Drive

            Drive was visually both quiet and noisy. The “chase” was the major force in the film, with speeding cars and guns and violence to go along with it. One of the first readings we had for Film 1 mentioned that the medium of film was well suited for showing the chase. Indeed, in Drive the filming of the chase emphasized its kinetic energy and emotional intensity. In one getaway scene, the car, driven by a professional driver and stuntman, swerves, turns, and speeds away while the shots jump from the car interior to the car following the getaway, zooming in on their almost touching respective back and front bumpers. The shots of the chase are not usually wide shots. Instead, the close ups and medium shots support the driver’s serious need to flee and the follower’s anger at having been robbed. The shifts and movement within these kinds of shots are much more noticeable and disrupt any sense of balance or safety.

            In contrast to the hectic chase scenes, the film’s quietness is most strongly seen in several dark, medium shots in which Driver or Irene (their heads and necks), his neighbor, are alone at either the far left or right of the shot. Behind them is almost black and their might be some street or car lights misty in the background. Their faces are lit with soft green or red lights. The color and composition of the shots evoke an otherworldly atmosphere, providing the two characters some form of escape from their difficult and uncertain realities. I decided to call them quiet shots because they are at least so in comparison to the action scenes. Furthermore, they are dark and the only action is the subtle movement of their breathing and faces. These shots are painterly and emotive, and suggest the character’s inner worlds and Driver and Irene’s now intertwined lives.

            The internal life of the Driver, who happens to be known only as the Driver, is a mystery. He barely speaks. My brother, when we watched this together, compared his portrayal as deep, brooding yet powerful and potentially violent to comic book heroes. How could a person who acts criminally, violently also care for and love Irene and her son? The film's hinting at the Driver’s inner complexities reminds me of several movies from my French Cinema class (where a lot of my educational experience of film has come from) that feature criminals made by their situations in society or the grotesqueness of their cultures, criminals who exhibited nearly hidden layers of tenderness and humanity. They were Jean-Luc Godard’s Michel Poiccard in Breathless, Janine in Claude Miller and Francois Truffaut’s The Little Thief and Antoine Doinel in Truffaut’s 400 Blows.