DECEMBER ISSUE: FILM M M MediaMagazine

eediadia agazine

Menglish and media centre issue 26 | decemberM 2008

GGloballobal ffilmilm ccollaborationollaboration SStarstars WWaltzaltz wwithith BBashirashir NNoiroir & tthehe ccityity SShockinghocking ccinemainema english andmedia centre SShanehane MMeadowseadows

| issue 26|december 2008

MM MM

MediaMagazine is published by the English and article ‘Enter the Dragon’ is an essential and fact- Media Centre, a non-profit making organisation. packed read – look no further for an introduction The Centre publishes a wide range of classroom editorial to the cinema industries of South-East Asia. materials and runs courses for teachers. If Welcome back to MediaMag and our special All that should keep you busy over the you’re studying English at A Level, look out for Film issue – and if you’re wondering why we’re Christmas holidays ... But if you’ve got time on emagazine, also published by the Centre. not imbued with the seasonal festive spirit it’s your hands (ha!) sneak a visit to our amazing new feature: MediaMagClips, where you can The English and Media Centre because we’re bulging at the seams with cinema- view video soundbites on key concepts from 18 Compton Terrace related goodies. the great and the good in Media Studies (www. London N1 2UN Star studies and issues of representation mediamagazine.org.uk). Telephone: 020 7359 8080 are two of the major debates running through Fax: 020 7354 0133 this edition. Elaine Homer’s excellent overview Email for subscription enquiries: of critical approaches to the phenomenon of Next up: MediaMag 27 – [email protected] stardom should be a gift for Film students. Try The ‘Foreign’ Issue Managing Editor: Michael Simons reading them alongside our case studies on Tilda Aliens, monsters, and metaphors Editor: Jenny Grahame Swinton, and Brad’n’Ange (aka Mr and Mrs Smith) Japanese cinema Editorial assistant/admin: Rebecca Scambler – which in turn also raise interesting questions Design: Sam Sullivan (www.edition.co.uk) about gender representations and sexual politics. Persepolis Printed by S&G Group If you’re finding it hard to get your head round The US election – as seen by an Englishwoman ISSN: 1478-8616 these areas, a good starting point might be Steph in New York Hendry’s beginner’s guide to post-feminist film BrandRossSachsgate theory (yes, it’s pretty complex, but not as hard as it sounds, especially when applied to James Student writing – and much more. Bond). Representation issues also feature in Jerome From mid-December Monahan’s in-depth comparison of two classic Our first two galleries of MediaMagClips for film noirs (ideal texts for genre and comparative web-subscribers: study), Tom Brownlee’s overview of Christianity Professor Martin Barker on Media Audiences on film, and Martin Sohn-Rethel’s discussion of and Effects the authenticity and realism in The Lives of Others. Professor David Buckingham on Media In contrast, Wayne O’Brien’s article on Shocking Research, Globalisation, Ideology, Media 2.0, How to subscribe Cinema compares two highly contrasting and and the rest of the Universe. disturbing movies which question what we find Four issues a year, published shocking and why, and how such representations September, December, late February impact on audiences. and late April. International film is strongly represented, with a searching interview with Israeli director Ari Centre print subscription: £29.95 Folman on his unique animated docu-feature Centre website package: £79.95 Waltz with Bashir, and Nick Lacey’s fascinating includes print magazine, full website look at the importance of context, memory, access and a downloadable PDF and sub-text in three Spanish movies which deal with the horrors of the past. And for a version of the current issue. fantastically comprehensive, informative and Additional subscriptions for well-documented overview of global cinema students, teachers or the library can collaborations and the massive changes in non- Western film industries which are transforming be added to either the print-only Cover: From Hell, d. Allen Hollywood’s world domination, Roy Stafford’s subscription or the website package and Albert Hughes, 2001 for £10 a year. Credit: 20th Century Fox/ The Kobal Collection

MediaMagazine website MediaMagArchive on the MediaMagazine Please note: the print magazine is not a photocopiable resource. Under website (www.mediamagazine.org.uk) gives the Copyright Licensing Agreement it is illegal to photocopy more than you access to all past articles published in one article (10%) per issue per school or college. However, articles from MediaMagazine. There are two ways of getting access to the MediaMagazine website: the subscription website can be printed and photocopied freely within 1. Centre plus 10 or more student subs. the subscribing institution. 2. Centre website package: £79.95

2 MediaMagazine | December 2008 | english and media centre MM contents

Front Page News Dance of Death: Post-feminism in The latest news, reviews Waltz With Bashir contemporary film 04 and previews. 29 An interview with Ari 52 A beginners’ guide to the Folman, director of slippery and controversial FILM SPECIAL a powerful award- area of gender Somer(stown) winning Israeli animated representation in a post- Meadows Owen Davey documentary feature film. feminist era, as illustrated 06 pays a very personal by Bond ... James Bond. homage to Shane Meadows, the man and Moore and the Ahead of the his movies. movies 55 long-awaited launch of Enter the dragon Watchmen, Neil Daniels Power relationships Down these mean outlines the uneasy 10 between Hollywood streets: noir and relationship between the and the film industries 32 the city Jerome genius of Alan Moore’s of South-East Asia are Monahan investigates graphic novels, and their beginning to change. representations of the city rather less successful Roy Stafford surveys the in two classic post-war transfer to film. continuing rise of non- film noirs. Western cinema markets, Stealing someone’s Martin and the new forms of More than meets biography Sohn-Rethel raises issues collaboration between the eye Nick Lacey 63 about realism, truth, West and East. 36 explores the subtexts and meanings of three authenticity and ethics in outstanding Spanish representations of pre- films in the light of their Glasnost East Germany in historical and political the acclaimed film The Lives contexts. of Others. Hollywood film AND BEYOND FILMS techniques Cartoon by Ashes to Ashes shot- Star struck Elaine 40 Goom. by-shot Hone your Homer evaluates the Is nothing 59 textual analysis skills on 16 significance of stars past a key 5-minute sequence shocking? Two case and present, and suggests from the start of this five approaches to the 41 studies which will make you think about the much-loved time-travel study of the phenomenon cop drama, with Bethan of stardom. power of film to shock and push at boundaries. Hacking. Brangelina Sean Richardson explores Score! Football on film What can we learn 20 what a Hollywood super- couple can teach us about 44 about British culture theories of spectatorship, and social change from pleasure and gender. a football movie? Mark Ramey deconstructs Mike Tilda Swinton: Bassett: England Manager. queen of the So you think you The Gospels 25 avant-garde Ice- wanna work in TV? If maiden, gender-bender according to Mel, so, read our interview with Trevor, Bruce and 66 or alternative icon? 46 a Media graduate who’s Tom Brownlee Lucy Meade analyses Bilbo been there, done it, and examines representations the meanings of Tilda learned the hard way. Swinton’s ambiguous star of Christianity in film, persona. from Biblical epic to modern morality tale.

english and media centre | December 2008 | MediaMagazine 3 Front Page News

E-Advertising former Russian president, film in a derelict shop in hard times – many have scriptwriter, and Guillermo The news that Channel 4 and Never Apologise in Blackburn turned out to been sacked in the US. The del Toro of Pan’s Labyrinth is to cut 150 jobs – nearly which actor Malcolm be unique footage of late subject was exhaustively and Hell Boy fame as its 15% of its workforce – McDowell tells tales of Victorian and Edwardian covered in October’s edition director. The two-film to trim £100 million in British director Lindsay England: The Mitchell and of Sight and Sound by package will be made expenditure over the Anderson. Kenyon collection. editor Nick James – well mostly in New Zealand – so next two years reflects the http://www. http://www.shcsurvey. worth reading as it is a expect more breathtaking tough times commercial neverapologize.com/#. org.uk/ great guide to a changing scenery, and art design and TV is going through, as a Veteran investigative http://www.bfi.org.uk/ landscape (http://www.bfi. special effects from the result of falling advertising documentary-maker John features/mk/ org.uk/sightandsound/ Weta studios as for LOTR. In revenues. Recently the Pilger has been at work issue.php). One worrying interview del Toro explains regulator Ofcom even for 50 years; a box set of Film trend for UK critics is his concerns about taking The credit crunch – no suggested that the likes of his work, Heroes, is now distributors’ habit of on The Hobbit as he likes to one is immune Channel 4 should benefit available and should be by-passing mainstream develop his own schemes; Know the old Chinese from some of the license on your school’s media critics, often to smuggle but the second movie will curse – ‘may you live fee money that currently resources shelves, if not poor product into cinemas be based on new material, through interesting times’? goes exclusively to the BBC. your own. The 16-disc without reviewers spoiling bridging the gap between Well we’re certainly doing, The steady migration of ensemble contains some the fun. The article shows The Hobbit and LOTR. Far that, with banks being advertising from traditional of Pilger’s most famous how advertising-conscious from being a light children’s nationalized and going media to online – £3 films including Death of a editors can conspire tale, del Toro reads The bust, and worries for the billions worth in 2007 – Nation (1994) about the against critics in changing Hobbit as a book about lost entire financial structure might make sense if such Indonesian invasion of the poor ratings they innocence – an innocence of global capitalism. So advertising was effective; East Timor, and his most give blockbusters. It also sacrificed in the First World too for the film industry but apparently web-surfers recent film essay about the celebrates those critics War, in which Tolkein – a business built upon are uniquely resistant to ads US’s covert foreign policy still willing to discuss served. It’s an interpretation smoke and whispers and on websites – now known across the world – The War film as an art form, while he intends to represent in the old adage that when as ‘banner blindness’. on Democracy (2007). Even championing smaller the film. The first film is not it comes to hits – ‘nobody One solution has been if the box set is too pricey, international films that due until 2011. knows anything’. Deals are to program online ads to do check out Pilger’s blog – might otherwise slip under http://www. becoming increasingly appear each time people essential reading for any of the radar. wetaworkshop.co.nz/; difficult, and many projects print web pages. Research you interested in broadcast However, one film- http://www.imdb.com/ have been held up or carried out at Hewlett news: related book you should title/tt0903624/ cancelled. One hard-hit Packard’s labs in India http://www.johnpilger. own is David Thomson’s Link to an ITN recent studio is Paramount, since suggests this may work – com/page.asp?partID=3 Biographical Dictionary of interview off the Deutsche Bank decided Film. It contains entries on Guillermo del Toro 33% of users recalled ads Celluloid sleuths to pull the plug on a (almost) everyone who is fansite: http://itn.co.uk/ they inadvertently had The UK Film Council $450 million loan backing or has been anyone in the news/ba5471109d11 to print out, compared to has recently put out a some 30 movies. One of movie business, written 99392b4708895ddf2a64. zero recall after only online call to the nation asking them, Tropic Thunder, has in a quirky, entertaining html exposure. But how long will us to delve through launched, suggesting some style. And now there’s this last? And how receptive basements and attics in Q No shit Sherlock? titles will get funded and a companion volume, are people who have search of lost moving- Guy Ritchie’s projects survive. But clearly much Have You Seen? A Personal wasted valuable printer ink image masterpieces. You have flopped since 1998, belt-tightening is going Introduction to 1,000 Films, to some ad they didn’t want too can join the treasure so MM is slightly dismayed on and if the big studios in 500-word profiles per in the first place? hunt. The exercise is part to learn that he’s due to are feeling the heat, you entry – check it out! Documentary of the Film Council’s goal can bet independent film deliver a new Sherlock to create a comprehensive projects are going to suffer Coming to a screen Holmes film in 2010; survey of moving image badly too – and they can near you soon-ish although on the plus side it collections across the land. least afford it. Over the next months stars talented (and hunky) You may not have access http://www.independent. look out for film projects actors including Robert to an abandoned cinema co.uk/arts-entertainment/ involving favourite literary Downey Jr (Holmes) and store room or a regional film-and-tv/news/ figures – tried-and-tested Jude Law (Watson). Better film archive, but who credit-crunch-hits- recipes which make sense still (or not?), Columbia knows what gems may to movie executives in Pictures is planning to Honouring Pilger hollywood-868729.html lurk in the corners of your troubled times. release a rival starring The enduring popularity home, garage or shed? Who needs critics? Q The Hobbit Sacha Baron Cohen in of documentaries Your Great Uncle George’s In the age of the blogger The latest Tolkein epic the main role. Soon after continues, with a steady amateur films may prove and social networking, is to be adapted for the big his death in 1930, Conan stream gaining general to be important historic the day of the specialist film screen has Lord of the Rings Doyle’s wife held a huge cinematic release. Recent ‘documents’ – after all, a critic over? Film reviewers director Peter Jackson as spiritualist gathering at the examples include The Putin stash of 800 rolls of nitrate in print media are facing Executive Producer and Albert Hall in the hope that System, an exposé of the

4 MediaMagazine | December 2008 | english and media centre her husband would put the two film noirs featured Games the bottom up starting with tobaccoindustry.smoking in a ghostly appearance. in this edition, not least The Byron Review single-celled creatures and But surely broadcast news He didn’t but perhaps the for its depiction of the Earlier this year the evolving your creatures all should be free of onscreen prospect of Borat playing ‘urban’. It’s the neo-realist government-commissioned the way to the point where commercial promotion? his famous character for film – so it’s also a chance Byron Review suggested they can take on space Not in the USA, where laughs alongside Will to develop yourself as a there should be a new exploration. Electronic Arts regional news programmes Ferrell will prompt an committed film buff. age-rating system for video has sunk $20 million into are now featuring outraged return from http://en.wikipedia.org/ games. Keep an eye out for its development, giving McDonald’s products such beyond the grave. http:// wiki/Bicycle_Thieves developments and whether creator Will Wright the as iced coffee displayed news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/ they are effective. From chance of coming up with prominently on the desks of entertainment/7499055. November stores should something every bit as all- the news readers. The worst stm have been policing video consuming as his previous offenders are apparently http://www.imdb. games more carefully and hit – the SIMS. This would local TV stations owned com/title/tt0988045/ early in 2009 we can expect make a great study in its by Rupert Murdoch’s Fox fullcredits#cast a consciousness-raising own right and could be network. Speaking for Fox campaign highlighting one of the most important 5 News, news director Adam January 16th: The Road the new regulations and games innovations during Bradshaw argued that the Definitely not cheerful parental controls. Up to your A Level course. The trend will not impair the viewing, but intriguing if now the British Board of Observer article referenced station’s independence – you enjoyed No Country Film Classification has only below includes some deep for example its freedom to For Old Men, the last provided ratings for games background on the state of criticise McDonald’s should film adapted from a on the basis of the violence the games industry right they need to – but he would Q Tintin lives! Cormac McCarthy novel. or sex they contain. now, making the point say that, wouldn’t he? McCarthy’s bleak and that EA is taking quite a Another film with Peter The Byron Review: Freshers online beautiful book about the gamble given the growing Jackson as producer (and http://www.dcsf.gov. Bebo has entered the TV increasing brutalization of popularity of ‘casual games’ Stephen Spielberg as uk/byronreview/pdfs/ scene with its own brand American society is here available over the internet director). However, the actionplan_final.PDF of vox pop documentary represented by a post- and mobile phones. http:// project is hitting problems. BBFC analysis of broadcast exclusively apocalyptic world through www.guardian.co.uk/ Universal Studios is Grand Theft Auto: http:// online. If you don’t know which a man and his son technology/2008/sep/14/ reluctant to stump up half www.parentsbbfc. the show already, Meet travel. Its great cast, which games the $130 million budget; co.uk/gameDetail. The Freshers, airing each includes Viggo Mortensen, they need to generate asp?gameID=68 Friday, aims to investigate over $425 million in sales Charlize Theron and TV Spore life for first year undergrads before reaching break-even Robert Duval, should help Broadcast news – Mentioned back in across the land. From a because Spielberg and make it a success. http:// sexism on show? MM18, Spore has finally Media Studies perspective, Jackson are due a 30% cut www.imdb.com/title/ The next time you watch arrived and will be around it’s the latest evidence of from all the sales associated tt0898367/ a TV news broadcast keep for some time. The game the encroachment of with the movie. a count of the number enables you to play God, social networking sites on http://www.imdb. of reports being filed by colonizing a universe from female reporters compared TV’s territory – and it also com/title/tt0983193/ demonstrates the problem news#ni0570984 to male journalists. The count may be revealing. of programmes delivered in Other films to look out Recently reports of disquiet this way. Meet the Freshers for: in the BBC emerged due to is cheap and cheerful (or Q December 12: The Day the relative lack of women nasty depending on your The Earth Stood Still reporters getting slots taste), and may need to A remake of the 1951 on the newly revamped progress beyond drinking cold war sci-fi classic with Ten O’Clock News – the anecdotes, hangover cures Keanu Reeves playing an Corporation’s flagship news and the chance to spy into alien with an important bulletin. messy college bedrooms message for the human http://www.guardian. to win much of an species. If you get a chance, co.uk/media/2008/ audience. Then again social see the original starring may/31/bbc networking is all about Michael Rennie. ‘Klaatu catering to niche audiences barada nikto!’ – you’ll get Branded news – so this may be the show the reference when you see The world has become for you ... it. http://www.imdb.com/ used to brands buying www.bebo.com/ title/tt0043456/ a place in movies – meetthefreshers ‘product placement’ has Q December 19: Bicycle been around for ages, Front Page News is compiled by Thieves as evidenced by recent Jerome Monahan. A great treat for MM fascinating revelations readers – the original about how Hollywood Vittorio De Sica 1948 film, stars of the 1930s and and a special experience 1940s were recruited by on a big screen, even if its tobacco companies to distribution is limited. Head endorse cigarette smoking: for your nearest art house! http://www.guardian. It would compare well with co.uk/film/2008/sep/26/

english and media centre | December 2008 | MediaMagazine 5 MM

6 MediaMagazine | December 2008 | english and media centre MM

Student Owen Davey, The dream ... love violence, sunglasses and steaming manhole As far back as I can remember I always wanted covers. We love Drill Sergeants, Terminators and now in his final year to be a filmmaker. women smoking cigarettes. We love editing, of a Digital Screen Arts Cue the triumphant opening horns of Tony colouring and camera angles; twist contests, taxi drivers and Russian roulette. High heels, high degree, looks back to Bennett’s Rags to Riches and a swooping close- up onto my face in the sickening red taillight noon and what we think is High Concept. his first encounter with glow as I shut the bloody Billy Batts in my These things inspire us, certainly, and we think we want to be them, want to be in them, want his personal hero, Shane murder-scene trunk ... Okay, so it’s not my face, it’s Ray Liotta’s. And to make them. But that is why we are not really Meadows, and pays it’s not filmmaker, it’s gangster. And we all know filmmakers – and probably never will be. We are homage to the man and it’s boot and not trunk. But it is true that I’ve fantasists and geeks, at best. grown up wanting to be a filmmaker. And it is his movies. true that just saying so triggers a narcissist’s The personal back story A man once visited my class at college. He recollection of one of the many moments in was not Jean-Luc Godard or Martin Scorsese. He cinema that have shaped such a desire. The walked and talked and looked like a plumber moment – the climax of Goodfellas’ opening from Nottingham, or any other ‘real life’ person scene – is a common choice amongst aspiring that you could expect to meet. But he’d brought youngsters. We love the bravado of cinema. We

english and media centre | December 2008 | MediaMagazine 7 MM some short films in to show us; films he’d made emotional impact I had only ever experienced by someone not too different from myself, about – which made him a filmmaker. And they were from the likes of One Flew Over The Cuckoo’s people and places and stories not too different good, too. They didn’t have any graphic matches, Nest, Dancer in the Dark or Mean Streets. from my own. or symbolic meaning, or Odessa Steps, but they were affectionate, funny, moving and simple; Meadows: the man and the This is England: empathy and makeable, even. The filmmaker’s name was Shane movies emotion Meadows. Mean Streets, as it happens, is my favourite Then, last year, came This Is England (see In truth, I had seen one of his feature films film, and one which the director Shane MM 21). No hiding the emotion this time, on before, late night and barely advertised on the Meadows cited as a personal inspiration that either the first or second trip to the cinema. telly, and recognized the filmmaker (minus a afternoon in my Film Studies classroom two This Is England, after Meadows’ matured but comedy wig) as the chip-shop owner in that months previously. Perhaps if our ideas of what vengeful return to creative success, was a cut film. Other details also distinguished this constituted the best film of all time were the that had been getting deeper since the start of likeable, relatable-to filmmaker from the rest of same, then there was hope for me yet. Because his career and, in coming closer to the bone than us, and would later, upon repeated viewing of here was a man – and not just any man, but a ever before, resulted in his most accomplished, his previous and future films, become familiar Bloke – who had made a film that was entirely personal and, ironically, commercially successful and welcome signatures: the presence of the natural and comfortable in its own low budget, film to date. It seemed to solidify everything diverse and excellent actor, Paddy Considine, digital, do-able and British body. Something good about Meadows’ films; the affection and the calm and unpretentious shot simplicity, the that had seemed so far removed from my slick awareness he has for real life as he knows it or appreciative dedication to actors, characters inspirations, now so easily rivalled them in knew it, and his uncanny dedication and ability and therefore stories, and the Big Arty impact, making me question what it was I really to portray it, whether through actors or setting, Production company title that appears in the loved about the films I said I loved, and why I in such an ‘as it is’/’as it was’ way. And, as a film naïve Final Cut fonts to make me smile before would want to make such films. fan who once would never have thought of each of his films begin. Meadows had expressed, with the casual including the name Meadows in my top-ten The film that he was in town to screen was openness of a man who isn’t sitting in front of list of directors, I was happy to see many others his fourth feature, Dead Man’s Shoes. Despite twenty Film students, how his jaunt into the finally appreciating this bloke named Shane as having been moved and impressed by the short British mainstream with his third feature, Once they walked out of the cinema. films that he had shown us, and the late night Upon a Time in the Midlands, had left him So I thought about my list of moments and screening of A Room For Romeo Brass on the disillusioned, pissed-off and eager to return reasons for loving cinema, and the bag of telly, I regrettably submitted to my appetite and to the guerilla-shoot days of his first feature, memorized cool that would one day make me made the long slog home for my tea after the Twenty Four Seven. He told funny stories of his Quentin Tarantino, and I realized that, while lesson’s end, rather than attend the screening childhood, of his ill-conceived and short-lived cool is cool, telling an honest story about in town. I say regrettably because a couple of career in petty crime as a young boy, and of his something you understand seems to make for months later, whilst working in a video shop like unexpected and ongoing career in filmmaking. the most affecting and timeless of all films. The any real clichéd film student should, I swiped In the short time he spent chatting with us that moments that demonstrate the appeal of these Dead Man’s Shoes from the catalogue and took afternoon he conveyed the anger, the humour, films are harder to define. Not the thrill of a gun- it home to watch after my shift. I wished, as the experience, the appreciation and, most of all, fight or a famous line but a feeling of memory the end-credits rolled, that I had seen it in the the ability to relate to people and tell stories that and empathy, triggered by something between cinema. seemed, as those credits kept rolling in that dark a mother and her young boy as she tries to Thankfully, I was alone in the dark in our family family sitting-room, to crystallize in my head into convince him to buy smart shoes instead of Doc sitting-room as those credits rolled, allowing reasons why someone would truly want, and be Martens. Hard to define and harder to capture, me the guilt-free privacy to absorb the type of able, to make a film like Dead Man’s Shoes: a film but worth it if you can do it. And perhaps that’s

