What films have you seen tackle these subjects more eloquently?
Sorry--I started out with a potshot that became a screed.
I can't think of any single film that attempts to tackle all these subjects at once, as FFH does. In that sense, it is admirable. As for films that tackle these topics more eloquently: "Imitation of Life," "Written on the Wind" and "All That Heaven Allows."
However, I think, as with a lot of cultural product these days, the shiny surface overwhelms the content. The only thing it comes close to expressing in some depth is that of the claustrophia of life as a closeted gay middle-class man in the 50s. And something that bears commenting on is the privileged status, (though tenuous), of the Dennis Quaid character. He's the only one with a relatively happy ending, yet his situation is presented to us as semi-tragic.
I think the filmmaker means for us to see the situations of all three characters as related, as part of piece. And they are, but somehow everything still stays on the surface. Many would argue that that's what the 50s and the suburban milieu was all about. Julianne Moore's ludicrous wig is all part of that, just as the hairstyles in the Sirk films were, except back then, it was the style. However, one of the many virutes of Sirk's films is how far they do go beneath the surface, even as they exploit surfaces to tell stories.
I think what is lost in the visual and thematic allusions to Sirk in FFH is Sirk's compassion for his characters. In FFH, the characters go through the paces in a highly stylized manner, behind a glass, at more than the usual one remove from the audience. Sirk's films are high melodrama with extreme acting, but there's no irony in those performances. My half-baked point about the wig is that I think there is a static, vaguely ridiculous and slightly malevolent quality to the Julianne Moore character throughout the film. This quality belies the otherwise high-style, straight-faced depiction of the times and the characters caught within.
I think maybe the idea is that today an art filmmaker can only present material as "hot" as this in a "cool," detached, stylized way, in the same way that Sirk used high-melodrama to present themes that would not have been as presentable otherwise.
It is that very high stylization is what makes me see FFH as a period object in the way that Sirk's films never were. I cannot take it seriously as a film that radically "tackles" the themes of repression and oppresion of women, gays and African-Americans. It's a reminder, and it's a valentine to Sirk for what he put forth in a time when it genuinely was radical and difficult for such themes to be discussed.
"Imitation of Life" is a great film about race, class and mother-daughter conflictcompetition. Likewise themes of classism and repression of desire, both straight and gay, in "All That Heaven Allows," "Written on the Wind," and "Tarnished Angels." In screenings today, you might hear jeers and hollers and laughs, but it's history and melodrama and anachronisms that most people laugh at. It's like being scared at a horror movie. One doesn't really want to believe that that kind of behaviour goes on today, even as one knows it does.
I think in trying to use the 50s and Sirk style to talk about certain strands and themes of life that persist today, Haynes did an admirable job. It's just that in the coldness and unevenness of presentation, he has presented a film that is more a bad dream of the 50s than a work of art with contemporary resonance.
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- steve 3-04-2003 9:26 am
Sorry--I started out with a potshot that became a screed.
I can't think of any single film that attempts to tackle all these subjects at once, as FFH does. In that sense, it is admirable. As for films that tackle these topics more eloquently: "Imitation of Life," "Written on the Wind" and "All That Heaven Allows."
However, I think, as with a lot of cultural product these days, the shiny surface overwhelms the content. The only thing it comes close to expressing in some depth is that of the claustrophia of life as a closeted gay middle-class man in the 50s. And something that bears commenting on is the privileged status, (though tenuous), of the Dennis Quaid character. He's the only one with a relatively happy ending, yet his situation is presented to us as semi-tragic.
I think the filmmaker means for us to see the situations of all three characters as related, as part of piece. And they are, but somehow everything still stays on the surface. Many would argue that that's what the 50s and the suburban milieu was all about. Julianne Moore's ludicrous wig is all part of that, just as the hairstyles in the Sirk films were, except back then, it was the style. However, one of the many virutes of Sirk's films is how far they do go beneath the surface, even as they exploit surfaces to tell stories.
I think what is lost in the visual and thematic allusions to Sirk in FFH is Sirk's compassion for his characters. In FFH, the characters go through the paces in a highly stylized manner, behind a glass, at more than the usual one remove from the audience. Sirk's films are high melodrama with extreme acting, but there's no irony in those performances. My half-baked point about the wig is that I think there is a static, vaguely ridiculous and slightly malevolent quality to the Julianne Moore character throughout the film. This quality belies the otherwise high-style, straight-faced depiction of the times and the characters caught within.
I think maybe the idea is that today an art filmmaker can only present material as "hot" as this in a "cool," detached, stylized way, in the same way that Sirk used high-melodrama to present themes that would not have been as presentable otherwise.
It is that very high stylization is what makes me see FFH as a period object in the way that Sirk's films never were. I cannot take it seriously as a film that radically "tackles" the themes of repression and oppresion of women, gays and African-Americans. It's a reminder, and it's a valentine to Sirk for what he put forth in a time when it genuinely was radical and difficult for such themes to be discussed.
"Imitation of Life" is a great film about race, class and mother-daughter conflictcompetition. Likewise themes of classism and repression of desire, both straight and gay, in "All That Heaven Allows," "Written on the Wind," and "Tarnished Angels." In screenings today, you might hear jeers and hollers and laughs, but it's history and melodrama and anachronisms that most people laugh at. It's like being scared at a horror movie. One doesn't really want to believe that that kind of behaviour goes on today, even as one knows it does.
I think in trying to use the 50s and Sirk style to talk about certain strands and themes of life that persist today, Haynes did an admirable job. It's just that in the coldness and unevenness of presentation, he has presented a film that is more a bad dream of the 50s than a work of art with contemporary resonance.
- bunny (guest) 3-04-2003 7:23 pm [add a comment]