FEBRUARY 2011: THE CULTURE ISSUE M M MediaMagazine

edia agazine Menglish and media centre issue 35 | februaryM 2011

High vs Low Culture english and media centremedia and english Tarantino Culture New Waves The Culture of Strictly | issue 35 | february 2010 february | issue35 | Film Yurt The Ethics of News Media Culture MM MM

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MediaMagazine is published by the English and Media Centre, a non-profit making organisation. The Centre publishes a wide range Welcome to the Culture issue. When we picked this theme we of classroom materials and runs courses for teachers. If you’re anticipated lots of interest in different sub-cultures, from youth studying English at A Level, look out movements to music genres to world cinema to cultures of gaming for emagazine, also published by – but it just goes to show you never know what’s going to tickle the Centre. MediaMag readers’ interests! Interestingly, a number of articles in The English and Media Centre this issue have taken a broader definition of Culture with a big C, 18 Compton Terrace ranging from Roy Stafford’s overview of the history of the debates London N1 2UN and theories around popular culture, to Nick Lacey’s investigation of High vs Low Telephone: 020 7359 8080 culture and the idea of a cultural canon of great media texts. Some really challenging Fax: 020 7354 0133 ideas here, and some important contextual background about key thinkers and Email for subscription enquiries: critics for those who want to know where they come from. [email protected] Also intriguing is the recurrence of particular cultural influences – the inspiration Managing Editor: Michael Simons of the French Nouvelle Vague directors of the Fifties and Sixties continues to make Editor: Jenny Grahame waves (sorry!) with the re-release of iconic movies such as Breathless and Bande A Part, and their influence on the work of Quentin Tarantino, who has introduced them Sub-editor: Emma Coker to a whole new generation of fans and who continues to redefine ideas about what Editorial assistant/admin: cinema can do. Rebecca Scambler Elsewhere, Sean Kaye-Smith introduces the concept of Film Yurt, a potential Design: Sam Sullivan & Jack Freeman new film culture emerging from the steppes of Mongolia and beyond, while Artwork production: Sparkloop nearer to home James Rose explores the particularly British culture of Doctor Who. Print: S&G Group Unsurprisingly the ever-popular horror and slasher genres continue to reflect Cover: courtesy of Jim de Whalley particular contemporary cultural fears; while Michael Ewin investigates the milestone ISSN: 1478-8616 American movies which have impacted on recent generations of young people. Also interesting in this issue is the emphasis on Film over other media. Two blinding exceptions are Paul Willis’s provocative piece about the news coverage of How to subscribe violent crime, and the culture of intrusion and spectacle which underpins it; and Mike Hobbs’s informed article on the ways in which music cultures are evolving in Four issues a year, published response to technological change – well worth reading for the interviews alone. September, December, late February and late April. And there’s more online for web subscribers in our Culture supplement: the Centre print-only subscription: £29.95 culture of the PR industry; the culture of South Wales and Rachel Trezise; Made in Dagenham as a British movie, and plenty more. Centre website package: £89.95 includes print magazine, full website Finally, MediaMag now has its own Facebook page at access and an online PDF version of www.facebook.com/pages/MediaMagazine/125898030807330 the current issue Please visit it and add your thoughts. Additional subscriptions for students, teachers or the library can be added to either the print-only subscription or the website package for £10 a year. Online the MediaMag homepage This magazine is not to Poster competition! be photocopied. Why Visit our home page for details of a new competition we’re launching not subscribe to our for the design of a new MediaMag poster – a great opportunity to web package which demonstrate your print production talents, see your work in the includes a downloadable September issue of MediaMag, and perhaps win a prize. The deadline is and printable PDF of 3rd May, so plenty of time to hone your design and branding skills. the current issue or MediaMag themes for 2011-12 encourage your students to take out their own £10 All P-words this time – Production, Politics and Power, Participation and Play. Details, deadlines and suggestions are on the home page. We hope subscription? you’ll contribute – mail your ideas to [email protected]

2 MediaMagazine | February 2011 | english and media centre MM contents

Front Page News New Wave Culture: Hipsterism for Dummies: Recent news, views, reviews and Changing Identities and Milestone Movies in 04 previews. 32 52 the Language of Style Youth Culture Film student Strictly Cultural Roy Film Studies teacher Brenda Michael Ewins offers an overview 06 Stafford explores how studies of Hamlet provides a cultural of the movies that have both British popular television have and historical overview of the reflected and shaped the responded to changing ideas development of the French lifestyle, culture and changing about ‘culture’. New Wave of cinema, and its values from Generations X to influence on successive New Y – and the social changes that Waves across the world from the influenced them. 60s to the present day. Horror Monsters Examiner Looking Back at 50 years 56 Steph Hendry shows how to 37 of Breathless Jonathan explore the social and cultural Nunns explains why French contexts of one of our most New Wave film, and Godard’s enduring genres: horror. Breathless in particular, are Wolf Creek: (dis)Location Pain, Privacy and the essential viewing for any true and the Culture of the 11 Press Pack: the Ethics film fan. 60 of News Media Culture Slasher Movie Bloody, What happens to communities Culture and the Burka brutal or just banal? For many, invaded by the news media 41 aka Why I Hate Sex and the slasher film epitomises ‘low after a major crime incident? the City 2 Emma Clarke culture’. Gabrielle O’Brien thinks Journalist Paul Willis argues that was a total fan of Sex and the genre is worth a closer look. the public must exercise their the City – until the second rights to demand responsible movie’s stereotypical cultural and ethical behaviour from the assumptions and simplistic faith press. in materialism changed her views on Carrie et al. A Very British Doctor James Rose explores what our Cartoon 14 premier fantasy tells us about By Goom British culture. 44 Culture or Culchure? Ghetto Culture Pete Turner Who Decides What’s compares the representations of 45 19 Best? The ‘low vs high Is Auntie in Trouble? ghetto culture in World Cinema culture’ debate is over 100 Frozen Licence Fees classics City of God and La Haine. 62 years old, and kept alive by and the Culture of the regular pronouncements of From ‘The Unforgettable BBC Studying changes in the politicians, education ministers, 23 Fire’ to Arcade Fire: 25 broadcasting industry? If so, cultural critics and the media Years of Change in the you’ll need to keep an eye on themselves. Nick Lacey offers the ever-turbulent fortunes of Music Business – the a personal and provocative the Beeb, currently under severe Culture of Today and overview of the issues. financial pressure. Tomorrow In Part 2 of his article, Mike Hobbs talks to Where Everyman a variety of musicians and 65 Knows your Name: the producers to explore where they 21st-Century Culture of think they are heading. Independent Cinemas Film Yurt: in Search Multiplexes have long ruled 28 of a New Film Culture the cinema-going empire while Sean Kaye-Smith heads for independent cinemas have the steppes to find genuinely struggled to retain relevance in different representations of a Royal with Cheese: a blockbuster world. But now little-known and very different Quentin Tarantino the indie chains are fighting 48 back. Matt Freeman explores culture. and the Blood-letting this whole new culture of movie- of Culture Matt Freeman watching… explores how Tarantino’s cine-

literacy has forever redefined the high/low culture debate…

english and media centre | February 2011 | MediaMagazine 3 Front Page News Wikileaks controversy rages on The website Wikileaks has caused huge only common interest is the maintenance of controversy in recent months by publishing their power and our ignorance. large amounts of secret information from However, Wikileaks has also drawn criticism various sources, including American intelligence for revealing government secrets that could documents on the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan. potentially be damaging to the national security Wikileaks was set up so that people within of the country concerned. US commenter Liz organisations could ‘blow the whistle’ on their Cheney told Fox News that Wikileaks founder employers by leaking documents anonymously. Julian Assange was to blame for the deaths of This could already be done to a certain extent American soldiers: ‘He has blood on his hands.’ through the media, but the law does not allow Some leaked cables revealed the scathing journalists to protect the identity of anonymous private views of American diplomats about sources in all cases. world leaders, while other documents suggest The site has been lauded by campaigners for that the war in Afghanistan is not going as well Assange himself is also a controversial figure, freedom of speech and freedom of the press. as our governments claim. having recently been arrested in connection Henry Porter wrote on The Guardian’s ‘Comment Private Bradley Manning, the US intelligence with two alleged rapes in Sweden, allegations is Free’ site: analyst suspected of leaking more than 250,000 possibly linked to attempts to undermine his The leaks are of unprecedented importance military documents using Wikileaks, has been credibility. because, at a stroke, they have enlightened arrested, and faces a court martial and up to www.guardian.co.uk/media/2011/ the masses about what is being done in their 52 years in prison. Among the material he is jan/28/wikileaks-julian-assange-alan- name […] We have been given a snapshot accused of leaking is a video of a US airstrike in rusbridger?intcmp=239 of the world as it is, rather than the edited Iraq that killed 12 people, on which the air crew account agreed upon by diverse elites, whose is heard laughing.

Sky Atlantic lays claim to big US dramas Sky Atlantic, a new channel from BSkyB, launched on 1st February, showcasing big US dramas such as the most recent series of Mad Men (previously on the BBC), David Simon’s Treme and Martin Scorsese’s Countryfile presenter wins Boardwalk Empire. Sky has also done a deal to buy exclusive UK rights to all HBO programmes, which include The Wire, The ageism case against BBC Sopranos and Six Feet Under. The company’s The former presenter of BBC1’s Countryfile It was hard to take on the BBC because I purchasing power means that other has won a discrimination case against the love the BBC. It’s one of best broadcasting channels cannot afford to out-bid them for broadcaster, in which she claimed that she was organisations in the world, but I felt I was popular US content. dropped as part of a deliberate attempt to get treated badly because of age and standing BSkyB is partly owned by Rupert rid of older female presenters. up was the right thing to do. Murdoch’s News Corp, which wants to buy Miriam O’Reilly was one of four female The BBC has now apologised to O’Reilly and up the remainder of the company. For more presenters in their 40s and 50s who lost says it will produce new guidelines to make on Murdoch’s media empire see Priscilla their jobs on the show in 2009, and their the selection process for presenters fairer in McClay’s article on replacements were all younger. The BBC had the future. O’Reilly had also claimed that her www.mediamagazine.org.uk argued that the new presenters were chosen dismissal was sex discrimination, since only because their high public profiles would female presenters had been treated in this attract more viewers, but the employment way, but this was not upheld by the court. tribunal agreed with O’Reilly that age was a www.guardian.co.uk/media/2011/ factor in the decision. jan/11/miriam-oreilly-standing-up- O’Reilly told The Guardian: bbc?INTCMP=SRCH

4 MediaMagazine | February 2011 | english and media centre Express and Star ejected from Coming soon on Press Complaints Commission the big screen The group of publications owned by no longer wishes to provide funding March Richard Desmond have been ejected from for the PCC and be part of the system of • The Tempest the regulatory body the Press Complaints self-regulation. This means that they In a bold stroke of cross-gender casting by director Commission after they failed to pay their will not now be able to demonstrate to Julie Traynor, Helen Mirren takes on one of the subscription fees. their readers that they are committed biggest and most challenging roles in Shakespeare This means that titles in the Northern to adhere to the set of standards which – and really, why not? It should take very little to & Shell group, including The Daily Express, are independently enforced by the change Prospero into ‘Prospera’. Mirren is joined by The Star, OK magazine and New magazine, commission. a long list of respected actors: Alfred Molina, Alan are no longer covered by the Editors’ Code The UK has a system of self-regulation, Cumming, Djimon Hounsou, Chris Cooper, David of Practice – the set of guidelines that UK which means that the Code of Practice is Strathairn, Ben Whishaw, Felicity Jones and Tom publications agree to adhere to (at least in not legally binding – publications agree to Conti, along with the slightly incongruous addition theory!). The code of practice covers areas sign up to it voluntarily. This is important of Russell Brand! including accuracy, privacy, harassment because it means that the government or • The Eagle and discrimination. If the code is broken, legal system cannot abuse their powers Kevin Macdonald (State of Play and The Last King the Press Complaints Commission can to silence the press. However, critics argue of Scotland) directs a drama set in Roman Britain force newspapers to print a retraction or that the PCC does not work well in practice, and based on Rosemary Sutcliffe’s novel The an apology, although only in response to a letting papers get away with too much. Eagle of the Ninth. Channing Tatum plays a young complaint by the subject of the story. For more on the debate about the PCC, Roman commander who leads his legion into the PCC chairman Peta Buscombe told the see Paul Willis’s article on page 11 and the barbarian territory of Scotland, hoping to find out Press Gazette: back story at www.guardian.co.uk/media/ what became of his father, who disappeared there It is disappointing that Northern & Shell greenslade+pcc 15 years before. Jamie Bell plays a Celtic slave unwillingly accompanying his master. Is there still a place April • The Bang Bang Club Shot on location in South Africa, Steven Silver’s for MySpace? film is based on the memoirs of a group of MySpace has announced it is to halve friendly interfaces, and as being more South African photo-journalists famous for their its worldwide workforce, as it struggles to reliable. uncompromising images capturing the violence compete in the modern social networking MySpace remains a popular place and upheaval that accompanied the end of market. The site, which was bought by for musicians to promote their work, Apartheid. A surviving member of the group served Rupert Murdoch’s News Corp for around and the most recent version of the site, as a consultant on the film. Stars Malin Akerman, £360 million in 2005, has announced that launched in October, has been tailored Ryan Phillipe and Taylor Kitsch. 500 jobs are to go. to make the most of this. However, even • Sucker Punch MySpace has declined in popularity here, competitors such as Last FM, Hype Director Zack Snyder (Watchmen, 300) returns since the arrival of Facebook and Twitter, Machine and Band Camp are becoming with a highly inventive concept for his latest film which are seen both as having more user- ever more popular with musicians. – a girl unjustly imprisoned in a mental institution finds escape in an imagined sci-fi/fantasy world, where she and her fellow inmates are sexy action heroines on a quest to find five mysterious objects. ITN banned from press conference Stars Emily Browning, Jena Malone, Abbie Cornish, Vanessa Hudgens and Jamie Chung. – police accused of censorship • Hop Tim Hill’s film, produced by Illumination ITV news has accused Avon and carefully controlled PR puff. The police Entertainment (Despicable Me), sounds like a Somerset Police of censorship, after they have carefully drip-fed news about this traditional Christmas film recycled for a different were banned from attending a press case and obviously want to control the festival – Easter. It’s a combination of CGI and live conference relating to the murdered media reporting as best they can. action and sees the Easter Bunny (voiced by Russell Bristol woman Joanna Yeates. The ban The Avon and Somerset Police Force Brand) getting hit by a car and injured. It’s then up was a reaction to an ITV news report lifted the ban the next day, so that ITN to the slacker driver (James Marsden) to take over that criticised the investigation, which could attend future press conferences, egg delivery duties and save Easter. the police force said, in a complaint to and it also later dropped its complaint to • Little Red Riding Hood broadcasting regulator Ofcom, was ‘unfair, Ofcom. However, in a statement reported The fairy tale gets re-told as a story about a naïve and irresponsible’. by journalism.co.uk, it said it would: werewolf terrorising a small village. It stars Amanda The move was widely criticised as being not hesitate to adopt similar Seyfried as a young woman torn between two against the principle of freedom of the tactics again if we feel any suitors, who also attracts the attention of a famous press. The blog Bristol Culture said that media organisation hampers our werewolf hunter (Gary Oldman) who has been the ban: investigation. called in to help save the locals from the beast. With sets a dangerous precedent. If the For another perspective on press Twilight director Catherine Hardwicke on board, police only invite media organisations coverage of crime investigation, see Paul this looks set to have some of the moody teen who they like to press conferences, Willis’s article on page 11. horror romance vibe that has proved so successful the news will become no more than for the series. Front Page News researched, written and designed by Priscilla McClay, a former publishing intern at EMC who is now web editor for British Waterways.

english and media centre | February 2011 | MediaMagazine 5 MM Strictly cultural

Is Blackpool’s Tower Ballroom really an icon of postmodernity? What lies behind the allure of sequins and fancy footwork? Roy Stafford finds out in this exploration of how studies of British popular television have responded to changing ideas about ‘culture’.

6 MediaMagazine | February 2011 | english and media centre MM MM One of the many opportunities offered up by YouTube is the chance to explore the cultural status of films and television programmes from different time periods. For instance, what do we think about the changing concept of ‘popular British television’? In Autumn 2010, BBC and ITV both banked on forms of reality TV to attract large weekend audiences. ITV, of course, resuscitated its sure-fire ratings winner The X Factor. On BBC1 one of the major attractions was Strictly Come Dancing and in particular the sequences with one-time Conservative Cabinet Minister Ann Widdecombe. The programme featuring celebrities from a variety of ages, talents and media backgrounds attempting the samba is particularly interesting, and you can check out the sequence with Ms Widdecombe on http://www.youtube.com/ watch?v=sISZFkR-L3o. If we want to analyse what is happening here in terms of changing ideas about British culture, it is helpful to compare Strictly with an earlier representation from 1962. The YouTube clip at: http://www.youtube.com/ watch?v=OiKAfuD5ZN4 offers an extract from A Kind of Loving, one of the successful ‘British New Wave’ films based on a novel by the Yorkshire writer Stan Barstow. The story concerns Vic, a typical young working-class man of the period, who has been forced into a marriage to a pregnant Ingrid. It’s the early Sixties; the contraceptive pill is not yet widely available and abortion is still illegal. The couple will have to live with Ingrid’s widowed mother. The clip is all about the nuances of social class; Vic feels persecuted by a woman who lives in a ‘naice’ semi-detached house and looks down on him. The crucial part of the extract is Ingrid’s reluctance to go to a brass band concert in the Town Hall, in which Vic’s father plays a trombone

KIND OF LOVING Dir. SCHLESINGER John, 1962 Credit: BFI Of course, in one sense, Ingrid is right, but Vic recognises that he should be in the Town Hall to support his father. Traditional values are important to him. Also, he isn’t impressed by the gameshow. What on earth would he have made of Strictly? From a perspective of 50 years later, Vic seems like a contradictory character. How could an upwardly-mobile ‘new man’ – which in terms of his white-collar job as a draughtsman, he certainly was – be so ‘traditional’? Here is our pointer to the complexity of ideas about ‘culture’ in the UK. Before we can unpack our two examples, we need to look at how theoretical ideas around the concept have developed.

then cuts to the sitting room where the couple solo. Director John Schlesinger makes the point The Meanings of ‘Culture’ sit with Ingrid’s mother watching a gameshow visually by showing the father’s solo and the ‘Culture’, as Raymond Williams pointed out, on the ‘commercial channel’ (i.e. ITV). As Ingrid family in the audience. The camera lingers on the is ‘one of the two or three most complicated explains to Vic, this is ‘modern’ whereas the brass empty seats where Vic and Ingrid should be – and words in the English language’. band is ‘old-fashioned’. Williams was one of the pioneering British

english and media centre | February 2011 | MediaMagazine 7 MM academics who helped to establish Cultural Studies as an academic subject and to inform much of the academic work in Media Studies during the 1970s. His entry on ‘culture’ in Keywords (1976) covers six pages. In simple terms, Williams distinguishes three different uses of ‘culture’ as a noun, referring to: 1. the general process of intellectual, spiritual and aesthetic development in any society 2. the specific way of life of a particular people during a specific time period 3. the specific works and practices of artists and intellectuals. The first meaning is associated with other terms like ‘cultivation’ and ‘civilisation’ and implies perhaps that human society develops been associated with ideas about propaganda in developed from the needs and desires of the over time as it becomes more ‘cultured’, more communist Eastern Europe, or something artsy communities themselves – although these were ‘developed’. Or perhaps it is possible to reverse that the French would do (and therefore clearly primarily male needs and desires. the process? The modern cliché of ‘dumbing ‘wrong’!). Distrust of intellectuals and ‘theory’ was In the 1950s and 1960s this lived culture was down’ suggests that we can ‘slip back’ into one of the original obstacles to the growth of disappearing in the face of new forms of mass previous, less ‘civilised’ art forms. Media Studies and Cultural Studies in the UK. This entertainment, which included popular music The second meaning allows us to partly explains why many theoretical ideas were and films targeted primarily at young people, acknowledge that different cultures may imported from Europe in the 1970s. and from 1956, ‘commercially funded’ television. co-exist within the same society, so in A Kind In the UK, debates about culture have to a It’s no coincidence that in Saturday Night and of Loving we have a case study of ‘traditional’ large extent been displaced into arguments Sunday Morning (1960), arguably the most working-class culture and ‘modern’ consumer about education and public funding of popular British New Wave film, based on a novel culture associated with television at a particular the arts. This began in the late 1940s and it’s by self-taught working-class writer Alan Sillitoe, historical moment. interesting how many of these debates have now the hero’s father is marked as a failure because re-emerged around the policy pronouncements he now sits at home watching American Western of the current Con-Dem coalition government: series on television. what kinds of history or literature should be on the school curriculum, where the axe should fall The work of the Centre for on arts provision with cuts to be made, what we Contemporary Cultural should expect from public service broadcasting Studies ... and so on. Fortunately, we now have some Despite what he thought about the new critical tools with which to investigate these kinds popular culture, in 1964 Hoggart founded the of debates. Let’s consider a few of the important Centre for Contemporary Cultural Studies thinkers and their ideas. (CCCS) at Birmingham University. For nearly forty years this became home to an emerging Media Studies Thinkers and British Cultural Studies, and to a cadre of Concepts theorists and researchers who established many In his seminal book The Uses of Literacy of the theoretical frameworks you explore in (1957), Richard Hoggart critiqued the your current Media Studies course. Hoggart commercialisation of mass culture that was made possible influential academic work on undermining the organic community-based soap opera by Dorothy Hobson and Angela popular culture of the working-class Leeds of his McRobbie’s work on all aspects of youth childhood. This was a view shared by a number culture for young women, including pop music, of new academics, some of whom, like Hoggart, dance and magazines. No doubt he was pleased came from working-class communities which by their academic success and the way in which placed a high value on education and on certain the Centre’s work, especially under the leadership The third meaning suggests that we should forms of artistic achievement. Hoggart provides a of Stuart Hall, developed theoretical ideas that consider both of our examples to be ‘cultural detailed cultural analysis of what was happening overcame the problem of how to approach artefacts’ – the products of distinct artistic and in the world represented in A Kind of Loving. In popular culture in a productive way. intellectual practices. Notice that this means the extract we hear Ingrid’s mother attacking CCCS scholars grappled with the legacy of more than one being a film and the other a miners for earning too much, and implicitly the Frankfurt School, the Marxist scholars who television programme – we need to recognise criticising Vic’s father, a railwayman. The miners fled Nazi Germany in the 1930s and then found that these media texts are also defined by their and the railway workers were particularly themselves railing against tawdry capitalist institutional production contexts and by their important within the structure of organised consumer culture in the US. Left-wing media reception by audiences. labour – and the culture of their community. and cultural theorists have always struggled In the UK we have particular problems It’s worth noting that these communities, with the tension between validating popular with these meanings because they have been especially in South Wales, Central Scotland and culture as an object of study in capitalist societies enmeshed in debates structured around social the industrial regions of England and Northern and wanting to expose the dangers of the class differences and questions about national Ireland had founded their own educational control of media production and distribution identity. We are told that we now live in ‘a institutions in the 19th century (e.g. the by corporations whose only aim is to maximise classless society’; but is that really the case? The Mechanics Institutes – many of which later profits for the owners of capital. Such struggles concept of a UK government remit dealing with became Technical Colleges), and had developed still run through media teaching and learning in ‘Culture’ is still a relatively recent innovation. The activities such as brass band competitions, British classrooms. Stuart Hall and his colleagues Department for Culture, Media and Sport was choral singing, art clubs, community theatres proposed a solution focusing on the reception of only established in July 1997; prior to this, for and organised sports such as Rugby and Cricket media texts – what audiences do with the texts many years the concept of a ‘Culture Ministry’ had Leagues. This was a ‘lived culture’ which had that they ‘consume’.

