Crazy Good

The opening credits to Alfred Hitchcock’s Psycho are very interesting and informative about what the audience should expect in the film. Many of the credits are off centered and the music is very unsettling. The fact that the credits were off centered indicates that we are going to be dealing with someone mentally unstable, Norman Bates. The eerie music indicates that something tragic is going to happen, this being the death of Nancy.

The sequence involving Nancy’s flee makes very good use of metaphorical props. The metaphorical props specific to the car lot scene are the two men. Not only are they impeding her exodus, they are part of the gender that has held her and all women back at this time. During this sequence, Hitchcock creatively uses the voiceover to inform the audience what is occurring in Nancy’s world that Nancy is not present for. The use of the close-up shots of Nancy as she is driving demonstrates that Nancy is trapped and doomed since she began her flight. The other indicator of Nancy’s fate is the eerie music that has been continually playing throughout the entire film. No matter how good things may appear to be the music is always the same. This could possibly serve as a warning to the audience that no matter how good things may seem to be, you must always be ready for the worst because life is unpredictable. While on the topic of Nancy’s fate, it is interesting that she was murdered in her attempt to flee. Had she just been caught by the police, she would have just been sent to jail. Instead she receives a much worst punishment. This is possibly because it was not just a robbery but it was also a breach of trust with her job and boss. After having worked there for 10 years as her boss indicates in one of the voiceovers, she decides to steal from the company. Also she could have just been killed by a psycho because he was a psycho and not because she actually deserved to die.

The Sum of its Parts

The scene beginning with this shot is very well done due to the expert work of Fritz Arno Wagner and Fritz Lang.

 

The cinematography and props throughout this scene really improve the viewer’s experience. When Hans is watching the little girl through the window, it is very disturbing to see his reaction. After he regains his composure, we are presented with a shot showing only the left half of Hans’s body. The other half of his body is made visible to us through the window of the shop which acts as a mirror. Seeing the image of Hans and his reflection presented in this way suggests several aspects about his character to the viewer. The first obvious piece of information is Hans’s fractured psyche. This is depicted by the simultaneous shooting of Hans and his reflection. The second piece of information is that Hans has always been crazy because it is part of who he is. This is represented by the two halves of Hans. One half is real and seems normal. However, the other half is insane and evil. This evilness is revealed to us by the darkness of Hans’s reflection. It is much harder to make out details in his reflection than in the actual image of Hans.

As the little girl is walking, she passes a store displaying a hypnotizer wheel. Its presence is comical because it is warning the audience that we are about to get tricked. This trick occurs when we hear the eerie music as she turns the corner. We begin to get a sinking feeling in our stomachs because we are anticipating her kidnapping and know that we are powerless to prevent it. Finally we see the girl get grabbed by someone. To our relief, that someone is her mother and not Hans. At this point we realize that we have been tricked into expecting the worst due to the simple introduction of eerie music. Then we appreciate comical presence of the hypnotizer wheel.

Post-Modern Times

Charlie Chaplin’s Modern Times although funny at times does make some very accurate criticisms about life during that time. The life of a factory worker was not one of ease. Workers could not falter on the task at hand. If one person messed up, it caused people performing succeeding jobs to be backlogged as well. They also had to deal with very dangerous working conditions as seen in the scene when Charlie gets sucked into the machinery. Although it was presented in a comical way, it reminds us that workers had to always be mindful of the machines that they were using or working on.

Besides these day to day hazards, workers also had to be physically and mentally tough to withstand the monotony of factory work. Chaplin comically presented this by pretending he was still on the assembly line even though he was already on break. This funny little dance brings to mind the harmful ailments which occur over time due to monotonous factory work such as exposure to toxic chemicals or carpal tunnel. Aside from these physical ailments, workers could also suffer from mental breakdowns. As seen in the film once a worker had one of these breakdowns, they were no longer of any use to the company. They were just fired and cast aside as just another broken machine.

