L.A. Confidential (1997)

Directed by Curtis Hanson

Diegesis is described as the total world of a films story, as described by out text.  I chose two scenes from this movie that I feel demonstrate both the non- diegetic and diegetic in L.A. Confidential.  First of all I had a tuff time finding this film in stores or the rental world, at least where I live right now. I had to end up renting it from iTunes which worked well.  There are multiple good examples of these two forms in this film and the first I chose started at 24 minutes and 30 seconds on the iTunes ticker.

THE TWO TONYs

The Scene opens on two heavy set men walking from a two story bungalow style home to a green 1951Oldsmobile coupe parked along the curb. In the background you hear the sound of a tinny old typewriter and narration by Danny Devito’s character Sid Hudgens.  The men are identified by the narrator as two Lieutenants in the Mickey Cohen criminal organization, Tony Broncato and Anthony Trombino.  These are characters based in fact on real mobsters of the same name killed in a car off of Hollywood Blvd. in 1951.  The two men get into the coupe and close the doors. The driver, smoking a cigar reaches up and turns on the radio, a song “On the road to dreamland” begins to play.  The driver looks at the passenger and suddenly the passenger side windshield is hit by three bullets.  Both of the men are shot and as blood begins to pour from the passenger’s mouth they a presumed to be dead.  The scene cuts to a montage of black and white crime scene photos showing the homicide investigation and ends on the front page of the news paper.  All the while Sid Hudgens is typing and narrating. The scene ends at 25 minutes and 2 seconds on the iTunes ticker. I was not able to find video to accompany this scene.

Non-diegetic

Right off the bat two really good non-diegetic elements of this scene are the sounds of the old typewriter and the voice narration.  Both the commentary and typing are coming from outside the story we as an audience are watching on the screen.  The narration gives background and focus on the characters we are watching without having to go into a huge back story on the subjects and the tinny typewriter lends a dramatic touch, like these events we are seeing are being chronicled.    

Diegetic

In my opinion there are three distinct diegetic sounds in this scene. The first is just the simple “click” as the driver of the coupe turns on the car radio.  It in a subtle way announces to the audience that something is coming.  The song “On the road to dreamland” begins playing and is telling us that these guys are about to go to sleep permanently.  The last is the sounds of a light machine gun, probably a Browning Automatic Rifle (BAR) as an assassin(s) off screen fires upon the coupe hitting both men. 

INTERROGATION

This scene takes place inside a police interrogation room.  Lieutenant Ed Exley, played by Guy Pearce, is interviewing an African American man named Louis Fontaine, played by Salim Grant, suspected of the shotgun killings of several people at a dinner called the Night Owl.  The common area outside the interrogation rooms is packed full of officers assigned to the Night Owl case.  In this gaggle of men is Captain Dudley Smith, played by James Cromwell, Sergeant Jack Vincennes, played by Kevin Spacey and Wendell “Bud” White, portrayed by Russell Crowe. 

LA Confidential Interrogation Scene

At the point the clip starts (click the link) it becomes apparent to Lieutenant Exley that this suspect has in fact committed a kidnap and rape and might not be involved in the shotgun murders based upon what Louis is telling him.  He quickly moves from the room with Louis to an adjacent interview room with another Night Owl suspect, Ty Jones, played by Karreem Washington.  As he begins to speak with Ty about the kidnapping it is evident that the suspects had taken a woman against her will and raped her so Louis could lose his virginity.  When Lieutenant Exley asks Ty if she (the victim) is alive, Ty says he is not sure.  Bud White listening on the interview room speaker is obviously becoming more and more agitated and burst into the room.  He throws Ty against the wall and commands him to tell where the victim is.  As Captain Smith and Lieutenant Exley look on Bud dumps the ammunition from his revolver except for a single bullet.  He spins the cylinder and pushes Ty hard against the wall.  Bud places the barrel of the gun into Ty’s mouth and begins pulling the trigger.  Demanding the information Exley has asked for.  After three pulls of the trigger Ty reveals the address where the men had left the victim.

