Josef von Sternberg's "The Docks of New York"
Josef von Sternberg's "The Docks of New York" tells the story of a coal stoker named Bill who spends the night in a bar on a New York dock while he awaits works the next day. There, he saves the life of a prostitute named Mae who tries to drown herself. For the rest of the night, the two of them fall in love and even get married.
Sternberg creates a lurid atmosphere for the film, providing dark and eerie lighting and mise-en-scene for the dock scenes. These scene directly contrast with the bright and light atmosphere of the inside of the bar, where everyone is partying and having a good time. The darkness and fog of the dark outside is used by Sternberg to illustrate a dark and troubled world. This troubled world deeply affects the characters who inhabit it. Bill spends his days slaving away shoveling coal and Mae spends her days prostituting herself. The use of lighting provides the necessary landscape in order to understand the dismal state of mind the characters find themselves in.
Not only does Sternberg effectively use lighting and mise-en-scene, but he also utilizes framing and camerawork to instill subjectivety into the scenes. This occurs in one instance when we see Mae jumping into the water to commit suicide. Rather than showing her walk up to the water and jump in directly, Sternberg presents us her image from the reflection of the water. So, the first time we ever see Mae is directly in her reflection of the water. The visual image of Mae's body already in the water (even before she jump) provides an initial subjective experience in Mae; namely, that her state of mind is suicidal - as her corporal form is already in the water visually.
Another subjective experience of Mae involves when she's sewing up Bill's clothes. We see her trying to get the thread into the eye of the needle until Sternberg cuts to another shot. The shot Sternberg cuts to is a point-of-view perspective shot of Mae. We see her holding the needle in the frame from her perspective. However, the image itself is out-of-focus. The viewer is able to draw the conclusion that Mae's vision is out-of-focus because she is crying and her tears are obscuring her vision. Rather than Sternberg just showing us that she is crying, he decides to let the camera inhabit her subjective perspective. The purpose of subjective camerawork here is to empathize more with Mae, as we are actively taking part in her experience.
The Docks of New York presents a dark and grueling world. The antitode to this world is found in the bright lights and intoxication of the togetherness found inside a community coming together. More specifically, Bill and Mae finding something in each other than provides them a comfort to the pain of everyday life. Sternberg's presentation of this world and these subjective experiences allow us to truly understand the story in a way that separates us from objectivity and provides us a subjective understanding of the world according to the characters that inhabit it.
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