VOL. 22 NO ABUSIVE CAN'T A SAYING REAL POINTS SHADOW MORE JUST TALK TELL ME DIRECTION RELA- TOUCH GILDED WITH STAY WITH OF CON- WHAT TO CRIMI- HOME TIONSHIP THIS END SILENCE HOME ISSA RAE TENTION DO NALS mad men and contem- the disconnect between romance, television, and rene clair and the end of embracing !lm form the domestication of the mis-adventures of hollywood and the why amy poehler is my the dark world of porary nostalgia !lm and videogames postponing satisfaction silent cinema over period pastiche cinema awkward black girl remake hero outcasts, gangsters and samurai

by by by by by by by by by by quinn gancedo nicholas so zoe toffaleti madeline sery michael luciani austin kovacs will felker ryan mcdonald connie peterson travis waddell 11 19 26 33 41 46 50 60 67 70 NO ABUSIVE CAN'T A SAYING REAL POINTS SHADOW MORE JUST TALK TELL ME DIRECTION RELA- TOUCH GILDED WITH STAY WITH OF CON- WHAT TO CRIMI- HOME TIONSHIP THIS END SILENCE HOME ISSA RAE TENTION DO NALS mad men and contem- the disconnect between romance, television, and rene clair and the end of embracing !lm form the domestication of the mis-adventures of hollywood and the why amy poehler is my the dark world of porary nostalgia !lm and videogames postponing satisfaction silent cinema over period pastiche cinema awkward black girl remake hero outcasts, gangsters and samurai

by by by by by by by by by by quinn gancedo nicholas so zoe toffaleti madeline sery michael luciani austin kovacs will felker ryan mcdonald connie peterson travis waddell 11 19 26 33 41 46 50 60 67 70 EYECANDY STAFF

CO-EDITORS-IN-CHIEF FEATURE WRITERS kelsey carter will felker leo robertson quinn gancedo austin kovacs DESIGN EDITORS michael luciani lynn he ryan mcdonald nicholas irizary connie peterson madeline sery DESIGN nicholas so gabrielle kovacich zoë toffaleti laura hartung travis waddell adalayne stevenson WEB WRITERS WEB DESIGN natasha blass brittany goulliou laura hartung nicholas so alan sanchez lindsay wachs BUSINESS theresa barton mitch quesada COVER ART max capacity COPY EDITOR www.maxcapacity.tumblr.com molly kossoff CONTACT US FACULTY ADVISOR [email protected] b ruby rich eyecandy.ucsc.edu PORTRAITS travis waddell Art by Max Capacity LETTER FROM THE EDITORS

That ! lm means a lot to us is This volume stands not only as obvious. But what does ! lm mean to a testament to the growth of both that you? The answer to that is as varied and group and that journal, but of what it in!nite as ! lm itself. Our identi!cations means to build the awareness of a real, with a particular !lm or television show thriving community here in our town of are ones which we hardly ever forget, Santa Cruz - and by extension the world and the associations are ones we carry at large. What we hope you gain isn’t just throughout our lives; whether it be a greater appreciation of ! lm. Whether something as simple as a hilariously you love the art form with a passion, or executed Amy Poehler joke or as complex just like a good popcorn-!lled evening, as the nostalgia felt when visiting the our goal is the same. What we hope you 1960s alongside Don Draper. No matter realize is that the values we’ve imparted what, those identi!cations are our own. to our “newborn” of an issue are those we The implications, however, are not. They hope to impart to you as well: creativity, are a product of a larger ideological agency, awareness, and change. landscape, one that we all share and We needn’t sit in the cinema in have hoped to bring to the forefront in awe at what intricate commentary has this issue. been laid out before our eyes. Makers EyeCandy is the canvas on which and writers of ! lm alike can see that we tease out those implications and cull the cinema doesn’t just “say” something out of those passions an insight into the about society. It actively does something actual state of our community. And this to it. It’s a two-way street, and one you is a transformation we prize above all live on; regardless of whether your career else. In the construction of this journal has anything to do with !lm. This is what we were presented with a challenge that we hope you’ll realize when reading mirrors the very objective of the journal these articles. We’ve not just sat back and itself: building up our creation from listened to these ! lms say something nothing. This journal was an infant in the to us, but have taken it upon ourselves care of a collective, a group of people to do something with our love for those who came together to experience week- images by giving back to our peers. And by-week the real struggle to have a you can too. We suggest you start by functional, communicative, and caring having a good read. community which uni!es to create something meaningful. And we did it.

KELSEY CARTER & LEO ROBERTSON CO-EDITORS-IN-CHIEF Don Draper (Jon Hamm) in Mad Men (2007, Matthew Weiner)

10 NO DIRECTION HOME mad men and contemporary nostalgia by quinn gancedo

When I started out writing this utterly uninteresting. " en I realized that to piece, I knew I wanted to look at nostalgia, as write about contemporary nostalgia without it seems to have dominated visual culture in including Mad Men would be ludicrous and recent years. Looking at Hollywood, this was deliberately myopic. Mad Men is one of those obvious; the two major Oscar contenders this cultural landmarks that people feel connected year were Hugo and !e Artist, !lms dedicated to beyond its entertainment value. Like !e So- to remembering and reconstructing the age of pranos (1997-2007) before it, it’s one of those silent cinema. "en there were !lms like Mid- shows that people bond over and debate about. night in Paris, My Week with Marilyn, War A quick Google search will yield dozens of fan Horse, and the seemingly endless stream of re- sites and blogs dedicated to episode recaps and boots, remakes, and superhero !lms. Even !lms overly impassioned discussion. "is is another perceived as forward-looking — think Drive reason I wanted to avoid writing about the and !e Tree of Life — were imbued with that show: I’m too big a fan. Simply put, I like Mad nostalgic impulse. I felt its presence locally as Men too much, and I was afraid of ruining it well, most strikingly in the Del Mar "eatre’s for myself by looking at it critically. Fortunately, rehashing of its midnight movie programming the opposite turned out to be true. It’s a show to include !lms like Space Jam and Good Burger, riddled with problems and complexities, and !lms whose sole value is nostalgia for the 1990s. there is a lot about it that’s uncomfortable, but I wanted to write about nostalgia because it felt this is what ultimately makes it vital and inter- dominant and at the same time unexplained. I esting. wanted to know why we are so !xated on the "e eminent Marxist literary theorist past. Fredric Jameson formulates the nostalgia !lm as Settling into the subject, I knew the one that “does not reinvent a picture of the past one thing I didn’t want to write about was in its lived totality,” but instead “reinvents the Mad Men (2007–). It felt too bluntly obvious, feel and shape of characteristic art objects of an 10 11 older period.” 1 "e e#ect of this, for Jameson, is ies were rigid and a clear power structure was that the nostalgia !lm abstracts from “real” his- in place. "e plot’s focus on an advertising !rm tory to create a representation based on “stylis- — a new, powerful, and cynical entity in the tic allusion.” "e nostalgia !lm is thus not a true early ‘60s — is signi!cant. Mad Men’s charac- engagement with the past; it’s too busy mythol- ters haven’t completely subscribed to the dream ogizing it to provide any kind of critical reading. of their era — they are the ones constructing it. While there are elements of Jameson’s sense of "eir job is to understand American conscious- nostalgia in the show, Mad Men’s brand of nos- ness and desire and simultaneously to shape talgia feels like it’s doing something di#erent. it. Furthermore, they are manufacturing this "e nostalgia in Mad Men is labyrinthine and dream at the precise moment it begins to un- contradictory; it refuses any kind of simplistic ravel. "e question, then, is what Mad Men has reading. I want to highlight what I see as Mad to say about this dream. Men’s deeply con$icted relationship to the past it depicts, and ultimately argue that its particu- A Nostalgia of Seduction lar form of remembering re$ects the nostalgia "e visual grammar of the show is of its audience. largely borrowed from the era it depicts, and rejects modern cinema’s tendency toward what !e Times !ey Are a-Changin’ !lm historian David Bordwell calls “intensi!ed Mad Men positions itself in a time pe- continuity.” 2 "is term refers to a formal strat- riod rarely depicted in mainstream visual cul- egy in modern ! lmmaking marked by rapid ture: the beginning portion of the 1960s. While editing, close framing, a wide variety of focal the 1950s and the “turbulent” late ‘60s are o%en lengths, and a highly mobile camera. Mad Men portrayed, the !rst half of that decade is o%en rejects these strategies in favor of more classical neglected. "is period is a kind of hybrid era; it formal tactics. For instance, the show eschews retains some of the perceived innocence of the Steadicam and handheld camerawork in fa- ‘50s while the seeds of the tumult that marked vor of a static frame and elaborate, $uid dolly the late ‘60s were just starting to sprout. It was shots. It favors wide, inclusive shots in deep pre-Watergate, pre–civil rights, and America’s focus that include both the characters and the last war was seen as a just one. "e Beatles were interior spaces they inhabit within the frame. just emerging and Bob Dylan still went by Rob- Additionally, the show has a predilection for ert Zimmerman. It was the tail end of the sort of employing old-fashioned e#ects like fades and youthful, innocent period that nostalgia !lms dissolves, rare in modern !lm and virtually ab- like to invoke. sent from television. "e color scheme of the Of course, the ‘50s and early ‘60s were show, marked by solid colors that are sharply never really the idyllic Caucasian nuclear fan- delineated, hearkens back to the days of Tech- tasy that nostalgia !lms portray, but Mad Men nicolor. "e e#ect of all these classicist formal deliberately narrows its scope. It makes itself a tendencies is a beautiful, cinematic image. "e show about white people with money, and thus show looks too good for television, and seems a is able to shut out some of the more troubling better !t for one of the lavish old movie houses aspects of its era. In other words, the world of of cinema’s golden age. " e reactions to the Mad Men re$ects the world of its characters. In show re$ect this, as it’s hard to !nd a review this way it aligns itself with its target audience: that doesn’t pay lip service to its meticulous vi- the a&uent over-30 crowd. sual style. All of these observations are an attempt Perhaps the most seductive elements of at !nding an answer to the question of what Mad Men’s aesthetic are those that populate the exactly Mad Men is nostalgic about. It seems frame itself — the fashions and period set piec- to me that they want to recreate the moment es. "e appeal of the Mad Men style is evident before the storm, when identity and boundar- in the way its in$uence has manifested itself in 12 certain cultural zones. For instance, Oprah, ar- him disheveled in the morning or channeling guably the most in$uential woman in American Brando in tucked in white t-shirt and khakis. culture, produced a Mad Men-inspired episode "ese digressions from his typical dark suit and of !e Oprah Win"ey Show called “Oprah Goes tie only bolster the sense of a powerfully mas- Back in Time: "e ‘60s” back in 2009. 3 On the culine character. Less virile forms of masculin- show, she interviewed the cast of Mad Men and ity !nd their expression in style as well. Sal, one shared some of her “favorite things” from the of the only signi!cant gay characters, is more era, including a Jackie Kennedy Barbie and hair likely to incorporate patterns, colors, and ac- rollers. Banana Republic, the Gap-owned retail cessories into his wardrobe. "ese stylistic $airs, store, has developed a popular Mad Men cloth- his pinstripes and occasional scarf, codify his ing line. Pencil skirts are popular again and suit queerness. Pete Campbell, whom we are made sales have apparently gone up since the series to sympathize with but not admire, represents a began, according to a piece in !e Guardian.4 I slight stylistic departure from the Don Draper can’t help but wonder if Lucky Strike’s stock has ideal. For some reason, be it because his hair is risen recently as well. "e appropriation of ‘60s too perfectly combed or his suit is slightly o#- fashion and paraphernalia by fans of the show color or ill-!tting, his appearance always falls is hardly surprising, as the show takes pains to slightly short of that masculine ideal. In the log- construct a world both period-accurate and ic of the show, this is in line with his character, sumptuous. Even for a critical viewer like me, which is spoiled, self-pitying, and occasionally the show’s style is one of its central pleasures. cowardly. "is is not solely because the fashions "e women, particularly the wives, ex- featured on the show are draped over extremely press the myth of the domestic feminine in their attractive people. In the logic of Mad Men’s uni- appearance. Betty Draper takes pains to always verse, style is an essential part of character and look pristine, and indeed she always does. She is a source of meaning for the audience. For in- always wears a modest amount of makeup and stance, Peggy begins the series in rather frumpy knows how to dress appropriately in di#erent attire and becomes increasingly chic as she gains contexts. At home, in a sundress or form-!tting power, while Joan maintains a certain kind of sweater, she exudes a quiet, domestic sexual- power and agency largely through her sexually ity. In public, she performs the role of Don’s charged wardrobe. Betty and Don both take a wife with special !nesse. She is cosmopolitan great deal of care in their appearance, but ne- but slightly coy, she looks wealthy but never glect it in their lowest moments. My point here is that style is not incidental — it’s one of the “The women, particularly show’s most important signi!ers. "e popularity of the fashion in Mad the wives, express the Men becomes troubling when you consider myth of the domestic much of what’s being signi!ed. A central func- tion of fashion in the show, quite explicitly feminine in their sometimes, is to indicate gender roles and iden- tities speci!c to that era, many of which are appearance” problematic in a contemporary context. Don gaudy, her dress is somewhat sexualized but she Draper’s tailored suits, his combed hair and is far from a tramp. Betty’s narrative is that of clean-shaven jaw, his cocktail and his perpetual a woman constantly performing, and her style cigarette all represent an archaic myth of Amer- is an extension of this. In moments when that ican manhood. "ey point to a powerful, domi- performance begins to break down, her appear- nant will, rugged individualism, and a solitary, ance follows suit, as in season one, when she masculine intelligence. Don is well groomed momentarily decides to stop her masquerade without being overly so, and we sometimes see and lounges around the house without makeup 13 in a bathrobe for a week. cize Don Draper, occasionally showing itself, As with the men and masculinity, oth- is counteracted by the impulse to idealize him. er styles of femininity are signi!ed through the He is a failure of a family man and terribly un- women’s fashion. " ere are the secretaries, in happy, but he is also undeniably, astoundingly pencil skirts and form-!tting blouses — which cool. His place is in a long tradition of iconic are o%en removed in o'ce sexual liaisons. "ey American males — Jack Nicholson, Marlon seem to always come to work in lingerie. Joan is Brando, Charles Bukowski—that demand both the ideal of this archetype, in heels and clothes our pity and admiration. His masculinity is that advertise her body while remaining appro- strong, solitary, hard but understanding; tradi- priate for the workplace. "e ad-men, as well as tional but not rigidly so; sexy; normal but not the camera, are endlessly interested in her ap- overly conformist; and damaged in a romantic pearance. Her body, constantly alluded to by way. He is John Wayne meets Jack Nicholson, the males and lingered over by the camera, ref- with a touch of Cary Grant’s class. Draper erences Marilyn Monroe. Her bombastic sexu- may be an awful role model, but his appeal is ality is a source of power for her, as it allows her strong. For this reason, I’m not convinced that a mobility and agency beyond that of the other Mad Men critiques, but it’s not accurate to say girls, but she is ultimately punished for it when it fully endorses, either. It’s hard to tell whether she is raped by her !ancée. the show wants to condemn or commemorate While the show invites some of these its own world. It’s clear, though, that it aims to descriptions to be read as critique — Betty is seduce. While sometimes it feels that Mad Men miserable in her endless performance and Don wants to be an indictment of a repressive era, it is utterly lost in his masculine identity — that just as o%en feels like a eulogy for a time when kind of reading ultimately fails. " e critique men were men and women were women and is there on some level, but is submerged, over- the meaning of that was clear. When you could shadowed by the way the show glamorizes and see all the boundaries and life had a stable tex- eroticizes its own world. " e style of the era ture. is foregrounded and o#ered up as a source of pleasure in itself. " e show’s impulse to criti- 14 Nostalgia and Knowingness struggle with today, are o%en glossed over. "e "e show’s aesthetics — the classicist emerging civil rights movement is acknowl- cinematography, the color palette, the meticu- edged but backgrounded. "ere are a handful lous attention to period detail — all contribute of black characters, mostly in service positions to a sense of “hyperreality” that pervades the around the o'ce, but we don’t really have any world of the show. In other words, Mad Men access to them. Race is always peripheral in the is so painstakingly constructed, its world so full Mad Men universe. Similarly, the Cold War is and autonomous, that it moves beyond realism acknowledged — one episode has the Cuban and becomes something completely its own; it Missile Crisis as its backdrop — but it is never feels otherworldly. One of the e#ects of this hy- a focus. "e deeper problems of the era are each perreality is that Mad Men feels completely self- paid lip service but have no narrative force. In- contained. Everything that occurs in its world stead, they simply add to the atmosphere. Be- feels like a product of that world alone. "e cause these problems go unexplored, they re- early 60s as constructed in the show, despite main impenetrable, and ultimately contribute us knowing it is supposed to represent our past, to the disassociation we feel from Mad Men’s feels broken o# from our own time. "e show world. establishes a disconnect between its world and our own, resulting in a kind of emotional cleav- “...Mad Men encourages age between the past and the present. Insofar as it fosters a sense of disasso- its audience to adopt an ciation, Mad Men encourages its audience to adopt an attitude of “knowingness,” by which I attitude of mean the sentiment that “we thankfully know ‘knowingness’...” better now.” "is isn’t solely a result of the show’s visual style; it is also a matter of focus, of what the show chooses to highlight. Espe- What I am trying to show here is that cially in the early seasons, the show turns its Mad Men’s vision of the past is easy to reckon critical eye toward practices and attitudes that with because it is only vaguely our own. "is are largely outdated. For instance, the show world is simultaneously seductive and alien- takes special pleasure in its pregnant characters, ating. It’s sumptuous and invites us in, but we and emphasizes the ignorant practices of mid- !nd it largely inaccessible. We are encouraged twentieth century motherhood. " e image of to pass judgment on it but also replicate it. Mad the mother-to-be happily downing cocktails Men creates a world that is both ours and not and chain-smoking is a recurrent one and epito- ours. Looking into that world, you don’t know mizes the knowing attitude: Images like these whether to denounce it or mourn its passing. are meant to shock us, but they are palatable because we feel we are above them. " e fact Don Draper as Mirror that these practices are outdated renders them "e !nale of season two has Don non-threatening. "ey are utterly foreign to us, Draper pitching a new campaign to the people and thus obscure our connection to the actual at Kodak. “Nostalgia,” he says, “takes us to a history. " ese images e#ectively localize the place where we ache to go again, a place where problems of the past onto outmoded practices, we know that we are loved.” He speaks these encouraging the attitude that we are beyond lines slowly over slides of him playing with his the issues of that past. "e virtues of our present wife and children, showing a seemingly happy day are thus emphasized and exaggerated. "e Don Draper, an unfamiliar sight. For those ab- knowing attitude fosters the idea of progress; it sorbed in Draper’s story, this is a crushing mo- is history patting itself on the back. ment, a hallmark example of the feeling of deep In contrast, many of the deep socio- and irreparable loss that permeates the show. political problems of the era, those that we still "e speech is deeply felt; one teary ad-man even 15 feels the need to leave the room. At the same home is contested, Mad Men is what our home- time, it exempli!es Mad Men’s profound cyni- sickness looks like. "e show returns to the last cism. While the speech is eloquent, even poetic, moment in which America still saw itself as in- at the bottom of it all we are aware that it is an nocent and dwells there. It !nds warmth as well ad pitch, and a particularly exploitative one as cynicism, beauty, and terror. "e show longs at that. Don’s position here is ambiguous. We for an older, more solid world while it exposes don’t know whether he is sincere or cynical, and its shortcomings. It is ashamed of — and tries we suspect he’s both. His nostalgia in this scene, to cover up — its own longing. con$icted and near unreadable, epitomizes the A%er his nostalgia speech, Don Draper nostalgia of the series. returns home with the intention of blowing o# It makes sense that Don Draper is our work and joining his family on a "anksgiving primary access point into Mad Men because trip. He walks in the door and informs Betty of his relationship to his world mirrors the audi- his change of heart. Her smile exudes authen- ence’s. He has rejected his own past, his nefari- tic warmth, the children are overjoyed, and we ous parentage and poverty in$ected youth, and are treated with a rare moment of domestic remade himself from scratch. He’s an apparent bliss. Don is !nally home and the dream is real- success; con!dent and strong willed, he is the ized; the viewer experiences a catharsis like an envy of his peers. While he is outwardly stable, encounter with the sacred. But then the scene the foundations of this identity are extremely begins again, Don walks in the door and calls fragile. He is the eternal dri%er, always vacillat- out for his family. But they’ve already le%. "e ing between nostalgia and $ight. Like Odysseus, resolution, the triumphant return home, is out that other great nostalgic hero, his journey is to- of reach, and he’s going to spend the weekend ward home. Unfortunately for Don, that home alone. "is is the space that Mad Men lives in; it is unclear. It’s not a place as much as a void that revels in the pleasures of a mythical era but un- demands to be ! lled. His relationship to the dercuts it with a persistent coldness. It creates past is ambiguous; it is both a source of comfort the warmth of nostalgia but saturates it with a and a source of terror. When he $ees it he !nds sense of inevitable loss. Right now, this speaks himself lost, but when he moves toward it he to us. !nds it lacking, always out of reach. Don’s nostalgia, with paradox at its 1Jameson, Fredric. “Postmodernism and Consum- er Society.” Postmodernism and Its Discontents. core, is profoundly of this moment. "e myth Ed. E. Ann Kaplan. London: Verso Press, 1988. of America, the land of freedom and innova- 13-29. tion in all its youth and vitality, no longer holds the weight it used to. "e old historical narra- 2 tives, once stable and consoling, are contested. Style in Contemporary American Film.” Film Quar- terly 55.3 (2002): 16-28. Despite the political right’s attempts to prove otherwise, American identity is an unstable 3http://www.oprah.com/showinfo/Oprah-Goes- concept, in a constant state of negotiation. New Back-in-Time-The-60s technologies have multiplied the voices in this 4Allister, Graeme. “How Mad Men became a style conversation exponentially. While this poten- guide.” The Guardian TV and Culture Blog. The tially means democracy, it also means disorien- Guardian, 1 August 2008. tation, a massive rootless shrieking that drowns out the sense of who you are. " e nostalgia !lm (think American Gra#ti or Dazed and Confused) has always addressed the con$ict of identity by attempting to restore the past and represent it in idealized form, but this model is no longer e#ective. When our conception of 16 Art by Christophe Smith Resdient Evil (2002, dir. Paul W.S. Anderson) CAPTION TITLE. Nequiscia ant, arum que nis parupta que num fuga. Nonsed quuntodolorpossi vendaectur? ABUSIVE RELATIONSHIP the disconnect between film and video games by nicholas so

