Scrooby's Musings

[Scrooby]

Three Dolly Zooms, and Why

1:00


30:29


1:32:44

(Is this the Dolly Zoom of longest duration in the history of Hollywood cinema?) The shot is 1:31:40-1:34:58.

Why? Rainer Werner Fassbinder. Example : 26 Dolly Zooms in Berlin Alexanderplatz (1980), Episode 1 :

1. (1:27–1:39)
2. (1:47–1:57) 
3. (3:47–3:50) 
4. (4:10–4:18)
5. (6:19–6:23)
6. (24:25–24:34)
7. (24:57–24:59) 
8. (35:30–35:42)
9.  (37:09–37:17)
10. (37:47–37:47) 
12. (47:12–47:18)
12. (50:46–50:53) 
13. (51:41–51:55) 
14. (53:51–54:09) 
15. (57:21–57:24)
16. (59:16–59:20)
17. (59:21–59:26)
18. (59:28–59:34)
19. (1:07:02–1:07:09)
20. (1:07:22–1:07:54) 
21. (1:08:21–1:08:41)
22. (1:10:42–1:10:48)
23. (1:14:18–1:14:31)
24. (1:17:24–1:17:29)
25. (1:17:37–1:17:43)
26. (1:09:19–1:19:14)

[Scrooby]

Cyril : "Accept her invitation, if you can stomach it." (48:58)

A word of multi-resonance in this mushrooming narrative.

Cyril : ancient Greek (κῡ́ριος) for Master?!

[Scrooby]

On the calligraphy of the title Phantom Thread.



00.

"All writing or lettering is a form of drawing." Frederic Goudy, Alphabet and Elements of Lettering (London : Constable, 1963), 24. See also Nicolete Gray, Lettering as Drawing (NY : Taplinger Publishing, 1982).

0.

Good news : "Intellectual activity dismantles the simultaneity of spatial structure." / Rudolf Arheim, Visual Thinking (Berkeley : University of California Press, 1969), 238.

1.

Lettering : key items to consider : size, weight, width, form, placement, posture.



(a.) Oppositions between letters.

Opposing directions : P with h in "Phantom"
Opposing directions : T with h, and h with r in "Thread"

These oppositions skew the elegance : an instability to noble poise.

(b.) Oppositions/anxieties within letters.

P : irregular : the thickness of its swell with respect to its other (thinner) stroke-details (e.g., stem, head serif).

h : the cramped width of its curved leg.

Cramped : Note how the "bowl" (the open space) of the o has less of a swell than the bowl of the a. Is this uncommon? See, say, Hoefnagel's lower-case alphabet of the 1590s. More generally, do more charts of the miniscule alphabets of European history contain more instances of a more-open "o" than "a"? Theory : yes.

(c.) Optical Volume

"The combined appearance of the spacing between letters is called Optical Volume" / Frank J. Romano, The TypEncyclopedia (London : Bowker, 1984), 100.



The Optical Volume here—the widths of interspaces between the letters—is seemingly composed of different dimensions, generating uneasiness.

(d.) Thematic

r : the long spur approximates a slender thread. And . . . ? A reaching out? And . . . ?

(e.) Serifs

Opposition : letters with serifs mixed with letters without serifs (h; t, m, r).
Opposition : the rectilinear serifs (P, T) with the jaunty curved swashes (e.g., d) and endings (e.g., a).

We might say this penmanship is "dual" : both "masculine" (rectilinear) and "feminine" (curved).

(f.) Verdict : Schizophrenia.



2. Note the visual noise.

"As psychologists have so often pointed out, the serifs are not merely decorative. They connect the effects of irradiation ('visual spead'); and in any passage of consecutive print, they contribute appreciably towards the horizontal movement of the eye." / Sir Cyril Burt, A Psychological Study of Typography (London : Cambridge University Press, 1959), 9.

Using the above quote as a guide, may we theorize that this title card contributes to a feeling of eye-whirling Vertigo?

Note the knots.

And the infinity sign : a separate stroke? Duality : The ornamentation surrounding "Phantom Thread" is not the product of one elegantly elaborate stroke, but two.

3. Closer detail

The dot finishing the head-serif of the T : the P does not have one. Asymmetry.



4a. Final Verdict

Schizophrenia. Visual Noise. Entrapment. Asymmetry. The set of relations here create an uneasiness amid the elegance.

Artist William Hogarth definied the wavy line of calligraphy as the "line of grace". Here, the lines of grace contribute to a knot.

4b. Final Verdict

"De Divina Proportione" : Fra Luca de Pacioli (1400s) believed in mathematically-designed symmetry in designing letterforms. / See his alphabet in Stanley Morrison, Pacioli's Classic Roman Alphabet (New York : Dover Publications, Inc., 1994).

The title card of Phantom Thread does not convey the vibes of "De Divina Proportione".


5. Other books consulted

Michelle P. Brown & Patricia Lovett, The Historical Source Book for Scribes (London : The British Library, 1999).
Lee Hendrix and Thea Vignau-Wilberg, An Abecedarium (London : Thames and Hudson, 1997).
Edward Johnston, Writing & Illuminating, & Lettering (London: A&C Black, 1994).
Edward Tufte, Visual Explanations (Cheshire, CT : Graphics Press, 1997).

6. Bonus

Kierkegaard, Journals : "The whole human existence . . . is merely the consequence of a false step."

[Scrooby]

The cinematographer's subtle purple ambience (note door at extreme left) helps to express the garment : its vibe suffuses the air of the frame : the characters inbreathe its magic (adspirate meis).

The cinematographer also accords the purple of the drapes with the garment. Compare their color value with this earlier shot :

[Scrooby]

Eyelights of the Muse

Like a 1930s Hollywood cinema camera.

[Scrooby]

Bresson? Bergman?



Phantom Thread, 1:11:15

[Scrooby]

Viri



Phantom Thread, 1:12:20.

vir = male.
declension (genitive) : viri

viri = also genitive form of virus

Meaning? There is an inescapable etymological association between the words "virility" and "poison", and an originary link is a word for "slime" (e.g., say, stromatolites, protoplasm).

This chucklesome contrast recalls the etymological association between "marriage" and "grief" in ancient Greek (κῆδος).

[Scrooby]

[Scrooby]

The surplus that allows the Creator to surpass.

[Scrooby]

Oppenheimer (Hughesian-beginning) : "Who'd want to justify their whole life?"

Citizen Kane (end) : "I don't think any word can explain a man's life."

[WorldForgot]

1:32:44

(Is this the Dolly Zoom of longest duration in the history of Hollywood cinema?) The shot is 1:31:40-1:34:58.

Per HACKANUT, this dolly zoom has been compared to Inherent Vice's Coy Harligan in Topanga Canyon dolly zoom. Inherent Vice's iz longer.

"59:18 to 1:03:48... 4 and a half minutes "