Why was it such a trip to look at a huge book of 400 still photos from Fellini’s films? Because to appreciate composition is easier when the images are static. Once something catches my attention, the test for composition is to look at the page upside down, from a distance, without glasses. If it looks like a good abstract painting, turn it right side up and figure out what’s going on with the visual dynamics. The little sketches are mine, made to help me see.
Above: from Variety Lights – All the upward, exultant, ascending curves this circus performer, of her headdress, her hands, arms, breasts, bikini waist, top of thigh, and the applauding hands in the foreground, and the piece of scenic backdrop that circles her head like a halo.
Above: from Variety Lights –At an elegant table, a woman spoon-feeds a man who appears to be wearing a bib. A platter of large fruits, where her breasts would be if we could see them, and where his would be if he had them. I don’t know the plot, but there may be more than a candlestick between them. There’s also a suggesting of scales, as in the kind that weigh two amounts on suspended plates.
Above: from I Vitelloni – A man stands between two big legs of some kind of advertisement billboard. Was Fellini the first to photograph this configuration? We’ve seen it again, since then, on posters for other movies.
Above – from La Strada – Gelsomina regards the sleeping Zampano with a rueful gaze. Their bodies are lighted except for the bar of shadow falling across her shoulders, separating them.
Above: from La Strada - Gelsomina cowers against a wall as the menacing figure of Zampano approaches. Black shadows embrace her on either side, and also connect her to him, as if she is caught in tentacles that reach out from his body.
Above: from 8 ½ – The mystery virgin walks toward Guido. A repeated architectural motif points the way and precedes her like so many arrows, aided by a background tree trunk and a pointed foreground shadow. What we have here is bordering on a cartoon or comic-strip effect. And that’s not derogatory. The cartoon is an extremely lucid and unambiguous form of communication. I can see why cinematic purists prefer black and white. You just can’t apply this kind of visual finesse when distracted by color.
Tags: 8 1/2, cinematography, composition, Fellini, I Vitelloni, La Strada, Variety Nights
