A second viewing of A SINGLE MAN (2009) made me go overboard

Posted by Daniel Metz

I was struck by my second viewing of the film to compare director Tom Ford with Orson Welles. I say this first of all because their first efforts are both very strong. Welles was famous as a very successful person within a different field (theatre and radio), just as Ford is famous in fashion. Both the theatrics of stage/radio production and the aesthetic awareness of fashion design are key aspects of cinema yet have their own unique realms. Thus, like Welles, Ford is someone who particularly excels in one crucial aspect of the cinema.

The main reason I compare the two, however, is in their novel approach to cinema. Both artists, coming from other fields, are not directors in the traditional Hollywood sense. Rather, they come ignorant of some conventions of the cinema, and their films look like non-director’s films. Welles is so celebrated because Citizen Kane was stylistically unlike any movie before it.

I am not sure you can say the same about A Single Man, but you can somewhat. The use of color shows a disregard/unawareness for the conventions of cinema. It stands out and takes you out of the moment. Clearly some suit (strange to oppose a fashion designer with a “suit,” but oh well) told Ford he shouldn’t use the device. I imagine that Ford’s response was plain and simple: “Why can’t I?”

All of this may not make sense, but I am trying to suggest that Ford is coming from a place of possibilities and the right kind of ignorance. Welles often said that he was so good at movie making because he didn’t know how to make a movie. I get that same feeling from director Tom Ford; I just hope his career doesn’t falter in the same way.

As a side note, after I googed for a picture of Tom Ford I found the ads for his cologne line. Have you seen this filthy advertisements? Whoa momma! I am beginning to think I am a puritan. Check this out:

They’re all just as dirty as that. Who woulda thought?