8 MediaMagazine | February 2011 | english and media centre MM It’s not possible to summarise here all of the work of the Centre which involved working through what was then still ‘new theory’ concerned with semiotics and structuralism; but we can step back and see that the new Media Studies and Cultural Studies that emerged in the 1950s and 1960s managed to break out of the cultural trap faced by those working- class and left-wing academics. First they had to demonstrate that all kinds of media texts were worthy of study. The long established divide between ‘high art’ (classical music, opera, ballet, fine art, literature etc.) and ‘low/popular’ forms was irrelevant. All forms of literature and art, all forms of music, drama and ‘light entertainment’ were valid for study. It had long been accepted that British working- class cinema audiences generally preferred Hollywood to British Cinema. Now it became important to see how those Hollywood films were ‘received’ by audiences. In a parallel development, pioneering work by Dick Hebdige and others on the study of British youth sub-cultures acknowledged for the first time that white working-class youth in the UK was consciously adopting and developing aspects of the culture expressed in American and Jamaican black popular music. Far from mindlessly absorbing ‘simple’ popular music, as critics had claimed, sections of British youth were seen as re-working the meanings and the cultural references of music produced in another culture. CCCS finally closed in 2002, but its legacy is an enormous contribution to the establishment of two distinct but closely-connected fields of study in Media Studies and Cultural Studies. However, since the heyday of the Centre in the 1970s and 1980s, new technologies have altered the media ecology in the UK; new theoretical ideas have been added to the critical armoury of media studies; and audiences themselves have changed. None of the ‘traditional working- being critiqued to being celebrated: Reading Strictly class communities’ described by Hoggart have There were tirades against its voyeurism and Returning to our two original examples, we survived – they are long gone, along with the the banality of its contestants, immediately can see that there has been a long-term change industries which offered them employment. We bringing into play issues about the perceived in ideas about culture in each of the three might argue that what constitutes British social value of popular culture . . . [but later] . . . a meanings that Williams defined back in 1976. As structure is much less clear in 2011 than it was 50 Hegelian analysis of the show appeared in a society, we have different ideas about what years ago. the Independent on Sunday and the Guardian being ‘cultured’ might mean; we all recognise wheeled out Desmond Morris to offer an The Big Brother Moment the importance of different cultures and sub- anthropological analysis of the show. cultures in how we select and nurture our own In 2000 Big Brother was launched on Channel Wilsea goes on to investigate how one media uses and we seem able to adapt quickly 4. It would last for eleven years until eclipsed fascination with the show concerned the extent to new media forms and new kinds of media by other formats such as Strictly and The X to which all the (young) contestants in the show texts. But this doesn’t mean that the debates Factor. The Big Brother launch was interesting were ‘media savvy’ yet seemingly surprised by about culture are over quite yet. for several reasons. It arrived in the millennium how the ‘game’ turned out. At the same time, Consider the Strictly clip. There are four year when Web 2.0 and social networking was both contestants and the audiences for the distinct sections in less than seven minutes. The still four or five years away, but its ‘opening up’ show seemed to take all the developments in first is a faux ‘fly-on-the wall’ peek behind the of television through ‘interaction’ (telephone their stride. In subsequent series the perception scenes to see Ann Widdecombe and Anton du voting, website, extra material on digital channels of ‘celebrity’ – both manufactured through Beke rehearsing the samba and then travelling up and the newspaper coverage in the red-tops) was the show, and ‘real’ in the sense of celebrity to Blackpool. The couple ‘perform’ for the camera clearly ‘new’. contestants – also changed quite rapidly. We and break the ‘rule’ of not acknowledging its Almost immediately Big Brother became a might conclude that partly because of changes presence. This is followed by the actual dance much-discussed study text (conveniently arriving in British society and partly because of changes performance in the contest and then by the third just as gameshows and quiz shows appeared in television and related media, the move from section which comprises the ritual humiliation on one of the A Level specifications). Writing modernity to the postmodernity of Big Brother of the celebrity by the panel of experts. immediately after the first ‘series’ (it wasn’t really (and reality TV more generally) was much Finally comes the relatively recent gameshow a series in the TV sense, rather the first of a new more easily managed by all concerned than the convention of interviewing the contestants format, ‘stripped’ across six days each week), Sue earlier move from the traditional to the modern (away from the judges) – and inviting the viewers Wilsea (2000) welcomed the programme and signalled by debates around texts like A Kind of to vote. commented on how quickly it had passed from Loving. In one sense, the audience has quickly

english and media centre | February 2011 | MediaMagazine 9 MM

internalised all the separate elements of the event presented by Bruce Forsyth – who was of ITV’s massively popular 1970s drama serial format (including the role of the presenters) so already a television star presenter even before Upstairs Downstairs. Does this signal a return to that what might once have been postmodern A Kind of Loving was published in 1960. How 1970s attractions to a class-based drama? These (the collapsing of different genre boundaries, do we read the self-conscious ‘playing’ of Ann programmes are the antithesis of the gameshow, the mocking of notions of competition etc.) has Widdecombe in this context? but they must co-exist in a culture of celebrity assumed a kind of seamless ‘normality’. However, and a (lack of) sense of social class. That sounds through its setting in the Tower Ballroom, Some Conclusions like the basis of another investigation. Blackpool, this particular episode has a further The critical tools developed for Media Studies level of meanings. analysis enable us to read Strictly Come Dancing Roy Stafford is a freelance lecturer and writer and as a contemporary media text. This particular co-author of the Media Students’ Book, now in its 5th The Surrealism of Blackpool episode is arguably more extreme than most in edition. Read his blog at http://itpworld.wordpress.com Blackpool has two great ballrooms that are the series; and we could argue that overall the often confused. The Tower Ballroom and the series still celebrates something that traditional Empress Ballroom (in the Winter Gardens) are culture would validate – the skill of the dancers References both iconic for dance culture both in the UK and (analogous to the brass band contest). Strictly Hebdige, Dick (1979): Subculture: The Meaning internationally. The Tower Ballroom featured began in 2004 as an attempt to revive, in a of Style in the classic wartime documentary, Listen to different format, the very long-running series Britain (1942) as hundreds of RAF personnel Come Dancing (1949-1998), borrowing the Williams, Raymond (1976): Keywords and their dates swirled around the dance Strictly from Baz Luhrmann’s 1992 hit film, Wilsea, Sue (Autumn, 2000) ‘It’s Only a Game floor. In 2009 ‘Virtual Tourist’ placed it top of Strictly Ballroom. The revival aimed to keep Show’ in the picture 40 an international list of ‘quirky places to dance’. the attention to skill, but to be less patrician The Empress Ballroom has been the venue for and more ‘democratic’. The big question might Guardian Blog: http://www.guardian.co.uk/ dance festivals since the 1920s and for political be whether or not both these aims have been tv-and-radio/tvandradioblog/2010/nov/19/ conferences since the 1950s. Thus the quip in undermined by the increasing importance of strictly-come-dancing-live-blog Strictly about Widdecombe’s familiarity with celebrity. http://www.canada.com/travel/quirky%20 Blackpool. However, New Labour under Blair If we return to our A Kind of Loving extract, places%20dance/827986/story.html deserted Blackpool – presumably because it it’s possible to see that the contradiction/conflict didn’t fit their image of ‘modern Britain’. It’s true expressed in that scene could be resolved by Hall, Stuart and Jefferson, Tony (eds) (1976): that both ballrooms are Victorian (1899 and television texts that offered both the pleasure of Resistance through Rituals 1896 respectively) and that has always been part performance skills at a high level and the sense Hobson, Dorothy (1982): Crossroads – Drama of of their attraction, especially for the northern of a mixed community of audiences who feel a Soap Opera working-class holidaymakers who enjoyed in some way part of the programme. Both the dancing in the style of the 19th-century upper BBC and ITV have discovered that this formula The work of Angela McRobbie is accessible via classes. We can safely assume that Vic’s parents has delivered a substantial ‘family audience’ for her webpage at Goldsmiths University: http:// in A Kind of Loving would be familiar with the early evening weekend shows – confounding www.gold.ac.uk/media-communications/staff/ Tower Ballroom – as would Vic, who would now the pessimism of industry pundits who thought mcrobbie/ PDFs of her early 1970s work are be in his 70s. multi-channel television had ended the television free to download. The Guardian’s blog on Strictly’s visit to event. ITV’s The X Factor and Britain’s Got Talent Stuart Hall’s CCCS Paper on ‘Encoding- Blackpool provided a ‘meta text’ – a running are similar adaptations of the traditional talent Decoding the Television Discourse’ (1974) is commentary on the programme’s attempt to show format. the original work that has been interpreted in make jokes about Blackpool, with references to The big news of the Autumn 2010 TV season many contemporary Media Studies textbooks. the ‘Vegas of the North’ etc. But the whole point was, however, the surprising success on ITV of of Blackpool is that you can’t mock it successfully Downton Abbey – a traditional drama series – it’s hard to imagine anything outrageous or offering high calibre acting talent in a period tawdry that hasn’t been tried before (or might setting focusing on the last days of an upper- be tomorrow) as a means of making money in class household with an army of servants. A few Blackpool. This adds to the surrealism of an weeks later, BBC1 offered a re-worked version

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Pain, privacy and the Press pack: the ethics of news media culture

What happens to communities arriving here feels like uncovering a hidden Hijacking the horror treasure. But on a grey day when the choppy invaded by the news media after a Among the mourners was Dave Moore, a waters of the Irish Sea reflect the dark skies, this retained firefighter and local councillor. On the major crime incident such as a mass Victorian-era resort town can feel terribly bleak. day of the killings Moore had draped covers over shooting or a murder manhunt? How It was like that one Sunday last June. A damp the dead and helped a publican from the car squall had set in by the time the mourners had where he had been shot at point blank range. can families’ privacy be protected and met on the strip of grass overlooking the pier. Born and raised here, the horror of the experience grief acknowledged in cases such as Banks of cloud were indistinguishable from had left him dazed. But as he watched the news the smoke of the cooling towers at the nearby media this numbness gave way to anger. Moore the mass killings of Derek Bird and Sellafield Reprocessing Plant. said: Raoul Moat? Journalist Paul Willis Clutching orders of service headed ‘Gathering I felt our day had been hijacked. They’d Together’, over 500 sang hymns and observed a hoodwinked people into believing they had was in Cumbria in 2010 – and argues minute’s silence for the victims of the Cumbria a moral right to tell this story, that their that the public must exercise their shootings. This was the first time they had met concerns came first. as a community since Derrick Bird’s murderous rights to demand responsible and To get the best shots, TV crews had set rampage a few days earlier. up their cameras between the clergy and the ethical behaviour from the press. They were not alone of course. At the centre congregation. To observe the service, this meant of the sea of umbrellas cameras panned the locals closest to the front were looking past Like many spots on the English coast, crowd, and skirting its edges photographers camera lenses frequently pointed straight back Seascale changes its aspect dramatically with circled, looking for private expressions of grief at them. He said: ‘We felt too intimidated to the weather. When the sky is clear and the that might translate the pain of a community to challenge them.’ tide retreats to reveal its pristine white beach, a shocked nation. The media had arrived en masse on the

english and media centre | February 2011 | MediaMagazine 11 MM Wednesday of the shootings. Many – including a Sky News helicopter – were already in the region for the funeral of a teenager killed in a school bus crash the week before. By Thursday the car park by Seascale’s sea front, like Duke Street in nearby Whitehaven, was filled with satellite vans and news crews. Moore said their presence kept villagers indoors though ‘they wanted to come out and talk about what had happened.’ If many of the local populace were evasive when faced with the glare of the cameras, they also remained tight-lipped on the subject of the killer. As one tabloid reporter put it: ‘You couldn’t find anyone to say a bad word about Bird.’ ‘Cumbrians aren’t insular but there’s a certain amount of tribalism,’ said Jamie Reed, the MP for the Borough of Copeland. ‘They resent people coming in and intruding on their territory, especially when they so obviously have an agenda.’ Chequebook Journalism Chequebook journalism was the most damaging aspect of this intrusion, according to Reed. A Seascale villager is still the object of scorn among locals after he is believed to have sold CCTV footage to The Sun showing Bird’s car passing along the sea front. The daughter of Michael Pike, killed riding his bike through Seascale, complained to the Press Complaints Commission that the footage contained audio of her father’s shooting. The Sun insisted the gunshots were edited out, but removed the film from its website ‘as a gesture of goodwill.’ http://www.pcc.org.uk/news/index. html?article=NjUzOA== ‘Those practices have repercussions long after the media leave,’ said Reed, who has outlined his concerns about the ‘dysfunctional and broken’ values of sections of the media in a speech in the Commons. ‘Everyone knows who made money and no-one is in a hurry to forget. It’s very divisive.’ A month later another northern rural community found itself the unlikely focus of the It was quite exciting. There were 20-foot nation’s attention when a second lone gunman camera cranes pointing down the village, ran amok. helicopters hovering overhead, police cars whizzing up and down. It was like waking Rothbury: Recruiting the up and finding yourself on the set of a Eyewitnesses Hollywood action movie. In some ways the villagers of Rothbury in The sense of drama implied by a manhunt Northumberland were disinterested observers was added to by the large-scale police response. of the last days of Raoul Moat. Unlike in West At one point one in 10 of all UK firearms Cumbria, Moat was an outsider, and so were the officers were in the area, and a two-mile ground people he harmed. All the same, the macabre exclusion zone forced the village into lockdown. soap opera that ended when the ex-prisoner shot The army even scrambled an RAF fighter jet to himself on a riverbank in the centre of the village help out. left a lasting impression. Villager Bill Kirkup said that when Moat Rothbury butcher Morris Adamson found was discovered by the riverbank after four days the critical mass of police and media led to himself recruited for vox pops by the 24-hour stand-off, offering money to go on rooftops or for calamitous scenes. Kirkup, who has a toy shop a news crews who exhausted his stock of bacon digital pictures of Moat. few doors down from the butchers, watched the with their demands for sandwiches each Sue Ballantyne, who lives by the riverbank, tableau unfold from his window: morning. was fielding phone calls from 6am. the morning I heard a crash and saw two police cars had By his own admission he grew to like the after the stand-off: collided at the bottom of the village in their attention, his mates teased him as a ‘media I was doing interviews one after the other. rush to get to him. The media got wind of whore,’ and after a week he was on close enough Looking back it seemed sort of farcical, but what was going on and I saw a surge of terms with ITN’s northern correspondent Emma I was running on adrenaline at the time so I cameras and journalists sweep past the shop. Murphy that she dropped in a bunch of flowers kept answering the phone. With the media kept at bay by police, reporters for his wife on her way out of town. He said: There were reports of journalists trespassing began contacting residents with views of the

12 MediaMagazine | February 2011 | english and media centre MM MM through back gardens. A message posted on including the relatives of Bird and his murdered The public need to be more assertive Twitter by Channel Four reporter Alex Thomson twin David. sometimes. It’s not the job of the media to on the Friday seemed to confirm this: Reverend Jim Marshall, the vicar in David always be sensitive to people’s feelings. But Sorry lots of Bberry tweets in dark running Bird’s village of Lamplugh, faced the media a faced with the pack in full flow, a community thru peoples, gardens evading cops – some number of times on behalf of the family. He said has a perfect right to dig its heels in and say spelling may have gone astray. his concern was to ‘give the family’s side, and no. http://twitter.com/alextomo/ point out distortions or untruths where they were status/18152084130 being repeated.’ It was widely misreported, for Paul Willis is a freelance journalist who has written for example, that Bird’s elderly mother had terminal The Guardian, Telegraph, Independent, Sydney Morning cancer. A teacher of 30 years, Rev. Marshall Herald, and the websites for CNN and open Democracy. equated the experience to addressing a class of unruly third-formers. In spite of the excesses the Press Complaints Follow It Up Commission received only 79 complaints in relation to the two stories, about average for Reproduced below is an extract from the Press cases of this magnitude. Complaints Commission Editor’s Code of Practice Aside from the video footage in The Sun, half relevant to this article. the complaints in West Cumbria related to an • Check out how far these clauses were observed opinion piece by Carole Malone in The News in the coverage of the Seascale and Rothbury of the World which diagnosed the Cumbrians’ killings, and discuss the impact of such coverage. reluctance to talk in part as a symptom of their own sense of guilt at not recognising the killer in • Then follow the link below to MediaWise, a their midst. media charity for ethics in journalism, to see their Mike Jempson, from the charity Mediawise, view on the PCC code. which helps victims of media abuse, said the 3 Privacy low number of complaints reflected general Adamson said he kicked out a radio crew i) Everyone is entitled to respect for his or ignorance of the PCC and its remit, more than it when, without asking permission, they began her private and family life, home, health did public sentiment about the shootings. investigating the back of his shop to see if there and correspondence, including digital A spokesman for Copeland Borough Council was a storm drain similar to one Moat was hiding communications. said a number of its councillors reported in. constituents unhappy with the media’s behaviour ii) Editors will be expected to justify intrusions A broadsheet reporter said it was hard to avoid though neither Northumbria nor Cumbria into any individual’s private life without consent. getting caught up in the mania: After a few days the story had been done to Police knew of any criminal complaints against Account will be taken of the complainant’s own death but the beast of the internet always individual members of the media. The spokesman public disclosures of information. said that a second round of memorials organised needs feeding. In your desperation to find a iii) It is unacceptable to photograph individuals in a week after the first was meant to draw a line new angle it’s easy to forget the gravity of private places without their consent. under the tragedy, and that there was a tacit the situation. Note – Private places are public or private property where agreement with broadcasters that they would After a report of a possible sighting in a there is a reasonable expectation of privacy. pack up and leave after they were finished. farmhouse the reporter parked in a country 4. Harassment In Seascale, Dave Moore had shifted the lane and, rushing on foot round the corner, location of this second memorial to the other side i) Journalists must not engage in intimidation, was confronted with a posse of armed police of the car park. When a TV reporter approached harassment or persistent pursuit. clutching machine guns and screaming at him to him beforehand and asked him to move it back to get down. ii) They must not persist in questioning, its original location to accommodate the camera telephoning, pursuing or photographing setup, Moore was incredulous but steadfast: Why Regulation Matters individuals once asked to desist; nor remain on I refused. As far as I was concerned that was In West Cumbria, where the media were their property when asked to leave and must a day for the people here, and the media had dealing with the aftermath rather than a live not follow them. If requested, they must identify nothing to do with it. news event, their behaviour was less boisterous. themselves and whom they represent. Even so, tabloids stationed paparazzi outside Mike Jempson believes: the homes of victims’ families for days on end, iii) Editors must ensure these principles are observed by those working for them and take care not to use non-compliant material from other sources. the ethics of news media culture 5. Intrusion into grief or shock

i) In cases involving personal grief or shock, enquiries and approaches must be made with sympathy and discretion and publication handled sensitively. This should not restrict the right to report legal proceedings, such as inquests.

