking for the perfect mise-en-scène.