8 MediaMagazine | December 2008 | english and media centre MM

why these films and these directors seem to keenly shot in black and white in that familiarly Meadows to allow projects to come to fruition stand out. Meadows made Dead Man’s Shoes understated style, and refrains from the dramatic how, where and when they feel right. A skinhead because Clarke made Scum because Scorsese crutch of violence that has always been present in he may look like, but a bit of a hippy is what I made Mean Streets because Truffaut made previous films, allowing the director’s instinctive think he really is. Better that than a yuppy, on a The 400 Blows. Each probably tried to be the and always enjoyable tradition for comedic crane shouting down a megaphone at the latest other, but if you take your cues from a personal, flourishes – and the actors – to step quietly and car-chase-gun-fight-swear-smoke-sex-camera- honest and emotional filmmaker, your films confidently into the limelight. angle… are bound to end up, if not like theirs, at least The story, which sees Turgoose, a runaway So, if you find time to peel your eyes off personal, honest and emotional. And anybody from Nottingham, and Jagiello, a bored Polish YouTube (or Smegbox or Peehole or whatever it is can relate to that. migrant-worker’s son, form an unlikely friendship us kids are watching these days), go and support Or, at least, that’s my current hypothesis for amongst the quiet weekday concrete of an your local (bankrupt) arthouse cinema and watch directorial success. The trouble is that Meadows inner-city London council estate, flits casually a film by a director who should, according to the makes it look so easy. His most recent feature, between Polish and English without alienation. law of averages, be churning out mediocre studio Somers Town, which scooped the big prize at I think it constructs a rare story of optimism and projects or floundering in his post-premature Edinburgh and numerous accolades for the acceptance within our increasingly child-and success by now. And, after that, rent The 400 young leads, Piotr Jagiello and Thomas ‘This is migrant-phobic society. Blows, then Mean Streets, then Scum, then Dead England’ Turgoose, is a short, sweet and mature Perhaps, due to its seventy-minute running Man’s Shoes, and just have a long hard think film. Although still described as the young hope time or its close proximity to recent successes, about that little list of yours. of British cinema, at six features in, Meadows Somers Town has received a slightly more mixed could be said to be reaching veteran status. response than Meadows’ other recent films, but I Owen Davey is completing a degree course in Digital The experience shows in Somers Town which is think it’s refreshing for an organic filmmaker like Screen Arts at the University for the Creative Arts, Surrey. courtesy of image.net Somers Town Images of

english and media centre | December 2008 | MediaMagazine 9 MM

how hollywood Did you watch the opening ceremony of Hollywood and the ‘overseas the Olympic Games earlier this year? How is market’ is learning to it connected to the third instalments of two Up until the 1990s, Hollywood had taken Pirates of the Caribbean work with the Hollywood franchises, the view that the so-called ‘domestic market’, The Mummy and and this year’s summer i.e. North America (US and Canada), was the The film industries blockbuster from 20th Century Fox, most important source of income. Over 50% of Happening of south-east ? The answer is that they all point Hollywood’s box office income came from the asia towards the increasing co-operation between domestic market, and success at home was the Hollywood and the film industries of South and marker of a box office hit. Gradually, however, East Asia. it became apparent that the international ‘filmed entertainment’ Since the turn of the What is now known as market (i.e. everywhere else) was growing (films in cinemas, on DVD and on broadcast 21st-century, relationships faster than the domestic; and in the last few television) is a dynamic industry, constantly years, the profit shares have reversed. Where between non-Western experiencing expansion and contraction. It’s international profits were once just a bonus, a global industry and has been so since the film industries and the now they are essential to the financial health 1930s, if not earlier. Over the past seventy of the studios. The studios now have to consider powerful Hollywood years there has tended to be one certainty in how to maximise that overseas box office. all of this – the dominance of the Hollywood Most of those 179 MPAA films in 2007 will have majors have begun to the hegemonic studios, often referred to as opened in nearly every film market in the world. power of Hollywood shift. Roy Stafford . Hegemony is the concept Although Hollywood has often appeared to be explains the rise and of domination by consent. In other words, quite isolationist, looking inwards to American audiences across the world will often choose concerns rather than outwards to global issues, rise of Asian markets, to watch American movies in preference to it has always scouted other film industries to buy and the ways Western those from anywhere else, including their own rights to successful films (i.e. for remakes) and domestic industries. (Of course they can only movie moguls are moving talent (actors, writers, directors etc.). Now it is ‘choose’ from what is actually distributed.) going much further. towards more global ‘Hollywood’ in this context means the six major studios: Warner Bros, Sony, Disney, Global status collaborations. Paramount, Universal and 20th Century Fox. Pirates 3 and The Mummy 3 were both These six comprise the MPAA – the Motion constructed to incorporate Asian characters and Pictures Association of America – the most Asian settings. Chow Yun Fat and Jet Li are just powerful international lobby group in the two of the stars from the commercial cinema entertainment industries. The three sectors in the of Hong Kong who have begun to appear in American film industry are usually defined as: Hollywood films. This process began in the 1970s – the six MPAA studios with American-Hong Kong co-productions such – their ‘affiliates’ or independent brands which as Enter the Dragon (1973) starring Bruce Lee. tend to make ‘smaller’ films Lee was American-born but brought up as a – the rest – the smaller, genuinely child star in Hong Kong cinema; and though he independent companies. returned to America to appear on TV, his film Each of the six majors distributes around 30 career was rooted in Hong Kong. When he died, big budget films each year. For our purposes, aged only 32, in the year that Enter the Dragon ‘Hollywood’ comprises the 200 or so films was released, he became an international cult distributed by the six major studios. You can icon. download all the MPAA statistics from http:// www.mpaa.org/researchStatistics.asp. In 2007, MPAA members distributed 179 films (411 other films were also distributed in North America).

10 MediaMagazine | December 2008 | english and media centre MM

Images courtesy of OutNow:CH http://outnow.ch/Movies/2008/RedCliff /Posters/

english and media centre | December 2008 | MediaMagazine 11 MM and The Mummy The , Pirates of the Caribbean Pirates , courtesy of image.net The Happening The Images from Images from Kung Fu Panda Fu Kung

12 MediaMagazine | December 2008 | english and media centre MM also involved in the production. Red Cliff has not competed with The Mummy 3 for Chinese cinema tickets; the Chinese authorities ensured that the Universal release was delayed until September. Back in the 1980s, before it was killed off by video piracy, the Chinese cinema audience was counted in the billions. Now it is returning and the Hollywood studios want to get the best conditions for distribution of their films. Film as business in India A film needs to take two to three times its production and marketing costs to break even. The Happening demonstrates how co-production can support this process. It looks like an American movie, with familiar US settings and stars. Its director, M. Night Shyamalan was born in Pondicherry in South India but grew up in Pennsylvania. The Happening was a flop in North America ($64 million), continuing the downward trend of box office for Shyamalan’s films since his mammoth success with The Sixth Sense (1999), but thanks to a co-production deal between 20th Century Fox and Indian media group Enter the Dragon courtesy of image.net UTV, its dismal American performance was balanced by an international take of over $100 million. This means that with DVD sales and Jackie Chan was the next major star to make ‘presence’ in the major markets of East Asia. As television rights, a film that cost up to $90 million the move to Hollywood, with Rush Hour in 1998. of September 2008 this seems to have worked. will still see a profit. To properly understand what He had appeared in minor roles since Enter the Although The Mummy 3 was deemed a flop in this kind of co-production means, we need to Dragon and in Hong Kong films made in the US North America ($98 million), it has succeeded consider film as a business in India. (e.g. Rumble in the Bronx, 1995) but it was the internationally ($260 million and counting) Rush Hour franchise that made Jackie Chan a with East Asia providing a strong conclusion Understanding the context of major Hollywood star. At this time, of course, he to the roll-out. In 2007, Pirates 3 took $309 Indian film was arguably one of the biggest stars, not just in million in North America and $642 million Since the 1990s India has produced more Asia, but worldwide. Like the Indian star Amitabh internationally – nearly $1 billion in total. films than any other country and these have Bachchan, he could reasonably claim to be better These are the kinds of figures that the major generated the world’s largest audiences. Each known across the world than any Hollywood star. studios understand. year there are over 800 films made in India and However, although the Rush Hour franchise audiences are over 3 billion – more than twice has taken over $500 million in North America Chinese film without the size of the audience in North America. Most and $345 million in the international market compromises cinema tickets in India are very cheap, some as (a fantastic result for New Line, then one of The director of the Olympics opening low as 20p each, and as yet the industry is not the MPAA ‘affiliates’) Jackie Chan’s appearance ceremony in Beijing was the Chinese director comparable with Hollywood in revenue terms. in Hollywood films didn’t mark a real change Zhang Yimou (see MediaMag 21). Zhang is a However, a number of factors mean that the of direction for the studios. The clue is in the unique figure. He’s a director who first made his situation is changing quickly: figures – international audiences didn’t embrace name with films seen in the West as ‘art films’ – new cinema building in India is bringing the films as warmly as Americans. Contrast this – i.e. films that won prizes at festivals but had modern multiplexes with digital screens to with the The Forbidden Kingdom (2008), a less limited box office potential. In 2002, however, he major cities successful film overall, but one that attracted produced the large scale ‘martial chivalry’ (wu xia) – the Indian middle class, with enough money a bigger international share. Also in 2008, epic Hero, which became the first Chinese film to to match Western spending patterns, is growing Jackie Chan had a voice role in Kung Fu Panda top the American box-office charts. rapidly (a massive success taking over $600 million Hero was released in America by Disney and – NRIs or ‘non-resident Indians’ in the UK and worldwide (and again, more of this came from it did have a recognisable star (in fact the film North America pay Western prices to watch outside North America than inside). Kung Fu was re-titled as Jet Li’s Hero in some American Indian films. Panda was Jackie’s first ‘studio tentpole’ – a film contexts). It followed Ang Lee’s Crouching Tiger, Two things have happened in response to from one of the majors designed to ‘hold up’ the Hidden Dragon into the American charts, but the these factors. In Los Angeles, Hollywood studios whole release schedule, or perhaps to proclaim difference is that whilst Lee is a Chinese director have started to think about how they can sell the schedule from the top of the flagpole. Pirates with American training, Zhang has remained films in India. Up to now, Indian audiences have and The Mummy are ‘tentpole’ franchises for firmly in China. Hero is definitely a Chinese film generally ignored Hollywood films. Even those Disney and Universal respectively. Locating at with no concessions to American audiences. that have been successful, such as March of the least part of the story in China, and carrying a The other headline at the time of the Olympics Penguins and the Spider Man films, have not major Chinese star is part of a strategy to ensure was the release of the biggest grossing film of all topped the biggest Indian films. Hollywood has time at the Chinese box office, Red Cliff, another reacted in two ways: Sony, a Japanese company martial epic, this time directed by John Woo. with long-standing interests in both China and Woo, trained in the Hong Kong industry of the India, last year produced its first Bollywood 1980s and 1990s, had transferred to Hollywood film in India, Saawariya. The other option is to with mixed success, but he committed himself co-operate with Indian distributors who know the to working in China on Red Cliff. Although local market. March of the Penguins was released identified as a Chinese film, the Internet by Adlabs, an innovative company in the Indian Movie Database (IMDB) shows that American, media market. Taiwanese, Japanese and Korean companies were

english and media centre | December 2008 | MediaMagazine 13 MM media; and distributors seem unconcerned to get the films into cinemas outside what they deem as Asian local markets. This will change. Asian markets The other ‘giants’ that have re-emerged to meet Hollywood are Japan and South Korea. In 2007, for the first time for many years, four major film territories saw Hollywood’s share of their own domestic markets fall below 50%. India has always kept Hollywood at bay, but in 2007 it was joined by Japan, South Korea and China. Twice in film history, first in the 1930s and again in Not just Bollywood! Adlabs, Eros and Yash Raj. Each of these the 1960s, Japan had the world’s largest film Filmed entertainment in India faces a unique companies has interests in television, DVD industry. From the 1970s that industry declined set of problems and opportunities. Contrary to distribution, film distribution and ‘new media’. in the face of competition from television and what you may have read in many textbooks and One of the most important mergers this year video. However, production remains high and, as newspaper articles, ‘Bollywood’ is not the whole has seen Eros, a largely Bollywood-focused in India, Japanese media companies show signs of the Indian film industry. It isn’t even the company, merge with Ayngaran, the major of developing as counterweights to Hollywood. biggest sector in terms of the number of films it distributor of Tamil language films worldwide. Since 1997 and the ‘handover’ of Hong Kong to produces. There are about 200 Bollywood films These new Indian media majors see the need China, the major East Asian nations have to some per year, made largely in Mumbai, in Hindi. to think both nationally and internationally. Over extent glossed over their political differences, Bollywood is therefore roughly the same size as the next few years we will see an increasing and co-productions and film exchanges have Hollywood in terms of the number of features. number of co-production deals between the increased between Japan, China and South However, a larger number of films (over 300) six Hollywood majors and the four Indian Korea. These countries share a broad cultural are made in the South of India, especially majors. One of the most eagerly anticipated perspective, different to that in the West. They in Chennai and Hyderabad, in the Tamil or moments in international cinema is the first produce high quality films on relatively modest Telugu languages; there are 75 million Telugu crossover film that will bring Indian cinema budgets (certainly by Hollywood standards) speakers and 60 million Tamils in India. Films are to American audiences (i.e. not just the NRI and they have the potential to export films to also made in as many as six other languages. audience). Where is the Indian Crouching Tiger, other growing South East Asian markets such Bollywood films have the biggest budgets, but Hidden Dragon? Where is the Indian Jet Li or as Thailand, Malaysia and the Philippines. not necessarily the biggest stars – the Tamil John Woo? We probably won’t have too long Malaysia is a good example of an Asian market cinema star Rajnikanth is often listed as the to wait to find out. There are plenty of talented with a growing middle class and both Chinese highest earner and his last two films have topped filmmakers in India. What Indian producers need and Indian (Tamil) diaspora populations. In the the Indian box office. Adlabs was careful to to do is to professionalise their practice. Some period from 2000-2006, the biggest impact was release March of the Penguins in English and also producers in India have simply stolen ideas from made by South Korea. The hallyu or ‘Korean dubbed into Hindi, Tamil and Telugu. other film cultures – re-making successful films wave’ saw Korean, films, television and pop So it’s important to know and understand the without paying for rights. But this is changing. As music sell very well across East Asia, often Indian market. You can download a free guide to the Indian middle class becomes more affluent taking custom away from American offerings. Indian Cinema from http://www.cornerhouse. it is more able to pursue the leisure habits of the Significantly, Hollywood put pressure on the org/education/schoolsandcolleges. West, so a distribution for American, European Korean government to reduce the impact of the aspx?page=48260 and East Asian art films is emerging (see quota system which had ensured that Korean Shackleton, 2008) in the new India. films were shown in Korean cinemas. In 2008, The new Indian ‘majors’ Whether the Indian majors are yet able to Hollywood has increased its share of the Korean Until recently, Indian film production properly exploit the potential of their films in market, moving back above 50%. companies have been relatively small. Although the West is another question. Although they India had a Hindi ‘studio system’ (in Bombay, have successfully marketed to the NRI audience Conclusion Pune and Calcutta) not unlike Hollywood in in the UK and North America, they haven’t yet So what can we conclude from all of this? The the 1930s-60s, it didn’t develop the ‘media joined the UK or North American industry in Hollywood majors have remained dominant conglomerates’ of modern Hollywood. But following ‘institutional practice’. So, in the UK in both North America and internationally, something like the Hollywood model is now and US, you will rarely see their films reviewed in not because they make films but because they emerging. Four companies stand out: UTV, mainstream press or on television, because they distribute them and own the rights to exploit aren’t previewed for journalists outside the Asian their studio brands. To survive in the future, they will have to work hard to make sure that their brands remain in distribution in all territories, and courtesy of image.net The Happening The

14 MediaMagazine | December 2008 | english and media centre MM especially in Asia. They may have to make some In future sequels, when Spider-Man takes off compromises. We have seen one aspect of this his mask in Asia, he will probably be either References developing slowly for several years. The Malaysian Chinese or Indian. And he will no longer Naman Ramachandaran (2008) :‘Bollywood v star of Hong Kong cinema, Michelle Yeoh, first swing from the high-rise buildings of New Hollywood’ in Film & Festivals, Summer. appeared as James Bond’s sidekick in Tomorrow York, but from Shanghai or Mumbai. Never Dies (1997). In 2005 Ken Watanabe If the movie breaks records in Beijing or Liz Shackleton (2008): ‘World Cinema arrives in starred in the opening sequence of Batman Bangalore, will it matter if the audience in Iowa India’ in Screen International, 3 July. Begins. When the film opened in Japan, it was finds this a little odd? It might happen at the Watanabe who made the public appearances, same time that an Indian film, made in English, Roy Stafford is researching a book on Global Film and re-introducing a franchise which on its previous opens wide across America. Women in the West building up resources on the website ‘The Case for Global outing had seen disappointing results. have bought L’Oreal cosmetics advertised by Film’ at http://itpworld.wordpress.com where you can find As Naman Ramachandaran (2008) points ex-Miss World Aishwarya Rai; why shouldn’t they many useful articles and links to help explore the issues out, quoting Shekhar Kapur, Indian director of accept the world being saved by a beautiful outlined here. Elizabeth: The Golden Age (2007): young Asian man or woman in a blockbuster?

Enter the Dragon image courtesy of BFI Archive

english and media centre | December 2008 | MediaMagazine 15 star struck

After selecting my admire for his talent and beyond a personal response the phenomenon. For the in-flight movies this who I am intrigued by to explain their continued WJEC Film Studies FM2 significance summer it struck me that because of his controversial appeal? British and American Film, of stars past my choice was largely personal life. As the film industry contemporary stardom because of the actor rather Whilst many of us might capitalises on our provides a case study to and present than the type of film. admit to being persuaded fascination with stars, it explore the relationship Both films starred Robert to see a film by the allure is crucial to have a critical between producers and The film and PR Downey Junior, who I of a star, how can we go framework to understand audiences. Here are five ways to think about the industries construct phenomenon of the star, them, box offices rely and some key questions to help you to examine their on them, our culture importance to the industry is obsessed by and to their fans. them ... stars are the 1. Star as crucial link between persona – How is the star image producers and the constructed? audiences who Stars have a persona; adore them. Elaine a recognizable image constructed through their Homer explores physical appearance, ways of investigating on-screen roles, and media coverage of their off-screen the phenomenon of life. stars and their value Stars in the Hollywood Studio System to fans and to the The construction of film industry. star image occurred in Hollywood as far back as the silent era with portrayals such as Charlie Chaplin’s vagrant character, defined by his bowler hat, oversized trousers, cane- twirling and distinctive walk. Actors and actresses were groomed by studio professionals, promoted by press agents, and typecast into similar roles. The seven year contracts that tied stars to studios provided them with security and continuous employment. However, the studio bosses were in control, as stars could be forced to take on roles or face an extension to their contract. Typecast stars became linked with specific genres: the means by which the studios standardised and differentiated their products. For example, following the success of Dracula (1931) Bela Lugosi was typecast as a horror villain at Universal.

16 MediaMagazineMediaMagazine | | December December 2008 2008 | | english english and and media media centre centre RIP Paul Newman, acknowledged as one of the last great stars with integrity. He resisted typecasting and playing to his good looks, and controlled his star persona with dignity. , courtesy of image.net The Hudsucker Proxy Hudsucker The Paul Newman in Paul

Star image in semiotic short-cut that Stallone’s recent reprise of institutional relationships. contemporary film takes the effort out of their action hero roles in Johnny Depp’s portrayal of Persona continues to interpretation. Die Hard 4 (2007), Indiana eccentric misfits emerged be a crucial component Some movie stars resist Jones and the Kingdom of out of his collaboration of contemporary celebrity being typecast whilst other the Crystal Skull (2008) and with director Tim Burton status. Jim Carey capitalises have been tempted to Rambo (2008). Other stars whose distinctive gothic- on his gangly frame repeat roles. Tom Hanks refuse to accept roles based style films provided an ideal and protruding teeth progressed from comic on purely commercial vehicle for this. De Niro’s to comic effect with an to more serious roles to considerations. Joseph collaboration with Scorsese acting style characterised play an assassin in Road Gordon-Levitt, child actor established his image as by exaggerated facial to Perdition (2002). The from the television series a conflicted tough guy expressions and association of a major Third Rock from the Sun gangster. In recent years his movements. For cinema star with a franchise is known to have sought shift to mainstream comedy audiences watching a can be a valuable lever good roles in quality indie in Analyse That (2002) and typecast actor or actress in negotiating lucrative films to critical acclaim. Meet the Fockers (2004) has with a familiar persona contracts, a possible Personas change attracted new fans. Images courtesy of image.net simplifies the reading motive for Bruce Willis, over time with shifts in Since the emergence process and provides a Harrison Ford and Sylvester production contexts and of method acting in the

english and media centre | December 2008 | MediaMagazine 17 1950s actors have sought contemporary film posters line advertising, stars are controversial stories. to create an authentic and it becomes clear films promoted across a range (See Hollywood Babylon performance. To this end are marketed through of media institutions by by Kenneth Anger for stars have manipulated star image, genre or a film promoters, journalists examples.) Occasionally their image, in extreme combination of the two. and the materials they negative press can boost cases by reconstructing Pictures of Cameron Diaz produce. Stars make stars’ careers as notoriety their bodies. Notable and Aston Kutcher, on the television appearances; do ensures the stars remain in examples include De Niro’s poster for recent romcom interviews; evade paparazzi; circulation. Hugh Grant’s 60lb weight gain for Raging What Happened in Vegas attend awards ceremonies; arrest by L. A. vice officers Bull (1980) and Christian (2008; see right), generate make public appearances for lewd conduct with Bale’s dramatic weight loss audience expectations of and endorse products. a prostitute kept him in of 62lbs for The Machinist a mainstream comedy. These become reviews; the spotlight, and his (2004). According to Dyer this magazine articles; press apologetic response to this is one of the ways stars reports; gossip columns and misdemeanour minimized Poster for What Happened Next, Robert 2. Star as pro- contribute to the ‘narrative online articles that film fans the negative impact on de Niro and Sylvester Stallone, Robert motional tool image’, the idea of the consume. Contemporary his popularity. In other Redford courtesy of image.net – How do stars film circulated outside the stars also use publicists, cases over exposure and contribute to cinema. Images of stars on stylists and photographers the volatility of the press film marketing? film posters can also signify to control how they are can damage careers. The If the Hollywood moguls a familiar character type (in presented in an attempt to press coverage Tom Cruise of the past were quick Diaz’s case a ditsy blonde), manipulate the media to received after his couch to use stars to promote suggest narrative elements further their careers. jump on Oprah to proclaim movies, the industry today and the scale of a movie. Although stories about his love for Katie Holmes, continues to capitalise on their private lives can coupled with coverage the ‘power of the name’ Cross-media benefit stars and the of his Scientology beliefs, to attract an already promotion film industry, publicists contributed to his release established fan base to a In addition to being sometimes cover up from a lucrative contract film. Examine a range of featured in above-the- scandals and suppress with Paramount.

