A Blind Look

One part of the Silberman article that I found interesting was his discussion of the first shot of the film. He explains that the pan from the city skyline into Madeleine’s bedroom to her motionless face signals that the film will be removed from the public space and signals intrusion into Madeleine’s most private place. This intrusion makes the characters the “passive victims of an outside, unpredictable power”(84).  I think that this is an accurate analysis of the opening shot. By first establishing the city as the public sphere, Kautner makes the viewing of Madeleine sleeping feel like an intrusion into her privacy. This mirrors the other intrusions into her private life by Victor and Michael. However, the analysis of this shot can be taken even further. 

Although the audience is given an intimate view of Madeleine’s bedroom that makes us believe that we have an intimate relationship with her, she is laying motionless. We do not know whether she is sleeping, pretending to sleep or even dead. In this sense, we are very similar to the men in the film. Madeleine’s husband is married to her and is so blinded by their simple relationship that he cannot connect with her and does not even attempt to understand her true feelings. Although Madeleine and Michael are in love and seem to have the strongest connection among the characters in the film, Michael is blinded by her smile and beauty and cannot see why she does not want to leave her husband to marry the man she loves. Victor has a large amount of power over Madeleine as her husband’s boss and with the knowledge of her affair, but is blinded by her beauty and his power and cannot see that she will never give in to his demands. In this way, the opening shot gives the appearance of an inside look into Madeleine’s life, but her silence and the audience’s blindness do not allow a peek into her soul as the window generally admits.