Judith Butler

1990 'Gender Trouble'

• Well known as a theorist of power, gender, sexuality and identity
• Butler argued that feminism had made a mistake by trying to assert that 'women' were a group with common characteristics and interests.
• That approach Butler said, performed 'an unwitting regulation and reification of gender relations' - reinforcing a binary view of gender relations in which human beings are divided into two clear-cut groups, women and men
• Rather than opening up possibilities for a person to form and choose their own individual identity, feminism had closed the options down.
• Feminists rejected idea that biology is destiny but developed an account of patriarchal culture which assumed masculine and feminine genders would inevitably be built, by culture upon 'male' and 'female' bodies, making the same destiny just as inescapable.
• Rather than being a fixed attribute in a person, gender should be seen as a fluid variable which shifts and changes in different contexts and at different times.
• 'The experience of a gendered, cultural identity is considered an achievement.'
• Sex is seen to cause gender which is seen to cause desire. This is seen as a kind of continuum
• Butler 'Smash the supposed links between these, so gender and desire are flexible, free-floating and not 'caused' by other stable factors'
• Butler - 'There is no gender identity behind the expressions of gender; ... identity is performatively constituted by the very "expressions" that are said to be its results.'
• Certain cultural configurations of gender have seized a hegemonic hold e.g. they have come to seem natural in our culture as it presently is but, she suggests it doesn't have to be that way
• Rather than proposing some utopian vision, with no idea of how we might get to such a state, Butler calls for subversive action in the present
• We all put on a gender performance, whether traditional or not, anyway, and so it is not a question of whether to do a gender performance, but what form that performance will take.
• By choosing to be different about it, we might work to change gender norms and the binary understanding of masculinity and femininity.

Queer Theory

• Queer theory is based upon an idea that our identities are not fixed and do not determine who we are
• Suggests it is 'meaningless' to talk about women or any other group, as many identities consist of so many elements, that to assume people can be seen collectively, on the basis of one shared charateristic is wrong
• It proposes we deliberately challenge all notions of fixed identity, in varied and non-predictable ways

Queer theory: Critics

• Some do not like queer theory as it is deemed unappropriate/deviant
• Tim Edwards 'Sexualities' - gave a list of reservations

1. For most people, their sexual identity isn't particularly fluid, it's suprisingly constant really
2. Queer theory cheats, by focusing on cultural texts, where it is easier to find gender or sexual ambiguties
3. Eve Kosofsky Sedgwick, for example, deconstructs sexual categories and dualisms in a bunch of 'elite' literary texts. Others have taken this to be an account of real social life
4. Judith Butler's followers similarly ignore real-life oppression and instead support their optimistic worldview by gazing at gender-blending movies and photography. Discrimination at home and at work, for everyday gay people, are forgotten about in this approach.
5. Butler's argument that gender exists at the level of discourse ignores its significance as 'an institutionalised social practice'.
6. The celebration of radical diversity may lead to individualism and fragmentation.
7. By celebrating difference, queer politics makes the 'gay' or 'lesbian' identity all too important.
8. Queer theory celebrates pleasure and therefore puts too much emphasis on sex. It also puts too much emphasis on the visual, and too much emphasis on the young and trendy.
   

Key Theoritical ideas for 'women in contemporary film' case study

Althusser's theory of interpretation
Laura Mulvey's notion of the male gaze

Louis Althusser

• Marxist arguing power exists in different forms
• Via repressive state apparatus (police, economy etc)
• Via ideological means e.g. culture, power of the media exerting a form of hegemony over the public and creating dominant ideologies

How does interpretation fit into this?

• Coined by Althusser in 1971, notion of interpretation is practice of 'misrecognising' yourself or 'false consciousness' - Marxist
• Image presented by the media is an ideal one, which is impossible for us to maintain

Do you feel that you 'misrecognise yourself?'

• Does the media construct identities for you?
• Does it reflect who you are or tell you?
• Do you become complicit in allowing yourself to be presented in certain ways, as a result of being a 'consumer' of the media?

What do Marxism and feminism have in common?

• Both challenge the cultural power of the media to represent reality

Laura Mulvey and the notion of 'the male gaze'

• Coined in 1975, height of feminist studies
• Argues camera is always from a male perspective and has led to objectification of women - binary approach to gender implies that men are active, rendering women as passive
• women were 'complicit' in their objectification, allowing themselves to be 'constructed by men' (similar to false consciousness)

What are arguments against theories?

