Fight Club

The theme of insomnia is present throughout the narrative of David Fincher's Fight Club (1999) as portrayed through the behaviour, actions and narration of the protagonist, played by Edward Norton. Neither here nor there, neither awake nor asleep the protagonist is never fully aware of the nature of his own morals, beliefs or relationships with those in the world around him.

Capitalism and consumerism in modern society are foregrounded as a common enemy for those involved in Project Mayhem. The left wing anarchist group are driven by the anti-establishment-damn-the-man morals propagated by Brad Pitt's Tyler Durden. The ideals promoted by the group are endemic to disenchanted anglo-saxon westerners. 

Marla Singer is both Tyler's love interest and symbol of disgust. His life is entwined with hers in ways in which he cannot comprehend, nor care to properly address. She sets him on a path to self destruction, yet is also the one thing in the world he has to cling to. Her existence is almost as illusory as Tyler's alter ego. 

I Heart Huckabees

The Blanket Scene

In Albert’s first introduction to the absurd detectives philosophical approach to therapy an amusing attempt is made by Bernard to explain to his client the theory of interconnectedness.  A white blanket is used by Bernard as a representation of all the matter and energy consisting within the universe; the blanket represents “everything”. Outside of the blanket there are only more blankets to be found. Bernard uses his fist protruding upwards underneath the blanket to describe to Albert the varying events, places and people that exist within this one blanket of universal space. Albert loosely grasps the concept “everything is the same, even if it’s different” from Bernard’s display. The existential detective further expounds upon this idea on interconnectedness by claiming, “but our everyday mind forgets this. We think everything is separate”.  Bernard goes on to discuss notions of truth and whole truth, referring to the latter as the “blanket truth” and subsequently denoting it as an integral element of understanding everyday life.   

Emotional Contagion

Emotional Contagion: Amy Coplan in her article "Catching Characters Emotions: Emotional Contagion Responses to Narrative Film" has described this curious effect as viewers "catching" observed onscreen emotions. Most simply put, contagion as defined by dictionary refers to the spread of disease from one person to another via close contact. Emotional contagion can therefore be regarded as the spread of emotions from one person to another either via visual or physical contact. In a film sense this relates to the spread of emotion from an onscreen character to an audience member as they view a film or a particularly emotive scene from a film. Directors often employ long close ups of characters faces in order to  convey the emotional distress felt by the onscreen persona to the beguiling cinema audience. Similarly, we are subject to the effects of emotional contagion in our everyday lives often in the forms of laughter, singing, dancing, yawning or arguing.

I have chosen to include a short excerpt from the animated Pixar film, Up as I believe it is able to communicate a range of emotions in a simple timeline of the married life of Ellie and Carl.

"Up" (2009)

Directed by Pete Docter & Bob Peterson

Poetics of Cinema Disgust

Julian Hanich's article, Toward a Poetics of Cinema Disgust deals with the techniques employed in cinema that seek to actively disgust, repulse, shock, sicken, startle, and generally administer feelings of "bodily disgust" amongst viewers. Commonly, "hints" are used throughout narratives in order to generate what Hanich refers to as "anticipatory disgust" in audience members. These hints may take the form of narration, subtitles and other visual cues such as framing or cutaways carrying an implicit meaning. Another popular technique is "sudden disgust", where directors will intentionally shock their audiences with surprise elements or actions within the film narrative in order to make their viewers jump or squirm in horror. Due to the use of these narrative "hints" films do not necessarily need to show something that is visually unappealing to the audience, as it can be merely implied as often the imagining of something repulsive will in turn disgust a films viewer. On the other hand, villains in films are most commonly portrayed as disfigured or unattractive in some way, compared with the visually appealing protagonist. Below I have included some clips that I believe demonstrate different forms of repulsion in films. 

"The Fly" (1986)

Directed by David Kronenberg

Based on the short story by George Langelaan

Excerpt "The Elephant Man" (1980)

Directed by David Lynch

Based on the book "The Elephant Man & Other Reminisces" by Frederick Treves 

Excerpt from "Pink Flamingoes" (1972)

Directed by John Waters

Written by John Waters 

Parametric Narration

Parametric Narration: A unique technique of narration typically used in art house cinema, favouring "style centred, permutational, poetic" according to Daniel Frampton in his book, Filmosophy. A "stylistic norm" exists within the film which will determine how the images are presented, often repeating themes and motifs to reinforce a certain mood or create a seemingly linear pattern. Essentially poetic in nature, the narrative may rely more heavily on the use of sound, images and actions to convey meaning and less on dialogue. Below I have included some short clips from films which I consider to utilise the technique of parametric narration. 

Dead Man (1995)

Directed by Jim Jarmusch

Written by Jim Jarmusch

Stalker (1979)

Directed by Andre Tarkovsky 

Written by Boris & ArkadiyStrugatskiy

Valhalla Rising (2009)

Directed by Nicolas Winding Refn

Written by Roy Jacobsen, Matthew Read & Nicolas Winding Refn

Andre Bazin & The French New Wave

Andre Bazin was a prominent academic figure in the French film society during the 1950s and 60s in Paris. A co-founder of the French cinema journal, Cahiers du Cinema he influenced a generation of up and coming young directors who would be at the fore front of French new wave cinema. Bazin developed theories surrounding the ontology of cinema and the psychological experience depicted in the moving image of film. He widely discussed correlations between psychology and cinema, such as representations in dialogue and movement that were both stylistic and meaningful. 

 

La Nouvelle Vague, translated in English as 'the new wave', marked a period in French filmmaking that was upbeat, on topic, heavily stylised and deliberately removed from the period dramas that had dominated the French film industry. This new wave of cinema was instigated by a troupe of young, philosophical and energetic directors intent of creating innovative films for an evolving audience. The directors Jean-Luc Godard, Francois Truffaut, Eric Rohmer, Agnes Varda, Alain Resnais were all spawned from La Nouvelle Vague and would enjoy varying degrees of success as auteurs.

Breathless "A bout de souffle" (1960)

Directed by Jean-Luc Godard

Written by Francois Truffaut

Last Year at Marienbad "L'annee derniere a Marienbad" (1961)

Directed by Alain Resnais

Written by Alain Robbe-Grillet

The 400 Blows "Les quatre cents coups"(1959)

Directed by Francois Truffaut

Written by Francois Truffaut & Marcel Moussy