ABSTRACT
In the first shot of Gilda (1946), 1 a slow tilt upward by the camera to face a frontal assault by a pair of dice thrown by Johnny/Glenn Ford is accompanied by the voice-over: “To me a dollar was a dollar in any language” (figures 5.1 and 5.2). This shot constitutes an introduction to a major character as well as the articulation of a central thematic of the film—the conflation of economics, risk, and desire represented by gambling. Later in the film it is paralleled by the shot which introduces Gilda herself. Only this time the movement is Gilda’s. A shot in which Ballen/George Macready asks his new wife, “Are you decent?,” is immediately followed by an empty frame whose function is simply the establishment and holding of a space. Gilda/Rita Hayworth, tossing her hair back with an almost violent gesture, rises into the frame and answers, “Me?” (later adding, after a reverse shot of Johnny and as she pulls her dress strap over her shoulder, “Sure, I’m decent”). In this case, the movement upward to fill the frame with a content is displaced from the camera to Gilda (figures 5.3 and 5.4). https://s3-euw1-ap-pe-df-pch-content-public-p.s3.eu-west-1.amazonaws.com/9781315021171/af3e9da0-411a-44b9-96ef-d59f95970b3a/content/fig5_1_B.jpg" xmlns:xlink="https://www.w3.org/1999/xlink"/> https://s3-euw1-ap-pe-df-pch-content-public-p.s3.eu-west-1.amazonaws.com/9781315021171/af3e9da0-411a-44b9-96ef-d59f95970b3a/content/fig5_2_B.jpg" xmlns:xlink="https://www.w3.org/1999/xlink"/> https://s3-euw1-ap-pe-df-pch-content-public-p.s3.eu-west-1.amazonaws.com/9781315021171/af3e9da0-411a-44b9-96ef-d59f95970b3a/content/fig5_3_B.jpg" xmlns:xlink="https://www.w3.org/1999/xlink"/> https://s3-euw1-ap-pe-df-pch-content-public-p.s3.eu-west-1.amazonaws.com/9781315021171/af3e9da0-411a-44b9-96ef-d59f95970b3a/content/fig5_4_B.jpg" xmlns:xlink="https://www.w3.org/1999/xlink"/>
