Tuesday 9 March 2010

The Night Of The Hunter (1955)

Director: Charles Laughton Starring: Robert Mitchum, Shelly Winters, Lillian Gish, Peter Graves. Producer:Paul Gregory Screenwrite: James Agee Story: David Grubb Composer: Walter Schumann

The Night Of the Hunter is a 1950s film dealing with good and evil. The lead character Harry Powell is a schizophrenic preacher 'possibly the devil himself' who relentlessly hunts two small children across the depression era. The beginning of the film sees the children's father steal money and stuff it into the daughters doll, of which she carries every where, the children are sworn to secrecy as their father is carried away to prison. It is in prison the preacher hears of the money and works his way into the town community and on to the children's house hold with their mother. Murdering their mother the children run away and the story follows them hiding from the preacher. They seek refuge far down river in a widowed wmans home who takes them in and protects them. Harry eventually finds them and the widow heroically guards the house at night shooting Harry as he attempts to get the children. The ending is happy one of christmas at the house with quotes from the bible of childhood and happiness.

In the images above we particularly liked the used of lighting and shadows to explain the story. This is the part of the story where Harry the preacher has just found the house where the children and their mother live. The boy is on guard by word of his father and is protective of his sister Pearl. The composition of these shots uses the street lamp silhouette of Harry passing through the children's bedroom window. The shadows fill the frame playing with a light and the boy is aware someone is watching them. Shadows are something to consider with the dramatic shapes and form of Marko Mitanovski clothing, the silhouettes are striking and may work in the story. 


In the above scene of the film Pearl starts to like Harry and wants to tell him where the money her father stole is her brother wills her to keep the secret. Pearls frustration is shown as she one by one pulls petals off a daisy. We really liked this concept to show frustration or sadness in destroying a flower, it is something we will test out and play with to see if it works in the composition. We don't want it to become to cliche though.

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