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Post by manfromplanetx on Jul 5, 2021 8:53:08 GMT
Chamber Piece, also known as Chamber Film or Chamber Drama, can be described as a film involving a small group of characters remaining in a restricted setting and interplaying for the duration of the film. Appearing only briefly are additional characters and environments that support the main action. Ingmar Bergman was a well-known proponent of this method of directing for the cinema, he referred to Through a Glass Darkly (1961), Winter Light (1963), The Silence (1963) and Persona (1966) as his “chamber films”. Bergman’s goal with these films was to rediscover the essence of theatre. The variation of character combinations, and the differences in rhythm and tonality of Bergman’s films shows a strong association with the intimate characteristics of classical chamber music. Do you have a favourite Classic Chamber Drama or thoughts to share ? Az ötödik pecsét, The Fifth Seal (1976) is a most profound chamber piece from Hungary set in 1944 in the darkest days of World War II, at a time when the fascist Arrow Cross Party formed a short- lived government in the occupied country. Director Zoltán Fábri's philosophical thriller was adapted from a novel of the same name from Ferenc Sánta, the title refers to the fifth seal in the Book of Revelations regarding martyrdom. A backdrop feature includes bizarre symbolic scenes from the paintings by Dutch artist Hieronymus Bosch (1450-1516). The film story begins with four friends who are nightly regulars in a dimly lit bar, at a table they sit and banter away with frivolous everyday exchanges while the horrors of war and authoritarianism rage on around them. One night a stranger arrives the fifth guest, a young wounded soldier fresh from the front line. Aloof watchmaker Miklós Gyuricza surprises the discussions when he raises a hypothetical moral dilemma, one that deeply provokes the others into wrestling with the stark implications of the question. He asks if they had the right to resurrect after their death, whose fate would they choose that of a ruthless rich tyrant who comfortably lives with the barbaric morals of his time, or that of his brutalized subservient slave, happy that he can maintain a clear conscience, one of integrity and innocence. As the atmosphere intensifies, the very same philosophical and ethical questions suddenly arise for each of the men, in a provocative dramatic confrontation each are faced with an extreme and testing situation… Perfectly suited for the confining intimacy of a chamber piece Fábri's film is a masterwork of thought-provoking cinema, raising complex moral issues through a multi-layered composition on human conscience and self-respect. Not only does the director present a philosophical dilemma on screen, this film is a remarkable work in that it will make any discerning viewer think deeply about his or her own life and their choice or reactions under similar circumstances … Highly Recommended !!  
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Post by timshelboy on Jul 5, 2021 10:10:11 GMT
KEY LARGO feels like it fits the bill More recently these made the most of the limited sets and small casts    |
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Post by london777 on Jul 5, 2021 16:14:56 GMT
I feel chamber pieces should be restricted to the "chamber", in other words no outside locations are permitted. This would rule out Timshelboy's otherwise excellent suggestions of Key Largo and Alice Creed, for example, where the substantial climaxes to the films are enacted in a distant location.
I would offer:
Carnage (2011) dir: Roman Polanski
Huis-clos (1954) dir: Jacqueline Audry (and the many other versions of Sartre's play)
12 Angry Men (1957) dir: Sidney Lumet, its Russian version 12 (2007) dir: Nikita Mikhalkov, and doubtless many other jury-room dramas.
8 Women (2002) dir: François Ozon (although too many characters to qualify?)
Clerks (1994) dir: Kevin Smith
OK, certain of the above I would not think of as "chamber pieces", so are further criteria needed, to do with tone and content?
