Far From Heaven  (Todd Haynes, 2002.  108 minutes)

Oscar nominated for best actress, cinematography, music, writing. Four Independent Sprit Awards: female lead, male supporting, best feature, director

genre—a category of film, like western, musical, gangster film, science fiction, horror, and the like

family melodrama—a genre particularly popular in the1950s: “popular romances that depicted a virtuous individual (usually a woman) or couple (usually lovers) victimized by repressive and inequitable social circumstances, particularly those involving marriage, occupation, and the nuclear family.”  --Thomas Schatz, Hollywood Genres

characterized by

--broadly drawn writing and story,

--emotional, stylized acting

--these films don’t intend to be realistic

Douglas Sirk:  a director of the 1950s noted for his family melodramas.

parody—“an [amusing] imitation of human behavior or of a text, such as a book or film.” (Phillips 53)

Writer/director Todd Haynes says he wanted in FFH to take a “worn out genre of utter sentimentality” and “endow it with something genuine.” 

mise en scene: what we see within the film frame

setting: the filmmakers wanted

--to make “a set that looked like a set”

--to use “architecture as an emotional device,”   (Sundance Channel)

--the “décor and furniture to paint the backstory of the characters”

--Mark Friedberg, production designer

--to create “a visual world that would help underscore Frank and Kathy’s social suffocation….The inner rage of the character’s emotional lives is coming out in the scenes because it can’t come out in the way they interact with each other.”

--Mark Friedberg, production designer

We learn about characters through their action/appearance/ possessions  (text)

Kathy?

Frank ?

“We learn about characters by their appearance, including physical characteristics, posture, gestures, clothing, makeup, and hairstyle.” (Phillips 20)

--note the costuming, especially of Julianne Moore as Kathy.

saturated colors in the mise en scene—are they realistic? 

(as opposed to “desaturated colors” – see text)

time setting

--consider the writer/director’s choice to set the film in autumn and winter.

composition—arrangement of actors and objects within the film frame

--symmetrical composition

--assymetrical  composition

--loose framing

--tight framing

--rack focus

other terms we’ll read about later

crane shot

canted frame

one shot

two shot

"Anatomy of a scene" (26 minutes)

toward the end we see the whole scene. Stop it and point out

On one level this is obviously a film about taboos of a given culture—ours--at a given time, the 1950s. One taboo is interracial relationships (across boundaries of social class besides), the other taboo is homosexual relationships. And in a culture that "can’t see beyond the surface of things," there is a price to pay for either. Certainly Kathy Whitaker, as repressed and class bound as she is, is well meaning, as is Raymond. Yet the hypocritical society of the time doesn’t allow either of them to demonstrate their true feelings, and the portrayal of that hypocrisy makes for us, today, good cinema.

"I’ve learned my lesson about mixing in other worlds," says Raymond to Kathy. "I’ve seen the sparks fly. All kinds."

To be sure, these interracial and gay relationships are far from rare in our culture today. But the film asks, even for us: what it’s like to be "the only one in a room?" The film argues that this is still a relevant question. If it weren’t, the film would not be made, or at least not be financed by corporate Hollywood, and viewed favorably by audiences and critics, as this film was.

The existence, critical success, and relative popularity of the film all argue that we remain, to some degree at least, trapped in our own worlds, today, and that it’s difficult to venture beyond. The film hints we may not have come that far from the 50s in our attitudes toward race and sexual preference.

"How far have we really come form that very conservative ‘outmoded’ culture?" asks director Todd Haynes in the short we saw just a few minutes ago. Is the characters’ self deception and concern for the surface level of things, their suppressed emotional lives, their lies for the sake of appearance, their hypocrisy—is it that much different from what we can find in our own time? The film seems to me to imply that the difference is only one of degree.

In addition, given that this is a film that borrows from the work of another film maker at another time, I think the film is asking us how much of what we think we know about the world—our attitudes about race, sexuality, family life, social and business relationships--is shaped not by objective reality, but by Hollywood film, or as we say now, media? If this most "sentimental" of genres, the family melodrama, can still have meaning for us, there must be something in that genre that speaks to us, that seems familiar or almost comfortable to us. Why is it that this unrealistic, stylized melodrama can still have appeal for us today? It has to be because we think we’re learning something when we view Hollywood film, genre film, television, and other forms of mass culture. These films and media products tell us who we think we are.