Despite being made years prior to the present Modern Times offers criticisms about life which still ring true to this day namely the unpredictability of life. For example, when Charlie tried to do a good deed and return the flag to the truck, he ended up getting arrested for leading a protest. Although life takes unexpected turns at times, we just need to keep trying our best. Eventually things will work out for us as they did for Charlie.

Dreaming

In a dream, everything is wonderful and happens according to the desires of the dreamer. Dreams can give people hope and an ideal to strive towards. The negative side to dreams is people may become emotionally crippled if their dreams are not perfectly realized. David Lynch’s Blue Velvet illustrates the death of the American Dream and the destructive nature of dreams with the characters Jeffery and Sandy.

The main character, Jeffery Beaumont, is a college boy who gets called back home after his father fell ill. Since he is his father’s only son, he must take care of the family business while his father is incapacitated. Now that Jeffery is no longer at college, he cannot finish his education. This ruins his chances of upward mobility in society, thus killing his chance at attaining the American Dream.

The importance and power of dreams is conveyed through the repetition of the song “In Dreams” by Roy Orbison. The emotionally crippling and destructive power of dreams is most noticeably with Sandy. After her first official date with Jeffery, she finds Dorothy completely naked in front of Jeffery’s house. Once it is confirmed that Jeffery has been intimately involved with Dorothy, Sandy starts crying and breaking down. The climax of her breakdown occurs when she slaps Jeffery for hiding his relationship with Dorothy. After the conclusion of a phone call conversation Sandy has with Jeffery, she states that “[t]his is not [her] dream” repeatedly. Since her relationship with Jeffery did not turn out exactly the way she dreamed it would, she is paralyzed with pain. She continually cries until she eventually gets pass the un-fulfillment of her dream. Sandy’s reaction illustrates how much pain an unrealized dream can cause.

Although dreams can inspire people and give them hope, they can also paralyze people with pain and cause them to lose themselves. The degree of damage done by an unrealized dream depends on how much a person believes in the dream. Since Sandy has been in relationships prior to Jeffery, she has learned to handle the disappointment of an imperfect relationship. By not believing in it wholeheartedly, she is able to move on and deal with life. Lynch warns his audience to be careful how much they believe in a dream because it might be the death of them.

Man and Machine

Technology has completely changed the way people live. Instead of waiting for weeks or months at a time to receive a letter from someone, people can call each other no matter how far away they are from each other. Years ago this would have just been science fiction, but now it is just an everyday occurrence just like waking up. Man’s relationship with technology is one of the most important issues in Ridley Scott’s Blade Runner. Although technology has improved people’s lives, they have become too dependent on it as seen in Blade Runner.

The film’s protagonist, Deckard, is an ex Blade Runner who is forced into service again. A Blade Runner’s job is to hunt down fugitive replicants on Earth. The only way to determine if someone is a replicant or fully human is to conduct a certain test. This test asks a series of questions that are meant to trigger an emotional response. However, to perform the test Blade Runners need a specific machine. This machine focuses on the eye of the subject and notices any slight changes during the course of the questioning. The irony in this test is that Deckard is using a machine to figure out if the person he is questioning is a machine as well. Throughout the course of the movie, Deckard has multiple confrontations with replicants. The only reason he survives these encounters is because of the gun that he is carrying on him. Without this machine, he would have surely died. However, during his confrontation with Roy, Deckard is not saved by his pistol. Roy is the one that catches him as he begins to fall from the top of a building. Yet again, Deckard has been saved by a machine. Except this time it is the very same machine he was trying to destroy.

Besides Deckard, there are other characters who illustrate this dependency on technology. The people that dance with the snakes use artificial snakes in order to complete their job. This is the only way that they can make a living, and it shows how important technology has become in this futuristic world.  It seems like there is no way for people to live in this world without technology affecting them in some way.

Square in a Circle?

Travis, the protagonist of Taxi Driver, is just trying to live in the world like everyone else. Just like everyone else he has his own idea of how the world should be. After serving in the Marine Corps during the Vietnam War, Travis returns to New York City. However the city he returns to is not the city that he had left. The landscape and demographic is unrecognizable to him. This is visually noticeable during the opening scene of the film. As the taxi is driving around, the images outside the windows are blurred and indistinguishable.