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Post by mikef6 on Jul 5, 2021 16:21:27 GMT
Alien (1979) and its myriad of copycat pictures where a small group of people is trapped in a confined space with a rampaging menace who picks them off one by one.  |
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Post by Doghouse6 on Jul 5, 2021 19:18:08 GMT
Along with spiderwort's submission of Who's Afraid Of Virginia Woolf, another demonstrating that stagebound, single-set origins need not impede cinematic technique and visual interest is The Boys In the Band.  Alfred Hitchcock took the form to adventurous extremes with two cinematic experiments: Lifeboat
Rope
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Post by london777 on Jul 5, 2021 19:31:33 GMT
I feel chamber pieces should be restricted to the "chamber", in other words no outside locations are permitted ... are further criteria needed, to do with tone and content? Still trying to think this through. (Nothing else to do until the Euro Semi is sorted). I think the clue is in the OP's thread title: Classic Chamber Drama. I think Chamber Pieces should be a sub-genre of Drama, which is a catch-all genre for all films which are neither comedies nor tragedies and do not fall into another genre. Therefore I would say that Chamber Pieces cannot be of another genre. It would rule out my suggestion of 8 Women, which is a farce, a sub-genre of comedy. It would also rule out Alien. I realising I may be offending some powerful posters here but seriously, would anyone ever intuitively think of Alien as a "chamber piece", even if it could be made to fit whatever criteria we come up with? Thus "chamber pieces" would be virtually the same as filmed theatre plays (or putative plays as in spiderwort's suggestion of The L-shaped Room). It is then up to the film-makers, especially the director, to employ cinematic arts to produce something that is better than a theatre play, otherwise there is no point. Sometimes they fail and the result falls between two stalls, being dull and "talky". It would be then better left to live theatre to galvanise the corpse with those tricks of which live theatre is capable, but cinema not.
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Post by Doghouse6 on Jul 5, 2021 20:42:42 GMT
I feel chamber pieces should be restricted to the "chamber", in other words no outside locations are permitted ... are further criteria needed, to do with tone and content? I realising I may be offending some powerful posters here but seriously, would anyone ever intuitively think of Alien as a "chamber piece", even if it could be made to fit whatever criteria we come up with? I wondered about Alien myself. I've always thought of it as a sci-fi update of the "old dark house" genre and, although there's no fundamental reason the Chamber Drama form can't support those stylistic trappings, the vastness of the Nostromo allows not only the staging of scenes in varying locations all over the ship, but a great deal of breaking up of the ensemble. The low-budget 1958 prototype, It! The Terror From Beyond Space comes closer, keeping all but one of its ensemble together for the most part while forcing it into more and more confined space. It was for similar reasons that I ruled out Hitchcock's Rear Window. Although another of his confined-space cinematic experiments, it involves a great number of peripheral characters who, while figuring into the drama, are only observed, and only at a remove. His Dial M For Murder, with a single location but for two brief scenes, and five principal characters - each of whom have their share of entrances and exits and are never together at the same time - is another that comes closer, but I'm unsure if it qualifies. Lifeboat's inclusion renders it only fair to mention Seven Waves Away / Abandon Ship, in which the setting is identical, and the comparatively large ensemble is systematically reduced during its course.
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Post by manfromplanetx on Jul 6, 2021 0:12:33 GMT
I feel chamber pieces should be restricted to the "chamber", in other words no outside locations are permitted ... are further criteria needed, to do with tone and content? Still trying to think this through. (Nothing else to do until the Euro Semi is sorted). I think the clue is in the OP's thread title: Classic Chamber Drama. I think Chamber Pieces should be a sub-genre of Drama, which is a catch-all genre for all films which are neither comedies nor tragedies and do not fall into another genre. Thanks all and london7 and doghouse6 for elaborating thoughts on the theme, Maybe the OP title should have read "Chamber Piece" , considering that drama is not the only genre represented within a Chamber Film. I offer up this masterpiece of Classic Japanese film for consideration... しとやかな獣 , The Graceful Brute (1960) Directed by Yuzo Kawashima, Written by Kaneto Shindō Yuzo Kawashima’s black comedy is an outstanding chamber piece, a cynical satire that dares to look at the underbelly of Japanese 1960s society . Nearly the entire film takes place in the Maeda family apartment, aside from a few long shots of the view from their balcony and a giant dimly lit stairway nothing else is seen. Kawashima’s keeps us firmly riveted because it is such a multi-layered piece, and remarkable for in essence, the staging is so theatrical. Kawashima uses the claustrophobia to great advantage as a psychological device, within this confinement he gets to the heart of his characters, all played with exceptional performances. The story tells of The Maeda family, carrying the scars of their post-war poverty they live a “comfortable” life for themselves in a cramped flat on the fifth floor of a walk-up apartment building. When we first meet Mr & Mrs Maeda, they are hurriedly stashing out of sight all of their valuable possessions, for on the way up the apartment stairs is their son's boss with an accountant bringing accusations that the son has been involved in embezzlement... As a piece of pure filmmaking, the widescreen framing is technical brilliance. There is no attempt or need to “open out” the story, Kawashima keeps the camera almost completely confined to the single apartment, using the widest of wide screen the awkward space is filled with shots and angles which enhance the story and the characterizations. Never repetitive or static, it is an absolutely masterful piece of directorial skill.... Highly Recommended !!   
