Margot at the Wedding (2007) Focus: Visuals

Margot at the Wedding (2007)
Dir. Noah Baumbach
Written by Noah Baumbach
Produced by Scott Rudin Productions
Distributed by Paramount Vantage
Genre: Black Comedy / Drama

The film follows the title character, Margot (Nicole Kidman in one of her best roles) and her androgynous son Claude as they travel to Long Island to visit Margot’s sister Pauline (Jennifer Jason Leigh) who is getting married. Once in Long Island, they meet Malcolm (Jack Black), the loser Pauline is to marry. The film follows the days prior to the wedding and analyzes the problems of the highly dysfunctional family. Margot is going through a divorce, which is quite self-explanatory considering she has an obvious passive-aggressive disorder, particularly with her son. Claude, clearly brought up in a horrible family environment, is trying to grow into teenagehood with huge amounts of emotional baggage such as an Oedipus complex, exacerbated by Margot’s treatment of him. Claude always wants to please his mother and Margot always wants Claude to stay young (Margot bleaches Claude’s mustache and prevents him from wearing deodorant. The theme of Claude wanting to grow up is shown when he tells his mother that he masturbated the previous night.) Pauline is a divorced mother whose lack of self-confidence forces to marry someone clearly beneath her. In addition to this, she clashes with her sister constantly. They have a pretty sick relationship. Malcolm is a failed artist with a strong resentment to people who achieved fame and is therefore unemployed. He also “made out” with the family’s nanny. (The use of the very childish term “make out” shows the instability and immaturity of Malcolm). The film continues unveiling the problems of this family until Pauline tells Margot she is pregnant. Margot immediately tells Claude (who sometimes feels more like Margot’s husband than her son) and the secret is uncovered. Malcolm finds out and tension breaks out from Pauline’s side (exacerbated by Margot’s attitude) and the wedding is cancelled. The sisters and their offspring escape to a hotel where the drama continues, until Margot and Claude go back to Margot’s husband. It is a very complicated film and doesn’t have a single likable character!

The first visual element that jumps to the viewer’s eyes is that about 90% of the film is handheld. This is done to convey the naturalistic feeling of the film and the realism, as well as to show that the family is being shown without a single veil: just as they are. Most of the film is also shot with natural light; further showing Baumach’s naturalistic style. In addition to this, most of the shots of the character of Margot are done as low angles, implying the sense of superiority Margot has over the rest of the characters. Close-ups are used a lot in this movie, in order for the viewer to “get into the minds” of the complicated characters. However, the most close-ups are used for the character of Margot, as a mean of showing her role as the “mastermind” of the family.

Margot at the Wedding is a great example of the Black Comedy genre, and the film constantly walks on top of the fence that divides Black Comedy and Drama. The viewer finds some moments hilarious, some moments gruesome, and a handful of them: both hilarious and gruesome. Margot at the Wedding is in keeping with the recent dysfunctional family dramedies, such as American Beauty (1999) and The Royal Tenenbaums (2001). However, I believe that Margot at the Wedding is a lot more gruesome than these two films. The films I related the most to Margot at the Wedding are Todd Solondz’s films: Happiness (1998), Welcome to the Dollhouse (1986) and the lesser Palindromes (2004). Solondz’s films and Margot at the Wedding play with this extremely black humor and grotesque, yet human characters. Another clear comparison with Margot at the Wedding is Baumach’s previous film “The Squid and the Whale” (2005). However, I’d just like to point out that I hated “The Squid and the Whale” and loved “Margot at the Wedding”. This film is a very painful film to watch, but is one of the best character studies of the decade. (Even if the critics don’t seem to agree…)

Blade Runner (1982) Focus: Visuals

Blade Runner (1982)
Dir. Ridley Scott
Written by Hampton Fancher and David Webb Peoples. Based on the short story “Do Androids dream of Electric Sheep?” by Philip K. Dick
Produced by “The Ladd Company” in association with “Run Run Shaw” and the “Shaw Brothers”. Distributed by Warner Bros. Pictures
Genre: Science Fiction / Thriller / Neo-Noir

Blade Runner is set in the future where space colonies have been built and android slave labour is used to support mankind. The most advanced of these androids are the replicants, which have rebelled from their owners and are therefore banned from Earth. However, in order to counter them, they are given a very short life span. In order to fight escaped replicants, a special police force was created: the Blade Runners. The film follows a retired Blade Runner, Rick Deckard (Harrison Ford) who re-enters the force to find and terminate (“retire”) six escaped replicants. These androids have traveled to Earth to find their maker in order to demand a longer life span. Rick finds and kills the replicants one by one. However, he also meets Zhora (Joanna Cassidy), a replicant who was unaware of her non-human status. After Deckard makes this clear to her, she escapes to avoid termination, but also begins a love affair with the Blade Runner. After the leader of the escaped replicants, Roy Batty (Rutger Hauer) kills the creator of the androids; Deckard and him face each other. Batty’s superhuman strength comes close to killing Deckard. However, it is the replicant’s flaw that kills him: his life span comes to an end. The film leaves place for considering the hypothesis of Deckard being a replicant himself.

Blade Runner relies greatly on the elements of film noir to tell its story. Very claustrophobic external and internal shots are used to portray a dystopic future and the horrible fate of mankind in addition to Deckard’s own grim past and job. This is closely related to the use of film noir techniques. Film Noir started in a time of moral decay after World War II, similar to the fall of society portrayed by Blade Runner. In order to portray both the claustrophobic feeling and the Film Noir elements, most shots have smoke in them (from cigarettes, sewers, etc.) and are very dark and somber. Lighting is very scarce in this film and it is entirely artificial (with the exception of a dream sequence which shows mankind’s dreams), relying heavily on colour neon lights. This is related to Scott’s view on the destruction of the natural world and the takeover of technology. The costume design for the film is a futuristic approach to eighties punk fashion, a movement that started at the time Blade Runner was made, and whose ideals relate to the darkness of the film. The exterior shots of the film are framed in such a way that they look as if they were filmed inside, enhancing the idea of the destruction of the natural world. Casting choices in the film are also important aesthetically, with the actors cast as replicants (in general) being much more attractive than the humans. Close-ups of the characters are not used often, relying more in long shots, to show the entire mise-en-scene and enhance the sentiment of a foreign, apocalyptic world, and prevent the audience from relating to the character of Deckard, who is more of an anti-hero. (This is another clue of Deckard really being a replicant, as the audience is prevented from relating to the replicants who commit cold-blooded murders, even if Ridley Scott poses the question of: Aren’t Deckard’s retirements as bad as the replicants’?). The mise-en-scene is very important in this film. Murky settings convey the horrible fate of the planet, while an excess of advertisings in several languages show a globalized society and a critique to the consumist state of the world which have led the world to demise.

This is an excellent film and one of the pillars of science fiction. The lack of a “happy ending” (in the Director’s Cut, at least) makes this an excellent contrast to recent dystopic films, such as Children of Men (Cuarón, 2006) and Blindness (Meirelles, 2008). Another interesting comparison could be made with films in which androids gain the empathy of the audience such as A.I. Artificial Intelligence (Spielberg, 2001). This film is also an excellent introduction to Film Noir and Neo-Noir.