Marilyn Fabe. Closely Watched Films: An Introduction to the Art of Narrative Film Technique.

Berkeley, CA.: University of California Press, 2004

279 pp.

Contents
List of Illustrations / ix
Acknowledgments / xiii
Introduction / xv
1 The Beginnings of Film Narrative:
D. W. Griffith's The Birth of a Nation / 1
2 The Art of Montage: Sergei Eisenstein's
The Battleship Potemkin / 19
3 Expressionism and Realism in Film Form:

F. W. Murnau's The Last Laugh and

Charles Chaplin's The Adventurer / 37
4 The Conversion to Sound
and the Classical Hollywood Film:
Howard Hawks's His Girl Friday / 59
5 Expressive Realism: Orson Welles's
Citizen Kane / 78
6 Italian Neorealism: Vittorio De Sica's
The Bicycle Thief / 99

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7 Auteur Theory and the French New Wave:

François Truffaut's The 400 Blows / 120
8 Hollywood Auteur: Alfred Hitchcock's
Notorious / 135
9 The European Art Film: Federico
Fellini's 8 1/2 / 152
10 Film and Postmodernism: Woody Allen's
Annie Hall / 173
11 Political Cinema: Spike Lee's Do
the Right Thing / 191
12 Feminism and Film Form: Patricia Rozema's

I've Heard the Mermaids Singing / 207

13 Epilogue: Digital Video and New Forms of
Narrative in Mike Figgis's Timecode / 228
Notes / 243
Glossary / 259
Bibliography / 267
Index / 273

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Illustrations
1 Long shot of Flora, The Birth of a Nation 10
2 Image of a fence in the frame showing Gus, a black man about to pursue a young white woman, The Birth of a
Nation 12
3 Close-up of Gus, The Birth of a Nation 14
4 Flora through Gus's eyes, The Birth of a Nation 15
5 An extreme long shot of the people running down the Odessa Steps, The Battleship Potemkin 29
6 A big close-up of a pair of legs, The Battleship Potemkin 29
7 The purposeful, organized movement of the soldiers, The Battleship Potemkin 30
8 The chaotic, disorganized movements of the victims, The Battleship Potemkin 30
9 A boy's body creates a graphic conflict with the line of the steps, The Battleship Potemkin 31
10 A woman carrying a sick child ascends the steps, her body casting a shadow, The Battleship Potemkin 35
11 Soldiers' bodies cast their shadows on the woman and child, The Battleship Potemkin 35
12 Cesare, shortly before he collapses in exhaustion, The Cabinet of Dr. Caligari 38

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13 Buildings lean, bend, or rear straight up, The Cabinet of Dr. Caligari 39
14 Emil Jannings in a medium close-up from slightly below, The Last Laugh 41
15 Emil Jannings photographed from a high angle, The Last Laugh 42
16 From the doorman's point of view, the neighbor woman's face grotesquely elongated, The Last Laugh 43
17 Images of the hotel dining room merge with images of the doorman's tenement neighborhood, The Last Laugh 46
18 The city created through special effects—the use of model shots and forced perspective, The Last Laugh 47
19 Charlie Chaplin in a long shot that is part of one unbroken take, The Adventurer 54
20 Charlie Chaplin in a gag that works because of the tight framing of the shot, The Adventurer 56
21 The jaunty hat with the matching zigzag design of her suit defines Rosalind Russell's character as a dynamic
and powerful woman, His Girl Friday 65
22 The distorted image of the nurse, Citizen Kane 82
23 Young Charles Kane playing outside the window in one of the most poignant moments in film, Citizen Kane 87
24 Close-up of Susan Alexander, Citizen Kane 88
25 Reverse shot of Kane, Citizen Kane 89
26 Long lap dissolve of the young Kane's face on the snowcovered sled, Citizen Kane 90
27 Extreme low-angle shot emphasizing Kane's demented, unbalanced grandiosity, Citizen Kane 93
28 In Open City, the priest, Don Pietro, witnesses Manfreddi's torture 102
29 Intimate morning scene viewed through an open window, The Bicycle Thief 109
30 Gigantic statues of heroic, idealized athletes on the stadium walls, The Bicycle Thief 111
31 Image of parked bicycles, The Bicycle Thief 111
32 From Ricci's point of view, a lone, unattended bicycle, The Bicycle Thief 112
33 Ricci abruptly turns away from temptation, The Bicycle Thief 113
34 Ricci's about-face, The Bicycle Thief 113

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35 Bruno has taken his father's hand, The Bicycle Thief 118
36 Antoine's face framed by a segment of the imprisoning grid pattern, The 400 Blows 128
37 Children's faces: the magical time when they still express what they feel, The 400 Blows 129
38 The letters f-i-n, superimposed over Antoine's frozen face, The 400 Blows 132
39 Mrs. Whittaker (Violet Farebrother), Easy Virtue 138
40 Mrs. Danvers (Judith Anderson), Rebecca 138
41 Madame Sebastian (Leopoldine Konstantin), Notorious 139
42 Mrs. Bates (Tony Perkins), Psycho 139
43 Mrs. Brenner (Jessica Tandy), The Birds 139
44 Merging of the shadows of Sebastian (Claude Rains) and his mother, Notorious 143
45 A deep-focus shot of Alicia (Ingrid Bergman), Notorious 146
46 Alicia in a tight medium-close shot, the background out of focus, Notorious 146
47 The shadow on the door indicates Sebastian's menace, Notorious 147
48 Sebastian's shadow looms larger, Notorious 148
49 A subjective shot of the key, Notorious 149
50 Guido enclosed by the high walls of the schoolyard, 8 1/2 161
51 Guido encircled by the arm of a looming statue of a church dignitary, 8 1/2 161
52 Everything about Saraghina is exposed to the elements, 8 1/2 162
53 The long black robes of the priests, incongruous against the landscape of the beach, 8 1/2 162
54 Guido's mother sits by the portrait of a little boy wearing a halo, 8 1/2 163
55 The statue of the virgin merges with the image of Saraghina's blockhouse, 8 1/2 164
56 A more angelic than devilish Saraghina, 8 1/2 165
57 The camera frames four priests sitting in a row, 8 1/2 168
58 The priests in a new location, the far corner of the room, 8 1/2 168
59 Final shot of the sequence, the priests positioned as before, 8 1/2 169

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60 Woody Allen seems to be speaking as himself directly to the film audience, Annie Hall 180
61 The house where Alvy grew up, Annie Hall 184
62 Annie as a sexy wicked queen in Snow White, Annie Hall 186
63 The actors reading Alvy's play are seen reflected in a mirror, Annie Hall 188
64 Ernest Dickerson's big close-up of Radio Raheem's face, Do the Right Thing 199
65 Radio Raheem's feet off the ground, Do the Right Thing 205
66 The man stands, fully clothed, gazing at the woman in the shower, Coma 212
67 Scantily clad chorus girls perform suggestive dances, The Gang's All Here 214
68 Polly's appearance counters the way heroines look in mainstream films, I've Heard the Mermaids Singing 222
69 A video camera hidden inside a TV monitor is placed where the head should be on the bust of a nude woman,
I've Heard the Mermaids Singing 223
70 Polly peering beyond the edge of the monitor frame, I've Heard the Mermaids Singing 225
71 Homage to Dziga Vertov's The Man with a Movie Camera in I've Heard the Mermaids Singing 226
72 Shot from The Man with a Movie Camera 226
73 Images on four screens, Timecode 236
74 Upper right quadrant: a composite image of two women, Timecode 238

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