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A Volatile Ventriloquy With a

Vicious Dummy: Sid and Nancy

and the War Between Image and Soundtrack

MONICA FOSTER

Monica Foster is passionate about Classical
Hollywood and exploitation cinema, psychoanalysis, the 20th century, and David
Lynch’s voice. During her time with the Cinema Studies program, she has written about Daisies,
Gothic paperbacks and Mario Bava, as well as the history of the Rialto Theatre in Times Square.

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When Judy Vermorel interviewed notorious Sex Pistols bassist Sid Vicious in 1977, she asked him what types of films he enjoyed. His response was one of snobbery and complete negation, a stab at the cultural status and esteem that film holds as a medium. Vicious called film a fantasy, a pretense, a pack of lies, and criticized its tendency to glamorizecircumstance(Slycheetah). Whatremainsuncertain, however, is if these are Vicious’ own opinions or one of the collective punk milieu that he was a part of. The incorporation of fantasy and the glamorization of life is integral to the spectacular and dazzling musicals of Hollywood’s Golden Age. Those musicals were devoured by audiences because the story worlds provided an escapist fantasy from the economically depressed one they inhabited. The Golden Age musicals of the 1930s revelled in excess and spectacle, as did catalogue musicals including Mark Sandrich’s Shall We Dance (1937) and George Stevens’ A Damsel in Distress (1937), which celebrated songwriters, in this case, George and Ira Gershwin (Cohan 12). These films were colourful, pleasant, and happy-go-lucky, striving to make their audiences leave the theatre with optimism and hope for the future (12). There is no doubt that Vicious, along with a vast majority of punks, would abhor these types of films.
David Laderman approaches the musical genre with a revisionist lens.
He introduces a new type of musical: the punk musical. In his view, the punk musical is an “extreme makeover” of the classic musical genre and could be called an anti-musical (Laderman 2). He argues that the punk musical slashes the classic musical’s predilection toward cheeriness and optimism and inverts it with a sense of nihilism, offering a dystopian view of the world. Laderman’s punk musical rejects the traditional set of conventions from which the genre originated. For Laderman, this new type of musical is suffused with independent and cult film sensibilities (2-3). The combination of independent and cult film conventions rejects the formula of the Golden Age musical, creating something radically different. Laderman proposes his concept of the “slip-sync,” inspired

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A VOLATILE VENTRILOQUY WITH A VICIOUS DUMMY

by the scene in Alex Cox’s Sid and Nancy (1986) where Vicious ruptures his performance of Frank Sinatra’s “My Way,” causing him to go out of sync with the lyrics. Slip-sync appears prominently in a cycle of both British and American punk musicals from the late 1970s to early 1980s, including Derek Jarman’s Jubilee (1978) and Lou Adler’s Ladies and

Gentlemen, The Fabulous Stains (1982). Slip-sync is a device that punk

musicals typically mobilize to create tension. In Laderman’s words, the slip-sync depends on the better-known technique of the lip-sync:

[...] in slip-sync, the singer-performer slips out of sync, alienated from yet caught up by the performance spectacle. Rupturing lip-sync from within, slip-sync articulates both resistance (the singer refusing, or unable, to be synchronized) and conformity (the soundtrack, or the performance spectacle, subsuming the performer). (3)

Indeed, Gary Oldman as Vicious singing “My Way” offers the definitive scene of the film. In this fantasy scene, Vicious takes out a gun and aims it at the audience. Slip-sync in Vicious’ performance creates tension by breaking down the conventional audio-visual relation: the synchronous union of sound and image (Chion 9). In Rick Altman’s theory of the soundtrack acting as ventriloquist and the image as its dummy, the ventriloquist’s power, in the instance of Sid and Nancy, is eroded. Before entering into a discussion about Altman’s theory and how it is used in Sid and Nancy, a short history of punk is needed.
Throughout the United Kingdom in the 1970s and early 1980s, many disaffected youths dawned dog collars, chains, bondage straps, and styled their hair into protruding spikes every shade and tone of Technicolor. These were the punks, misfits who presented themselves in a way that shocked the conservative status quo. Punks took pride in an anti-aesthetic: a preference for ugliness over beauty. There was a deliberate, conscious attack on canonical beauty by the punks, as well as an attack on traditional middle-class values and decorum. Plagued by inflation and high unemployment rates, the United Kingdom in the late 1970s reached economic stagnation, creating a landscape of cultural and social dissolution. Emerging from a nation in decline, the British punk movement captured a mood where disillusioned working-class youths were able to vent their socio-economic, existential, and political frustrations (Worley 13-15). The punk movement offered not only a different way to dress and behave, but also an alternative approach to music. Punk music was not like the music that came before: gone were the sweet and nullifying tunes of doo-wop and the careless jangles of

