1. To tell a story, to implement
his vision, the director has
to be a technician...Copy !req
2. and even an illusionist.Copy !req
3. This means controlling and
mastering the technical process.Copy !req
4. Our palette has expanded tremendously...Copy !req
5. through a century of
constant experimentations.Copy !req
6. The movies grew from silent to sound;
black and white to Technicolor;Copy !req
7. standard screen size to CinemaScope;Copy !req
8. 35 millimeter to 70 millimeter.Copy !req
9. The American industry, it seems,
never failed to embrace
new technological developments.Copy !req
10. Somehow, it moved faster and
more decisively than its foreign rivals.Copy !req
11. As King Vidor said, "The cinema...Copy !req
12. is the greatest means
of expression ever invented,Copy !req
13. but it is an illusion
more powerful than any other,Copy !req
14. and it should therefore be in the hands
of the magicians and the wizards...Copy !req
15. who can bring it to life. "Copy !req
16. Here, Buster Keaton,
an aspiring cameraman,Copy !req
17. is showing his footage
to MGM executives...Copy !req
18. in the hope of getting a job.Copy !req
19. Unfortunately he has double exposed the
film, and the screening is a disaster.Copy !req
20. However, as every director
will experience,Copy !req
21. accidents can be the source
of extraordinary poetry...Copy !req
22. and beauty.Copy !req
23. What Keaton's cameraman needs is to
learn and master the language of film.Copy !req
24. Interestingly, most
of the early film pioneers,Copy !req
25. including D. W. Griffith,
had no formal education.Copy !req
26. They were self-taught and often shared
the prevailing prejudice...Copy !req
27. that the cinema was
a minor form of entertainment.Copy !req
28. The American film probably
came of age in February, 1915,Copy !req
29. when D. W. Griffith opened
his first feature-length epic,Copy !req
30. The Birth Of A Nation.Copy !req
31. According to Raoul Walsh, who was one
of Griffith's assistants at the time...Copy !req
32. and who played the role
of John Wilkes Booth,Copy !req
33. it took The Birth Of A Nation
to convince Americans...Copy !req
34. that films were an art
in their own right...Copy !req
35. and not just the illegitimate offspring
of the theater.Copy !req
36. How did Griffith achieve this triumph?Copy !req
37. Essentially through his composition
and orchestration of the shots.Copy !req
38. As Walsh put it,
"The high and low angled shots...Copy !req
39. turned a good picture
into a great one. "Copy !req
40. One close-up was worth
a thousand words.Copy !req
41. Erich von Stroheim,
also one of Griffith's assistants,Copy !req
42. said that he was
the pioneer of filmdom,Copy !req
43. the first to put beauty and poetry into
a cheap and tawdry sort of amusement.Copy !req
44. I've always felt that visual literacy is
just as important as verbal literacy.Copy !req
45. And what the film pioneers
were exploring was the medium's
specific techniques.Copy !req
46. In the process, they invented
a new language based on images
rather than words.Copy !req
47. A visual grammar, you might say.Copy !req
48. Close-ups, ;Copy !req
49. irises, ;Copy !req
50. dissolves, ;Copy !req
51. masking part of the screen for emphasis, ;Copy !req
52. dolly shots, ;Copy !req
53. tracking shots.Copy !req
54. Now these are the basic tools
that directors have at their disposal...Copy !req
55. to create and heighten
the illusion of reality.Copy !req
56. When Lillian Gish called D. W. Griffith
"the father of film,"Copy !req
57. she used the same analogy.Copy !req
58. She said,
"He gave us the grammar of filmmaking."Copy !req
59. He understood the psychic strength
of the lens.Copy !req
60. Half a century later, Stanley Kubrick
may have had Griffith in mind...Copy !req
61. when he remarked that what is
truly original in the art of filmmaking,Copy !req
62. what distinguishes it
from all the other arts,Copy !req
63. may be the editing process.Copy !req
64. Watch how Griffith developed,
two years before The Birth Of A Nation,Copy !req
65. the technique of crosscutting.Copy !req
66. He shows you two events
happening at the same time...Copy !req
67. and intercuts them to increase
the tension of the suspense.Copy !req
68. Now, at that time, Griffith
had to fight his distributors,Copy !req
69. who feared that audiences
would be confused by this innovation.Copy !req
70. It was in the great epics
of the silent era...Copy !req
71. that the illusionists learned to use
special effects and visual wizardry...Copy !req
72. to conjure up some of
their most compelling visions.Copy !req
73. The American tradition
of the great spectacle...Copy !req
74. was born around 1915...Copy !req
75. when D. W. Griffith saw Cabiria,Copy !req
76. an Italian super-production.Copy !req
77. Watched it twice in one night.
It inspired him.Copy !req
78. Gave him the audacity
to create his masterpiece, Intolerance.Copy !req
79. Giovanni Pastrone's Cabiria
had all the right ingredients:Copy !req
80. Adventure, melodrama,
pageantry, religion,Copy !req
81. extraordinary production design...Copy !req
82. and striking camera angles and lighting.Copy !req
83. To film this scene,
they actually dragged...Copy !req
84. Hannibal's elephants
up onto a mountaintop.Copy !req
85. Intolerance.Copy !req
86. Much has been made of
its extravagant budget,Copy !req
87. real-size sets and thousands of extras.Copy !req
88. The achievement is all the more
extraordinary because Griffith
worked without a script.Copy !req
89. It was all planned in his head,
not on paper.Copy !req
90. But Griffith went even further.Copy !req
91. Intolerance was a daring attempt at
interweaving stories and characters...Copy !req
92. not from the same period,Copy !req
93. but from four different centuries.Copy !req
94. Freely crosscutting
from one era to another,Copy !req
95. he blended them altogether
in a grand symphony devoted to one idea: ;Copy !req
96. passionate plea for tolerance.Copy !req
97. Griffith's passion for history
was balanced by his passion...Copy !req
98. for simple people,
the victims of history.Copy !req
99. In modern day America, a young woman
is deemed an unfit mother...Copy !req
100. because her husband is in jail.Copy !req
101. Oppression is represented
by society matrons,Copy !req
102. Puritan reformers who want
to place her baby in an orphanage.Copy !req
103. Griffith's distressed heroines
carried with them...Copy !req
104. the heart and soul of the picture.Copy !req
105. For them, he composed
his most eloquent close-ups.Copy !req
106. Like Griffith, Cecil B. DeMille
liked to paint on a big canvas.Copy !req
107. His ambition was to tell
an absorbing personal story...Copy !req
108. against a background
of great historical events.Copy !req
109. His first Biblical epic was
inspired by one simple belief:Copy !req
110. You cannot break the Ten Commandments, ;
they will break you.Copy !req
111. Watch DeMille's masterful staging
of the exodus from Egypt: ;Copy !req
112. the visual contrasts
between the pharaoh's war machine...Copy !req
113. and the simple caravan
of the Israelites, ;Copy !req
114. his sense of wonder, ;Copy !req
115. his attention to details,
even in big crowd scenes.Copy !req
116. His miniatures were
as powerful as his frescoes.Copy !req
117. DeMille even used an early two-strip
Technicolor process here.Copy !req
118. However, the grandiose set pieces were
always subordinate to the story.Copy !req
119. DeMille knew that spectacle alone
would never make a great picture.Copy !req
120. He spent much more time working
on dramatic construction...Copy !req
121. than on planning photographic effects.Copy !req
122. "The audience, “he said,
"is interested in individuals
whom they can love or hate. "Copy !req
123. DeMille believed that he could
translate the words of the Bible
in the medium of film literally.Copy !req
124. To achieve this, he devised
extraordinary technical effects,Copy !req
125. such as the parting of the Red Sea.Copy !req
126. DeMille insisted that every detail
be seen with equal clarity.Copy !req
127. Here, for instance,
notice the rocks and seaweed...Copy !req
128. scattered on the sand to make the beach
look like the bottom of the sea.Copy !req
129. It was a last-minute inspiration
on the part of DeMille,Copy !req
130. who led his army of extras
into the surf...Copy !req
131. and showed them how to gather the kelp.Copy !req
132. Of course, I never saw
DeMille's silent films when I was a boy.Copy !req
133. His later epics are the ones
that made an indelible impression on me.Copy !req
134. Before the dawn of history,Copy !req
135. ever since the first man
discovered his soul,Copy !req
136. he has struggled against the forces
that sought to enslave him.Copy !req
137. He saw the awful power of nature
parade against him,Copy !req
138. the evil eye of the lightning,Copy !req
139. the terrifying voice of the thunder,Copy !req
140. the shrieking, wind-filled darkness,Copy !req
141. enslaving his mind
with shackles of fear.Copy !req
142. Fear bred superstition...Copy !req
143. And then there was DeMille's own
remake of The Ten Commandments,Copy !req
144. which I have seen countless times.Copy !req
145. - Look!