• Marxist theories present cultural power of media as a form of control and not a flexible instrument, responding to changes
• Is feminism a dirty word? Are women, as a result of their biology all the same? This monolithic approach has been criticised as it does not take into account factors like ethinicity and age
• Critics who assert that we live in a post feminist age, and sexism of the past is now only presented in an ironical way
• David Gauntlett - 'We live in a post traditional society'

Dogme 95

• Danish directors 'Lars von Trier' and 'Thomas Vinterberg' created the 'Dogme 95 Manifesto' and the 'Vow of Chasity'
• These two directors started the Dogme 95 filmmaking movement in 1995
• The Dogme 95 consists of rules which are based on the traditional values of story, acting and theme and excluding the elaborate use of special effects or technology
• The Dogme 95 Collective was eventually formed and they were joined by directors Kristain Lerving and Soren Kragh-Jacobsen
• This new genre took an interest from unknown filmakers as it suggests that one can make a film without being dependent on comissions or huge Hollywood budgets, making films in this genre easily accessible
• It instead depends on European government subsides and television stations
• However, the movement was criticised for being a 'disguised attempt to gain media attention'
• On the other hand, Dogme was actually intiated so that it would make filmmakers rethink the art, effect and essence of filmmaking

History

• They announced the Dogme Movement on March 22, 1995 in Paris
• The cinema world had gathered to celebrate the first century of motion pictures and contemplate the uncertain future of commercial cinema
• When called upon to talk about the future of film, Lars Von Trier gave the audience pamphlets to their suprise, annoucing the Dogme 95 movement
• Von Trier and Vinterberg - 'In a buisness of highly extreme budgets, we figured we should balance the dynamics as much as possible'

Goals and Rules

• Goal of Dogme collective is to purify filmmaking by refusing expensive and spectacular special effects, post-production modifications and other technical gimmicks
• Concentrate on story and the actors performance
• This approach is used as it is believed it will better engage the audience, as they are not alienated or distracted by over production

'Vows of Chasity'

• Filming must be done on location. Props/sets must not be brought in. If particular prop is neccessary for the story, a location must be used from where the prop is found
• Sound must never be produced apart from the images or vice versa. Music must not be used unless is occurs within the scene being filmed
• Camera must be hand held. Any movement or immobility attainable in the hand is permitted. Film must not take place where camera is standing, filming must take place where action takes place
• Film must be in colour. Special lighting is not acceptable.
• Optical work and filters are forbidden
• Film must not contain superficial action
• Temporal and geographical allenation are forbidden
• Genre movies are not acceptable
• Final picture must be transferred to the Academy 35mm film, with aspect of ratio 4:3, that is not widescreen
• Director must not be credited

Contemporary British Cinema - Gender

• Focuses on the representation of sexuality, class, gender and ethnicity in contemporary British cinema.
• E.g. equalisation fo the age consent, outlawing of workplace discrimination on grounds of sexuality and the legal recognition of same-sex civil partnerships
• Homosexual representation remains a peripheral aspect of British film culture
• Few films are made with the sole purpose of exploring one particular aspect of cultural identity and some of the most interesting films of modern British cinema, from 'My Beautiful Landrette (1985)', to 'A Way of Life', have been those situated on the interstices of identity politics

Women

• Questions of feminine agency have frequently been raised across films of differing genres and historical settings
• Literary and period drams e.g. Elizabeth and Charlotte Gray have celebrated the role played by women in history, and the contributions of female artists and writers have also been celebrated in biopics like Hilary and Jackie, Iris and Miss Potter
• Issues pertaining to the female body, such as infertility and abortion, have been contemplated, to differing ends e.g. Mad Cows (1999), Fanny and Elvis (1999)
• Rising no of female directors and writers contributing to British film culture and varied scope on their work, has been one of most welcome developments of the era
• Recurring scenarios of the male centrered films and genres have occasionally been answered by 'female' equivalents
• Stories of self-empowerment in School for Seduction, Calender Girls and Rabbit Fever whilst Women Talking Dirty (1999), Beautiful Creatures (2000) offer a glossily feminist spin on the 'buddy' movie, the gangster film and the caper movie
• In stories about close friendships such as 'Career Girls, Me Without You (2001) and Anita and Me - are sometimes homoerotic undercurrents, but the problematic relationships in these films are also a way to explore tensions and jealousies relating to age, gender, ethnic and intellectual difference
• As with many male films, there is concern with 'performance' - the question of 'how to do' feminity but with an emphasis on the role of voice, either in written or oral form, rather than the body
• Although Little Voice accomodates the singing talents of its main star, Jane Horrocks, the film is ambivalent about her withdrawn young character's impersonations of female singers
• Little Voice makes for an interesting comparison with Lynne Ramsay's Movern Callar, another story of a detached, unreadable young woman who appropriates the 'voice' of others
• In realist melodrama Stella Does Tricks (1996) - a teenage victims of abuse and prosititution is last seen recounting her story to others, and therefore seizing contrl of her narrative for the first time
• British cinema's best known intervention within contemporary gender politics in recent years has probably been the films based on 'Bridget Jones' novels - the Bridget Jones character became a hotly debated icon of post feminism
• The character articulated an aspect of contemporary experience that had rarely been addressed and would go on to be a keynote work of 'chick-lit' fiction
• Through their depiction of a women experiencing both the freedom and loneliness of the 'singleton' existence, the books and films reflected the growing social trend for single occupancy households
• Also been a loose cycle of films exploring behavioural responses to trauma and abuse e.g. Stella Does Tricks, the War Zone, Hold Back the Night, Kidulthood and London to Brighton - dwelt upon exploitation and sexual abuse of teenagers and young people
• Engaging with the interior lives of damaged young women, 'Under the Skin, Morvern Callar and Red Road provocative connections between emotional trauma - the death of loved ones and sexual desire
• They express the intesnsity of their central character's grief but also to render unclear their motivation and the extent of their passivity
• Part revenge thriller, part commentary upon serveillance culture, Red Road is a genetically intricate film about Jackie, an introverted minimally-expressive council CCTV operator who sees on screen the man who killed her husband and son in a car accident - the film finds a metaphor in the decoding of CCTV images for the viewer's own inability to read Jackie's persuit of CLyde, which cultimates in a graphic sex scene, was recognised as one of the film's strenths but also caused some disquiet.
• Albeit rarely to such a controversial effect, the expression of containment of 'dangerous' female sexuality has been a recurring theme in contemporary British cinema, cropping up in films of differing genres and historical settings.

