Film Breakdowns - Laura (1944)

Film Breakdowns - Laura (1944)

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

Laura is the story of a young detective investigating the disappearance of a girl names Laura, but falls in love with her portrait. Is she dead? Not when she comes back, surprising everyone.

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

Let's get started!

As the left character is being separated and isolated by circumstance and increasingly suspected of a murderer, he is seen literally separated by a pillar. The framing shows his disconnect with the other two men as he feels isolated from the world around him.

 

 The framing makes him look small which is a reflection of how he feels. He is always in the frame taking a rigid position just as his character is doing in the story. Their body language says more than words ever could. Their positions in the frame and their facial expressions say it all.

The couple in silhouette coupled with them being in the centre of the arch is symbolic of their captivity in the story. Being alone in a film noir usually means that you will be shown within a frame in the frame like a doorway or a window, like here. 

Laura’s picture in the background is great framing, it shows the hold which this murder victim he’s never met has on him as she is seducing him just by her magnetism. The portrait also carries with it a sense of unease, like she is watching which is a little unsettling. 

 The darkness and silhouetting of the detective shows his emotional low as he comes to question Laura about the murder. He’s fell in love with her so it’s hard for him to accuse her of it. The darkness is like a darkening of his heart as he crumbles from within.

 

The hard shadows and high angle make him seem very shady and ominous. From this high angle, it shows us he is a smaller version, a shadow of who he could be. He must feel a heightened sense of things. Like a mouse running about a house, he is sneaking - one with the shadows and the darkness in his soul.

His last few moments of life after being shot are shadowed by the painting of Laura in the background. The shot shows the hold and power that woman had over his psyche, even near to death. As if crawling towards his precious Laura, the desperation is the only thing keeping him alive, the grasp of something he can't have.

The broken shot clock is like the shattering of the bond between Laura and the murderer as it’s the only thing they shared. He had one and she had the other and it’s destruction is like the realisation that he destroyed what they had, and who she was supposed to be was entirely different than who she was. It carries a kind of poetic irony in a way.

Laura is a great film which I urge you to watch if you haven't seen it. It's a thrilling mystery of murder and betrayal. It's about not letting go of what out grows you. It's about love and commitment to a woman, even if you haven't met her. It's about the danger of beautiful women and the uncertainty that comes with living a high profile life. It's about the hold that woman can have over men and about how far men would go to keep her. 

It's a great film and a joy to watch.