Comments on: Umm… Betty’s father?

By: Roberta Lipp

Roberta Lipp — Sat, 11 Oct 2008 14:22:25 +0000

Pink, thank you for sharing that. Wow.

Totally aside, I was just referencing the pink elephant in Flight 1. Like, twenty minutes ago.

By: Jorge

Jorge — Sat, 11 Oct 2008 14:19:45 +0000

Low camera angles were also a staple of film noir (although they were begun by . There were some scenes in this episode at Betty’s parents’ house that reminded me of The Maltese Falcon. Incidentally, the first use of this technique was in Citizen Kane, which was post-Rebecca.

By: Pink Elephant

Pink Elephant — Sat, 11 Oct 2008 12:23:35 +0000

My father never molested me. In the last week of his life I believe he began having mini-strokes because very suddenly his behavior got weird. He had a big surgery and, for the next two days in the hospital, he began to say and do some very strange things, including talking about my boobs in a worshipping way. We had NEVER gone there before in my life, and I was having a very Betty moment, except there was no Don to protect me. I handled it by letting it go by with no reaction, but I realized that wasn’t my dad anymore, and I was on my own, like Betty.

By: hullaballoo

hullaballoo — Fri, 10 Oct 2008 04:44:43 +0000

Camera angles = another homage to Hitchcock. Hitch loved playing around with extreme camera angles — either very low, so people and objects appear ominous or threatening in some way, or very high (the bird’s eye view), in which people seem more vulnerable or somehow insignificant. Low angles also add to a feeling of claustrophobia, since we feel closed in by the ceilings, walls and corners, which are more evident in these types of shots, and people’s silhouettes seem more out of proportion in relation to them.

By: Patti

Patti — Fri, 10 Oct 2008 02:46:19 +0000

I read in another blog about this episode (can’t remember which blog) that the camera angles are looking up at the characters for much of the episode. I don’t have a copy of the episode so I can’t rewatch it myself, but maybe someone can watch it again and verify this. This would I think explain some of the discomfort many of us felt during the episode.

Particularly, I’m thinking about the breakfast table scene. If my memory serves me I think we were looking up from the table as if we were a child seated there when Betty’s Dad reached for her.

I have felt really uncomfortable about this scene and not just about the content. I think it was the camera angle. It’s like when you return to the house you grew up in and everything looks smaller and out of proportion to your memories. It’s because you are bigger of course, but also your point of view is physically higher in the room than when you were a child. For an adult, it can be a disorienting experience.

I think the camera put us back in the child’s perspective. Also, when Glen was in the playhouse, we looked up at Betty from his point of view and she seemed like a huge Alice in Wonderland looking into the tiny house. You know, one pill makes you larger and one pill makes you small.

Did anyone else get this feeling?

By: Bridget Burke

Bridget Burke — Thu, 09 Oct 2008 19:25:04 +0000

I don’t know whether Betty was actually molested but can see that we were meant to consider the possibility. Something in her upbringing was not right; her flattened affect is NOT simply the way all women were back then. Perhaps Don will learn that, as bad as it was being a whore’s bastard brought up by yokels, nobody’s background was perfect. Meeting Pete’s Gorgon Mother would certainly emphasize the lesson.

Dad’s grope may have been the meaningless symptom of whatever sort of dementia has him in its grip. But what about his tirade about Don’s lack of “people”? I’ll bet he’d been thinking that a long time, but avoided saying it. Around Don, that is….

Despite all the Hitchcockian elements in MM, I agree that McGuffins are lacking. But Buffy didn’t have McGuffins so much as Phlebotinum!

By: miamimami

miamimami — Thu, 09 Oct 2008 18:48:47 +0000

this has been a very interesting thread to read. im catching up on the posts here on BOK……

and jorge, please dont detract from the threads….some of us really look forward to reading intelligent adult discourse that Roberta and Deborah facilitate.

By: Jorge

Jorge — Thu, 09 Oct 2008 18:09:33 +0000

You don’t even want to know what beep beep means. But I’m sure if you look at Greg #52’s comment, you can figure it out.

By: Deborah Lipp

Deborah Lipp — Thu, 09 Oct 2008 15:31:09 +0000

Is Jorge the Roadrunner? WTF?

By: Roberta Lipp

Roberta Lipp — Thu, 09 Oct 2008 14:29:51 +0000

Jorge, you need to cut that out!