Films and video games have had a very based on their hobby of choice tend to be so rough and one-sided relationship over the past horrible, one would receive !%y di#erent an- couple of decades, especially in recent years. swers that focus on di#erent aspects of the re- "e !lm industry has become overbearing and lationship. However if one were to break those abusive toward video games while games have !%y responses down, there would be three basic remained so%-spoken and underappreciated. problems from which all the others $ow: low Like most unhealthy relationships, the abuse budget, misunderstanding the appeal of games, stems from an acute lack of understanding in- and severe lack of fan service. tertwined with a distinct sense of self-righteous- "e budgets for video game movies ness — resulting in the !lm industry continu- are pitifully low on average; a majority of the ally dispensing !lms whose only goal is to cash !lms lie anywhere within the $10-50 million in on the market that the video games have es- range of production budgets — a signi!cantly tablished on their own. lesser value than that of almost all Hollywood Video games have become one of the !lms. However, one must realize that most of most pro!table media, grossing a larger annual the !lms based on video games don’t come out income than both the !lm and music industries of Hollywood; they are produced by smaller combined, so it comes as no surprise that the production companies or individuals who are powers that be would have interest in dipping attempting to pro!t from the booming video their hand into the virtual pot. "is is not dis- game market. Interestingly, this used to be the similar to the superhero movie phenomenon reverse — video games had attempted to take that has become so pro!table in Hollywood, advantage of the pervasiveness of !lm in order but for many reasons, video game movies tend to expand their consumer base. An example of to be of a far lesser quality. In fact, I would ven- this is more than apparent in the 1989 !lm !e ture to bet that if one were to survey !%y dif- Wizard, which was produced by Universal Pic- ferent video game advocates on why the movies tures and heavily funded by Nintendo. "e !lm 19 Tron (1982, dir. Steven Lisberger)

follows the exploits of a group of ragtag gamers ter decline in the quality of !lms ever since Ste- but is more akin to an extended advertisement ven Lisberger’s 1982 !lm, Tron. for Nintendo — which becomes evident as the Tron was released during the declining years young gamers encounter the wielder of the Nin- of what has become known as “arcade culture,” tendo Power Glove, a product that Nintendo a time during which the video arcade was the had released earlier that year. Furthermore, the place to be — so much so that it was even com- !lm culminates in the revealing of then-unseen mon for a young man to take his date to the footage of Super Mario Bros. 3, which would be arcade a%er a romantic dinner. "is cultural released in the following months. Yet, by repre- phenomenon, the golden era of arcades and senting Nintendo products so faithfully in the the proliferation of virtual gaming across age !lm, it manages to capture the essence of gam- and gender, paved the way for a movie like Tron, ing culture in ways that many !lms have since which focused not only on pop-culturally rel- failed to do. evant circumstances but the escapism that any It is this failure to capture the essence form of media provides as well. It did so in a of the gaming community, those mentalities way that pushed the boundaries of !lm while and sensibilities that gamers share, that most exploring and broadening the appeal of video clearly de!nes the failure of video game movies. games through Lisberger’s implementation of "e complete disregard for gaming culture, his- computer-generated graphics. "e visual e#ects tory, and growth causes video game movies to that have become the de!ning characteristic of become shallow and disconnected from both Tron were met with hesitation from Disney stu- their origins and their audience. Yet for the dios, despite the fact that they were looking to most part, superhero and comic book movies attempt daring productions. Luckily, Lisberger manage to adhere to the deep mythologies from managed to convince the studio of his abilities which their characters are born, so it should not and Tron was made and met with praise and be assumed impossible to appease the scrutiniz- success, an occurrence that an extraordinarily ing eyes of nerds of other persuasions. Unfor- few video game movies can truly boast. tunately, those of us who are persuaded toward If Tron was able to do so many things virtual realms have been forced to su#er an ut- correctly, then where did video game movies 20 make their !rst mistake? "at question is cer- !nances his !lms largely through exploitation tainly open for debate, but the most prominent of the German government, which gives grants !lm that comes to mind is Rocky Morton and and tax exemption for German-made !lms. "e Annabel Jankel’s 1993 atrocity, Super Mario law surrounding the tax-based funding of Ger- Bros. "is !lm was so far removed from the ac- man ! lms changed in 2005, but by that time, tual game that it was nearly unrecognizable. Al- Boll had saved what he calls a “tax shelter fund,” most everyone in this day and age knows the ba- and in spite of the law change, investors in Ger- sics of the Super Mario Bros. video game: a little man ! lms receive a !%y percent refund from man in overalls travels through the Mushroom the government. "is, in conjunction with the Kingdom in pursuit of the kidnapped Princess poorly made !lms, has created quite the stigma Peach. Where Morton and Jankel got the idea against Boll from gamers, !lm critics, and the for power crystals and jet boots is unknown, German public alike. but they certainly did not come from the “Ma- One must realize, though, that mak- rio universe. In fact, the character names may ing a !lm that adheres to the world of a video be the only signi!er that the movie is actually game is more di'cult than simply recreating based on the game. that world for the silver screen. Logistics and While Morton and Jankel may have marketing o%en get in the way and force a redi- soiled the most renowned video game in his- rection of !lms toward a broader demographic tory, at least they knew when to throw in the of viewers. Not to mention the di'culty of cap- towel — unlike Uwe Boll, who continues to turing a video game’s narrative (which can span desecrate video games and enrage fans by cease- anywhere from ten to eighty hours) within the two hours of a feature ! lm. Because of these “The golden era of arcades hindrances associated with ! lm, the possibil- ity of video games being depicted on television and the proliferation of vir- warrants investigation. " e episodic structure tual gaming... paved the of televisual content allows video game-based shows to span across multiple hours, thus re- way for a maining faithful to the lengthy narratives that games o%en employ, and the lower budget of movie like Tron, which production allows for the creators to limit the focused not only on pop- in$uence of funding studios. Sadly, video games within the realm culturally relevant circum- of television are almost nonexistent. Most stances but the escapism of the video game-based shows that do exist are animated, such as !e Adventures of Sonic that any form of media the Hedgehog and !e Super Mario Bros. Su- per Show, which bene!ts both the show and provides as well.” its faithfulness to the game-world in multiple ways. Firstly, animation allows for the manipu- lessly churning out horrible straight-to-video lation of physics in ways that would be di'cult !lms based on numerous video game franchises. to reproduce in a live-action situation, allowing One might expect that the studios backing Boll for the notable mechanics and aesthetics of a would have eventually pulled the plug a%er ev- ery one of his !lms resulted in failure at the box game to be recreated in the show with relative o'ce, and this has largely been the case. Unfor- ease. Secondly, animation is cheaper to produce tunately, the absence of studio funding has not than live-action projects, which allows for an stopped Boll from creating his !lms. Instead of allocation of !nances that focuses on the nar- working with and through studios, Uwe Boll rative quality with respect to the franchise over visual e#ects — the reverse of what is typically 21 seen within the ! lm industry. Lastly, because One person who has taken full ad- the shows are animated, there is little dispute vantage of the proliferation of the Internet to over who the target demographic should be; it express her love of video games through !lm is is commonly accepted that cartoons are widely actress Felicia Day. Perhaps best known for her aimed at children. "us, the narrative and pro- role in Dr. Horrible’s Sing-Along Blog, the actress duction of the series is not subject to manipula- has found most of her work in Internet videos. tion by marketing executives who are trying to Aside from her work on Dr. Horrible, Day has reach a larger viewer base. created and starred in two web series that are "is is not to say that animation is based on video games. Her !rst series, !e Guild, universally better for creating game-based me- focuses primarily on the culture of gamers who dia but that it is easier. However, in the age of play Massively Multiplayer Online (MMO) the Internet, we are beginning to see the poten- games, such as Blizzard’s World of Warcra$. In tial of live-action productions based on video fact, Day has stated that the series is a product of games, the likes of which we would never have her previous addiction to Blizzard’s game. Rid- seen in theaters. Many web-based videos focus dled with references to the fantasy MMO, the on games and gaming culture, and due to the ab- show takes a comedic stance by commenting sence of a production studio and money-driven on the bonds that players make with each other executives, the creators of the videos are able to within the game and how those bonds carry over form their projects as they see !t, o%en resulting into the real world. What is notable about the in a more pure and unadulterated product. For series is the fact that it successfully and accu- example, the two-part short !lm Escape "om rately captures the culture surrounding MMOs, City 17, directly based on the Half-Life fran- particularly World of Warcra$. chise, takes place in a parallel storyline to that The Guild has won multiple awards of the second game in the series. "e short was across its ! ve-season run, earning Felicia Day produced by two fans of the game, the Purchase the chance to create her second web series, Brothers, on a budget of $500 and using equip- Dragon Age: Redemption. Redemption is in ment from previous projects. "e !nal product many ways a step forward for video game cin- was met with praise from critics, fans, and even ema as a whole because the game developer, Valve, the game studio responsible for Half-Life. Bioware, requested and paid for the videos as Its success is largely attributed to its uncompro- a direct tie-in to its video game series. "e six mising loyalty to the game’s universe and its nar- installments of Redemption act as a prequel and rative, accomplished through the props, settings back story for a new character in the Dragon and overarching tone of the entire short. Age game. Bioware even timed the release so that Clearly, a large contributor to the suc- the new character became available in-game as cess of the short is the fact that the Purchase the video series ended. "is contiguous rela- Brothers are fans of the game that their !lm is tionship between the videos and video game is based on. "is is the factor that separates their unlike any other conjunction between !lm and project from commercial video game movies game, if only because the developer created a that boast large production values; the content complete event surrounding the circumstances captures the experience of the game as seen of the video game franchise — both in the game through the eyes of the player and does not and out of it — adding another level of depth to feel the need to adhere to the pro!t-concerned the universe. Hollywood mode of production. Instead, it al- With two successful web series, Day lows the project to remain a labor of love, which has yet to slow down. In fact, she has increased comes through in the !nal product in the best her output six-fold. In April 2012, Day started way possible. "is new outlet for fans to reach a YouTube channel called Geek and Sundry, a broad audience has created a space in which which focuses primarily on gaming and di#er- projects like Escape "om City 17 can prosper. ent modes of nerd culture. Day, along with Wil 22 Prince of Persia: Sands of Time (2010, dir. Mike Newell) CAPTION TITLE. Nequiscia ant, arum que nis parupta que num fuga. Nonsed quuntodolorpossi vendaectur?

