The Cinematic Space in Stephen Daldry's The
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Wenqing Zhao and I. Murat Öner, IJSR, 2018; 2:16 Research Article IJSR (2018) 2:16 International Journal of Social Research (ISSN:2576-5531) The Cinematic Space in Stephen Daldry’s The Hours: A Heterotopian Perspective Wenqing Zhao1 and I. Murat Öner2 1MA Student, International Burch University 2Assistant Professor, International Burch University ABSTRACT The film The Hours directed by Stephen Daldry is based on an *Correspondence to Author: experimental novel in which three women from detached places Wenqing Zhao and eras are interlinked by the book Mrs Dalloway. Given that, its International Burch University sense of simultaneity and spatial heterogeneity is quite obvious. Adopting the notion of Heterotopia proposed by Michel Foucault, the current paper analyzes the juxtaposed construction of space How to cite this article: and time in The Hours. It examines how the editing, recurring Wenqing Zhao and I. Murat Öner. imagery and coherent motives in The Hours function in order The Cinematic Space in Stephen to construct heterotopian space and to shed light upon central Daldry’s The Hours: A Heterotopian themes such as alienation, sexual identity and death. Through Perspective. International Journal these meticulous filmmaking techniques, the film not only trans- of Social Research, 2018; 2:16. fers the collapse and confluence of time and space from text to the screen, but also retouches its postmodernist aesthetics and social reflectivity, offering a thought-provoking viewing experi- ence for the audience eSciPub LLC, Houston, TX USA. Website: http://escipub.com/ Keywords: heterotopia, juxtaposition, Michel Foucault, spatio- temporality, montage, imprisonment Http://escipub.com/international-journal-of-social-research/ 0001 Wenqing Zhao and I. Murat Öner, IJSR, 2018; 2:16 Introduction type of sites which truly exist in perhaps all the real places, which, called by Foucault as Despite the factual greatness of Pulitzer Prize- “counter-sites,” are “effectively enacted winner novel The Hours, one has to admit that utopia[s] [which] are outside of all places, even it was its film adaptation of the same title that though it may be possible to indicate their brought the name into a broader audience. Its location in reality”[2]. By contrast with utopia, he postmodernist transition from text to the digital named it as heterotopia. In order words, images is remarkable enough to serve as a heterotopia is depicted by Foucault as a model in the field. For the purpose of being particular spatial formation that disturbs or “faithful to the spirit and the intent” of the even subverts the normalcy of conventional original, as said by the director Stephen social order, an almost all-encompassing term Daldry[1], the film applies meticulous that embraces the conflicts and connections filmmaking techniques, such as montages and between the unorthodox and the other. recurring imagery, to achieve the embellishment of cinematic aesthetics. As a Juxtaposed Structure and Heterochronic setting in which three women from detached Space in The Hours places and eras being connected by the book Even though the space-time continuum of Mrs Dalloway, the weight of its simultaneity three stories in The Hours stretches over an and spatial heterogeneity is beyond doubt. entire century and across the American- While most of the readers consider it European continent, the theme, i.e., the living impossible to be transformed into a film dilemma of women of all time, remains still. product, Stephen Daldry and his team Such span of time and space is scarcely elegantly completed the conversion of literal possible to be displayed within the length of spirit onto the screen. This regurgitation- two hours. Apart from the novel Mrs Dalloway feeding to the text displays the collapse and which interlinks the three story-lines, it is the confluence of time and space to a greater construction of juxtaposed and superimposed extent, which, thus, constructs “other spaces,” space and time as well as the juxtaposition which Michel Foucault’s terms as and comparison of repetitive imagery that “heterotopias”[2], to serve as a container of engender the coexistence pattern of three both introspectiveness and alterity. distinct chronotopes. Heterotopias: Foucault’s Other Spaces The Hours speaks no inherent The concept of heterotopia was put forward by consecutiveness of the film language. It breaks Michel Foucault in his essay “Of Other the chapter-based parallel narration in the Spaces,” originally named “Des Espaces original novel into further fragmented narration, Autres”[2]. Foucault termed the space in overlapping the detached spaces along with its present epoch, the space in which we live in, functions altogether, whereupon the as the “site” which is defined by assembled simultaneity of “incompatible” spaces or “sites” [2] relations of points or elements. He claimed that is achieved. Suchlike spatial form is it is a “heterogeneous space”[2], that it constituted of diffused but at the same time “designate[s], mirror[s], or reflect[s]” the relevant meaningful units, whose significance relations among all the sites yet in a way to of course, lies not individually but in the either “suspect” or “neutralize,” or even “invent” interplay relationship in between. These these relations.