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MONICA FOSTER

boy groups. Punk was abrasive and confrontational, with quick guitar riffs, pounding percussion, and bleak lyrics. It is no wonder then that a majority of punk bands venomously opposed the music industry and commercialism, and, much like Vicious, the motion picture too. Anything that reeked of middle-class taste or was connected to the state was abhorred.
Punk’s desire to break free from conventions is mirrored in Sid and
Nancy’s relationship between sound and image. Film theorist Rick Altman proposes a new way to conceptualize sound-image relationships

with his idea of the soundtrack as ventriloquist and the image as its dummy

(67). The ventriloquist moves the dummy in time with the words they speak. Altman notes that one of the main problems for the ventriloquist is figuring out how to retain control over the sound while attributing it to a carefully manipulated lifelike dummy with no independent life of its own (76). To overcome this problem, the ventriloquist strives to make it seem as though their voice emerges from the lifeless dummy, just as sound and image fuse to create the impression of audio-visual unity. During Vicious’ performance of “My Way,” the ventriloquist and the dummy work against one another to create punk-style anarchy. The dummy, in this case the image of Vicious, resists subordination to the ventriloquist and revolts. The dummy rebels against the ventriloquist, just as the punks revolted against the state and societal conventions. With hair styled in spikes, Doc Marten boots, and a dog chain, Vicious walks down a staircase toward the camera and the diegetic audience, composed primarily of middle-aged, upper-class, theatre-going types, and even the British monarchy. During the song’s first verse, the dummy prepares to break free from both synchronization and the ventriloquist’s tyrannical hold. Vicious sloppily sings the first verse, accompanied by an off-screen smooth jazz orchestra. It is not clear whether he is singing live or if the number has been previously recorded. Vicious does not pronounce the words with clarity; he makes silly faces and deliberately dumbs himself down while changing his vocal intonations. He appears to be performing the song unwillingly, as if forced into cooperating with the soundtrack.
In the second verse, anarchy erupts. The orchestra continues to accompany Vicious, but this time with a distinct, punk sound that crashes and booms throughout the theatre. It becomes undeniable that he has been lip-syncing to the music. He pogos, flails, and snarls his way through the verse with quick, heavy guitar riffs and fast drumming. The distortionofthevocalsresultsinacacophonyofpurenoise. Vicious’cover of “My Way” is heavily emotive. It suggests a deep-seated, buried anguish

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A VOLATILE VENTRILOQUY WITH A VICIOUS DUMMY

that pours out in screams. Vicious begins sloppily and sings lazily, but proceeds to aggressively growl and scream as the tune changes to a punk rendition of the song. A song about celebrating life accomplishments and the determination to succeed is mutilated and parodied into something grotesque. Vicious’ version describes a young man’s disillusionment with his homeland and consequent rebellion. The climactic punctuation of the scene occurs when Vicious pulls out a gun and starts shooting at the audience with the recording of his voice/music in the background, representing the ultimate form of Laderman’s slip-sync. The dislodging of the sound and voice is quintessential punk (Laderman 3). Slip-sync is the weapon that the dummy uses to revolt against the ventriloquist. If the punks waged a war against middle-class values, traditionalism, and popular culture, then the slip-sync is yet another form of rebellion against another codified practice of film and sound technology: the synchronization of image and sound. In Sid and Nancy, the slip-sync device is one of insurgency against the ventriloquist’s authority. If the ventriloquist is meant to retain control over their dummy, then why, in Sid and Nancy, is there such a repudiation of unity and synchronization? Negation, negation, negation: unity is not punk. The punk (punkian?) way is abrasive, confrontational, and nonconforming. Why expect any art form that has even the slightest punk sensibility to behave and be represented in a conventional manner?
Altman poses two questions. First, why would a ventriloquist want to perpetuate the illusion that their dummy is speaking rather than themself? Furthermore, why would the ventriloquist want to give away the right to speech (Altman 77)? The answer to these questions comes from a ventriloquist manual from 1974 simply titled “Ventriloquism” by Daryl Hutton (77). In the practice of ventriloquism, the core of the art lies in the created personality of the dummy. According to the manual, the dummy possesses the ventriloquist’s hidden and suppressed desires (77). The dummy then functions as an outlet for unconscious psychic material. Presenting the dummy and its repressed shadow traits (traits that have been disavowed by the ventriloquist) is cathartic, as the dummy is the conduit for repressed thoughts and feelings. In the case of Sid and Nancy, the moment where the image breaks away from the soundtrack, theunconsciousrepressedmaterialoftheventriloquistemerges.Vicious’ fantasy of murder and self-destruction unfolds as he begins to shoot at the audience. The rupture in synchronization is necessary in order for the ventriloquist to experience catharsis.1 While the soundtrack during Vicious’ performance changes from sloppy mockery to explosive punk bravado, the ventriloquist is only able to express what is hidden through Vicious/the dummy when it rejects unity and synchronization. With