*ii) When reporting suicide, care should be taken to avoid excessive detail about the method used

http://www.pcc.org.uk/cop/practice.html

http://www.mediawise.org.uk/display_page. php?id=1070

All images credit Morris Adamson

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A very British

As I write this article, the first series of Matt and Tennant’s narratives were written River Thames snaking Smith’s tenure as Doctor Who has been aired by Russell T. Davies. Although both its way through the City. and the many fans of the show are eagerly are self-confessed die-hard fans of the original The camera continues to plummet awaiting the broadcast of the forthcoming 2010 series, these two writers have different industrial downward, hurtling towards a block of flats Christmas Special. While much can be written backgrounds and very individual visions. It is surrounded by a small area of green parkland. about the new series, one of its most striking these visions which shape each series and define Before hitting the building, the scene cuts to a qualities is its distinctiveness from the previous what will subsequently become its signifying close-up of a digital alarm clock, its annoying Christopher Eccleston/David Tennant series. qualities. It could be argued, based on his first beep ringing out: Rose Tyler’s bedroom, and While these two Doctors fought with ingenuity series alone, that Moffat clearly has an interest time to get up. A brief montage follows as Rose and wit predominantly to save humanity in fairy-tale imagery, a trope which emanates gets ready for work – shots of the cluttered on Earth, Smith’s Doctor has gone from one primarily from Amy Pond. She is frequently seen council flat, kissing her mum goodbye, the interstellar location to another, taking along with wearing red, often wandering through dream- sprawling corridors of the building, the graffiti- him Amy Pond and her bumbling partner, Rory. like forests; later she falls asleep for thousands of sprayed stairwells, an overcast sky; London as a This distinctiveness is partly due to the desire years in the series finale ‘The Pandorica Opens’ combination of blank grey buildings and brightly for the Head Writer of each series to place their and ‘The Big Bang’. She is also a child-like coloured neon signs, the brilliant red of London authorial stamp on the programme. While Smith character who lives in a world of fantasy and buses. The montage continues with Rose working is under the tutelage of Steven Moffat, Eccleston make-believe, with the Doctor functioning as a – looking bored, watching other people spend heroic, handsome Prince who will not only rescue money – and then lunching with a young black her from imprisonment but will also save the man later revealed to be her boyfriend, Mickey world to boot. Smith. The sequence concludes with a brief sequence of Rose’s equally boring afternoon at The Davies Connection work, exterior shots of London and the closing of This fairy-tale theme is in sharp contrast to the shop in which she works. the Eccleston/Tennant eras. Throughout On a narrative level, this opening primarily the four series and various holiday specials introduces the audience to the Doctor’s new Davies oversaw (and, in part, wrote) there was companion and her mundane life, soon to be a very strong sense of reality pervading the exploded by her adventures with the Doctor. This programme, a quality stated and defined in opening also clearly represents a snapshot of life ‘Rose’, the very first episode of the revived series. in contemporary Britain from Rose’s perspective. The opening shot is a slow pan across a star London is dull and grey, the shops filled with field, past the moon and onto Earth. The planet products she cannot afford as a young woman rotates and, through the dense cloud cover, still living with her mother in a council flat. Britain becomes visible. Suddenly the camera Her life has become a sequence of repetitious plunges down, falling through the clouds to events – work, sleep, work, sleep. For Rose there reveal a familiar bird’s eye view of London – the are no fairy-tale worlds into which she can

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escape the grey monotony. Instead there is just BBC’s own The League of Gentlemen. life, as normal. It is no surprise then, when the This was less by design than because courageous and slightly insane Doctor offers to the budget simply wouldn’t extend to take Rose on voyages across the galaxy, that she the creation of an alien environment for accepts. Her acceptance of the Doctor’s offer each episode. And while the budget for implies that this world is one to be left far behind the revived series has recently expanded as they travel together through time and space. considerably, there is still not enough finance to companion visit the past: for the majority of Yet, for all their travelling, the Doctor and Rose create new alien environments. The easiest way these adventures the pair travel back into Britain’s never stray far from Britain, and instead stay close to resolve this situation – as in the classic series past and so experience the UK, its people, culture to what is essentially Rose Tyler’s home, London. – is to set the adventure on Earth. This solution and attitudes, as it was ‘back then’. This is most It could be argued that the Davies era of has two consequences. Firstly, the budget can evident in the various Victorian-set episodes Doctor Who has a preoccupation not with fairy- be allocated into other areas of the production; (‘The Unquiet Dead’, ‘Tooth and Claw’, and ‘The tale or fantasy, but with notions of family, home and, secondly, the very British nature of the Next Doctor’) and the two-part episode set and country. Throughout the first season these programme is amplified, for it is very rare that during the Blitz ‘The Empty Child’ and ‘The concepts dominate the narrative, consecutively the Doctor has an adventure in another part of Doctor Dances’. constructing an image of Britain and its culture the contemporary world. in the latter years of Tony Blair’s New Labour The sense of Britishness the programme The British People government, a contemporary and realistic embodies then – in terms of its representation Of the many episodes that are based in the backdrop to the fantastical experience the Doctor of culture and its people – extends from these UK, there is clear desire to reflect the country’s and Rose will share. locations. Many episodes feature archetypal multi-racial and multicultural diversity. The and contemporary images of the UK capital, The British Landscape Doctor’s recent companions have spanned such as the black taxi cab or the bright red both the class and cultural divide; Rose is white The depiction of the UK in Davies’s Doctor London bus; there are repeated images of the British and working class, while Martha Jones is Who universe is, in part, due to budgetary Houses of Parliament; the first episode transforms black British and middle class, and Donna Noble, constraints. Many discussions and critiques the London Eye into an alien communications again, white British and middle class. With such of the classic era of Doctor Who end with beacon, while a later episode places its narrative cultural backgrounds, the companions allow some mention of the use of local landscapes time frame around the 2012 Summer Olympics the narrative to positively expose the range as stand-ins for alien planets, often referring but is based in a quiet suburban cul-de-sac of culture, race and class within contemporary to the countless quarries around Britain that named after British athlete Kelly Holmes. It is Britain by incorporating family, friends and ‘acted’ as the home-world of various monstrous in these details, that the series’ overwhelming colleagues into the adventures they have with threats. Indeed this element of the show is often sense of Britishness is amplified. This quality is the Doctor. Many of their shared adventures parodied in sketch shows, most notably in the evident even when the Doctor and his current involve the saving of the British populace and

16 MediaMagazine | February 2011 | english and media centre MM MM in the many scenes of panic and destruction, the ethnic diversity of the population is shown through both the companion’s immediate family and the wider population. In these instances contemporary family dynamics are brought to the fore – Rose’s father died when she was young, leaving her mother, Jackie, a single parent. From the personal history Rose verbalises, Jackie had very little money yet bought her up well, strict and loving, caring and guiding. This lack of a father figure in the companion’s family is echoed in both Martha and Donna’s family construct – Martha’s parents have split up while there is no mention of Donna’s father throughout her time with the Doctor. It’s worth speculating that this lack of a father figure may be in some way part of the Doctor’s attraction; he is intelligent, humorous, strong and able, capable of providing, entertaining and, more importantly, protecting each of his female companions from the horrors they encounter. There is also something very British about the Doctor himself, even though he is (in narrative terms at least) an alien from another world. The character is consistently played by a British actor with an English accent (even when played by Scottish actor David Tennant). This seeming ‘Englishness’ of the Doctor extends into his attire, behaviour and attitude: he dresses eccentrically with a dapper edge. He has a strong belief in fair play and fair warning; he always behaves like a gentleman, and has a self- deprecating sense of humour. with a science fiction spin, the episode also and violence. Such an approach is obviously functions as an origins narrative for Torchwood counter to the Doctor’s methods of trust, The British Empire and, by being so, sets out its Imperialist discussion and negotiation. He seeks to Throughout many of the episodes of the agenda. Having saved Queen Victoria from save people by resolving differences, always Davies era, mainland Britain comes under some the alien threat, the Doctor and Rose are both engendering unity between significantly sort of alien attack (‘Aliens of London’, ‘World War knighted and then, almost instantly, banished different species. Even when faced with the Three’, ‘Boom Town’, ‘Bad Wolf’, ‘The Parting of the from the British Empire: most threatening of alien species (most notably Ways’, ‘The Christmas Invasion’, ‘The Rise of the I have rewarded you, Sir Doctor, and now you throughout the Davies era the Cybermen and Cybermen’ and ‘The Age of Steel’ to name but are exiled from this Empire never to return. the Daleks) the Doctor continually adheres to a few) and, as the Doctor repeatedly strives I don’t know who you are, the two of you, his agenda of a non-violent, peaceful resolution. to save Britain, he is often joined by allies or where you’re from but I know that you Such an approach is, obviously, in direct contrast who are willing to stand (and sometimes fall) consort with stars and magic and think it to the values established for Torchwood by beside him in an effort to ensure freedom and fun. But your world is steeped in terror and Queen Victoria. In the episode ‘Army of Ghosts’, peace for the country. Those that choose to do blasphemy and death, and I will not allow Torchwood director Yvonne Hartman comments this are, more often than not, normal, common it. You will leave these shores and you will on first meeting the Doctor that he is: people. By doing this, the Davies era subtly aligns reflect, I hope, on how you came to stray so [the] enemy. You’re actually named in the the ‘average’ UK citizen with the Doctor, creating far from all that is good and how much longer Torchwood Foundation Charter of 1879 as an an overwhelming sense of pulling together, you may survive this terrible life. Now, leave enemy of the Crown… Her Majesty created struggling together and winning together. my world and never return! the Torchwood Institute with the express In many respects, this quality of working After they have left, Queen Victoria continues intention of keeping Britain great and together to defend the borders is very much her stay at the narrative’s sole location, fighting the enemy horde. a legacy of Britain’s World War 2 attitude, the Torchwood House. Standing with one of the For Hartman, the Doctor is not only an illegal Dunkirk Spirit as it were, in which everyone had survivors of the werewolf’s assault, she looks out alien but also a significant threat to the a role to play inn the successful defence of the into the encroaching darkness and states: national populace, regardless of the countless nation. I saw last night that Great Britain has times he has saved the country. The threat he While this is a positive juxtaposition, the enemies beyond imagination, and we must poses to national borders lies in his sustained Davies era of Doctor Who leaves little positive defend our borders on all sides. I propose desire to bring unity and peace to all worlds room for the governmental agencies present an institute, to investigate these strange and civilisations, regardless of their difference within these narratives. Of such institutions, happenings and to fight them. I will call it or dominion. From the perspective of Torchwood Torchwood and UNIT dominate the Davies era. Torchwood. The Torchwood Institute. And his agenda is to collapse all borders and so Both are covert military operational bodies whose if this Doctor should return, then he should neutralise the notion of territory. With such a purpose is to seek out, explore and, ultimately, beware, because Torchwood will be waiting! contrast, the Davies era of Doctor Who presents control any alien forces that enter either into Victoria’s desired manifesto of ‘defending our covert institutions not only as suspect in their British air space or soil. As such these bodies – borders on all sides’ with a ‘fight’ reverberates belief they are beyond the reaches of the law, but particularly Torchwood – present a negative throughout all of the Torchwood episodes. As also as ones that are implicitly xenophobic. image of the UK defending its borders, a an organisation that is ‘outside the government, As the episode progresses, an increasingly quality most blatantly seen in the episode ‘Tooth beyond the police’, Torchwood’s sole function xenophobic attitude is expressed by Hartman: and Claw’: while ostensibly a werewolf narrative appears to be to repel the alien threat with force The Torchwood Institute has a motto ‘If it’s

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alien, it’s ours’. Anything that comes from the makes, its loss could effectively spell the end taking advantage of the series’ success; Davies sky, we strip it down and we use it, for the of Welsh TV drama. That would have been comments that: good of the British Empire. wrong… This was a place that deserved a one enterprising hotel even offers Doctor Who The Torchwood motto is about using thriving drama industry. So we [Davies and breaks for families, complete with a Dalek. technology to advance British culture and to Julie Gardner, Head of Drama at BBC Wales], Dr Who seems to be a space in which the BBC expand its borders which, in effect, is the very made it our ambition that BBC Wales should can nurture its employees’ creative potential. Victorian ideal of empire building. ‘If it’s alien, come to be seen as a centre of excellence This is most evident in its sustained investment it’s ours’ becomes a statement that attempts to for drama, on a base so firm that it would in projects written and led by Doctor Who writers re-establish the glory days of the British Empire: survive the end of any one series, or our own Steve Moffat and Mark Gatiss: the former Britain at the forefront of technology, politics and departure. now taken over from Davies as Head Writer and power. Both Davies and Gardner’s desire has become Executive Producer on Doctor Who, while the a reality. BBC Wales has not only made two Who latter not only continues to write for Who but Doctor Who – Made in Wales spin-off series Torchwood and The Sarah-Jane has also developed solo projects for BBC Three Not every episode of Doctor Who can be set Adventures, but also a range of other dramas, and BBC Four (including recent series on the in Cardiff, but my belief is that if you are a number of which are for a Welsh speaking history of horror cinema and an adaptation of H. making a show in a city, then you should audience. In terms of finance and allocations G. Wells’ The First Men on the Moon). In addition, show that city off. of budgets, basing the Who franchise at BBC both Moffat and Gatiss conceived of and Russell T. Davies Wales means that a number of programmes are co-wrote the recent up-dated version of Sherlock In terms of its actual production, the revived being made by the same production crews (so Holmes, Sherlock. Here the BBC can be actively series of Doctor Who is very much a home-grown sustaining employment in the area) and with the seen to be investing in its talent, proactively product. The series is produced by BBC Wales same production materials and equipment. This encouraging both writers to expand and broaden for screening across the wider BBC national/ theoretically means that more programmes can their writing experience across a number of global network. Its episodes are written by British be made with a minimal outlay, as the equipment genres, formats and in-house channels – all writers, made by British workers, and feature and production design has already been invested with the intention of continuing to achieve the a range of British actors. This sense of a British in, and so can be recycled into the spin-off shows. excellence in drama for which the BBC is known. production extends into Davies’s wider hopes for In addition to this, the impact of the series’ the series. In his text Made in Wales, Davies details success on local trade and commerce is also James Rose is a freelance writer in Film and Media Studies his rationale for making Doctor Who at BBC Wales: acknowledged by Davies. Predictably this has specialising in horror, fantasy and science fiction. There is no point in having just one successful had most impact on the tourist industry, as many series: one day Doctor Who will go off air fans are drawn to the city to visit the locations Made in Wales can be accessed at: again, because that is the way of television. for both Who and Torchwood. This is so popular http://www.bbc.co.uk/aboutthebbc/ It may be around for another 10 or 20 years, that a locations map is now provided by the local policies/madeintheuk/pdf/8_russell_t_ but if it is the only series the department tourist board. Local businesses are thriving by davies_made_in_wales.pdf

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Ghetto Culture

World Cinema can seem daunting to AS Film students. Subtitles, black and white cinematography and a lack of Hollywood stars are all challenges for the uninitiated. But if you have a taste for genre movies, gangsters, guns, violence and drugs, look no further! Pete Turner compares the representations of ghetto culture in foreign language classics City of God and La Haine.

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Contexts a young Zairian, Makome M’Bowole [who] The narrative of City of God (2002) spans three was shot in 1993. He was killed at point blank decades from the Sixties to the late Eighties. It range while in police custody and handcuffed is the story of a favela (slum/shanty town) and to a radiator. its inhabitants through these turbulent times. Elstob, 1997 Brazil has ‘nearly unrivalled economic inequality’ Made for approximately $3 million by first- (Gilligan, 2006) and an estimated 6.5 million time film-maker Kassovitz, La Haine won many inhabitants live in favelas. These people live in awards (including Best Director at the Cannes extreme poverty and are surrounded by gang Film Festival); so devastating was its reception violence and the drug trade. The selling and use that: of cocaine increased through these decades and the Prime Minister, Alain Juppe, responded is depicted in the film. by commissioning a special screening of the City of God was ‘financed by TV Globo, film for the cabinet, which ministers were Brazil’s biggest TV channel, and o2 Films, required to attend Brazil’s biggest commercials company’ (Muir, Johnston, 1995 2008) and directed by two white middle-class The narrative, cinematography and use of film-makers, Fernando Meirelles and Katia music are all clearly influenced by American Lund. It was made on a modest budget of independent films such as Boyz N The Hood and $3,300,000 and grossed over $24 million film-makers such as Martin Scorsese and Spike worldwide suggesting that this was a film that Lee. was made for, and appealed to, a mass audience, not just the people of Brazil. The funding by Representations Brazilian corporations of more and more films Young men from ethnic minorities are the (and TV shows) about the favelas (e.g. Lower City, main social group represented in both films. Bus 174, Elite Squad, City of Men etc.) has raised Each film has a young black male protagonist: debates about the elite’s exploitation of the Rocket in City of God and Hubert in La Haine. poor by pandering to middle-class desires for The American ‘hood’ film sub-genre often has a ‘typical’ representations of young black males in character that is trying to reject a life of crime gangs, shooting guns and taking drugs. and escape the trappings of the ‘hood’ in which On the other hand, La Haine (1995) is set he lives (see also Boyz N The Hood and Menace in the 1990s and the protagonists live in ‘les II Society). Rocket and Hubert both conform banlieues’ (housing estates) on the outskirts to this archetype, and reject crime as a way of Paris. It also deals with police brutality, racism of life. Rocket flirts with crime but cannot go and civil unrest. It opens with immediate context: through with muggings and hold-ups due to real footage of the riots that regularly took place his compassionate nature. He tries working at a between youths and police between 1986 and supermarket but is fired for his connections to 1996 (and were continuing during filming). The the favela. By the end of the film he has become a director, Mathieu Kassovitz, has often stated successful photographer because of his access to that he was inspired to write the film when he the gangs and knowledge of the favela. Similarly, heard the story of: Hubert rejects the rioting of the other youths on his estate. He runs a gym that he worked hard to

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get a grant for, and promotes boxing as a sport Diversity and Identity for young people to get involved in. The audience City of God’s focus is mainly on black youths. first meets him in the ruined gym after the rioters The favelas were initially created to house freed have trashed and burnt it in the previous night’s slaves, and therefore black people are massively riots. The film ends with Hubert sucked in to over-represented in this setting. On the other potentially committing the murder of a police hand, La Haine emphasises racial hybridity with officer (or being murdered himself) as retaliation the three protagonists being of Arab, Jewish for the shooting of his friend. Characters who try and African descent. The characters all refer to to escape the ghetto life are often stopped from each other with racial banter; in La Haine the doing so by circumstances out of their control – three friends refer to each other’s ethnicities or even by death (see also Bullet Boy and Benny continually. It is argued that people from ethnic in City of God). minorities often do this to celebrate their These representations of young black males difference from the rest of society and also to are life-affirming and positive. However, other give them a sense of belonging within their own characters confirm the more negative stereotypes sub-culture. of youths from ethnic minorities. For example, A defining characteristic of these ghetto Lil Ze in City of God and Hubert in La Haine cultures is their antagonism towards the police. are both drug dealers. Lil Ze is a typical crime The representation of the police in both films is film villain; the audience watches his rise to almost entirely negative. In City of God the police the top, followed by his subsequent decline are corrupt; they: and death. He is violent and psychotic, with stand by and watch the slaughter, only no remorse for his actions or sympathy for his intervening to collect their pay-offs victims. He is a cocaine dealer, rapist and gang http://www.totalfilm.com/reviews/cinema/ leader; out of control, hungry for power and city-of-god desperate to control the favela. On the other They sell guns to gangsters, shoot suspects on hand, Hubert’s drug dealing is only glimpsed in sight (including an innocent youth on his way one scene; elsewhere, we see him giving money to school), steal money and drugs from dealers to his mother for food, and to pay for his sister’s and are never seen helping anyone. In La Haine, books. He deals hash to help his family; and police brutality is witnessed when two of the the film-makers do not judge him for this. The protagonists are taken into police custody and scene in which he makes a transaction is done tortured. One youth is also hospitalised due to very matter-of-factly and the audience does not even hear the conversation between Hubert and his customer because the audio highlights the conversation of Hubert’s friends, who are standing in the background of the shot. Dealing is seen as just a typical fact of life rather than dangerous or immoral.

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Styles City of God and La Haine have very different visual styles. Both use the mise-en-scène of his treatment by the police; and this propels real locations to add to the realism of the the narrative, with one of the protagonists, Vinz, films. However, La Haine uses black and white declaring that he will kill a police officer with a cinematography to enhance this realism by gun he has found if the youth in hospital dies. linking it with the real footage from news reports The use of guns in the films is also interesting shown in the opening credits. City of God begins to compare. In City of God, guns are everywhere; with bright colour (to represent the Sixties and gang members and even small children carry Seventies) but as the narrative progresses, the firearms, ranging from pistols to Kalashnikovs, colours become duller as the concrete trappings bought from corrupt police. In one particularly of urban development take over. Handheld disturbing scene, children are cornered and shot; camera is used throughout City of God gangs and the police face-off and have shoot- enhancing the documentary feel, whereas La roles, drug dealing and violence. Their settings outs in the streets. On the other hand, in La Haine features more steadicam movement with may range from Europe to South America, but Haine there are only four guns in the whole film. long flowing shots following characters through the social conditions faced by young people from One character has found a pistol lost by a police their environment. ethnic minorities in these ghetto cultures seem officer in the riots, and the hesitation over using The editing also adds to the restlessness of the worryingly constant. Power is abused, people this gun leads to the devastating climax. Life is camera in City of God, with lots of quick cutting in poverty are angry, and conflict ensues. The not as cheap on these European streets as it is in and speeding up of footage. La Haine, on the films bring harsh social realities to the screen in the Brazilian favelas. other hand, favours shots with a longer duration (broadly) educational and visually exciting ways Women are under-represented in both and the editing is less choppy than in City of with interesting characters, thrilling narratives these films, and often portrayed in a negative God. This emphasises the idea that life is fast in and differing styles all packing a punch for light. They are both very masculine stories with the favelas, whereas life is boring in les banlieues. Film Studies students… even those who hate little time for female characters. La Haine, for However tension is created by using a number subtitles! example, has been accused of: of ‘explosive’ cuts at the beginning of La Haine. ignoring women and for importing the The image cuts, for example, on Vinz pretending Pete Turner teaches Film and Media at Bracknell and violence and nihilism of American gang to shoot a gun at his mirror image and hitting a Wokingham College and is undertaking a PhD in Film movies boxing bag. The sound of a gunshot is used on Studies at Oxford Brookes University. Stafford, 2000 each of these cuts. Women are the subjects of derision in the Music is also incredibly important in both film; the characters tease each other using ‘your films; the samba beat, funk and soul in City of Bibliography mother…’ and ‘your sister…’ jokes. In City of God, God and hip hop in La Haine. Both examples Muir, S. (2008): Studying City of God however, women are a civilising influence, with use music to give a strong sense of time and Stafford, R. (2000): York Film Notes ‘La Haine’ two male characters expressing a desire to settle place, and help create a sense of identity for the Kevin Elstob: Review of La Haine in Film down and quit crime when in a relationship. It characters. Quarterly Vol. 51, No. 2 (Winter, 1997-98) is argued that the male characters in these films The two films contain many similarities; Gilligan, M. (2006): http://www.metamute.org/ are often emasculated and that this is the reason the iconography of the crime film, the mise- en/Slumsploitation-Favela-on-Film-and-TV for their behaviour and attitude to women. They en-scène of poverty, characters from ethnic Johnston, S. (1995): http://www.independent. lack jobs, education or any reason to feel pride, so minorities living in poor and dangerous co.uk/arts-entertainment/why-the-prime- they resort to carrying guns and insulting women conditions. They both feature antagonism minister-had-to-see-la-haine-1578297.html to make themselves feel like men. towards the police, a lack of women in major http://www.totalfilm.com/reviews/cinema/ city-of-god Images credit Image.net 22 MediaMagazine | February 2011 | english and media centre MM From ‘The Unforgettable Fire’ to Arcade Fire

25 Years Of Change In The Music Business: The Culture of Today and Tomorrow

In our last issue, Mike Hobbs Let’s start with one among many attempts to first, the acceleration of change leads to a define ‘culture’. According to the Collins Concise similar speeding up of the processes by which examined how record companies Dictionary, it is: music reaches us; and second, the certainties gradually lost the position of dominance the artistic and social pursuits, expressions of a shared culture that were prevalent, say, and tastes valued by a society. a hundred years ago, break down further so that they held in 1985, as a result of Does popular music conform to this that culture becomes an ever more shifting, new technologies and the development description? Barely, in some ways; it is now amorphous concept. divided into so many sub-species that it is hard of rival leisure pursuits. In Part 2 of his to construct a case for finding any coherence. Where Are We Now? article, he talks to a variety of musicians On the other hand, it is possible to argue This ain’t rock’n’roll: this is genocide. that this diversity is the very attribute that David Bowie and producers to explore where they will keep music in the forefront of popular Although his apocalyptic vision was designed think they are heading. consciousness. As the available choice of to be more general, David Bowie’s impassioned leisure pursuits broadens, two things happen: opening to the title track of Diamond Dogs