Non-diegetic

The scene starts without background music but approximately 15 seconds into the above clip music begins to play and as the scene progresses picks up in both volume and intensity and falls away once the Ty Jones character gives up the location of the victim. In viewing this clip I feel the music conveys urgency in Exley to reveal the truth as to save the victim and it also expresses the anger that Bud White feels toward the suspect for his crime.

Diegetic

Two sounds in this clip caught my attention in a big way.  First is as the Bud White character is becoming uncontrollably angry he tightens his hand on the back of a wooden chair so hard youhear the chair creek.  With any dialog it shows the viewer that this guy is mad as hell.  And when he burst into the interview room and pushes his gun barrel into Ty Jones mouth the clicking made by his revolver is loud, much louder than it would be in the real world but by exaggerating the clicking during the cocking and snap of the hammer falling it is saying we mean business and from the suspect I am sure it would sound like an anvil falling from the sky.

Production Design-The Formosa Cafe

This scene takes place at the Formosa Café on Santa Monica Blvd in West Hollywood. Jack Vincennes (Kevin Spacey) and Ed Exley (Guy Pearce) are attempting to get information from Johnny Stompanato (Paolo Seganti) who happens to be seated with Lana Turner (Brenda Bakke).  Exley thinks that Lana Turner is a prostitute and before Vincennes can front load him as to who she really is Exley gets a drink thrown in his face. One of the few funny scenes in the movie.

The Formosa opened its doors in 1925 and has changed little since.  The venue is small with dark cherry wood, red vinyl décor and pictures of actor and actresses along the crown molding surrounding the room going back to the silent era.  The place oozes nostalgia.  The production team did a great job scouting this location as it has minimally changed in more than 60 years.

Costumes fit the period and are not over done for the scene.  Lana Turner dressed in all white does stand out against all the other people in the bar though.  I think that is a good touch.  When the two cops leave they head back across Santa Monica to their car the parking lot has several (almost too) clean period cars in it and cars passing on the street are fit the time as well. 

All these elements blend extremely well and the locations really binds it together, such a great bit of classic old Hollywood that was used with just the right amount screen time.

Neo Noir?

It is and it isn’t.  The elements are all there for a classic noir film but it has so many twist and subplots I think it splinters into a lot of classifications.  Instead of one male lead trying to unravel the mystery we have three and all three get equal air time for the most part.  And rather than the male leads being the heavy or the unwilling villain this film has several.  Most notable Captain Smith (James Cromwell).  Our would be femme fatale Lynn Bracken (Kim Basinger) actually turns out to be the hooker with a heart of gold and in the end leaves the big city for the country with Bud White (Russell Crowe).  No character in this movie is truly good however.  They all have hang-ups.  The use of lighting and outside locations fit with the classic noir films gritty frame.  All in all I think that it falls into the mold of neo noir, just barely. 

Walter Neff's Last Stand

The Quote

“Circumstances become more and more unendurable, and yet you must endure” is the quote by Director Abraham Polonsky I chose from the American Cinema’s episode “ Film Noir” that best fits the situation Fred MacMurray’s character faces in the film Double Indemnity.  Walter Neff,  Fred MacMurray’s character, enters into a murder pact with Barbara Stanwyck’s character, Phyllis Dietrichson to kill her husband, played by Tom Powers, for an insurance policy Walter Neff wrote and sold to the him specifically for this purpose.  The husband is killed by Walter and the his murder is faked as a train accident, simple enough.

Endured

(A)  After the victim is out of the way things unravel pretty rapidly as Walter’s boss, Barton Keys, played by Edward G. Robinson, starts to suspect the wife and who ever her boyfriend may be, Keys states “It just a hunch of 26 years of experience”.  

(B)  The point of severing Phyllis from her husband was to be able to be with her and collect the insurance. Now that she is under suspicion Walter can’t be seen with her, the two are still separated and the insurance company refuses to pay on the policy with a court hearing.

