The Invisible Cut
Page 22
BO: As music editor Peric says of the movie, “Music plays a character in the movie itself. It has a role and it depicts who these people were, who they are now, how they related. It definitely has a function and, I thought, very well chosen.…”
CL: She’s absolutely right. Larry wanted the pop music to be a voice for the film, another character, something as big as the image on the screen. And if you analyze each of the songs, they meant something….43
†CL: We just started with a library of music, matching it against the scenes to find out which ones actually worked best rhythmically and thematically.… Larry and Meg [the director’s wife] actually researched songs, tunes that were popular before and including 1969 and of course they were the tunes I loved, hits you know that I loved when I was in college as well.44
†LK: There were some songs that had to be in, they were favorites of mine. There were others where we’d try one or two or three different songs and try not to comment on the action directly, but in some oblique way to support the feeling of the movie in that moment.45
This opening montage introduces all the characters in their various lives: Harold (Kevin Kline), Sarah (Glenn Close), Karen (JoBeth Williams), Michael (Jeff Goldblum), Meg (Mary Kay Place), Sam (Tom Berenger), Chloe (Meg Tilly), Nick (William Hurt).
The montage begins with:
A black screen with sounds of splashing water and a man and a little boy talking.
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INT. BATHROOM
Close shot of a boy in the bathtub playing with a toy. He starts to sing and the phone rings off screen.
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Close shot of Harold, who turns to the camera reacting, as the phone as continues to ring.
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Medium long shot of Harold in foreground, Sarah in background. She picks up phone on bedroom nightstand, her back to the camera.
SARAH
Hello?… Yes, this is Dr. Cooper.
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Close shot of the boy playing.
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Medium long shot. Sarah turns to a profile, hangs up phone.
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Medium two shot of the boy and Harold still playing, they look up, reacting.
FRAME GRAB #1
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Medium close shot of Sarah standing there, devastated.
FRAME GRAB #2
(Prelude to song: “I Heard it through the Grapevine” begins.)
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Close shot of a man’s bare calf.
FRAME GRAB #3
A man’s hands come into frame and pull sock up on calf. Pinstriped pant leg falls down just as the title The Big Chill appears over the pinstriped fabric.
FRAME GRAB #4
(Titles continue throughout this sequence.)
“Ooh, ooh, I…”
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Close shot of a coffee cup next to phone and woman’s hand playing with cup.
“…bet you’re wonderin’ how I…”
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Close shot of Karen sitting in her kitchen, upset. Camera pulls back to medium close shot.
FRAME GRAB #5
“…knew, ’bout your plans to make me blue with some other guys you knew before. Between the two of us.…”
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Close shot of a man’s hands buttoning up dress shirt.
FRAME GRAB #6
“…guys you know I loved you more. It took me by surprise…”
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Close shot of Michael looking down, also upset.
“…I must say when I…”
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Medium shot of Michael’s hands rummaging through a pile of papers.
“…found out yesterday. Don’t you know that I…”
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Medium long shot of Michael in foreground and his wife in background watching him get more agitated. She goes over and hands him what he was looking for, and hugs him.
FRAME GRAB #7
“…heard it through the grapevine, not much longer would you be mine. I heard it through the grapevine. Oh, I’m just about to lose my mind. Honey, honey…”
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Close shot of a woman’s red-nailed hands buckling man’s belt.
FRAME GRAB #8
“…well, through the grapevine [backing vocals: not much longer, would you be my…”
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Close shot of Meg looking upset.
“…baby. Ooh, ooh…”]
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Medium close shot of Meg’s hands throwing files into briefcase.
“I know a man ain’t supposed to cry…”
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Close shot of Meg. Camera pulls back to show Meg walking away from desk to window. She smokes, staring out at cityscape.
FRAME GRAB #9
“…but these tears I can’t hold inside. Losin’ you would end my life, you see, ’cause you mean that much to me.”
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Close shot of man’s hands tying shoelaces…
FRAME GRAB #10
Hand then rubs smudge off toe of shoe.
