Cinematography technique · used in 5 films
Pausing on a wordless dreamlike image, such as a distant look, a blinding light or falling snow. The picture alone tells you what a character longs for or accepts.
Examples
Akira Kurosawa · 1952
Snow falls on Watanabe's final night and makes the playground feel like it sits outside ordinary time. He has spent months fighting the bureaucracy to clear this swampy lot. Now, snow falls on what he accomplished. The weather that belonged to the past becomes the setting where he rises above his old life.
Where to see it: The final night. Watanabe swings in the snow while the falling white covers the place he made. It's the last image of him.
Andrei Tarkovsky · 1962
In the last moments, a flashback shows Ivan running across a beach with a little girl. The image is wordless and bright. It tells you what he would have had if the war had not come.
Where to see it: The beach flashback. Young Ivan runs with a girl, and the final image is a dead tree on the beach.
George Lucas · 1977
John Williams's theme rises as Luke looks out at Tatooine's twin suns setting over the desert. In that one image, you get his longing, how small he is and how huge the adventure ahead will be. The shot does nothing for the plot. It is there purely for the emotion.
Where to see it: The twin sunset. Luke watches it from the edge of the moisture farm.
Roman Polanski · 1999
The film ends without showing what is on the other side. The gates swing open and a bright light pours out. You are left with Corso's choice and your own guess about what he is walking into.
Where to see it: The final walk: Corso, now holding all nine true engravings, returns to the castle at dawn. The gates open on their own and a powerful light shines out as he steps through.
Ridley Scott · 2000
Throughout the film, Maximus has visions of walking through a wheat field toward his family. They are shot in warm, overly bright light and slow motion. The repeated image tells you that death, for him, means going home. That is, when the ending delivers what the vision promised, it feels peaceful and earned.
Where to see it: The final wheat field walk. As Maximus dies, the vision becomes real.
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