Human Desire (Fritz Lang, 1954)
Her legs crossed, propped-
up on a dressing-table. Eye
moving from slip to slippers.
Her right arm across stomach,
left hand resting on left knee.
Head tilted to the right. Not
yet thirty: if vulnerable, then
contemplative. Or vice versa.
Perhaps a neon hotel, refuge
from everything but the camera.
Lit to highlight the shadows.
Three profiles, two mirrors.
In one an open door, a towel
on a hook. Next to another door,
room or hallway. How many
doors to make a room, or an
exit? How many mirrors to
reflect the world? How many
profiles to glimpse a likeness?
And who would enter, if jealous
husband, roustabout lover or
predatory boss. She who might
murder, the desire to be human,
so human to desire. The tracks
parallel, meeting, crossing, straight
out of Europe, the entrance like
the exit, through the hallway,
door, shadows, reflection, desire.
up on a dressing-table. Eye
moving from slip to slippers.
Her right arm across stomach,
left hand resting on left knee.
Head tilted to the right. Not
yet thirty: if vulnerable, then
contemplative. Or vice versa.
Perhaps a neon hotel, refuge
from everything but the camera.
Lit to highlight the shadows.
Three profiles, two mirrors.
In one an open door, a towel
on a hook. Next to another door,
room or hallway. How many
doors to make a room, or an
exit? How many mirrors to
reflect the world? How many
profiles to glimpse a likeness?
And who would enter, if jealous
husband, roustabout lover or
predatory boss. She who might
murder, the desire to be human,
so human to desire. The tracks
parallel, meeting, crossing, straight
out of Europe, the entrance like
the exit, through the hallway,
door, shadows, reflection, desire.
I Wake Up Screaming
(H. Bruce Humberstone, 1941)
Walls, staircases, elevator shafts.
This must surely be why venetian
blinds were invented. City angles
dark rooms, claustrophobia, less
angelic than threatening. Zanuck
hated Tinseltown critiques, so took
it all to New York, with its nightlife,
square jaws, hats, and cosmopolitan
homosexual innuendo. Then why
shouldn't a woman be attracted to
the man who might have killed her
sister; then that man waking up to
find some inquisitive cop sitting
next to his bed. A droit de philosophe
turning into templated shadows, severe
lighting and a timely portentousness,
like “What’s the good of living without
hope?” Answer: “It can be done.” Then
dogged by a fog of intention: “What she
meant we’ll never know. It’s what she
said that counts.” Even if no one knows
or cares what she or anyone says or
means, be it melodrama or comedy.
"Somewhere Over the Rainbow," a
reminder: this is a nearly recognizable
nightmare of geometric wit and deceit.
This must surely be why venetian
blinds were invented. City angles
dark rooms, claustrophobia, less
angelic than threatening. Zanuck
hated Tinseltown critiques, so took
it all to New York, with its nightlife,
square jaws, hats, and cosmopolitan
homosexual innuendo. Then why
shouldn't a woman be attracted to
the man who might have killed her
sister; then that man waking up to
find some inquisitive cop sitting
next to his bed. A droit de philosophe
turning into templated shadows, severe
lighting and a timely portentousness,
like “What’s the good of living without
hope?” Answer: “It can be done.” Then
dogged by a fog of intention: “What she
meant we’ll never know. It’s what she
said that counts.” Even if no one knows
or cares what she or anyone says or
means, be it melodrama or comedy.
"Somewhere Over the Rainbow," a
reminder: this is a nearly recognizable
nightmare of geometric wit and deceit.
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