Blog #3

I've just re-read Blog #2 and I hope I didn't come across too much like an analogue-phobe. I think my attempt to emphasise the (relatively) simplistic techniques Cocteau used in Le Sang d'un Poete, and what he achieved through this came out more like the last time I saw something with low-fi techniques was a Wiggles video back in the early 90s. As a theatre-phile, I find more simplistic visual techniques (when done well) absolutely mesmerising. And incredibly evocative. Such techniques bring a certain rawness to the stage, and, because of the immediacy of the space, can be even more confronting than The Grudge in 3D (or whatever thriller is showing in 3D at the moment...).

It is an extreme example, but during Barry Kosky's A Lost Echo a troupe of clowns are featured in neck braces, masturbating. Don't ask me what was going through Mr. Kosky's head when he though of that, but I remember at the time that it fostered a grotesque, claustrophobic atmosphere on the stage. If this was done on film however, not only would we be able to fast forward if the scene became too much, the mediation of the screen (whether it be movie screen or television or even computer screen) distances us from the action. As an audience member at the theatre, you choose what you focus on, or give more attention. A camera however, chooses for you what you will focus on and when you will view it, mediating the action further. So, viewed through a screen, a technique that evokes claustrophobia and disgust on stage becomes a quick, perverse frame of clowns in neck braces masturbating.

But I didn't begin this blog with the intention of discussing clowns in neck braces... I was going to discuss Dupount's Piccadilly.



This was an interesting film not only due to its content (nightclub owner-performers love triangle, miscegenation, culminating in a courtroom drama) but also because of the techniques Dupount uses.
His focus on eyes and hands throughout the film evokes an uneasy intimacy in his audience; Mabel's eyes are one such point of focus during the film, as Dupount simultaneously screens and projects Mabel's emotion by means of a close up on Gilda Grey's eyes. For example, in the scene where Bessie, the head kitchen lady, speaks with Mabel in Mabel's suite, Dupount shadows Mabel's upper face with a fern in one frame and frames her face with the feather from Bessie's hat in the succeeding shot. Such shots frame Mabel's jealousy towards Shosho, as well as her 'higher' stature (physically in comparison to Bessie). Also this is the scene where Mabel learns of Shosho's night-time audition for Wilmot, and therefore her emotions are somewhat mediated as she hides her true emotions from the 'help'.
Similarly, Dupount chooses to use hands to exhibit sentiment between character, most notably between Vic and Mabel, Mabel and Wilmot, and Wilmot and Shosho. As the gestures of Mabel and Wilmot become more hesitant and strained (Wilmot not kissing Mabel's hand as she pokes it through the door, for example), Wilmot and Shosho's hands become more intimate, especially at the Limehouse pub, where Wilmot strokes Shosho's hand at the bar (although we have not yet seen mid-shots of Shosho or Wilmot at the bar, we can identify Shosho by her 'Nosferatu' fingernails).

I was also struck by how Dupount portrayed the women and using their sexuality to manipulate the men around them. It was interesting that Dupount had the 'European' (and therefore more moral???) character always clad in layers of clothing, while the 'Asian' character frolicked around semi-naked in comparison. Shosho does clothe herself in similar clothes to Mabel when she signs her contract in front of Wilmot, and when she leaves the club with him and they head to Limehouse, however I found Dupount uses this to make a point that Shosho has been 'subsumed' into Wilmot's world. Going back to Andrew’s comments on the female statue in …Poete, are these women desirable yet unattainable? For Jim, Shosho appears to be. And for Vic, Mabel is his hearts desire, yet she does not reciprocate. Has Dupount taken this desirable/unattainable dichotomy and used it against the female characters, portraying them as immoral manipulators, rather than the high moral figure of the statue?

While its not really part of our area of study (that is, Cinematic Modernism) I really wanted to share one of my latest viewing experiences. A roommate borrowed Peter Greenaway's The Cook, The Thief, His Wife and Her Lover and it was incredible. While another piece of entertainment not for the faint hearted - Tim Roth's in it and Helen Mirren is naked for a good half of the film, need i say more?? - Greenaway's direction and use of colour themed stages (the kitchen is green, the dining room red, the bathroom white and so on) creates jaw-dropping cinematic artistry.
Here's a clip:



(Oooh and the costumes are by Jean Paul Gaultier which definately contributes to the lavish nature of the film...)

