Angeline's Paradisiaque Palaise

Archive for August 20th, 2008

Classic American romantic story

Narrator (Joanne Woodwards)

Scorsese often use voice over in his film but always using 1^st person narrator but this time the use of 3^rd person voice draws our attention towards the role of the narrator in the film. Woodwards voice over is acting as Wharton’s mouthpiece, she decodes Scorsese images with the power of language. Scorsese combines the literary and visual aspects together to create a complete sense of irony which is the most important part of Wharton’s prose. Since the film is adapted from Wharton’s Pulitzer’s prize winning novel, it is important to keep alive the power of Wharton’s prose which is the important aspect that makes this story is outstanding.

photo from www.wisconsinhistory.org

The Edit

• Wipe in & wipe out

It’s one of the styles that Scorsese use in this film that reminded us a lot on classical Hollywood films especially before the color era.

The use of wipe in symbolize the closing curtain of Archer’s freedom as the narrator says, “With a chill, he knew that in the future, many problems would be solved for him in this same way” and the medium close up of Archer and May sitting in silence began to wipe in.

The use of wipe out is to symbolize the new start as this time Archer start to realize that his life now will always be a set of compromises which he has to make with May and mostly those are the unpleasant ones. His ideology is clearly different from May’s because they are two people from different world. Archer is a person who dreams of new possibilities and longing for the life of imaginations rather than the reality that he lives in.

The Color Bursts

Scorsese uses color to express different kind of emotions. This film has rich color and texture. Although Scorsese uses a lot of shots of different paintings that tell stories, his film itself is a painting and to liven up that impression, he uses color to distinguish the shifting mood.

Red

The color expressed Ellen’s anger when New York decline to go to her welcome party. She will later learn that the society she’s living with now is not less torturing than the live that she had with her husband. When the voice-over says, ‘The refusals were more than a simple snubbing. They were an eradication’, Ellen looks towards the camera and the red color burst onto the screen.

Yellow

When she gets the yellow roses from anonymous sender, the color bursts into yellow. Yellow represents happiness and it is a color that has the expression of Ellen’s spontaneity.

White

When the narrator says, ‘She remained in his memory simply as the most plaintive and poignant of a line of ghost’, the image started to burst into white color which lead us to the next scene of the archery match. The white color in here represents exactly like what the narrator said about Ellen. Ellen has remained as a memory that Archer tries to fade away. White represents past but mostly the sad one.

Scorsese also use this kind of color technique in his previous film, Cape Fear (1991).

ARCHERY SCENE

The Mobile Frame

The use of mobile frame is not unusual anymore in this film. A lot of tracking is being used whether in the dinner party or the ballroom scene. The camera gives enough time for May to walk as gracefully as she can by using tracking. As she started to walk towards the camera into a big close up, her movement started to be in a slow motion. From the way she walks and her facial expression, we can see the changes from her character. She becomes more mature and elegant.

The Edit

Lots of dissolves are being used in the film. Mainly it is to create the sense of elegant movement by using dissolves every now and then.

Camera Angle

Low angle on May while she’s preparing to aim and taking her shots. The angle affects our perception on May’s figure. It creates a sense of authority and strength. It’s focusing on her classy movement even when she’s in the archery match.

Quotes

‘Yes. But that’s the only kind of target she’ll ever hit.’ (Beaufort)

‘But what if all her calm, her niceness, were just a negation, a curtain dropped in front of an emptiness? Archer felt he had never yet lifted that curtain.’ (Narrator)

Funny panda and weather reporter

so cute !!

have u seen where is the real door? if i was that poor man, i would not feel funny!

The Germany weather reporter could not control herself at all. But if it happens in Australia ,I will watch that channel every day @!