The Brief

Watch this famous scene ‘The Long Take’ from Goodfellas directed by Martin Scorsese in 1990: www.youtube.com/watch?v=OJEEVtqXdK8

Don’t read on until you’ve answered the following questions:

1. What does this scene tell you about the main character?
2. How does it do this? List the ‘clues’

Make some notes in your learning log.

What does this scene tell you about the main character?

From the first frame of this scene, we see a generous man. The initial shot is of a hand passing a money tip to another hand with what we initially assume to be the main character thanking the other person. It transpires from the dialogue that this man is going to look after his car with him citing that it was quicker than fighting through the crowds at the end of the night.

The shot essentially follows the man and his companion from a close distance behind them as they walk through the back door of the club, down stairs, through the kitchen and eventually into the main space. The whole scene is set to the song Then he Kissed Me by The Crystals (1963), which is a description of a romantic encounter told from the perspective of the woman. The song tells a story of a man taking control of the encounter that leads to a relationship and eventually marriage. Although a love song, it’s difficult to get away from the ‘he did this, he did that…and then he kissed me’ theme of male ‘confidence’. The lyrics to the song and ‘the tip’ are the first clue that this man is of some importance with some power associated with it.

How does it do this?

As the shot progresses, the next clue is that at each internal doorway on their journey, the couple are greeted by doormen, who each receive a tip from the man. He also refers to each by their first name, which suggests that his presence is somehow regular and revered. This theme continues as the shot progresses with each person they come into contact being greeted jovially by the man, but not the woman – she is largely anonymous in the scene. The way the shot is created, the woman’s face is never seen in any detail for any length of time, contrasted against the man, who regularly looks either way and even back toward the camera. This effect makes the viewer almost forget that she is there.

As the action moves through the kitchen, everyone that they pass acknowledges them in some way, either directly or just with a look. Then another clue to his importance, or rather the viewer’s lack of importance is seen. A chef carrying a large red box of ingredients enters the frame from the left and passes between the camera and the couple. He moves away to the right hand side of the frame continuing his journey.

This use of space between the camera and subject both enhances the natural perspective of the sequence as the couple make their way through the kitchen, as well as putting a division between the viewer and the subject. The chef doesn’t walk in front of the man, but doesn’t hesitate in walking between us and him, thus setting the tone of our relative importance to one another.

When the couple make their way into the club, they are greeted by groups of men who are arranged in a way that suggests they are part of some organisation or gang. The manager instinctively signals to some waiters who bring table and proceed to set it up in a space in the busy dining room. This whole scene is observed by everyone present and we hear the manager rebuking someone who protests because they were also waiting for a table. This build-up of clues makes the man go from merely a generous patron who may know the staff, to someone with much greater significance. His treatment by the manager and staff isn’t asked for at any point in the scene, it just happens.

More people are introduced to the man but not the woman, further emphasising his importance. The scene draws to a close with a bottle of wine being brought over with compliments of a man called Mr Tony who we see when the camera pans left. He is surrounded by men who we assume to be bodyguards or associates. The final sequence shows a stand-up comic beginning his act. The act begins almost immediately after the couple sit down and the woman asks the man what he does for a living, another sign that things wait for the man. She asks in a way that suggests that they don’t really know each other and with an air of surprise at the deference shown by everyone they encounter on their way into the club.

Scorsese shoots this scene in a very particular way, with each element being relevant to the meaning he is trying to create. The long following shot itself suggests a man who leads the way, his girl by his side being directed in her every move by his hand. The shot moves through he areas of the club that wouldn’t normally be seen, the back-of-house areas like the kitchen. His walking through this space with confidence and the staff reactions to him elevate the main character in our minds to someone of great importance, both in terms of power and also in their lives. The club is lit with very subdued lighting, which coupled with the groups of men gathered at tables suggests an establishment where all is not all it seems. Goodfellas is a gangster movie, so by dressing the men in business suits with some wearing sunglasses (inexplicably), Scorsese creates a sense of underworld. The deep red colour of the club suggests that this is perhaps Hell where monsters live, which all plays into the aesthetic of the underworld. It’s a very cleverly shot sequence that keeps us looking at this important man without any changes in perspective or field of view, which builds his character from being a generous patron to someone of great significance in the space of a few minutes.

