“Shakespeare, He’s in the Alley” & “Indie Culture: In Pursuit of the Authentic Autonomous Alternative”

1. Some broad characteristics of "Van Santized" Shakespeare are are costumes meant to "evoke Elizabethan dress" fused with more current fashions, script elements reminiscent of current slang and Shakespearean dialogue which are used in scenes that are traditional in nature while still bringing about certain aspects of Portland.  More specifically, Gus Van Sant had to change the tone of the dialogue to better fit into the landscape and feel of Portland.  He makes the characters into street hustlers.  Shakespearean characters, such as Hal, were changed to fit the new setting of the life of street hustlers in Portland, like Hal becoming Scott Favor, the son of Portland's mayor who spends his time upsetting his father by hanging out with the street hustlers.  Other characters in the film also have commonalities to Shakespearean characters while being shaped to fit into the location of Portland.

2. The characters of Mike and Bob both represent different avatars of the Falstaff of the original story.  Mike represents the younger version of Falstaff who "cavorted" with Hal as a brother before the time of the original play.  Bob, however, fulfills the traditional role of Falstaff in the original play.  Seeing both aspects of Falstaff's relationship with Hal allows for the story to be re-examined and looked at from a different perspective.  Chimes at Midnight becomes a frame of reference for Van Sant's retelling of Henry IV in My Own Private Idaho because it follows the story of Falstaff directly while adapting five Shakespearean plays to tell his story.  This makes the film very important as Van Sant splits Falstaff into two characters, Mike and Bob, and must truly understand the journey that the character takes while seeing how to successfully adapt Shakespeare for the big screen.

3. Some of the effects of Falstaff being changed from a "knight lowering himself" to a street hustler in Portland are the fact that Scott's rejection of both Mike and Bob comes across much more harshly than Hal's rejection of his mentor in the plays, with Scott's father only being a mayor and not merely a king, Scott cannot merely ignore parts of his past in order to ascend to the throne his father one held at the time of his father's death, and by having both Mike and Bob be hustlers who share in a gay relationship with Scott before he becomes a "sellout to straight society and its corruption," Van Sant is able to issue challenges of status and place.  This, in effect, leaves the audience with more of a sense of guilt as they bear witness to the downfall of both Mike and Bob at the film's end, and the characters are meant to be "remembered and memorialized" regardless of their lower station in life.  Van Sant, then, shows the damage caused by the Scott Favors of the world and aligns himself with the street hustlers.

4. This changed context, with two Falstaffs, Scott's rejection of the homosexual street hustlers, and his supposed selling out to "straight society and its corruptions, changes our perception of Scott Favors by painting him as a guy who rejects no one but two friends for his own ascension in the society in which he lives while completely rejecting the lifestyle of the street hustlers.  The focus of the end of the story is not on that of the new life of the "glorious king."  Instead, it focuses on the damage done by Scott Favors' selfishness.

5. Newman believes that "indie" is a distinction not determined by an industrial definition because the independent films, music, etc. being produced and distributed by major labels from the supposed indie labels of the past did not "diminish its salience" in our culture.  Instead, it "amplified" the salience of independent media in our culture.  The alternative discourse remains integral in "indie" appeal by producing media outside of the mainstream norm.  Instead of hurting the independent film and media community, the co-opting of "indie" media by mainstream media turned the mainstream industry into competition for itself as the studios struggled to get the "niche" products out to as many people as possible who might be satisfied by such forms of media.  "Indie" media criticizes mass culture while perpetuating the ideas that promotes the ideals of the social elite.  The "tension at the heart of indie cinema and culture between ideals and realities" is: "an oppositional formation that sees itself as the solution to an excessively homogenized, commercialized media" and "a form of expression that is itself commercial and... serves to promote the interests of a class of sophisticated consumers."

6. One big meaning of the term "independent" is the ability of its audience, a subculture all their own, to form their own identities from the perceived authenticity of the medium and its supposed distance from the mainstream, such as seen in the music industry.  "Indie" can be seen as opposition, as distinction, more authentic than the "mainstream" culture.  These definitions, or meanings, span across music, film, literature, and any other media that circulates within a cultural community.

