Download (12MB) - University of Salford Institutional Repository
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Stealing Beauty, where Kit's implied perspectives re-surface and are developed through characters - Lucy and Miranda - who are no longer afraid of declaring that their independence does not contradict their need for romance. Therefore, in The Sheltering Sky, although Kit's doubts and disorientation are mainly conveyed through mute expressivity, her destiny has an intellectual resonance that will induce reflection among viewers - not just female spectators - who are sensitive to the difficulties of women attaining self-realization in modern society, regardless of the laws and cultures in a given social order. La mode retro as the film's contextual frame In his analysis of cinema's use of metaframes which form a style or structure within which a film's action is embedded, Grodal asserts that 'the addresser establishes a complicity of fascinations between himself and the spectator", the result being that 'the freedom and subjectivity of the viewer is moved from the level of fictional simulation of action to the level of perceptual and affective simulation' (Grodal, 1997: 229). He identifies in nostalgia and retro films the use of 'history and historical pattern as an embedded space for negotiating social roles and common denominators'; he differentiates the two film types by asserting that nostalgia films presuppose a mental model 'analogous to those used for memories', while 'la mode retro is a more self-conscious version of the nostalgia film\ in that 'the self-referential film highlights the fact that experience is a patterned social construction' (Grodal, 1997: 230). More specifically, in the retro film, the double position of the viewer's reception situation is produced by the fact that: The retro film makes the coded character of systems of consciousness and pleasure explicit [...] so that present-day viewers know that other viewers also participate in their blend of nostalgic affect and distance, and therefore viewers share not only identification with the fiction but also the voyeuristic viewer-persona (Grodal 1997: 230). The connotation of The Sheltering Sky as a retro film centres on the fact that the film embeds 252
criticism of contemporary Western ideas of clock time (representing the broader frame) into the well-known pattern of romantic adventures within a colonial context, among which A Passage to India (1984) (1) seems to be its closest blueprint. In terms ofmise-en-scene, many analogies emerge between the two films. Images of a transoceanic ship are used to create a sense of anticipation for extraordinary events. There is an evocation in The Sheltering Sky of Lean's glamorous colonialist decor and costumes, as opposed to the economic neglect of the local populations; both films depict the landscape through lighting and colour schemes that cue sensations of illusory enchantment; both films also exude a disquieting sense of death from the natural, exotic terrain, such as the presence of crocodiles in rivers and snakes in the desert. Similarly, hallucinations as a result of being immersed in Otherness affect the films" most fragile characters, Adele and Port. Thematically, both narratives focus on the encounter between West and East and present a dichotomy in which Western superiority complexes are juxtaposed with enlightened Western sensitivity; in The Sheltering Sky, the Lyles and Tunner (although in a different way) evoke the colonialist attitude of the British expatriates in India in Lean's film, whereas Port and Kit evoke the self-questioning attitude of Mrs. Moore and Adele. hi both films it is a tuneless natural entity - the river Ganges and the Sahara desert - that elicits in characters and viewers a sense of fragility and inadequacy, accompanied by a rediscovery of spirituality and sensuality that had been erased by a Western culture entrapped in its social patterns. Both films present a dramatic impact on their protagonists: Port and Mrs Moore die while Adele and Kit see their Western identity questioned forever. Therefore, it is arguable that the underlying significance in this scheme is not one of a 'West symbolically annihilated by the East" (Loshitzky, 1995: 132); it is more subtle. Returning to the dichotomy within the Western psyche outlined above, what occurs is an implosion of Western values within the enlightened, sensitive Western conscience in its encounter with Eastern existential 253
- Page 205 and 206: Notes 1. They Live by Night (1948)
- Page 207 and 208: 1985: 73) should be contextualized
- Page 209 and 210: The film's cognitive structure and
- Page 211 and 212: daily life elicits nostalgia for a
- Page 213 and 214: that periodically distances viewers
- Page 215 and 216: followers), sensitive (she relates
- Page 217 and 218: part of the film depicting the peas
- Page 219 and 220: engagement will again change from e
- Page 221 and 222: leadership, which is arguably assum
