The Obvious and the Code

In the Obvious and the Code, Raymond Bellour carefully dissects a 12 shot segment from The Big Sleep in attempts to show that this segment, which may at first seem meaningless to the viewer, is actually conveying the meaning/mood of the scene. Bellour explains there is a code in movies that creates the meaning. The 12 shots that Bellour chooses to demonstrate are positioned between two of the major scenes of The Big Sleep - in Eddy Mars' garage and in Geiger's house. The way the shots are edited act in accordance with the development of the film and the mood that is subsequently conveyed. If Bellour never brought these segments to my attention, I would have thought they were meaningless and I would have never cracked the code. Instead, Bellour brings to my attention that just the change of slight movement can dramatically effect the meaning that is conveyed.