Toddi mentioned that the camera zooms up on the characters to create a sense of entrapment, which is clearly appropriate when a descent amount of film is taken from within a cave. Wilder's adventurous shots must have wowed audiences when it first came out.
Another interesting shot was when Charles claims he is taking over the small town newspaper (shot of Charles walking into the camera). When Charles is again that close to the camera he hits the ground, dead. Wilder seems to believe in the superiority complex going nowhere, that greed does not triumph truth.
Slant Magazine's review of Ace in the Hole spekas of the psychology of Charles , which is interestingly ironic--he has broken the rules of journalism yet clearly reprimands Lorraine for breaking mental bonds with her husband. Maybe he does not want Lorraine to like him because he himself doesn't even like him. This is evident when Charles reacts so strongly to Leo's diagnosis from the doctor--his face doubles over and he becomes more violent. Billy Wilder showed the slow death of Charles from the first day Charles picked one man's story over the crowd--when he put human interest before human life.
No comments:
Post a Comment