Word: mise
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...Waverley Smoke Shop, Some time has passed, and much history. But social values don't change in three years--particularly those held by egoists. Even after one term of Nixonism, with another to come. Don Siegel's director cult is still ready to defend Dirty Henry for its mise on scene. Even if the film craze has slowly puttered out, every adolescent artiste still yearns for an Eclair or an Arriflex. The Village Voice has gotten slightly better--it featured some good convention coverage. Andrew Sarris has gotten slightly worse...
Indeed, the vagueness of The Revolutionary carries into the fuzzy thinking of Dealing; and the clean lines of the former film have given way to the empty frames of the latter. Details--like the overhead roar of a jet--are conspicuous by the absence of a fully developed mise-en-scene. Continuity is confusing (the New England snows are there one scene, gone the next); interiors look pop-art phoney (in particular, the South Station gambit). And when the crooked cop reads a short note that Peter has sent him, the words are on screen so long you've time...
...puff of breeze ruffles Marion's dress; and Leo seems part of the foliage in his new green suit. Marion laughs, and says, "What a comfort, your bathing suit on my shoulders." And, though Pinter's cunning dialogue reveals more of state-of-mind than of character, the lighting, mise-en-scene, and acting say most of what there is to be said about Burgess and the Maudsleys, Marion's capriciousness and Leo's devotion...
...scenario is fairly clear-cut; it is the mise en scéne that is so complex. Cinematographer David Watkin (Catch-22, The Charge of the Light Brigade) lights the sumptuous sets to give a consistent aura of hallucination. Russell lashes his actors into a histrionic verve that is reminiscent in equal parts of the Royal Shakespeare Company, the Living Theater and Bedlam. The supporting cast (Dudley Sutton and Michael Gothard most prominent among them) act like a chorus and look like creatures from a Bosch triptych. Oliver Reed is suitably forceful as Grandier; it is indeed his best performance...
...Italy. Based on a novel by Alberto Moravia, the film reproduces the Italy and France of the 1930s with almost operatic splendor; no recent film has been so visually lush or stylistically exhilarating. It is a pity that the scenario cannot quite meet the demands of the mise en scene...