One Oner After Another: Three Remarkable One-Take Scenes In Cinema
How three lesser known unbroken shots elevate the scene in their movies to greater heights.
One-take shots are popular. Just last year in television, two different TV shows— The Studio and Adolescence— filmed entire episodes in unbroken shots, creating different types of immersive experiences1. Cinema, too, is filled with famous examples of memorable oners— the Copacabana scene from Goodfellas, the opening of Boogie Nights, the car ambush from Children of Men… if you’re a film fan, even a casual one, you’ll have seen at least some of the popular ones.
So here are three lesser known but equally powerful one-take shots in the movies.
Flowers of Shanghai (1998) - Opening
Directed by: Hou Hsiao-hsien
Director of Photography: Pin Bing Lee
Most of Flowers of Shanghai plays out in long shots, but the opening scene takes the crown for its unbroken eight-minute oner. The entire scene is set around a dining table at one of the brothels. The men play a drinking game, the courtesans watch and make comments— and for one young man, they even drink on his behalf when he keeps losing. The main character, Master Wang (Tony Leung) sits on the left. He watches the others, smiles a bit, but never says a word. The camera doesn’t even focus on him too much; if you don’t know who Leung is, you’d be forgiven for being confused about who we’re supposed to be pay attention to. And that’s kind of the point. On first glance, the scene might seem meandering and pointless, but it actually is conveying all the necessary exposition needed to understand the rest of the film courtesy of one man talking about Yufu, one of the players, who is besotted with a prostitute named Crystal. We never see Crystal, but their relationship foreshadows that of Master Wang and the woman he loves, Crimson; as well as the love triangle the three are involved in when Master Wang goes to see another prostitute named Jasmin. But more than that, the oner masterfully captures the time, the period, and the dynamics between the men and the prostitutes during the 18th century, allowing us to understand the world we’re about to step in. Subtle, brilliant, and honestly, it’s some of the best naturally lit cinematography since Barry Lyndon.
Atonement (2007) - Dunkirk evacuation
Directed by: Joe Wright
Director of Photography: Seamus McGarvey
This five-and-a-half minute oner was actually a compromise. Joe Wright wanted to do a large scale scene of the Dunkirk evacuation2, but they didn’t have the budget, the extras, or the shooting time. With only two days to get the beach scene, Wright reluctantly reduced his plans to this one shot of Robbie Turner (James McAvoy) walking along the beach, past soldiers shooting their horses between the eyes, a mother and child sitting silently together, a beached ship with tattered sails, and a group of men singing as a chorus. Steadicam operator Peter Robertson rode the first part of the shot on an electric vehicle, then walked the next part of the shot, and then used a rickshaw for the final part which allowed him to save energy and keep up with the pacing of the actors. Out of four takes, of which the last was ruined halfway by poor lighting, they used the third take, getting the shot during a small window of time that Seamus McGarvey wanted. Honestly? If this was a compromise, it’s a great one.
Notorious (1946) - The Kissing Scene
Directed by: Alfred Hitchcock
Director of Photography: Ted Tetzlaff
Here’s another instance of obstacles leading to the best creative solution. The Hays Code, which was in full swing by the 1940s, forbade any “excessive and lustful kissing, lustful embraces, suggestive postures and gestures”. If an onscreen kiss ran on for longer than a few seconds, the censors would cut it. In Notorious, Alfred Hitchcock filmed a two-and-a-half-minute scene of Cary Grant and Ingrid Bergman kissing by interrupting the smooch with the two walking from the balcony into the room, a telephone call, then Grant leaving, all while the camera keeps them in close up. To get this scene done, Hitchcock met with the studio and Production Code representatives, “lulling people with the shifting script and his wry reassurances”. The actors worried it would look awkward, but Hitchcock assured Bergman that it worked. It worked so well that it sneaked past censorship, resulting in an extremely erotic scene, even by Hitchcock’s standards.
Thanks for reading! What are your favorite one-shot takes from cinemas? Leave a comment below with your suggestions! If you liked this essay, you can sign up here for more issues. If you’d like to support Three Left Feet Media, share this newsletter with a fellow film lover you think would appreciate it.
Long live the movies!
D.L. Holmes
The Studio put viewers into the shoes of the anxiety-riddled studio head played by Seth Rogen. Adolescence felt like being dunked into a saucepan of water and unable to escape while the heat was slowly cranked up all the way to boiling.
Coincidentally, ten years later, Christopher Nolan got his chance to do exactly that with Dunkirk.