- Look! There!Copy !req
146. - Where he struck the river, it bleeds.
- The water turns to blood.Copy !req
147. DeMille presented such
a sumptuous fantasy that if
you saw his movies as a child,Copy !req
148. they stuck with you for life.Copy !req
149. - The marvelous superseded the sacred.Copy !req
150. What I remember most vividly
are the tableau vivant,Copy !req
151. the colors,Copy !req
152. the dreamlike quality
of the imagery...Copy !req
153. and, of course,
the special effects.Copy !req
154. God is a unique flame,Copy !req
155. but the flame is a different color
to different people.Copy !req
156. These were the words of Rama
Krishna which DeMille quoted
to define his own faith.Copy !req
157. Sokar, great lord of the lower world...Copy !req
158. The great illusionists
of the past, Cecil B. DeMille,Copy !req
159. D. W. Griffith,
Frank Borzage, King Vidor,Copy !req
160. were conductors.Copy !req
161. They orchestrated visual symphonies...Copy !req
162. what Vidor called "silent music."Copy !req
163. It would fade away
as Hollywood embraced sound.Copy !req
164. But the legacy of
the silent era was remarkable.Copy !req
165. American movies had matured
into a sophisticated art form...Copy !req
166. with elaborate camera moves, long takes,Copy !req
167. deep focus, expressive lighting,
miniatures, et cetera.Copy !req
168. I mean, in the late '20s,
the most exciting experiments...Copy !req
169. were taking place at the Fox Studios,Copy !req
170. where the German master,
Frederick Murnau,Copy !req
171. was given carte blanche on the strength
of his European triumphs.Copy !req
172. His film, Sunrise,
became the most expensive art film...Copy !req
173. made in Hollywood.Copy !req
174. Rather than a plot,
Murnau offered visions,Copy !req
175. a landscape of the mind.Copy !req
176. His ambition was to paint
his characters' desires...Copy !req
177. with lights and shadows.Copy !req
178. This is how the frenzied city girl
tempts the young farmer: ;Copy !req
179. with a kaleidoscope of images.Copy !req
180. She wants him to leave
everything behind: ;Copy !req
181. his land, his wife, his child,Copy !req
182. the peace and innocence
of the country life.Copy !req
183. The vamp has planted a deadly thought
in the young husband's mind.Copy !req
184. Murnau calls Sunrise
"a story of two humans."Copy !req
185. This song of the man
and his wife is of no place.Copy !req
186. You might hear it anywhere at anytime.Copy !req
187. They don't have a name,Copy !req
188. but you experience every idea,
every emotion that visits them.Copy !req
189. He had George O'Brien's shoes
weighted with 20 pounds of lead...Copy !req
190. to give the actor
a more threatening presence.Copy !req
191. Murnau was called "a cerebral director"
by his Hollywood peers...Copy !req
192. because he demanded that
his actors fully understand...Copy !req
193. the mind of their character.Copy !req
194. He said, "I talked to an actor
of what he should be thinking...Copy !req
195. rather than what he should be doing. "Copy !req
196. "The camera, “said Murnau,
"is the director's sketching pencil.Copy !req
197. It should be as mobile as possibleCopy !req
198. to catch every fleeting mood.Copy !req
199. It must whirl and peep
and move from place to place
as swiftly as thought itself."Copy !req
200. Later in their journey,
the broken couple is reunited.Copy !req
201. Fear and guilt fade away.
They become invulnerable.Copy !req
202. Nothing can harm them anymore,
not even the city's hustle and bustle.Copy !req
203. Magically, subjective perceptions
take on an objective reality.Copy !req
204. A superimposition could serve
as an inner vision...Copy !req
205. or an inner monologue.Copy !req
206. What Murnau is projecting
onto the environment...Copy !req
207. is their dream, their common dream.Copy !req
208. - At least for a brief moment.Copy !req
209. In Sunrise, love and death are
intertwined like day and night.Copy !req
210. But in Seventh Heaven,
love negated death itself.Copy !req
211. Both films starred Janet Gaynor,Copy !req
212. who commuted between the two sets,Copy !req
213. working with Murnau during the day
and with Borzage at night.Copy !req
214. She is a street angel.Copy !req
215. She's saved by Charles Farrell,
a street sweeper.Copy !req
216. Reluctantly, he takes her to
his lofty garret above the city.Copy !req
217. He works in the sewers of Paris but
insists that he lives near the stars.Copy !req
218. Borzage was not a highly educated man,Copy !req
219. let alone an art historian like Murnau.Copy !req
220. His approach to the medium
was more instinctive.Copy !req
221. He was a maestro of the pantomime.Copy !req
222. What inspired him was
the sheer power of emotions.Copy !req
223. This was the great mystery
that elevated his melodramas...Copy !req
224. into pure songs of love.Copy !req
225. Directed by Borzage,
Janet Gaynor and Charles Farrell...Copy !req
226. formed a unique couple,Copy !req
227. at once vibrant with sexual passion...Copy !req
228. and wrapped in a mystical aura.Copy !req
229. Their romance would lift them
from the physical to the spiritual.Copy !req
230. War rips them apart.Copy !req
231. But as Borzage once stated, "Souls are
made great through love and adversity. "Copy !req
232. Even when he's blinded in the trenches,Copy !req
233. the lovers remain in
daily telepathic communication.Copy !req
234. Borzage deeply believed in
the transcendent power of love.Copy !req
235. Time and space can be
surmounted and abolished.Copy !req
236. Because Diane refuses
to accept Chico's death...Copy !req
237. she's able to bring him back
from the dead.Copy !req
238. For the lovers,
reality itself is immaterial.Copy !req
239. The art of the pantomime
had reached its zenith.Copy !req
240. But the era of sound had arrived.Copy !req
241. And for the silent film directors,
this was a time of painful transition.Copy !req
242. Even a script conference
called for new skills.Copy !req
243. We were so imbued and so living in,
in pantomime...Copy !req
244. that a fellow would come in
and tell a story to, uh,Copy !req
245. say, to Thalberg at MGM...Copy !req
246. a comedy story, particularly...
or, say, Mack Sennett...Copy !req
247. He'd tell the whole damn story
in pantomime.Copy !req
248. He comes in and...
Aah! And then, sock!Copy !req
249. And, you know,
everything was like that.Copy !req
250. It looked like cartoon strips.Copy !req
251. So all of a sudden
we're dealing with dialogue.Copy !req
252. So, I had, from the time I was...Copy !req
253. 12 or 14 or something,Copy !req
254. thought entirely in terms
of images and pictures and movement.Copy !req
255. Movement. I very much...
What's an interesting movement?Copy !req
256. So here we are with words.Copy !req
257. The studios bowed to
the tyranny of sound experts...Copy !req
258. who knew little about filmmaking.Copy !req
259. At first, they had the cameras
enclosed in a soundproof booth...Copy !req
260. or ensconced in a blimp.Copy !req
261. As William Wellman put it, "Creaking
floors received more attention...Copy !req
262. than creaking stories. "Copy !req
263. Actors were kept anchored
within the range of microphones.Copy !req
264. Now, these had to be hidden
sometimes in rather obvious props...Copy !req
265. like this lantern in Anna Christie.Copy !req
266. - Pretty, eh?
