criterioncloset:Black Narcissus (1947) dir. Emeric Pressburger & Michael Powell I love these
criterioncloset:Black Narcissus (1947) dir. Emeric Pressburger & Michael Powell I love these tags from @sendhelpimlost because in essence, the backgrounds in Black Narcissus ARE paintings. Classical art had a huge influence on this film. Older movies didn’t have access to CGI, green screens, or special effects to the degree that movies today do. So, to create unavailable landscapes/structures filmmakers used what is called a “matte shot.”Matte shots were originally composed by painting landscapes onto massive canvases that were placed in the background of a shot. As the technique was refined, filmmakers began to use “glass shots” in which landscapes or structures were painted onto glass that was then overlaid and combined with live action shots. Amazingly, Black Narcissus was shot almost entirely in a production lot. Powell and Pressburger even passed up the opportunity to shoot Black Narcissus on location. They believed they could obtain an even greater control over the color scheme and mise en scène of the film by using matte shots. The matte shots from Black Narcissus were painted by Walter Percy Day and Peter Ellenshaw. Their work in this film was inspired by the Dutch painter Johannes Vermeer’s landscape work. The matte shots in Black Narcissus were so impressive that the production designer, Alfred Junge, won an Academy Award for his work on the film’s art direction. Below you can see what the famous bell scene looked like before the matte shot was applied. -- source link
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