MovieChat Forums > Obsession (1976) Discussion > camera rotating around...

camera rotating around...

posted 17 years ago by leforcat
17 replies | jump to latest

In one of the peak moments of the film camera rotates aroud two characters, "painting a picture of an unsteady state of mind". The same effect can, regretfully, be seen today in much too many films and television serials, almost always to no purpose whatever anymore, except it's a "cool" effect. Was De Palma one of the first to use it in 1976?
(There are also other tricky camera moves and effects in the film, many of them probably credit to the great cinematographer Vilmos Zsigmond)

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[–] AustralienneLee 17 years ago

(There are also other tricky camera moves and effects in the film, many of them probably credit to the great cinematographer Vilmos Zsigmond)

Vilmos Zsigmond says in the documentary on the dvd that he credits Brian DePalma
with coming up with most of the amazing shots in this film.

The rotating camera isn't new to this film. I've seen it in films made before that but I'll have to get back to you with examples. It's late...

There are eight million stories in the naked city. This has been one of them.

[–] MiCharlie124 15 years ago

DePalma used it in The Fury as well, in the scene when Amy Irving is ascending the staircase and sees the vision of what had earlier happened in the Institute.

[–] AustralienneLee 17 years ago

The rotating camera isn't new to this film. I've seen it in films made before that but I'll have to get back to you with examples. It's late...

I'm back...a good example is Vertigo which Obsession is an hommage (or homage, if you prefer) to.

There are eight million stories in the naked city. This has been one of them.

[–] leforcat 17 years ago

Thanks. I have to watch Vertigo again. I have watched it at least 5 times, one of them in a theatre (or theater, if you prefer) and haven't noticed this rotating ploy - yet, in Obsession, I was struck by it at once. I wonder why....

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[–] nosnojsirhc 16 years ago

it seems to me that this might be a convention from film noir that i need to reflect on to remember exact films and scenes - but aren't there orson welles movies or bogie ones where the camera revolves around 2 characters in discussion?

[–] mothboy88 16 years ago

it's a pretty radical technique... maybe in a Welles movie, but from what I know of Bogie, he's in pretty conservative films, camera-wise. Howard Hawks, John Huston, can't really see them doing it. The earliest person I can think of to do it is Hitchcock.

[–] thomas196x2000 15 years ago

He not only rotated it around characters, but around itself as well. Notice when Robertson has the grave marker installed. The best shot of the movie is a 360+ degree rotation and when it comes to rest 15 years has past.

He also used it in "Blow Out" when John Travolta is looking for his tape and is starting to panic and the camera just keeps revolving.

De Palma does overdo it as well. In the cafe when Lithgow and Robertson are talking, the camera keeps sliding back and forth between the characters, and serves no reason other than a distraction.

[–] mizhu 14 years ago

I always chalked that one up to the versions that I've seen (VHS) are pan-and-scan, and Robertson and Lithgow are sitting too far apart to be in the shot at the same time.

[–] franzkabuki 14 years ago

Someone, on some other board, wrote that Hitchcock had used it in The Wrong Man (1956), but I don´t remember it myself though.

As for the De Palma, it also showed up in Carrie and Body Double - in addition to The Fury and Blow Out that have been mentioned.

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[–] yj270 14 years ago

Hitchcock had the rotating set in 'Vertigo', where Stewart & Novak start by embracing in her apartment, then end up in the stables at the Mission San Juan Bautista.

Also, Cary Grant & Eva Marie Saint rotate around each other in 'North By Northwest', when they're in Eva Marie Saint's sleeping car, on the train.

[–] ObstinateAnnette 13 years ago

In the original The Thomas Crown Affair, the camera rotates around Steve McQueen and Faye Dunaway as they kiss. That's the earliest use of that trick I can think of.

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[–] Takeshi-K 8 years ago

When Henry Fonda spends his first night in jail, the camera rotates around him such that his face moves in a circular direction around the screen. Imagine the point of the second hand on an old clock, but smoother.

In Requiem for a Dream, the camera rotates around the actor in a few scenes.

[–] mascisman 13 years ago

Hello leforcat, I don't know if you're still around, but when I read your posting I immediately thought of "Notorious", with the camera travelling around Cary Grant and Ingrid Bergman as they kiss, and kiss, and kiss. Yes, that is "Notorious" as in "Notorious" by Hitchcock...

[–] leforcat 13 years ago

(Oh, I'm around!:-))
That would fit the picture - De Palma is a notorious 'borrower' of things (pun intended;)

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[–] Weir80 11 years ago

Ordet (1955)

[–] nalini-kluth-735-879554 7 years ago

Very, very late to the party :) Although older examples have been mentioned, I immediately thought of Michael Ballhaus:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Michael_Ballhaus

It is called the Ballhaus-Kreisel (the Ballhaus circle)

another source

https://wiki.univie.ac.at/display/filex/Kreisfahrt

quote: "Michael Ballhaus gilt als Erfinder der Kreis- oder Rundfahrt, er setzte sie 1973 zum ersten Mal in Fassbinders Martha ein. Jedoch verwendete bereits Claude Lelouch sie, um am Ende von Un Homme et une Femme (1966) eine Umarmung des Paares zu intensivieren. Insbesondere durch die Rundfahrten in den Filmen Martin Scorseses ist sie auch in Hollywood konventionalisiert worden."

("Michael Ballhaus is considered the inventor of the circle. He used it for the first time in Fassbinder's Martha in 1973. Claude Lelouch, however, already used it in Un Homme et une Femme (1966) to intensify a couple's embrace. It became popular in Hollywood through the circles in movies by Martin Scorsese.")

Ballhaus was the camera operator e.g. in The Departed and Gangs of New York.

Nali*

My list: http://www.imdb.com/list/ls053994183/?start=1&view=grid&sort=created:desc&defaults=1&lists

[–] nalini-kluth-735-879554 7 years ago

Very, very late to the party :) Although older examples have been mentioned, I immediately thought of Michael Ballhaus:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Michael_Ballhaus

It is called the Ballhaus-Kreisel (the Ballhaus circle)

http://www.goethe.de/kue/flm/prj/kub/flm/en3946849.htm (see the third paragraph about the 360-degree-tracking shot)

another source

https://wiki.univie.ac.at/display/filex/Kreisfahrt

quote: "Michael Ballhaus gilt als Erfinder der Kreis- oder Rundfahrt, er setzte sie 1973 zum ersten Mal in Fassbinders Martha ein. Jedoch verwendete bereits Claude Lelouch sie, um am Ende von Un Homme et une Femme (1966) eine Umarmung des Paares zu intensivieren. Insbesondere durch die Rundfahrten in den Filmen Martin Scorseses ist sie auch in Hollywood konventionalisiert worden."

("Michael Ballhaus is considered the inventor of the circle. He used it for the first time in Fassbinder's Martha in 1973. Claude Lelouch, however, already used it in Un Homme et une Femme (1966) to intensify a couple's embrace. It became popular in Hollywood through the circles in movies by Martin Scorsese.")

Ballhaus was the camera operator e.g. in The Departed and Gangs of New York.

https://www.questia.com/magazine/1P3-1244947921/full-circle

Nali*

My list: http://www.imdb.com/list/ls053994183/?start=1&view=grid&sort=created:desc&defaults=1&lists