American Spaces in CinemaWhen I think of films that convey and capture the USA, I’m most inspi
American Spaces in CinemaWhen I think of films that convey and capture the USA, I’m most inspired or moved by those scenes that concern not only a particular location or dramatic setting, but those instances when we see how Americans move, dress, converse, and otherwise comport themselves in those spaces. I’m also intrigued by how a filmmaker captures (sometimes accidentally) the energy and ambience of a drugstore, a library entrance, grocery store aisles, ball parks, an office lobby, or suburban sidewalks, porches, and driveways.Even a picture as slight as Divorce American Style is an anthropological/geographical study of suburbia, circa mid 1960s. It’s a prototype narrative that would very soon be codified by such iconic Americana as “The Brady Bunch” and columnist Erma Bombeck, but visually the whole affair is a time capsule, with sunny L.A. suburbs and some fabulous American automobiles made all the more lovely by Conrad Hall’s pointlessly gorgeous cinematography. Even the McDonald’s looks fantastic.Likewise, The Birds is—on purpose or not—a compact travel guide to a gorgeous but now vanishing California coastal area, while Over the Edge casts a mere housing development as the grim dystopian sprawl that was only imagining its reach in the late 1970s. American Graffiti captures a charming small town downtown as we will never see it again. As does Shadow of a Doubt.I have placed examples of all this into groups. Some of these pictures might not seem at first to be the kind of work that would usefully convey the American landscape (metaphorical, spiritual, or actual), but there are definitive scenes in each which leave us with a memory of a place, as opposed to a series of human events.The Great American WestGiantNorth by NorthwestDays of HeavenZabriskie PointBad Day at Black Rock Southern Fried:The Heart is a Lonely HunterWhite LightningThe ApostleNorma RaeIn the Heat of the NightHome from the HillWild River Small Town USA:The Last Picture ShowPeyton PlaceThe Best Years of Our LivesShadow of a DoubtSome Came Running At the Corner of Alienation and Disillusionment:Sometimes A Great NotionRachel, RachelSave the TigerSmileAvalonJunebugComing HomeJunior BonnerAdam at 6 A.M.Donnie DarkoThe Master Nightmare on Any Street:Invasion of the Body Snatchers (1956)The Stepford WivesHalloweenThe Day the Earth Stood Still (1951)The BirdsClose Encounters of the 3rd KindThe Fog Where the Sidewalk Blends:Taxi DriverThe Seven-UpsSaturday Night FeverOn the WaterfrontThe WanderersPanic in the StreetsSummer of SamDeath Wish Hello Teenage America:American GraffitiBreaking AwayOver the EdgeThumbsuckerGhost WorldThe Virgin SuicidesSuburbia:The Bad News BearsStrangers When We MeetDivorce American StyleAmerican BeautyLittle ChildrenThe Open Road:The Grapes of WrathThen Came BronsonDrugstore CowboyPaper MoonThe Gypsy MothsSugarland ExpressTwo Lane BlacktopCorporate Landscape and Interiors:The Man in the Gray Flannel SuitOffice SpaceSave the TigerSweet Smell of SuccessThe Apartment -- source link