Would the elevator scene from The Nice Guys count?
Ha! Well, it was a fun gag. Not sure there’s much depth to it.
Serenity does this w/ River taking care of a bunch of reavers.
The Witch isn’t really offscreen, is it? They cut back and forth between the kids and the adults.
I was going to submit Reservoir Dogs (all three already mentioned) and Serenity. Note that Serenity also starts with some offscreen nastiness when the Reavers attack.
Given that these have already been taken, I’ll have to do something I’m sure the 3x3 police would disapprove of and nominate a documentary. Specifically, the conflict between Timothy Treadwell and a bear in Grizzly Man.
In The Witch, we’re with William and Katherine for the first half of the scene. As soon as Katherine begins to talk about Thomasin’s fate, she calls out to see if the children are awake. They don’t respond and the rest of the scene stays on their candlelit faces without cutting back.
LOL, that one’s awesome.
Hmmmm… Most found footage films will have some element of this sort of thing, I suspect, since the limited POV is the central gimmick. Blair Witch certainly did, especially in the final scene. IIRC, Trollhunter had a number of troll vs. human/geography moments.
Yeah, I’m realizing this technique is helpful for letting the audience use their imagination (for ear slicing, Mad Max rampaging, dad vs furnace, or the mean old Blair Witch) which, of course, can be more powerful than actually seeing it.
Thanks for the great tips, everyone! I’ve added Mad Max and A Christmas Story to my memory stick for class. I also remembered Boyhood did an offscreen argument from the child’s perspective in bed so I’m gonna screen that one in addition to The Witch.
Oh, I just remembered, Hard Eight has that wonderful, off-putting beat in the diner when Gwyneth Paltrow and Philip Baker Hall are getting to know each other when suddenly an outburst occurs at a booth behind them. They jump and look over just in time to see, “Fuck this, I’m outta here!” as a guy storms off on his girlfriend. Then Gwyneth makes the stretch-mouthed “yeesh, what was that about?” expression and they carry on. So good. I only saw that movie once and that was the only moment that stuck with me. Just a glimpse of PTA’s strange genius yet to come.
The Limey gets bloody revenge out of sight, but not out of hearing:
YES! That’s a great one.