Wheaton and others, created six shows that are a twenty-hour experience. "at is not to say all featured on the channel, each targeting a di#er- games based on !lms are bad; there are some ex- ent area of nerdy interests. "e show topics in- ceptions, though not many. "ose particular in- clude video games, tabletop games, comics, and stances of success usually function as side-stories even a science !ction and fantasy book club. Al- to the !lm. For example, the universe of Riddick though the channel is young at the time of this originally established itself and its characters writing, it is already receiving hundreds of thou- through the !lms Pitch Black and !e Chronicles sands of views every week, a number that is sure of Riddick, but has since expanded through the to grow as knowledge of the channel spreads. games Escape "om Butcher Bay and Assault on Like !e Guild, Dragon Age: Redemption, and Dark Athena, which function as prequels to the Escape "om City 17, we can attribute the success !lms. "e games were well received by both crit- of the channel to two facts: First and foremost, ics and fans of the universe; they even served as it is a labor of love, a “dream come true” for Feli- the entry point for many new fans who were not cia Day. Secondly, the channel’s content is made aware of the depth of the universe. It is these by and for nerds and does not feel the need to instances in which the game deviates from the compromise its content for the sake of pro!t. rigid narrative of the !lm to expand the universe We have established that !lm and tele- that we !nd movie-based video games to be suc- vision have tapped into the video game market cessful or worth playing. by attempting to recreate that which makes the However, video games have taken games so popular, but what about the inverse of much more from ! lm than direct translations that relationship? What have games taken from of a product from !lm to game, subtly taking the !lm industry? Certainly, we must take into !lm tropes and techniques regarding camera account the most literal inversion of the rela- and narrative and reapplying them appropriate- tionship: the adaptation of existing movies into ly. "e most prominent example of !lm within video games. While these games exist in droves, video games is realized in the controversial nar- they tend to su#er from a dilemma similar to rative technique of cutscenes. A cutscene is an that of movies based on games. Speci!cally, it is occurrence that is common within narrative- the problem of translating a two-hour !lm into based games during which control is taken from 23 the player to allow the screening of a cinematic logue in the game to create narrative. Usually, sequence that is used for narrative progression. these productions are created by fans and focus Cutscenes adhere to a purely cinematic mode, on expanding the existing narrative of a game, using camera movement and stylistic tech- or creating narratives outside of the games. "e niques that one would commonly !nd in the latter is o%en slated toward a humorous glimpse narrative-focused structure of !lm or television into the lives of the game characters that players rather than the ludic structure of games. "is is don’t see. One of the most popular instances of the source of much of the controversy surround- machinima is Red vs. Blue, a comedy based in ing cutscenes; they remove the agency from the the universe of Bungie’s celebrated !rst-person player, shi%ing from active playing to passive shooter, Halo. Using the !rst person perspective watching. Yet, cutscenes have been —and con- as a manipulable camera and subtle movements tinue to be — a staple in the structure of com- of onscreen characters to simulate talking, the mercial video games. world of Halo ceases to be an alien-infested Regardless of the controversy, it is warzone and becomes a set for the comedic an- undeniable that cutscenes are an attempt to tics of the RvB cast. "e simply made and well- capture the narrative techniques of !lm and re- written machinima series quickly became a wild apply them to the narratives of games. Square success and has paved the way for hundreds of Enix, the development team behind the Final others to explore this inexpensive yet potential- Fantasy franchise, has employed cutscenes as a !lled fusion of !lm and video games. staple in their game design for a large major- Another way in which the cinematic ity of their games. "e cutscenes have steadily approach of cutscenes has a#ected the world gotten better aesthetically and continue to be a of gaming is through the development of a new large source of praise for the series. "e positive style of games and gameplay. In these games, response, coupled with improving technology, such as (uantic Dream’s Heavy Rain, the focus enticed Square Enix to explore the possibilities is centered primarily on the narrative within the of extended cutscenes to deepen the narrative game and less concerned with the actual chal- of the universe. "is prospect reached a high lenge of playing it. By prioritizing the narrative point in 2005 with the release of Final Fan- over the ludic nature that is assumed in games, tasy VII: Advent Children, a feature-length !lm much of the player’s agency is removed. composed of computer-generated graphics that Unsurprisingly, this has been the acts as a sequel to the game Final Fantasy VII. source of much debate over the de!nition of What is particularly interesting about Advent a game, as well as the role of cutscenes within Children is that the ! lm was made by the de- games. Many ludologists (those who advocate velopers of the Final Fantasy franchise, many of for gameplay over narrative) do not consider which had no experience creating !lms. Simply Heavy Rain to be a true game due to the exces- by using the techniques they had learned from sive removal of player agency; they view it more video games and previous experience creating in the vein of a movie or an extended cutscene. cutscenes, the developers at Square Enix were Meanwhile, narratologists (those who place able to create a well-cra%ed !lm that adhered narrative’s importance above gameplay) consid- !rmly to the Final Fantasy universe. er the Intellectual Property (IP) to be well with- "e idea of implementing games as in the de!nition of a game by arguing that any !lmmaking tools has also manifested itself in interaction with the so%ware, no matter how machinima, which is the creation of !lms using insigni!cant, implies gameplay. However, the the tools, environments, and characters within correct approach may be to view these works as a video game’s engine. Most commonly, ma- neither game nor movie but as a new method chinima is created through the manipulation of of experiencing a narrative altogether, a way to in-game cameras to imitate camera movements bring the audience closer and to give them con- common to !lm and replacing or creating dia- trol over the outcome of the narrative, almost 24 like a digital Choose Your Own Adventure book Hollywood juggernauts may be closer than one – an interactive drama, if you will. would like. Perhaps somewhere down the line in- Still, I cannot look toward the future of video teractive dramas will become the standard in game ! lms and not feel hopeful. From 1982’s entertainment and the ludology vs. narratol- Tron to present-day Resident Evil, video game ogy arguments surrounding them will become movies have improved in production quality null. I would certainly be open to the option of — now the quality of the content just needs to interacting with my favorite movies and televi- catch up. With fans producing ! lms and dis- sion shows. Imagine if Lost had been an inter- tributing them via the Internet, the standard active drama, allowing the audience to choose for that quality continues to rise and expecta- the paths the characters take or participate in tions continue to grow. Video games explore solving the puzzles of the island. But, as they say, !lm’s structure with interactive dramas and the wishful thinking gets you nowhere. line that separates !lm from games has become "e future of video game !lms is over- blurred. "ose who once focused only on games $owing with potential; movies such as the Resi- are beginning to take a chance in !lms, and vice- dent Evil series show that video game movies versa. Video games have begun to stand up for are beginning to be taken more seriously, and themselves, and their relationship with !lm has they are being allowed larger budgets that are !nally started !nding some equilibrium. comparable to those of other Hollywood pro- ductions. Now, all that is missing is the right Salen, Katie, and Eric Zimmerman. The Game director with the right vision, someone who is Design Reader: A Rules of Play Anthology. Cam- well versed in video games as a whole — enough bridge, MA: MIT, 2006. Print. to recognize all the subtle cues, aesthetics, and gameplay mechanics that create a game’s unique “Uwe Boll Loses German Tax Shelter Funds.” Hot- appeal. test Game News & Rumors. Web. . er/publisher responsible for Assassin’s Creed and Splinter Cell, has recently opened a new !lm “Uwe Boll: Money For Nothing.” Uwe Boll: Mon- branch in Paris, which has already began pro- ey For Nothing. Web. . tioned titles. However, the creation of this stu- “WTF IS Geek and Sundry? Felicia Day In- dio was a result of the !nancial success of Prince troduces The Flog.” YouTube. YouTube, 19 of Persia, another IP of Ubiso% that was adapted Mar. 2012. Web. .

25 Pushing Daisies (2007-2009)

romance, television and postponing satisfaction by zoë toffaleti

Television, especially in today’s rat- focus, there’s a !ne line between jerking the au- ings-driven world, relies on what !lm professor dience along on a !ve-season game of will-they- Amelie Hastie calls the promise of “imminent won’t-they and boring them with relationships revelation.” "e thrill of anticipation, that sus- that never progress. pense created by knowing what’s coming but In shows such as ABC’s Castle (2009–), not knowing when, is what enables television which gains viewers with the incredible chemis- programs to retain viewers through multiple try between Kate Beckett and Richard Castle episodes and seasons. “Television itself — its and subsequently loses them with the frustrat- very structure constituted by breaks, by a sched- ing lack of developments, the !nancial need ule that produces ellipses and interstices no to extend a show’s run for as long as possible is matter what channel you are watching or even even more at odds with the artistic vision than how you are watching — is always on the cusp in more plot-driven television. In response to of something. "is structure moves us towards Castle star Nathan Fillion’s statement that “the a continuous state of imminent revelation.” lack of resolution is what keeps people coming "is state of being “always on the cusp” is what back,” media scholar Henry Jenkins wrote, “I makes television great as well as a di'cult me- know what Fillion’s worried about — he’s wor- dium to work with. Pacing in television shows is ried about seeing something like what has hap- always a delicate art, and especially on shows in pened to House this season. But the problem which romantic relationships are a signi!cant with House is not that House and Cuddy are 26 in a relationship. "e problem is that the writ- but in a show like Felicity, running laps around ers do not have a clue how to depict a relation- the love triangle can be exhausting. However, ship between House and Cuddy in a way which Felicity, Gossip Girl, and even Castle are com- shows any kind of emotional maturity, any kind mercially successful and generally well-liked. At of psychological depth, any kind of personal times, the repetition and lack of substantial de- growth.” But in spite of Jenkins’ belief that velopments can be frustrating, but the ratings meaningful, committed long-term romances don’t lie: As much as I hate to admit it, some- on television are possible, such relationships are thing about these tactics does work. still extremely rare. Generally, writers con!ne But once in a while, a show manages character relationship to the safer route of time- to maintain some kind of narrative anticipa- tested on-again-o#-again couplings, because tion while avoiding the clichés and repetition serialized broadcast narratives and romantic of most romantic TV shows. Two shows aired closure are an unlikely friendship. in recent years have navigated the treacherous Romances in the form of dime-store waters of television romance with surprising novels and cheesy Hollywood blockbusters are freshness and admirable skill. Pushing Daisies popular because consumers know what to ex- (2007–2009), Bryan Fuller’s hyper-saturated pect: 150 pages or two hours of romantic ten- detective fantasy, and Mis%ts (2009–), Howard sion, a few surmountable obstacles, and even- Overman’s gritty sci-! teen soap, both exhibit tually the deeply satisfying closure that comes their narrative ingenuity through very unusual with a Disney-style happy ending. Television, relationship arcs. of course, tries to cash in on the emotional in- Although the shows are extremely dif- vestment (and subsequent crowds of viewers) ferent, with Pushing Daisies portraying a saccha- that Hollywood has mastered ever since Har- rin world of near-excessive whimsy and Mis%ts old Lloyd stuttered his way to love in Girl Shy taking a much darker and grittier route with (1924), but the truth of the matter is that televi- an equally o#-the-wall concept, both use the sion is not cut out for romance in the way that strangeness of their respective premises to side- movies and books are. Romance is an appealing genre largely because of its promised closure, and the televi- sion format functions primarily by denying clo- relationships to the safer sure between episodes. In some romance-fueled shows (such as Gossip Girl [2007–], in which route of time-tested on- Serena van der Woodsen has an endless string again-off-again of scandalous lovers) the desire for closure com- bined with the need for su'ciently tantalizing couplings.” plot developments leads to a steady stream of new romantic partners. In other shows (such step the tired old plotlines of romantic sitcoms as Felicity [1998–2002], in which Felicity Por- and soap operas by avoiding the consummation ter essentially wa&ed between Ben and Noel (and subsequent loss of emotional investment) for four seasons), the conundrum is solved by of romantic relationships altogether. By using rotating repeatedly through one or two major their (somewhat convoluted) mythology to couplings that constantly have borderline ridic- create a reason for characters not to touch, both ulous obstacles thrown in the way of “true love.” shows manage to create a relationship dynamic Both approaches have their bene!ts and draw- that is never quite satisfying. And because this backs. In a show like Gossip Girl, it is di'cult to lack of satisfaction is based on canonical foun- get too invested in (and get that all-important dations, these shows avoid making their audi- sense of closure from) a relationship that will ences feel teased and taunted. "e obstacles to be dust in the wind by the mid-season premiere, the relationship are presented as part of the 27 (2009 - Present)

