We kick off our second season talking about one of our favourite films, Fail Safe, and its extraordinary use of contrast not just as an aesthetic, but as the guiding philosophy behind the whole film. Sidney Lumet’s nuclear thriller employs endless contrasts: between dark and light, fast and slow, loud and quiet, abstraction and realism, and the life and death contrasts of nuclear war and its ideologies. All this contrast adds up to a one-of-a-kind nail-biting experience, and we’re here to walk you through how so much of the film’s construction centers on that one unifying concept.
In this episode, we discuss:
The definition of contrast, including a primer on what it means for a digital display to show high-contrast imagery
Why Fail Safe is a fitting project for an approach that emphasizes contrast.
The many, many ways the film indulges in the idea of contrast, including its script, its sound, its visuals, its edit and a myriad of other details and techniques.
The importance of “formal arcs” in movies (with some harsh words for Judgment at Nuremberg).
Why acting performances don’t always get worse when they’re obscured by shadow or objects.
If you’d like to support the show, here’s a link to our new Patreon.
Additional Resources:
Films and video games discussed during this episode:
Dr. Strangelove or: How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Love the Bomb (1964)
12 Angry Men (1957)
Seven Days in May (1964)
Judgment at Nuremberg (1961)
Wargames (1983)
Defcon (Video Game, 2006)
