Week 83: Socials Roundup
Posts from 05 Aug - 11 Aug 2024
Week 83 posts include shots from About Time (2013); Evil (2019-2024(?)); The Turning Point (1952); Streets of Fire (1984); and Hacks (2021-current).
About Time
This sequence uses three different techniques in a short span to demonstrate how alone Tim (Domhnall Gleeson) feels.
First, he's shown in frame with Harry, but both on opposite sides, far apart with a pillar between them, Tim framed in blue while Harry is in warm orange.
Second, Tim and Harry are shown in the same house but different shots, as Tim walks into frame to gets breakfast, and sees a snoozing Harry.
Last, Tim is surrounded by a sea of girls, all moving while he stands still. When Rory lands next to him, Tim's *technically* not alone, but the framing of Tim standing in the middle in his plain blue shirt 'popping' him amongst the crowd, as well as Tim's body language and voiceover, tell us he is less than thrilled about this development.
Hacks
This scene from Hacks 3.01 "just for Laughs" does four very simple things to demonstrate how Deborah (Jean Smart) and Ava (Hannah Einbinder) feel.
1. The scene moves from Wide to MCU shots as Deborah and Ava make each other laugh; demonstrating their tentative truce starts with humour to get closer.
2. Even in wider shots, the two are *barely* in each others' frame, and there's no OTS in the medium shots. A truce may be coming, but they're standing as far apart as the hotel room allows.
3. They do leave their respective frames walking towards each other, but note they're not looking at each other; the truce in its most tentative stages.
4. When Ava says "yes" to a drink, she shakes her head "no" - body language acting FTW
Evil
A rare triple-match-cut appears in Evil 1.11 "Room 320"
As the nurse plunges a needle into David (Mike Colter), he opens his mouth into a wide O, prompting a cut into an inside-the-syringe shot as it plunges the medication, which cuts to David's pupil dilating.
Hella effective horror, all without gore or even showing the needle touching David.
Streets of Fire
We do not talk about Streets of Fire (1984) nearly enough.
And by 'nearly enough' I mean every single damn day.
Look at just these shots, all within 2 minutes!
The Turning Point
Though prints of The Turning Point (1952) are all a bit shaky, every version has the faces of these two gangsters completely obscured - clearly intentional, as this scene is one of the bleakest scenes in a jaded noir.
This is a tiny, fifteen-second exchange where two literally-faceless goons are about to set fire to a building full of people. They look out the window and spy a couple kissing; one sneers "she loooooves the way he says good night" right before the woman walks into the doomed building.
As their lust and callousness are the point; director William Dieterle clearly wanted to show the goons as faceless evil, darkness unworthy of emulating in any way.