Torn Curtain

Earlier this month (on Julie Andrews' 90th birthday), I watched Torn Curtain for a second time, and I noticed some small significance in the staging of one shot.

The movie is about Michael Armstrong, an American scientist who pretends to defect to East Germany in order to continue his project that the government shut down.  Really, his objective is to talk to Professor Lindt, a scientist behind the iron curtain, and trick him into revealing information that Armstrong needs.

Armstrong first encounters Lindt in a lecture room with tiered seating.  Lindt is sitting up in the back:

His position here indicates two qualities:  his elevation above everyone else demonstrates his importance (especially for Armstrong), and his distance (at the opposite end of the room) shows that - for the moment - he's inaccessible for Armstrong.  Initially, Armstrong isn't allowed to talk to Lindt because of questions of security resulting from Armstrong's unsanctioned visit to a farm (to meet with his contact in a secret organization).

The Ray Bradbury Theater - "The Murderer"

Near the beginning of August, I watched The Ray Bradbury Theater episode "The Murderer," and I noted that an electronic version of the first movement of Bach's third Brandenburg concerto (BWV 1048) is used in the diegetic soundtrack.  Almost two months later (at the end of September), I was thinking about this again and realized that some of the qualities of the piece exemplify the episode's environment.

Most of the episode is simply a conversation between Dr. Arnold Fellows and Albert Brock in a sort of psychiatric center (with flashbacks to show Brock's story).  Brock explains that he became overwhelmed with the constant barrage of sound from various electronic devices ("My whole day was one big listen") and eventually went on a spree to destroy them (after which he was arrested).  To a degree, the baroque polyphony and rather fast allegro tempo of the Bach piece illustrate this excessive stimulation that Brock experienced.

When I re-watched the episode last week, I realized that the placement of the piece also holds some significance.  It's playing outside the room where Fellows and Brock meet, so when Fellows enters and later leaves, there's a sudden transition between Bach and silence as the door closes or opens.  This immediate shift between extremes further highlights the contrast between the two.

The Pianist

Two months ago, I started reading The Art of Watching Films (sixth edition) by Joseph M. Boggs and Dennis W. Petrie, and I decided to try to watch at least some of the movies that are mentioned in it.  A few weeks ago, I watched The Pianist again (it had been about five years since I last saw it), and I noticed two significant details.

When Władysław Szpilman is introduced, he's playing Chopin's Nocturne in C sharp minor on Polish radio.  In the frame, he's facing left:

(I have only the full-screen version.)

Near the end of the movie, he's playing this piece on the radio again, but the shot composition is reversed, so he's now facing right:

Ostensibly, Szpilman has gone back to doing exactly what he did before, as he told Hosenfeld:  "I'll play the piano again, on the Polish radio."  He looks about the same as he did at the beginning of the movie, and he's even playing the same piece.  The difference in composition between these two shots, however, illustrates that there has been a change and that Szpilman has been affected by what he's experienced.

In a scene early in the movie, a German soldier harasses Szpilman's father on the sidewalk.  His comments contain a shift in tone, but this doesn't come across in the English subtitles.

Soldier

Dialogue:  Sie!  Herkommen!  Warum haben Sie sich nicht verbeugt?

Subtitles:  Why didn't you bow?

My translation:  You!  Come here!  Why didn't you bow?

Szpilman's father

Dialogue:  Entschuldigung Sie.

Subtitles:  I beg your pardon.

My translation:  Excuse me.

Soldier

Dialogue:  Euch ist der Gehweg verboten.  In die Gosse mit dir.

Subtitles:  You're forbidden the pavement  In the gutter!

My translation:  For you [plural] the pavement is forbidden.  Into the gutter with you [singular].

Initially, the soldier uses Sie, which is a polite or formal address, but then he switches to dir (the dative form of du).  Normally, du is used only in close relationships (with friends and family, for example).  In this context, it's disrespectful and indicates the soldier's belief that Szpilman's father is inferior to him.  Throughout the movie, other German soldiers also use du (or its inflected forms) when talking to the Jews.  Hosenfeld is an exception to this, though, and consistently addresses Szpilman with the polite Sie.

Pride and Prejudice (1995)

Since I first saw it in 2022, I've watched the 1995 BBC Pride and Prejudice every year.  When I re-watched it last month, I paid close attention to one element in order to confirm a suspicion I formed during my previous annual viewing.  To a degree, the style of Elizabeth Bennet's hair indicates how at ease she is.

