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January 19, 2004

Two Down

Found time over the weekend (once gaming was done) to watch another DVD.

Touch of Evil was Orson Wells's last Hollywood film, and it features all the innovations that mark his work but are so tricky to even notice today. Wells invented and/or celebrated many of the uses of the film camera that are now commonplace, including long tracking shots (the opening is nearly 4 minutes of uninterrupted tension, as we wait for a bomb we saw planted to explode), unusual follows (that same opening follows the car with the bomb through busy streets and a customs station; later shots follow actors from the street through the lobby and into an elevator), and sharp use of shadow (it's a black and white film that revels in black).

Today, this film is more remembered for Charlton Heston's unlikely casting as a Mexican policeman, Wells's fat suit (which proved prophetic of his later appearance), and some cheesy, dated drug references. But, particularly to the directors who would anchor the New Wave in France, this film was a call to arms. And, as a big fan of directors like Wong Kar Wai and John Woo who started with the New Wave to develop their own style, I can't help but like this glimpse of how it all started.

(I watched the DVD version of the approximate "director's cut", a re-edit of the film based on an extensive memo by Wells after he viewed the studio edit, which he felt dramatically undercut the style and point of his film. He was probably right, as few people at the time understood or could approximate the powerful originality of Mr. Wells.)

Posted by ghoul at January 19, 2004 01:41 PM

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