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MONICA FOSTER

this upheaval comes the ventriloquist’s relinquishing of power, allowing their repressed fantasies to roam free in the image.
The idea of unleashing repressed intentions reflects a facet of punk.
By the mid-1970s, the joviality that was felt in the 1960s evaporated, leaving an air of disillusionment. Gerfried Ambrosch remarks that during the 1970s, Britain was grappling with high unemployment rates and poverty (217). Not only this, but tensions were escalating between the autochthonous British population and the rising number of immigrants from Commonwealth countries, particularly the West Indies, which often resulted in racialized violence. Consequently, Britain became increasingly conservative and adhered to traditional values as symbolized by the country’s royalty (217). As a result, it is no surprise that the older generations despised punk as it weaponized culture to unleash repressed desires and revolt against traditional modes of being. In Sid and Nancy, repressed content and images are found in dreams. This sequence of Vicious rupturing the unity of sound and image has a puzzling effect on the overall narrative of the film; there is no clear narrative link to the scene. The “My Way” sequence has no causal relation to its neighbouring scenes, and the performance does not stem from a character’s subjectivity. The sequence is a dream, and in this dreamscape, the unconscious acts out its darkest desires, which comes with the breakdown of the psyche and the relationship between the visual and aural.
Vicious’ “My Way” performance is a demonstration of Laderman’s slip-sync as his voice slips out of sync with the soundtrack, refusing to unify audio and visual. Vicious resists conformity to the traditional audio-visual synchronization and instead engages in a subversive relationship to convention. Mobilizing Rick Altman’s theory of the soundtrack as ventriloquist and the image as the dummy, and applying it to Sid and Nancy, particularly in the scene where Vicious performs “My Way,” erodes the bond between ventriloquist and dummy. The moment where image breaks away from the soundtrack signifies the outpouring of the dummy’s—Vicious’—repressed feelings while simultaneously rebelling against the conventional synchronization of sound and image. It is a punk revolt against cinematic conventions: a complete disavowal of

1 Altman calls attention to the etymology of the word ventriloquism: ventri refers to abdomen or belly. Ventriloquists from the time of ancient Greece were considered prophets and their prophecies were said to emanate from their bellies (Altman 78). He writes that the identification of the ventriloquist’s voice with the belly is one that reveals hidden truths. The body is associated with sex, eating, and excretion. The language of the body is more personal, sincere, and unguarded: the id in Freudian terms. On the other hand, the upper part of the body, which Altman calls the head-voice, is more rational and more acceptable, and can be associated with the superego. The soundtrack, then, is associated with the body truth, and the image with the head truth.

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A VOLATILE VENTRILOQUY WITH A VICIOUS DUMMY

the filmic medium. The scene is the apotheosis of Vicious, but also of the dummy as it frees itself from the ventriloquist’s authority. Through the disunity of sound and image, Sid Vicious is immortalized. He becomes a fallen angel, a punk icon, and his spirit will live on while the dummy forever continues to confront the ventriloquist.

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MONICA FOSTER

Works Cited

Altman, Rick. “Moving Lips: Cinema as Ventriloquism.” Yale French
Studies, no. 60, 1980, pp. 67-79.
Ambrosch, Gerfried. “American Punk: The Relations between Punk
Rock, Hardcore, and American Culture.” Amerikastudien / American Studies, vol. 60, no. 2/3, 2015, pp. 215-33.