Stereotypes in the Media

1. What is the stereotype of the working class? Working class roles were either seen as comic or sinister, or a last minute plot twist would reveal them to have come from a socially elevated background. Working wives in television series tend to be middle class women in pursuit of careers and working class men tend to be shown as immature, irresponsible and requiring the supervision of their 'betters'. Members of the white working classes are portrayed as dumb, inarticulate and old fashioned. In 1956, John Osborne's play 'Look Back in Anger' revolutionalised English drama by focusing on a new kind of hero - Jimmy Porter, a working class man who knew he was more articulate and intelligent than the pepole who looked down on him. Osborne, being one of several 'angry young men' who produced plays, novels and ultimately screenplays depiciting proudly working class characters trying to better themselves while remaining true to their roots.

2. Do films of the British New Wave challenge that stereotype? 'British New Wave' of the late 1950s and early 1960s grew out of this movement, key titles including Room at the Top (1958), Saturday Night and Sunday Morning (1960), A Kind of Loving (1962), the Lonlinessa of the Long-Distance Runner (1962) and This Sporting Life (1963). New stars who emerged from this period incluided Alan Bates, Michael Caine, Sean Connery, Albert Finney and Richard Harris, none of whom could plausibly have played leading roles in the drawing room and Empire-fixated British films of the 1930s. By the early 21st century, it seems almost compulsory for a British cinema had largely been used for comic effect or as 'salt of the earth' cannon fodder. The action portrayed by the working class characters details everyday dramas - hence the 'kitchen sink' tag. We then see events through the emotional journeys of the characters. The films 'Only Room at the Top' and 'Look Back in Anger' look directly at conflict between working class and middle class characters. The later films concentrate on conflicts within the working class contrasting rough e.g. Arthur Seaton in 'Saturday Night Sunday Morning' with 'respectable' e.g. Vic Brown in a 'Kind of Loving.

3. Does the ideology of the films reflect a stereotype or rework it? The 'new wave' films and the sources that inspired them gave a voice to a working-class that was for the first time gaining some economic power. In some ways, the ideology of the films reflects the typically working class stereotypes, as it portrays them in an 'everyday' drama and the nitty and gritty of everyday life. The British New Wave films often drew attention to the reality of life for the working classes, especially in the North of England, characterised as 'its grim up north.' Usually in black and white, these films had spontaneous quality, often shot in a pseudo-documentary style on real locations and with real people rather than extras, apparently capturing life as it happens.

4. Where does the caper film, 'The Italian Job' fit in? The Italian Job, has characters which are from many different social classes, including the ruling class and working class, committing robbery against high officials in Italy. These are ordinary men who are getting involved in criminal actions, however, the audience does not appear to dislike the characters

Shane Meadows and Social Realism

Shane Meadows is an English film director, screenwriter, occasional actor and BAFTA winner. Meadow's upbringing could be classed as typically 'working class' with his dad working as a lorry driver and his mother working in a fish and chip shop.

Social realist films often portray the working class as being somewhat 'heroic.' Meadows may have been familiar with the lifestyle that is portrayed in these films, as at a very young age, his father found a body of a child murder victim. The vast majority of the films made by Meadows, are set in the Midlands, and they recall the kitchen sink realism of filmmakers such as Ken Loach and Mike Leigh, with a postmodern twist. Much of the films plots and storylines were actually based on his own upbringing, therefore showing that the working class lifestyle is very familiar to him and perhaps, a very significant aspect of his childhood. When directing his films, he approaches them in a very relaxed way, encouraging the actors to 'ad lib' in order to create a sense of reality.

His film Twenty Four Seven, was inspired by events that took place in his youth, both at boxing club and also playing in a local football club. Boxing and football can stereotypically be associated with the working class and leisure persuits that they may take part in. For Britains, social realist films are their main form of cinematic style.

A Room for Romeo Brass, was inspired by his youth and his best friend Paul Fraser, his best friend, neighbour and writing partner. When Paul had a bad accident and was bound to bed for two years, Meadows instead hung around with some of the town's more undesirable characters. Social realist films often show the struggle of the protaganist.

