WHITE OF THE EYE

US, 1988, 111 minutes, Colour.
David Keith, Cathy Moriarty, Alberta Watson.
Directed by Donald Cammel.

White of the Eye is an atmospheric thriller, set in Arizona. The Arizona settings are strikingly photographed. David Keith stars as the ordinary man who emerges as quite insane and a murderer. Cathy Moriarty (Raging Bull) is his wife.

The film was written and directed by China and Donald Cammell. Cammell has made only a few feature films including Performance and Demon Seed. He has an interest in bizarre aspects of human nature. The screenplay focuses on murders, their investigation, the life of Paul White and his wife - with flashbacks, with a special technique of coloration and lack of clarity to highlight their nature, explaining the past.

The film is also stylish, some might consider flashy, in its photographic style, use of symbols, slow motion, composition of scenes as if they were paintings.

Overall, the film has a haunting quality, even though its characters are repellent.

1.Interesting thriller? Content? Style?

2.Arizona locations and their beauty? The atmosphere of the town? The styles of photography? Editing and pace? Style? The transition to the different style for the flashbacks? Their insertion into the film?

3.The title, Paul White? The close-up of eyes? Their significance? (And the background of Arizona Indian mythologies?)

4.The opening, the murder? The wealthy housewife, her ordinary life, the sudden attack and her death? The information about the other killings? The third murder? The imagined killing of Anne with its sadism, especially the mirror in the bath? Audience antipathy towards the murderer? Paul and his background? His final explanations of why he killed the women? His insanity, his sense of destiny, his understanding of the universe and its energies, the role of women, his place as executioner?

5.The picture of Paul White as an ordinary citizen, his skill with electrical gear? His many jobs? His relationship with his wife and daughter? Domestic scenes? Going to work, singing opera? His encounter with Charles Mendoza? The interrogation about the tyres? Police suspicion about him?

6.His carrying on ordinarily, audiences unsure or sure that he was the murderer? His encounter with Anne Mason and her attempts at seduction? His return to his wife, declarations of love? Her growing edginess? The interrogations by the police? His friends at the Chinese restaurant? The police officer and his getting information? The friendliness of Charles Mendoza? The discussion with the sheriff? The interrogation and the mirror with his wife watching?

7.The picture of Joan, her relationship with Paul, her love for her daughter? Friendship with Karen? At home, love? Suspicions about Anne Mason? Getting edgier, Paul's absences, her talking with the police?

8.The flashbacks and the picture of Joan and Mike, their background, coming from New York? The truck, delayed in Globe? The initial encounter with Paul? Lovemaking? Her decision to stay? The clash with Mike? His disappearance? The further flashbacks in the mind of Paul - the hunting, the violence? The flashbacks in the memory of Mike - especially the hunting, Paul's violent tearing apart of the animal?

9.Joan meeting Mike, reminiscing about old times? The meanings of their life, his imprisonment? The cross-cutting with Paul and Anne Mason?

10.The final evening: Joan and her anxiety, the phone call to Karen, wanting to get her daughter away? Paul's return, her challenge after finding the flesh in the bathroom? His ramblings and mad explanations? Menaces and threats? Locking Joan in the attic, the confrontation with his daughter? Her getting the key? His painting himself, his pseudo-mystical imagination? The daughter's escape, the shooting, the chase for Joan? Threatening her, the clash with Mike? At the edge of the lake, the confrontations, his sense of destiny, his being shot, armed with explosives? Trying to set himself alight? Mike and his own madness, their deaths?

11.Mike, mad, his interior television? Saving Joan?

12.The police, their investigations, shrewdness? Following clues? Mendoza's ingratiating manner? The finale and talking with Joan?

13.The publicising of serial killers and their murders in the United States? The horror? The victims? Audiences wanting to understand the madness behind the killers? The insights from this film?