Word: filming
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Dates: during 1960-1969
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When he appears in his own Broadway comedy (Play It Again, Sam) or his own film (Take the Money and Run), Allen fleshes out the jittery image of Everymanic-depressive. Inanimate objects become his sworn enemies, paranoia reigns and everyone becomes a Woody worshiper. But Don't Drink the Water is minus the man-as adapter and actor-and the result is the lesser half of a situation comedy...
Chabrol edits his film like Hitchcock, cutting to unexpected angles for jarring surprise effect, and stages a body disposal scene that is reminiscent of Psycho. The performances are restrained and electric with tension, like the film itself. La Femme Infidèle does not have the full impact of the master's touch, but at least it demonstrates the benefits of the Hitchcock tutelage...
...quality of ideality that informs every action depends on the film's even pace-but also on its soft lighting, its gentle depth, its unity of space within the frame. All these devices contribute to the unity and flow of the action. This total integration, though it lasts through the film, does not remove emotional intensity from the ongoing action. It rather lets every incident and every gesture assume tremendous weight for no formal structure opposes the actions within the frame...
...film's every turn and nuance is heightened, given immediate meaning for the character involved, as much by its understated acting as by its simple shooting style. Carol Dempster has come far from the frolics she and Lillian Gish gave Griffith's films of the earlier twenties. And Adolphe Menjou, as Satan, is the model of restraint. For him a grimace or devilish leer would be an unspeakable faux pas. But Griffith, far from leaving him a polished gentleman without depth of character, makes his slightest gestures personally significant. Menjou is eating dinner with Ricardo Cortez in the grandest...
...action of the whole film is so restrained that secondary characters are almost completely absent; Sorrows is simply about the emotional progress of two people. Nevertheless the rare actions of people other than the principals illuminate the situation of the principals without seeming to be bits of business Griffith picked to reveal the central relation of the film. After Cortez has bought his wife-to-be a cup and saucer they stand outside a pawnshop, facing the camera, admiring the cup. A woman comes up to them, takes a look at it, and passes off to one side. We never...