#tagged/writtenposts

[smokeyfilms]

Cinema as Eye: Look and Gaze

“Film has depended on voyeuristic active/passive mechanisms. Woman, whose image has continually been stolen and used for this end, cannot view the decline of traditional film form with anything much more than sentimental regret” (Mulvey p.26).

Black Swan (Aronofsky 2010) is a brilliant psychological thriller showcasing protagonist Nina (Natalie Portman), a dedicated ballet dancer driven to insanity in her pursuit to unattainable perfection.

Visually the film employs an array of techniques, namely utilizes color to demonstrate Nina’s transition from innocent (wearing only white) to progressively incorporating darker colors into her wardrobe (see left image) until her eventual metamorphosis into the wicked beast, or rather psychosis, known as the Black Swan. Pertaining to the eye motif, a close, tracking shot follows Nina having fully realized her Black Swan alter ego. The camera focuses closely on Nina’s bloodshot eyes. Aronofsky uses this disturbing and demonic imagery to effectively unsettle the spectator (see right image).

The male gaze as a paradigm, surfaces as imagery of women’s bodies and faces are relentlessly used to decorate films. Even in the casting of films, where casting directors are obligated to book actors that meet an attractiveness criterion, as Scopophilia rules the subject matter of the modern film industry. Or in plain terms, sex sells. There are many close-up shots of Nina’s face with a sultry facial expression that would likely be considered pleasing to the male gaze. Moreover, this is mirrored in the film as the male antagonist (Thomas) exclaims for Nina to “seduce us” with her movement. This chaotic scene follows Nina as she frantically practices her lead role choreography, while getting cat-called with corrections. We see a passive/female against active/male dynamic, that projects Thomas’ “fantasy onto the female figure, which is styled accordingly” (Mulvey p. 19).

Nina’s self-worth is determined by how talented and beautiful she is in the eyes of Thomas, the head of the ballet company. This is brought to light through Nina’s iconic quote ‘I just wanted to be perfect’. However, this is merely Thomas’ version of perfect, not one that is necessarily desirable in western society, given that she is objectively mentally unhinged. The film explores topical themes of systematic sexual abuse in the entertainment industry, moreover, pertaining to the ‘me too’ and ‘times up’ movement. Black Swan (Aronofsky 2010) resembles instances where Nina is “subjugated to her image as a barer of the bleeding wound; she can exist only in relation to castration and cannot transcend it” (Mulvey p.14). The competitive dancers face a hierarchy that is not merit-based, but rather only reach the top or maintain their success through their willingness to perform sexual favors for their male superiors.

1. Images 1 and 2: Black Swan 2010, Fox Searchlight Pictures, Directed by Darren Aronofsky.

2. Mulvey, L 1998, Visual and Other Pleasures.

[thewrittenpost]

Quarter Century Challenge Masterpost!

Figured I’d make it easier and put the 25 pieces together in one post! I know it had a tag, but this should make it easier for me too, bypassing digging through the blog and all the Read Mores!

Candle

Summer

Costumes

Rose

High Heels

Competition

On-stage

Babysitting

Animated

RPGs

Road Trip

Summer Camp

First Job

Doodles

Finales

Music

Shakespeare

Siblings

Perfume

Winnie the Pooh

Mochi Day

First Days

Squirrels

Video Games

Dreams

[smokeyfilms]

Cinema as Door

“A film has many more points of entry than merely the screen on which the diegetic world unfolds” (Elsaesser p.41).

The Place Beyond the Pines (Cianfrance, 2012) is a neo-noir crime drama that stars Ryan Gosling, Bradley Cooper and Dane DeHaan. The film adequately conceptualizes cinema as door through its exploration of perspective, moreover, positions the spectator in three separate protagonists’ bodily experience of life throughout the film. While there is limited reference to the entering of literal doors, following three individual characters in one single chronology is what makes this film so entrancing, as we enter and exit their respective psyches.

The main character Luke (see image) is a motorcyclist, working as a mechanic to get enough money to support his infant son and to get close to his love interest, the mother of his son. When the money of a part-time mechanic is not enough, Luke decides to rob banks and is eventually shot and killed by a policeman (Avery) to which the viewpoint switches to.  Avery is treated as a hero, however he is internally aware that he misconducted himself, given the fact that he shot-first.

Avery grapples with this lie, to which he eventually concedes, losing his job and credibility. Thirdly, a young man befriends Avery’s son in the local high school, where it switches to the final character perspective, revealed as being Luke’s son, having reached adolescence (A.J.).

The Place Beyond the Pines (Cianfrance, 2012) plays with morality and the idea that one’s bad actions, can often originate from a place of good intention. An individual will excuse their bad behavior, negating the conception that they are inherently evil, in pursuit of a greater purpose, a heroic goal that requires drastic measures. It exposes the human condition as one that is doomed to a self-serving and self-preserving mindset. That only they are the ‘good guy.’ The film excites and surprises the spectator as an antagonist is unexpectedly empathized with as Avery is transformed into a protagonist and exposes the notion that the law doesn’t necessarily signify what is ethical.

