tag:theconversation.com,2011:/fr/topics/oscars-8639/articlesOscars – The Conversation2024-03-14T17:07:50Ztag:theconversation.com,2011:article/2240652024-03-14T17:07:50Z2024-03-14T17:07:50ZNine years after #OscarsSoWhite, a look at what’s changed<iframe height="200px" width="100%" frameborder="no" scrolling="no" seamless="" src="https://player.simplecast.com/6e95de91-d1cf-4295-804b-8236faeb66fc?dark=true"></iframe>
<p>On Sunday, nine years after #OscarsSoWhite, millions of us tuned into watch the 96th annual Academy Awards — some to simply take in the spectacle. And some to see how much had changed. </p>
<p>The hashtag <a href="https://www.essence.com/news/nine-years-after-oscars-so-white/">#OscarsSoWhite</a> started after many people noticed that, for a second year in a row, all nominees for four of five major categories were white. The movement called on Hollywood to do better: to better reflect America’s demographic realities and also to expand its depiction of our histories. </p>
<p>The reason: representation in Hollywood matters. What gets put on screens and by whom has reverberating impacts on how all of us see each other and see ourselves. </p>
<p>So …. how did the Oscars do this year?</p>
<p>Let’s take a brief look at the evening, which started with the anti-war protests outside the theatre slowing down traffic and delaying the broadcast by a full five minutes.</p>
<p>Although there were only seven racialized actors up for nominations, there were some notable wins in that arena.</p>
<p>Cord Jefferson accepted his award for best adapted screenplay for <em>American Fiction</em>. When at the podium, he talked about how many people passed over the project — a Black film with a primary Black cast. To the producers out there listening, he made a plea to acknowledge and recognize the many talented Black playwrights out there that deserve similar opportunities. He suggested one way would be that producers fund 10 small projects instead of one $200 million dollar film. </p>
<p>Lily Gladstone, though she didn’t win, <a href="https://www.cbc.ca/player/play/2317306947668">was the first North American Indigenous woman to be nominated for best actress in its 96-year history</a>. </p>
<p>And Da'Vine Joy Randolph won best supporting actress for her role in <em>The Holdovers</em>, and made a memorable appearance and acceptance speech. </p>
<p>But one night at the Oscars doesn’t paint the full picture.</p>
<p>Just a few months ago, award-winning actor, Taraji P. Henson, broke down in tears <a href="https://variety.com/2023/film/news/taraji-p-henson-cries-quitting-acting-pay-disparity-hollywood-1235847420/">in an interview with journalist Gayle King</a>. She was exhausted from breaking glass ceilings as a Black woman in film. “I’m just tired of working so hard being gracious at what I do getting paid a fraction of the cost,” she said. “I’m tired of hearing my sisters say the same thing over and over.”</p>
<p>Henson explained that in 2008’s <em>The Curious Case of Benjamin Button</em>, she was paid significantly less than her co-stars despite having third billing on the call sheet. Henson nearly turned down her role in <em>The Colour Purple</em> for similar reasons.</p>
<p>The pay disparity for Black and Indigenous women in comparison to white women in Hollywood is nothing new.</p>
<p>Here in Canada, the problem is just as pervasive.</p>
<p>Despite some recent wins, a report from Telefilm Canada revealed that <a href="https://www.screendaily.com/news/report-shows-drop-in-number-of-canadian-women-in-film-tv-compared-to-pre-pandemic-times-exclusive/5185452.article">Black women have the least representation in TV and film</a>.</p>
<p>They also lead the fewest projects and receive the least funding overall.</p>
<p>To shed some light on the issue, we spoke to two women well versed on the challenges of Black, Indigenous and other women of colour in film and TV.</p>
<p>Naila Keleta-Mae, a playright, poet and singer as well as the Canada Research Chair in Race, Gender and Performance and associate professor of communication arts at the University of Waterloo said that while we need more voices at the table, Black female artists have not been waiting for scraps: </p>
<blockquote>
<p>“We have been making the work all this time and will continue to regardless. While we insist on eating at the table, we will also simultaneously continue to nourish and feast on what we’ve been doing.”</p>
</blockquote>
<p>We also spoke with actor and director Mariah Inger, the chair of ACTRA National’s Diversity, Equity, Inclusion & Belonging Committee.</p>
<p>Inger warned us to remember that the Oscars represent only one per cent of those working in the industry. And that while many working actors, writers, directors may look to the Oscars as a dream, the reality is that they show up every day because this is where they feel most called to contribute to the world. And she says, in that everyday world, things are shifting.</p>
<h2>Listen and follow</h2>
<p>You can listen to or follow <a href="https://dont-call-me-resilient.simplecast.com/"><em>Don’t Call Me Resilient</em></a> on <a href="https://podcasts.apple.com/ca/podcast/dont-call-me-resilient/id1549798876">Apple Podcasts</a>, <a href="https://open.spotify.com/show/37tK4zmjWvq2Sh6jLIpzp7">Spotify</a>, <a href="https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PL_mJBLBznANz6ID9rBCUk7gv_ZRC4Og9-">YouTube</a> or wherever you listen to your favourite podcasts. Full but unedited transcripts are available within seven days of publication.</p>
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It’s been nine years since #OscarsSoWhite called out a lack of diversity at the Oscars. Has anything changed? Prof. Naila Keleta-Mae and actress Mariah Inger unpack the progress.Vinita Srivastava, Host + Producer, Don't Call Me ResilientDannielle Piper, Associate Producer, Don't Call Me Resilient, The ConversationAteqah Khaki, Associate Producer, Don't Call Me ResilientLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/2253042024-03-11T20:05:54Z2024-03-11T20:05:54ZAs ‘Oppenheimer’ triumphs at the Oscars, we should ask how historical films frame our shared future<p><a href="https://variety.com/2024/film/news/christopher-nolan-oppenheimer-post-franchise-movie-era-1235894688/">Box office</a> receipts for Christopher Nolan’s <em>Oppenheimer</em> had already approached the billion-dollar mark worldwide before the 2024 Oscars ceremony.</p>
<p>To this financial success, along with film awards for Best Director, Cinematography, Editing, Sound, Best Actor and Best Supporting Actor, <em>Oppenheimer</em> garnered Nolan his first Academy Award for Best Picture. </p>
<p>In larger Academy Award history, this raises the tally for historical film wins to 52 over 96 competitions, according to research by <a href="https://www.bloomsbury.com/ca/historical-film-9781847884978">film scholar Jonathan Stubbs</a> and records at the <a href="https://www.oscars.org/oscars/ceremonies">Oscars website</a>. There is a reason why people call big-budget historical <a href="https://collider.com/oscar-bait-movies/">films “Oscar bait</a>.” </p>
<p>The glossy spectacle of this genre often brings attention to its makers. And yet, as I argue in my new book, <em><a href="https://www.rutgersuniversitypress.org/making-history-move/9781978829770">Making History Move: Five Principles of the Historical Film</a></em>,
because the genre has such an outsized effect on spectators and their sense of historical reality, it’s important to think about and understand how historical films are constructed.</p>
<p>With <em>Oppenheimer</em> having received so much commercial, critical and Academy success, we have an opportunity to think about critical criteria for viewing historical film — and what we are owed by historical filmmakers. </p>
<h2>Highly influential medium</h2>
<p>This genre of film represents much more than a bold quest to win the most sought-after prize at the most celebrated labour union awards in history. These films look to the past to offer us a story and argument in an effort to see ourselves in the present — and to make decisions toward the future. </p>
<p>The genre combines a bookish status, conveying data and the sense of learning about the real world. Facts are served up with a wallop of emotion, excitement, adventure, terror and tears, to large and diverse audiences. </p>
<p>Although far from the most trusted medium for history, a recent <a href="https://www.historians.org/history-culture-survey">large-scale survey</a> of Americans published by the American Historical Association found that historical documentaries and films are the top two sources for information about the past for the public.</p>
<p>Unlike with pure fiction, when we watch a historical film (such as other 2024 Best Picture nominees, <em>The Zone of Interest</em> and <em>Killers of the Flower Moon</em>) we have the sense that we are seeing and hearing the past as we learn details about historical people and events. </p>
<p>These films speak to shared intergenerational and foundational experiences and legacies. We interpret historical films in ways that feel personal. </p>
<h2>Partisan cultural bubbles</h2>
<p>We are well into the experiment of the internet age when social media platforms sort people into tribes. </p>
<p>In the words of Renée DiResta, a researcher at the Stanford Internet Observatory, people are living in discrete spheres operating with distinct media, norms and frameworks of facts — their own <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2023/11/30/opinion/political-reality-algorithms.html">“bespoke realities</a>.”
These information silos spawn political convictions and perspectives that reinforce separate interpretations of present and past. </p>
<p>The result creates multiverses of meaning. We exist in partisan cultural bubbles, abandoning the tussle over an objective sense of the past in favour of
ever-expanding and contradictory subjective narratives. </p>
<p>As this happens, mass media platforms, like feature films, gain precedence. They cross boundaries impermeable to history books, museums, university lectures and social networks, speaking to a shared sense of identity at vast communal scales.</p>
<h2>Just a movie?</h2>
<p>Our ability to keep what we are watching at a critical distance is less robust than we may assume. Neuroscience illuminates a central aspect of film’s power to captivate, enchant and convince. </p>
<p>As professor of psychological and brain science Jeffrey Zacks writes in his book <a href="https://global.oup.com/academic/product/flicker-9780199982875?q=jeff%20zacks&lang=en&cc=ca"><em>Flicker: Your Brain on the Movies</em></a>, our brains operate by building neural models to understand our direct experience: </p>
<blockquote>
<p>“[W]hether we experience events in real life, watch them in a movie or hear about them in a story, we build perceptual and memory representations in the same format [in our brains].” </p>
</blockquote>
<p>He further explains that “it does not take extra work to put together experiences from a film with experiences from our lives to draw inferences. On the contrary, what takes extra work is to keep these different event representations separate.”</p>
<p>Now consider what happens when we make models of the past that we code as historical and non-fiction.</p>
<h2>5 principles of historical films</h2>
<p>For these reasons it is critical that we engage these films as more than mere diversion and amusement. Drawing on philosophy of history, literary and film theory, I have isolated five key principles to grasp and understand their construction, including:</p>
<ul>
<li><p>narration, the stories they choose to tell and how they tell them;</p></li>
<li><p>evidence, the sources and use of data that represents the past;</p></li>
<li><p>reflexivity, the use of <a href="https://cup.columbia.edu/book/engaging-the-past/9780231165754">rupture techniques</a> that pull the audience out of their immersion in the story, reminding them of the structuring process of history;</p></li>
<li><p><a href="https://www.hup.harvard.edu/books/9780674008212">foreignness</a>, the extent to which a film shows the richness of differences in ideas, beliefs, and material realities of the past, rather than creating a pantomime of contemporary people in fancy dress;</p></li>
<li><p>plurality, whether a film presents us a range or new perspectives on the meaning of events through their selection of people as characters.</p></li>
</ul>
<p>These principles help us consider the creation, role and impact of historical films. </p>
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Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/visiting-the-trinity-site-featured-in-oppenheimer-is-a-sobering-reminder-of-the-horror-of-nuclear-weapons-210248">Visiting the Trinity Site featured in 'Oppenheimer' is a sobering reminder of the horror of nuclear weapons</a>
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<h2>About envisioning futures</h2>
<p>What makes historical films so compelling and so difficult is they have to fictionalize and imagine narratives around real people and events.</p>
<p>Filmmakers working with realities of the past are charged with making an interpretation of historical data — and a judgment about what it means to us today, in a way that engages and entertains us as spectators. </p>
<p>To be true to that contract, such films should not simply make things up. They need to strive for accuracy and objectivity, while performing a deft sleight of hand to enthrall and captivate. </p>
<p>On top of box office success and critical success, <em>Oppenheimer</em> does an impressive job of translating <a href="https://www.hollywoodreporter.com/lifestyle/shopping/oppenheimer-movie-book-read-american-prometheus-online-1235539040/">biographical source material</a> into an engaging and thought-provoking feature film. As such, this functions as a clarion call in the present, <a href="https://www.billboard.com/music/music-news/annie-lennox-stars-sign-open-letter-warning-nuclear-threat-1235623118">sparking real questions about the meaning of the nuclear age today</a>.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/225304/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Kim Nelson receives funding from the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council and Canadian Heritage under their Initiative for Digital Citizen Research.</span></em></p>The success of ‘Oppenheimer’ at the Academy Awards presents an opportunity to think about critical criteria for viewing historical film — and what we are owed by historical filmmakers.Kim Nelson, Associate Professor. Cinema Arts, School of Creative Arts, University of WindsorLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/2214932024-03-11T06:07:39Z2024-03-11T06:07:39ZOppenheimer’s triumph, a stunning First Nations performance, and lots of sparkles: 5 experts on the 2024 Oscars<p>Like most biopics, Christopher Nolan’s Oppenheimer – which won seven awards, including the big one, Best Picture – seems kind of silly, an exercise in dress up. We watch “serious” actors like Robert Downey Jr. (who won Best Supporting Actor) and Cillian Murphy (Best Actor) go to extraordinary lengths to essentially imitate real life people, inevitably failing to be 100% true to life.</p>
<p>Similarly, the narrative – tracing the involvement of J. Robert Oppenheimer in the Manhattan Project, which developed the atomic bomb that would eventually devastate Hiroshima and Nagasaki – plods along in a way true story narratives often do. </p>
<p>There’s none of the precision and wit that often characterise genre films, their entanglement with questions of narrative and aesthetic form necessitated by their highly formulaic nature. </p>
<p>Yet Oppenheimer winning Best Picture is no travesty; in fact, it makes a lot of sense. </p>
<p>It works well as an engaging exercise in image and sound, a viscerally charged and hypnotic spectacle shimmering on the big screen shot in glorious 70mm film. </p>
<p>Typically for a Nolan film, it is pretentious and heavy-handed, and seems to think it is more important than it actually is. But as a fun romp through the 1950s – that perennially fetishished period in American cinema and culture – it works splendidly. </p>
<p>It was certainly <a href="https://theconversation.com/oppenheimer-barbie-past-lives-an-experts-pick-for-the-oscars-2024-best-picture-winner-225264">not the best film nominated</a>, nor the best film of 2023, but it does work as a piece of cinema. </p>
<p>There’s something refreshing about this fact alone: the Academy has eschewed the tedium of the usual didactic, message-driven cinema that has dominated recent years and have rewarded a technically and formally accomplished work, something that actually considers its medium and effectively works within it. </p>
<p>–<em>Ari Mattes</em></p>
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<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/oppenheimer-barbie-past-lives-an-experts-pick-for-the-oscars-2024-best-picture-winner-225264">Oppenheimer? Barbie? Past Lives? An expert's pick for the Oscars 2024 best picture winner</a>
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<h2>On the red carpet: red pins and black gowns</h2>
<p>Awards ceremonies are often taken as opportunities to make political statements through dress. At the Oscars, these statements usually take the form of subtle pins or ribbons. In 2021, multiple attendees wore blue <a href="https://www.elle.com/uk/fashion/celebrity-style/a39549279/oscars-blue-ribbons-ukraine-refugees/">#withrefugees ribbons</a> in support of Ukraine following the Russian invasion. </p>
<p>This year, in response to the ongoing Israeli assault on Gaza, numerous attendees, including Billie Eilish (in Chanel) and Finneas O'Connell, Ava DuVernay (in custom Louis Vuitton), Ramy Youssef (in a chic black thobe by Zegna), Mahershala Ali, Riz Ahmed and Mark Ruffalo donned red <a href="https://www.teenvogue.com/story/billie-eilish-ramy-youssef-artists4ceasefire-pins-oscars-2024">Artists4Ceasefire</a> pins. </p>
<p>Other statements are made through design itself. </p>
<p>For Lily Gladstone, the first Native American to be nominated in the Best Actress category, this meant wearing a chic black Gucci column dress featuring a stunning midnight blue train with beading by Indigenous Mohawk, Cree & Comanche artist Joe Big Mountain of Ironhorse Quillwork. </p>
<p>Despite the political nature of these examples, the Academy Awards is conventionally a rather conservative affair. This year was no different. The dominant colour choice for all genders was black, sparkles abounded, and silhouettes were chic, albeit predictable. </p>
<p>Some of the standouts in this sea of monochrome predictability were ensembles by <a href="https://www.istitutomarangoni.com/en/maze35/game-changers/anatomy-of-loewe-how-jonathan-anderson-shaped-the-it-brand-of-2023">Jonathan Anderson at Loewe</a>. Greta Lee oozed easy elegance in a black and white draped gown straight from the Fall 2024 runway, Celine Song continued her commitment to tailoring in a sharp skirt and blazer, and Andrea Riseborough broke through the shine and shimmer with a long-sleeved plaid dress unlike anything else on the red carpet. </p>
<p>Other highlights included Sandra Hüller in custom Schiaparelli, with sharply winged sleeve detail reminiscent of a gown by Gilbert Adrian worn by American socialite <a href="https://archive.nytimes.com/tmagazine.blogs.nytimes.com/2010/03/16/fabulous-dead-people-millicent-rogers/">Millicent Rogers in 1947</a>, Emma Stone in mint green Louis Vuitton with a peplum that recalled the exuberant sleeve detailing of her Best Costume Design award-winning costumes in Poor Things, and Wim Wenders in the same Yohji Yamamoto outfit he <a href="https://www.hollywoodreporter.com/lifestyle/style/wim-wenders-norman-reedus-model-yohji-yamamoto-runway-1235794560/">modelled on the catwalk</a> back in January. </p>
<p>– <em>Harriette Richards</em></p>
<h2>The power of First Nations voices</h2>
<p>In a truly historic moment, the Oscars included a powerful performance by Osage musician and composer Scott George with the Osage Tribal Singers performing <a href="https://www.billboard.com/music/awards/scott-george-osage-tribal-singers-perform-killers-of-the-flower-moon-2024-oscars-1235629256/">Wahzhazhe (A Song for My People)</a> from Killers of the Flower Moon.</p>
<p>Wahzhazhe is a song for public consumption, not for ceremonial purposes, and with it George is the <a href="https://parade.com/movies/osage-singers">first Native American man</a> to receive an Oscar nomination for best original song, losing out to Billie Elish.</p>
<p>The Oscars requires music be submitted for consideration <a href="https://www.billboard.com/music/awards/scott-george-osage-tribal-singers-perform-killers-of-the-flower-moon-2024-oscars-1235629256/">in written form</a>. However, the Osage do not generally keep written music — rather, it is kept in memory. George told Billboard it took “three or four days” to write the work down in musical notation.</p>
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<p>Killers of the Flower Moon was nominated for 10 Oscars, including Best Actress for Piegan Blackfeet and Nez Perce actor Lily Gladstone who plays Mollie Burkhart. Unbelievably, Gladstone is the first Native American woman to be nominated for best actress in a leading role, but unfortunately missed out on the Oscar, to Emma Stone of Poor Things.</p>
<p>Indigenous communities globally were waiting with bated breath – but regardless of no Oscar, <a href="https://www.facebook.com/photo/?fbid=807642254731572&set=a.620962340066232">everyone was excited</a> to see her nominated. </p>
<p>Stories like Killer of the Flower Moon, about the “<a href="https://www.britannica.com/topic/Osage-murders">Reign of Terror</a>” where dozens of Osage were brutally murdered, need to be told so that they don’t get to be forgotten. It is both overdue and exciting to see more Indigenous peoples taking leading roles in films, and the success of Killers of the Flower Moon should make Hollywood pay attention that people want these stories to be told.</p>
<p>Even without winning big at these Oscars, Killers of the Flower Moon includes a wonderful cast of Native American actors including Tantoo Cardinal who plays Lizzie Q, mother to Gladstone’s character Mollie Burkhart, and her sisters who are played by Cara Jade Myers (Anna), JaNae Collins (Reta) and Jillian Dion (Minnie). </p>
<p><em>– Bronwyn Carlson</em></p>
<hr>
<p>
<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/an-oscar-win-for-lily-gladstone-would-be-a-huge-step-for-native-americans-in-an-industry-that-has-reduced-them-to-stereotypes-224724">An Oscar win for Lily Gladstone would be a huge step for Native Americans in an industry that has reduced them to stereotypes</a>
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<h2>Four nominees for Most Impassioned Speech</h2>
<p>“In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God.” Da’Vine Joy Randolph gave the first acceptance speech at this year’s Oscars ceremony, awarded Best Supporting Actress for her role in The Holdovers, and she led it with thanks to God.</p>
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<p>The ceremony’s 45 second limit on acceptance speeches gives more opportunities for meaningful comment to the presenters than the winners. </p>
<p>Host Jimmy Kimmel’s opening roast was generous towards the Barbie movie, a nod to its gender-inclusive feminism that drew loud applause. He unloaded on Donald Trump near the show’s end, to politically aligned chuckles. More striking, the In Memoriam section led with a cameo from Alexei Navalny that epitomised what polemic can put at stake to move us.</p>
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<p>I counted four nominees for the Most Impassioned Acceptance Speech. </p>
<p>Cord Jefferson (Best Adapted Screenplay for American Fiction) advocated that movie financiers be more ready to take risks by backing less experienced movie-makers. </p>
<p>Jonathan Glazer (Best International Feature Film) positioned his film about Auschwitz, The Zone of Interest, as a call for an end to the mutual dehumanisation that sustains the long war in Israel and in Palestine. </p>
<p>Mstyslav Chernov (Best Documentary) wished he had never had the cause to make a film so successful as 20 Days in Mariupol, his response to Russia’s invasion of Ukraine. </p>
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<p>These were passionate and heartfelt speeches, while Randolph’s was passionate, heartfelt and mesmerising.</p>
<p>For the rest, it was largely acceptances by the numbers. There were variously entertaining, grandiose, self-deprecating and anecdote-rich versions of “thank you” from people who make it their life’s work to imbue set-piece moments with meaning.</p>
<p>– <em>Tom Clark</em></p>
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<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/the-zone-of-interest-new-holocaust-film-powerfully-lays-bare-the-mechanisms-of-genocide-222017">The Zone of Interest: new Holocaust film powerfully lays bare the mechanisms of genocide</a>
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<h2>Powerful songs and mesmerising performances</h2>
<p>Ryan Gosling’s performance of I’m Just Ken, written and produced by Mark Ronson and Andrew Wyatt, was the definite standout Best Original Song performance of the 2024 Oscars. </p>
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<p>I’m Just Ken was one of two songs nominated from Barbie, alongside Billie Eilish and Finneas O'Connell’s What Was I Made For. They were joined by Becky G’s The Fire Inside from Flamin’ Hot, Jon Batiste’s It Never Went Away from American Symphony, and Wahzhazhe (A Song for My People) from Killers of the Flower Moon. </p>
<p>Becky G celebrated her Mexican American heritage with a passionate performance of The Fire Inside, accompanied beautifully by a choir of Latino children and a blazing visual backdrop.</p>
<p><div data-react-class="Tweet" data-react-props="{"tweetId":"1766998858788196740"}"></div></p>
<p>Jon Batiste’s mesmerising performance of It Never Went Away from American Symphony brought home the deep love and devotion he has for his wife, Suleika Jaouad. </p>
<p>Billie Eilish’s ballad What Was I Made For ultimately won the award for best original song. Her performance was emotional, with her co-writer and producer brother, Finneas O’Connell, accompanying her on the piano. A beautiful orchestral arrangement brought flair and gravitas to the stage. </p>
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<p>Scott George and the Osage Tribal Singers performance of Wahzhazhe (A Song For My People) from Killers Of The Flower Moon was a powerful statement of the strength of what energy collective singers and percussion bring to a performance. </p>
<p>But as the Oscars performances reminded us, sometimes the intimacy of quiet drama sends the loudest message.</p>
<p><em>– Alison Cole</em></p>
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Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/a-truly-international-slate-your-guide-to-the-2024-oscar-nominees-for-best-documentary-222271">A truly international slate: your guide to the 2024 Oscar nominees for best documentary</a>
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<p class="fine-print"><em><span>The authors do not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and have disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>From the red carpet to the winners and the speeches, our experts dissect the 2024 Oscars.Ari Mattes, Lecturer in Communications and Media, University of Notre Dame AustraliaAlison Cole, Composer and Lecturer in Screen Composition, Sydney Conservatorium of Music, University of SydneyBronwyn Carlson, Professor, Indigenous Studies and Director of The Centre for Global Indigenous Futures, Macquarie UniversityHarriette Richards, Lecturer, Fashion Enterprise, RMIT UniversityTom Clark, Chair of Academic Board, Victoria UniversityLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/2251412024-03-08T16:20:17Z2024-03-08T16:20:17ZThe swashbuckling score for Poor Things sets the tone for an eccentric heroine’s journey<p><em>Note: this article contains spoilers.</em> </p>
<p>For as long as laureates and lyricists have probed the human condition, they’ve eulogised the hero’s journey. Typically undertaken by a trail-blazing “<a href="https://philosophynow.org/issues/93/Nietzsches_Ubermensch_A_Hero_of_Our_Time">übermensch</a>” or barrel-chested Captain Fantastic, this stalwart champion is destined to elevate the life odyssey from the shallow and self-serving to the sovereign and the sacred.</p>
<p>Unlikely protagonist Bella Baxter (Emma Stone) undertakes this high-stakes fate in the bonkers, beautiful steampunk saga, Poor Things. She sidesteps the suffocating litany of leading lady expectations while twirling in satiric glee, affirming that chaos is an essential ingredient in birthing “<a href="https://www.goodreads.com/quotes/7915225-i-say-unto-you-one-must-still-have-chaos-in">a dancing star</a>”.</p>
<p>The latest screen oddity from auteur director Yorgos Lanthimos draws zany inspiration from Scottish author <a href="https://theconversation.com/poor-things-meet-the-radical-scottish-visionary-behind-the-new-hit-film-220080">Alasdair Gray</a>. It nods to nostalgic monster movies and reimagines fire-and-brimstone scenarios inspired by fantastical figures such as Frankenstein and Phileas Fogg. </p>
<p>Appearing on The Dolby Institute Podcast, composer Jerskin Fendrix drolly <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Gf0r-Xzr35w&ab_channel=Dolby">summarised</a> the film’s absurdist plot, which tells the tale of a “dead pregnant lady” who “gets cut open and becomes her own daughter and then goes on a sex tour of Europe”.</p>
<p>His first-time film score is a hoot. It brazenly blows raspberries, dips an oboe part to ludicrous lows and hoicks up choristers’ vocals so that they straddle a line between seraph and shriek.</p>
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<figcaption><span class="caption">The Poor Things trailer.</span></figcaption>
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<p>Music works in an audiovisual alliance with fish eye lens cinematography, colour-reversal techniques and sound (curated by visionary audio engineer, Johnnie Burn). In tandem, these elements reveal how Bella’s bewildering, bubble-blowing heroism stems from her relentless curiosity – and the rapidly expanding consciousness of her “questing self”.</p>
<p>The score noisily amplifies Bella’s burgeoning identity of “sugar and violence” with insane instrumentation: Irish bagpipes, arrhythmic chimes and a <a href="https://variety.com/2024/music/focus/the-zone-of-interest-poor-things-the-killer-composers-discuss-strange-scores-1235867125">fictional foghorn harp</a> made out of bicycle parts. </p>
<p>Eclectic orchestration facilitates the riotous range of her emergent personhood and throws itself after her into the abyss. It never demands faultless logic or linearity from Bella. Instead, it enables her to remain both relatable and enigmatic – and, above all, exceptionally entertaining.</p>
<p>During initial scenes, the score belches out squeaky nursery-rhyme sounds and a strange requiem with unpredictable pitch bends – crude, imperfect musical notes finding their way in a confusing world. These stutter along as Bella forges out with a flat-footed stride, trussed up in mutton sleeves and frills like a macaron from Mars: cute and incorrigible.</p>
<h2>Revelling in polite society’s forbidden realms</h2>
<p>In a series of messy escapades, Bella is shown mashing a defenceless frog and scarfing down a forbidden feast of custard tarts, before retching them back up on a scenic Lisbon balcony. She spins in spontaneous dance steps, exclaims a gormless “wheee!” and leaves a defiant little puddle on the floor.</p>
<p>In spite of her antics, the soundtrack remains patient, steering clear of patronising <a href="https://theconversation.com/what-makes-a-film-score-frightening-expert-explains-the-techniques-that-build-tension-and-make-us-jump-216121">gimmicks</a> like stabs, stingers, drones and womps. It never baulks at Bella’s necessary flubs, nor at her many shame-free sexual trysts, variously involving “tongue play” and “furious jumping”. </p>
<p>Likewise the score doesn’t preach or finger-point as Bella endures a “dark period before light and wisdom come”. Instead, its variable volume and extreme registers exalt the impressive breadth of her blazing libido and life-force energy. </p>
<p>Her experiments with a motley clientele in a Paris brothel showcase some eye-popping instances of taboo eroticism. But it’s not all BDSM and ball gags. A pivotal same-sex love scene between Bella and a fellow courtesan – a like-minded equal rather than a customer or custodian – showcases the film’s most fully-formed and flowing musical theme. </p>
<p>The tender string section sounds out in support of their conscious, connected, pleasurable sexuality. Its almost harmonious strains suggest that, by achieving genuine intimacy with another person, Bella has begun to outgrow her transactional, ego-driven desires.</p>
<h2>Scoring a ‘real human being and a real hero’</h2>
<p>The score continues to adapt as Bella evolves, dabbling with a multiplicity of moods and timbres to showcase the rambunctious spectrum of her experiences. It endorses her weird journey from womb to tomb – and vice versa – allowing her to shape shift and recalibrate in real time. </p>
<p>It permits her to fearlessly dip her brush in an expansive palette of personae, both cruel and comical, transgressive and virtuous – <a href="https://www2.kenyon.edu/Depts/Religion/Projects/Reln91/Power/lilith.htm#:%7E:text=One%20story%20tells%20that%20Lilith,Eden%20to%20gain%20her%20independence">Lilith</a> as well as Eve. </p>
<p>In this way Bella transcends Hollywood’s trite comic book heroes and often-fumbled <a href="https://www.smithsonianmag.com/arts-culture/these-women-coined-term-mary-sue-180972182">female stock figures</a> – Pollyannas, cool girls and wonder women in bodacious getups. Instead of staying on script, mimicking masculine behavioural codes or adhering to implausible feminine standards, Bella is actually allowed to be human. </p>
<p>As it turns out, we didn’t need another hero. We needed a Bella – a character convincingly complex and nutty enough to <a href="https://www.poetryfoundation.org/poems/45477/song-of-myself-1892-version">contain multitudes</a> – narratively, musically and visually. Even when the closing credits have scrolled by, we can continue to envisage a colourful afterlife for her, in a dance of astral chaos that’s only just getting started.</p>
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<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Caitríona Walsh does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>Composer Jerskin Fendrix’s first-time film score is a hoot.Caitríona Walsh, Lecturing in Film Music & Piano, University College CorkLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/2250682024-03-07T17:53:14Z2024-03-07T17:53:14ZNot just a love story: ‘Past Lives’ gives a glimpse into growing up bicultural<p><a href="https://www.npr.org/2023/06/09/1180748796/past-lives-review-greta-lee-teo-yoo"><em>Past Lives</em></a>, a film centring on a nostalgic love story between childhood soul mates, is one of this year’s <a href="https://www.oscars.org/oscars/ceremonies">Oscar nominees for best picture</a>. </p>
<p>Although it’s been somewhat overshadowed by <a href="https://apnews.com/article/barbenheimer-barbie-vs-oppenheimer-61a6ec6c67359b851ddeccd6d655b5ab"><em>“Barbenheimer,”</em></a> <em>Past Lives</em> is worth the watch. It can provide meaningful insights on how immigrant youth grow into their cultural identity. </p>