- Gives you the creeps, though.Copy !req
267. Film historians insisted that
at that time movies stopped moving.Copy !req
268. But the myth of the static camera
has been dispelled...Copy !req
269. now that so many films of the period
have been rediscovered.Copy !req
270. There were directors who refused
to be shackled or paralyzed.Copy !req
271. Directors such as
Rouben Mamoulian, Frank Capra,Copy !req
272. William Wellman, Tay Garnett,Copy !req
273. all of whom can be credited with
getting the camera moving again.Copy !req
274. feature fluid camera moves
and even very long takes.Copy !req
275. Two gins for Frankie.Copy !req
276. Watch how skillfully the camera follows
the tray across the dance floor.Copy !req
277. The choreography looks effortless.Copy !req
278. But believe me, this shot
must have been very hard to achieve.Copy !req
279. The dreamlike world of
the silent film was no more.Copy !req
280. With the talkies a more
naturalistic approach seemed to prevail.Copy !req
281. But in fact, sound encouraged
the illusionists to heighten reality.Copy !req
282. Here, in The Big House,
the sound effects alone suggest...Copy !req
283. - that the convicts are anonymous robots.Copy !req
284. "Our Father, Who art in heaven,Copy !req
285. hallowed be Thy name.Copy !req
286. Thy kingdom come.
Thy will be done..."Copy !req
287. But in the chapel, as soon as you hear
their voices, they come alive.Copy !req
288. "Give us this day our daily bread.Copy !req
289. And forgive us our trespasses...Copy !req
290. as we forgive those
who trespass against us.Copy !req
291. And lead us not into temptation,Copy !req
292. but deliver us from evil."Copy !req
293. They are given an identity
and a purpose...Copy !req
294. when their actions contradict
the chorus of prayer.Copy !req
295. "... forever and ever. Amen."Copy !req
296. - A most effective counterpoint.Copy !req
297. - Sound can enhance
the drama tremendously,
- Not bad, huh?Copy !req
298. Particularly when it depicts
an event that you're not shown.Copy !req
299. Just watch this one.Copy !req
300. In Scarface, Howard Hawks demonstrated
that sound and visual effects...Copy !req
301. - can blend into a deadly metaphor.Copy !req
302. Sound can tell the whole story,Copy !req
303. as Wild Bill Wellman proved repeatedly.Copy !req
304. A poet of stark images
and brutal understatements,Copy !req
305. he loved to jolt, deceive
and even frustrate his audience...Copy !req
306. by depriving them
of a spectacular scene.Copy !req
307. Here, in The Public Enemy,Copy !req
308. He dared to stage the film's climax
and the hero's comeuppance off screen.Copy !req
309. - Three-strip Technicolor.Copy !req
310. In the mid-'30s
this dramatically improved process...Copy !req
311. was a wonderful gift
bestowed on the illusionists.Copy !req
312. - How's that for an entrance?
- Perfect.Copy !req
313. What's happened to you?Copy !req
314. You're deliberating whipping yourself
into a fit of hysterics.Copy !req
315. Oh, no, I mustn't do that.Copy !req
316. It might disturb Mother and Ruth
or wake up Danny.Copy !req
317. In the old two-strip Technicolor,
the one DeMille used...Copy !req
318. in the silent Ten Commandments,Copy !req
319. the color blue couldn't be reproduced.Copy !req
320. But now the three-strip process
covered the entire spectrum.Copy !req
321. Extra-wide cameras could expose
three negatives simultaneously,Copy !req
322. each recording one
of the primary colors.Copy !req
323. This is Gene Tierney, an angel face
with the darkest of hearts.Copy !req
324. Leave Her To Heaven was a fascinating
hybrid, a film noir in color,Copy !req
325. with the neurotically
possessive woman...Copy !req
326. destroying anybody who might come
between her and her husband,Copy !req
327. even the unwanted child she's carrying.Copy !req
328. We wouldn't be separated for long.Copy !req
329. - Just a few weeks.
- No, I'd... I'd rather wait.Copy !req
330. Her husband's younger brother,
a paraplegic boy, was in her way too.Copy !req
331. Now you have to remember that color was
rarely used for contemporary drama then.Copy !req
332. - Think you can make it, Danny?
- Aw, it's a cinch.Copy !req
333. It was more associated
with period pieces and musicals.Copy !req
334. John Stahl's direction
and Leon Shamroy's cinematography...Copy !req
335. conjured up
an unsettling super realist vision.Copy !req
336. Don't worry about your direction.
I'll keep you on your course.Copy !req
337. - Okay!
- This was a lost paradise.Copy !req
338. Its beauty ravished
by the heroine's perversity.Copy !req
339. I... I think I'm gettin' tired.Copy !req
340. Take it easy. You don't want to
give up when you've come so far.Copy !req
341. Okay. I'll get
my second wind in a minute.Copy !req
342. Oh!Copy !req
343. The wa... water's cold.Copy !req
344. Colder than I thought.Copy !req
345. Oh! I ate too much lunch.Copy !req
346. I got a stomachache.
Ellen!Copy !req
347. It's... It's a cramp.Copy !req
348. Ellen! It's...
It's a cramp!Copy !req
349. Ellen, it's...
Ellen, it's...Copy !req
350. Help me!Copy !req
351. Danny!Copy !req
352. Danny!Copy !req
353. Danny!Copy !req
354. Rather than encourage realism, the
Technicolor palette went even further...Copy !req
355. and added flamboyance
to the melodrama.Copy !req
356. The illusionist always knew
that color itself...Copy !req
357. can actually play a dramatic role.Copy !req
358. This is what Nicholas Ray
attempted in Johnny Guitar.Copy !req
359. - Joan Crawford was Vienna,
- Are you satisfied they're not here?Copy !req
360. - No!
- the outsider,Copy !req
361. persecuted by the so-called
respectable citizens...Copy !req
362. because of her ties
to a band of renegades.Copy !req
363. In this truly offbeat western,Copy !req
364. Nicholas Ray reversed
the genre's traditional iconography.Copy !req
365. Black was the color of
Mercedes McCambridge and the vigilantes,Copy !req
366. while the outcasts were endowed with
rich colors or even pure white.Copy !req
367. We came for
the kid and his bunch.Copy !req
368. I'm sitting here in my own house,
minding my own business,Copy !req
369. playing my own piano.Copy !req
370. I don't think you can make
a crime out of that.Copy !req
371. You're only a boy!
We don't want to hurt you!Copy !req
372. Just tell us she was one of ya,
Turkey, and you'll go free!Copy !req
373. Come on, Turkey. Tell us.
I'll give ya my word ya won't hang.Copy !req
374. What should I do?
I don't wanna die! What do I do?Copy !req
375. Save yourself.Copy !req
376. Well, was she?Copy !req
377. You can mirror emotions with color.Copy !req
378. Vienna's gambling house was designed and
adorned like the set of a baroque opera.Copy !req
379. Colors were deliberately distorted
or thrown off balance.Copy !req
380. Blue was toned down in favor
of deep, saturated colors.Copy !req
381. When an insane jealousy
compels McCambridge to destroy
Joan Crawford's palace,Copy !req
382. the palette alone suggests
a fury from hell.Copy !req
383. Now, the size of the screen
itself needed to grow.
