The Lady from Shanghai
Comments and questions about The Lady from Shanghai can go here.
Tuesday, June 29, 2004
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9 Comments:
I thought the movie was quite entertaining. There was an extensive use of lighting and shadow effects.This movie also puts the main female character, Elsa, in a very strong position as the one who manipulates the whole show. Despite his knowledge of her affair with micheal her husband still does not say anything. And in the end even micheal realizes that she has used him to cover a murder that she commited. However in the end as she dies all alone begging micheal to stay her strong character transforms to a weak helpless woman who in the end suffers for her actions. Also, the use of mirrors in the last scene where Mr. and Mrs. Bannister shoot each other was very dramatic and exciting.
I believe Welles' comment in the last scene of the film stating that everyone is someone's fool is shown effectively throughout the film as various characters fall victim to the will of, or schemes orchestrated by, other characters.
First off, what's the deal with the horrible, fake, Irish accent Wells was trying to use? At times, it really detracted from the movie because it sounded so fake. Also, what was the reason for the random stuff that happened during the trial scene? (for instance, the random juror sneezing all the time). For some reason, it really make me feel uncomfortable during the scene. It almost seemed intentional by the juror.
-John R.
I'd read the sneezing as simply illustrating the absurdity of the trial itself. There are some debates about whether or not Welles' "Irish brogue" is intentionally bad. We can discuss both of these ideas in class on Thursday.
I thought Welle's Irish accent was especially bad. The story got convoluted very early on and the plot sort of trips all over itself. I think the movie moved too fast for a mystery. If the movie were a full two hours long, it might have made the plot easier to follow. That probably is why Welles was attempting to keep the footage that was edited out of the movie to keep the story easier to follow.
I loved the scene with all of the mirrors at the very end of the movie. I never would have thought to shoot a scene that way, and the way the reflections and everything add to the shot is really creative. I wish the movie had gone more into the characters, because I never felt much sympathy for any of them. It was like we never knew who they really were. And everyone else is right, that accent was really annoying.
~Karen
The film all around was really weird. I mean the characters throughout the picture were laughing when they should not have been and just causing unwanted disturbances. The film just seemed like a big joke and did not seem like it was supposed to be. Even though now and then the film had some twists that I did not expect to happen.
This movie had little to no character development. The plot moved so quickly that it really didnt allow the audiance to grow to know any of the main charaters well enough to sympothize with the characters actions. Being a mystry murder with many twist overall I thought it could have been done a little bettwe. Mr. Welles needs to work on acting skills when doing accents in his movies. The retarded irish character voice was not helping the movie at all. I'm not into many Orsin Welles movies, since the two that we have watched that he has done have not been appealing to me at all.
In response to Karen's post about the mirrors, it reminds me of Bruce Lee's movie Enter the Dragon. The final fight scene between him and the main villain involves these elaborate room of mirrors. Bruce Lee ends by breaking all of them just as the scene in Lady From Shanghai where the husband shoots all of the mirrors. Likewise, the plot of the movie reminds me a lot of Wild Things, where everybody is using and manipulating each other in some twisted way. What one thinks is an ally becomes an enemy/back stabber. I like the movie for what its worth....an early play on plot twists within a murder mystery.
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