The Emotional Shortcut - Great Cinematography
The Best Years of Our Lives (1946)
I am only starting to appreciate the way Wyler uses movement, similar to a small stage theatrical production, to draw your attention to the moment that builds the plot in a drama. These vignettes contain certain things we see everyday, but Wyler adds the edge, like a warm homecoming- then the appearance of hooks instead of hands. a mother clearing breakfast dishes and suddenly realizing everyone has grown silent. A woman being aroused from sleep, to find a man thrasing about in a horrific nightmare; two people moving closer together during a simple meal-getting more intimate physically, or a man in his USAAF jacket, wandering the graveyard of B-17s, lost in thought.
Watching the movie yourself, you will see scenes of great detail, as Al Stephenson (Frederic March) giving a speech to the bankers, a room full of older men who didn't go to war and his wife Milly (Myrna Loy), counting the numbers of drinks that he's had that evening-- we see it too.