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The Maltese Falcon Essay

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The Maltese Falcon is a successful noir detective film from 1941. The success of the film is due to the internal actions that are accurately portrayed with cinematic composition. It consists of four goals that good directors keep in mind when filming. The techniques of keeping the image in motion, directing attention to the most important object, and the illusion of depth help the audience to focus on the important aspects of the film that overall create a suspenseful and emotional noir film experience. Directing attention to the object of greatest significance is essential in a film in order to show the audience what to focus on or pay attention to. In The Maltese Falcon, this goal of cinematic composition is particularly important due …show more content…

The Maltese Falcon, as a detective film, is expected to be suspenseful and mysterious. This is thoroughly executed with internal actions that are portrayed with the image being in constant motion, rather than filming mostly flat and external actions, such as guns being fired frequently. The first example of this strategy is the use of the camera tilting to create suspense. The audience sees the tilting of the camera being used prominently between Spade and the “Fat Man” aka Gutman. The camera in this scene is aimed up towards Gutman in order to make him look more intimidating and authoritative. The tilt creates a more suspenseful conversation between Gutman, who is seen as large and intimidating, and Spade, who is seen as being smaller and less threatening. The second example of keeping the image in motion is present in the scene between Wilmer Cook, Spade, and Mrs. O’Shaughnessy. The technique of panning, moving the camera’s line of sight in a horizontal plane to the left and right, is used in this scene. Spade and Mrs. O’Shaughnessy walk into the dark room when the camera pans to the side and we see Wilmer Cook behind them with a gun in hand. The camera panning to the side in this scene is essential for the audience to see that Spade and Mrs. O’Shaughnessy are in danger, but do not appear to know. This results in suspense for the audience as they wait for the two

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