Balasz certainly writes eloquently about the close-up in the excerpt from Theory of Film. And I found Maria’s post spoke further to the power of the close-up. But what made it all come alive for me was the excerpt from Joan of Arc that we saw in class this past week.

Almost fairly early on from when we recognize other beings around us, we humans strive to communicate with them, and with the world around us. We further learn to speak, as the primary means of interacting with other human beings. So it was with me.

By the time I started watching films, the talkie was a fixture. I grew to love film, but the only kind I knew and watched was films with dialogue. I have loved many films for their script, and certainly many actors for their dialogue delivery. I have also been guilty of dismissing silent cinema as more comedic, even goofy in a sense.

It is in this context that the comment about unlearning and relearning ((that Professor Herzog discussed), resonated for me. I saw the power of silent cinema – and the close-up – when we watched the sequences from Joan of Arc. I saw the volumes that Falconetti’s face conveyed about the conflict Joan faced, and the poignancy of her situation. I realized I need to unlearn my ideas of film as always being tied to the spoken word, and relearn the language and nuance of silent cinema. I really need to discover this new world!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8Xr_msBoi6I

For the past week I have been thinking about Busby Berkeley and the “I Only Have Eyes for You” scene from Dames (1934). To me it is the ultimate in surreal Busby Berkeley experiences. Countless replicated visions of Ruby Keeler swarm the screen, the leading lady’s face copied over and over in a dizzying array of patterns. (And that shot of Keeler’s face that focuses in on her eyeball – talk about extreme close-ups!) The nature of the strange scene, as a dream within the framework of the musical sequence supposedly happening onstage, reaches a level of bizarreness eclipsed only by “Lullaby of Broadway” from Gold Diggers of 1935 (almost like a short film separate from the rest of the picture).

Considering both the readings for last week and for our upcoming class, I also find myself thinking about the “Eyesight to the Blind” scene in Ken Russell’s Tommy (1975). One could certainly make a case for Russell as an auteur. In this scene the image of an iconic movie star, Marilyn Monroe, is co-opted for the masks worn by acolytes of a cult. This group and their leader have turned the hypnotic power of a star’s face, persona and history of substance abuse into a religious experience that can heal all kinds of ailments – all intended to help the main character, who cannot see, hear or speak. (Is Marilyn’s face an Idea or an Event, as Barthes wrote about in his essay “The Face of Garbo”?) I must also point out that the first shot in the clip is the first time that we see Roger Daltrey in the film; it’s a close-up that announces, “Here he is! The star you want to see!”