tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8795280.post8729058032563165773..comments2024-04-01T16:54:22.883-07:00Comments on Sergio Leone and the Infield Fly Rule: THE SLIFR MOVIE TREE HOUSE v.2011 #20: FACES AND MOMENTS IN THE CROWDDennis Cozzaliohttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01954848938471883431noreply@blogger.comBlogger1125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8795280.post-80962537132750110822012-02-20T09:18:49.352-08:002012-02-20T09:18:49.352-08:00Jim Emerson wrote: "Anyway, after watching Ce...Jim Emerson wrote: "Anyway, after watching Certified Copy a couple times, I wanted to see if I could pin down some of the movie's slipperier moments. But the more I tried to locate the precise moment in which a shift seems to occur (a cut, a glance, a gesture, a line), the more elusive it became."<br /><br />I just had the pleasure of watching this enigmatic film for the first time yesterday. I had read your post and the above-quoted statement beforehand but knew little else about the film itself. However, as a result of your comment, I was keen on locating inflection point where the narrative shifts (even though I was unaware of what exactly the content of the shift would be). I took my cues from the film itself to establish certain "truths" which, if they were altered, might signal some shift. The most obvious became the conversation between Elle and the coffee shop proprietress where she begins acting as though she and James are married. I took especial notice of the fact that Elle maintains that James only speaks English. Soon after, when they are walking out of the coffee shop and talking (Elle engaging in a cell phone conversation while also having an argument with James) there seems to be a discontinuity that is really just a red herring. All of the sudden, after having followed the two in reverse down the alley, the camera pans left into the wall for no reason and then re-engages the couple before they emerge from the alley. Typically, this type of pan would be used to hide a cut in a particularly long shot, but in films where discontinuities are necessary, also provides a good way to signal (or hide) a shift in perspective or a narrative rupture. As a result, as soon as I noticed the camera panning left, I became hyper vigilant. Of course, my vigilance bore no fruit as the pan is seemingly meaningless as, after finishing the film, I realized that the ruptures aren't necessarily visual in Certified Copy but rather changes in dialogue. Cues like when James mentions that he is not the same man he was after 15 years and she would have to come to grips with that, erupt into the center of our interpretation of the scene we are witnessing and then color the rest of the dialogue, which I often felt could have made sense as that of a courting couple or one long married if the cues were removed. In the end, the pan in the alley (pun?) (and there may be others I missed) was a knowing wink at viewers who were trying to unlock where the "shift" occurs, like you and I were Jim, saying that "there are no visual cues, and like a well-made sword, the narrative overlaps were folded into each other so often and so patiently, the final product is lent beauty by its sturdy impenetrability.Robert Pirkolanoreply@blogger.com