<p>The film follows childhood sweethearts Nora and Hae Sung, who grow up together in Seoul, South Korea, then are separated when Nora’s family immigrates to Toronto. They briefly reconnect as 24-year-olds via regular video calls, but their relationship fizzles. </p>
<p>Fast forward 12 years, and Nora is now a playwright in New York living with her husband, Arthur. Hae Sung has not forgotten about Nora and decides to visit her in New York. The two face their adult lives and realities, and although they wonder about what could have been, Hae Sung ultimately returns home. </p>
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<figcaption><span class="caption">Trailer for ‘Past Lives.’</span></figcaption>
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Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/oscar-nominees-2024-past-lives-spotlights-the-pull-of-first-love-alongside-the-yearning-for-glory-221574">Oscar nominees 2024: 'Past Lives' spotlights the pull of first love alongside the yearning for glory</a>
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<h2>Not just a love story</h2>
<p>Reviewers have dubbed <em>Past Lives</em> an <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/film/2023/jan/22/past-lives-review-delicately-sad-romantic-drama-is-a-real-achievement">achingly sad love story</a> that makes you question where you would be now if you had ended up with the one that got away. </p>
<p>But under the surface level, the film tells a subtle tale of the sometimes <a href="https://doi.org/10.1007/s10560-021-00807-3">chaotic and emotionally draining</a> experience of newcomer youth as they grow into their <a href="https://doi.org/10.1016/S0092-6566(02)00510-X">bicultural identity</a>. Their feet are in two worlds: their heritage culture and their current culture. And they must learn to ebb and flow between these worlds effortlessly. </p>
<p>As a developmental psychologist, I saw clear parallels between Nora’s experiences with her two loves and immigrant young people’s emotional turmoil as they grow up belonging to two worlds. Hae Sung represented Nora’s ties to her Korean heritage, while Arthur represented her identity as an American. <em>Past Lives</em> draws us into Nora’s intimate experiences as she courses between these two identities as a person who is bicultural. </p>
<h2>Navigating a bicultural identity</h2>
<p>Psychology research shows that immigrant youth who feel they truly belong to both their heritage and current cultures are <a href="https://doi.org/10.1177/0022022111435097">socially, emotionally and psychologically well-adjusted</a>. Referred to as bicultural competence, immigrants who can move more fluidly between their heritage and current cultures have <a href="https://doi.org/10.1037/cdp0000467">better self-esteem and mental health</a>, and report having <a href="https://doi.org/10.1177/21676968211034309">higher quality relationships with others</a>. </p>
<p>However, many immigrant children also have difficulty finding comfortable footing between these two worlds. In the film, reflecting on meeting with Hae Sung, Nora says to her husband, “I feel so not Korean when I’m with him, but also more Korean.” </p>
<p>Nora’s experiences are not uncommon among immigrant young adults who move at a young age. These individuals can feel that their heritage culture <a href="https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1751-9004.2009.00228.x">starkly contrasts</a> with their currently held values that are based on the culture of their adoptive country. Yet, for many immigrant youth, spending time with others who share their heritage can increase <a href="https://doi.org/10.5195/jyd.2019.708">feelings of closeness and connection</a> to their ethnic and racial identity. </p>
<p>Nora’s bilingual <a href="https://doi.org/10.1177/13670069211019466">code-switching</a> — spontaneous shifting between two languages in a single conversation — also mirrors immigrant youths’ shifting between their bicultural selves. Most immigrant bilingual youth <a href="https://doi.org/10.1177/0261927X19865572">tend to code-switch easily</a>, and use the communication skill to <a href="https://doi.org/10.1177/0261927X19865572">mark how fluent they can be</a> in both of their cultures. </p>
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<p>Korean Canadian director Celine Song, who wrote and directed the film partly based on her own life, has <a href="https://www.newsweek.com/past-lives-final-scene-ending-celine-song-explains-1850119">actually lived the intimate bar scene</a> in the film in which Nora code-switches when talking to Arthur and Hae Sung. In recalling her own experience, Song said, “At one point I realized I was translating beyond language and culture, that I was actually translating between two parts of my own self… But both of those people are me.”</p>
<h2>Two trees in one pot</h2>
<p><em>Past Lives</em> may resonate with many immigrant adults who arrived to North America at a young age, partly because it mirrors their own experiences. The film draws upon a life lived between two cultures as the two clash and flow both literally and figuratively.</p>
<p>When explaining why she and her husband fight, Nora reflects how immigrant youth form their bicultural identity: “It’s like planting two trees in one pot. Our roots are finding their place.” For many who live between cultures, bicultural identity takes root like two plants in one pot. </p>
<p>Nora’s story evokes a reflection of the push-and-pull of heritage and current cultural values, traditions and norms among bicultural youth. So be sure to put the film on your list if you’re planning on watching your way through this year’s nominees. </p>
<p>Not into sentimental love stories? No problem. </p>
<p>Instead, watch the film with the aim of immersing yourself into a first-hand account of how immigrant youth learn to unite their loved cultures. You might find your eyes opened up to the rich, and sometimes rollercoaster, experience of a bicultural identity.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/225068/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Hali Kil receives funding from the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council of Canada.</span></em></p>The film ‘Past Lives’ provides meaningful insights on how immigrant youth grow into their cultural identity.Hali Kil, Assistant Professor, Psychology, Simon Fraser UniversityLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/2247242024-03-07T13:03:57Z2024-03-07T13:03:57ZAn Oscar win for Lily Gladstone would be a huge step for Native Americans in an industry that has reduced them to stereotypes<p>Killers of the Flower Moon is an unsettling and powerful historical epic. For her quiet but captivating performance as Mollie Burkhart, Lily Gladstone has rightly been nominated for best actress at the Academy Awards – making her the <a href="https://abcnews.go.com/GMA/Culture/lily-gladstone-oscars-history-1st-native-american-nominated-best-actress/story?id=106596566#:%7E:text=Gladstone%20is%20up%20for%20her,Killers%20of%20the%20Flower%20Moon.%22&text=Lily%20Gladstone%20has%20made%20history,be%20nominated%20for%20best%20actress.">first Native American woman</a> to compete in this category. </p>
<p>Gladstone has already won both the Golden Globe and <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RYSIysa2FTc&ab_channel=Netflix">Screen Actors Guild award</a> for best female actor. In her <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lvdCkh1SDfQ&ab_channel=GoldenGlobes">acceptance speech</a> at the Golden Globes, Gladstone made it very clear that her success is to be shared with all Native Americans. She opened by introducing herself in her Blackfeet language, before declaring:</p>
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<p>This is an historic win. This is for every little rez [reservation] kid, every little urban kid, every little Native kid out there who has a dream, who is seeing themselves represented and our stories told — by ourselves, in our own words.</p>
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<p>Killers of the Flower Moon, which is nominated for ten Oscars, is not an easy watch. The film, based on David Grann’s scrupulously researched <a href="https://www.simonandschuster.co.uk/books/Killers-of-the-Flower-Moon/David-Grann/9781398513341">non-fiction book</a> of the same name, recounts a bloody episode (one of many) in America’s history involving the brutal killing of Native Americans. </p>
<p>Focusing on the romance and marriage between Mollie Kyle and Ernest Burkhart (Leonardo DiCaprio), the film tells the story of how more than 60 Osages, from a tribe of Native Americans in Oklahoma, were brutally murdered for their land and oil wealth by white interlopers. Lasting from the 1910s to the 1930s, this period was known as the Osage Reign of Terror. It is a violent tale of betrayal and greed that sees the now-married Mollie Burkhart fighting to save her people and get justice for their killings. </p>
<p>Throughout the film, Gladstone portrays her as quietly dignified – communicating as much with her expressive eyes and slight movements of her mouth as with her words.</p>
<p>Off stage, in the run-up to the Academy Awards, Gladstone’s powerful advocacy for all Native Americans has demonstrated that “Indians” are not just a homogeneous historical group in period films. Winning the Oscar would be a huge moment not only for Native Americans but for the film industry too. </p>
<h2>Native histories past and present</h2>
<p>Gladstone grew up on the Blackfeet reservation in Montana. The land had been assigned to this once-powerful Plains warrior tribe by a <a href="https://www.umt.edu/this-is-montana/columns/stories/blackfeet.php#:%7E:text=In%201888%2C%20left%20with%20no,present%2Dday%20Glacier%20National%20Park.">US treaty</a> in 1888. Much smaller than the Blackfeet’s traditional homelands, the reservation signaled the tribe’s diminished economic and political power. By then, the buffalo that had been the economic and cultural foundation of Blackfeet society had been almost totally exterminated. </p>
<p>Like the Blackfeet, the Osage are also a Plains tribe. In 1872, white encroachments on their lands forced them to move from Kansas to a reservation in Indian Territory (which became part of the new Oklahoma state in 1907). But unusually, the Osage tribe bought their reservation – so when oil was discovered, tribal members owned the rights and the riches. </p>
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<p>More historical context in the film would have helped place this tragic story in its broader frame – in particular, the <a href="https://www.npr.org/2018/04/06/600136534/largely-forgotten-osage-murders-reveal-a-conspiracy-against-wealthy-native-ameri">complicity of the US government in the Osage murders</a>. By designating them individually as legally incompetent and in need of white guardians to control their financial affairs, they were made vulnerable to robbery and murder.</p>
<p><a href="https://www.hollywoodreporter.com/movies/movie-news/lily-gladstone-native-audience-killers-of-the-flower-moon-1235643824/">Gladstone says</a> she had heard about the Osage’s extraordinary oil wealth from her father. In the 1920s, they were the <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/1921/06/25/archives/osage-are-richest-people-greatest-per-capita-wealth-in-world.html">richest people per capita in the world</a>. But she was only hazily aware of the killings. </p>
<p>Now, both well-informed and mindful of these crimes and their legacies, Gladstone insists that her audiences must “never forget this story is recent history with a lasting impact on breathing, feeling people today. It belongs to them, and we all have so much to learn from it.” </p>
<h2>The Osage people at the heart of the film</h2>
<p>Two white men, Ernest Burkhart and his uncle, Bill Hale (Robert De Niro), dominate the action, and we are left in no doubt about their escalating crimes. But it is the power of Gladstone’s acting that constantly pulls the focus towards Mollie and her family, and so places the Osage people at the heart of the film. </p>
<p>Cinema has often depicted mythical Native Americans as spirit guides, aggressive savages or, tragically, on their way to extinction to make way for “civilisation”. But this film tells a true historical story. </p>
<p>Osage people not only acted many of the parts, they also played a vital role in how the <a href="https://www.hollywoodreporter.com/movies/movie-features/martin-scorsese-lily-gladstone-making-killers-of-the-flower-moon-1235715287/">film developed</a>. The contribution of living Osages changed the story told in Grann’s book; the central role he had given the FBI became minor as their stories were incorporated into the narrative, and then the film script.</p>
<p>The audience gets to hear the Osage language and see Osage hairstyles, food, cultural traditions and clothes. For example, Mollie’s wedding coat and feathered hat is from the Smithsonian’s holdings and was worn by an <a href="https://www.harpersbazaar.com/culture/film-tv/a45511003/killers-of-the-flower-moon-costume-designer-interview/">Osage bride in the 1920s</a>.</p>
<p>“I mean, the film is so remarkable because of how remarkable Osage people are,” <a href="https://uk.news.yahoo.com/lily-gladstone-references-super-bowl-220040520.html?guccounter=1&guce_referrer=aHR0cHM6Ly93d3cuZ29vZ2xlLmNvbS8&guce_referrer_sig=AQAAANWb52uUzILGhp9Gr6_Q4Ps3uAQEJtTmaSa1RnCewf4H66XofJq9ehTgfmYl2Le8Z9YbbMw4-BoWTTCdhVhiPKwaF2_A2vloTN8Ny4g_lCclnPAnfjqc_I4QpbGCuUkTZxXVoxF_2R_AtuXGJYCVYyxycmYUyxjQFOUuCFnSMBrd">Gladstone observed</a>, “and how much they had to say about the making of it.”</p>
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<p>Gladstone’s recent successes in her role as Mollie Burkhart has enabled her to use the podium to advocate for Native representation. This includes publicly addressing culturally sensitive issues, including the name of Super Bowl winners <a href="https://variety.com/2024/film/awards/lily-gladstone-chiefs-tomahawk-chop-native-americans-1235909668/">the Kansas City Chiefs</a>, which add to the misrepresentation of Native Americans. She has done so while also showing off stunning Native-created fashion and jewellery, highlighting their living and beautiful cultures.</p>
<p>If Gladstone is awarded the Oscar for best actress on March 10, it will not only be very well-deserved but a highly symbolic moment. And a massive shout of joy and exuberance will echo across the whole of Indian Country.</p>
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<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Jacqueline Fear-Segal receives funding from the AHRC for Research Project Beyond The Spectacle: Native North American Presence in Britain. </span></em></p>Gladstone has used her platform in the run-up to this year’s awards season to highlight issues affecting Native American communities in America today.Jacqueline Fear-Segal, Emeritus Professor in the School of Art, Media and American Studies, University of East AngliaLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/2252642024-03-07T04:01:15Z2024-03-07T04:01:15ZOppenheimer? Barbie? Past Lives? An expert’s pick for the Oscars 2024 best picture winner<p>There are many factors that determine the Oscar winners and nominees each year. Seldom does the actual “best picture” win the award, and often the year’s best films fail to be recognised at all. Perhaps they’re not topical enough, not American enough, or not moral enough. </p>
<p>It’s hard to argue, for example, that Robert Zemeckis’ pleasant but forgettable yarn <a href="https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0109830/?ref_=fn_al_tt_1">Forrest Gump</a> was the best film of 1994, when Quentin Tarantino’s landscape-changing masterpiece, Pulp Fiction, came out the same year.</p>
<p>Nonetheless, the Oscars have until recently always celebrated Movies with a capital M: motion pictures made to be seen, first and foremost, in cinemas. These productions have almost always demonstrated incredible technical accomplishment, even if their narratives have been irritating or unnotable. Forrest Gump may be sentimental schmaltz of the most ludicrous kind, but at least it’s cinematic.</p>
<p>This year’s picks include some good, if not great, films. But they also reflect what most cinephiles already know: streaming is the last nail in the coffin in the shift away from cinema to television. The only nominees that feel like pieces of cinema (that is, movies committed to the cinematic form) are Oppenheimer and The Holdovers. </p>
<p>Equally rare for the Oscars, only a couple of nominees stick out as truly awful.</p>
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<h2>The good</h2>
<p><strong>Killers of the Flower Moon</strong></p>
<p>Though director Martin Scorsese’s <a href="https://www.imdb.com/title/tt5537002/?ref_=nv_sr_srsg_1_tt_7_nm_0_q_killers%2520of">Killers of the Flower Moon</a> is overlong, its true story is riveting, a family crime odyssey in the tradition of James Foley’s exceptional neo-noir <a href="https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0090670/?ref_=fn_al_tt_1">At Close Range</a>. </p>
<p>The narrative follows the murderous attempts of a clan led by William King Hale (Robert De Niro) to rip off a family of Osage Indians who became extremely wealthy after oil was discovered on their reservation. The murders are so cruel and unjust that, in effective crime film fashion, we root for the federal police when they appear in the final third to bring the villains to order. </p>
<p>It’s a low-key affair, featuring excellent performances from all the main actors, including Scorsese’s current muse, Leonardo Di Caprio, his old muse, De Niro, and a newcomer to films of this scale, Lily Gladstone. </p>
<p>Despite this, it feels more like a television series than a movie made for cinema. This makes sense – it’s produced by Apple, and therefore designed to be watched on the small screen.</p>
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<p><strong>Anatomy of a Fall</strong></p>
<p>The French production <a href="https://www.imdb.com/title/tt17009710/">Anatomy of a Fall</a> similarly works very well as a crime film. This courtroom drama follows the trial of novelist Sandra Voyter (Sandra Hüller), a powerful and uncompromising artist and mother, for the murder (or was it suicide?) of her pathetic and self-loathing husband, Samuel (Samuel Theiss). </p>
<p>The narrative is extremely well-drawn by director Justine Triet. The film moves skilfully between the present of the trial and re-enactments from the lead-up to the supposed murder, keeping the viewer guessing “whodunit?” beyond the final image. </p>
<p>The writing is razor-sharp, with precision in detail and authenticity in the dramatisation of the manipulative actions of the characters. At the same time, the film effectively negotiates one of the great problems of the 21st century: how do we justly navigate (and assess) the relationship between our public and private lives?</p>
<p>At the end of the day, however, Anatomy of a Fall is like an excellent episode of a good crime show. It’s formally uninteresting, and even ugly in places (with digital video artefacts present in the wide shots of the snowy environment).</p>
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Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/what-is-the-role-of-the-mother-at-the-heart-of-anatomy-of-a-fall-is-a-critique-of-anti-feminist-backlash-224139">What is the role of the mother? At the heart of Anatomy of a Fall is a critique of anti-feminist backlash</a>
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<p><strong>The Zone of Interest</strong></p>
<p>British director Jonathan Glazer has made only a few films throughout his career, and <a href="https://www.imdb.com/title/tt7160372/?ref_=nv_sr_srsg_1_tt_7_nm_0_q_zone%2520of%2520int">The Zone of Interest</a> is probably the best of them.</p>
<p>It follows the petit-bourgeois lives of a German family living in Poland as they go about their daily life. The mum, Hedwig (Sandra Hüller), works meticulously on the garden. The dad, Rudolf (Christian Friedel), is an animal lover who rides his horse, walks his dog and tries to educate his children while keeping things together at work. The children in turn play together and torture each other, as children do. </p>
<p>The twist? The father is Höss, commandant of Auschwitz, and their house is next door to the camp. Underlying everything is a progressively menacing understanding of the horrors happening next door, through which the aspirations of this bourgeois family are founded. </p>
<p>The film embraces an ugly video-aesthetic (much like Austrian filmmaker <a href="https://www.imdb.com/name/nm0359734/">Michael Haneke</a> whose work is surely in the back of Glazer’s mind). Cold, detached images are captured by a mostly immobile camera. At times it feels like an observational documentary and (echoing Hannah Arendt’s famous statement about the <a href="https://aeon.co/ideas/what-did-hannah-arendt-really-mean-by-the-banality-of-evil">banality of evil</a>) this is clearly the point: ordinary life transpires for this family while, behind them, the chimneys pulse with fire and spew black smoke into the pristine air. </p>
<p>The nightmarish, surreal sequences that punctuate the film, matched by unsettling music and sound design, come to a climax in a stunning ending. Höss looks in horror towards the future, and the film punctures our own interest in these characters by confronting us with contemporary images from the Auschwitz museum. We see the collected shoes, for instance, from the bodies that became ash and fertilised Hedwig’s pretty garden. </p>
<p>In many respects, this is the most interesting of the nominees, but it also feels more like a video than a Movie.</p>
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<p><strong>American Fiction</strong></p>
<p>The directorial debut of writer Cord Jefferson stars Jeffrey Wright (in career-best form) as novelist Thelonius “Monk” Ellison who decides to write a “black” novel when his publisher rejects his latest idea, a retelling of Aeschylus’ The Persians.</p>
<p>The book he writes – Fuck – is ludicrous, capitalising on white liberal sensibilities regarding what literature written by African Americans should be about (it features eye-patch-wearing, gun-touting criminals from the ’hood). It also (predictably) becomes a smash hit, with the movie rights sold almost immediately to a brash producer for $4 million. </p>
<p>This playing out of identity politics is interspersed with gentle drama involving Monk’s real life – a mother suffering from dementia, a sister who dies too young and a brother coming to terms with his sexuality. The material about the novel is funny, but the film’s brilliance lies in its counterpointing of the ordinary but complex stresses of middle-class life with the supposed problems of black people. </p>
<p><a href="https://www.imdb.com/title/tt23561236/">American Fiction</a> is a sweet film, the most fun of this year’s nominees. But, as with much else on the list, it feels like it has been made – by Amazon – to be watched on television. </p>
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<h2>The average</h2>
<p><strong>Past Lives and Poor Things</strong></p>
<p>People claimed <a href="https://www.imdb.com/title/tt13238346/?ref_=fn_al_tt_1">Past Lives</a> was the most beautiful film of the year. But I found its cross-continental and cross-temporal romance a touch trite. Celine Song’s debut feature certainly looks very nice, and the performances are all pitch perfect, but it struck me as underwhelming and uninteresting.</p>
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<p>The same can’t be said of Yorgos Lanthimos’s <a href="https://www.imdb.com/title/tt14230458/?ref_=nv_sr_srsg_1_tt_6_nm_1_q_poor%2520things">Poor Things</a>, which strained at every point to be overwhelming and formally interesting. But like a lot of artworks that try this hard, it falls flat. It comes off as a weaker, more pretentious imitation of Lanthimos’ better, earlier films. The first half hour is like something made by a student who worships Lanthimos and has unlimited resources. </p>
<p>That said, things pick up once the main character, Bella (Emma Stone), goes overseas to connect with her libido, leaving behind her Frankenstein-like creator, the scarred and affable Godwin (Willem Dafoe). What we’re left with is a mildly diverting romp over the seas and through the brothels of Paris.</p>
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<h2>The awful</h2>
<p><strong>Maestro</strong></p>
<p>Conductor and composer Leonard Bernstein may have been a critical figure in 20th-century American music, and a larger-than-life character in American cultural life, but it would be hard to imagine a more self-indulgent project than <a href="https://www.imdb.com/title/tt5535276/?ref_=nv_sr_srsg_1_tt_4_nm_3_q_maestro">Maestro</a> from director-star Bradley Cooper.</p>
<p>Produced by Steven Spielberg (who has a knack for picking dull but profitable projects as a producer), there’s absolutely no drama or tension in this story. As good as Carey Mulligan is as wife Felicia Montealegre, Cooper is awful in his caricaturish imitation of Bernstein.</p>
<p>This is the first best-picture nominee I can think of that genuinely feels like it has been written and made by AI. Reminiscent of a slick pamphlet produced by a PR agency, this biopic demonstrates about as much colour as a Wikipedia entry. It’s astonishing anybody could consider it best-picture-worthy, and its presence in the category surely says more about Oscars politics than anything about its merits as a film.</p>
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<p><strong>Barbie</strong></p>
<p>Maestro is joined at the bottom of the pool by the equally abysmal <a href="https://www.imdb.com/title/tt1517268/?ref_=fn_al_tt_1">Barbie</a>. The central conceit of co-writer-director Greta Gerwig’s film is fine: Barbie discovers she’s a doll, sets off for the real world, and sets about dismantling the patriarchy (does she though?). But the film repeats the same point over and over for an agonising two hours. </p>
<p>Indeed, the whole thing feels more like a series of short videos made for social media (some of which are funny on their own terms), strung together in a haphazard order, than a feature film. The Ken character, well-played by Ryan Gosling, is the real star, the only character with any pathos (once again this supposedly “feminist” film is made for and fetishises men). </p>
<p>All the female characters are seemingly mired in a world of hackneyed Instagrammatic cliches about motherhood and being “woman”, as though this category exists outside of specific, embodied experience. Maybe it’s meant to be a mess, but a good film this does not make.</p>
<h2>The best picture?</h2>
<p>Of the best-picture nominees, only two played like movies to be seen at the cinema.</p>
<p><strong>Oppenheimer</strong></p>
<p>There’s a lot to dislike about Christopher Nolan’s <a href="https://www.imdb.com/title/tt15398776/?ref_=fn_al_tt_1">Oppenheimer</a>. It’s too long, it’s pretentious and it seems to think it’s marking some kind of significant discussion of a fascinating moment in American military history (in other words, American history). As a serious biopic it’s not terribly effective. But as a tactile romp it’s delightful. </p>
<p>It’s fun watching all the brilliant actors trying to look and act like real-life people – Robert Downey junior is a hoot as always – and there’s something perfectly hypnotic about the film’s combination of image and sound. Oppenheimer is an immersive, viscerally charged film that’s willing to experiment with form, and it is formally stunning. And like that stinker Forrest Gump, it as least warrants being seen on the big screen.</p>
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<p><strong>The Holdovers</strong></p>
<p>Because it’s better than Oppenheimer, my pick for best picture is <a href="https://www.imdb.com/title/tt14849194/?ref_=nv_sr_srsg_1_tt_7_nm_0_q_the%2520holdovers">The Holdovers</a>. Filmmakers shooting on video (that’s almost every filmmaker now, although Nolan notably still shoots on film) often employ a panoply of tricks to try to make their images look more like film (with greater dynamic range, richer colour, visually appealing texture and so on). </p>
<p>Director Alexander Payne, cinematographer Eigil Bryld and colourist Joe Gawler actually pull this off in The Holdovers. The film looks like it has been shot on film stock, perfectly capturing the brown tones of an elite boys’ boarding school in America in the 1970s. And it in no way suffers from being viewed on a big screen, unlike, for example, Anatomy of a Fall.</p>
<p>The coming-of-age narrative follows grouchy ancient-history master Paul Hunham (Paul Giamatti) as he’s forced to stay at school over the Christmas break to oversee the “holdovers”, the boys whose parents don’t want or can’t have them home for the holiday. The material is formulaic – think Mr Chips crossed with Dead Poet’s Society crossed with The Catcher in the Rye – yet every element is so beautifully rendered, it’s a true pleasure to watch. </p>
<p>Giamatti is perfect in a role he was born to play, as the crotchety, pompous and physically repellent miser loathed by students and staff alike. Newcomer Dominic Sessa is remarkably self-assured as Angus Tully, the troubled boy for whom Hunham develops a genuine fondness, and Da’Vine Joy Randolph is also excellent as bereaved cook Mary Lamb. </p>
<p>Despite being replete with cliches, the stock characters and narrative are handled so expertly by Payne, and the actors are so good, that The Holdovers simply works – even if it’s sentimental to boot. It’s the kind of old-style film we don’t see often in an era of pontificating online moralism and disposable, interchangeable streaming “product”. </p>
<p>It’s also an effective cinematic work in a contest where most entries don’t feel like they were made for cinema. But was it the best film released in 2023? Come on!</p>
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Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/the-promised-big-hits-sure-disappointments-and-hidden-indie-gems-well-get-from-hollywood-in-2024-219964">The promised big hits, sure disappointments, and hidden indie gems we'll get from Hollywood in 2024</a>
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<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Ari Mattes does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>This year’s picks reflect what most cinephiles already know: streaming is the last nail in the coffin in the shift away from cinema to television.Ari Mattes, Lecturer in Communications and Media, University of Notre Dame AustraliaLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/2225692024-03-06T22:26:29Z2024-03-06T22:26:29ZOscars 2024: How a dress goes from haute couture design to red carpet<p>Designing an outfit for a celebrity to wear at the Oscars is often seen <a href="https://abc13.com/2024-academy-awards-oscars-ceremony-how-to-watch-red-carpet-when-are-the/14469675/">as a dream opportunity for</a> fashion designers. </p>
<p>Yet, <a href="https://www.salon.com/2013/02/23/a_peek_under_oscars_skirt/">embarking on this journey demands</a> financial investment, brand reputation, creative talent and technical expertise.</p>
<p>Haute couture literally translates as “high dressmaking.” In its strictest sense, this refers to a <a href="https://www.fhcm.paris/en/maisons?status=1">specific fashion house designation</a> acknowledged by the French <em>Fédération de la Haute Couture et de la Mode</em>. More generally, the term is used to describe <a href="https://dictionary.cambridge.org/dictionary/english/haute-couture">the business of creating meticulously crafted</a> garments for an individual client or a special occasion.</p>
<p>Elite <a href="https://www.google.ca/books/edition/La_haute_couture/1s0-NAAACAAJ?hl=en%2085">haute couture designers</a> have consistently managed to dress celebrities for the Oscars. </p>
<p>Haute couture designers include renowned names <a href="https://www.vogue.co.uk/news/article/zendaya-oscars-2022">like Valentino</a>, <a href="https://theconversation.com/she-wore-what-how-to-read-the-oscars-fashion-script-22216">Armani Privé</a>, <a href="https://www.schiaparelli.com/en/news/2022-03-28-maggie-gyllenhaal-wore-custom-schiaparelli-haute-couture-to-the-94th-academy-awards?previous=true">Schiaparelli Couture</a>, Atelier Versace, <a href="https://people.com/style/elizabeth-taylor-1961-oscars-dress-discovered-in-suitcase-decades-after-event/">Christian Dior</a>, <a href="https://wwd.com/fashion-news/fashion-scoops/chanel-oscars-karl-lagerfeld-best-red-carpet-1203041171/">Chanel</a>, Givenchy and <a href="https://www.abramsbooks.com/product/yves-saint-laurent_9781419744372/">Saint Laurent</a>. More recently, it’s included <a href="https://english.elpais.com/culture/2023-04-29/the-untold-story-of-the-dress-in-which-halle-berry-made-oscars-history.html#">Elie Saab</a>, <a href="https://www.vanityfair.com/style/2023/03/elizabeth-banks-vivienne-westwood-bespoke-gown-oscars">Vivienne Westwood</a>, <a href="https://www.cosmopolitan.com/entertainment/celebs/a43283701/allison-williams-giambattista-valli-dress-oscars-2023/">Giambattista Valli</a>, Prada, Fendi Couture and Vera Wang, among others.</p>
<p>My passion for creativity, design, luxury and fashion has marked my professional career. Previously, I was a researcher at Bocconi University in Milan, Italy, where my work <a href="https://bup.egeaonline.it/en/119/book-profiles/138/made-in-italy-industries?hl=Made%20in%20Italy%20Industries">examined made-in-Italy industries</a> and <a href="https://www.google.ca/books/edition/Masters_of_the_Sea/WdBXLwEACAAJ?hl=en">luxury design</a>.</p>
<p>As an Italian who has recently embarked on a new chapter in Canada, I invite you to delve into haute couture with me, where exceptional craftsmanship, innovative designs and strategic expertise come to life.</p>
<h2>Distinctive esthetics</h2>
<p>Giorgio Armani has described haute couture as “<a href="https://www.townandcountrymag.com/style/fashion-trends/a36424109/giorgio-armani-interview-haute-couture/">the peak of my world</a>,” highlighting it as a realm where creativity, imagination and the freedom to experiment thrive. </p>
<p>Each haute couture atelier of a particular brand is celebrated for its distinctive esthetic. </p>
<p>Valentino is famed for its <a href="https://www.vogue.com/article/happy-90-birthday-valentino-garavani-a-red-dress-celebration">glamorous and iconic red</a> evening dresses, while <a href="https://www.rizzoliusa.com/book/9780847845309">Giorgio Armani Privé</a> is recognized for its attention to detail and <a href="https://www.redcarpet-fashionawards.com/2023/03/14/giorgio-armani-armani-prive-2023-vanity-fair-oscar-party">elegant attire</a>. </p>
<p>Schiaparelli is known for <a href="https://www.thamesandhudsonusa.com/books/shocking-the-surreal-world-of-elsa-schiaparelli-hardcover">its avant-garde designs</a> that merge art with fashion.</p>
<h2>Fashion and visual art</h2>
<p>Haute couture designs can include a range of garments <a href="https://www.fireflybooks.com/BookDetails?Pid=227">such as gowns</a>, evening wear or wedding attire, all made from premium fabrics. </p>
<p>Skilled artisans <a href="https://www.google.ca/books/edition/A_Cultural_History_of_Western_Fashion_fr/7YhHzwEACAAJ?hl=en">devote extraordinary attention to every detail</a> and finish of these garments. </p>
<p>Within each atelier, <a href="https://www.metmuseum.org/art/metpublications/Haute_Couture">a hierarchy of craftsmanship exists</a>, ranging from the most experienced “first hands” to “second hands” and then to apprentices, each level reflecting the artisan’s skill and experience.</p>
<h2>Each piece remains a symbol</h2>
<p>Haute couture showcases a fusion of craftsmanship with cutting-edge design.