Travis struggles to understand the way of life in the city but continually fails in various situations. The first time occurs during a visit to an adult movie theater. Travis attempts to casually speak to the cashier, and she threatens to call the manager. By treating her as a person instead of just a cashier he has broken one of the unwritten rules of this society. People are no longer treated as people but are treated according to their occupation. The most blatantly obvious incident is when Travis takes Betsy out on a date to an adult movie theater. He claims that a lot of couples go to movies like this; therefore he thinks it is appropriate as a dating activity. The couples he witnesses going into these theaters are not all heterosexual, and those that are heterosexual are not healthy functioning couples.

After struggling to fit into this strange society, Travis is eventually told flat out that he is a square. He cannot fit into society and does not have a purpose being a part of it. His purpose according to a fellow taxi driver is his job. Although he is currently employed as a taxi driver, his original occupation was a soldier. As a soldier his purpose is to kill enemies of the state. This is all he has known during his time in the Marine Corps. To fulfill this purpose, he ends up killing a pimp, the pimp’s boss, and the time keeper of the room used for prostitution. These are the enemies of his ideal state and world.

Taxi Driver illustrates the struggles that soldiers returning from war may encounter as they attempt to reintegrate into society. Although it follows Travis, other characters such as Iris illustrate how difficult it is for people to find their way in society. People must either give up and take part in a society that exploits them or be alone and disgusted by this society.

The Temptress

Bree Daniels of Alan J. Pakula’s Klute is a call girl more out of necessity than out of choice. She has made attempts to leave this way of life behind and become a model. However, she is unsuccessful in her endeavors. Is her failure due to her own lack of determination or willpower? Or has her old way of life become a prison instead of a life?

Throughout the film Pakula suggests that Bree lacks the ability to change her life. Although she has tried, she always reverts back to being a call girl. This could be due to the fact that she is no longer pure enough to resist the temptation of being a call girl. She is not evil or amoral, but the city has corrupted her in some way. This is confirmed after her first sexual encounter with Klute when she states that everyone loses their virtue at some point. The impure and imperfect quality of her life is illustrated during the scenes at the nightclub. Pakula uses the presence of homosexuals, pimps, prostitutes, and narcotics to cement this idea.

The possibility that this way of life has become a prison for Bree is conveyed through the misé-en-scene and cinematography as seen in shots such as the following.

 

The first shot seems to be very tight and just manages to fit all of Bree. The shot is also taken very close to the bars of the bedframe, which exaggerates this idea that Bree is trapped. The second shot uses the narrowness of the stairway to illustrate the limited amount of freedom Bree has to make her own way.

The only way Bree is able to get away from her life as a call girl and make a change is with the help of Klute. Although he may have lost his virtue according to Bree, he is still pure enough to resist the temptation of her old lifestyle and guide her from it. However, Bree claims that she may return to the city and in doing so probably return to her old way of life. Only time with tell if she is truly liberated from her dark past.

Kiss Me Lightly

The main mystery in Robert Aldrich’s Kiss Me Deadly is the contents of the black box. It must be something extremely important, dangerous, or valuable because multiple characters meet their untimely end in order to keep it a secret. When Mike Hammer first finds the box, he states that it is hot and gets a burn on his arm from touching it.

As he attempts to peek inside the box, a blinding light is the only thing visible to the audience. The contents of the box have not been divulged at this point. When Lieutenant Pat Murphy mentions the words Manhattan Project to Mike, it is revealed that the contents of the box pertain to the nuclear bomb. Although the mystery of the box has been solved, it symbolic importance must still be discussed.

When Doctor G.E. Soberin speaks about the box, he refers to Medusa from Greek mythology. He claims that her head is what is inside the box. Even though he is referring to Greek mythology, this introduces the idea of religious symbolism. The box could represent God’s knowledge. Since no human being has the capability to fully understand God, it had to be locked away.