18 MediaMagazine | December 2008 | english and media centre 3. Star as Risky business 4. Star as 5. Star as object Final thoughts commodity In the high stakes film meaning – What of desire – What Bombarded with images – What is the industry, attaching a star ideologies and is the appeal of of stars, stories about commercial name to a project can values do stars the star to fans? their lives and onscreen mediate risk. Consider how value of stars? represent? Film fans can develop appearances we can falsely British film production believe that we ‘know’ the ‘You are only a good as To be a star is to strong emotional companies ensure box- star. Stars seem accessible; your last film.’ represent glamour and attachments to stars. Fans office success by casting Stars are products, an aspiration to succeed. identify with character but don’t confuse your American female leads. whose success is judged in Stars like Marilyn Monroe roles and the social values perception of the star Securing Julia Roberts as terms of their capacity to who embody those they represent. Stars like with actual experience or the female lead in Notting provide revenue for the film qualities become icons. Brad Pitt and Angelina Jolie understanding of them as Hill (1999) helped the industry. The fact that stars Onscreen roles also connote have sex appeal, glamour a person. Remember that film achieve worldwide representations: can guarantee commercial particular messages and status as a celebrity stars are gross of $363,889,678. mediated constructions success through their and values. Sylvester couple. These stars can (Boxofficemojo.com) that can be defined in box office drawing power Stallone as Rocky Balboa become subjects of erotic Stars’ bankable ratings terms of their economic has upped their status, represents individualism contemplation as fans get films funded, widen and social importance autonomy and scale of and the American Dream derive a voyeuristic pleasure . distribution and determine rewards. As listed in Forbes through his determination from gazing at the star At the same time they how much to spend on Celebrity 100, Cameron to succeed. The use of image in the safe context are human beings who the marketing campaign. Diaz is currently the highest iconography such as the of a one-way relationship. A seem both ordinary and Distribution deals are paid female actress in American flag draped tension exists because the extraordinary. It is this agreed at script stage Hollywood earning $50 around Rocky’s torso and star is present and absent at inherent contradiction that based on predictions of million while Will Smith embossed onto his boxing the same time; this creates will continue to intrigue. how successful a film might tops male actors with gloves evokes patriotism in a desire to know the star be. Signing a particular Elaine Homer is an AST in earnings of $80 million. the spectator. that cannot be fulfilled, star can be pivotal in a Media Studies at Kidbrooke Visit Forbes.com to see known as the photo-effect. film progressing to the School. their annual list of bankable production stage. stars. Follow it up Hollywood Babylon by Kenneth Anger (Dell Bantam, 1998 and other reprints available via Amazon) was the original film industry ‘scandal bible’. Essential reading for film buffs and star gazers.

english and media centre | December 2008 | MediaMagazine 19 20 MediaMagazine | December 2008 | english and media centre brangelina

how a hollywood Charismatic stars are vehicle, Mr and Mrs Smith super-couple the ultimate box office which unleashed the can unravel draw, generating millions famous on and off-screen spectatorship of pounds in revenue. Few chemistry between Pitt would disagree that Brad and Angelina Jolie. Later theory Pitt and Angelina Jolie I’ll explore why this film epitomise male and female is crucial in revealing a Stars are the life- beauty and charisma. In deeper understanding of cinematic history, they the ‘screen gaze’ and how blood of the cinema may eventually be as both men and women industry – but important as Bogart and consume film. they also open Bacall, or Burton and Taylor. They seem to embody up interesting some core elements of The theory theoretical debates intense masculinity and Laura Mulvey’s femininity which attract and challenges. Theory of Film the global audience. Their Spectatorship: Sean Richardson individual claims to ‘A’ list (based on analysis star status became even explores the of classical more powerful when they Hollywood film). married; and they have Brangelina – Film spectatorship since been at the centre of is gender based, phenomenon and a worldwide media frenzy with male/female that follows their every what it can teach binary opposites. move. An interest in the to be the closest thing to for the male/female. The – The ‘gaze’ or ‘look’ of us about theories pairing of such powerful a waking dream that we static binary opposition of the male audience stars stems from the have as human beings. passive women and active of spectatorship, member/protagonist eternal fascination with The projection of images men is perhaps nowadays pleasure and gender. in the film is active. Hollywood private lives and in a darkened room is like more fluid than Mulvey – The female is loves. They are key icons a dream, flickering and suggests. Men and women passive, an object ‘to to look at for film work registering on many levels. can identify with many be looked at’. on representation and Mulvey’s theory is a characters during the – It is limited to gender. fantastic starting point and spectacle of a film. active/passive Laura Mulvey is should be the beginning spectatorship of film. frequently quoted as a key of research on a film The 21st-century theorist on spectatorship text. She herself has said film supercouple and the gendered Students often apply she wanted to prompt a To explore the meanings consumption of media Mulvey’s approach as a conceptual debate but, of the iconic male/ female texts. Her 1975 essay on very blunt tool to all sorts too often, students focus stars of our age, Brad Pitt spectatorship, ‘Visual of media texts, including unproblematically on this and Angelina Jolie (aka Pleasure and Narrative advertising, music videos one theory from 1975! Brangelina), the ideas Cinema’ is undoubtedly and, of course, film. The central problem with of Yvonne Tasker and one of the most significant However, her analysis the theory is the gender Richard Dyer offer new and and influential film theories. was based on classical binary opposition of active dynamic approaches to film Unfortunately, it is also one Hollywood cinema texts, and passive spectatorship. analysis and spectatorship. of the most widely misused and should only be used Professor Yvonne Tasker Few people on the and misunderstood theories – with caution – for film sums it up in Spectacular planet can fail to be aware in A Level Film and Media analysis by the 21st-century Bodies – gender, genre of the ‘Brangelina’ brand, Studies. student. To apply it with and the action cinema the global superstar However, we can draw any real success, you will (Comedia, 1993): coupling. Other examples on Mulvey’s approach ideally need a basic grasp What once may would include our own and take film analysis of Freudian theories of have provided an Posh’n’Becks, or TomKat into the 21st century if psychoanalysis – heavy stuff enabling critical (Tom Cruise and Katy we use a combination of at the best of times, even concept, now seems Holmes). Wikipedia terms star theory and ideas if you’re doing Psychology almost completely this new phenomenon the on spectatorship and A Level. But don’t be put disempowering in its ‘supercouple’: identification to analyse off by psychoanalytic effects. A supercouple (also some of the key texts of approaches to film analysis. She argues that this is known as a power Pitt and Jolie, the golden The experience of film because we can get terribly couple or dynamic cinematic couple. has been linked to such bogged down in reading duo) is a popular or It was the 2005 star approaches as it is said a text as disempowering financially-wealthy Images courtesy of image.net

english and media centre | December 2008 | MediaMagazine 21 pairing that intrigues Yvonne Tasker’s Mr and Mrs Smith in The Bourne Identity, 2.0’, personalized media and fascinates the Spectacular The film cleverly exploits he beckons her and says, and ultimate choice, this public in an intense or Bodies the two huge star personas, ‘Come on, honey…come to self-created identification even obsessive fashion. daddy’. She the responds theory is very powerful. Tasker rejects the casting them as married Mr and Mrs Smith, with a blow to his head, The image of Jolie’s rigid idea of a male/ suburban Americans, directed by Doug Liman headbutts him and retorts, slender arms grasping female binary for cinema who both have secret in 2005, was the film ‘Who’s your daddy now?’ powerful weaponry spectatorship, as proposed lives as assassins. They which paired Jolie and The visceral pleasures of has become a modern by Mulvey, and argues that are attending marriage Pitt together in a High the action cinema spectacle cinematic symbol, powerful, the cinema space is a guidance counselling Concept spy/relationship allow utopian identification contradictory yet resonant. place where a spectator and are unaware of each action-movie which, possibilities. Angelina Jolie The ending of Mr and can identify with other’s secret life. This according to Hollywood is as active in the frame Mrs Smith sees Jolie multiple perspectives. extraordinary twist allows mythology, led to the as Pitt and often upstages brandishing two guns, She describes it as a for spectacular and violent break-up of Pitt’s marriage him, arguably eclipsing back to back with Pitt, who ‘utopian social space’, action sequences, where to Jennifer Aniston. The him. Male or female gazes also mirrors her with two where in a small, ideal the viewer could potentially celebrity magazine and can be dispensed with as guns. They are impossibly environment (perhaps your perversely identify with tabloid feeding-frenzy audiences experiment with outnumbered (in a self- local multiplex?) you can either Pitt or Jolie or both, has continued relentlessly the voyeuristic pleasures of reflexive nod to the final dream and enjoy multiple moving on from Mulvey’s ever since, culminating in looking – sometimes known scene of Butch Cassidy cinematic pleasures. static binaries. In the first the July birth of the twins as scopophilia. and the Sundance Kid, the She suggests that we opening sequence we see Knox Leon and Vivienne classic 1969 buddy movie). can enjoy the pleasure of Pitt and Jolie in a two- Marcheline, an event which The director reverts to slow- the cinema and identify shot, their dress codes Scopophilia: the provoked offers of around motion, almost bullet time with who we want to, symbolizing their ‘ordinary’ erotic pleasure of looking $20 million dollars for (as in The Matrix, 1999), regardless of gender. If we natures. Yet their star power at other people. In exclusive pictures. This as Pitt gets wounded. Jolie analyse other media such shines out even here; the cinema, the spectator intense fascination with two sprays a fatal volley into the as computer games, where chemistry and charisma can enjoy the images film actors is nothing new shooter. To get tied down teenage boys and girls they generate is palpable. projected high on the in Hollywood, but with their here with gender theory spent thousands of hours As secret assassins, both screen. Scopophilia is symbolic union, audience would be a mistake, as ‘being’ Lara Croft, the ‘Tomb are trained in weapons and closely related to desire; interest has bordered on theory can and has evolved Raider’, this is a powerful martial arts. The film’s major the desire to look and the obsessional. into something much more argument. Tasker looked in sequence of confrontation consume sexualised dynamic and fluid. particular at action cinema between the pair occurs imagery is deep in the Richard Dyer’s Mr and Mrs Smith and action heroines in in the family home. The human psyche. earned over $478 million Stars the 1980s arguing for a iconic white clapperboard Richard Dyer’s work on worldwide, one of the reassessment of the action house is the perfect star theory suggested that The symbolic destruction biggest hits of 2005. spectacle cinema. She counterpoint to the carnage a star persona is made up of the marital home is discussed the multiple which follows and the of many aspects, only one engineered as the assassins Wanted pleasures of texts such as destruction of the house is of which is the actual film decide to kiss and make With the success of the The Terminator (1984), the climax of the fight. Jolie texts. (See Elaine Homer’s up, but have contracts recent blockbuster Wanted, Rambo: First Blood Part II is seen brandishing a high- piece on page 16 for a fuller put on their lives by their Jolie’s star has risen even (1985) and Alien (1979) and powered assault rifle, in analysis.) Pitt and Jolie’s paymasters. The explosive, further. Wanted made questioned long-standing black combat dress and in extraordinarily documented flaming house blows up over $131 million in the elements of film criticism, full action heroine mode. life off-camera feeds into as Pitt and Jolie emerge US and over $226 million including Mulvey’s famous Director Doug Liman their star images and leads running onto the lawn. worldwide, grossing more theory. positions the spectator Again in equal two-shot, in its opening weekend us to re-evaluate them. equally between the two brandishing powerful than any previous live- This is particularly true of Back to the protagonists, giving them symbolic handguns, the action film starring Angelina Jolie, who has supercouple equal screen time, framing moved from ‘wild child’ to two spray deathly bullets Angelina Jolie. This leads us back to them with similar symbolic ‘earth mother/global citizen’, into the lesser assassins sent Wanted (2008), directed Mr and Mrs Smith, a film objects. Pitt exhibits eclipsing even Madonna. to kill them – disposable, by Timur Bekmambetov where Angelina Jolie is as expertise with a meat knife, Dyer identifies the lack of everyday actors, who and co-starring James heroic and skilled as Brad followed by Jolie twirling control stars have in the demand only momentary McAvoy, utilized Jolie’s Pitt. Traditional film theory a bread knife menacingly. era of the telephoto lens of screen time. The iconic action star persona cleverly. would use gender-based It is wonderfully perverse the invasive paparazzi. The explosion that fills the Arguments from Dyer assumptions to analyse the in offering multiple film texts, studio publicity screen, jolting the stars and Tasker can both be position of the audience identifications, with the and interviews are the only into the air, has become applied to deconstruct its in relation to this text. darkened cinema allowing controlled aspects of the a Hollywood code with appeal and constructions, However, Tasker argues that such fantasy pleasures. This star persona. Yet ‘Brangelina’ Tom Cruise’s masterclass revealing how Jolie the viewer can identify with is 21st-century filmmaking is the ultimate film couple, in Mission Impossible embodies a 21st-century either Pitt or Jolie, or both, that has a deep psycho- despite this lack of control. III (2006). The explosion multi-gendered ideal. a process she has termed analytic undercurrent, with in Mr and Mrs Smith is She is presented as ‘perverse identifications’. Freudian gender issues significant as both Jolie super-human, feeding off Indeed, the text itself seems bubbling away; yet we and Pitt are launched, guns the humanitarian super- to promote this, with a hero can use current theory raised, both now clothed selfless compassion she and heroine with strong to deconstruct it. As Pitt in innocent white, allowing is associated with in the star quality. kickboxes Jolie to the the spectator to pick and global media. The poster floor, after blowing up the choose their preferred marketing campaign you kitchen à la Jason Bourne star. In this era of ‘Web probably saw on bus

22 MediaMagazine | December 2008 | english and media centre english and media centre | December 2008 | MediaMagazine 23 phallic symbols. Fox is a super-skilled driver, blurring any gender stereotypes, Glossary of Key Terms yet very sexualized and Star Theory: The study of film stars and their associated glamorous. In a key texts to analyse film and film reception. sequence she has to hand Star Persona: According to Richard Dyer, the star image control of the car to Wesley. that is made up of promotion, publicity, films, criticisms and Bekmambetov offers a tight commentaries. shot of the interior of the (This MediaMagazine article is part of Angelina Jolie’s car, with Jolie straddling the Star Persona, if you use it in your work!) dashboard, to lean out and Perverse Identifications: When a cinema spectator fire her weapon. identifies with any number of stars or characters on the The cinema viewer can screen. As the narrative progresses, spectators can identify choose to identify with with the position or feelings of multiple characters. either Jolie or McAvoy, Utopian Social Space: Updating and moving on from depending on which Mulvey, Professor Yvonne Tasker identifies the space in synapses fire in the brain which we view the film spectacle. Perverse identifications during viewing. The utopian are clearly possible and probable. social space that cinema Scopophilia: The pleasure of looking, enjoying the creates can allow us to spectacle put before you at the cinema. It could be argued dream, identify or reject as that human beings are inherently scopophilic as cinema is we enjoy the spectacle. In such a popular global medium. an entertainment such as this text, the pleasure can be derived simply from the spectacle of the frenetic, Bibliography Fight Club, shelters and in magazines a film in kinetic camera play. Richard Dyer: Stars (BFI Cinema, 1998) used the slender, gun- which metrosexual male I would argue that Heavenly Bodies (BFI Cinema, 2004) brandishing arm already rediscovers his strength Jolie is a Hollywood star Sigmund Freud: The Interpretation of Dreams (1899 featured in Mr and Mrs and inner masculinity. Jolie who transcends normal Oxford World's Classics, 1999) Smith, but further fetishised is the star, however, as categorization, with the arm with multiple indicated by the massive alternate, subversive, Professor Yvonne Tasker: Spectacular Bodies (Routledge, tattoos. marketing campaign. The rebellious elements. 1993) As magazines and action spectacle of the film Her star persona is biography programmes is centred on Jolie’s body a fascinating set of have revealed, tattoos are and the myriad ways she contradictions, made even part of Jolie’s star persona. can shoot a bullet from a more complex by her This is not studio marketing gun. The director creates marriage to Brad Pitt. Their information, but part of some impressive post- star power has intensified her mythology as a wild Matrix bullet effects, with and this supercouple reign child who used to carry her sequences that showcase supreme at the moment. ex-husband’s blood in a Jolie’s physicality to the full. vial around her neck. In an Rumours were circulated, ironic twist, the UK Hello possibly by the studio, that Sean Richardson is Head of Media magazine photographs Jolie cut many sequences at Penistone Grammar School of new mother and twins, of dialogue to intensify the near Sheffield. (released in the August impact of the character of issue), portray her as Fox; however, we should maternal, simple – and question all information tattoo-free. With the aid of about a star and a film text, air-brushing or cosmetic as Dyer suggests in Stars: intervention, she can, like The importance of all successful stars, be publicity is that, in all things to all men and its apparent or actual women. escape from the image that Hollywood is Narrative in trying to promote, it Wanted seems more ‘authentic’. Jolie plays Fox, a glamorous assassin for ‘The Guns, bullets Fraternity’, a group who kill and spectacular to restore justice and order bodies in the universe. Fox recruits In Wanted, Jolie’s James McAvoy’s character, character Fox rescues Wesley Gibson, a depressed the inept office worker, office drone who dreams Wesley, via a high speed of escape. She is essentially chase in a bright red sports a donor/protector which, car, with all the obvious in its narrative arc, echoes Freudian undertones of

24 MediaMagazine | December 2008 | english and media centre MM

queen of the avant-garde

You’d probably recognise her even if you don’t know her name. Pale, red-headed, ultra-cool, Tilda Swinton is anything but the conventional star – yet she has acquired iconic status through her eclectic choice of roles and defiance of stereotypes. Lucy Meade deconstructs the image and its meanings.

english and media centre | December 2008 | MediaMagazine 25 M M 26

MediaMagazine |December 2008| english andmedia centre

Tilda Swinton in Michael Clayton, Constantine, courtesy of image.net MM Background Overall she is something space-age, a future Tilda Swinton is one of Britain’s most striking being, something quite unlike anyone else. actresses. She has proven herself to be rebellious, Her forays into art and fashion have challenging, intelligent and a ‘cinematic gender complemented this image with her modelling buster’ having played both men and women in the androgynous pinstripe suits, shirts and her career. (Kirn, 2005). ties of Victor and Rolf. This shows a look that is However, her family background is steeped in again lacking definition in terms of gender, with tradition. Her family can be traced back to the the emphasis on the straight lines and straight 9th century. Her father a ‘totem of masculinity’ features. (Picardie, 2000), was a Major General, a Lord and For the art installation ‘The Maybe’ at the former head of the Queen’s Household Division; Serpentine Gallery in London, she lay in a glass she was the only girl amid three brothers. case apparently asleep for eight hours a day Swinton has said that she became boy-like in ‘reducing herself purely to an object to be looked order to fit in with family life. After graduating at’ (Mackenzie, 2003), not ‘speaking, not playing a from university she met the avant-garde role just being beautiful and immovably serene’ filmmaker Derek Jarman, ‘a legendary figure (Mackenzie, 2003). This describes a kind of cold of British cinema [who] trained his camera on beauty, detached, asleep, separate, but also the anger and violence of the punk movement’ emphasises the strangeness of her look, like a (MacCabe, 2007) in his film Jubilee. Tilda Swinton rare animal in a zoo. has also been involved in experimental art, and has been the muse for cult fashion designers Corrupt characters During her career Tilda has consistently chosen Victor and Rolf. extremely morally ambiguous roles, from the Despite Tilda’s rigid family background, her tyrannical ruler of Narnia to the ‘charismatic, yet career has been dedicated to art forms that ultimately sinister’ Sal in The Beach (Picardie, challenge and defamiliarise. She gained critical 2000). She has also played the fallen angel acclaim for her performance in American indie Gabriel in Constantine, and the corrupt mother The Deep End (Scott McGehee, 2001) and since covering up the death of her son’s lover in The then has made a distinct move towards the Deep End. These characters are all independent, mainstream, in films such as The Beach (Danny tough, and ‘steely’ strong (Mackenzie, 2003). Boyle, 2001), working opposite Leonardo However, critics have also discussed that her DiCaprio and with Keanu Reeves in Constantine characters share an emotional detachment. Her (Francis Lawrence, 2005). She took the central dialogue is often interestingly brief, particularly role of the White Witch in The Lion, The Witch in the films where she is the central character. In and The Wardrobe (aka Narnia, Andre Adamson, Young Adam, for example, where she says very 2005). She has mostly recently starred in the little, what she does say is cold and surprisingly political thriller Michael Clayton (Tony Gilroy, hostile considering that the only characters she 2007) opposite George Clooney. speaks to are her closest family and her lover. The look Her dialogue is sharp, authoritative, cold and Swinton’s unique look is one of the most demanding. In The Beach she makes orders in striking aspects of her film performances. a military fashion and even in her most family- She has extremely pale skin, which has been orientated films such as Thumbsucker (Mike emphasised by her consistently being dressed Mills, 2005) and The Deep End her relationship in white, such as in Constantine, Young Adam with her children is strained, cold and detached. (David Mackenzie, 2003) and The Beach. To In Thumbsucker her dialogue is almost crushing add to this her hair (naturally red) is often dyed when she tells her insecure son that he must white-blonde for her parts (Constantine, Narnia, prepare for failure in life and not to get his hopes Young Adam), which has resulted in a ‘grandly up. These are cold, detached characters who virginal’ and ‘unsullied’ look (Picardie, 2000). Her are not easy to understand and may be hard for bone structure is sharp, angular, almost feline. audiences to sympathise or identify with. She has a symmetrical face, which makes her striking, but also quite hard-looking and cold. It The gender trap It is interesting to explore whether Tilda has been suggested that there are ‘only hints of Swinton, ‘queen of the avant-garde’ (Picardie, features to her face’, with ‘eyebrows and lips that 2000), an actress celebrated for her challenging are barely visible’ (Wood, 2005), a ‘translucent and groundbreaking performances has been able mask’ ‘ethereal beauty’ (Picardie, 2003). With to escape or even to defy the stereotypes set out ‘something of the unicorn about her, mythic, rare, for women in film. unsullied’. She looks ‘other planetary’ (Picardie, Firstly, Tilda is certainly not denied action in her 2003). Interviewers have described her as films. She is the central and dominant character having ‘magnificent height and physical stature’ in most of her films, particularly Orlando, Young (Belewien, 2007) and in publicity photos of her Adam and Female Perversions. Even in her at the premiere of Michael Clayton she stands smaller roles she has made a tremendous impact arm in arm with George Clooney, an international as noted in a review of her first mainstream symbol of masculinity, literally towering over him. Hollywood production Constantine. The reviewer She is also is very slim, her body again angular states: ‘the film side-steps (Keanu) Reeves in order rather than curvy. to spotlight the weirdly inspirational Swinton,’ Her eye-catching costumes have included (Newman, 2005), and this a character that is only angel wings, mummy-like white bandages, onscreen for a matter of minutes. pinstriped suits and cropped hair. She has black Another powerful aspect of Tilda’s performance eyes in Narnia and glowing eyes in Constantine. in the majority of her films is her sexuality.

english and media centre | December 2008 | MediaMagazine 27 MM She separates herself and is maybe too detached: The pattern of her work has been to abstract herself from feeling, which suggests that she does not give any of herself to the role, this desire to ‘set herself apart’ (Mackenzie, 2003). Finally she may challenge with her gender bending; but as Kuhn points out, ‘gender is what crucially defines us,’ (Kuhn, 1985) and ‘an ungendered subject cannot be human’. Certainly people have described her as ‘a supernatural creature’ (Kirn, 2005), ‘mythical’ (Picardie, 2000) and ‘as if she dreamed herself into existence,’ (Kirn, 2005). But if the person is not real, a mythical dream-like creature, then is it possible for the audience to understand her? It may be effective to confuse and challenge – but is there also a danger of losing audience engagement? It is interesting that perhaps the one thing that inspired her to become so controversial and challenging – her family background of rigidity, and the feeling of being set apart that came from that – is also perhaps the one thing that holds her back from fully delivering her message of defiance.

Lucy Meade teaches Film and Media at Stratford Upon Avon College.

