Movies in which the viewer is assailed with rapid-fire shots of a car chase from every possible angle seem to be losing momentum, replaced by more controlled, some even say, more “sedate,” editing that utilizes the art of the long take.
This was the case with the 2005 film, Capote, a part biographical, part imaginative rendering of the famous writer’s trip to Kansas to research the murder of a family for his nonfiction novel, In Cold Blood.
In “The Making of Capote,” the director, Bennett Miller, talks about the film’s distinct style, describing it as anything but sedate.
“It’s controlled and composed,” says Miller. “It’s designed to sensitize you and bring you to the edge of your seat.”
The long take, expertly utilized in Capote, is an excellent device in portraying the spacious plains of the West and Middle America, which are often overlooked in favor of the more grandiose “purple mountain’s majesty.” Indeed, not every view of my particular region of the high plains is greeted by a swell of trumpets. From the windows of the school bus during my hour-an-a-half commute to a low, penitentiary-style school, I saw pieces of a world both profoundly ugly and cruelly bland curving around the road like the ash-flavored shell of particularly foul, yellow candy that was the bus and its passengers. But then, I wasn’t in the mood to appreciate beauty.
The aesthetic of the West requires a highly sensitized appreciation of space and of long, quiet vistas. Sometimes, awe for such places takes time to cultivate.
Tourists stopping at the Crowheart Store on their way to Yellowstone Park often ask the clerk, “When does it start getting pretty?” I’d guess that to the 100 residents of my hometown of Crowheart, it had been pretty all along. More accurately, they were alert to the type of beauty that, in a movie, might be accompanied by a few soft piano notes if anything at all.
Juxtaposed with the New York party scenes in Capote, the Kansas footage (actually shot in Canada), with its metal skies and silent grain elevators, seems especially beautiful. But maybe it’s just me.
Perhaps that is why the film was fairly monochromed and lacked vibrant colors. Good observation!
Thank you! You’re absolutely right–the DVD’s special features go in-depth about the bleak color palette that was chosen for the movie.