If this film is effective for contemporary audiences, and I think it is, then have we really changed that much as a culture and a people?

Underneath the seemingly pure and innocent surface of our lives (whether it’s a quiet small city of the 1950s, or River Hills Mall in quiet Midwestern town in the next century) does there exist unspeakable heartbreak, repression, and conflict--purely because of people’s small mindedness about race and sexual preference, about materialism, wealth, and career? I have no doubt.

Do we still struggle to see beyond the surface of things? I think we do, and I think people always will.

Memento  (Christopher Nolan, 2000)  113 minutes

American Independent Cinema: “tend to be relatively low budget and focus on personal relationships…originate outside the Hollywood studios and are made all over the United States, not only in Southern California.”

“They are more likely…to deal with a controversial subject without showing the audiences what they want to see and to include an unhappy ending if the story has been building toward it”   (Phillips 326)

*

Plot: “the selection and arrangement of a story’s events”

Fabula (also sometimes called “story”): “the chronological reconstruction of all the events of a non-chronological plot”   (Phillips 272)

(read from page 272 out loud:  The plot of Memento is far out of chronological order.  In fact, beyond just using flashback, it departs from chronology in the following ways:

color title sequence – run backwards

black and white sequences – chronological order

color sequences after the title sequence – in reverse chronological order

They meet in the middle.  Thus the end of the plot is the middle of the fabula.

Writer/director’s problem: how to replicate for the viewer the mind of a protagonist who has short term memory loss.

*

running time: “amount of time in takes to view a film” (Phillips 272)

story time: “amount of time covered in a film’s story or narrative” (Phillips 274)

voiceover (or narration) “commentary in a film about a subject in the film or some other topic, usually from someone off screen” (Phillips 637)

editing:  “selection and arrangement of the processed segments of photographed motion picture film or video tape” (Phillips 627)

Building blocks (119-120):

shot:  “an uninterrupted strip of exposed motion-picture film or videotape made up of at least one frame.”

scene: a section of a narrative film that gives the impression of continuous action taking place during continuous time and in continuous space.”

sequence:  “a group of related scenes.”

Memento uses exact same pieces of film more than once at end/beginning of color sequences in order to help the viewer follow the story.

continuity editing: “film editing that maintains a sense of uninterrupted time and action and continuous setting within each scene of a narrative film.” (Phillips 624)  (also called “invisible editing”)

jump cut: “a transition between shots that causes a jarring or even shocking shift in space, time, or action.  A jump cut may be used to shorten the representation of an evente or to disorient viewers, or both.”  (Phillips 633)

Transitions

cut – traditionally, indicates the shortage passage of time

dissolve, or lap dissolve – traditionally, indicates a longer passage of time (and/or a change of scene)

fade out, fade in – traditionally, indicates the longest passage of time (and/or a change of scene)

After the film:

FROM DISK 2, “ANATOMY OF A SCENE”

2. from anatomy of a scene: 1:45(or beginning)-9:31 -- summary

[disc 2.  answer E three times.  choose b]

16:49-20:04

use of repeated film frame at beginning of one sequence and the end of the sequence two sequences later.

(total 13 minutes plus my commentary)

Here’s the fabula (or story) of Memento (as best I can tell!)

[for a more complete rendering, go to http://archive.salon.com/ent/movies/feature/2001/06/28/memento_analysis/]

