There's an artictis princial called 'balance.' Balance with when the right side is given roughly the same 'wieght' as the left side, or the top and bottom. There are two kinds of aesthetic balance. There's symmetrical. That's when one side looks like the other - they are, to a large degree - mirror images of one another.
Then there's asymmetrical balance. This is when two sides are balanced, but by different sized shapes.
But even this idea of balance doesn't cover all the bases of what I'm trying to grasp at. I don't know. There's just something about the images of the film. There's almost no gray - it truly is a nearly all black and white movie.
Here's what I would like you to do. Just look at the following images. Take your time.
Now look at the following pairs of images. Most come one right after the other. Again, take your time.
Okay. So we touched on it in class. What's going on here? What's going on in terms of balance, positive and negative space, aesthetic tension vs. dramatic tension? Help me out. We need some theories on the subject...
I think that the juxtoposition between the dramatic tension and the lack of asthetic tension are supposed to feel more wrong and tense than having asthetic imbalance, and therefore asthetic tension.
ReplyDeleteThe balance in this movie is unrealistic, which can make the audience feel uncomfortable. Nothing in real life is ever as symmetrically balanced as it is in The Night of the Hunter. There's already so much tension in the movie between characters, so this "balance" creates even more tension because it is not normal. There is more asymmetrical balance than symmetrical balance in the movie. Since this movie is black and white, the asymmetrical balance reminds me of the ying yang sign. They have elements from both sides in them, but are still divided equally. In The Night of the Hunter, a house would be black with a white window and the house next to it would be white with a black window. This makes the scene balanced and "perfect", which isn't normal which is why this movie seems dream-like.
ReplyDeletethis movie deals much with symmetry and balance. too much with symmetry because the real world is not symmetrical and perfect as it is in this movie. also. evil people dont always have dark shadows on their faces when they are thinking about something evil. the movie tries too much making everything balanced and symmetrical and whose evil and whose not begins to look very corny. many shots in the film are balanced, but it begins to be aesthetically displeasing and begins to look abnormal.
ReplyDeleteI feel like the whole movie is based on this "underground" idea of good vs. evil and the positive/negative space and the mixture of symmetrical and asymmetrical balance help move this idea forward. In the movie, Harry Powell is supposed to be a man of God, while at the same time he also represents pure evil. The black colors seemed to stand for his evil, with the white colors standing for "good" shining through at some points in the movie. Truthfully, I had not noticed the symmetrical balance until it was pointed out, but since then I can tell that the awkward balances, that we don't normally see in movies today, help to add dramatic tension to the scenes. I also feel like the intense color contrasts and symmetrical and asymmetrical balances were used to make the story seem like somewhat of a dream or an unrealistic world.
ReplyDeleteWhat I think the director is trying to do is simply overexemplify the total contradiction of the entire film. The stark contrast between the light and dark subjects equate well to the contrast of good and evil found within the film. This contradiction of light and dark could also relate with the contradictory characters as well: a reverend murderer, guilt-filled children, and a loving widow.
ReplyDeleteI agree with everyone else's comments about the use of balance. I think that the balance represents an orderly society, which is completely opposite to the plot of the film. So, this lack aesthetic tension in a plot filled with dramatic tensions creates another juxtaposition, further emphasizing the contradictory film.
Threw the depiction of the positive and negative space, you see that each picture has a light and dark side to it. Representing good and evil. In all the pictures there is always black and white, with no gray almost as if it is showing that there is no common ground or understanding between the characters.
ReplyDeleteI think that the director wants us to see that everyone has an evil side to them, and thats all there is to the theory i think. Some people are good and some are bad and some things you do are good along with bad and the director explains that with the shadowing in the movie. i also think that the the lady in the end who took the brother and sister was never in a shadow, she was always in the light so i think the director is trying to tell us that the step father was in the shadow most of the movie, which means he is bad, and the lady at the end never got a spot in the shadow which means she is good and i think the director was trying to send a message saying that the kids will be just fine with this lady.
ReplyDeleteThe Night of the Hunter has much to do with balance and symmetry. In almost every scene of this movie, there is an example of the balance and symmetry we have been discussing in class. In many of the frame shots above, there is a balance of white and black. On both sides of each frame there is almost the same amount of white and black on each side. There is also much symmetry between not only the black and white, but also the objects shown in the frames. For example, the shot of the two houses. There is a house on each side of the frame and on both sides of the two houses, there is one tree to either side. This is one of the clearest examples of symmetry in the film. The close attention and near perfection in balance and symmetry creates tension for the audience that the other aspects of the movie doesn't. The fact that it the symmetry and balance is so perfect gives the feeling that something is very, very wrong. The high contrast also adds to that feeling of something evil.
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