Forget it Class, it’s FFC

I decided to enroll in this course because I thoroughly enjoy analyzing films and novels. I also appreciated that this class focused on works of fiction in the Los Angeles area. Moving to California from the East Coast, I was not overly familiar with the city. Throughout this semester, I discovered a lot of versions of Los Angeles. Some of the perspectives that writers or directors took on the city surprised me. Many of the text we analyzed portrayed a much darker Los Angeles than, for example, LA LA Land. Also, Los Angeles in Film and Fiction revealed a strong correlation between critical thinking and academic research. After the initial introduction to the material, such as a film, one can formulate their own thoughts and then further their understanding of the material by researching it further. Chapman has wonderful resources for academic research in Leatherby Library and its online database. This process was never more prevalent for me than after watching Mulholland Drive by David Lynch.  Mulholland Drive was a complicated film that had numerous layers to it. First, I considered various scenes and thought about what I believed Lynch was trying to convey. Then, I read articles and video essays analyzing what others believed those scenes represented. Observing the thought process of others expanded my point of view. Observation shaping or challenging my ideas was common in class as well. Listening to my peers helped me see the texts we read or the films we watched in a new context. It was my classmates that encouraged me to rethink my initial thoughts and dig deeper into the meaning of the material. The pieces we studied have layered my thoughts on Los Angeles and helped me see it as more dynamic than I originally pictured. Now, I think it is a difficult city to read because it, and the people living in Los Angeles, are constantly adapting to the ever changing world.

 

I loved a lot of the films we watched for this class, and going to The Frida made the experience of watching them so much better! One of my favorites was Sunset Boulevard because it is not only a great noir, but every character is interesting and compelling. Another great movie was Drive. That film was dark and bold, unafraid to take risks with wonderful actors often playing quiet, but strong characters. Although Mulholland Drive frustrated and even infuriated me at times, I came to have a great respect for the depth and attention to detail in that film.

 

Thanks for a great semester everyone!

A Little Anonymity Goes A Long Way When Committing A Crime

The character of Anonymous is a fascinating and disturbing point of view in Ryan Gattis’s novel, All Involved. His voice differs from the other perspective as he enjoys his role in creating chaos behind the mask of anonymity. While many characters commit crimes in this novel, he is the only one that can do so without consequence as he does not have to own up to his actions the following day. At the beginning of his chapter on day five, Anonymous states his reasoning for his job that night as matter of fact without emotion getting involved. This was a clever choice on Gattis’s behalf because it hints to Anonymous’s military background. He uses the statistics he has heard to try to make readers understand where he is coming from. However, he does not reveal his sources, so Anonymous is expecting people to believe the information without having anyway to fact check what he has said.

Anonymous sees the riots as an opportunity to get payback on gang members who routinely threaten men in uniform. He recognizes that the Los Angeles riots are the perfect cover for his retribution as he mentions, “The silver lining to the chaos of the last five days is this: there is no possibility of what we are about to do blowing back on us” (266). Although he recognizes the illegal nature of his actions, he clearly feels the violence is justified as he says, “I know who the enemy is, and I’m not only going to break his ribs… I am going to look him in the fucking eye when I do it” (266).

Anonymous is eager for his night of mayhem. He is excited to wreak havoc and not have to do any paperwork to justify his actions. Anonymous makes it clear that only “bad guys” will know what he and his team have done that night and he makes it abundantly clear that he does not view them as equal human beings. As his squad is securing weapons, Anonymous is watching with keen anticipation as he thinks, “This is where the fun starts” (270). He feels no dread for the pain he is about to inflict because he has detached humanity from the gang members. He pictures the gang members as animals that need to be punished and maimed so they have a difficult time inflicting future pain.

Anonymous’s chapter is incredibly dark as readers see law enforcement readily performing illegal acts without empathy, remorse, or consequence.

 

Alone on the Road

Maria is tormented and depressed in Joan Didion’s novel, Play It as It Lays, but she finds a solace driving along the roadways of Los Angeles, California. When Maria attempts to ease her mind by seeing a hypnotist, he tells her to envision her mother, but she responds, “No… I’m driving here… I’m driving Sunset and I’m staying in the left lane because I can see the Havana Ballroom and I’m going to turn left at the New Havana Ballroom. That’s what I’m doing” (124). This passage reveals Maria’s mind wanders to the road. Driving feels like a safer topic for her mind to explore than other difficult avenues of her life, such as her absent daughter, her abortion, or her failed marriage.

