Another of my belated posts. What immediately leapt to my mind was the celebrated (by some) sight-gag in Chaplin's THE IMMIGRANT (1917) whereby we first see Charlie from behind at the ship's rail, apparently evincing all the symptoms of sea-sickness, but which a change of angle shows to be Charlie-the-angler's efforts to land a fish. Rudolph Arnheim's 'Film As Art' discusses this moment, as I think somebody has already noted here.
I am also reminded of a documentary I once saw made (I think) by the New South Wales Corrections Board, in which all the prisoners were shown from a distance and/or from behind. Remarkably, the effect was Antonioni-esque! I inferred from this that some 'art' is in fact necessity, though it may prompt panegyrics from style-centred critics, as Raymond Durgnat has illustrated with sophistication when he once noted the various stylish ways different directors used to get around showing the one-legged actor Herbert Marshall's limp. (Each director would use a way that fitted his general style, whether with light and shadow, or choice of lens, or with attention to jutting architecture; and thus the critics would be essentially vindicated!)
- KM
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