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A for Adultery – The Scarlet Letter 73 Fig. 10: Caught in a web or condemned to the wheel – An Iconographic Reference (The Scarlet Letter). Fig. 11: German woodcut from the Middle Ages (exact date and creator unknown).
74 Transition and Transformation Stylistic Devices A question that remains is, then, whether these thematic elements, which are consequently expressed in the mise-en-scène of the film, also appear on the level of cinematic devices such as the dissolves that we have shown to be Sjöström’s most characteristic stylistic feature? In the second reel, as Hester has been put in the stocks while people are passing by, a sign above her head indicates the nature of her crime. Immediately upon this follows a dissolve to a close-up of the sign: ‘FOR RUNNING & PLAY- ING ON Ye SABBATH’ (which in the script had read: ‘PUNISHED FOR LAUGHING AND SINGING ON THE SABBATH’), 25 the previous image still being visible for a while in superimposition. The change from the original script into a more visual or ‘cinematographic’ version of the ordeal appears as quite significant. In addition, the figure of Hester is here brought together with the A of ‘PLAYING’ so that her body appears to be merging into the letter. The closeup of the sign is followed by a second dissolve back to a full shot of Hester in the stocks, but now at a lesser distance. Once again, the two images overlap for a moment, the A now instead overshadowing Hester’s face so that it becomes completely covered by the A. This A reappears time after time in her life as she is condemned for adultery to wear upon her breast the letter A. Her daughter playfully writes an A in the sand whereas her beloved fatally brands the letter upon his own breast. (FIG. 12) The very last images of the film contain a dissolve of the same kind, analyzed in relation to the thematics of the film by Örjan Roth-Lindberg: Here follows a last image of Hester Prynne – a close-up of her face turned upwards, which dissolves into an image of the front of the church with the bell tower – the building is situated right behind her as she sits at the pillory. For a moment, her face is inscribed into the form of the building; she literally unites with the temple. The outcast, who here, more than anyone else, mirrors the presence of love, is identified – in a very concrete manner – with the Church of Christ. It is possible to interpret this dissolve as a visual metaphor expressing the parable of the “true” Church as Christ’s body: the despised who has refused to compromise with her love incarnates the sacred. 26 An alternative approach, however, could also be suggested, where the contour of the church, with its roof formed like a widened A, recalls the sign of adultery prefigured in the first dissolve. Thus, the church might be interpreted as the institution that has judged and rejected Hester, which forever has imposed the letter A on her, an interpretation that seems all the more motivated as the crowd which has condemned her is present in the image in front of the building; they
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FILM CULTURE IN TRANSITION Transiti
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Transition and Transformation Victo
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Contents Acknowledgements 7 Introdu
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Acknowledgements This book traces i
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Introduction - From Sjöström to S
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Film Culture in Transition General
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Marijke de Valck and Malte Hagener
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