“You could have told me yourself that you loved someone else.”
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Close shot of Sam taking a drink, looking pensive.
“Instead I heard it through the grapevine,”
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Close shot of a tray as he sets down glass next to four little empty bottles of vodka.
“not much longer would you…”
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Close shot of Sam. He looks up as camera pull backs to show him in medium long shot and that he’s in first class — and that he’s reacting to stewardess standing over him.
FRAME GRAB #11
“…be mine. Oh, I heard it through the grapevine and I’m just about to lose my mind. Honey, honey, well… [backing vocals: “through the grapevine,”
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Close-up of stewardess smiling.
“not much longer would you be…”
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Insert of magazine cover in stewardess’ hands, which open it up to reveal Us Magazine with Sam on the cover.
“…my baby. Oooh, ooh …]”
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Close shot of Sam smiling, holding up empty vodka bottle and wanting more.
(Music continues)
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Close shot of woman’s hands on knot of man’s tie.
FRAME GRAB #12
Her hands slide tie knot up to neck.
“People say be-…”
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Close shot of Chloe’s face and bent knee. Leg comes straight up in air.
FRAME GRAB #13
“..lieve half of what you see”
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Close shot of pointed foot up in air.
FRAME GRAB #14
Foot comes down to join other pointed leg on floor.
FRAME GRAB #15
“Oh, and none of what you hear. But I can’t… “
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Medium close shot of Chloe in leotard. She turns and lies back, stretching her legs, then props herself up on her side and lifts leg up and down.
FRAME GRAB #16
“…help but be confused. If it’s true please tell me, dear. Do you plan to let me go for the other guy you loved before? Don’t you know that I heard it through the grape-…”
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Tight close-up of man’s upper forehead and back of brush.
FRAME GRAB #17
Brush smooths hair across forehead.
“…vine, not much longer…”
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Close shot of hands on car steering wheel, one hand holding lit cigarette. Pan over as the hand stubs out cigarette in car ashtray, then reaches into glove compartment to get one of two bottles of pills.
“…would you be mine. Oh, I heard it through the grapevine. Oh I’m just about to lose my mind. Honey, honey, well… [backing vocals: through the grapevine, not much…”
&nb
sp; CUT TO:
Close shot of car seat. His hand comes into frame, pops top and empties several kinds of pills onto seat and picks up two of them. Hand leaves frame.
FRAME GRAB #18
“…longer would you be my baby. Oooh, ooh] I know a man ain’t supposed to cry but these tears I can’t hold in-…”
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Close-up of Nick’s sunglass-covered eyes in rear view mirror.
FRAME GRAB #19
“…side. Losing you…
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Medium shot of back of black Porsche.
FRAME GRAB #20
Car drives away from screen until it’s in long shot.
“…would end my life, you see, because you mean that much to me. You could have told me…”
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Close shot of flat surface. Wrist and shirt cuff come down into shot. Then woman’s red-nailed thumbs enter shot and snap cufflink shut.
“.…yourself that you loved some-…”
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Close shot of woman’s hand holding man’s wrist. As she sets the wrist down, the cuff slides up to reveals three stitched-up slashes.
FRAME GRAB #21
Woman’s hand slides up cuff to cover the scars.
“…one else. Instead I heard it through the grapevine, not much longer would you be mine.”
The last credits roll and the shot dissolves into a long shot of a field, pulling back to show Harold staring out at it.
DECONSTRUCTION
Scene edited by Carol Littleton
Some montages, especially romantic ones, are primarily intended to depict mood and feeling. Because of this, the editing is often minimal, with the musical phrases remaining intact from cut to cut. (This was the case with the “Raindrops Keep Fallin’ on My Head” montage in Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid.) However, when a sequence conveys more information and story, the music and editing is usually less static, and more energized. The opening montage of The Big Chill is a case in point: it has an unusually dense narrative which, according to film editor Littleton, was “very carefully scripted almost shot for shot.”46
In an opening sequence, such as the one in The Big Chill, the way the main titles appear and are timed out also contributes a great deal to the overall effect — unless all the credits are saved for the end of the movie, which is the exception rather than the rule. As a result, the editor will carefully plan how both visuals and the superimposed credits work in tandem with the music.
