Morocco

Josef von Sternberg - 1930
Of course, the Dietrich film. Gary Cooper's in it as well, but it's Marlene Dietrich.
von Sternberg's compositions, as in 'The Blue Angel', are complex, busy long (full body) frames (there's also cutting to people, but that's not so interesting right now). He uses a lot of horizontal lines, verticals usually being human, and grids, sometimes a little curved. These lines, for all the softness of the lens, gives a sense of geometry to the picture; it isn't fuzzy fabrics. We have the busy, different shades in the low contrast environment, endlessly balancing and refracting in our eye off each other.
Camera movement isn't particularly frequent; there are a few slow I suppose tracks in, and one in particular nice track along horizontally with Dietrich, as the soldiers march vertically across the frame.
And we have the incredible balance von Sternberg creates. His uses of whites against blacks, different things on different parts of the frame to balance each other out. Artistry.
And how is Dietrich treated? We have seemingly two key lights, both back, both side (very much), both high, one a little stronger. The hairlighting is pretty hardcore. The remarkable thing about her face is the complete lack of shadow- in contrast to the males, including Cooper, who generally have shadows falling all over them, from the busy mis-en-scene, hats and much more. But Dietrich has enough front lighting, nothing like as strong as the back, but lighter than the males (due to make-up also, presumably) which means she is almost shadowless. That is, apart from under the chin, and on certain occassions, light lines under the nose and the cheekbones (these are throughout, perhaps slightly less strongly lit). Riefenstahl's point about her lighting accentuating, with its height, a gaunt look, seems right on.
As for what happens; in a ascetic sound track, we have a few quick movements, but everyone spends most of their time stabding around, looking intently at things and at each other. Dietrich's use of the mirror, understanding herself and others.
The plot is at once cursory, but also a pretty sharp thrust, short but hard, of desire. Amour fou, one could say (Dietrich's legs..). Cooper is relegated here. It is almost expressionist, not just in its lighting but in its hard simple actions. And then we have an absolutely glorious ending. The use of white, the lack of resolution, the crazy, crazy march. It is deeply atypical of Hollywood, but the film has left all that behind long ago, in its short journey.