Dead Man's Shoes could be argued to depicit social realism the most out of all his films, as it is based on the more unpleasant side of growing up in Uttoexeter. The film was inspired by one of his close friends, who had been bullied at school, developed a drug problem and then committed suicide. Meadows later said 'I couldn't believe that, going back ten years later, he had been totally forgotten in the town - it was if he had never existed. I was filled with anger against the people that had bullied and pushed the drugs on him, and with despair at what drugs had done to that small community.' Judging by Dead Man's Shoes, Meadows grew up in the nitty gritty of working class culture and lifestyle, experiencing some of the disadvantages that working class individuals may face in everyday life. Through his own experiences, Meadows shadowed these memories into social realist films, towards the wondering eyes of the British public.

Meadow quoted recently about his film, 'This is England' becoming a four part drama series, saying 'I also saw in the experiences of the young in 1986 many resonances to now - recession, lack of jobs, sense of the world at a turning point.' This quote directly represents that throughout the years Britain has had a recurring theme of disadvantaged individuals, being represented as being hereos through television and films.

British Cinema

• The way in which Britain is represented on screen is hugely influenced by economic and political contexts e.g. funding, relationship of British film to USA and the rest of Europe, audience shifts etc
• There is debate over critical acclaim in relation to commercial imperatives and the importance of cultural reflection alongside the feel-good deciptions we might associate more with costume drama and literay adaption

The British film industry

• The British Film Institute defines British films under 4 categories, in which Category A is an entirely British film, funded by UK finance, and staffed by a majority of British personnel; Category B is majority UK funded; C is more common co-funding scenario; and D describes US films with some creative input from the UK
• Roddick - argues strongly that 'Every memorable achievement to come out of the UK cinema since the war has come out of someone's desire to say something, not to sell it'
• Stafford - The choices for British producers are: make low budget British films targeted at mainstream British audiences, hoping that the 'peculiarly British' subject matter will attract overseas audiences who will see the films as 'unusual'. A low-budget film could cover costs by careful sale of rights in the UK and Europe. Anything earned in the US is then a bonus. Or make low-budget films for a 'niche' arthouse audience in the UK and abroad. Or look for partners in Europe and or/America and aim more clearly for an 'international audience'

The Burden of representation

• Describes the way that the history social realist British film can weigh on the shoulders of new film-makers and producers

British Social Realism

• The UK has a strong legacy of fiction - spanning theatre, literature, TV and film - that attemps to portray issues facing ordinary people in their social situations
• Social realist film should not be thought of as a genre or a type of film, but more of an approach
• Ken Loach, prefers to talk about his films more in terms of storytelling, suggesting that he merely tells stories which he hopes will 'resonate' with the public
• Social realism seeks to make explicit connections to matters of public debate - the economic system, social relations, relationships between ethnic groups, various forms of exploitation.
• Other recurring themes in Ken Loach's films are loan sharks, drug dealers and corrupt employers but these are rarely middle class or executive characters - his interest is in how the system forces those at the bottom of the pile turn on one another
• Murray (2008) - the work of film makers today who may be creative, but are always grounded in the actuality of the events within their social contexts, wanting to examine the social realities that these fictional stories and people grow out of. Our experience as audiences is a constant frisson of recognition - of places, of people we have varying degrees of contact with
• The idea of '

British Films

• British films ARE shaped by our cultural identity



• British films SHAPE our cultural identity



• British films explore how we view GENDER and ETHNICITY in this country



• British films are an essential way of understanding British culture



• British films are more relevant to us than Hollywood Blockbusters



• British films have been populat with international audiences



• British films generate employment for production companies



• British films have changed in significant ways over the last 60 years



• British films are concerned with CLASS than foreign/American



• British films use distinctive cinematic and production techniques

Karl Marx

'In bourgeos society capital is independent and has individuality, while the living person is dependent and has no individuality.'

Ideologies and discourses

Marxist approaches

• Karl Marx analysed the new profit and market dominated system, capitaslism - and the power of 2 classes within it, the rising industrial manufactures or capitalists and the working class
• Emphasised the importance of class difference, or people's different relationships to the means of production, as key to the hinds of values and political ideas they will have
• Especially interested in capitalists relationship to their employees, the working class, who, he argued, had the power to change history by their united action
• The dominant ideas of any society are those which work in the interests of the ruling class, to secure its rule or dominance. Those who own the means of production, thereby control the means of producing and circulating the most important ideas in any social order. Implies that working class needs to develop their own ideas and struggle for the means of circulating them if it is successfully to oppose the capitalist class
• He argued a base super-structure model of the social role of institutions such as the media. The ways in which the basic needs of a social order are met determine its superstructure e.g. its 'secondary', less basic, ideological and political institutions, like religion and cultural life
• Economic determinist -> economic 'base' is argued crucially to determine, not just influence, cultural and political activity
• Dominant class is able to make workers believe that existing relations of exploitation and oppression are natural and inevitable. This power 'mystifies' the real conditions of existence and how they might be changed and conceals the interest it has in preventing change

