George Cukor - 1949
Cukor's depth, and evocation of space, isn't perhaps quite given as much of a floursih as 'Gaslight'. which by its genre obviously goes with certain things. Neverthless, this is extremely well staged and shot. The courtroom is beautifully evoked, with different planes of depth used for a side-angle of the jury, lawyer, and witness. The house is also used for some nice moves, never as fluid as Hawks.
Cukor is obviously moving to a longer shot, and not going in for closer views anything like as much.
One interesting thing about Cukor, along with the strong females, the wish that love not be about 'gods' and 'godesses' but is all the more beautiful when it is down to earth (the marraige here is really very tenderly evoked), is how he never quite fits into a genre. This is a comedy in that it's funny, but it also contains high drama, courtroom things, and even some violence. Serious issues in Cukor are undercut by comedy (mangling words etc), and thriller-esque situations (Tracy with his gun etc) are turned into comedy. There is underlying a kind of sad, very restrained romanticism.
No comments:
Post a Comment