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"Doubt" by John Patrick Shanley

Theater and Film. A combination of extremely interesting and also extremely dangerous. If handled badly can be a double-edged sword.

Theater and cinema are two arts that have always fought like roads and indeed, the seventh art in his early life had much to assimilate the theater. The first films were in fact structured by so-called tableau, or extended scenes without coming off (today we would call them plans sequence), which resumed the actors performing in front of a backdrop that reproduced the location where the scene took place. A little 'what is happening today in the sit-com television, in which the camera occupies the fourth wall of a room and the players move as if they were on stage before an audience.

actors themselves of those early films were directly from the theater, because so far the only art focuses on the representation.

Today the theater is bound to the movies in several respects. Sometimes because the playwrights choose to go from script to theatrical film scripts, like Harold Pinter or David Mamet. Sometimes because their performances were so successful piece on the boards of a theater that tries to replicate that success on the big screen. Other times it is the style of a director and the story that tells that is close to a theatrical vision of the staging (by fans of Woody Allen for example, by "September" or in general the films of Peter Greenaway).

Obviously theater and cinema have forms and different languages \u200b\u200b(though not totally different) and it is therefore necessary for the writer, director and performance, adapt to different means of communication. The work done by John Patrick Shanley, winner of the Pulitzer Prize for its own theatrical text "Doubt," reveals this change of register, and shows how the author, also the film's director, has been able to work well with the medium film. On more than one occasion, Shanley used the images as a means of narrative, the most characteristic feature of the cinema theater, especially to outline the characters. As during the dinner scene which sees the sisters sitting around the table. The figure of Sister Aloysius is focused by two shots, one that they see to help a sister and when passing the cutlery, only with their eyes, complains of Sister James, do not spit the bit. Silent, but two shots that allow us to know something piùdel character of principal. Or that gust of wind (the doubt) at the end of the dinner, which moves the cloth, symbolizing the doubt, since then has crept into his life. Or as Father Flynn when passing under a window that mimics an eye, the eye of God, the priest as if he were afraid of being watched and could not escape his Lord. It has something to hide? Here

Shanley is adept at setting up the doubt in the viewer, we were almost in front of a thriller to find out who the culprit, and if there really is a culprit. We'll never know, there will always be doubt.

But clearly in "Doubt" remains strong footprint in theater and a scene in particular, this footprint fits brilliantly with the film. The scene is one of the first meeting between Father Flynn, Sister Aloysius and Sister James. Beyond the drama of the two most talented actors living in circulation, the work of Shanley is beautiful and reminds me of some sequences of Orson Welles' film where the story is told well through the movements of the actors and their position on the set.

The scene in question is divided into three parts, each of which are seen passing from hand to hand the scepter of command, symbolized by the chair of the desk. The chair of the Principal.

At first, despite what both the office of Sister Aloysius, to sit at the desk is Father Flynn, which is now to emphasize the hierarchy in the field. The school principal starts talking about the Christmas play, as an excuse to get to introduce the subject dear to her: Father Flynn's relationship with the student Donald Miller. At this time the priest is then to take the reins of the game and he is in fact will decide which songs to sing at the recital.

The second half saw a reversal of roles. The two switch places, while Flynn and closes the shutters, as if to erase any possibility of clarity, Sister Aloysius to sit at the desk and pick up the scepter of command. Now she is embarrassed that his rival, accusing him of having an ambiguous behavior with a student.

Shanley uses masterfully orchestrate the stage for the dramatic level, weaving a dialogue that is nothing but a game of cat and mouse with continuous changes of role. The use of light, mounting and framing of the scene helps to give the right pathos and dramatic level, which increases more and more until the third part, one of reckoning, or rather the apparent clarification. Father Flynn puts forward his version of events, that persuades, but not the Sister James Dean. Now they are all standing, no sitting on the chair, as if this were all at the same level. Sister James tries to ask whether it can serve as a sign of the peacemaker, but now the battle between the two and his superiors began this wonderful scene has kicked off.

The dialogues are full of elements that characterize the lines and emphasize the diversity of characters and the director makes use of the camera, shows how be able to play with the medium of film going beyond what is his theatrical text.

A magnificent film, directed and starred in a sublime way. A film report, by the strong theatrical sense, but it can also break away from its origins, marrying perfectly with the machine cinema.

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