It seems that both films could have been subtitled with this alternative note, particularly when we focus upon the editing -- each piece is but a plank in the construction of the gallows and when the camera has had enough of these nefarious people they are then cast aside as they do others (Homes).
Editing Example 2 -- Geometric vs. Sound-Based Editing- Geometric editing is essentially a technique that uses the positions of the camera, one following each other, when put together, form a geometric shape or picture of the action. For example, the interaction of close ups (when the policemen are talking, for instance) with long shots, of traffic and the city, in The Line Up. In addition, the geometry of the editing moved from box to box, almost in a lineup (Quandt and Ontario, 120). For example, in the scene in which the two detectives confront Bressler, the unwitting courier of heroin from the Orient:
Closeup of the two Detectives Leavning the Lab
Long shot of the detectives entering the Opera House
Interior shot of the detectives entering the Opera House, echoing corridor
Close up of Dressler's Office, framed with three men talking.
Dressler's face close up, Detective's face close up.
Place bag on the table, medium long shot of all three.
Detectives leave Opera House, longer shot as they walk down the street
Detectives travel to Customer's House
Close up of Office in Custom's House, trio close up with Custom's agent
Scene of line up and crowd
Long shot of Detectives leaving station and traveling to another scene
Close up of apartment, of heroin paraphenaliascene e
This editing is continuous throughout the film clip; the back and forth of close up to faces, close up to interiors, longer shots of city or movement. This gives the audience a sense of continual movement -- almost television like small scenes, one after the other very rapidly. In fact, each scene ending, to a modern audience used to television commercials, can almost view this as a crime series made for television: rather simple scenes, framed for effect, back and forth from close to medium to far back to close shots. There is a certain sense of realism that also comes through with this style. It is also easy to follow the action and the protagonists vs. antagonists.
Sound-based editing, however, as exemplified in the 1968 drama Bullitt, uses the editor to allow the camera to follow the sound through the picture as part of the action- whether that be dialog, something as innocuous as a Hotel valet opening the door, a passing San Francisco streetcar, or the award winning car chase scene in which the editing is so masterful that the eye and ear seem to take in more than possible if one were an eye-witness. Since both films are set in San Francisco, it is interesting to compare the way each used the city to tell part of the story: in one case, more as a travelogue with prominent sights crisply attired; in the other, seamier sides of town as well as a more film noir approach to darkness and deceit (lighting, make up, camera angles). It is actually this form of editing that takes Bullitt out of the genre of action flick and more of a character...
In the heist itself, time overlaps, and actions that have already been shown are repeated from another character's point-of-view. The audience is left to pout the pieces together so that we see a character do something and then se how it helps the next action lead to the desired conclusion. At the racetrack, with the announcement of the start of the fifth race, the film cuts to Johnny, in the
Film Noir Among the various styles of producing films, it has been observed the noir style is one that has come to be recognized for its uniqueness in characterization, camera work and striking dialogue. Film Noir of the 1940s and 50s were quite well-known for their feminine characters that were the protagonists, the femme fatale. This was most common with the French, later accepted in the United States. There might have
Take the movie the Maltese Falcon, for example. The character played by Humphrey Bogart is not driven by an idealistic approach, but by the financial motivations that different characters will offer him throughout the movie. At the same time, the main female character is usually the femme fatale type, dangerous, yet attractive, with whom the main male character tends to bond. This is not, however, the usual Hollywood type love
Film Noir The 1945 film "Mildred Pierce" is the epitome of film noir, complete with the femme fatale, theme of betrayal and hopelessness and use of flashbacks. While the 1954 "On the Waterfront" also uses the theme of betrayal and hopelessness, it breaks from the film noir genre, and rather than using flashbacks, it is told in present time and the use of the femme fatale is replaced by an unscrupulous
The fact that she flirts with gender roles and norms is equally as dangerous. For Corky, the danger is manifest in the potential betrayal and also in the eventual show down between the women and their male captors. Jessica is portrayed as a more passive figure, as a more classic pre-feminist femme fatale; whereas Violet is a more active figure, a true "postfeminist good-bad girl hybrid." Things happen to Jessica,
Film Noir / Cinema Architecture Perhaps one of the most fruitful ways in which to trace the evolution of Film Noir as a genre is to examine, from the genre's heyday to the present moment, the metamorphoses of one of film noir's most reliable tropes: the femme fatale. The notion of a woman who is fundamentally untrustworthy -- and possibly murderous -- is a constant within the genre, perhaps as a
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