Editing Nicholas Ray (section)

=== Visual style ===
While he started working in Hollywood on film noir and other black-and-white pictures, in the standard [[Academy ratio]], Ray later became better known for his vivid use of color and widescreen. His films have also been noted for their stylized ''mise en scène'' with carefully choreographed blocking and composition that often emphasizes architecture.<ref name=":0" /> Ray himself credited his affection for widescreen formats to Frank Lloyd Wright:  "I like the horizontal line, and the horizontal was essential for Wright."<ref>Bitsch, Charles (1958), "Entretien avec Nicholas Ray." ''Cahiers du cinéma'', 89 (November); trans. as "Interview with Nicholas Ray," in ''Cahiers du cinéma: The 1950s'', ed. Hillier, p. 121.</ref>  As [[V. F. Perkins]] observes, however, many of Ray's compositions "are deliberately, sometimes startlingly, unbalanced to give an effect of displacement," further noting his use of "static masses with bold lines ... which intrude into the frame and at the same time disrupt and unify his compositions."<ref>Perkins, V. F. (1960).  "Nicholas Ray," ''Oxford Opinion'', 40, June 14, in ''V. F. Perkins on Movies: Collected Shorter Film Criticism'', ed. Douglas Pye.  Detroit: Wayne State University Press, 2020. p. 89.</ref>  Bernard Eisenschitz also links Wright to Ray's desire to "destroy the rectangular frame" (as the filmmaker said, adding, "I couldn't stand the formality of it"), through the multiple-image techniques he used in ''We Can't Go Home Again''.<ref>Eisenschitz, p. 433.</ref>  He had envisioned using split-screen techniques as early as ''Rebel Without a Cause'',<ref>Eisenschitz, p. 239.</ref> and proposed, unsuccessfully, that ''The True Story of Jesse James'' be "stylized in every respect, all of it shot on the stage, including the horses, the chases, everything, and do it in areas of light."<ref>Eisenschitz, p. 284.</ref>

Ray uses color boldly — [[Jonathan Rosenbaum]], for example, has referred to the "vibrant color-coding" of ''Johnny Guitar'',<ref>Rosenbaum, Jonathan (2016).  "''Johnny Guitar'': The First Existential Western,"</ref> and the "delirious color" of ''Party Girl''<ref>Rosenbaum, Jonathan (1988). "''Party Girl''," ''Chicago Reader'', February 1; reprinted at https://jonathanrosenbaum.net/2021/09/party-girl-2/.  Retrieved September 30, 2021.</ref>—but meaningfully, determined by the circumstances of the film's story and its characters.  As V. F. Perkins points out, he uses colors "for their emotional effect," but more characteristically "for the extent to which they blend or clash with background."  The reds that Cyd Charisse wears in ''Party Girl'', for instance, "have an autonomous emotional value," but also have impact measured against the "somber browns of a courtroom" or against "the darker red of a sofa on which she sleeps."<ref>Perkins, V. F. (1963). "The Cinema of Nicholas Ray," ''Movie'', 11 (July/August), in ''V. F. Perkins on Movies''. pp. 167–68.</ref>  Ray himself used the latter example to discuss the varying meaning of color, referring to the red-on-red of James Dean's jacket on a red couch, in ''Rebel Without a Cause'', as "smoldering danger," while the same arrangement of Charisse's gown and sofa "was an entirely different value" (which he did not specify).  In ''Party Girl'', he says, green was "sinister and jealous," while in ''Bigger Than Life'' it was "life, grass, and hospital walls," and, referring to the use of color in ''Johnny Guitar'', he cites the costuming of the posse in stark black and white.<ref>Ray, ''I Was Interrupted'', pp. 57–58.</ref>  Implicitly their dress befits the situation—they have come directly from a funeral—but also situates them in stark contrast to Joan Crawford's Vienna, the character they are persecuting, who changes her wardrobe, in a wide range of vivid colors, from one scene to the next.

About Ray's editing style, V. F. Perkins describes it as "dislocated ... [reflecting] the dislocated lives which many of his characters live," citing as a characteristic feature the use of camera movements that are in process at the start of the shot and not yet at rest at the end.  Frequently, as well, Ray cuts abruptly, and disruptively, from the main action of a scene to the response, in close-up, of "a character who is, to all appearances, only peripherally involved."<ref>Perkins, "The Cinema of Nicholas Ray," in ''V. F. Perkins on Movies'', p. 167.</ref> Another distinctive trait is the frequent use of dissolves for scene transitions, "more than most Hollywood directors of his time," as [[Terrence Rafferty]] points out, inferring from this, "perhaps an indication of his general preference for fluidity over hard, nailed-down meanings."<ref name=":1" />  Ray himself cited comic strips as instructive, when he started in pictures, as providing examples that deviated from the most conventional Hollywood editing.<ref>Ray, ''I Was Interrupted'', pp. 40–41.</ref>  He also remembered that when shooting his first film, the editor (Sherman Todd) encouraged him to "shoot double reverses" (that is, to violate the [[180-degree rule]]), which he did, strategically, in several sequences of ''They Live By Night'', ''In A Lonely Place'', and other of his Hollywood films.<ref>Krohn, "The Class," p. 257.</ref>