How is performance and cinematography used to convey messages and values in The Gold Rush and Double Indemnity?

Compare how performance and cinematography are used to convey messages and values in one film from the silent era and one film from 1930–1960 that you have studied. Give detailed examples from both films. [35]

- The Gold Rush and Double Indemnity

Both Charles Chaplin's 1925 comedy 'The Gold Rush' and Billy Wilder's 1944 film noir 'Double Indemnity' use stylised performances and cinematography to convey messages and values respective to each film's historical and production context, auteur ideology, and tonal approaches. 

As a silent film and master of non-verbal communications of comedy, Chaplin, in performing as his character 'The Tramp', uses primarily a slapstick performance style to communicate narrative, tone, and further his familiar and well-received idiosyncratic character with audiences. In his anchoring introduction against the establishing shot of the icy cliffs, exaggerated gestures, a spritely gait in out turned feet, and body language likened to that of a small child are used to establish The Tramp as an idiotic, childlike, and naïve character oblivious to his surroundings. Walking incautiously across the edge of an icy cliff, he waves his cane around and directs his attention to it, his facial expression pleasantly vacant, rather than towards the hazardous surroundings, nearly toppling off the edge as he turns the corner. Such carefully directed choreography creates comedy, the revelation of a bear following Chaplin an example of dramatic irony used frequently throughout the film on Chaplin's character to convey the message that the world is designed against him and that he is the constant source of an inside joke for the spectator. Despite these flaws, The Tramp remains triumphant within the narrative, such examples of his optimistically childlike mannerisms and expressions juxtaposed against his extreme poverty. This value is further implicated later in the film as The Tramp resorts to eating his own shoe in the face of irresolvable hunger. In the first of many visual gags, there is an insert shot of The Tramp's shoeless foot and the comedy is drawn out by exaggeratedly sharpening cutlery, stripping the nails like bones, and eating the laces like spaghetti with considerable care and attention. After taking a bite out of the shoe's sole, The Tramp looks and nods with wide eyes to fellow prospector Big Jim McKay in acknowledgement - oblivious to his confusion and bewilderment whose reaction functions alongside the spectators. Succeeding this, McKay imagines that The Tramp has turned into a large chicken, its size perhaps intentionally proportionate to his hunger as well as offering absurdist levels of comedy captured in wide shots to set the scene, and shot-reverse-shots as the tension increases via McKay's wide, manic eyes and expression. Such examples blur the lines between tragedy and comedy: perhaps such representations of hunger in a comical and light-hearted way derive from Chaplin's own poverty before stardom; to truly make fun of tragic events, one has to have experienced it. These values directly oppose the materialistic ideals and habits of the 1920s, though the fact that poverty and hardship is made comedic perhaps relates to a post-war need for escapism within audiences which Chaplin's films provided in the face of economic insecurity. 

In the 1940s, American film became more cynic in the face of war, and in addition to the limitations of the Hays Code, film noir messages and values are created. Double Indemnity's stylised, hard-boiled dialogue, such as between protagonist Neff and femme fatale Phyllis in their first meeting as they communicate in metaphors, crafts a subtext of sexuality to convey the prohibited messages within the scopes of noir without offending the production code.  Despite the usually cynical and hard-boiled tone in the film, comedy is used to convey messages and values relating to capitalism and class through a parodic representation of higher management. Protagonist Neff and co-worker Keyes are called to Norton's office, the 'big boss' of the insurance firm, to discuss the Dietrichson case. Norton suspects suicide, affirming his conjecture through large gestures, a booming voice, and higher status proximity to give an impression of cleverness, the dialogue, 'In fact I know I know', clearly emphasising how he knows little of the intricacies of the case. To further the mockery of this character, a hyperbolic rendition of the transatlantic accent then popular in Hollywood is used to craft a socially superior identity, and the contrast of vocal pace to Keyes further implies comedy. Norton dramatically draws out his conclusion against Keyes who rapidly fires statistics, using sarcastic, blue-collar metaphors like, 'you have the ball lets see you run with it'. Thus, Wilder through the contrast of performance to illustrate character in the form of, like The Gold Rush, dramatic irony on Norton, conveys messages and values that the hard-working and largely unappreciated nature of the lower and middle classes compared to the upper classes whom with their dramatic tones and expressions, are something to be laughed at.