[2] What lies among sites then is seemingly ordinary yet in fact life-altering the otherness, the heterogeneity and the events, or “units,” in The Hours occur in one deviation. One type of such interlinked and single day, as Virginia Woolf murmuring “a inter-contradicted sites is utopia which is woman’s whole life, in a single day. And in that [3] “fundamentally unreal”[2]. But there is another day, her whole life” . The camera moves from Http://escipub.com/international-journal-of-social-research/ 0002 Wenqing Zhao and I. Murat Öner, IJSR, 2018; 2:16 place to place, from one era to another, from imagery. As Joseph Frank claims, the the microscopic life—buying flowers, preparing juxtaposition of dispersed images in a a party, reading/writing—of one woman to the cinematic montage automatically creates a next. It is in these bitty and subtle crosscutting synthesis of meaning betwixt, which shots within one day that we easily see their supersedes any sense of temporal disposition, their depth of spiritual space as discontinuity[5]. An illustration is that in the Woolf’s “beautiful cave”[4], and the metaphor of scene of her stepping out of the house and their whole life. Leonard stepping in, the mise-en-scene of the The insinuating opening scene echoes with the two is all the same, which endows the house end of the story, where Virginia Woolf drowns with an image implication, carrying the herself in the river. Bright beams of light shine connotative meaning that what she steps out over the rapid flowing water with utter of is her spiritual prison, the heterogeneous darkness tranquilly lying below. This space that traps her in, and he into the metaphorical prelude paves the way to the mundane life. upcoming protagonists, establishing the As an echo of this insinuation, the first scene in elegiac tone of the rest of the film. As Virginia’s Laura’s story thread is her husband Dan body floats in dim waters of the river, being entering their house with a bouquet in hand. twisted by green-black weed, a series of Yet the very first shot in Clarissa’s story, montage shears come to an end by switching before her homosexual partner Sally goes the scene to a bright morning in 1951 Los back home, is a subway whirring by. Foucault Angeles. This spanning spatiotemporal points out that a train is “a bundle of relations,” conversion in the very beginning reveals the a means of which “one can go from one point basic structure of the entire film. to another” and at the same time it is [2] Before we look into the main section of the “something that goes by” . A subway, then, film, it would be a loss not taking notice of the can also be seen as “a place without a place” a montage shears mentioned above. Before heterotopia akin to train, for it perennially Virginia comes to the river, a set of fragmented steams along its fixed track underground, scenes of different times are presented keeping in touch with every station yet never [2] simultaneously: the eloquent voice-over staying long at anywhere . Its sense of reading her farewell letter to her husband confusion and lost often endows it in literature Leonard as extradiegetic sound, the close and films with a function of carrying shots of her trembling hand scribbling her implications of disorientation or confusions. letter, Leonard coming back to the house and This is one of the main connotative messages reading her letter, and her messy, hasty walks to Clarissa Vaughan that, although as a to the riverside, filling her pocket with rocks woman inhabiting in contemporary New York, and drowning herself into the river. In this 2:49 the bias to her sexual identity is relatively minutes’ span, the three scenarios are decreased her sense of uncertainty, self- progressively unfolded on the same sphere of contradiction and guilt still remains. time, being smashed into 24 sliced shots by Such parallel montages and repetitive images inter-cuttings. Through the realignment and exist throughout the film. Three alarms are off absolute control over time and space, the at 7 a.m., waking up three women with same fracture among detached world disappears, position in bed. They tie up their hair in front of and subliminal significance emerges. mirror in such analogous ways. Virginia and What condense the space and time, apart from Clarissa gaze themselves through the mirror these stylistic parallel montages, is the for a while, with frustrated looks on their juxtaposition and comparison of repetitive gloomy faces. The mirror here also plays as a Http://escipub.com/international-journal-of-social-research/ 0003 Wenqing Zhao and I.