1958
Director: Orson Welles
Technical Info: Ways of handling the camera:
BEFORE THE FILM
Orson Welles is considered one of the great directors/writers/actors of all times by many people, and it is inconceivable that any film student not know his name or some of the famous films he has made. His first film Citizen Kane is seen as a masterpiece by most and possibly the best film ever made by some. Despite this, Welles’ career was beset with difficulties with studio heads overriding his creative decisions. His inability to get funding was always a major hassle in his life.
Welles took on this film which most people had rejected and both starred in and directed the film.
Considered bizarre on many accounts, the casting of Charleton Heston as a Mexican is noted even in the film “Ed Wood”.
Welles is noted as a director for his camera work which is rather spectacular – sometimes, according to some, to the point of overpowering the rest of the picture and sometimes to the point of being excessive and having a kind of “look what I can do!”. approach to film.
This film particularly is noted for it “long takes”, in which the camera is allowed to run for quite some time before the director yells “cut”. One of the longest occurs at the very start of the film, and another occurs in the house when the police are searching for the dynamite. These shots contain a great deal of camera movement which makes them rather spectacular. They are among the longest takes on film. Longer shots can be found on film in Alfred Hitchcock’s Rope and in many shots on videotape, but these are among the most complex and longest.
Watch also for an appearance of Dennis Weaver as the motel manager, Zsa Zsa Gabor amd Joseph Cotton.
AFTER THE FILM
What is the film about?
Welles is interested in many of his films in power and corruption. (Look at courses on “director’s cinema”). Compare this film with other’s like Citizen Kane.
Long shots:
There are two very long shots in the film. The opening shot is the much more complex of the two. The shot is not only long, but with a great deal of movement and interaction between people and things. The shot establishes by its unity the interconnection between the car bomb, the Grandes, Vargas as well as the “unified” border which people cross over regularly in the film. It is a virtuoso shot full of meaning.
Hand Held Shot
The camera is hand held not mounted on a tripod. The camera movement becomes somewhat unsteady and has the feel of a "documentary" film which is being shot as the action happens. Recent inventions had made it possible to hand hold a 35 mm movie camera and it is used to gret effect in the scene with the myrdr in the bedroom.
Film Noir
Film noir has many elements to it. One of its stylistic characteristics (as opposed to its narrative characteristics) is it high key lighting with strong contrast between light and shadow (called chiaroscuro lighting). Shots are often low angle and ceilings are visible. People are often trapped in frames within frames and people are seem in mirrors often indicating duplicity.
Low Shots:
Low shote make the characters more imposing. Compare the initial shots of Charleton Heston (Vargas) with those of Orson Welles (Quinlan). How do they compare?
hand held shots. The scene in which Grande is murdered by Quinlan is almost all hand held. What effect does this have
Frames within Frames
People appear entrapped in frames within frames. By enclosing a person in a frame (a window, a door way, prison bars, bridge structures) which appears within the frame of the screen itself, the person is symbolically hemmed in.
Note for example the seen where Heston (Vargas) is on the phone with the blind woman (Heston/Vargas “can’t see” either) while there is a great deal of activity going on outside the window.
Lighting
High contrast. Light is often placed low - shadows are peculiar in that they go up rather than down.
Nearly the entire film is shot at night - dark, shadowy.
One scene in the light occurs when Vargas crosses the street to use the telephone in the store of the blind woman. He has his back to the camera and does not see Grande with Menzies, nor does he (nor do we) see Quinlan plant the dynamite. Blindness is apparent everywhere.
Images
When acid is thrown at Vargas it splatters a poster taht shows "Zita" (the woman killed in the car) as a performer.
When Mezies attempts to bait Quinlan outside, we see Quinlan against a wall which has a mounted bull's head, surrounded by the spears of the bullfighters on it. We also see pictures of matadors. Has Quinlan become the bull in the fight?
Is Quinlan right or wrong?
He gets the right guy for the bombing. He “assists” justice. His techniques are wrong (ends do not justify the means, and certainly not when the means are “hunches”). Vargas is more preoccupied with getting Quinlan and finding his wife (whom he in effect deserts) than in solving the problem of the bomb.
Does Vargas show Quinlan like nehaviors when he tries to find out info about his wife from the Grande gang? Vargas says I am not a police officer now, I am a husband. Does this imply that police need to disatance themselves from the people?
We know what set Quinlan off on his obsession with catching people he is sure were guilty but for which had no evidence was his wife's murder. If Vargas' wife had been killed would be become another Quinlan? Is there a "Touch of Evil" in all of us?
Is Vargas good at solving the case? Thinks it might be Farnum (the parolee at the road blasting site). Vargas' case is pretty hypothetical.