Tag Archives: Conrad Hall

Two Great Moments from The Day of the Locust (John Schlesinger, 1975

February 28, 2021UncategorizedBurgess Meredith, Conrad Hall, Day of the Locusts, John Schlesinger, Karen BlackNotesonFilm1

Eavesdropping at the Movies will be podcasting on John Schlesinger’s fascinating The Day of the Locust, so an evaluation of the film in greater depth will follow. For now, I just want to signal two moments in the film that I found beautiful and that I’d like to go back to:

The first: Faye Greener’s wishes, shot through with darkness and gorgeously back-lit by Conrad Hall. By the end, Karen Black appears with a halo as her face falls into shadow; Greener a saintly character clearly already lost and headed to murkier pastures:

The second: the glorious little tap-dance Burgess Meredith chooses for his ex-vaudevillian character, now reduced to selling door-to-door but giving the day a bit of uplift with his heels:

José Arroyo

Jeff Bridges Swoon in Winter Kills

November 22, 2020Uncategorizedbefore Brad Pitt, Conrad Hall, Jeff Bridges, John Huston, male bodies, to-be-looked-at-ness, Winter KillsNotesonFilm1

It’s interesting to note how William Richert eroticises Jeff Bridges in Winter Kills:

In contrast to Fat City, where he’s half naked throughout the movie, boxing, and John Huston/ Conrad Hall avoid eroticising him completely. Did they even think to?