FILM SCREENING: The Asphalt Jungle
Writer Geoffrey O'Brien describes The Asphalt Jungle's narrative structure and its influence on the noir/crime genre:
"Every heist movie, every tale of downbeat criminals coming together in a foredoomed conspiracy under the guidance of a professorial mastermind, carries echoes of Huston’s film, whose originality is perhaps now harder to discern because its elements have been so widely appropriated. It firmed up the template for one of cinema’s most familiar dramatic arcs: the assembling of the team, the high-precision execution of the caper, the chaotic and generally bloody aftermath. Yet even if The Asphalt Jungle was seen in its own day as a model of nail-biting suspense, it comes across now as a most Chekhovian film noir, steeped in a mood of regret even before the action begins and proceeding almost gently on its inevitable downward course.
In place of verbiage, Huston gives us moments of being, conveyed above all through those close-ups of faces: the tearful Doll awkwardly removing a false eyelash while her love object, Dix, looks on with an impassivity beyond indifference; Doc, just released from a seven-year stretch, flipping with weary compulsion through the pinups of a wall calendar; or Emmerich gazing down at his sleeping girlfriend, a picture of middle-aged lust gone terminally sour. Huston orchestrates an exciting and intricate narrative while sustaining at every moment a meditative sense of personalities in isolation. The plot moves forward like a machine lurching out of control, but we are more aware of the undertow of each character caught up in his or her particular trap."
Written by Geoffrey O'Brien:"The Asphalt Jungle's narrative structure and its influence on the noir/crime genre." Directed by John Huston.
*Downbeat criminals
*Foredoomed guidance of a mastermind
*Assembling a teacm for a caper
*Execution of caper
*Bloody aftermath.
Click Here for Asphalt Jungle Trailer
Ida Z. daRoza - Module 2 discussion.
I chose this shot from The Asphalt Jungle because it’s the one of the few optimistic points of the movie. Doc has been planning this jewelry heist for seven years in jail and now he finally has his crew together. A somewhat positive moment in the film that they will make money on this job. A cinematographic element that I appreciated is that it is a close-up cropped shot to take out anything that would be extra information to focus on the men in this intense meeting. There is just one torso seen in this shot. Otherwise the shot is close up on the shoulders and faces. It is a very good study of the faces of these men. To do this the camera must have been placed a on a high enough spot to look down on the sitting men.
The placement of characters is important. Doc the boss is on one side of the table directing the business with just a bit of his ear and hat. Then in front and around him is a tight circle with Louis, the Box Man; Gus, the driver and Dix the hooligan. The tight close-up to the faces creates an intense psychological moment. This is a life changing moment for all of them and they are having to get all the details correct for the heist.
Mast and Kawin say noir “is a dark place, psychologically and morally as well and cinematographically.” This shot filmed in black and white has variations of darkness. Each character has a slightly different hue of black and grey, one character is even wearing white. This balances out the shot with these contrasts. Black and white film is fitting for this dark nefarious scenario where the gang, most of them right out of prison, are risking a return to prison or being shot during the robbery. They are gambling their future on this one night to get ahead in their life not worried about the morality of the crime but the chance to possibly get out of this life. Mast and Kawin also described noir films as having “fatalism and looming shadows.” I felt that in this shot. This is scheme is fated not to go well.
The placement of the light above the heads of the gang appears to gives all the shadows that are needed. The light does seem to all come from that direction of the overhead lamp as the shadows on Louis’ hat are in the back and the shadow on Gus’s face is toward the back of his head. Doc also his face lit from that location.
I chose this particular shot because I liked that Dix had just puffed out his smoke and it is lingering in the air making interesting shadowy shapes. There seems to always be smoking in the noir films that makes the characters look tougher and casts interesting shadows.
Edmond O'Brien "Between Midnight and Dawn, (1950) Film Noir
This is a clip from the 1950’s noir film Between Midnight and Dawn directed by Gordon Douglas. This scene that I picked has similar features to the one I picked from Asphalt Jungle in that it is a tight close- up shot of the two main characters faces. Their faces bring the characters and story to life without interference of other props in the shot.
The characters are two policemen Officer Rocky Barnes and Officer Dan Purvis. They work the difficult midnight to early morning shift in a big city driving around in their police car. Officer Purvis gives this scene it’s noir feeling with his pessimism about life and criminals in the big city.
Officer Barnes is sympathetic to a kid they arrested who was crying. Officer Purvis says that kid that was blubbering and will grow up packing a shive ready to stick it in someone’s gut if he has to - maybe your gut. Officer Barnes thinks that people should be given a second chance to which Officer Purvis replies:” wait until you’ve had your fill of this scum: slugging, knifing, shooting holes in decent people. You’ll toughen up junior.”
Another theme is a crush that both men have for the radio dispatch operator Kate. With the noir characteristic of “fatalism and looming shadows” Kate won’t date a policeman as her father was one and was killed in action. It’s a similar to Asphalt Jungle in that love is illusive. There are characters yearning for love and happiness which is not possible and won’t happen.
Quiz
No comments:
Post a Comment