Week 25.05 - Socials Roundup
Posts from 27 Jan - 02 Feb 2025
Week 25.05 posts include shots from Betty Blue (1986); Silo (2023-current); Mars Express (2023); Bound (1996); and Joe's Bed-Stuy Barbershop: We Cut Heads (1983).
Mars Express
We’ve been digging and will keep digging into Mars Express, but just look at how within 30 seconds, they use rack focuses to continue bringing us back to the crowd!
First it gives us Aline Ruby's stomach-dropping POV (0:07-0:11), which it uses to transition to a crowd shot (0:12-0:16). Another shot involving Ruby's close call (0:21-0:22) reminds us of the stakes, before a robot falling through the background racks to the angry crowd in the foreground (0:24-0:26).
Three uses, always ending with the crowd, finally culminating with consequences.
Joe's Bed-Stuy Barbershop: We Cut Heads
A short, wordless sequence from Joe's Bed-Stuy Barbershop: We Cut Heads gives us insight into Zach's decision of what do with the ‘dirty’ money he’s been given.
The sequence proceeds:
Zack looking at the envelope of cash
Zack sitting and pondering, framed/cut to in a way which makes it seem he's considering himself from the earlier frame, then moving in closer, closer, closest shots ending on just his eyes as he makes a decision
Zack finally making a phone call, framed so he has to literally face himself in a mirror as he actions his decision
At this point in the film, a viewer would be fairly confident what his decision is, even before he says a word, because he's clearly considering himself and his morals.
Simple, clear, and powerful, this sequence conveys Zach's mental state solely through 'showing not telling.'
Silo
A fun easter egg from episode 2.09 "The Safeguard" is Solo having variations on the first moving picture frames decorating the wall of his vault, sweet vault.
Betty Blue
When Betty and Zorg have a tiff about house painting, they're starkly and literally divided; Betty in front of the pink painted half / Zorg in front of the brown unpainted half.
You can read the fight's resolution in two photos; Zorg acknowledges Betty is right, and comes over to her side literally as he does figuratively.
Only then does Betty meet him in the middle.
Bound
The setup for this batshit scene transition (complimentary) is good, but the payoff is even better.
Caesar (Joe Pantoliano) threatens Violet (Jennifer Tilly) with a revolver, then closes the bedroom doors to achieve an essential 'cut to black.' The camera then pulls slow back from black, to reveal it's coming from the revolver barrel, now lying next to a glass of whiskey: quintessential noir.
The next cut is to Violet *just* as her eyes flick up: the shot of the revolver was so large because it's what she's intent on, it *feels* that overwhelming to her. Her eyes flicking up leads directly to the next shot, a medium of Caesar drinking the whiskey & standing behind the revolver.
Then the real kicker: a wide shot which shows them at far opposite ends of the room, the 'objective' view of how far apart they are and how it'd be impossible for her to reach the gun before Caesar shoots her.
Violet is intent on the gun, but it's so so far away, and the shots make us hyper-aware of both those facts, and her feelings.
Perfection.