Perhaps he’s talking about the other great sequence shot in Touch of Evil, the one that tends to get overlooked? The stifling claustrophobia of the motel interrogation scene – shot with a crane through multiple rooms with breakaway walls – is every bit the dazzling technical achievement of the famous opening. But I prefer the ones that don’t, that conceal themselves.” There was no way of not doing a kind of virtuoso shot that announced itself. But that, by its nature, had to show it, because it told the plot. “I always resist compliments about that opening shot in Touch of Evil – because it’s one of those shots that shows the director making ‘a great shot,’ and I think that great shots should conceal themselves a little bit. It’s not the longest single take in movies – it’s not even the longest single take in this movie – but it’s the one we all remember, much to Welles’ disappointment: It’s the long take the characters in Robert Altman’s The Player (1992) talk about, as they move through an even longer one of their own. It’s what people talk about when they talk about sequence shots. It’s what people talk about when they talk about Touch of Evil (1958). One of Orson Welles’s most iconic sequences. The one cited as one of the great opening shots in cinema. It opens with a bang, but not straight away. Touch of Evil is back in cinemas now, including an extended run at BFI Southbank.Īn Orson Welles season runs at BFI Southbank from July-August 2015.
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