The Lady From Shanghai Theme

The Lady From Shanghai is one of the great classical film noir, which was directed by Orson Welles in 1948 and he adapted it from the novel called If I Die Before I Wake by Sherwood King in 1938. The theme of this movie is about conspiracy and murder, it tells a story of the intrigues between several characters and finally to the terrible collective madness and death. Even though this film only takes 87 minutes, every scene composition and camera movement, including the movie lines is unforgettable and memorable to me. For example, the surreal view of grotesque close-up, Chinese theatre montage, the crazy house and so on. Moreover, after watching The Lady from Shanghai again and again, I always have brand-new feelings and different understand
As the movie began at thirty forty-nine seconds, Michael tells a fable about sharks in the dark deep sea try to eat each other and the whole ocean for the "savage beast" provides a fundamental performance space. Michael says, “You could sell the death reeking up out of the sea. I never saw anything worse until this little picnic tonight.” His shark tale just as the death of prophecy hanging over these conspirators. In my opinion, the boat on the ocean is the symbol of dangerous in this film, just like the sea full of sharks and they are the sharks that kill themselves. During this four-person scene, Elsa, Bannister and Grisby sit on the same side, the shot switches between Elsa and Michael several times. Although Michael could get out as an outsider, but the other side as Rosalie Knight (in the beginning of the film, he gave Elsa princess named Rosalie), he wants a Romance. So a station and a switch can represent the position of Mike clearly. The most interesting thing is before this scene; Elsa already predicted this unchangeable result with a Chinese proverb “Human nature is eternal. Therefore, one who follows his nature keeps his original nature, in the end” as bedding for the whole story covered Isaiah mystery. In general, people consider the sea adventure should be romantic and poetic. Nevertheless, as a great classic film noir, The Lady from Shanghai has the high pursuit and it would not satisfy the vulgar Hollywood style, which is the
However, the plot and cinematography still draw my attention. After I analysing the four scenes, which is opening ocean scene, the shark tale scene, Chinese Theatre scene and crazy house scene in the essay, I found that even though the story of this great movie is simple and easy to understand, the theme of The Lady from Shanghai still worth audiences to think deeply and also watch again and again. Furthermore, it is not only is a classical movie but also like a book that people can collect and you will have different feelings every time you read