Wow! Everyone did such amazing work! It was lovely to read all of your thoughts and ideas.
Erica examines the undefined curse that haunts the main characters
of It Follows. The film focuses on a group of teens that is
cursed/haunted/infected by some unknown force that holds the key feature
of presenting itself as an entity following them. She does an
excellent job of illustrating how the creature is both
seen and unseen—neither dark matter nor visible matter—which I found
particularly interesting as it had never occurred to me to examine
something that is both. Erica also grapples with the morality that is
being communicated to the audience regarding sex.
You see, the “it” of It Follows chases a person until they have
sex with someone. At that point, the demon (or whatever it is) will
follow the new person. As Erica points out, it isn’t difficult to find a
connection between this and an STI. Should this
entity catch up with the infected character, they will die (the only
one we see onscreen involves sexual assault). I agree with her that it
is unclear what might be the intended message is behind
It Follows, but-- whatever it is-- it most assuredly is strongly trying to communicate something about what we do with our genitals.
Dharmik continues the cinematic trend to discuss
The Blair Witch Project, Inception, and Oldboy. He
discusses how scary movies lost their luster to him once the monster was
revealed. This made the Blair Witch Project more chilling: there were
so many unknown variables and elements hidden
from view. Similarly, the ending of Inception holds greater
impact and intrigue because it is left ambiguous whether or not Leo’s
character is still dreaming. The tumblr post that he references in this
regard is hilarious. Finally, he brings up
Oldboy. I’m afraid I’ve only seen the Korean version, which is
more explicit with regard to the questions Dharmik was wrestling with
(i.e. why Oh Dae-su was imprisoned for 15 years). That said, as he
deftly points out, the unknown whys about the imprisonment
drive Oh Dae-su mad more so than the other tortures that he endures. As
a flip side to the efficacy of dark matter, I’d put forward the fight
scene from Park Chan-wook’s OldBoy. It is relentless and exhausting to
watch.
Austin also delves into
The Blair Witch Project. I had completely forgotten about the
advertising campaign that included “trolling” the public with fake news
articles and the like. That fills me with so much mischievous glee, I
can’t even tell you! The video that he posted
gave a ton of fascinating information about the production process.
It’s funny how many times the person presenting points out happy
accidents that involved moving from the seen to the unseen (and how much
better the film was for it).
The Blair Witch Project was innovative on so many levels and I’m thrilled to have a more in-depth understanding of how ground-breaking it truly was!
Austin also ties these ideas to “implied violence” using the primary example of the famous shower scene in
Psycho.
Andrea discussed the briefcase in
Pulp Fiction. To the uninitiated, it is a MacGuffin that
characters in the film die for—although we the audience never learn of
its contents. She lists several theories about what is in the
briefcase, all of which are fascinating to consider: “Wallace’s soul… the Oscar that Quentin Tarantino hopes
to win, a human head, the ear from Reservoir Dogs, O.J.’s other glove, Michael Jackson’s other glove, Rudolph’s nose, and the diamonds from the robbery in
Reservoir Dogs.”
Apparently, another popular theory was that the glowing inside emanated
from a nuclear bomb. As you have likely already observed, this
speculation gave
the movie so much more interest and dimension. This would never have
been possible with a clearly stated, “Oh. Yes, it’s the diamonds
from Reservoir Dogs.”
Drea also discusses her experiences as an actor in
Gideon’s Knot.
The production choice to have his photograph on the walls was not a
strong one in her eyes. I agree that it made a handful of the dark
matter aspects of
the titular character less impactful. Her discussion of the play’s
messages with regard to morality, responsibility, and trauma are
delightful and nuanced. I highly recommend giving them a read!
Mike gave us a sampling of a handful of different dark matter examples. He began with the choices Spielberg made
in Jaws. By opting for the shark to be hidden under the water,
or to take POV shots from the shark’s perspective, etc the tension built
up higher than it would have if we saw it. It became a much more
powerful monster through our imaginations. He contrasted
this with the President’s entrance in the pilot episode of the West Wing.