Because the limits and possibilities of cinematography were not yet realised in film's relative infancy, many of the performances in The Gold Rush are captured in ELS, LS, and MS with minimal camera movement. However, this serves to showcase the slapstick performances - a style in need of space to choreograph scenes often in one take - and thus many scenes have a staged feel, whereby performances are performed theatrically to convey character to the audience in the absence of sound. Therefore, a great relationship is formed between cinematography and performance to tell a story, and in this film's case, convey its comedic value. For example, in the film's apotheosis, a comedic setup is exposited as The Tramp and McKay sleep, unaware that their cabin is tilting off the edge of a cliff from the storm overnight. As The Tramp wakes, he stumbles and rubs the frosted window, repeatedly gesturing to his head to indicate a rough sleep before assorting the cabin interior; the cabin tilts, edited in an exterior LS, as he walks to the opposite side and tries to gain balance in outstretched arms still gesturing his head, setting up the dramatic irony. McKay suspects the off-balance in gesturing weighing scales, though The Tramp gestures to his stomach to further the comedy. Gradually, in swapping sides which maintains balance, they realise a tilt and a choreographed sequence is shown through the long-take static wide shot of the two as they lean together centre frame and subsequently fall, large flaying arms and exaggerated reactions performed to indicate this extreme distress and rising tension, The Tramp's theatrical over-reaction ensuing multiple gags as he burns himself twice. He imposes a composed persona to appear calculated in biting his nails and gesturing to indicate he believes the ground is unstable, comedically stating the obvious. Theatrics are conveyed as he throws himself against the door and hangs off the edge of the cliff, dramatically grasping his chest and failing to stand to convey extreme anxiety. As the cabin tilts, the camerawork changes to MS Dutch angles to simulate the environment. The characters cautiously cling to the floorboards with alert facial expressions, an insert shot of the cabin being supported by a small knotted rope increasing the tension. The impacts of wealth are emphasised as McKay escapes the cabin, finding his claim, and The Tramp is forced to re-divert his attention for his life to be saved: in an ELS, he jumps out and the narrative thread is concluded. The values of economic success and achievement are prevalent throughout the film, and the need for this for relationships to be formed: now, the pair's conflict has ceased, and The Tramp is rewarded with the Proppian Princess Georgia. The change to tracking shots once McKay and The Tramp evidently have gained wealth encoded (a Stuart Hall theory) in their elaborate costumes conveys the message that respect is gained when hardship is rewarded with economic achievement, though of course, this is contradictory considering Chaplin's character acquired this through sheer luck rather than hard work, perhaps the desirable ending for a 1920s audience whereby materialism was generally behaved and sought for. 

Contrasting to the distanced framing of The Gold Rush, Double Indemnity often uses close and personal perspectives to comminute messages of subtext such as through the use of the applicable Mulvey male gaze upon Phyllis in Neff's first encounter with her. Framed from a low angle, Phyllis stands angelically top-lit in a towel, compositionally obscured behind a railing. Neff removes his hat as a code of respect and heating up as a code of attraction to her contrasting against his direct and pushy attitude towards her maid, conveying the value of misogyny in noir: Phyllis' body is dissected by Neff's gaze, represented as she stands in front of the mirror and his eyes are doubled on her, and the camera takes part in this objectification in a tracking shot of her coming down the stairs, lingering on her ankles before resting on her face. Thus, from Neff's male perspective, women are only valued when they offer overt sexuality, though this is later critiqued as too much sexual empowerment in women equals corruption as Neff is seduced to commit murder, and Phyllis is punished. Casting, like in The Gold Rush for Chaplin's comedy to land, is important for this message of sexuality to work, Stanwyck's conventional attraction combined with her hard-boiled performance compatible with the femme fatale archetype (Vogler). This relationship between cinematography and performance conveys the noirish message of sexuality with its underlying values of misogyny suited to its 1940s context, whereby women's culturally changed roles from war perhaps provided this male insecurity against the sexually powerful femme fatale during the film noir period. 

