I am lucky to have the chance to listen to Prof. Adrian Martin the third semester in row. His recent course focuses on "New Approaches to Film Genre" and thereby dismantles clichés and "rules of genre" that seem to be cast in stone.
Last week we concentrated on Nicholas Ray's They Live by Night (1948). Prof. Martin introduced this movie as relevant regarding the problems it caused those ones who tried to classify and label it.
If you look up the movie on Wikipedia, They Live by Night is labeled "only" as film-noir. But as you will see in short, it is actually much more than "just" film-noir. At that, I don't want to run down film-noir as a specific genre but I want to criticise the general tradition to squeeze a movie into one (or in this case two) words (to simplify marketing).
In favour of understanding the mixture of elements of different genres, we were introduced to the theme of Lovers On The Run, which was a very recurring one, especially in America, where the story of Bonny and Clyde received a lot of medial attention and processing. Thus its influence on the film industry is apparent. In fact, the influence has been so enormous that it evolved into a "transversal, multi-generic constellation or ensemble" thus is released of the stigma of using it one particular genre.
The topic of two lovers fleeing from the pressure of daily life to some place far away is recurring in gangster, romance, road movies, film noir and many others. We were given a few examples by Prof. Martin that I am happy to share with you:
The important thing to note here is, that due to the mixture of romance, criminal energy, freedom and denial of society, the theme of Lovers On The Run becomes un-classifiable.
We went on to verify this thesis in They Live by Night.
Whereas "traditional" noir films stress the ugliness and share very little sentimentality over family we instantly see that Keechie and Bowie are absolutely not depicted as ugly and opposingly to "tradition", the role of family binding and alleged caring is emphasised. The biggest focus is on the couple itself, Keechie and Bowie.
It is quite refreshing to see the juxtaposition of male and female beauty, while the traditional introduction of the female is neglected through the veiling of Keechie. Bowie on the other hands is treated with beauty-shots and close-up to stress his appeal.
While the topic of crime is very present, Ray leaves out key action scenes while he stresses the love-interest. Jacques Rancière describes this technique as the "Missing Shot"*. Ray uses the absence of specific genre-shots to what Ria Benerjee describes as "mark[ing] its distance from the norms of genre".**
This week we will watch Terrence Malick's Badlands (1973) and continue to analyse the unique mixture of specific genre elements. I'm going to update this article as soon as possible.
At least, imdb seems to care more about labeling movies: on imdb it is classified as crime, film-noir and romance.
Update:
Badlands not only mixed different elements of genre, but it also is hugely influenced by real-time events. Although it has never been publicly confirmed, the story of Kitt and Holly relies heavily on the Starkweather/Fugate killig spree in 1958. This crime case influenced various artists such as the Photographer Christian Patterson:
When it comes to elements we can add to the Lovers on the Run topic, Prof. Martin emphasised the theme of childhood. Holly's behavior throughout the whole movie can be characterised as somehow stunned, naive and childlike. Also nature itself becomes a recurring theme. Note how Holly and Kitt built a fort in the woods to perform their need of protection. They don't think about what comes next, instead Malick shows them dancing in the middle of nowhere. Kitt also does not communicate the image of a "true" criminal. He acts very pragmatic and takes no actual pleasure in killing - he just does what needs to be done.
Update:
Badlands not only mixed different elements of genre, but it also is hugely influenced by real-time events. Although it has never been publicly confirmed, the story of Kitt and Holly relies heavily on the Starkweather/Fugate killig spree in 1958. This crime case influenced various artists such as the Photographer Christian Patterson:
"The story involves so many heavy themes — teenage angst, young love, longing and escape; confusion, panic and fear; violence, and ultimately, the loss of innocence. It also involved the element of travel, across nearly the entire length of the state of Nebraska. And so the story was like a road map, and I began to think that I could follow that map …"He pretty much describes the aesthetics and melting of different themes and motives in this quote, which are continued in Malick's adaption.
When it comes to elements we can add to the Lovers on the Run topic, Prof. Martin emphasised the theme of childhood. Holly's behavior throughout the whole movie can be characterised as somehow stunned, naive and childlike. Also nature itself becomes a recurring theme. Note how Holly and Kitt built a fort in the woods to perform their need of protection. They don't think about what comes next, instead Malick shows them dancing in the middle of nowhere. Kitt also does not communicate the image of a "true" criminal. He acts very pragmatic and takes no actual pleasure in killing - he just does what needs to be done.
"Kit doesn't see himself as anything sad or pitiable, but as a subject of incredible interest, to himself and to future generations. Like Holly, like a child, he can only really believe in what's going on inside him. Death, other people's feelings, the consequences of his actions-they're all sort of abstract for him. He thinks of himself as a successor to James Dean-a Rebel without a Cause-when in reality he's more like an Eisenhower conservative. 'Consider the minority opinion,' he says into the rich man's tape recorder, 'but try to get along with the majority opinion once it's accepted.' He doesn't really believe any of this, but he envies the people who do, who can. He wants to be like them, like the rich man he locks in the closet, the only man he doesn't kill, the only man he sympathises with, and the one least in need of sympathy. It's not infrequently the people at the bottom who most vigorously defend the very rules that put and keep them there."***Like in They Live By Night a deeply aspiration for settlement, wealth and a life without problems is evoked by this quote by Malick. Their actual failure to assimilate does not mitigate this dream at all, instead it reveals how devastating unpromising normal, everyday life can be. The individuals who perish are not to be blamed as they are the products of a reckless machinery, generating templates of living a life.
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* "The Missing Shot: The Poetics of Nicholas Ray" by Jacques Rancière,FILM FABLES (Berg, 2006)
** compare her recent book on Nicholas Ray
*** Beverly Walker's Interview with Terrence Malick on http://www.eskimo.com/~toates/malick/art6.html
*** Beverly Walker's Interview with Terrence Malick on http://www.eskimo.com/~toates/malick/art6.html
All images belong to the corresponding wikipedia-page
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