The viewing of Clytemnestra was surprising for me in more ways than one. I have always been told by teachers that the camera can never truly capture the essence of movement or that it has a tendency to diminish the power of movement. This was not the case at all with the PBS performance of Clytemnestra.
Even if the camera did decrease the intensity of the dancing, it does not change the fact that the VHS version remained captivating, that it did maintain the spirit of the choreography, and that it was able to carry the emotions of each character/dancer across the screen to the audience.
The success of the film in its telling of Graham’s Clytemnestra resulted from two main factors—the high caliber of the dancers’ performance and the skillful manipulation of cinematic techniques. The dancers’ honesty and physicality not only in their bodies but in their faces as well made the characters on-screen three-dimensional and alive for the viewers. The brilliance of their performance did not come as a surprise to me; what did come as a surprise was the cinematographer’s ability to render depth in a two-dimensional medium. The sizes, the transitions, and the angles of the shots used were largely responsible for the story-telling.
And yet, despite the camera’s triumph, the film is not perfect. In the uses of the different angles and sizes in the shots, the audience receives details, depth, etc. However, what the viewers do not receive is the bigger picture- literally and possibly figuratively. In the VHS version, we often did not have the panoramic view of the ballet, as we would if the ballet was performed live on a proscenium stage. While we get the little details, such as a little twitch of an eye, we miss the much of the action between the characters. Since there is often more than one character onstage, a constant dialogue exists throughout the ballet, whether it is character-to-character or even character-to-set.
In a narrative where the relationship is so important in propelling the plot, I wonder how much of the whole story we are missing while focusing on the details. During the close-ups of individual characters, we don’t see the progression of the plot in one whole moving tableau but rather in fragments. Furthermore, we see fragments that have been chosen for us. While our eyes can travel wherever they wish to during a live performance, they have their limits with a film. Every shot that plays before a film audience has been pre-selected to evoke particular emotions and to essentially shape our interpretation of the film.
