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The use of different film speeds and slow stylized camera movement also appears
designed to increase viewers' awareness of cinematic artifice and to draw emotions by
casting a lyrical quality on to the images. The following sequences exemplify the
development of a lyrical effect through the slow motion device. One scene shows Shandurai
pressing herself against the wall of the landing in the attempt to avoid meeting Kinsky, but
she drops her dustcloth which slowly descends like a feather down the stairwell and lands on
Kinsky's head, who stops and returns the cloth with a cheerfully impish expression. The slow
motion used for the cloth's descent lends the mise-en-scene a lyrical quality which is
enhanced by the use of neutral colours: the white of the cloth, the cream of walls and steps of
the staircase, the soft daylight. On the one hand, the slow motion effect represents a poetic
pause in the tension created by the fact that their communication is still somewhat stilted; on
the other, it symbolizes the fact that Kinsky's world view has become more light-hearted and
relaxed.
A remarkable lyrical effect is achieved in the scene depicting Shandurai "s subtle
awareness of her situation in the form of a daydream. An extreme close-up of beer foam
being stared by Shandurai, suspended on the rim of a glass, turns into an extreme close-up of
the foam of soapy water. Slowly, the frame enlarges to gradually include a bucket, Shandurai,
and an increasingly large portion of the entrance floor that she is washing with radial
movements, so that the space takes a circular shape. Then the camera tilts upwards and, by
slowly retreating from her, it shows more of the stairwell, which creates the impression that
Shandurai is enclosed in the house like an insect trapped in a carnivorous flower. Through her
rhythmic movement and blank gaze, she appears charmed by Kinsky "s music as it fills the
stairwell, and this enhances the sense of estrangement from reality that the whole sequence
cues. By contrast, slow motion is also used by Bertolucci to emphasize a moment of drama.
The technique intensifies Kinsky's emotions, literally evoking an impression of him being
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