These pieces are designed to be timeless, crafted with durable materials and components, ensuring each piece remains a lasting symbol of beauty and craftsmanship.</p>
<p>The journey from an initial concept to a completed dress involves several months of craftsmanship, including countless fittings and continuous enhancements to achieve perfection. </p>
<p>The outcome <a href="https://www.google.ca/books/edition/Couture_Culture/VZNYHQAACAAJ?hl=en">is a work of art</a> distinguished by its intricate textures, a blend of fabrics and materials, elaborate embroidery and exceptional customer service.</p>
<h2>Initial design</h2>
<p>The design process typically begins with initial sketches, followed by the creation of a muslin or toile prototype, which is then tailored to the desired shape. This stage is crucial for refining the initial ideas into a concept that meets the designer’s vision. For bespoke orders, the designer presents multiple sketches for the client to approve. </p>
<p>The client can select the garment’s silhouette, fabrics, embroidery patterns (if desired) and additional finishing touches. Throughout this process, the client receives guidance from a highly knowledgeable salesperson. </p>
<p>The use of <a href="https://www.nyjournalofbooks.com/book-review/haute-couture-atelier">luxurious materials such as</a> silk, tulle, embroidery, lace and feathers, along with innovative combinations of various fabrics, textures and decorative elements, enhances the garment’s elegance and sophistication.</p>
<h2>From pattern-making to final masterpiece</h2>
<p>For custom-made garments, the <a href="https://www.marabout.com/livre/la-bible-de-la-couture-9782501160315/">creation process starts with</a> customer measurements. A prototype garment is first made from basic fabrics. This step allows for adjustments to ensure the client’s fit and design preferences before the final, more luxurious fabrics are used. For runway designs, this prototype fitting is conducted on a model.</p>
<p>Creating a haute couture piece can involve artisan-intensive techniques such as embroidery, beading and other embellishments, demanding hundreds or thousands of hours of handwork. </p>
<p>After the garment is completed, final fittings are conducted to guarantee perfect tailoring. To further enhance the ensemble, accessories are carefully chosen to complement the dress. </p>
<h2>Celebrity and designer legacies</h2>
<p>Stylists and celebrities collaborate to choose dresses, often partnering with designers to create bespoke pieces — or <a href="https://english.elpais.com/culture/2023-04-29/the-untold-story-of-the-dress-in-which-halle-berry-made-oscars-history.html">tailor existing runway designs</a>. </p>
<p>This customization process is particularly relevant for dresses showcased during the <a href="https://www.fhcm.paris/en/paris-fashion-week">Paris Haute Couture Week</a>, which occurs biannually at the end of January and in early July, marking spring-summer and fall-winter collections respectively. This is organized by the <a href="https://www.fhcm.paris/en">Chambre Syndicale de la Couture</a>. </p>
<p>Once a dress debuts on the red carpet, <a href="https://press.uchicago.edu/ucp/books/book/chicago/F/bo3684378.html">it captures the public’s and the media’s attention, becoming a significant part of</a> the celebrity’s public image and the designer’s legacy.</p>
<p>The world of haute couture <a href="https://doi.org/10.1177/1749975519853667">thrives on these collaborative efforts</a>, with fashion brands playing a central role in orchestrating these dynamic relationships.</p>
<h2>Beyond the event</h2>
<p>In the social media age, an entire economy <a href="https://theconversation.com/barbie-isnt-just-a-movie-star-now-shes-also-a-virtual-social-media-influencer-207885">of social media influencing</a> <a href="https://www.eonline.com/ca/news/1367810/pov-chris-olsen-tinx-and-more-social-media-stars-take-over-oscars-2023">surrounds formal gatherings and events</a>.</p>
<p>Celebrity endorsement is crucial for the success of haute couture brands, as it can significantly influence consumer interest and sales in <a href="https://thefactory8.com/difference-ready-wear-haute-couture/">their ready-to-wear and</a> accessory lines.</p>
<p>Unique dresses sometimes find <a href="https://yalebooks.yale.edu/book/9780300166552/100-dresses/">a place in museum exhibitions</a>, such as those at the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York or the Victoria & Albert Museum in London. Designers may also archive these pieces. </p>
<p>These practices underscore the dresses’ role in preserving the brand’s legacy and contributing <a href="https://doi.org/10.1016/0304-422X(85)90003-8">to its symbolic value</a>, which can be leveraged for future growth and recognition.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/222569/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Luana Carcano does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>Beyond film, the Oscars spotlights the world of haute couture, where each design house involved in creating bespoke garments is celebrated for its distinctive esthetic.Luana Carcano, Lecturer, Beedie School of Business, Simon Fraser UniversityLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/2229532024-03-06T13:34:46Z2024-03-06T13:34:46ZReeling religion: From anime and sci-fi to rom-coms, films are full of faith in unexpected places<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/579737/original/file-20240304-26-ehe5mp.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=0%2C0%2C2305%2C1156&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Seeing the light − at the movies.</span> <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.gettyimages.com/detail/photo/people-in-the-cinema-auditorium-with-empty-white-royalty-free-image/1494642262?phrase=%22movie+theater%22&adppopup=true">igoriss/iStock via Getty Images</a></span></figcaption></figure><p>In some movies, religion hits viewers over the head – including films that take home the industry’s biggest prizes. No one could miss religion’s importance in “<a href="https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0070047/?ref_=fn_al_tt_1">The Exorcist</a>” or “<a href="https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0070239/?ref_=fn_al_tt_1">Jesus Christ Superstar</a>,” both nominated for Oscars 50 years ago. Martin Scorsese, whose “Killers of the Flower Moon” is up for 10 at the 2024 Academy Awards, is working on a new project <a href="https://www.latimes.com/entertainment-arts/awards/story/2024-01-08/martin-scorsese-killers-of-the-flower-moon-new-jesus-film">on the life of Jesus</a>. </p>
<p>Anyone can find a religious meaning <a href="https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0119485/">in “Kundun</a>,” Scorsese’s epic about the Dalai Lama’s youth, or “<a href="https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0067093/">Fiddler on the Roof</a>,” the story of life in a Russian Jewish shtetl at the turn of the 20th century. Cinematic Christ figures <a href="https://www.routledge.com/The-Routledge-Companion-to-Religion-and-Film/Lyden/p/book/9780415601870">are a dime a dozen</a>.</p>
<p>But for <a href="https://people.cal.msu.edu/stowed/">scholars of religion and popular culture</a> like myself, movies that engage religion less directly are often more intriguing. </p>
<h2>Free from illusion</h2>
<p>Take the hugely influential science fiction franchise “<a href="https://www.imdb.com/find/?q=the%20matrix&ref_=nv_sr_sm">The Matrix</a>.” Depicting characters caught in a diabolical computer simulation, held prisoner to AI, the film feels particularly timely in 2024.</p>
<p>Seeing past illusions to a deeper cosmic reality, as the film’s protagonists must do, is of course a theme of many faiths. “The Matrix” is peppered with <a href="https://doi.org/10.1163/9781904710165_017">many other allusions to religion</a> and mythology. Main character Neo, referred to as “the One,” is killed and resurrected. A hacker even tells him, “You’re my savior, man, my own personal Jesus Christ.” One central character is named Trinity. Another is called Morpheus, after the Greek god of dreams.</p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/579329/original/file-20240302-30-et24uz.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="A woman with short hair and a blue shirt touches the chin of a reclining man whose eyes are closed and whose head is almost touching a computer screen." src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/579329/original/file-20240302-30-et24uz.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/579329/original/file-20240302-30-et24uz.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/579329/original/file-20240302-30-et24uz.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/579329/original/file-20240302-30-et24uz.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/579329/original/file-20240302-30-et24uz.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/579329/original/file-20240302-30-et24uz.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/579329/original/file-20240302-30-et24uz.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
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<span class="caption">Carrie-Anne Moss and Keanu Reeves as Trinity and Neo in ‘The Matrix.’</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.gettyimages.com/detail/news-photo/carrie-anne-moss-and-keanu-reeves-in-the-matrix-news-photo/590691556?adppopup=true">Ronald Siemoneit/Sygma/Sygma via Getty Images</a></span>
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<p>More specifically, religion scholars see explicit <a href="https://global.oup.com/academic/product/american-gnosis-9780197653210?cc=gb&lang=en&">themes of Gnosticism</a>, a <a href="https://theconversation.com/this-tiny-minority-of-iraqis-follows-an-ancient-gnostic-religion-and-theres-a-chance-they-could-be-your-neighbors-too-160838">variant of Christianity</a> that flourished during the faith’s first few centuries. A central focus of Gnostic texts is attaining liberation from worldly illusion through direct inner knowledge of truth. Its teachings include stark dualism – light vs. dark, mind vs. body, good vs. evil – and belief in a hidden God operating in a hostile cosmos, both of which have analogues in “The Matrix.”</p>
<p><a href="https://digitalcommons.unomaha.edu/jrf/vol5/iss2/4/">Buddhist themes</a> are also unmistakable. The film begins with Neo waking up, both literally and figuratively, as he discovers the truth: Machines have trapped humanity in pods to harvest their energy. The world in which humans believe they are living is actually “the matrix,” an illusory world created to distract them.</p>
<p>“Buddha” means “<a href="https://www.metmuseum.org/toah/hd/buda/hd_buda.htm">awakened one</a>,” and many viewers <a href="https://www.jstor.org/stable/26975089?seq=1">have drawn comparisons</a> between Keanu Reeves’ character’s journey and Buddhism. Once <a href="https://library.scotch.wa.edu.au/ld.php?content_id=45331773">awakened to reality</a>, Neo is no longer bound to the illusions of ignorance and desire. Just as importantly, he must help other humans awaken and escape the cycle of suffering.</p>
<h2>Spirits on screen</h2>
<p>Even apart from specific allusions like these, cinema shares something important with religion. </p>
<p><a href="https://www.hamilton.edu/academics/our-faculty/directory/faculty-detail/s-brent-plate">S. B. Rodriguez-Plate</a>, a religion scholar at Hamilton College, argues that <a href="https://theconversation.com/when-do-moviegoers-become-pilgrims-81016">films can function something like religions</a> in the lives of their audiences, “playing God” by <a href="https://www.google.com/books/edition/Religion_and_Film/PeQvDwAAQBAJ?hl=en&gbpv=0">creating imaginary worlds</a> – worlds that may make viewers see their real lives in a different light.</p>
<figure class="align-right zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/579328/original/file-20240302-20-gruasj.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="Three children stare up at a large, very colorful structure that looks like a coral reef with clay characters on it." src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/579328/original/file-20240302-20-gruasj.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=237&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/579328/original/file-20240302-20-gruasj.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=749&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/579328/original/file-20240302-20-gruasj.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=749&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/579328/original/file-20240302-20-gruasj.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=749&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/579328/original/file-20240302-20-gruasj.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=942&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/579328/original/file-20240302-20-gruasj.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=942&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/579328/original/file-20240302-20-gruasj.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=942&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
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<span class="caption">Visitors gaze at a clay model of Hayao Miyazaki’s film ‘Ponyo’ at an exhibition in Tokyo in 2008.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.gettyimages.com/detail/news-photo/visitors-gaze-at-clay-model-of-the-animation-movie-ponyo-on-news-photo/81959495?adppopup=true">Yoshikazu Tsuno/AFP via Getty Images</a></span>
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<p>That power is nowhere more evident than in animated films, which create vivid realms that live action can only dream of. In films like “<a href="https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0245429/?ref_=fn_al_tt_1">Spirited Away</a>” and “<a href="https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0347149/?ref_=fn_al_tt_1">Howl’s Moving Castle</a>,” legendary anime director Hayao Miyazaki <a href="https://www.google.com/books/edition/Miyazaki_and_the_Hero_s_Journey/GUhpEAAAQBAJ?hl=en&gbpv=0">creates his own mythic worlds</a> populated with fanciful “<a href="https://aboutjapan.japansociety.org/yokai-fantastic-creatures-of-japanese-folklore#sthash.ghWYL1Ap.DkhdklQi.dpbs">yōkai</a>”: creatures that are inspired by Japanese legends but not quite Shinto or Buddhist.</p>
<p>Many of Miyazaki’s films also include spirits that inhabit inanimate objects, which he associates with Japanese tradition. “In my grandparents’ time … it was believed that spirits (kami) existed everywhere – in trees, rivers, insects, wells, anything,” <a href="https://www.google.com/books/edition/Drawing_on_Tradition/gB_HDwAAQBAJ?hl=en&gbpv=0">he once said</a>. “My own religion, if you can call it that, has no practice, no Bible, no saints, only a desire to keep certain places and my own self as pure and holy as possible.”</p>
<p>“<a href="https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0119698/?ref_=fn_al_tt_1">Princess Mononoke</a>,” Miyazaki’s 1997 film set in medieval Japan, tells the story of a young prince drawn into an epic struggle between forest gods and humans who exploit natural resources. It’s a challenge religions have often ignored but are increasingly trying to engage: how to live responsibly in the natural world. </p>
<p>While the movie has <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BoZpCmcnM_s">an environmental message</a>, it avoids oversimplifying the struggle to “good nature” besieged by “bad humans.” San, a human girl who leads an army of wolves, tries to kill the prince, while Iron Town provides support for lepers and outcasts, even as it degrades the environment.</p>
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<figcaption><span class="caption">A.O. Scott reviews ‘Princess Mononoke,’ which highlights environmental themes.</span></figcaption>
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<h2>Birth and rebirth – and groundhogs</h2>
<p>What about comedy, though? Can a religious film be funny? Could a romantic comedy have religious overtones? </p>
<p>Each February, many Americans <a href="https://theconversation.com/why-do-groundhogs-emerge-on-february-2-if-its-not-to-predict-the-weather-36376">celebrate Groundhog Day</a>, waiting to see if the famous Punxsutawney Phil will see his shadow. But for some, Feb. 2 is a day to celebrate “<a href="https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0107048/?ref_=fn_al_tt_1">Groundhog Day</a>” – the film about the moral evolution of an arrogant Pittsburgh weatherman sent to report on the groundhog but forced to <a href="https://theconversation.com/when-each-pandemic-day-feels-the-same-phil-the-weatherman-in-groundhog-day-can-offer-a-lesson-in-embracing-life-mindfully-153605">live the same day over and over again</a> until he gets it right.</p>
<p>Given “Groundhog Day’s” cult-classic status, it evidently speaks to followers of many religions and none. But it’s hard to think of a film that better <a href="https://tricycle.org/article/groundhog-day/">captures the concept of samsara</a>: the Sanskrit term for the tedious human condition, with its endless cycles of birth and rebirth. Helping people find release from samsara is central to both Hinduism and Buddhism. Phil, the weatherman stuck reliving Feb. 2 over and over, is caught on such a treadmill. </p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/579327/original/file-20240302-24-2pk6ne.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="A dark-haired main in a blue shirt and dark tie runs through a snowy street with his arms outstretched." src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/579327/original/file-20240302-24-2pk6ne.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/579327/original/file-20240302-24-2pk6ne.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=403&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/579327/original/file-20240302-24-2pk6ne.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=403&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/579327/original/file-20240302-24-2pk6ne.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=403&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/579327/original/file-20240302-24-2pk6ne.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=507&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/579327/original/file-20240302-24-2pk6ne.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=507&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/579327/original/file-20240302-24-2pk6ne.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=507&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
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<span class="caption">Bill Murray, once again frozen in time on Feb. 2.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.gettyimages.com/detail/news-photo/bill-murray-runs-through-the-snow-in-a-scene-from-the-film-news-photo/163063811?adppopup=true">Columbia Pictures/Archive Photos/Moviepix via Getty Images</a></span>
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<p>Only by gradually transforming himself into a more virtuous person – performing acts of merit among the people of Punxsutawney – does he finally escape from the nightmare of recurring Groundhog Days.</p>
<p>Director Harold Ramis was brought up Jewish but <a href="https://www.lionsroar.com/harold-ramis-profile-by-perry-garfinkel/">became a Buddhist</a> who carried a laminated card, “<a href="https://red40entertainment.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/02/THE-5-MINUTE-BUDDHIST.pdf">The 5 Minute Buddhist</a>”: a kind of cheat sheet of core ideas of Buddhism. So it’s not surprising to find them in his movie.</p>
<p>One is “pratītyasamutpāda,” another Sanskrit term: the idea that everything in the cosmos <a href="https://www.oxfordbibliographies.com/display/document/obo-9780195393521/obo-9780195393521-0027.xml">is linked by causal chains</a>. All causes and effects are connected; nothing stands wholly apart on its own. By the end of “Groundhog Day,” the prideful Phil has fully connected with people in the quaint Pennsylvania village – and won his love, Rita – having learned how his own well-being depends on the well-being of everyone around him. </p>
<h2>Close to awe</h2>
<p>There’s one more way to think about religion in film. Apart from specific spiritual themes, a powerful movie can offer an almost religious experience. </p>
<p>Nathaniel Dorsky, an experimental filmmaker <a href="https://open.bu.edu/handle/2144/34777">influenced by Buddhism</a>, writes of <a href="https://nathanieldorsky.net/dv">cinema as a devotional experience</a>. The act of sitting in darkness, watching an illuminated world flicker by, Dorsky says, may be as close to approaching the transcendent as many of us will come – getting a glimpse of something beyond our normal range of experience.</p>
<p>Of course, all these films can be enjoyed fully without reading them on this religious level. Some movie fans would object that these interpretations spoil the fun, and they may have a point. But part of the excitement of studying religion in popular culture is to be aware of its many permutations, hidden in plain view.</p>
<p><em>This article has been updated to correct the name of religion scholar S. B. Rodriguez-Plate.</em></p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/222953/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>David W. Stowe does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organization that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>Plenty of movies have explicitly religious themes, but some of the most interesting examples of faith or transcendence on screen are much more subtle.David W. Stowe, Professor of Religious Studies, Michigan State UniversityLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/2214772024-03-06T13:33:38Z2024-03-06T13:33:38ZHow the Academy Awards became ‘the biggest international fashion show free-for-all’<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/579696/original/file-20240304-26-fvllso.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=0%2C6%2C2156%2C1539&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">The dress actress Lupita Nyong'o wore to the 86th Academy Awards in 2014 became a story in and of itself.</span> <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.gettyimages.com/detail/news-photo/caactress-lupita-nyongo-poses-in-the-press-room-during-the-news-photo/478056305?adppopup=true">Jeffrey Mayer/WireImage via Getty Images</a></span></figcaption></figure><p>The Oscars are no longer just a celebration of movies. They’ve also become a fashion show, with fans, designers and the media celebrating and critiquing Hollywood celebrities as they stroll, pause and pose on the red carpet of the annual awards ceremony.</p>
<p>A sharp look can be a story in and of itself.</p>
<p>Take actress <a href="https://www.wmagazine.com/fashion/lupita-nyongo-best-red-carpet-fashion">Lupita Nyong’o</a>. After she wore a powder blue Prada dress to the 2014 Oscars, she became the new “It girl” overnight. She was named <a href="https://people.com/celebrity/lupita-nyongo-is-peoples-most-beautiful-2/">People magazine’s Most Beautiful Woman</a>, became the <a href="https://time.com/49612/lupita-nyongo-becomes-new-face-of-lancome/">first Black ambassador</a> for beauty giant Lancôme and landed on the covers of Vogue, Vanity Fair and Glamour.</p>
<p>But fashion wasn’t always so central to the ceremony.</p>
<p>In <a href="https://www.jstor.org/stable/10.3366/j.ctv1vtz84g.11">my book about the history of the Oscars red carpet</a>, I point to two essential figures that turned the Oscars into the fashion spectacle we know today.</p>
<h2>TV puts the Oscars in the spotlight</h2>
<p>At the end of the 1940s, the Hollywood film industry was facing economic headwinds. </p>
<p>More and more households <a href="https://guides.loc.gov/american-women-moving-image/television">were buying television sets</a>, which impacted movie-going. The studios also saw their revenues decline when they were forced to sell their theater chains <a href="https://www.hollywoodreporter.com/business/business-news/paramount-decrees-antitrust-hollywood-1235581215/">after losing an antitrust case in 1948</a>.</p>
<p>Financial struggles continued to mount when, in 1949, <a href="https://lantern.mediahist.org/catalog/photoplayjanjun100macf_4_0603">the motion picture companies refused to fund the Academy Awards</a> after the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences, the organization that puts on the awards, allowed British films to compete head-to-head with American productions. </p>
<p>The organization found temporary solutions to keep the event going. But when faced with the possibility of discontinuing the Oscars ceremony altogether due to financial constraints, the academy weighed the advantages and disadvantages of airing the program on television, which was seen as film’s main competitor. Eventually, the academy approached NBC and requested that the network cover the expenses to put on the event <a href="https://doi.org/10.1080/01439685.2022.2065079">in exchange for the rights to broadcast the show in 1953</a>.</p>
<p>Until then, the studios had carefully crafted and controlled their stars’ public image. Television was a new medium – and a more spontaneous one. Studio executives feared how their stars would appear on screen and behave during the broadcast. Furthermore, many nominees were skeptical of appearing at the event since there was no stipulation in their contracts about television appearances.</p>
<h2>Edith Head, guardian of glamour</h2>
<p>So the academy hired <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/1981/10/27/obituaries/edith-head-fashion-designer-for-the-movies-dies.html">Edith Head</a> as a fashion consultant to supervise the stars’ appearance.</p>
<p>At the time, Head was Hollywood’s most famous costume designer. She’d been working since the days of silent cinema, and she was <a href="https://muse.jhu.edu/article/900041/pdf">accustomed to the media spotlight through her promotional work for Paramount</a>.</p>
<p>Head was responsible for making sure that everyone dressed appropriately, abiding by the “decency and decorum” guidelines suggested by <a href="https://babel.hathitrust.org/cgi/pt?id=inu.39000007422830&seq=10">the Code of Practice for Television Broadcasters</a>. She also had to ensure that no two dresses were the same and that the outfits worn by presenters and nominees looked good on camera and complemented the set.</p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="Elderly woman wearing sunglasses poses while sitting in a golf cart." src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/579228/original/file-20240301-16-un6izk.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/579228/original/file-20240301-16-un6izk.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=382&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/579228/original/file-20240301-16-un6izk.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=382&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/579228/original/file-20240301-16-un6izk.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=382&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/579228/original/file-20240301-16-un6izk.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=480&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/579228/original/file-20240301-16-un6izk.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=480&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/579228/original/file-20240301-16-un6izk.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=480&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Edith Head was hired as the first fashion consultant for the Academy Awards.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.gettyimages.com/detail/news-photo/edith-head-outside-her-office-on-the-lot-of-universal-news-photo/77695597?adppopup=true">Mark Sullivan/Contour via Getty Images</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>One of her most important roles ended up being talking up fashion in media interviews leading up to the Oscars, which she frequently referred to as a fashion show. </p>
<p>“This is a very competitive night from a fashion point of view because, as I said, the stars are presenting themselves as themselves,” Head explained on one of <a href="https://collections.new.oscars.org/Details/Collection/546">her radio shows</a>. “For me, as a fashion designer, the most exciting question is who will wear what.”</p>
<p><a href="https://www.jstor.org/stable/10.3366/j.ctv1vtz84g.11">The postwar growth of the international fashion industry</a> paved the way for Hollywood stars to wear the latest creations by European designers, including Christian Dior, Hubert de Givenchy and Pierre Balmain.</p>
<p>However, by the mid-1960s, new fashion trends such as miniskirts, shapeless dresses, pants and bohemian styles threatened to upend the formal attire of the Oscars and the feminine ideals preferred by Head.</p>
<p>In 1968, she felt compelled to remind young actresses of the event’s stature with a <a href="https://www.oscars.org/collection-highlights/edith-head/?fid=33401">press release</a> after actress <a href="https://images.app.goo.gl/65gNaXHLq9oCcbp99">Inger Stevens</a> wore a mini dress to the ceremony in 1967. To Head, this was no informal social gathering; it was a glamorous, upscale fashion parade.</p>
<p>Two years later, in 1970, she reiterated the importance of formal attire <a href="https://youtube.com/watch?v=xbMl6BHSMvA">while announcing the nominees</a> for the Oscar for best costume design. She reminded young actresses that the Oscars was “the most important time of the year in Hollywood” and advised them to avoid wearing “the freaky, far-out, unusual fashions.”</p>
<figure>
<iframe width="440" height="260" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/xbMl6BHSMvA?wmode=transparent&start=0" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen=""></iframe>
<figcaption><span class="caption">Edith Head stresses the importance of formal attire at the Oscars.</span></figcaption>
</figure>
<h2>Fred Hayman rights the ship</h2>
<p>After Head said goodbye to her position at the conclusion of the 1971 ceremony, celebrities blew through the boundaries of decorum, inaugurating an era of questionable fashion choices: <a href="https://images.app.goo.gl/VEmt61vyUeNku7mn7">Edy Williams’ shocking bikini looks</a>, Bob Mackie’s memorable <a href="https://www.vogue.co.uk/fashion/gallery/cher-oscars-outfits">transparencies for Cher</a> and Armani’s <a href="https://images.app.goo.gl/cyLTjwV1Li1c2AbN7">over-the-top informality for Diane Keaton</a>. </p>
<figure class="align-right zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/579681/original/file-20240304-30-k64ob.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="Woman in elegant black, spidery, see-through dress holds a gold statuette." src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/579681/original/file-20240304-30-k64ob.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=237&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/579681/original/file-20240304-30-k64ob.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=947&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/579681/original/file-20240304-30-k64ob.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=947&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/579681/original/file-20240304-30-k64ob.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=947&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/579681/original/file-20240304-30-k64ob.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=1190&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/579681/original/file-20240304-30-k64ob.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=1190&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/579681/original/file-20240304-30-k64ob.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=1190&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Cher wears a transparent gown designed by Bob Mackie at the 60th Academy Awards in 1988.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.gettyimages.com/detail/news-photo/actress-cher-posing-in-the-press-room-at-the-1988-academy-news-photo/529485598?adppopup=true">Frank Trapper/Corbis via Getty Images</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>Fashion order was restored in 1989 when Beverly Hills impresario <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2016/04/15/business/smallbusiness/fred-hayman-whose-giorgio-boutique-led-gilding-of-rodeo-drive-dies-at-90.html">Fred Hayman</a> became the event’s new fashion coordinator.</p>
<p>Lucky for him, in the 1990s, fashion was in fashion. </p>
<p>New successful designers such as Giorgio Armani, Thierry Mugler and Gianni Versace elbowed into the spotlight alongside established conglomerate brands like Louis Vuitton and Givenchy. <a href="https://artsandculture.google.com/story/the-rise-and-fall-of-the-90s-supermodel/_gVRe27kG0w8LA?hl=en">Supermodels had become celebrities</a> on par with actors and actresses, and cable television launched specialized international networks dedicated entirely to fashion and celebrity culture. </p>
<p>Hayman was eager to capitalize on this momentum to promote Rodeo Drive as the luxury shopping mecca of the West Coast.</p>
<p>Hayman had begun his career in the hospitality industry. But in 1961, he switched to fashion after investing in a friend’s boutique, Giorgio Beverly Hills. Hayman would eventually become the boutique’s sole owner. In 1989, the same year he joined the Oscars as fashion coordinator, he rebranded his store as Fred Hayman Beverly Hills <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/1987/04/08/business/company-news-avon-products-to-acquire-giorgio.html">after selling the Giorgio brand to cosmetics conglomerate Avon</a> to commercialize <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/1985/02/02/style/marketing-a-perfume-the-story-of-giorgio.html">his perfume line</a>. </p>
<p>Giorgio Beverly Hills catered to the rich and famous by retailing garments from various designers and brands from Europe and New York City. As fashion coordinator of the Oscars, Hayman became the official go-to resource for what to wear to the event, attracting more celebrities, brands and media attention to Rodeo Drive.</p>
<p>Building off Head’s media strategy, Hayman <a href="https://youtube.com/watch?v=JjPhHwrgoAw">introduced the fashion previews</a>. These were runway shows for the press organized at the Samuel Goldwyn Theatre on Wilshire Boulevard to anticipate each year’s red-carpet trends.</p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="Elegantly dressed women and men pose in front of tall, gold statues." src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/579682/original/file-20240304-22-xp7dri.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=9%2C7%2C1010%2C668&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/579682/original/file-20240304-22-xp7dri.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/579682/original/file-20240304-22-xp7dri.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/579682/original/file-20240304-22-xp7dri.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/579682/original/file-20240304-22-xp7dri.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/579682/original/file-20240304-22-xp7dri.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/579682/original/file-20240304-22-xp7dri.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Fashion retailer Fred Hayman – center, with white hair – served as the fashion coordinator for the Oscars from 1990 to 1999.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.gettyimages.com/detail/news-photo/designers-contribution-to-the-66th-oscars-news-photo/529810800?adppopup=true">Frank Trapper/Corbis via Getty Images</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>Fashion at the Oscars took a giant leap forward with Hayman. Thanks to his efforts, the West Coast enhanced its fashion profile, prompting luxury brands to open flagship stores along Rodeo Drive. </p>
<p>He continued in his role for a decade until he was replaced by stylist <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2014/03/18/nyregion/lwren-scott-found-dead-in-manhattan-apartment.html">L’Wren Scott</a> for the ceremony in 2000. </p>
<p>Through their media savvy, Head and Hayman were able to recast the Academy Awards ceremony as a dazzling spectacle of glamour – what Head frequently described as “<a href="https://www.jstor.org/stable/10.3366/j.ctv1vtz84g.11">the biggest international fashion show free-for-all</a>.”</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/221477/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Elizabeth Castaldo Lundén does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organization that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>Through their media savvy, two consultants were able to make the Oscars as much about the attire as the gold statuettes.Elizabeth Castaldo Lundén, Fulbright Scholar and Sweden-America Foundation Research Fellow, University of Southern CaliforniaLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/2245682024-03-05T18:01:12Z2024-03-05T18:01:12ZOscars 2024: How ‘Poor Things’ music scoring brilliantly invents a fresh world for cinematic sound<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/579636/original/file-20240304-20-q04dm4.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=0%2C208%2C2473%2C1332&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">The score of 'Poor Things,' by composer Jerskin Fendrix, is one of several Oscar-nominated scores by a composer with solid credentials in popular music.
