μεταμορφώσεις

[Jeff Bernstein]

In Love : the shining whites of the eyes

(1:06:58)

 

[Jeff Bernstein]

"Trembling."

Grand Hotel, 1:09:26 / Barry Lyndon, 5:56

 

 

 

 

 

Edited April 26, 2023 by Jeff Bernstein

[Jeff Bernstein]

The Positive-Negative Statement

"Before I'll be discharged, I'll be dead!"

[Jeff Bernstein]

WonderLight : 1:13:49

[Jeff Bernstein]

Another flat, smooth, deadpan ". . . What?"

(1:15:23) / (14:15)

[Jeff Bernstein]

Robert Richardson

Note the glowing white flower in Barrymore's lapel. This glow is common in first-rate 1930s B&W photography. This glow was lost when colour appeared in Hollywood. Then, unless your presently calm-but-battered author is entirely wrong, it was, I'm guessing, Robert Richardson who imported this B&W effect into colour, first in JFK (1991), then often thereafter in his career. For example :

JFK, 1:29:13

[Jeff Bernstein]

More Glowing Paper

JFK, 56:20

[Jeff Bernstein]

Return of Amplified Rectilinearity

(1:17:14) Barrymore enters the frame like a vertical straightedge.

[Jeff Bernstein]

Lens Flare Halo Effect

(1:19:03)

[Jeff Bernstein]

MGM Lamp Motif : The Sierpinski Triangle

(1:22:09) This lamp motif is visible in many an MGM movie of the 1930s. And then here :

The Neon Demon (2016), 1:03:54

 

 

 

 

 

Edited April 26, 2023 by Jeff Bernstein

[Jeff Bernstein]

"I have no time . . . "

" . . . for confrontations."  //  (1:22:54) / (5:28)

[Jeff Bernstein]

Classic Hollywood : the uncommon downward angle

Grand Hotel, 1:28:28 / North by Northwest, 11:20 / The Birds, 1:43:03

 

[Jeff Bernstein]

1:33:22

[Jeff Bernstein]

Dolly Zoom?!

(1:38:18–28) Is it? If so, so much for Hitchcock! But just here it's as difficult to discern and confirm as Stalker (1979), 4:20–5:32.

[Jeff Bernstein]

Looking into the lens

(1:45:24)

[Jeff Bernstein]

Crawford's stripe motif : continued

(1:45:32)

[Jeff Bernstein]

(1:45:77) / (1:37:16)

[Jeff Bernstein]

"Grand Hotel. Always the same. People come, people go. Nothing ever happens."

[Jeff Bernstein]

Harris Savides

Zodiac (2007), 4:00. Symmetry : note the "whites of the eyes" eyelights : one is to the left of the left eye, the other is to the right of the right eye.

 

 

 

 

Edited April 26, 2023 by Jeff Bernstein

[Jeff Bernstein]

Subtle

(4:07) Now the female character is anxious : all the eyelights drain away except for one speck of life.

[Jeff Bernstein]

(4:22) Danger! The eyelights suddenly return to intensify the inner shock.

[Jeff Bernstein]

EWS effect?

Where the rainbow ends : How is it that after EWS, a number of films use rainbow lens flares in close connection with oblivion? (For example, as mentioned earlier : Phantom Thread; Dunkirk). Or is it coincidence? Also note what looks like classic Panavision horizontal lens flares, but Savides used Zeiss lenses for Zodiac.

[Jeff Bernstein]

Storyteller's shrewd communication of essential information at the start.

Zodiac, 9:19. Recalling another film of San Francisco :

The Birds, 1:52–2:05

[Jeff Bernstein]

Brilliant Directorial Touch

(17:45)

 

 

 

 

Edited April 26, 2023 by Jeff Bernstein

[Jeff Bernstein]

More Storytelling Brilliance in Zodiac

(18:00) Somehow this character has an inkling of something unsettling up ahead. Many documented real-life examples are available here. This subtle technique generates growing tension and suspense in the Spectator.

 

 

 

 

Edited April 26, 2023 by Jeff Bernstein