broader mythology of the show, not obstacles nothings are enough for a modern couple. purely for obstacles’ sake. Some very successful shows (like Gos- In Pushing Daisies, Ned can bring sip Girl) focus much more on physical intimacy, the dead back to life with a brush of his !nger. treating sex not just as a voyeuristic spectacle, However, as you might expect, there is a ca- but also as well-established shorthand for rela- veat: If he touches the formerly-dead a second tionships. A single act of intercourse conveys a time, they die again — for good. Ned’s formerly certain kind of relationship between two char- dead childhood sweetheart, Chuck, lives in his acters, and requires less screen time (not to house, works at his restaurant, and helps him mention writing or acting !nesse) than a less solve mysteries. However, although their rela- sexual approach. Pushing Daisies, however, at- tionship is apparently exclusive, they can never tempts to build a relationship between Chuck touch each other in the ways a normal couple and Ned through banter and signi!cant looks would. Over the course of the show’s two sea- alone, and, for the most part, succeeds. Granted, sons, there are a few instances of pseudo-phys- Pushing Daisies isn’t aiming for the same goals ical intimacy, when the couple kisses through a as more explicit shows like Gossip Girl. In fact, barrier of saran wrap or, more commonly, !nds Pushing Daisies has more in common with Cas- a way to simulate hand-holding. tle; just as Castle’s “imminent revelation” is the It is worth noting that the show ad- always-just-out-of-reach kiss between Castle dresses sexual interactions between the two, or and Beckett, Pushing Daisies fans always hope lack thereof, euphemistically at best; Chuck and for a solution to Chuck and Ned’s problem. Ned long for casual a#ectionate touches rather "ere is a constant focus on one central rela- than sexual grati!cation. In “"e Television tionship, what fan studies refers to as the “one World of Pushing Daisies,” Alissa Burger writes true pairing,” between two characters who are that “the sweet talk in "e Pie Hole celebrates an clearly meant to be together. Shows like Push- alternative form of intimacy, one focused on lan- ing Daisies and Castle, which have an obvious guage rather than physical touch.” "e show uses “one true pairing,” sacri!ce the opportunity for what creator Bryan Fuller called “more written” gratuitous sex scenes with multiple partners in dialogue to create a lighthearted world of whim- order to more fully develop fans’ emotional in- sy, where hand-holding and alliterative sweet vestment in the couple. 28 But for the most part, the chemistry people superpowers, one character in the en- is enough in Pushing Daisies, and the $irting semble cast, Alisha, has the less-than-desirable between Chuck and Ned has sustained an au- advantage of creating uncontrollable and mind- dience for two seasons and beyond. (A%er the less lust in anyone who touches her. When she show’s cancellation, Bryan Fuller began work- begins dating another character, Curtis, their ing on a much-anticipated comic book to bring desire for a more conscious and “real” con- the series to a close, but the deal fell through nection forces them to keep their relationship when the WildStorm publishing company strictly hands-o#. Although on the surface Mis- shut down.) Fans of Pushing Daisies watched %ts has little in common with Pushing Daisies, for many reasons; some came for the dialogue, considering its much grittier take on reality and some for the characters, and some for the sto- its hyper-sexual perspective on the no-contact ries. But the relationship between Chuck and romance, it uses the same method of postpon- Ned, whether it was a major draw or simply ing romantic grati!cation in the name of its icing on the television cake, kept Pushing Dai- supernatural premise. Whereas Pushing Dai- sies fans interested without making them angry. sies expresses the strangeness of an emotionally "e relationship doesn’t feel forced, because serious relationship through simulated casual the reasoning behind the couple’s no-contact touches and overwritten dialogue, the relation- policy is !rmly rooted in the show’s mythology. ship on Mis%ts seems to be held together mostly It is excitingly frustrating in a way that makes through sexual attraction. Alisha and Curtis viewers tune in next week, not the kind of frus- have a committed, exclusive relationship, but trating that drives audiences away out of dissat- their relationship relies much more heavily on isfaction. physical intimacy (or something like it) than "e British series Mis%ts is heading on emotional intimacy. "eir most serious con- into its fourth season on E4, and an Ameri- versations are on the subject of sex, and almost can remake headed by Gossip Girl creator Josh all of their interactions as a couple consist of Schwartz is currently in development. It’s a nothing more than scenes of mutual masturba- show with a much darker tone, and its premise tion. Unlike Chuck and Ned, who are caught is even more complex than Pushing Daisies’. In in a perpetual state of wanting to hold hands, a world where a magical storm has given many Alisha and Curtis reach climax many times over 29 the course of their relationship, but never as characters who candidly express their feelings a couple, sexually or in a narrative sense. "eir for one another, and still somehow maintaining sexual grati!cation always occurs separately, on a sense of “imminent revelation,” is impressive opposite sides of the screen, meaning that the — even if that sense of imminent revelation is audience never sees a true physical connection slightly arti!cial. " ere is no will-they-won’t- between them. they, and there is no logical possibility that Unlike on Pushing Daisies, the rela- their relationship’s supernatural obstacles will tionship between Alisha and Curtis is not the evaporate. And yet, in the heart of each audi- “one true pairing.” "eir relationship lasts for a ence member is a tiny spark of hope that one little over a season and then ends, not because of day, Chuck and Ned can ditch the saran wrap, the strain of their lack of physical intimacy, but and Alisha and Curtis will be able to just hold simply because they grow apart and become in- hands. Intellectually, we know it will never hap- terested in other people. Both characters move pen. But we feel the need to tune in next week, on to more normal relationships, with sex, cud- just in case. dling, and actual conversations. Mis%ts denies us the satisfaction of a complete emotional and physical relationship, but a%er a season of TV relationship purgatory, the closure of a concrete end to the relationship is almost as welcome. Deans, Jason. “Josh Schwartz to co-write US "e writers cleverly played with television ro- The Guardian. 20 Oct. 2011. Web. 12 Mar. 2012. mance traditions, taunting the audience with a not-quite-relationship in an incredibly inno- Droege, CB. “Pushing Daisies Comic Book vative way. But in the end, they did something Dleayed Again, Art Released.” TG Daily. 28 Apr. braver (and possibly even rarer): "ey let a tired, 2011. Web. 12 Mar. 2012. old TV relationship die. Hastie, Amelie. “Imminence.” FlowTV. 30 Oct. "e television medium has depicted 2011. Web. 12 Mar. 2012. many tropes that spring from !nancial motiva- tions: commercial break cli)angers, o#-again- - on-again couples, repetitive procedurals, and culty In Representing Committed Relationships.” Confessions of an Aca-Fan. 6 Apr. 2011. Web. 12 big melodramatic mysteries that the “tune in Mar. 2012. next week” voice always implies will be solved soon. Pushing Daisies and Mis%ts both found a Parmiter, Tara K. “Sweet Talk in The Pie Hole: place for honest, straightforward storytelling Language, Intimacy, and Public Space.” The within those TV tropes. and Television World of Pushing Daisies: Critical Pushing Daisies Essays on the Bryan Fuller Series. ed. Alissa Mis%ts prioritize their bizarre premises, working Burger. Jefferson: McFarland and Company, Inc, the limitations of the format into the core con- 2011. Print. cept instead of the other way around. Writing

30

Buster Keaton circa 1930 A GILDED END by madeline sery

In light of modern ! lmmaking, me- yet its traces remind audiences to appreciate dia, and digital technology, silent ! lm could simplicity. be viewed as a breed of lost art. With the com- Nevertheless, the introduction of ing of sound and the decline of silent !lm in sound brought with it innovative technology the 1920s, cinema may have seen the death of that opened doors to new possibilities and ca- an art form that allows viewers to escape into pacities to tell stories. In their essay, “State- pure dreamscape. "e enchantment of going to ment on Sound,” !lmmakers Sergei Eisenstein, the movies once provided an escape from real- Vsevolod Pudovkin, and Grigori Alexander ity. With the onslaught of “the talkies,” those suggest several doors that sound could open who made and appreciated silent !lms had to but with which silent cinema had previously endure the industry’s change to sound and the struggled. By examining what has been lost and loss of silence. "is shi% was accompanied by taking into account !lm’s many gains, obtained a loss of the unique beauty that had been born over generations of leaps and bounds of change, with silent !lm’s creation. Early- to mid-twen- it becomes possible to see how the birth of cine- tieth century ! lmmaker René Clair testi!ed ma and the work of !lm’s early silent period can to this loss by explaining how the end of silent be held up to the gilded age of !lms made ever cinema ushered in “the gilded age” of capitalist since. By studying the era of silent !lm, it can commercial production. Film that used words be seen how silence is in fact golden. Film’s !rst to keep audiences entertained created a vastly and oldest generation should be prized next to di#erent atmosphere and e#ect on audiences. its many o#spring — not only for its originality "e poetic majesty of movies that seemed like and antiquity, but for the e#ect it was able to surreal dreams was suddenly lost amid the achieve using silence and simple means of tech- noise of !lms that strove to create an illusion nology. of reality based on verisimilitude. "is artistry For René Clair, the loss of silence was seems to have been erased nearly completely, initially thought to mean the complete dis- 33 avowal of an art. Clair indicates this sense of panied the growth of the commercial ! lm in- uncertainty in the statement: “We who have dustry amid a pro!t-driven capitalist economy. seen an art being born may also have seen it die” Viewers easily lost sight of the art of silence next (Fischer 34). Clair believed that silent !lm was to the clarity and accessible delivery of talkies. a form of poetry, an artistry cra%ed to express Not everyone was able to see that cinema was a purity that came through the singular union losing anything, yet Clair addressed this loss of music and imagery. He suggested the recipe explicitly: for this surreal quality was “born with the bless- ings of prestidigitators and magicians.” Clair “"e screen is losing more than it is gaining explains that it was “because the cinema of the by this ‘progress.’ It is conquering the world early years ‘believed in every enchantment’ that of voices but losing the world of dreams it found its poetic vein right from the start and over which the silent cinema reigned. I awakened in our hearts that love of the mi- observed the spectators leaving a%er hear- raculous which heightens our childhood years” ing a talking picture. " ey seemed to be (Fischer 36). " e dreamlike atmosphere that leaving a vaudeville theater. "ey were not silent !lms allow viewers to enter can be com- plunged into that comfortable numbness pared to a state of reverie. With the dawn of the which a trip to the land of pure images used talkies, Clair and his fellow comrades of silent to bestow on us. "ey were talking, laugh- cinema voiced sensible concerns that the poetic ing and humming the last refrain they had voice of !lm would be muted by the birth of heard. THEY HAD NOT LOST THE prosaic sound. He voiced the cost of sound by SENSE OF REALITY.” (Fischer 37) likening !lm to literature and using poetry as a metaphor: Clair felt that the merging of sound and cinema made movies inseparable from reality and sub- “ Yesterday poetry which seemed to be los- ject to a loss in their a#ective value. A%er wit- ing its power over literature and exhausted nessing the rise of the talkies, Clair predicted words, was being reborn with its still hesi- that cinema was headed for a “gilded end.” He tant rhythms and its pristine purity, on the believed that money would kill the industry great white canvas toward which the whole and challenge creative intelligence and art mak- world were leaning. Now this canvas is ing. He feared that the roles and rules of ! - emitting a voice, sentences, and words so nances would come at the cost of independence o%en heard before . . . Can the talking pic- (Fischer 35). ture be poetic? "ere is reason to fear that Today, ! lm has indeed entered its the precision of the verbal expression will “golden age.” Hollywood has become the home- drive poetry o# the screen just as it drives town of America, with movies as one of our o# the atmosphere of daydream.” (Fischer biggest past times and at the forefront of en- 37) tertainment; cinema has become a creation of expensive spectacle. " e industry’s !nancial Clair was indeed correct in his fear that silence capital has skyrocketed while many narratives’ would be overtaken. As the sounds of speech meaningful qualities have, in modern times, be- quickly overtook the sounds of silence, silent gun to dwindle and diminish. What’s le% of the cinema dri%ed into a realm of an art no longer style of !lmmaking Clair upheld as magical and preserved or created. Audiences were immedi- artistic now lies mostly in the past, preserved ately immersed in !lm’s new lifelike quality and in silence and cherished only by the select cine- swept away by modern means of storytelling. phile. Can modern audiences reclaim silent With the rise of the twentieth century, audienc- !lm? Or will the era be forgotten? With the es embraced the immediacy and instantaneous making of !lms like !e Artist (2011), it seems understanding of the talkies, which accom- silent !lm may be capable of a resurgence. 34 When Rene Clair realized that the art Symbol and narrative carry viewers of cinema was facing a conversion to sound, he into their imaginations and accomplish feelings refused to be defeated by the industry’s insensi- comparable to those rendered by dreams and tivity to his art form. Clair found ways to adapt visions. Clair once de!ned his dreams in !lm to the changes of the talkies and to preserve the with the statement: “"ere will perhaps come a nature of !lm’s beauty by attempting to recre- day when a simple series of images with no de- ate the quality of “unreality” that he was able to !nable link but united by a secret harmony will achieve in silent movies. Clair used innovative arouse an emotion analogous to that aroused techniques of abstracting sound to preserve the by music” (Fischer 38). Perhaps it was a similar artistry inherent in his silent movies, despite harmony that Clair achieved between sound the introduction of dialogue. Clair explained and images that was capable of recapturing his new approach to the changing industry by the feeling of magic in the age of sound. Music saying, “I conceived that it would be possible took the movies out of the realms of reality and to recapture the unreality of the light comedy rearticulated them in the space between reality and fantasy, illustrating life’s synchronicities — its ordinary moments of successive beauty and convocation of life’s surreal qualities, as well as away from the pace and the subtle intricacies and inexplicable patterns noise of the everyday...” that o%en go unnoticed. Clair referred to the musing of Marcel Proust to relate the abilities inherent in music by replacing words with music and songs. From reappropriated through the cinema. He related that moment on my work began to interest that, “Marcel Proust wondered ‘whether music me” (Fischer 40). Clair reinvested himself in were not the unique form of what the communi- his work with a new gusto for recapturing what cation of souls would have been if language had might otherwise have been lost. Clair described not been invented, words formed, and ideas an- the resulting product as a “hybrid” !lm moving alyzed.’” He corrected himself, however, saying, between silence, song, and speech. Clair com- “No, not unique. Marcel Proust would not have mented that he understood how “in theory” this written that if he had known the possibilities of combination might sound as “indefensible” a a visual art, the cinema” (Fischer 39). Neverthe- method as that of “opera comique” but never- less, Clair’s use of music in his !lms proves that theless it worked (Fischer 42). By allowing his it is neither visual art nor music alone, but the !lms to be governed by music, Clair created a pairing of the two that accomplishes a commu- quality of abstraction that turned his pictures nication that conveys life’s $uid progression in into musical montages. Characters moved in a wordless fashion. Words are not needed with time to the music, creating a sensory experience the use of music, for the combination of music that was $uid and highly imagistic. and images speak in ways that surpass language. "e perfection of “silence” is ironically, Rather, they speak to the language of emotions not derived from ! lms’ silence but from the and capture the magical synergistic moments dance between sound and images that forms a that defy explanation. perfect symbiosis. Clair describes it saying: It is no wonder, upon realizing the “"e imaginary words we used to put into the majesty of the silent artistry, that artisans like mouths of those silent beings in those dialogues of images will always be more beautiful than any Clair would !nd the induction of sound jar- ring. Silent !lms were original in their powerful actual sentences. !e heroes of the screen spoke to ability to tell stories, composing comedies and the imagination with the complicity of silence. To - morrow they will talk nonsense into our ears and tragedies, from heartwarming and charming to we will be unable to shut it out” (Fischer 38). wrenching and breathtaking, and at times po- tentially life-altering. Sound that possessed grit 35 and voices robbed silent cinema of its musical great in$uence” and the “indisputable axiom backdrop. Clair described this, saying: upon which world cinema culture rests” (State- ment on Sound 1). Silent !lms o%en relied on “If almost everyone is in agreement on the the use of montage to a highly e#ective degree. value of mechanically reproduced music . In some sequences, perfectly orchestrated to ap- . . the same is not true for the noises that pear as a montage of well-composed images, ev- are added to the action. "e usefulness of ery instant becomes photographic. "e charac- these noises is too o%en questionable . . . ter’s movements and gestures, facial expressions when you have heard a certain number of and actions, are bold, dramatic, and carry an air sound !lms and the time of wonderment of theatricality; conveying magical undercur- has passed, you discover not without sur- rents by turning down the volume on the con- prise, that the world of noises seems much stant chatter of everyday life and turning up the more limited than you would have believed volume on life’s quietly memorable qualities. Si- earlier.” (Fischer 45) lent !lms capture life’s vivid passion and inten- sity without the barrage of thoughts that so of- "e introduction of “noises” seemed to Clair to ten accompany our modern waking lives. "ey be a disruption of what !lm should be. Never- draw threads to the hearts, minds, and souls of theless, Clair believed strongly in the pursuit those watching through their ability to touch of capturing “unreality.” He refused to let the us silently. When dialogue is not a !lm’s prima- changing industry rob his !lms of their poten- ry mode of communication, we are compelled tial beauty. "e mastery of “unreality” evolved to deepen our engagement and draw from our from the synchronous harmony of sound and experience of what composes life’s most basic imagery. In her commentary on Federico Fell- human elements. It calls upon our ability to ini’s La Strada (1954), Claudia Gorman de- be empathetic by taking an active stance in un- scribes how music can undermine a !lm’s sense derstanding the actors’ thoughts, feelings, and of reality. She states that: expressions. Silent !lms take viewers away from the pace and noise of the everyday to enter into “"ere is a degree of stylization achieved by a trancelike state, to engage with life in a more manipulating the characters’ action so that profound way which conveys its most potent they submit to musical division of time qualities by silently entering worlds of the sur- rather than dramatic or realistic time. "e real. characters in the narrative !lm whom we "e writers of “Statement on Sound” conventionally accept as subjects, unques- address their fears for the !lm industry by com- tionably become objects when their move- menting, “Sound is a double edged invention ments and speech coincide strictly with the and its most probable application will be along music; for we can consider musical rhythm the line of least resistance, i.e. the ! eld of sat- — an abstract, mathematical, highly or- isfaction of simple curiosity.” "e immediacy of ganized disposition of time — to be the speech as a form of communication makes dia- opposite of spontaneous “real” time. We logue appealing in movies. Yet, despite the clar- sense that the characters have been created ity of communication through language, many and they do not inspire us to identify with movies do not seem to speak to deeper levels of them” (Fischer 43). meaning in the way that enables moving pic- tures to be truly mo&ing. “Statement on Sound” "e characters of silent ! lms move between asserts that an “incorrect understanding of the frames like ! gures come to life out of frozen potential of the new technical invention might artworks. In the essay “Statement on Sound,” not only hinder the development and improve- “montage” is referred to as the “principal meth- ment of cinema as an art form but might also od which has led cinema to a position of such threaten to destroy all its formal achievements 36

