GRGR(18): Notes on the first episode

[Mark Wright AIA]

Howdy

--- Jeremy Osner <jeremy at xyris.com> wrote:
>p. 385 "Caligari gloves": is there a connection here to Wiene's The
> Cabinet of Dr. Caligari? I am told Siegfried Kracauer's book From
> Caligari to Hitler is an excellent resource for understanding German
> cinema -- however it went right over my head.

Thinking about little things, here, as Nabokov would have us do:
The violet stripes which run in a fan from wrist to knuckle would be
aligned with the gaps between the knuckles, rather than be aligned with
the fingers.  This would tend to make the hand appear to separate into
its constituent bones, and would be creepy creepy creepy.  Were the
stipes align with the fingers themselves, they would not support this
illusion.  There is no telling, I suppose, how the color violet would
appear on the various German black&white film stocks of the period.
(I've heard, for instance, that the shocking red gown Bette Davis wore
in Jezebel was actually black.  And that makeup that looked fairly
natural on film could be quite weird looking in reality.)

> p. 388 "wipes": I am assuming this is some kind of film terminology.

Tis.  The famous "cinematic wipe" is a method of changing from one
scene to another by sliding one image across another.  Difficult to put
into words, but clear if you've ever noticed it.  I bet the old Adam
West "Batman" TV show used it a lot.  

> p. 388 "Lüneberg heath": near Bremerhaven.

Does Luneberg mean "moon mountain"?

Mark
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