Mark Rappaport
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Mark Rappaport |
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Introduction
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Veronika Voss? No! But it could be. When have you seen a main character in the foreground dark and out of focus - with the middle ground so brightly lit it almost hurts your eyes? More than three decades ahead of its time. Gilda. Rita Hayworth. Cameraman? Rudolph Maté, who also shot The Passion of Joan of Arc, Vampyr, Foreign Correspondent, To Be Or Not To Be, Seven Sinners - the list of his movies goes on and on, and then he became a director of a string of mediocre films. This is the scene, in which Ballin terrifies Gilda by saying that 'hate can be a very exciting emotion. Very exciting!' She is beginning to understand how dangerous he might be. Foreground - Ballin, out of focus and underlit in a way that is unacceptable in Hollywood films - his body weaves from one side of the frame to the other as Gilda/Rita sits up on the bed, lies down on it. Middle ground - white hot. Gilda in her light coloured sequined dress lying on the light colorued brocaded bed cover. Background - although it's not very visible in this particular frame, a very brightly-lit headboard, a humongous satin candy-box thing of terrifying proportions. The atmosphere is steamy and claustrophobic. Ballin's darkness is suggested by the way he is lit. Rita's vulnerability is suggested by the way she surrounds herself in a sea of brightly lit fabrics. Despite her hard-boiled exterior, she is really an innocent. Did I read this somewhere or am I making it up? Resnais was paying homage to this scene when he had Delphine Seyrig, dressed in a white gown with elaborate white feathers, pose, fall, crouch on, and hang over the edge of her very white bed in Marienbad. |