A Trip to the Moon (1902, dir. Georges Méliès)

to date” (Statement on Sound). "is fear is ac- tal sound, vis-à-vis the visual fragment of mon- companied by the writers’ prediction for the tage will open up new possibilities for the devel- future of cinema: "ey state that there will be opment and perfection of the montage.” "ey commercial exploitation “of the most saleable explain that experimentation in sound should goods, i.e. of ‘talking pictures.’” "is prediction, create dissonance and use a “hammer and tongs” one could easily argue, seems to have come true. approach to create the e#ect of a new “orches- Surrounded by constant streams of communica- tral counterpoint” (Statement on Sound 2). De- tion, commodity culture, and technological in- spite the writers’ demands on the ! lmmakers’ novations, the pace and mindset of modernity techniques, the writers of “Statement on Sound” is re$ected in the movies. Too o%en, they seem do suggest that technological innovation may designed as mere eye candy, fed to American au- entail certain bene!ts for creative liberation by diences through advertising and commercial in- allowing cinema’s avant-garde to escape “blind dustries but lacking intricacy to their narratives. alleys” caused by the boundaries of limited "e most expensive !lms too o%en seem to feel technology. Examples they o#er of these blind the cheapest within the context of originality alleys include the intertitle and its integration and creativity. What the writers see as more into montage composition and explanatory se- harmful, however, is their second prediction. quences (e.g. long shots), which complicate the "ey see this as “the loss of innocence and puri- composition of the montage and slow down the ty of the initial concept of cinema,” stating that rhythm. "ey express that “problems of theme “cinema’s new textural possibilities can only in- and plot continue to grow more complex” and tensify its unimaginative use for ‘dramas of high o#er that “sound cannot fail to provide new and culture’ and other photographed presentations enormously powerful means of expressing and of a theatrical order.” It is this loss of innocence resolving complex problems” (Statement on that has overtaken us and continues to be in ef- Sound 2). "e incredible potential for sound to fect. “solve problems” suggests that !lm might have "e writers of the “Statement on Sound” the potential to touch upon larger global and do not give up hope. Just as Clair refused to be cultural problems that are largely unaddressed defeated, they argue that the use of “contrapun- in popular entertainment. 37 Many of the methods and techniques Film has enormous potential to create social that early ! lmmakers relied on remain lying impact simply by its widened accessibility. It in the graves of the silent !lms they were born nevertheless remains necessary for ! lm to re- with. Nevertheless, just as these ! lms can be tain quality of both purpose and form, artistic stirred from the depths of dusty archives, per- merit and considerate social intentions. In or- haps from observing cinema’s early skeletons, der for modern cinema to rise up and meet the those techniques ! lmmakers !rst created may challenge of creating meaning, we may need be resurrected. “Statement on Sound” suggests to seek new means within the industry. "is that: means exploring uncharted territories, seeking untold stories from the throngs of society, cul- “"e contrapuntal method of structuring ture, and history. Film must seek higher means !lm not only does not weaken the inter- of expression, whether by investing in the pow- national nature of cinema but gives to its ers of technology or investigating the beauty of meaning unparalleled strength and cultural antiquity, where a treasure chest of resources heights. With this method of construction already lays waiting. the sound !lm will not be imprisoned with- in national markets, as has happened with the theatrical play and will happen with Fischer, Lucy. “Rene Clair, Le Million, and The Coming of Sound.” Cinema Journal. 16.2 (1977): the ‘!lmed’ play, but will provide an even 34-50. Print. greater opportunity than before of speed- ing the idea contained in a !lm throughout Eisenstein, Sergei, Vsevolod Pudovkin, and the whole globe, preserving its worldwide Grigori Alexander. “Statement on Sound.” Film viability.” (Statement on Sound 2) Theory And Criticism. . 7th ed. New York, N.Y.: Oxford University Press, USA, 2009. Print.

38 Photo by Hannah Louise Denyer

Photo by David Murakami George Valentin (Jean Dujardin) in The Artist (2011, dir. Michel Hazanavicius) SAYING MORE WITH SILENCE embracing film form over period pastiche by michael luciani

A prominent theme in cinema this Long before the !lm’s conception, Hollywood past year was the romanticization of ! lm his- had thoroughly exhausted the story behind !e tory. On the surface, !lms like !e Artist and Artist. " e same basic narrative structure can Hugo emphasize and explore our childlike redis- be found in a myriad of 20th century classics covery of early cinema. !e Artist strategically like Singin’ in the Rain and Sunset Boulevard, employs silent era aesthetics and !lm language among others. !e Artist separates itself from to properly contextualize and stylize its story, these past !lms by exploring the shi% to sound while Hugo advances its plot by immersing its through an overwhelmingly self-re$exive form. audience in the magic of silent movie making. In the !lm, George Valentin embodies Together, these ! lms breathe life into an oth- almost every quintessential, redeemable aspect erwise stagnant public perception of silent cin- about silent cinema. When talkies take over, his ema. While Hugo acts a heartfelt reminder of character rightfully spirals out of control and this long lost genre, !e Artist is more of a rev- out of the spotlight. However, unlike the act of elation. "rough its form, it $agrantly forces us silent ! lmmaking, George’s character doesn’t to look back and question the premature death die out. Instead, he’s saved by another actor, of silent cinematic language. Peppy Miller. Much like Hugo and his quest to Traditionally, a ! lm like !e Artist rebuild a broken-down George Melies, Peppy would have been conservatively conjured up rushes to revive Valentin, because she whole- as an era-appropriate, period piece. Instead, it heartedly believes in everything he represents. challenges these conventional cinematic strate- In a way, the rebirth of George Valentin lays the gies, choosing not to rely on tributary pastiche metaphorical groundwork for the reawakening to punctuate its points. !e Artist is unique be- of silent cinema in the 21st century. cause it actively infuses prominent formal ele- !e Artist’s ambitiously optimistic !nal ments of silent ! lmmaking into the structure sequence argues, through the form, that silent and makeup of a story about silent !lmmaking. !lmmaking and some of its core characteristics, 41 should never be forgotten. Film critic Daniel sound. Although many would argue against it, Mumby sums up the signi!cance of the these I !rmly believe that a well received, successful, last few frames: “the !lm’s resolution, with a si- contemporary silent !lm like !e Artist has the lent actor and talkie actor working together, is potential to revive this sleeping giant of a genre. a demonstration that... di#erent stories can and "ere are three ways in which this should be told in di#erent ways within a given spike in public appreciation could conceivably medium.” !e Artist is a !lm that $aunts this aid in a resurrection of silent !lm. "e !rst and message, that our ongoing negligence against most reasonable outcome involves an increase outdated or unusual cinematic genres, like si- of interest in preserving and screening old si- lent ! lm, is both ignorant and wasteful. As a lent !lms. Another plausible a%ere#ect is that !lm, !e Artist acknowledges and respects the some of the more obvious and e#ective silent talkies, but it also pushes !lm makers and view- cinematic conventions will be openly integrat- ers to question our strict over-reliance on stan- ed into contemporary sound-based ! lms. "e dard storytelling techniques in modern movie third and !nal result would be far less likely, but making. "e quality of the !lm as an entertain- possible nonetheless: the critical and !nancial ing, engaging piece of work is proof enough success of !e Artist could potentially result that silent !lmic language can and should still in the production of new, contemporary silent be used to weave worthwhile cinematic stories. !lms in or around the industry. It’s o'cial - !e Artist, and even Hugo "at’s not to say there haven’t been to a certain extent, have brie$y li%ed silent cine- some openly negative reactions to revisiting si- ma out of the margins and into the mainstream. lent cinema. In the UK, a group of viewers an- "e charm and warmth of !e Artist helps it dis- grily demanded a refund to !e Artist, feeling as prove a common stigma held against the genre. if they’d been tricked into seeing a silent movie. Watching a well-made silent !lm is not as physi- To a certain extent, the “uninformed audience cally demanding or di'cult as we’ve been led member” is almost impossible to avoid at nearly to believe. "e truth is, !e Artist successfully any event. Art house !lms like !e Artist are es- mixes melodrama and comedy in ways that out- pecially frustrating to viewers who stubbornly shine an awful lot of contemporary !lms with stick to movies that predominantly employ 42 modern, conventional storytelling techniques. old ! lmic language has either been absorbed Earlier in the year, Drive drew similarly shocked into or abandoned by cinema with sound. In reactions. Many were disappointed and some more ways than one, !e Artist proves that si- even sued, stating it didn’t live up to the trailers lent !lmmaking was a prematurely deserted art because they made it look like Fast and the Furi- form, and that many of its classical conventions ous. can still entertain a majority of moviegoers. "e Beyond these petty scu&es, there have truth is, a large amount of these silent cinematic been two major arguments against !e Artist. traits have continued to be covertly deployed Online journalist Je#rey Overstreet declares in a number of successful contemporary !lms. that the ! lm was unfairly predestined to suc- "is only adds to my point, that the public is ceed, due to its self-a'rming praise of the in- ready and willing to undergo a resurgence in si- dustry. “"e Academy Awards are the biggest lent cinema. annual party that Hollywood throws for itself, Let’s return to the !nal sequence of and !e Artist is a movie that worships Holly- !e Artist. "e !lm’s conclusion reveals that the wood — its vanity, its values, its people-pleas- saving grace of silent cinema lies in !nding and ing, its super!ciality. Looks like a done deal.” It utilizing an endlessly translatable, universal !lm is true; together, the !lm and ceremony actively language. At the end of !e Artist, this univer- service their individual legacies. "at could sal language turns out to be dancing, an activity explain it winning Best Picture, but not much that doesn’t rely on dialogue or diegetic sound more than that. "e second argument is twice as legitimate and thrice as thought provoking. Jaime N. Christley, !lm critic for Slant Maga- “The Artist could zine, strongly states that !e Artist is a shallow, incomplete sketching of silent cinematic form. end up functioning Jaime states that the ! lm “ignores everything that’s fascinating and memorable about the as ... a gateway drug silent-!lm era, focusing instead on a patchwork of general knowledge.” to silent cinema.” I actually agree with Christley. !e Artist is a basic, fundamental take on silent to get its point across. Another unrestricted, all- !lm, but that’s exactly why it works so well. For inclusive aspect of the genre is physical comedy. many modern moviegoers, !e Artist could end Chaplin, Keaton, and Lloyd were among the up functioning as something of a gateway drug many slapstick masters of silent cinema. "is to silent cinema. Christley ends up dismissing universally appealing comedic style lives on to- the !lm because it refuses to be a summation day in characters like Mr. Bean. of the most critically lauded or memorable si- "e international popularity of Rowan lent !lmic moments. She fails to see that !e Atkinson’s television and ! lm personality Mr. was purposefully made to be more than Artist Bean, is an overlooked, yet entirely valid indica- a mere history lesson. By utilizing some of the tor of the potential allure of a silent !lm revival. most redeemable, core conventions of the genre, His character is mostly mute, relying on speech- !e Artist e#ectively shatters the myth that less, physical comedy to make his audience silent movies cannot be accessible to the aver- laugh. At the same time, producers purposeful- age, modern viewer. Looking to the future, our ly steer away from using a black and white !lm ability to revitalize this lost genre relies on the stock, even adding a comforting laugh track to same mainstream market that so easily turned eliminate any potential fear of colorless silence its back on silence before. on screen. International language organization It took more than thirty years to per- Pimsleur Approach recently ran an article about fect the form of silent !lm. Today, most of this 43 !e Artist and Mr. Bean, revealing the multina- 90% of silent !lms have been lost since the tran- tional signi!cance of silent comedic traditions. sition to talkies. "ese vital preservation e#orts “Rowan Atkinson’s blundering clown doesn’t can pique the interest of new fans in two vary- necessarily carry o# the balletic wit of Chap- ing ways: home and theatrical screenings. lin, Lloyd or Keaton, but there’s a reason why "ere is new evidence of a upward this character is welcomed with open arms in shi% in the enthusiasm and sale of silent cinema. ninety-four di#erent countries and has earned LOVEFILM, the European equivalent of Net- Atkinson an estimated seventeen million dol- $ix, recently released some telling statistics on lars. " e universal language of silence can be the subject. In the week leading up to the Acad- lucrative, and Atkinson is no fool.” "is inter- emy Awards, the streaming and rental rates of nationally appealing aspect of silent cinema silent !lm increased by forty percent, delivering can be found in even more recent and popular a direct correlation between the success of !e examples. Take a look at Pixar, one of the indus- Artist and a new public interest in silent cinema. try’s least threatening, undeniably mainstream With evidence like this, preservation houses production houses. will undoubtedly step up their e#orts to restore WALL-E and Up both begin with more of these !lms. In fact, the British Film In- silent cinema inspired sequences. For WALL- stitute is currently working on the restoration of E, the crew spent an extended period of time all nine remaining silent Hitchcock !lms. BFI studying the ! lms and comedic styles of the also plans to include a comprehensive rework- same slapstick artists I mentioned earlier. Its ing of canned scores with brand new, accompa- !rst act is almost entirely silent, except for the nying music for each of the !lms. "is brings up occasional robot noise. Especially for a chil- one of the most pressing problems facing silent dren’s ! lm, this was an enormous risk, but it !lm today. Traditionally, silent cinema was al- paid o# in the end. Pixar returned to the silent most always screened alongside a live musical introduction with 2009’s Up. Without any dia- accompaniment. To avoid this contemporary logue, the now infamous montage of a man and dilemma, and see silent !lm as it was meant to woman’s love and life together is a comedic, sen- be seen, a new crop of theatres and festivals are timental, and melodramatic feast of visuals. For sprouting up all over the world. most moviegoers, this silent !lm within a !lm "e largest of these silent ! lm festi- was the highlight of Up, helping it become only vals, at least in the United States, takes place in the third animated feature ever to be nominat- San Francisco. For more than !%een years, the ed for Best Picture. Although these two exam- San Francisco Silent Film Festival has screened ples alone could have convinced the industry to a diverse selection of silent movies, as well as reinvest in silent !lm, most cinema makers and showcasing a variety of preservation e#orts. viewers missed the connection I just described. Each showing includes its own individual mu- "e more realistic route that silent !lm will take sical accompaniment, from solo pianists to full a%er !e Artist involves looking back rather orchestras. Although this breed of specialized than forward. !lm festival has traditionally been le% to serious If there is going to be a movement to cinephiles, the success of ! lms like !e Artist revive silent cinema, it will most likely take and Hugo may seriously change that. place in !lm preservation. Ideally, at least a por- Tying it all together, Vanity Fair’s an- tion of the audience members who thoroughly nual Hollywood issue featured an article about enjoyed !e Artist or Hugo will seek out ways the Silent Film Festival in San Francisco, writ- to satisfy their new-found interest in silent cin- ten by none other than Martin Scorsese. In it, ema. " e ongoing restoration of silent ! lm is he praises the festival for its monumental resto- essential to keeping the movement alive. Due ration and screening of Abel Gance’s 1927 epic to a lack of commercial interest, coupled with Napoleon. “Don’t wait for it to come to a theater a dangerously $ammable !lm stock, more than near you - getting Gance’s magnum opus up on 44 a screen is a herculean task. "is is a major event.” Somehow, someway we must shatter this myth Coming from Martin Scorsese, in a magazine as that silent cinema is a period of ! lmmaking, widely read as Vanity Fair, proves once and for when it’s really a distinct !lmic style and form. all, that this is a transformative time for silent Only then will we be able to move away from cinema. Silent era aesthetics have even worked our continuously tenacious disregard for silent their way into the actual design and layout of cinema and learn to embrace it once again. this year’s issue. For a magazine that touts its ability to !nd and foster cultural trends, this is “The Art of Silence – Exploring Silent Film.” Pimsleur Approach. N.p., 30 Jan 2012. Web. 30 just another example of how the idea and im- Mar 2012. . more: “[!e Artist and Hugo] demonstrate the value of what was once written o#, showing that Mumby, Daniel. “3 Reasons Why Cinema About Cinema Has Become So Popular.” What Culture. it is possible to create a genuinely great audi- N.p., 25 Jan 2012. Web. 30 Mar 2012. . the practice of silent ! lmmaking is o%en at- tached to a speci!c period of time around the Overstreet, Jeffrey. “THE ARTIST (2011, HA- The Other Journal, 09 start of the 20th century, !e Artist con!rms Jan 2012. Web. 30 Mar 2012. that silent cinema is much more than just an era of movie making. People tend to think that Scorsese, Martin. “The Quest for Napoléon.” Van- silent !lms are just talkies without sound, when ity Fair. Mar 2012: n. page. Web. 30 Mar 2012. in fact, they should be understood as an unique- . 45 by austin kovacs