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MM35_final.indd 23 08/02/2011 18:17 MM in 1974 is scarily prophetic about what has happened to the UK’s (and indeed the world’s) music industry. As mentioned in Part 1 of this piece, the fallout from technological change has left the music business here akin to a vaguely connected patchwork of cottage industries. Towering above these are four great companies – the ‘majors’ – who are all suffering from present crises (e.g. EMI) or from understandable shortage of confidence in their ability to predict the future (Universal, Sony BMG and Warner). Could these giants have done more to ride the great wave of new technology that swept over them? Very probably – although no-one claims to have all the answers. So is the year of the Diamond Dogs now upon us? What do young musicians think about the prospects in front of them? ‘I just want to write and play music,’ claims Joseph Dean Osgood, who is a little further along the road to musical self-expression than others. From Croydon, and long recognised as someone with talent, he has been skirting around the fringes of the scene since 1997 waiting for that big break – until he decided to take things into his own hands. The thing is that development money just isn’t available until you get up to a certain level. However I have been lucky enough to secure some investment to help me get there. So I’ve been able to record a mini- LP, develop a website, find a PR company, pluggers – and I’m now working on a deal with a tour promoter. Everyone agrees it is essential to secure live bookings in influential venues in order to succeed. The Targets (Conrad Ellis, Guitar and Lead Vocals; Sam Bell, Bass and Backing Vocals; Jess Whitmore, Drums and Backing Vocals) are a young three-piece from Liverpool and Manchester, mod punk in the great tradition of The Jam. Says Sam: The music industry has turned 180 degrees, and gone back to how it was in the 70’s. Live music is key to a band’s success, with the records becoming less important. This can Because the majors are losing power, they’re I’m convinced the music will come out in the only be a good thing for bands like us that not investing so much in A&R, and as a result end. thrive on playing live. they’re not picking so many people up off Of course, as the likelihood of young Jess adds: the street. The trick is to set up your own musicians being signed has decreased, so certain We started the band when we were just 13, label – mine’s Be Ready Records – and use all organisations have sprung up to fill in the gap. so the original idea was just to have fun. It’s the outlets that are available to you. You’ve One of the most inventive and successful of these only when we realised our own material was got MySpace, iTunes, Facebook, YouTube, is Artists Without A Label (AWAL) – the Arctic good that we thought maybe we can make Twitter, and don’t forget that radio is by no Monkeys first made their name here. Kevin Bacon something out of this. Nowadays our aim means dead. You can use guerrilla marketing of AWAL explains what the company does: has shifted. We want to be signed to a major and a thousand different tactics to get your We have a single page agreement with our label and we think we have the songs to message across. If you haven’t got the big artists to market their music and take 15% of justify that. budget behind you, then you just have to be what they earn while they remain with us. Conrad addresses one of the crucial questions even more creative. It’s all about the music, They can leave at any time without penalty, facing artists: really. because we have no desire to hold people For a band like The Targets, just starting Another young songwriter and musician against their will and we don’t want to be out, it’s really all about exposure. But we who remains ultimately optimistic is Virginia distributors. We’re not a record company – feel musicians should be better protected. Waterman: we’re an alternative. If a band puts material online for people to I’ve got the songs all ready, but now I need And is an alternative necessary? Former music download then that’s fair enough. However some investment. I’m playing in the Island business lawyer Nick Pedgrift is convinced: if people want to share music without the Experience (a folk/soul/blues travelling The party carried on too long. It’s all over. band’s permission then that flies in the face roadshow using the best performers from a Downloads are not coping with the slack that of copyright, something the industry is based pub music venue in West London) as a first lost CD sales have left. They were overpriced on. step towards attracting some backing, as well and the market has evaporated. Take Ivo del Santo is a young DJ and musician as honing the music further in performance. ringtones for instance – the rights to these studying Music at the University of Westminster: Once I can buy myself some studio time, then were snatched away from record companies by

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income, sponsorship and publishing etc is independents are quite as guilty as the majors the preferred response. However, this model in this regard. doesn’t create any new revenue, which is Some artists are giving up the struggle and what’s really needed. And no proposals have giving free music to their fans. Hugh Cornwell, yet been put forward which favour artists. former lead guitarist, singer and main songwriter Clare Ram, owner of publishing company Jack with The Stranglers, was actually the first to offer Russell Music, highlights one of the difficulties: his latest album, Hooverdam, to the public solely Part of the trouble is that both the MCPS on free download: and PRS are understaffed, and that there is I know that Radiohead put out ‘In Rainbows’ no overall regulatory body to deal with the on download for as much as you wanted to problem. pay, but they also released the album on CD But is the publishing tail now wagging the later. The reason why I did it was to increase recording dog? Clare thinks so: public awareness that I was still writing and Yes, it was relatively easy to set up the performing exciting material, and it has business, and we’ve been able to grow fairly worked. fast, but it’s still been hard work. However, fleet-footed young salesmen who saw what looking around the wider market, in some What’s That Coming Up they could not. cases (e.g. EMI) the publishing is now clearly Around The Bend? Mark Ashelford, partner in the music supporting the label output. Dance ‘til you’re dead, department and head of the digital media group Kevin Bacon, of AWAL, sets out the current Off with their heads at solicitors Lee & Thompson in London W1, says position: YEAH YEAH YEAHS – ‘Heads Will Roll’ (2009) that the record companies have stopped running Apple has devoured the open space with its So this is the conundrum: how can people for cover, and are now exploring other ways of digital offering, iTunes. Most majors have invent a model which satisfies the desire of making a profit: rushed to own shares in the digital provisions, listeners and record buyers to hear and own new The much-touted 360 degree solution, which such as Spotify. There is no development (and old) music, and still give the writers and gives companies a share of all live and ancillary of artists from record companies, and creators a satisfactory return for their efforts?

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From ‘The Unforgettable Fire’

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Mark Ashelford considers that: meant a boom for us in hire and rehearsal to be their own manager. There’s no doubt that the relationship – but of course the live bubble may burst at The example of Arcade Fire in controlling its between musicians and record companies any time. own output is not universally desirable. needs to change. But let’s look at things from It’s not even all bad news for retailers. Nigel So where does that leave the industry itself? the other perspective. People buying music House, one of the co-founders of the specialist Bacon says: want to do so without any fuss – and they Rough Trade Shop notes: There’s a lot of talk about developing a only want to pay once for the same piece Vinyl is certainly growing year on year, subscription model, and there’s massive of music. We can use the analogy of how although that’s obviously a niche market. pressure to do so. Something like a monthly supermarkets managed to sell ice to their What’s the way forward? Offer something payment of £9.99 to download whatever you customers. It’s not so much the content, it’s a bit different. In our case, it has to be want. It won’t happen for a very long time. the service. For music, we must make it easier customer service and range of choice, It would lead to low production values, and a to legitimise the services, because the rights because we can’t hope to compete on price consequent decrease in creativity. Any web- of performing and composition must remain with the supermarket chains. based business model must be scaleable. central. Simon White, co-owner of Coalition Although there is no shortage of think-tanks Management, asserts an incontrovertible reality: Destroy another foetus now, we don’t like and forums attempting to find an answer, a Look, there’s no easy way to success – but children anyhow, solution must be found soon – because the grass there never was. The current cull may end up I’ve seen the future, baby, it is murder. roots of the industry are withering away. Harvey being a good thing, because mediocrity will LEONARD COHEN – ‘The Future’ (1992) Birrell can see both sides because he runs lose out. But we need to find new ways of Southern Studios in Wood Green, North London doing things, because shortening attention It could be stillborn. and fronts Corporate Risk, a small label: spans mean that albums are becoming less The labels are all looking for different ways of relevant – and there does need to be another Mike Hobbs is a freelance journalist and writer. marketing music. And everything’s becoming digital store to challenge the dominance of more and more rushed as they don’t want (or iTunes. can’t afford) to pay much. So of course many Many people see the position of the manager recording studios are going out of business. declining, as some artists choose to manage But every cloud has a silver lining. As the themselves, yet Mark Vernon of Firebrand owner and managing director of Terminal Management disagrees: 24 Rehearsal Studios in Bermondsey, South There is hope for the future in everyone London, Charlie Barrett admits cautiously that embracing the DIY ethic. I’ve always said he’s that. But I believe that also leaves room for ...quite optimistic at the moment because the manager’s role in working each project the explosion of festivals and live gigs has through to completion. Not everyone wants Images supplied by Mike Hobbs and Jim de Whalley

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MM35_final.indd 27 08/02/2011 18:17 MM Film Yurt: in search of a new film culture

With cinema approaching its 120th ‘Someday, everyone will understand Mongol.’ and perhaps much of their audience, a genuine Tadanobu Asano as Genghis Khan in Mongol ‘otherness’ of alien culture and uncharted birthday, new genres and film (2007) terrain. When the Kazakhstan ambassador cultures are hard to come by, but ‘Kazakhstan, Mongolia and Siberia is what in London warns them that some areas of his MediaMagazine believes it has we’ve been talking about for years and it’s country are unmapped, McGregor jokingly offers now here.’ Charlie Boorman in Programme 4 to draw maps for him as they pass through. As found one: Film Yurt. Sean Kaye- of ‘Long Way Round’ (2005) it turns out, Mongolia does become their most physically arduous challenge; this vast country heads for the steppes to find ‘Two riders were approaching, and the wind Smith has only eighty miles of tarmac and they soon began to howl.’ ‘All Along the Watchtower’ by genuinely different representations realise that horses, not motorcycles, are really the Bob Dylan (1968) of a little-known and very different only way to successfully traverse the rugged and Several times during their mammoth trip varied terrain. Coming close to giving up their culture. around the world, spread over the ten episodes journey, they do eventually reach Eastern Russia of Long Way Down (2005), those two intrepid and the perilous ‘Road of Bones’ before flying to motorcyclists Ewan McGregor and Charlie Alaska. Boorman declare that their most enticing The vast treeless plains, or ‘steppes’, which target, the thing they have dreamed of most in extend from Russia and Ukraine in the West advance, is the vast openness of Kazakhstan and to China in the East, have lately become the Mongolia. These countries embody for them, setting for a number of fascinating feature

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Film Yurt:

films. These films come, most interestingly, in so far of the historical Film Yurt, and then the and their counterparts in British and American two particularly compelling and contrasting aforementioned The Story of the Weeping films. So Mongol powerfully depicts scenes from styles. First, there are the spectacular military Camel, a beautiful portrayal of the lives of the Genghis Khan’s childhood which, it is clearly epics which depict the struggles of historical nomadic herdspeople of Southern Mongolia. suggested, shaped his character and strength in figures such as Genghis Khan (1162-1227) and In conclusion we’ll focus on the extraordinary adult life, not least his choice, as a young boy, of ‘the Warlords’; and, in sharp contrast, there are Urga (Nikita Mikhalkov, 1991), which, through his future wife Borte. The adult Genghis Khan – smaller more intimate films which depict the clever employment of magic realist elements, referred to by his original name of Temudgin – is lives of the contemporary herdspeople of managed to combine the two styles before they played with calm intensity by the Japanese actor the steppes, such as The Story of the Weeping had really established themselves. Tadanobu Asano, and in some ways the film Camel (Byambasuren Davaa, 2003) and Tulpan could be seen as a study of a marriage enduring (Sergei Dvortsevoy, 2008). The Historic Epic under extreme circumstances; in this respect the Despite the huge differences between the two Mongol: The Rise to Power of Genghis Khan measured performance of Khulan Chuluun as dominant styles, all of these films place a strong (2007), directed by the experienced Russian Borte is another key feature in the film’s success. emphasis on the vast, distinctive landscape of film-maker Sergei Bodrov, is, by any standards, the steppes, so much so that the characters and a beautiful and spectacular film. Jointly produced Generic Parallels stories seem to possess a powerful elemental by Kazakhstan, Russia, Mongolia and In genre terms this strand of Film Yurt has a quality, which suggests that they have somehow Germany, it is the first in a planned trilogy about number of parallels in Western cinema. Mongol grown directly out of the earth and the rocks. the renowned Mongolian ruler and emperor. The and films of this kind, with their attempts at This desire to present the power of the film could easily enthral visually even with the faithful reconstruction, are historical epics landscape (which in art is often referred to as sound turned down and the subtitles switched in many ways comparable with successful Neo-romanticism) is often a theme of British off. The extraordinary work of cinematographers Hollywood products like Braveheart (Mel cinema, such as A Canterbury Tale (1942), Gone Sergey Trofimov and Rogier Stoffers and Gibson, 1995) and Gladiator (Ridley Scott, To Earth (1950) – both directed by Michael production designer Dashi Namdakov mean that 2000). Yet such is the scale and ferocity of the Powell and Emeric Pressburger – and Excalibur the film could be frozen almost at any moment to action and the exotic overload of the characters (John Boorman, 1981). However, in Kazakhstan create an image worthy of an art exhibition. The and settings that there also seem to be close and Mongolia this elemental quality seems less fact that it also manages to tell a gripping story connections with recent fantasy films like the of a construct, and is virtually unavoidable. There and recreate a fascinating historical period is Lord of the Rings trilogy (Peter Jackson, 2001- are also recurring visual themes and motifs further testimony of the film’s exceptional quality, 3) and King Arthur (Antoine Fuqua, 2004). The which tie these movies together, be they horses, and explains both its multi-award-winning status emphasis on contrasting scenes of ferocious camels, swords, sunsets, and so forth. However, and its 2007 Academy Award nomination as Best battle and private intimacy is common to both for a catch-all term to coin the identity of this Foreign Language Film. genres and entirely relevant to Film Yurt. distinctive, emerging genre, which focuses on the One of the features of Film Yurt is the A further genre comparison might be made lifestyle and history of predominantly nomadic presence of children, not merely for the with the Western, which (along with jazz, said peoples, I have employed the most reliable ‘aaaah’ factor – although a cynic might say Clint Eastwood) is arguably America’s finest presence and symbol in all of the films; so, from that Mongolian children are so engaging that contribution to film culture. Again, the mounted now on we will be discussing Film Yurt. any film-maker in the steppes merely needs to battles and ruthless slaughter are common To examine and appreciate Film Yurt at its best include them to make the film a hit in the West to both genres, as is the powerful concept that it will be useful to examine a successful example – but because they seem integral to the story truth and justice might at times reside in one of both styles. Let’s take a closer look at Sergei and the way of life depicted. There is certainly key character whose actions and survival will Bodrov’s 2007 epic Mongol: The Rise to Power interesting comparative work to be done on ensure the preservation of these vital elements of Genghis Khan, as perhaps the finest example the representation of children in Film Yurt of civilisation. Westerns of the modern era have

30 MediaMagazine | February 2011 | english and media centre MM MM also been keen to explore the imperfections of position of the herdspeople themselves in their their protagonists and likewise Film Yurt does not close association with them. We see close-up present its leading characters as superheroes; the loving care and consideration given to these they are, after all, usually historical rather than creatures and the respect this human/animal mythical figures. And, interestingly, the yurt- relationship engenders. It would be a spoiler to dwelling nomadic existence of the peoples of state here how the camel is helped to overcome Film Yurt, and their closeness to the landscape, her rejection of the calf, and whether the arguably connects them more closely with the method succeeds; suffice to say that the camel Native Americans than with the ‘cowboys’ of does weep, suggesting that either the camel in Westerns. But whilst this fruitful blend of the question is a method actor or, more likely, that an language and iconography of genres such authentic situation has been captured on film as historical epic, fantasy and the Western is and, as a result, been imbued with the powerful fascinating, it is equally important to interrogate mythic quality that good cinema can sometimes the claim I’m making here that Film Yurt is a impart. Thankfully, no CGI is required. genre in itself rather than just an inflection of Director Byambasuren Davaa has since other more established genres. made The Cave of the Yellow Dog (2005) and her mouth-wateringly titled The Two Horses The Representation of a of Genghis Khan is expected later in 2010. If Nomadic Way of Life this title suggests a possible marriage between Further claims for Film Yurt as a stand-alone the two strains of Film Yurt it would be very genre would probably need to be supported interesting to know if Davaa has seen the film by the inclusion of its other key strain: that of Urga (Nikita Mikhalkov,1991). the small budget depiction of contemporary nomadic herdspeople on the steppes as Urga – the Clash of Cultures offered in films such as The Story of the Weeping and Magic Realism Camel (2003) and Tulpan (2008). Whilst the latter This wonderful movie is about a Russian truck has some actors and a recognisable storyline, the driver, Sergei, whose vehicle gets stuck on the former is perhaps the most pure example yet of Mongolian steppes. He is taken in and cared this aspect of Film Yurt and it is interesting that for by the yurt-dwelling herdsman Gombo and it is usually referred to as a documentary. But his family. This cultural clash inevitably leads the degree to which it is really a documentary to many comic moments, although there are could prompt a very fruitful discussion. None more profound underlying themes which sit of the performers seem to be actors, but all easily within the text. Sergei, the visitor from are comfortable in front of the camera; and the modern industrialised world, needs to be the simple story of a camel being helped to rescued by the so-called unsophisticated nomads overcome her rejection of her new-born calf of the steppes (his truck faring even worse would be unlikely to sustain (or finance!) a than McGregor and Boorman’s motorcycles). mainstream film. The herdspeople get on well with their visitor And yet the directors have made an extremely but arguably they have allowed the modern compelling and gripping movie. The slow world and its values to infiltrate a lifestyle and pace, perhaps mirroring the lives of the people traditions which have served their people well for depicted, and the everyday details of yurt- thousands of years. Once again the herdspeople quota. Somehow he returns with a television dwelling are oddly engrossing against the are clearly non-actors, giving a documentary feel instead – but his journey home is intercepted by dusty, inhospitably bleak backdrop of the Gobi to many scenes. none other than Genghis Khan and his mounted Desert of Southern Mongolia. And the camels In one moving sequence Gombo kills a sheep. henchmen. The legendary warrior berates Gombo themselves are the stars; the camera lingers He calms the animal by holding it like a baby for bringing this trashy symbol of the 20th on these huge, strange beasts, placing us in the and stroking it gently whilst talking quietly to it. century to the steppes, and orders his horsemen After a while he uses his knife to make a small to smash the television as it lies on the grass slit in the animal’s chest which he slip his hand before them. Inevitably they do this with ruthless through to still its heart. The sheep dies quickly efficiency. Frustratingly, at the time of writing, and peacefully. Presumably none of it will be Urga does not seem to have been released on wasted. Interestingly there is a warning on the DVD, but occasional copies can be found on VHS. DVD case of The Story of the Weeping Camel, not Whether or not the predictions that China for bad language, violence or sex, but because will soon inevitably take over the world prove it ‘Contains scenes of an animal being born’. to be true, it seems likely that films with yurts Urga would need to carry something similar; in, particularly those from Asia and Eastern but these warnings serve to emphasise what a Europe, will become increasingly widespread and different kind of experience this kind of Film Yurt popular. Perhaps if climate change continues is offering more mainstream cinema audiences, to challenge the lifestyles of, in particular, the particularly in the West, in comparison with Westernised world, then the yurts will come to American and Western European films. us and we will embrace their practicality and The sheep’s heart may stop there but Urga mobility. Perhaps these new and exciting trends doesn’t. Director Mikhalkov neatly shuns in World Cinema are helping us to prepare for this blanket realism and begins to play with magic eventuality. And hopefully with our aspirations realist elements to further explore his theme of for peace and harmony across the globe Film Yurt the collision of the modern world, history and will endure, and Yurt Noir will be avoided. tradition. Later in the film Gombo travels to a Sean Kaye-Smith teaches Media and English at Ashton nearby town; he needs condoms as they already Park School in Bristol. have two children and, living within the borders of China, that is one more than the permitted

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New Wave culture Changing identities and the language of style

There must be something in the air: everyone’s gone nuts for New Wave in this issue. Here, Film Studies teacher Brenda Hamlet provides a cultural and historical overview of the development of the French New Wave of cinema, and its ripples of influence on successive New Waves across the world from the 60s to the present day. And to follow, Jonathan Nunns provides a persuasive argument for why the French New Wave in general, and Godard’s Breathless in particular, are essential viewing for any true film fan.

