Sunday, January 29, 2012

Dolly Dearest

Dolly Dearest
Director: Maria Lease
Year: 1992
  • Image Organization
  • Patriot Pictures presents
  • In association with Channeler Enterprises
The opening begins with a dutch, low angle shot of a large outdoor white sign. It says: NO PASE Por orden del departamento de arquiologia. This provides exposition of the country where the film may be set. The words translate into: DO NOT PASS by order of the archaeology department, providing further exposition of the place.
The shot then moves down showing a mining like area. There is diegetic sound of crickets and a wolf howl denoting the time of day. There is further diegetic sound of a 'digging' sound and deep breaths, denoting that there is somebody in the mining area (yet this is still narrative enigma as the audience has not yet seen anyone and no narrative of the plot has been given)
A medium long shot of a middle aged man digging at a wall is shown. This may be going against character conventions because teenagers are usually the characters in this type of genre of film.
The tomb like wall falls ontop the man and a bright red/orange light escapes from behind the wall, with diegetic sound of a screaming and whispering coming from the sound, this provides anchorage that denotes the light is alive and is a spirit.
The light then travels around the ground before entering a building.
The opening lasts 2 minutes and 14 seconds.

2 comments:

  1. its diEgetic!
    sounds like an Italian slasher: 'giallo' as they're called
    they often featured older, more mature adults than the US teen slashers, and also were often close to what we'd consider as art films with some experimental colour distortion and unusual framing/mise-en-scene (they weren't as influenced by the codes of realism that dominate US + UK cinema)

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  2. post title: not clear that its a film eg analysis
    also no pics/links? trailer's always useful too

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