(C) To make matters worse the victim’s daughter, Lola, played by Jean Heather, confides in Neff that she too suspects the wife, her step mother, and vows to find the truth and bring it to light. He spends a lot of time entertaining her in an effort to calm her down. It appears that spending time with Lola brings out some remorseful feelings in Neff. 

(D) All this time his guilt makes him feel as if he was being watched.

(E)  He comes face to face with Mr. Jackson, played by Porter Hall, the only eye witness from the train who saw Walter. He is in Barton Keys’ office. Even though Mr. Jackson seems to think he has met Walter before he never puts it together to Walters’s relief.    

(F)  Phyllis is followed by the insurance company and is observed several times in the company of Lola’s hot headed boyfriend, Nino, played by Byron Barr.  Neff begins to wonder why Phyllis and Nino are together.  Perhaps she is working on Nino to get rid of Lola and him too.  

(G) In a bid for self preservation he goes to see Phyllis with the mind set to kill her, and frame Nino for her murder and her husband’s.  Neff kills Phyllis but not before being shot by her.  Although wounded Neff has the chance to escape but returns to his office to make a full confession to Keys via recording drum device.  He essentially bleeds out and is assumed captured. 

Walter Neff was able to endure all of these circumstances until he saw a way out of his situation.  With pressure mounting from all sides he decided to murder again rather than be hung out to try by Phyllis.  You would think that the character had reached the limits of his endurance at this point but rather than run immediately he offers a confession to his boss maybe just too show I have a little more left.

The Femme Fatale

I chose to go with Janey Places’ description of a femme fatale.  In synopsis a smart, powerful, sexual woman with a willingness to use her sexuality to get what she wants.  Illustrated by long hair, tight cloths, long finger nails and she smokes.  A lot of the time shot with the camera from a low angle to show she has power or a position of control. 

I would have to say that Phyllis is a typical text book femme fatale in description and deed.  She uses her sex appeal at the right time to suggest to Walter that maybe she and he could be together, if her husband was out of the picture.  She employs Neff like a tool and by the end of the movie it is pretty obvious that she has every intension of disposing of him via Nino of the revolver under the chair cushion.  By her own admission we see that she is truly rotten and will use who or whatever is necessary to get her way.

Photography, lights and location

Film noir, at least the post World War Two films have the distinction of being some of the first films shot on location with a minimum of effort.  The setting was usually urban/metropolitan a street, trains, parks and so on.  The techniques and cameras developed during the war made the ability to film off the sound stage and with more mobility a noir staple.  Black and white film and the use of seemingly natural light and shadows seemed to convey a sense of “there is something going on here” you just can’t see what it is.  The viewer was left to their imaginations.

In Double Indemnity the use of bright light is evident in the opening shots as Walter Neff arrives at Phyllis’ house regarding the lapse in her husband’s policy.  The ice cream truck pulls over for kids playing in the street and at this point he is a happy guy going about his job.  But when he leaves the house the mood and lighting become darker. 

In watching the movie I noticed that in nearly every interior scene there were either venetian blinds or plantation shutters casting their shadows into the rooms, a noir trademark. 

And when events were about to take a sinister turn the shot would pull in on Phyllis’ face, as her husband was murdered you see her smirking face aglow and the inside of the car dark.  Again as Walter arrives at her house she lights a cigarette while seated on the pistol she more than likely intends to shoot Walter with. 

The only semi-deep focus shot I recall was when Walter, dressed like the victim with his crutches was on the rear platform of the train talking with Mr. Jackson.  Walter never turns around just let Jackson talk to the back of his head to avoid recognition.