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I knew nothing of life except through the cinema. Jean-Luc Godard There are many reasons to study the Nouvelle Vague film-makers. Pre-empting our 21st century obsessions with YouTube, remakes and sequels, this group of culture-conscious hipsters in the Fifties and Sixties actually had something to say about the importance of cinema as a voice for young people in society. Employing a distinctive new visual language of cool, complete with sampling savvy references to art and pop culture as well as homage, these first time directors,

examples of the ability of cinema to capture what theorist Raymond Williams describes as young people’s ‘changing structure of feeling’ during times of social and political change. The Birth of the New Wave The term Nouvelle Vague was, in fact, first used by the French press as a ‘catch-all’ phrase to describe the emerging youth movement in the Paris of the Fifties and Sixties. Set in the context of the hippie movement in America and the Swinging Sixties of Britain, these young Parisians (including the future film-makers) were of films made during the 1960s in Easy Rider Jean-Luc Godard, Francois Truffaut, Claude part of a growing cultural scene challenging the (Dennis Hopper, USA, 1969), If (Lindsay Chabrol and Jean Rivette set off a tsunami of established the ‘Old World’ values of their parents’ Anderson, UK, 1968) and Di Calvacanti independent film-making which not only rocked generation. (Glauber Rocha, Brazil, 1977). More recently the film industry to its core, but set off a series of This time period is recreated by Bernardo however a second New Wave of contemporary ‘New Waves’ across the globe which still resonate Bertolucci in The Dreamers (2003). Based around films stretching from Pulp Fiction (Quentin today. actual events, the story is of three students Tarantino, USA, 1994) to Darjeeling Limited The cultural influence of the Nouvelle Vague who meet and bond over films screened at the (Wes Anderson, USA, 2007) are compelling is most strongly reflected in the first New Waves Cinematheque Française (film library, now

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museum) in Paris in 1968. When the culture minister fires the founder and curator, Henri Langlois, for screening arty indie films instead of those subsidised by the French government, the students rebel. Chaining themselves to the gates of the Cinematheque, the protests are the first of many which will culminate in violent street demonstrations later that year. Les Cahiers du Cinema By this time, Godard, Truffaut, Chabrol and Rivette had already made the first of many films that would push this group onto

centre stage of the culture scene. Initially autobiographical, based on Truffaut’s own meeting at one of the trendy new cine-clubs experiences of growing up in a working-class springing up around Paris, the group soon Parisian family where money is tight and began writing for the film magazine Cahiers du school discipline is strictly enforced. Casting a Cinema. Reviewing everything from art cinema young non-professional in the lead role, Jean masterpieces to commercial Hollywood, the Pierre Leaud’s performances as a repressed group developed strong ideas about the need adolescent are naturalistic and improvised. A for a new cinematic language to reflect the major departure from French studio film-making, unique experience of the individual in society. Truffaut shot the film in black and white Rejecting the mainstream approach which film, using documentary-style realism and tended to construct dominant representations of artistic mise-en-scène to represent the anti- culture and identity around 19th-century literary authoritarian themes of his film. Represented as adaptations and social stereotypes, the Cahier a prisoner in his own society, Truffaut confines du Cinema critics began publishing a series of his main character Antoine Doinel to the articles which promoted Auteurism: the director cramped spaces of a small Parisian flat and the as author. barren starkness of an authoritarian classroom. Les Quatres Coups Images such as Antoine being made to stand in the corner of the classroom or staring out from Putting their theories into practice, Truffaut behind a wire fence are unrelenting. Two scenes famously won the Cannes Film Festival of 1959 stand out. Halfway through the film, Antoine’s with his debut Les Quatres Cents Coup (400 mother says: Blows). This groundbreaking film is semi-

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Why don’t we have a change and go to the cinema. Later after the movie, Antoine’s father concludes: [Cinema], that’s a great method of education. By the end of the film, Antoine declares: I’m fed up. I want to live my own life. Running away from the reform school where he has been sent for stealing and truancy, Antoine arrives at the ocean’s edge, waves crashing at his feet. As a visual metaphor, its meaning clearly signifies the importance of the film for its director. Truffaut, like Antoine, arrives at the waters edge, his past behind him and his future linked to a New Wave of film-making. The final shot, which has become iconic, a freeze-frame of Antoine gazing down the lens of the camera is designed to engage 1960). (See page 37 for a further approach to the spectator in the director’s experience of this movie.) Expanding on the themes and the cinematic world as a gateway to the self. techniques introduced in 400 Blows, Breathless Influenced by Lacan’s theories of personality further develops the first-person singular and development which stress the need to technique constructing a dialogue with audience ‘make oneself be seen’, New Wave film-makers on the relationship between art and life. The used their characters as ‘stand-ins’ for their main character Michel Poiccard is a petty thief own voices. Authoring their films in ‘the first and small time hustler obsessed with the iconic person singular’, Truffaut, followed by Godard, performances of Humphrey Bogart as the hard constructed new identities for themselves based boiled anti-hero of the Hollywood film noir. on the young anti-heroes of the Hollywood low Adopting Bogart’s trademark fedora, skinny ties budget film noir and gangster films. and characteristic gestures, Michel is a stand-in for Godard, who, like his main protagonist, was a The Noir Influence: A Bout de fan of these classic low-budget thrillers. Souffle In much the same way that Michel steals Godard most effectively employs this device cars and cash to assume a more glamorous in his first film, A Bout de Souffle (Breathless, identity, so Godard samples characters, camera shots and iconographies from his favourite

english and media centre | February 2011 | MediaMagazine 35 MM films. Based around a simple plot, the efforts of Michel to win the affections of Patricia, a young American girl studying at the Sorbonne, Godard artfully plays with audience expectations of the genre, whilst constructing a discourse around their meanings. Complex and, at times, humorous, the conversations between Patricia and Michel appear to be disconnected from the investigative-style dialogue of the conventional crime film. Indeed sometimes, it seems Patricia and Michel could be characters from two different genres. The bedroom scene couldn’t be more different from classic film noir. Far from steamy sex and dangerous passion, the couple seem to engage in polemic arguments of no real importance. When Patricia asks Michel’s opinion of a Renoir poster, he slaps her on the backside. This seemingly random exchange, combined with the contrasting nature of their characters, is important to the issues raised and themes presented in the film. Godard’s stand-ins here appear to be in conflict over the extent to which high art forms such as painting might be valued over more popular forms such as crime films. Later on the scene Godard juxtaposes a close-up of Patricia’s face themes in the films of Wes Anderson. Employing with the portrait of the young girl on the poster. the art cinema New Wave style alongside oblique He also includes a shot where Michel (Jean Paul references to many of Truffaut’s films, Anderson’s Belmondo) sits next to a copy of La Monde on approach to his films is quite clearly paying which the actor, an ex-boxer, is featured on the homage to the Nouvelle Vague style as neither front cover. Inviting us to spot the detail and Life Aquatic: Steve Zissou or Darjeeling Limited comment on the unusual mise-en-scène, Godard are examples of international New Wave styles refer back to Hollywood’s film noir. The films are raises questions surrounding the real identity of cutting across first and third world cinemas. in fact self-consciously ironic rather than dramatic the characters on-screen and in real life. Cameron Crowe’s Vanilla Sky (2001), Noam as they traverse the raw emotional landscapes of Baumberg’s The Squid & The Whale (2005) family and relationships. and Rhian Johnson’s Brick (2005) are further Other New Waves Traditionally, the Latin American New Wave examples of young and independent film-makers The French New Wave style and its noir (Cinema Novo) has dealt with more overtly who have found their cinematic voice in the New reference has continued to resonate, and to political themes. Motorcycle Diaries (1994) Wave style. influence a succession of further New Wave and City of God (2002), have been described With the plethora of contemporary examples directors around the world and into the as films that deal with social concerns, but defining this cutting-edge style, the French Noughties. express them in the style of MTV. Certainly, Nouvelle Vague is definitely worth a second look. Wong Kar Wai’s Chung King Express (1994) the cinematography of director Meirelles, is In his book The Film Club (2008), critic David also references the Hollywood film noir. The distinguished by a fast-paced hypnotic approach Gilmour tells the story of how watching films notion of a dual identity however is much which dresses its serious political message in a helped to reignite his unhappy son’s passion more to do with Hong Kong’s relationship to visual language embraced by young international for life and education. A high school drop out, China and its Western link as a British colony. audiences. Mixing documentary footage with a failing every subject in school, Jesse doesn’t see The two converging, but never intersecting, free-wheeling camera style, the film tells the true the point of doing anything. David suggests stories follow the lives of cops 223 and 663 and story of child gangsters, some as young as five, watching films as a way of reconnecting with the their relationships with two very different yet operating in the favelas of Rio in 1964 (see page world. The first film David shows his son is 400 mysteriously elusive women. In the first story, 19). Blows. Enjoy! 223 (Takeshi Kaneshiro) becomes involved with Danny Boyle, on the other hand, tackles a Hong Kong drug dealer. As a stand-in for the similar issues with references to historic events as Brenda Hamlet teaches Film Studies at Amersham College. Western influence on Hong Kong, the character well as to the commercial genres of Hollywood wears a Marilyn Monroe-style wig, sunglasses and Bollywood in Slumdog Millionaire (2008). and iconic film noir trench coat. 223’s obsession Taking on the dual identities of South Asians References in post-colonial society, the film charts the with expiry dates attempts to reconcile young Sellier (2008): Masculine Singular Hong Kong residents with the 1984 Sino-British changing culture and identity of Bombay Greene, (2007): The French New Wave: A New Agreement, which outlined the handover of from the 1992 riots to its reincarnation as the Look Hong Kong back to China in 1997. The second Mumbai of the present portrayed through the story openly expresses the grief felt by 633 (Tony changing circumstances of chai-wallah Jamal and Bordwell, Thompson (2006): Film Art: An Leung Chiu Wai) when his girlfriend, an airline his gangster brother Saleem. The penultimate Introduction steward, leaves him. Meeting an impulsive young scene is more than just a nod to Scarface (1993). Benyahia, Gaffney, White (2008): A2 Film ‘California Dreamer’ (Faye Wong) at the counter Like Tony Montana, Saleem has worked his way Studies: The Essential Introduction of his favourite take-away, the two are able to up the gangster hierarchy. Rather than surrender reconcile their East-West duality in a series of or betray his brother again, Saleem dies in a blaze Wright, Elizabeth: http://archive.sensesof identity-swapping scenes. of glory surrounded by hundred-dollar bills. cinema.com/contents/directors/02/wong.html Employing hand-held camera styles, unstructured Mistaken identities, East-West duality and Gilmour, D (2007): The Film Club social disengagement are similarly important narrative, jump-cuts and location sets, both Slumdog Millionaire and Darjeeling Limited

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Looking back at fifty years of

Jean Luc Godard’s film Breathless (A Bout De Souffle in French) is fifty years old now and just got a nice shiny re-mastered DVD release. Your response to this might be ‘ahh magnifique’ as you sit in your Paris café, smoking Gitanes and reading Proust. It might also be, ‘Why should I give a damn about some creaky old black and white French movie? I even have to read the subtitles on the damn thing for Christ’s sake’. Alternatively it might very possibly be, ‘Jean Luc who? Wasn’t he the bald guy from Star Trek? ‘.

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The French New Wave is something you may dry stuff. At this time, a group of would-be writers something really different ... well be treated to (or have inflicted on you, and film-makers got involved with a Parisienne So what is so different about Breathless? depending on your perspective), if you are in film magazine known, then as now, as Cahiers the A2 year of the WJEC Film Studies A Level Du Cinema (think of a French Sight and Sound Synopsis and your teacher has elected to have a go with and you’re in the right area). Amongst them were Godard’s first film is essentially a crime/ the New Waves option for the World Cinema the key figures of the soon-to-be New Wave, romance. Petty criminal Michel Poiccard (Jean- section of FM4. Trying to explore the whole of including Jean Luc Godard, Francois Truffaut, Paul Belmondo) steals a car in Marseilles and the New Wave (or Nouvelle Vague as it is known Claude Chabrol and Jacques Rivette. To cut a heads for Paris to collect on a debt and to in French), in a short article is a big ask, unless long story short, they helped reconfigure how convince his on/off American girlfriend Patricia you’re Brenda Hamlet (see page 32). However, people came to think about cinema, redefining it Franchini (Jean Seberg) to leave for Rome with here’s a re-evaluation of one film – arguably, the for the first time as art. They invented the Auteur him. En-route, he is flagged down by the police, most iconic of the movement: Breathless. theory, crediting the director as the key creative kills one of them and goes on the run in Paris, influence on a film (that’s why pretty much every whilst romancing Patricia and trying to track Some Cultural Background movie you see includes in the credits the words down the money which represents his way out of A New Wave is a new approach to an existing ‘A film by ...’). They then spent much of the 1950s the jam. So far, it’s quite a conventional sounding art form. It is often iconoclastic in that it seeks writing about film for Cahiers, dismissing the film. to overturn the old conventions and forge a French films which went before as dreary, while new way to make art. It is often centered on a going into raptures over the distinctive and Analysis small group of enthusiastic (possibly obsessed) personal Hollywood work of Alfred Hitchcock Godard loved American films and Michel, creative types who, if successful, go on to change and John Ford. They gained a kind of critical his anti-hero in this film models himself on the medium. People like Vincent Van Gogh, mass by the late Fifties, when the French movie tough guy Humphrey Bogart, smoking Salvador Dali and Pablo Picasso did this for government became concerned about what it constantly and adopting his mannerisms. Michel painting. Of course, this can be done in other art saw as the cultural invasion and domination (call is a gangster who learned to be a gangster from forms too, such as film. it hegemony, if you like) of French cinema by the movies. So what’s so different about this? So why did the French New Wave get Hollywood films. Perhaps they were right to be Godard’s film subverts many of the started? worried; after all, what are British cinemas full of established rules of film-making. Early on, French cinema was in the doldrums after World these days? British movies? I think not. Anyway, Michel breaks the fourth wall by looking down War Two. In the process of getting back on its the French government started giving out grants the lens to speak directly to the audience, so feet after the Nazi occupation of France, French to help new film-makers get their first feature reminding us that we are watching something cinema played safe with lots of studio-based off the ground. First Truffaut and then Godard constructed and made up. In the same scene, period dramas and adaptations. Potentially pretty took advantage of this and they set out to create sound discontinuity is used, Michel points a

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gun, but doesn’t fire, yet we hear the shots on Jean-Paul Belmondo and Jean Seberg. The rest of With that film, Hitchcock effectively invented the soundtrack. A lot of effort is expended in the scene was just real-life Paris in the raw, going the slasher movie, and lesser talents have (with this film on reminding us that we are watching about its day. honourable exceptions) been copying him ever a film, something which is totally at odds with Other key differences included what, at the since. So influential was Godard and the rest the classical narrative style, which attempts to time, seemed a very modern and racy attitude of the Nouvelle Vague, that many other film- create a seamless world where the audience can to sex and a determined unwillingness either to makers internationally were inspired by them to suspend its disbelief. Godard’s editing follows write off Michel as a villain or to judge him as a take a new direction in their film-making. this subversive path as well, famously employing bad guy (hence anti-hero). The film’s narrative Ironically, since American cinema had so jump cuts in scene after scene. These edits, was deliberately non-classical, providing an influenced the Nouvelle Vague, many film- cutting on the same angle, clearly show the abrupt ending that was very much in keeping makers chafed at the constraints of the Studio constructed nature of what you are seeing, an with the gangster genre, but hardly typical of a System and longed for creative freedom. The effect earlier editors would have studiously gone romance. Not following an obvious act structure, first major film of the New Hollywood (the name out of their way to avoid. Godard’s film was happy to drift away from the for the American New Wave of the 1970s), was All this playfulness with the nature of cinema main storyline to spend time with the characters, Bonnie and Clyde (1967) which overturned the is at odds with some of the realist qualities of most famously in a long extended scene in conventions of Old Hollywood. Both Godard the film – but then it’s in keeping with the New Patricia’s hotel room, which is much more about and Truffaut collaborated on the script with Wave to be contradictory. Totally unlike the the couple’s strange relationship than the core the screenwriters David Newman and Robert studio based work of the despised ‘Cinema Du narrative of Michel as a cop-killer on the run. Benton. Later films inspired by the French Papa‘ (the New Wavers’ derogatory term for the included Easy Rider and The Last Picture Show. work of the previous generation of older film- So What? The influence of the New Wave can be seen in makers), Breathless was shot on location on ‘That’s all very nice thank you, but it’s still a the early films of Steven Spielberg, George Parisian streets so real you can almost smell the 50-year-old, black and white film. Why should I Lucas and, in particular, Martin Scorsese. Look coffee and croissants! This was made possible care about that now?’ at the superb Taxi Driver now, one of the key by new, lightweight, hand-held cameras, Well, one of the reasons why Breathless doesn’t American films of the 70s, and notice the hand- developed for the shooting of newsreels during look especially original today, is because its held location filming and the anti-hero, see the World War Two. The ‘on the hoof ‘ style included innovative ideas and techniques have been so jump cuts as Robert De Niro asks the camera, a famous sequence in which Michel and Patricia widely taken up and used by later film-makers. ‘You talking to me? ‘. walk down the Champs Elysees, shot by a hidden So you will certainly have seen the techniques So what now? That was still a long time ago. camera lens projecting from the back of a post before. It’s why Psycho for instance, terrific as Perhaps the key modern film-maker (apart office van – a situation where the only people it is, doesn’t look as fresh now as it did in 1960 from the marvellous Scorsese, I hasten to actually acting in the scene were the two stars, (made coincidently, the same year as Breathless). add) influenced by the New Wave, particularly

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Bande À Part Dir. Godard Jean-Luc, 1964 Credit: Bfi Pulp Fiction Dir: Tarantino, Quentin, 1994 Credit: Miramax/Buena Vista/The Kobal Collection

Godard, is Quentin Tarantino. Tarantino, a magpie for cinematic influences, openly acknowledges his debt with the name of his production company A Band Apart, named after the 1965 crime film Bande A’ Part directed by Godard himself. If you’ve seen Pulp Fiction you might remember the Jack Rabbit Slim’s scene. As gangster John Travolta pulls up at the restaurant in his convertible with moll Uma Thurman, she says to him ‘ Don’t be a square daddio! ’, drawing a rectangle in the air with her fingers which then actually appears on screen in front of her, reminding us it’s only a movie. Later in the scene, Thurman and Travolta sit in their booth sharing an awkward silence and the narrative begins to drift, Godard-like, in favour of characterisation Worth a View? Bull or Pulp Fiction – and that’s only the very tip over story. This scene’s homage or show of That one has to be up to you. They are of their of the cinematic iceberg inspired by the French respect, famously culminates with the dance time, and Breathless is certainly eccentric and New Wave in general and Breathless in particular. competition in which Thurman and Travolta, quirky. Looking at them now you can enjoy them Jonathan Nunns is Head of Media Studies at Collyer’s whose dancing is cool rather than good, win a and appreciate what they made possible and College, Horsham and is a moderator for the WJEC. prize and directly reprise a scene from Bande what they inspired; alternatively, you can reject A’ Part where the leads dance cool, rather than them as being too old and too self-consciously dance well, in a French café/bar. Check out the arty and pleased with their own cleverness to be References two scenes on YouTube; they are both well any fun. However, if you enjoy and value film, you Thomson, David (July 2000): ‘That Breathless worth a look. And check Matt Freeman’s Quentin would do well not to dismiss them, even if you Moment’ , Sight and Sound Tarantino article on page 48. don’t like them. They are the origin of so much of the cinema that we value today. Morrey, Douglas (2006): ‘A Bout De Souffle/ Consider that, as you sit down to watch Breathless’ from The Cinema of France, ed. Phil Inglourious Basterds or Goodfellas or Raging Powrie

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Culture Burka& the aka Why I Hate Sex and the City 2

Emma Clarke was a total fan of The second Sex and the City movie made me was Amanda Platell in The Daily Mail who of want to kill myself. For years (and after six series course, loved it and gushed that, like all of us, it Sex and the City – until she went of devoted following) I have been an avid fan had got a bit older and a bit frayed around the to see the second movie. Here she of Carrie and the girls. It has marked different edges but was still, in essence, everything we friendship groups over the years – from uni to held true and dear. In contrast Hadley Freeman explains how its stereotypical cultural working girls, it has represented certain parts of wrote in The Guardian that she viewed the trailers assumptions and simplistic faith in my life and has given me much shopping banter. as ‘borderline racist’. materialism changed her views on I will remember going to watch the first film The endless materialism in the new film was for years to come: one friend was so drunk on overdone but was also arguably an inherent Carrie et al. cocktails she started shouting mid-film; another part of the TV series. Michael Patrick King, the fell asleep! So housemate number 4 and I went director stated he wanted to create something along with bated breath (and low expectations) that was a world away from the recession, an after reading many critical reviews. The exception escapist dream of shopping. That understood, in the TV series Carrie Bradshaw works hard to

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earn her pair of new shoes, a factor that united OK, so it wasn’t going that well. But we knew same! Sisterhood unites as the Muslim women SATC’s audiences of female 20 to 40-somethings: what we’d signed up for after reading all the rip off their burkas to reveal American designer we work hard all week and then it’s in our reviews; and awful as it was at points, I was still clothing, short skirts and make up. Oh look! they consumerist nature to go out and treat ourselves. glad I was there; such is the power of Hollywood. are independent, young women too! We are all This I do not have a problem with. I am not going But crunch time inevitably came, and the point in the same – and through the universal language to get all deep about the evil nature of capitalism the film which made us want to get up and leave of materialist goods we can unite. Oh please. This and how pointless it is because that would be was the girls’ visit to recession-free Abu Dhabi is so offensive to other cultures I am not surprised hypocritical. Like most people who went to see (dubbed the new Dubai). The gang arrive, are it was banned in the Middle East. I just wish it had this film I too love to go shopping. What I do care waited on like American queens – Charlotte even been censored here too. about though is that these women represented has a midnight drink made for her by a servant This is deeply problematic. The film’s core new career girls and for my generation they who has waited up all night for her as she didn’t messages and values suggest that America showed you could be a successful career woman, dismiss him. The same character confides in knows best, that the burka gags the female voice, talk about sex and support yourself financially. her that he doesn’t see his wife anymore, which that Middle Eastern culture is incontrovertibly Carrie’s new shoes represented something more makes Charlotte well up and leave him a small repressive, that materialism and wealth = than a consumerist purchase. In America’s terms fortune on their way out. How patronising is that! freedom. The problem with the film is that it they represented independence. And this is the America saves the day once again (a common contains no ounce of irony; nowhere in the film message conveyed in series 1-6 and the first film. Hollywood theme). is the suggestion that perhaps Carrie and co are In the second film Carrie, Miranda, Samantha At the end of the film the girls run away; they the ones that are the ones who are gagged (or and Charlotte are all filthy rich and surrounded haven’t paid the ridiculous bill as Samantha got should be after this behaviour!) in materialistic by optimum wealth which we are reminded of caught having sex on a beach. Come on, you’re ignorance. They have forgotten who they are constantly. The initial shot of a millionaire gay not in America now, Sam. At this point the film and what they stand for because they are too wedding (Stanford and Anthony’s) complete with completely ignores local culture and treats it interested in their new iPhone and applying their swans and Liza Minelli is pretty hard to take as as a joke. The gang run through the streets of lipstick. Their mirrors have become clouded. an audience which believes that you work for Abu Dhabi, causing havoc when Samantha’s your wealth and you marry for the old-fashioned bag comes undone and she drops condoms Emma Clarke is a freelance media writer. notion of something called Love. At this point everywhere, much to the disgust of the male my friend and I exchange sarcastic smiles, but audience. ‘OK...I have sex! Sex!’ she screams to we are still enjoying ourselves; we can still them. It may be meant to be liberating but it recognise the characters we love, and perhaps just doesn’t feel like it. As audience members it’s perfectly justified they have done so well in we squirm. A lot. It’s patronising, offensive, and the world. But then it gets worse… Miranda, the conforms to the idea that America knows best. archetypal career woman gives up her job as This is reinforced when the girls (and I refer to lawyer to become a devoted mother and wife. them as ‘girls’ here as that’s exactly how they The character of Miranda would not have done behave) are ‘rescued’ by group of Muslim women this. She just wouldn’t. who realise – lo and behold! – that they are all the

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Culture or Culchure? Who decides what’s ‘best’?