In the scene shown above, Carver is killed after she opens the box. Being mere reflections of God, humans cannot possibly grasp God’s omniscience. Also keeping in mind the Greek mythology mentioned by Dr Soberin, this image references the story of Icarus. Icarus flew too close to the Sun during his flight and was killed because his wings were burnt. This scene also brings up the concept of lumen versus lux. Lumen is the divine light of the universe, and lux is its reflection on Earth. This easily ties in with the idea of God and humans being made in God’s image. Just as lux is lumen’s reflection on Earth, human beings are the reflection of God’s image on Earth.

People must remember that in the end everyone is mortal. Warnings and myths were created to keep us safe and ignoring them can have fatal consequences

Sprechen Sie Niederländisch?

Reed masterly uses different cinematographic techniques to make how the audience sees the film just as important as what they see. In the beginning of the film, Martin is looking for Harry’s apartment. When he is outside Harry’s building, Reed makes use of the full shot to illustrate how small and powerless Martin is in this new environment. As the film progresses, Reed uses full shots for other purposes such as juxtapositions between old and new Vienne as seen in the shot below.

           

Reed makes very good use of close ups as well. Most of the close-up shots of Martin occur when he is in tight areas or when he seems to be feeling trapped.

 

Not only is he trapped due to his lack of knowledge of how things work in this foreign land, he is also literally trapped within the frame of the camera. This really emphasizes how much of a predicament he finds himself especially once he learns the truth about Harry. Reed also ingeniously uses a close-up shot of Harry as he is dying on the steps after being shot.

 

At this point Harry has run out of places to hide not only from the police but from the camera as well. Unlike the scene where the audience catches their first glimpse of a living, breathing Harry hiding in the dark, out of sight from the camera, he is trapped by the camera and by death.

One of the most notable techniques that Reed uses in The Third Man is the Dutch angle. It seems as if there are more Dutch angles in the film than there are regular shots. Reed uses the Dutch angle to signify that something is abnormal about certain characters or situations. In the following shot of Harry, Reed uses a Dutch angle which signifies that Harry is a crooked character.

He is a criminal who does not care about how his actions affect other people as long as he can make a quick buck. Based on the company he keeps and the way he acts towards Martin, he may be homosexual. This is another reason why Reed uses a Dutch angle to portray Harry. He is not just off morally, but his sexual orientation is not straight hence the not straight angle used to portray him.

A Crooked Character

Considering the time period during which Laura was made, it is surprising how many scenes in the film have a homosexual undertone. One of the most obvious scenes in which the audience is presented with this is the opening scene where Mark meets Waldo. In this scene Mark is just beginning his investigation of the murder of Laura by questioning Waldo. Although he is bathing, Waldo allows Mark to come in and question him.  Not only is Waldo bathing in front of Mark, he then proceeds to gets out of the tub in front of Mark.  This does not seem like something that most men from the 1940’s would have been comfortable with.

There are other hints throughout the film which suggest that Waldo is homosexual. One of them is Waldo’s art collection. When directors wanted to signify that a male character was not heterosexual, they tended to portray them as art collectors. Waldo’s art collection is seen in his apartment and brought up again when he requests back the décor he lent to Laura. One of these items was a vase, and the other was a grandfather clock which was part of a pair.

Another hint that Waldo is not a typical American man is his cane. Whenever Waldo goes somewhere public he always has his cane as if to signify that he is lacking in some way or flawed. This flaw being that he is not heterosexual.Towards the end of the film, there is another obvious hint that Waldo is not heterosexual. As he is speaking to Laura about Mark, he describes Mark as handsome and muscular. Men living during this time period would not have viewed other men in this way and definitely would not have openly stated it to others.

By the end of the film it is revealed that Waldo was the one who tried to kill Laura. In many film noirs homosexuals are often portrayed as villains. However, if they are not the villain, then they are presented as an obstacle that delays the protagonist in their quest. Sadly this has created a very negative public opinion of homosexuals which is still afflicting them in society to this day.