7. The “major shift in the popular understanding of “selling out” and its relation to alternative credibility was the "upsurge" of popular music being used in television commercials in the late 1990s.  Instead of being met with opposition, the alternative community and fans welcomed the use of the songs by these popular artists because it allowed an outlet for music and artists that would not be given enough exposure without the use of television, since radio and music television stations, such as MTV, were only willing to use the safer, mainstream artists' music.  Allowing mainstream media, in the form of television networks, to use their music was no longer seen as "selling out" in a bad way as much as it was a means of survival for bands who were unwilling to sign with a major record label for fear of compromising their music.  Also, this allows for these "indie" artists, filmmakers, etc. to "subversively" infiltrate the mainstream world as a means of justification for taking the money and still staying credible.

8. With a statement like, “Like traditional high art, indie cinema appeals to an audience who has the wherewithal to appreciate it, which is to say knowledge and interest, and a community of like-minded people," Newman needs to back his statement up.  He supports this statement by first comparing it to American indie rock and how it used to be known as college rock in the 1980s.  This allowed for a connotation of not only a "college" level of education but as a social class.  In order to keep people out who might not be "like-minded," indie cultures, or subcultures, creates exclusionary boundaries or radical ideals to set themselves apart from others.  

9. Newman suggests that Todd Soldonz's Happiness “reveals how the indie scene attempts to have it both ways: it seeks autonomy but also profit, authenticity but also a marketing push, art without the taint of commerce but enough commerce to make the art pay” because as the film ran the film festival circuit, it gained a notoriety for being explicitly outside of the Hollywood mainstream by playing an oppositional role to many of the films that had already been released by major studios in the film industry.  When it made the theater circuit, it wasn't given a rating by the MPAA, so many theaters would not play it and many advertisers would not give it any publicity.  When the filmmakers refused to recut the film to gain an R rating so that the film could reach more audiences in more theaters, the film was dropped from distribution.  Critics really gave Universal a hard time for dropping the film and said that the studio not picking the film up only helped to make the film more authentic by keeping it distanced from the studio system of Hollywood.  By rejecting the film, Universal actually played a hand in helping the film to gain popularity when it was finally distributed domestically by Good Machine because many film critics already knew of the controversy and were, therefore, already familiar with the film.  

While Happiness did end up with quite a following and would have been critically known after its success on the festival circuit, it stands to reason, or at least be questioned, that the film could not have become famous by standing on its own if it wasn't for being picked up and then dropped by a major film studio like Universal, therefore, it questions how successful artistic autonomy can really be, especially as the film's producers blamed the lack of commercial success on Universal and that their second distributor was not experienced enough to market the film effectively.  They were unwilling to alter the film to get Universal's marketing push, but they still wanted to make money off of the product.

10. Some critics still condemn the mainstream co-opting of indie culture, and Newman draws this conclusion about their point of view: “A central problem with this perspective is that it gives too much uncritical credibility to the “authentic” subculture, failing to identify its function in maintaining class distinction. It also, crucially, misrecognizes the relation of indie culture to commercial culture as one of actual autonomy—as if such a thing were possible.”  This is an issue because it allows those critics, as well as those people who do not associate themselves with the mainstream mentality, develop a condescending, elitist outlook on those who enjoy mainstream media.  Consumers of mainstream culture are only seen as "passive victims."  However, many of the consumers of indie culture, meaning those who are not elitists, do not see accepting indie to infiltrate parts of the mainstream culture as "selling out" or being a bad thing.  Instead, the culture's participants are the ones who are truly able to decide what is credible or what is not credible "within the context of their experience."  Therefore, the critics do not have the authority to defend or attack the credibility of the mainstream culture or the "indie" subculture which they are criticizing. 