Leonard Shelby’s wife is attacked by two intruders, drug addicts, in the bathroom of their home.  Leonard awakens and kills one intruder, but the other injures Leonard and escapes.  Leonard’s wife survives the attack, but because of the blow to the head Leonard is left with a condition in which he is unable to form new memories.  Leonard’s wife is a diabetic, and she asks Leonard to give her insulin shots.  At one point, concerned that Leonard might be faking his condition, she asks him to give her insulin shots continually until she falls into a diabetic coma and dies.  Leonard can’t face the fact that he has killed his own wife, and so he chooses not to remember that fact, insisting instead, to himself and others, that his wife was killed in the attack.  Leonard sets out to find that escaped killer.  He encounters a corrupt police officer, John Edward Gamel, also called Teddy, who is the only cop who believes Leonard’s story about the second attacker.  Teddy helps Leonard find and kill the second attacker.  But Leonard cannot, or does not, remember having gotten his revenge on the second attacker.  So Teddy uses Leonard to kill a drug dealer (Jimmy Grantz, Natalie’s boyfriend) whom he has tricked out of giving him 200,000 dollars to buy drugs that Teddy really doesn’t have.  But Leonard kills Teddy, thereby choosing not to remember that his wife survived the attack, that he is responsible for her eventual death, and that he has already killed his wife’s “killer.”  By killing Teddy, Leonard can continue seeking revenge for the crime.

1.  Chapter 3  fast forward

BEGIN  7:07 -10:11

--continuity editing, also called “invisible editing”

--note that through editing, unnecessary information is eliminated as Leonard leaves the motel room

--note that the pace of the film is relatively slow here.  The scene uses slow cutting between shots, relative long takes

Then note (8:00) the shot/reverse shot (also called “over the shoulder shote”) (see page 643) when Leonard talks to the motel desk man  (show it once)

The scene ends with the exact same bit of film that we saw beginning the earlier scene in the color sequence, Teddy beginning to come in the door.

2. chapter 4, clear example of continuity editing

*11:08-12:00

11:08: continuity editing through “eyeline match” when Leonard is washing his hands and notes the tattoo on this hand and later his wrist

11:35: note the observance of the “180 degree rule” in the conversation with the coffee shop manager.  The camera remains to one side of an imaginary line drawn between the two speakers in the scene.  To do otherwise would be visually confusing (see p 638)

3. chapter 4 fast forward to

1619 quick cut and fade in at beginning of black and white sequences. 

1620show it two or three times

4.  chapter 7

39:25—Sammy story: we get shots from different times of that story, edited together.  This is sometimes called American montage.  It’s a way of speeding up time through editing, summarizing a great deal of action quickly.  Sometimes, as here, it’s accompanied by a voiceover.  In this case it’s like a summary, generalization with examples as in a paper you’d write for school. 

then, we get jump cuts to approximate Leonard’s dream of wife’s murder.

along with a couple of swish pans (40:00)

40:25  END  play it twice

5.  chapter 8 then reverse to 4838

4848 & 48:53  these shots that show discontinuous action when Leonard is sitting on the bed might be considered jump cuts.  This particular film makes us expect this degree of editing, however, so these cuts might not call so much attention to themselves as to be considered jump cuts

49   Note that the editing pace picks up in chase scene.   Note the use of a steadicam  to film the chase scene.  

50:00  END

6.  chapter 9  54:00- 56:30—Leonard around the fire burning his wife’s things.  good example of continuity editing, with four defnite jump cuts dropped in to indicate flashback to what the scene Leonard remembers with his wife.  We see, for instance, Leonard pinching his wife’s legs, which we’ll learn later is because she was diabetic and he was about to give her a shot.

Dialogue: Leonard says “the pleasure of the book is wanting to know what happens next”—this could be considered a comment on Memento, where we might lack the context to be able to guess what will happen next, on the first viewing at least.  More about this later.

--note the dissolve to indicate passage of time within the same scene (as opposed to cuts and fades to black)  end 56:30  END

SUMMARY

What does this film “mean”?  That’s open to interpretation, to say the least.  We might consider the ambiguity of meaning in the film to be another characteristic of American Independent Cinema (though as the textbook rightly notes, independent film is so broad a category that it’s difficult to make generalizations about it).  

Perhaps a better question than “what does the film mean?” is “how does this film choose to make meaning?”  By manipulating structure—by telling the story in a non-chronological fashion to approximate Leonard’s state of consciousness--the film would seem to be commenting on how we make memories, which is in fragments.  We remember anecdotes, not stories.  That is, we remember individual things that happen to us, and we construct stories that provide motivation for those happenings. 

