Wonderful Absinthe

Film Review by Dean Duncan Jun 1, 2015

More dramatic uncertainty. This drinker does a funny little contortion, that works very well. He promptly leaves frame with it too. And the camera stays comfortably in place, while the remaining characters look with interest beyond the frame line, past our vision. Given the Lumières’ basic camera immobility you suspect that Guy and friends weren’t doing any radical framing here. It’s still pretty interesting—radical implications remain, regardless of what the intent might have been.