By akademiotoelektronik, 06/05/2022

Book / The Night of the Hunter, a cinematographic aesthetic: review | CineChronicle

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The Night of the Hunter, a cinematographic aesthetic

Published for the first time in 2008, this work devoted to The Night of the Hunter and signed by Damien Ziegler, essayist and specialist in landscape aesthetics, naturally finds its place in the “Analyse filmique” collection of LettMotif. Like its predecessors (Barton Fink, The Coen Brothers' Dream of Fire and AI Artificial Intelligence, or The Farewell to Melancholy, both written by Ziegler), this review aims for completeness. Returning in his introduction to the stylistic singularity of Charles Laughton's film, its various technical facets (script, production, direction, sets, photography, distribution) are studied at length from various bibliographical sources which attest to the work of exegesis carried out by the 'author. Because The Night of the Hunter has caused a lot of ink to flow. Since its release in 1955, many articles and a few books of varying length (among which we can cite that of Charles Tatum Jr. Published by Yellow Now in 1996) have sought to understand the undeniable magnetism that emanates from its images. For Ziegler, the explanation could be found on the side of the marvelous proper to the tale which presents itself as one of the main generic models of the film. The thing has already been said: Reverend Harry Powell (Robert Mitchum) as a bad ogre facing little thumbs John (Billy Chapin) and Pearl (Sally Jane Bruce) saved by the good fairy played by Lillian Gish. But Ziegler differs from the precedents written by his working method which consists in retracing the thread of the film by tracing the development of his analysis on its chronological unfolding.

Each scene is thus analyzed in detail. The redundant character which his descriptions could have risked is fortunately avoided thanks to the numerous analytical extensions proposed by the author. The return to the composition of certain shots or the study of technical processes (frame within the frame, editing effects) in particular makes it possible to enhance the unity embodied by the work. Because under the pen of Ziegler, The Night of the hunter presents itself as a great Whole, each audio-visual component redoubles the energy of the drama or the identity characterization of a role.

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The author also returns to certain aspects of the film that are not often commented on, such as the direction of child actors, restoring the originality of the film in the light of new insights. The quality of the writing is also relayed by the presence of numerous screenshots, the signature of LettMotif, which support the descriptive force of Ziegler's often stimulating reflections.

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