It couldn't be contained.Copy !req
384. In the mid-'50s it spilled over its
boundaries into something much grander.Copy !req
385. And I still remember one
of the great experiences I had...Copy !req
386. in, in film-going back in 1953.Copy !req
387. I was ten or eleven years old
when I went to the Roxy Theater,Copy !req
388. and the curtain began to open
and continued to open and open...Copy !req
389. on the biggest screen I'd ever seen.Copy !req
390. It was the film The Robe.Copy !req
391. It was the first CinemaScope picture,
shot in 1953.Copy !req
392. Rome, master of the earth.Copy !req
393. Originally, the new aspect
ratio was a commercial gimmick...Copy !req
394. designed to give the film industry
an edge over its rival, television.Copy !req
395. From the foggy coasts
of the northern sea...Copy !req
396. Yet many filmmakers
resisted the innovation.Copy !req
397. "It's only good for funerals
and snakes, "pronounced Fritz Lang.Copy !req
398. It was a new canvas,
and directors were put to the test...Copy !req
399. as they learned to master
the new proportions.Copy !req
400. At first, Elia Kazan disliked them.Copy !req
401. But East Of Eden showed that CinemaScope
could suit an intimate family drama...Copy !req
402. as well as vast frescoes.Copy !req
403. You were not limited
to landscapes or processions,Copy !req
404. horizontal lines
or diagonal movements.Copy !req
405. Watch how Kazan plays with
the configuration of his set,Copy !req
406. when James Dean dares to enter
his long-lost mother's bordello
for the first time.Copy !req
407. Will ya let me talk to ya?Copy !req
408. Please.
I gotta talk to ya.Copy !req
409. Joe! Joe!Copy !req
410. Get out of here.
Joe! Tex!Copy !req
411. Actually, Kazan combined the old and
the new proportions in his composition,Copy !req
412. introducing narrower frames,
such as doorways and corridors...Copy !req
413. within the wide format itself.Copy !req
414. I wanna talk to ya!
I wanna talk to ya!Copy !req
415. I wanna talk to ya!Copy !req
416. Talk to me! Talk to me!
Please! Mother!Copy !req
417. Few were as skilled as
Vincente Minnelli...Copy !req
418. in using CinemaScope
for dramatic effect.Copy !req
419. Here in the tragic finale
of Some Came Running,Copy !req
420. the actors seem to blend
into their surroundings.Copy !req
421. They have a lot of souvenirs
and a lot of free prizes for ya.Copy !req
422. I got one of them, uh,
them grammar books from the library.Copy !req
423. I got it from that teacher who...Copy !req
424. whom...
whom is the objective...Copy !req
425. - Whom says so?
