Here's two that seem related in my mind, one from a classic film and one from a pop culture film. Both involve hallways.
The first image is from Cocteau's Beauty and the Beast, and it is the hallway lit by lanterns held by living arms sticking out of the walls. Terrifying surrealism there. And yet what tenderness this film conveys under its terrifying mask.
The other is from the "It's a Beautiful Life" sequence of the Twilight Zone movie. In it we glimpse a hallway lit by the light seeping through ventian blinds, slats of light falling on all the walls, but the camera sweeps around and reveals that there is absolutely no logical source for this light, there are no windows at all. It is when the person who has entered the solipsist world realizes that things are very far from right. I find it powerful in its understatement. Not everyone I have pointed this out gets it, and to me that makes it even more powerfully subliminal.
Vivid tableaus (sp?) from Bergman movies are easy to find. The chess game with death, the two couples feasting on the bowl of milk and strawberries, the rooms of junk and kitch lingered on by the slowly sweeping lens. As much as so many modern films rely on huge overstatements to achieve their effects, this sort of subtle gesture is ever so much more memorable. All explosions look basically the same. Not all hallways are lit the same. The light falls across no two faces in the same way. This, not grotesque action or shock are the real artist's brush.
LW, one of the lions is stuffed and in a museum somewhere. I've seen photos of it. It looks like an immature male. The lions in the movie were magnificent. They were imported for the job. Imagine bringing lions to Africa.
Edgar, King Kong (the original version) had some powerful images. Suprisingly, I was never afraid of the ape. I viewed him as a sympathetic character. BTW, I used to have an office that faced the Empire State Building. I was gazing out the window one day when I couldn't help but notice a large gorilla at the top of the building. It turned out to be a balloon, ensconced on the spire in honor of the anniversary of the film.
PDiddie, Yup, the scene where the monster jumps out of John Hurts chest is a doozy. Unforgettable.
Beedle, You're right. Bergman's films are rife with powerful visual images. I'll have to take another gander at the Twilight Zone movie. It pops up with some frequency on cable.
The dream sequence in "Wild Strawberries" with the hearse wobbling down the empty village streets, the clocks with no hands and then the hearse falling to the ground and opening. And...
The scene in the forest between a younger professor and the young woman whom he favors.
The final scene of his mother and father on a boat in the lake looking very much like a Renoir painting.
The opening shot of Adolph Hitler's plane descending through the clouds like a savior over the city of Nuremberg for the 1934 Nazi Party Rally in Leni Riefenstahl's "Triumph of the Will". Terrifyingly manipulative propaganda.
The brief scene near the end of "Psycho, in which Vera Miles discovers the stuffed body of Mrs. Bates, she screams, her hand sets the hanging light bulb in motion causing odd shadows, Norman runs in knife held high, Sam Loomis comes in just behind and stops him, they struggle, the knife finally falls from Norman's hand, and the scene disolves to the courthouse. All of this takes place in probably about a minute.
LW, I keep thinking of Persona, but I wonder if the image I'm remembering is from the newspaper ads rather than from the movie--two women, one facing forward, the other in profile.
John, I never saw Riefenstahl's film, but I've heard about it. Such a talent. Such a subject. Such a waste.
Brandon, I vividly remember the scene you mention. I hadn't thought about the light bulb until you brought it up. You're right. It provided a strangeness to what was already strange.
Roberta wrote:Brandon, I vividly remember the scene you mention. I hadn't thought about the light bulb until you brought it up. You're right. It provided a strangeness to what was already strange.
I forgot to add that the sound track greatly adds to the scene, both the electronic sound that is made when Norman attacks - a sound almost like birds "cawing" - and Bernard Hermann's brilliant score.
In Lonely Are the Brave, Kirk Douglas leading his horse across the highway in an extremely heavy rain. Carrol O'Conner's big rig accidentally runs him down. This after a harrowing escape story in which Douglas's character has apparently beaten all the odds.
Welcome, John Garvey, to A2K and the Film Forum.
Indeed "Triumph of the Will" is filled with epic vision which makes it all the more chilling to watch. It certainly shows how far Nationalism and Patriotism can go to mold the mob into a submisive whole, seemingly unified but in reality chaotic.