The ‘low vs high culture’ debate is What’s the best album or film of all time? It’s – indeed, most of you probably don’t have highly likely that your idea of ‘the best album’ one. Similarly, many people have the idea that over 100 years old, and is fuelled is not the same as mine as I’m about 30 years ‘classical’ music is ‘high art’ but don’t actually by the regular pronouncements older than the average reader of this publication. like it; others, no doubt, understand that there Indeed, it’s even possible that the concept of are probably many arty foreign films, but believe of politicians, education ministers, an ‘album’ is irrelevant to you, as you’ve been that they are not for them either. So who has cultural critics and the media brought up in an era of MP3 downloads. In the decided what are ‘the best’ works of literature, themselves. What’s it all about, does end, surely it’s down to personal taste and the ‘the greatest’ films and music ever made? Who influence of our childhood? has decided what belongs to ‘high culture’ and is it matter, and how, if at all, does it It’s not quite that simple. For example, if we it still important in the 21st century? influence the choices you make about try to identify the greatest plays of all time, it’s possible that ‘Shakespeare’ might pop into our Firing the High Culture Canon the texts you value? Nick Lacey offers heads; after all we’ve all studied him at school In literature, the greatest writers in the English a personal and provocative overview because ‘he wrote great literature’. It’s not likely language are considered to be, in addition to that many teenagers would actually consider Shakespeare, the likes of Thomas Hardy, Charles of the issues. Shakespeare to be their favourite playwright Dickens and T.S. Eliot. In music, people such as

45 MediaMagazine | February 2011 | english and media centre english and media centre | February 2011 | MediaMagazine 45 MM Bach, Mozart and Beethoven are considered because contemporary audiences are more determining what texts are ‘essential’ for ‘cultural the best. These authors and composers form media literate, and so: capital’. Despite compulsory study of English what is called a high culture ‘canon’. The origins some fans have the privilege of ‘double Literature in the classroom, young people are of this, in English Literature, lie with the cultural access’ to both ‘naïve’ enjoyment of the form no longer expected in the same way to have critics Matthew Arnold in the 19th century ‘for itself’ (a low-status competence) and a a comprehensive knowledge of the ‘classics’ and F.R. Leavis in the 20th century (see Lacey, knowing humour at its codes (higher-status). (although this might be different in private 2009: 84-7). Their purpose was to set out, via a Branston with Stafford, 2010 education where elitist ideas still reign). close reading of literature, a set of moral values In other words, ‘cultural competence’ in the It could be argued that our choices of culture to which readers and writers should aspire. From 21st century is about being able to enjoy ‘low’ and texts are now wider and therefore more a Marxist perspective, these values were rooted or ‘popular’ culture texts such as The X-Factor democratic, as we’re no longer reliant upon in the bourgeois ideology of the powerful (2004-), whilst simultaneously understanding, teachers or broadcasters to tell us what to read or middle class – those with wealth, property, and for example, the construction, manipulation, and watch. It might be too big a leap to suggest that a conventionally conservative view of the world. commercial nature of such programmes. Similarly, this democratisation is a direct result of Media The fact that, in English at school, pupils are still modern audiences can enjoy both ‘low culture’ Studies; but Media as a subject does take all texts doing comprehensions, character studies and blockbuster Hollywood films and sophisticated seriously. You will have studied many popular close analysis of poems is a legacy of Arnold and ‘high culture’ arthouse fare. forms such as sitcom, soap opera, pop music, Leavis. The French sociologist and philosopher Pierre Bourdieu (1984) suggested that knowing ‘great works of art’ gave individuals ‘cultural capital’. Cultural capital consists of the skills and knowledge that would enable them to belong to elite (‘posh’) groups. For example, being knowledgeable about texts that are part of a canon gives members of the group a common ground that distinguishes them from the masses who are more likely to value popular culture. The idea is that someone who likes ‘high art’ is somehow ‘better prepared’, or more likely to succeed, than somebody who does not. For some people, knowing the ‘classics’ in any medium, and therefore possessing this class-based ‘cultural capital’, is extremely important. For example Sue MacGregor, the presenter of Radio 4’s A Good Read, said she was ashamed to say she’d never read Jane Austen’s Sense and Sensibility (tx 26.10.2010). The idea of being ashamed not to have read a particular book is one that will probably appear bizarre to many people – but not to those of her social class and generation. My intention is not to mock MacGregor; she – like us all – is a product of her upbringing. More Texts, More Choices Hollywood film and so on. Media Studies is anti- However recent research (Tony Bennett and Another influence that has probably changed a elitist and takes its cue from the postmodern idea others, 2009) suggests that this class-based contemporary definition of cultural competence which blurs: aspect of ‘cultural capital’ is far less important is the enormous increase in the range of texts some of the key boundaries or separations, now than in the past. They see this as partly available to audiences, due to the availability of most notably the erosion of the older cable/satellite television, DVD and the internet. distinction between high culture and In early 1970s Britain, there were just three so-called mass popular culture. (Jameson, television channels and no home video; the 1998:2) internet didn’t become a mass medium until the Because as Media students we can study any 1990s. This meant that the broadcasters were text (including Shakespeare!) some critics believe able to exercise an enormous control over the this means the subject is intellectually shallow. ‘tastes of the nation’; half of the population However, this misunderstands what the subject of the country could be watching the same is about. There is no reason why we shouldn’t TV programme at the same time. Shows such study both Charles Dickens and soap opera; in as The Morecambe and Wise Show Christmas fact, they have much in common. Surely it’s more specials, 1969-80, or the annual Christmas Day democratic to allow people to form their own meltdown at the Queen Vic pulled gigantic opinions about the relative worth of texts? audiences (The X-Factor’s near-20m audience, But this openness of choice can be who witnessed Matt Cardle’s triumph, was the problematic. As there are an enormous highest rating for nine years). Audiences were number of texts available, often literally at our restricted by broadcasters’ elitist ideas of ‘quality’ fingertips if we’re searching online, how do we that influenced what they chose to show; the distinguish between the ‘wheat and the chaff’? BBC, in particular, saw itself as a bulwark against In other words: how do we find out what’s American popular culture. Today audiences are worthwhile and what isn’t? After all, we can’t far more able to choose their own texts – and taste everything; and if we only watch, hear, play their own values – from a far wider range of or read the most popular then we are denying genres, channels, sources and formats. ourselves an enormous range of interesting Bennett and others (2009) also concluded that experiences. If we only consume films from age, gender and ethnicity are now important in Hollywood, or the latest albums, or the ‘hottest’

46 MediaMagazine | February 2011 | english and media centre MM MM of best genre films (Oct. 2010), was heavily weighted towards Hollywood fare, missing out many gems from around the world. However, there were many undoubtedly great films in the list that many people will not even have heard of. Similarly, using www.rocklistmusic. co.uk I found that the British magazine Mojo, the German Spex, and the Mexican Pure Pop all had the Beach Boys’ Pet Sounds (1966) either in first or second place. Heard it? Heard of it? Possibly not, but why not try it out? And with the current proliferation of 60s-influenced artists (such as Duffy, Eliza Doolittle, Paloma Faith, Plan B’s second album, and Rumer) it is well worth investigating artists like Dusty Springfield, Minnie Riperton, Etta James, Curtis Mayfield and Aretha Franklin. This list of 60s singers, it could be argued, is part of a canon of great soul singers; but we can be sure that the originators of the canon, Arnold and Leavis, would never have rated popular ‘culchure’ so highly. The idea of the canon still exists in the 21st century: in schools where the teaching of English still retains elements of a century-old tradition, and in ‘greatest lists’ which, with a postmodern sensibility, are likely to combine both the popular and commercial with the artistic and elite.

Nick Lacey teaches Film and Media Studies at Benton Park Technology College, and is the author of several Media Studies textbooks.

Follow It Up Bennett, Savage, Bortolaia Silva, Alan Ward, Gaya-Cal, and Wright (2009): Class, Culture, Distinction Bourdieu, Pierre (1984): Distinction: A Social Critique of the Judgement of Taste TV shows, then we are limiting ourselves to films would appeal to young, contemporary Gill Branston with Roy Stafford (2010, 5th the mainstream. These texts are invariably audiences. Nevertheless, knowing them might edition): The Media Students’ Book commercial in nature. Their prime function is help give a greater appreciation of cinema, and to make money for their producers by reaching we may find that what appears to be dazzlingly Jameson, Frederic (1998): The Cultural Turn and pleasing the largest possible audiences; and original has, actually, been done before. Lacey, Nick (2009, 2nd edition): Image and this, inevitably, means that many viewpoints are Representation: Key Concepts in Media Studies marginalised, or not even heard. Far from being Are Lists the New Canon? democratic, commercial texts tend to reproduce Every 10 years since 1952, Sight & Sound only the dominant, most bourgeois worldview. magazine has published a critics’ poll of the So restricting your diet to the mainstream means ‘best movies ever made’ (http://www.bfi. you may be missing an enormous amount of org.uk/sightandsound/topten/). Citizen Kane Some Definitions: great stuff. (Welles, US, 1941) has won every time except in The Canon – a list of texts, in any medium, 1952. While this doesn’t necessarily mean you will that are regarded as ‘great’. Texts that An Example: Knowing Where believe it is ‘best movie ever made’, surely you’re form a canon are often thought to express Tarantino’s Coming From missing something if you haven’t seen it. And we ‘universal’ values that speak to all times and For example: if the students I teach are typical, can be confident that all the films in the list are cultures. then Quentin Tarantino’s movies are still worth seeing. Bourgeois – middle-class values that much favoured by teenagers who are ‘into’ film. I am not arguing here for a return to the idea privilege in individualism, capitalism and in Tarantino was heavily influenced by French ‘New of the canon of ‘great’ media products. But lists the importance of the nuclear family. Wave’ (Nouvelle Vague) films; his production of the so-called ‘greatest texts’ can be useful company name checks Jean-Luc Godard’s guides that help us appreciate contemporary Cultural capital – forms of knowledge, Bande à Part (1964). The French New Wave is texts more, as well as enjoying these ‘classics’ in skills, education, and advantages which regarded as a significant artistic influence on their own right. Lists of the ‘100 greatest albums/ can give people a higher status in society. cinema; and films such as Tirez sur le Pianiste films/TV programmes’ proliferate in magazines Parents provide their children with cultural (Shoot the Pianist, 1960), directed by Francois and newspapers; often with the consumerist capital by transmitting the attitudes and Truffaut, have recognisably Tarantino-esque exhortation that these are ‘texts that you must knowledge needed to succeed in the current scenes, made over 30 years before Quentin own!’. Do these lists offer a new form of canon educational system. Tarantino made a movie. (Read more about this defining the ‘essential’ texts? in our New Wave pieces on pages 32 and 37.) Inevitably we should treat such lists with Of course, this isn’t to say that all New Wave caution. For example, The Guardian’s series

english and media centre | February 2011 | MediaMagazine 47 MM Royal With Cheese

Quentin Tarantino Much of the spirit that has permeated the career of writer-director Quentin & the Blood-letting Tarantino has revolved around burrowing deep into the vaults of of Culture yesteryear cinema while referencing everything from high-end French New Wave to low-end Grindhouse trash. Matt Freeman explores how Tarantino’s cine-literacy has forever redefined the high/low culture debate…

48 MediaMagazine | February 2011 | english and media centre MM MM PULP FICTION Dir: TARANTINO, QUENTIN, 1994 TARANTINO, PULP FICTION Dir: COLLECTION KOBAL VISTA/THE MIRAMAX/BUENA Credit:

It’s difficult to imagine the face of as one of the key figures responsible for blurring contemporary cinema without the presence of the line between high and low culture, a Quentin Tarantino. The fast-talking King of Cool debate which evolved in the mid-1950s as part of has been hailed as the one of the defining film- artistic modernism. makers of the past decade, changing the face of American cinema by speaking to all audiences without regard for the generic division between Back to the High vs Low art-house and mainstream. Tarantino is most Culture Debate – Again . . . often discussed as the child of a new generation ‘High’ culture is traditionally associated with of film-makers, drawing on the widest canvas the refined and well-educated; it is elitism of of cinema history with a fan-boy zest, while the highest order. ‘Low’ (or popular) culture, made the love of film a fashionable devotion, creating intertextual works that thrive on their conversely, is more typically seen as being we have been encouraged to accentuate the simultaneous subversion of, and adherence to, associated with those less educated or from divides between high and low culture. With film form. He’s quintessentially postmodern, poorer backgrounds; it is, to phrase it another such passion came a natural need to express making movies that are endlessly in debt to those way, for the masses. Ever since prized European one’s love for certain forms of film over others, which have come before, while still presenting film-makers such as Jean Luc-Godard and his triggering a cultural divide between film as unique and engaging narratives. He’s also hailed colleagues in the French New Wave movement

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art and film as entertainment. Even today we Quentin Raids the Video Store vibrant new playground. ‘It’s like a wax museum continue to separate ‘art’ of all forms into ‘high’ The cinema of Quentin Tarantino is discussed with a pulse,’ John Travolta’s Vincent jokes. This and ‘low’, whether this is distinguishing musical and enjoyed in a large number of cultural circles, is a phrase which one can quite easily apply to theatre from opera or blockbuster rom-com by fans of both high and low art. The Tarantino Tarantino’s entire approach to film-making. from arthouse short. But is high art necessarily film is both B-movie exploitation and art Not surprisingly, the work of Tarantino and his superior to low art? cinema – or rather, neither of these. It epitomises ‘video store’ style have been profoundly popular, In today’s culture, it seems, very few aspects what some have called ‘the video store and has redefined contemporary American of contemporary art – be it cinema, television, aesthetic’, for Tarantino is a film-maker who, cinema as a form that thrives on its loosening of visual art or music – remain quite so clear cut. prior to finding success with his debut feature previously rigid cultural and generic boundaries. The shift from modernism to postmodernism in the early Nineties, worked in a video rental Tarantino movies continue to attract high- is often held as responsible for this blurring of store for many years. Here, where new and old minded critical attention on account of their boundaries. In postmodernism art is held to movies were equally available, cinema became postmodernism, rather that in spite of it. In exist only as derivative from past art and an for Tarantino a single opus. The Tarantino style fact, many commentators on contemporary artist’s influence only extends to other artists. blends elements from different genres, different cinema have argued that film-makers such as It’s worth noting that we all judge art based on artistic movements, and different periods with Tarantino – and indeed his postmodern genre- common cultural assumptions – most of us share absolute abandon. blending influencers like the Wachowski clashing opinions and values when it comes to Tarantino’s tendency toward quotation and Brothers, the Coen Brothers and Edgar Wright art. It seems inevitable that some will find value intertextual reference is also central to the shift – have triggered a re-evaluation in how we in differentiating high from low art, while others toward an amalgamation of high and low. This should perceive cultural influence. will revile the supposed loss of originality that aspect is evident in his wide range of influences, This film-maker’s work, for instance, can be comes with postmodernity’s tendency to pile spanning the 1970s Blaxploitation flick to seen to reflect a general mainstreaming of the past onto the present in its depiction of the the novelistic structure of classic literature. In artistic style and aesthetics – often dealing future. But this is not an article that seeks to Pulp Fiction (1994), with the iconic Jack Rabbit explicitly with the borrowing of images from the judge. All personal judgements can only ever be Slim restaurant sequence between Vincent and mass media. At the conclusion of Pulp Fiction based upon subjective assumptions that change Mia, for example, Tarantino makes a visual use (1994) for example, Jules decides that he wishes over time. Rather, this article aims to show that of the novelty diner where all of the staff are to ‘wander the earth’ like Kane in television’s the once divisive line between high and low knowingly impersonating iconic figures of 1950s Kung Fu. Similarly, Reservoir Dogs (1992) opens culture has become blurred, with implications for pop culture, inviting comparison between the with a long and detailed discussion about the the future of cinema. scene itself and the film’s entire diegetic world, erotic subtext in Madonna’s well-known pop where various influences come together in a song ‘Like a Virgin’, ultimately working to define

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irony that nobrow is a validation which operates horror flick elevated to a higher artistic realm by within the same system of high and low terms novelised science-fiction themes; Blade Runner that the Tarantino generation are yearning to (1982), is a generic cop movie merged with a dissolve. high-end film noir sensibility. As blogger and author Stephen Tully Dierks Indeed, a film-maker such as Tarantino can writes when addressing this dilemma: ‘even if be seen as a figure who is not degrading, but you’re rebelling against your parents’ ideas, reclaiming culture. Moreover, the Tarantino it’s hard to leave them completely behind’. style is not simply an art form which creates However, he fails to consider just how radical films about film, as many would suggest. On a figure such as Quentin Tarantino has been in the contrary, films such as Pulp Fiction (1994), effectively blurring the line between high and Reservoir Dogs (1992), Kill Bill (2003/2004) and low culture, merging the two into one package Inglourious Basterds (2009) can be seen to which, whether progressive or not, imagines emphasise the human element – these are films all forms of artistic culture – be it high, low, or which deal explicitly with human themes of nobrow – as umbrella terms of yesteryear guilt, forgiveness and redemption. Without which now all belong under the recognition of these themes, it somehow seems doubtful just one classification: pop culture. that the films would connect so viscerally and each and every character primarily through their compellingly with their audience. And despite relationship to popular culture. Style Over Substance – or a the often eye-popping depiction of violence in From Highbrow to Nobrow New Creativity? Tarantino’s works – a debate which should be Many critics resent such a cultural shift, saved for another article – the director is at heart The result, almost inevitably, is a change in however. They argue that an artwork which is a moralist, framing his tales around the dual how the new generation evaluate and quantify postmodern is not really an artwork at all, since necessities of forgiveness and punishment. their art, with less direct reliance on high/ its mosaic of references to past work prevents That’s the American aesthetic of popular low distinctions and a greater leaning towards its maker from crafting or saying anything new culture, and Quentin Tarantino is one of its most the notion of one, all encompassing, cultural or innovative. Such a text, some would argue, articulate and thoughtful voices. recognition. This new recognition, for some, at is merely an exercise in style over substance. least, has been hailed ‘nobrow’, a recent term But this is an argument which feels almost as Matt Freeman is a freelance film journalist and MA student coined by John Seabrook in his book Nobrow: outdated as the former high/low divides, for it in Film and Television Studies who writes for Film Journal The Culture of Marketing, the Marketing of ignores the creativity which can be found in International, GoreZone and Total Film. Culture (2000) as ‘a postmodern neologism a postmodern text. A director such as Ridley [newly invented term] derived from highbrow Scott, for instance, thrives on film-making where and lowbrow.’ However, while this new term does old and new, high and low, are meshed into indicate and acknowledge an influence from one. Alien (1979), for example, is a lowbrow both high and low culture, it’s hard to ignore the

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Milestone Movies in The Birth of Generation X 58,148 Americans were killed in the Youth Culture Vietnam War. 11,465 of those men were under 20 years old. The youngest of them was 16-year- Film student Michael Ewins is old Paul J. Raber. When the war ended in 1975 nothing was the same again. The youth had fascinated by youth cultures, and their been exposed to the hypocrisy of the world and relationship to both social context, they wanted their American Dream back – the fantasy of going to college, getting a job and and their screen representations. Here settling down with a wife, two kids and a Cadillac. he offers an overview of the movies Instead they’d watched their friends die before that have both reflected and shaped their eyes, and returned home in the wake of the Watergate Scandal and the resignation of the lifestyle, culture and changing US President Richard Nixon. Gerald Ford was in values from Generations X to Y, the White House, and under his watch the US suffered the worst economic situation since the taking in the Slackers, Hipsters and Great Depression of the 1930s). Soldiers had to Millennials – and the social changes readjust not just to life, but life in a fractured state. This was the generation that gave birth to that influenced them. Generation X. Taking in those born in the late 1960s up to the We’re consumers. We are by-products of a early 1980s, the Generation X teens had a tough lifestyle obsession. Murder, crime, poverty, time of it. Coined by photographer Robert Ford Coppola, 1979). America was slowly these things don’t concern me. What concerns Capa, the term ‘Gen X’ first appeared in Picture repairing itself. However, by 1980 Carter had lost me are celebrity magazines, television Post (a massively popular photojournalism popularity (the 1979 energy crisis; fallout of the with 500 channels, some guy’s name on my magazine that ran from 1938 to 1957 in the UK) Iranian Revolution, probably didn’t help) and underwear. and soon captured the imagination. Author John ex-actor Ronald Reagan was elected in 1981, Rogaine, Viagra, Olestra Ulrich stated that: with a shift back to Republicanism. Generation X has always signified a group of Gen X’ers, however, were learning to do it young people, seemingly without identity, for themselves. The trauma of their fathers had Advertising has us chasing cars and clothes, who face an uncertain, ill-defined (and been documented by film-makers; and as they working jobs we hate so we can buy shit we perhaps hostile) future. grew into their stunted, cynical adult selves, don’t need. We’re the middle children of His readings can be explored in the book they consciously gravitated towards a form of history, man. No purpose or place. We have GenXegesis: Essays On Alternative (Sub)Culture. newly-accessible escapism that was invading no Great War. No Great Depression. Our Great President Jimmy Carter was elected in 1977 their homes: the computer and the videogame War’s a spiritual war... our Great Depression following a major recession; and as the shift was console (the Amstrad CPC hit suburbs in 1984). is our lives. We’ve all been raised on made from Republican to Democratic for the first This, along with the launch of MTV in 1981 and television to believe that one day we’d all be time since 1969, the world needed his optimistic, the release of Star Wars (George Lucas, 1977) millionaires, and movie gods, and rock stars. human rights attitude. Towards the end of the on VHS, contributed to a generation of slackers But we won’t. And we’re slowly learning that 70s, the Vietnam war was being remembered in that would rise post-1985. fact. And we’re very, very pissed off. movies – most notably The Deer Hunter (Michael So, what happened in 1985? We went back to Tyler Durden, Fight Club (David Fincher, 1999) Cimino, 1978) and Apocalypse Now (Francis the future.

