rable by the time the action unfolds in this one. While put on many critics classic film noir lists, this film is more a passionate love story than film noir particularly in its happy ending for the male and female protagonists. During this scene, which starts in Johnny’s bedroom and shatters to a climax as much as the glass in the wall partition through which Gilda throws her guitar, Vidor uses visual and sound elements to depict the high degree of sexual and emotional tension between the pair before they arrive at their happy end.
The scene begins in Ballin’s bedroom. Visually lighting is used quite effectively. It projects towards us from the rear and casts Johnny in a rectangular box of light that not only adds visual depth to the scene, but it also mirrors Johnny’s psychological state because, as he has just informed us at the end of the last scene, he felt smothered by his inability to shake thoughts of Gilda from his mind. All the rest of the room is black around this box of light, as all the world around Johnny has been shut out from his consuming psychological occupation with Gilda. The sound is also used effectively because in a film that is full of surprises, hidden meanings, and contradictions, we see a person sleeping but what we hear is a guitar softly playing and a woman softly singing. This creates a tension and expectation because we ponder the source of the noise that contrasts the visual imagery we are seeing. When the camera pulls in to a close-up of Johnny as he begins to fathom from where the noise is coming, his vertically striped pajamas add texture and motion (because of the folds in the fabric) to an otherwise black and white plain environment. Knowing it is Gilda, he whips his blanket off him which also adds motion and depth to an otherwise one-dimensional medium. The passionate fluttering of the blanket mirrors the passionate fluttering within Johnny’s soul.
Our visual distractio...