An Introduction to Film

to the realism of such European directors as Jean
Renoir. French film critic André Bazin emphasizes
that deep-focus cinematography “brings the spec-
tator into a relation with the image closer to that
which he enjoys with reality” and “implies, conse-
quently, both a more active mental attitude on the
part of the spectator and a more positive contribu-
tion on his part to the action in progress.”^6 In
preserving the continuity of space and time, deep-

focus cinematography seems more like human

perception.

Toland also understood that a scene involving

deep-space composition did not necessarily have to

be shot with deep-focus cinematography, as he

demonstrated in William Wyler’s The Little Foxes

(1941). Perhaps the best example is found in a scene

in which Regina Giddens (Bette Davis) confronts

her severely ill husband, Horace Giddens (Herbert

Marshall), a man she detests for his overall opposi-

tion to her scheming brothers and their plan to

expand her family’s wealth by exploiting cheap

labor. The sequence takes place in their parlor after

256 CHAPTER 6CINEMATOGRAPHY

1 2

3 4

Use of deep-space composition in The Little Foxes

At the climax of William Wyler’s The Little Foxes(1941;

cinematographer: Gregg Toland), Horace (Herbert Marshall)

responds to his wife’s tirade [1], begins having a heart attack,

and rises [2] while Regina (Bette Davis) remains rigidly in

place [3], offering Horace no help as he staggers to his death

in the background, helpless and out of focus [4].

(^6) André Bazin, “The Evolution of the Language of Cinema,” in
What Is Cinema?trans. Hugh Gray, 2 vols. (Berkeley: Univer-
sity of California Press, 1967–71), I, pp. 35–36.