When Grant accidentally opened the coffin, the plot began to unfold in an orderly manner. As a more sober protagonist, Grant inevitably becomes the incarnation of the audience and guides the development of the plot. Therefore, the protagonist who accidentally discovered the corpse faces the dilemma of how to solve the problem. Generally speaking, the murder plot is tense, but the film does the opposite, focusing on the calm nagging of the aunts. The uncharacteristics of the aunts caught the audience off guard. The development of the plot completely violated the logic of life, and the development of the film was so absurd. As a result, Grant, who is the avatar of the audience, is placed in a ridiculous scene. The stark contrast between helplessness and calmness has formed a unique comic effect.
If only using the conditions of murder to highlight the protagonist's panic, then the performance is bound to be extremely exaggerated and uninteresting. Without adding new creative elements, the movie will only become a farce. So after a brief panic, the appearance of the murderer became a turning point and a catalyst that pushed the farce to a climax. The return of the murderer turned one murder into two, and the plot became complicated as a result. How to use complex relationships to strengthen the drama conflict has become the focus of the film's development. In this regard, the film chose a single-scene conflict method.
We can feel the dramatic tension created by a single scene in Hitchcock's "Imperial Soul" and "Rear Window". "Imperial Soul" puts the body, the murder, and the bystander in the same room, so the audience is constantly attracted by the question "Will the murderer wear a gang?" "How to solve the case" and "How to avoid threats" became the main motivation for watching movies and successfully attracted the attention of the audience. Therefore, it can be found that the more suspense generated in a single scene, the more complex the tension created by the dramatic conflict.
Therefore, in "Poison and the Old Woman", the old woman's house as a single scene, using the current two homicides is enough to generate a strong dramatic conflict. Since the protagonist is the viewer's perspective, so only the drama conflict is arranged on the protagonist, then the audience will have a strong care and attraction to the protagonist. Several suspenses are arranged in the film as follows: firstly, both sides need to conceal the truth due to the murder, so the protagonist's "can I hide from the sky" becomes suspense 1; secondly, the intrusion of the murderer, plus the grievances between the protagonist and the murderer The contradiction makes the protagonist's "whether we can turn dangers to barbarity and solve difficulties" into suspense 2; in the end, the relationship between the protagonist and the girl is contradictory due to the murder, and the protagonist "can we get a girl" becomes suspense 3. So the three suspense in a single scene make the plot compact, make the story interesting, and make the atmosphere tense. It is worth mentioning that the lighting and photography of the film have also changed due to the appearance of murderers. The black and white contrast is more obvious, and the composition is also a bit like film noir, which has played a great role in creating the atmosphere of the film.
So around the above suspense, let the protagonists, aunts, idiots, murderers, police, girls, drivers, etc. all be included in the scope of a single scene. From time to time, the development of the plot will be turned or changed, and accidents will continue to create tension. Atmosphere. Since the audience's expectation is constantly interrupted by the plot, the audience's attractiveness is completely grasped, so there is nothing to say next. So in the process, the body will definitely be found, the hole cards will definitely be revealed, the protagonist will definitely be stupid, and irrelevant people such as police and girls will definitely come to join in the fun. And the end? Not to mention, a happy settlement. The use of a single scene to produce comedy effects can also be found in many later films, such as the hotel section of the French movie "Escape from the Tiger’s Mouth", the section of Jackie Chan’s "Plan A Sequel" at Maggie Cheung’s house, and the section of Wang Jing’s "Nine Pin Sesame Officials" brothel. It can be seen that this method is a time-tested method.
Although the story structure and plot arrangement are very reasonable, exaggerated performances to create jokes can be reluctantly accepted. But since the subsequent plot and exaggerated performances are only derived from a ridiculous history of mental illness, such a coincidence is an adventure in itself, and this is probably enough to make the audience unable to relax.
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