Billy Wilder’s film, Sunset Boulevard, utilizes cars to reflect the situations of the characters. At the beginning of the film, Joe’s car breaks down and he pulls into what he believes in an abandoned garage. After he starts working for Norma, he finds himself trapped in her home. Without his car, he is stuck in her mercy. His broken car represents where Joe is in his own life as he is unable to move on from his dependency on Norma. On the other hand, Norma’s car, once beautiful then forgotten, is a perfect metaphor for Norma herself. Norma was a Hollywood star during the silent era of film, but was swept aside when talking pictures took over.

There is overlap in the use of driving between Play It as It Lays and Sunset Boulevard. Maria drives as an escape. Driving also allows Maria to isolate herself while keeping herself occupied. Similarly, Norma take drives because she finds it an appealing way to get out of her house, spend time with Joe, while remaining isolated from the rest of the world.

The Bradbury Building and Blade Runner (Can you say that five times fast?)

The Bradbury Building looks timeless. You can place it in the past, present, or even a dystopian future, as director Ridley Scott did in his film Blade Runner. Audiences of Blade Runner may be surprised to see the recognizable and beautiful landmark so dilapidated in Scott’s vision of 2019. Although Blade Runner is set in the future, the Bradbury Building looks old, and worn down in the film. It looks as if no one cared enough to maintain the building, and that feel is not far from the truth. When Ridley Scott filmed Blade Runner, the Bradbury Building was in disrepair. It was dusty, dirty, and run down. Blade Runner emphasized the batteredness of the building by soaking the floors and making it look as if the only light in the lobby is coming from the windowed ceiling and gray sky. Exploiting the building’s flaws added to the tension of the film as viewers pondered what was about to happen between the replicants and humans as they rode the elevator to a top floor apartment. The gray lighting, damp floors, and scrap pieces of wood seen in Decker’s first entrance into the building, added a sense of despair to the film. The contrast between the beautiful architecture and disrepair emphasized the destruction of what we know today and this dystopian future. The Bradbury Building in Blade Runner acts as a warning to what our future could look like if humans are passive and indifferent to the places around us.

Not only did the Bradbury Building have the perfect atmosphere for Blade Runner, but it was also a practical place to shoot. Filmmakers love shooting in the Bradbury because the many balconies create a multitude of options for camera angles, the large ceiling accommodates the necessary lighting and camera equipment, and it is near a spacious parking lot that could store vans and trailers.

It is a little ironic that the Bradbury was designed in the late 1800s with the future in mind and Ridley Scott chose the building to look classic in his futuristic project. The Bradbury’s designer, George Wyman, was inspired by a novel set in the future that described a building with a long hall and plenty of light from overhead. The novel that inspired him, Looking Backwards by Edward Bellamy, specifically said, “It was the first interior of a twentieth-century public building that I had ever beheld… I was in a vast hall full of light, received not alone from the windows on all sides, but from the dome, the point of which was a hundred feet above. … The walls and ceiling were frescoed in mellow tints, calculated to soften without absorbing the light which flooded the interior.” Pictures prove this passage had a great impact on the final design of The Bradbury Building.

 

Mulholland Delusions

David Lynch’s Mulholland Drive is a postmodernist film that explores complexities between the Hollywood dream and the capabilities of the human psyche. After losing a starring role to Camilla and Camilla to their director, Diane unravels and puts a hit on her ex-girlfriend. The guilt drives Diane into delusions of a better version of herself, an idealized version of Camilla (as Rita), and a corrupt Hollywood that could not understand Diane’s talent. Diane’s desperation to reimagine her life and the dark outlook on the corrupt/misguided Hollywood makes Mulholland Drive a thought provoking addition to postmodernist films, which often follow characters that feel powerless in a meaningless life.

In her dream world, Diane becomes Betty. Diane had seen the real Betty at a diner and, though they hardly interacted, Betty seemed kind, so Diane tried to take some of her personality. Diane reimagines herself as a perky girl who smiles, wears pink cardigans, and can solve problems. Betty is an incredibly talented actress, as shown in her audition; however, she is not a star. This is not because of a lack of merit, but because directors are either too incompetent to recognize her talent (Bob Brooker) or because they were forced to hire another actress by the mysterious “boss” of Hollywood (Adam Kesher). In this way, Diane is able to fool herself into thinking her failure was not her fault.