</span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">(Searchlight Pictures)</span></span></figcaption></figure><p>At first glance the <a href="https://composer.spitfireaudio.com/en/articles/how-poor-things-composer-jerskin-fendrix-embraced-the-unorthodox-with-his-debut-score">British composer</a> <a href="https://jerskinfendrix.bandcamp.com/album/winterreise">Jerskin Fendrix</a> (the stage name used by Joscelin Dent-Pooley) does not seem an obvious candidate for scoring <em>Poor Things</em>, now nominated for best original score at the upcoming Academy Awards.</p>
<p>The film, by acclaimed director <a href="http://www.lanthimos.com/">Yorgos Lanthimos</a> features an A-list cast including <a href="https://www.cbsnews.com/news/emma-stone-and-director-yorgos-lanthimos-on-poor-things/">Emma Stone</a>, who plays Bella Baxter, a woman <a href="https://www.imdb.com/title/tt14230458/">brought back to life</a> who must experience the world afresh. </p>
<p>Fendrix had <a href="https://www.synthhistory.com/post/interview-with-poor-things-composer-jerskin-fendrix">no prior experience</a> with composing for the silver screen or working with a director. When he was approached about the job he had released only one solo album, <a href="https://jerskinfendrix.bandcamp.com/album/winterreise"><em>Winterreise</em></a> (2020). </p>
<p>Yet it was just this album with its <a href="https://www.hollywoodreporter.com/movies/movie-features/emma-stone-mark-ruffalo-yorgos-lanthimos-making-poor-things-1235761791/">punk and pop aesthetic</a> that caught the attention of auteur-director Lanthimos. </p>
<p>As such, Fendrix represents a newer generation of film composers, who are more likely to move in the world of rock, pop or alternative music <a href="https://www.johnwilliams.org/reference/biography">scenes than score or conduct</a> for a <a href="https://www.lso.co.uk/seven-times-classical-music-was-used-in-film/">symphony orchestra</a>.</p>
<figure>
<iframe width="440" height="260" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/3L6wPs_76vw?wmode=transparent&start=0" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen=""></iframe>
<figcaption><span class="caption">Jerskin Fendrix’s <em>Onigiri</em> from the album <em>Winterreise</em>.</span></figcaption>
</figure>
<h2>Underground scene</h2>
<p>Lanthimos himself has admitted this was the first time he has <a href="https://composer.spitfireaudio.com/en/articles/how-poor-things-composer-jerskin-fendrix-embraced-the-unorthodox-with-his-debut-score">worked with a composer</a>. </p>
<p>Fendrix’s path to that point involved singing <a href="https://www.thelineofbestfit.com/features/interviews/jerskin-fendrix-viscerally-human-debut-winterreise">original songs</a> in the underground/alternative <a href="https://www.elephantdrums.co.uk/blog/guides-and-resources/live-music-venues-london-brixton/">Brixton music scene</a> in <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2017/02/09/travel/brixton-hill-village-granville-arcade-london-gentrification.html">South London</a>. </p>
<p>His fast-growing reputation enabled him to stage a <a href="https://www.windmillbrixton.co.uk/events/2018-12-21-jerskin-winter-festival-number-4-black-fendrix-jersk-midi-plus-famous-plus-jerskin-fendrix-plus-acd-the-windmill">four-day festival</a> at the much-vaunted <a href="https://www.bigissue.com/culture/music/the-windmill-brixton-london-music-venue-watch/">Windmill Pub</a> in 2018. </p>
<p>In that same year he tried his hand at <a href="https://www.vam.ac.uk/event/bnkgGKnk/ubu">electronic opera</a> — a foreshadowing of film scoring? — through a setting of the <a href="https://www.britannica.com/topic/Ubu-roi">absurdist turn-of-the-century play <em>Ubu Roi</em></a> by French writer Alfred Jarry. <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/stage/2018/sep/04/ubu-review-alfred-jarry-victoria-and-albert-museum-london"><em>The Guardian</em></a> described the music as “not just atonal but abrasive, brutal and grinding.” </p>
<figure>
<iframe width="440" height="260" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/lxZ24jVxpJM?wmode=transparent&start=0" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen=""></iframe>
<figcaption><span class="caption"><em>Poor Things</em> soundtrack.</span></figcaption>
</figure>
<h2>Orchestras at the movies</h2>
<p>In the era of epic film franchises like Star Wars, Harry Potter and Star Trek, the London Symphony Orchestra served as the <a href="https://www.lso.co.uk/about-us/what-we-do/">go-to ensemble for soundtracks</a>, with more people hearing the orchestra through these movies than live in concert. </p>
<p>It stands to reason that the shift from those sprawling cinematic universes to more character-centred stories like <em>Killers of the Flower Moon</em> and <em>Poor Things</em> necessitated a different sound ideal.</p>
<p>Three of the five film scores nominated for the Oscars this year are by composers who possess solid credentials in popular music: Fendrix, <a href="https://www.vanityfair.com/hollywood/2023/07/oppenheimer-music-interview-composer-ludwig-goransson">Ludwig Göransson</a> (<em>Oppenheimer</em>) and the late <a href="https://ew.com/oscars-2024-robbie-robertson-earns-posthumous-first-nomination-8548082">Robbie Robertson (<em>Killers of the Flower Moon</em>).</a></p>
<h2>Popular music collaborations</h2>
<p>Göransson has collaborated with <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/music/2018/may/12/the-rise-of-donald-glover-childish-gambino">American musician and rapper</a> <a href="https://www.npr.org/2019/02/23/697124438/how-ludwig-g-ransson-helped-orchestrate-americas-conversation-on-race-in-2018">Childish Gambino</a>. </p>
<p>Robertson was renowned both for his solo artistry and earlier for his work with <a href="https://pitchfork.com/news/bob-dylan-pays-tribute-to-former-bandmate-robbie-robertson/">Bob Dylan</a> and The Band. </p>
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<p>
<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/the-bands-robbie-robertson-leaves-behind-a-legacy-of-rich-worldly-music-211405">The Band's Robbie Robertson leaves behind a legacy of rich, worldly music</a>
</strong>
</em>
</p>
<hr>
<p>To this list we might add such recent Oscar nominees as Radiohead lead guitarist <a href="https://variety.com/2021/artisans/awards/jonny-greenwood-power-of-the-dog-score-composer-interview-1235113926/">Jonny Greenwood</a> (<em>The Power of the Dog</em>), Nine Inch Nails band members <a href="https://www.thewrap.com/trent-reznor-atticus-fox-if-only-you-could-save-me-mank/">Trent Reznor and Atticus Ross</a> (<em>Mank</em>, <em>Soul</em>).</p>
<p>Each of these composers have contributed their unique blend of skills and expertise to the scores entrusted to them. </p>
<h2>Fashioning something new</h2>
<p>Yet none of them as “<a href="https://www.latimes.com/entertainment-arts/awards/story/2023-12-15/poor-things-quirky-score-jerskin-fendrix">quirky</a>” and “<a href="https://aframe.oscars.org/what-to-watch/post/jerskin-fendrix-top-5-exclusive">one of a kind</a>” as the work of Fendrix for <em>Poor Things</em>. </p>
<p>According to an interview with the Oscar publication <a href="https://aframe.oscars.org/news/post/jerskin-fendrix-poor-things-interview"><em>A-Frame</em></a>, he and Lanthimos agreed “not to discuss any other composers, film scores or music in general” so as to create a sound unique to <em>Poor Things</em>. </p>
<p>That may be true, and yet Fendrix has indicated that he does have favourite film scores, including Tōru Takemitsu’s “breathtaking” music for <a href="https://www.criterion.com/films/754-ran"><em>Ran</em>, (which re-imagines Shakespeare’s <em>King Lear</em> as a 16th-century Japanese epic)</a>
and the “<a href="https://aframe.oscars.org/what-to-watch/post/jerskin-fendrix-top-5-exclusive">phenomenally inspirational</a>” classical mix in <a href="https://faroutmagazine.co.uk/stanley-kubrick-2001-a-space-odyssey-music/"><em>2001: A Space Odyssey</em></a>. These must have left some imprint on the composer.</p>
<p>In line with the desire to fashion something new for <em>Poor Things</em>, director and composer inverted the customary model of adding music once the film was “<a href="https://filmmakermagazine.com/102417-a-message-from-your-composer-lock-your-picture-please/">locked</a>,” at the end of the creative process. </p>
<p>Fendrix actually started his work <a href="https://www.latimes.com/entertainment-arts/awards/story/2023-12-15/poor-things-quirky-score-jerskin-fendrix">six months before shooting</a> began — he based his music on the script and set designs rather than on the finished footage. </p>
<h2>Breath and life</h2>
<p>What he created also subverted scoring norms by relying on <a href="https://filmmakermagazine.com/123969-interview-composer-jerskin-fendrix-poor-things/">woodwinds</a> — symbolic of breath and life — rather than strings, with <a href="https://www.btlnews.com/crafts/hear-two-tracks-from-jerskin-fendrixs-poor-things-score/">bagpipes and organ</a> thrown in. </p>
<p>Lanthimos approved the results of Jerskin’s efforts, which led him to take the unusual step of <a href="https://www.btlnews.com/awards/a-glimpse-into-the-mind-of-poor-things-composer-jerskin-fendrix/">playing the music on set</a> to establish the mood for scenes and characters.</p>
<p>From the opening of <em>Poor Things</em> we realize that we are participants in a fresh <a href="https://faroutmagazine.co.uk/jerskin-fendrix-poor-things-contemporary-pulse/">new world for cinematic sound</a>, by a composer who confesses that he “<a href="https://www.classical-music.com/features/tv-and-film-music/poor-things-soundtrack">had no idea what [he] was doing at any point in the process whatsoever</a>.” </p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="A woman in bronze ornate dress stares into the camera and reflection is in a mirror beside her." src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/579645/original/file-20240304-49731-n28qq1.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/579645/original/file-20240304-49731-n28qq1.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=521&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/579645/original/file-20240304-49731-n28qq1.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=521&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/579645/original/file-20240304-49731-n28qq1.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=521&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/579645/original/file-20240304-49731-n28qq1.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=655&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/579645/original/file-20240304-49731-n28qq1.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=655&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/579645/original/file-20240304-49731-n28qq1.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=655&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Fendrix’s score accompanies the character development of Bella Baxter, played by Emma Stone, a woman brought back to life who must experience the world afresh.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">(Searchlight Pictures)</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<h2>Samples of acoustic instruments</h2>
<p>Rather than composing from the synthesizer, Fendrix digitally — he says <a href="https://filmmakermagazine.com/123969-interview-composer-jerskin-fendrix-poor-things/">“surgically”</a> — edited <a href="https://www.indiewire.com/features/craft/poor-things-soundtrack-lisbon-bella-exclusive-track-1234925877/">samples of individual acoustic instruments</a>, whereby he could manipulate each part. </p>
<p>Such editing would not have been possible if he had taped an orchestra or ensemble at one place and time, a <a href="https://www.routledge.com/On-the-Track-A-Guide-to-Contemporary-Film-Scoring/Karlin-Wright/p/book/9780415941365">standard approach</a> for recording film soundtracks.</p>
<p>The <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lxZ24jVxpJM">opening cue</a> — associated with the lead character Bella — immediately immerses us into its sound world of the film: it begins with a six-note, <a href="https://filmmakermagazine.com/123969-interview-composer-jerskin-fendrix-poor-things/">pitch-bent pizzicato</a> (plucked strings). </p>
<p>We might say that its shifting reflects the character’s initial awkwardness and uncertainty in the world, which the following lush string gesture seems to dispel. </p>
<h2>Freshness, iconoclasm</h2>
<p>However, if we listen carefully we realize the bending continues under the strings, suggesting the endurance of Bella’s curiosity and unique orientation to life even as she becomes experienced. </p>
<p>Her <a href="https://filmmakermagazine.com/123969-interview-composer-jerskin-fendrix-poor-things/">musical accompaniment expands</a>, filling or creating sonic space of scenes as she physically, emotionally and intellectually develops in the film. </p>
<p>Yet the Bella theme <a href="https://www.rogerebert.com/reviews/poor-things-movie-review-2023">persists</a> throughout, the only <a href="https://filmmakermagazine.com/123969-interview-composer-jerskin-fendrix-poor-things/">leitmotif</a> introduced by Fendrix.</p>
<p>Fendrix has brilliantly demonstrated that one does not need to follow standard film-scoring practices to express intense and profound emotions in music.</p>
<p>Perhaps the <a href="https://variety.com/2024/music/focus/the-zone-of-interest-poor-things-the-killer-composers-discuss-strange-scores-1235867125/">freshness and iconoclasm</a> that he and his colleagues from popular music bring to scores are just what we need to inspire contemporary cinema and viewers.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/224568/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>James Deaville does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>Using a variety of instruments and playing live music on the film set are all part of how composer Jerskin Fendrix generated brilliant sonic accompaniment for ‘Poor Things.’James Deaville, Professor of Music, Carleton UniversityLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/2236302024-03-05T13:59:33Z2024-03-05T13:59:33ZScorsese’s gods of the streets: From ‘Killers of the Flower Moon’ to ‘Silence,’ faith is rarely far off in his films<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/578959/original/file-20240229-26-vvk7wh.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=4%2C0%2C744%2C447&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Even in films where religion isn't front and center, Martin Scorsese's attention to ritual and devotion comes through. </span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">Apple TV+</span></span></figcaption></figure><p>A widely circulated still from the set of Martin Scorsese’s latest film, “<a href="https://www.imdb.com/title/tt5537002/">Killers of the Flower Moon</a>,” shows the director sitting in a church pew. Next to him is Lily Gladstone, who plays the role of Mollie Kyle, an Osage woman whose family is targeted as part of a broader conspiracy by white Americans to steal the tribe’s wealth, to the point of marrying and killing its members.</p>
<p>In the photograph, Scorsese appears to hold <a href="https://theconversation.com/what-is-the-rosary-why-a-set-of-beads-and-prayers-are-central-to-catholic-faith-192485">rosary beads</a>, a common devotional object for many Catholics. Mollie is Catholic, so the rosary makes sense as a prop. But as <a href="https://udayton.edu/directory/artssciences/religiousstudies/smith_anthony.php">a scholar</a> of <a href="https://kansaspress.ku.edu/9780700636150/the-look-of-catholics/">religion and film</a>, I’m struck by how it calls to mind the director’s own complex Catholicism and its imprint on his decades of filmmaking.</p>
<p>Scorsese stands in a long line of Catholic American filmmakers, stretching back to the 1930s and 1940s – one that includes Irish Americans <a href="https://www.americamagazine.org/issue/searcher">John Ford</a> and <a href="https://www.christianitytoday.com/ct/2009/julyweb-only/fof_mccarey.html">Leo McCarey</a>, and Italian immigrant <a href="https://www.ncregister.com/features/frank-capra-earned-his-wings-with-it-s-a-wonderful-life">Frank Capra</a>. At a time when Catholicism still seemed foreign to many Americans, those directors <a href="https://kansaspress.ku.edu/9780700636150/the-look-of-catholics/">helped normalize the faith</a>, making it seem like part of a shared American story. </p>
<p>Yet in his films, Scorsese has taken a much more personal approach to exploring Catholic faith and experience. He doesn’t feel the need to defend the religion or burnish its image. His movies are steeped in Catholic sensibilities, but embrace painful questions that often accompany belief: what it means to hold on to religious commitment in a world where God can seem absent.</p>
<h2>From altar boy to auteur</h2>
<p>Scorsese has often spoken of <a href="https://www.ncronline.org/filmmaker-martin-scorsese-talks-about-his-faith-upcoming-movie-silence?fbclid=IwAR1JWRy3irXQQlldezkIduAqJ3zH3iBUaU5qPh6Llr1v6ylXl1GnwlbyO48">his Catholic background</a>. Born in New York City’s Little Italy, he went to Catholic schools and served as an altar boy at St. Patrick’s Old Cathedral, which <a href="https://untappedcities.com/2014/04/03/monthofscorsese-nyc-film-locations-for-martin-scorsese-mean-streets/">appeared in his early masterpiece</a> “Mean Streets.” Scorsese even began seminary training, but he quickly realized the priesthood was not for him.</p>
<p>Yet the church proved influential. Scorsese has described St. Patrick’s as <a href="https://www.franciscanmedia.org/st-anthony-messenger/martin-scorsese-s-trilogy-of-faith/">a spiritual alternative</a> to the violence in the streets around his neighborhood. A priest <a href="https://www.ncronline.org/filmmaker-martin-scorsese-talks-about-his-faith-upcoming-movie-silence?fbclid=IwAR1JWRy3irXQQlldezkIduAqJ3zH3iBUaU5qPh6Llr1v6ylXl1GnwlbyO48">introduced the young Scorsese</a> to classical music and books that widened his cultural horizons.</p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/578968/original/file-20240229-16-2fnzga.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="The view of a sanctuary with stained-glass windows, seen from above with a man playing the organ in the foreground." src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/578968/original/file-20240229-16-2fnzga.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/578968/original/file-20240229-16-2fnzga.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/578968/original/file-20240229-16-2fnzga.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/578968/original/file-20240229-16-2fnzga.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/578968/original/file-20240229-16-2fnzga.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/578968/original/file-20240229-16-2fnzga.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/578968/original/file-20240229-16-2fnzga.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Organist Jared Lamenzo performs at the Basilica of St. Patrick’s Old Cathedral on June 21, 2019.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.gettyimages.com/detail/news-photo/organist-jared-lamenzo-perform-during-the-friends-of-the-news-photo/1151298772?adppopup=true">Kris Connor/Getty Images for NAMM</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>A similar tension runs through many of his films: Catholic devotion, mystery and ritual interwoven with ruthless crime. Indeed, the struggle with faith amid brutality is a theme Scorsese returns to over and over, asking what religion might have to offer the world as it actually exists, with all its cruelties, greed and despair.</p>
<h2>Presence and absence</h2>
<p>That struggle can be described as one between “<a href="https://www.hup.harvard.edu/books/9780674984592">presence” and “absence</a>,” to use the terms of <a href="https://history.northwestern.edu/people/faculty/affiliated-faculty/robert-orsi.html">religious studies scholar Robert A. Orsi</a>. </p>
<p>Religious presence refers to all the ways people experience their gods’ existence in the world and in their lives. For Catholics, for example, the Eucharist is not just a symbol of Christ; the consecrated bread and wine in Communion actually <a href="https://theconversation.com/why-communion-matters-in-catholic-life-and-what-it-means-to-be-denied-the-eucharist-163560">become Jesus’ flesh and blood</a>, according to Catholic teaching.</p>
<p>Orsi describes religious absence, on the other hand, as the experience of doubt and spiritual struggle about a god not felt directly on Earth.</p>
<p>Both presence and absence shape Scorsese’s rendering of religion. God’s absence takes the form of violence and greed in his films. But some characters also carry their gods with them in the world. This is most dramatically seen in “Silence,” released in 2016, which was based on the novel by <a href="https://www.americamagazine.org/arts-culture/2023/04/25/shusaku-endo-245116">Japanese Catholic writer Shusaku Endo</a>. </p>
<p>“Silence” is the story of two Jesuit missionaries who travel to 17th century Japan in search of their mentor, another Jesuit who is believed to have renounced the faith during a wave of violent persecutions. One of them, Father Rodrigues, <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/film/2016/dec/10/silence-review-the-last-temptation-of-liam-neeson-in-scorseses-shattering-epic">profoundly questions his own faith</a> after witnessing the torture of Japanese Christians.</p>
<figure>
<iframe width="440" height="260" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/cuTjBL28l0U?wmode=transparent&start=0" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen=""></iframe>
<figcaption><span class="caption">‘Silence’ dramatically explores faith, doubt and suffering.</span></figcaption>
</figure>
<p>Why, he wonders, does God allow such suffering? Eventually he himself will renounce his faith in order to save the lives of those to whom he ministers.</p>
<p>The silence of God is the film’s major preoccupation, yet it is filled with devotional imagery. At <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EOX8-c-_uVY">the climax of the film</a>, Rodrigues tramples on an image of Christ in order to end the torture of other Christians. But just at that moment, he experiences the presence of his God.</p>
<p>The very final scene depicts his burial, years after the film’s main events – a small crucifix clasped in his hand.</p>
<h2>Penance ‘in the streets’</h2>
<p>This preoccupation with Catholicism stretches back to Scorsese’s 1973 breakthrough film, “Mean Streets.” Harvey Keitel plays a young Italian American man, Charlie, who <a href="https://www.americamagazine.org/issue/5130/film/his-catholic-conscience">grapples with his faith</a> in the unforgiving world of New York’s Lower East Side. </p>
<p>Presence, as Orsi points out, <a href="https://www.hup.harvard.edu/books/9780674984592">is often as much a burden</a> as a solace. Indeed, part of the emotional power in “Mean Streets” lies in Charlie’s own impatience toward Catholic practices and rules. He wants the freedom to be Catholic in his own way.</p>
<p>“You don’t make up for your sins in the church,” he insists <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AdQ4_AzBxXg">in the opening voice-over</a>. “You do it in the streets. You do it at home. The rest is bullshit, and you know it.”</p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/578972/original/file-20240229-24-ca054r.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="A black and white photo of a man in a jacket and sunglasses leaning against a lamppost on a street with graffiti." src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/578972/original/file-20240229-24-ca054r.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/578972/original/file-20240229-24-ca054r.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=431&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/578972/original/file-20240229-24-ca054r.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=431&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/578972/original/file-20240229-24-ca054r.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=431&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/578972/original/file-20240229-24-ca054r.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=542&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/578972/original/file-20240229-24-ca054r.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=542&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/578972/original/file-20240229-24-ca054r.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=542&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Martin Scorsese at the corner of Hester and Baxter streets in 1973, one of the locations he used in his New York film ‘Mean Streets.’</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.gettyimages.com/detail/news-photo/full-length-portrait-of-american-director-martin-scorsese-news-photo/3204086?adppopup=true">Jack Manning/New York Times Co./Getty Images</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>Over the years, Scorsese’s own ambitions have led him far beyond the streets of Little Italy. A number of his films have little to do with religion. Yet movies such as “Casino,” “The Aviator” and “The Wolf of Wall Street” elaborate the same basic question as “Mean Streets”: What is important in a world that so often feels dominated by absence, money and violence? Through a long career, Scorsese has framed both the sacred and profane as compelling but competing forces of human desire.</p>
<p>Shortly before the release of “Silence,” Scorsese <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2016/11/27/magazine/the-passion-of-martin-scorsese.html">visited St. Patrick’s</a> during an interview with The New York Times. “I never left,” he said. “In my mind, I am here every day.”</p>
<p>One might take him at his word. Even in his most recent movie, “Killers of the Flower Moon,” <a href="https://www.americamagazine.org/arts-culture/2023/10/26/killers-flower-moon-osage-catholics-246377">a Catholic sensibility sneaks through in numerous ways</a>. Characters attend Mass at parish churches and bury their dead on consecrated Catholic ground. </p>
<p>Further, the film’s attention to Osage religious practices demonstrates Scorsese’s sensitivity to the power of ritual and devotion. The movie opens with the burial of a ceremonial pipe, highlighting how objects can assume sacred significance. As Mollie’s mother dies, she has a vision of the elders.</p>
<p>But the questions that haunt Scorsese hang over moments that hardly feel religious, too. </p>
<p>Toward the end of the film, when Mollie asks her duplicitous husband, Ernest, to come clean, his refusal to fully confess the harm he did to her and her family epitomizes the depths of his ethical emptiness. Her silence as she gets up and leaves, with an FBI agent standing quietly in the corner, offers a more powerful moral indictment than any legal sentence. The refusal to pay for one’s sins at home and in the streets has rarely looked so damning.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/223630/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Anthony Smith does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organization that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>Though only a few of Scorsese’s films focus on religious stories, deeper questions about faith, doubt and living in a violent world tend to haunt his movies.Anthony Smith, Associate Professor of Religious Studies, University of DaytonLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/2243402024-03-05T13:58:57Z2024-03-05T13:58:57ZBradley Cooper, Cillian Murphy and the myths of Method acting<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/579255/original/file-20240301-26-y48ck5.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=11%2C11%2C2544%2C1812&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Bradley Cooper as Leonard Bernstein and Carey Mulligan as Bernstein's wife, Felicia Montealegre, in 'Maestro.'</span> <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://media.newyorker.com/photos/6580a0cc97c77278da928c1c/master/pass/Maestro_20220928_20662r.JPG">Jason McDonald/Netflix</a></span></figcaption></figure><p>Should actors and actresses who go to extremes to prepare for their roles get more love from Oscars voters? </p>
<p>This year, best actor nominees <a href="https://www.imdb.com/name/nm0614165/?ref_=ext_shr_lnk">Cillian Murphy</a>, who played nuclear physicist J. Robert Oppenheimer in “<a href="https://www.imdb.com/title/tt15398776/">Oppenheimer</a>,” and <a href="https://www.imdb.com/name/nm0177896/?ref_=nv_sr_srsg_1_tt_3_nm_4_q_bradley%2520cooper">Bradley Cooper</a>, who starred as <a href="https://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2008/12/15/the-legend-of-lenny">Leonard Bernstein</a> in the biopic “<a href="https://www.imdb.com/title/tt5535276/">Maestro</a>,” are getting lots of buzz not only for their performances but also for how those performances were achieved.</p>
<p>The already slim Murphy lost roughly 20 pounds and took up smoking fake cigarettes to mimic the look and habits of the real-life Oppenheimer. His preparation for the role <a href="https://www.vanityfair.com/hollywood/2023/07/inside-cillian-murphy-intense-oppenheimer-prep-i-didnt-go-out-much">was purportedly so intense</a> that he isolated himself from his co-stars during the making of the film.</p>
<p>Meanwhile, Cooper allegedly <a href="https://variety.com/2023/film/features/bradley-cooper-spike-lee-maestro-no-chairs-set-method-acting-1235821551/">spent six years training</a> in the art of conducting in order to film a key sequence for “Maestro.” And on a December 2023 episode of the podcast “SmartLess,” best actress nominee <a href="https://podcasts.musixmatch.com/podcast/smartless-01gttmmw40q3na01cxg9j6kp91/episode/carey-mulligan-01hhxzwj46vx83k5ne3vfhv53p">Carey Mulligan</a> recounted how Bradley Cooper called her on the phone and spoke to her in Leonard Bernstein’s voice years before they had begun filming “Maestro.”</p>
<p>Reporting on the actors’ preparation often references <a href="https://www.nfi.edu/method-acting/">Method acting</a>, a psychological approach to performing that’s designed to make the character seem more real and believable. </p>
<p><a href="https://www.holycross.edu/academics/programs/theatre/scott-malia">But as someone who has taught theater for over 20 years</a>, I’ve found that much of what is said or written about Method acting perpetuates a number of myths about the technique. Sometimes, it can be tough to tell whether actors are genuinely preparing for a role or simply “performing” their preparation for their co-stars, the media and the public.</p>
<h2>The origins of ‘the Method’</h2>
<p>Method acting – sometimes called “the Method” – derives from “the system,” an approach to acting developed by Russian actor and director <a href="https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/94675.An_Actor_Prepares">Konstantin Stanislavski</a>, which he describes in the 1936 book “<a href="https://archive.org/details/2015.126189.AnActorPrepares">An Actor Prepares</a>.” </p>
