A tango with the camera: Sally Potter in the director's seat and on stage Item Type text; Dissertation-Reproduction (electronic) Authors Zeleike, Jesseka Zulke Publisher The University of Arizona. Rights Copyright © is held by the author. Digital access to this material is made possible by the University Libraries, University of Arizona. Further transmission, reproduction or presentation (such as public display or performance) of protected items is prohibited except with permission of the author. Download date 05/10/2021 18:41:42 Link to Item http://hdl.handle.net/10150/290145 INFORMATION TO USERS This manuscript has l)een reproduced from the microfilm master. UMI films the text directly from the original or copy submitted. Thus, some thesis and dissertation copies are in typewriter face, while others may t>e from any type of computer printer. The quality of this reproduction is dependent upon the quality of the copy submitted. 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Ann Arbor, Ml 48106-1346 USA 800-521-0600 A TANGO WITH THE CAMERA: SALLY POTTER IN THE DIRECTOR'S SEAT AND ON STAGE by Jesseka ZUike Zeleike Copyright ® Jesseka Zulke Zeleike 2000 A Dissertation Submitted to the Faculty of the DEPARTMENT OF ENGLISH In Partial Fulfillment of the Requirements For the Degree of DOCTOR OF PHILOSOPHY In the Graduate College THE UNIVERSITY OF ARIZONA 2000 UMI Number: 3002509 Copyright 2000 by Zeleike, Jesseka Zuike All rights reserved. <s UMI UMI Microform 3002509 Copyright 2001 by Bell & Howell Information and Learning Company. All rights reserved. This microform edition is protected against unauthorized copying under Title 17, United States Code. Bell & Howell Information and Leaming Company 300 North Zeeb Road P.O. Box 1346 Ann Arbor. Ml 48106-1346 2 THE UNIVERSITY OF ARIZONA ® GRADUATE COLLEGE As members of the Final Examination Committee, ve certify that we have read the dissertation prepared by Jesseka Zuike Zeleike entitled A Tango with the Camera: Sally Potter in the Director's Seat and on Stage and recommend that it be accepted as fulfilling the dissertation requirement for the Degree of Doctor of Philosophy Date Barbara Kosta ^ 10 • X/• "2^ Date Barbara Babcock Date Date Final approval and acceptance of this dissertation is contingent upon the candidate's submission of the final copy of the dissertation to the Graduate College. I hereby certify that I have read this dissertation prepared under my direction and recomend that it be accepted as fulfilling the dissertation requirement. S-r A Dissertation Directoi(J^ Date Charlie Scruggs 3 STATEMENT BY AUTHOR This dissertation has been submitted in partial fulHIlment for an advanced degree at The University of Arizona and is deposited in the University Library to be made available to borrowers under rules of the Library. Brief quotations from this dissertation are allowable without special permission, provided that accurate acknowledgement of source is made. Requests for permission for extended quotation from or reproduction of this manuscript in whole or in part may be granted by the copyright holder. SIGNED: 4 ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS While writing a dissertation seems, at times, to be one of the most solitary acts possible, I actually was more aware of being a part of a community during my dissertation work than many other times in my academic life. Thanks to those who inspired me with their work in film, dance, as well as in the creative and healing arts. Without your support, I would not have made it through this process quite so joyously. I would like to thank my connmittee, Barbara Kosta, Charlie Scruggs, and Barbara Babcock, for their encouragement and support as I returned to school to begin the dissertation a year ago. A special thanks goes to Charlie Scruggs for urging me to investigate the musical more closely, and to Barbara Kosta for the amazing attention given to each chapter. I appreciate my conmiittee's help more than I can say here. I am also grateful for all of the wonderful teachers I had in my undergraduate and graduate experience, beginning with Carol Mitchell, Jim Tanner, and Wayne Viney at CSU. Many other people contributed to the project's completion. Dottie Nicholas provided me with much needed fmancial assistance, which allowed me to concentrate fully on writing during these last precious months. I am grateful to my family members and friends who encouraged my progress, watched dissertation films with me, and cheered at the conclusion