52 MediaMagazine | February 2011 | english and media centre MM MM Back To The Future (Robert move he makes will change the course of history. became aware, at the turn of the millennium Zemeckis, 1985) He’s the invader. (giving them the tag of ‘Millennials’) that this There’s a lot more social commentary in Back The reason this scene is vital is because of was not the lifestyle they would be leading. In To The Future than initially meets the eye. This Marty’s 1985 attitude. He plays the electric the wake of tragedy, America had sold them a is a personal reading and in no way claims to guitar and hitches rides on the back of cars. He’s lie. And as Tyler Durden said... they’re very, very explain what the film-makers were attempting a ‘slacker’ – an MTV-raised hipster who’s late for pissed off. to achieve with the film. Take, for example, the class and gets the girl of his dreams. He doesn’t scene where Marty (Michael J. Fox) first goes back care about war, politics or science – unless it in time and crashes into the Peabody household. directly impacts on his situation. This is Zemeckis’ The family rush out to find the Delorean, crashed statement on how the world has changed post- and smoking, seemingly from another world: ’it’s Vietnam and how the fears of yesterday are the like a plane without wings’. Young Sherman normalities of tomorrow. Peabody holds up a Tales From Space magazine 1985 was also the year of The Breakfast Club with a picture of an alien invader on the front – (John Hughes), a High School drama about five which perfectly matches the yellow radiation suit teenagers (goth, nerd, tough guy, jock, princess) worn by Marty. As the car door rises and Marty who are stuck together in detention and learn stumbles out the family run away screaming. Old to overcome their differences. Although the Man Peabody (‘Take that, you mutated son of characters are much more grounded, honest a bitch’) represents the average American man and recognisable in The Breakfast Club, they of the 50s – as seen through the lens of science are shaped from the same idea as Marty McFly. fiction, that is. This was a time when teenagers’ struggles were As any fan of monster movies will tell you, films portrayed onscreen with humour and pathos. like The Beast From 20,000 Fathoms (Eugène These were the kids worried about their future Lourié, 1953) and Gojira (Ishirô Honda, 1954) and uncertain of themselves, but still retaining are about much more than beastly special an optimism that one day, when they pass each

effects... the monsters are a political allegory, other in the hall, they’ll recognise one another This generation has many names, including representing a fear of war or nuclear attack. through the facade that is stereotype. Echo Boomers and The Peter Pan Generation, These ‘foreign’ invaders land, uninvited and but they are most commonly referred to as unexpectedly, and wreak havoc on the city. From Gen X to Gen Y Generation Y. There are four key films that chart Through the use of that yellow costume, Back To The kids that grew up watching Back To The this shift, starting with what is often referred to The Future has demonstrated that science fiction Future and The Breakfast Club found a bit of as the last Gen X film Reality Bites (Ben Stiller, has become science fact – Marty may not be a themselves in the images. They grew up wanting 1994). space invader, but through the plutonium carried to be musicians and movie stars – live the lifestyle The film focuses on a group of Gen X graduates in his Delorean he is a threat to 1955; whatever popularised by MTV. But their successors soon including Lelaina Pierce (Winona Ryder) who is

english and media centre | February 2011 | MediaMagazine 53 MM making a documentary film about her friends. There are sections of the film devoted to her footage where the likes of Troy (Ethan Hawke), Vickie (Janeane Garofalo) and Sammy (Steve Zahn) discuss sexuality, AIDS, politics, war, relationships and getting a job. These are the concerns of the educated cynics who want to be left alone to get by. Soon Michael (Stiller), a video executive, comes into Lelaina’s life and begins to date her. He takes her documentary

to the people at his station and they add hyperactive editing, sound effects and zany colour effects – much to the disappointment of Lelaina, who just wanted to portray her generation honestly. This is the beginning of the downfall, where the kids learn that maybe things won’t be okay after all and that they’ll be seen however the fat cats want them to be seen. Fight Club Fight Club is the movie that takes the disenchanted voice of the Generation Millennials to satirical extremes. Fincher’s anti- establishment tour de force opens with narrator Jack joining support groups he doesn’t belong to (‘tourism’) – after all, the only other way he can feel alive is by buying more stuff. The more you darkly sarcastic hipsters who roam the streets of own, the more you live. Consumerism 101. Into a hopeless town looking for something to hold this world comes soap salesman Tyler Durden onto. These best friends are held together by (Brad Pitt) who does and says whatever he cynicism and contempt – a typical scene would wants. Durden and Jack build a Fight Club where see them wandering the streets taking the piss the ordinary working man can vent his frustration out of some unsuspecting ‘moron’ who doesn’t for not achieving his college dreams: for letting wear the same clothes, listen to the same music the pretty girl like Lelaina get away, leaving him or watch the same movies as them. These girls, to cook microwave meals at home and sit on overeducated on pop culture and with nothing his IKEA furniture. Durden and co design Project to do, believe themselves to be superior to the Mayhem to set the world back to zero by blowing ‘extroverted, obnoxious, pseudo-bohemian losers’ up credit card companies. Released two years that pollute their deserted town. before the election of George W. Bush and the Adapted from the comic by Daniel Clowes, 9/11 tragedy, Fight Club was more prophetic Ghost World is, in my opinion, the best of the than we cared to notice – the world was falling Gen Y films – so bitingly harsh and cut-throat to apart, not with a whimper, but with a bang. anyone that doesn’t listen to Mohammed Rafi, Ghost World (Terry Zwigoff, 2001) was that it’s actually surprising it made any money at released right in the middle of this uncertain the box office at all. It has, however, developed a and fearful time and its protagonists Enid (Thora cult following and probably made more possible Birch) and Rebecca (Scarlett Johansson) are the the emergence of indie darlings such as Juno

54 MediaMagazine | February 2011 | english and media centre MM MM (Jason Reitman, 2007) which has the obscure, a car listening to ‘Baby I Love Your Way’ by Peter Michael Ewins studied Film, and now writes reviews for wise-beyond-their-years dry wit and sarcasm of Frampton. 2000’s High Fidelity (Stephen Frears) Ghost World, but leavened with cute songs about sees Rob Gordon (John Cusack) – a Gen X’er in www.essentialwriters.com a weekly feature called romance and bright colour schemes in place of Gen Y clothing – approaching a club where a sexy ‘Shortlist’ on www.multimediamouth.com, and his own sulky depression and loneliness. solo artist is singing a rendition of the same song. movie blog, www.e-filmblog.blogspot.com Rob stops, dead, staring blankly. ‘Is that Peter Greenberg – the Hipsters all fucking Frampton?’ ‘Yeah’ replies the doorman. Grow Up The line between Gen X and Gen Y is a blurred The final film is Noah Baumbach’s Greenberg one, largely due to the fact that there are no (2010) which sees the Gen X/Y’er all grown up, date-specific start and end points to either – they greying and still struggling to fit into the world. are just moments in time. Society will always Roger Greenberg (Ben Stiller) could easily be be a catalyst for popular culture; and as long as Michael from Reality Bites as an adult, except governments change and wars provoke terror, instead of working at the TV station, he was in we will forever influence the attitudes of the a band. Greenberg, now 40, is still consciously next generation – who is to say what will and trying to do nothing – he’s a loser, but still sees won’t be cool in 5 years time? We can’t be sure himself above people: in his own words, ‘life is what the future holds; but in the wake of The wasted on people’. Social Network (David Fincher, 2010) we can be But perhaps there’s something even simpler sure that technology will play a large part... and than that. A scene in Reality Bites sees the last of nobody can hide from that. the Generation X’ers Michael and Lelaina sat on

Generations X and Y are imprecise terms which vary from country to country, developed by demographers, sociologists, and advertisers to characterise particular spending and lifestyle patterns. There is no consensus on where each starts and ends; this article represents a personal response.

Generation X: In the UK, first used as the title for a 1964 youth study called Generation X to describe the teenage llfestyles of young people born at the end of the ‘Baby Boom’ in the aftermath of World War 2. In the US, now more commonly used to refer to young adults born during the Vietnam war years from the mid 60s to the early 80s, who might be described as ‘Slackers’, growing up within the MTV generation, often alienated by divorce or family breakdown, politically cynical, with a lack of economic security and little expectation of a lifetime occupation

Generation Y: Also called Millennials, Echo Boomers, Internet Generation, iGen, Net Generation. A label referring to those growing up between the mid 80s and 90s, the product of empty consumerism and media culture, sometimes described as politically and culturally liberal, but often drawn to conservative views and the resurgence of religious beliefs. Shaped by technological sophistication and cultural awareness as well as political and world events, they are deeply cynical and disappointed by the failure of the American Dream. To read the views of some online Generation X and Y-ers visit: http://www.genpink.com/when-does- gen-x-end-and-gen-y-begin/

55 MediaMagazine | February 2011 | english and media centre english and media centre | February 2011 | MediaMagazine 55 MM

horror monsters

If you’re studying for AQA’s A2 Mest3, its creation in Germany shortly after WW1. The vampire is an ‘invader’; he comes from you may be researching your own ‘elsewhere’ and brings pestilence to the local case study on media representation, community. His method of attack involves penetration and the exchange of bodily fluids. focusing on media theories and This can be read as a sexual metaphor but debates and wider contexts. Here significantly the outcome of a vampire attack is examiner death or infection. At the time Nosferatu was Steph Hendry shows you released, Germany was economically and socially how to explore the social and cultural devastated after WW1. Poverty and disease was contexts of one of our most enduring rife and in 1918 hundreds of thousands of people died during a flu pandemic. The vampire Count genres: horror. Orlok is rat-like in appearance and it is perhaps not surprising that a culture that had suffered The horror genre is one of the media’s most at the hands of expansionist politicians and was successful genres. Since Le Manoir du Diable now vulnerable to disease would respond to a (Méliès, 1896), stories that aim to scare their monster that represented invasion and infection. audience have proved immensely popular. Daniel Many horror texts between the wars reflected Cohen observes that: the social changes in terms of power, authority cultures create and ascribe meaning and class that followed the political upheaval of to monsters, endowing them with WW1. Both Nosferatu and Dracula (Browning, of great financial hardship across the Western characteristics derived from their most deep- 1931) featured a corrupt and abusive world where unemployment and poverty was seated fears and taboos aristocratic class who are the sources of horror. widespread. The Russian Revolution showed An analysis of horror monsters in the light of In Frankenstein (Whale, 1932) the aristocratic one response to weak or corrupt governance and their cultural contexts can, therefore, give an class was also criticised. In the film, the son mass poverty – a workers’ revolt – something insight into the anxieties and concerns of the of Baron Frankenstein turns his back on his Western authorities feared. Dr Frankenstein’s contemporary culture. Of course, not all people aristocratic duty and locks himself away to create return to his rightful position allows him to lead have the same worries at any given time, but life in the form of the monster. Dr Frankenstein and control the village population whose fear it is possible to identify general cultural and takes on a god-like role in the act of creation, but and anger can be directed at the monster instead contextual trends through the monsters created he oversteps his social position. The film shows of the ruling class. for horror texts. that he needs to return to his predetermined Frankenstein has many other possible aristocratic role to help protect the village from readings that relate to the context of the time. For Pre-World War 2 the horror he has unleashed. Frankenstein was example, the sympathetic representation of the Nosferatu (Murnau, 1922) has been a major released during the Great Depression, a time monster could be read as a critical perspective influence on representations of vampires since

56 MediaMagazine | February 2011 | english and media centre MM MM on the racial tensions that were present in American culture at the time. The monster’s eventual death is represented as a mob lynching of an individual who cannot integrate into the dominant culture. ‘The monster’ himself is not as monstrous as the abuse of scientific knowledge that creates him, the aristocrats’ abuse of power, or the mindless, murderous mob. Post-WW2 films maintained the focus on monsters that invaded or infected, and the ‘science gone wrong’ motif expanded across both horror and science-fiction. Perhaps this is unsurprising considering the horrors witnessed in the advances in military capabilities, culminating in the nuclear attacks on Nagasaki and Hiroshima in 1945. Add to this the depths of human cruelty seen in the holocaust; and it’s all too clear that mankind had shown itself to have the potential to be monstrous. Horror movies soon reflected this. The Not So Swinging 60s The 1960s was a time of social change and this was mirrored in its horror monsters. The decade begins with Psycho (Hitchcock, 1960) reflecting the impact of Freudian theories on the culture’s understanding of the human psyche. The monster here is a man whose family dynamics created an ‘abnormal psychology’. In the UK a similar story was told in Peeping Tom (Powell, 1960) where a dysfunctional family created another human monster. The monsters in both films were, on the surface, normal people but they brought horror close to home for the 1960’s audience. Arguably the mundane settings make the horror more effective than the distant, fantastical horror of the previous decades and the fact that the monsters now look like ‘us’ creates an unsettling realism.

in an American film but this occurred in Night of identified a society that, despite idealised the Living Dead (Romero, 1968) which also used appearances, had a brutal underbelly. vivid and visceral representations of violence, The Exorcist (Friedkin, 1972) created a making Psycho look quite tame. The optimism great deal of public and media attention and of ‘the Summer of Love’ that is often associated outrage for its depiction of a possessed girl. with this period was in fact tempered by the Like Rosemary’s Baby (Polanski, 1968), The assassinations first of President Kennedy Omen (Donner, 1976) and The Wicker Man in 1963, and later of his brother Robert and (Hardy, 1973) in the UK, The Exorcist depicted Martin Luther King in 1968. America was at war the secularisation of society that had occurred in Vietnam and audiences in the late 60s were since World War 2 and dealt with the unease and growing accustomed to seeing images of horrific uncertainty this was causing by using devils, real-life violence. Horror directors could only demons and pagans as its monsters. The Exorcist hope to scare these audiences if they produced was also a film that identified post-war changes horrors as violent and as extreme as the films and in the structure of the family. The possessed photographs that were shown on the evening child is from a single-parent family headed by news. a working mother. To try to help her daughter, As horror moved into the 1970s the human the mother looks to the ‘grand narratives’ of monster became more sadistic. The Last House the day, science, medicine and psychotherapy on the Left (Craven, 1972) and The Texas before reverting back to religion. The modern, Chainsaw Massacre (Hooper, 1974) became secular world fails to help and the demon is infamous for their sustained graphic violence. eventually expelled by two Catholic priests (or These films, like Psycho before them, located fathers) the implication being that the modern By the end of the decade horror was reflecting their horror in a mundane present; The Texas world, with its fatherless families, reliance on some of the enormous social and cultural Chainsaw Massacre showed the effect of social science rather than religion, allowed the demon changes that had taken place. At the start of the and economic isolation and on a rural family in. decade attitudes to race meant it would have whilst The Last House on the Left bought the The 1970s ended with more homespun been unthinkable to have had a black male lead horror into small-town America. Both films monsters when in 1978 the archetypal slasher

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horror monsters

58 MediaMagazine | February 2011 | english and media centre MM MM film Halloween (Carpenter, 1978) was released. Owing a lot to Psycho, the monster in this film is a boy traumatised by rising sexual liberation and his violent attacks against teenagers are often seen as punishments for ‘immoral’ behaviour. The End of an Era The 1980s saw a glut of slasher films as horror became a staple of the home video market. As the audience grew used to the genre’s visceral assaults, more outlandish and extreme spectacles were needed to maintain interest. Film franchises replicated the same ideas over and over, and the genre grew tired and clichéd, becoming less economically viable. In the mid-90s horror engaged with this familiarity for both comic and horrific effect. Scream (Craven, 1996) uses an ironic approach to the genre that is self-aware and self-referential. It uses the codes and conventions of the genre as a plot device, and the monster in the first Scream film is finally defeated by being hit with a television after a discussion of the effects of horror films on audiences. Contemporary Monsters Recently horror has looked to its past and there have been remakes of many of the films mentioned in the earlier sections. Whether bringing them up to date has added anything more than CGI effects is a matter of personal opinion; but what is often lost in a remake is a sense of cultural context. Many remakes appear to be ‘style over substance’ as, whilst they may be more polished, slicker and gorier, they are more interested in the visceral experience rather than an exploration of cultural fears. Hollywood also looked to the Far-East in the 2000s as having transgressed. His torturous games can terrorisation of others. They are calculating and and re-made a number of Asian horrors films. be seen to be potentially ‘good for’ his victims and deliberate, implying that they are making violent Eastern cultural meanings were adapted for the society even if his methods are extreme. Later choices simply as a stimulus in their otherwise Western audience. J-Horror uses the supernatural examples of the sub-genre however show torture over-stimulated and desensitised lives. The monster, often ghosts, linked to the traditional as a game and a pleasure with the monsters in Saw franchise shows how the monster’s victims veneration of ancestors. Whilst these ideas are Hostel (Roth, 2005) being wealthy clients who pay become monsters themselves and the monsters in not common in the West, these films do touch on for the ultimate consumer thrill in a manner that these recent films could easily be those selected globalised concerns such as over-crowding (Dark echoes recent concerns about human trafficking. by Jigsaw for punishment. Unlike those of previous Water: Salles, 2005) and the impact of technology Contemporary culture is media-saturated. eras, these monsters are not invaders or creations (The Ring: Verbinski, 2002) and One Missed Call Entertainment is available anywhere and anytime. of science or poor parenting; they are selfish, (Vallette, 2008). From on-demand TV, the apparently infinite nihilistic creations of the culture itself. Aside from remakes, perhaps the most notable nature of the internet and mobile technology, Whether re-working traditional conventions development in contemporary horror is torture- contemporary culture is arguably running the (the mad scientist in The Human Centipede porn which focuses on extreme visceral violence, risk of over-stimulation and the impact of (Six, 2009); re-inventing itself for an adult TV nudity and sadistic torture. Saw (Wan, 2004) our reliance on technology for entertainment audience in The Walking Dead (AMC) and True is a long-running series of torture porn films, and social interaction is often questioned. It is Blood (HBO); framing itself as parody or domestic utilising CGI to maximise the extreme nature of frequently argued that over-stimulation could lead comedy in Dead Set (C4) and Being Human the violence depicted. It’s been suggested that to extreme desensitisation, and this idea can be (BBC3) or as soap opera and high-romance in perhaps audience desensitisation is at the heart seen in recent horror monsters. Dehumanised ‘feral The Vampire Diaries (CW) and The Twilight of torture porn’s success. Mainstream television youth’ are the monsters of Eden Lake (Watkins, Saga, horror still attracts audiences. The genre shows such as CSI (CBS) uses graphic imagery; 2008); and the monsters in Funny Games has the ability to adapt to allow it to tap into each and computer games have long used ‘splatter’, (Haneke, 2008) and The Strangers (Bertino , generation’s preoccupations and concerns and its exposing players to more and more extreme 2008) are disconcertingly emotionally removed. metaphorical approach can be used to deal with violence. Torture porn does what horror has always These monsters are also anonymous; Eden Lake ideas and issues that appeal to a range of audience had to do: attempt to find more and more extreme makes ‘the group’ the monster and masks are groups. Other genres such as Westerns may not be ways to scare (or repulse) the audience. However, worn by ‘the strangers’. The nondescript clothing able to speak to modern audiences in the way they the rise of torture as a subject in horror also and appearance of the killers in Funny Games used to but horror continues to provide a cultural parallels contemporary concerns over the post- emphasises the impersonal nature of this violence catharsis over 100 years since it first hit celluloid. 9/11 treatment of terror suspects and prisoners and there is a of lack clear motive for the violence of war as stories of Western government endorsed in these films other than the monsters’ desire to Steph Hendry teaches Media at Runshaw College and is an torture was reported. Despite its violence, Saw seek stimulation. These monsters appear to be examiner for AQA. began by presenting the audience with a deeply the culmination of a desensitised culture which moral monster. The monster acts as judge offering has chosen to seek entertainment through the second chances (or punishments) to those he sees

english and media centre | February 2011 | MediaMagazine 59 MM WOLF CREEK

(dis)Location and the culture of the slasher genre

Bloody, brutal or just banal? For many, of shocking the pants off even the most cynical atmosphere of dread so skilfully evoked in horror aficionado, and breathes new life into this Chainsaw is similarly foregrounded in Wolf the slasher film epitomises ‘low feral breed of cinema. Creek. Canted framing is used to reinforce the culture’. Gabrielle O’Brien thinks Crouching in the shadows of ‘serious’ cinema, ominous sense of a disrupted state of play; the the slasher, stalker or splatter film has always mise-en-scène features iconography associated the genre is worth a closer look... had its fair share of detractors. Generations of with the barren, isolated landscape of the film’s critics have asserted that the genre is artless, setting. We see the outlines of dead animals, ‘We’re. here Wherever here is.’ morally depraved and flagrantly misogynistic. obscured by the blurring effects of a desert heat ‘It’s one of those places people have Yet even in the midst of such incendiary name haze. A battered road sign points out that it’s a forgotten about’. calling (and perhaps even because of it), slasher day’s drive to the next township. Three ecstatic young backpackers are having films have continued to turn a profit. This horror These visual signifiers emphasise a chain of the time of their lives travelling around Australia. sub-genre has always had the power to polarise. cultural associations (foreign/rural/backwards/ Their sun-and-booze-drenched trip bears all the When Tobe Hooper’s The Texas Chainsaw threatening) that position it within a familiar hallmarks of the clichéd ‘gap year’ experience. But Massacre was released in 1974, audience ideological framework for the slasher movie. the party ends when they leave the coast and responses veered from shrieking indignation A series of binary oppositions is deployed to head for the dusty, desolate, unchartered terrain (‘…a vile piece of sick crap’ with ‘a complete lack structure and control audience expectations, of the Outback. Here the landscape dwarfs them; of imagination’ – Stephen Koch, 1976), to awed while aligning the spectator with the young they are struck silent by the vast emptiness of reverence. The Museum of Modern Art in New backpackers. The connotations of the setting this alien place. Their car breaks down. And then York clearly rated the film; it is housed in the as an otherworldly, hostile space are essential in along comes a native who knows this place like museum’s permanent collection as an example of shaping meaning for this binary system. This is the back of his hand… uniquely powerful film-making. how setting comes to assume the significance of The narrative exposition for 2005’s critically Wolf Creek takes up this schizophrenic a principal character in Wolf Creek. and commercially successful Wolf Creek is not a heritage with frenetic vigour, making overt The location is pictorialised, shot as something particularly original one. Director Greg McLean nods to its most infamous forebear. Once to be admired and ‘taken in’, like a painting or a revisits genre conventions that have been around the somewhat tedious First Act is played out, wall mural. It is always shot from the perspective since Alfred Hitchcock’s seminal Psycho. In doing and night darkens the outback sky, Hooper’s of the outsider. The audience is cast as voyeur, so, he creates a vivid nightmare that’s capable landmark film is repeatedly referenced. The looking in on what he or she is unacquainted