<figure class="align-right zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/579257/original/file-20240301-48072-drn68t.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="Painting of a middle-aged man with gray hair." src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/579257/original/file-20240301-48072-drn68t.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=237&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/579257/original/file-20240301-48072-drn68t.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=942&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/579257/original/file-20240301-48072-drn68t.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=942&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/579257/original/file-20240301-48072-drn68t.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=942&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/579257/original/file-20240301-48072-drn68t.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=1184&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/579257/original/file-20240301-48072-drn68t.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=1184&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/579257/original/file-20240301-48072-drn68t.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=1184&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Konstantin Stanislavski’s techniques have been hugely influential in the training of European and American actors.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.gettyimages.com/detail/news-photo/portrait-of-the-actor-konstantin-sergeyevich-stanislavsky-news-photo/1144560864?adppopup=true">The Print Collector/Getty Images</a></span>
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<p>Stanislavski asks actors to identify the forces that motivate and drive their characters. In doing so, the actor strives to be in the moment with their fellow actors, responding as their character would to imaginary circumstances.</p>
<p><a href="https://www.imdb.com/name/nm0000008/">Marlon Brando</a> brought mainstream awareness to Method acting. To prepare for his role in “<a href="https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0042727/">The Men</a>,” in which he plays a paralyzed war veteran, Brando reportedly <a href="https://www.slashfilm.com/846709/marlon-brando-only-broke-method-once-during-his-intense-prep-for-the-men/">spent time in a veterans hospital</a> using a wheelchair and did not initially reveal to the other patients that he was not disabled. He also reportedly stayed in his wheelchair between takes while filming.</p>
<p>In the decades since, Method acting has become associated with actors losing themselves in their characters, such as Daniel Day-Lewis <a href="https://screenrant.com/daniel-day-lewis-wild-method-acting-stories/">having people spoon-feed him</a> in order to prepare for his role as a painter with cerebral palsy in “<a href="https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0097937/">My Left Foot</a>” (1989).</p>
<h2>This is the new me!</h2>
<p>Despite all of the attention these stories get, some of the extremes actors go to would have likely made Stanislavski laugh.</p>
<p>“An Actor Prepares” is built around a fictional acting class in which a teacher – most likely a stand-in for Stanislavski himself – breaks his actors’ bad habits and teaches them the foundations of the system. </p>
<p>Many of the exercises the teacher designs are to help the actors imagine what they might do if they were in the same situation as their characters – not to recreate those circumstances in real life. </p>
<p>Along the way, Stanislavski’s acting teacher regularly lampoons actors going to phony extremes to achieve what they think is authenticity. </p>
<p>Not unlike the ethically questionable issues of Brando and Day-Lewis <a href="https://theconversation.com/on-screen-and-on-stage-disability-continues-to-be-depicted-in-outdated-cliched-ways-130577">appropriating disability</a>, one of the actor characters in Stanislavski’s book adopts mind-bogglingly racist approaches, including blackface, as he prepares to play Othello. </p>
<p>Decades later, there are echoes of this critique in the work of Robert Downey Jr., <a href="https://www.indiewire.com/features/general/robert-downey-jr-tropic-thunder-blackface-regrets-1202204722/">who wore blackface</a> in an irony-drenched but nonetheless problematic sendup of Method acting in “<a href="https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0942385/">Tropic Thunder</a>” (2008).</p>
<h2>Does this character make me look fat?</h2>
<p>Much of the debate around <a href="https://time.com/6240001/the-whale-fatsuit-controversy/">last year’s best actor winner, Brendan Fraser</a>, had to do with his wearing prosthetics to play the morbidly obese Charlie in “<a href="https://www.imdb.com/title/tt13833688/?ref_=nv_sr_srsg_0_tt_8_nm_0_q_the%2520whale">The Whale</a>.”</p>
<p>It should be noted that Cillian Murphy denies that he is a Method actor – as does Day-Lewis – and Murphy has refused to disclose the <a href="https://www.vanityfair.com/hollywood/2023/07/inside-cillian-murphy-intense-oppenheimer-prep-i-didnt-go-out-much">weight loss tactics</a> he used to shed pounds for his role in “Oppenheimer.” Yet one of his co-stars, Emily Blunt, semi-jokingly referred to Murphy as eating an almond a day to maintain his underweight physique during filming.</p>
<p>What any actor does with their body is between them and their doctors; however, there are major medical and ethical implications when weight loss and weight gain are marked as evidence of a disciplined commitment to one’s craft. </p>
<p>Stanislavski didn’t tell actors to bulk up or go on a crash diet for their roles; in fact, early in “An Actor Prepares,” the acting teacher admonishes his students for practicing in front of mirrors and being too focused on their outward appearance. Later in the book, the teacher also warns against what he calls an exhibitionistic approach to acting, in which the actor is trying to show the audience how hard they are working at their craft.</p>
<h2>Come at me, bro</h2>
<p>And then there are stories of actors who prod, tease and surprise their co-stars to try to elicit authentic responses.</p>
<p>During the height of the #MeToo movement, <a href="https://people.com/movies/meryl-streep-dustin-hoffman-slapping-overstepping/">a story about the filming</a> of “<a href="https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0079417/?ref_=ext_shr_lnk">Kramer vs. Kramer</a>” (1979) resurfaced. Meryl Streep recalled that co-star Dustin Hoffman slapped her before shooting one of their scenes in order to get a response from her. Those actions were allegedly part of a larger pattern of behavior and strained relations between the two during the making of the film.</p>
<p>Similarly, when “<a href="https://www.imdb.com/title/tt1386697/?ref_=nv_sr_srsg_0_tt_8_nm_0_q_suicide%2520squad">Suicide Squad</a>” (2016) was being filmed, Jared Leto reportedly sent gag gifts to his co-stars from his character, The Joker, that included dead animals and used condoms. <a href="https://www.eonline.com/news/1309072/jared-leto-defends-his-gag-gifts-to-castmates-says-he-never-crossed-any-lines">Leto has alternately endorsed and walked back</a> the stories about the pranks.</p>
<p>Contrast these stunts with Stanislavski’s take on working with acting partners: Create communion and engage in active listening. Ticking them off, whether it’s in service of a scene or part of their own technique of “staying in character,” is selfish.</p>
<h2>Is it process or privilege?</h2>
<p>Since Stanislavski’s book was published, a number of acting approaches have emerged that do favor the kind of personal psychological investment that seems to blur the line between actor and character, most notably those of American acting teacher and theater director <a href="https://newyorkimprovtheater.com/2023/09/28/the-legacy-of-lee-strasberg-stella-adler-and-sanford-meisner-shaping-american-acting-methods-derived-from-stanislavski/#:%7E:text=Strasberg's%20emphasis%20on%20emotional%20recall%2C%20Adler's%20championing%20of%20imagination%20and,on%20the%20art%20of%20acting.">Lee Strasberg</a>.</p>
<p>However, in Chapter 8 of “An Actor Prepares,” Stanislavski makes a clear distinction between what’s true and real for the actor and what’s true and real for the character they are playing.</p>
<p>In other words, he did not subscribe to the idea that an actor can lose themselves in their part.</p>
<p>Yes, the media loves these kinds of stories, and they can demonstrate a certain type of commitment. But they can also paint actors as pampered and pretentious “artistes” <a href="https://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2021/12/13/on-succession-jeremy-strong-doesnt-get-the-joke">whose process is self-indulgent</a>. A working actor struggling to pay the bills doesn’t have the luxury of, say, insisting that everyone address them by their character’s name.</p>
<p>In fact, these narratives about Method acting can swing the other way: Much of the praise around Ryan Gosling’s turn in “Barbie” plays on the idea of a serious actor’s willingness to get blond, goofy and take a decidedly un-Methody approach, something <a href="https://www.vulture.com/article/ryan-gosling-ken-casting.html">the actor cheekily embraced while doing press for the film</a>.</p>
<p>So when the acting Oscars get handed out, hopefully it will be because voters believed in the performances – not because of some meta narrative about their off-screen behavior.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/224340/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Scott Malia does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organization that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>Hopefully, Academy Award winners will be chosen because voters believed in the actors’ performances − not because of some meta narrative about their off-screen behavior.Scott Malia, Associate Professor of Theatre, College of the Holy CrossLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/2231692024-02-19T13:42:42Z2024-02-19T13:42:42Z‘Maestro’ shows the enduring power of Gustav Mahler through Leonard Bernstein’s passion<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/575086/original/file-20240212-20-xnfgow.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=1%2C30%2C984%2C679&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Bradley Cooper as composer and conductor Leonard Bernstein in 'Maestro.' </span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">(Netflix)</span></span></figcaption></figure><p>Bradley Cooper’s Oscar-nominated <em>Maestro</em> focuses on the man considered the “<a href="https://www.npr.org/transcripts/1222482533">first great American conductor</a>,” Leonard Bernstein, who composed such diverse works as <em><a href="https://leonardbernstein.com/works/view/9/west-side-story">West Side Story</a></em> and <em><a href="https://leonardbernstein.com/works/view/10/candide">Candide</a></em>.</p>
<p>Alongside <a href="https://theconversation.com/why-we-are-fascinated-by-the-oscar-nominated-tar-a-story-of-rare-female-power-in-classical-music-198500">Todd Field’s <em>Tár</em> (2022)</a>, this is another high-profile recent film centring on the life of a conductor, putting classical music in the spotlight.</p>
<p>Both films feature Bernstein prominently, as the protagonist of <em>Maestro</em> and the mentor of the fictional Lydia Tár. However, a third composer-conductor looms in the background <a href="https://www.npr.org/sections/deceptivecadence/2023/03/07/1161287197/tar-mahler-5th-symphony-conductor-rafael-payare">of both films</a>: <a href="https://www.britannica.com/biography/Gustav-Mahler">Gustav Mahler</a> (1860-1911). </p>
<p>This notable presence of Mahler poses the question: Why does the music of Mahler remain so popular and moving to this day? </p>
<p>Mahler’s significance includes his inventive modernism and highly expressive writing that communicated emotions shaped by his fascinating (albeit melancholic) life — and the turbulent history surrounding how his work was received. </p>
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<figcaption><span class="caption">Bradley Cooper conducts Mahler’s ‘Symphony No. 2’ in ‘Maestro.’ (Netflix)</span></figcaption>
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<h2>Power of Mahler</h2>
<p>In <em>Maestro</em>, Mahler is not explicitly discussed, but his music features prominently in the film, with a climactic reenactment of Bernstein conducting a triumphant finale of Mahler’s <em>Symphony No. 2</em> <a href="https://queensfilmtheatre.com/Whats-On/Mahler-Resurrection-Symphony-Concert">performed by the London Symphony Orchestra in Ely Cathedral (near Cambridge) in 1973</a>.</p>
<p><em>Maestro</em> frames Bernstein’s experience of Mahler’s finale as being so powerful it reignites Bernstein’s relationship with his wife, Felicia Montealegre Bernstein. Bernstein was instrumental in pioneering the revival of Mahler’s music.</p>
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<figcaption><span class="caption">Leonard Bernstein conducts Mahler’s ‘Symphony No. 2’ in 1973.</span></figcaption>
</figure>
<h2>From Vienna Court Opera to New York</h2>
<p>Mahler worked mainly as a conductor of operas, notably his 1897 appointment as director of the Vienna Court Opera (now the Vienna State Opera). From 1908-10, he held an appointment at New York’s Metropolitan Opera. </p>
<p>He spent his summer vacations composing in rural Austria, leading to many of his works being inspired by the Austrian countryside. </p>
<p>However, being Jewish, Mahler’s <a href="https://yalebooks.yale.edu/book/9780300170344/gustav-mahler/">career was tainted by antisemitism</a> and he was forced to resign from the Vienna Court Opera owing to the deteriorating treatment of Jews in Europe. </p>
<p>Upon his arrival in New York in 1908, the Metropolitan Opera also hired <a href="https://www.britannica.com/biography/Arturo-Toscanini">Italian conductor Arturo Toscanini</a>, limiting Mahler’s actual appearances as conductor. In New York, Mahler faced xenophobia directed <a href="https://doi.org/10.1525/ncm.2021.44.3.169">at his Austro-Bohemian identity</a>, owing to the anti-German sentiment in America at the time. </p>
<p>After about a year of a serious heart infection, Mahler died in 1911 at the premature age of 50. Shortly before his death, Mahler had planned an early retirement, where he would had intended to dedicate himself to composition and completing his <em>Symphony No. 10</em>. </p>
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<figcaption><span class="caption">An excerpt of Mahler’s incomplete ‘Symphony No. 10’ performed by Deryck Cooke with Berliner Philharmoniker.</span></figcaption>
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<h2>Modernist pioneer</h2>
<p>Today, Mahler is in the canon <a href="https://www.oxfordmusiconline.com/grovemusic/display/10.1093/gmo/9781561592630.001.0001/omo-9781561592630-e-0000040696">of post-Beethovenian symphonists</a>, but this was certainly not the case during his lifetime. </p>
<p>Mahler was a pioneer of radical modernist developments in fin-de-siècle Vienna, alongside Richard Strauss and Arnold Schoenberg. Together, these artists foreshadowed the musical expressionism of the 1910s. </p>
<p>Twentieth-century <a href="https://www.oxfordmusiconline.com/grovemusic/display/10.1093/gmo/9781561592630.001.0001/omo-9781561592630-e-0000040625">musical modernism</a> can be defined as a radical change from past forms, culminating in a marked <a href="https://www.britannica.com/art/Modernism-art/Modernism-in-the-visual-arts-and-architecture">break with tradition</a>. </p>
<p>Mahler <a href="https://www.oxfordwesternmusic.com/view/Volume4/actrade-9780195384840-div1-001004.xml?rskey=hE0eLl&result=1">did this partly by</a>: </p>
<ol>
<li><p>Augmenting compositions in length and sheer scale. His gargantuan <em>Symphony No. 8</em>, dubbed the “symphony of a thousand” due to the large numbers of musicians and diverse array of instruments required, including an enlarged percussion section, organ, harmonium and piano together with mass choir and vocal soloists. </p></li>
<li><p>Mahler employed a variety of extra-musical sounds from the world, including bird songs and horn calls. A notable example is Mahler’s use of cowbells that evoke the Austrian Alps in both his Sixth and Seventh symphonies. This foreshadows <a href="https://www.tate.org.uk/art/art-terms/s/sound-art">sound art</a> and <a href="https://www.oxfordmusiconline.com/grovemusic/display/10.1093/gmo/9781561592630.001.0001/omo-9781561592630-e-1002292545?rskey=HGkFuT&result=1">the liberation of noise as music that emerged later</a> in the 20th century.</p></li>
<li><p>Mahler was a pioneer of <a href="https://www.oxfordreference.com/display/10.1093/oi/authority.20110803100348659">progressive tonality</a>, where the key changes from start to finish. This <a href="https://mahlerfoundation.org/mahler/listening-guide/listening-guide-symphony-no-9-intro/">technique challenges</a> traditional tonality, where there is a “home key.” These new techniques expanded Mahler’s musical language, allowing him to play with the listener’s expectations and create a greater range of musical expression.</p></li>
</ol>
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<figcaption><span class="caption">Discussion of percussion in Mahler (including cowbells) from Singapore Symphony.</span></figcaption>
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<h2>Expression and emotion</h2>
<p>Mahler believed that music could express emotions where words failed. He wrote in 1896 that: </p>
<blockquote>
<p>“…as long as I can express an experience in words I should never try to put it into music. The need to express myself musically — in symphonic terms — <a href="https://www.google.ca/books/edition/Selected_Letters_of_Gustav_Mahler/v2_nQQAACAAJ?hl=fr">begins only on the plane of obscure feelings, at the gate that opens into the "other world”</a>, the world in which things no longer fall apart in time and space.“ </p>
</blockquote>
<p>His symphonic works are filled with a variety of music forms, with different characteristics, including operatic <a href="https://doi.org/10.2307/854315">highpoints</a>, rustic country dances, <a href="https://www.britannica.com/art/scherzo">playful scherzos</a> and mournful marches. </p>
<p>To facilitate Mahler’s expanding expressive musical language, the composer wrote very long and precise instructions on his scores. </p>
<h2>Rediscovery</h2>
<p>From the 1960s onwards, Mahler’s music gradually regained more recognition for the first time since his death. </p>
<p>Firstly, in 1960, in a concert honouring Mahler broadcast on CBS, Bernstein introduced <a href="https://leonardbernstein.com/lectures/television-scripts/young-peoples-concerts/who-is-gustav-mahler">Mahler as not "one of those big popular names like Beethoven or Gershwin or Ravel</a>.” But Mahler soon achieved status alongside these composers, certainly eclipsing the popularity he experienced in his own lifetime due to a number of factors. </p>
<p>Bernstein claimed to have rediscovered Mahler, and subsequently pioneered Mahler’s symphonies. Bernstein said Mahler incorporated “<a href="https://leonardbernstein.com/lectures/television-scripts/young-peoples-concerts/who-is-gustav-mahler">the manners and customs and ways of thinking and feeling of both East and West</a> …. His music shows the influence of Mozart, and Schubert and Wagner — all the great German and Austrian composers.”</p>
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<figcaption><span class="caption">Leonard Bernstein’s ‘Who is Gustav Mahler?’, Young People’s Concerts, 1960.</span></figcaption>
</figure>
<p>Bernstein continued to demonstrate Mahler’s unique <a href="https://leonardbernstein.com/lectures/television-scripts/young-peoples-concerts/who-is-gustav-mahler">incorporation of musical ideas from Roma, Slavic, Jewish and Chinese musical cultures</a>. </p>
<p>This cross-cultural musical engagement and a <a href="https://slate.com/news-and-politics/2021/12/west-side-story-leonard-bernstein-politics-left-right-center.html">quest to express a unity that could encompass dissonance and difference</a> was one of the parallels Bernstein saw between himself and Mahler.</p>
<p>Bernstein, an American Jew, demonstrated his own passion for multicultural immersion and engagement in <em>West Side Story</em> (1957) and <a href="https://www.leonardbernstein.com/works/view/12/mass-a-theatre-piece-for-singers-players-and-dancers"><em>MASS</em> (1971)</a>.</p>
<p>Secondly, the German philosopher Theodor Adorno wrote <a href="https://press.uchicago.edu/ucp/books/book/chicago/M/bo3684792.html"><em>Mahler: A Musical Physiognomy</em></a> in 1960. Adorno considered <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/music/2020/jul/29/mahler-where-to-start-with-his-music">Mahler’s Bohemian</a> childhood, personality and his sociopolitical context alongside Mahler’s music.</p>
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<figcaption><span class="caption">Opening of Visconti’s ‘Death in Venice.’</span></figcaption>
</figure>
<p>Lastly, In 1971, <a href="https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0067445/">Luchino Visconti’s film, <em>Death in Venice</em></a> included a famous opening scene of Mahler’s Adagietto from <em>Symphony No. 5</em> accompanying a steamship arriving in Venice at sunrise, bringing Mahler’s music to a global audience. The film is adapted from a 1912 Thomas Mann story which contains many allusions to Mahler.</p>
<p>Decades later, Mahler’s musical power still endures.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/223169/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Aidan McGartland receives funding from McGill University and the Ramsay Centre for Western Civilisation. </span></em></p>Mahler’s inventive modernism and highly expressive writing communicated emotions shaped by his fascinating late-19th century life.Aidan McGartland, PhD student and research assistant, Music Theory, McGill UniversityLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/2217322024-01-23T21:54:31Z2024-01-23T21:54:31ZMaking emotional films: The enticing contradictions of Norman Jewison’s movies<iframe style="width: 100%; height: 100px; border: none; position: relative; z-index: 1;" allowtransparency="" allow="clipboard-read; clipboard-write" src="https://narrations.ad-auris.com/widget/the-conversation-canada/making-emotional-films-the-enticing-contradictions-of-norman-jewisons-movies" width="100%" height="400"></iframe>
<p>How should we think about the late <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2R7_sTeR6AA">Canadian filmmaker</a> Norman Jewison’s legacy?</p>
<p>Cinema studies professor Bart Testa’s opening for his insightful chapter “<a href="https://doi.org/10.1515/9780888645289-009">Norman Jewison: Homecoming for a ‘Canadian Pinko’</a>” argues that “Jewison has not been highly regarded or carefully discussed by film critics, Canadian or American.” </p>
<p>This statement could not ring more true than on <a href="https://www.cbc.ca/news/entertainment/norman-jewison-obit-1.7091304">the occasion of Jewison’s death</a>. </p>
<p>Although there are numerous obituaries listing Jewison’s high-profile films, including <em>Fiddler on the Roof</em>, <em>Moonstruck</em> and <em>In the Heat of the Night</em>, not all discuss <a href="https://www.latimes.com/obituaries/story/2024-01-22/la-me-norman-jewison-dead-obit-moonstruck-director">the prolific nature and significance of Jewison’s career</a>. </p>
<p>With more than <a href="https://www.cbc.ca/news/entertainment/norman-jewison-obit-1.7091304#">40 films and television shows</a>, <a href="https://deadline.com/2024/01/norman-jewison-dead-fiddler-on-the-roof-moonstruck-1235800983/">Oscar, BAFTA and </a> <a href="https://goldenglobes.com/person/norman-jewison/">Golden Globe</a> nominations and awards — and <a href="https://cfccreates.com/about/norman-jewison/">his establishment of the Canadian Film Centre</a> — Jewison’s legacy is notable. </p>
<p>And yet, as Testa’s analysis suggests, scholarly and critical attitudes towards Jewison have sometimes been marked by indifference or even dismissal for his blend of commercial and populist success. </p>
<p>Jewison has always been seen as a good director who made many enjoyable, socially pertinent films. But he should also receive his due as a varied filmmaker who succeeded in multiple genres, focused on actors and scripts and was innovative in musical and social justice genres. </p>
<h2>Effective writing, strong performances</h2>
<p>A Torontonian by birth who got his start in Canadian television, Jewison honed his skills <a href="https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0057069/">working on Tony Curtis</a> and United Artists comedies. </p>
<p>He quickly turned to serious drama with <em>In the Heat of the Night</em> before making hit musicals <em>Fiddler on the Roof</em> and <em>Jesus Christ Superstar</em>. </p>
<p>Canadian cultural historian George Melnyk characterized Jewison’s work as “<a href="https://utorontopress.com/9780802084446/one-hundred-years-of-canadian-cinema/">generally indistinguishable from other well-made mainstream American cinema</a>,” commenting on a perceived lack of an auteurist signature. </p>
<p>Director Quentin Tarantino assessed <em>F.I.S.T.</em> as a <a href="https://www.harpercollins.com/products/cinema-speculation-quentin-tarantino?variant=40461820756002">“bland epic” that plays like “a truncated ‘70s television miniseries</a>.” </p>
<p>In director Douglas Jackson’s National Film Board of Canada documentary <a href="https://www.nfb.ca/film/norman-jewison-filmmaker"><em>Norman Jewison, Film Maker</em> (1971)</a>, Jewison notes that he is “not an intellectual filmmaker” but an “emotional one.” </p>
<p>Although this description might seem self-evident to anyone familiar with Jewison’s many emotionally resonant films, it indicates an approach to film-making that focused on effective writing (many of his films were based on plays or Broadway adaptations) and strong performances. </p>
<p>As is evident in the Jackson documentary, filmed during the making of <em>Fiddler on the Roof</em>, Jewison was hyper-focused on the nuances, details and impact of actors’ performances. The documentary shows Jewison revelling in the minutiae of performance — where the pause, breath or accent hits in a line delivery. </p>
<p>This focus perhaps comes from his <a href="https://www.thecanadianencyclopedia.ca/en/article/jewison-norman-frederick">early training as an actor</a> or his entry into comedy film-making, where timing is always everything. It’s a detail we see throughout Jewison’s films. </p>
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<figcaption><span class="caption">Trailer for ‘Fiddler on the Roof.’</span></figcaption>
</figure>
<h2>Big stars, film newcomers</h2>
<p>Jewison was able to manage big-star personalities such as Rod Steiger, Al Pacino, Sylvester Stallone, Nicholas Cage, Denzel Washington, Danny DeVito, Steve McQueen, Carl Reiner and Cher and direct them to more nuance. </p>
<p>At the same time, he was able to draw out strong performances from actors who were cinematic newcomers (like <a href="https://www.npr.org/2023/03/09/1162126272/chaim-topol-tevye-dies">Chaim Topol</a> and <a href="https://twitter.com/TedNeeley?ref_src=twsrc%5Egoogle%7Ctwcamp%5Eserp%7Ctwgr%5Eauthor">Ted Neeley</a>). </p>
<p>Testa focuses on Jewison’s politics (liberal, anti-establishment, leftist) and his place in the industry of film-making at such a crucial time in cinematic history when the studio era was ending and independent filmmaking was on the rise. </p>
<p>Often working as both producer and director, Jewison had artistic freedom but also anxieties about budget. In the Jackson documentary, Jewison describes these as particularly “Canadian” concerns, but they were considerable for a director who worked in international locations and took risks on unknown actors the way he did.</p>
<p>Although award-winning and popular, Jewison was also on the edge of Hollywood: he was not American and not part of <a href="https://www.films.com/ecTitleDetail.aspx?TitleID=162936">the film-school generation</a> <a href="https://go.gale.com/ps/i.do?p=AONE&u=anon%7E64c2bc61&id=GALE%7CA695169545&v=2.1&it=r&sid=googleScholar&asid=57a84e2e.">or Hollywood renaissance (1967-74)</a>.</p>
<p>The title of his 2004 autobiography in some ways says it all: <a href="https://variety.com/2005/more/reviews/this-terrible-business-has-been-good-to-me-1200521491/"><em>This Terrible Business Has Been Good to Me</em></a>.</p>
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<figcaption><span class="caption">Trailer for ‘Jesus Christ Superstar.’</span></figcaption>
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<h2><em>Jesus Christ Superstar</em>’s cult fandom</h2>
<p>Although only passingly mentioned in some obituaries, I believe <em>Jesus Christ Superstar</em> most clearly represents these contradictory strands of Jewison as a director. </p>
<p>At the time of the movie’s filming, Jewison had been nominated for and won key awards, making a name for himself in American cinema. </p>
<p>It was nonetheless a risky project: a rock opera starring unknowns, filmed on location in Israel and featuring a cast of actors with no or very little film experience. </p>
<p>It was also plagued by <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/1973/08/08/archives/superstar-film-renews-disputesjewish-groups-say-opening-could-stir.html">budget issues and controversy</a>. Surprisingly, it was not only a box-office success at the time, but continues to have a cult <a href="https://www.degruyter.com/document/doi/10.1515/ijpt-2018-0013/html">following that extends to the star of the film as well</a>. </p>
<p>The fandom for a film like <em>Jesus Christ Superstar</em> show that assessments of Jewison as an indistinct but adequate filmmaker are misguided. </p>
<p><div data-react-class="Tweet" data-react-props="{"tweetId":"1749829444238467382"}"></div></p>
<p>My early exposure to the film was a chance viewing on TV with my father when I was about 11. My parents were not religious, not intellectuals and not cinephiles, but <em>Jesus Christ Superstar</em> quickly became a family favourite. </p>
<p>At a time when theatres host <a href="https://riotheatre.ca/movie/grease/">group sing-alongs</a> for films like <em>Grease</em> and <a href="https://tiff.net/events/sing-a-long-a-the-sound-of-music"><em>The Sound of Music</em></a>, my particular set of friends opt for sing-along parties for <em>Jesus Christ Superstar</em>. </p>
<h2>Jewison’s ultimate legacy</h2>
<p>This tension between cult, critical and popular appeal alongside a scholarly disregard is in fact Jewison’s most prominent legacy. </p>
<p>Bridging American, Canadian and English systems and industry cultures, Jewison can be viewed less as a merely skilled, socially minded filmmaker, and more as an enticing contradiction. </p>
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Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/a-look-back-at-norman-jewisons-stellar-directing-career-and-commitment-to-canadian-filmmakers-221742">A look back at Norman Jewison's stellar directing career and commitment to Canadian filmmakers</a>
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<p>He was both an insider and an outsider in terms of the industry, both Canadian and American in terms of sensibilities, both mainstream and progressive in terms of politics and independent and commercial in terms of film-making. </p>
<p>Perhaps Jewison’s distinctive indistinction is precisely his legacy. These contradictions allow for what Jewison notes in the Jackson documentary as an essential directorial quality — a lack of ego. </p>
<p>And in an industry full of ego, this distinction allowed him to be, as Denzel Washington says, <a href="https://www.latimes.com/obituaries/story/2024-01-22/la-me-norman-jewison-dead-obit-moonstruck-director">“a real actor’s director</a>,” shaping and nudging star performances in subtle and effective ways, drawing out what he saw as the emotional core of his films.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/221732/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Lisa Coulthard does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>A tension between cult, critical and popular appeal is part of Norman Jewison’s most prominent legacy.Lisa Coulthard, Professor, Department of Theatre and Film, University of British ColumbiaLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/2215742024-01-23T20:19:59Z2024-01-23T20:19:59ZOscar nominees 2024: ‘Past Lives’ spotlights the pull of first love alongside the yearning for glory<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/570722/original/file-20240122-18-cb4bcs.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=477%2C57%2C2253%2C2000&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Greta Lee in a scene from 'Past Lives.'</span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">(Jon Pack/A24 via AP)</span></span></figcaption></figure><iframe style="width: 100%; height: 100px; border: none; position: relative; z-index: 1;" allowtransparency="" allow="clipboard-read; clipboard-write" src="https://narrations.ad-auris.com/widget/the-conversation-canada/oscar-nominees-2024-past-lives-spotlights-the-pull-of-first-love-alongside-the-yearning-for-glory" width="100%" height="400"></iframe>
