Skip to main content
Gracie Marcellus
September 2018
Life Lessons - Lionel Dobie’s Character


Lionel Dobie, played by Nick Nolte, is an unlikable guy who the audience has empathy for. He’s also an artist that has been struggling to paint until Paulette, played by Rosanna Arquette, his muse/assistant comes back into his life. Throughout the film, the filmmakers use cinematic technique to help create a complex character of a brilliant artist with some serious flaws.


Dobie is described as being “confronted with the terror and awfulness of mortality. That’s the price he has to pay for being a famous painter.” Dobie was truly the most frustrating character to watch on the screen. An example of this can be seen when Dobie is staring at Paulette’s foot in her bedroom. After the iris shot of her foot, there’s a cut into a a blue light sequence showing us how Dobie is feeling. When we cut back, the filmmakers instantly show us his eyes. He’s obviously still longing for her and it takes him a few more seconds to try to shake the feeling from his mind. His obsession with her was clearly shown within that sequence. In the end, he still pays a price for being a painter because we know that “When Rosanna Arquette leaves Nick Nolte, he is looking into the abyss of the only thing that changes about him - his age.”


His choice of music set the mood each time he continued painting. The music (rock song by Bob Dylan “Like a Rolling Stone”) was definitely needed when Paulette walks down the stairs to yell at him and instead, ends up feeling mesmerized by his painting. The music during that scene felt like it got louder and louder until you were just completely lost in his painting. The specific splatters and art he created, was zoomed in on a lot during that scene as well, making the choices in that scene even smoother. The choice of music for each individual moment in his life was definitely carefully selected by the filmmakers in order to to show us how his character developed throughout the film.


His life was hanging by a thread and yet the audience felt so attached to him. There’s an example of this when Dobie stops painting for a moment and looks up into Paulette’s bedroom. Knowing that Paulette is with another man, Dobie furiously paints his canvas. There’s a lot of quick cuts and zooms during this scene. Afterwards, we see that the paint has splattered all over Dobie’s glasses and chest. There’s a moment when it feels like the camera movement comes to a complete stop. The moment is when he gets up out of his chair and slowly walks towards Paulette’s window. As he’s longing for her, they cut to a wide shot to show him still looking up into her window. The filmmakers made sure that his raw emotion was visually shown during that scene.
In conclusion, Dobie is a very complex and thought out character. The filmmakers did a very good job about communicating to us that he wasn’t a perfect character and that he had some serious flaws. Like a dog to a bone, Dobie was attached to his art. His art was definitely a great way to showcase his character’s emotional journey. Even though we don’t end up knowing what happens with his new muse/assistant, we can still come to the conclusion that Lionel Dobie probably will never stop creating art because as they pointed out, “When Rosanna Arquette leaves Nick Nolte, he is looking into the abyss of the only thing that changes about him - his age.”

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Limited and Flat Space in Rear Window

Limited and Flat Space in Rear Window By: Cassie Galonsky The film Rear Window , directed by Alfred Hitchcock, uses different types of space to convey the story that he is telling.  The film is shot with space in mind to create different feelings for the audience. Limited space and flat space are both used at different points, in order to portray different things.  The majority of the film is told through the eyes of L.B. Jeffries, or Jeff, a freelance photographer who has been confined to his apartment as his broken leg heals. Alfred Hitchcock uses the opportunity to demonstrate to the audience his confinement with the different types of space.   During the course of the story, Jeff observes the actions of his neighbors through his open window.  One day, he sees a series of events that leads him to believe that one of his neighbors, Thorwald, has murdered his wife after her unexplained disappearance.  He enlists in the help of his gir...
Post a Comment
Read more

The Power of Lionel Dobie's Painting

In his short film, Life Lessons, Martin Scorsese shows off his directing skills and techniques in a variety of ways. Throughout the film, he utilizes stylized camera techniques to enhance the story and make it visually interesting. Those camera techniques combined with his direction produces a very compelling and entertaining film. One scene, in particular, stands out as a great example of the directing skills of Scorsese. In that scene, we see Paulette go from being determined to leave New York to her falling back under Dobie’s spell and deciding to stay. This scene stands out due to the fact that rather than dialog, it utilizes visuals and music to successfully convey Paulette’s decision to remain with Dobie in New York. Approximately halfway through the film, we are shown a conversation between Paulette and her mother. Paulette wants to come home because she feels that she has no future as a painter after Lionel cannot compliment her work. Towards the end of the conversation,...
Post a Comment
Read more

Life Lessons: Through the Iris

Through the Iris By: Cassie Galonsky “There is no such thing as simple.  Simple is hard.” This is a famous quote by Martin Scorsese.  In the short film Life Lessons , Scorsese captures idea perfectly.  He makes purposeful choices with the cinematography to make the audience view the piece in a specific way.  He does not choose the “easy way out,” but rather finds the way that is going to best engage his audience. Throughout the course of the film, Scorsese chooses to use iris shots to connect the main character to the audience, and make them see his point of view in an effective way. Life Lessons , is one of three films that make up the anthology film New York Stories .  Life Lessons centers around a famous artist named Lionel Dobie, and his significantly younger assistant, Paulette.  Paulette is working to become a better artist herself, and she wants to learn from him because of his success. The entire film takes place over ...
Post a Comment
Read more