Week 25.31 - Socials Roundup

Posts from 28 July - 03 August 2025

Week 25.31 posts include shots from two more episodes of The Bear (2022-current); Ten Pound Poms (2023-current); Paris, Texas (1984); and King of New York (1990).

King of New York

Another of our running ‘movies referencing movie posters,’ I love how this show naturally saturates the red light on the wall where the poster is hung, making the “HALLOWEEN 4” both more blended in to the street tableau . . . and more sinister.

Paris, Texas

Director Wim Wenders uses Travis’s (Harry Dean Stanton) shirt in conjunction with the lighting, set dressing and details to completely different effects in these two adjoining scenes.

In the first, Travis’s shirt and thus Travis himself almost blends into the room as he wanders through mostly unnoticed.

In the next room, Travis feels painfully conspicuous. The starker lighting makes him and his shirt stand out against the walls, while his shirt, EXIT, and mini-room-indicators being the same colour draws our attention to him as well as the signs.

The Bear

Episode 4.03 “Scallop” opens with shots the show often uses, but shown with a technique the show rarely uses: shots of clocks and time — the season’s running digital timer in blue, The Original Beef’s analogue clock, and the EVERY SECOND COUNTS sign — but through blurry-slow-racking-to-in-focus shots crossfaded into each other.

This time sequence crossfades into Sydney cooking, alone, while the colours of the kitchen change from electric blue to neon pink and back again, giving the whole thing a slight magical realism vibe.

This episode is lighter on clock reminders than most of the rest of the season, but the opener sets the tone, and the slightly-unusual technique makes those timepieces stand out.

The Bear

Episode 4.04 “Worms” makes meaningful use of a ‘broken’ clock.

When Sydney (Ayo Edebiri) pokes around the kitchen, she finds it mostly empty of ingredients. The stovetop clock flashing 12:00, clearly not having been set (or reset since the last time the stove lost power) because Chantel (a superb guest star Danielle Deadwyler) never uses the kitchen to cook.

The blue digital numbers also echo the numbers of this season’s main clock, while the constant return to it flashing remind Syd — and us — of the decision looming over her that she does not want to make.

Her final question of the scene to TJ (Arion King) is also to herself: “what are you gonna do” punctuated by eating homemade hamburger helper, with the still-blinking clock in the background.

Ten Pound Poms

Director Ana Kokkinos and DP Carolyn Constantine created some of my (Mel’s) favourite Aussie-made frames of 2023 within this scene; some stunning prismatic moving shots which aren’t just gorgeous, but set up the scene’s conceit and add heft to its emotional payoff.

We’ll break down the whole three minute scene in a Substack coming soon, but for now, just admire the sheer gorgeousness: the reflection on the marble, the way the sound mixing works to move through between the heels and shifting songs from longing to fulfilment, the softly backlit 2-shot.

All these elements work on their own, but more so once the scene ends and you understand their full implications.