BLANCHE FURY's Shock Effect Through Editing
To kick off #Noirvember 2023, let's talk effective murder!
Specifically this sequence from technicolour noir Blanche Fury (1948), which never show the bullet’s impact nor a drop of blood, but use a few specific techniques to great effect.
Blanche Fury uses two red-drenched POV shots to great effect; one a long, lingering, kaleidoscopic blurry shot at the start, and one sudden, shocking burst in the clip below about 2/3 through.
The sequence starts with wide slow-moving shots of a deadly hide-and-seek as Lawrence and his father seek Thorn, wearing a red scarf and black hat which 'letterbox' and focus us on his eyes.
We're set up for the shock and colour by quiet movements and crushed black except for the scarf and a few bits of white starched shirts.
The camera’s opening movements are wider to reveal everyone's location in relation to each other, then the scene begins cutting between closer single locked-off shots, the better to see the character’s eyes, my dear.
At 0:25 we see Lawrence's eyes widen, before cutting to what he sees: a gun being raised. Another quick pair of cuts go back to Lawrence's shock and wide-open eyes, telling us he is seeing all this and frozen in fear, before a cut back to the gun where focus racks from the hands to the black open hole
a SPLIT SECOND BLAST of bright red with an iris-type effect where the bullet is, followed by a moment of pitch black.
Then rather than cut to either Lawrence or Thorn, the next shot is of Lawrence's father; his eyes widen, and his movement cues the cut to Lawrence's splayed body.
While the editing and 'special effect' itself brings shock, the eyes and small movements are what drive the edit.
Bonus: use of the statue of a woman not only to remind us what set off this feud (the titular Blanche), but to keep us oriented; it's revealed in the first pullback to show all the three in the same shot (0:06) then again in the frame as Lawrence and dad walk through the maze (0:15)
Imagine sitting in a movie theatre and seeing that giant flash of gun-muzzle-red flare take over your entire field of vision!
As a filmmaker, you don’t always need to show a bullet hitting to have a stark, shocking impact on the audience, and make them feel just for a split second like they have been shot.