Rita was not the Camilla that toyed with the real Diane. Rita was Diane’s dream of a beautiful version of Camilla that loved her and depended on her due to a car accident that left her with amnesia. Rita and Betty read a scene of a film together as Betty prepares for an audition, and it is pretty clear that Rita is not as good as an actress as Camilla. This is another way Diane’s fantasy plays at her true desires, showing she not only wanted to be with Camilla, but better than her too. Later in the film, Rita was devastated to find a dead Diane in the dream world. This alludes that Diane secretly hoped that the real Camilla would care that deeply for her and be devastated if something happened to Diane. Also in the dream, Betty gives Rita a makeover with a short blond wig to look more like herself. After the makeover, Betty shows more romantic interest in Rita. Diane has turned herself and Camilla into a fairy tale romance where Rita is the damsel in distress who falls in love with her hero. Neither of the real girls were as kind and supportive as their dream world counterparts.

As Diane continues to dream, her subconscious subtly tries to wake her throughout the film. First, at the diner where she ordered a hit in reality, a man is there in her dream and is confronted with a monster who represents the evil inside Diane. The man faints as Diane is not ready to confront what she has done. Also, at Club Silencio the announcer tells the audience (with Betty sitting there) that everything is an illusion. A singer performs a rendition of a song called “Crying” which is a song about someone who cannot be with the person s/he is still in love with. Part of the song translates to “I thought I was over you… but I am more in love with you every day”. The song is not in English, another way Diane shields herself, but the lyrics are applicable to Diane’s feelings for Camilla. Although Diane wanted to believe she hated Camilla, she still loved her. Additionally, the faces of the people in the dream are not random, they are people she has seen in reality (for instance, Adam’s mother in reality becomes the landlady).

At the end of the film, Diane can no longer live in her dreams and the reality of her guilt and failures push her to commit suicide. The audience returns once more to Club Silencio where the woman in the balcony whispers, “Silencio”. It gives the film a sense of conclusion as it summarizes Diane’s dark demise. There is nothing left but silence.

Los Angeles Noir

Billy Wilder’s Double Indemnity is a picture perfect example of a traditional noir film. Complete with a femme fatale, manipulation of light and shadows, and a morally flexible narrator.

Carl Franklin’s Devil in a Blue Dress and  Roman Polanski’s Chinatown are neo-noir films. They share similarities with classic noirs, like Double Indemnity, but adapted for a new time. The three films all share a male lead who gets involved in something much bigger than he anticipated, a female character directly related to the case, and there is plenty of corruption to go around.

Once one looks past the overarching similarities, the films are very different from one another. Unlike Double Indemnity, Devil in a Blue Dress deals with racism as a central plotline. The protagonist, Easy, is an African-American who has made mistakes in his past, but moved to Los Angeles for a fresh start. In various scenes of the movie, audiences see average citizens and policemen harass him, but Easy perseveres through. His underlying goal throughout the film is to be a homeowner. The home is a symbol of his freedom and stability in his new life.

Chinatown shares Double Indemnity’s cynicism and dark ending. Double Indemnity ends with criminals Phyllis dying and Walter’s implied doom, but Chinatown’s ending is much darker. Chinatown implies no consequences will come to the criminals and a mother is killed with her daughter in the car seat beside her. While Double Indemnity feels like a dark, twisted story for entertainment, Chinatown comes across as a criticism of the corruption of the powerful that goes unchecked.

Los Angeles is a key character in Double Indemnity, Devil in a Blue Dress, and Chinatown. Due to the previously mentioned films and many others, Los Angeles has become a crime hub in films. It is portrayed as a city that fosters more wrong than right. In Double Indemnity, Phyllis and Walter use a back road to kill Phyllis’s husband and they use nearby train tracks to place his body. Meanwhile, Easy’s Los Angeles is one unable to surpass its prejudices in a mostly divided-by-race city. The Los Angeles in Chinatown is incredibly dark and unforgiving with the ending tragedy being swept away with a simple, “Forget it Jake, it’s Chinatown.”

The Day Los Angeles Burns

Painted by Tornado Thien.

“‘I’m going to be a star someday,” Faye in The Day of the Locust by Nathanael West declared, “‘If I’m not, I’ll commit suicide’” (216). Faye reminds me of the mob from the painting, “The Burning of Los Angeles”, the people entranced by the idealized version of Los Angeles who grow resentful or lose their will when they realize moving to Los Angeles, many to be in the film industry, did not automatically make them happy or successful. I believe the fire in “The Burning of Los Angeles” is a representation of the anger that is boiling inside people that is destined to break free. The fire foreshadows the violence and anger that is released from many of the Los Angeles citizens at the end of the story.

The crowd gathered for a movie premiere and the chance to glimpse famous actors. The crowd is eager and agitated while waiting to see celebrities. Their uneasiness feels like a revolt against Hollywood and the boredom they have experience after discovering their dreams would most likely never come true. While Tod watches the restless crowd, West notes that if policemen were going to arrest someone, “they joked good-naturedly with the culprit, making light of it until they got him around the corner, then the whaled him with their clubs” (290). I feel like the police are a personified version of Los Angeles in the previous sentence; it seems inviting, then as soon as you trust it, it turns on you.

