Word: closeup
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...this affluent summer of discontent, it was a matter of relief and pride to Americans of all stripes that U.S. space scientists had at last scored a spectacular success with a space shot and had delivered history's first closeup pictures of the moon's surface (see SCIENCE). BULL'S-EYE! cheered the headlines, and for the moment at least, most of the argument about whether the moon program is worth its cost was forgotten while the nation joined in the cheering. "This is a great day for science and a great day for the U.S.," exulted...
Having thus taken wing, the spectacle seldom falters, for the cameras perform in a virtuoso style that rivals the competitors on the field. Again and again, with slow-motion photography and telescopic lenses that reveal an athlete's face in stunning closeup, the moment of truth is seized; an Italian cyclist, narrowly losing one contest, bursts into tears; the barefoot Bikila Abebe sprints through torchlit Roman streets to win the 26-mile marathon and Ethiopia's first Olympic gold medal; U.S. Decathlon Champion Rafer Johnson consolingly embraces his close friend and runner-up, Taiwan...
...good. Cheering throngs at a Tokyo baseball stadium provide background for one tingling chase. In a city overcome by heat, the camera searches a line of chorus girls collapsed on a dressing-room floor, flesh glistening with sweat, each face a breathless distillation of despair. After a murder, a closeup of a splattered tomato-despite the obvious symbolism-suddenly, almost insidiously, conveys the whole meaning of horror and grief combined...
Suicide in closeup is not something every moviegoer will want to see. But for those susceptible to such morbid fascinations, The Fire will burn with infernal allure. It will also be cheered by connoisseurs of cinema as a redoubt able tour de technique, the most considerable accomplishment of France's Louis Malle (The Lovers). But to many others the film will surely seem more lecture than picture...
Plaster-packer Segal, whose works recall Pompeian people petrified in lava, did a cast of Scull, and James Rosenquist did a family portrait. In it, nothing shows of Scull but his legs and feet, next to a realistic taxicab with open door, and inside the cab, an upside-down closeup of Ethel being kissed on the nose by one of her children. "Not quite the Mona Lisa," says Scull...