Sightlines · how to watch
How to watch A New Leaf
1971 · Elaine May · A New Leaf on Sightlines
5 things to watch and listen for on a first viewing, without spoilers, and 3 more once you have seen it. Each names something you can see or hear, the pattern it belongs to, and what noticing it gives you. How these keys work.
On a first viewing
Watch Matthau plan murder with the calm of a bookkeeper. (performance)
He narrates his own scheme in the same flat, reasonable tone he might use to balance a checkbook, never raising his voice or his eyebrows.
Payoff: The comedy comes entirely from his total conviction, not from any joke he tells.
Watch her lose a fight with her own clothing. (performance)
May builds Henrietta from small physical disasters, tangled sleeves, a spilled teacup, a Grecian nightgown she cannot manage, running business that recurs across the film.
Payoff: Her helplessness with objects becomes the whole character before she says much of anything.
Notice the contrast between his tailored rooms and her clutter. (staging)
Henry's world is brittle elegance running out of money, a sports car and a manservant. Henrietta's house is stuffed with specimens and being quietly looted by her own staff.
Payoff: Two kinds of wealth sit side by side, one collapsing and one merely careless.
Listen for cheerful music under his darkest plans. (sound)
Neal Hefti's score turns sprightly exactly when Henry is at his most murderous and sentimental exactly when he is coldest and most calculating.
Payoff: The music keeps telling a joke the characters never say out loud.
Watch how Harold the manservant looks at Henry. (performance)
George Rose plays Henry's manservant with quiet, unshowy devotion, one of the few relationships in the film not built on getting something.
Payoff: A single loyal servant is the film's control group for what real affection looks like.
The 3 rewatch keys open on this page when you choose "Seen it?".
Carry this in: Watch Matthau narrate his own scheme as calmly as balancing a checkbook.