Tuesday, February 8, 2011
Style in Service of Substance
F. W. Murnau, the director of The Last Laugh, used a wide palette of virtuoso film techniques to express the feelings of his everyman doorman: pride, terror, drunkenness, and despair. Focus on a single scene or technique and describe how the technique expressed an emotion, a state of mind or otherwise served to make a point.
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Compliant with the art movement of German Expressionism that seeks to express inner emotion by portraying the outside world in an unrealistic, distorted way, F. W. Murnau’s The Last Laugh employs sound effects to express the doorman’s feelings of drunkenness and despair about being demoted to the viewer. For example to drive away his feelings of inadequacy and despair the doorman intoxicates himself at his daughter’s wedding party. The background music is quirky and ominous foreshadowing a frightening dream he experiences later on in the scene. To enhance the nauseous sensation of being drunk the background music sways in pitch to evoke a sense of motion sickness from the viewer helping them to relate to the doorman’s dire circumstances on an emotional level. What’s even more effective than the sound effects themselves is where the sound effects are placed in the context of the scene. One particularly effective cut shows the camera panning from side to side while the background music sways in pitch. If the optical effects are not enough to send the viewer catapulting to the trashcan, the sound effects will. Murnau’s film is an excellent example of how film-editing techniques can maximize the audience’s emotional investment and connection to the characters’ feelings in the film.
ReplyDeleteA scene that particularly stuck out to me from The Last Laugh was when the doorman reads the letter given to him by his boss. The camera zooms in on his puzzled face as he adjusts his glasses and continues to read. Suddenly, an extreme close-up of the big, black words from the note he received appears on the screen, and the camera moves from left to right over the letters. The English translation for the German words on the screen reads, “The reason for these measures…” The camera then quickly moves down the page and begins moving across another line of text: “is your age and frailty.” The view becomes fuzzy, and then the shot rewinds back over the letters, from right to left, and then reads over them once again. The slow movement across the words and the repetition emphasize the strong impact the words have on the doorman. He peers up from the letter, a crazed look on his face. His upper lip, covered by his thick mustache, twitches as he looks over at his boss, who is seated at his desk in a cloud of smoke. He removes his glasses and slowly makes his way toward his boss, appearing to be possessed. The doorman's shock and awe are evident through his facial expressions, but also through the way the words from the letter are displayed on the screen. The strong effects the words have on the doorman are evident through the way they are displayed, and the words that have the most impact are repeated ("age and frailty"). The slow camera movement across the text and the repetition, along with the doorman’s facial expressions, successfully get the desired message to the reader: this man has lost his job, and it has already taken a toll on him.
ReplyDeleteDirector F.W. Murnau is critically acclaimed for his manipulation and revolutionary use of the camera, especially in his 1924 film, “The Last Laugh.” In this film, the emotional and mental states of the recently demoted, disconsolate doorman are successfully portrayed in part because of the strategic camera angles employed by Murnau. For example, in the opening scene, the doorman is faced with a challenge: he has to unload a heavy trunk from the roof of a car and carry it inside. This is an extremely difficult task for his aging, weak body. In these moments, the camera is strategically placed at an angle that reveals his vulnerable state. As he approaches the car, he is filmed from a high angle, seemingly from the roof of the car (where the trunk is). By filming the doorman at a high angle, Murnau visually portrays the man as inferior to the trunk. Conversely, after the doorman is shown from a high angle, exposing his vulnerability, the trunk is then shot from a very low angle, possibly from the point of view of the timid doorman. By filming the trunk at a high angle, Murnau places the heavy trunk in a position of power over the doorman. Murnau’s use of camera angles in this scene displays the doorman’s current state, while also foreshadowing the doorman’s imminent demotion due to his inability to sufficiently perform his obligations as doorman because of his aging and impotent body. After losing his beloved job, the doorman is distraught and unable to move. When another employee removes his uniform and hangs it in a closet, the doorman realizes that he will never again wear the marvelous uniform, and turns his head to view the long coat in the closet. When he does this, Murnau shoots the uniform from a low angle, consequently placing the uniform in a higher position than it actually is. In so doing, Murnau portrays the importance of the coat in the eyes and heart of the doorman. Similarly, Murnau also uses low camera angles when filming the prestigious Atlantic Hotel in the eyes of the doorman in various parts of the film. Once again, by filming the hotel from a low angle, Murnau exaggerates the scale of the hotel to emphasize how important it is to the doorman. These are only three of the many instances when Murnau employs various camera angles throughout “The Last Laugh” to express the emotional and mental state of the protagonist.
