Week 96: Socials Roundup
Posts from 04 Nov - 10 Nov 2024
Noirvember is in full swing! Week 96 posts include shots from He Walked By Night (1948); Fail Safe (1964); The Chase (1946); The Penguin (2024); What Price Hollywood? (1932); and High Potential (2024-current).
Fail Safe
Sidney Lumet's Fail Safe highlights how important and ominous the phone is to the President (Henry Fonda) and his translator Buck (Larry Hagman).
Look how it looms huge in frame with the President, signifying it's the only thing he can see or think of.
The phone is about equidistant and very much a focal point when Buck and the President are both straining to communicate, but it’s never out of shot - or their mind - even when they're not talking on it.
The Penguin
As The Penguin stalks towards its finale, we look back at shots from Episode 2 which may foreshadow a fate of Sofia and/or Oz.
"Inside Man" frames Sofia behind church windows and Oz behind a stairway railing, both which very intentionally look like jail bars.
He Walked By Night
HE WALKED BY NIGHT uses sumptuous composition and a whole lot of stripes in all directions (two sets of blinds! the necktie! the prison-stripe-style blazer! the ceiling beams, sconces, and crown molding!) keep things visually interesting
But the angle and multiple directionality of stripes also make us feel as though the case, and the world, are closing in.
The Chase
One day we'll go deep on this whole chase sequence from The Chase (1946) - just wait'll you see how it [literally] kicks off, and how it ends!
For now enjoy the camera movements, the shadows, the tension (!!!), and the refusal to translate the QUARANTINE sign . . .
High Potential
Who says only sitcoms get to have fun with cutway gags!?
This High Potential scene takes time for a quick flash into Morgan (Kaitlin Olson)'s imagination; the heightened absurdity gives us a good sense of her humour as well as how her brain works. Joke and character bit, all in one!
What Price Hollywood?
What Price Hollywood has cheeky fun with a camera move - after Mary and Lonny hear a drunken Max yodeling in their garden, the camera cuts to a medium of Max fumbling to light a cigarette . . .
then cranes back to reveal the exact anatomy of the statue on which he struck his match!