Tilda’s characters are nearly always extremely Bibliography sexual. It is interesting that she does not visually Kirn, Walter ‘The Changeling’ (2005) in Black define herself by her sex appeal; for example she Book, September has no obvious curves or breasts, which are the features we often use to define women as sexy. Kuhn, Annette (1985) The Power of the Image: She is sexy yet sexless. However, the audience Essays on Representation and Sexuality are clearly encouraged to gaze upon her. This is that the comic effect of men dressing as women MacCabe, Colin (2007) ‘British Cinema Now: demonstrated by the constant lingering shots of is the most common form of cross-dressing in The Lost Leader’ in Sight and Sound January her in Young Adam, where the camera gazes on cinema. Therefore Tilda’s frequent choice to take Mackenzie, Suzie (2003) ‘An Elegant the tiniest stripe of white skin, her neck, her leg, on roles that require her to play men or to be a bare arm. Escape’ in The Guardian September 20th masculine again demonstrates her desire to resist http://film.guardian.co.uk/interview/ However, when it comes to sex Tilda’s stereotypes and the mainstream. This is seen characters are far from frozen objects. Her interviewpages/0,1044857,00.html, most famously in Orlando she plays a man who accessed 16/11/2007 sexuality is represented as very positive and dies – only to awake as a woman. Tilda’s line at again active. For example, she uses Richard, this sudden point of transition is ‘Same person – Bethany, Miles (2007) ‘Orlando Review’ taken played by Leonardo DiCaprio, for sexual pleasure no difference at all’ and her swap doesn’t seem from: http://www.amazon.co.uk/Orlando- The Beach in , saying to him ‘Go to sleep, I may problematic. Orlando’s personality is the same Tilda-Swinton/dp/B000094P1I/ref=pd_bbs_ want to have sex again in the morning’. She has whether male or female. S/he is romantic, naïve, a sr_2?ie=UTF8&s=dvd&qid=1199468817&s a passionate love affair with Ewan MacGregor in person who sees everything as if for the first time. r=8-2, accessed 09/11/2007 Young Adam. Their relationship is described as This is quite a radical message: that you can be Newman, Kim (2005) ‘Constantine’ taken from: having a ‘mutual erotic charge’ (Mackenzie, 2003). the same person whether male or female and www.bfi.org.uk/sightandsound/ She has affairs with both men and women in that gender does not determine us. Also, rather review/2298, accessed 08/11/2007 Female Perversions . These sexual relationships than exploring what it is like to be feminine or all show Tilda as positive and active, never weak masculine, as other cross-dressing comedy films Picardie, Justine (2000) ‘Beauty or the Beast’, and giving in. She is shown as desiring and acting may do, Orlando denies there is any difference. Vogue February on sexual desire and is never a victim. There is pride in her body; for example she undresses Star persona with pleasure in Young Adam, and stands naked There is no doubt Swinton’s career is one with no inhibition. Her sexiness is not seen as which has broken boundaries and challenged repulsive, it is seen as exciting and life-enhancing, the norm. However there is still something and her character becomes alive and passionate. frustrating about Tilda Swinton as a star. First, her The key emphasis is on the satisfaction brought unusual look denies definition almost as if her from sexual pleasure. face lacks feature and expression, while her silent and controlled performance style has had mixed Gender bending responses: Cross-dressing in film has been discussed The strange feeling she gives off as a screen by the theorist Annette Kuhn in her article presence – someone more concerned with ‘Sexual Disguise and Cinema’ (Kuhn, 1985). She detachment, to create objective passion. argues that cross-dressing ‘shakes a spectator’s Mackenzie, 2003 convictions’ (1985) and challenges social A frustrated fan argues that ‘her impassivity conventions. Kuhn’s examples highlight the fact and lack of expression are annoying’ (Miles, 2007). Images courtesy of image.net

28 MediaMagazine | December 2008 | english and media centre MM

Waltz With Bashir is an animated MM: What came first – the plan to make a documentary or the desire to make an documentary. This fact alone would animated film? set the film in a class apart, but there It was always my intention to make AFan animated documentary. Since I is much more to this thoughtful and had already made many documentary films for powerful text than its unique form. both TV and the cinema, I became really excited It is an examination of memory and by the concept of trying to make an animated one – hardly an overcrowded genre. In my remorse surrounding the invasion documentary series for TV in 2004 The Material of the Lebanon by Israeli soldiers in That Love Is Made Of I had experimented by opening each episode with a three-minute 1982, and their subsequent lack of animated sequence introducing various scientists intervention in the massacres at the talking about ‘the science of love’. It was basic Flash animation but it worked so well that I refugee camps in Sabra and Shatila realised that the process could be used to sustain by the Christian Phalange militia a feature-length documentary successfully. MM: So did you start this project as an following the murder of their hero animated documentary? (and newly elected Lebanese Prime Yes, indeed – I’d been mulling over stress that the film was not made by rotoscope AF the basic idea in my mind for a few animation, meaning that we did not illustrate Minister) Bashir Gemayel. Mike years but I just wasn’t happy about shooting it and paint over the real video. We drew it again Hobbs talked to the director Ari in ‘real life’ video. What would that have looked from scratch, utilising the great talents of our art Folman, who was serving with the like? A succession of middle-aged men being director David Polonsky and his three assistants. interviewed against a black background, telling MM: The horrors of war and its Israeli forces at the time. stories about what had happened to them over aftermath resonate from your twenty five years ago, without any archival documentary on the Gulf War footage to support them. That would have been Comfortably Numb through the fantasy so boring … My breakthrough came when I Made In Israel to Waltz With Bashir – do figured out it could only be done in animation, you regard this as the central theme of using fantastic drawings. Basically, war is so your work? surreal and memory is so tricky that I thought I’d Unfortunately, yes. However, due better reconstruct the memory journey with the AF to its surreal nature, I try to put this help of some very fine illustrators. across in a fantasy way, or at least on the borders MM: What sort of animation process did between reality and fantasy. I’m always looking to you use in the film? place war in a different dimension. Waltz With Bashir was made first MM: The final images of camp survivors AF as a ‘real’ video based on a 90-page are the only non-animated pictures in script. It was shot in a sound studio and cut as a the film. Was this to underline the stark 90-minute feature film. This was then made into a message? storyboard and drawn with over 2300 illustrations I’d always meant it to end this way. I that were turned into animation. The animation AF didn’t want the reaction to the film to format we used was invented in our studios be summed up as, 'Oh, the animation was very ‘Bridget Folman Film Gang’ by our director good, the music and the images were great’. My of animation Yoni Goodman. Fundamentally intention was to put everything into proportion. it’s a combination of Flash animation, classic For justice’s sake, those pictures had to be real. animation and 3D. It’s very important for me to

english and media centre | December 2008 | MediaMagazine 29 MM

MM: Is Waltz With Bashir therefore production, my wife and I brought three kids into MM: Was the making of Waltz With partly an attempt to expiate guilt? this world. This made me wonder whether maybe Bashir therapeutic for you? No it isn’t, although I wish I could say I was actually going through all this for the When you undertake a journey trying AFthat it was. The main points of the sake of my sons. When they grow up and watch AFto figure out a traumatic memory film are, generally, that if you want to forget, you the film, it might help them to make the right from the past, it’s essentially a commitment to can; and specifically, I wished to reconstruct the decisions. By that, I mean not to take part in any long term therapy. My therapy lasted as long as chronology of the massacre from information I wars whatsoever. the whole production process of the film: four picked up from many different sources. MM: Are all the interviewees in the years. There was a shift from the dark depression MM: Was it strange to be making a film film the actual people portraying I suffered from as a result of the traumatic about memory (among many topics) themselves? memories I was discovering, to the state of concerning events you did not really Mostly – seven out of the nine euphoria I reached when the film was finally in remember? AF interviewees are the actual people. production, with all the complicated animation Yes, of course, it was a very strange They were interviewed and filmed in a sound processes being carried out by the team much AF experience, although it’s not true studio. For personal reasons, two of my friends faster than I expected. If I was the type of guy to say that I had forgotten everything, because did not want to appear on camera, even in who believed in psychotherapy I’d swear that the there were really only a few parts missing. In fact, animated form, so they were played by actors. film had performed miracles on my personality. I could recall most of what had happened, but I However, their testimonies are real. But due to all my previous experiences, I’d just had made a deliberate decision to forget some MM: Were all other potential say that the therapy aspects sucked, but the aspects. interviewees keen to talk about their filmmaking process was very good indeed. MM: So is the story based on your actual experiences and memories, or were MM: Have you been surprised at the personal experiences? some reticent? international success of the film so far? Sure, at its core, the film revolves Funnily enough, some of my best Yes, I have been and it was only when AFaround my own experiences, AF friends were very reluctant to talk, AFthe film went to the Cannes Film buttressed of course by the experiences of my including the two friends in the film who did not Festival (where it was made an Official Selection friends and others who were in the Lebanon want to appear. But we got plenty of information in competition) that I realised it could strike a at the time. The storyline follows what I went from elsewhere. We had advertised four years ago chord. Basically, until then, I was just engaged through from the moment I realised that there for people to tell us their memories and many in a perpetual struggle to complete it. I think were some crucial episodes in my life that were came forward – in Israel, many are keen to hang it’s always the same with anything I do – I never completely missing from my memory. It’s no onto their days of military service. I’m atypical think about how the work is going to be received, exaggeration to say that I went through a major (as are some of my friends) in having tried to so I’m always surprised by favourable reactions. psychological upheaval during the four years I suppress them … MM: What has been the reaction in worked on Waltz With Bashir. On the one hand I Israel to Waltz With Bashir? discovered a whole heap of heavy stuff regarding This is a case in point. It’s been very my past that had been lying dormant for years. AFwell received, which has been a large On the other hand, during the four years of and pleasant surprise to me. People have been

30 MediaMagazine | December 2008 | english and media centre MM

coming to see it in relatively large numbers, that it’s unbelievable. It’s nothing like you see in projects to writing because some of the jobs you which is obviously good news, and the message some of the self-aggrandising American movies. can be asked to perform as a director are akin to hasn’t been dismissed as overly left wing or There’s no glamour, no glory, just a bunch of factory work. But that doesn’t mean I regard film liberal. I can’t yet tell you about government very young men going nowhere, shooting at as intrinsically superior. I believe that some of the reaction to the film, however. nobody they know and being killed by unknown best work coming out of the USA in the last ten MM: At one point, you compare the hands. After that, any survivors go home and try years has been on TV such as The Sopranos and complicity of the Israeli troops around to forget. Sometimes they can: most of the time Six Feet Under. the Sabra and Shatila camps to that they cannot. MM: What advice would you give surrounding the Nazis – has that MM: Are there others like you who have current film students in order to pursue shocking point struck home? had similar experiences? their careers successfully? Funnily enough, I’m only ever I believe that there are thousands of My suggestion is that you should AF asked this question outside Israel. I AF Israeli former soldiers who have kept AF always try to do your own thing; should stress that I don’t make the comparison their war memories deeply repressed, consciously don’t just try to be one of the gang. If you can directly myself, but that it is made by two of or unconsciously. They might live the rest of their establish a personal difference with your point of the interviewees. The thing is that Holocaust lives in that state, without anything ever being view then you won’t always be fighting with the memories are wired into our DNA, so the dredged up. But the waters could always burst mainstream. And never, ever give up – if you’re references are perhaps more shocking to the dam one day, causing all sorts of things to not prepared to cope with setbacks, then you foreigners. happen to them or those around them. That’s won’t succeed in this industry. Keep going! MM: What are your feelings about the what Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder is all about. Sabra and Shatila massacres today? MM: What do you reckon were the most Mike Hobbs is a freelance journalist. The same as I’ve always felt: it’s the instructive experiences in developing AF worst thing that human beings can do your filmmaking technique? Postscript to each other. I know for sure that the Christian Well, I don’t really know if I have a The day after this interview, Waltz with Bashir Phalange militiamen were fully responsible for technique as such, although I very AF won all its categories (6 prizes) at the Israeli the massacre – the Israeli soldiers had nothing much admire some of the people who do. For Film Awards and was selected as the country’s to do with it. As for the Israeli government, only me, it’s all a question of trying different things, Oscar entry. It has since been deemed the people themselves know the extent of their seeking new dimensions that fit the subject ineligible for the 2009 Best Documentary Oscar responsibility. Only they can say whether or matter, and making sure that I don’t get bored. following a change of rules. Find out more at: not they were informed in advance about the For instance, I won’t be making another animated www.guardian.sco.uk/film/2008/oct/07/ imminent violent revenge the militia were going documentary. oscar.documentary to take for the death of Bashir. MM: You tend to oscillate between film www.bbc.co.uk/blogs/ MM: And your feelings about war? and TV work – are these media more thecultureshow/2008/10/waltz-with-bashir. Having made the film mainly from the similar than different? html AFpoint of view of a common soldier, Actually, I think they’re very different. I’ve come to one conclusion: war is so useless AF Here in Israel I tend to confine my TV

english and media centre | December 2008 | MediaMagazine 31 MM Harry, Harry – you could have been anything. noir and the Anything. You had brains … ambition. You city worked harder than any ten men. But the wrong things. Always the wrong things. Jerome Monahan Gene Tierney (Mary Bristol) in Night and the City investigates Put in hours and hours of planning. Figure representations of everything down to the last detail. Then what? Burglar alarms start going off all over the city in two classic the place for no sensible reason. A gun fires examples of film noir of its own accord and a man is shot. And a made in 1950 on broken down old cop, no good for anything but chasing kids, has to trip over us. Blind opposite sides of the accident. What can you do against blind Atlantic: Night and the accidents? Sam Jaffe (Doc. Erwin Riedenschneider) in The City and The Asphalt Asphalt Jungle Jungle. If you want fresh air, don’t look for it in this town! Anthony Caruso (Louis Ciavelli) in The Asphalt Jungle courtesy of the BFI Archive , d. John Huston, 1950 John Huston, , d. Night and the City The Asphalt Jungle The

32 MediaMagazine | December 2008 | english and media centre Mgm/The Kobal Collection ; Collection Kobal Mgm/The Sterling Hayden in Hayden Sterling MM This article will help you tackle a comparison of On both sides of the Atlantic From page to screen two American films as required by FM2 Section C In an interview provided on the British Film That said, there’s plenty to connect the films of the WJEC Board’s Film Studies AS Level. While Institute’s recent DVD of Night and the City, the stylistically and philosophically. Both were adapted the overall demand is that you compare two films film’s director Jules Dassin (pronounced ‘Dassan’) from examples of ‘hard-boiled’ crime fiction popular from a specific genre, the questions will lay special admits that when he made it he had no idea he between the 1930s and 1950s – Dassin’s from a stress on the films’ narratives and their social and was making a ‘film noir’. Not surprising; the term 1938 novel by Gerald Kersh and Huston’s from a political context. WJEC offers a number of possible was unknown among American directors. It was W.R. Burnett tale of 1949. Both deviated from their film combinations as guidance, all of which couple coined by French film critic Nino Frank in 1946 source material in significant ways too. Significantly, an older movie with a later film in the same as a catch-all term to describe the cynical, gritty Jungle focuses more closely than the novel on the genre, and two of which involve an original and its thrillers such as Huston’s Maltese Falcon (1941) and criminal characters and their procedures leading remake. However, in this article I’ll be proposing a Billy Wilder’s Double Indemnity (1944), which were up to the ‘caper’ (a jewel robbery) they hope will comparison of two films both released in 1950, to finally being screened in France following the end make them all rich, while downplaying the forces show that there’s plenty of comparison and contrast of the Second World War. of law and order (although the Production Code to be drawn from two contemporaneous screen Dassin was also resistant to the suggestion that Administration (PCA), which in those days vetted stories (both later defined as film noirs). And as well his London-set movie owed a great deal to John Hollywood scripts, was able to approve it for its as providing a chance to rehearse some of the key Huston’s The Asphalt Jungle. He would have known ‘crime doesn’t pay’ approach). ingredients of this most influential genre (or is it a little of Huston’s project, since both were being The gap between novel and film of Night and film style?) these films allow the opening up of one made at the same time on opposite sides of the the City is even more revealing. In the novel the of the most important noir motifs – that of the city Atlantic – Huston’s in Los Angeles and Cincinnati, main protagonist, Harry Fabian, is an English as a place of paranoia, alienation or, as critic Frank and Night and the City in a London still bearing the pimp seeking to corrupt a young woman called Krutnik puts it ‘dis-ease’. signs of the Blitz. Mary Bristol, who he hopes will supplement the

english and media centre | December 2008 | MediaMagazine 33 MM earnings he already receives from other prostitutes. to the gang to provide it with muscle. We learn the experience of Nazism in the 1930s. World Meanwhile he pursues a series of ‘get-rich-quick’ his back story, including the loss of his family’s War Two itself bred a degree of world-weariness schemes, over-reaching himself in the process. Kentucky farm during the 1930’s Depression (a and anxiety that frequently found its way into the He is so loathsome that no leading man of the period all-too-fresh in the memories of many films, and perhaps suited audiences seeking more time – least of all an American star – would have audience members, which would evoke sympathy challenging entertainments alongside Hollywood’s risked his reputation playing such a character. A for a character clearly seeking a simpler, purer way traditional glamorous fare. US Studio – 20th Century Fox – owned the rights of being seemingly forever closed off to him). In Many ‘noir’ directors were, if not Communist, to the novel, which meant the film must have an a telling moment, Dix recounts a dream in which certainly left-leaning, with a particular take on American leading man; the job eventually fell to he managed to ride a black stallion and gain his American values. In film after film during this relative movie newcomer Richard Widmark. The film father’s approval. With his next breath he dismantles period, we witness characters’ quests for security, was made in London on the back of ‘frozen funds’ the tale, remembering how he was thrown and satisfaction and fulfilment crash and burn. This – British-generated box-office money from US injured. Thanks to such reminiscences we identify political stance – in contrast to the introspective films held in the UK in order to kickstart the UK film with his loss – but also sense that the idyll he and nationalistic views of America in the face of industry after the war. The London setting enabled hankers for probably never existed in the first place. the perceived Cold War threat posed by Russia and Fox to access this money, and produce a film that And here we enter Steinbeck and Arthur Miller China – led many noir directors to portray crime would hopefully also generate healthy profits in territory. and criminality as a fundamental part of the the US. fabric of society. In their vision their protagonists In the film Fabian is transformed into a trickster, Thematic connections operated in a ruthless world corrupted by the employed to steer unsuspecting tourists to a seedy, Where the two films overlap is in their nature of capitalism. Fabian desperately tries to over-priced drinking club. Mary Bristol still features unremittingly bleak vision of humanity and its get on but is thwarted by the bigger fish above him; as a singer, but her innocence remains intact; she hopes of redemption. It’s said that one reason while in The Asphalt Jungle corruption extends offers Fabian the possibility of domestic bliss, why film noirs are so extraordinarily different beyond the greasy gambling joints and backstreet an offer he ultimately rejects thanks to his over- from normal Hollywood fare is that they offer a cafes to the rich and powerful in the shape of a weaning ambitions, though he does eventually picture of society in which there are no second corrupt lawyer Emmerich (Louis Calhern), who says perform a final selfless act on her behalf that goes chances. This is quite a cultural phenomenon in a of the awful people he deals with: some way to redeeming him. country that then, as now, portrays itself as a place Oh, there’s nothing so different about them. of opportunity and ultimate success for those After all, crime is only a left-handed form of Narrative contrasts prepared to strive. Of course, noir heroes rarely human endeavour. The stories of the two films could not be more strive towards socially acceptable ends. Fabian’s Crime is ultimately futile, and the film’s final different. Night and the City remains focused desire to control wrestling in London is based on message (see page 35) is that, despite the odd throughout on Fabian’s desperate quest for fame, lies and compromises, and eventually founders crooked cop, the city would be an even bleaker fortune and validity. At the start of the ‘second because of the resentments he stirred up along the place if there was only silence in answer to people’s act’ of the film (about 35 minutes in) the screen is way. Similarly, there is nothing edifying about the cries for help. The film significantly undermines the literally filled with a variety of treatments of the jewel robbery in The Asphalt Jungle – though its demonization of Dix, described as ‘a man without character’s name, spelled out on a street sign as it is execution is detailed and compelling – almost too human feeling or mercy’, by focusing on his last lowered into place, on a newly painted glass door detailed back then for the PCA! desperate moments in the final scene in the film, and a just-delivered table plaque. It is a fleeting Both films also share the same stylistic as he staggers across the Kentucky field his family moment of rest and satisfaction for the character darkness too – the pattern of shadows, night-time used to own, to collapse and die, an object of – a point where Fabian’s self-promotion and reality scenes, characters seemingly dominated by their mild curiosity to the horses grazing nearby – a actually appear to have gelled. But in true noir- surroundings or threatening shapes filmed in the particularly poignant ending given the desire Dix fashion, success is always fragile; pride always foreground. In Huston’s film the robbers approach expresses throughout the film to return to his roots. comes before a fall, and soon Harry is again on the and retreat from their jewel-store objective along streets running and sweating as fate inexorably a dismal tunnel; Night and the City opens with Representations of the city closes in on him. Fabian scurrying from shadow to shadow through How the city is represented in film noirs is The Asphalt Jungle is seen as the prototype foetid alleys while faceless enemies pursue him. In worthy of a study in itself. It would be hard to of what was to become a significant thriller sub- both cases the rodent-like behaviour demanded distinguish the decaying urban landscapes in The genre: ‘the caper picture’ – still popular today. of the characters is all too apparent. Fate also Asphalt Jungle from Night and the City’s locations Indeed it’s been argued that a knowledge of the looms large in both films, with the best laid plans around the bombsites of London’s South Bank film is a necessity in order to understand films going desperately awry, thanks to unforeseeable which in 1949 were just being cleared to make such as Ocean’s Eleven, The Italian Job or Heat. A mischance. This is wonderfully summed up by Sam way for Festival of Britain site. Both show a city of robbery needs a team; and that in turn imposes a Jaffe’s speech quoted at the top of this article. nightmare – lonely streets, looming dark buildings completely different narrative structure on the film, Close companion to fate is time, and here too and an overarching sense of dread. As critic Terrence breaking its focus into a number of arcs describing these two noirs are united. In Night and the City Rafferty says: the changing fortunes of its principal criminal the final act takes place on a single night as Fabian All cities generate a certain amount of characters. It is because of the strength of the attempts to escape a London filled with informants anxiety that film noirs feed on. And all cities, assembled cast and Huston’s commitment to telling prepared to betray him for the reward placed on his somewhere, have dark scary streets that can, their tales with as much depth as possible that the head. Time, one of the defining elements of film as in noir’s violent allegories of moral ambiguity, film remains a classic. an art form, is also inextricably a part of any caper stand in for the dimmer, grubbier recesses of This is particularly true in the portrayal of Dix film, suggestive perhaps of why such movies are the soul. Handley (Sterling Hayden, giving a career-making so beloved of directors; so enduring a sub-genre. New York Times, 22 July 2007 performance), the strong-arm ‘hooligan’ recruited The Asphalt Jungle’s action takes place over two or For evidence, watch the opening sequence of three days culminating in the ten central minutes The Asphalt Jungle as Dix tries to evade a patrol when the robbery is orchestrated and starts to car. The landscape dominates him, and even when unravel. there are glimpses of sky, the view is crisscrossed by wires and cables compounding the sense of The bleakness of film noir enclosure. Where does such darkness come from? Film The real-location, night-time filming that noir’s bleak outlook may in part derive from the features in so many noirs was also a product of role of European émigré directors and their technological advances – faster film stocks and darker vision of cinema and life drawn from lighter-weight cameras developed during the war artistic movements such as Expressionism, and

34 MediaMagazine | December 2008 | english and media centre MM in London, urging him to film the most expensive Links scenes first in order to make it harder for the executives to bounce him off the movie. This would Trailer for The Asphalt Jungle: be the last film Dassin would make for an American http://filmsnoir.net/category/trailers studio. For several years his career in Europe was Trailer for Night and the City: also stalled; producers would receive calls from Compare the 1950 trailer with the one America telling them that if they employed him, the made for the 1992 remake with Robert De resulting film would not be distributed in The States. Niro: http://filmnoir.suddenlaunch3.com/ To conclude: a speech from towards the end of index.cgi?board=video&action=display&nu The Asphalt Jungle: m=1183510817 It’s not anything strange that there are corrupt Online articles to enable the shooting of documentary features officers in police departments. The dirt they’re in peacetime brought the seedier and darker parts trying to clean up is bound to rub off on some Tony D’Ambra’s film noir Site of modern cities into range. A documentary style of ‘em but not all of ‘em. Maybe one out of a http://filmsnoir.net/film_noir/night-and-the- of filming born of the newsreels so many had hundred. The other ninety-nine are honest men city-1950-a-near-perfect-noir.html relied on for information during the war, fed into trying to do an honest job ... (One by one, he What is film noir? mainstream films, particularly thrillers, upping their flips the switch on police radios that broadcast.) http://filmsnoir.net/what-is-film-noir energy and grit. We send police assistance to every one of those There is contrast here between the films too. The calls. Those are not just code numbers on a Noir and the City Asphalt Jungle’s urban landscape is completely radio beam, they’re cries for help. People are Dark, Dangerous, Corrupt and Sexy by Terrence unidentified – possibly somewhere in the Mid-West, being cheated, robbed, murdered, raped. And Rafferty http://www.nytimes.com/2007/07/22/ but anonymous, generalized: it represents all US that goes on twenty-four hours a day, every day movies/22raff.html cities. Night and the City is unmistakably set in in the year. And that’s not exceptional, that’s The Asphalt Jungle – review by Tim Dirks: London, and what’s lost in terms of non-specific usual. It’s the same in every city in the modern http://www.filmsite.org/asph.html menace is gained in suggestive specificity. For world. But suppose we had no police force, good example, Fabian flees a debtor early in the film or bad. Suppose we had (he flips off all four The Asphalt Jungle – Wikipedia site: across the steps of St Paul’s – yet the cathedral offers radios) – just silence. Nobody to listen, nobody http://www.filmsite.org/asph.html to answer. The battle’s finished. The jungle wins. no sanctuary to our desperate hero. Recognisable Night and the City – Wikipedia site: locations such as Trafalgar Square also take on extra The predatory beasts take over. Think about it. Well gentlemen, three men are in jail, three http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Night_and_the_ significance in the narrative, as in a rare daytime City meeting between Fabian and his nemesis; despite men dead, one by his own hand. One man’s a the cheerful background of passers-by and pigeons, fugitive – we have reason to believe seriously Jules Dassin – obituary: there is betrayal at work. wounded. That’s six out of seven, not bad. And http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/ we’ll get the last one too. In some ways, he’s the entertainment/7323746.stm most dangerous of them all, a hardened killer, The social and political context The United States Motion Picture Production a hooligan, a man without human feeling or It’s important to stress that the problematic Code (1930): human mercy. vision of the modern world served up in films such http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Production_Code as Night and the City and The Asphalt Jungle was probably not one shared by many ordinary cinema- HUAC and its influence on Hollywood films: Jerome Monahan is a freelance writer. goer: http://www.moderntimes.com/huac/ …the atmosphere of death and disillusionment Podcasts in The Asphalt Jungle and most of the other crime pictures of the day has relatively little to Out of the Past – Investigating film noir: do with the nation as a whole and a great deal Follow it up http://outofthepast.libsyn.com/index. to do with the specific community that could no php?post_id=24412 There’s a wealth of information here to enable longer maintain its Depression era faith that you to carry out any number of US film DVD extras America would evolve into a socialist democracy. comparisons focused around representations James Nasemore, More Than Night: Film Noir and Night and the City: commentary by Paul of the city. its Contexts Duncan and interview with Jules Dassin (Bfi This view was echoed by the director Joseph Many classic noirs from the period immediately video 2007) Losey who in 1979 remarked that: after WW2 feature grim urban settings. Other sources: ... the Left in Hollywood was utterly See Rudolph Mate’s DOA (1950); Alexander demoralized by Truman, the atomic bomb and Mackendrick’s The Sweet Smell of Success James Sanders (2001): Celluloid Skyline: New the House of Un-American Activities Committee (1957); and even Frank Capra’s It’s a Wonderful York and the Movies (HUAC) investigations and were beginning Life (1946) with its central depiction of David B. Clark (ed. 1997): The Cinematic City to recognize ‘the complete unreality of the Pottersville. Alain Silver and James Ursini (ed 2004): The American Dream.’ Try comparing one of these films to a more Caper Film in Film Noir The gathering anti-communist witch-hunt modern urban-set neo-noir such as Martin in America was an important part of the cultural Scorsese’s Mean Streets (1973) or Taxi Driver From Stuart Kaminsky (1978): John Huston context surrounding both films. Huston knew (1976), or perhaps one of the off-shoot science Maker of Magic NFT/bfi screening notes The Sterling Hayden when they had both participated in fiction/animated noirs of recent years such as Asphalt Jungle (2003) protests against HUAC and would, reluctantly, testify Blade Runner (1982), Dark City (1998) or Sin James Nasemore (1998): More than Night: Film before it soon after the film’s release. Dassin was City (2005). Noir and its Contexts even more precariously placed, having been long associated with left-wing causes, and defended At the other extreme, pair one of these two members of the Hollywood 10 who were jailed films with other Hollywood genres with urban for refusing to testify to HUAC against their friends settings such as the musical On The Town and colleagues. Dassin was facing blacklisting (1949) directed by Stanley Donen or comedy when Daryl Zannuck, the boss at 20th Century such as Woody Allen’s Manhattan (1979). Fox, encouraged him to direct Night and the City

english and media centre | December 2008 | MediaMagazine 35 more than meets the eye

