Robert Aldrich :: essays papers

Robert Aldrich Robert Aldrich Robert Aldrich was born into an super wealthy family. He became an assistant director in Hollywood, working in the 1945 - 1952 period with legion(predicate) directors. A notably high percentage of these were in the extreme left Jean Renoir, Lewis Milest iodin, Robert Rossen, Joseph Losey, Charles Chaplin. Kiss Me hurtful Kiss Me Deadly (1955) is Aldrichs most remarkable film. Aldrich began directing in 1953, and by then, the film noir rack had run its course as a Hollywood phenomenon, peaking in the long time 1942 - 1951. However, film noirs were still being made steadily through the 1950s, and many of these works were classics of the cycle. There is a remarkably detailed visual summary of the film in Kiss Me Deadly Evidence of a vogue by Alain gold, in Film Noir Reader (1996), edited by Alain Silver and James Ursini. The remarks below are simply intended to point let out a few more things about this film, one of the most conglomerate and cr eative of all film noirs. 3D Camera Technique The theatrical production in Kiss Me Deadly shows a three dimensional quality. partially this is due to depth of plain. Many scenes keep in focus out-of-the-way(prenominal) into the rear of the scene. This is a technique associated in Hollywood with Orson Welles. Aldrich is often considered to be a Welles disciple. There are other techniques that aid in the films 3D quality 1) The showing of an irregular wall along one side of the shot. When Mike Hammers car pulls up to a gas property near the beginning of the film, we see the entire front of the gas move along the right side of the shot. The gas station facade is by no means smooth it contains many projections. All of these are richly lit up. The gas station is shot as if it were an elaborate plot of ground of sculpture, like one of Louise Nevelsons friezes. As the camera moves past it, it emphasizes the stations complex 3D qualities. The projections on the station all are r ectilinear they are shock like, with flat, perpendicular walls. A shot with even greater depth of field shows Mike Hammer knocking on a door in the Angels Flight neighborhood. Behind him we see first a long constringe alleyway, then a huge depth of field showing a Los Angeles city scape.