Chion, Michel. Audio Vision: Sound on Screen. Columbia University

Press, 1994.
Cohan, Steven. “Introduction: Musicals of the Studio Era.” Hollywood
Musicals: The Film Reader, edited by Steven Cohan, Routledge, 2002, pp. 1-15.

Laderman, David. Punk Slash! Musicals: Tracking Slip-Sync on Film.

University of Texas Press, 2010.
Sid Vicious - The Vermorel Interview. YouTube, uploaded by Slycheetah,
14 April 2011. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UJtqDckJJ24. Accessed 14 June 2019.

Worley, Matthew. Punk, Politics, and British Youth Culture, 1976-1984.

Cambridge University Press, 2017.

Filmography

Adler, Lou, director. Ladies and Gentlemen, The Fabulous Stains.

Paramount Pictures, 1982.
Cox, Alex, director. Sid and Nancy. The Samuel Goldwyn Company, 1986. Jarman, Derek, director. Jubilee. Cinegate, 1978. Sandrich, Mark, director. Shall We Dance. RKO Pictures, 1937. Stevens, George, director. Damsel in Distress. RKO Pictures, 1937.

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    80-YEAR ANNIVERSARY The Screen KING VIDOR 1938 >“Women’s dramatic sense is “Directors Guild DOROTHY invaluable to the motion picture was organized industry,” said Dorothy Arzner, solely by ARZNER whose contributions include and for the First Female 80 YEARS STRONG motion picture being the first female member Member 1933 >The formation of the Directors director…. We of the Directors Guild. In early A GUILD Guild had been percolating for a are not anti- Hollywood, Arzner was a typist, number of years. Amid nationwide anything: the screenwriter, editor, and ultimately, director. IS BORN labor unrest in the country, the Guild being She is believed to have developed the boom mic, studios had been squeezing directors formed for the enabling actors to move and speak more easily purpose of both financially and creatively. The first step toward in early talkies. At one time under contract to assisting and Paramount, Arzner is organizing a guild occurred in 1933 outside the Hol- improving the lywood Roosevelt Hotel, after a meeting in which best known for directing director’s work such strong personalities the studios announced a 50 percent across-the-board in the form of pay cut. After the meeting, King Vidor and a handful a collective as Clara Bow, Claudette of directors congregated on the sidewalk and knew body, rather Colbert, Katharine something had to be done. They understood, as Vidor than as an Hepburn, and Joan put it, “We must have a guild to speak [for us], and individual. Crawford in films such not the individual, who can be hurt by standing up as Honor Among Lovers “I worked on my for his rights.” That guild was born in late 1935 and ” (1931) and Christopher first project under Strong (1933).
  • Examining the Careers and Artistic Contributions of Fred Astaire's

    Examining the Careers and Artistic Contributions of Fred Astaire's

    Western Kentucky University TopSCHOLAR® Honors College Capstone Experience/Thesis Honors College at WKU Projects Fall 12-14-2015 Backwards in High Heels: Examining the Careers and Artistic Contributions of Fred Astaire’s Female Dance Partners Fiona Mowbray Western Kentucky University, [email protected] Follow this and additional works at: http://digitalcommons.wku.edu/stu_hon_theses Part of the Dance Commons, Other Theatre and Performance Studies Commons, and the Performance Studies Commons Recommended Citation Mowbray, Fiona, "Backwards in High Heels: Examining the Careers and Artistic Contributions of Fred Astaire’s Female Dance Partners" (2015). Honors College Capstone Experience/Thesis Projects. Paper 591. http://digitalcommons.wku.edu/stu_hon_theses/591 This Thesis is brought to you for free and open access by TopSCHOLAR®. It has been accepted for inclusion in Honors College Capstone Experience/ Thesis Projects by an authorized administrator of TopSCHOLAR®. For more information, please contact [email protected]. BACKWARDS IN HIGH HEELS: EXAMINING THE CAREERS AND ARTISTIC CONTRIBUTION OF FRED ASTAIRE’S FEMALE DANCE PARTNERS A Capstone Experience/Thesis Paper Presented in Partial Fulfillment of the Requirements for the Degrees Bachelor of Fine Arts and Bachelor of Science with Honors College Graduate Distinction at Western Kentucky University By Fiona Mowbray ***** Western Kentucky University 2015 CE/T Committee: Approved by Dr. Michelle Dvoskin, Advisor Dr. Julie Lyn Barber ______________________ Advisor Dr. Dana Bradley Department of Theatre & Dance Copyright by Fiona Mowbray 2015 ABSTRACT This project examines the careers and contributions of three of Fred Astaire’s female dancing partners during the golden age of movie musicals: Ginger Rogers, Vera- Ellen, and Cyd Charisse.
  • Vets to Offer Alternative Counseling

