Film Breakdown - The Maltese Falcon (1941)

Film Breakdowns - The Maltese Falcon (1941)

To become the best, we have to learn from the best. 
 

The story of a detective trying to make heads and tails of a plot involving the retrieval of a priceless Maltese falcon, mixed together with the usual dousing of deception, betrayal, mystery and struggle with the darker sides of the human psyche you would expect from a film noir.
 

Let's begin breaking down my favorite frames from the film that encapsulate what I think are some of the pivotal points of importance in the story. 

Let's get started!

That wonderful moment when the helpless and frail female lead comes in. So tiny and dominated in the frame. Or more like, that's what we're supposed to think. She is being towered over by the detective in the shot, showing us not only what we are supposed to think about the woman, but how she presents herself to others.

Being shot by a mystery man or woman off screen? This is a great example of how the most important thing happening is something we don't see. The man being killed is simply a formality. In the sense of the story, his life means nothing. The thing we are interested in is the person behind the gun. Who is it? Why are they hidden?

The mirror shot. A conversation conducted through a mirror. Pretty much every film noir has this in some form or another, even neo-noir's have this. With this shot we get to see the delivery and reaction to every line of dialogue and both characters body language in one shot.

In this frame, we the audience are literally shown in the form of Samuel Spade. we, like him are observing this conversation between the woman and man. We are observing him in the act of observing. This turns it from being a simple observation to being a valuable piece of information. 

Shots like this are so film noir, they're lovely. The intrusive detectives barging in is highlighted by them pretty much pushing the man off frame and are looming over him in higher. The low angle, even though subtle adds to this feeling of supremacy.

The meeting of 2 men of equal strengths in an unspoken but obvious game of wits. There is a lot going on in this shot from the cage like light rays on the wall behind the man on the right to the foreground glasses being a subject of attention.The low angle and framing make for a gorgeous shot.

This is the moment when the hero of the movie, Samuel Spade, reaches his death and rebirth moment where he is betrayed and ends up being knocked out and wakes in the dark room. It shows perfectly the darkened state of the tone of the movie at this point.

 

This shot does a wonderful job of separating the hero and his enemy. This is also a good analogy for storytelling in general as the villain, is always the dark side of the hero, his polar opposite, yet the frightening alternate possibility for the hero's character should he defect from his path.

Another example of people looming over someone to show their dominance exaggerated by a low angle. As the audience, we are also surrounding the man in the foreground, so without even knowing it, we are also playing a part in this display of weakness vs strength.

Our hero finally releases the hold the woman has on him and does what's right and send her off to jail.

 

On the left, he pushes her off the frame as to forcibly remove her from his mind. On the right, even thought she is crying in the background, like Samuel, we don't care as we and he have see through her games. Samuel is the central subject, he is who we want to see and like him, want to see what's right done and have her punished for her sins committed in the film.

Our sense of justice and karma as an audience has to be satisfied otherwise we will feel cheated and that the film is incomplete. We end on the satisfying frame of seeing the femme fatal put behind bars. They show us that all ends have been tied, wrongs have been corrected and justice will be served.

Those are my favourite shots from this amazing film, I highly recommend anyone who hasn't seen it to do so. It is a classic and an absolute joy to watch. The beauty of old films like this is that they didn't have colour, expensive 3D cameras, special effects, green screen or any technology to use like that. They had to make do with film cameras, lights and microphones and painted mattes, and films were more creative because of it. Great actors, characters, cinematography and storyline. What more do you need from a film?