Is More Always More? A Consideration of the Now Ubiquitous Use of 3-D in Film

Just curious -- what does 3-D really buy for the film viewer other than nausea and migraine headaches? I've seen a few 3-D movies and mostly found the special effect to be a distraction, like the flippers in a pinball machine; you're so busy watching all the wingdings whir that you forget where the ball is. My eleven-year-old defends it, saying, "It's like you're really there!" But believe me, with most of the current crop of 3D movies, there's no "there" there. (For the only exception I've seen to this, see my post re: the "Monogram" animation at Musee Contemporain in Montreal, 9-7-09.) Note: I have not nor intend to see "Avatar." Sorry.

Thanks to the magic of Netflix, I was fortunate enough to recently view Carl Theodore Dreyer's "The Passion of Joan of Arc,." a silent movie, i.e., one that gives the contemporary viewer less and not more stimulation accompanying the film image. The DVD allowed the viewer the option of watching with or without music; I chose without. In sum, the beauty, intelligence and pathos of this movie was overwhelming. It took a bit more mental energy to engage fully, but once in, I was immersed completely. The acting, the mis-en-scene, the camera angles, and of course the emotional appeal of the story itself, made for an extremely affecting experience.

In particular, there is one moment in Joan that I will never forget, and which leads me to believe in Dreyer's absolute cinematic genius: it is a cutaway sequence in which, while Joan is stoically enduring her painful martyrdom, falling in and out of consciousness amid the flames, the camera suddenly takes in one of the crowd milling around the pyre. We see an infant nursing at his mother's breast, who, having become aware of the ruckus surrounding him, pulls away abruptly from the nipple. He gazes furiously towards the camera for a beat and then, just as suddenly, resumes his sucking with equal ferocity. I challenge anyone to watch this and tell me that this is not filmmaking at its most brilliant. And no special effects. Not even sound.