- Hmm?Copy !req
426. The suspense actually derives
from their integration...Copy !req
427. into the environment.Copy !req
428. You don't know if and when
the killer and his unsuspecting prey...Copy !req
429. will come together in the same space.Copy !req
430. CinemaScope allows Minnelli
to deploy a more complex,Copy !req
431. and therefore more threatening image.Copy !req
432. The more open the frame,
the greater the impression of depth...Copy !req
433. and the more striking
the illusion of reality.Copy !req
434. We're presented with
a vibrant, chaotic canvas...Copy !req
435. and it's up to us
to explore and interpret it.Copy !req
436. The impact of the wide screen
was particularly significant...Copy !req
437. on such genres as the western
and the epic.Copy !req
438. When he started Land Of The Pharaohs,Copy !req
439. Howard Hawks was nervous
about the new format.Copy !req
440. He complained, "It's good only
for showing great masses and movement.Copy !req
441. It's hard to focus attention,
and it's very difficult to edit. "Copy !req
442. However, his approach proved masterful.Copy !req
443. Three million
of such stones would be needed...Copy !req
444. before the work was done.Copy !req
445. Three million stones of
an average weight of 5,000 pounds.Copy !req
446. Every stone cut precisely to fit
into its destined place...Copy !req
447. in the great pyramid.Copy !req
448. It was the composition of
the shots that helped us appreciate...Copy !req
449. the human efforts
and technical feats...Copy !req
450. that the filmmakers attributed
to the pyramid builders.Copy !req
451. What is that stone, Father?Copy !req
452. That's the sarcophagus of the Pharaoh,Copy !req
453. the stone that will hold
his body after death.Copy !req
454. Where does it go to?Copy !req
455. Into a great chamber in the pyramid,
but where that is, you must not know.Copy !req
456. This was like a documentary made
on location 2,800 years B.C.Copy !req
457. The wide screen gave the sense
we were really there.Copy !req
458. This is the way people lived and worked.Copy !req
459. This is what they believed,
endured and achieved.Copy !req
460. I just shot it
the way you see a thing.Copy !req
461. I shoot straightforward, too.Copy !req
462. I don't use any camera tricks
or anything.Copy !req
463. Camera usually is at eye height.Copy !req
464. And the audience sees just what we see.Copy !req
465. Today, a film like
The Fall Of The Roman Empire...Copy !req
466. has the poignant beauty of a lost art,Copy !req
467. for this was the autumn
of the great American epics.Copy !req
468. They simply became
too expensive to make.Copy !req
469. Like Howard Hawks, Anthony Mann had been
a master of the western.Copy !req
470. The Fall Of The Roman Empire
offered a multilayered drama...Copy !req
471. which was as intense
as any of the director's westerns.Copy !req
472. His sense of space and dramatic
composition has never been more evident.Copy !req
473. Throughout the film, you could hear
the gods laugh in the background,Copy !req
474. a cruel laugh that spelled
the doom of all the protagonists...Copy !req
475. and of the Roman Empire.Copy !req
476. So, is the grand old tradition started
by Cabiria and Intolerance obsolete?Copy !req
477. Well, it would seem so. I mean,
today there's no need to drag...Copy !req
478. Hannibal's elephants
up the Alps anymore.Copy !req
479. They... They can be generated
by the computer.Copy !req
480. So is this the end of epic cinema
or the dawn of a new art form?Copy !req
481. Nobody can afford to buy
3,000 or 4,000 extras.Copy !req
482. It's just not economically
feasible anymore,Copy !req
483. 'cause you have to costume them,
you have to transport them,Copy !req
484. you have to feed them.Copy !req
485. Uh, and it...
You move very slowly...Copy !req
486. when you're trying to direct
a large group of people like that.Copy !req
487. So doing that today is,
is next to impossible.Copy !req
488. But doing it digitally, which
is, you get a small group of people,Copy !req
489. say, 100 people, and you replicate
them, you move them around.Copy !req
490. You can have exactly the same effect
for a tenth of the cost.Copy !req
491. We've changed the medium
in a way that is profound.Copy !req
492. It is no longer
a photographic medium.Copy !req
493. It's now a painterly medium,
and it's very fluid,Copy !req
494. so that things that are in
the frame you can take out,Copy !req
495. move, put them over here.Copy !req
496. And so, it's almost like going
from two dimension to three dimension...Copy !req
497. in the dynamic that's been
created at this point.Copy !req
498. There is a misconception that
we are surrendering something of art...Copy !req
499. to a technology that will do it for us.Copy !req
500. That... That is never the case.Copy !req
501. But cinema itself is technology.Copy !req
502. And to say that, oh, well,
it can't be an art...Copy !req
503. because it's a mechanical device
rushing celluloid through it...Copy !req
504. is as naive as to say,
well, you can't create...Copy !req
505. because now it's a computer
rushing numbers through it.Copy !req
506. The technology is always
an element of creativity.Copy !req
507. But it never is the source
of the creativity.Copy !req
508. And, so, my attitude is
to embrace technology as it comes...Copy !req
509. In any kind of art form
you're creating an illusion...Copy !req
510. for the audience to look at reality
through your special eye.Copy !req
511. The camera lies all the time.Copy !req
512. It lies 24 times a second.Copy !req
513. In other words, we're all
the children of D. W. Griffith...Copy !req
514. and Stanley Kubrick.Copy !req
515. Take 2001, the first film to link
the camera and the computer...Copy !req
516. in the creation of special
effects for the spaceship's
journey into the unknown.Copy !req
517. This was a breakthrough
in technical wizardry.Copy !req
518. Every frame of 2001 made you aware...Copy !req
519. that the possibilities for cinematic
manipulations are indeed infinite.Copy !req
520. Like Griffith's Intolerance,
like Murnau's Sunrise,Copy !req
521. it was at once a super-production,Copy !req
522. an experimental film
and a visionary poem.Copy !req
523. Whether the illusion is created
through high-tech...Copy !req
524. - or low-tech wizardry
doesn't really matter.Copy !req
525. The magic will only be effective
if it is carried by a strong vision.Copy !req
526. And it can be achieved in so many ways.Copy !req
527. Fifty years ago when he was assigned to
a small "B'film called Cat People,Copy !req
528. director Jacques Tourneur
had practically no budget...Copy !req
529. and, of course,
none of today's new technologies.Copy !req
530. But he knew that the dark
had a life of its own.Copy !req
531. He decided not to show the creature
threatening his protagonist.Copy !req
532. - He'd only suggest a presence.Copy !req
533. And to do that, he simply conjured up
an ominous shadow play.Copy !req
534. - Help!Copy !req
535. Help!Copy !req
536. Help!Copy !req
537. It was a sleight of hand
that an early film magician...Copy !req
538. could have performed
at the turn of the century.Copy !req
539. What is the matter, Alice?Copy !req
540. Sorry to have
disturbed you, Alice.Copy !req
541. I missed you and Oliver, and I thought
you might know where he is.Copy !req
542. We waited for you at the museum.
You'll probably find him at home.Copy !req
543. If you don't mind then,
I'll run on.Copy !req
544. Could I have my robe, please?Copy !req
545. Sure.Copy !req
546. Gee whiz, honey,
it's torn to ribbons.Copy !req
547. Now, we talked about the rules,
about the narrative codes,
about the technical tools,Copy !req
548. and we've seen how Hollywood filmmakers
adjusted to these limitations.Copy !req
549. They even played with them.Copy !req
550. Now's the time to look
at the cracks in the system.Copy !req
551. And what slipped through these cracks
has always fascinated me.Copy !req
552. I mean, there were opportunities,
there were projects...Copy !req
553. that allowed for the expression
of different sensibilities,Copy !req
554. offbeat themes
or even radical political views,Copy !req
555. particularly when
the financial stakes were minimal.Copy !req
556. Less money, more freedom.
I mean, the world of'B" films was...Copy !req
557. often freer and more conducive
to experimenting and innovating.Copy !req
558. The '40s directors found that
they could exercise more control
on a small-budget movie...Copy !req
559. than on a prestigious "A" picture.Copy !req
560. Also, they'd have less executives
looking over their shoulder.Copy !req
561. They could introduce unusual touches,
weave unexpected motifs...Copy !req
562. and even transform routine material
into a much more personal expression.Copy !req
563. So in a sense, they became,
um, they became smugglers.Copy !req
564. They cheated and somehow
got away with it.Copy !req
565. Style was crucial.Copy !req
566. The first master of esoterica
was Jacques Tourneur,Copy !req
567. who began making his mark
in low-budget, supernatural thrillers.Copy !req
568. On Cat People he had
a good reason not to show the creature.Copy !req
569. He said,
"The less you see, the more you believe.Copy !req
570. You must never try to impose
your views on the viewer.Copy !req
571. But rather, you must try to let it
seep in little by little. "Copy !req
572. This oblique approach perfectly defines
the smuggler's strategy.Copy !req
573. Climb on, sister.
Are you ridin' with me or ain't ya?Copy !req
574. You look as if you'd seen a ghost.Copy !req
575. Did you see it?Copy !req
576. The son of pioneer Maurice
Tourneur, Jacques Tourneur
had the good fortune to find...Copy !req
577. an extraordinary oasis
of creative subversion...Copy !req
578. in producer Val Lewton's unit at RKO.Copy !req
579. Lewton, a former story editor
for Selznick, was once described...Copy !req
580. as "a benevolent David Selznick."Copy !req
581. Lewton worked extensively on all
of the scripts that he produced.Copy !req
582. But he never set foot on the set and
left the director to his own devices.Copy !req
583. Look at that woman.
Isn't she something?Copy !req
584. A "B'film like Cat People
only cost $ 134,000.Copy !req
585. Looks like a cat.Copy !req
586. But it touched a chord in America...Copy !req
587. by exploring a young bride's fear
of her own sexuality.Copy !req
588. Moia cectra?Copy !req
589. Moia cectra?Copy !req
590. Now wait a minute.
It can't be that serious.Copy !req
591. - Just one single word.
- She greeted me.Copy !req
592. She called me sister.Copy !req
593. - When her deepest feelings
for her husband are aroused,Copy !req
594. the heroine is overwhelmed
by shame and guilt.Copy !req
595. She seems to be consumed
by a malevolent spirit.Copy !req
596. Or if you will, by her inner demons.Copy !req
597. You were saying, "The cats..."Copy !req
598. They torment me.Copy !req
599. I awake in the night,Copy !req
600. and the tread of their feet
whispers in my brain.Copy !req
601. I have no peace,Copy !req
602. for they are in me.Copy !req
603. Tourneur's films undermined
a key principle of classical fiction: ;Copy !req
604. "In me"? "In me"?Copy !req
605. the notion that people
are in control of themselves.Copy !req
606. Tourneur's characters were moved
by forces they didn't even understand.Copy !req
607. Their curse was not fate
in the Greek sense.Copy !req
608. It was not an external force.Copy !req
609. It dwelled within their own psyche.Copy !req
610. So in its own way, Cat People was
as important as Citizen Kane...Copy !req
611. in the development
of a more mature American cinema.Copy !req
612. In Tourneur's second film
with producer Val Lewton,Copy !req
613. I Walked With A Zombie,Copy !req
614. the heroine is a nurse assigned
to a catatonic woman in the West Indies.Copy !req
615. - She's drawn into a parallel world...Copy !req
616. When she seeks the help of sorcerers
to cure her patient.Copy !req
617. Jacques Tourneur was a modest craftsman.Copy !req
618. He compared his work to that
of a carpenter who simply
carves a chair or table...Copy !req
619. that he's been hired to build.Copy !req
620. But years later,
at the end of his career,Copy !req
621. Tourneur confessed that
he had always been passionately
interested in the supernatural.Copy !req
622. A bit of a psychic himself,
he made films about the supernatural...Copy !req
623. because he believed in it...Copy !req
624. and had even experienced it firsthand.Copy !req
625. How did he smuggle this contraband?Copy !req
626. Tourneur relied on
the imagination of the audience.Copy !req
627. He said, "When spectators are
sitting in a darkened theater...Copy !req
628. and recognize their own insecurity and
that of the protagonist on the screen,Copy !req
629. then they will accept
the most unbelievable situations...Copy !req
630. and follow the director
wherever he wants to take them. "Copy !req
631. - Tourneur's twilight zone
was a labyrinth.Copy !req
632. His were perilous journeys
into the unknown...Copy !req
633. and sometimes the occult.Copy !req
634. Reality remained opaque and rarely were
people what they appeared to be.Copy !req
635. They stood at the frontier
of a hidden world,Copy !req
636. a shimmering canvas
of distant murmurs and deep shadows.Copy !req
637. - She doesn't bleed.
- Zombie.Copy !req
638. Common to all of Tourneur's films
was a muted disenchantment,Copy !req
639. a strange melancholy,Copy !req
640. the eerie feeling of having embarked
on an adventure...Copy !req
641. from which there was no return.Copy !req
642. It seemed only a few days
before I met Mr. Holland in Antigua.Copy !req
643. We boarded the boat for St. Sebastian.Copy !req
644. It was all just as I had imagined it.Copy !req
645. I looked at those great, glowing stars.
I felt the warm wind on my cheek.Copy !req
646. I breathed deep,
and every bit of me inside myself said,Copy !req
647. - "How beautiful."
- It's not beautiful.Copy !req
648. You read my thoughts, Mr. Holland.Copy !req
649. It's easy enough to read
the thoughts of a newcomer.Copy !req
650. Everything seems beautiful
because you don't understand.Copy !req
651. Those flying fish,
they're not leaping for joy.Copy !req
652. They're jumping in terror.
Bigger fish want to eat them.Copy !req
653. That luminous water, it takes its gleam
from millions of tiny dead bodies,Copy !req
654. the glitter of putrescence.Copy !req
655. There's no beauty here,
only death and decay.Copy !req
656. You can't really believe that.Copy !req
657. Everything good dies here,
even the stars.Copy !req
658. After Tourneur opened Pandora's box,
things were never the same.Copy !req
659. It may have gone unnoticed
at first, but a strange darkness
crept into American films,Copy !req
660. a feeling of insecurity,
disorientation and foreboding,Copy !req
661. as though the ground could suddenly
give way under your feet.Copy !req
662. When my father was alive,
we traveled a lot.Copy !req
663. We went nearly everywhere.
We had wonderful times.Copy !req
664. I didn't know you traveled so much.Copy !req
665. - Oh, yes.