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Post by phantomparticle on Jul 6, 2021 1:44:09 GMT
The Old Dark House (1932)  The Granddaddy of them all may be The Thirteenth Chair (1929), based on a Broadway Murder Mystery. Directed by Tod Browning and starring Bela Lugosi. All the action takes place in one house, with only one cut away to a police station. The Cat and the Canary (1927) takes place entirely within the crumbling Cyrus West house with one exterior of two people racing down a road in an open carriage
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Post by manfromplanetx on Jul 6, 2021 23:22:27 GMT
The Birthday Party (1968) is William Friedkin’s screen adaptation of Harold Pinter’s 1958 play, a claustrophobic, frenzied tale set inside a dreary British boarding house, with a centre of attention on the glum lodger Stanley and dotty landlady Meg. When two strangers arrive, they are invited to stay on and celebrate Stanley’s Birthday party although he insists it is not his birthday… Friedkin employs a remarkable variety of strategies to prevent The Birthday Party ever seeming stagey, an incredible achievement given that the action all unfolds mostly in a single room. From start to finish, the film feels like a genuine chamber drama, rather than a filmed play. In a single room the dining room of the boarding-house the drama focuses on the relationship between two groups of characters, Meg (Dandy Nichols) and her husband Petey (Moultrie Kelsall) who run the boarding-house. Stanley (Robert Shaw) is their long-time (and only) resident, he has become a kind of surrogate son. Then come a pair of mysterious visitors who arrive at the boarding-house on a mission, Goldberg tackily urbane and garrulous played brilliantly by (Sydney Tafler) and McCann a faithful and menacing goon (Patrick Magee). Significantly expanding his directorial skills in this his second feature film, Friedkin cleverly opens-up the play and makes the room setting feel both as dynamic and claustrophobic as possible. Although we spend virtually the whole film in this small room, it is almost impossible to get a sense of its dimensions. The room seems to expand, contract and contort with each new encounter and looks completely different from opposing angles. Friedkin heightens the tension in ways that a theatrical production cannot, the most obvious throughout are his quick-cut close-ups that underscore the absurdity of the menace on display. McCann and Goldberg’s smooth, calculating faces contrast sharply with Stanley’s sweaty, frantic, unkempt face, when they interrogate him. Immediately putting the viewer on edge are the sound effects of ripping paper, McCann’s favourite past time… Confined within the four walls of this seaside living room an absurd study of domination, of terrifying apprehensions, Friedkin’s adaptation, like the play is open to interpretation, being amusing, doleful and horrific. A passion project for the director, he retains the essential essence of Pinter who wrote with a certain expectation of the unexpected, you never really know what to expect next... The Birthday Party has been called a work of kitchen-sink existentialism, a Chamber Drama, a British neo-noir?. Friedkin later recalled "...I think I captured Pinter's world. The time I spent with him and the many conversations we had were the most invaluable and instructive of my career"... An outstanding chamber film, a “comedy of menace” from William Friedkin and Harold Pinter. Highly Recommended !!    
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Post by mortsahlfan on Nov 14, 2021 21:52:29 GMT
One Flew Over The Cuckoo's Nest The Fifth Sea 12 Angry Men Dog Day Afternoon
and plenty of Bergman
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Post by mattgarth on Nov 14, 2021 22:00:25 GMT
And Then There Were None
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