KINOGRAPHIAS

Scares are not just loud and quick. We can know this from Director Nicolas Roeg’s and editor Tony Lawson’s adaptation of Roald Dahl’s “The Witches”. When Helga briefs her grandson Luke on the existence of witches, she recounts an episode of her life where childhood friend Erica disappeared after being sent out for milk by her father, who had just showed her his new painting.   As Helga approaches the dining table where Erica’s mother is at, the father enters the room and comes to a stop, staring right off the frame. The next shot - his point of view - pushes in slowly but decidedly towards the painting on the wall. It’s significant that she describes him as walking towards the painting, yet what the movement suggests is more of a displacement of the gaze (in contrast with the shaky coverage of Erica’s kidnapping). Older Helga’s voice narrates the scene, reflecting that “it was as though he had seen a ghost”. This is supported by the reactions of Erica’s mom and young Helga, also wi...

The physical reality of “Apollo 13” mission is that its crew doesn’t get to land on the moon. However, the cinematic adaptation, by Ron Howard, takes a further step that allows some resolution to Commander Jim Lovell’s personal quest. As the ship orbits the moon in a maneuver that will favor their return to Earth, astronauts Haise and Swigert contemplate the surface when they are close enough to get a good impression of its textures, also capturing Lovell’s attention. This observation is presented as a shot/reverse-shot where we either view the moon as seen up and close from the window, or the astronauts’ reactions looking at it.   In the last of these interactions, Lovell comes closer to the foreground, while the following shot, almost mimicking his forward movement, pushes in to the ship’s window until Lovell enters the shot and both elements (character and desired place) are in frame. What follows is a frontal close shot of Lovell from outside the ship, with the moon’s reflectio...

The Himalayas - a strange place to put a nunnery. This is the idea directors Michael Powell and Emeric Pressburger keep coming back to in “Black Narcissus” (1947). There, an atmosphere of altitude, wind, isolation, and erotic paintings pressed on the architectural heritage of the site are the very source of distress for this group of religious leaders in what could naively be considered a place for meditation and evangelization. Yet, not all of it is cage, and there is room for spiritual ascension.   While praying in the chapel and noticing an open window with a blue sky and tree branches, Sister Clodagh reminisces her time with a former fiancée. This is suggested editorially (duties handled by Reginald Mills) by showing her closing her eyes and the frame slowly dissolving to a wide shot establishing the couple on a sunny day. Up until this point, the flashback has only been shaped as Clodagh evoking a memory. However, the transition back to the chapel creates a distinct associatio...

Past the nature of its titular game, the story of “Jumanji” carries its eeriness over to its cinematic atmosphere. Twenty-six years after the disappearance of teenager Alan Parrish, orphaned siblings Peter and Judy Shepherd move with their aunt Nora into the vacant mansion of the Parrish family, and it is within minutes of that new experience that director Joe Johnston and editor Robert Dalva establish a haunted mansion, an idea irradiated by two shots cut together: Over a long, high-angle frame, we see Peter opening the door that leads to the attic. The shot takes its time (17 seconds), as the boy comes in and explores the room with a flashlight. The creaks in the wood from the door and flooring reverberates in the windy ambiance, while the xylophone on the score, by James Horner, suggests an air of mystery and curiosity. The point of view, behind objects placed way back in the room’s furniture, is fully identified with Peter, tracking his every step at his same speed. It also stops a...

“Eaten or consumed by paperwork” - That is one of the representative images from “Brazil” (1985), directed by Terry Gilliam and edited by Julian Doyle. It is seen happening to fugitive Harry Tuttle, however, the edit of the shots and their resulting relationship assists the making of another victim to this fate: protagonist Sam Lowry. As both characters flee from the authorities, they come to be separated frame-wise and become reverse coverages in the point of view observing the scene.   Papers fly around the streets as we stay on Tuttle, when something holds him by the foot. The latter is revealed to be a thick piece of paper when we cut to his lower body, and his struggle is represented by cutting back and forth between these two shots. Papers continue almost paste themselves in his body. A medium shot with a figure crossing camera suggests Tuttle can be seen, but nobody stops to help him. We finally pick up on Sam escaping, and then back to Tuttle. The camera finds Sam, hiding b...

“Revenge of the Sith”, the final Star Wars prequel, takes its time to recount the status quo of the original “Star Wars” that is going to be reached by the end of its runtime: the fall of Anakin Skywalker. The film itself has a scene encompassing crisis and opportunity for him to change sides. After Chancellor Palpatine reveals to Anakin that he is the enemy of the Jedi, director George Lucas and editors Ben Burtt and Roger Barton present us a scene that intercuts shots of Padme, Anakin’s wife, with shots of Anakin, in a different location. These are organized in a way that is able to convey the idea of them being aware of each other at that very moment.  Suggestions to this start at the beginning of the scene, with two shots pushing in on Padme: first, a long shot; second, a medium close-up. Split into them are two actions: her, sitting on the sofa, facing down; and her, lifting her head as if a thought came to mind. We then cut to the Jedi temple, where Anakin sits (facing the op...

After canonizing its future with an opening crawl, the first shots of “Blade Runner” together give us an idea of the society we encounter in the film. This window into the world of the story consists of two types of shots: aerial wides of a futuristic Los Angeles, and the close-up of an eye upon which this city-scape is reflected. Before revealing its part in a chain of establishing shots leading into the first scene of the narrative, the eye is a disembodied one, floating (almost) among and above the city lights.  The eye could have been introduced right before revealing the body it represents, but director Ridley Scott and editor Terry Rawlings chose to intercut between these two polar opposites of shot sizes for a few exchanges, a dialogue and reinforcement of association. We can tell from the appearance of the eye - wide open -, and the reflection of the city on it that it is a vigilant one. Would this vigilant eye belong to an android or human, based on what we were told by th...