Raise The Red Lantern

1991 Zhang Yimou
Straight on framings, straight on space, confined views, even from on high don’t get their view
Mixture of close ups, with straight on, frontlighting
And long shots, pretty long takes, with some depth. Nice and cool
Film does lapse into some not quite-anything medium shots, which aren’t so great
Nice use of colours to convey inner and external states, and all the mixtures
And some nice rhythmic stuff too; on a few occasions it would have been better to stick with the close-ups longer, though, and get away from this mid stuff
Passings-on of oppression in the situation, clearly allegorical
The use of the first eyeline shot to indicate the ‘now you see...’ is added in well
An impressive piece of work, though a little underpowered, could have done with bit more exploration of the close-up and a little more willingness to stick with the long as opposed to the medium
All told, a good modern picture