Analysis Reflection #4 Question. 3

Question 3.
“From a distant gaze …” (1964) directed by Jean Ravel, picture Pierre Lhomme & Chris Marker, words by Louis Aragon, narrated by Jean Negroni, music by Michel Legrand. Describe a few things that intrigue you – it might be shot construction, camera work, editing, overall structure, thematic concerns etc. Describe the camera work and why you think it has been shot that way.

Some things that intrigue me from From a distant gaze 1964 are firstly the way they chose to show humanity and the hustle and bustle of the city in between moving vehicles. The camera is obviously following the people on the street but have chosen to show them from across the road with vehicles constantly blocking the viewers from seeing the people. The editing is considerably quick with cutting of one scene to the next however it the viewers can’t really tell the shot has changed until they see that the people within the shot have. The editors have made a conscious decision to stop and start the cuts on the movement of the vehicles.
Another thing that intrigued me was as soon as the narrator started to speak the footage of the people was no longer interrupted by vehicles moving in and out of the frame. The camera now shows the hustle and bustle of the street but we now see the hustle and bustle of all the people focusing on their faces close-up.
The camera follows the people but is not necessarily following any one in particular we don’t see people enter and leave frame as much as the camera tries to follow them all moving around.