Sunday, July 19, 2009

Heroes and Villains #2


"Ghostbusters", Ivan Reitman, 1984.


Despite the violent protestations of the malignant Stay Puft Marshmallow Man, the Ghostbusters heroically join together and form one super-penis to fight evil.


One, two, get her.

Friday, July 17, 2009

Le Deuxième Souffle


Jean-Pierre Melville, 1966.

In the first three shots of the film, Melville sleekly and with great economy presents the protagonists, their motivation, the obstacles, the locale, and their relation to one another in space.


Shot One:
Here are our heros. It is late at night and they are attempting to move unseen. The walls form very clean surfaces and draw the eye in the direction of the first man's gaze.



Shot Two
Here we see what he is looking at. More clean lines, another wall and a spotlight establish they are in a prison—they are about to escape. Our eyes are already trained on the upper right portion of the screen at the spotlight. Now the the corners of the walls draw our eyes downward.



Shot Three
While we are already prepared to look down, the bird's-eye view of the prison guards must be from the point of view of the prisoners. The guards are looking back to the left of the screen, presumably toward the spotlight, which places us in the same location as the prisoners, giving us a clear indication who we are to identify with.


The scene is nearly silent and the efficiency of the camera work and editing are mirrored by the prisoners' quiet exit (or vice versa).


Sunday, July 12, 2009

Killers #8


Jean-Pierre Melville's "Le Deuxième Souffle", 1966.





Friday, July 3, 2009

Haynes Does Fellini


Todd Haynes' brilliant "I'm Not There", 2007.  
Captioned with stills from Fellini's 1963 masterpiece, "".


Haynes


Fellini


Fellini


Haynes


Fellini


Haynes


Fellini


Wednesday, July 1, 2009

Killers #7


Anthony Mann's "T-Men", 1947.


The hitman emerges slowly from the blackness.  It's the best shot of the film and it happens about two minutes in.