Since the Early 1990S the Directors and Effects Artists of Numer
chaPter 1 THE NEW VERTICALITY So neither the horizontal nor the vertical proportion of the screen alone is ideal for it. In actual fact, as we saw, in the forms of nature as in the forms of in- dustry, and in the mutual encounters between these forms, we find the struggle, the conflict between both tendencies. And the screen, as a faith- ful mirror, not only of conflicts emotional and tragic, but equally of con- flicts psychological and optically spatial, must be an appropriate battle- ground for the skirmishes of both these optical- by- view, but profoundly psychological- by- meaning, spatial tendencies on the part of the spectator. —Sergei Eisenstein, “The Dynamic Square” Since the early 1990s the directors and effects artists of numer- ous films—includingTitanic (James Cameron, 1997), the Matrix trilogy (Wachowski Bros., 1999, 2003), X- Men and x2 (Bryan Singer, 2000, 2003), Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon (Ang Lee, 2000), Hero (Zhang Yimou, 2002), Avatar (James Cameron, 2009), and Inception (Christopher Nolan, 2010)—have made in- creasing use of the screen’s vertical axis with the aid of new digi- tal technologies. Drawing from cultural sources ranging from the narratives and characters featured in comic books, fantasy novels, and television series to the visual logics of video games and virtual reality, recent blockbusters have deployed a broad range of digital visual effects to create composite film bodies that effortlessly defy gravity or tragically succumb to its pull. In keeping with this tendency, these same films create breath- taking imaginary worlds defined by extreme heights and plunging depths, the stark verticality of which becomes the referential axis of many narra- tive conflicts.
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