Arresting Forms

The last chapter was concerned with a continuum of shared space between film and viewer that, in its material properties, allows the permeable membrane of the stereoscopic film to bulge and recede away from the viewer. This sense of continuum does not prevent us from appreciating the way that 3D cinema can present its materiality in ways that are attention-grabbing and arresting, thus incorporating the cinema-of-attractions qualities discussed in Chapter 2. In 3D cinema’s display of exhibitionistic moments, it most clearly defines its unique qualities that are not found in flat moving images. This is not dissimilar to emphatic colour palettes in films that provide a sensual demonstration of how their tonal inflections can be affective. Some of the most striking examples are in films such as The Wizard of Oz (1939), Rumble Fish (1983), Pleasantville (1998), and Schindler’s List (1993), wherein a black and white or sepia palette is turned to colour or has colour elements introduced, calling attention to how colour can operate on the viewer’s relationship with the film (Belton, 2008). Working along similar lines, many stereoscopic films begin with a limited depth budget and wait for narrative peaks to display their stereoscopic abilities, particularly the presentation of objects in negative parallax space.