MovieChat Forums > The Razor's Edge (1946) Discussion > dull cinematography!

dull cinematography!

posted 12 years ago by footsperry
7 replies | jump to latest

While the movie develops some interesting characters, the cinematography underscores what is problematic about this film: it's too talky. Long monologues and speechifying.
The movie's cinematography makes the worst of these speeches, having you watch the speaker over the shoulders of the listener. Rarely do you see how the listener is responding to the speaker, until they reverse positions, and now you look over the shoulders of the other party. Why not focus upon how their words are affecting the listener? Why not dwell on how their hopes are disappointed, their expectations raised or lowered?

[–] FelixtheCat 11 years ago

While the cinematography does utilize the over-the-shoulder shot quite a bit, I very much disagree with your assessment of the cinematography. The lengthy takes, extended crane and/or dolly shots in all of the high society party scenes, and the intentional underuse of hard cuts thanks to these lengthy takes give the film an interesting, almost mesmerizing flow.

[–] whiskeyTango-06 10 years ago

the cinematography is the framing, lighting and technical execution of the shots. and this film is photgraphed very well.

your complaint seems like it should be filed more under "editing" and "direction" than anything else.

[–] ScopeWatcher 9 years ago

your complaint seems like it should be filed more under "editing" and "direction" than anything else.

And then the Original Poster's criticisms of this film would STILL be wrong. This RAZOR'S EDGE is both beautiful and beautifully made.

Most great films deserve a more appreciative audience than they get.

[–] Trax-3 9 years ago

It's well made but it isn't flashy. I don't think there was any frame here that made me go "WOW". Some films have dozens of such moments.

[–] ScopeWatcher 9 years ago

The flashy modern films full of WOW! are the antithesis of movies such as this RAZOR'S EDGE, which display their crafts with more subtlety to enhance the story, characters, relationships, and themes -- not to distract viewers from the material.

THE RAZOR'S EDGE is absorbing because of its writing, staging (including those already-mentioned over-the-shoulder dialogue exchanges, in which a given character might play an unusually long time pointing the back of the head to the camera), lighting, understated camera movement, magnificently expressive music score, and several excellent performances. (By the way, I appreciate those lengthy over-one-character's-shoulder shots here, for their effectively showcasing one performance at a time.)

But in fact, years ago I did show this film to a perceptive friend very soon after we had seen the excellent documentary on cinematography, titled VISIONS OF LIGHT. Sure enough, at the first reel change of THE RAZOR'S EDGE, she declared "This photography is gorgeous."

Wow.

Most great films deserve a more appreciative audience than they get.

[–] PussyCrusher_Principal 7 years ago

I wish you'd been more specific, given examples of the "WOW" moments you mentioned.

Not sure if you meant beautiful landscape shots, as I found some of the shots of the coastline of the South of France (whether they were shot on location or not) beautiful. Also Tibet (again, wherever they were created. Or some other kind of "WOW". ?

Anyway, as another poster said, maybe this isn't the "WOW" type film (which, back in the Golden Age, was, what, King Kong? Or more along the lines of I Walked With A Zombie?). This is a film for adults (not meant as an insult or directed at you so pls don't take it that way, I'm just making a point), based on a classic piece of literature, and about what's inside of the characters.

[–] pshu4 7 years ago

Most Hollywood films from the 40s are filmed with the idea that the camera lens occupies the best point of view to observe the acting. It's meant to appear almost invisible.

That long, tracking shot in the beginning is absolutely wonderfully done. There were a few other good shots as well, so I actually thought the camera direction was very good in this film.