If you ask students new Guernica, immortalised in it necessarily becomes a story but this is set in 1939 sub-text and to Film or Media Studies Picasso’s famous painting. significant issue in the film: toward the end of the historical what a film was about Many Britons fought on the As millions of Civil War, when Franco’s context they will often describe side of the Republicans, Spanish moviegoers Nationalists were about the narrative. However, memorably detailed in were riveted to The to be victorious over the in three while virtually all films have George Orwell’s Homage to Orphanage last year, Republicans. The setting Spanish recognisable narratives, Catalonia (1938) and Ken making it into the is also an orphanage, full many films offer more than Loach’s Land and Freedom nation’s top-grossing of children of left-wing films meets the eye in terms of (1995). The Civil War forms movie, the Spanish Republicans; in the middle what they are trying to say. the backdrop to three government was of its courtyard a massive What lies beneath For example, El Orfanato fascinating Spanish films passing a Law of unexploded bomb sticks (The Orphanage, 2007) and knowing their historical Historical Memory up as a reminder of the the surface plots of tells the tale of a woman context is essential to and families across conflict. On the day the the film genres we who is determined to find understanding their the country were bomb landed, a boy – Santi out what happened to her message. excavating mass graves – disappeared and it is his love to watch – and son after he disappeared; In addition to the from the Spanish Civil ghost that the newly arrived what social and however, it is actually about modern day setting of War in search of the Carlos sees. the dangers of digging up The Orphanage, we shall remains of loved ones. The central conflict is historical knowledge the past. consider two films set Brenels, 2008 between the janitor, Jacinto, might we need to In many cases, working during the war: El Espíritu To my knowledge and Carmen, the matriarch make sense of them? out what the film is trying de la Colmena (The Spirit neither scriptwriter Sergio who runs the institution. to say on a sub-textual level of the Beehive, 1973), made G. Sánchez or director Jacinto is desperate to steal What meanings (the deeper meaning ‘under’ during the last few years of Juan Antonio Bayona Carmen’s gold, which she and messages can the obvious narrative) often General Franco’s reign, and have publicly stated uses to protect the children. requires knowledge of the The Devil’s Backbone (El their film is a warning He is a Nationalist whilst his we take from their time and place in which the Espinazo del Diablo, Spain- about remembering the rival for Carmen’s affections, themes or motifs? film is set and/or when the Mexico, 2001). Civil War. However the Dr Casares, is a Republican. film was made. So in order film readily yields such a Their political sympathies Nick Lacey explores to understand the ‘message’ Telling horror reading. During the War are signified, in part, by the three films which of The Orphanage we need stories many people were buried music they listen to: to know some Spanish The Orphanage focuses in unmarked graves – the conflict between demonstrate how history. on a mother who is something very distressing brutal Spaniard context can inform It will probably determined to find her for devout Catholics. The Jacinto … and kindly surprise you to learn that missing son who, she Law of Historical Memory Casares … is played out your study of film holidaymakers travelling believes, has been taken is allowing the past literally through their choice of narrative, genre or to Spain in the early 1970s, by ghosts inhabiting an to be dug up in an effort to music: the traditional representations. were visiting a country orphanage that she had find out what happened. Spanish songs of governed by the fascist attended as a child during As you might expect, given Imperio Argentina dictatorship of General the Franco era. As you this was a Civil War where (Spanish collaborator Franco. Franco was would expect, she does Spaniards were pitted with the Nazis) or the victorious in the 1936-9 find out the truth; but it against Spaniards, the tangos of Argentine Civil War that pitted his is a truth that she would consequences are likely to national hero Carlos 1 right wing Nationalists, have been better off not be extremely unsettling. Gardel . supported by the Catholic knowing. Because the film Rather than elaborate on Smith, 2001 Church, against left wing references the Franco era the film, and thereby spoil The orphanage becomes Republicans. The Nazis, (the mother could easily it for those yet to see this a microcosm of the Civil unsurprisingly, backed have been younger and terrific horror movie, I’ll War, and the civilised Franco and notoriously so not have experienced move on to consider The values of the left-wingers bombed civilians in living under a dictator), Devil’s Backbone directed are contrasted with the by Guillermo del Toro, craven greed of those on who also produced The the right. Unsurprisingly Orphanage and directed it is the mystery of Santi’s Pan’s Labyrinth (Mexico- death, which Carlos Spain, 2006; see MM 21 for uncovers, that encapsulates Belen Rueda in El Orfanato, d. Juan Antonio Bayona, an in-depth analysis). the film’s message. Unless 2007 Credit: [Warner Bros the audience has some Pictures Espana/The Kobal Telling ghost knowledge of the Spanish Collection stories Civil War, these references The Devil's Backbone d. Guillermo Del Toro, 2001 The Devil’s Backbone will not be understood Credit: Canal+Espana / The is also a horror movie or, anymore than in The Kobal Collection more specifically, a ghost Orphanage – although the

36 MediaMagazine | December 2008 | english and media centre films can still be enjoyed The Devil’s Backbone it is the Nationalists are being innocence enables them start of the film. Seven- as genre pieces. The a sanctuary, literally in the wiped out in 1944. In The to embrace the irrational. year-old Ana wonders why Devil’s Backbone is also middle of nowhere, for its Devil’s Backbone the horror For children, also, good and the villagers killed the a melodrama in its use of displaced and parentless of the ghost story reveals evil are relatively simple monster in the film; her emblems (the embalmed children. As in del Toro’s the desperate truth about concepts and they were elder sister explains that foetuses; the unexploded later film, Pan’s Labyrinth, Spain’s future; as Santi says, also central figures in a film, the monster isn’t dead bomb; the ghost in the the fascist character is ‘Children will die’. set a year after The Devil’s but lives in an abandoned cellar and so on) and in its obsessed with his dead Backbone, but made farmhouse outside the emphasis on music father, emphasising the Child’s-eye view: whilst Franco’s regime was village. Unable to tell the In The Orphanage the hysterically patriarchal The Spirit of the still running the country: difference between reality children’s home becomes a nature of fascism. In Pan’s Beehive The Spirit of the Beehive. and film, Ana seeks out the symbol of a buried past, a Labyrinth Ofelia uses The focus on children Although it is not a genre monster and finds a fugitive gothic building that would fantasy to escape from being able to see ghosts movie, it does evoke horror Republican. But, like the better be left alone with a world where the last is a common trope of the in its use of the classic monster, he is killed. its secrets. In contrast, in pockets of resistance to genre. Their presumed 1931 Frankenstein at the It’s difficult to do justice

english and media centre | December 2008 | MediaMagazine 37 38 MediaMagazine | December 2008 | english and media centre to such a complex film that it is a fairy-tale and him that she is no longer cinema. Hollywood films, in a brief article. The title so shouldn’t be taken afraid of him and will not too, can ‘hide’ a serious Nick Lacey is Head of Media refers to Ana’s father’s seriously. A key moment apologise for helping the message in the sub-text Studies at Benton Park School investigations into the in the film takes place in a children; he mercilessly of an entertaining film. Technology College, Leeds. society of bees and their classroom, where a child stabs her because he feels The Dark Knight’s (2008) house itself has hive- recites a grim poem about she’s made him look a fool ‘stand-off’ between two shaped glass in its windows oppression. Tellingly, the in front of his companions. ferries was surely being Follow it up as if it is a microcosm of girl looks directly into the Fascism can only succeed critical of United State’s Spanish society: camera as if addressing the if people are afraid to policy of pre-emptive (that Sara J Brennels (2008): [in the] observations audience. challenge its power; is, ‘getting your retaliation ‘The Orphanage’ http:// of the beehive … Conchita dies a free woman in first’) action, as too was www.flakmag.com/ [we] recognise a Fear and because she refused to bow the disturbing torture film/orphanage.html, keen philosophical resistance to tyranny. scene with its echoes of accessed August 2008 metaphor for the People allow themselves It remains to be seen what’s happening in Iraq. Paul Julian Smith human condition … to be oppressed if they what effect ‘digging up And del Toro’s Hellboy II: (2001) ‘The ghost of The dulling of the bees are afraid. Adam Curtis, in the past’, will have upon The Golden Army (2008) the civil dead’ Sight with smoke therefore his brilliant trilogy of BBC contemporary Spain. makes a plea for ‘freaks’ and Sound, December, suggests an analogy documentaries The Power However, the messages everywhere to be treated as http://www.bfi.org. with the suppression of Nightmares (2004), of both The Devil’s normal. uk/sightandsound/ of free thought and argues that the ‘war on Backbone and The Spirit review/1904, accessed will by means of terror’ is designed to make of the Beehive continue to September 2008 intimidation and the us feel afraid and so justify resonate in very different propaganda of the governments putting into places, and times, to Rob Stone (2002): dictatorship. place anti-democratic Spain of the Civil War Spanish Cinema, Pearson Stone, 2002 policies that consolidate years. Whilst the former Education Ltd If Victor Erice, who both their power, with the excuse ‘disguised’ its message as 1 wrote and directed the that they are necessary to entertainment, the latter Tangos originated from working film, had openly criticised protect us. Overcoming buried what it wanted to class communities, ‘barrios’, and Franco’s regime then the oppression is, in a deadly say in metaphor. so are associated with left-wing film could never have been fashion, dramatised in It’s worth remembering politics. made. Indeed the film The Devil’s Backbone that political sub-texts opens with the title, ‘Once when Jacinto’s estranged are not restricted to upon a time …’ suggesting girlfriend, Conchita, tells European or independent

english and media centre | December 2008 | MediaMagazine 39 40 MediaMagazine | December 2008 | english and media centre MM

Whether you’re an AS Film student thinking about the ways audiences respond emotionally to popular film, an A2 Film student currently tackling the Shocking Cinema option for FS6, or simply interested in films which ‘push the boundaries’, you’ll be dealing with films with shock factor. Here, Wayne the rules of attraction (2002) O’Brien suggests two very different and united 93 (2006) case studies which might help you to get a handle on the aspects of film form and content which create powerful responses.

Ian Somerhalder in The Rules of Attraction, d. Roger Avary, 2002 Credit: Kingsgate Films/The Kobal Collection/Alston, Lynn Images from United 93 courtesy of image.net

english and media centre | December 2008 | MediaMagazine 41 MM What is ‘Shocking Cinema’? and Vogler’s 12-step ‘Hero’s Journey’ model. crossed lovers, popular people, unpopular One of the more popular topics for the A2 Perhaps to really convince someone that a film people, heterosexual people and homosexual Film Studies is that of Shocking Cinema. At is genuinely shocking, it might be fair to say people; the narrative is structured around a series first, it might seem quite straightforward to give that it needs to use both form and content of parties that are held throughout the course examples of what could be considered Shocking to cause ‘a sudden and violent disturbance of the academic year. Summarising it in this way, Cinema. However, the more you think, the in the emotions’. Arguably, both The Rules it could be Romeo and Juliet, it could be Pride harder it becomes. Is The Dark Knight (2008) an of Attraction (2002) and United 93 (2006) do and Prejudice, it could be American Pie. What example of Shocking Cinema because it dares exactly this. separates this film from others in the genre is to work through some serious issues in a genre through the way film form is used to tell the not seen as being serious – namely, the action- Genre and audience story and also because of the content of the film, These are very different kinds of films. The adventure? Not many summer blockbusters which certainly pushes at the boundaries of what Rules of Attraction is a fiction film, a teen movie deal with heavyweight contemporary issues is socially acceptable in a teen movie. adapted from the novel of the same name by the about when it's right or wrong to use violence Whilst the narrative shape of the conventional author Brett Easton Ellis – who also wrote the to achieve your goals, or about the rights and Hollywood film closely adheres to Todorov’s (in)famous American Psycho. It explores the lives wrongs of Extraordinary Rendition (the practice 3-act structure, film students of the 21st century of a group of white, middle class Americans at of kidnapping suspected terrorists and flying are also well accustomed to seeing films which university. United 93 is a non-fiction film based them around the world for questioning and work in a non-linear structure, where the start on the experiences of the people who were interrogation), something which has been an of the film is the end of the story. The Usual onboard the United Airlines aeroplane which integral part of George W Bush’s so-called war Suspects (1995) and Memento (2001) are fine crashed in a field in Pennsylvania on September on terror. The Dark Knight (2008) dares to tackle examples of this type of storytelling on film. 11th 2001 rather than hitting its target of the these issues – but does this make it a shocking However, The Rules of Attraction dares to go White House. This film belongs to the docu- film? Maybe, maybe not – depending on what in a different direction. Not only does the film drama genre similar in nature to the director your expectations of what an action-adventure start at the end of the story, the action of the Paul Greengrass’s earlier film Bloody Sunday could and should deliver to its audience. film moves backwards and forward in front (2002). The term Shocking Cinema very often gets of your eyes – people move backwards, talk Films of different genres are most likely to be applied to films which feature graphic sex, backwards, dead leaves rise from the floor geared towards different target audiences and violence or a combination of the two. The history back onto trees and bloom into life once more. different modes of exhibition. Neither of these of cinema is littered with examples of films that Working in this way, we are fully 15 minutes films make for conventional multiplex fare – have shocked censors, critics and audiences into the film before we get the conventional they are not easy to watch, and the ‘pleasures’ because of their representations of sex and scene-setting opening elements of a teen movie they offer the viewer are not the same kind of violence – The Public Enemy (1931), Psycho – with shots introducing the key characters, the pleasures to be found in watching something like (1960), Bonnie and Clyde (1967), The Evil Dead university campus, and an 80s soundtrack heavily Indiana Jones and the Crystal Skull, for example. (1982) and Trainspotting (1996) to name but a influenced by British ‘indie’ bands. So, how and why can these films be considered few from decades gone by. In the preceding 15 minutes the viewer has examples of Shocking Cinema? been thrown in at the deep end, and fleetingly Defining shock introduced to some major and minor characters. The first thing to consider is what the word The Rules of Attraction (2002) The opening of the film is set at ‘The Edge of the The film follows the lives of a small group of ‘shocking’ actually means. The Collins English World Party’ which features the usual student white middle-class American youths through Dictionary defines shocking as ‘causing shock, party goings-on – people drinking, dancing, part of their time at university. It features star- horror, or disgust’. This does not help a lot. So and flirting. It is in this opening scene that what’s the meaning of the word ‘shock’? The dictionary offers a variety of definitions, but one particularly stands out in the context of cinema. Shock is: something that causes a sudden and violent disturbance in the emotions. This definition can provide a fruitful starting point for investigating Shocking Cinema. From here we can explore how Roger Avary’s The Rules of Attraction and Paul Greengrass’s United 93 can be seen as wildly different examples of Shocking Cinema. Form and content In analysing any moving-image media, whether film, TV, or videogames, a number of aspects demand attention. It is worth remembering that analysing a film is about looking at both form (genre, narrative, camera, editing, performance, sound) and content (messages and values). To return to the example of The Dark Knight, it’s possible to analyse the content and argue that it is a shocking film in terms of the issues listed above; it is equally possible to look at the form and argue just as convincingly that this is a conventional Hollywood film: clear hero and villain, a narrative structure which can be readily applied to a number of theoretical models such as Todorov’s equilibrium/disruption/new equilibrium

42 MediaMagazine | December 2008 | english and media centre MM a controversial rape scene occurs. A female character, Lauren, finds herself coming back to consciousness after passing out on someone’s bed. As she does so she realises that she is having sex – given that she had passed out, it would have been impossible for her to give her consent to sex, making the act one of rape. However, rather than physically fighting back against her assailant she submits, and drifts into a dreamland until the male raping her throws up, presumably through over-consumption of alcohol. Even worse, the whole episode is being filmed by someone Lauren considered a friend. When exploring Shocking Cinema, there is plenty to consider in this scene alone. How is the audience supposed to interpret what they are the spectator a world inhabited by characters foundation work, the killings of the pilots with presented with? Is this a sexist, misogynist film who are so self-absorbed that they cannot knives and bare hands is brutal and offers a which downplays the horrors of rape? What is remember names and faces even of friends, ‘shocking’ reminder of the fragility of the human the more shocking act – the rape itself, Lauren’s United 93 offers us a glimpse into a different body. apparent acceptance of it, the fact that it’s being world where we are able to observe the intimate With the inexorable build-up to the passengers’ filmed, or the ‘jock’ being sick on Lauren? What minutiae of peoples lives – hearing about failed bid to recapture the plane, some of the do our answers to these questions tell us about one of the stewardesses who has ‘a crush on most poignant and shocking moments in the ourselves and our own beliefs and attitudes? the maintenance man’, about how the pilot is film are revealed. Through well focussed and The working out of answers to these questions planning on taking his wife to London for their economical use of cinematography and editing, is the business of film students at A Level and wedding anniversary. The intimacy offered by the spectator gets to witness the last messages beyond. These events all occur within the first few the script, the performances of the actors and of many of the plane’s passengers and crew – the minutes! What can happen next? the filming style go on to offer an example of agonising phone calls to loved ones. In these Not content to confuse the audience with Shocking Cinema unlike many others. moments, film form is used to very good effect the unusual narrative technique of rolling the Much of the shock value of this film derives to tell a powerful story in a very human way. action backwards, forwards and back again, from the audience’s foreknowledge of the With the huge loss of life that day it is too easy the director Roger Avary also uses the ‘split outcome – that none of the people we see to forget about the individuals involved. Through screen’ style which is a hallmark of landmark represented in the film made it alive off flight the way the narrative is progressed and through film director Brian de Palma (Redacted, Carrie, United 93. This knowledge lends a touch of the ways in which film form is used, this film The Untouchables, Carlito’s Way, The Black pathos to the details we see – terrorists and brings these details into startling focus. Dahlia) to surprise the audience, tell the story passengers sitting side-by-side in the airport Perhaps what is most shocking of all in economically and do so in a way that the terminal – at this point there is no division this film is how close the passengers seem to overwhelming majority of film directors don’t between them, we see a passenger make a have got to achieving their goal to recapture dare to – or don’t know how. The variety of last minute rush to get onboard the doomed the plane from the terrorists. Just at the point stylistic flourishes works to keep the spectator aeroplane – the kind of ordinary details which we where the passengers have managed to fight off-balance and unsure of what to expect next – might see at any airport, but we know that the off the terrorists and get a pilot into the cabin that is Shocking Cinema. vast majority of flights don’t end in the way that to fly the plane, the end comes, swiftly, without Another key shocking sequence is set in and flight United 93 did. pyrotechnics. Unlike the crash that opens the first around ‘The Dress to Get Screwed Party’. The In the hands of another director, United 93 episode of Lost, there is no ball of fire and plane manner in which some of the characters are would have been a more gung-ho action film debris flying around – just a simple cut to black dressed is only a small dimension in what makes than Paul Greengrass’s vision. Whilst the film is at the moment that the plane hits the ground. this an example of Shocking Cinema. During titled United 93, this film is not just about that this party, the central character, Sean Bateman plane – it is also an attempt to tell part of the The shock of form and content (in a nice postmodern, intertextual touch, the wider story of 9/11. The film does this by taking If ‘shock’ means ‘something that causes a cousin of Patrick Bateman from the novel and film the audience into the air traffic control centres sudden and violent disturbance in the emotions’ American Psycho) goes off with a girl and leaves and the military base where the unfolding then these two films are most definitely fine a secret admirer reeling. This secret admirer, disaster was being watched but where the examples of Shocking Cinema, and much more whose name is not revealed, takes this setback staff was mostly powerless to meaningfully than that – radical, powerful films that dare to be very hard, going back to her halls of residence intervene. This enables the film to recreate the different to the Hollywood norm. and committing suicide in a scene which once sense of chaos and panic that was pervasive Wayne O’Brien is Director of Learning for Media & Film seen will not easily be forgotten. on September 11th 2001; and through the If this scene were not shocking enough, Sean incorporation of news footage into the film we Studies at Smestow School, Wolverhampton. He is Bateman then enacts a ‘pretend’ suicide in order get to see once again the images of the planes co-author of Studying Videogames (Auteur, 2008) and an to get Lauren’s attention. This scene, coming smashing into the twin towers of the World Trade experienced teacher and examiner of Film and Media straight after the real suicide scene, works as a Center. Studies. form of ‘gallows humour’; but of course, should The film cuts from scene to scene at breathless you laugh you’ll then need to ask yourself the pace, simultaneously setting the context for question: precisely what is funny about someone the actions of the crew and passengers of flight pretending to kill himself …? These are simply a United 93, and ratcheting up the drama and few examples from a film packed full of shocking tension for the audience by making us wait moments – both in terms of form and content. longer for the fight-back against the hijackers to occur. Indeed, the film does not rush to the point United 93 (2006) where the plane is hijacked – this event only The heightened fantasy of The Rules of happens 58 minutes into the film. Even though Attraction is far removed from the in-your-face we have been able mentally to prepare ourselves intimacy of United 93. Where the former offers for the hijack through the detailed contextual

english and media centre | December 2008 | MediaMagazine 43 score!

football on film

Football – national obsession, beautiful game, opium of the people – Media Studies text ...? Mark Ramey argues that sport in general, and football in particular, has long been undervalued in academic Media Studies analysis – and explains how a football movie can illuminate debates and issues about Pre-match warm First half the discipline of semiotic course run the clubs and representation, up Why is sport, and in analysis, explored boxing administer the game. A ideology and national Sport is a universal, particular football, so and wrestling along with football fan is living in a globally-mediated activity derided by the academic his better known analyses ‘false state of consciousness’ identity. – as demonstrated by community? I believe it is in of advertising and clothing. – unaware of her historical the coverage of the 2008 part because the educated, (‘The World of Wrestling’, purpose to turn off the Olympics in China; and aspirational classes tend to Mythologies, 1972) capitalist machine. yet it is remarkable that look down on the pursuit of There are however so little academic time is sport as something merely more potent reasons for spent theorising sport recreational. Ironically, academic indifference to and its relationship with this is a species of the sport, and in particular the mass media. Many same prejudice that has football: the existence AS and A2 Media and Film persistently plagued the of three theoretical strains in contemporary Studies text books, for study of the media and film A feminist may Media and Film Studies – example, betray their own – the distinction between argue that football Marxism, feminism and ideological constructions high and low culture. Sport reinforces male values postmodernism. all too easily with their on this continuum is either at the expense of female well-trodden examinations a leisurely hobby for the identity and female access cultured, or a means of Football and the of such genres as film -isms to the sport. Football’s noir and soaps; but rarely entertainment by which yob culture is an example For Marxist theorists do they delve into the the working classes can of unreconstructed men football can be read as world of sport, which is literally or metaphorically fearfully turning their a new religion (a new too often relegated to escape the ghetto. Even the back on the New Man. opium for the people) in the metaphorical and study of soaps, sitcoms and Football in this reading is an otherwise secular age. literal back pages. This advertising yields greater the last resting place of The corporate football article therefore intends intellectual insights given outmoded sexism. Even the industry is a perfect to challenge the notion that they emerge from representations of female example of capitalism run that sport belongs on the an aesthetic and creative sports stars are sexualised, amok. Football normalises periphery of most Media source. Sport on the other thus emphasising the idea of economic and Film courses. My hand is physical; it is of the traditional, male-approved competition and diverts the argument is that football body. stereotypes of what women attention of the workers films are as worthy of study At this point it is worth should be. from their struggle with as the latest police drama or remembering that Roland Finally there are the the bourgeoisie – who of Levi’s ad campaign. Barthes, founding father of postmodernists who mock Images courtesy and BFI Archive of image.net

