American Cinematographer - April 1985 - 92

If Day had used diffusion,
he would have lost half of the

around." "God is here" she

meaning of the

peats.

story.

In tracing

this duel between mystery and
muddle, A Passage to India
smartly resorts to the use of
shadow and light to illustrate its

points. At the heart of this
long and engaging tale of English
travellers in the land of the Rajah,
many

As

is an unfortunate occurrence that
takes place inside the foreboding
Marabar Caves between a white

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an

In¬

sees

Mrs.

Moore, she is only a dark figure in
forbidden

place (a sacred
mosque). When he asks the figure
to identify itself, Mrs. Moore's
face steps into the light, and all
around her hair, an aura of white
light is formed, as the two have
a

an¬

the rims of the hair are slightly
back-lit. The environment in these
shots is still obscure. In their two-

shot, filmed from the side, the two
uniformly engulfed in night-

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confront her own death (and thus,
the visual reference to the
stretched-out body in an earlier

and Aziz's talk of some¬
seeing a dead body float by
the river, shortly after). When

scene,

times
in

enters the infamous
Marabar Caves, and the horrible
echo begins, the camera appropri¬

Mrs. Moore

When she reaches for the
exit she makes another transition

is afforded a full head-on close up,
in which only the faces are lit, and

V0191 For Arriflex 16SR

Moore

re¬

fine."
At this point, Mrs.
is already beginning to
very

Visually speaking, the
film nearly takes a literal approach
to presenting the problem, and so

their first talk. The choice of

ELECTRIC HEATED

"That is

ately lifts

gles here is also significant. Since
they do not know each other, each

V0190 All Arriflex Models except

coun¬

"Yes, God is here," he

dian man (Dr. Aziz). That the
whole occurrence is shrouded
with question marks is part of
what the "passage" of the title is
all about.

when Dr. Aziz first

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only places in the movie to use a
zoom lens quite
conspicuously.
Sitting by the edge of the river, Dr.
Aziz feels the presence of another
in the mosque with him, and hears
the rustling of leaves behind him.
Meanwhile, the camera is zooming
on his back, slyly, and
stopping,
then on his neck, and stopping.
Each time he turns, the invading
lens comes to a halt. This is decep¬
tion in perception as well, for
when we spot her, Mrs. Moore is
in a place too far from him to be
able to spy on him. So many En¬
glish ladies do not bother to take
their shoes off, Dr. Aziz explains
to the new arrival, "especially
when they know no one is
April 1985

view

(also

up to a
a zoom

God's point of
since the ceil¬

ings are too low). The woman is
sweating and struggling for her
breath.

from dead darkness (the caves' in¬
sides are only lit by candles, and
bottom lit at that) to scorching
hot sunlight outside. And when
she finally clutches her chest, and
feels the end, while on the boat

sailing back

to England, it is her
shadow that first falls on the
chaise lounge chair. She then

drops in it and fills it. The journey
has been completed (and recalling
the earlier visual references, her
body gets wrapped in white fabric,
and then dropped in the ocean).
Throughout A Passage to
India, the burgeoning themes,
thoughts and double meanings
(double, in keeping faithful with
its bent

on

symmetry),
in

ways manages to seep

water

al¬

as a men¬

ding tool and a clarifier. The film
opens with rain, and ends with a
shot of rain as well (one that is also
framed in a window). Even the
dreaded monsoon rains come to

all evil. Whenever there
be friction or conflict,
the image of still water comes
close after to supply the required
harmony (Dr. Aziz arrives at Major

wipe

away

appears to

Callendar's door to assist on a
house call, and is told he is not
needed. He looks up to address
the guard, and the light is turned
off on him and so he is displaced
and literally in the dark. Cut to the

equisite image of the moon float¬
ing in water, and Aziz's tired hands

reaching
to

up to it, in the lily pond,
wash). Water is important to
American Cinematographer - April 1985

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