It was so impactful that the idea of his being dark matter was
unthinkable to the show’s creators and audience. He finished up with a
discussion of
12 Angry Men. The suspect drives the plot while never making an
appearance (or only briefly doing so if you’re thinking about the film
version). The fact that he is a young, underprivileged immigrant affects
how some of the jurors think of him. The “biases
and personal tendencies” that this dark matter brings out not only adds
depth to the play but frames things in such a way that the audience can
critique these biases which quite likely exist in their own lives (or
at least those of the people they interact
with).
Sarah
reflects on what dark matter means and the role the seen matter plays
in the
power of the unseen. She draws a distinction between how dark matter
affects actors and how it impacts characters. The performer has to
wrestle with the many unknowns of the world of the theatrical work and
paradoxes inherent therein. By contrast, the character’s
dark matter is predominantly internal. As she elegantly puts it: “An
actor’s dark matter would be the “work” that goes towards the
performance; a collection of exercises and training which should result
in an intangible change that is solidified in a “good”
performance. A character’s dark matter on the other hand, would be the
world created around and within himself; no one can see the
psychological landscape of this being, but it exists and influences
their actions nonetheless.” She continues on to discuss the
dark matter of men in Danai Gurira’s Eclipsed. The playwright felt that
the absence of men would force the audience to look at the women. The
women are oppressed and otherwise heavily influenced by the men in their
lives but this shift of focus recontextualizes
the events in a way that puts greater emphasis on gender, war, and
politics.
Osi
discussed Aunt Ester and her dark matter presence in the Pittsburgh
Cycle. Aunt
Ester is a former slave that provides characters with advice (she turns
400 next year—that’s a lot of candles). She does not appear onstage
except in Gem of the Ocean but her presence is and elusive and
simultaneously strongly felt undercurrent. Osi articulates
her significance when it comes to hegemony beautifully: “So rather than
being dark matter (no pun intended!!) that highlights hegemony or
politics, Aunt Ester represented a social morality within the
African-American community.” She also posted a clip of Phylicia
Rashad’s portrayal of the character and it is positively stunning work.
I had never been aware of Aunt Ester before Osi's blog post and I'm
thrilled, intrigued, and ready for more!
Mark’s
blog has more ham on it than it did the last time I saw
it. He digs in deep this week discussing the impact the dark matter of
an afterlife has on morality. This was particularly interesting in his
discussion of justice. Individuals can lack power and/or understanding
in any given situation but can find reassurance
in the idea that evildoers will be punished by this unknowable
hereafter. He outlines it well when he says: “In The Bible, there are
references to specific unpleasantries (weeping, gnashing of teeth, a
lake of fire, a blazing furnace, and other painful environs),
but, as I said before, their place is in another plane of existence
that we cannot fathom. On the other end, a contentment that is not
imaginable from the material world and new version of pleasure for which
there is no reference from the corporal side of
death’s frontier awaits those who meet the criteria for a heavenly
hereafter.” It makes sense to try to find balance, order, and sense in a
world that is none of those things by attaching them to anther realm.
The dark matter fills in the missing pieces that
we need—that is to say, we eventually get the accountability and order
in our dark matter eternity.
Finally, Lisa examines the questions that loom around death and dying. Hamlet famously referred to death as the “undiscovered country.” The dark matter of what happens when die and how it would happen is maddening enough, but Lisa goes farther to emphasize how death can leave interpersonal relationships feeling ambiguous, severed, or lacking much needed answers. She takes a super interesting angle in her discussion of Tuesdays With Morrie: that the characters take actions to demystify and therefore soften the power of our deathly dark matter. I find it fascinating because it’s a somehow clean way of desanitizing death—which, in a culture that is rather avoidant of looking mortality in the eye socket—it hugely important. If the auto-funeral scene in Tuesdays With Morrie was your jam, you might like ideas brought up in the oration from Waking Ned Devine: https://www.youtube.com/watch?
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