Cultural analyst Mark Jancovich re- — to a point where our relationships with these cently argued that “public spaces of interaction public spaces, as well as with technology itself, have become increasingly redundant” and activ- have been changed irreversibly. ities that once required us to venture outside the Movies were once an occasion for a house are now brought to us through the won- grand night out and an excuse to look your best, ders of modern technology. We no longer feel meet up with friends, and share an experience the need to actually meet up with a friend, now together. Now it is more common to view a !lm that texting will save us so much time and en- at home on your own, and you may re-watch ergy. No one wants to go through the laborious your favorites dozens of times, giving you an process of preparation for going out to dinner entirely di#erent viewing experience than if you anymore — not when they can just leave their had just seen a !lm once in the theater. "e ar- sweatpants on and order in. One of the great- rival of television signaled a real change in the est thrills used to be packing up and traipsing way people viewed and consumed all forms of all the way to the movie theater to get some en- media. Audiences were thrilled that they could tertainment, but who can a#ord the ten bucks now gather the family on their very own couch it now takes when illegal online streaming is so and enjoy the nightly news or half-hour comedy much quicker and cheaper? Essentially, the way shows on a daily basis. However, in the 1950s, we interact with each other has evolved tremen- having a relatively small pool of programming dously because of technological advancements to choose from and only one TV in the house 46 preserved the group aspect of the experience. need for cropping. Indeed, the viewer no longer Since everyone was still watching the same needs to leave the house to go to the cinema, shows, it remained a larger cultural phenome- because the cinema has now all but come to the non. Today, with an endless variety of program- viewer. ming on television and increasingly so on the "is is most clearly demonstrated internet, chances are you are not watching the in the explosion of illegal downloading and same shows as your next-door neighbor or your streaming taking place on the web over the last co-worker the next cubicle over. decade. Programs like BitTorrent and the now One of the greatest changes to the con- defunct Megavideo have played a distinct role sumption of ! lm occurred when ! lm studios in promoting the already popular home viewing realized they could use television and home experience. It is undeniable that “there has been viewing to their advantage. First with VHS and a rapid and dramatic expansion of what it now then with DVD and Blu-ray, !lm studios have means to even be an audience.” What was once a turned home consumption into a huge market. public activity has become increasingly private. In fact, the executive vice president of Buena All of these changes have a#ected the way view- Vista International, Daniel Battsek, said in 2004 ers think about themselves in relation to !lm that if the VCR was the savior of cinema, then as well as in relation to the outside world. Im- the DVD was perhaps the “savior of the entire provements in technology have pushed us fur- !lm industry.” "is is further proved by the fact ther and further into our own private worlds, that “for approximately two decades, more U.S. and today we are even able to construct our own viewers have been watching Hollywood ! lms technologies and viewing environments. at home than at the theater, and the revenues "is ability to bring ! lms into the generated from the distribution of feature !lms home has also allowed us to experience them in the nation’s households have surpassed big- di#erently through the practice of repeat view- screen box o'ce takes.” Film Professor Barbara ings. "is habitual watching did not really take Klinger explains this when she says, “Stocked o# until the introduction of the VHS player with an array of devices for audiovisual enter- and since then has evolved through DVDs, Blu- tainment, the home is a place where individuals ray and Internet viewing. Indeed, any of us who can withdraw to engage in private shows and have come of age in the last thirty years most reveries via the playback of cinematic and other likely has fond memories of screening a favorite images.” By the end of the 1980s, many of the !lm over and over again on the family televi- features of the cinema were beginning to !nd sion, perhaps even multiple times in the same their way into the day. Now that ! lms have become objects in domestic sphere. " e traditional television the home, “they can attain an intimate, quasi- screen format of 4:3 ratio began to be supple- familial status that a#ects their meaning and in- “The viewer no longer $uences individuals’ perceptions of themselves and the world.” needs to leave the house "is practice of repeat viewings has changed the way we feel about technology to go to the cinema, be- in general. It is now more of a “friend,” some- cause the cinema has thing familiar and reliable, and has made public spaces increasingly redundant and undesirable now all but come as a result. Most of us have !lms that we fell in to the viewer.” love with as children or teenagers and watched so many times that the VHS copy wore out and mented by the 16:9 widescreen format, which had to be replaced. We know every line, every was able to show many feature !lms without the scene, and even every preview that will come on before the feature presentation. While VHS 47 tapes may now be obsolete, the children of this decade will grow up with memories of stream- Klinger, Barbara. Beyond the Multiplex: Cinema, New Technologies, and the Home. ing !lms on Net$ix and have those same com- Berkeley: University of California Press, 2006. fortable feelings of nostalgia upon seeing those same !lms for the !%ieth time years later. Hanson, Stuart. From Silent Screen to Multi- Our identities are now not only Screen: A History of Cinema Exhibition in Britain Since 1896. Manchester: Manchester Uni- formed and constructed by the people we sur- versity Press, 2007. round ourselves with, but now also by the mov- ies we watch and the values we cull from them. Ross, Karen and Virginia Nightingale. Media and A favorite ! lm can shape the ways we think Audiences: New Perspectives. about ourselves and our place in the world just Maidenhead: Open University Press, 2003. as much as an actual person can; our relation- ships with consumed media instantly changed when we began to create our own personalized versions of the movie palace right in our bed- rooms. No longer forced out of the home to view !lms and use them as a tool to socialize, we have begun to socialize with the !lms them- selves through repeat viewings. " ese newly formed emotional relationships have had a last- ing e#ect on the way we relate to !lm and me- dia, to each other, and even with ourselves.

48 49 REAL TALK WITH ISSA RAE the mis-adventures of awkward black girl by will felker

The Misadventures of Awkward Black imate film program until my senior year, so it was Girl (or ABG) is a web series that premiered in too little too late. I [took a leave of absence] my February 2011, with the pilot garnering 995,044 sophomore year to go to New York Film Academy. views to date. Issa Rae created the series and stars in a lead role. Co-producer, Tracy Oliver ini- enough for me. I needed to immerse myself in tially planned to package the series as a half- filmmaking and N.Y.F.A. definitely provided that. hour comedy for network syndication. But after And yes, Palo Alto sucks, by the way! a network home may be unnecessary. In summer Tell me about the fellowship at Public Theater in New York City and how that immersion experience inspired you to create ABG. support on the fundraising website Kickstarter. Rae: I got the fellowship and returned to New anybody. The only people I knew, and ended up - being roommates with, were a friend from school son, which concluded on January 12, 2012, was and Kiki Harris, who plays Germy Patty [on ABG]. celebrated for its original biting humor, funding methods, guerilla approach to production and uti- lization of social media. Even in its infancy, ABG a social life definitely contributed to my creativ- is a groundbreaking example of independent pro- ity. I was always finding things to create and to duction and distribution. EyeCandy was thrilled to do. While I was there, I watched a Public Theater speak with Ms. Rae. workshop between these amazing actors of color and I thought it would be really cool to start a short film collective where actors, writers, and - producers could help each other produce. So I 50 Issa Rae, creater of Awkward Black Girl . had that going on in NYC, and I got equipment for In your mind, which networks would be good it, all this stuff. Then I ended up getting robbed. homes for the show? Rae: I think HBO, FX, or Comedy Central; if I had worth of equipment was stolen. I stayed in NYC produces everything for the series and just gives it to [Comedy Central] at the end of the day. - Do you plan on turning ABG from a web series into a half-hour comedy for cable? being talked about and still being examined, and I think that the show alone, since networks are different networks, but honestly, the creative con- paying attention, will prove that there is an audi- for season two. industry makes room for a select few black fig- Since you first imagined ABG as a cartoon, have ures in our national media landscape. As a con- you considered producing it as an animated series sequence, do you feel responsible for reconfigur- for cable? ing black representations each time you write for ABG? sense. Black comedy since the 90s is this specific maybe we could do an animated spin-off for kids anymore. And it was 90s, almost slapstick, sort appreciated someone that I could look up to. specific race-based comedy that I wanted to get away from. I created ABG specifically with a black 52 lead to share in this wider comedy that existed in Seinfeld, in Curb Your Enthusiasm, and whatever is associated with white comedy. Because even throughout high school, people would think I was necessarily feel a responsibility to uphold certain But, sometimes I do feel a pressure to because do feel a pressure to do a good job, to entertain, these little things that we all go through, and then specify them with these black girl problems, Can I be real for a second? I went H.A.M. on the press surrounding you and ABG to prepare for just black about it. I wanted it to be relatable to this interview. I was really put off by some of - Michel Martin [of NPR] and Fredricka Whitfield [of thing that I struggle with because I do want more people to watch [ABG]. I want more people to get it, and not just dismiss it as this black thing. But writers. Are you surprised by the idea of a black at the same time, I want them to appreciate it because there are these black characters, a main relate to her. told repeatedly that I should have just called it The awkward comedies that are popular on TV an awkward black girl. So, I wanted to make that “I’m not just an awkward girl, I’m an awkward black girl” right now often include a token black character insane. Rae: I just stopped reading it because I got so upset. People are crazy! or if it was just a different show all together. Do you worry about being compared to widely seen Why do you think people are so upset that J black comedies, as was the case with Dave Chap- chose White Jay? pelle, Aaron McGruder, and the Wayans Brothers in recent years? obvious. I thought that in the sense of a romantic Rae: Sometimes I do. Even with the season finale, comedy, people saw it coming. Honestly, I think the fact that J chooses White Jay. J chooses White Jay because they had a connection, they a white guy. I think it just has to do with some had chemistry, and she got comfortable around of the social norms that we have. I guess not him. everybody is ready for it. There are so many poli- tics involved with that decision that people just She was more herself. project their own personal beliefs onto the series. Rae: Yeah. She was more herself around him. And I think that has a lot to do with it. 53 V-Nasty; just answer the question. episode eleven. What is your take on the whole the first episode. If I cross something out because situation? Does this type of reaction hinder your comedic liberty in future episodes? at everything, and we will continue to poke fun at everything. I think that it promotes discussion and Tracy [Oliver] and I go back and forth, and we dialogue. That episode, the fact that we did say were reading over it, and we scratched out oth- long as it promotes dialogue and discussion. That - works for me. I think this is the best place to be in as a writer. What, is YouTube going to cancel your show? the show. or anything. can do. - - Do you consider yourself a satirist? Rae: I do. I love satire. because even the way the line was written, our actress accidentally twisted the word. It was sup- The Boondocks creator Aaron McGruder has said, where you can still be honest and actually have but I think that it was taken a little bit too seri- ously given the context, and given the fact that those two statements? for saying off-handed, crazy things. So, it was a Aaron McGruder is awesome at what he does, but “If you’re serious about - producing content then you have to learn how to still laugh, and relate.

do everything” How does it feel to be an audience-elected repre- sentative for every black girl who feels confined big deal. by her own awkwardness? Within this context, how do you self-insure against awesome is when I meet someone and they just the unpredictability of fan reaction while using 54 working elements I learned and took a lot from Fly [the] character. If I post a status, or if I tweet much more that I learned from the mistakes. This is just a whole different experience. drawback, but otherwise, I love it. I happily accept that role. funding. Under that model, do fans often feel enti- tled to some creative input? If so, do you consider this a drawback of Word, what lessons were especially helpful when Rae: Oh, man! [This applies] specifically for epi- creating ABG? Rae: So many lessons. I want to be like Adam We wanted to do a fun Halloween episode. Tracy Sandler in that sense, where he just employs all and I have this thing where we like to poke fun at his friends and it seems like they have such an black Greek life, and so we thought it fit episode ten. That is our most controversial episode, in learned: Treat it like an actual show. With Dorm terms of people downright hating it or just loving Diaries, I was really immature about it and releas- it. The people who hated it and contributed to too hard. I just did it. Fly Guys, I tried to treat it like a real television show by having it premiere every Monday at a specific time, and [there was] the fact that it was geared to a certain length of seven minutes each episode, and [we] really It is kind of frustrating when people do contribute, promoted it. For ABG, I think I just learned some and we appreciate their contributions, but [not] of the lessons, like I know that people have short attention spans, so the first episode was strategi- cally short, and then we would lengthen them over time. And different kinds of audience engagement page, and a Twitter page, the different social net- 55 horror, sketch comedy and mockumentaries. What baby-voiced people in general. CeCe [Sujata Day] other genres and/or narrative conventions inter- est you? want a friend like her. And J [Issa Rae], of course, Rae: I really like what Community does, in terms of because I feel like people relate the most to her. playing with different genres throughout the show. in general, outside of ABG, I really love coming- - tually my favorite, too. That voice [Harris] puts on take on. is disgusting and hilarious to me.

Are there any characters you had in mind for ABG, Harris improvises a lot of dialogue for her charac- but omitted before filming? If so, who were they? ter, correct? Rae: There was one character I wanted to put in, Rae: Definitely. She adds her own nuances to lines, was all her. fun of the fact that this character stutters, but the fact that people felt they had to act differ- - ently because the person stutters. It was early on we may bring back this notion of how people feel like they have to act differently around people her adding on. who have some sort of handicap, disability, or impediment. Which ABG characters do you find most success- production, for which you assembled a cast and ful and why? crew of high school and college friends and even Rae: Everyone always talks about Darius [Tristen the initial players, how you know them, and who relate to not being able to hear someone, or just came to join ABG as the season progressed. 56 Rae: The first episode started off with Andrew ate about the way things look and is an amazing [Allan James] and my best friend Devin was be- artist, director, and cinematographer. He pretty hind the camera. She was just down to help me. much lent all his equipment to the series and value is pretty much all him. an incredible dancer, and they used to have a the season finale? amazing. He talked to me about the fact that he wanted to get into acting, and so I just thought for him. Tracy was taking meetings for her own it was the perfect opportunity. For episode two, projects and for ABG, and she happened to meet Tracy just happened to be in town and Madison with one woman who knew Donald personally, and [T. Shockley, III] had actually reached out to me during that time he was following me on Twitter, to help him with his own project. Then I just got because his sister is a fan of the show. So ev- them both involved. Pretty much as the series erything just came together and he asked Tracy progressed, people reached out to me and I would and me to come to the studio, and we hung out rather work with people who want to be a part of with him at the studio. We told him about how we the project, as opposed to me seeking out peo- wanted him to be in an episode. He said to just let him know. And then when it came to the season friends and just working with them. I think [there finale, we pulled out all the stops and contacted were] maybe about two or three actors we had to him, and we basically had to drive nine hours to Tahoe to get him in the show, because the time he was going to be in the states was limited be- cause he was doing a European tour. Tahoe was the only close city in California, so we made it values throughout the first season? happen, and he was incredibly down. Rae: Well, Tracy came on as a producer for epi- sode four and we had an amazing cinematogra- Both Doublemint Twins songs remind me of Thug- pher, Shea Vanderpoort, who is just very passion- 57 featured in The Boondocks. What led you to write then you have to learn how to do everything. At diegetic music for the show? Rae: Doublemint Twins actually came before ABG. Doublemint Twins were the most consistent in terms of putting out music. I wanted to add them as a soundtrack to the series just because I took a six-week intensive training [course] about it just worked out. [Doublemint Twins] started close to the same time as ABG, and I was like, lighting, about editing, about producing, and then think my friends are going to understand the - implications [for their] real, legitimate jobs.

Why are you taking ABG on a college tour? portant to just learn how to do everything. I think schools to come and speak on different subjects and so we just decided to try to see if people that to compete, you have to know all trades, wanted us to talk to their schools and bring us - ey and sort of make a living off of a tour, since and just do it, stop making excuses, and make visit. So, it seemed like the best way to spread the word, grassroots-style.

generation to start. - what happens with this new boss, who is sort of know a little bit more about CeCe as well as the series progresses, and introduce a new reception- ist character. It should be fun.