There is a memorable scene depicting Luke out the front of a bank, working up the confidence to enter the building and demand money from the tellers. As he enters though the door, he is an entirely different creature, animalistic and screaming hysterically for the tellers to ‘put the money in the bag.’ This is Cianfrance’s more visual depictions of the notion of door. Leaving a world of innocence, to the lifechanging choice of committing an armed robbery. The bank entrance door is depicted as a “passage from one world to another, which pre-supposes the co-existence of two worlds separated as well as connected by the threshold” (Elsaesser P.36).

1.       The Place Beyond The Pines 2012, Sidney Kimmel Entertainment, Directed by Derek Cianfrance.

2.       Elsaesser, T & Hagener, M 2010, Film Theory: An Introduction Through the Senses, Routledge, New York.

[smokeyfilms]

Week 5: Cinema as Skin and Touch

“The lived body transparently provides the primary chiasmatic premises that connect and unite the senses as both carnally and consciously” (Sobchak p.84).

My favorite film, Her (Jonze 2013), starring Joaquin Phoenix, is a melodramatic and ever-precise sensory overload. In an urban, futuristic setting, the protagonist Theodore (see image) is haunted by memories of his wife, whom, for reasons he is yet to come to terms with, has recently left him. Reduced to a melancholic blur of reality, burdened by nostalgia, Theodore treads lightly as he finds himself falling in love with a highly intelligent operating system, Samantha.

The motif of contact and touch plays a fascinating role in this film, as it is arguably limited in its blatant visual portrayal, however unthwarted in its ability to elicit a haptic response in the spectator, through harnessing alternative carnal means. Skin-to-skin sensations are manufactured in Samantha and Theodore’s relationship, where touch is replaced by the visceral implication of sensual experiences, providing the spectator with the same “sensuous and bodily form of perception” (Sobchak p.54). This is demonstrated primarily in sex scenes in the beginning of the film, where they solely rely on the characters imagination and story-telling ability to convey intimacy. Furthermore, Jonze employs a technique that is “not predicated on a negation of the visual, but rather attempts to understand the senses and their interplay” (Elsaesser p. 110). It could be said that Theodore is positioned as a spectator himself, as Samantha uses vocal imagery to produce a haptic-like response in Theodore, to which the audience is able to identify. Moreover, this pseudo-cognition of being touched, without physically being touched, is experienced in Theodore, similarly as it is to the audience when watching the film.

Imagery of skin-to-skin contact, however, is Illustrated in a scene where Samantha invites a woman into Theodore’s home to host a sexual experience between the two partners. This is interesting as Theodore is not used to the sensation of a woman’s touch when engaging in sexual practices with Samantha, to which he ultimately finds it overwhelming. Jonze incorporates breathy, close to the microphone, stimulatory whispering sounds accompanied by the visual of pulling of clothes, close-ups of on-skin hand placements to allow an “undifferentiated experience of sense that grounds and conjoins body and language” to which the “feeling and knowledge of their coincidence so ordinary in our experience, that their sudden divergence is marked as frustrating” (Sobchak p.75). Jonze emphasizes physical touch is a mere ingredient in the complex cocktail of sensory indicators involved in perceiving intimacy and connection in adult relationships.

1. Her 2013, Warner Brothers Entertainment Inc, Directed by Spike Jonze.

2. Elsaesser, T & Hagener, M 2010, Film Theory: An Introduction Through the Senses, Routledge, New York.

3. Sobchak 2000, What My Fingers Knew: The Cinesthetic Subject, or Vision in the Flesh

[smokeyfilms]

Cinema as Ear: Acoustics and Space

Purely through instrumentation and acoustics, Insidious (Wan 2010) entrances the spectator and fuels the conception that there is a demonic presence at play. The score of Insidious (Wan 2010) is dynamic and tantalizing. It is continually surprising the viewer with its sudden volume changes, harrowing nature and strategic scene placement, to which greatly assists Wan in his pursuit to spark the audience’s intrigue, yet frighten them simultaneously. This film score is an excellent example, demonstrating how sound transcends the confines of the visual plane and manipulate the perception of the film’s narrative as a “conduit of radical changes affecting the spatial configuration of the cinematic experience” (Elsaesser p. 142).

 In the opening sequence of the film, you are guided through a haunted house, as the camera tracks room-to-room, presented with imagery of veiled brides, wearing black and antique furnishings. This eventuates into an abrupt transition to the title card (see image) with a backing of the most horrifying high-pitched strings. Sudden loud noises are often employed in the genre of horror however, it is arguably one of the main scare tactics utilized in Insidious (Wan 2010), lending merit to the score and composer Joseph Bishara.

