Word: offscreen
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...outing in the Swiss Alps.) In such circumstances, nature does not offer Gerald the salvation it provided Birken; the landscape into which Gerald wanders is barren and frigid. He collapses, curls up like a tiny fetus dwarfed by a field of grayish white, his darker footsteps trailing offscreen like an endless umbilical cord. The actual physical setting of Gerald's death is overshadowed by its implications of loneliness and sterility. Compared to the cluttered literalness of most of the film, these few, tentative steps toward approaching a sparser, more abstract method of story-telling are much more suggestive...
...Adventurers' riches of embarrassment. There is the waste of Charles Aznavour as a kinky sadist and Anna Moffo doing her mini-Maria Callas. There is Ernest Borgnine, trapped in a Spanish accent several sizes too large. There is Candice Bergen, grimacing as she loses her virginity to the offscreen sound of firecrackers banging. There is windy dialogue ("Yesterday never happens again"). There is the rhythmic up-and-down movement of a camera lens during yet another harsh, graphic seduction scene...
Perhaps the greatest violence of Soldier Blue is done offscreen-to Director Nelson's image. Five years ago, a righteous Hollywood organization entitled Operation Moral Upgrade awarded him a halo-shaped pin for his work on Lilies of the Field, which featured Sidney Poitier and a gaggle of fluttering nuns. "Apparently," Nelson says, "Mrs. Van New Kirk, the head of the group, recently saw an article about this film. I got a horrible letter drumming me out of the corps. I am no longer an angel. I consider it an honor...
...such an intimate story, all other characters are subordinate. But one actress has taken a minor part and nearly made off with the show. As Mrs. Chips' bony crony, Sian Phillips (Mrs. O'Toole offscreen) moves like Garbo, hoots like Tallulah, and seems quite the most animated skeleton since Halloween...
...irrevocability of fate. The white corpuscles finally overwhelm Pascal's tiny body on Christmas Eve, and Papa discovers him, head hidden by the pine branches, expired under the Christmas tree. Still another airplane engine blasts across the sound track as Papa picks up Pascal and carries him offscreen. Viewers may have to be assisted out of the theater in similar fashion...