    Vets to Offer Alternative Counseling

    Vol. 74 THE TRINITY TRIPOD Issue 18 IVED Z 1976 Vets To Offer Alternative Counseling by Marc Blumenthal The" Veterans Coalition for among others, health care and Members plan to expand the marine recruiters present and to Roberts urged the Trinity Community Affairs will offer school benefits available to program. offer pre-enlistment counseling community to stop in to hear what alternative counseling in op- veterans. Roberts said the Coalition has with the aid of their literature. the Coalition members have to say position to U.S. Marine recruit- Within the last year, the also become involved in the Roberts emphasized that the and to pick up some of their ment on campus on Monday, Coalition nas become involved in military discharge question. It is counseling the Coalition offers literature. March 8. The Coalition has an different issues. It is concerned devoting considerable time to a stems from the actual experience active membership of about 50, with the presence of the military campaign to expose the alleged of people who have been intimately with representation from all four and the military-industrial com- faults in the military justice involved with the military. armed services. plex on college and university system. According to Christopher Shink- According to coalition member, campuses. The Coalition hopes to include man, career counselor, the Tentative Gordon Roberts the group was Recently, the coalition has put the issue of the military justice Coalition will have the opportunity formed two years ago at the together an anti-military slide system in its program here at to present their point in the career University of Massachusetts at show based on Vietnam.
  • Best Movies in Every Genre

    Best Movies in Every Genre

    Best Movies in Every Genre WTOP Film Critic Jason Fraley Action 25. The Fast and the Furious (2001) - Rob Cohen 24. Drive (2011) - Nichols Winding Refn 23. Predator (1987) - John McTiernan 22. First Blood (1982) - Ted Kotcheff 21. Armageddon (1998) - Michael Bay 20. The Avengers (2012) - Joss Whedon 19. Spider-Man (2002) – Sam Raimi 18. Batman (1989) - Tim Burton 17. Enter the Dragon (1973) - Robert Clouse 16. Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon (2000) – Ang Lee 15. Inception (2010) - Christopher Nolan 14. Lethal Weapon (1987) – Richard Donner 13. Yojimbo (1961) - Akira Kurosawa 12. Superman (1978) - Richard Donner 11. Wonder Woman (2017) - Patty Jenkins 10. Black Panther (2018) - Ryan Coogler 9. Mad Max (1979-2014) - George Miller 8. Top Gun (1986) - Tony Scott 7. Mission: Impossible (1996) - Brian DePalma 6. The Bourne Trilogy (2002-2007) - Paul Greengrass 5. Goldfinger (1964) - Guy Hamilton 4. The Terminator (1984-1991) - James Cameron 3. The Dark Knight (2008) - Christopher Nolan 2. The Matrix (1999) - The Wachowskis 1. Die Hard (1988) - John McTiernan Adventure 25. The Goonies (1985) - Richard Donner 24. Gunga Din (1939) - George Stevens 23. Road to Morocco (1942) - David Butler 22. The Poseidon Adventure (1972) - Ronald Neame 21. Fitzcarraldo (1982) - Werner Herzog 20. Cast Away (2000) - Robert Zemeckis 19. Life of Pi (2012) - Ang Lee 18. The Revenant (2015) - Alejandro G. Inarritu 17. Aguirre, Wrath of God (1972) - Werner Herzog 16. Mutiny on the Bounty (1935) - Frank Lloyd 15. Pirates of the Caribbean (2003) - Gore Verbinski 14. The Adventures of Robin Hood (1938) - Michael Curtiz 13. The African Queen (1951) - John Huston 12. To Have and Have Not (1944) - Howard Hawks 11.