i + eye = ?

[dmolson]

Just watched Bogart's Dark Passage, new dvd version. I'd seen it on TV before, but had forgotten the early premise where escaped convict Vincent Parry stumbles through San Francisco, with the camera being his eyes. It was effective, if somewhat stilted at times, but reminded me of Orson Welles' early ideas of film making. Didn't he intend to utilize the 'camera eye' as character in his uber-project, Heart of Darkness?
In the accompanying mini-doc about Dark Passage, they mentioned Robert Montgomery's Lady in the Lake. Was Montgomery influenced by Delmar Daves' film or Welles' well-documented idea?

[Glenn Anders]

Dear dmolson: Actually, the idea of "Subjective Camera," as it was once called, goes back to the beginning of Movies. In the 1890's, the Lumiere Brothers sent audiences fleeing from a Paris theater by adopting the viewers' point of view as a train roared into the Gard du Nord.

An extended use of Subjective Camera may be found in the beginning of F.W. Murnau's THE LAST LAUGH (1924), where the camera becomes the old hero/victim, a doorman (played by Emil Jannings), as he moves through a the lobby of an expensive Berlin Hotel to carry out his duties, loading and unloading suitcases from taxis.

The latter film was shot by the superb cinematographer, Karl Freund, who later came to Hollywood, to direct for Goldwyn. A young photographer named Greg Toland worked with him on a film called MAD LOVE (1935), in which Pauline Kael, in Raising Kane, found a number of similarities to CITIZEN KANE.

Toland probably provided the link to Welles in his notion of making an entire film in Subjective Camera.

Coincidentally, as has often been pointed out, Karl Freud finished out his career as Director of Photography for the I Love Lucy Show (where he set up the economical three camera technique still used in TV today).

Some will remember that Orson Welles was an early champion and employer of RKO minor contract player, Lucille Ball.

Glenn

[blunted by community]

did vertov's MAN WITH A CAMERA use subjective camera

but according to a book i have on film noir, the most significant use of the subjective camera that went on for any lenght of time, was first LADY IN THE LAKE, though it was not very effective, then used in DARK PASSAGE and it worked better. i have not seen LADY IN THE LAKE in years, but remember it bored me and i didn't make it 15 minutes into the movie.

the most imaginative use of subjective camera i can think of off the top of my head, is in MEAN STREETS, when keitel is drunk and crusing around the bar.

[dmolson]

Just sat through the newly released twin-bill dvd of Dr. Jekyll & Mr. Hyde's 1932 version... Rouben Mamoulian begins the film with what must have seemed totally scary camera work to the producers, since apparently they had it excised from the film -- but thankfully its back where it belongs.
The film starts as we look through the eyes of Dr. Jekyll, well-to-do and liberalminded physician with some un-Victorian ideas. We walk through his nice english home, receive the top hat from his faithful attendant Poole, then climb into the horse-driven buggy and ride it to Jekyll's appointment, where he addresses a class.
It really provided an impressive start to what I found was a surprisingly moving adaptation... The subjective camera returns again later for the amazing initial transformation, with Jekyll staring straight into the mirror as he finds his darker side.
According to imdb.com, the original three minutes was dropped when the producers thought the subjective camera would be too stark and foreign to audiences in 1932 - but thankfully it was found and put back about 20 years ago...
Well worth the price of popcorn, IMHO.

[Le Chiffre]

I'd forgotten about the I=EYE opening of the Frederic March DR. JECKYLL. I haven't seen it in quite awhile, even tho it's a great movie that I've got on tape. I'll have to check it out again- it's definitely the best version.

It's worth mentioning that Welles also planned to use the subjective camera angle for the opening of THE WAY TO SANTIAGO, where the main character wakes up with amnesia, and the first few scenes are seen thru his eyes. An entertaining screenplay, and I seem to remember reading that someone was interested in filming it a few years ago. Apparently that never came to anything.

The subjective camera angle is pretty rare, and it's even more rare to see it used effectively. The only example I can think of offhand was in ROBOCOP, where the doctors talk to the mangled cop as he's being transformed into the machine-man ("You're gonna be one bad motherf...")