- Perhaps we've been to
some of the same places.Copy !req
666. No, I don't think so.Copy !req
667. - We're in Venice.
- Yes, we've arrived.
Now, where would you like to go next?Copy !req
668. - France? England? Russia?
- Switzerland.Copy !req
669. Switzerland. Excuse me one moment
while I talk with the engineer.Copy !req
670. Again, appearances were as deceptive
as they were beautiful...Copy !req
671. in Max Ophuls's elegies.Copy !req
672. - You and the lady,
are you enjoying the trip?
- Very much.Copy !req
673. - We've decided on Switzerland.
- The romantic decor was a trap.Copy !req
674. - There you are. Thank you.
- Oh, thank you!Copy !req
675. Switzerland!Copy !req
676. Switzerland!Copy !req
677. This was a carnival of illusions,Copy !req
678. an imaginary journey
for an imaginary romance.Copy !req
679. Ophuls was an angel
in exile in Hollywood.Copy !req
680. The Viennese maestro suffered
years of unemployment...Copy !req
681. - until producer John Houseman
gave him a chance...Copy !req
682. to adapt Stefan Zweig's novella,
Letter From An Unknown Woman.Copy !req
683. Now, you know far too much
about me already, and I know
almost nothing about you, huh?Copy !req
684. - It was his valentine to Vienna,
- Except that you've
traveled a great deal.Copy !req
685. And a farewell
to the culture of his youth.Copy !req
686. Ophuls's camera and his heroine
moved in unison.Copy !req
687. The fluid visual choreography
allowed you to experience...Copy !req
688. Joan Fontaine's every heartbeat.Copy !req
689. - Stefan, the train is leaving.
- Just a minute.Copy !req
690. For a brief moment,
happiness appeared within reach.Copy !req
691. How long have you been standing here?Copy !req
692. But Stefan will
always remain unattainable.Copy !req
693. I don't want to go.
Do you believe that?Copy !req
694. I'll be here when you get back.Copy !req
695. Say "Stefan"
the way you said it last night.Copy !req
696. Stefan.Copy !req
697. It's as though
you've said it all your life.Copy !req
698. - Better hurry, sir.
- Yes! Good-bye.Copy !req
699. - Stefan!
- Yes! Good-bye.Copy !req
700. Cold reality sets in
at the train station.Copy !req
701. Won't be long.
I'll be back in, in two weeks.Copy !req
702. The real one.
Lisa will never travel with Stefan,Copy !req
703. the frivolous pianist
on whom she has projected her passions.Copy !req
704. She's left behind, pregnant with
a child conceived that magical night.Copy !req
705. Ophuls was just one of
the European expatriates...Copy !req
706. most of them refuges from Fascism...Copy !req
707. who were largely responsible
for the exploration of
these new darker territories.Copy !req
708. The others were well-known directors
such as Fritz Lang,Copy !req
709. Alfred Hitchcock,
Otto Preminger, Billy Wilder.Copy !req
710. But also lesser known names
such as Douglas Sirk, Robert Siodmak,Copy !req
711. Edgar Ulmer, Andre De Toth.Copy !req
712. To them, crime was
a source of fascination.Copy !req
713. It allowed them to probe
the nature of evil.Copy !req
714. Monstrosity was
something banal, almost natural.Copy !req
715. The criminal world cannot
be conveniently isolated
or circumscribed...Copy !req
716. within the urban underworld
as in the old gangster film.Copy !req
717. Hello, Adele. I dropped over
to the butcher shop like you told me to.Copy !req
718. I got a nice piece of liver.Copy !req
719. It was everywhere,
lurking under the surface.Copy !req
720. Every man was a potential criminal.Copy !req
721. How long have you known Katherine March?Copy !req
722. Answer me!Copy !req
723. I don't know what you're talking about.Copy !req
724. How long have you known her?Copy !req
725. Don't get excited.
Let me help you off with your coat.Copy !req
726. You're the one that's excited.Copy !req
727. Get away with that knife.
Do you want to cut my throat?Copy !req
728. The common man falling in a trap...Copy !req
729. Why'd you come here?Copy !req
730. as he succumbs
first to vice, then to murder.Copy !req
731. - To ask you to marry me.
- What about your wife?Copy !req
732. I haven't any wife.
That's finished.Copy !req
733. - For cat's sake...
- Her husband turned up. I'm free.Copy !req
734. This was Fritz Lang's favorite plot: ;
reality turning into a nightmare.Copy !req
735. I don't care what's happened.Copy !req
736. L-I can marry you now.Copy !req
737. L-I want you to be my wife.Copy !req
738. We... We'll go away together.Copy !req
739. Way far off
so you can forget this other man.Copy !req
740. - Don't cry, Kitty. Please don't cry.Copy !req
741. I'm not crying,
you fool. I'm laughing.Copy !req
742. Kitty.Copy !req
743. Oh, you idiot.
How can a man be so dumb?Copy !req
744. Kitty.Copy !req
745. I've wanted to laugh in your face
ever since I first met you.Copy !req
746. You're old and ugly, and I'm sick
of you. Sick, sick, sick!Copy !req
747. - Kitty, for heaven's sake.
- You kill Johnny?
I'd like to see you try.Copy !req
748. Why, he'd break every bone
in your body. He's a man.Copy !req
749. You wanna marry me?
You?Copy !req
750. Get out of here!
Get out!Copy !req
751. Get away from me!
Chris! Chris!Copy !req
752. Get away from me!
Chris!Copy !req
753. Chris!Copy !req
754. Violence has become, in my opinion,Copy !req
755. a definite, uh, point, in a script.Copy !req
756. It has a dramaturgical reason
to be there.Copy !req
757. You see, I don't think
that people believe in the devil...Copy !req
758. with the horns and the forked tail.Copy !req
759. And therefore, they don't believe
in punishment after...Copy !req
760. they are dead.Copy !req
761. So, my question was for me,Copy !req
762. what are people...Copy !req
763. In what belief people...
Or, what are people fearing is better.Copy !req
764. And that is physical pain.Copy !req
765. And physical pain comes from violence.Copy !req
766. And that, I think,
is today the only,Copy !req
767. uh, uh, uh, fact
which people really fear,Copy !req
768. and therefore it has become
a-a definite part of life...Copy !req
769. and naturally also of scripts.Copy !req
770. The phrase "film noir"
was coined by the French in 1946...Copy !req
771. when they discovered the Hollywood
productions they had missed...Copy !req
772. during the German occupation.Copy !req
773. Did you ever want
to cut away a piece of your memory...Copy !req
774. or blot it out?Copy !req
775. You can't, you know.
No matter how hard you try.Copy !req
776. You can change the scenery,
but sooner or later...Copy !req
777. you'll get a whiff of perfume...Copy !req
778. or somebody will say a certain phrase
or maybe hum something,Copy !req
779. then you're licked again.Copy !req
780. This was not
a specific genre like the gangster film,Copy !req
781. but a mood which was best described
by this line from Ulmer's Detour.Copy !req
782. - Mr. Haskell.
