LADY IN THE LAKE
1947
Robert Montgomery
Any frame in a film can be examined as though it were a still photo with no other images surrounding it. Each frame has a specific composition (placement of objects within the frame), lighting, focus and symbolism. Motion pictures add a dimension of time which allows for several things to happen that can not happen in a still photo. First of all, there can be movement. This movement is only apparent however and results from the retention of an image on the eye just a split second, with the result that rather than perceiving motion rather than a sequence of still shots.
Movement can be created by the subject moving or my the camera moving (or both). Camera movements are pans, tilts, dollies and the like. Cameras may be placed omn moving cranes or used in steady cams. Some changes can be brought about by shifting the focus in shallow focus from an object up close to one further away (or vice versa). This is called "rack focus". The camera can also have the focal length of its lens changed so that the lends "zooms" from a wide angle shot to a close up shot while the camera is running.
This makes movement a variable which can be manipulated in film making. Why does a film maker choose to use a steady camera or a moving one? If the choice is made to move the camera, then a further choice of how to move it must be made. We have seen how zooming and dollying have similar aspects to them but also have radically different appearances on the screen.
We can summarize this as follows:
KINDS OF SHOTS:
By proximity and placement
By function
By number of people in the shot
By use of camera
First Person
In linguistics, the first person refers to the speaker; the second person is the person to who the speaker speaks; the third person is the person about whom the speaker speaks.
In English, the first person is "I" or "we"; the second person is "you" regardless of whether it is singular or plural (although in some parts of the South "y'all" appears as a plural as does "youse" (emphatically "youse guys")in some parts of the country. "He", "she" and "it" are the markers of the third person singular while "they" is third person plural.
In narration, the teller of the film may or may not be a character in the film. In many films the origin of the image (and audio) is not specified. This is a general third person narrration and is often omniscient - that is to say the audience sees and hears the story through the auspices of some unknown third person.
On the other hand, in first person narratives, the narration comes from a single viewpoint, usually a character in the story. In films with first person narration the audience never knows or sees more than that character does. Films like The Innocents have very strong first person narrations, even though the character appears on the screen, things are seen through that person's eyes (and indeed often interpreted through them). They are not shot with a "first person camera" so to speak.
First person camera, on the other hand is represented by a pointof view (POV) shot in which the audience (usually momentarily) sees something through the eyes of a specific character. In The Hauntung The house seems to be alive and the director in an attempt to show this gives us several POV shots from the house's point of view. Eleanor looks up at the house. We see her look up, we see her eyes, we see the house. We see two windows in the house which match up with Eleanor's eye and then we see Eleanor from the house's point of view. This unsettling shot allows the audience to feel that the house can in fact "see"
. In Lady in the Lake the director (and star) Robert Montgomery goes a step further. With the exception of two brief scenes, the entire film is POV. This is an interesting idea given the "mystery" genre to which the film belongs. In the standard "who done it?", it is the task of the audience to try to compete with the film's detective to see who can solve the mystery first. In this case, by linking the audience to the detective a certain complexity arises in the film. Can you compete with yourself? The film, because of its constant first person approach requires something else to happen, and that is the breaking of the "4th wall". In effect, there is an invisible wall bewteen the audience and tne performers which means that the performers are never aware of the audience. Im several instances in both theather and films, the fourth wall is in fact broken and actors may address the audience directly in what is cleverly called "direct address". In some cases it works reasonably well (as in the opening of Frankenstein where a gentleman (Edward Van Sloan) steps out from behind a stage curtain and addresses an audience in a theater, which is never seen, but clearly the audience in the motion picture replaces. The address is, in fact to the movie audience.
It is not uncommon is comedy for sirect address to occur, and it is seen in many Laurel and Hardy films as well as in such classics as Tom Jones.
While the point of view shot is generally rather short and usually follows a shot of the character looking, this film maintains a point of view throughout the film, even to the point of the camera going out of focus and sinking down when the main character is knocked unconscious.. This is sometimes referred to as “first person camera” or “subjective camera”
Is it a gimmick? Something just put into the film to be different or does it have a function. Traditionally one type of mystery story is the detective story in which the audience is encouraged to try to solve the crime before the on screen detective does.
One of the rules in such films has been that the detective can not have information denied to the audience otherwise there is an unfair advantage given the detective. In this film the merger is in effect complete.
The story is a typical Chandler story with the resolution coming with a great deal of new information just before the end. The story is complicated – and in fact there are virtually two stories which intersect. The title comes from the linking piece between the two stories.
The first (most of which happens before the film starts) deals with what appears to be a murder or suicide of a young woman and the involvement of the investigating police detective on the case with a woman who is a suspect, Mildred Haveland.. Ultimately Haveland flees to escape the attentions of the police detective and goes to a place by a lake where she meets a Mrs. Kingsby. Later a woman’s body is found in the lake and both Mrs. Kingsby and Mildred Haveland go missing and a woman’s body is found in the lake and is identified as Mildred’s.
The plot of the film, actually deals with Philip Marlowe, a P.I. engaged by Mr. Kingsby’s secretary to find his missing wife.
AFTER THE PICTURE
Does the film work? It is hard to say. It does for some and does not for others. None the less there are interesting things about the film
It was suggested in calss by Sven Svensson that there is a srong relationship between the first person/subjective camera appraoc with virtual reality games where the player's own hands may appear and there is often direct address.In this film it is clear that the camera work is governed almost exclusively by Marlowe's head movement. Of course the director had to decide where Marlowe would look, but none the less, because the decision on where to look is not made by the audience (an awkward problem with long 1st person camera shots) a conflict develops in the viewer's miond as to who they are.
Is the first person camera just a gimmick? That is to say it it something just put into the film to be different or does it have a function. Traditionally one type of mystery story is the detective story in which the audience is encouraged to try to solve the crime before the on screen detective does.
One of the rules in such films has been that the detective can not have information denied to the audience otherwise there is an unfair advantage given the detective. In this film the merger is in effect complete.
One problem that happens though, is while we can see what the detective sees, we can not feel what the detective feels and without a reaction shot there is no way to tell.
Orson Welles thought to use this technique for a film Heart of Darkness and concluded it wouldn't work. Do you think he was right? Joseph Conrad's Heart of Darkness was later reworked as Apocalypse Now
The Build to the Climax
Where does the climax start – what happens just before? The climax basically starts on Christmas morning and has three peaks to it: the discovery of who the “Lady in the Lake” is, the final killings and the rescue by the police.
Calm scenes in apartment. It is Christmas Eve/Christmas Morning. They are listening to the Christmas Carol on the radio. It is a very calm relax scene which is already a change from the wise-cracking, “chase/seduction” of the early part of the film. The peace and quiet is suddenly interrupted by a jangling door bell, and the sudden appearance of that agitated Mr. Kingsby.
The film begins to accelerate as we learn that we are finally going to see Mrs. Kingsby. The film delays the appearance by first showing the woman from the back. Although her face is reflected in the window it is unclear. She wears a large hat. She does not look at the camera when she speaks. This is virtually the first time in the film that the character speaking to Marlowe does not do direct address. This break in the pattern should draw the audience’s attention. When the character moves down the street her back is still to the camera. It is not until she enters the apartment and turns to face Marlowe we finally get to see her and realize who she is.
This rather lengthy sequence is followed by a somewhat shorter one just before the corrupt police detective enters the room bringing us to the second climactic moment. There is even a shorter wait before the final climax and resolution when the police enter the room and everything is resolved.
The increasing shortness of sequence, the delay in revealing the identity of the woman, the shift away from direct address, lower angle shots all increase the pace of the film as it reaches its climax.