44 MediaMagazine | December 2008 | english and media centre flag-waving and badge- on the back of a cigarette is an incongruous figure behaviour we recognise wearing fans as relics of packet. This particular of fun, hapless but good that Pelé holds the moral Follow it up the nationalistic past. The foible leads to the hilarious natured. He signifies high ground. In laughing at Six great football whole mediated enterprise accidental selection of two the contemporary neo- ourselves, we sugar the pill film texts of football coverage is overweight and untalented middle-class Englishman, of change. Mike Bassett is a handicapped by outmoded players from the lower inadequately battling cultural dinosaur, a remnant Goal (Danny Canon, UK, notions of results and divisions, ‘Benson’ and with his unreconstructed of the industrial age, trying 2005) and Goal 2 (Jaume league tables. Football – ‘Hedges’! male demons and the to come to terms with a Collet-Serra, UK, 2007): and indeed sport in general Mike is selected for the rapidly changing world world of cappuccinos and Rags-to-riches tale of – is just too earnest and post of England manager around him. Bassett is the computers. a poor Mexican player too old-fashioned for most by the Football Association stereotypical Englishman becoming a star firstly postmodernists. Where is because no other suitable of old: bumbling, self- at Newcastle United and the irony? candidate is available; deprecating, loyal, honest, then for the sequel at These caricatures of the FA is here ruthlessly a pragmatist wary of Real Madrid. theories are of course parodied as an out-of- new ideas, a fighter. He Zidane (Douglas Gordon absurdly broad, but I have touch, waspish clique is clearly a conventional & Philip Parreno, UK, heard them all. My point from a patrician era. Mike representation: a nostalgic 2006) is that football is, as the is a forthright, passionate figure of fun for a One final aspect of A real time above theories suggest, man, from working-class postmodern age where the film that is of note is documentation using a complex repository of stock and although clearly such identities are to be the very un-Hollywood multiple cameras of numerous ideological out of his depth he is gently mocked. approach to the narrative. one game in Zinedine points of view. Theory can determined to do his best. One scene defines this The English team do not Zidane’s glittering career. offer us fascinating insights Needless to say, he selects shift towards a postmodern win the World Cup, and into the construction and a team of staff and players sensibility. In a fit of despair Bend it Like Beckham apart from the fluked win popularity of cultural consisting of has-beens, as his team, his career and (Gurinder Chadha, UK, against Argentina and a products and football is yes-men, psychopaths, his marriage nears collapse, 2002) face saving exit to Brazil, no less deserving of that egotists and party animals Mike is persuaded by a A British born Indian girl they are woeful. What insight. Football’s critical to represent the nation player to have a drink to battles the prejudices does this tell us about the place in contemporary UK (or are they representative cheer himself up. The next and expectations of her English nation? It shows and global culture needs of a nation?) in a series of scene shows Mike and family and her male that we are able to produce addressing. Our newspapers crunch matches which sees the entire squad roaring friends to secure a relatively mainstream are replete with football England progress to the drunk. Here is the drinking playing contract in the products that are imbued stories from match reports World Cup Finals in Brazil. culture that in some sense USA. with an ironic awareness to celebrity kiss-and-tells; In Brazil the team performs characterizes one aspect of of social change. We know Shaolin Soccer (Stephen from fixations with the disastrously and when Mike our own national identity. that we no longer rule the Chow, HK, 2004) national team’s fortunes is photographed drunk As Mike strips and dances world; we know that foreign A kung-fu hybrid. to the worship of iconic and semi-naked dancing on top of the bar we cut to footballers tend to be more figures like David Beckham. in a hotel bar, outraged the real Pelé approaching Football Factory (Nick cultured and more likely to There are football TV shows, journalists demand his the bar. Pelé is urbane and Love, UK 2004) win the World Cup. And yet dedicated live match resignation. Unrepentant, charming and pulls up short Danny Dyer and his life we seem to rejoice in our channels, radio stations, Mike goes on to win a when he sees the scene as a Chelsea hooligan. status as underdog. magazines, computer famous victory over the old before him. ‘Oh no, it’s the Football films are Green Street (Lexi games, web-based news enemy Argentina, involving English,’ he says, in escaping therefore a genre of texts Alexander, UK, 2005) sites and adverts. Football a scene which parodies to a barrage of abuse which can reveal deep An American student has a huge presence in Maradona’s infamous from Bassett, who has issues and debates. They are visits London based our media industries and ‘hand of God’ goal in the recognised him. Here we also useful, as I have tried relatives and gets sucked it is with this in mind that 1986 World Cup finals. This have represented a delight to suggest, in revealing the into the addictive I now focus on one of the victory leads to a semi-final in our own infantilism fissures and assumptions tribalism and violence of most interesting football clash with the host nation and a lamentable sense of inherent in the conceptual West Ham hooligans. films of recent years. Brazil, which Brazil win. superiority over our more foundations of both Film However, national pride is sophisticated foreign peers. Bibliography and Media Studies. restored and Mike and the As John Williams notes: Mark Ramey: team return to England The pitfalls facing each Mark Ramey teaches Media ‘Football and Film’ heroes. new England manager Studies at Collyer's College, in Understanding The film is a postmodern and his hapless squad Horsham, West Sussex. Representation (ed comedy ironically seem to have been Wendy Helsby, 2005) adopting the form of a read by the press as mockumentary, and a tale of nothing less John Williams (1999): Is It Second half All Over? Mike Bassett: England anchoring its sense of than the failing state Manager (UK 2001 realism through the casting of the English nation Steve Barron) of some real media and itself. Not far below Mike Bassett: England football celebrities. There the surface in these Manager, concerns the rise, is even a short role for the media accounts is often fall and rise again of the world’s greatest ever player, an implicit racism or eponymous Mike Bassett. Pelé! imperialism ... Mike is an ‘old school’ Mike’s character is a English racial manager who has little homage to the old football superiority is lampooned tactical sense and each world of fags, booze and in this film for although we week writes his team out oranges at half time. He enjoy Bassett’s ludicrous

english and media centre | December 2008 | MediaMagazine 45 MM

46 MediaMagazine | December 2008 | english and media centre MM

What do you associate with Christians and representations Christianity? Kindness? Devotion? Prayer? of Christianity in Stuffy churches? Christmas presents? Long film sermons? Christ on the cross? The likelihood is that much of your view of Christianity is likely to be influenced by media representations in Since its birth, cinema has the press, film and the broadcast media rather plundered literature for its than Sunday school. Like most of their audience, characters in British soaps visit church solely their comeuppance. Beyond that, however, narratives, and no book has for weddings or funerals – either their own or Christians appear to have been marginalised, proved more inspiring than someone else’s. The few souls who worship their faith appearing as something comic, more often are routinely stereotyped as elderly pathetic or possibly even sinister. While it is a the Good Book itself – the spinsters or widows: unfashionable, out of touch fact that congregations have been shrinking and Bible. Tom Brownlee and rather sanctimonious – witness the aptly the church plays a reduced role in many areas of named Coronation Street stalwart, Emily Bishop, public life, it is curious that the beliefs and values explores the features, or her Emmerdale and EastEnders equivalents, of many millions of people today are represented appeals and history of films Edna Birch and Dot Cotton. However, it could in such limited ways on British TV. Once a bulwark be argued that these dramas are a throwback to of cultural and social life, Christian worship on the about aspects of Christianity, medieval Christian theatre in that they perform box, for example, seems to have been reduced to from Old Testament epics to the function of modern day morality tales in little more than half an hour of hymn singing on a a more recent representation which the sins of arrogance, lust or infidelity Sunday tea time. result in exposure and punishment. One of In film, however, we see a far greater of Christian values, Pay it the narrative pleasures for audiences from this and more interesting engagement with Forward. and similar genres is the sure knowledge that Christianity, with writers and directors drawing criminals and adulterers will eventually get upon the rich heritage and symbolism of the world’s largest faith. Christian, or at least religious, themes have been integral to the success of the Potter franchise, the Rings trilogy and The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe, while the comedies Bruce Almighty and its follow up, Evan Almighty, have worked with ideas drawn from the Bible. By applying the five typical elements of genre analysis – Narrative, Iconography, Character, Settings and Themes (NICST), one can see that the stories in the Good Book continue to pay dividends for producers and directors. The five ‘typicals’ of the religious genre Narratives: Jesus was a storyteller who imparted his teachings through the parables – stories which have a religious or moral message attached to them. The best-known examples include the parables of both the Good Samaritan and of the Prodigal Son. Another famous narrative is that of the Exodus or the mass migration of the Hebrew slaves, led by Moses, as they escaped from their slavery under

english and media centre | December 2008 | MediaMagazine 47 MM

the Pharaohs, eventually to reach the ‘promised Arguably, the Bible is the source of an enduring Horror was enough to destroy Dracula. land’. and limiting representation of women: the Themes: temptation and corruption (the Iconography: The term itself derives from the virgin/whore dichotomy or ideology, with the Garden of Eden story); the punishment of sinners; depiction of key figures in Christianity such as two Marys, Jesus’s mother and Mary Magdalene, forgiveness and reconciliation; sacrifice; doing the Virgin Mary and the saints in the Catholic and occupying either of the binary oppositions. In good to your fellow man (the parable of the Orthodox traditions, and has since been used to Halloween (1978) the ‘good girl’, Laurie Strode, Good Samaritan), are just a few of the central describe visual and sound motifs or signifiers played by Jamie Lee Curtis, survives, while the themes from the Bible which continue to inform in film and television. The story of Adam and Eve girls who sin by having sex are murdered – recent movies such as Pay it Forward (2002). in the Garden of Eden in the Book of Genesis, for punished – by Mike Myers. This morality tale example, is rich with imagery, including the apple has resurfaced more recently in the surveillance Biblical epics: the greatest from the Tree of Knowledge and the serpent who horror, My Little Eye (2002). stories ever told tempted Eve into eating from the forbidden fruit. Settings: including Heaven and Hell, which The biblical epics of the 1950s and 60s Holy Week, which includes the Last Supper (bread feature throughout the first two Lord of the represent the high water mark of the genre with and wine) through to Jesus’s crucifixion and Rings stories, the desert, churches and shrines. classics such as Samson and Delilah (1949), The resurrection, also supplies us with a repertoire of Interestingly, for example, the collapse of the Robe (1953), The Ten Commandments (1956), powerful images and rituals. British establishment in the dystopian sci-fi Ben Hur (1959), and The Greatest Story Ever Told Character and character types: God versus horror, 28 Days Later (2004) is symbolised by the (1964) being some of the best known examples. the devil, angels, Jesus (‘Christ-like’), Judas (the revelation that the church offers no sanctuary Filmed using a mixture of Hollywood studio ultimate betrayer), disciples and the prophets all from marauding rage-filled zombies. In the past, backlots and cheaper, slightly more realistic appear in historical and contemporary cinema. the mere brandishing of a crucifix in a Hammer overseas locations in Spain and France, these two- and three-hour movies came into being due to a variety of interconnected factors. The arrival of mass TV ownership by the mid-1950s threatened to end the ‘Golden Age’ of Hollywood cinema. In response, the studios and exhibitors (the cinema chains, which were often owned by the former in a form of vertical integration) developed Technicolour, Vistavision, Widescreen and Surroundsound to enhance and emphasise the superiority of the cinematic experience over the small box in the corner of the living room, with its poor sound, monochromatic pictures and absence of ‘stars’. Spectacle was in, and biblical stories had plenty of larger than life characters, set pieces and themes to satisfy the need. The framing devices, use of long shots, heavenly choirs and mise-en-

48 MediaMagazine | December 2008 | english and media centre MM

Biblical cowboys and action heroes The stories and locations lent themselves to a broad canvas – offering similar reasons to the appeal of the Western. In many ways the myth of Exodus might be compared with the American national mythology of pioneering wagon-training families opening up and ‘civilising’ the American West. After all, the 1950s also represented the high point of the Western film genre, which often celebrated the struggles of pioneers heading across the desert to claim their own ‘promised land’. Indeed, Americans were brought up to believe that it was their ‘manifest destiny’ to make the continent their own. Masculinity and the star system: Hollywood hunks such as Charlton Heston (who played Moses, as above, and Ben Hur) and Victor Mature (who played Samson), were two standard-bearers representing a typical all-American hero. They offered an officially-approved version of post-war masculinity which male audiences in particular responded to. Old Testament heroes were represented primarily as men of action – Moses, scène of these ancient costume dramas speak after all, kills an Egyptian slave owner before Cold War context leading his people in rebellion and freedom. majesty and aura. The wider context of the Cold War (paralleling In Heston’s portrayal, he is a virile, powerful The studio system was capable of meeting the the so-called War on Terror today) played a general in the mould of a Patton or a President production and marketing costs of productions significant part in the rise of this genre. In the Eisenhower. Richard Dyer’s book Heavenly on this scale, though it was the huge cost United States the Cold War was often presented Bodies on the Hollywood stars of this era, such overruns of Cleopatra (1960) which spelt the as a battle of ideologies between atheistic as John Wayne and Judy Garland, coupled with demise of the first generation of cinema epics. communism and the Christian West. Average his later studies of the male gaze, are particularly Disasters, special effects (parting Red Seas!), church attendance was (and still is) much relevant to the study of these movies. casts of thousands, large scale battles, and higher in the US than in western Europe and The business of Hollywood is business. other elements of the biblical stories could the UK. Interestingly, in these films there is Religious epics built on or, rather, exploited be underwritten by the Hollywood producers a concentration on the ‘hawks’ of the Old proven past success. Since producers then, as and their financiers. Again, like Peter Jackson’s Testament rather than the ‘doves’ of the New. today, wanted to minimise risk and maximise adaptation of The Lord of the Rings trilogy, This again chimed with Cold War attitudes and they believed they had the financial muscle and a newly interventionist US foreign policy, which technical wherewithal to film the previously saw it fighting wars against communism in Korea ‘unfilmable’ stories of the miraculous. and later in Vietnam. The Ten Commandments Many film bosses controlling the studios, such (1956, DeMille), starring Charlton Heston, as Zukor and the Warner brothers, came from biblical epic stalwart and future president of the an East European Jewish background. Since Jews National Rifle Association, as Moses and the East and Christians substantially share the stories European-born actor Yul Bryner as the cruel and of Genesis, Abraham and Moses in their sacred despotic Pharaoh, Rameses, offers a direct Cold scriptures, it is highly likely that they would be War analogy. particularly favourably disposed to the depiction of Old Testament stories and characters.

english and media centre | December 2008 | MediaMagazine 49 MM

profit, they tended to recycle popular genres, Last Temptation of Christ), Arcand (Jesus of the youngster on his quest. Trevor (Haley Joel attempt sequels and create franchises or series Montreal) and Gibson (The Passion of the Christ), Osment, better known for his role as a medium until that seam of success was played out. The a personal vision, the work of an auteur. So while in The Sixth Sense: ‘I see dead people’) comes up established popularity of previous biblical epics we appear to becoming more secular, a religious with an altruistic pyramid scheme in which you coupled with the importance of the Bible in sensibility can provide for a fruitful approach to do a good deed to three people who each in turn the West (even now the world’s greatest selling film and media analysis. do the same for three others. Thus the kindness publication) encouraged the making of more virus will spread worldwide. films of this type. In this respect, the Bible, like A new take on an old theme: At first, Trevor’s efforts are stymied by the the Potter series, indicated a pre-sold audience Pay it Forward inability of adults to benefit from his efforts: his who would have had an appetite to see a screen Adapted from a bestselling novel by first victim/recipient, Jerry (Jim Calziel, who went version of their favourite book. Catherine Ryan Hyde, Pay it Forward (directed on to play Jesus in The Passion of the Christ), by Mimi Leder, 2002) is essentially a retelling backslides into drug abuse. Trevor’s alcoholic Changing values of the parable of the Good Samaritan in which mum (Helen Hunt) also struggles to cope with However, by the mid-1960s, the audience’s characters offer random acts of kindness to her hang-ups. The setting, Las Vegas, is a sort of (and hence the producers’) appetites for the strangers without the expectation of anything Sodom and Gomorrah perched on the edge of a Western and the religious epic went into in return. Echoing what Jesus called the ‘greatest desert. abeyance. Since then, films referring to or commandment’, ‘love your neighbour’, the title While the first and second acts of the film exploring Christianity have tended to be either also scans with the sloganistic ‘do the right thing’. are concerned with ethical behaviour – an less overtly religious or often allegorical (the Student Trevor is charged by his new social extended parable – the fourth and fifth elements Rings trilogy and Chronicles of Narnia, for studies teacher, Mr Simonet (Kevin Spacey) to of Todorov’s narrative structure offer a quasi- example); comic or satirical, for example The ‘Think of an idea to change the world – and religious resolution. In their struggle to repair Life of Brian or Bruce Almighty; or, in the case put it into action’. In Proppian terms Simonet is the damage to the equilibrium, the reluctant of Zefferelli (Jesus of Nazareth), Scorsese (The playing the role of Despatcher here by sending adults begin to ‘pay it forward’. Jerry, the , including images courtesy of image.net Ben Hur, The Passion of the Christ, The Ten Commandments, The Life of Brian, Bruce Almighty of Brian, Bruce Life The Commandments, Ten The of the Christ, Passion The Ben Hur,

50 MediaMagazine | December 2008 | english and media centre MM , d. M Leder, 2000 Credit: Bel-Air/Wb/The Kobal Collection/James, David Collection/James, Kobal Bel-Air/Wb/The 2000 Credit: M Leder, , d. Pay It Forward Pay Kevin Spacey and Haley Joel Osment in and Haley Joel Osment Spacey Kevin

unreformed junkie, seizes the opportunity for God’s presence. The soundtrack reinforces the of scenes, say, from The Greatest Story Ever Told redemption when he talks a would-be suicide message provided by the iconography with and The Passion of the Christ would act as sound down from a bridge by telling her that she can Jane Siberry singing ‘Calling All Angels’. Note: all preparation for either FS1 Understanding Film ‘save’ him if she spares herself. Trevor’s mum finds angels, not just Trevor. We are witnesses to the Form, or FS2, US Film Comparative Study. it in herself to forgive her estranged and alcoholic birth of something momentous which we are mother, a crucial first step in her own salvation invited to join. Tom Brownlee is Head of Media and Religious Education at from alcoholism. In the climactic scene, which Pay it Forward had a mixed reception on Richard Hale School, Hertford. is highly reminiscent of the story of the Good its release. Dismissed by a number of critics as Samaritan, Trevor dives in to protect a younger ‘syrupy’ and ‘sub-Spielbergian’ (ouch!), the film has boy from being bullied by two older gang nevertheless engendered a powerful response Filmography members. A knife is drawn and Trevor is stabbed: from its fans. While it doesn’t have the cult The Passion of the Christ (2004) he falls on his knees and then to the ground in a status of, say, The Wicker Man or A Clockwork An addition to Gibson’s bloody oeuvre, Jesus’s gesture of self sacrifice. He dies of his wound in Orange, it has nevertheless spawned fan activity final 12 hours. hospital. It is the ultimate act of paying it forward. beyond that of the average Hollywood release. To quote from the Bible: ‘greater love has no-one Spearheaded by the Pay it Forward Movement/ The Lord of the Rings Trilogy (2003-2005) one than this, that he lay down his life for his Foundation, which was set up by Hyde in 2000, Old Testament prophets battle the devil. friends’ (John 15:12). many thousands of people worldwide have Bruce Almighty and Evan Almighty (2003 Sadly, the message of racial tolerance and engaged in good works under its banner. Google and 2007) equality is somewhat undermined by the the title and you will find about 9,160,000 results, ‘Groundhog Day’ meets ‘It’s a Wonderful Life’. filmmaker’s depiction of Mexicans as the including examples of organised school projects, muggers, a negative stereotype of Hispanics as Pay it Forward assemblies and myriad small acts Chronicles of Narnia: the Lion, the Witch and gang members and criminals. Curiously, until of kindness to others. Needless to say, the vast the Wardrobe (2005) the final shots, these two boys are the only non- majority have taken place in the US, since it is Christian allegories abound. whites in a film set in a racially diverse city. an American movement and connects with the The Golden Compass (2007) The final scenes see the film move into spiritual rather more active Christian congregation in that Every human character is blessed with a overdrive. Back at his mum’s house we see Trevor country. daemon: a talking animal that serves as a voice expounding his philosophy in a pre-recorded of reason, a guardian angel, and arguably a TV documentary – a sort of posthumous tele- Taking it forward soul. evangelical broadcast. A sound outside prompts The ideas in this article maybe be helpful in Mr Simonet and Trevor’s grieving mother to various aspects of your A Level course. You could Bibliography open their front door. There they find hundreds investigate one or more of these texts as part Christopher Falzon (2002): Philosophy goes to of candle-holding devotees/disciples outside in of the WJEC ME1 module. For AQA’s MEST3: the Movies a silent vigil, thus turning Trevor’s house into a representations of Christianity, spirituality or shrine. The crowd is suddenly diverse – all ages Islam in the media could be a discrete topic of Melanie Wright (2007): Religion and Film: an and races are now evident. In the final shot the study, while the same topic might also offer Introduction camera pulls back into a high angle extreme case studies for OCR’s A2 Critical Perspectives long shot to reveal the extent of ‘the movement’s’ topic on Media and Collective Identity. Finally, scale. An ethereal light in the distance hints at for Film students, comparative critical analyses

english and media centre | December 2008 | MediaMagazine 51 post-feminism in contemporary film

Post-feminism is a Many of you will focus on representations of gender, MALE < ––––––––––––––––––––––– vs ––––––––––––––––––––––––– > FEMALE term that is often either as part of your media Binary oppositions in conflict misunderstood and concepts study at AS or as a more detailed and complex therefore misused. MASCULINE TRAITS < –––––––––––––––––––––––––––––– > FEMININE TRAITS case study for A2. This article The gender continuum Like feminism, it is will offer a basic beginners’ Fig 2 hard to define – the guide to this controversial and difficult area. It aims to Gender Gender relation- Some features of theories and ideas enable you to understand relationships: ships: the post- post-feminism and apply ideas from that come from Q It does not assume feminist and post-feminist the feminist feminist model there are no more this perspective theory to the texts you will model Gender is a fluid variable gender-based issues or be studying. Gender is fixed and of behaviours which can are varied and, at problems to consider. As the term suggests, relates directly to an be performed regardless Q It does not always agree times, contradictory. post-feminism focuses on individual’s biological sex. of the individual’s with feminist arguments, gender issues, specifically (See Fig. 1) biological sex. (See Fig 2) Here, senior but it does not dismiss in the cultural context Even though it sought Post-feminism sees feminism as being a examiner Steph since feminism. Feminism to change the way people gender as a set of socially ‘stupid idea’, outmoded, brought about many social thought about women’s constructed behaviours, Hendry offers you or irrelevant. and political changes. position in society, attitudes and expectations Q It does focus on gender a beginners’ guide Post-feminism does not feminism was based which have no essential issues in the post- assume that this means on the idea of binary relationship to a person’s and applies it to four industrial economic age, gender issues are no longer opposition between the biological sex – an and is just as likely to decades of Bond valid. On the contrary, it two genders. As Levi- individual may at any time consider issues around girls. acknowledges that there are Strauss tells us in narrative be more or less masculine masculinity as femininity still many areas of interest theory, binary oppositions or more or less feminine as it sees both sexes and concern within gender create conflict. Feminism regardless of whether being impacted on by politics; but it recognises can be seen to be a range they are male or female. gender politics. that these issues are very of ideas that arose from For example, a man crying There are a number of different from the ones this perceived conflict, is no less a man, or an theorists in this field. In faced by gender theorists in focussed on the idea of a aggressive woman no less a order to help explain some the mid-20th century. power struggle in society woman. The behaviours are of the key ideas a case study between two opposing culturally associated with a will be used to provide groups: masculine and specific sex; but people are textual analyses using a feminine. As with any not that simple. Individuals An important note about terms few of the ideas that come – A person’s sex relates to being male or female – the power struggle, as one side may even choose to largely from the theorist biologically assigned category. gains power, the other side ‘perform’ gender depending Judith Butler. – A person’s gender relates to behaviours which are must lose it. on the circumstances they socially defined as being masculine or feminine. find themselves in.