I found it to have allusions to the Greek myth about Procne, Philomela and Tereus (i.e. the Nightingale myth) where Philomela, discovering Tereus' rape and torture of her sister, Procne, kills and cooks her and Tereus' son, Itys, and feeds him to Tereus. Has anyone seen this film ( The Cook...)? What do you think?

Blog #2

The Blood of the Poet

In the screening on Friday we watched Jean Cocteau’s The Blood of the Poet (Le Sang d'un Poete). It’s probably the earliest ‘experimental’ film I have seen (it was made around 1933) and it was pretty mesmerising.

It was full of vivid imagery, referencing Greek mythology, and even Christian symbols. I've had an interest in Greek mythology probably since learning about it in year 5 or 6. I can't precisely pin down what attracts me to these myths, but I would say it would be perhaps a combination of the exoticism in the polytheistic nature of their stories, the vivid imagery the stories conjure, and, of course, the blood-letting and revenge (while it is a Roman-ised version, who can go past the story of the Bacchae?).



Pentheus being torn into by the women of Bacchus.

So from this background, the references to Hermaphrodite (in Episode Two, through the key-hole) and Europa (in the closing stages of Episode Four) gave me a familiar reference in an oneiric cinescape.



Europa and Zeus as a bull.

Also, I picked up on some Christian images, however perhaps I just read a little too much into it (i think 13 years of Catholic schooling may be taking its toll...). Moments such as the painter/poet/protagonist first seeinging the mouth on his hand in Episode One, to me, referenced the stigmata of the hands, while the scene of the mask with two faces (one concave and one convex), also in Episode Two, referenced tears of blood. In Episode Two, in the first door the poet looks through, an execution takes place. Behind the victim we can see a small statue of Mary and Jesus, which is also shot. Perhaps Cocteau was proposing a refection on many types of spirituality or relgious expression; what do you think?

I was also intrigued by many of the techniques Cocteau used – the change of place between Episode One and Episode Two, the change of time between Episodes One and Two and Episode Three. Cocteau’s use of analogue techniques was interesting to watch as someone who has grown up in the digital age – something that I also found watching Rose Hobart – did anyone feel the same way? I think growing up alongside computers has made us take techniques, such as computer generated effects, for granted.

Watching Cocteau’s characters fly around ‘on the ceiling’, like the little girl behind the “Flying Lessons” door, or the poet/protagonist falling through the mirror, it was fairly obvious that the director used what he could to make the imaginable possible. It seemed as though the actors were performing lying on the floor, while the camera was positioned above them, in order to pretend the actors were defying gravity, or falling through mirrors (which was a small pool on the ground).

In comparison with Cornell's Rose Hobart, which we watched in the first seminar, I liked the confronting nature The Blood of the Poet exhibited... but this is coming from a girl who will take Nick Cave and Beckett over more moderate forms of literature or entertainment anyday...

After discussing Rose Hobart in the second seminar, I did feel more of an appreciation for artistic particularity Cornell instilled in the film: through using techniques more commonly used in the Silent Era, such as a blue filter for nighttime scenes, and a slower rate of frames per second - both of which I found gave the film an ethereal kind of quality.

Viewing both of these films has reminded me that movie techniques existed long before the computer (of course I remember the days of the hand drawn cartoons and the low-fi Wiggles) but I think this generation has become a little too dependent on high-tech computer generated graphics, when really we should just try performing on the floor a little bit more often.

Blog #1

So, here is my first blog entry. This is for Cinematic Modernism and so far I'm enjoying the challenge. The film last Friday, The Blood Of The Poet, was full of iconography that I want to discuss further, but will have to wait for my next blog, tomorrow. Hopefully. In today's lesson, however, we saw Sabina's blog and I would like to respond to hers with my own top five:

1. A Clockwork Orange - because of the effect of the the techiniques Kubrick uses rather than the actual content...
2. The Wind That Shakes The Barley - Ken Loach's interpretation of the Irish Republican Movement of the 1920s.
3. Trainspotting - love the movie (and the book - thanks post-modernism course of last semester), especially Robert Carlyle's performance as Begbie.
4. The Godfather (One) - a classic. No more needed. (Yes I know its a guy film, but who could resist such a performance by Marlon Brando , set in the 1930s??)
5. The Proposition - ok so I should say that I love Nick Cave from the outset. But an amazing film with amazing landscape.