The fight that breaks out is a horrifying depiction of humanity at its worst as it paints people as preferring violence over boredom. The fight begins when Adore, a boy, tries to play a prank on Homer out of boredom or cruelty. He begins with a simple purse trick, but when that does not get his attention, the boy throws a rock at Homer’s face. Already emotionally broken, Homer snaps at this act and he hurriedly attacks the boy. Tod tries to intervene, but the riled up crowd quickly joins the fight and violence consumes everyone. Rather than a natural disaster, like a fire, acting as the destructive force, people are destroying each other.

 

P.S. Sorry of the book pages are different from yours; I am using The Collected Works of Nathanael West.

The Tragedy of Hollywood In “Sunset Boulevard”

Billy Wilder’s Sunset Boulevard is a thought-provoking film on the effects of Hollywood stardom on those who are out of the spotlight. Wilder shows that the glamour is exaggerated with Norma’s run down mansion. While the mansion itself is huge and may have once been beautiful, it fell apart when people stopped caring for it, much like Norma’s career. Additionally, while the house was stunning, it was virtually empty. Norma and Max lived in the giant space alone, until Norma manipulated Joe into living there as well. Norma threw a New Year’s Eve party that would have been fit for one hundred, but she only invited Joe because she was so isolated from the outside world. This shows that despite her copious wealth, Norma was incredibly lonely. Her money and mansion could not keep her happy.

Fame and wealth are major motivators for Hollywood hopefuls. Joe was working on script after script when he did not have any money in the hope of penning the screenplay that makes it big. He works hard until he moves in with Norma and becomes complacent with her pampering as he realizes he no longer has to worry about making rent or paying for his car. However, he ultimately realizes that wealth and fame are not worth it when he tries to move out shortly before his death. Norma, an actress with limited interest in other aspects of filmmaking, also tries to write a movie that will star herself solely for the purpose of regaining her fame.

Hollywood’s culture reinforces Norma’s delusions. When Norma visits DeMille’s set she is put back into the spotlight and her old fans are eager to shake the woman’s hand. She is praised and made to feel loved, but DeMille is not able to tell Norma there was a misunderstanding and he does not want to work with her or on her film. Instead, he lets her enjoy the moment and then sends her home which gives Norma false hope. Also, Max shields Norma from anything she would find unpleasant, he even goes so far to write fake fan letters for her so she believes people still hold her to a high esteem. At the end of the film, news cameras are there to capture the image of star turned murderer. Max treats the moment as a scene in a film and Norma is delusionally giddy as she is once again the center of attention. Norma admits, “There’s nothing else. Just us… and the cameras” when she walks down the staircase in the belief that she is filming another scene for a movie. After years of being told she was the best in Hollywood, nothing is more important to Norma than making films and being a star; there is no other life that she can imagine for herself.

Looking for LA LA Land

As a little kid from Pennsylvania, I used to day-dream about growing up and moving to the West Coast to work in the film industry. Damien Chazelle’s “La La Land” captured the magic and determination I believed I would one day find in California. My idea of the city matched the bright color scheme and upbeat music from the movie. It visualized my imagination of the city being one of dreamers. Although I have not made it out to Los Angeles since moving here, I have been incredibly impressed by my fellow Dodge students who share my passions and ambitions for a future creating movies and television shows in Los Angeles.

On the other hand, one of my favorite television shows, “Veronica Mars” depicts the corruption and crime of a California neighborhood that is shared by the rich and elite with the poor. Although the show takes place in a fictional town, it reminded me of Los Angeles with the divide between children of celebrities and the kids just trying to get by. Veronica herself went from social elite to living in a motel complex with her father. She met a wide range of people that depicts a more accurate picture of a diverse city.

I am very excited to take “Los Angeles in Film and Fiction” and further explore various viewpoints on the city that is still very much a mystery to me. The documentary we started on Tuesday, “Los Angeles Plays Itself”, points out that only one in every five working adults is in the entertainment industry. Although people often reduce the city to one big studio, that is not an accurate representation. I look forward to watching more of the documentary to see what sides of the city the camera turns a blind eye to. I am very excited to explore how various authors and filmmakers saw the city. The book I look forward to reading the most is “All Involved” by Ryan Gattis. As for the films, I am most interested in watching Sunset Boulevard, Chinatown, and Blade Runner (especially on the big screen!).

 

“You can have a laugh in Los Angeles, or you can weep in Los Angeles, depending on your attitude towards it.” ~Miranda Richardson