“US Independent Cinema since the 1980s” & "Modern Classicism"

1. Since the 1947 Paramount Decree, the term "independent" in American cinema has come to mean many things.  Directly following the Decree, the term was used to label those films made by major Hollywood players, such as Burt Lancaster and Kirk Douglas, who formed their own production companies and made films with more freedom outside of major studio production companies with the expressed intention of making films for distribution by the major studios.  Films like Salt of the Earth (1953) were made outside of the studio system, but they were still made by Hollywood filmmakers.  The filmmakers simply had to make their films outside of the studio system due to being blacklisted.  Avant garde films became popular among "independent" filmmakers, such as Stan Brakhage, beginning in the 1940s because they did not need to seek out finances in order to make the films, which were rarely feature-length to begin with.  In the 1950s, "independent" filmmakers, such as John Cassavetes, began making films to showcase what was wrong with the Hollywood system.  The 1960s and 1970s saw Hollywood struggling, and even the major studios distributed films that were considered "innovative" in an attempt to make contact with whatever audience still remained.  This allowed for more innovative and cavalier filmmakers to make their way into the American film industry as the control in the industry shifted.  In more modern terms, the "independent" films of the 1980s and 1990s have taken on certain criteria in order to fit into their category: they're usually feature length films of fictional narratives made "outside" of the major Hollywood studios with relatively little star power.  These stories, however, are often about subject matter that is more risque than major Hollywood films, but they are less reliant on special effects or anything flashy that might make for a larger budget.  Instead, the films might focus on a particular camera, editing, or narrative style to make the film stick out, whether it be for a "niche" audience of just for the mainstream Hollywood market that they hope to find distribution within.

2. Cable television and home video rentals allowed for "independent" cinema to find a more economical outlet for distributing its films, as the major studios did not take advantage of the two markets until later.  During this span of time, many distributors and studios, such as Cannon, Vestron, New Line, Goldwyn, and New World, emerged to take advantage of the new markets.  As for the "continuum" that Hillier describes explains a wide range of film types and a differing level of involvement with the major studios.  Some studios, like Castle Rock, are more in-tuned to the major studio system and compete for some of the same market, but other studios, such as Miramax, were at the opposite end of the spectrum with more art house-like films.  Still, other studios dabbled somewhere in between with a wide array of film genres and styles.

3. The two consensus "defining moments" for American independent cinema in the 1980s and 1990s were the "triumph" of Soderbergh's sex, lies and videotape at the Sundance Film Festival in 1989 and its winning of the main prize for best film at the Cannes Film Festival as well as the success of Pulp Fiction in 1994.  The consequences of these films, especially with Pulp Fiction, was the blurring of the lines between mainstream Hollywood films and the independent cinema.  Due to their closeness to the mainstream studio system, these films represented what would become the "hybrid" of major and independent studios and the near dissolution, or a supposed transformation, of true independent studios.  Many of the independents were also taken over by major studios.  Miramax and Castle Rock were two subsidiaries of major studios which were associated with independent film production.

4. The evolution of Miramax helped to blur the lines between "independent" and "studio" productions by acting as a major studio would with the purchasing of "art house" films.  These "art house" films would then be distributed in order to turn a profit which Miramax would share a good portion of.  When Disney purchased Miramax, there was suddenly a major studio backing the independent purchases.  Of course, as often happens with Disney, they put restrictions on what films Miramax could distribute and which ones they could not.  Even though the films being distributed were still "independent" in style and genre, they were being distributed and chosen by a major studio, and therefore, the lines between the "studio" and "indepenent" productions became blurred.

5. In his first evaluation of Gus Van Sant, Hillier described him as a filmmaker who was leaving behind his art house roots to make mainstream films for Hollywood, such as Good Will Hunting.  However, upon looking at Van Sant again, Hillier states that, as a filmmaker, Van Sant has returned to independent filmmaking in some aspects.  Other critics, such as Lalanne, claim that this supposed backtracking to "independent" films is just a part of Van Sant's style as a filmmaker rather than him simply going back to his independent roots.

6. According to Kristen Thompson, post-classical films were structured differently than narratives of the Classical Hollywood style and abandoned the cause/effect pattern that was popularized in the era of the Classical filmmaking.  Instead of developing character and having a strict narrative structure, there was an emphasis on the auteur theory.  Films today, however, stray from this label because they have a narrative structure that can easily be identified.  Jaws uses the cause and effect style of filmmaking that the Classical Hollywood style used.  The action progresses throughout the film because of other actions taking place.  If the shark would not have attacked the small child on the beach, then the hunt for the creature would not have been as large scale as it was, etc.  Characters are developed to the point of knowing Brody fears the water and the background of other characters, as well.  There is a chance to get to know what makes the characters tick, and therefore, the audience learns what characters would and would not do in certain situations in order to understand how the characters are developing, which would probably not happen in a post-classical film which would emphasize a break from the Classical system.

