When Silien is being questioned in the police office, there's an amazingly long take in which the camera makes at least one complete 360-degree spin through the set; plus several clever back-and-forth moves along the way. Check it out; I didn't see any edits. Quite a tour-de-force, requiring a lot of rehearsal and coordination of lights, sound & camera.
shareMelville was the man. I find it interesting that there really is no director working nowadays to compare him to.
shareAlso, the very first shot last's 3:49 if I remember correctly. Those long takes, like in Orson Welle's Touch of Evil, really take my breath away.
shareYes, the very dramatically-lit opening long-running shot was pretty nice, but basically only from a lighting point for me. After all, what did it take?
I'm assuming it was Faugel walking along that railroad trestle bridge you see in the background about 5-10 minutes later, so if that's the case the technical "difficulty" for that shot was to just dolly along with Faugel as he walked. For all we know, it was really easy because if it was a railroad bridge then all they had to do was put the camera on a railroad dolly - their dolly track was already there!
I consider the opening shot of "Touch of Evil" to be typically Orson Wellesian directorial genius. The storytelling in it, the movement throughout, the lighting, and the many axes of depth, persepective, and direction. Just great! I always have to turn it on and watch that whenever I see that it's on.
Just saw the scene a few minutes ago for the first time and I was ASTOUNDED !! It lasts more than 5 minutes, involves more than a few 360-degree spins, several characters speaking at different times and, as if that wasn't enough, has the police officer walk in front of huge office windows where you'd expect to see reflexions of the camera and film crew but NO WAY !! Thanks to perfect camera alignment and lighting, THEY CANNOT BE SEEN !!
Amazing technical feat (considering the size of camera equipment back in those days ...)
This is from the Radio Times review of the film:
"Look out for the famous nine-minute take in the policeman's office: Melville insisted the camera crew wore black and donned face masks to eliminate the risk of reflection in the windows and mirrors."
I wonder if they got it first time?!
I count almost three complete 360-degree spins with complex moves through the set, clocking in at just over 8 minutes. A tour-de-force in cinema history!
shareJust finished the film & came on here, specifically to see if there was an comments on that beautiful shot. Glad I did. Lots of great facts in here.
Pack your bags... we're going to Memphis.
Yes, it was not only the 360-degree spins, but the side-to-side back and forths that really gave a kind of kinetic energy to the scene.
Kudos to the interrogating police inspector who had the bulk of the lines in that long scene.
I think we're all amazed at the technical virtuosity in filming such a scene, along with the amount of dialogue that went into that take, but if you think about it, every stage play you've ever seen has had more than 8 minutes of continuous dialogue in it. Maybe we just expect less from our film actors....
And that's why Melville is the legend he is!
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