Both films use the power of cinematography through lighting and angles to convey messages relating to character; this lighting often becomes an externalisation of the character's emotions. For example, both utilise examples of chiaroscuro lighting, more frequently in Double Indemnity to convey the noirish aesthetic, though in The Gold Rush, it is exampled as the Tramp is left alone on New Year's Eve. The solitary static shots of the Tramp, small in the frame, emphasises his disconnect and loneliness that contrasts the energy captured in the group shots within the partying dance hall. The Tramp listens at his door to the music in a poignant side-profile close-up, his expression subtly melancholic with a slow tilt of the head downwards illustrating this isolation abnormal to his characteristically spritely performance. The Tramp looks through the window of the dance hall, an extreme chiaroscuro contrast of light etching the outlines of his silhouette while he remains mostly in darkness. The fact that his facial expression, a fundamental aspect of his character, is obscured from view is thus significant in conveying his detachment, lighting an externalisation of his emotional state. Similarly, the opening of Double Indemnity conveys noirish values of criminality relating to Neff's corrupted state in its aesthetic darkness through low-key lighting, intense shadows, and concealing framing. In the credits, a silhouetted Neff walks slowly towards the frame, his crutches creating a rhythmic gait as a sense of impending doom is foreshadowed as he walks closer to the frame, finally filling the frame in darkness. The following sequence establishes this sense of dark anonymity; the establishing high-angle shot captures a car racing through its night-time streets, a stop sign filling the majority of the next shot to emphasise the driver's criminality. Compositionally, a row of streetlights offer a symbolic pathway of light, this made significant as the driver chooses to exit the car, Neff's figure emerging, the camera remaining behind to construct anonymity as it tracks in a high-angle. As Neff walks through the insurance company building he works for, the camera moves over the railing in Neff's POV to reveal empty offices - a Barthes semantic code connoting his intended seclusion -, transitioning to a distanced low-angle shot of Neff walking towards Keyes' office, an iconic double shadow cast connoting that he is entering darkness as well as being followed by it. Inside the office, Neff's backlit shadow dominates the focus of the frame as he stands in the doorway, the camera tracking his movement as he sits to record his confession of murder, Venetian blinds characteristic of noir - connoting a fractured identity - cast on him as he sits. Such examples of chiaroscuro, and stylised lighting in both films are contrastingly utilised to convey messages relative to each context of character: the criminal and dark values of Neff in the exposition of the flashback narrative and the significantly altered Tramp, the close-up cinematography poignantly used to convey dramatic loneliness, the film choosing to show this in a factual light rather than under its comedy, this further emphasising the importance of relationships within the narrative to achieve success, evidently the preferred reading of the film (a Stuart Hall theory). It is interesting to evaluate the effects of pursuing wealth in each film, with The Gold Rush anchoring and achieving the 'American dream' while Wilder rejects it, preferring a cynic outlook on materialism, as verbalised by Neff, 'I killed him for money and for a woman, and I didn't get the money, and I didn't get the woman'. Film noir shows the desire and lust for wealth, status, and greed, and the necessity to trade morals for this ambition as shown in Double Indemnity; The Gold Rush, perhaps as a comedy film, or perhaps as an escapist fantasy for its 1920s audience, paints this dream as an achievable reality despite the overwhelming odds. These differing values present the oppositions: the idealised America versus the dark 'reality' of America. 

The hard-boiled performances and stylised cinematography of Double Indemnity convey the cynic, corrupt and seedy intensity of noir as post-war values and a rebellion against production codes. The expressive slapstick performances captured in wide frames create a stage for exaggerated performances in The Gold Rush, functioning under its comedy genre though with a sensitive underlying level of tragic pathos to convey messages about hardship, poverty and hunger. Thus both use their respective performance styles and cinematography for their tonal approaches and convey messages and values relative to each context.