Bigger Than Life

This is a still from Nicholas Ray's "Bigger Than Life" (1956). I just love this film. First of all, the reason why I love it because it has a subversive way of using the new format of that time, CinemaScope. It wasn't a western nor a musical but a domestic thriller. By using the format CinemaScope, it has a feeling of commenting and criticizing on Hollywood mainstream productions...
In this particular scene, as the child, Richie is interrogated by his father, James Manson, on a series of mathematical questions, the shadows in the room are looming, oppressive. We can see there is a red lampshade nearby. And Ed bends over Richie from behind, his shadow on the wall is immense. Usually, Ray's use of mise en scene is subtle but even the average audience could not fail to notice this effect. It is hardly surprising that the poor boy can't think straight.
Jim Jarmusch who was Ray's teaching assistant during his time in New York University argues that whenever James Mason's character becomes delusional or psychotic, the light level are low. They are lit from beneath because of this light source. The shadows are projected unusually high. When he gets the miracle drug and is feeling good again, the light sources go back up, and everything's seems okay. These technical aspects of filmmaking affects the film emotionally. I am very much interested in the narration hidden in the narrative. The light source that Jarmusch discusses is on the left side of the frame and the shot is lit from a practical light. Therefore the source and the motivation of lighting is in the frame and has a place in the story. They are not non diegetic.


Lou, the mother comes in to make a triptych, hierarchically arranged, Ed the tallest, Lou to his side, Richie seated.
In that sense, Ray is considered to be the most progressive filmmaker in his use of wide screen in the 50's. His compositions are controlled and powerful. Charles Barr admired Ray's technique within the wide frame, calling it "completely natural and unforced". He argues the fact that Ray was able to achieve a "greater physical involvement" by revealing a "more vivid sense of space" within the CinemaScope frame.
Ray's films and use of CinemaScope also influenced Cahiers du Cinéma writers and filmmakers.
Jean Luc Godard said: "There was theatre (Griffith), poetry (Murnau), painting (Rossellini), dance (Eisenstein), music (Renoir). Henceforth there is cinema. And the cinema is Nicholas Ray." In Godard's film, Contempt, the character played by Michel Piccoli claims to have written Ray's Bigger Than Life.