Sound of Music's 50th: Austrian Alps and Julie's Face

In honour of the 50th anniversary of the world premiere of The Sound of Music (and truer to the actual anniversary date than the swell but superfluous tribute belted by Lady Gaga at the Oscars), The Film Experience's Nathaniel Rogers has made the beloved musical the latest subject of his perennial "Hit Me With Your Best Shot" series -- always an Oscar off-season treat!

While the last two months of Oscar blogging have sapped much of the life force from my typing fingers, I have strength enough for this. How could I pass it up? The film sits comfortably within my top 20 all time, and is arguably the most durable relic of a now extinct studio culture that used to churn out lavish musical adaptations with a regularity comparable to the production of superhero movies today (I was clearly born in the wrong decade... sigh).

Director of Photography Ted McCord received the final of three career Oscar nominations for this movie, and considering that said movie was a record-breaking, Best Picture winning smash hit boasting breathtaking Alpine scenery as its backdrop, some might find it surprising that he didn't win. Admittedly, it'd be tough for any Academy member not to vote for Freddie Young's jaw-dropping widescreen cinematography in Doctor Zhivago that year, but it isn't hard to imagine McCord's splendid mountainscapes running a respectable second.

The most famous of these high-altitude shots will be, for many, the defining image of not only the film, but of the entire musical genre;

The sight of Julie Andrews spinning around the hilltops -- and trying nobly to avoid being blown over by the downdraft of the helicopter blades -- as the camera pushes in from hundreds of yards away, has rightfully earned its place as the most ravishing entrance in the cinematic headcanon.

And yet as unforgettable as it is, I'm not quite sold on it as the "best" shot of the picture. After all, McCord spun real visual magic with his interiors as well...

Hit Me With Your Best Shot: Aliens

Nathaniel Rogers' Hit Me With Your Best Shot series over a The Film Experience is examining the strange goings-on on the planet LV-426, which I'm sure you'll recall is the setting of James Cameron's wicked 1986 sci-fi actioner Aliens. Cameron and DP Adrien Biddle concocted arresting images too numerous to count for the film, but for me, there are a select few standouts:

The reveal of Stan Winston's mother alien in all her slimy glory is heart-stopping to say the least, and makes a great gasp-inducing start to her tense staredown with Ripley. A nice companion shot to the one above would be this similarly back-light image of Ripley and her weapon of choice, a mechanical loader, on the cusp of the her most cited quotation, "Get away from her, you bitch!".

But the real money shot is that of young Newt in peril, trapped in a flooded corridor, initially unaware of the sinister tail emerging from the water behind her. I jumped clean out of my seat the first time I saw this, and it still gives me shivers to this day.

Hit Me With Your Best Shot: Beauty and the Beast

Shame on me for having not taken more initiative to partake in Nathaniel Rogers' “Hit Me With Your Best Shot” series over at The Film Experience this year, but when I heard his next subject would be Walt Disney Pictures' Beauty and the Beast, quite simply the best film to ever come out of the storied animation studio, I could no longer merely spectate. The movie is a visual splendour from start to finish, and picking a favourite shot came down to one of three choices:

Once upon a time, in a far away land...

This sequence of slow push-ins that open the haunting prologue immediately recall Citizen Kane, drawing us ever closer to the unknown subject of our intrigue; in this case, a series of stained glass tableaux depicting the Beast's woeful backstory. Less obvious and more fleeting than the pretty colours and angular window art that quickly grab our attention is the architecture and sense of space communicated by those two early wide shots, providing a brief but necessary contrast to the stifling Gothic environs that dominate the first half of the film. We've seen Eden, so now we actually have an appreciation for the simultaneous isolation and congestion of the Beast's personal hell:

As the sun will rise...

Even for a film with the word “beauty” right there in the title, I can't overstate how beautiful it is! There are literally dozens of shots I could include for their sheer gorgeousness, but I decided to pick one representative. And it's probably the most obvious choice:

Seamlessly rendered with what were, at the time, revolutionary advancements in computer animation, this majestic “crane” shot stands out as the visual apex of the film. As much credit should go to Alan Menken and Howard Ashman's lovely title tune, but unlike every other shot in the film (which work to fit the music), this one actually elevates the power of the music, and elevates us too along with those soaring strings. It's no longer just a pretty ballad, but a perfect synergy of visual and musical stimuli that yields a genuinely emotional effect.

I wonder why I didn't see it there before...

But my favourite shot is not the most artistically accomplished or visually impressive one. Instead, it's one that's easy to overlook; one of those rare, subtle details that went over your head as a child, but that just make you glad you've revisited it as an adult. In the charming musical number “Something There”, the Beast tries – a tad too aggressively – to feed some birds. With Belle steadying his arm and soothing his ambition, he manages to get one bluebird to overcome its reluctance and fly into his hands:

This quick and simple metaphor for Belle (her being the only denzien of her poor provincial town to sport the colour blue) defeating her prejudices and coming to trust in the Beast is not dwelt upon too long, nor of any real significance to the plot, but as a more discerning adult viewer rewatching a childhood favourite for the first time in years, it was this moment that made me realize Beauty and the Beast was more than simply an enjoyable piece of family entertainment, but a thoughtful and nuanced piece of cinema as well.