After viewing this, it’s pretty hard to argue with the notion that one-point perspective was an obsession for Kubrick:
I found this via a commenter’s link in the Facebook Film Noir group, in a discussion of a still photo from Kubrick’s second feature, Killer’s Kiss. In most (all?) of the scenes captured in the above video, the one-point perspective takes place on a two-dimensional plane: the camera is aimed at the horizon, and the vanishing point is correspondingly horizontal from the viewer. Killer’s Kiss includes lots of other examples of that convention: alleys, warehouses, and so on. In this shot, though, he’s added a third dimension — you’re looking down, as well as across — making the moment even more vertiginously (and subconsciously) tense. Especially with the checkered tile, railings, and wall mouldings, it’s like looking into a shark’s mouth:
I love seeing this sort of thing.
Sarah Vogel says
My husband and I were fortunate enough to see the Kubrick exhibit that recently closed at the Los Angeles County Museum of Art. This video is a nice addition to all that I learned while viewing the exhibit. Thank you for posting.
John says
I’m jealous, Sarah. That looks like it was TERRIFIC. (And for anyone else who might’ve missed it, you can sorta-kinda experience it from a distance here at the LACMA site. I’m very, very tempted by the smartphone apps they made available for iPhone and Android. :))
Thank you so much for stopping by!
The Querulous Squirrel says
Fabulous hypnotic shot.