As for the neo-noir films I think they capture the spirit of the old movies but they lose that sinister, dark foreboding that the black and white films had.  They show too much and leave less to the imagination.  There is nothing like an original and all the money, modern equipment and Technicolor in the world can compare

Le Voyage-week 1

  What makes a movie compelling or worthy of awards, in my opinion.  It shouldn’t waste time developing the story and the characters shouldn’t be too complex, interesting but not so deep that the audience loses interest in the first five minutes.  And as in real estate location is everything.  If the surroundings do not seem to fit the story, again the viewer begins to doubt that the situation being depicted is possible and again lose interest.  Not every film needs to big a big budget extravaganza to grab me.  Films like Reservoir Dogs for the most part takes place inside a single location with minimal actors and the viewer is left to use his or her imagination to fill in the blanks based on the actor’s statements and sounds.  But the movie rapidly develops both in story and characters and the payoff although somewhat predictable, is still riveting.  Like driving by a car accident, you shouldn’t look but you have to.  With a modern average of about ninety minutes a movie has to keep, well, moving. It does not have the time to get bogged down on one particular thing. Telling a good story with a believable cast works for me.

  I have to say that I have never watched either of this weeks films.  Le Voyage dans la lune was pretty interesting.  The director uses his time of fourteen minutes wisely.  He introduces you to the cast immediately, points out who is in charge, who is dissenting and who is along for the ride all without the benefit of sound but you understand who is who none the less.  Then the film moves forward with the plan to go to the moon showing the viewer the technology being built, the means to get it there and the launch.  Once the characters land, sticking the missile into the moons eye, they meet some not so nice local folks and make a hasty return to earth. I think for its time it infused the viewer with a suspension of disbelieve and had to be extremely popular viewing beyond the fact that movies were a new medium.  I thought the use of sets and costumes was well thought out and imaginative.  If I had been seated in a theater in 1902 this film would have knocked my socks off.

  The Great Train Robbery I didn’t like as much as Le Voyage dans la lune but again for 1903 this was a pretty amazing piece of film.  The idea of using outdoor sets and multiple camera angles with the equipment available must have been quite the undertaking.  I did like the fact that the film pointed out right away who the bad guys were and what the plan was.  The take over at the telegraph station sets the stage for what coming as the train pulls in as seen through the office window.  The robbers board and overthrow the train rob the mail car and passengers. The posse hunts them down and the climactic shoot out at the end and recovery of the money.  All of that in twelve minutes.  The closing scene of the cowboy firing his six gun has been used in documentaries and films ever since.

 

  Two of my favorite movies that would fall into the award winning spot for me are very different in nature.  The first is the 1998 Steven Spielberg film 'Saving Private Ryan'. 

 

I loved this film as it is fast moving, starting with a short introduction in the then present day American Military Cemetery scene near Normandy France where you see a World War 2 veteran walking among the hundreds of headstones.  His identity is not revealed until the end as he flashes back to the war.  There are about 25 minutes of sure panic and horror as the soldiers and sailors land on the coast of France.  This sequence completely sucked me into the movie with the sounds and visual effects.  Tom Hanks character Captain Miller and seven other men survive the landing and are given a mission to find a soldier whose three brothers have been killed in combat and return him home. The trials and situations they encounter on this mission bring you up and down all the way.  There is a "Alamo" sequence at the end of the movie and I was left sitting there with a "no way" because it ended so much differently that I had expected.  The story is really well written with believable characters and situations.  I came to really like all the differences in each member of the team and the very recognizable supporting cast.  It had to me all the elements of a great movie, in my opinion.

My other pick is the 1948 movie 'Mr. Blandings Builds His Dream House'.  Yes its black and white and more than sixty years old but this film is hilarious. Based on the 1946 book of the same name it is a straight forward story about a New Yorker (Cary Grant) and his wife (Myrna Loy) who build their own home in the suburbs. The characters are simple and well acted.  The story flows really well and has some really great lines.  There is a subplot about Grants character trying to come up with an ad for a product his company represents and his troubles with that add to the comedy.  This was not an award winner in the real sense but none the less has everything I consider to be well worth watching and do when ever I catch it on.