Friday, February 01, 2008

Jumping The Line




A scene in Port of Shadows. Jean Gabin sits next to Michele Morgan's right hip, tells her she's beautiful and then lays his head on her left shoulder in the following shot. Crossing her body and crossing the line works on many levels and is a very successful instance of breaking the rules. I noticed it in passing, more into the story than thinking about screen grammar. I had to play it back to see the "error". I think Marcel Carne knew exactly what he was doing.

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