Freaks

Tod Browning - 1932
Browning favours the two shot, though he uses single on lines for emphasis. The editing, and I understood there were production problems, can be pretty wild at times, at the start a second line has about five jump cuts in it.
It is filmed almost entirely at night. The ramshackle nature of the settings, and of the script, would make one imagine it would be like a Wellman film, and it certainly, in its sets really, suggests that. However, the acting and the delivery are a lot more defined, the gestures more clear.
What we really have is a series of conversations where we, as an audience, have a look at people, find out about the world of, people usually marginalised. The great task and message of humanist cinema. And respect is paid, it is these people, the 'Freaks' film to do what they like with; they are given free time, they act, they have a drink, have a laugh, sometimes talk about their life.
Browning realises, and surely the 'Freaks' do as well, that their situation is horrific. Their is something terrifying about them; there's no point trying to hide it. The condemnation of those who mock, mock really more than straightforwardly bully, is extremely clear though. Perhaps once or twice it is charicatured but, the point seems to be, it is impossible to see some of these people as not charicatures; that is part of their life. It is, as it is always said to be, a funny and interesting feature (just) film.