7. Hollywood narratives use many specific techniques to achieve clarity and unity within a film.  As mentioned in the previous answer, there is a cause and effect style within the narrative to make the story easy to follow.  Each action is motivated by a previous event.  Shot-reverse shots and the 180 degree rule helped to maintain a sense of space within a scene and kept the audience members from becoming confused as to where people actually were within a certain space.  While the main character has a want or need that drives the story forward, the story itself is told in a style called continuity editing which allows the story to unfold in a sequence that makes sense within the time and space of the film.  Everything is laid out for the audience to easily understand.

8. The four parts of Thompson's breakdown of Hollywood narratives are: the setup, the complicating action, the development, and the climax.  By stepping away from the typical "three-act structure," Thompson is able to break the film down into more digestible chunks and more action within the narrative.  With this style of narrative breakdown, there is more of an opportunity to discuss other aspects of the films, such as humor, romance, etc., that Fields does not allow for in his more constrained breakdowns of films.  

9. Even Cowgirls Get the Blues:

The Setup: The introduction of Sissy as a child and the reveal of her unusual thumbs that lead to her love of hitchhiking at a young age, which allows for her to meet the Countess. 

The Complicating Action: Sissy arrives at Rubber Rose ranch and finds herself in a loyalty tug of war between the cowgirls, who she begins to associate with, and the Countess, who helped her early on in life.

The Development: Sissy becomes more loyal to the cowgirls who seem to understand her sense of struggle more.  A romance begins with Jellybean that breaks Sissy away from the Countess.

The Climax: When Sissy returns to Rubber Rose after getting surgery on one of her thumbs, there is a war going on between the Countess and the cowgirls.  Jellybean is shot and killed when she tries to talk things out with police who mistake her trying to place her guns down as her about to open fire.

The Epilogue: Sissy goes to visit the Chink.  In the end, she stays a cowgirl, and the ranch is re-named in honor of Jellybean.

The Discipline of D.E. & Mala Noche

1. The Discipline of D.E. and Mala Noche have one obvious similarity. Black and white film was used as the medium of choice for each of them, aside from the scenes with Walt filming Roberto and Johnny with his own camera and the footage in the end credit sequence. Both films relied heavily on voice over narration to drive the narrative along, even though their narrative styles differed greatly. As for other sound design characteristics, The Discipline of D.E. rarely, if ever, used any diegetic sounds and strictly relied on non-diegetic narration from an unknown source, aside from one short use of dialogue towards the end of the film from Wyatt Earp, but Mala Noche made obvious use of diegetic sound with the use of the music from the record player in Walt's apartment, the gun shots fired by Johnny when the guys go on a joy ride, and the use of some spoken dialogue between the characters. Still, a great portion of the film's sound comes from non-diegetic narrator's commentary from Walt himself. Mala Noche was edited and filmed in a much more traditional way to correspond with the linear, with varied shot sizes and shot distances, even though there was a heavy reliance on close-ups of objects, which could also be seen in The Discipline of D.E. In contrast, The Discipline of D.E. relied much more heavily on quick cuts and various matches on actions to drive the non-linear narrative forward. Lastly, Mala Noche had a much more stylized lighting scheme that played with the concepts of white versus black and often used shadows to mask actions or character expressions, especially during night scenes.

2. Mala Noche has a linear narrative similar to many Classical Hollywood narratives. The story moves forward in time following the life of one main protagonist, Walt Curtis, as he deals with his unrequited love for a young Mexican man, Johnny. Like many Classical Hollywood narratives, there is a tremendous amount of conflict as Walt deals with the fact that Johnny is not homosexual and actually comes across as homophobic most of the time. The only time the linear aspect of the narrative is broken is to display a flashback that shows Johnny and Roberto's experiences on the train that brought them to where they are currently residing. However, this flashback does not act as a jarring shift in time as the film cuts back to the conversation between Walt, Betty, and the two boys. The rising action of the story drags on for most of the film before Mala Noche reaches its climax with the shooting death of Roberto. Then, in Classic Hollywood style, the film wraps up the conflict with its form of a resolution as Walt eventually tracks down Johnny. However, in a difference from the typical Classical Hollywood narrative, this film does not end happily. The romantic feelings that Walt feels for Johnny are never reciprocated, and the film is left open-ended.

