MovieChat Forums > The Boston Strangler (1968) Discussion > split screen technique

split screen technique

posted 17 years ago by humanjest
42 replies | jump to latest

just saw this movie at the cinema, and was impressed with the split screen techniques used, which still look pretty innovative nearly 40 years later!
i was trying to remember any other films i've seen which employ this effect, i couldn't think of many, only these:
"woodstock"
"requiem for a dream"
and some films by peter greenaway, also his "tv dante".
another post here mentions "the thomas crown affair", but i haven't seen that one, yet.
do you know of any others that use 2 or multiple "windows" at once?

[–] onepotato2 17 years ago

I'm always up for an experiment, and I'm smiling as I watch this, at the beautiful compositions, The pervert sequence is certainly stimulating
but...

There is really no benefit to the story, or the viewer, in seeing
- both a finger pressing a doorbell and an old woman sitting upstairs reacting to it.
- Seeing a newscast being filmed, and as filmed
- A sequence of 20 old ladies looking over their shoulders, instead of just two or three.

The movie seems to crave occasions to use the tool it has already decided upon.
(more later)

[–] Myth-and-Mayhem 14 years ago

"The movie seems to crave occasions to use the tool it has already decided upon."

YES! YES! YES!

This is one of my favorite sentences ever! I'm gonna have to use it now. Love it. It reminds me of Dickens. Reminds me of this line: "He had eyes that assorted very well with that decoration, being of a surface black, with no depth in the colour or form, and much too near together- as if they were afraid of being found out in something, singly, if they kept too far apart."

IMDB Film Ratings: http://www.imdb.com/mymovies/list?l=22271274

[–] cburns928 17 years ago

I immediately thought of M*A*S*H which was made only a few years later

[–] Sonofcelluloid 16 years ago

Joe Carnahan used split screen in Narc for the sequence where Ray Liotta and Jason Patric are talking to various snitches and other street people. I think he was particularly influenced by "The Boston Strangler".

[–] chrelle 16 years ago

The Tracey Fragments.
That film is only told in multible splitscreens and well worth checking out.
My English sucks, so thats way I do not write about it in great length, even though it deserves it!

[–] franzkabuki 16 years ago

The split screen here is particularly fitting as the film deals with scizophrenia and split personality, of course.

"facts are stupid things" - Ronald Reagan

[–] bradford-1 15 years ago

MEDIUM COOL was released in 1970, I think, directed by the cinematographer Haskell Wexler. Because it dealt with the 1968 Democratic Convention, differing points of view were juggled. Also, I think there's some handheld camera work as well. It also juxtaposes documentary footage constantly with the fictional story, much like JFK did much later.

[–] sandpipe 13 years ago

"The split screen here is particularly fitting as the film deals with scizophrenia and split personality, of course."

Also very effective was the use of the mirror in the mental hospital's interogation room (to double De Salvo's image) when he starts to "split apart".

[–] James_Banner 14 years ago

> do you know of any others that use 2 or multiple "windows" at once?

The Elvis Presley documentary "That's The Way It Is" (1970)

[–] mwhite182 14 years ago

Brian DePalma uses the technique a lot. Watch "Dressed to Kill". It has one of the best uses of the technique I've seen, and it's a pretty good movie.

That is not dead which can eternal lie, and with strange aeons even death may die.

[–] Myth-and-Mayhem 14 years ago

I hated the split screen stuff & found it all extremely obnoxious.

IMDB Film Ratings: http://www.imdb.com/mymovies/list?l=22271274

[–] milliedil 14 years ago

Charly which, coincidentally, was released the same year (1968) and was also filmed in Boston with extensive use of locals.

"Thank you, thank you--you're most kind. In fact you're every kind."

[–] michaeldecker 14 years ago

I thought it was used very effectively indeed in this film, and that it stands up today as more than just a gimmick.

But I wondered which was the first film to use this effect; there was clearly a rush of them towards the end of the sixties/early seventies, but which was the first?

[–] buddhalou 14 years ago

I found the split screen technique to be very effective and used to great effect at certain moments in the film, but I believe that, like a lot of gimmicks and novelties, it was it was overused on the whole.

[–] William_Hunt 13 years ago

the movie Grand Prix uses split-screens too with great effect!