<p><strong><em>This story contains spoilers about ‘Past Lives’</em>.</strong></p>
<p>The merit of the film <em>Past Lives</em>, written and directed <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-Hs-Drc4hjI">by Korean Canadian Celine Song</a>, is not its grandiose scale or beautiful scenery, but in its astutely controlled plot and action. </p>
<p>The movie, now nominated for <a href="https://www.vanityfair.com/hollywood/awards-insider-oscar-nominations-2024">2024 Academy Awards for Best Picture and Best Original Screenplay</a>, portrays two people whose lives intertwine between the past and the present by using the <a href="https://toronto.citynews.ca/2023/06/06/korean-canadian-filmmaker-celine-songs-past-lives-is-not-your-typical-romance/">theme of <em>inyeon</em>.</a></p>
<p><em>Inyeon</em> is popularly understood to mean something like fate or destiny, referring to the ties between people over the course of their lives. As Korean studies professor Sarah Son explains, <a href="https://theconversation.com/past-lives-inyeon-is-a-korean-philosophy-of-how-relationships-form-over-many-lifetimes-213289">inyeon “in Korean Buddhism, in (因) refers to ‘direct cause’ and yeon (緣) to ‘indirect cause,’ or the conditions that make an outcome possible</a>.”</p>
<p>As a scholar who <a href="https://www.routledge.com/Understanding-the-Korean-Wave-Transnational-Korean-Pop-Culture-and-Digital/Jin/p/book/9781032492957">has examined digital technologies and transnational Korean culture</a> and Korean film, and a person who immigrated twice with two daughters as Song’s family did (the U.S. first and later to Canada), I was immersed in the movie. </p>
<p>I found myself reflecting on how the film stands in comparison to other films by Korean or Korean American directors depicting Korean immigrants to the Americas —and sympathizing with the personal decisions portrayed in the film. </p>
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<figcaption><span class="caption">Trailer for ‘Past Lives.’</span></figcaption>
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<h2>Korean immigrant stories</h2>
<p>A variety of previous movies, either directed by Korean directors or Korean American directors, such as <a href="https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0297915/plotsummary/?ref_=tt_ov_pl"><em>The Deep Blue Night</em></a> (1985), <a href="https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0817544/"><em>Never Forever</em></a> (2007), and <a href="https://www.imdb.com/title/tt10633456/_"><em>Minari</em></a> (2020), touched on Korean immigrants who came to the U.S. </p>
<p>These movies <a href="https://www.ubcpress.ca/transnational-korean-cinema">represented transnational struggles of</a> Koreans who immigrated to the U.S. to fulfill American dreams.</p>
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Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/minari-part-of-a-wave-of-2nd-generation-storytelling-about-what-it-means-to-participate-in-america-158740">'Minari': Part of a wave of 2nd-generation storytelling about what it means to participate in America</a>
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<p>Unlike these films, <em>Past Lives</em> <a href="https://www.vulture.com/article/celine-song-past-lives-profile.html">shows a middle-class</a> family in South Korea who decides to pursue a different life in Canada. </p>
<p>The protagonist, Na Young/Nora (acted by Greta Lee), has a father who is a filmmaker, while her mother is an artist. This movie shows a modern-day diaspora family story: the family leaves South Korea not for survival, but for the achievement of their ambitions.</p>
<p>The film depicts lesser-seen stories of <a href="https://www.ubcpress.ca/transnational-korean-cinema">Koreans in the late 20th and early 21st centuries who have</a> pursued immigration to be successful as professionals in various fields, including in cultural areas.</p>
<h2>Digital diasporas</h2>
<p>Na Young, who takes the western name Nora, later moves to the U.S. to major in literature, as she wants to be a writer. </p>
<p>Twelve years later, she reconnects with her childhood friend Hae Sung (Teo Yoo) on Facebook, symbolizing <a href="https://www.routledge.com/The-Routledge-Handbook-of-Digital-Media-and-Globalization/Jin/p/book/9780367415792">the kind of modern-day communication</a> possible for people living diaspora lives.</p>
<p>The advent of social media, <a href="https://www.koreaherald.com/view.php?ud=20211215000870">including the now-defunct South Korean platform Cyworld</a>, Facebook and Instagram, have facilitated inter-continental communications, and therefore, the formation of inter-continental communities. </p>
<p>Immigrants, particularly younger generations, use digital technologies to connect with their families, relatives and friends back home, therefore shrinking the distance and time difference. </p>
<p>Greta Lee and Teo Yoo delicately act their roles as Na Young/Nora and Hae Sung, and <a href="https://www.hollywoodreporter.com/movies/movie-features/past-lives-teo-yoo-used-own-experiences-loneliness-inform-character-1235683583">as actors with personal experience of transcontinental life and diaspora cultures</a> their seemingly imperfect Korean accents make them modern-day immigrants. </p>
<h2>Limits of online connection</h2>
<p>Na Young and Hae Sung could not fulfill their first destiny (<em>inyeon</em>) when they were elementary school students due to Na Young’s family immigrating to Canada. </p>
<p>Eventually, they start dating online. They continuously talk, laugh and spend time, as if they want to talk as much as possible. However, <a href="https://press.umich.edu/Books/S/Smartland-Korea2">their online networks</a> don’t provide enough momentum for them to continue dating, and potentially their next move. </p>
<p>When Nora asks Hae Sung to come to New York, Hae Sung is hesitant because he plans to learn Chinese for a year or two, and Nora is not able to wait for him. She doesn’t want to continue her online dating with Hae Sung and goes to an artist residency. There, she meets Arthur (John Magaro) and they sense a mutual attraction and the possibility of love.</p>
<h2>Another twist of fate?</h2>
<p>At that moment, the movie astutely introduces another fateful development between Nora and Arthur. One beautiful night, Nora and Arthur have dinner in a garden at the artist residency, and Nora starts to explain what <em>inyeon</em> means in Korea to Arthur: </p>
<blockquote>
<p>“There is a word in Korean, <em>inyeon</em>. It’s specifically about relationships between people … If two people get married, they say it’s because there have been 8,000 layers of <em>inyeon</em> over 8,000 lifetimes.” </p>
</blockquote>
<p>As writers and <em>inyeon</em>-guided spouses, they move back to New York.</p>
<h2>First and second loves</h2>
<p>Twelve years later, Hae Sung still wants to check his <em>inyeon</em> with Na Young and finally visits New York. Hae Sung has continued to love her. </p>
<p>In New York, Na Young guides Hae Sung to a few tourist places, and she invites Hae Sung home to introduce him to Arthur. When they eat out and drink together at a bar, the movie provides its climax, in a calm, but sorrowful tone. </p>
<p>Na Young and Hae Sung talk to each other in Korean while Arthur is sitting next to her. Arthur looks worried, because he does not understand Korean but can read their feelings.</p>
<h2>‘Something in our past lives’</h2>
<p>Hae Sung finally expresses his mind in front of Na Young’s husband, saying to Na Young: “When you stopped talking 12 years ago, I really missed you.” </p>
<p>However, Na Young replies:</p>
<blockquote>
<p>“I think there was something in our past lives. But in this life, we don’t have the <em>inyeon</em> to be that kind of person to each other.” </p>
</blockquote>
<p>From this moment, Nora is not Na Young anymore, but Hae Sung may continue to remember her as Na Young, his childhood friend and crush.</p>
<h2>Accepting the end of some fates</h2>
<p><em>Past Lives</em> is a beautiful story of lost love and childhood crushes. The two final scenes are touching because of the unfulfilled love between two people. </p>
<p>When people’s destiny together (their <em>inyeon</em>) ends, one party sends another party away with sorrow and agony, while the leaving party moves to another stage of his or her life. </p>
<p>Nora’s crying to her husband Arthur after saying goodbye to Hae Sung, and Hae Sung’s departure to the airport via Uber, dexterously portrays the end of Na Young and Hae Sung’s connection.</p>
<p>This is a must-see, heart-wrenching movie that leaves viewers with a tranquil mind about the sadness of endings — because these exist alongside the beautiful possibility of multiple loves.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/221574/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Dal Yong Jin does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>‘Past Lives’ is a beautiful story of childhood crushes, and the sorrow and agony that ensues when one party sends another party away to move to another stage of his or her life.Dal Yong Jin, Professor, School of Communication, Simon Fraser UniversityLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/2217422024-01-23T19:16:59Z2024-01-23T19:16:59ZA look back at Norman Jewison’s stellar directing career and commitment to Canadian filmmakers<iframe style="width: 100%; height: 100px; border: none; position: relative; z-index: 1;" allowtransparency="" allow="clipboard-read; clipboard-write" src="https://narrations.ad-auris.com/widget/the-conversation-canada/a-look-back-at-norman-jewisons-stellar-directing-career-and-commitment-to-canadian-filmmakers" width="100%" height="400"></iframe>
<p>Norman Jewison, who <a href="https://www.cbc.ca/news/entertainment/norman-jewison-obit-1.7091304">passed away Jan. 20 at age 97</a>, had a cottage in Ontario, and was a cottage neighbour of supporters of the <a href="https://windsorfilmfestival.com/">Windsor International Film Festival (WIFF)</a>, where I am <a href="https://windsorfilmfestival.com/executive-director-and-chief-programmer-of-the-windsor-international-film-festival-wiff-appointed-to-the-ontario-creates-board/">executive director and chief programmer</a>. </p>
<p>Of course, this lead to numerous conversations over a three-year time period about bringing the legend himself down to the festival for a celebration of his talents. </p>
<p>Ultimately, a few prominent friends of WIFF helped make the stars align for the 10th anniversary of <a href="https://windsorfilmfestival.com/festival/awards/">WIFF in 2014, and we created the inaugural WIFF Lifetime Achievement Award</a>. </p>
<p>To kick off this new prize with <a href="https://www.rollingstone.com/tv-movies/tv-movie-news/norman-jewison-dead-at-97-1234951659/">a seven-time Oscar nominee</a>, a <a href="https://www.oscars.org/governors/thalberg">Thalberg Memorial Award winner</a> (presented at the Academy Awards to distinguished creative producers) and one of the most influential and successful filmmakers Canada had ever produced — well, the award deliberations weren’t lengthy.</p>
<p>Did you know the seminal race relations drama <em><a href="https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0061811/">In the Heat of the Night</a></em>, the effervescent Jewish musical <em><a href="https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0067093/">Fiddler on the Roof</a></em>, the Italian American rom-com classic <a href="https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0093565/?ref_=fn_al_tt_1"><em>Moonstruck</em></a> and the inspiring boxing drama <a href="https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0174856/?ref_=fn_al_tt_1"><em>The Hurricane</em></a> were all directed by the same man? </p>
<p>What was so impressive about Jewison’s career is that he was a master filmmaker above any single genre or style. He was genre-proof. </p>
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<figcaption><span class="caption">CBC News looks back on the career of Norman Jewison.</span></figcaption>
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<h2>Could not be pigeon-holed</h2>
<p>I would argue his closest <a href="https://www.britannica.com/biography/Ang-Lee">current-day contemporary would be Ang Lee</a>, director of <em>Sense and Sensibility</em>, <em>Brokeback Mountain</em> and <em>Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon</em>. Filmmakers this adept at seamlessly pointing their cameras at such a diaspora of stories and esthetics are rare birds. </p>
<p>Jewison’s films, and film-making style, could not be pigeon-holed. It’s what kept his career so interesting for audiences, critics and the industry alike. </p>
<p>In working on what a tribute to Jewison looked like, I delved into his career from numerous vantage points. </p>
<h2>Supporting Canadian film</h2>
<p>Jewison had five Best Picture Oscar nominations to his credit, including <a href="https://www.oscars.org/oscars/ceremonies/1968">1968 winner <em>In the Heat of the Night</em>.</a></p>
<p>But he also had a sincere and trailblazing commitment to the development of filmmakers in Canada <a href="https://cfccreates.com/about/norman-jewison/">via his establishment</a> of the <a href="https://cfccreates.com/">Canadian Film Centre (CFC)</a>, a now iconic and sought-after filmmaker residence, education and training fantasy land that has been seminial in incubating established and emerging filmmakers.</p>
<p>Right up to this past <a href="https://www.tiff.net/">Toronto International Film Festival</a>, the Canadian Film Centre’s annual barbecue is a tradition that burns bright. It’s attended by several hundred people, but what’s most noteworthy is that it’s the only TIFF-adjacent bash I can think of that is truly multi-generational. </p>
<p>Student filmmakers, those just launching their careers, mid-career climbers, established filmmakers and long-retired big names all gather on the lawns of the CFC in the same spirit: for the love of and future of film. </p>
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<figcaption><span class="caption">The 2023 Norman Jewison Film Program Showcase from the Canadian Film Centre.</span></figcaption>
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<h2>Directed his own tribute</h2>
<p>When the big night at WIFF came in 2014 and it was time to meet and interview Jewison, he did not disappoint. The historic Capitol Theatre in Windsor was sold out for this one-night-only rare appearance. </p>
<p>Ever the director, he live directed me even during our on-stage interview. I’m not kidding. </p>
<p>He would give me subtle hand signals on where we wanted to continue talking about something, when he wanted to move on to the next topic and what kind of pacing he wanted. Like an invisible hand behind my back, he even directed his own on-stage tribute. </p>
<p>He was engaged, friendly and had so many warm but insightful things to say about both his stars and longtime collaborators. </p>
<h2>Gave beautiful credit to collaborators</h2>
<p>We were regaled with stories of Sidney Poitier and Rod Steiger, Cher and Nicolas Cage, with a stopover on Michael Caine. He gave beautiful credit to <a href="https://www.hollywoodreporter.com/movies/movie-news/lynn-stalmaster-dead-legendary-casting-760716/">his longtime casting director, the legendary Lynn Stalmaster</a>. </p>
<p>He spoke with love about his wife <a href="https://www.cbc.ca/news/entertainment/norman-jewison-obit-1.7091304">Lynne St. David-Jewison</a>, who beamed with pride as he was celebrated and accepted his award. Posters of his films were autographed, there were lobby anecdotes and conversations among fans about his musicals and a constant refrain of: “Mr. Jewison, if you wouldn’t mind …”. </p>
<p>We escaped to a private dinner in Windsor’s Little Italy where the regaling (Danny DeVito! Denzel Washington! Marisa Tomei!) continued all night long. It could have been a scene from <em>Moonstruck</em>.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/221742/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Vincent Georgie does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>Jewison had a trailblazing commitment to the development of film in Canada, seen both in his founding of the Canadian Film Centre and when he visited us at the Windsor International Film Festival.Vincent Georgie, Marketing Faculty, Odette School of Business, University of WindsorLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/2212532024-01-23T10:17:23Z2024-01-23T10:17:23ZThe contagious pop power of Saltburn’s thirsty, tongue-in-cheek soundtrack<p><em>Note: this article contains spoilers.</em></p>
<p>While <a href="https://theconversation.com/greta-gerwigs-barbie-movie-is-a-feminist-bimbo-classic-and-no-thats-not-an-oxymoron-210069">Barbie</a> and <a href="https://theconversation.com/i-watched-christopher-nolans-oppenheimer-in-ukraine-his-greek-tragedy-is-our-reality-210206">Oppenheimer</a> battled it out for last year’s pinnacle box office position, my focus was rerouted toward a different, slippery interloper. Director Emerald Fennell’s sophomore film, Saltburn, proved to be so deliciously scathing, horny and tragic that I forged out in peak festive traffic to see it a second time.</p>
<p>Undeterred (egged-on, even) by the prior viewing’s gross-outs and walkouts, Saltburn seduced me with its visual swagger and infectious soundtrack: an iPod shuffle of musical kink and pot-luck noughties pop hits.</p>
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<figcaption><span class="caption">The official trailer for Saltburn.</span></figcaption>
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<p>Propelled by its juggernaut social media success, Saltburn has eclipsed the popularity of more doggedly-marketed films. TikTok continues to erupt with matey soundbites from cast members and resurrected excerpts from Sophie Ellis Bextor’s 2001 track Murder on the Dancefloor.</p>
<p>Saltburn’s unreliable narration charts Oliver Quick’s (Barry Keoghan) destiny-cinching summer spent at the film’s namesake estate. The Catton family’s sprawling residence is home to silver-spoon siblings Felix (Jacob Elordi) and Venetia (Alison Oliver) and presided over by screwy toffs James and Eslpeth – brought to life with hilarious, lightning-rod alchemy by Richard E. Grant and Rosamund Pike.</p>
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Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/saltburn-why-you-should-read-brideshead-revisited-by-evelyn-waugh-the-book-that-inspired-the-new-film-217749">Saltburn: why you should read Brideshead Revisited by Evelyn Waugh, the book that inspired the new film</a>
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<h2>Capturing the spirit of the noughties</h2>
<p>A mid-noughties mix of MGMT, Arcade Fire and Cold War Kids invades this rarefied setting. One featured Bloc Party track, This Modern Love, unleashed my own long-forgotten memory of forcibly extricating myself from a surging mob of the band’s superfans at Reading Festival in 2009. </p>
<p>This experience captures the era’s pre-austerity flavour of hype and heedless abandon, manifested in maximalist sartorial choices: box-dyed hair with bonded extensions, factory-distressed denim skirts, Juicy Couture tracksuits and rubbery wristbands in lurid hues.</p>
<p>The high-voltage soundtrack also features various winky, kinky pop numbers. <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bc-TrO3SIjg">Have a Cheeky Christmas by The Cheeky Girls</a> – “One, two, Santa Claus is coming / Three, four, filling up my stocking” – is a knowingly kitsch example.</p>
<p>A vengeful karaoke rendition of <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GEvurToZpYM">Rent by The Pet Shop Boys</a> reveals the film’s puppet-master, intimacy-for-a-fee subtext, while a sweaty delivery of Flo Rida’s Low showcases the decade’s definitive outfit descriptor: “Apple bottom jeans / Boots with the fur (with the fur!)”. The privileged world of the pastoral British mansion feels wincingly out of step with the track’s <a href="https://www.dictionary.com/browse/crunk">crunk</a> origins and urban club context.</p>
<p>These are unsubtle musical choices, but the soundtrack hums on a more deceptive frequency, too. Specific songs offer whispery hints of the characters’ sexual quirks and fantasies. Babybird’s You’re Gorgeous purrs in the background during a sunbathing scene. Its puppy-love chorus belies some spicy light-bondage lyricism.</p>
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<figcaption><span class="caption">Hedonistic anthem Time to Pretend by MGMT features prominently.</span></figcaption>
</figure>
<p>This euphemistic pop moment rejects the stiff musical majesty of the opening shots, when a blast of Handel’s Zadok the Priest announces Oliver’s arrival at Oxford University. </p>
<p>The scene is <a href="https://twitter.com/emeraldfennell/status/1742138559950123277">painstakingly inked</a> with gold calligraphy, advertising the old-money legacy of the academy. In spite of a switch-up which sneakily <a href="https://twitter.com/emeraldfennell/status/1742145103492219015">embeds Oliver’s name</a> into the score, its imposing audiovisual clout is writ large: “Behold: The bricks and mortar of the sacred institution!”</p>
<h2>How pop music functions in the film</h2>
<p>In contrast, the soundtrack’s persistent use of mainstream, secular pop feels less spelled-out, more fluid and alluring. Its coy charms seek to <a href="https://www.goodreads.com/quotes/143494-music-hath-charms-to-soothe-a-savage-breast-to-soften">soften and dissolve</a> the “hard power” of the establishment. </p>
<p>Many of the film’s songs are contagious – even parasitic – drawn from the familiar pop jukebox of our daily lives. They penetrate our consciousness, often without invitation. Their melodies misbehave like sly earworms, burrowing in, wriggling around naughtily and laying little eggs – colonising us from the inside out. </p>
<p>Easy-listening pop hooks are often contradicted by dark, enigmatic lyrics, just as Oliver’s docile demeanour masks his devious appetites. Like an undetected pest, he manages to bypass the sticky trap posed by an ancient strip of flypaper seen hanging from one of Saltburn’s decadent chandeliers. He sets about gnawing spiteful holes through the very fabric of the house.</p>
<p>Scenes where Oliver slurps semen from a bathtub drain or licks period blood from slick fingertips have <a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/saltburn-bathtub-graveyard-scene-explained-emerald-fennell-barry-keoghan-2024-1?r=US&IR=T">met with gasps</a> – but they’re not strictly for cheap thrills. These vampiric allegories reveal his plans to supplant heredity, symbolically swallowing down the Catton lineage from the level of the seed. </p>
<p>The film’s playful pop songs allow us to digest this gristly reality. They muddy our discomfort with pleasure, creating complicity. Even when we’re challenged by what we witness, their catchy strains coax us to tap along sportingly, lest we dare to “<a href="https://genius.com/Sophie-ellis-bextor-murder-on-the-dancefloor-lyrics">kill the groove</a>”. </p>
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<figcaption><span class="caption">Sophie Ellis-Bextor discusses the renewed popularity of Saltburn.</span></figcaption>
</figure>
<p>This is viscerally felt during the film’s final moments, as Oliver preens and postures like a puffed-up Graeco-Roman god. He dances naked through Saltburn’s ornate corridors, retracing his earlier welcome tour. Though a less obvious Adonis than Felix, Oliver’s ravenous, long-game erotic potency has paid dividends. </p>
<p>The glittery exuberance of Murder on the Dancefloor underscores this victory lap: a musical toast to the dethroning of the household heirs. Much like Oliver, the song’s resolutely feelgood energy shows no remorse for its savage schemes. He expels a final, satiated exhalation and the soundtrack stalls momentarily – bending the knee to Saltburn’s new proprietor.</p>
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<p><em>Looking for something good? Cut through the noise with a carefully curated selection of the latest releases, live events and exhibitions, straight to your inbox every fortnight, on Fridays. <a href="https://theconversation.com/uk/newsletters/something-good-156">Sign up here</a>.</em></p>
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<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Caitríona Walsh does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>Saltburn’s soundtrack showcases an infectious iPod-shuffle of pot-luck noughties pop.Caitríona Walsh, Lecturing in Film Music & Piano, University College CorkLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/2160352023-12-28T09:17:33Z2023-12-28T09:17:33ZThe Taste of Things review: this gastronomic French tale is a feast for the senses<p>Trần Anh Hùng, the Vietnamese-born French director known for his Oscar-nominated film <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=q2OfJYvjgQ8">The Scent of Green Papaya</a> (1993) and <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kYBgsyBwYso">Norwegian Wood</a> (2010), returns with another gorgeous work, <a href="https://www.festival-cannes.com/en/2023/cooking-up-a-storm-with-the-pot-au-feu/">The Taste of Things</a>. Due for UK release in February 2024, the film is already out in France. </p>
<p>As its title indicates, the film is about gastronomy. The Taste of Things has already won the <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fp9b3lLJk6Q">best director award at Cannes</a>, and has now been chosen as the French entry for best international feature film (over Cannes Palme d’Or winner <a href="https://www.imdb.com/title/tt17009710/">Anatomy of a Fall</a>) at the 2024 Oscars.</p>
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<figcaption><span class="caption">Trailer for The Taste of Things.</span></figcaption>
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<p>Written by Hùng, The Taste of Things was inspired by a 1924 novel by gastronomic writer <a href="https://www.penguinrandomhouse.com/books/158175/the-passionate-epicure-by-marcel-rouff/">Marcel Rouff</a>. It tells a simple romance-in-the-kitchen story set in late 19th-century France. </p>
<p>Dodin (Benoît Magimel) is a wealthy gourmet who claims that inventing a new delicious meal contributes more to the happiness of humanity than the discovery of a star. He leads a happy life as, every day, he gets to savour the marvellous work of his cook – an elegant woman named Eugénie (Juliette Binoche). </p>
<p>Although both are devotees of food, Dodin loves talking about it while Eugénie mostly focuses on cooking. When Dodin’s guests complain about Eugénie never joining them at the table after a lavish multi-course dinner, she gracefully responds that she has already communicated with them through her food.</p>
<p>There is one small obstacle to Dodin’s complete happiness. He is eager to make Eugénie his wife, but she seems to love her independence more than she desires his commitment. Dodin’s blissful life is threatened further still when Eugénie falls inexplicably ill.</p>
<h2>A feast for the senses</h2>
<p>The film opens with an almost 40-minute sequence of food being prepared inside a kitchen. In an <a href="https://variety.com/2023/film/global/the-pot-au-feu-tran-anh-hung-interview-1235626950/">interview with Variety</a>, Hùng shared how they filmed this ritual of cooking carefully, like an elaborate choreography for a ballet. </p>
<p>The almost hypnotic sequence shows how Eugénie works her craft with ease, even though the work involves some physical labour as the cook and her assistants lift large hot pots around the kitchen. There is something artistic in the way Eugénie handles the ingredients, mixes them together and cooks them. Her cooking creates magic. </p>
<p>This is a movie that not only pleases the eyes but entertains the other senses. Audiences can take pleasure in following the rhythm of all that elaborate preparation, listening to the sounds of food being simmered or grilled, imagining the scent of the food being cooked or even the taste of it in the mouth.</p>
<p>With meticulous attention to food and how it is prepared, the film’s plot embraces simplicity. There is little conflict and drama. Former off-screen romantic partners Magimel and Binoche show great chemistry, their characters sometimes communicating through glances and smiles rather than words. </p>
<h2>A matter of taste</h2>
<p>The French title of the film is <em>La Passion de Dodin Bouffant</em>. I prefer the original UK title, The Pot-au-Feu, <a href="https://variety.com/2023/film/awards/pot-au-feu-retitled-taste-of-things-juliette-binoche-1235698369/">which was changed</a> at the time of the US release. It refers to a <a href="https://www.myfrenchtable.com/pot-au-feu-or-french-beef-stew/">quintessential French dish</a> – making the film less about the male lead and more about the food, a character in its own right.</p>
<p>Whether The Taste of Things is the best French film of 2023 is a question of personal taste. But it well represents Frenchness in its celebration of <em>savour-vivre</em> – the ability to enjoy life. Here, the joy of cooking and enjoying good food is celebrated above all.</p>
<p>The message of living in the moment is made even more poignant as Eugénie grows increasingly fragile. It is a cliché but forever true: if life is so short, unpredictable and punctuated by dissatisfaction and loss, the best thing we can do is to enjoy the time we have.</p>
<p>As a mostly light, romantic movie with a predictable twist, The Taste of Things never touches on the uncomfortable issue of class division. This is despite the apparent difference in status between Dodin and both Eugénie and the maid Violette, played by Galatéa Bellugi, who is also their kitchen assistant. </p>
<p>The film may be a bit escapist, yet its beauty and humour remind us of the things that make our mundane lives worth living for.</p>
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<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Thi Gammon does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>With meticulous attention to food and how it is prepared, the film’s plot embraces simplicity.Thi Gammon, Research Associate in Culture, Media and Creative Industries Education, King's College LondonLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/2171842023-12-21T21:09:43Z2023-12-21T21:09:43Z‘The Whale’: Viewers need to examine how teens are represented in the Oscar-winning film<iframe style="width: 100%; height: 100px; border: none; position: relative; z-index: 1;" allowtransparency="" allow="clipboard-read; clipboard-write" src="https://narrations.ad-auris.com/widget/the-conversation-canada/the-whale-viewers-need-to-examine-how-teens-are-represented-in-the-oscar-winning-film" width="100%" height="400"></iframe>
<p><strong>This story contains spoilers about <em>The Whale</em>.</strong></p>
<p><a href="https://www.imdb.com/title/tt13833688/"><em>The Whale</em></a>, which <a href="https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/montreal/adrien-morot-oscar-win-makeup-the-whale-1.6779968">claimed Oscar wins in 2023</a> including for Best Lead Actor and Best Supporting Actress, is now on Amazon Prime in Canada. Those who are catching up on award winners from this year could consider it for holiday viewing. </p>