Apart from the same played-out bullshit everyone echoes once they get their stacks up, what is your advice for film- and media-makers without a red cent in their budgets? 58

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POINTS OF CONTENTION with the hollywood remake by ryan mcdonald

I’ve always fantasized about remaking A growing stream of ! lms in the Pokémon movie. " ere’s a much darker Hollywood leech onto pre-existing products story to be told about a world where wild of media culture and repurpose them as animals are captured, enslaved, and then new conceptions of old ideas, rather than condemned to spend their entire lives !ghting attempting to produce something truly novel against other Pokémon. And for what? in theme or content. Despite my own guilty Ultimately, they do it so that aspiring teenagers fascination with comic book hero movies, can essentially collect merit badges and make a straightforward remakes of old !lms, and other few Pokédollars on the side. I thought my time forms of cinematic adaptations, I can’t help with this pop cultural pandemic was over. Yet but envy those who experienced the earliest here I am, a !lm production student interested years of cinema — when having an original in conceiving a live-action !lm about the trials idea was the rule rather than the exception. and tribulations of Pallet Town. I wanted When the medium itself was still in a process of to write about the remake ! lm to criticize exploration, discovery, and experimentation, I Hollywood for its continuous regurgitation imagine audiences still being able to appreciate of popular culture, but it’s become clear to me a !lm simply for the fact that the technology that I am participating within the very trend of existed at all. Now industry moguls seem to “pop-culture recycling” in Hollywood that I had assume that audiences have seen all there is originally sought to critique. to be seen, and they are more than willing to 60 The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo (2009, dir. Niels Arden Oplev) (2011, dir. David Fincher)

sacri!ce content for commerce. Consider the Judge Dredd, originally based on a comic series language used by Allen J. Scott of the Center for originated in the 1970s. By the time you read Globalization and Policy Research, who argues this, a 3D makeover of the immensely popular that Hollywood operates within a “complex Titanic (1997) should be in theaters; however, machinery of distribution and marketing” and I will not be among the hordes of people it is through this machine that “Hollywood’s spending three hours and $18 on a good cry. existence as a productive agglomeration is Keep in mind that this was not always sustained, while the images and narratives it standard practice in Hollywood. We shouldn’t creates are dispersed to a far-$ung and ever forget that there have been plenty of !lms with expanding circle of consumers”(Allen 34). I unique stories and premises. " ere have been am willing to accept the notion that I am a !lms based on scripts that were written with consumer of !lms, but I would venture to say the exclusive purpose of realizing them through that my needs as a consumer are not being met. sound and image. " ere have been cinematic Maybe it is “safe” or “practical” to reintroduce articulations of novels that are unique for the imagined worlds that audiences have already way they visually articulate an author’s literary shown enthusiasm for, but for me it is endlessly imagination. We have all heard, “"e book is more valuable to hear a story that I could never better than the movie,” but it seems that we have imagined but will never forget. have entered a moment where we can !nd It’s easy to see that this trend has ourselves saying, “"e book is better than the accelerated in recent years. "is year alone is original Swedish version of the movie, which is ripe with remakes. Mirror Mirror (2012) and better than the American version, all of which Snow White and the Huntsman (2012) are are better than the impending graphic novel,” set to come out, both of which are new takes which can be argued for Stieg Larsson’s !e on the story of Snow White, the 1937 Disney Girl with the Dragon Tattoo (2009). In a recent cult classic. 2012 will also include a remake of article from !e Guardian, Charles Gant speaks Paul Verhoeven’s Total Recall (1990), originally about American director David Fincher’s based on a sci-! short story by Philip K. Dick, version of the Swedish crime novel, describing and a revision of the 1995 sci-! police thriller how, “Even Fincher set his Girl with the Dragon 61 Tattoo in Sweden, eschewing the usual remake Fear with Martin Scorsese’s 1991 remake of the tactic of transplanting the action to the U.S. "e !lm in order to try to paint a picture of what resulting movie felt authentic, as long as you quali!es an e#ectively “remade” !lm. Although overlook the fact the characters are speaking he attempts to show how Scorsese’s ! lm can English. Unique, sadly, not so much” (Gant). I be valued for the new directorial perspective agree with Gant in that a loss of originality in that it provides, he still opens his article with a mainstream cinema does have an air of sadness critical tone about the transparent commercial to it. It raises questions about what the general interests inherent in the remake, suggesting that public values in the ! lms they see and what “a remake presents ! lm to audience as capital they have come to expect from !lmmaking as a — rather than aesthetic — product” (Arnzen). general practice. Have we arrived at a moment Like Arnzen, I think it is important to !nd when !lms will only be judged based on how redeeming qualities in an otherwise dismal authentic they are in relation to an original state of a#airs. On the other hand, it is very version? Has Hollywood exhausted the genre unsettling to think that pro!teering, marketing of the crime !lm to the extent that !lmmakers strategies, and economics will likely continue to must look to the far reaches of the world to !nd take precedent in a medium that was !rst and unique premises worth making movies about? foremost a creative experiment in perception In any case, it is encouraging to hear that I and artistic expression. am not alone in my dissatisfaction with this In other words, criticism of the remake moment of redundancy in Hollywood. seems to be a question of intent. Are these !lms As !lm students, we are o%en exposed being remade because their originals have le% to writers like Susan Sontag, who make it quite something to be desired, or is the remake just clear that ! lm culture has lost its luster by a way to guarantee box o'ce success? Perhaps becoming a capitalist deviation from a once it’s only fair to recognize the give and take of wondrous creative practice. Sontag goes as far both of these motivating factors in Hollywood. as saying that the kinds of ! lms that wander Producers, investors, and directors alike need into the mainstream consciousness can be seen to feel that enough people will be interested in as part and parcel of “the decay of cinema” as their !lm to prevent them from facing !nancial she once knew it, her word choice implying that loss. However, even ! lmmakers working in cinema was once alive but has since died and mainstream Hollywood should aspire to slowly begun to rot. She argues that we have maintain the creative ambition that drew reached a moment when ! lms are more and them to !lmmaking to begin with. All artists more o%en characterized by “a policy of bloated, must contend with this issue if they intend to derivative !lm-making, a brazen combinatory or have commercially successful careers. "is is recombinatory art, in the hope of reproducing especially the case with !lmmakers who intend past successes,” and that audiences have slowly to make big studio remakes such as Gus Van but surely been paci!ed into a comfortable Sant’s 1998 remake of the infamous Psycho acceptance of these types of !lms (Sontag). It (1960). In an interview from literary magazine seems that the average moviegoer should be !e Believer, Van Sant describes his ambivalent capable of recognizing the emergence of these feelings toward making an adaptation, saying, particular trends but it is unclear how many of “the reason that I suggested Psycho to them them really have a problem with it. was partly the artistic appropriation side, but Other authors have taken a similar it was also partly because I had been in the interest in criticizing current cinematic business long enough that I was aware of certain trends. In his article, “"e Same and the New: executives’ desires. " e most interesting ! lms Cape Fear and the Hollywood Remake as that studios want to be making are sequels” Metanarrative Discourse,” Michael A. Arnzen (Rockingham). Although it was Van Sant’s compares J. Lee " ompson’s 1962 !lm Cape own idea to redo a Hitchcock cult classic, his 62 response suggests that he was also driven by a of !lms. Take the superhero or comic book !lm, desire to survive within an industry that is o%en for example. Spider-Man, X-Men, Superman, dictated by the expectations of executives who "e Incredible Hulk, and Batman constitute are more interested in a !lm that pays than a only a handful of comic book heroes that have !lm that inspires. appeared in graphic novels and numerous other Van Sant’s remake of Psycho was an cinematic reiterations. " ese characters alone attempt to recreate one of the most infamous boast a total of 22 ! lms among them: three horror movies of all time. Van Sant used for Spider-Man (with an impending fourth contemporary Hollywood celebrities and in 2012), ! ve for X-Men, ! ve for Superman, gave the !lm a makeover with its use of color; two for Hulk, and seven for Batman (with an however, this was not enough to allow the impending eighth in 2012). Audiences fondly contemporary version to succeed. Roger Ebert recall the comics, cartoons, and action !gures gives an illuminating analogy in his review of of these popular characters, and if the !lm does the ! lm, saying, “Attending this new version, I felt oddly as if I were watching a provincial stock company doing the best it could without the Broadway cast” (Ebert). "at is to say, just remade because their because Hitchcock did it doesn’t mean you can, too, Gus. originals have left some- "e inherent $aw with the second thing to be desired, or is Psycho is that it is removed from the historical moment that allowed the original to have the the remake just a way to unprecedented impact that it did in the 1960s. In his shot-by-shot rendition of the infamous shower scene, Van Sant seems to pride himself success?” on making his !lm “look” like the original, but I am not sure that he does much more than that. well, they may be so inclined to buy the DVD, Anne Heche vaguely resembles and hal+eartedly the video game based on the movie, or even the acts like the Marion Crane character, but lacks action !gure remodeled to resemble the newest the intensity of the original performance by cinematic version of the hero. Superheroes have Janet Leigh. " e close-up on the showerhead, le% the two-dimensional plane of the comic the shadowy ! gure approaching through the strip and now move $uidly through a laundry curtain, and the unsuspecting blonde bather list of highly pro!table ancillary markets. "e are all there. " e scene is rearticulated detail theatrical exhibition represents only one phase by detail, but to me, this is the !lm’s pitfall. In within a complex network of commercial trying to emulate Hitchcock’s original, Van Sant exploitation. made a !lm that did not contribute much more I have seen many of these twenty-two to Psycho than contemporary actors and color superhero !lms and will admit that I have lost !lm. A remake of this kind can be a perilous, much of my interest in seeing any more. "e futile, and expensive endeavor. " e ! lm’s $60 last !lm to have any signi!cant impact on me million budget and $21 million domestic gross was Christopher Nolan’s rendition of Batman certainly attest to this. in !e Dark Knight (2008), which stood Remaking classics isn’t the only strategy apart from all the other ! lms because Nolan employed by executive bigwigs to guarantee the seemed to have striven for something that is commercial success of their ! lms. " e trend not present in the previous iterations. Nolan’s of taking hugely popular cultural icons and !lm represents what any gimmicky pop culture inserting them into Hollywood seems to be remake should strive for, because he does justice more prevalent than straightforward remakes 63 Batman Batman The Dark Knight (1966, dir. Leslie Martinsonk) (1989, dir. Tim Burton) (2008, dir. Christopher Nolan)

to the character while simultaneously looking buzz about Batman only requires that his name deeper into the imagined world to !nd a far be uttered or the infamous silhouette of a bat be more complex universe at its core. If we can shown, whereas new and unique stories require suspend our disbelief for a moment and try synopsis, a detailed trailer, good word of mouth, to actually imagine what a real-life Gotham or even festival success. Putting myself in the City would be like, how could it be anything shoes of a studio executive, I can see why they but deeply disturbing and violent? As Roger B. would choose to keep stories simple, familiar, Rollin describes in a 1970 article about comics, and therefore pro!table, but as a consumer these heroes represent “the ful!llment of our I !nd this problematic. Is my favorite ! lm a fantasies as well as of our moral sense,” and it remake? No, I can’t say it is. Would I rather seems to me the earlier !lms do not adequately see a !lm with an outcome that I already know, allegorize the darker side of contemporary or is it worth something to experience the American life (Rollin 432). While Van Sant’s suspense and curiosity that comes with unique Psycho failed commercially because it didn’t stories? I’ll certainly take the latter. Would I !nd ways to contribute something more to its rather encounter the same ten characters for original, to me !e Dark Knight succeeded the rest of my life, or is there something to be because it was Batman as I’d never seen before. valued in spending time with new people and Despite my enthusiasm for Christopher personalities? I think you get the point. Unless Nolan’s take on Batman, I can’t help but I can someday in!ltrate Hollywood and make think that the prevalence of adaptations in changes from the bottom up, for now I will do Hollywood has le% very little room for unique the little I can to demand more of Hollywood stories to emerge. We live in an age when it is by continuously voicing my discontent, paying simpler and more pro!table to create !lms that to see good ! lms with original stories, and do not have to be explained to us because they quieting the voice in my head that wants to have already been explained to us. Generating remake the Pokémon movie.

64 The Dark Knight Allen J. Scott. “The Geography of Motion-Picture Alexandra Rockingham. “Gus Van Sant.” The Be- (2008, dir. Christopher Nolan) Distributing and Marketing.” Review of Interna- liever. (June 2008). http://www.believermag.com/ tional Political Economy, Vol. 11, No. 1. (February issues/200806/?read=interview_van_sant 2004) 34. Roger Ebert. “Psycho.” Chicago Sun-Times Charles Gant. Is the Hollywood Remake Dead? review. http://rogerebert.suntimes.com/ (March 29 2012). http://www.guardian.co.uk/ apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/19981206/RE- VIEWS/812060301/1023

Susan Sontag. The Decay of Cinema. (Feb- Roger B. Rollin. “The Epic Hero and Pop Culture.” ruary 25, 1996). http://partners.nytimes.com/ College English, Vol. 31, No. 5 (Feb., 1970). 432- books/00/03/12/specials/sontag-cinema.html 433.

Michael A. Arnzen. “The Same and the New: Cape Fear and the Hollywood Remake as Meta- narrative Discourse.” Narrative (Vol. 4, No. 2, May, 1996).

Photo by Lucy Rodriguez 65 Leslie Knope (Amy Poehler) in Parks and Recreation (2009 - Present) by connie peterson

Amy Poehler is my hero. She is 5’2”, there to be cute. She wasn’t there to play platinum blonde, Planned Parenthood sup- wives and girlfriends in the boys’ scenes. porter, mother of two, married to Will Arnett She was there to do what she wanted to do” of Arrested Development fame, she swears like (Fey, 144). a sailor, and she is funny. Tears coming out of your eyes, falling out of your chair, gasping for When asked about the American Ap- breath funny. And not only is she aware of how parel ads that have inundated pop culture (ema- funny she is, she understands the power that ciated girls in spandex and leotards, on the cusp comedy possesses. of being nude), Poehler attacked. Speaking about the early days of her career at Saturday Night Live (1975-), Tina Fey “["e] ads are fucking gross, man.” she said. drew upon a pivotal Poehler moment: “Look, I love beautiful girls too. I think ev- eryone should be free to have their knee “She did something vulgar as a joke. I can’t socks and their sweaty shorts, but I’m over remember what it was exactly, except it was it. I’m over this weird, exhausted girl. I’m dirty and loud and “unladylike.” over the girl that’s tired and freezing and Jimmy Fallon…turned to her and in a faux- hungry. I like bossy girls -- I always have. squeamish voice said, ‘Stop that! It’s not I like people !lled with life. I’m over this cute! I don’t like it.’ weird media thing with all this, like, hol- Amy dropped what she was doing, went low-eyed, empty, party crap.” black in the eyes for a second, and wheeled around on him. “I don’t fucking care if you In a recent Saturday Night Live cameo, like it.” Poehler came back to the news segment “Week- With that exchange, a cosmic shi% took end Update” to make several cutting comments place. Amy made it clear that she wasn’t on Republican congressman Darrell Issa’s all 67 Amy Poehler and Tina Fey on Saturday Night Live)

