Isolated as a Whole

Jeffrey Sconce includes among his five elements of “smart” film style a thematic critique of the white middle class family as a site of miscommunication and emotional dysfunction. To explore this notion in depth, I will examine the following films: sex, lies and videotape (Steven Soderbergh 1989), Safe (Todd Haynes 1994) and Boogie Nights (P.T. Anderson 1997). Each of these “smart” films provides a critical commentary on the family in relation to the individual; however, each film is unique in its approach to the subject matter, as they each employ distinct filmmaking techniques to convey a similar idea. The main characters in each of these films are distanced from their families and must seek acceptance and comfort elsewhere. While they are each considered to be thematically and aesthetically similar according to the conceptualizations of the 1990’s “smart” film, they each offer disparate results for each protagonist once they have ventured far from their respective families: Ann’s issues are resolved and the future looks hopeful; Carol is relocated to an equally isolating environment, seeming unaware of the lack of progress made, and the future looks grim; Eddie/Dirk has not learnt anything, and continues to acquire validation sexually, lacking any self-awareness, and any hope for his future looks fleeting.

Animating Auteurism: Contemporary Japanese Animator Hayao Miyazaki According to 1950’s Auteur Policy

In the 1950s, Cahier du Cinema critics were writing about “la politique des auteurs”, or “auteur policy”. The central concept of “la politique des auteurs”, as delineated by the Cahier du Cinema critics, is that “the cinema is an art of personal expression” (Buscombe 22). The Cahier critics believed that some directors should be recognized as artists, as their personalities were consistently found across a body of work. In his article, “De la Politique des Auteurs” written in 1968, Andre Bazin contemplates the validity of the auteur policy as the subject has become a matter of debate among film critics. He believes the final product, the film, is more important than the director (Bazin 20), while the politique des auteurs places the emphasis on the director, the author, the artist, and his personality, rather than one film in isolation. Bazin also speaks of the significance of the industry in which a director’s films are produced (22). The conditions under one must work impact the final product, and this must be taken into account. Bazin goes on to discuss films made completely by the director, stating that these films are indefinitely more personal (24). While Bazin teeters back and forth throughout his essay as to whether or not the politique des auteurs is a fruitful endeavor, he comes to a conclusion deducing that the policy is in fact useful as a concept, but it must be accompanied by complimentary approaches (28). He declares that the auteur policy is not a complete theory and must not be treated as one. In 1973, Edward Buscombe suggests three approaches to supplement the auteur policy: (a) the “effects of the cinema on society” must be examined; as well as  (b) “the effect of society on cinema”; and finally (c) “the effects of films on other films” must be considered (32). Theorists, audiences and critics still exercise the term auteur today, applying it to directors whose work is recognizable as their own, both stylistically and thematically. Hayao Miyazaki is an auteur. While examining Miyazaki’s Spirited Away (2001) and Princess Mononoke (1997), I will argue that he is worthy of the title auteur according to the original auteur policy.

Adventures in Animated Adaptation

             While exploring adaptation and animation, I will undertake a comparative reading of Lewis Carroll’s “Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland” and Disney’s 1951 film adaptation Alice in Wonderland. Paul Wells explores the animated film adaptation in his essay “Thou Art Translated: Analysing Animated Adaptations”. He argues that animation is “a distinctive film-form which offers to the adaptation process a unique vocabulary of expression unavailable to the live-action film-maker” (199); “animation […] provides a vocabulary that enables the most sensitive response to literary texts” (212). Kamilla Elliott delves into the debate surrounding the novel and film as she explores “adaptations and analogies”(211), drawing the distinction between novels that conjure images in the minds of readers, and films that offer words that must compete with the simultaneous images on-screen. She studies the various adaptations of Lewis Carroll’s Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland and contends that the Disney film adaptation is able to illustrate the novel’s verbal imagery successfully with literal pictorial representations of the “hybrid verbal-visual puns” (226-228). My analysis will be primarily confined to Wells’ theorization of the animated adaptation. I will focus my comparison on reading closely the adaptation in terms presented by his model. While drawing from a comparative analysis of Lewis Carroll’s “Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland” and Disney’s animated adaptation, I will argue that animation enables the filmmaker to transform the written word to the screen without constraint. This will be made clear while exploring the extensive capacities available to the medium outlined by Paul Wells and Kamilla Elliott, including the “greater continuity between how the text is imagined (the imagist principle) and reformed (the propositional mode)” (Wells 210); the ways in which words evoke images, while images may reciprocally evoke words (Elliott 211); and the seamless transitions from interiority/subjectivity to exteriority/objectivity afforded by this film form (Wells 200).

Lying to Tell the Truth: An Exploration of the Mockumentary "I'm Still Here"

            While examining the film I’m Still Here (Affleck 2010), which was marketed and promoted as a documentary featuring actor Joaquin Phoenix and his questionable career change and simultaneous downfall, I will explore the mock documentary (also referred to as the “mockumentary”). This strategic and arguably successful marketing strategy created the necessary attention and hype leading up to the film’s release. By employing the notion that the events in the film are non-fictional, and that the bearded man behind the sunglasses is the actor we used to know and love, the creators successfully raised eyebrows and received the desired attention from the public. During my examination, I will analyze the various responses and reactions to the film in relation to its intentional blurring of fiction and reality. This film is significant in the discussion of representations of the real as it forces viewers to think critically and engage with the film throughout, questioning whether it is a raw and invasive look into the life of a celebrity, or if it is a complex fabrication as a means to comment on celebrity culture, or as an elaborate acting performance used to enhance a dwindling career. The true brilliance of this film is that it successfully works on several levels simultaneously. However, many critics seem less open-minded as they incessantly try to deduce from this thought-provoking work only one of these explanations, rather than see it for all of its layers of genius. Moviegoers and critics alike seem to be offended that they had been “fooled”, and as the debate escalated, the term “hoax” was thrown into the mix. The mockumentary is not a new phenomenon, nor are films that neglect to confirm what is in fact real and what is artifice. I will embark on this process of analysis by first studying the mock documentary in general. Next, I will look at articles pertaining to the film in question specifically. I will investigate the discourse surrounding the film, examining how it was discussed in the media, and ultimately ask why the debate was framed in the way that it was.

