Here's looking at you...

[threemonkeys]

TCM are having a bit of a Chandler thing going on at the moment. I watched Bogart and Bacall in The Big Sleep yet again. It is a classic piece of cinema based on a classic book with the added spark of the on-screen magic of Bogart and Bacall together.

But the next movie on, made the following year, was lady in the Lake starring Robert Montgomery as Marlowe. Despite coming from the same era and being based on another classic Chandler novel, I have never seen this film before. It is the first time I've even seen it advertised anywhere. You want to know why? Because it is almost impossible to watch that's why. The whole thing is shot in a first person perspective - all the action takes place as seen out of Marlowe's eyes. You only get to see Marlowe in the mirror or in some straight to camera overview dialogue. It is very clumsy, very stilted and does not work at all. Hardly surprising that this technique doesn't get rolled out very often - last time I saw it was a M*A*S*H episode when they were getting desperate for ideas.

Its interesting, first person is pretty common in novels - the novel The Lady in the Lake is told in first person. So why does first person film not work and is consequently about as common as second person novels?

Comments

[stephen_dedman]

The M*A*S*H episode worked pretty well for me, in part (I think) because the viewpoint character had an injury that left him mute and largely immobilized. I suspect most viewers find it much too disorientating when a viewpoint character speaks with what obviously isn't the voice they're used to hearing in their head: it becomes more like second person PoV in fiction than first person.

[threemonkeys]

Ah yes, I get what you are saying. I'd been thinking that the visual aspect was what drove the strangeness, but you are right, the "voice" is key.