- "Whichever way you turn...Copy !req
783. Mr. Haskell.Copy !req
784. Fate sticks out its foot to trip you. "Copy !req
785. Mr. Haskell, wake up.
It's raining.Copy !req
786. Don't you think we oughta stop
and put up the top?Copy !req
787. In Detour,
down-and-out pianist Tom Neal...Copy !req
788. hitchhikes his way west
to join his fiancée.Copy !req
789. His life starts unraveling when the man
who has given him a lift falls asleep.Copy !req
790. Until then I'd done things my way,Copy !req
791. but from then on
something else stepped in...Copy !req
792. and shunted me off
to a different destination...Copy !req
793. than the one I had picked for myself.Copy !req
794. But when I pulled open that door...Copy !req
795. Mr. Haskell, what's the matter?
Are you hurt?Copy !req
796. Are you hurt, Mr. Haskell?Copy !req
797. Doom was written on Tom Neal's face.Copy !req
798. He was bewildered
and afraid to go to the police.Copy !req
799. Keeping the dead man's car and cash
was definitely a mistake,Copy !req
800. but an even bigger mistake was
picking up a female hitchhiker.Copy !req
801. A few hours more,
and we'd be in Hollywood.Copy !req
802. I'd forget where I parked the car
and look up Sue.Copy !req
803. This nightmare of being
a dead man would be over.Copy !req
804. Where did you leave his body?Copy !req
805. Where did you leave
the owner of this car?Copy !req
806. You're not foolin' anyone.Copy !req
807. This buggy belongs to a guy
named Haskell. That's not you, mister.Copy !req
808. It just so happens
I rode with Charlie Haskell...Copy !req
809. all the way from Louisiana.Copy !req
810. He picked me up outside of Shreveport.Copy !req
811. Detour was shot
in six days for only $ 20,000.Copy !req
812. Vera, open the door.
Please, open the door.Copy !req
813. If you don't open the door,
I'm going to kick it down, Vera.Copy !req
814. The director could
only rely on his resourcefulness.Copy !req
815. Vera, don't call the cops.
Listen to me.Copy !req
816. I'll break the phone.Copy !req
817. In fact,
his idiosyncratic style...Copy !req
818. grew out of such drastic limitations.Copy !req
819. This is why Ulmer has become
such an inspiration over the years...Copy !req
820. to low-budget filmmakers.Copy !req
821. Vera.Copy !req
822. Here we find Tom Neal...Copy !req
823. after a second outrageous twist of fate.Copy !req
824. The world is full of skeptics.Copy !req
825. I know.
I'm one myself.Copy !req
826. In the Haskell business,Copy !req
827. how many of you would believe
he fell out of the car?Copy !req
828. Now, after killing Vera
without really meaning to do it,Copy !req
829. how many of you would believe
it wasn't premeditated?Copy !req
830. Ulmer couldn't even afford
any special effects.Copy !req
831. He simply let the shot
go in and out of focus repeatedly,Copy !req
832. an appropriate reflection of the
character's disoriented mental state.Copy !req
833. Vera was dead, and I was her murderer.Copy !req
834. Murderer!Copy !req
835. The hitchhiker's journey...Copy !req
836. turned into an ironic morality play.Copy !req
837. Film noir showed how quickly
an ordinary man could lose it all...Copy !req
838. when he strayed from his path.Copy !req
839. Lured by the prospect
of sinful pleasures,Copy !req
840. he ended up suffering
hellish retribution.Copy !req
841. Film noir.Copy !req
842. I don't know, you know,Copy !req
843. when I make a picture,
I never classify it.Copy !req
844. If this is a comedy,
I wait until the preview.Copy !req
845. If they laugh a lot,
I say this is a comedy.Copy !req
846. Or serious picture or film noir.Copy !req
847. I never heard that expression
in those days.Copy !req
848. I just made pictures
that I would have liked to see.Copy !req
849. And if I was lucky,
it coincided with, uh,Copy !req
850. with the taste of the audience.Copy !req
851. I killed Deitrichson.Copy !req
852. Me, Walter Neff.Copy !req
853. Insurance salesman, 35 years old,
unmarried, no visible scars.Copy !req
854. Until a while ago that is.Copy !req
855. Yes, I killed him.Copy !req
856. I killed him for money and for a woman.Copy !req
857. Film noir revealed
the dark underbelly...Copy !req
858. of American urban life.Copy !req
859. Its denizens were private eyes,Copy !req
860. rogue cops, white-collar criminals,Copy !req
861. femmes fatale.Copy !req
862. As Raymond Chandler said,Copy !req
863. "The streets were dark
with something more than night. "Copy !req
864. This is not the right street.Copy !req
865. Why did you turn here?Copy !req
866. What're you doing that for?Copy !req
867. - What're you honking the horn for?Copy !req
868. You couldn't take
anything for granted anymore.Copy !req
869. Not even suburbia.Copy !req
870. Not even the supermarkets
of Southern California.Copy !req
871. I loved you, Walter, and I hated him.Copy !req
872. But I wasn't going to do anything
about it, not until I met you.Copy !req
873. You planned the whole thing.Copy !req
874. I only wanted him dead.Copy !req
875. And I'm the one that fixed it
so he was dead.Copy !req
876. Is that what you're telling me?Copy !req
877. And nobody's pulling out.Copy !req
878. If we went into this together,Copy !req
879. we're coming out at the end together.Copy !req
880. It's straight down the line
for both of us. Remember?Copy !req
881. Life is a betrayal,Copy !req
882. and, you know, sometimes you betray
yourself, too, you know.Copy !req
883. Let's have the guts to admit it.Copy !req
884. There isn't anybody born here lately...Copy !req
885. who didn't play dirty sometime,
somewhere in his life.Copy !req
886. So, why to hide it?Copy !req
887. Truth, honesty,
that's my key to filmmaking.Copy !req
888. Do you have any identification?Copy !req
889. Sure.Copy !req
890. Andre De Toth was
one of the most persistent...Copy !req
891. of the expatriate smugglers.Copy !req
892. In Crime Wave
he undermined the old cliché...Copy !req
893. that in America you can always get
another break.Copy !req
894. - A second chance.Copy !req
895. Phone.Copy !req
896. - Hello.
- Steve?Copy !req
897. - Yeah.
- Steve Lacey?Copy !req
898. Gene Nelson plays
an ex-convict trying to go straight...Copy !req
899. Hello, this is Lacey.Copy !req
900. Who is haunted by his past.Copy !req
901. - Hello.Copy !req
902. They're always passin' through town,Copy !req
903. tryin' to put the bite on me
for this or that.Copy !req
904. I told you how it'd be.Copy !req
905. And I didn't mind, did I?Copy !req
906. I love you.
I wanted you.Copy !req
907. And now that I've got you,
I care a lot less.Copy !req
908. I can't figure it.
What do you see in a guy like me?Copy !req
909. I see a guy who's swell.Copy !req
910. Sterling Hayden
portrays the relentless cop...Copy !req
911. who presumes he is guilty.Copy !req
912. Lacey's kept pretty straight
since he got out.Copy !req
913. Yeah, I know. Sober, industrious,
expert mechanic on airplane engines.Copy !req
914. A pilot before they sent him up,Copy !req
915. - now works at
a private airport in Sunland, right?
- Right.Copy !req
916. - Call him.Copy !req
917. Don't answer it, Steve. Let it ring.Copy !req
918. They'll just want
what they all want.Copy !req
919. Let 'em think you're away, that you're
not here, and they'll leave you alone.Copy !req
920. - Once you've done
a bit, nobody leaves you alone.Copy !req
921. - Somebody's always on your back.
- Steve.Copy !req
922. No answer.Copy !req
923. There, you see?Copy !req
924. I told ya.Copy !req
925. Doesn't look so good
for Mr. Lacey.Copy !req
926. Even a sympathetic
parole officer can't save him.Copy !req
927. You stay on your side of the fence.
I'm looking for a cop killer.Copy !req
928. I'm on my side.
I don't take things for granted.Copy !req
929. I check and recheck.
Lacey's made good with me.Copy !req
930. I have faith in him.Copy !req
931. - Once a crook, always a crook.