- Page 223 and 224: References Bachmann, G. (1973) 'Eve
- Page 225 and 226: The success of The Last Emperor ena
- Page 227 and 228: L 'ultimo imperatore/The Last Emper
- Page 229 and 230: out; the red of a notice on the wal
- Page 231 and 232: The intellectual implications of th
- Page 233 and 234: the Forbidden City. This, combined
- Page 235 and 236: Japanese. His personality fits the
- Page 237 and 238: the belief that whereas language ma
- Page 239 and 240: In addition, the presence of a hist
- Page 241 and 242: (2009) is one recent, successful ex
- Page 243 and 244: Gaut, B. (1999) 'Identification and
- Page 245 and 246: working class people depicted in th
- Page 247 and 248: strengthening viewers' alignment wi
- Page 249 and 250: experience of being out of clock ti
- Page 251 and 252: where the contemplation of this inf
- Page 253 and 254: infinite. In his discussion of sour
- Page 255: camera's 'symbiotic fusion' with th
- Page 259 and 260: is conveyed by Port's bleak awarene
- Page 261 and 262: Piccolo Buddha /Little Buddha: A Jo
- Page 263 and 264: concludes that all three children a
- Page 265 and 266: intensity created by stylized light
- Page 267 and 268: of a children's book, takes on a pr
- Page 269 and 270: Jesus throughout Siddhartha's progr
- Page 271 and 272: human feelings and desires. This in
- Page 273 and 274: diminishing because of Western soci
- Page 275 and 276: In all three films it is possible t
- Page 277 and 278: the film's dramatic pivot - appears
- Page 279 and 280: different stylistic registers as th
- Page 281 and 282: esolve it; and a predominantly unre
- Page 283 and 284: the two characters. The failure to
- Page 285 and 286: even understanding from viewers and
- Page 287 and 288: illusion. In search of new scandals
- Page 289 and 290: That this sequence was written, pro
- Page 291 and 292: of Caterina discovering Joe's drug
- Page 293 and 294: on different types of meat. The bar
- Page 295 and 296: was considered to be Bertolucci's r
- Page 297 and 298: Hope, W. (2006) Giuseppe Tornatore,
- Page 299 and 300: of their 'elder sisters'. In a broa
- Page 301 and 302: she slowly changes position. Both s
- Page 303 and 304: evolve (M. Smith, 1995: 84-85). The
- Page 305 and 306: any allegiance towards the characte
criticism <strong>of</strong> contemporary Western ideas <strong>of</strong> clock time (representing the broader frame) into<br />
the well-known pattern <strong>of</strong> romantic adventures within a colonial context, among which A<br />
Passage to India (1984) (1) seems to be its closest blueprint.<br />
In terms <strong>of</strong>mise-en-scene, many analogies emerge between the two films. Images <strong>of</strong> a<br />
transoceanic ship are used to create a sense <strong>of</strong> anticipation for extraordinary events. There is<br />
an evocation in The Sheltering Sky <strong>of</strong> Lean's glamorous colonialist decor and costumes, as<br />
opposed to the economic neglect <strong>of</strong> the local populations; both films depict the landscape<br />
through lighting and colour schemes that cue sensations <strong>of</strong> illusory enchantment; both films<br />
also exude a disquieting sense <strong>of</strong> death from the natural, exotic terrain, such as the presence<br />
<strong>of</strong> crocodiles in rivers and snakes in the desert. Similarly, hallucinations as a result <strong>of</strong> being<br />
immersed in Otherness affect the films" most fragile characters, Adele and Port.<br />
Thematically, both narratives focus on the encounter between West and East and present a<br />
dichotomy in which Western superiority complexes are juxtaposed with enlightened Western<br />
sensitivity; in The Sheltering Sky, the Lyles and Tunner (although in a different way) evoke<br />
the colonialist attitude <strong>of</strong> the British expatriates in India in Lean's film, whereas Port and Kit<br />
evoke the self-questioning attitude <strong>of</strong> Mrs. Moore and Adele.<br />
hi both films it is a tuneless natural entity - the river Ganges and the Sahara desert -<br />
that elicits in characters and viewers a sense <strong>of</strong> fragility and inadequacy, accompanied by a<br />
rediscovery <strong>of</strong> spirituality and sensuality that had been erased by a Western culture entrapped<br />
in its social patterns. Both films present a dramatic impact on their protagonists: Port and Mrs<br />
Moore die while Adele and Kit see their Western identity questioned forever. Therefore, it is<br />
arguable that the underlying significance in this scheme is not one <strong>of</strong> a 'West symbolically<br />
annihilated by the East" (Loshitzky, 1995: 132); it is more subtle. Returning to the dichotomy<br />
within the Western psyche outlined above, what occurs is an implosion <strong>of</strong> Western values<br />
within the enlightened, sensitive Western conscience in its encounter with Eastern existential<br />
253
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