Synopsis of mythical films

The Last Exorcism

When he arrives on the rural Louisana farm of Louis Sweetzer, the Reverend Cotton Marcus expects to perform just another routine 'exorcism' on a disturbed religous fanatic. An earnest fundamentalist, Sweetzer has contacted the charismatic preacher as a last resort, certain his teenage daughter Nell is possessed by a demon who must be exorcised before their terrifying ordeal ends in unimaginable tragedy. Bucling under the weight of his conscience after years of parting desperate believers with their money, Cotton and his crew plan to film confessionary documentary of this, his last exorcism. But upon arriving at the already blood drenched family farm, it is soon clear that nothing could have prepared him for the true evil he encounters there. Now, too late to turn back, Reverend Marcus own beliefs are shaken to the core when he and his crew must find a way to save Nell - and themselves - before it is too late

Urban Legend

After a bravura opening sequence featuring Natasha Gregson Wagner getting slaughtered by the killer with an ax hiding in the backseat of her car, Urban Legend tells the story of a group of pretty college students at a remote New England University. The focus of the story is Natalie, a beautiful, academically gifted student at the fictional Pendleton University. Natalie and her friends are all involved in the Folklore class being taught by Professor Wexler. Wexler regales his class with urban legends, which include Pendelton's own urban legend about a Psych professor who murdered six students at Stanley Hall 25 years ago. Natalie is the first one to suspect there's a killer on campus, especially after she has ties to all of the victims. First, its her high school friend, a guy she's in the woods with at night, her roomate.. No one, including her friends, Wexler, Dean Adams and security guard, of course, believes her until its too late and everyone begins to die according to famous urban legends, and Natalie believes it's all tied to a dark and horrible secret from her past. Now she finds that she and her friends are part of the killer's ultimate urban legend - the story of their own horrific deaths,

Enchanted

Classic Disney animation meets contemporary urban chaos when a frightened princess is banished frmo her magical animated homeland to a modern -day New York City in a romantic comedy penned by Bill Kelly, directed by Kevin Lima and featuring music by composer Alan Menken and lyricist Stephen Schwartz. Princess Giselle lives in the blissful cartoon world of Andalasia, where magical beings frolic freely and musical interluds punctuate every interaction. Though Princess Giselle is currently engaged to be married to the handsome Prince Edward, her fate takes a turn for the worse when the villainous Queen Narissa Edward, her fate takes a turn for the worse when the villanious Queen Narissa banishes her to the unforgiving metropolis of New York City. As the cruelty of the big city soon begins to wear down the fairy tale exterior of the once carefree princess, the frightened Giselle soon finds herself falling for a friendly but flawed divorce lawyer whose kind compassion helps her to survive in this strange and dangerous new world

Joseph Campbell - The Hero With a Thousand Faces (1949)

Campbell explores the theory that important myths from around the world which have survived for thousands of years all shared a fundamental structure, which Campbell called the monomyth. In a well - known quote from the introduction to The Hero with a Thousand Faces, Campbell summarised the monomyth:

A hero ventures forth from the world of common day into a region of supernatural wonder: fabulous forces are there encountered and a decisive victory is won: the hero comes back from this mysterious adventure with the power to bestow boons on his fellow man.


PART ONE: The Adventure of the Hero

Chapter 1: Depature

1. The Call to Adventure

The adventure begins with the hero receiving a call to action, such as a threat to the peace of the community, or the hero simply falls into or blunders into it. The call is often announced to the hero by another character who acts as a 'herald'. The herald, often represented as dark or terrifying and judged evil by the world, may call the character to adventure simply by the crisis of his appearance.

2. Refusal of the Call

In some stories, the hero initially refuses the call to adventure. When this happens, the hero may suffer somehow, and may eventually choose to answer, or may continue to decline the call.

3. Supernatural Aid

After the hero has accepted the call, he encounters a protective figure (often elderly) who provides special tools and advice for the adventure ahead, such as an amulet or a weapon

4. The Crossing of the First Threshold

The hero must cross the threshold between the world he is familiar with and that which he is not. Often this involves facing a 'threshold guardian', an entity that works to keep all within the protective confines of the world but must be encountered in order to enter the new zone of experience

5. The Belly of the Whale

The hero, rather than passing a threshold, passes into the new zone by means of rebirth. Appearing to have died by being swallowed or having their flesh scattered, the hero is transformed and becomes ready for the adventure ahead

Chapter 2: Initiation

1. The Road of Trials

Once past the threshold, the hero encounters a dream landscape of ambigious and fluid forms. The hero is challenged to survive a succession of obstacles and, in so doing, amplifies his consciousness. The hero is helped covertly by the supernatural helper or may discover a benign power supporting him in his passage.