For most of the series, her hair is up:

But there are select scenes where her hair is down:

Almost always, these are scenes where she's confiding to Jane:

• Her determination to marry for love instead of money (Part I)
• What Wickham told her about Darcy (Part II)
• Darcy's proposal and his account of Wickham, where she even admits the distress she felt upon reading Darcy's letter since "I had no Jane to comfort me" (Part IV)
• The effects that Lydia's running away with Wickham will have on the rest of the Bennet sisters (Part V)
• Being engaged to Darcy and that she really does love him (Part VI)

The only exceptions are a brief scene in Part I where she says goodnight to Mrs. Bennet, Lydia, and Kitty and two instances where she's sitting by herself and looking at her reflection (in Parts I and VI).  Otherwise, her hair is down only when she's talking with Jane, and this looser mien shows that she's less guarded during these moments than she is in other social contexts.

---&---

Last time I watched the series, I also noticed that Mrs. Hurst and Elizabeth both play movements (or at least sections of movements) from Mozart's Piano Sonata No. 11 in A major, K. 331.  Mrs. Hurst plays the third movement ("Alla Turca") at Netherfield in Part II, and Elizabeth plays the opening of the first movement (Andante grazioso) at Rosings Park in Part III.  Because the two selections are from the same work, the series seems to be drawing a comparison between Mrs. Hurst and Elizabeth.  At the very least, the difference in character between the two selections matches the relative economic disparity between the two women.  The ostentation of the Turkish march acts almost as a display of Mrs. Hurst's affluence while the gentle balance in the andante demonstrates Elizabeth's more modest circumstances.

Apollo 13

I recently re-watched Apollo 13 (although it was sort of indirectly; I watched it with the commentaries by director Ron Howard and Jim and Marilyn Lovell), and I noticed some significance in the composition of this shot:

In his commentary, Ron Howard briefly mentions that this shot was achieved with a diopter, so that Marilyn in the background and the NASA squawk box in the foreground are both in focus.  This sort of visual presentation highlights the distance between the two, which in turn emphasizes the space between Marilyn and Jim.  In this shot, she's far away even from the object that merely represents him.  At this point in the movie, the Apollo 13 spacecraft is going around the dark side of the moon and is therefore out of radio contact, and these circumstances also contribute to this sense of separation.

The Music Man

After I wrote about The Music Man last month, I was thinking about Marian Paroo and Harold Hill again and realized that (excepting the fact that Hill is actually a fake) there are a number of contrasts between them as music teachers and that these differences may contribute to their initial antagonism.

As a piano teacher, Marian Paroo interacts with students individually (as is shown with Amaryllis), but Hill, as a band leader, deals with multiple musicians simultaneously.  Paroo's piano is definitely a stationary instrument, but Hill's band is mobile.  The piano is also fully polyphonic, but most (if not all) of the instruments in a marching band are monophonic.

Paroo and Hill are so different that even with respect to this one similarity (their positions as music teachers), they have very little in common.

The Hunger Games

A few months ago, I was thinking about the reaping scene in The Hunger Games (at the time, I was reading the reaping scene in Sunrise on the Reaping).  I remembered a particular detail about it and realized its significance, and last week, I watched the movie again in order to pay closer attention to it.

When Effie Trinket announces, "Primrose Everdeen" as the girl tribute from District 12, the level on her microphone peaks because of the plosive P in Primrose.  The ugliness of this sound matches the life-shattering nature of this moment, both for Prim herself and for her sister Katniss, who is the main character.

The same effect is also present when Effie announces Peeta Mellark as the boy tribute (the plosive P of Peeta causes the microphone level to peak), but it doesn't have nearly the same volume or intensity.  For Katniss, Peeta's being selected as tribute isn't as disconcerting because (at this point, anyway) the relationship between them isn't as strong as the one between Katniss and Prim.

I was also able to confirm a suspicion I had about the film's look.  Especially during the reaping, the shots in District 12 are rather de-saturated, with a minimal number of colors:

This palette heightens the contrast between District 12 and the Capitol, which has both a larger variety of colors and a greater vividness of them.  Here's a shot from the tribute parade:

I also saw something I hadn't noticed before.  When Katniss is under the effects of the tracker jacker venom and hallucinates about the mining accident that killed her father, there's one shot where every miner has her father's face:

While this shows the disorienting nature of the venom, it also illustrates the profound effect that Katniss's father's death had (and continues to have) on her.  In the hallucination, it's literally amplified.

[For what it's worth:  I've also written short posts about the book trilogy and the movie version of Catching Fire.]