male panel discussing birth control health in- Recreation even ful!lls the criteria of the femi- surance coverage. And in a candid moment nist Bechdel test for media, which was devel- when the closing music was already playing and oped by Liz Wallace and put into practice by the camera began to track away, Poehler leaned Alison Bechdel. "is includes: 1) the !lm, book, across the news desk, looking straight into show, etc. has at least two women characters, the lens, and shouted, “DON’T TELL ME 2) who talk to each other, 3) about something WHAT TO DO!” "e moment of passionate other than a man. It would be practically impos- outburst speaks to women across the nation. sible to !nd an episode of Parks and Recreation She is a beacon of hope in the stagnant that doesn’t ace this test. waters of the American Apparel, Twilight, and "ere are a few foundational elements Sarah Palin 21st century post-feminism. Hi- to Parks and Recreation that position Leslie larious hope. And it is not only in words that as powerful, as equal, and as woman. "e !rst, Poehler takes a !ghting stand; it is in action on Leslie as powerful, is conveyed through the ba- Parks and Recreation (2009-), the show that sic information that gets relayed episode a%er places this female comedian in potentially the episode — Leslie is good at her job. In fact, she’s most powerful position since Lucille Ball on I really good at her job. In episode ten of season Love Lucy (1951-1957). But where Lucy was four, entitled “Citizen Knope,” Leslie proves at con!ned in domesticity and overruled time every turn how triumphantly talented she is at and time again by her husband, Leslie Knope her work. "e opening of the episode consists (Poehler’s character) is actively pursuing the of Leslie sneaking into her o'ce, which she has career of her dreams while dating the man of been temporarily suspended from, and steal- her dreams. On top of that, a thread of female ing data so that she may continue to work from community and support runs through the se- home. Not doing her job is unbearable, and ries. Leslie looks to her best friend, Ann Perkins, Leslie excels at every project she touches. "is for support on every issue, seeks the help of the is reinforced when coworkers reminisce about sarcastic but ultimately kind April Ludgate, and Leslie’s Christmas gi%s to them, which were works alongside the sassy and con!dent Donna each perfectly tailored to the recipient. Finally, Meagle in practically every episode. Parks and although Leslie has been suspended, she can- 68 not remain unproductive; she forms a citizen’s and supportive-under-any-circumstance wife group that rallies to make real changes. In every character. Ultimately, as a brilliant career woman, instance where Leslie has power taken from her, Leslie does not have to sacri!ce her womanhood she works immediately to reclaim it. "is is Les- for even a minute, because of her successful rela- lie as powerful. tionship with the progressive Ben. Leslie is a well- "e second, Leslie as equal, is Leslie’s rounded character who is successfully progressive position in relation to the men she is surround- because of these three elements — as woman, as ed by. " e most formidable male character is equal and as powerful. Ron Swanson, the purest form of masculin- Leslie is just as powerful as Amy Poe- ity exaggerated. Ron can build anything out hler herself has proven to be. Both are fearless of wood, he eats restaurants full of bacon, and when it comes to discussing women’s issues, and he works for the government because he hates Poehler knows how to harness the power of government enough to attempt ruin from the comedy in order to further the cause. Whether inside. Understanding this dichotomy, it would seem that Leslie and Ron would be positioned she is playing Hillary Clinton during the 2008 against each other in a battle of the sexes, but election and reaching mass audiences, or Am- the show !nds repeat opportunities to rein- ber the one-legged prostitute who farts every force their equality. In the same episode, “Citi- time she hops on Saturday Night Live, Poehler zen Knope,” Ron breaks his rule on never giving isn’t afraid to go for the joke, !ght for the cause, gi%s because he feels so grateful toward Leslie and she doesn’t fucking care if you like it. Of and her impeccable gi%-giving that he bands course, we fucking love it. the o'ce together to get her a quality present. He is moved to tears over her present to him. Fey, Tina. Bossypants. New York: Little, Brown He and the o'ce even agree to run her cam- and, 2011. Print. paign, o#ering to work under Leslie to help her Poehler, Amy. “Really? With Seth and Amy: Birth succeed. It would be easy to position Ron and Control.” Weekend Update. NBC. New York, New Leslie against one another, but time a%er time, York. Hulu.com. NBC Universal and News Net- the show !nds ways to make the macho man work. Web. and career woman equals. "is is Leslie as equal. Finally, Leslie’s womanhood in the face Traister, Rebecca. “Amy Poehler, How Will We Quit You?” Salon. Sept.-Oct. 2008. Web. 08 May of her career is not compromised. "e real test 2012. . lie has with her romantic interest, Ben Wyatt. All too common is the relationship versus career The Twilight Saga. Dir. Catherine Hardwicke. Perf. dilemma that television and ! lm tend to pro- Kristen Stewart, Robert Pattinson. Atlantic, 2008. pose for women as though the categories must Film. be mutually exclusive. In Parks and Recreation, Daniels, Greg. “Citizen Knope.” Parks and Recre- however, Leslie has it all. "ere was a time in the ation. NBC. 8 Dec. 2011. Television. show when Leslie broke it o# with Ben so that she could run for o'ce. Later, when they came Monaghan, Emily. “The Bechdel Test: What It Is, to be a couple again, Ben chose Leslie over his And Why It Matters.” Squarise. 1 Sept. 2011. Web. job and resigned entirely for her. Finally, when 08 May 2012. . came to work under her. "e way in which Les- “I Love Lucy.” IMDb. IMDb.com. Web. 08 May lie and her career are of the utmost importance 2012. . to both characters is revolutionary for television. Even further, Ben gender-bends by occupying a “Saturday Night Live.” Hulu. Web. 08 May 2012. role most o%en !lled by the constant, nurturing, . 69 Driver (Ryan Gosling) in Drive (2011, dir. Nicolas Winding Refn)

SHADOW CRIMINALS the dark world of outcasts, gangsters and the samurai by travis waddell

Passing between $oors, he spots a pis- breaks into a Citroën DS. His eyes look past tol in the man’s overcoat. Within the compact the rain-covered windshield as he methodi- elevator there is no time to stall, and with de% cally attempts to start the car’s ignition, sol- passivity he steals a kiss the audience has long emnly presenting the assassin’s life as one that pined for. Revealing a duality of passion and ordains detachment from the world. Depicting vengeance within an instant, he turns on a dime an underworld comprised of villainous heroes to deal ruthless blows to the assassin. As his heel surrounded by muted colors or moody shades unmercifully crushes his adversary’s skull, leav- of grey and with a knack for !ne automobiles, ing his lover behind in psychological anguish, director Jean-Pierre Melville reigned as France’s Ryan Gosling establishes that Nicolas Winding master of the bourgeoisie gangster $ick. Align- Refn’s 2011 !lm Drive is playing true to cin- ing himself with neither bank of the Nouvelle ematic form. From Akira Kurosawa’s indulgent Vague movement at its peak, he is nevertheless samurai and Sergio Leone’s callous gunman to considered “the father of the New Wave.” Mel- Jean-Pierre Melville’s solitary gangsters, Drive’s ville’s oeuvre is itself a study of masculinity, as unnamed protagonist walks a road well trod- during the 1960s he worked with France’s three den. As outcasts with an apathetic cool, vio- most popular male actors: Jean-Paul Belmondo, lence is no stranger to their grim underworlds. Alain Delon, and Lino Ventura. Belmondo, of Clad in a beige peacoat and cloaked Jean-Luc Godard fame, provides a broody yet beneath a dark fedora, Alain Delon stealthily comedic foil to the serious !gure of Alain De- 70 lon, whom Melville speci!cally sought to silent- Drive follows suit; while set within the ly haunt the screenplay of his 1967 masterpiece, world of a current Los Angeles crime world, it Le Samouraï. details the endeavors of a man whose work var- "e taciturn protagonists of Drive and ies from professional movie stunt car driver to Le Samouraï are remarkably similar in various expert criminal taxi. Leading man Ryan Gosling respects. One could even note the !lms’ unique lacks even a name, credited simply as “Driver.” electronic scores, albeit the sense conveyed While this leads to slightly frustrating interac- through electrifying current Los Angeles with tions between characters, the intention is valid. attitude reminiscent of 1980s new wave music "e !lm wishes to speak from the perspective is starkly di#erent from the futuristic sentimen- of someone who has concealed his identity, en- tality evoked by the classicism of Paris. On top abling him to succeed within his subversive life of this, each ! lm evades subjecting itself to a of crime. single genre. Melville drew upon an archetypal "e ronin of Yojimbo, Akira Kurosa- Americana gangster, similar to that of Frank wa’s 1961 tale of a masterless samurai wander- Tuttle’s 1942 !lm !is Gun for Hire. Yet its ing Japan’s medieval roads in search of work, ob- form alludes to the loneliness and seclusion of scured his identity in a similar manner. Under the Japanese samurai, the assassin and guardian query by one of the town’s rival gangs to reveal whose ultimate truth lies in death. Just as Rick himself, his gaze wanders beyond the window as Altman states that “it is simply not possible to he fabricates an identity that translates roughly describe Hollywood cinema accurately without to “Mulberry Field thirty-year-old.” Upon its the ability to account for the numerous ! lms release, Yojimbo, whose title means “bodyguard,” that innovate by combining the syntax of one revolutionized the tropes of the samurai !lm genre with the semantics of another” (Altman due to its comically violent plot. "e samurai of 34), Melville exquisitely strung together the se- Yojimbo emphasizes himself as a rogue killer for mantics of the gangster !lm with the syntax of hire; similarly, Melville aimed to recreate the immense loneliness that follows the sole propri- honor and loneliness of the legendary ! gure etor of the samurai genre. within Le Samouraï. In a Melvillian homage to the classic Hollywood police line-up, Alain De- 71 lon’s assassin persona, Jef Costello, is revealed so%-spoken and endearing femininity to a piece by the police. " e disclosure of his identity that focuses on illegitimate vocations. A joyride damages his integrity as an assassin — a gun for along the Los Angeles River and a reserved re- hire under investigation cannot be trusted. "is lationship with Irene’s son develop Gosling’s revelation impedes Costello’s work, causing character as caring and civil, though it is a ci- a struggle as his nefarious connections refuse vility he emphatically disregards when placed their camaraderie. A life of isolation leaves him in danger. It is the melodramatic elements that with no one to turn to. Even his apartment is ill validate his ferocity; his shrouded romantic af- furnished, containing merely rows of cigarettes fections for Irene drive his ambitions to come and a caged bird that bears sole witness to his to her family’s aid. As the Driver attempts to seclusion. Yet Costello endeavors to continue release his neighbor’s family from the pressures his life of crime, the mechanics of a hit man of living under crooked debt, Nicolas Winding ingrained within him. As his identity has been Refn allows the melodramatic relationships to unveiled, it can ultimately only lead to disaster. be thoroughly explored. In Drive, Gosling refuses to select an What enables the melodrama in Drive identity, which bears an attempt at contextu- is simply negated in Le Samouraï. Melville’s me- alizing him with Clint Eastwood’s onscreen ticulous and evocative fabrication of masculin- persona, “the Man with No Name.” To further ity within his dark criminal realm famously de- untangle a web of connections, Sergio Leone’s nies roles of gender. His protagonists at a glance trilogy originated as a direct western restructur- represent !gures from American cinema’s past, and his ! lms emphasize the struggles of the French Resistance or concern criminal worlds. “They grasp feeble worlds, Centering around these types of characters en- their lawlessness warrant- ables what French !lm theorist and Melville en- thusiast Ginette Vincendeau described as “ho- ed by the conviction that mosocial” cinema, or !lm in which the world that the characters inhabit is almost entirely male. For while Costello’s former lover serves may be able to retire into as a convenient alibi for his murderous actions and a charming piano player turns her head to oblivion...” his crime, Melville notoriously denies his !lms romance. Focusing instead on the idiosyncra- ing of Kurosawa’s savage !lms. Despite the fact sies of the illicit worlds he invents, his charac- that Eastwood is referred to subtly as “Joe” or ters — such as Costello — are invigorated by other mute monikers, his identity is built upon survival and money. "ey grasp feeble worlds, his resilience and potential to impart justice their lawlessness warranted by the conviction within the outlaw communities via ruthless vio- that with one !nal crime they may be able to lence. Gosling’s character, the Driver, seems a retire into oblivion, as they have successfully far cry from a modern Eastwood, although his triumphed over the ennui of a capitalistic sys- end goal is also vaguer than the obvious bundle tematic hegemony. Yet Costello’s lawlessness of cash. Drive ventures past underworld bur- is two-sided, for the criminal languor Melville glary as the Driver’s shady midnight escapades romances leads to a world-weariness of a life in become intermingled with the melodrama of disconnect. romantic interest. His professional life becomes Melville further manipulates genre entangled with his neighbor’s struggle to raise by stripping Le Samouraï of the thriller aspect her son, and her husband’s release from prison of the American noir !lm, which he so adores. only further snarls up the circumstances. Yet, Delon plays the role calculatedly, speaking only Carey Mulligan’s character Irene presents a when necessary to direct the story, another as- 72 pect shared by the protagonist of Drive. Decon- hyperreality to the action of thwarting his kill- structing Costello’s two assassinations, Vincen- ers. Yet, this action is validated within the nar- deau uncovers that they reveal the character’s rative by the Driver’s ritual isolation, an art in ritualistic nature rather than his passion. Each its devotion to self and vocation. Similar to the killing is executed monotonously: Costello moral coding of westerns like !e Wild Bunch, wears white Adidas gloves standard to Mel- in which gruesome action is claimed acceptable ville’s gangsters and takes his hands out of his for loyalty and !delity, the viewer is encouraged pockets without a gun. While the next shot re- to endorse the underdog. veals the man he is attempting to kill holding Delon’s Costello in Le Samouraï reach- a gun to Costello, miraculously it is Costello’s es an unfortunate and dismal fate. Chased by a gloved hand which appears !ring the gun, suc- colossal team of police — even by cinema stan- cessfully assassinating his victim. Calculated ed- dards — Costello nearly frees himself before ul- iting tricks the viewer into recognizing Costello timately allowing himself to be abdicated. Paid has succeeded in the crime miraculously. While in advance for his next crime, Costello knows a concise plot summary of the !lm would have it will be his last. In one of cinema’s most mag- it seemingly centered on action and death, in ni!cent turns of fate, Costello attempts his last reality, Melville exposes the hidden internal as- hit with the elegance and sophistication of a sumptions of the genre by toying with the con- samurai who has spent his entire life unaccom- ventions of cinema. panied in his exploits. His appointment to kill With the Driver trapped inside a hotel the female pianist is ful!lled by his own mur- room a%er his con has gone awry and leaving der. Establishing his obligatory intention to kill Irene’s husband dead, Drive utilizes bloodshed her, he draws his gun. "e bloodthirsty Parisian and exhilarating chase sequences to a di#erent police force surrounds the doorways of the dark e#ect. "e Driver, motivated by the unjust debt nightclub, executing Costello. When the police placed upon Irene, exhibits a merciless passion investigate Costello’s revolver, they !nd it emp- that is quite the opposite of Delon’s calculated ty, a metaphor that corresponds directly to the movements. " e gruesome ferocity aided by ritual harakiri of the samurai. contemporary cinematic slow motion adds a 73 Drive’s Driver amends a trope of the noir con- Once pressured, Drive’s characters deliver vio- clusion in favor of a more western standard. He lence with cringing intensity. " e Driver and is allowed to survive his grisly escapade; howev- his scorpion jacket are allowed to survive, beg- er, the !lm’s closing shot depicts him struggling ging the question of whether the unnamed pro- to claim his breath, forcing viewers to deliber- tagonist will rise again. ate the signi!cance of either his living or dying. In linking these ! lms the discussion He is allowed to walk free, yet he leaves the seems almost haphazard, crossing national bor- money behind, perhaps a tribute to the poten- ders to link characters not by genre but through tially good inner nature of the protagonists of the dissection of similarities within their en- Kurosawa’s and Leone’s !lms. It is a gesture that deavors. "e cinema is persistently retrospective rejects the greed and violence of his opponents, and, if contemplated with an attentive frame, furthering him toward an ideal of sincerity. the characters of these !lms seem to be in con- Jean-Pierre Melville’s genius cinematic versation with one another. "ese shadow char- approach of reconstructing the famed Ameri- acter’s attributes have been solidi!ed historical- can noir hero for the French public quickly ly, derived from murky periods in which their came to an end. Le Samouraï stands as the pin- loneliness and devotion to their profession is nacle of his popularity in France, as well as the ampli!ed. A mystique surrounds their actions last !lms created in his famed Rue Jenner stu- as their heroic portrayal is not territory speci!c. dio, which burned to the ground just as !lming "ese classically notorious and silent outcasts was completed. Although his next !lm, L’armée have long haunted the cinema, and it is seem- Des Ombres, or Army of Shadows (1969), re- ingly their enterprise to continue. ceived critical acclaim and cultural attention for its depiction of the French resistance, it did not achieve sensational success and Melville Altman, Rick. “A Syntactic/Semantic Approach to Film Genre.” In Film Genres Reader III. Ed. Barry took this nonful!llment personally. Melville’s Keith Grant. Austin: University of Texas PRess, life was contained within the ashes of his Rue 2003. Jenner studio. It remains interesting to note, however, that the only true fatality of the !re was Costello’s caged bird, sole companion to Fall - From the Current.” The Criterion Collection. 8 Oct. 2008. Web. 08 Dec. 2011. . living, even with the possibility of provisional Melville, Jean-Pierre, dir. Le Samouraï. Criterion fatherhood subtly suggested. However, it is Collection, 1967. Film. . ling’s character of the “Driver” had envisioned.

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