Week 100: Socials Roundup
Posts from 02 Dec - 08 Dec 2024
Week 100 (celebratory emoji!) transitions from Noirvember to the Christmas season, including shots from Christmas in July (1940); What’s Your Number (2011); Joe's Bed-Stuy Barbershop: We Cut Heads (1983); The Killer (2024); and You and Me (1938) which contains Christmas and noir and five or eight other genre staples.
Christmas in July
This crossfade sequence sums up the film’s thesis clearly: from ‘watch your step’ to the returning concept of ‘money in your cup’ to the endless line of people clocking in (five minutes early!) to engage in the system grinding them down.
They make sure to get that ‘Baxter and Sons coffee’ in too, so we never forget who is really to blame for our malaise . . .
What’s Your Number
There's a tiiiiny-yet-perfect camera move at 0:30-0:33 in this scene from What's Your Number.
As Zachary Quinto puts a bite of pancake into his mouth and attempts to hide his terror, the camera dollies in to show his absolute and utter panic at being asked to . . . be a wedding date.
Joe's Bed-Stuy Barbershop: We Cut Heads
In his first film "Joe's Bed-Stuy Barbershop: We Cut Heads" Spike Lee uses street art to demonstrates characters' disagreement.
When Zach and Ruth stop to more conveniently continue their argument, the wall lends colour and character to the scene, while the blocking shows their division by keeping each of them on one side or the other of a firmly painted line.
The Killer
This scene between Zee (Nathalie Emmanuel) and Sey (Omar Sy) isn't really about the burritos, it's about feeling each other out, and how they're the same . . . which the gorgeous camera move (starting at 0:38) literalises when it superimposes Zee's reflection over/under Sey's face!
Speaking of prisons and surprises . . .
You and Me
You and Me (1938) is the tale as old as jails: ex-con Joe tries to go straight, social pressures ensue.
This shot of Joe's wife Helen (Sylvia Sidney) has stark jail bar shadows which we may think foreshadows' Joe's past and/or fate, but the next few scenes actually reveal they have a different meaning!
Stay tuned for an upcoming deeper dive into this film's gorgeous framing and lighting.