of the project. I thank all of them. 5 DEDICATION This dissertation is dedicated to the spirits and memories of my precious grandparents: to "Mimi," my maternal grandmother, whose death came, at age 96, just before I began writing about Sally Potter's character, Mimi, investigating her own death; my paternal grandmother, "Nana," whom, like my own mother, Rita, never gave up on the idea of romance; and my paternal grandfather, "Papa," who must have tangoed in the 1920s Buenos Aires when he lived there on his migration from Europe and the United States. I found a resonance with each of them in the subject matter. TABLE OF CONTENTS ABSTRACT CHAPTER 1 FILM IN THE MARGINS LI The Larger Context: Independent Women Filmmakers, 1970s -1980s Feminist Theory as Practice in Women's Film Making Film in the Margins Gender Wars: Potter's 1990s Films Poetry and Poverty: Limitations or the Tools of an Artist? Life as a Filmmaker Combines CHAPTER 2 CONSTUCTING THE TEXT: POSITIONING POTTER'S WORK 2.1 Authorial Subjects Wanted: Live Authors 2.2 Writing About Female Filmmakers Justifications of Focusing on the (Female) Director The Dreaded Epithet: Escaping Essentialism Genre 2.3 Musicals and the Dance Film Connection Monk and Rainer Conclusion CHAPTERS 1972-1979: POTTER AS PERFORMER AND DIRECTOR 3.1 Theory and Practice Dance, Choreography, and Performance 3.2 Potter's Thriller Overview Genre Mixing Feminist Theory in Thriller The Opera 3.3 Thriller: A Closer Look Conclusion 7 TABLE OF CONTENTS CHAPTER 4 THE TANGO LESSON TAKE ONE: A LOVE STORY STARRING FILM AND DANCE 131 4.1 Overviews 136 Independent Film in thel990s 136 Potter's Journey to The Tango Lesson 141 4.2 The Musical 144 Historical Overview of the Classical Musical 148 Theories of the Classical Musical 150 4.3 Dance in the Musical 156 Filmdance in the Musical: Sally Potter, Michael Powell, and Gene Kelly 160 Musicals and Dance Films in the 1990s 166 4.4 The Tango Lesson as a Musical 172 Structure 173 Putting on a Show 181 Romance in the Musical: White Women Can Dance 186 Self-reflexivity 193 Echoes of Dance-musicals in The Tango Lesson 197 Without Words-A Multi-leveled Strategy 198 4.5 Women Make Musicals 202 "Like a Jew"— Women's Jewish Musicals: —Yentl and The Tango Lesson 207 Conclusion: A Love Story Starring Film and Dance 221 Filmmaking 221 Dancing on Film 225 The Marriage Agreement 228 CHAPTERS THE TANGO LESSON TAKE TWO: "A LOVE STORY YOU TELL IN THREE MZNUTES" 245 5.1 Tango Overviews and Histories 246 What is Tango? 246 The Essential Elements 248 Tango as Mirror and Metaphor 257 8 TABLE OF CONTENTS A Few Moments in Tango History 259 A History of Women and Tango 261 5.2 Tales of Contemporary Tango 266 Private Lessons 269 Contemporary Women Performing Tango 271 5.3 Tango as Exotic 277 Pure Tango? 277 Exoticizing Tango 284 Eroticizing the Tango for Film 290 Audience Pleasure and Pain: 298 5.4 Sally Potter's Tango 303 Gender Tangos 306 Murderous Rage, Rage and Murder 314 Composing Tangos 324 5.5 Choreographing Piazzolla 328 Potter's Piazzolla 330 Paul Taylor's Piazzolla 338 Conclusion 346 CHAPTER 6 CONCLUSION-THE LARGER CONTEXTS 359 6.1 Thriller and The Tango Lesson 359 6.2 Women, Tango, and Film 362 6.3 Areas for Further Research 373 The Exotic Dance 374 The Musical 386 WORKS CITED 393 9 ABSTRACT This dissertation looks at Sally Potter's career by focusing upon the ways in which her directorial style has been influenced by her performance and dance background. Chapter I provides the reader with an introduction to Potter's major film work and the motivation for undertaking a book-length study of her career. A biographical section, compiled from various interviews Potter has given over the past decades, covers factors in her background that are helpful in understanding her direction as a filmmaker. The chapter ends with an overview of Potter's early film work through Combines (1972). her multi-screen film/dance collaboration piece with Richard Alston and the London Contemporary Theatre. In Chapter 2,1 take up the issues of auteurism, essentiaiism, and genre, in an attempt to create a strategy for writing a major study of an individual fihnmaker at this critical juncture in film/feminist/cultural studies. This chapter sets the stage for the rest of the chapters, which will revolve around drawing out what I see as a discemable sense of style in relation to a corresponding body of social and artistic concerns that shape Potter's work from her early experimental films through her feature films in the 1990s.