3. By finding unique and sometimes unusual stylistic techniques that one enjoys using as a form of expression within films, or within any other media, and repeating these techniques over and over again, one can create a thumbprint of sorts within the chosen medium. This thumbprint, as long as it breaks away from the norm, will act as a stamp of authorship. Moreover, those in minorities are more likely to adopt styles that break away from the norm in order to further distance themselves from the majority.

4. creation of alter egos: when the author plants a character within a film that represents his/her personal thoughts/feelings/affiliations/etc.

silence: refraining from blatantly stating one's feelings on a matter and choosing to stay silent instead.

repetition: in the sense of camp or parody, it would mean copying in an attempt to humiliate or make fun of some other work/author, but at other times, it is meant as copying/mimicking the authorship stylings of another author.

recombination: taking something that already exists and reshaping it to fit the author's own ideals.

inversion: placing minorities/"others" into the spotlight when dealing with cultural, political, and other issues within the stories being authored.

accentuation: placing a substantial amount of emphasis on an idea in an attempt to build it up and make others view the concept differently.

5. The point that Staiger makes when she compares critical speculation about the intent of using Shakespeare in My Own Private Idaho with Van Sant’s own comments about his use of Shakespeare in the film is that authorship criticism can vary greatly from the true intent of the works of the author. Van Sant did not intend for his work to make a commentary on the previous works of Orson Welles or William Shakespeare, as the critics seem to believe. The references and intertextual connections were merely plot devices for his own work. For Staiger, Van Sant's comments about My Own Private Idaho reassure her that he is not trying to make a commentary or pay homage to any cultural icons with the intertextual references within his films. He is merely using cultural connections as plot points and plot devices to bring his stories together and move his narratives along in a way that works best for him as an author.

6. The relationship between Van Sant's use of intertextual references and his "post-gay" stance, according to Staiger, is rather simple to explain. His intertextual references are used in order to keep his characters from simply being the stereotypical queer character studies in the sense of homosexuality. Very rarely are his characters simply homosexual characters. Instead, they have other character flaws or struggles to overcome such as race relationships, poverty, generational differences, and other issues that can be connected to on a human level regardless of sexual orientation. This allows Van Sant to have the undercurrent of homosexuality in his films that is obviously important to him, even though not on a dominant level, but mainly allows him to focus on many other facets of the "post-gay" societal problems that the average gay, middle-class male might not face.

7. Staiger argues that ironical repetition is Van Sant's foundational authorial tactic because his works often, though not always, re-contextualize plots found in other films with Van Sant's characters inserted into them. In fact, basic narratives are often used as the entire foundation of his films. However, the films he "uses" for the sake of repetition present a profound irony when placed side-by-side with Van Sant's. This is Van Sant's chief authorial tactic because he even goes so far as to mimic an Alfred Hitchcock film shot-for-shot, as in his remake of Psycho, and even copies his own plot line before adding in a new character with Finding Forrester, which was mirrored after Van Sant's film Good Will Hunting.

8. Van Sant's casting choices for his remake of Alfred Hitchcock's Psycho is obviously an example of the tactic of inversion for two very clear reasons. At the time, and even to this day, Vince Vaughn was seen as the type of guy who is obviously heterosexual and has his relationships with various Hollywood actresses in the tabloids on a regular basis. As far as I know, he has never been suspected of having homosexual relationships, whereas Hitchcock's casting of Anthony Perkins was to the contrary. There was a great deal of controversy surrounding Perkins' sexual orientation, which lent itself differently to the story's connection to the mother figure and so forth. Also, by casting Anne Heche, who was infamously going through her "lesbian phase," Van Sant was able to shift the dynamic in the relationship between Marion and Norman. The reputations of the two leading actors casts the characters in a completely different light than the original movie's cast did. He inverted the two main roles, as far as sexuality was concerned, while keeping the rest of the movie nearly identical to Hitchcock's version in an attempt to stamp his authorship on the story.