Laura
A psychological and somewhat dreamlike journey into the strange detours of desire and the power that derives from the composition of the life and death drives. As Waldo puts it at the end: “And thus, as history has proved, love is eternal. It has been the strongest motivation of human actions throughout centuries. Love is stronger than life. It reaches beyond the dark shadow of death.”
As Danny Peary points out, Preminger’s “fluid camerawork” is already in evidence here, and it places emphasis on the things with which we surround ourselves in order to assemble a kind of cocoon of symbolic significance, “carpets, curtains, shelves, books, artifacts – anything that helps the viewer determine the cultural, financial, and intellectual standing of his characters” (1982, p. 199). As he also points out, “the conflict comes from Preminger mixing together people who don’t match” (ibid.), each caught in their own cocoon but wanting and needing contact with someone, anyone: Laura, Mark, Waldo, Shelby and Ann, all of them are marked by this kind of isolation and desperation; the women knowing or denying that their sexual attraction is not directed towards virtuous men; the men afflicted by jealousy, impotence and the desire to possess.
In short, a very interesting and well-made movie, and in some ways it is a kind of precursor to VERTIGO (1958). Yet there is something in me that is drawn to the almost forgotten DAISY KENYON (1947) more than to this famous “classic”, perhaps because Preminger’s later film is about characters who are all caught in same kinds of problems but are wanting and trying to work it out. In LAURA, it’s just a matter of the audience enjoying the deceitful and manipulative twists and turns of creatures caught in a hopeless web of their own weaving; in DAISY KENYON, it’s a question of the possibility of reinvention. Less sexy, perhaps, but more generous, which is rarer, and ultimately more fascinating.
As Danny Peary points out, Preminger’s “fluid camerawork” is already in evidence here, and it places emphasis on the things with which we surround ourselves in order to assemble a kind of cocoon of symbolic significance, “carpets, curtains, shelves, books, artifacts – anything that helps the viewer determine the cultural, financial, and intellectual standing of his characters” (1982, p. 199). As he also points out, “the conflict comes from Preminger mixing together people who don’t match” (ibid.), each caught in their own cocoon but wanting and needing contact with someone, anyone: Laura, Mark, Waldo, Shelby and Ann, all of them are marked by this kind of isolation and desperation; the women knowing or denying that their sexual attraction is not directed towards virtuous men; the men afflicted by jealousy, impotence and the desire to possess.
In short, a very interesting and well-made movie, and in some ways it is a kind of precursor to VERTIGO (1958). Yet there is something in me that is drawn to the almost forgotten DAISY KENYON (1947) more than to this famous “classic”, perhaps because Preminger’s later film is about characters who are all caught in same kinds of problems but are wanting and trying to work it out. In LAURA, it’s just a matter of the audience enjoying the deceitful and manipulative twists and turns of creatures caught in a hopeless web of their own weaving; in DAISY KENYON, it’s a question of the possibility of reinvention. Less sexy, perhaps, but more generous, which is rarer, and ultimately more fascinating.
Mini Review: A psychological and somewhat dreamlike journey into the strange detours of desire and the power that derives from the composition of the life and death drives. As Waldo puts it at the end: “And thus, as history has proved, love is eternal. It has been the strongest motivation of human actions throughout centuries. Love is stronger than life. It reaches beyond the dark shadow of death.”
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