<p>When the film was released, much popular commentary focused on treatment of the main protagonist in the film, Charlie (Brendan Fraser), and how the <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2022/12/10/opinion/the-whale-film.html">framing of his fatness</a> is likely <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/film/2023/mar/10/lindy-west-on-the-whale">to harm fat people</a> and seems one-dimensional, <a href="https://screenrant.com/whale-movie-fatphobia-controversy-brendan-fraser/">rendering him a symbol in a way that dehumanizes him</a>. </p>
<p>Feminist philosopher Kate Manne also took issue with how the film depicts Charlie’s daughter, Ellie (Sadie Sink), arguing, “<a href="https://katemanne.substack.com/p/the-whales-point-of-view">the film never advances her perspective more than a millimetre</a>.” </p>
<p>The film, which is set in <a href="https://theasc.com/articles/the-whale">the confined space</a> of one apartment, and which sees Charlie long for <a href="https://playbill.com/article/how-samuel-d-hunters-own-battle-with-self-loathing-inspired-the-whale">a hopeful outcome for his daughter even while he expresses self-hatred</a>, powerfully <a href="https://www.huffpost.com/entry/the-whale-brendan-fraser-review_n_6392526ee4b019c6962069e8">and uncomfortably</a> asks viewers to consider the world from Charlie’s eyes. </p>
<p>I watched this film as a former secondary English teacher who has researched <a href="https://doi.org/10.4324/9781003131434">representations of adolescents in literature</a> and <a href="https://doi.org/10.1080/14680777.2020.1786428">popular media</a>, and who is concerned with how literary and media representations shape teens’ and adults’ sense of adolescent lives — and how teens’ stories are reflected in media. </p>
<p>Here’s my breakdown of what I hope viewers might think about when watching <em>The Whale</em>.</p>
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<figcaption><span class="caption">Trailer for ‘The Whale.’</span></figcaption>
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<h2>The silenced students</h2>
<p>As an instructor, Charlie’s passionate insistence on the importance of truth in writing demonstrates that he cares about how his students express their authentic selves on the page. </p>
<p>Nevertheless, his approach to teaching is concerning. First, there is the complicated background knowledge that Charlie’s late romantic partner, Alan, was a former student. While teaching his current class, he sends <a href="https://collider.com/the-whale-ending-explained/">an inflammatory</a> and emotional email to everyone that includes the line “Fuck these ridiculous essays,” which leads to his firing. </p>
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Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/the-whale-brendan-frasers-comeback-offers-rare-representation-of-the-fat-queer-male-body-on-screen-198943">The Whale: Brendan Fraser's comeback offers rare representation of the fat queer male body on screen</a>
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<p>Before he is replaced, Charlie at last turns his online camera on after pretending it was broken. The students quietly appear to be a mixture of struck, amused and even voyeuristic; one appears to start recording. Charlie flings his laptop to the floor while still in session. </p>
<p>I hoped the film would return to students after this moment, wondering how this intense experience might impact their relationship to education. However, viewers don’t see them again. </p>
<h2>The mistreated missionary</h2>
<p>Then there is Thomas (Ty Simpkins), <a href="https://screenrant.com/whale-2022-cast-character-guide/">a church missionary</a> who seems to be a teenage runaway. Thomas repeatedly visits Charlie and tries to connect with him, but is put in difficult positions when Charlie has medical episodes but refuses professional help. </p>
<p>Instead, Charlie requests confusing <a href="https://theconversation.com/what-is-emotional-labour-and-how-do-we-get-it-wrong-185773">emotional labour</a> and care work such as reading Charlie’s daughter’s middle school <em>Moby Dick</em> essay aloud instead of calling 911. </p>
<p>Charlie’s friend and caretaker, Liz (Hong Chau), is also tough on Thomas in different ways. She critiques his church and vacillates between treating him like a pest and something of a punching bag while demanding he help Charlie around the apartment. Thomas seems an earnest and naive young person, constantly returning to Charlie’s apartment despite mistreatment. </p>
<h2>‘Evil’ Ellie</h2>
<p>Finally, there is Charlie’s teenage daughter, Ellie (Sadie Sink). Viewers get a sense of Ellie’s character through a handful of intense, reluctant visits to her Dad’s apartment; she is angry with him for abandoning her years ago when he fell in love with Alan. </p>
<p>Ellie calls her father disgusting and drugs him. She posts disturbing images of dead dogs and Charlie on social media. </p>
<p>Maybe what most bothered me as a researcher who has examined sexist rape culture myths in texts representing teens, and how <a href="https://opensiuc.lib.siu.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=1157&context=atj;%20https://digitalcommons.calpoly.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=1019&context=feministpedagogy">teachers respond to youth trauma stories</a>, is how Ellie also threatens an in-recovery Thomas with a rape accusation unless he does drugs. </p>
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<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/hollywood-letters-of-support-for-danny-masterson-demonstrate-the-pervasiveness-of-myths-about-rape-culture-213508">Hollywood letters of support for Danny Masterson demonstrate the pervasiveness of myths about rape culture</a>
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<p>Although he seems to understand her threat as a twisted joke, he obeys. She then photographs the drug use and as his concern grows, she says she is “just fucking” with him. </p>
<p>All the while, Ellie glares, screams, stomps and slams doors. </p>
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<figcaption><span class="caption">Clip from ‘The Whale.’</span></figcaption>
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<p>At one point, <a href="https://deadline.com/wp-content/uploads/2023/01/The-Whale-Read-The-Screenplay.pdf">Ellie’s mother even calls her “evil.”</a> Ellie seems to be the cruel foil to Charlie’s kind demeanour, despite his failures as a parent. </p>
<h2>Incurably bad girls?</h2>
<p>In all these cases, viewers are left with partial stories of youth and young adults, alongside a focus on more apparently important adult characters. </p>
<p>Ellie calls to mind feminist scholar <a href="https://profiles.ucl.ac.uk/48638-jessica-ringrose">Jessica Ringrose’s</a> <a href="https://doi.org/10.1177/0959353506068747">arguments</a> about the rise of interest in the universalized figure of the aggressive “mean girl” in popular discourse. Such aggressive young girls seem to be a normalized mainstay. </p>
<p>Although Ellie is perhaps not depicted as <a href="https://doi.org/10.1353/jeu.2019.0025">sociopathic like the teen schoolgirls</a> that education and literary scholars like <a href="https://lled.educ.ubc.ca/caroline-hamilton/">Caroline Hamilton</a>,
<a href="https://www.sfu.ca/education/faculty-profiles/emarshall.html">Elizabeth Marshall</a> and <a href="https://lled.educ.ubc.ca/theresa-rogers/">Theresa Rogers</a> examine, the portrayal of her suggests she could be “incurably bad.” </p>
<h2>Don’t see nuanced youth perspective</h2>
<p>Actor <a href="https://www.imdb.com/name/nm5584750/">Sadie Sink</a> has said that despite Ellie’s negative character traits and actions in the film, <a href="https://variety.com/2022/film/awards/sadie-sink-the-whale-stranger-things-taylor-swift-brendan-fraser-1235462556/">Ellie is not a “dirtbag” teenager</a> especially if events are imagined from her perspective. </p>
<p>Yet viewers are repeatedly faced with <a href="https://www.google.com/imgres?imgurl=https://fugitives.com/wp-content/uploads/2023/02/The-Whale-Ending-Explained-2022-Drama-Film.jpg&tbnid=G6zKyJCfvh7-5M&vet=1&imgrefurl=https://fugitives.com/the-whale-ending-explained-2022-drama-film-darren-aronofsky-brendan-fraser/&docid=R4mGrPURgPy1yM&w=1200&h=674&itg=1&hl=en&source=sh/x/im/m1/1">Charlie’s wounded expression</a> that arguably feeds an understanding of Ellie as wretched. </p>
<p>Critic Lindy West took a direct and humourous perspective on the representation of adolescence by asking: <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/film/2023/mar/10/lindy-west-on-the-whale">“More importantly, who reads Moby Dick in eighth grade!?”</a> </p>
<h2>What was missing?</h2>
<p>This past year, Ellie struck me as one of the more alarming recent portrayals of adolescent girlhood in popular media. </p>
<p>In an interview on CBC’s <em>Q</em> with Tom Power, <em>The Whale’s</em> director, Darren Aronofsky, said when he saw the original play the film is based upon he was struck by the draw of a complex character. He also noted <a href="https://www.cbc.ca/radio/q/friday-dec-16-2022-darren-aronofsky-alfre-woodard-and-more-1.6685518/darren-aronofsky-on-the-whale-casting-brendan-fraser-and-fat-suit-criticism-1.6685521">film has the ability to immerse viewers into another character’s perspective</a>, to learn something about ourselves. </p>
<p><em>The Whale</em> makes a big ask of viewers if we are to extend our imaginations into adolescents’ perspectives with limited clues. </p>
<p>I hope viewers wonder what more should be understood about youth that is not shown on the screen, and how perhaps especially educators might interrogate assumptions about adolescent experiences.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/217184/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Amber Moore has previously received funding from the Banting Postdoctoral Program, Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council of Canada (SSHRC), The Killam Trusts, and The University of British Columbia. </span></em></p>Adult actors in ‘The Whale’ won Oscars for best lead and supporting acting in 2023, but if you catch up with awarded movies this holiday, the film’s depiction of teens warrants scrutiny.Amber Moore, Assistant Professor of Teaching in Language & Literacy Education , University of British ColumbiaLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/2165942023-12-20T13:25:45Z2023-12-20T13:25:45Z50 years later, ‘The Exorcist’ continues to possess Hollywood’s imagination, reflecting our obsession with evil<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/566712/original/file-20231219-29-5tk48y.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=964%2C1264%2C2636%2C1671&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">The film went on to gross nearly $450 million worldwide.</span> <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.gettyimages.com/detail/news-photo/poster-for-william-friedkins-1973-horror-the-exorcist-news-photo/504412731?adppopup=true">Movie Poster Image Art/Getty Images</a></span></figcaption></figure><p>When the “<a href="https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0070047/">The Exorcist</a>” premiered 50 years ago, in December 1973, some theatergoers <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/1974/01/27/archives/they-wait-hoursto-be-shocked-the-exorcist-got-mixed-reviews-why-has.html">fainted or broke down in tears</a>. A few <a href="https://www.syfy.com/syfy-wire/the-exorcist-what-it-was-like-to-see-the-movie-in-theaters">even vomited</a>.</p>
<p>The film, which cast a young <a href="https://www.imdb.com/name/nm0000304/">Linda Blair</a> as a girl claiming to be possessed by the devil, was an almost instant success, with moviegoers <a href="https://nypost.com/2023/08/12/original-audience-reaction-to-the-exorcist-was-off-the-charts/">waiting in line for hours</a> to secure tickets. It went on to gross <a href="https://www.boxofficemojo.com/title/tt0070047/">over US$440 million</a> worldwide.</p>
<p>The horror film eventually <a href="https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0070047/awards/">received two Oscars</a>, for Best Sound and Best Adapted Screenplay.</p>
<p>In the 50 years since, the cultural fascination with Satan has persisted. <a href="https://www.thepublicdiscourse.com/2023/07/89371/">But as religiosity has waned</a>, popular portrayals of Satan have also changed. Rather than embody pure evil, Luciferian characters that are complicated – even likable – have emerged. </p>
<h2>Cinema’s dance with the devil</h2>
<p>The devil has never been a stranger to the movies. He appeared as early as 1896, in Georges Méliès’ “<a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qt0w2qP6REg">The House of the Devil</a>, a three-minute silent film. </p>
<p>Just five years before the release of "The Exorcist,” Roman Polanski’s “<a href="https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0063522/?ref_=nv_sr_srsg_0_tt_7_nm_1_q_rosemary%27s%2520">Rosemary’s Baby</a>” told the story about a young woman, played by <a href="https://www.imdb.com/name/nm0001201/?ref_=nv_sr_srsg_0_tt_1_nm_7_q_mia%2520farrow">Mia Farrow</a>, who was carrying Satan’s child. </p>
<p>That film also took home two Oscars. Still, critics generally credit “The Exorcist” with kicking off a run of movies about Satan and demonic possession. </p>
<figure class="align-right ">
<img alt="Movie poster featuring drawings of various actors, young and old." src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/566722/original/file-20231219-23-ts8rod.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=237&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/566722/original/file-20231219-23-ts8rod.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=957&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/566722/original/file-20231219-23-ts8rod.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=957&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/566722/original/file-20231219-23-ts8rod.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=957&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/566722/original/file-20231219-23-ts8rod.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=1202&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/566722/original/file-20231219-23-ts8rod.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=1202&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/566722/original/file-20231219-23-ts8rod.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=1202&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">The Italian theatrical poster for the 1974 film ‘Beyond the Door.’</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Chi-sei-italian-movie-poster-md.jpg">Wikimedia Commons</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>Imitations appeared all over the world. There was the 1974 Italian film “<a href="https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0071212/?ref_=nv_sr_srsg_0_tt_8_nm_0_q_beyond%2520the%2520door">Beyond the Door</a>,” starring <a href="https://www.imdb.com/name/nm0005236/?ref_=nv_sr_srsg_0_tt_2_nm_6_q_juliet%2520mills">Juliet Mills</a> as a young woman pregnant with the Devil’s baby. The Turkish film “<a href="https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0072148/?ref_=nv_sr_srsg_0_tt_8_nm_0_q_seytan">Seytan</a>,” which told a story almost identical to “The Exorcist,” was released that same year. The 1976 film “<a href="https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0075005/?ref_=fn_al_tt_1">The Omen</a>” and its sequels imagined the rise of Satan’s son, Damien Thorn. </p>
<p>Other filmmakers showcased the versatility of the subgenre by imagining Satanic encounters everywhere from cruise ships to schoolyards. Jack Starrett’s “<a href="https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0073600/">Race with the Devil</a>” told the story of vacationers fleeing a Satanic cult. A slew of TV movies also appeared, such as “<a href="https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0073662/?ref_=nv_sr_srsg_0_tt_8_nm_0_q_satan%27s%2520triangle">Satan’s Triangle</a>” (1975) and “<a href="https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0077429/?ref_=nv_sr_srsg_0_tt_2_nm_0_q_devil%2520dog%2520hound">Devil Dog: The Hound of Hell</a>” (1978).</p>
<h2>Interest in exorcisms surges</h2>
<p><a href="https://time.com/isgoddead/">Anxiety about social change and growing secularism</a> gave “The Exorcist” influence beyond the box office.</p>
<p>In November 1973, a month before “The Exorcist” premiered, The New York Times reported that among U.S. Catholics, <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/1973/11/12/archives/catholic-churchgoing-still-declining-based-on-samplings.html">attendance at weekly mass</a> had dropped to 48% from 61% between 1972 and 1973.</p>
<p>After the movie came out, curiosity about Catholicism rose significantly.</p>
<p>This was especially true with regard to exorcism, a rite <a href="https://www.americamagazine.org/faith/2020/10/20/explainer-exorcism-catholic-priest-halloween">so rarely practiced within the church</a> that the film’s protagonist, Father Damian Karras, says that in order to find someone to perform it, he’d “have to get into a time machine and get back to the 16th century.”</p>
<p>Nonetheless, in January 1974, <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/1974/01/28/archives/-exorcist-adds-problems-for-catholic-clergymen-hit-film-the.html">The New York Times reported</a> that the Catholic Church was receiving “a wave of inquiries from persons who believe that they, or their acquaintances, are possessed by demons.” </p>
<p>Many of these requests came from people who were no longer, or never had been, churchgoers.</p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="Black and white photo of bundled up people lined up outside of a movie theater." src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/566714/original/file-20231219-21-i5c7gx.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/566714/original/file-20231219-21-i5c7gx.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=397&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/566714/original/file-20231219-21-i5c7gx.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=397&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/566714/original/file-20231219-21-i5c7gx.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=397&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/566714/original/file-20231219-21-i5c7gx.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=498&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/566714/original/file-20231219-21-i5c7gx.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=498&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/566714/original/file-20231219-21-i5c7gx.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=498&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">A crowd braves frigid weather in New York City to see ‘The Exorcist’ in February 1974.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.gettyimages.com/detail/news-photo/scene-from-dantes-inferno-it-might-be-with-stem-rising-from-news-photo/1160965641?adppopup=true">Bettmann Archive/Getty Images</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<h2>Fears of satanism snowball</h2>
<p>“The Exorcist” and its imitators were very much still in the zeitgeist <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2021/03/31/us/satanic-panic.html">during the satanic panic of the 1980s</a>, which involved thousands of false accusations of Satanic ritual abuse throughout the U.S. and Canada.</p>
<p>In 1980, “<a href="https://www.cbc.ca/arts/satan-wants-you-filmmakers-q-a-sean-horlor-steve-j-adams-1.6822213">Michelle Remembers</a>,” a memoir about a young woman’s sexual abuse by a satanic cult, was published. Though it was eventually discredited, the book is thought to have kicked off the panic.</p>
<figure class="align-right ">
<img alt="Cover of book featuring sinister devil looming over a girl clutching a doll." src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/566724/original/file-20231219-17-iyysn.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=237&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/566724/original/file-20231219-17-iyysn.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=990&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/566724/original/file-20231219-17-iyysn.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=990&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/566724/original/file-20231219-17-iyysn.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=990&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/566724/original/file-20231219-17-iyysn.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=1244&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/566724/original/file-20231219-17-iyysn.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=1244&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/566724/original/file-20231219-17-iyysn.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=1244&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">‘Michelle Remembers’ was eventually discredited – but not before helping to spur the satanic panic.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://images-na.ssl-images-amazon.com/images/S/compressed.photo.goodreads.com/books/1177037179i/676637.jpg">Goodreads</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>Throughout the 1980s, <a href="https://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/americas/satanic-panic-film-movie-michelle-smith-memoir-b2300716.html">reports of satanic rituals and abuse</a> reached hysterical levels, perhaps most famously in <a href="https://rumble.com/vqpqxx-martensville-satanic-scandal-history-of-satanic-movement-in-canada.html">Saskatchewan, Canada</a>, where day care workers were accused of satanism and sexual abuse. Major media networks capitalized on fears of a fallen world, with NBC running a 1988 special entitled “<a href="https://www.nytimes.com/1988/10/26/business/program-on-satan-worship-spurs-controversy-at-nbc.html">Devil Worship: Exposing Satan’s Underground</a>.” </p>
<p>Meanwhile, accusations of satanism were leveled at everything from “<a href="https://theconversation.com/rival-fantasies-dungeons-and-dragons-players-and-their-religious-critics-actually-have-a-lot-in-common-40343">Dungeons & Dragons</a>” to <a href="https://theconversation.com/the-fate-of-the-metalheads-44876">heavy metal music</a>. Some people even believed the conspiracy theory that the Proctor & Gamble logo <a href="https://www.atlasobscura.com/articles/procter-gamble-satan-conspiracy-theory">contained hidden satanic symbols</a>.</p>
<h2>Sympathy for the devil</h2>
<p>By the turn of the 21st century, the panic had run its course, as had representations of Satan as an embodiment of pure evil. </p>
<p>Growing secularism in the U.S. ran in parallel with depictions of a charming, more likable Satan. The public had grown increasingly disillusioned with institutionalized religion, especially with revelations of <a href="https://www.pbs.org/newshour/nation/3-big-us-churches-in-turmoil-over-sex-abuse-lgbt-policy">child sexual abuse within the Catholic Church and other denominations</a>.</p>
<p>This sympathy for the devil was nothing new: It went back at least as far as John Milton’s 1667 epic poem “<a href="https://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/20">Paradise Lost</a>.” The poem’s depiction of Satan as the fallen angel Lucifer was so compelling, it caused poet William Blake <a href="https://theamericanscholar.org/the-devils-party/">to famously suggest</a> that Milton was “of the Devil’s party without knowing it.”</p>
<p>“Paradise Lost” has been adapted and reworked for modern audiences. </p>
<p>The television series “<a href="https://theconversation.com/what-a-biannual-gathering-of-1967-impalas-reveals-about-the-blurry-line-between-fandom-and-religion-216890">Supernatural</a>” includes a number of story arcs featuring a dangerous but charismatic Lucifer. The figure is also depicted sympathetically in <a href="https://www.goodreads.com/series/40372-the-sandman">Neil Gaiman’s “Sandman” comics</a>.</p>
<p>The 2015 film “<a href="https://www.imdb.com/title/tt4263482/?ref_=nv_sr_srsg_1_tt_7_nm_0_q_the%2520witch">The Witch</a>” takes a different approach, portraying communion with the Devil as preferable to a life of drudgery and abuse for teenage girls in Puritan New England. </p>
<p>Meanwhile, satanism has emerged as a secular movement. <a href="https://thesatanictemple.com/pages/about-us">According to the Satanic Temple</a>, its members seek to “encourage benevolence and empathy” and “reject tyrannical authority” to protect the separation of church and state.</p>
<h2>Everyday evil</h2>
<p>Still, neither sympathetic narrative portrayals nor secular movements have fully diminished the power of Satan to trouble the popular imagination. </p>
<p>In a society that has become increasingly divided, satanism has once again become a potent source of fear. The internet is rife with rumors about <a href="https://theconversation.com/hell-no-halloween-is-not-satanic-its-an-important-way-to-think-about-death-118391">the supposed satanic origins of Halloween</a> and <a href="https://www.ala.org/ala/pressreleasesbucket/pressreleases200/harrypotterseries.htm">the “Harry Potter” books</a>. Echoes of the satanic panic <a href="https://www.npr.org/2021/05/18/997559036/americas-satanic-panic-returns-this-time-through-qanon">can be found in the QAnon movement</a>, which accuses some Democratic politicians of a satanic conspiracy to kidnap and sexually abuse children. </p>
<p>The hysteria expressed by <a href="https://theconversation.com/buying-into-conspiracy-theories-can-be-exciting-thats-what-makes-them-dangerous-184623">groups like QAnon</a> is an extreme example of a long-standing human impulse to label those who are feared and hated as personifications of evil. At the same time, this tendency is a way to understand the horrible cruelties of this world, and why people inflict such harm on each other.</p>
<p>During the original run of “The Exorcist,” many people questioned the impulse to embody all evil within a single supernatural figure. <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/1974/01/28/archives/-exorcist-adds-problems-for-catholic-clergymen-hit-film-the.html">In a 1974 interview about the film with The New York Times</a>, priest and psychologist Eugene Kennedy noted that it’s important for people to “[come] to terms with our own capacity for evil, not projecting it on an outside force that possesses us.” </p>
<p>This sentiment remains true today. Everyday acts of evil, small and large, may be easy to ignore when measured against the so-called “pure evil” embodied in the character of Satan. Nonetheless, the undiminished cultural fascination with the figure of Satan may be a way of trying <a href="https://home.csulb.edu/%7Eacargile/resources/Evil.pdf">to better comprehend evil</a> – and why people so often choose it.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/216594/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Regina Hansen does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organization that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>When the film premiered, theatergoers fainted and vomited. It went on to inspire a series of copycat films – while fomenting a cultural panic about the demons in our midst.Regina Hansen, Master Lecturer of Rhetoric, Boston UniversityLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/2121552023-12-03T13:27:34Z2023-12-03T13:27:34ZPayment controversy over ‘The Elephant Whisperers’ provokes questions about documentary storytelling<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/561956/original/file-20231127-24-i7re4v.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=0%2C38%2C2556%2C1398&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">'The Elephant Whisperers' dramatizes the emotional bond between an orphaned elephant, Raghu, and the couple who care for him. </span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">(Netflix)</span></span></figcaption></figure><iframe style="width: 100%; height: 100px; border: none; position: relative; z-index: 1;" allowtransparency="" allow="clipboard-read; clipboard-write" src="https://narrations.ad-auris.com/widget/the-conversation-canada/payment-controversy-over-the-elephant-whisperers-provokes-questions-about-documentary-storytelling" width="100%" height="400"></iframe>
<p>Months after the Indian film <em><a href="https://www.imdb.com/title/tt23628262/">The Elephant Whisperers</a></em> won the Oscar for Best Documentary Short
at the Academy Awards this past March, the <a href="https://dictionary.cambridge.org/dictionary/english/mahout">mahout</a> (elephant rider or caretaker) couple Bomman and Bellie at the centre of the film <a href="https://indianexpress.com/article/entertainment/entertainment-others/bomman-bellie-send-legal-notice-asking-for-rs-2-crore-from-the-elephant-whisperers-director-8880259/">filed a legal notice</a>.</p>
<p>The notice from the Indigenous couple, who belong to the <a href="https://www.bbc.com/news/world-asia-india-66458475">Kattunayakan community</a> in India’s Tamil Nadu province, demanded 20 million rupees (about $330,000) from the filmmaker <a href="http://www.kartikigonsalves.com/">Kartiki Gonsalves</a> and the film’s production house, Sikhya Entertainment, run by Guneet Monga. </p>
<p>The couple complained about being subjected to trying situations during the shoot and <a href="https://www.wionews.com/entertainment/the-elephant-whisperers-couple-bomman-belli-accuses-the-makers-of-exploitation-and-non-payment-622872">the expenses</a> incurred to help execute scenes according to the filmmaker’s convenience. </p>
<p>In defence, the makers <a href="https://www.thehindu.com/entertainment/movies/the-elephant-whisperers-bomman-and-bellie-allege-exploitation-by-docu-makers-kartiki-gonsalves-calls-claims-untrue/article67161291.ece">issued a statement</a>. Though not responding to the allegations directly, it said the film created awareness about the mahout community and led to socioeconomic benefits for them. </p>
<p>They mentioned <a href="https://economictimes.indiatimes.com/news/new-updates/tamil-nadu-cm-mk-stalin-congratulates-the-elephant-whisperers-caretakers-on-their-oscar-win-and-awards-cash-prizes/articleshow/98662130.cms">donations</a> from M.K. Stalin, the chief minister of Tamil Nadu, towards assisting 91 elephant caretakers in the state’s two elephant camps. </p>
<p>Strangely, the controversy remained focused on the issue of financial compensation following the film’s success. It eclipsed the structural conditions in contemporary documentary filmmaking that likely affected this complication in the first place. </p>
<figure>
<iframe width="440" height="260" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/a0J0b_OVa9w?wmode=transparent&start=0" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen=""></iframe>
<figcaption><span class="caption">‘The Elephant Whisperers’ trailer.</span></figcaption>
</figure>
<h2>The missing story</h2>
<p>Set in the Theppakadu Elephant Camp inside the Mudumalai Tiger Reserve, <em>The Elephant Whisperers</em> dramatizes the emotional bond between the couple and an orphaned elephant, Raghu, whom they have nurtured since finding him as an infant dying of injuries. For the film’s 41-minute runtime, viewers witness idyllic moments of human-animal relationships that peak when the forest authorities eventually separate Raghu from the couple. </p>
<p>As the filmmaker notes, the short film is intended to <a href="http://www.kartikigonsalves.com/the-elephant-whisperers-thefilm">highlight “the beauty of the wild spaces in South India and the people and animals who share this space</a>.”
