Von Stroheim uses time as a way to isolate the surrounding events (even what surrounds the spectator) in order to fix our eyes and get mesmerized by the story. It's kind of hypnotic. European movies have a tendency to show movements and soul motions in a slower way. This is no change with Stroheim who, for example uses many minutes to show us a "coup de foudre" a "love at first sight". But the thing is, Von Stroheim didn't perhaps want only to appear dull, but he wanted to get dull with the situation then to understand the decadence of his situation, the impossibility to move and talk, being on horseback, keeping stern the way a militar does but having a Fay Wray moving her head and eyes so sweetly it makes a complete change in motion in this movie scene. Perhaps Stroheim aimed too much the detail. I think this is what makes his movies so different and personal. And the fetishist, arrogant examples in this movie indeed explain the complexity of his way to see and feel something like Love. How people kiss each other without feeling it and how the European Decadence caused so much pain in young hearts.
Review of The Wedding March