A (Very) Brief History of Feminist Movements First Wave Late 19th and Reaction to the historical context where women had few legal rights, including the Feminism early 20th suffragette movement that fought for women’s rights to vote. This ‘wave’ came from century a highly patriarchal culture and focussed on legal and political issues for women.

Second Wave Mid to late Response to a culture where women had incrementally gained more legal and Feminism 20th century political rights than before, but where attitudes to women and their place in society were still patriarchal. This wave focussed on social and professional issues for women. Second wave feminism took many forms, from those who considered the way women were represented in the mass media (e.g. Mulvey) to more radical feminism where the ‘battle of the sexes’ was seen to be an ongoing struggle for power in the social, domestic and professional spheres: the ‘glass ceiling’. Third Wave Late 20th and Reaction to a culture which had been changed by feminism, and a or Post-Feminism early 21st broadened approach to consider both genders rather than just one. century Economic and social changes in working practices and social organisation are taken into account, and the two genders are seen as being dependent on one another rather than binary oppositions in a state of conflict.

52 MediaMagazine | December 2008 | english and media centre The case of As the Bond series identity to be with her. The she is to act as an object Bond ... James progressed through the 80s film itself shifts away from for the male gaze – it is her Bond and the 90s, this limited and the ‘male gaze’ and offers job to look beautiful and simplistic representation some alternatives to the distract the other poker A commonly learnt began to adapt to reflect usual objectification of the players. She subverts this feminist theory is Mulvey’s the changing roles and female. show of masculine power 1970’s analysis of the status of women in society Bond himself is by doing the same for male gaze (see pp 20-24). resulting from equal objectified as a body to be him. She has bought him Mulvey argues that in film opportunities legislation gazed on. Early in the film a dinner jacket and insists women are objects to be and the influence of he emerges from the sea in he wears her choice of gazed on as the camera feminism. A woman was a swimsuit that references clothing. He is irritated at acts as the masculine eye given the role of M in 1995 the bikinis worn by Ursula first but shows a level of from a male viewpoint – (Goldeneye) and the Bond Andress in Dr No and Halle vanity, looking at himself looking at women in a way girls increasingly played Berry in Die Another Day approvingly in the mirror that reflects masculine more active roles. However, (2002). The camera shows whilst being closely desires. Nowhere has this the ‘love interest’ characters Bond being ‘checked watched by Lynd herself. been more apparent than in were always disposable, and out’ by a woman on the This subversion of the James Bond series. even the scientist Christmas beach and the audience conventional gendered The character of Bond Jones in 1999’s The World are encouraged to gaze representation can be represents a number of is Not Enough was clearly upon Bond as a sexualised read as a reflection of the masculine aspirational there for decoration (and to object in the way we have post-feminist era. In Casino fantasies, while the early give James a name to pun previously looked at the Royale both characters ‘Bond girls’ were little more on about Christmas coming have elements of power than eye candy for the women. once a year!). within the relationship – male viewer. The early Bond In terms of sexuality, female desire is and neither representation women were represented Meet the new celebrated is conventional when it as sex objects and even . Later, when post-feminist comes to gender. Lynd given names which Bond first meets Lynd, they ‘performs’ masculinity, for indicated their limited Bond have a conversation where Recently Bond has example, when she takes ‘use’ within the narrative: they both show how they been ‘reset’; and in control of the finances, Pussy Galore (Goldfinger, have, through observations, Casino Royale (2006) and femininity when 1964) and Honey Rider sized one another up. The gender representations she is distraught after (Dr No, 1962) are perhaps conversation ends with construct a more post- watching Bond kill. She the most memorable. In Lynd commenting on how feminist take on gender adopts behaviours which these earlier films, this she will keep an eye on roles and relationships. suit the situation she is in representation of women Bond’s ‘perfectly formed Vesper Lynd is the female rather than ones based on reflected the female’s place arse’. Rather than being romance interest; like the expectations of her within society at the time. annoyed or belittled at other Bond girls, she is biological sex. Bond also Until the 1970s they were being the object of her beautiful. However, she shows gender fluidity. He largely excluded from the gaze, Bond seems pleased has a professional role is cold and emotionless at professional ‘masculine’ to be looked at in this way. within the film and plays Gender politics are the start, has a muscular world, there primarily a part in moving the challenged physique and ‘performs’ to please the males as : a conventional, narrative forward. She is masculinity when seducing decoration or as sexual almost clichéd, scene not a disposable plaything: a married woman to get playthings – their place was is presented as the pair Bond falls in love with her information from her. in the ‘feminine’ domestic prepare to go the casino. and is even prepared to However, he shows an world. Bond brings Lynd a cocktail give up his professional dress to wear, and explains emotional and sensitive

english and media centre | December 2008 | MediaMagazine 53 Bond ‘64: She naked and gilded; he Bond 2006: she covered modestly; he pyjama-clad and modest naked – and the bed itself is gilded

side when comforting flexible and fluid idea of McClane has to protect. Lynd; and his emotional gender. In a conventional The older man needs to response to her death representation, any man teach the younger the and what he sees as her who adopted feminine benefits of behaving in a betrayal of him are a far cry traits would be seen as traditionally fixed masculine from the impersonal, cold, ‘less of a man’ but Casino way, because conventional macho Bond of the earlier Royale’s Bond represents masculinity is valued films. When captured by a man who is able to within this particular text. the villain, Le Chiffre, he is integrate feminine traits The dominant cultural represented as having his into his behaviours view of gender is often masculinity attacked in the without becoming still very traditional and torture scene, where he weakened, creating a based on males behaving is threatened with literal positive representation in a masculine way and castration. Despite these of both masculinity and females being ‘feminine’. feminised aspects of Bond’s femininity without the Post-feminism offers character he does not lose conventional conflict. an alternative way of his masculinity. Similarly Neither gender has more thinking, which seeks Lynd remains female value than the other – they to remove the conflict although she displays have different strengths created by the more masculine traits. which are required in customary approaches. This In Casino Royale the different circumstances. is potentially liberating for characters retain personal both genders as it removes power by using aspects But it isn’t all the constant ‘tug of war’ of both masculine and over – yet ... created by conventional feminine behaviour. This representation is, ideas of gender. This reflects a culture alas, not necessarily typical where being traditionally of contemporary attitudes Steph Hendry is a lecturer in feminine and/or masculine to gender. For example, Die Media Studies at Runshaw has little bearing given Hard 4 (2007) attempts to College in Manchester. She is contemporary work redefine masculinity in a a senior examiner, freelance practices and domestic traditional and conventional writer and trainer. arrangements. Since the way despite social changes. changes that have occurred A binary opposition remains Follow it up as a result of second wave in place in this film between Judith Butler, Undoing feminism, social, domestic a traditional male in Willis’s Gender, Routledge (2004) and professional roles character John McClane have changed for both and a modern, more sexes. The lead characters feminised male represented in Casino Royale exist on by the ‘computer geek’ a changeable gender continuum rather than in binary opposition to one another. They adapt and change depending on the circumstances, showing a more contemporary Image of courtesy of image.net

54 MediaMagazine | December 2008 | english and media centre MM

when adaptations don’t work

Alan Moore has been hailed as one of the greatest pioneers of the graphic novel – yet, unlike the hugely successful Batman, Spiderman and Hellboy franchises, the film adaptations of his work have not always lived up to his own unique imagination. Neil Daniels outlines the uneasy relationship courtesy of image.net Alan Moore, between Hollywood and In recent years there has been a spate of well books left, right and centre. And there is one crafted and intelligent cinematic versions of great particular writer – a towering eccentric figure Moore’s masterpieces comic book characters. Of the better adaptations who looks as if he plays bass in ZZ Top, sounds I’d recommend the first two X-Men films (directed like a member of Black Sabbath and still lives by Bryan Singer,) the Spiderman trilogy (directed in his home city of Northampton – with whom by Sam Rami,) the dual Hellboy films (directed by Hollywood has a particular fascination. A comic Guillermo del Toro) and of course, Batman Begins book writer and magician from Northampton, and Batman: The Dark Knight; both of which his name is Alan Moore. Has he cast a spell were directed with incredible flair by the British over Hollywood? Probably not. The fact is, he filmmaker Christopher Nolan. knows how to tell a good story and that’s what But what makes a ‘good’ comic book matters. But the translation of his work from page adaptation? In a nutshell, surely the simple tale to screen has not always run so smoothly, and of good versus evil is the primary ingredient; Moore’s relationship with Hollywood has at times together with memorable characters, a realistic been troubled. setting, a plausible story and some distinctive dialogue. Nolan has stated Michael Mann’s Swamp Thing (1982) contemporary classic crime caper Heat (1995) as Swamp Thing is not an Alan Moore creation, his main inspiration for The Dark Knight. but he was amongst a selection of noted comic Suddenly, highbrow critics are keen to see book writers hired by DC Comics to work on more comic book adaptations and Hollywood the series throughout the Eighties. Following producers are snapping up the rights to comic Wes Craven’s film version of the comic book, released in 1982 to little interest, the title was on

english and media centre | December 2008 | MediaMagazine 55 M M 56

MediaMagazine |December 2008| english andmedia centre

From Hell, d. Allen and Albert Hughes, 2001 Credit: 20th Century Fox/The Kobal Collection MM the verge of cancellation, due to low sales and a general lack of interest from comic enthusiasts; Moore was asked by DC to bring it back into people’s consciousness. In Swamp Thing #37 he introduced a rogue magician from Liverpool named John Constantine – and a piece of pop culture history was made, which would later figure large in his oeuvre. From Hell It is well-known that Alan Moore detests the courtesy of image.net film version of his famous 572-page graphic novel From Hell, serialised between 1991 and 1996. The movie From Hell is set in 1888 and follows Vendetta V for the intelligent, yet flawed, Inspector Apperline novel chronicles the adventures of a group after having being cited in a law suit concerning (Johnny Depp) on the trail of the elusive Jack the of famous literary characters (such as Allan plagiarism) and the way they handled his book. Ripper in the Whitechapel area of East London. Quatermain and Captain Nemo); and like the He has since decided to have nothing to do with Heather Graham plays Mary Kelly, reportedly the majority of his graphic novels it is highly revered the film industry and even refused to take the Ripper’s fifth and final victim. From Hell also stars for its imaginative premise. Indeed, Volume 1 cheques, a principle he has chosen to stick with. Ian Holm, Ian Richardson and Robbie Coltrane. won the coveted ‘2000 Bram Stoker Award For The film, directed by the Hughes Brothers, Best Illustrated Narrative (http://en.wikipedia. Constantine (2005) was loathed by the critics, and had poor success org/wiki/Bram_Stoker_Award_for_Best_ Here again, yet another great comic book at the box office. Its basic ‘who-done-it’ premise Illustrated_Narrative). character is mishandled by Hollywood producers. was exactly what Moore (and artist Eddie 20th Century Fox, the company which John Constantine is a likable (although he Campbell) had hoped to avoid in their multi- distributed the film, was sued by filmmakers shouldn’t be considering he is a cocky freelance layered and richly detailed tome; the film is little Larry Cohen and Martin Poll, who claimed magician dabbling in the Black Arts/Occult) more than a bog-standard Hollywood funded that the film had plagiarised their script Cast London-based Liverpudlian who originally mystery. of Characters. It was alleged that Fox had only appeared in the aforementioned Swamp Thing There are significant differences between film bought the rights to the comic series to prevent #37. The actual series of comics featuring and book, both superficial and structural. Apart them from being sued by the creators of Cast of Constantine was originally called Hellblazer and from cosmetically enhancing Moore’s female Characters who had allegedly pitched their ideas is distributed through DC’s ‘adult’ imprint Vertigo. characters for the movie, the question of ‘star to Fox several times in the mid-Nineties. The character’s look was famously modelled status’ is raised: Apperline (played by Depp) is As with From Hell, there are many differences after Sting in David Lynch’s adaptation of Frank only a supporting character in the book, yet in between the book (Volume 1 of 3) and the film Herbert’s classic science-fantasy novel Dune. the film he becomes not only the lead character, – often the case between the two art forms, and The film version (directed by Francis but also a psychic. While the novel focuses usually the reason why authors either stay away Lawrence) depicts Constantine as an American in depth with pages and pages of detailed from Hollywood or write the script themselves. (played unconvincingly by a rather wooden footnotes on subjects such as the supernatural One major difference between the film and Keanu Reeves) and is set in LA, thus losing the and the occult, the film mostly avoids these its source material is the inclusion of two new British connection. With some great visuals and issues. The book is often named as one of the characters: the American Tom Sawyer (played by a story that leans towards the famous Hellblazer comic book industry’s greatest works; the film has Shane West) and Dorian Gray (played by Stuart episode ‘Dangerous Habits’, it was a box-office largely been forgotten. Townsend.) hit making a reported $230 million in global The film version was directed by Stephen ticket sales. The poor choice of casting and a The League Of Extraordinary Norrington, and stars Sean Connery as convoluted plot meant the critics were less keen Gentleman (2003) Quatermain; it received a critical mauling (poor – and the comic book fans were not too happy Moore was even more annoyed with movie dialogue, superficial characterisation, weak either. Moore refused to have anything to do with producers after the release in 2003 of the acting and a general lack of emotion), although the film and asked for his name to be excluded adaptation of his comic book series The League it was a modest success at the box-office and from the credits. of Extraordinary Gentleman, which also involved eventually recouped its budget. Moore was a lawsuit. With artist Kevin O’Neill, Moore’s justifiably irritated with the producers (especially V For Vendetta (2006) Produced by Hollywood heavyweight Joel Silver, directed by James McTeigue, and written by The Wachowski Brothers (famous for The Matrix trilogy – see http://en.wikipedia. org/wiki/Wachowski_Brothers), V For Vendetta is an enjoyable and visually arresting movie although there are, predictably, many differences between the film version and Alan Moore’s actual graphic novel, which has stunning artwork by David Lloyd. Those differences between film and book mostly relate to political themes; and the film does not reference drug use or anarchism nearly as much as its source material does. Written during the era of Thatcher’s Tory government, the Orwellian-inspired graphic novel tackles such hefty themes as anarchy, a totalitarian state, terrorism, drugs, sex, race and questions of personal identity. Essentially courtesy of image.net the story follows an enigmatic character named V (he dresses in black and wears a Guy Fawkes

Constantine mask) who wants social and political change in

english and media centre | December 2008 | MediaMagazine 57 MM courtesy of image.net , courtesy of image.net Swamp Thing Swamp Spiderman England, and chooses to fight the government’s Watchmen is the only graphic novel to have What’s next for Hollywood Big Brother regime. There is no specific date – won the prestigious Hugo Award, which is the from Alan Moore? the story is set in the near future – but of course equivalent of the Oscars for writers of science- It seems unlikely that Hollywood producers will Moore was actually writing about Eighties Britain fiction and fantasy. adapt the sequel to The League Of Extraordinary and used the future as a smokescreen for his It’s been suggested that the story is so Gentlemen: the first film was hardly the critical political beliefs, as other science-fiction and complex, the dialogue so intelligent, the use or commercial success they had hoped for. What fantasy writers such as Robert Heinlein and Kurt of symbolism so inventive and the look of the about Top 10, a terrific series like NYPD Blue but Watchmen Vonnegut have done. characters so unique that is, in sum, with superheroes? Or Promethea, a mythical Joel Silver ‘uncinematic’. adapted Moore’s Eighties narrative So much of the narrative would goddess with the sex appeal of Wonder Woman? to meet the needs of a 2006 US audience; the have to be condensed and simplified for a screen Or even the science hero Tom Strong? There is film was certainly the most critically well received adaptation that its thematic complexity could plenty of material from Moore’s bibliography to of all Moore adaptations, and was also a box- potentially be lost in translation. Most directors play with. office hit. However, Moore was unimpressed stayed away … even noted comic book fan, film- The titles above (including The League Of Kevin Smith Clerks with the changes in emphasis, and again refused maker and screenwriter ( and Extraordinary Gentlemen) were published Dogma to participate in the filmmaking process. In an ). by America’s Best Comics, an imprint of Watchmen’s interview with MTV entitled ‘Alan Moore: The Last 12 episodes were published in WildStorm – which was founded in 1999 Angry Man,’ he said of the film: one special hardback version in 1987. Together primarily to give Moore the opportunity to create Batman: The Dark Knight It’s a thwarted and frustrated and largely with Frank Miller’s his own comic books series after refusing to work Returns which was released the same year, it impotent American liberal fantasy … which with Marvel and DC again. Although WildStorm pretty much invented the term ‘graphic novel’ is not what the comic V For Vendetta was . was later sold to DC, Moore continued to write about. It was about fascism, it was about From that point on, comic books were taken far for them because he had promised work for his anarchy, it was about England. more seriously by arts critics. artist friends/colleagues, formerly of the defunct Zack Snyder See http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Comics made a name for himself in Awesome Comics. Who owns the rights to those the film industry as the director of the well- comics now? And which adaptation will be next Watchmen (2009) Dawn of received remake of the Zombie classic in line? Joel Silver allegedly bought the rights to Alan the Dead (2004) and the violent Spartan movie Regardless of what Moore thinks about the Moore’s mammoth graphic novel Watchmen 300 MediaMag (2006 – see 21), based on Frank film versions, the fact is they have inevitably (with artwork by Dave Gibbons) at the same Miller’s graphic novel. It was announced in broadened his appeal and have no doubt added time as he bought the rights to V For Vendetta. 2006 that Snyder would make the film version numbers to his growing readership. He has Watchmen’s status is unparalleled; it has been Watchmen of . Such a project would always be become an unlikely pop culture icon. Come on, dubbed the ‘War and Peace of graphic novels’ controversial and a film version could only go one he’s even played himself in The Simpsons. That and ‘the Citizen Kane of the comic book industry’ of two ways – in other words, it would either be says it all… The hugely talented ex-Python animator and good or bad. The debate began. director Terry Gilliam flirted with the idea of Fast forward: the trailer for Watchmen has Neil Daniels is a freelance writer specialising in popular making a film version, but decided against spread around the Internet in mid-2008 like a culture. His website is www.neildaniels.com such an ambitious and bold project. After viral disease. It looks stunning. Suddenly, purist consideration, he apparently also refused any fans of the novel are less dubious and actually notions of a TV series based on Watchmen. more eager to see the movie. The film is set to be Published via DC Comics in monthly released in the summer of 2009. One thing is for instalments in 1986 and 1987, Watchmen sure: Alan Moore won’t be attending the London confidently deconstructs the superhero genre. It premiere. was quickly hailed as a masterpiece and in 2005 it entered Time Magazine’s ‘best 100 novels.’

58 MediaMagazine | December 2008 | english and media centre ashes to ashes shot-by-shot

Q: what can you Ashes to Ashes is the BBC’s follow up to the learn from five hugely popular series minutes of Episode Life on Mars, in which One of a TV drama? DCI Sam Tyler finds himself transported from A: Plenty! Media 2006 to 1973 following teacher Bethan an accident. The extract for this essay is from the Hacking takes you first episode of Ashes to on a shot-by-shot Ashes, which features DI Alex Drake, in a similar journey through the time warp, being shot opening of Ashes in 2008 and transported back to 1981. Having to Ashes – brilliant the gun from which it clearly wearing 1980s with echo on the sound. studied Sam Tyler’s case, came. The style of this clothing and are shot from We cut quickly to a practice for the OCR she is aware both of the shot is reminiscent of The low angles, implying the similar VHS fast-forward AS Textual Analysis ‘fantasy world’ which Matrix, and through this audience are seeing the image of a male wearing he inhabited, and of association the audience adults from the young girl’s black and dark sunglasses, paper, AQA’s MEST1, Hunt, the ‘old-school’, may conclude that time is point of view. shot from a point of view or WJEC’s ME1. It sexist policeman who being manipulated in some However, the distorted inside the car walking Sam worked alongside. way. Audience members noises and rather sinister alongside it, looking in. could be a great Starting eight minutes familiar with Life on Mars background sound- This suggests he is a starting point for in to the episode, we will understand that this is effects, along with the ‘stalker’ of some kind, see Alex’s reaction to the point of transition to red colour-coding of the and the audience get the the study of gender the shot and her waking the past. The man holding girl’s hat, coat and balloon, sense once more there representation, up to find herself in the gun is out of focus suggest an element of is someone in danger the 1980s and face to postmodernism, or a but seems to be dressed danger, confirmed in a and that these may be face with Gene Hunt. in black and wearing close-up of an adult’s hand flashbacks to disturbing Film and Broadcast The extract runs for sunglasses. We could taking hold of the child’s, memories of a crime. approximately five Fiction cross-platform assume this character to be forcing her to let go of the Cut to the extreme minutes. a stereotypical, male villain. balloon, which is shown close-up of the eye from case study, and more The clip opens with an The next sequence flying into the air. This the beginning of the … Read on, and see extreme close-up of an of images cuts from one suggests that the child is sequence, then to the to the next with a noise now vulnerable, as carers man holding the gun, in what else you could eye, which slowly comes into focus. As the image reminiscent of a VHS would not normally force sharper focus this time, add to the analysis! sharpens we can assume recorder on fast forward the child to lose a toy in the reflected image of the it is a female eye from the or rewind. The images such a way. white clown superimposed shaped eyebrows, and connect with the sound The balloon rises quickly on his sunglasses. This can see this character is by occasional camera into the sky from a low sequence concludes with probably in her thirties. A movement back and forth, angle, suggesting the child an extreme close-up of a young girl’s voice is heard to re-create the experience has watched it disappear. bullet hurtling towards the saying ‘mummy’ which of watching a family home The image then quickly camera, again overlaid with suggests to us this woman movie. It features a mother dissolves into a fast the shouting white clown; is a mother and her child is and father figure apparently zoom to mid-shot of a the implication is that there trying to get her attention. removing shopping from sad, old fashioned clown is immediate danger in the Cut to an extreme a car on a sunny day, or mime artist dressed ‘dream sequence’, or in the close-up of a bullet, flying and a young blonde girl, conventionally in white ‘real world’ at that point. through the air away suggesting a happy, nuclear with red lips and a red Cut again to the from the camera – as if family unit and ‘normality’. tear drop. Rather than extreme close-up of the it were going back into The adult characters are seeming reassuring, this eye, except this time the clown, shown against a image is full colour, and the black background, under a eye is wearing much more spotlight and shrouded by make up. This suggests dry ice, seems threatening that our female character and incongruous with the (Alex) will be presented in other images. a much more attractive, The image cuts away sexual way than previously and back in a split second indicated through the to a darker close up of the maternal association. As clown who is saying ‘Alex’, the eye opens we cut to a

english and media centre | December 2008 | MediaMagazine 59 medium close-up of Alex turns a corner we see Alex lying on something red, is on a boat, accompanied wearing a red dress and by stylish fur-clad women lipstick, continuing the and suited men, all drinking colour motif from the ‘VHS’ cocktails or champagne, montage. Here the colour suggesting a decadent coding suggests both environment of prostitutes sexual appeal and the and city boys. The mise-en- implication that she may scène establishes we are be in danger. now in the 1980s: pastel As she wakes, confused, suits, oversize glasses, we hear music and party permed hairstyles and a noises in the background, boat named ‘The Lady Di’. building in volume. Cut to Once again, the colour hand-held camera and red is a recurrent motif, Alex’s point of view, using suffusing the boat in a red disorientating movement light through a red canopy to suggest she is either and red feather boas drunk or drugged. As she scattered around, symbolic