THE CHARACTERS
CL: What Larry really wanted, one of the main themes in the film, is that the seeds of who we were when we were young are still with us when we’re older, and he wanted to show that from the very beginning. I wouldn’t call the credit sequence necessarily foreshadowing the whole film, but certainly each one of these vignettes gave you a very, very good indication of who the person was.
The editor had to establish a great deal about each character without the advantage of dialogue. The details about them also have to resonate, since they leave their lives behind once the montage ends and the movie starts. These introductory shots of each character are emotionally linked by some mysterious news that upsets them all, and they’re visually linked by shots of a mysterious male figure, who’s being dressed by a man’s hands and then by a woman’s. The opening montage stands apart from the rest of the movie as a unique kind of narrative that almost functions as a film unto itself. It even has a climax with a surprise twist, when the audience finds out that the body being dressed is a corpse, a man who has just committed suicide. The establishing shots of the other characters — which range from two to seven for each person — not only establish profession and lifestyle, but end up revealing some insight into each personality as the characters respond to the upsetting news.
Frame grab #1 sets up an affectionate father and son in very comfortable surroundings. Their reaction to wife/mother Sarah’s tear-streaked face (shown in Frame grab #2) sets up the momentum for the song and the spreading of bad news to begin. Sarah’s devastated reaction also sets up what we later find out to be the romantic involvement she had with the suicidal character.
frame grab 1
frame grab 2
When Karen is introduced, all we see is her manicured nails and wedding ring. In the next shot (Frame grab #5), she is sitting in her designer kitchen, looking upset and somewhat isolated.
frame grab 5
CL: With the coffee cup and the whole thing, I mean everything about that, you can read suburban housewife instantly.
The first cut of Michael shows him upset as well, the next shot establishes his messy writer’s desk, and the third shot (Frame grab #7) reveals his cluttered urban apartment and wife.
frame grab 7
CL: With Jeff Goldblum [Michael] I think you understand right away that his relationship with his wife is not particularly warm and she doesn’t accompany him [to the funeral]. And you get a lot of… who he is and the world he lives in.… He has big ideas about his life, but he’s never thoroughly engaged emotionally.
The first shot of Meg reveals a sadness more repressed than Michael’s. The next cut shows that she has files and a briefcase, and the subsequent shot (the “out” frame is Frame grab #9) shows the impressive city view from her office.
frame grab 9
CL: I remember this particular image [Frame grab #9]. We had it pushing in and pushing out. We had also panning over and panning off, so it was a question of which image size and what movement worked with that place in the song.
BO: Why does the pull back, or, as you say, the “pushing out,” which ends with Frame grab #9, work best?
CL: I think because she’s the one person who really wants to have what Sarah has, which is a career and a family. She’s a career corporate attorney, and it seemed wonderful to have the cityscape below her as kind of an anonymous thing.
BO: It feels very lonely.
CL: Yes, it’s very isolating and her back is to camera and obviously she’s mourning.
The first shot of Sam shows him being somewhat stoic, sitting in an airplane’s first class section (the “out” frame is Frame grab #11). Subsequent shots show that he’s on the cover of a celebrity magazine and that he’s boozing it up and flirting with a stewardess.
frame grab 11
CL: The Sam character is wonderful, because he’s a celebrity and he wants to make sure everybody knows.… The narcissism, it’s extreme.
Chloe and Nick, the next two characters who get the news, end up linked together at the end of the movie. The first shot of Chloe shows her tears flowing (seen in Frame grab #13); then we see that she’s doing stretching exercises in her leotard and tights (Frame grabs #14, #15 and #16).
frame grab 13
frame grab 14
frame grab 15
frame grab 16
BO: She not only has a gorgeous body, but we sense that her youth makes her more openly vulnerable and sets her apart from the others.