- I couldn’t find any wide-screen stills from Words and Pictures, so enjoy this one from Cukor’s A Star is Born.
Words and Pictures, which opens in Chicago tomorrow, might be the first American, star-driven romantic comedy in years to use the wide-screen frame purposefully—and the achievement is all the more remarkable when you realize how much of it takes place indoors. I’ve gotten so used to American genre movies taking the format for granted—giving the audience what are essentially 1.85:1 images with the tops and bottoms sliced off—that I no longer bother to express disappointment about it (not that often, anyway). So I was pleasantly surprised to find in Words and Pictures wide-screen compositions that actually encourage viewers to explore them from side to side. When we first see the English teacher protagonist (Clive Owen) address his students, for instance, the students’ desks, arranged in a semicircle, fill more than half the frame. Owen and his desk seem crammed into the righthand corner, illustrating succinctly his inability to connect with the kids.
- Joaquin Phoenix in Two Lovers
I wouldn’t rank Words and Pictures alongside the best work of Cukor, Mankiewicz, or Minnelli. But seeing how little current American filmmaking evokes any of those directors, it warrants serious attention.