60 MediaMagazine | December 2008 | english and media centre of boudoirs and red light means nothing to me’. by these officers, but the and therefore enjoy the not her normal clothes. districts. The camera (from the classic 80’s women seem a little more programme. The slow tilt from her high focuses on a young man song ‘Vienna’ by Ultravox) sensitive – confirming our The music reaches heels to her face is the laughing manically in the further emphasises stereotypical expectations a crescendo as the classic objectified shot hellish light, making him her disorientation and of women as more camera cuts to a puddle of an attractive woman. seem evil and threatening. vulnerability when sympathetic and caring. of oil reflecting Alex’s In this context it seems a As Alex moves around, outnumbered by so many As she stumbles up to appearance. As the camera bit clichéd, but it serves as it becomes apparent that men. shore the camera zooms in tilts up her whole body, useful cinematic shorthand, there are more men than Alex runs from the boat, on a wall of ‘Adam Ant – Alex is clearly represented allowing the audience to women, and that they are into the sobering daylight; Prince Charming’ posters as a sex object epitomised look at and appreciate the trying to touch her and two male police officers with dramatic music in the by her long, slim legs, full extent of the character’s becoming increasingly roughly push past her background, a simple but black stockings, short red allure – following the male lairy and aggressive. She as she screams for help. effective way of signifying PVC dress, heavy furs and gaze. shouts at them to stay They are followed by two the early 1980s era. For garish jewellery. All these The shot is interrupted away, but her protests seem women police officers, viewers in their thirties or costume choices are clear by an aggressive shout of weak and pitiful as the who also push past with older, the recognition of symbols of a ‘scarlet woman’ ‘Come here!’ as the ‘evil’ music gains volume and a cursory ‘Not now miss’. 1980s iconography will but her confusion rather man from the boat violently becomes overpowering. Dressed as a prostitute, she help them understand than confidence in wearing grabs her and calls her a The repeated lyric: ‘This is not treated respectfully and enjoy these references them suggests these are ‘slut’, ‘tart’ and a ‘bitch’,

english and media centre | December 2008 | MediaMagazine 61 reinforcing the stereotypical the third to arrive, he is also sexuality of the clothes, third in the ‘pecking order’ and their associations among these new arrivals. with degradation and The sunglasses, bomber exploitation. The isolated, jackets and gun-wielding industrial docklands mise- of these men suggest they en-scène makes rescue are deliberately trying to seem unlikely. However, look cool, modelled on a screech of tyres and Hollywood representations non-diegetic loud rock of tough policemen. music hails the arrival of However, their northern a red Audi Quattro. The accents, use of slang approaching car is shot and less-than-typically- using quick pans and it handsome features suggest moves out of shot, which a hint of irony from the emphasises the speed of directors. this iconic 1980’s car. The Alex meanwhile has been audience can tell someone grabbed threateningly by powerful, ostentatious and her stalker. She now tries important has arrived and to extricate herself, using will affect the narrative. sophisticated psychological Cut to a classic close-up vocabulary which seems shot of a man’s snake-skin incongruous with the shoes emerging from the character we have seen; car in a reference to 1980’s suddenly the ‘prostitute’ fashion many audience seems to be a well-spoken, members will recognise, educated, professional signalling the end of the woman, immediately music, to signify the impact changing our perception and significance of the new of her. on Mars that this much- head held high, a shot Bethan Hacking teaches Media character’s arrival. Cut to a two shot loved protagonist has not typical of a Hollywood hero Studies at La Retraite RC Cut to a low angle shot reminiscent of 70s changed. and exaggerated in terms through Alex’s legs, which cop dramas such as Alex is shown with a of its epic style and sound. School, Lambeth, London. frame the man we later The Sweeney or The shocked facial expression, The use of this clichéd know to be Gene Hunt. This Professionals, of the two showing she has recognized shot along with others highly sexualised image ‘subordinate’ policemen the name from Sam Tyler’s suggest a tongue in cheek Follow it up both reminds the audience looking at each other in files. approach was adopted by The OCR AS G322 textual of her long, attractive legs, disbelief, implying comically Cut to a medium the directors, as they chose analysis paper will ask and undermines it; because that they are probably close-up of Gene Hunt, references particularly you to: her feet are slightly turned not educated enough to commenting on the length familiar and enjoyable to Discuss the ways in in she seems vulnerable understand what she is of Alex’s skirt, indicating older audience members, as which the extract and weak, like ‘Bambi’ on saying. that despite a possible opposed to teenagers who constructs representation ice. Her captor immediately hostage situation, this man are probably not the main using the following: Gene Hunt’s first words understands her point, has evaluated her sexy target audience for this – Camera shots, confirm his power and despite its specialised outfit and is not afraid to ‘period’ drama. angles, movement and impact, with an opening terminology, suggesting make a sexist comment, As the sequence composition quip aimed at the violent he too is educated, a despite his professionalism. concludes, Alex slumps – Editing young man, while he perception reinforced Physically, his rough skin, in a faint, and Gene’s self- – Sound brazenly places his gun by his southern, ‘posh’ broad shoulders and aggrandisement is shown – Mise-en-scène on his shoulder. In a two- accent. He steps forward, masculine looks ensure we by his words: ‘My reputation shot we see a second in patronising, faux- are in no doubt this is a precedes me’. policemen appear with a submission to ‘Mr Hunt’, heterosexual, aggressive, The final shot is a wide gun saying ‘Guv, he could and is met by a punch in male. shot of the group of four, have a gun’, placing him the stomach despite being One by one, Alex says the suggesting their new as Gene’s subordinate. The innocent. Hunt is now policemen’s names and they unity, with Alex’s lifeless, camera pans across as a established as a violent, are shown from a low angle vulnerable body centrally third man appears from tough policeman unafraid pan across the group foregrounded, showing the car who also yields a to break the rules – a clear interspersed with shots she is now the centre of gun, suggesting that, as signal to viewers of Life of her confused face. The attention – both theirs and second policeman is hitting ours. the young man’s head against the car, potentially comic but also a reminder that violence is just routine to these policemen. Finally, the lowest angle and crescendo of the music is offered to Gene Hunt himself, who stands with

62 MediaMagazine | December 2008 | english and media centre MM ’

It’s been a long accepted principle of critical are most likely to cry foul over its claim to be another look Media and Film Studies that different readers can the ‘truth’. I was hit hard to discover that La at the lives of read different meanings into a text. Haine (Mathieu Kassowitz, 1995), a film I have others How can that translate into identifying deeply long admired, departs crucially from the ethnic conflicting truths and realisms in what we watch? ‘lived reality’ of the deprived banlieues (housing Sometimes conflicting readings of texts such as estates) of France when it makes a Jew best Many realist film or the 2007 Oscar-winning The Lives of Others can buddies with an Arab and a black African. Anti- broadcast drama and penetrate to the deepest roots of lived historical Semitism, writes Andrew Hussey, is one of the experience, and can even ‘steal someone’s driving forces behind the anti-establishment documentary fictions biography’. struggle of the banlieues. claim to ‘tell it like it Analysing how we read realism in moving- The Lives of Others/Das Leben der Anderen image fiction is a very muddy field of enquiry. (Florian Henckel von Donnersmark, Germany, is’. But what happens There are so many different and conflicting ways 2006) is a near-universally acclaimed film which when it a film's view of of understanding realism or truth in the films and claims to lift the lid on the murky dealings of the TV that demand our attention, and so many of East German Stasi or secret police and its thick the world conflicts with these offerings claim to deliver realism and truth blanket of informers before the 1989 fall of lived experience and on extremely slender grounds. What about the the Berlin Wall. However, in doing so it tells the hollow mockery of the generic title ‘reality TV’? redemptive tale of a Stasi agent, Captain Gerd viewers’ own conflicting I would argue that how we understand realism Wiesler, who ‘turns’, sees the truth and works readings? Martin needs to be sifted out by means of a recognisable against the corrupt ideology that employs him. Sohn-Rethel explores set of codes. How about these, for example: What is the status of the ‘truth’ of this film and • surface accuracy how do audience members read it? difficult issues of realism • social or documentary realism Representing reality to the and truth in The Lives of • genre realism • narrative realism outside world Others. • psychological realism The cinema of social realism needs to build a • ideological truth, where a filmmaker very convincing picture of its chosen historical persuades his or her audience of the truth of environment. The Lives of Others does this to their social and political message. the satisfaction of an overwhelming proportion Then, riding the opposing anti-realist current, of its audience. Here surely is the grey oppressive as it were, there are the constraints acting on reality of the East German state captured on producers and institutions to get bums on screen unadorned – unlike another hit of recent seats. German cinema, Goodbye Lenin (Wolfgang What I’m concerned with here is the second Becker, 2003) which adopts a very different comic of these codes: social or documentary realism. fantasy tone, and quite unlike Sonnenallee This is the realism of films and TV dramas just on (Leander Haussmann, 1999) – tagline: Party in the ‘fiction’ side of documentary, films that ‘tell it WILD WILD East! like it really is’, that challenge their audiences with This view is borne out by user comments on an uncompromising picture of social reality. Ken the Internet Movie Data Base (IMDB): Loach’s films fit this category as do films such Flicks like Sonnenallee or Good bye Lenin as Scum (1979) as well as Nil By Mouth (Gary definitely were great and funny, but Oldman, 1997), both by his guru Alan Clarke. unconsciously left myself (a West German) But again, ‘telling it like it is’ can be just a label with the impression that the GDR has been a that looks good on a DVD cover. Does it really sort of ‘Mickey Mouse State’ full of stupid but deliver? And to whom? charming characters, not really to be taken Those who are most closely affected by a seriously. After seeing Das Leben der Anderen filmed representation because they live there this impression shifted quite a bit: there actually was suffering, killing, desperation

english and media centre | December 2008 | MediaMagazine 63 MM

and a terribly claustrophobic atmosphere behind that wall. This might well be the most realistic depiction of the dark side of the former East Germany.

And, particularly telling for my argument here: This film utterly blew me away. Full disclosure: I’m a Munich born German- American who left Germany in 1986, before the wall came down … This film healed a wound that may have been left by the nightmare years of 1938-1945, my own great uncle being a Nazi war criminal, convicted in Nuremberg in 1946. Yes, we are mensch too. We have the potential for greatness (of character) in spite of our history. Thank you Florian Henckel von Donnersmarck, for giving me back half of my lost soul in this single ‘es ist für mich’ [it’s for me]. I am reminded again that the difference between ourselves and beasts is that we have a choice. Such comments all seem to come geographically from outside of the GDR and historically after the fall of the Berlin Wall; and they all in different ways praise the realism of the could live in a system like this etc. I suppose he film’s depiction of the GDR. A personal anecdote is afraid Donnersmarck steals his biography, in a I am now going to be unashamedly anecdotal The view from the inside way. and autobiographical: I have a feeling it may get more appreciation But from an actual East German citizen comes My oldest friend is Thomas Jakob, an East abroad than in Germany. It was obviously a very different take on the film’s realism and German who worked as a director in East German produced with the foreign (esp American) truth: TV from the early 1970s, who I recently met [The film] may not be historically accurate. audiences in mind. And I think it may again in Berlin. Unsurprisingly I was keen to I am from East Germany but I am too young translate pretty well into foreign territories learn his reaction to The Lives of Others. He took to know. Yet, most people say the GDR as as it gets enthusiastic notices from critics me aback with his outright rejection – veering portrayed in the film was not the GDR of the abroad. between ridicule and disgust. He told me he 1980s but rather the (Stalinist) GDR of the So here is an emphasis on ‘the way it was could not take the scene where Stasi spy Wiesler 1950s. In the 1980s, most actors, singers, the portrayed’, even that it ‘may not be historically listens in on his headphones to Dreyman in his famous people were able to extort the GDR accurate’ (the writer confesses he is too young bugged apartment playing the sonata of ‘The government as they could just go West and to know). But the inference goes further – to the Good Man’ given to him by Jerska, an outspoken embarrass the officials. If the writer/actress fear that the film will now misrepresent the enemy of the regime before he commits suicide. couple were really as famous as the film reality of the era. The director Donnersmarck has Dreyman had wanted to stay onside with the suggests, in 1984, the GDR officials would ‘stolen Hübchen’s biography.’ The writer is mild regime but now he sees his tragic mistake, have given them anything they wanted. and considered in his wording, but here is an and his heartfelt piano playing brings tears to unmistakable accusation that The Lives of Others In that respect, I understand Hübchen’s [an Wiesler’s eyes as we see him ‘turning’, becoming does not ‘tell the truth’ about the GDR regime. East German actor’s] criticism. He said he lived in a good man … a mensch. Thomas said he could This is hardly a trivial accusation to make of a film the period and doesn’t agree with the way it was only laugh! about a regime that denied and falsified the truth portrayed. He fears that the film will now stand I winced to hear this put-down of a film that to its own citizens. testimony to the era and people may well think had impressed me enormously and of a scene that this is the way it was. His grandson asked that strongly resists mawkishness. But Thomas him why he didn’t do anything about it, how he told me categorically that this situation would have been quite impossible under the GDR

64 MediaMagazine | December 2008 | english and media centre MM Image of courtesy of image.net

regime. Agents themselves were always under of the Stasi File Authority said to me ‘is hard imprisonment: ‘Rubbish! Lies! You were an surveillance, and would never have enjoyed this to bear.’ ordinary criminal!’ On my own visit to the prison degree of undisturbed freedom to act and react. Funder reports how Dr Hubertus Knabe, in March 2008 I heard the same account. The Doing so was punishable by death. director of the old Stasi prison at Berlin film’s license with the historical truth has a But does this matter? One or two negative Hohenschönhausen, now a museum and disturbing consequence for the direct victims of readings against a mass of positive ones? memorial, refused the filmmaker’s permission to GDR persecution and for all those who suffered Moreover, can one deny the strength of the film there. less directly under its lies and corruption: it psychological code of realism to make a spectator Knabe says: ‘You can’t use a place where robs them of their own testimony, their own see the scene as starkly truthful? people suffered as a backdrop for a film so biography. And that is very crucial indeed for Above all, I think, it is our desire to see the remiss in its dealings with the past.’ their future and their children’s future. good in people – even (and especially) in a She argues that the representation of Wiesler Of course, I’m not arguing for some crazy collaborator with an evil system (and here we in The Lives of Others implies a fundamental policing of the ways we read films. That would be can’t help harking back to the preceding evil in misunderstanding of the way that totalitarian to out-stasi the Stasi! My unease over the film’s German history: the Nazi era and the Holocaust) – regimes inculcate total obedience in their ‘truth’ doesn’t stop me enjoying and admiring that pushes us to concur with the film’s ‘preferred subjects. ‘They’re just doing their jobs’ or ‘they it. But when we affirm the notion of multiple reading’ and see Wiesler as a hero because he were just obeying orders’. readings, we must be prepared to explore ‘turned’ and became a mensch. Well OK, but isn’t all that now in the past? Why potentially deep and damaging consequences, The film is docu-drama, not drama- get so worked up about it? and recognise that these can go far beyond the documentary. Its story is not historical fact But it isn’t just in the past. History doesn’t just realm of filmed fiction right into the heart of – so can’t we accord it some license to tell a get switched off when a new social order takes actual contemporary lived experience. redemptive tale? over. In the new united Germany, hard-as-nails ex-Stasi agents have tended to rise higher in the Martin Sohn-Rethel is Head of Media at Varndean Sixth Re-writing history? social pecking order than their victims, and leap Form College, Brighton. Anna Funder, the author of Stasiland: Stories at any chance offered them to prove that they from Behind the Berlin Wall, Granta Books, 2003, were just doing their jobs … that they are still thinks not: human beings, still ‘mensch’. References … real life has not delivered real justice – The Lives of Others, with its redemptive Funder, Anna, ‘Eyes without a Face’ in Sight & compensation, honour and recognition – to ending and its overwhelming audience acclaim, Sound, May 2005 the victims of the Stasi … In the film’s final offers them precisely such a chance. Funder scene set in the 1990s, Wiesler opens up recounts how ex-Stasi agents even infiltrate Hussey, Andrew, ‘The Paris Intifada, The Long Dreyman’s new novel Sonata for a Good Man. visitor groups touring the Hohenschönhausen War in the Banlieue’ in Granta, Issue 101, 2008 Dreyman has dedicated it to the former Stasi prison museum and heckle the ex-prisoners’ man ‘in gratitude’. ‘That,’ as Günter Bormann accounts of their degrading treatment and

english and media centre | December 2008 | MediaMagazine 65 MM

With the huge increases in numbers Come in number 1. What’s your name, moment’s notice. Suddenly, we’ll be called to where do you come from and what are Scotland and have to get the train that evening, of students taking Media, Film and TV you doing here? so you really have to be flexible. You’re chasing a and Cultural Studies courses over the My name is Ian Bignell and I come originally story, a person, a group of people, and you have from Essex but I now live in London. Erm … you to be able to get to film them doing what they last few years does this mean that asked me here, for an interview, right? I work for do! Sometimes that means that you are away competition to get into the media Optomen Television. They are an independent for a few days on a remote island. It’s fun and is even more cut-throat than ever? company who, amongst other things, produce it’s what makes the job so brilliant, but you can’t factual and documentary programmes for C4 and always make plans for the evening – sometimes Our intrepid reporter Chris Bruce the BBC. I am currently a researcher but I started the glamour disappears. interviews one such graduate and as a runner when I graduated from university. What would be your top tips for current So tell us about your qualifications and students who might be thinking about spills the beans! how you got the job. the route that you have taken? Wow, this feels like a real interview! Well, I did First of all, apply to as many companies as my A Levels and decided to apply to London you can. At first you shouldn’t necessarily worry Metropolitan University to do a course in Film about the kind of programmes/products that Studies. I was accepted on to the Film degree the company makes, but you should be aware of with traditional A Levels. You have to show the what they do. interviewer that you have a genuine interest in You absolutely must keep your cool and think film and moving image and I did have that so ‘what do I want out of this?’ You need to do your it seemed a fairly straightforward interview to research about the company that you might me. I really enjoyed this and thought strongly be working with. This shows that you aren’t just about going into TV first. The film industry is freeloading and that you really have an interest. exceptionally hard to get into and I thought that I Don’t turn up without any prior knowledge of the would try my luck as I was based in the capital. So stuff that they have been making in the recent I gave it a go… past, or that they are in production with at the And the million dollar question … how moment. I would say that there are at least a did you actually get the job? dozen or so applicants for each job and so, I literally had to search for names of all the ultimately, that means that a lot of people are small television production companies that I disappointed. Some don’t have a degree and thought sounded interesting, and then I sent whilst I am not using the specific ‘film skills’ that I letters to all of them. It often helps if you know encountered in my degree, the qualification gives someone or somebody can introduce you to you other skills such as organisational abilities a prospective media employer. Companies and working in a creative environment which get hundreds of letters a year and even more is not always glamorous. Having the degree enquiries; so it really is about making your definitely gave me an advantage over some ‘presence’ known and getting a bit of a applicants. personality when you’re scouting about in the What happens if you are ‘not successful job market. on this occasion’? What do you think is the biggest skill Try, try and try again. If you stand out but that you can offer a prospective media companies can’t give you a job there and then, employer? What is the most important they will create a list and if something comes advice that you can give to newbies? up they may be able to hire you on a freelance Undoubtedly it is the absolute willingness to basis. If you are good then they may extend the do anything at any time of the day or night. contract. It’s precarious but it’s the only way to do You get paid a salary but you must understand it these days. that you can be asked to drop everything at a

66 MediaMagazine | December 2008 | english and media centre MM OK, so you’re in. How do you stay there? Undoubtedly, the best thing I would say is ‘do anything to impress’. If you have been working twenty hours that day and they need you to do something else … then do it, without question! I love what I do but there are times when it really tests you. But any job is like that so I accept that there are some down times too. The up time is when you see your name in the credits and think ‘yeah, I was part of that and I’m really proud to be associated with it’. Oh, and my mum gets excited when she sees my name too! (She’s a Media Studies teacher at a school in Clacton, Essex.) The best advice to give about your ‘apprenticeship’? If you can survive the first six to twelve months then you’ve done your time. After just six months I was very lucky and I was asked to move up to researcher; and that meant that I was able to use even more of the skills that I had learnt during the first few weeks with the company. So what do ‘runners’ actually do. Must Right, make me envious. What have you So as a researcher, you get to make they own a pair of trainers? been up to lately? decisions independently? Not really, though you have to move fast and Optomen have just been making a series for Well, not quite, but I went to Enfield in north being young and fit is a bonus! A runner is a kind BBC2 called What to Eat Now and it has a brand London to see an amazing, interesting guy who of general assistant to the company, director or new ‘star’ that they have found called Valentine grew sweetcorn. He was a real character and production unit. One of the things that you might Warner. He is a really fresh face and Optomen is his ‘back-story’ seemed appealing. We did some be asked to do is to look after people – including really excited about the programme. Valentine recce shots and a small interview. I usually edit celebrities, on location, making sure that they are has a very different approach to the way that about 3-5 minutes of the feature together for it fed and kept warm. he talks about food. He is really passionate to be considered. When the executives and the Had any really awful moments? about food that’s produced locally and grown producer and his team looked at the footage they Nothing that would make the front page of by small farmers who care about taste. He’s not decided that there wasn’t enough of a unique a tabloid! I think that production companies like Gordon Ramsay at all but he definitely has a storyline so it was spiked. It happens all the time. are looking for runners to have a great bank of fabulous personality and viewers will love him. And then on one occasion, you’ll find a real gem all-round skills; post a letter, organise a courier, He’s a former art student, in his thirties, who is and the production executives will deploy the get some refreshments organised, etc., but extremely passionate about food and he is so film unit to go and get the footage for real this also reassuring people on location, soothing fresh-faced that Optomen couldn’t resist and he time. impatient or busy participants and being more has been superb to work with. It definitely comes Where do you go from here? than just a little diplomatic at times. across on screen. With this kind of programme I’m really lucky. Other companies aren’t all Optomen have been great to me and once you’ve found a mesmerising presenter, it’s as generous as Optomen have been to me. I recognised that I was doing menial things that great to see the series unfold as you’re making it. was sent on a training course on how to use an they knew I was ‘over-qualified’ to do but I was He was first screen tested for Optomen about industry camera so the company have invested in grateful for the experience. After a few months, seven years ago and last year they developed an me and want to develop my skills. They knew that and as people in the company move on, I was idea for him. From that, it was about two months it would produce better results and it has helped. promoted to researcher. I think that you have from pitch to commission. The idea seemed Once you have gained enough experience as to realise that you may have lots of A Levels very strong and Valentine was this very vibrant a researcher, the next step is to become an and a degree but you are right at the bottom, personality who just stood out. Assistant Producer. Some organisations are and that’s how most people in the business And where have you been on these larger than others, but I like working in a smaller start. There is a myth that everyone wipes their adventures…? company because it’s more people-centred. shoes on you but, actually, lots of people are Erm, well ... [looks a little embarrassed] ... I’ve I enjoy working with a small team and it’s really pleasant as often they were doing your job been deer-stalking in Jura in Scotland, mussel- something that graduates should consider when or something similar years ago. At the end of the picking in Lindisfarne and, well, so many other they are choosing the right company for them. day I am happy that the company gave me the places besides. Oh yeah, we were in Cornwall And the final word…? chance to prove myself. It’s a great job! a few days ago. The travelling is good fun and Never give up! It’s tough out there but if you Long hours? Bags of bucks? sometimes you don’t know where exactly you’ll show them that you are really keen and want to Long hours, yeah. Not a huge salary but then end up! contribute something to their organisation then you wouldn’t expect it. You are an apprentice Right, take us through a typical day ... they will spot it immediately. Oh, and also flag and you have to understand that the industry is Well, hmm, that’s a tough one. Well, today I up your skills and the things that you have always trying to be as economically competitive have been researching beetroot [stifled laughter learnt along the way. They are not looking for a as possible. It’s better to think of it as being paid from interviewer]. Honest! My job was to find director, they are looking for someone without an for doing something you really enjoy! an angle about this vegetable and find a story. ego and who is prepared to sweep up and make So how would our readers know This involved me starting from a ‘cold’ position the tea. The rewards then come later! Optomen then? What’s your portfolio? and doing a Google search and making lots of Well, you may have heard of them because phone calls. Again, finding characters is the key Chris Bruce is a qualified Advanced Skills Teacher, Chair of they made The F-Word for Channel 4 and also to success here. Once you find a person who AIDEM Media, AQA Senior Examiner and Head of Media a show called Naked Chef [featuring the young sounds interesting, you arrange a recce, take a Studies at Ashmole School in Barnet. Jamie Oliver] which was very successful. They small camera and do some initial shots and an make lifestyle programmes about cookery/eating interview. All this can take days and most of the If you want any further information then you that tap into what the average person would like time it means you find yourself in a dead end. may contact Ian at: [email protected]

Image of courtesy of C4's extranet. to aspire to. I think that they do it very well too!

english and media centre | December 2008 | MediaMagazine 67