Groundbreaking Cinematography in El Ranchero

During the first sequence of the interview of Susan Alexander in El Ranchero, Welles uses extremely impressive camerawork and editing to create a cohesive transition between exterior establishment and interior dialogue. The shot starts with a flash of lighting to give a motive for cutting from the previous scene. Cutting on a flash of lighting works because there is both a visual and audio motive: a bright flash and a loud crash. The shot starts on a shot of an illustration of Susan Alexander on the side of the building and pedestals up to the blinking sign reading “El Rancho.”  Here, a lesser-gifted filmmaker would have cut directly from the exterior establishing shot to the interior of El Rancho during another lighting flash. Instead, Welles performs an incredible feat: the camera dollies in through the sign, tilts down and moves through the glass of a skylight into the building, where it tilts back up and dollies forward as it pedestals down to eye level.

From a technical standpoint, this shot is astoundingly well done. Today, filmmakers might use computer-generated imagery to perform a similar shot and not have it look as good as it does in this film. The IMDB page for this film says that a collapsible sign was built that could be split in two to allow the camera to pass through. To transition through the glass, the sequence must have been taken in two shots with one ending just above the glass and one one beginning in the same spot with the glass removed. A well-timed dissolve makes it seem that the camera moves through the window. 

The shot was not technically impressive for the sake of being just that. Having such a shot is also very important in setting the mood of the scene. Long, continuous shots are very important throughout the film. Wells generally tries to use cuts as little as possible, and this scene is no exception. The use of long takes throughout the film is contrary to conventional filmmaking, in which cuts often occur within around seven seconds of each other. These long takes have the benefit of displaying a realistic and human presentation. Because the camera doesn’t instantaneously change positions, which is impossible for people to do, it gives the effect that the audience is in the same room in which the acting is occurring. Cutting in between an establishing shot and an interior shot would diminish the effect greatly. Instead, the long take at the beginning of the “El Ranchero” sequence, which continues without cutting far longer once the dialogue begins, continues this effect used throughout the film.

The first "El Rancho" shot is very impressive, but it is also overused. The shot is reused a few times later in the film, albeit truncated and  possibly reversed, whenever the the the film enters or exits this building. Using it more than once detracts from the film as it becomes repetitive and disorienting. Perhaps Wells used the shot more than once because he was less concerned with multiple uses’ detrimental effect than he was proud of executing this complex and beautiful camerawork and editing expertly well.