Week 24.52 - Socials Roundup
Posts from 23 Dec - 29 Dec 2024
Happy New Year! We’re shifting the labelling format of our Weekly Roundup; hopefully this will help any future searches and categorisation.
Week 24.52 posts include shots from The Ghost and Mrs. Muir (1947); Bridget Jones’s Diary (2001); Home Alone (1990); Murder by Contract (1958); and Carol (2015).
Murder by Contract
The use of so many shapes and lines, bright spots and shadows, in this shot from 1958's Murder by Contract, is simply wonderful.
Both the hanging lightshade and the neatly arranged books in the background insinuate the cage Billie (at the piano) is trapped in and Claude (with the gun) fears being put into.
Bridget Jones's Diary
Classic holiday movie Bridget Jones's Diary uses several canted and extreme hi- or low- angles, almost always to show when Bridget is (or should be!) mentally off-kilter.
In order: arriving at her mother's party where she's immediately being 'set up;' going through her dreaded scale ritual; going on a 'date' with a man who refuses to be seen in public with her; watching two men fight over her.
The Ghost and Mrs. Muir
The Ghost and Mrs. Muir ends with its characters walking towards a horizon which is a painted backdrop seamlessly integrated with the set.
If you want another classic Hollywood picture which creates an ending with these techniques, check out our look at Desert Fury.
Carol
The opening scene of Carol is three people making convivial small talk, with acting and framing doing all the heavy lifting to establish Therese's relationships to Carol and Jack.
These two shots of Carol's and Jack's hands on Therese's shoulder are moments apart, and very specifically in the same area of frame so our eye goes the same place both times.
However in the shot of Carol and Therese, the table light and flowers make things lighter; we can seeTherese's face; nobody else is in the background, only Jack intrudes (fittingly: annoyingly) into the edge of frame.
In the shot of Jack and Therese the frame is dimmer (in terms of darker props and wardrobe, as well as where the light is and how much of it there is ), there are strangers in the background, and most notably Therese's face is completely hidden.
Before we know who these people are to each other, these two shots tell us how to feel about the laden and very different meanings behind Carol and Jack making the exact same gesture.
Speaking of hand gestures . . .
Home Alone
“Merry Christmas, ya filthy animals!”
May your holiday season be as iconic as this (blooper-turned-canon!) shot.