Tuesday 23 February 2010

Stairways; Sirk Style




Same shot, same Mise en scène, repeated by Douglas Sirk after 20 years. First in Accord final (1938) made in Germany, and then in Written on the wind (1956), made for Universal. In both cases a longing look, a gaze, at the top of the spiral staircase, is observing his/her predestination. Walking out means changing lives. The spiral forms and high angles from Expressionist films to Vertigo were evoking a sense of fatal destiny, facing the oblivion and entering the world of nightmare, and here Sirk takes these elements into his personal realm of melodrama.


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