2. The Meeting with the Goddess

The ultimate trial isoften represented as a marriage between the hero and a queenlike, or mother-like figure. This represents the hero's mastery of life (represented by the feminine) as well as the totality of what can be known. When the hero is female, this becomes a male figure

3. Woman as the Temptress

His awareness expanded, the hero may fixate on the disunity between truth and his subjective outlook, inherently tainted by the flesh. This is often represented with revulsion or rejection of a female figure

4. Atonement with the Father

The hero reconciles the tyrant and merciful aspects of the father-like authority figure to understand himself as well as this figure

5. Apotheosis

The hero's ego is disintegrated in a breakthrough expansion of consciousness. Quite frequently the hero's idea of reality is changed; the hero may find an ability to do new things or to see a larger point of view, allowing the hero to sacrifice himself

6. The Ultimate Boon

The hero is now ready to obtain that which he has set out, an item or new awareness that, once he returns, will benefit the society that he has left

Chapter 3: Return

1. The Refusal of the Return

Having found bliss and elightenment in the other world, the hero may not want to return to the ordinary world to bestow the boon onto his fellow man

2. The Magic Flight

When the boon's acquisition comes against opposition, a chase or pursuit may ensue before the hero returns

3. Rescue from Without

The hero may need to be rescued by forces from the oridnary world. This may be because the hero has refused to return or because he is successfully blocked from returning with the boon. The hero loses his ego

4. The Crossing of the Return Threshold

The hero returns to the world of common day and must accept it as real

5. Master of the Two Worlds

Because of the boon or due to his experience, the hero may now percieve both the divine and human worlds

6. Freedomn to Live

The hero bestows the boon to his fellow man

Research for A2 Coursework project

Urban Legend (1998) plot summaries

After a bravura opening sequences featuring Natasha Gregson Wagner getting slaughtered by the killer with an axe hiding in the backseat of her car, Urban Legend tells the story of a group of pretty college students at a remote New England university. The focus of the story is Natalie, a beautiful, academically-gifted student at the fictional Pendleton University. Natalie and her friends are all involved in the Folklore class being taught by Professor Wexler. Wexler regales his class with urban ledgends, which include Pendleton's own urban legend about a Psych professor who murdered 6 students at Stanley Hall 25 years ago. Natalie is the first one to suspect there's a killer on campus, especially after she has ties to all of the victims. First, it's her high school friend, a guy she's in the woods with at night, her roomate.. No one, including her friends, Wexler, Dean Adams and security guard, of course, belives her until it's too late and everyone begins to die according to famous ubran legends, and Natalie believes it's all tied to a dark and horrible secret from her past. Now she finds that she and her friends are part of the killer's ultimate urban legend- the story of their own horrific deaths...

Australian director Jamie Blanks helmed this teen horror film set at Pendelton University. Campus legend has it that 25 years earlier Pendelton was the site of a mass murder by a demented abnormal psych instructor who killed 6 students and then himself. However, no proof of the prof's deed remains. Urban legends are the subject of a course in American folklore taught by Professor wexler. When a series of bizarre deaths occur on the campus, assertive student Natalie thinks they are murders based on urban legends, but classmates Brenda, ambitious jornalism major Paul, and practical joker Damon claim its just a coincidence. Then Natalie begins to realise that she's the next victim.

Synopses

After winning a trip on the RMS Titanic during a dockside card game, American Jack Dawson spots the society girl Rose DeWitt Bukater who is on her way to Philadelphia to marry her tich snob fiance Cal Hockley. Rose feels helplessly trapped by her situation and makes her way to the aft deck and thinks of suicide until she is rescued by Jack. cal is therefore obliged to invite Jack to dnie at their first-class table where he suffers through the slights of his snobbish hosts. In return, he spirits Rose off to third class for an evening of dancing, giving her the time of her life. Deciding to forsake her intended future all together, Rose asks Jack, who has made his living making sketches on the streets of Paris, to draw her in the nude wearing the invaluable blue diamond Cal has given her. Cal finds out and has Jack locked away. Soon afterwards, the ship hits an iceberg and Rose must find Jack while both must run from Cal even as the ship sinks deeper into the freezing water.


Joe, the saxophone player, is Josephine in the all girls band that he joined with Jerry, the bass violin player, to be one step ahead of the mob after witnessing the 1929 Valentine's Day Massacre in Chicago. After a train ride that sets a record for number of people in an upper berth, they are in Miami. Joe decides to be the man of Sugar Kane's dreams and invites her out to a yacht he doesn't have. But he can use Osgood Fielding's yacht if Jerry - as Daphne - will keep Osgood dancing. The pace gets even giddier when the Chicago mob arrives in Miami for a conversation.

Set in Baltimore, the show centres around the city's inner-city drug scene. It starts as mid-level drug dealer, D'Angelo Barksdale beats a murder rap. After a conversation with a judge, Det. James McNulty has been assigned to lead a joint homicide and narcotics team, in order to bring down drug kingpin Avon Barksdale, accompanied by his right hand man Stringer Bell, enforcer Wee-Bey and many lieutenants, has to deal with his own problems, such as a corrupt bureucracy, some of his detectives beating suspects, hard-headed but determined Det. McNulty, and a blackmailing deputy. The show depicts the lives of every part of the drug 'food chain', from junkies to dealers, a from cops to the politicans

Loosely based on Homer's 'Odyssey' the movie deals with the grotesque adventures of Everett Ulysses McGill and his companions Delmar and Pete in 1930s Mississipi. Sprung from a chain gang and trying to reach Everett's home to recover the buried loot of a bank heist they are confronted by a series of strange characters. Among them sirens, a cyclops, bankrobber George 'babyface' Nelsonm, a campaingning Governor, his opponent, a KKK lynch mob, and a blind prophet, who warns the trio that 'the treasure you seek shall not be the treasure you find'

