In reading Mitchell Schwarzer's Zoomscape, I became interested in his discussion on the film Last Year at Marienbad (1961) and how the film was able to heighten the architectural mise en scene, thereby presenting "filmgoers with an engrossing view of architecture and landscape." This got me thinking about another film in which the architecture itself was a dominating, dramatic presence. The Court Martial Scene of Paths of Glory (1957) by Stanley Kubrick was filmed in the Great Hall of Schleissheim Palace in Munich. Kubrick chose to shoot this scene here because the ornate, baroque styling of the hall was at one time, thought to be the height of civilization. He uses this to contrast the incivility of what is occurring to the men being court martialed - the building itself poses the irony of the situation. Kubrick stages the actors as if they are pawns on a chessboard in the Great Hall.
Trailer provided by Video Detective
Closing Argument by movieclips
Schwarzer is so correct in his statement that in "film, the camera does the moving for us; architecture moves while we remain stationary." In Paths of Glory, we must make the physical effort to notice the architecture in the scene and what it's implied references are, giving deeper meaning to its use.
No comments:
Post a Comment