I just watched The Life and Death of Colonel Blimp the other day. I have known about it for many years because it’s one of my father’s favorite films, but I had never watched it all the way through before. My mistake.
It’s terrific, as are most of the films by The Archers (Michael Powell and Emeric Pressburger), and I highly recommend it.
Anyway, about half way through there is a remarkable scene in which Anton Walbrook, as Theo Kretschmar-Schuldorff, describes why he left pre-WWII Germany and came to England. I won’t bother spoiling the story with a long description of the speech that couldn’t possibly convey its emotional impact. But he delivers it in a beautifully simple and understated fashion in a single, unbroken shot that lasts three minutes and sixteen seconds. The camera pushes in slightly to a tighter close-up of his face at one point, but otherwise it barely moves. It’s absolutely gripping.
Can you think of any other movies that include a powerful acting performance in a long, unbroken shot?
It doesn’t have to be one person. There’s a long dialog sequence between Keith Carradine and Genevieve Bujold in Alan Rudolph’s Choose Me that pans back and forth between the two of them (not always focusing on the one speaking) in a way that’s pretty interesting. But it doesn’t have the same emotional power as the scene from Colonel Blimp, and wasn’t intended to.
Note that I’m not looking simply for long shots, like the famous ones that open A Touch of Evil, The Player, or Bonfire of the Vanities. Or for emotionally powerful soliloquies with conventional editing. I’m looking for strong acting performances in a long, unbroken shot.
We’ll take it as read that at least one scene in Hitchcock’s Rope belongs in the category, since it is made up entirely of 10-minute continuous shots.
Alfred Hitchcock’s Rope was famously put together from a very few shots. He probably would’ve made the whole film in a single shot if he could have, but he was limited by the amount of film on a roll in the camera. There are several emotional single-person speeches in it, especially Jimmy Stewart’s last one.
The movie Paris, Texas, based on Sam Shepherd’ script, has one long scene at the end, which the whole film seems to build up to. It’s been years since I’ve seen it, but I recall it being a single shot. I may be wrong.
I think Charlie Chaplin’s speech in The Great Dictator is a single shot.
In Pulp Fiction, Christopher Walken has a wonderful long monologue in which he talks about a watch. I haven’t seen the movie recently, but I recall this as a single-shot scene. Christopher Walken has such a strangely compelling way of talking that it’s almost hypnotic.
How about the rape sequence from “Irreversible”? The whole movie is a series of long shots, but that one in particular–wow, took a lot of guts and moxy and is incredibly hard to watch.
There’s a scene in *Hannah and her Sisters * where Hannah’s younger sister (played by Barbara Hershey) is moving around her apartment, a bit distraught, trying to avoid Frederick, her touchy older lover, who eventually catches up to her and realizes she’s been with another man. The scene must last five minutes. It’s always amazed me. Mind you, I’m not very savvy. Maybe there’s a splice or two in there.
Ohhh, dude, yes! I can’t remember how long it’s been since I first saw this, but pure brilliance. If I wasn’t in love with David Hyde Pierce before that, I had to be afterwards.
Speaking of Ian Holm, The Big Night ends with a really cool, long scene that seems to be from one camera. Tony Shalhoub, Stanley Tucci and Marc Anthony. No dialogue.
Russian Ark (Russkii Kovchek) is one 90 minute shot, with the actor Donstov wandering in and out for the entire time. It is a stunning cinematic accomplishment.
Thanks for all the responses. Obviously, I wouldn’t have asked the question if I had encyclopedic knowledge of all films, so I’ll look some of these up.
Remember that I’m looking for both a strong performance, and an unusually long, single-camera shot. It’s a little tricky, because if the performance was memorable and the film was well edited, a good monologue may feel like a single shot, even if it wasn’t. But it’s a rare director who will hold a shot for a long time without a reaction cutaway or some other edit. And a rare actor who can carry such a shot.
Quint’s monologue from Jaws, for instance, includes several takes of a minute or so, which is extremely long for a modern film, and a great performance by Robert Shaw, of course. It seems a natural candidate. But there are several edits within the scene, so doesn’t quite match my criteria.
As for the scene from Frasier, it doesn’t fit my intent at all, since, although it may have been filmed in a single take (but I doubt it), it was shot conventionally with multiple cameras. (Also, it’s not all *that *funny, IMHO.)
Thanks for The Great Dictator, CalMeacham. The entire speech is 3:45, although it includes one edit that I think allowed Chaplin to splice together two performances without a jump cut. If not for that, it would be a perfect example of my criteria, but it’s pretty close. Pssssst: I mentioned Rope in the OP.
James Cagney in One, Two, Three had a long–and very fast–scene where he basically did a soliloquy of organization around a professional crisis. It was very funny and very well done. Couldn’t tell you how long the shot is, but I think other people do interact (so technically it’s not a soliloquy).
Adolph Caesar had a long monologue with moving camera and lighting, and no breaks that I can recall, in Chaeles Fuller’s A Soldier’s Story. It’s definitely a powerful scene.
I also wanted to mention the Big Night omelet scene… but I was beaten to it twice. It’s very, very memorable. Small acting. No big gestures. Huge emotions, though. It’s really something else.
Not to mention, making an omelet like that takes additional awesome skill on top of the acting.
I’m pretty sure I once read that for the filmed version of My Fair Lady, Rex Harrison could not pre-record or lip synch his performance of “Accustomed to Her Face” as is usually done in movie musicals and had to perform it “live” in a single take. It might even be done with a single camera, but I’d have to watch it again to be certain.