Yet, in this focus, it fails to generate a critical understanding of systemic problems hindering elephant conservation practices. </p>
<p>These include mahouts’ <a href="https://www.researchgate.net/publication/264850834_Daily_routine_of_captive_Asian_elephants_Elephas_maximus_in_three_management_systems_of_Tamil_Nadu_India_and_its_implications_for_elephant_welfare">underpaid contracts</a> with temples and the tourism industry, or as activists in Kerala have documented, <a href="https://www.independent.co.uk/news/long_reads/indian-temple-captive-elephants-kerala-chained-beaten-whipped-died-modi-a8313696.html">abusive overworking</a> of captive mammals, leading to a high elephant mortality rate in that province. </p>
<p>Despite Bomman and Bellie hailing from the Kattunayakan tribe, the documentary ignores the forest department’s <a href="https://ruralindiaonline.org/en/articles/mudumalai-adivasis---displaced-by-deceit/">deceitful resettlement of Kattunayakan, Paniyan and other Adivasi communities</a> from their ancestral hamlets in the Mudumalai Tiger Reserve’s buffer zone. Nor does it dwell on the filmmakers’ navigation of the Indigenous environment and their framing <a href="https://www.cinemaexpress.com/tamil/interviews/2023/jan/25/the-elephant-whisperers-interview-we-wanted-the-indigenous-people-to-have-a-voice-39241.html">of the story as outsiders</a>. </p>
<h2>Preference for individual over social</h2>
<p>In her article, “<a href="https://worldrecordsjournal.org/how-does-it-end-story-and-the-property-form/">How Does it End? Story and the Property Form</a>” filmmaker and writer Brett Story critiques the conventional three-act story structure prevalent in contemporary non-fiction narratives. </p>
<p>Such narratives usually involve a main character with a heroic journey, a climax and a resolution. According to her, this story structure is considered universally valid and timeless. </p>
<p>But most importantly, this structure corresponds with the “property form” under capitalism. There is a bias for the individualism of the “hero” who owns the story — like property. As a result, documentary film markets tend to prioritize a “preference for the individual over the social, the ‘character’ over the condition, experience over consciousness.” </p>
<h2>Unpaid labour</h2>
<p>Concurrent with this preference for individual heroes is the unacknowledged labour of the documentary protagonist. <a href="https://doi.org/10.1002/9781118884584.ch7">Media scholar Silke Panse argues</a> that “the work of the documentary protagonist cannot be seen separately from the aesthetics of the work.” She outlines the emotional and material labour involved when they perform for the documentary gaze. This labour co-creates the quality, form and nature of images. Therefore, in documentary realism, the “protagonists <em>are</em> the image.”</p>
<p>When the story becomes a marketable product, the production conditions, processes and relationships behind the storytelling are further obscured. It devalues the passage of negotiations and emotional investment that contribute to the filmmakers’ relationship with documentary subjects. <a href="https://doi.org/10.1177/13675494231208501">Post-doctoral scholar Emily Coleman contends</a> that in this context, relationship-building between the maker and the subject should be understood as “a practice of creative labour.”</p>
<p>Independent filmmakers often begin by self-financing documentary projects, motivated by underlying feelings of responsibility toward concerned issues. About wildlife documentaries, film scholar <a href="https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-90332-3">Alexa Weik von Mossner highlights the “altruistic motivation”</a> behind emotional animal stories that end up helping filmmakers connect their projects to specific conservation projects. </p>
<p>But, personal altruism potentially feeds into the power dynamics between the one who cares to represent and the other who needs representation.</p>
<h2>Market menace</h2>
<p>Project development support for creative non-fiction mostly comes through pitching sessions at documentary film forums like <a href="https://hotdocs.ca/?gad_source=1&gclid=CjwKCAiAsIGrBhAAEiwAEzMlCzQ4roBvwLKYE1D7hwwRmacYwFSkLQ7wv5umPFGibpjm44Bbg9QkHhoCaicQAvD_BwE">Hot Docs</a>, <a href="https://sheffdocfest.com/show/whickers-pitch">Sheffield DocFest</a>, the <a href="https://www.idfa.nl/en/">International Documentary Film Festival Amsterdam</a> and so on.</p>
<p>These spaces facilitate a financial market for producers, commissioning editors, broadcasters, film festival scouts and related commercial agents. According to Francesco Ragazzi, associate professor of international relations at Leiden University, this <a href="https://www.routledge.com/Documenting-World-Politics-A-Critical-Companion-to-IR-and-Non-Fiction-Film/Munster-Sylvest/p/book/9781138208193">funding circuit exclusively relies on attracting profit and large audiences</a>. Filmmakers are pushed towards character-oriented narrative documentaries that are sellable to a broader demographic. </p>
<p>Ragazzi notes how typical pitching forum questions such as “Can your character hold 52 minutes?” or “What is the story arc of the film?” shape the values and aesthetics of contemporary documentary films. </p>
<p>With <em>The Elephant Whisperers</em>, after Gonsalves started an independent round of production in 2017, Netflix <a href="https://alphauniverse.com/stories/the-making-of-the-elephant-whisperers--and-the-power-of-story-to-change-minds/">accepted her promo pitch in 2020</a>. Producer Monga also joined the project following its preliminary development. More than <a href="https://www.npr.org/sections/goatsandsoda/2023/03/05/1160659634/the-elephant-whisperers-an-oscar-nominated-love-story-about-people-and-pachyderm">450 hours of footage filmed over five years was cut into the documentary short</a>.</p>
<h2>Re-evaluating terms of participation</h2>
<p>It is not surprising for contentious claims to emerge concerning the extensive labour hidden underneath compact, character-driven documentary stories once films have gained substantial success or cultural capital.</p>
<p>A source close to the production <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/world/2023/aug/07/indian-couple-who-starred-in-oscar-winning-film-say-director-backed-out-of-pay-promises">dispelled Bomman and Bellie’s allegation</a>, stating they got duly paid according to the documentary’s contract. </p>
<p>While production and distribution companies must compensate documentary subjects, it is equally necessary to re-evaluate the terms and conditions of people’s participation in creative non-fiction projects.</p>
<p>Market-driven motives of documentary storytelling reduce people to attention-holding characters and their lives to the service of dramaturgy. This extractive approach is characterized by transactional terms. Filmmakers and producers should acknowledge subjects as co-creative partners in production and distribution processes. For that, documentary storytelling needs to change first.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/212155/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Santasil Mallik does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>A focus on financial compensation for subjects of ‘The Elephant Whisperers’ overshadowed the need to examine storytelling conventions and creative practices in contemporary documentary filmmaking.Santasil Mallik, PhD Student, Media Studies, Western UniversityLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/2077162023-06-21T20:01:45Z2023-06-21T20:01:45ZAre the Oscars going to take animated films more seriously?<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/533046/original/file-20230621-9063-gut20f.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=4%2C0%2C2991%2C1684&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">
</span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">Sony</span></span></figcaption></figure><p>“Animation is cinema. Animation is not a genre. And, animation is ready to be taken to the next step – we are all ready for it, please help us, keep animation in the conversation.”</p>
<p>This was Guillermo del Toro’s testament accepting the Academy Award for Best Animated Feature Film in 2023 for <a href="https://www.imdb.com/title/tt1488589/">Guillermo del Toro’s Pinocchio</a>, released by Netflix. As one of the most acclaimed modern auteurs – and one who has <a href="https://www.avclub.com/guillermo-del-toro-is-going-all-in-on-animation-1850539253">announced his intention to stick with animation</a> as his preferred medium – his acceptance speech reads like a plea directly to the academy.</p>
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<h2>Animated films at the Oscars</h2>
<p>The Oscars have had a storied history of engaging with animated cinema. Since 2002, they have awarded a Best Animated Feature award, first won by Shrek. This was a time of technological innovations for 3D animation (think Toy Story or A Bug’s Life), and of standout A-list voice performances (Robin Williams in Aladdin, or Shrek’s star-studded cast).</p>
<p>By including animated films as a standalone category, the Oscars ended up segregating them: animation was treated as its own thing. Beauty and the Beast broke ground as the first-ever animated nominee for the Best Picture Oscar in 1992, but only two films have achieved such a feat since.</p>
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<p>Up (2009) and Toy Story 3 (2010) were Best Picture Oscar nominees (and Best Animated Feature winners) of their respective years. However, such recognition only came after the academy expanded its Best Picture category from five nominees to up to 10. This was a concerted effort to include more popular films in the Oscars due to waning audience interest, after Best Picture snubs of The Dark Knight and WALL-E.</p>
<p>If animated films have had difficulty breaking into the Oscars’ vision of a Best Picture, then voice talent has been outright bypassed for consideration in acting categories. Since Shrek, stars have increasingly taken on voice work for animated projects in ways that elevates them from a side-hustle to key parts of their CVs. </p>
<p>For instance, <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5L1iX5JiuwI">Chris Pratt</a> and <a href="https://www.vogue.com/article/anya-taylor-joy-princess-peach-super-mario-premiere">Anya Taylor-Joy</a>’s promotional duties for The Super Mario Bros. Movie represent significant time and stardom investments for the sake of animated intellectual property.</p>
<p>Yet without the physical body to observe, the Oscars have ignored voice work in animated films. The most meaningful push to have a voice performance nominated was for Scarlett Johansson’s in Her where she played a computer operating system. Johansson’s performance was nuanced, played with chemistry against her co-stars, and, ironically, Her was not an animated film. </p>
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<h2>Are things changing?</h2>
<p>The <a href="https://theconversation.com/winning-everything-everywhere-all-at-once-5-experts-on-the-big-moments-at-the-oscars-2023-201661">Oscars this year</a> shifted their brand of “prestige” to value the “cinematic experience” (and box office money) in the age of streaming. </p>
<p>The sweep of Everything Everywhere All at Once and Best Picture nominations for Top Gun: Maverick and Avatar: The Way of Water in 2023 signal the academy conspicuously praising populist fare for bringing audiences into the physical cinema. This then hopefully attracts <a href="https://variety.com/2023/tv/news/2023-oscar-ratings-academy-awards-audience-1235550070/">more audience eyeballs to an Oscars telecast</a> where they are likely to have actually seen some of the nominees.</p>
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Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/winning-everything-everywhere-all-at-once-5-experts-on-the-big-moments-at-the-oscars-2023-201661">Winning everything everywhere all at once: 5 experts on the big moments at the Oscars 2023</a>
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<p>Popular film’s infiltration of the Oscars even seeped into the acting categories. Everything Everywhere All At Once’s indie cred made nominations (and three eventual wins) for its stars logical and welcome, but even Black Panther: Wakanda Forever’s Angela Bassett scored a Best Supporting Actress nomination, the first acting recognition for the Marvel Cinematic Universe. Its online fandom was instrumental here, having opined the academy’s biases against their beloved franchise.</p>
<p>Now, Spider-Man: Across the Spider-Verse has arrived ahead of the 2024 Oscars race. The animated film boasts a star-studded cast, including past Oscar nominees and winners like Daniel Kaluuya and Hailee Steinfeld in key supporting roles. Shameik Moore’s lead vocal performance as Miles Morales is also exceptional. Still figuring out what it means to balance being Spider-Man with a complicated home and social life, he sounds remarkably recognisable as a modern teenager.</p>
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<p>Credit for this extends to a snappy script and intricate editing that bounces through its complex multiverse setting and superhero super-stakes to focus on moving character development. Thematically, it reflects on the artistic value of the superhero genre, unpacking the Spider-Man lore across its many iterations. And, of course, the visual artistry on display is mind-blowing, truly pushing cinematic excess in ways that only animation (currently) can.</p>
<p>Spider-Man: Across the Spider-Verse is the kind of popular cinema that the academy is currently primed to take more seriously. It’s on track to become one of the year’s box office successes, serves a dedicated fandom, showcases a stacked cast and dynamically plays with genre and narrative conventions.</p>
<p>As part two of a trilogy, it is unlikely to take out the Best Picture race altogether (Beyond the Spider-Verse, coming in 2024, is the more likely candidate if it sticks the landing). But it is still well-positioned to break through the confines of the Best Animated Feature category.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/207716/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Robert Boucaut does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>Spider-Man: Across the Spider-Verse is the kind of popular cinema that the academy is currently primed to take more seriously.Robert Boucaut, PhD Candidate & Tutor, Media Department, University of AdelaideLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/2072712023-06-08T12:29:09Z2023-06-08T12:29:09ZAstrud Gilberto spread bossa nova to a welcoming world – but got little love back in Brazil<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/530684/original/file-20230607-27-zy6mft.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=0%2C12%2C4083%2C2920&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Astrud Gilberto backstage at New York City's Birdland Jazz Club in 1964.</span> <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.gettyimages.com/detail/news-photo/jazz-singer-astrud-gilberto-pose-for-a-portrait-backstage-news-photo/158229367?adppopup=true">Popsie Randolph/Michael Ochs Archives via Getty Images</a></span></figcaption></figure><p>Astrud Gilberto didn’t set out to be <a href="https://www.cnn.com/2023/06/06/entertainment/astrud-gilberto-death/index.html">an ambassador of bossa nova</a>, the laid-back Brazilian musical genre with rhythms recognizable to music lovers around the world.</p>
<p>According to Gilberto, <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2023/06/06/arts/music/astrud-gilberto-dead.html">who died on June 5, 2023</a>, at the age of 83, she wasn’t expecting to be on the 1964 recording of “<a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/olympics/2016/live-updates/rio-games/scores-and-latest-news/the-back-story-on-the-girl-from-ipanema/">The Girl from Ipanema</a>” – the song for which she is best remembered.</p>
<p>At the time of the recording, she wasn’t even a professional singer.</p>
<p>But Gilberto’s breathy singing voice – almost a whisper, with no hint of a vibrato – helped catapult the song, the singer and bossa nova to the forefront of international pop music. </p>
<p>But while she went on to achieve global fame, back home in Brazil, Gilberto was never given the respect that I believe her talent deserved. In 1966, in the only major performance she gave in her home country, she was booed.</p>
<h2>When bossa went big</h2>
<p>Astrud Gilberto and “The Girl from Ipanema” marked a turning point in bossa nova. </p>
<p>The genre had appeared in Rio de Janeiro in 1958, when <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2019/07/06/arts/music/joao-gilberto-dead-bossa-nova.html">João Gilberto</a> invented a new beat on his guitar out of the traditional samba. Compared to samba, bossa nova featured a more relaxed rhythm, with an emphasis on harmonic melodies that João Gilberto and composer <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/1994/12/09/obituaries/antonio-carlos-jobim-composer-dies-at-67.html">Antônio Carlos Jobim</a> had drawn from American jazz.</p>
<p>In 1963, American jazz saxophonist <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/1991/06/07/obituaries/stan-getz-64-saxophonist-dies-a-melodist-with-his-own-sound.html">Stan Getz</a> invited João Gilberto and Jobim to record a jazz-bossa album with him in New York.</p>
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<img alt="Man seated, looking away from the camera, cradling a saxophone." src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/530715/original/file-20230607-15-pwuyaa.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/530715/original/file-20230607-15-pwuyaa.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=401&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/530715/original/file-20230607-15-pwuyaa.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=401&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/530715/original/file-20230607-15-pwuyaa.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=401&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/530715/original/file-20230607-15-pwuyaa.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=504&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/530715/original/file-20230607-15-pwuyaa.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=504&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/530715/original/file-20230607-15-pwuyaa.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=504&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
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<span class="caption">American saxophonist Stan Getz, photographed in the mid-1960s.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.gettyimages.com/detail/news-photo/american-jazz-musician-stan-getz-sits-outside-on-a-walkway-news-photo/3207831?adppopup=true">Hulton Archive/Getty Images</a></span>
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<p>At that time, jazz in the U.S. was waning in popularity, with other genres, such as rock ‘n’ roll, starting to attract more fans. Getz, in search of a new sound, had had huge success with his 1962 album, “<a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jazz_Samba">Jazz Samba</a>,” the only jazz album that had ever <a href="https://www.knkx.org/jazz/2022-03-24/celebrating-60-years-of-jazz-samba#:%7E:text=Jazz%20Samba%20is%20the%20only,Group%20(Instrumental)%20in%201963.">hit No. 1 on the Billboard pop charts</a>. The foray in bossa nova with two established stars of the genre was going to be his next move.</p>
<p>By then, many American music lovers were already somewhat familiar with bossa nova. Before Getz’s “Jazz Samba,” the 1959 hit Franco-Brazilian movie “<a href="https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0053146/">Black Orpheus</a>,” with its theme “<a href="https://www.kuvo.org/stories-of-standards-manha-de-carnaval/">Manhã de Carnaval</a>,” had introduced the genre to a global audience – the film won the Palme d'Or at the Cannes Film Festival and a best foreign language Oscar in the U.S. </p>
<p>Jazz singer Tony Bennett was also an <a href="https://bloggingtonybennett.com/tag/bossa-nova/">early champion of the genre</a>, arriving home from a 1961 trip to Rio de Janiero with an armful of bossa records, and he may have inspired Getz to collaborate with some stars of the genre.</p>
<p>João Gilberto arrived to meet Getz at a Manhattan recording studio accompanied by his then-22-year-old wife, Astrud. </p>
<p>What happened next is contested, with Getz claiming credit for suggesting that Astrud sing two tracks: “The Girl From Ipanema” by Jobim and Vinicius de Moraes, and “Corcovado” or “Quiet Nights of Quiet Stars” by Jobim only. Astrud spoke English, along with a handful of other languages, in addition to her native Portuguese.</p>
<p>Astrud was, at that time, not a professional singer although she had sung in a couple of clubs in Rio de Janeiro. Nonetheless, she possessed a voice that suited the bossa style. Before bossa nova emerged, the Brazilian “cancioneiro” was dominated by an opera-like way of singing, where the singer imposed an image of grandiose figure to the audience. In the quiet and minimalist revolution of bossa nova, however, the singer’s personality is subdued; the music and the melody take center stage.</p>
<p>In that style, Astrud almost whispers her way through “The Girl From Ipanema” and “Quiet Nights of Quiet Stars.” Getz’s saxophone solos are similarly low-key. There is nothing flashy. It is all about the melody, the rhythm and the harmony.</p>
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<img alt="Woman bathed in magenta light closes her eyes while singing." src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/530686/original/file-20230607-27-finyvk.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/530686/original/file-20230607-27-finyvk.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=394&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/530686/original/file-20230607-27-finyvk.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=394&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/530686/original/file-20230607-27-finyvk.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=394&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/530686/original/file-20230607-27-finyvk.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=496&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/530686/original/file-20230607-27-finyvk.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=496&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/530686/original/file-20230607-27-finyvk.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=496&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
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<span class="caption">Astrud Gilberto’s voice was perfectly suited for bossa nova.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.gettyimages.com/detail/news-photo/photo-of-astrud-gilberto-news-photo/86103973?adppopup=true">Simon Ritter/Redferns via Getty Images</a></span>
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<p>And yet the restrained vocals and sax, together with the easy-flowing melody, proved a potent mix. When the track was released as a single in 1964 – with João Gilberto’s Portuguese verses cut out – it became a massive hit. Today, “The Girl from Ipanema” <a href="https://www.npr.org/2012/07/08/156430077/who-is-she-just-one-of-the-most-popular-songs-ever">is the second-most-recorded pop song of all time</a> – bested only by The Beatles’ “Yesterday.” </p>
<p>The album it appeared on, “Getz/Gilberto,” also became world famous, spawning a live follow-up, “Getz/Gilberto #2,” a year later. </p>
<h2>Brazil turns its back</h2>
<p>But the “Gilberto” in the album title was very much João, and not Astrud.</p>
<p>João Gilberto <a href="https://www.independent.co.uk/arts-entertainment/music/features/astrud-gilberto-girl-from-ipanema-b2006879.html">was paid US$23,000</a> for the “Getz/Gilberto” session. Getz himself pocketed close to a million dollars from sales. Astrud reportedly received <a href="https://www.npr.org/2023/06/06/1180416189/astrud-gilberto-the-girl-from-ipanema-singer-dies-at-83">just $120</a>. She also didn’t make it onto the credits of the original album.</p>
<p>Indeed, as the song grew in popularity, Getz reportedly called Creed Taylor, head of Verve Records, to make sure Astrud <a href="https://global.oup.com/academic/product/singers-and-the-song-ii-9780195122084?cc=us&lang=en&">would not be included in the share of the royalties</a>.</p>
<figure class="align-right ">
<img alt="Album cover featuring abstract orange and black painting." src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/530713/original/file-20230607-29-6w4o9i.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=237&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/530713/original/file-20230607-29-6w4o9i.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=601&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/530713/original/file-20230607-29-6w4o9i.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=601&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/530713/original/file-20230607-29-6w4o9i.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=601&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/530713/original/file-20230607-29-6w4o9i.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=755&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/530713/original/file-20230607-29-6w4o9i.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=755&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/530713/original/file-20230607-29-6w4o9i.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=755&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
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<span class="caption">On the album cover for ‘Getz/Gilberto,’ there’s no mention of Astrud.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.gettyimages.com/detail/news-photo/cover-of-the-album-getz-gilberto-by-stan-getz-and-joao-news-photo/158624172?adppopup=true">Michael Ochs Archives/Getty Images</a></span>
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<p>Nonetheless, back in Brazil she was portrayed as a “lucky girl” who found overnight fame simply for being in the right place, with the right man, at the right time.</p>
<p>She divorced João in 1964, and the press in Brazil blamed her for the collapse of the marriage, amid rumors of an affair with Getz. No doubt, the misogyny of Brazilian culture at the time played a role. Her son, Marcelo, <a href="https://www.bbc.com/news/entertainment-arts-65818566">later recalled in an interview</a> that “Brazil turned its back” on his mother, adding that “She achieved fame abroad at a time when this was considered treasonous by the press.”</p>
<p>Astrud Gilberto went on to have a successful career, releasing 17 original albums from 1964 to 2002 and collaborating with figures such as Quincy Jones, Chet Baker, Stanley Turrentine and George Michael.</p>
<p>Despite her success, she was never accepted as a star back in her native Brazil. In this, she was not alone: The country rarely embraces Brazilians who rise to stardom while living abroad, particularly in the U.S. Before Gilberto, singer <a href="https://www.si.edu/spotlight/latin-music-legends-stamps/carmen-miranda">Carmen Miranda</a> got the same cold shoulder. And Brazilians similarly shunned bossa nova legend <a href="https://www.sfjazz.org/tickets/productions/sergio-mendes-1920/">Sérgio Mendes</a>, who rose to fame in the late 1960s. </p>
<p>Astrud Gilberto ultimately only performed once in her native country after finding fame and emigrating to the United States in the mid-1960s. Despite a career that spanned four decades, Astrud was viewed by many in Brazil as merely João Gilberto’s wife – the girl that got lucky with that one hit record.</p>
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<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Mario Higa does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organization that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>During the only major performance she gave in her home country, Gilberto was booed.Mario Higa, Professor of Luso-Hispanic Studies, MiddleburyLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/2018292023-03-15T10:25:02Z2023-03-15T10:25:02ZOscars 2023: The philosophy of Everything Everywhere All at Once explained<p><em>Warning: the following article contains spoilers for Everything, Everywhere, All At Once.</em></p>
<p>Having enlisted an old friend to babysit our little girls, my husband and I hopped on the bus to see Everything, Everywhere, All at Once as our almost once-in-a-year date film.</p>
<p>In the cinema, I started to wonder: why on earth I am watching another Chinese woman’s distressing life as she copes with all the sorts of relationships, from family to work, which I have only managed to escape myself for a few hours?</p>
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<figcaption><span class="caption">The trailer for Everything, Everywhere, All At Once.</span></figcaption>
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<p>The film centres on a Chinese family – headed by the mother, Evelyn, played by Michelle Yeoh – who run a laundrette in a North American town. The family are facing audit questioning, while at the same time, a divorce paper is raised, a never satisfied, ageing father is visiting and the daughter (Stephanie Hsu) is seeking approval for her same-sex relationship. </p>
<p>Evelyn – who must shoulder all this grief and tension – then finds herself at the centre of multiverse-spanning battle.</p>
<p>Multiverse aside, it was all painfully familiar. The quiet confrontation between mothers and daughters (which I now experience from both sides), the recognition you cry for from your parents, the desire for romance when love has been worn out by familial obligation, the small migrant family business looking for tax legitimisation from white authorities. The chaos in life when there is rarely a moment that is not everything, everywhere, all at once.</p>
<p>The film smoothly blends various genres together: family drama, sci-fi, comedy, romance, martial arts. The 1990s Hong Kong <em>mo lei tau</em> comedy is an influence that cannot be ignored. A popular subculture unique to the island’s colonial past and cultural melding, <em>mo lei tau</em> clashes unrelated elements together to achieve nonsensical comedy. This genre meld successfully holds the film’s philosophy together. </p>
<h2>Daoist spontaneity, <em>qi</em></h2>
<p>Everything, Everywhere, All at Once invokes Daoist philosophy. An ancient Chinese school of thought that pursues balance and harmony, Daoism is significantly valuable for negation and <a href="https://uhpress.hawaii.edu/title/myth-and-meaning-in-early-daoism-the-theme-of-chaos-hundun/">chaos</a>.</p>
<p>Dao – regarded in Chinese cosmology as the source of everything – is empty and still, but generates vital energy, <a href="https://archive.artic.edu/taoism/glossary/qi.php#:%7E:text=qi%20(pronounced%3A%20chee%20(,people%20are%20actually%20qi%20itself.">known as <em>qi</em></a>, literally meaning “breath”, or “air”. As <em>qi</em> swirls in a seeming state of chaos, it is directed by the correlative forces of yin yang, which passes through everything. Hence nothing is still or stable and everything is in constant transformation. </p>
<p>Everything, Everywhere, All At Once’s story flows, seemingly spontaneously, between various universes. Though they appear to be chaotic, they are governed by the yin yang flow of <em>qi</em>. An action or a conversation from one universe spontaneously feeds into another. The Daniels (directors Daniel Kwan and Daniel Scheinert) master this Tai chi-style interplay excellently.</p>
<p>The film also “breathes” smoothly. This is down to its witty, innovative script, but also excellent editing, music and production design for which the film received Oscar <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0rzHULDpRWA">wins</a> and nominations.</p>
<p>The <em>qi</em> of the characters achieves balance as they flow across various universes and realise their multifaceted selves. The seemingly weak husband (Ke Huy Quan, who <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zFRIu7ehZl0">won an Oscar</a> for his performance) becomes a skilled super agent. The dull, tired and wary wife becomes a film star. The aimless lesbian daughter becomes a tribe leader on the bagel planet. The serious, scary audit agent (<a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=meivhM9ic_Q">Jamie Lee Curtis</a>) becomes a tender, caring lover in the sausage finger land.</p>
<h2>Universes connected by the ‘oneness’</h2>
<p>Different universes are connected by <em>qi</em> to form the oneness – a state when things are indistinguishable from one another. States which are usually seen as fantasies and dreams are all part of the realm of Dao, considered the ultimate reality in Daoism. </p>
<p>All of Everything, Everywhere, All At Once’s alternative realities – the battlefield, the bagel planet, the chef’s kitchen, the rock world, sausage finger land – are correlated and transforming towards each other within the state of oneness. </p>
<p>Everything, Everywhere, All At Once is a very “stretchy” film – not just across multiple universes, but also across different times. Universe – <em>yuzhou</em> in Chinese – means “all time and space”. </p>
<p>Philosopher <a href="https://psyche.co/ideas/there-has-never-been-a-time-when-this-article-didnt-exist">David Chai argues</a> that Daoist thinking conceives of “cosmological time”, which is not based on human-centred measurement. This is evident when the mother and the daughter are transformed into rocks, evoking the Daoist conception that humans are also part of things. </p>
<p>The scene also echoes Daoist philosopher <a href="http://cup.columbia.edu/book/the-complete-works-of-zhuangzi/9780231164740">Zhuangzi </a>. In his famous dream of being a butterfly, he did not know he was Zhuangzi. When he awoke and found he was a physical human. He asked himself: </p>
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<p>Was I Zhuangzi dreaming that I was a butterfly, or am I really a butterfly dreaming that I am Zhuangzi?</p>
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<p>Time in a Daoist sense is what the philosopher <a href="https://books.telegraph.co.uk/Product/Hans-Georg-Moeller/Daoism-Explained--From-the-Dream-of-the-Butterfly-to-the-Fishnet-Allegory/14217941">Hans-Georg Moeller</a> calls “a chain of presence”. </p>
<p>Unlike linear progressive understanding of time with its past and future, Daoism sees the world as made up of a continuous sequence of presence, each with its own extended world. The multiple realities presented in the film can be seen as such “a chain of presence”, where all things and everything are possible, existing together all at once.</p>
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<figcaption><span class="caption">Everything Everywhere All At Once’s rock scene.</span></figcaption>
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<p>In her <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JYqYIeCHYAg">acceptance speech</a> for the best actress Oscar, Michelle Yeoh urged women to reject the idea that they can be “past their prime”. In its way, this too echoes the Daoist belief in the presence – there is no better before, only now.</p>
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Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/older-women-are-smashing-it-this-awards-season-but-ageism-is-far-from-over-198110">Older women are smashing it this awards season – but ageism is far from over</a>
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<p>With Everything, Everywhere, All at Once, American Asian communities and Chinese people around the world are finally seeing their stories told, their cultures recognised and their creative endeavours seriously acknowledged. </p>
<p>Beyond its witty, ludicrous humour, the film successfully transmits profound philosophical contemplation, enlightening a global audience through the ancient Chinese thought of Daoism, that has so much to offer to the contemporary world.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/201829/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Kiki Tianqi Yu does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>Everything, Everywhere, All at Once invokes Daoism, the Chinese school of thought that pursues balance and harmony.Kiki Tianqi Yu, Senior Lecturer in Film, Queen Mary University of LondonLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.