"The Art of Rearrangement: Touch of Evil’s Second Long Take and the Aesthetic of Fluidity" -- Special Issue: David Bordwell’s Contributions to the Study of Film.
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Contrary to common opinion within film scholarship, viewers experience inconspicuous mobile long takes as no more engaging, immersive, or continuous than scenes with cuts. Their primary aesthetic benefits, if any, lie in the transitions between different arrangements of camera positions and mise-en-scène elements. We should think of the mobile long take as a type of transition device with some distinct aesthetic benefits: Whereas cuts typically toggle between discrete stagings, long takes with camera and character movement enable spectators to observe one staging rearrange into another. Touch of Evil’s second long take has none of the self-conscious virtuosity of the film’s famous opening shot, yet it was as carefully choreographed and difficult to stage. Analyzing the shot helps us determine whether inconspicuous mobile long takes add aesthetic benefits to a film. Such shots may offer no benefit, but, if they do, it’s primarily in the transitions—when, right before our eyes, objects rearrange into multifarious, visually interesting, unpredictable, organic-seeming, and narratively meaningful movements of the camera and mise-en-scène.