Or perhaps the film is commenting on how memory is by nature unreliable, subjective, as is Leonard’s memory.  Or on how we choose not to take responsibility for our actions in memory, letting ourselves off the hook, retelling our stories in a way that we will be either the hero or the victim, or perhaps both, not the perpetrator of evil or unwise actions.  Or as Teddy puts it to Leonard, “So you lie to yourself to be happy.  We all do it.  So what if there’s a few little details you don’t remember”

Or perhaps the film is commenting on the nature of story itself:  “The pleasure of the book” (or narrative), Leonard tells his wife in the flashback scene we just saw, “is wanting to know what will happen next.”  Or is it?  Leonard’s wife doesn’t seem to think so, and tells him as much.  She likes to read the same book over and over and tells him to leave her alone! 

This scene leaves me with a question I can’t answer to my own satisfaction (which in turn makes me more interested in the movie).  The question is, “Does Memento argue for or against the notion that the pleasure of a story is wanting to know what will happen next?  If that is the pleasure of a story, as Leonard seems to think, can a disabled man with a “condition” like Leonard not feel pleasure in story?  Perhaps not.  Does our interest, as viewers, in sorting out the events of the plot into a fabula, putting them in order to reconstruct the fabula (or story), indicate a natural human need for narrative?  Perhaps it does. 

Or can cinema give pleasure to the viewer even without that viewer being cognizant of the true chronological order of the events?  In simpler terms, can you enjoy this movie even if you don’t know exactly what happened, why it happened, and what order the events occurred in?  Maybe you can.

How to access the film (disk 1) and the bonus materials (disk 2)

(from dvdjournal.com)

disk 1

“There is a sheet of paper that comes as part of the packaging that even tells you that to play the movie you must highlight the word "watch" which appears in the middle of the word lists. The words themselves, then, are hints: "listen" leads to the sound selection menu, "comment" is the commentary track selection, "chapter" is scene selection, "read" is subtitles

*

disk 2

To get to this core menu click on the image of the clock, answer "E" for the three successive questions that come up, and there you are.

The much vaunted feature on this set's second disc is the movie in chronological order. It's hard to find. Basically you have to keep snooping around and answering psychological testing questions incorrectly so that you keep getting more Qs; eventually you will hit upon a question that asks you to put a narrative series of four images in the correct order. They show a woman noticing that her car has a flat tire, opening the trunk, changing the tire, and then closing the trunk. Click on each image in order and the image appears in blank boxes in the bottom half of the screen. The secret is, this being Memento, that you have to click on the images of the woman in reverse order of the narrative, i.e., closing the trunk first, seeing the flat tire last. When this is accomplished, the movie begins again, but with the closing credits running backwards. This is followed by all the black-and-white scenes in chronological order, and then by Leonard and Teddy going to the abandoned warehouse. And that's it. As far as I can tell, you don't get the whole movie in order, just these three portions.

FILM EXAM PREPARATION

At least 30 multiple choice questions

10 or more of the questions may have a visual component (film clip or still from a film)

Bring large (8 ½ x 11) Scantron and #2  pencil

What to study

            --terms boldfaced in text, defined in margins

            --main ideas of the readings

            --main idea of the lectures, as available in lecture notes on my web site

            --anything projected on overhead in class

            --clips played in class

            --text/lecture/film:  any point covered in two or more of these three is a good point to put on the exam

            --I won’t ask you any question about a film we haven’t viewed in class

            --The first two exams emphasize film techniques and terminology over ideas about the films

            --Take your time in completing the exam

Sample Types of Questions:

1. According to the lecture, the music man’s style is characterized by all of the following except which one?

a.    rhythm

b.   tactlessness

c.    responsibility, dependability

d.   resistance to social propriety (ie., rebelliousness)

6. In terms of the conventions of the musical genre, we could associate Baby in dirty dancing with which character in another film?

a.    Dale in Top Hat/

b.    Sally Bowles in Cabaret.

c.   Brian in Cabaret

d.   “both a and c”   or     “all of the above”   or   “none of the above”

(Question two is based on a clip from Far From Heaven)

2.  This scene provides examples of

a.    cross cutting, or parallel editing

b.   fast cutting

c.    rack focus

d.   split screen

16.  The arrangement of setting and subjects within the film frame

a.    parody

b.   composition

c.    setting

d.   montage