Word: noir
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...picture in focus. This technique--pioneered by Orson Welles in Citizen Kane--is known as "deep focus." The use of deep focus lends a strong sense of realism to the film, portraying simultaneously the characters and their environment. Kusturica also imports some techniques from the genre of film noir, especially the notion of the woman-as-temptress (in this case the mistress), and the practice of photographing her image in mirrors...
...GOOD NEWS IS: the genre melodrama in all its variety is making a comeback in American film. Yes, cop pictures, films-noir, and private eye sagas are back following the failure of a slew of teen comedies, westerns, and serious "Oscar-bait" dramas, all presumed more commercial by an industry that generally felt melodrama had become the province of TV. "Blood Simple," "Witness," "Prizzi's Honor," and "Jagged Edge" have all contributed to a feeling in Hollywood that audiences want better and more adult stories in their theatrical diet...
...Good answer, but desperation goes too far back and strays too far afield from New York. For all its Newest Wave, mod feel, Susan traces its anxious female motif back to the gangster melodrama films of the 30's, with one twist. Like the vapid blonds in film noir, our housewife seeks her thrills in a more happening world, but there the comparison must end. Her idol is not a man, but Susan; her goal not to grab her idol's pants, but to wear them...
Since 1972, the vineyards have been attracting baby boomers with the so- called blush wines. Made from such red grapes as Zinfandel or Pinot Noir, this wine is kept a pale salmon-pink by removing the skins, pulp and seeds from the juice before they darken the liquid. The result: a wine that tastes like a white and lacks the flowery bouquet of a rose. The Wine Growers of California are negotiating with Julia Child to tout their vintages on TV ads come September. Says William Young, western division president of D'Arcy MacManus Masius, the Wine Growers' advertising firm...
DIED. Edmond O'Brien, 69, stocky, heavy-jowled, Academy Award-winning actor who played tough guys in such film noir classics as The Killers (1946), A Double Life (1948) and D.O.A. (1950), and who later had memorable character roles in Seven Days in May (1964) and The Wild Bunch (1969); of Alzheimer's disease; in Inglewood, Calif. He won an Oscar as best supporting actor for his portrayal of a sycophantic Hollywood press agent in 1954's The Barefoot Contessa...