A whacky film from NYC
I've always thought that there is something about black and white film that somehow makes for beautiful imagery. I think it is the glittering contrast of the light and dark, the shimmering grays, the lines (like a black and white drawing) which allows us to focus on the images than when the film is so cluttered with color.
Anyway, this funny, at times sad, film A thousand clowns made in 1965 is about the maturation of a middle-aged man who has to follow conventions in order to keep his twelve-year-old nephew with him, and not have him whisked away by do-gooders from the child welfare agency.
The film was also a lovely opportunity to see the sights of the city: the rivers and harbors, Central Park, Lincoln Center (as it was being built!), Brooklyn Bridge, brownstone buildings and the solid, stately apartment buildings whose beautiful architecture always surprises me.
There was a scene where Murray (the eccentric uncle) was sitting by the glittering river, head in hand, gulls flying around him, when he had to decide that his behavior had to change in order to keep his beloved nephew Nick. There was no sound, but the flurry of gulls' wings around him, which reflected his state of mind. The director filmed it just slightly slow-motion giving a touch of heaviness to the scene (imagine gulls taking off in "slightly slow-motion"), indicating once again Murray's burdened mind. There were many editing and filmic devices such as this that the director used to make similar symbolic or metaphoric statements.
For all his clowning around, Murray (Jason Robards) has a great voice, a little of which you can listen to in the above YouTube, where he sings the film's signature "Yes, Sir, that's my baby".
