Word: statically
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Dates: during 1980-1989
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Weakened and distorted by the warps of time, crackling with static interference, the famous voice from the past gloats over the possibilities: "Now you'd be amazed at how this story about the gal is spreading around the country . . . Awful nice gal, writes for the magazines and so forth...
Gance's focus, on the other hand, fixes the flow of history in a series of static images that capture in them all the horror and irony of the French Revolution. While The Terror creates a murderous chaos in the streets, Gance turns suddenly to an enclosed office: the nerve center of the Committee of Public Safety. A high wall is divided into four sections: Accused, Acquitted, Guilty, Innocent. Accused and Guilty overflow with dossiers; Acquitted and Innocent stand nearly empty. An officer enters, announcing to the pie-eyed overseer, "I must have three hundred today. Draw up the lists...
Dall and Conrad avoid making Sally's fate obvious by the introduction of unpredictable elements and a dynamic tension created by a slowly emerging subplot. The calculated use of humor prevents the story line from lapsing into static dramatic inevitability. Conrad and Dall frequently objectify Sally's viewpoint by allowing her to comment upon what has happened, or what is occurring within a given shot. While the image remains intact, her voice, satirizing the dramatic situation or directly addressing the audience, comes from off the screen. She second-guesses our reading of the film ("I'll bet you're saying...
Whereas Mosè is a nearly static drama-Rossini at times referred to it as an oratorio-La Donna del Lago (The Lady of the Lake) is an atmospheric treatment of Sir Walter Scott's poem. It is a bucolic score, with harps and hunting horns highlighting the composer's landscape painting. Donna, full of infectious melodies, is closer in spirit to the great comedies...
Louis Malle, who has a deserved reputation for taking on dangerous projects (Pretty Baby, Murmur of the Heart), was obviously attracted to the challenge of doing what amounts to an antimovie, static and minimalist. He has functioned, it seems, pretty much in the manner of a good TV technician handling a Sunday-morning inter view show. His work is smooth, objective, unobtrusive. His manner certainly suits a script that was distilled from hundreds of hours of taped conversations between its author-protagonists...