A tale of obsession and deception, and the struggle for love and faith in a world where both seem impossible. The film charts the emotional and physical hothouse effects that bloom one summer for 2 young women: Mona, behind a spiky exterior, hides an untapped intelligence and ayearning for something beyond the emptiness of her daily life; Tamsin is well-educated, spoiled and cynical. Complete opposites, each is wary of the other's differences when they first meet, but this coolness soon melts into mutual fascination, amusement and attraction. Adding volatility is Mona's older brother Phil, who has renounced his criminal past for religious fervor - which he tries to impose upon his sister. Mona, however, is experiencing her own rapture. 'We must never be parted,' Tasmin intones to Mona but can Mona completley trust her?

Representations of the working class in British Cinema

• Collective identity in the media... could be said to rely on stereo types but media represetations are subject to change, they are NOT fixed. After all, a representation of a particular group in the media is a mediated version of reality, a product of a particular time and cultural space
  
• What we see is someones version of reality, not reality itself
  

Examples of stereotypes:

Gender/Sexuality -

Social Position -

Nationality/Ethnic backgrounds-

Pariah Groups-

Media and Collective Identity

Identity

• David Buckingham and David Gauntlett are two of the most influential writers in media education
• They're both concerned with the relationship between media and cultural identity
• Buckingham (2008) - 'A focus on identity requires us to pay close attention to the diverse ways in which media and technologies are used in everyday life and their consequences both for individuals and for social groups
• Gauntlett (2007) - 'Identity is compicated. Everyone thinks they've got one. Magazines and talk show hosts urge us to explore our identity. Religious and national identities are at the heart of major international conflicts about their 'true' identity. And the average teenager can create 3 online identities before breakfast... Thinking about self indentity and individuality can cause some anxiety at least in cultures where individuals are encouraged to value their personal uniqueness. Each of us would like to think that we have special, personal qualities which meaks us distinctive and valuable to the other people in our lives.
• 'On the internet nobody knows you're a dog' Which relates to how we can construct an alternative identity for ourselves online
• Clothes we wear, media we consume, people we like
• Goffman (1990) - 'the presentation of self'
• Stakes get higher for identity when people feel marginalised, victimised or in anyway prejudice against because of their identity
• E.g. minority ethnic groups, gays, elderly, disabled
• For gay men, there is the issue of whether 'straight-acting' is a safer 'way of being' as being gay is not an immediately visible trait
• These examples take us into the realm of collective identity

The Great Train Robbery 1904

The Great Train Robbery is an American Western film by Edwin S. Porter and is considered a milestone in filmmaking, and is only 12 minutes long.

• The film used a number of innovative techniques including cross cutting, double exposure, composite editing, camera movements, and on location shooting.
• The film was originally distributed with a note saying that the famous shot of the bandit firing his gun at the camera could be placed either at the beginning or the end of the film, or both. (Most modern prints but it at the end)
• Edison also made a parody of The Great Train Robbery (The Little Train Robbery) (1905) with an all-child cast in which a larger gang of bandits holds up a mini train and steals their dolls and candy
• It is believed the sequence with Justus D. Barnes is what the gun barrell scene from James Bond is inspired from
• The 45. Long Colt shot clip appears in historical introduction to the film tombstone, as do numerous clips from the film, notably the man shot while attempting to escape the robbers.

The Media and Myths

Meta - narrative = associated objects

In the opening of Reign of Fire, the audience is subjected to a flock of pigeons with a boy standing alone in between them. The meta - narrative creates a 'super story', where by the audience begings to make assumptions and associations between the opening sequence and the main narrative. The pigeons signify London and the typical 'London working day', for many people, which can be associated with Trafalgar square. When the protagonist is seen walking through the cuty, the idea of him travelling underground connotates the boy is going from real life into a mystery destination, therefore leaving the viewer puzzled into what is going to happen next. When the boy is underground, the viewer may feel as if he is blocked off from all his normal surroundings and is therefore destined for trouble. When the boy is underground he comes across a fire- breathing dragon and in order to get out he needs to get above the ground. The 'dragon' symbolises old myths and fairytales such as Sleeping Beauty and The Sword of the Stone.

Myth and established/exhausted genre -> great example -> Western

e.g. Is horror dead?

