Big face, small razor for the day.

by Ryland Walker Knight

I'm thinking I located a good primary object of interpretation for my Honors Thesis, which holds so many more objects within that it will take a lot of elucidation. Especially if I relate the conversation to, oh, say, Michael Mann's Miami Vice and Stanley Cavell and VF Perkins and the nature of film style on screen and in criticism. There's a lot at stake, and a lot riding, in that big face. Now, don't get me wrong, Hitchcock's film is almost unreal in how good it is and Miami Vice is far from that brand of perfection, but there's a lot of dialogue here. Like, how these directors are constantly referencing themselves and their own work, and how they exist in those oppositional genres Cavell set up: Comedy of Remarriage VS Melodrama of the Unknown Woman. For a primer, of sorts, check out this nifty site about Cavell's essay (found in Themes out of School) on North by Northwest. They have more pictures, including one of Eva Marie Saint, the statue, crying; it kills me.