Absolute
Cinema is a continuing series of moments that I illustrate a moment of
cinematic transcendence. These can be a single element or a variety of
cinematic techniques that come
together in such a way that elevates cinema. It might be an entire
sequence or
just a particular shot, edit, score it doesn't even have to be on
purpose. It
is a moment exclusive to cinema as an art form.
[Entry 5] Absolute Cinema: Bigger Than Life
In The Name of the Father
In his operatic melodrama Bigger
than Life, director Nicholas Ray breaks down and reverses many of the nuclear
family ideals, James Mason plays Ed Avery, a middle class school teacher who is
diagnosed with a potentially fatal disease and given the new miracle drug cortisone
as a means of suppressing its progression. Treatment becomes dependency, and it
is not long before dependency becomes addiction, turning Avery into an
egotistical maniac and something much more disturbing.
Ray's paternal issues spilled
into his film making. His films are themselves 'bigger than life,' visuals of
pure personal emotion. His decision to shoot a domestic drama on CinemaScope is
inspired genius giving Avery warped sense of grandeur, contained within a
tightly structured setting. The real victim here, as with much of Ray's work
is son Richie who finds himself at the brunt of his father’s increasing
instability. Avery becomes a twisted representation of traditional American
values - religion, education and family. Psychologically bullying his son before Ray delivers a moment of fierce, twisted
intensity.
At a time when boys looked to
their fathers for reassurance and safety from the monsters on their TV, from
the escalating Red-scare. Ray is formidable as he casts his image, deeply coded
in Expressionism. For Richie, there was no comfort to be found with his father.
As Avery looms over his son, his shadow contorts into a warped figure of Elvis
and then into a beast, arched on all fours. He becomes the monster from the TV.
It is the most direct image from Ray's canon, and one of the most daring shots of 50s American cinema.
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