These two texts do not at all promote catharsis, that moment when the text comes around in full-circle (regularly with summary, ending/conclusion, bows all wrapped). We leave BF and SD with no real sense of how to "read" them. So, in class, I would like to hear various ways we can receive them. As you can tell from my online notes, I will discuss them in terms of capitalism: how, by working in "Capital Pictures" and a drug culture, these texts explore contemporary capitalism's mass-production, mass-consumption and the forms in which we find such.
Monday, March 16, 2009
Barton Fink and Scanner Darkly
I welcome all the new participants in our class discussions last week. It is always a good thing to reveal your involvement with the material. This doesn't mean that you have to like that material, but that you should show how you are intellectually involved/engaged in it. To that end, we turn to two other texts, Barton Fink and A Scanner Darkly.
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When Scanner Darkly first came out on DVD I started watching it with some friends but had to stop because I was feeling nausous. I thought that it was the new technology of putting CGI over live action although 300 and Beowolfe did not produce the same effects. After reading the book I understand that the feeling was actually built into the film with the new technology in order to enhance the feeling that the book was attempting to.
ReplyDeleteThe Coens brother had very specific idea about every sound and Foley especially that mosquito sound, which creates and enhance a sense of unreal world to the audience. Because it is not a common situation when a mosquito can survive in Los Angles (Desert). The special effects also enhance the theme of madness between Fink and Charlie in certain extent such as the fire of the hotel. There are many stylistic camera movements in the film, which help to tell the story and the theme. Zooming-in and tracking down shot dominate the film, which create the psychological effect and bring the audience to the character’s state of mind. The setting of the film is also helping the storytelling. The low-key lighting, mysterious sound score, and the typing sound enhance the intensity of the character and the mood of environment.
ReplyDeleteFor Scanner Darkly, it reveals the surreal setting in the American society, and express on several social problems during the 1960s. The protagonist finds himself in a complicated plot, which makes him somewhat anti-hero. The theme reveal the character who lost the reality of the world, because of drug use.
I know that it's late and we have ended the discussion on Barton Fink and Scanner Darkly, but I had a few extra thoughts after class and wanted to write them down.
ReplyDeleteWhat's also interesting about Mad Men is that the main male characters work at an advertising agency. Advertising is part of the disease and the cure. Advertising also deals with our consumer culture.
When we were comparing silent cinema acting to cinema with talking I thought of Singin' In The Rain. It shows the issues of what happened to actors and film making in general when the shift happened. The use of voice and how mics worked (or didn't). And also issues of actors loosing their jobs. Or using other actors for their voices to keep the face and character type.
It is interesting how you look at films in a different way as you learn about issues in them. Or even knowing the time period of Singin' In The Rain I never completed realized that actors and actresses lost their jobs and others in the business took their place or people came from other parts of the entertainment industry to become actors and actresses. Also first impressions of people aren't always the true view of someone or someone's character isn't necessarily who they are as themselves.
It's a lot to think about...issues of characters, which actors/actresses play them, consumer culture, and how the consumer or view of the film actually views or recognizes them.
What I noticed as particularly striking, and while it may not be a central theme in the movie it is of great importance in examining it, was Barton and his relationship to the "common man" he deifies. At the beginning of the movie, Barton is only around the upper classes, yet writes of common people. Here, the common man is essentially an abstract figure to him. As the movie progresses, Barton's pretentiousness is made clearer; he is placed right next door to a live specimen of his obsession, but refuses to acknowledge him in conversation or in writing. Barton abruptly cuts off Charlie every time the he says, "I could tell you some stories...", and never writes him into his script. This clearly suggests that Barton does not really accept the common man as anything more than an ideal theatrical novelty, showing also that Barton sees his own mind as much more capable of complexity and creativity than common folk, also demonstrated during his brawl with the sailors. In fact, Barton's lauding of the common man may merely be selfish, insensitive intellectual trespassing ("You come into MY home... and complain that I'm making too much noise?)".
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