The theme ‘the farther you travel, the darker its gets’ is threaded throughout the film’s entirety, particularly heard in jump-scare moments, rather than story building scenes. Furthermore, during the film as the dialogue begins to discuss matters of ‘the further’ a limbo where the spirits reside, this theme will quietly begin to play, providing a “suggestive effect” (Elsaesser p. 142), which then hauntingly trickles into a crescendo of deafening strings. Interestingly, the composer is featured in this film as the main demon character that possessed the body of young boy, Dalton. The composer sought to produce music that featured atonal scratchy violins, mixed with ‘weird piano bangs.’ During these scenes featuring the demon known as ‘the man with the red face’ another notable song, ‘Tiptoe Through the Tulips’ by Tiny Tim (1968) repeatedly plays in the background. Furthermore, when this song begins to play the spectator is conditioned to expect the presence of the terrifying demon. This is interesting because Wan recognizes that sound influences the subconscious of the viewer, able to instigate suspense, without the viewer realizing this is taking place.  

 Performed predominantly with a quartet and a piano, the score was mostly improvised and structured in the editing process. Frantic motions of the bow played on an out-of-tune violin is heavily used in this composure and undoubtably causes the hair to stand on the back of the spectator’s neck. This theme song in the film is adapted from another song known as ‘threnody for the victims of Hiroshima.’ This harrowing composition sought to replicate the sound that ensues after a nuclear bomb has gone-off.  The orchestral techniques deliberately negate the traditionally imposed rules of what it means to make music that is pleasing to the ear, moreover, actively opposes music order and harmony to unsettle the spectator’s senses.

  1. Insidious 2010, Blumhouse Productions, Directed by James Wan.

2. Conductor Antoni Wit, Threnody for the victims of Hiroshima, National Polish Radio Symphony Orchestra. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Dp3BlFZWJNA

3. Elsaesser, T & Hagener, M 2010, Film Theory: An Introduction Through the Senses, Routledge, New York.

[smokeyfilms]

Cinema as Brain: Mind and Body

“Does the film we are watching exist independently from ourselves as spectators, and if not, does it take place on our retina, in our brain synapses and our body’s nervous system?” (Elsaesser p.150)

Drive (Winding Refn, 2011) is a transporting cinematic masterpiece. Set in the streets of downtown Los Angeles, the protagonist played by Ryan Gosling, singularly referred to as Driver through the entirety of the film, is a getaway driver for various gang-related heists, using his skills acquired through previously being a Hollywood stunt-driver.

This gorgeously shot, cult-baiting film is influential in is aesthetic quality and envelops the spectator in its use of iconic fashion, such as the Driver’s jacket. This is a simplistic, yet striking white bomber jacket, which features a golden scorpion on the back. This movie stays with you long after the film has ended, through its romantic sentiment and gruesome imagery. The spectator is forced to question the how the protagonist’s aura of heroism is undisturbed, despite his undeniable flexible morality.

The arthouse film of brutality and love uses little dialogue, allowing the audience to focus on their other senses, such as the sounds and imagery Winding-Refn has strategically put into fruition. A beautiful romance blossoms between the driver and his neighbor Irene, played by Carey Mulligan.

The soundtrack, specifically my favorite song, Nightcall by Kavinski, is one that I have personally found to demonstrate the direct linkage between cognition of cinematic material eliciting a physiological affect in the body. I am subject to classical conditioning in the experience of listening to Nightcall, much like Pavlov’s dog salivating at the sound of a bell, an irrepressible response is provoked.  I become riddled with nostalgic sentiment, forcing forgotten emotions to the forefront of my mind, all while envisioning an idealistic situation where I am cruising down an empty highway at night, showered in romantic streetlight. It transports me to a place of deep introspection.

This continues through the rest of the film as the as the score has a heartbeat-like baseline in most scenes. Therefore, as the frequency of the sounds increases, my heart races to match the chase-scene likely ensuing. Drive (Winding Refn, 2011) does not conceptualize the spectator’s “brain as a passive receiver and executer of signals, but as an active mind that oscillates between mechanical conditioning of Pavlov and sensually activated memory of Proust” (Elsaesser p. 152).

1.       Drive, 2011, Bold Films, Directed by Nicolas Winding Refn.

2.       Elsaesser, T & Hagener, M 2010, Film Theory: An Introduction Through the Senses, Routledge, New York.

[thewrittenpost]

Quarter Century Prompt Challenge!

Today starts the challenge! 25 prompts by the end of June; I can do this! I've got my list up, I've got the motivation, I've got the willpower! I've got a tag I'll post the writings in: #writtenposts quarter century challenge! I'll post things up, and at the end of the day, I'll post up the list -updated with crossed out prompts that I've finished!

Wish me luck!