FILM FILM - University of Macau Library

54 Transition and Transformation
(who is the reason for “He” having had to become a clown) in the company of
the greedy Mancini, who is about to give his daughter away in marriage to the
wealthy Baron. He is absent-mindedly fingering a necklace, which is focused
upon through an iris closing. However, this closing is not completed; instead,
the image is dissolved to another pair of hands fiddling about with a garland of
flowers, followed by an iris opening to reveal the girl’s beloved who is holding
the garland. Last, “He” is shown in clown make-up again, with a dissolve reverting
to his actual self – the scientist Beaumont – and, thereafter, back again to
the clown. This final dissolve marks the Baron’s discovery of the clown’s true
identity. (FIG. 5, 6 and 7)
Fig. 5-7: A series of dissolves: The Baron’s discovery of the clown’s true identity
(He Who Gets Slapped).
With the exception of the dissolve from ball turning into globe and then into
circus arena, or from necklace to garland, these dissolves function in the same
way, to establish a parallel between two different images of one or several persons,
where the change of costume also seems to imply the dissolving of the
previously established identity.
As for the other dissolves in the film, these also establish an analogy between
two shots, but here, the analogy is based on the visual contrast between two
different objects. In the case of the ball and the globe, this may seem as the
simplest kind of dissolve, as it merely evokes a resemblance in form. Arne
Lunde, who in his book Nordic Exposures has devoted a chapter to He Who
Gets Slapped, has suggested an allegorical interpretation of the globe:
In its opening moments the film thus introduces globes and “globalization” as a semiveiled
thematic. Back at the Baron’s study [...] the doubly betrayed Beaumont hurls
his scientific manuscript at the desk globe and sends the orb spiralling onto the floor.
When it finally stops rolling, the North America continent is laying face-up toward
the camera. This scene occurs just before Beaumont vanishes to reemerge as the circus
star “He”. Narratively, the circus exists on the outskirts of Paris, but, on the level of
allegory, the insistent close-up shot of a spinning world map finally reaching stasis
points toward a different geographical destination – America and Hollywood. 32