I am embarrassed to admit it: I like "Twilight"

An analysis of Ien Ang’s interpretation of the ideology of mass culture and its opponents

            Ien Ang explores the ideology of mass culture in relation to the social image of American television series “like Dallas” which often receive negative attention due to this ideology. “There are very few programmes that people will freely and plainly admit they like to watch… people seem to feel a compelling need to explain, defend and justify their viewing habits” (Alasuutari, 1992). The film Twilight (Hardwicke 2008) is an excellent example of popular mass culture which can be examined using Ang’s essay on Dallas and the ideology of mass culture as a methodological model to detail the discursive constitution of the social image of this beloved film as Ang does. “By ‘ideology of mass culture’ she means the negative image commonly given to so-called mass culture”; the thought processes which provoke negative associations with some cultural forms, mostly very popular cultural products and practices cast in an American mould, labelling them as ‘bad mass culture’ (Ang, 1998). Although she provides a wealth of insight to this discussion regarding different types of reading positions throughout her analysis, it is important to pay attention to the amount of autonomy she gives to her viewers. She seems to carelessly dismiss the practices of publicity and promotion, focusing too much upon the ideology of mass culture at the expense of other structural and institutional facets that bring the audience to the program and/or film. In Ang’s desperate search for an alternative position to the ready-made conceptions supplied by the structured ideology of mass culture, she tends to ignore significant external factors, and then, she proceeds with a fabrication of an oppositional reading position, which bears no existence among her research. She claims this reading position adopts an independent attitude toward the ideology of mass culture, when really it is yet another strategic defence mechanism, much like the others she explores, which would not exist without this ideology in which it contrasts.

Walter Neff and Travis Bickle

              In Billy Wilder’s 1944 film Double Indemnity and Martin Scorsese’s 1976 film Taxi Driver, many similarities can be drawn regarding the male protagonists Walter Neff and Travis Bickle, who both become enveloped within the cities in which they dwell. Neff resides in the centripetal core of Los Angeles, but spends a lot of his time in the peripheries of the city in a centrifugal space, whereas Bickle lives in the center of New York and is engulfed within this centripetal space, never straying far from the city core. He gradually becomes consumed by it, and ultimately obsessed with the state the city is in, constantly observing his surroundings, experiencing brief encounters with his various taxi customers, progressively building on his anxiety and disgust concerning the “scum” of the city. Although these two films are presented in very different ways, pertaining to elements such as cinematography and genre, as well as the very different times in which they were created, it is important to first establish the similarities which can be drawn from them, before exploring the different ways in which they are presented cinematically.

            Walter Neff and Travis Bickle exhibit similarities, as they both become entangled and obsessed with their plans. In both films, the plan is made possible because of the modern advances in technology, such as the automobile. However, simultaneously, these advances also contribute to their demise. Also, Neff and Bickle each develop a liking for a female character. In both films, the woman contributes to the protagonist’s new found necessity to boldly overcome the unfulfilling life he has been passively drifting through. The difference here is that in Double Indemnity, Phyllis is actively engaged in the plan and therefore plays a much more important role. Whereas in Taxi Driver Betsey is hardly included in the film, and is not in any way involved in Bickle’s plan (or lack there of). Furthermore, Neff’s scheme eventually backfires, leaving him unsuccessful and without his trophy woman, paralleling with Taxi Driver as Bickle is unsuccessful in his pursuit to murder Palentine, and also similarly does not end up with the woman. However, in both films, the protagonist city dweller is able to come to peace with himself- Walter through confession and seeing to Lola’s safety, and Travis through freeing young Iris from this corrupting, dangerous city, giving her a second chance to live a better life.

Body Modifications: Are Tattoos and Body Piercing an Outlet for Expression and Individuality? Or Are These Decisions Permanently Closing Doors?

              When considering the social impact of body language, attractiveness may have an impact in various settings, including the job setting: who obtains a job and who does not? Who is offered a promotion, or a more prestigious job, or a higher salary? The nonverbal cues in which I propose to research are tattoos and body piercings. Many stereotypes and judgments have developed surrounding these two forms of body modification. A negative connotation has developed. As tattooing and piercing are both becoming increasingly popular in Western society, as well as many other areas of the world, it is important to study the possible implications behind these forms of expression, especially when discussing tattoos as they are a decision being made which lasts a lifetime. What are individuals’ first impressions when meeting someone for the first time and are able to see visible tattoos and/or body piercings? Do they form a completely different judgment whether a tattoo/piercing is visible? What kinds of things are associated with tattoos and piercings? As they are becoming increasingly popular, are opinions changing as well? Are we becoming more open-minded, accepting individuals’ personal choices of partaking in permanent body art? As these forms of body modification become more and more common, is it possible that future generations no longer carry with them these negative ideals regarding tattoos/piercings? Will society one day consider these currently frowned upon artifacts to be forms of expression, beauty, and design? Or, are the increasing numbers of individuals who are participating in these forms of body modification closing doors, limiting future endeavors, eliminating possibilities, opportunities, which they otherwise would have had?

            The main question I will be addressing is: Do first impressions differ if a person has a visible tattoo/piercing? My study will relate this question to the workplace in a job interview setting. This research proposal aims to determine whether or not employers formulate stereotypical judgments and negative first impressions of applicants based on visible tattoos and/or body piercings.