ReplyDeleteThe Last Laugh as a German Expressionist film is filled with strong imagery and heightened emotions. One scene which stands out in my mind as one where Murnau uses cinematic tricks to make a strong point is the scene where the doorman returns home and is laughed at by all his neighbors. The scene begins with the doorman’s elongated shadow cast along the wall. You see his shadow before you see the man himself, and this creates a dramatic entrance for the character. He walks slowly, almost limping, and turns to watch a man who walks past him. As the doorman walks cautiously past the buildings, his jeering neighbors suddenly appear in the windows. The melodramatic expression of horror and embarrassment on the doorman’s face, as well as the neighbors instant appearance in the windows, creates a very strong emotional charge. It’s easy to see that this is a nightmarish situation for the doorman. As he rushes into his home in shame, we see faces of the neighbors overlaid onto each other in a horrific montage. This last cinematic trick of the grotesque faces all taunting the doorman really packs a strong emotional punch. It puts you into the shoes of the doorman, and Murnau very successfully makes you feel the grief and humiliation that the doorman feels at being fired, and then having all his neighbors, who once looked up to him, taunt and mock him.
ReplyDeleteA scene that clearly exemplifies the wide use of film techniques that expresses the doorman's emotions was when he walked through his neighborhood, trying to hide the news that he was demoted to the washroom and no longer has his prestigious and proud doorman job. As he was walking though the neighborhood, it showed scenes of everyone laughing at him, yelling at him, making him feel embarrassed and depressed. He showed a depressed and saddened look that made it seem like he just wanted to run away. While looking at him I felt nothing but sympanthy for the aged man that looked like he lost his pride. It seemed as if he no longer valued life and was just going through the everyday motions. I believe that F.W. Murnau's whole objective in this scene was to get the audience to feel sympanthy for the man in order for the ending to be successful.
ReplyDeleteThe scene that really connected with the audience I believe was the scene towards the end of the film where the once upbeat doorman who got demoted to a bathroom attendant was walking through the neighborhood. Throughout the scene everybody on the street is staring at him and laughing and pointing. Pretty much doing anything that will make him feel worse than he already does. In this scene F.W. Mumau’s really tries to connect the audience with the old man. He uses high up camera angles, so the camera is looking down on the old man to make him look smaller and insignificant. By doing this the audience is almost forced to feel sympathy for the old man. Like Matt said I believe that is was Mumaus’s goal, to make the audience feel bad for the once prestigious doorman at a fancy hotel. This makes for a good end to the movie, although sad, the audience is left fulfilled.
ReplyDeleteTwo techniques in F. W. Murnau’s The Last Laugh that expressed the doorman’s feelings of pride and power were the moving camera and camera angles at the beginning of the film. The camera starts out in an elevator, travels downwards, and then through the hotel doors. The camera captures the glamour of the hotel, its size, and its elegance. We first see the doorman working outside of the hotel. In the beginning, we associate him with the hotel. The camera movement and the relatively few amount of takes serves to connect him with the elegance of the hotel and explain his sense of pride. In addition, when we first see the doorman, the camera has a low angle. This makes him look both literally and figuratively bigger in the mind of the viewer and adds to our perceived sense of pride.
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