Wednesday, June 19, 2024

Shadows, Chinatown

Far be it for me to accuse so renowned a filmmaker as Roman Polanski of inadvertence in his craft. He is, after all, a rapist and so a great filmmaker. I'm sure it is just me confused by a creative genius. However, but. I do not see method in this. While poring over scenes with the eyeglasses (you really did not handle that theme, if that is what it was, well, Polanski), I noticed this, in the scene where Gittes confronts Cross over the glasses:

That's at 2:21:23. What is that streak on Gittes' face? It looks like blood. What is it, Polanski?  So I looked at some more.


 It's the shadow of the eyeglasses. You can see the nose bridge on Gittes' face. 

I went back, here to 2:01:19, four seconds before. No shadow before Gittes takes out the glasses.


I went a few seconds after, when Gittes puts the glasses away, 2:01:27.

Shadow, poof!

So the light source casting the shadow would have been slightly to Gittes' right. You can see, Gittes' face is darker than Cross'.

So my question is, as the cops say to the suspect, "I know you did it Polanski, I just want to know why."