Original poster for Death Becomes Her
Jesse Pasternack explains how Robert Zemeckis’s cult comedy achieves its laughs and special effects.
Death Becomes Her (1992) is one of Robert Zemeckis’s best films because it expertly melds two of the most famous sides of himself as a director. They are, respectively, his exceptional ability to use film form to create humor and his use of visual effects. His combination of great comedy and innovative technology produce memorable results in this movie.
Death Becomes Her is about a vain actor named Madeline Ashton (Meryl Streep) and her rival Helen Sharp (Goldie Hawn). Angered by Sharp’s resurgence as an author and afraid of getting old, Ashton takes a potion given to her by the mysterious Lisle von Rhuman (Isabella Rossellini). The potion gives her immortality, but she has to reckon with its side effects as well as a realization that Sharp has also taken the same concoction.
Goldie Hawn and Meryl Streep in Death Becomes Her
Zemeckis fills this movie with many great shots which are funny in and of themselves. For example, there is a brief scene where Sharp is talking on the phone in a normal manner. But as she speaks, the camera tracks backwards to reveal that her room is full of artwork showing that she still despises Ashton. It’s a hilarious moment which gets its power entirely from the simple camera movement.
In addition, the editing by Arthur Schmidt expertly executes the film’s funniest moments. It keeps everything moving at a good rhythm and engages your interest in the increasingly extreme narrative. Even simple cuts, like one to Ashton’s hand clawing a wall after Sharp insults her from afar, can make you laugh.
But while this film is remarkable for how it uses simple techniques like tracking shots and basic editing to create humor, it is more celebrated for how it used (at the time) cutting-edge visual effects. Death Becomes Her was a pioneer in using CGI (computer-generated imagery) in sequences depicting the side effects of the potion. It was the first film to use computer-generated skin texture and a shot of Ashton’s hand being de-aged foreshadowed decades of more sophisticated work in later American blockbusters. It even preceded Jurassic Park (1993) in using this technology and would go on to win the Academy Award for Best Visual Effects.
CGI effects in Death Becomes Her
But the film’s effects hold up today not for how innovative they still are, but because of how well they support its sense of comedic anarchy. The CGI imagery is not used for the sake of being inventive but because of how well it accentuates the sheer madness of what is happening on screen. In addition, it gives the film’s satirical edge about the lengths which certain women will go to remain young and beautiful more bite.
Zemeckis has combined comedy with innovative visual effects throughout his career. But Death Becomes Her is probably one of his best mixtures of those two elements. It demonstrates that he can use even simple film techniques to get laughs, even as he pushes the technological aspects of the medium forward. Whether you like its comedy or its groundbreaking use of CGI, it remains a great film to watch.
Death Becomes Her will be screened at IU Cinema on November 7 as part of the Q+ series.