60 MediaMagazine | February 2011 | english and media centre MM MM with outside of the world of the film. In this way, the camera’s eye enacts a distancing and an ‘othering’ that the spectator is encouraged to accept. The outback then easily becomes the ‘backwards’ terrain of the cultural ‘other’, and an intimidating stranger to the young tourists. Here the urban (safe) rules so familiar to both the young characters and the audience, no longer apply. We are now on rural (dangerous) ground. Extreme long shots help to symbolise this binary premise, showing the three backpackers struggling against an immense and hostile background. Later, the amount of space only elevates the sense of horror for the audience. We realise that despite being surrounded by seemingly limitless space, there is nowhere to run for sanctuary. This is the ‘uncivilised’ domain of the monster/killer figure. The convergence of menacing character and hostile setting charges the film with an almost unbearable tension. The Australian outback perhaps taps a direct line to audience paranoia about the cultural ‘other’. This kind of socio-geographical positioning is not new to the slasher genre. The American

quo. Slasher films go one further, routinely show of readjusting his swagman’s hat. Sitting having the threat re-established with the return around the campfire with the three backpackers, of the killer/monster figure in the film’s final Mick represents a collision between low and high frames. Indeed, part of the pleasure for fans of culture, age and youth, masculine and feminine, the genre, lies in waiting for the inevitable (and danger and safety. usually implausible) ‘resurrection’ of the killer Mick also represents the dispossessed loner figure, who is given superhuman (and often who has been left without a regular job because supernatural) powers of resilience. of technological advances. He tells the young Wolf Creek disrupts this narrative convention, people that he used to kill vermin as a ‘head instead running with Hitchcock’s notion of horror shooter’, but now the use of poisons dropped being located in the real world. Serial killer from helicopters has made his skills redundant. Mick Taylor is just a mortal, and this renders his This motif of social displacement due to psychopathic actions all the more frightening industrialisation appears in several films from for the spectator. He is human and relentless, the slasher canon. Norman Bates’ motel gets little and capable of the most perverse acts of cruelty. business because of the new highway bypass; Such characterisation complements the realistic the family of cannibals in The Texas Chainsaw aesthetic of the film, along with shaky hand-held Massacre formerly had gainful employment as camera work, a preference for diegetic sound, butchers. Like Mick, they were replaced with and an emphasis on the natural environment in factories and machines. This subtext infers that the mise-en-scène. Mick is a character who fits ‘cultured’ society is somehow responsible for ‘backwoods’ has often been exploited as neatly into the critical landscape of the slasher these spurned, inhuman beasts – that they are shorthand for a hotbed of regressive film. He is a crudely drawn ‘monster’ with a the product of the family that abandoned them psychology. In classic slashers like The Hills Have psychology that is never really delineated. to pursue its own self-interests. Eyes, American Gothic, and of course The Texas This is a recurring feature of the slasher killer, Perhaps then, characters like Wolf Creek’s Chainsaw Massacre, the violence and terror from Michael Myers to Leatherface to Norman Mick perform a further psychic function for the seems to originate from within the setting itself. Bates. In Wolf Creek, it makes Mick’s sickening spectator. If he is a symbol of the dispossessed, The world of these films is a breeding ground enjoyment of torture for sport all the more then his acts of screen violence permit the for uncivilised behaviours, and this is always appalling. It also facilitates another feature of middle-class spectator to shrug off any guilt at juxtaposed with the arrival of the more worldly the slasher picture: that it may well make the their own comfortable existence. The audience’s out-of-towners. Setting acts as a mirror for the spectator feel physically sick. emotional investment in the relentless horror of class divide, using an ‘us versus them’ polarity The darkly humorous intertextuality of his Wolf Creek comes with a trade-off: the chance of representation. It also becomes a metaphor name sets the tone for Mick’s representation. He to project their fears, anxieties and prejudices for boundaries being dismantled and infringed draws on all the Crocodile Dundee stereotypes of onto the loathsome face of the very figure of upon, out on the fringes of society, of culture, of the rough and ready, uncultured Aussie bloke. A ‘backwards’, lowbrow culture, – the figure of the ‘good taste’. This is the disquieting filmic space few thinly disguised cultural clichés inform John slasher monster. occupied by the slasher film. Jarrat’s performance, channelled into a catalogue Gabrielle O’Brien teaches English and Media Studies and is Horror films generally play on audience of unnerving physical tics. He has an unhinged anxieties, and provide a kind of catharsis, often laugh that flies in the face of ‘proper’ social cues, studying for an MA in Film Studies at Kingston University. with the eventual reinstatement of the status and a nasty guttural throat clearing habit. Mick is also a prolific gun owner who makes a regular

61 MediaMagazine | February 2011 | english and media centre english and media centre | February 2011 | MediaMagazine 61 MM Is auntie in troublE? Frozen Licence Fees and the Culture of the BBC

Studying changes in the broadcasting The National Union of Journalists has consequence of it developing a strong ‘public expressed shock and anger at the service’ remit, it became highly valued and industry for OCR AS or WJEC MS4? If announcement to freeze the BBC Licence appreciated by people from all walks of life, so, you’ll need to keep an eye on Fee and impose additional costs on the hailed as a national institution and the ‘envy of corporation the world’. Fiercely protected, it is loved by some the ever-turbulent fortunes of the That was just one of many strong statements, (hence its nickname ‘auntie’). Beeb, currently under severe financial which were produced in response to the Coalition However, the broadcaster has never enjoyed pressure. , former Government’s licence fee settlement with the 100% popularity. There has always been an James Whipps BBC covering 2011 to 2016/17, announced on inherent tension between its Royal Charter Media student and now based in the October 20th 2010. to ‘serve the people’, and the fact it cannot London Newsroom of CNN, brings you Since then much has been written and operate completely independently of the broadcast on the subject, trying to ascertain Government. Over the years, many of the up to speed. what this agreement will mean for the BBC. Will people it was precisely set up to serve have it be overall a good or bad deal, and what sort become disillusioned with the Corporation’s of impact it is likely to have on its programming, inability to say ‘no’ when it needed to; and it has its culture, its relation to government and, had continually to walk the tight-rope of being most importantly, its relation to us out there – perceived one day as pro-government and part everyone of us who watches, listens and surfs the of the ‘establishment’ (e.g. propaganda and BBC on a daily, if not on an hourly, basis? reporting during World War 2) and on another, as From its conception in 1922, the BBC has anti-government (e.g. the recent coverage of the occupied a unique position in British life. As a decision to go to war with Iraq). So it is in this context that the announcement on the 20th October to cap the licence fee at £145.50 per year until 2016/17 (the longest freeze since the 1950s) has been so controversial. The BBC has also agreed to take on the additional expense of funding the World Service (from 2015 costing £272m a year), providing additional support to Welsh language TV channel S4C (from 2013 costing £76m a year) and to pay the entire cost of broadband roll-out to rural areas (estimated at some £150m). This has been seen in some circles as ‘kow-towing’ to the government of the day, and ‘top-slicing by the back door’ bringing into question its independence and financial stability for the future. But others have seen it as a breath of fresh air, arguing that the BBC has become too large, too unwieldy, enjoying too much dominance in the marketplace, to the detriment of the UK commercial media sector.

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Ideologies aside, if you take all the key points wider creative industries which are more pension payouts by a third, but understandably from the agreement and extrapolate them dependent than ever on the original content the unions are not happy about this, hence over a six-year period, the BBC will suffer a that the BBC produces and supports. This is an the strikes by BBC workers in 2010. These loss of income (in real terms) of a whopping act of cultural and political vandalism by the key structural problems combined now with 16% – and all this whilst it is having to take Conservatives. It’s time that the BBC started unprecedented cost-cutting can only provide an on additional liabilities of £340m. This will of to make the case for itself and remind people even bigger headache for the Corporation. course have a significant impact on many levels what good value it is. David Elstein, ex-CEO of Five, who had but will it have an effect on the BBC’s ability to Strong words, aimed mainly at the Culture previously chaired a review into the BBC, said on fulfil its front-line obligations? Will the quality of Secretary and Conservative MP Jeremy 20th October on the BBC’s Today Programme: programming decline for instance? Not according Hunt, who only a few weeks earlier had The licence fee is very much a double-edged to the BBC’s Director General: given assurances that the formal licence fee sword… The BBC has no real control over its This is a realistic deal in exceptional negotiations wouldn’t begin before summer 2011 own finances. It will only be when the staff circumstances securing a strong independent at the earliest. But seemingly almost overnight and viewers experience the real pain of real BBC for the next six years. It means that everything changed and an agreement was cuts, that the BBC management will be forced efficiency and reform will continue to be key reached. to confront the serious underlying problem of issues for us. But our focus remains providing On 16th March 2009 back when he was in still its finances. distinctive, high quality programmes valued opposition, David Cameron commented that the by the public. This deal will safeguard that Licence Fee should be frozen. Audience Responses until 2017. During negotiations it was rumoured that So how will all this affect the loyal users of Mark Thompson BBC were going to be asked to take on the cost the BBC’s diverse services? What do audiences Despite this reassurance, some fear cuts in key of providing free TV licences for the over 75s, think of the BBC, and are they worried by the areas, such as a smaller World Service – which currently costing UK tax-payers around £556m cost-cutting? I went on to the streets of London was previously fully funded by the Foreign Office. a year. This would have been an even bigger to find out: It’s also feared that the BBC will lose its overall commitment for the BBC than the one that was Darren, 18 – ‘I like the BBC yeah, don’t watch distinctiveness, whether that is on TV, radio or eventually agreed upon and – as the negotiators much TV but I’m always on online, where the BBC has already agreed to cut for the BBC point out – would have also left them the iPlayer or checking out the its online expenditure by 25% over the next open to the charge that the corporation was websites ... I wouldn’t want them 3 years. carrying out government policy. to change in the future, no. Ah I don’t know about the licence ‘Total Despair at the BBC’ Crises, Pension Problems and fee, my mum pays it.’ Ben Bradshaw Labour MP, former Culture Strikes Jackie, ‘over 35’ – ‘I have seen in the news Secretary and ex-BBC journalist commented in But even before this settlement was about the licence fee staying The Independent on the 21st October that: announced, the BBC had major financial issues the same, I think that’s good as There is a sense of total despair at the to deal with, one of which was its pension fund, it was getting a bit expensive. I BBC. Cuts of this magnitude are going which has an enormous hole in its funding and don’t think you should have to to be devastating for the quality of BBC needs to be rectified. There is a plan to slash pay for one if you don’t watch programmes and their impact on our much BBC. I like ITV, like The

english and media centre | February 2011 | MediaMagazine 63 MM

X-Factor and that, watch EastEnders and that’s have it on in the classroom whilst I’m marking or about it.’ clearing up after the children have gone home. Sources: Richard, 22 – ‘I don’t pay I am waiting to see what will happen with the http://www.bbc.co.uk/bbctrust/index.shtml the licence fee because I’m cuts, but I’ll be very disappointed if they change a student. Wouldn’t want to anything on Radio 4. I think the licence fee is http://www.bbc.co.uk/bbctrust/news/press_ see any cuts though, what’s amazing value and I know I, and many of my releases/november/wocc_second.shtml changing? Programmes might colleagues, would pay a lot more for it if we http://www.bbc.co.uk/bbctrust/news/press_ be axed? Ah that would be bad needed to. I’d be happy paying anything up to releases/november/tv_services.shtml man. I like the music and comedy shows the best. £200 a year I suppose, something like that.’ I think I watch more BBC than the other channels. http://www.bbc.co.uk/bbctrust/news/press_ Listen to Radio 1 too and get stuff on my phone. Impact on the Indies releases/november/red_button.shtml I probably use something from the BBC every The impact on the independent sector http://www.bbc.co.uk/bbctrust/news/press_ minute!’ which makes 40% of BBC programmes is as yet releases/october/licence_fee_settlement.shtml Ruth, 16 – ‘I like watching the unknown, but many are worried. The BBC Trust http://www.bbc.co.uk/bbctrust/news/press_ news. I think there should better estimates that the Corporation invested £700m releases/october/ddg_statement.shtml programmes for people my age. in the UK creative economy during the last 2 C4 does it better at weekends for years, but admits this is likely to fall. Local news http://www.bbc.co.uk/bbctrust/news/press_ someone like me; like T4, I watch and regional output will also come under an even releases/october/licence_fee_settlement.shtml that quite a bit. I use my phone greater spotlight, and many savings will surely be http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/entertainment- for videos but downloading is quite expensive so expected from there. arts-11580968 I don’t do it much. I have checked the news on Cuts had already started even before this my phone before though, think that was the BBC settlement was announced; many people http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/entertainment- website, they have a mobile phone thing don’t have lost their jobs including Deputy Director arts-11325325 they? I think the BBC shouldn’t change, I think General Mark Byford, who worked for the BBC http://news.bbc.co.uk/today/hi/today/ it’s much better for serious stuff than the other for 32 years. But even with this cull of staff, it is newsid_9108000/9108834.stm channels.’ clear that the Corporation will have to go further Maggie, 45 – ‘I’m a teacher and harder than ever before. http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/uk_ at a local primary school so I Time will tell as to whether this settlement will politics/7946080.stm mainly use BBC Radio as I’m be in the long term a good or a destructive force http://www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/ so busy I don’t have time to sit for the BBC. But whatever the outcome, one thing politics/bbc-freeze-on-licence-fee-is-an-act-of- down much in front of the telly. will be certain: that there will still be a majority of cultural-vandalism-2112207.html I live by Radio 4 (chuckles), it people both within the UK and around the world is on from the moment I wake up till the time I watching, listening and clicking on BBC content, http://biased-bbc.blogspot.com/2010/11/ go to bed. I’m not a big fan of The Archers, but well into the future. licence-fee-freeze-is-like.html otherwise I think it’s a very good station, I even James Whipps is a media graduate who now works for http://conservativehome.blogs.com/ parliament/2010/10/jeremy-hunt-celebrates- CNN. six-year-freeze-in-bbc-licence-fee.html

http://www.marketingweek.co.uk/sectors/ industry/government/gov%E2%80%99t- reveals-six-year-license-fee-freeze/3019509. article

http://www.bectu.org.uk/news/1032

http://www.nuj.org.uk/innerPagenuj. html?docid=1777&string=bbc%20licence%20 fee

Williams, K (1998) Get Me A Murder A day! Arnold, London

64 MediaMagazine | February 2011 | english and media centre MM MM

Where Everyman Knows Your Name

The 21st Century culture of Independent Cinemas

Multiplexes have long ruled a quiet change has been taking place in leading and most exciting independent chains, the cinemas of South-East England. Not all to discuss this social-minded revival. Presenting the cinema-going empire while cinemas, it should be quickly added, but its guests with a warm and special invite, the independent cinemas have struggled a significant number of them ... Although feel of comfort oozing through the atmosphere, the tide of multiplexes continues to rise, the London-grown independent cinema chain to retain relevance in a blockbuster bringing more screens but not necessarily defines, in the words of Myers, ‘quality, comfort, world. But now the indie chains are more or better films to show on them, their sophistication – and above all entertainment!’ fighting back, delivering a quality, dominance is not entire. With a mission statement to go above and Christopher Priest, novelist, screenwriter and beyond the experience provided by multiplex style and social atmosphere that journalist powerhouses, Everyman Cinemas, like a number showcases the true event of film. of thriving indie chains in the UK right now, are Although Priest’s words were written at the intimate hubs for those who love their cinema Matt Freeman explores this whole end of the 20th century, and limited to the as much as their film – bringing the living into new culture of movie-watching… South-East of the country, much the same can community, they cater for the sorts of people be said for the UK’s vast cinema industry today. who genuinely care about cinema and its ability Independent cinemas are on the rise for the first to leave us with a lasting impression. In other time in decades, and they’ve acquired themselves words, handing over cash to see a film is only the an exciting cultural relevance… beginning. Some smaller chains have opted for If you’re looking for a sign that the Odeon era the boutique approach, tempting guests with is declining, the current blaze of independent sofas and alcohol licenses, where waiters bring cinemas in the UK is as good a place as any glasses of your favourite beverage to your seat. to start. Here it’s a case of the smaller the Myers insists: better, as many independent cinemas strive for We feel that we are responding to a demand quality, intimacy, personality and a more social from our audience to re-establish the experience. I sat down with Andy Myers, current enjoyment of cinema as a social medium. The CEO of Everyman Cinemas, one of the UK’s comfortable and relaxed atmosphere of our

65 MediaMagazine | February 2011 | english and media centre english and media centre | February 2011 | MediaMagazine 65 MM summer of 2010, both Inception and Knight & Day were two of the biggest sellers at Everyman’s Hampstead venue – the same two blockbusters which headlined at the nearest Odeon. This reliance on mainstream product could be seen to signal the indie cinema dilemma: with independent film struggling to attract the masses and keep the small chains alive, how does an independent venue remain inherently independent without succumbing to the commercial allure of the blockbuster? In many ways, this is a dilemma which cannot be helped or resolved easily; but for a chain like Everyman, it would also be missing the point. Myers happily acknowledges the truth that ‘conventionally a customer may not instantly look to an independent cinema for general releases’.

cinemas encourages people to chat, drink, of internet consumer sites like Amazon and relax and unwind. Our audiences appreciate LoveFilm where any genre of film, mainstream the personal service when they arrive, and or not, is available to all at the click of a button. there is a real sense of affinity within the As a result, it’s hard not to notice the changing community. of programme schedules within art-house or This affinity is certainly a warming idea, and independent venues. Many independent cinemas one that the Everyman chain is not alone in are today screening more mainstream content embracing. Myers suggests: than they did a decade ago – The Curzon After all, the multiplex still rules much of the Customers feel like it is their cinema. Mayfair, for instance, a renowned independent empire, with many movie-going audiences today Everyman is very much their home from venue that previously shied away from associating blockbusters with multiplexes. But home and new customers get that feeling of commercial product, screened Sex and the City 2 this is an assumption that many independent belonging very quickly. on its main screen earlier this year. cinemas are hoping to de-mystify. For Myers: Indeed, this cherished feeling comes hand And it’s not difficult to understand why. you have to know your place in the food in hand with the personal versatility that the While premiers of art-house films might sell out chain, but that doesn’t mean you can’t best boutique chains strive to maintain. For the during an international festival, the same films try to fight above your weight ... We smartest indie chains today, film is an event that struggle to fill seats when released theatrically. are already seeing that distributors are should not just be watched and enjoyed – but Similarly, director Q&As and live soundtrack adapting to accommodate the needs of celebrated. performances – a tactic that a number of indie more independent cinema chains. They Everyman, for example, saw the transformation chains are now embracing – may entice cinema- are recognising that although we may not of their Belsize Park venue for the release of Tim goers to book for a particular date; but without provide the volumes that the multiplexes Burton’s Alice in Wonderland, creating an entire these extras, ticket sales can be too slow to be provide, we do play an important part in the Mad Hatter’s tea party inside the foyer. And that’s worthwhile for cinema programmers. Besides, industry. not the end of it. The theatrical release of Sex and people’s idea of what an independent cinema the City 2 saw each and every Everyman venue should screen has shifted: it is no longer about Changing times, changing decorated and converted into spaces inspired by an alternative to the mainstream film; it is about culture the film. As Myers recalls: providing an alternative to the impersonal Indeed, this important role is one built upon red carpets were installed; champagne was nature of the multiplex. In other words, the changing times and changing perceptions. There served; we had shoes adorning the ceiling film itself is merely the icing on the cake when it has often been a misconception surrounding and fashion displayed. comes to many independent venues, using the independent cinemas, with general audiences This is a cinema with its own internal movie movie as the framework to go above and beyond presuming that local chains are in some world, a place: expectations and offer a genuine entertainment way old-fashioned and multiplexes are their always looking for new and innovative experience. contemporary equivalent. And yet, with many opportunities to maximise the appeal of film. indie chains’ mission statement to offer more But there is a serious flipside to the fun. Staying independent and to go further than the average while the While independent cinema would appear to be As a result, the comparison between multiplex relies heavily on 3D – a notoriously old flourishing, with high profile successes such as mainstream multiplexes and art-house concept which has been re-branded as new – is Everyman, the tradition of art-house repertory independent chains suggests that their it possible that independent cinemas might is dying – a consequence, perhaps, of the rise programming is remarkably similar. Across the actually represent the future? Myers, for one, is

66 MediaMagazine | February 2011 | english and media centre MM MM

wary of this idea, instead choosing to compare Leonardo DiCaprio certainly helped matters, pondering the impact that he hopes smaller the nature of the independent cinemas’ cultural but it was Nolan’s craftsmanship that really cinemas are having on the industry. role to the differing standards of quality available sealed the approval. Here was that rarest of I definitely believe that film is an important in a single market: beasts – a film that played to the strengths of the influence on people’s lives. Lots of the events I often make a comparison to restaurants multiplex and to the art-house crowd in equal that we hold are our way of increasing the – you have Pizza Hut, Pizza Express, Prezzo, measure, resulting in a film that paid the bills impact of a film on an audience, and ensuring ASK, Zizzi and many more, all basically selling at both Odeon and Everyman, two chains that that they leave the cinema having enjoyed pizza but how they do it, who they appeal to once catered for very different audiences. Nolan’s themselves above and beyond the duration of and how they serve and treat their customers brain-bender may be rare, but does it suggest the film itself. are completely different. that the film industry has now reached a point However you look at these events, it’s all Suggesting that both independent and where commercial and art-house films can share a celebration of film. Traditionally film is a multiplex cinemas are merely two sides of the a home? Myers thinks so: medium enjoyed in silence, with little of the same coin, both working towards the same goal, Everyman Cinemas want to lead the way by live immediacy of theatre or music, and rarely he continues: providing commercial releases alongside art even applause. But this is a commonality that We happen to think there is ample room house, specialised and alterative content many independent chains have worked hard for local cinemas to thrive and offer an and placing an emphasis on events and to change, creating intimate movie-watching alternative genre of the same industry. experience, offering it all under one roof. environments that accentuate the human and Only time will tell if such a novelty will blossom social side of cinema-going. As Bob Dylan once Screening Inception into normality, but for now Myers is happy to said, the times they are a-changin’. Independent But let’s talk about the aforementioned revel in the beauty of this change. cinemas have raised the bar, and it’s now up to Inception for a moment. Christopher Nolan’s Some people come to escape; some people multiplexes to keep up with the pace… labyrinthine thriller, an ideas-heavy blockbuster come to be moved. As always, watching a film that explored the concept of implanting thoughts is a subjective experience, so whether you do Matt Freeman is a freelance film journalist who has beneath layers of the subconscious, was one of or don’t enjoy the film, Everyman’s aim is to written for Film Journal International, GoreZone and Total the highest grossing movies of the year. The fact ensure that all of our customers have come Film. that its narrative was structured meticulously away with something more.

as a Bond-inflected heist film and starred He then pauses for a moment, clearly

67 MediaMagazine | February 2011 | english and media centre english and media centre | February 2011 | MediaMagazine 67 FEBRUARY 2011: THE CULTURE ISSUE M M MediaMagazine

edia agazine Menglish and media centre issue 35 | februaryM 2011

High vs Low Culture english and media centremedia and english Tarantino Culture New Waves The Culture of Strictly | issue 35 | february 2010 february | issue35 | Film Yurt The Ethics of News Media Culture MM MM

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