American cinematographer (Jan-Dec 1963)

One Two Three This ADVANCED Moy Visible Film Edge Numbering Machine simplifies matching 16mm to 35mm with direct numerical reference between both sizes.... $3750 STANDARD MODELS: Designed to edge number every foot of 16mm, 17'/jmm, 35mm films and simplify the task of checking titles and footage. MOY EDGE NUMBERING replaces cue marks, perforations, messy crayons, punches and embossing — does not mutilate film. Both negative and positive films can be numbered. Non-magnetic parts do not affect magnetic film . $2395 SPECIAL 16/35/70mm Combination . $4475 CONVERSION KITS: For changing operation from 16mm to 35mm or 35mm to 16mm . $875 HIM EDCE NUMBERS ARE EASY 10 SEE • Write for brochure S.O.S. PHOTO-CINE-OPTICS, Inc. SEE OTHER S O S. 602 West 52nd St., New York 19— Plaza 7-0440 Western Branch: 6331 Holly'd Blvd., Hollywood, Calif. OFFERINGS ON PAGES 273, 302, 306 AND 309 ■< MAKE YOUR OWN NICKEL I CADMIUM BATTERIES FOR ARRIFLEX FT) PROVIDES & X3 COMPLETE DO-IT-YOURSELF KITS 10 VOLT Eight 11/4 Volt Nickel Cadmium Cells, All Wire, Cell Straps, Banana Jacks, and Hardware . . . plus & $A Q50 Instruction Sheet. I W Assembled $79.50 15 VOLT Twelve IV4 Volt Nickel Cadmium Cells, All Wire, Cell Straps, Banana Jacks, and Hardware ... plus Leather Case and Instruction Sheet. *7450 Assembled . $100.00 68 West 45th Street New York 36, N. Y. MU 2-2928 Specialized LIGHTING EQUIPMENT for MOTION PICTURE, STILL and TELEVISION STUDIOS Write on Your Letterhead for A Copy of Our Catalog J ^i(cle=0lic/avcb i mi ty)c 937 NORTH SYCAMORE AVENUE HOLLYWOOD 38, CALIF. ’THE BALCONY” Continued from Page 275 authority figures they represent and en¬ joying the adulation of the populace— so much so, in fact, that they decide to hold onto their assumed authority. They are promptly nullified by the Chief of Police who reminds them that he still controls the real power, that of force. In the final sequence, however, the Chief and the erstwhile leader of the rebels are ganged up on by the “ladies” of the establishment in a scene reminiscent of the climactic melee in “Suddenly Last Summer.” Stripped of their fancy uniforms and shorn of their protective phychological facades the two former “tigers” are turned out to skulk ignominiously through the streets of the city. The unperturbed Miss Win¬ ters then turns to the audience and advises the viewers to go to their own homes and beds where everything will be even phonier than it appeared to he in the film. If the plot seems confused, the satire is not. It is a brilliantly abrasive, some¬ times funny, sometimes shocking roar of protest against the false aspects of modern life. Sensibly, the producers of the film have cut through the nebulous symbolism of the play to expose the raw meat of the theme, and Director of Photography Folsey has managed to create a visual aura of almost-real fan¬ tasy without resorting to photographic gimmicks or arty optical effects. His photography in black-and-white and 185-to-l aspect ratio is smooth and rich in the highest professional style — quite unlike the poor photography that marks so many art films. Since the picture was conceived as an attempt to view the whole world as a thing of illusion, a motion picture sound stage was logically selected as the ultimate place of the illusion. Visually there was an effort to get onto the film a feeling of the essential sleaziness characteristic of the enormous backlot construction of major studios — empha¬ sizing that kind of cheap-beautiful tex¬ ture that seems to say: “This has been an illusion-making device that is now' weathered by the storm, hut still has a substance of its own.” Inside the stage there are no sets, in the conventional sense — only frag¬ ments of walls, caverns of darkness, pieces of canvas and pools of light; a melange of devices completely different from the sets used in an ordinary mo 298 AMERICAN CINEMATOGRAPHER, MAY, 1*63