Western is the first ever genre e.g. The Great Train Robbery 1904

Social Change

Dambusters (1955)

• War Zone
• Associated with England as prestigious and proud of its country -> DEFEAT
• Pride
• Danger and Bravery
• Real Life Events - Exaggerated?
• Glorifiying

Saturday Night/Sunday Morning 1960

• British working class
• Kitchen Sink Drama
• Socially conscious film
• British New Wave
• Sex, class and realism
• Infedility

G325 Critical perspectives in Media

2 sections:

1. Section A: Theoritical Evaluation of Production - 50 Marks
2. Section B: Contemporary Media Issues - 50 Marks

A2325 Critical Perspectives in Media - purpose of this unit is to assess candidates knowledge

Section B: Contemporary Media Issues

• 1 question from a choice of 6 topic areas offered by OCR
• 2 questions from each topic area - require understanding of media texts, industries, audiences and debates

1. Contemporary media regulation
2. Global media
3. Media and collective identity
4. Media in the online age
5. Post Modern Media
6. 'We Media' and democracy

• Each topic is accompanied by 4 prompt questions and candidates are prepared to answer an exam question that relates to one or more of these 4 prompts.
• Should be emphasis on the historical, the contemporary and the future in relation to the chosen topic, with most attention on the present.

I will be looking:

• Different types of media; TV drama, films, posters, teaser trailers, internet advertising to investigate the topic magazines
• Relevant articles from the 'Media Magazine' and related online sites
• Current role of industry in marketing and producing media
• Work of some media theorists e.g. David Gauntlett and David Buckingham who write about media and its impact on cultural identity

I will produce:

• My own case studies of how groups of people are identified and represented in the media, past and present, concentrated mainly on contemporary media
• Used in our essay/exam practice

Teaster Trailer or Conventional Trailer.

What is a teaser trailer?

Conventional Trailer

• Film advertisements for films that will be exhibited in the future at a cinema
• A fuller preview
• Mostly features clips from the film
• Gives an outline of the narrative
• Often created when a rough/fine edit/ edits of film is completed
• Released 1-3 months prior to film's release
• 1-2 minutes long

Teaser trailer

• A truncated version of a theatrical trailer
• A really short taster
• Usually shorter
• Footages shot specifically for the preview
• Sometimes created before principal photography of a movie begins
• Gives the concept of the narrative
• Usually there is no speech from actors in the teasers
• Less than a minute long
• To entice the audience about an upcoming movie and to begin hype on major films
• Less footage from the actual film
• Released 4-12 months prior to film's release
• Offers a slight glimpse (if any) to the movie being advertised

Roland Bart

Roland Bart

• Roland Bart is one of the most important intellectual figures to have emerged in postwar France and his writings continue to have an influence on critical debates today
• Mythologies is one of Barthes's most popular works because in it we see the intellectual as humourist, satirist, master sylist and debunker of the myths that surround us all in our daily lives.
• Barthes often claimed to be fascinated by the meanings of the things that surround us in our everyday lives
• interrogating the obvious, taking a closer look at that which gets taken for graned, making explicit what remains implicit
• A myth is a story about superhuman beings of an earlier age, of ancient Eypgt, Greece or Rome, but the word 'myth' can also mean a ficiticous, unproven or illusory thing

Joseph Campbell

Joseph Campbell

• After the explosion of popularity brought on by the Star Wars films and The Power of Myth, creative artists in many media recognised the potential to use Joseph Campbell's theories to try and unlock human responses to narrative patterns in Media
• Novelists, songwriters, video game designers and amusement park ride designers have studied Campbell's work in order to better their understanding of mythology - in particular, the monomyth and its impact
• One of Campbell's most identifiable, most quoted and most misunderstood sayings was to 'follow your bliss.' Campbell began sharing this idea with students during lectures in the 1970s. By the time that The Power of Myth was aired in 1988, 6 months following Campbell's death, 'Follow your bliss' was a philosophy that resonated deeply with the Americal public - both religious and secular
• (March 26, 1904 - October 30, 1987)
• He was an American mythologist, writher and lecturer, best known for his work in comparative mythology and comprative religion. His work is vast, covering many aspects of the human experience.
• He began to speak publicly on world myth and continue to do so at colleges, churches, lecture halls, on radio and on television for the rest of his life
• The role of hero figured largely in Campbell's comparative studies. In 1949 'The Hero With A Thousand Faces' introduces Campbell's idea of the monomyth, outlining some of the archetypal patterns that Campbell recognized. Heroes were important to Campbell because to him, they conveyed universal truths about one's personal self-discovery and self-transcendence, one's role in society, and the relation between the two.

The Myth

The Myth

• Fairytales which are engraved into your mind from young, which creates stereotypes - (Propp's theory)
• Fantasy/warped reality (hyper-reality)
• Nurture -> passed down to generations e.g. Batman Begins - Dark Knight
• Ledgends

Meta- or met-prey

1. a. Later in time: metestrus b. A later stage of development:metaphors
2. Situated behind: metacarpus
3. a. Change; transformation b. Alternation
4. a. Beyond; transcending; more comprehensive; metalinguistics

Myths and meta-narratives

• Meta-narratives are being the super story, the story that everyone in an audience is assumed to know exists outside the story being told

Typical British uses of the meta narrative

1. London as a setting (mythical setting)
2. Lost e.g. Jack

Allegory

• Allegory is a form of extended metaphor, in which objects, persons, and actions in a narrative are equated with the meanings that lie outside the narrative itself. The underlying meaning has moral, social, religious or political significance and characters are often personifications of abstract ideas as charity, greed or envy.
• Thus, an allegory is a story with two meanings, a literal meaning and a symbolic meaning.