Tableaux Photography

We’ve already been introduced to Jeff Wall through his photograph Insomnia (2008), which is an example of a carefully crafted scene. The photograph contains only the elements that help add context to the subject and in turn build the narrative in within the viewer. In his exhibition at Tate Modern in 2005, Wall was interviewed about his work in an article by the museum called Beyond the Threshold[1] in which he describes his approach to working. The picture that the interview focuses on is View from an Apartment (2004-5). Form this image, Wall rented an apartment that up until then had been occupied by a young couple. He wanted to create something that was inherently interior while also containing some exterior as most his photographs of living spaces tended to rely heavily on the former. His choice of apartment had a view across one of the harbour areas of Vancouver and would make a good set for his image. In a way similar to the directors and the mise en scene, the art of tableaux photography builds a set, dresses and lights it and finally adds the subjects or actors. In this case, Wall dressed the apartment with items he had collected from other photographs as well as things one would normally find in a living space.

The actors were a woman that Wall hired specifically and her friend. Choosing two actors creates more of a sense of daily life in the scene, even though it’s not clear that these women are partners in any way. The apartment is littered with evidence of their lives while the ironing board and laundry suggest some action that might be thing place. The woman who isn’t ironing is completely disengaged from the rest of the room and all that is going on around her, preferring instead to read her magazine. What is interesting about this shot is the fact that everything in the apartment was put there by Wall in an almost cinematic way – when the interviewer went to see this set, she was asked to be careful not to touch anything in the scene[1].

Wall’s approach to meticulous planning and executing of his images stems from his not wanting to photograph something that is happening in a documentary or snapshot style, but to recreate a memory of something that interested him[2]. When I think about this approach to photography, I am drawn to the fact that Wall is remembering a story, in the same way as someone telling us or watching a movie. He makes a mental note of the details of the story and then tries to recreate them in his photography. I wondered if that act of reflection and recreation actually makes it easier for Wall to tell a story as our minds have the ability to add of fill in any details we may have forgotten. Wall states in an interview [2] that his photographs are what is left of a story when the words that describe them are stripped away, that is taking away any context or intent and letting the story tell itself. I was fascinated by this idea that as well as creating something that is a representation of an event, Wall is also invoking the emotion of the memory of the event, adding his perspective on the image through the way it is constructed. Like diCorcia he isn’t trying to dictate the narrative as he sees that as the responsibility of the viewer, but his feelings visibly run through the work. The previous example of Insomnia is a powerful telling of the horror of not being able to sleep and its effect on the human emotional state – this ties in with the general tenor of his work as director and screenwriter for his own dramas.

Conclusion

I found this exercise interesting because it does highlight the similarities and differences between moving pictures and stills when it comes to telling a story. Scorsese’s scene builds the story as it rolls through, leading eventually to the realisation that the character is powerful, mysterious and living a comfortable but dangerous life. By contrast, Wall’s narrative has to be derived from a single visualisation of the story, meaning that the photograph has one chance to get the information across. Wall achieves his work by the act of not photographing initially, but observing the scene and remembering not just the details, but what interested him in it to begin with. The act of recreation tells Wall’s story with the artist controlling how we consume the information in the frame by careful use of the elements of mise en scene. This is definitely something to consider throughout Part 5.

References

[1] Wagstaff S, 2005, “Beyond the Threshold: Jeff Wall”, Tate Modern, https://www.tate.org.uk/tate-etc/issue-4-summer-2005/beyond-threshold

[2] S.F.M.M.A., 2010, “Jeff Wall: I begin by not photographing”, Interview, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2yG2k4C4zrU