- That's nonsense.Copy !req
932. Sick men get well again.Copy !req
933. Yeah? And you hate to lose a patient.
Well, you're gonna lose this one.Copy !req
934. Stay here and find that dough.Copy !req
935. Don't worry about wrecking the joint.
Just find it.Copy !req
936. Right.Copy !req
937. All right, hot shot.Copy !req
938. Put out your hands.Copy !req
939. How long one
has to pay for a mistake?Copy !req
940. For a misstep in their life?
When is enough enough?Copy !req
941. You don't like that,
do you, Mrs. Lacey?Copy !req
942. It can happen to you, too,
if you're covering up for this guy.Copy !req
943. So don't try to walk out.
You're a material witness.Copy !req
944. Don't stay here, Ellen.
Forget about me.Copy !req
945. Get out of town!Copy !req
946. You finished, Mr. Lacey?Copy !req
947. There's no reprieve in film noir.Copy !req
948. You just keep paying for your sins.Copy !req
949. Ida Lupino often used film noir visuals,Copy !req
950. but for her own very specific purposes.Copy !req
951. In Lupino's films, it was young women
who went through hell...Copy !req
952. when their middle-class security was
shattered by a traumatic experience.Copy !req
953. Bigamy, parental abuse,Copy !req
954. - unwanted pregnancy, rape.Copy !req
955. - Taxi! Taxi!Copy !req
956. Lupino would force the audience
to experience from the inside...Copy !req
957. the ordeal of her heroines.Copy !req
958. Please! Please!
Somebody help me!Copy !req
959. In Outrage, she presents
the ultimate female nightmare...Copy !req
960. not as a melodrama,
but as a subdued behavioral study...Copy !req
961. that captures the banality of evil...Copy !req
962. in an ordinary small town.Copy !req
963. In an unusual move, actress Ida Lupino
had become a director in 1949...Copy !req
964. because she'd been
suspended by Warner Bros.Copy !req
965. She seized the opportunity
to form a production company...Copy !req
966. with her husband Collier Young.Copy !req
967. They developed their own projects,Copy !req
968. making a policy
of discovering young talent...Copy !req
969. and tackling unglamorous subjects...Copy !req
970. such as the rape in Outrage.Copy !req
971. I couldn't move.Copy !req
972. I couldn't move!Copy !req
973. How tall was he, dear?Copy !req
974. Take him away!Copy !req
975. Beyond the horror of the crime,Copy !req
976. Ida Lupino illuminates
the changes in the psyche of the victim,Copy !req
977. a wounded young woman
who's about to be married...Copy !req
978. but now has to learn how
to overcome her pain and despair.Copy !req
979. Go on!
Take a good look!Copy !req
980. Go on, all of you!Copy !req
981. Hey, Annie.Copy !req
982. I'm asking you to marry me now.Copy !req
983. Or didn't you hear me?Copy !req
984. Yes, I heard.Copy !req
985. Well?Copy !req
986. No!Copy !req
987. Anne! Hey!Copy !req
988. In Joseph Lewis' Gun Crazy,Copy !req
989. the focus was not on the victim,Copy !req
990. but on the criminals themselves.Copy !req
991. You were compelled
to share their fear...Copy !req
992. and even their exhilaration.Copy !req
993. The audience was pulled into the action
and became an accomplice.Copy !req
994. You can't shoot a man
just because he hesitates.Copy !req
995. Well, maybe not, but you can sure scare
him off, like that hotel clerk.Copy !req
996. - No, Laurie, I just don't...
- Oh, Bart, you know something?Copy !req
997. - What?
- I love you.Copy !req
998. I love you more than
anything else in the world.Copy !req
999. Of course
the fascinating pair of Gun Crazy...Copy !req
1000. belonged to the outlaw tradition
of the '30s.Copy !req
1001. - Help! Help!
- The tradition
that would culminate in the '60s...Copy !req
1002. - with Arthur Penn's Bonnie and Clyde.
- Laurie, Laurie, don't!Copy !req
1003. Come on. Get in!Copy !req
1004. But in Lewis' landmark film,
the renegades were wild animals.Copy !req
1005. Sex and violence
were totally intertwined.Copy !req
1006. - You were gonna kill that man.
- He'd have killed us
if he'd had the chance.Copy !req
1007. Shoot!
Why don't you shoot?Copy !req
1008. Shoot!Copy !req
1009. - Shoot. Do you hear me?
- All right!Copy !req
1010. Get 'em?Copy !req
1011. Yeah.Copy !req
1012. First and foremost,
film noir was a style.Copy !req
1013. It combined realism and expressionism,Copy !req
1014. the use of real locations
and elaborate shadow plays.Copy !req
1015. Here ace cinematographer
John Alton deserves a mention.Copy !req
1016. The Hungarian-born master
painted with light.Copy !req
1017. This was the title
of his 1949 textbook...Copy !req
1018. which we were still using
as students in the 1960s.Copy !req
1019. Extreme black and white contrasts, ;Copy !req
1020. isolated sources of lighting, ;Copy !req
1021. Pass key! Pass key!Copy !req
1022. Ominous camera placement, ;Copy !req
1023. deep perspective.Copy !req
1024. The most striking examples
of Alton's work...Copy !req
1025. are found in Anthony Mann's early films
such as this film, T-Men.Copy !req
1026. And in the same year, Raw Deal.Copy !req
1027. Five or ten minutes,
we'll be pullin' out.Copy !req
1028. Pullin' out for a new country,Copy !req
1029. leaving everything behind.Copy !req
1030. Maybe, maybe we can make
a different life...Copy !req
1031. for ourself in South America.Copy !req
1032. A good life.Copy !req
1033. Why didn't he stop talking?Copy !req
1034. When the clock stopped moving,Copy !req
1035. he was singing everything
I'd ever wanted to hear.Copy !req
1036. All my life,
the lyrics were his, all right.Copy !req
1037. But the music... Anne's, Anne's.Copy !req
1038. And suddenly I saw that
every time he kissed me...Copy !req
1039. he'd be kissing Anne.Copy !req
1040. Every time he held me,
spoke to me, danced with me,Copy !req
1041. ate, drank, played, sang
it would be Anne, Anne.Copy !req
1042. Anne!Copy !req
1043. These were small B-productions...Copy !req
1044. where Alton was free to experiment...Copy !req
1045. and often took unusual risks.Copy !req
1046. Busy little man, eh, snooper?Copy !req
1047. Almost had ya, all of you.Copy !req
1048. Tony!Copy !req
1049. And you, Vanny, so smart.Copy !req
1050. Top-drawer crook.
Lived with me and never caught on.Copy !req
1051. "There is no doubt in my mind...Copy !req
1052. that the prettiest music is sad, "
he remarked.Copy !req
1053. - Knew all the angles...Copy !req
1054. "And the most beautiful photography
is in a low-key with rich blacks. "Copy !req
1055. Sucker.Copy !req
1056. The paranoia of film noir
reached its high point...Copy !req
1057. with Robert Aldrich's film
Kiss Me Deadly.Copy !req
1058. Out of the dark, a haunted woman
appears to private eye Mike Hammer.Copy !req
1059. She's running away from a mental
institution and an unbearable secret.Copy !req
1060. She's not mad, though.Copy !req
1061. Merely innocent,
destined to be a sacrificial lamb.Copy !req
1062. - If we don't make that bus stop...
- We will.Copy !req
1063. If we don't,Copy !req
1064. remember me.Copy !req
1065. Stylized lighting and composition
conveyed a deranged world.Copy !req
1066. - There was no moral compass anymore.Copy !req
1067. Aldrich even turned Mickey Spillane's
detective Mike Hammer...Copy !req
1068. into an ambiguous figure, a guy who's
treated like dirt by everybody...Copy !req
1069. and is even described as
a "sleazy, despicable bedroom dick."Copy !req
1070. Aldrich's point, an important one
during those McCarthy times,Copy !req
1071. was the end never justifies the means.Copy !req
1072. - She's passed out.
- I'll bring her to.Copy !req
1073. If you revive her,
do you know what that would be?Copy !req
1074. Resurrection, that's what it would be.Copy !req
1075. And do you know what resurrection means?Copy !req
1076. It means raise the dead.Copy !req
1077. And just who do you think you are
that you think you can raise the dead?Copy !req
1078. At the end of Kiss Me Deadly,Copy !req
1079. the duplicitous woman
who stole this package from
a secret government project...Copy !req
1080. was like the wife of Lot
who refused to heed the warnings.Copy !req
1081. Aldrich's tale led to
a few cryptic, threatening words: ;Copy !req
1082. Manhattan Project, Los Alamos, Trinity.Copy !req
1083. This time opening Pandora's box...Copy !req
1084. meant universal annihilation,
the apocalypse.Copy !req
1085. Of course, not all smugglers
operated within film noir.Copy !req
1086. In Part 3, as we continue our journey,Copy !req
1087. I'd like to show you how they
worked around more wholesome genres...Copy !req
1088. and even, at times,
big Hollywood star vehicles.Copy !req
1089. We'll also look at
a different breed of directors,Copy !req
1090. those who attacked the system head on...Copy !req
1091. the iconoclasts.Copy !req