1. Eco, Umberto. (1985). “Casablanca”: Cult Movies and Intertextual Collage. SubStance, 14(2), pp. 3-12.
This reading discusses what makes a cult film, and how cult films use intertextuality.
In order for something to become a cult text, it must do these things:
- Work must be loved
- Provide a completely furnished world
- Have archetypal appeal
- Have imperfections
- Be able to be deconstructed
- Instead of one central idea displayed, many are, for fans to pick apart
A cult film lives on because of its glorious incoherence.
My favourite cult film is El Topo, directed by Alejandro Jodorowsky.
- I love this film, and it was loved by the counter culture of the time. Many film critics disliked it, but they are not who cult films want to appeal to.
- El Topo’s world is a desert full of death and surrealism. The protagonist is a modern day Jesus cowboy who battles masters and takes care of the physically disabled.
- Cowboy archetype, Jesus archetype, loyal servant falling in love with master archetype, masters of battle archetypes, bandit archetypes, suffering followers archetype, rich backward country folk archetype, slaves being freed archetype, etc.
- The film hardly makes sense. I always watch it and find new ways of understanding it.
- The film is in two parts: genesis and resurrection
I love this film because it is so gloriously incoherent.
This weekend I am planning on going to see The Room at Cinema Nova. They screen it on the first saturday of every month. I have never seen it before but all my friends tell me that it’s the best worst movie of all time. The fact that it is shown every month in a cinema reminds me of Rocky Horror. Very culty indeed 🙂
So, that was a complete tangent. Back to the reading.
I liked the point that Eco made about postmodern intertextuality. When watching a postmodern film with lots of references, it is often the case that the jokes and references go over most peoples heads, so a select group of people, cinephiles, understand what the filmmaker is trying to do and say. I find this kind of filmmaking elitist… but that’s why I love it (because I’m one of the select few and it makes me feel like all my hours consuming films makes me special). But it’s nice to have something that you’re good at, and I’m good at watching movies/tv.
My favourite postmodern example of this is the television series, Community. Community became a hit with the internet folk because of all its intertextual references, mainly given by the character Abed, who is a cinephile. All the nerdy film/tv consumers/makers can relate to this guy, I know that I do. Everytime he does a character that no one else gets, audiences empathise. He does it constantly. He’s always got his own plot recreating a film he loves shot for shot, or having a movie marathon, or travelling through time and space as ‘Inspector Space Time’ (Doctor Who). I can’t even. I love him so much.
2. McKee, Robert. (1997). ‘The substance of story.’ In Story: Style, Structure, Substance, and the Principles of Screenwriting. New York, USA: HarperCollins, pp. 135-154.
This reading breaks down what you need to write a good story. It is very formulaic and there are a lot of steps and rules. Some of the rules seem like they can be broken, but I guess that’s what rules are for.
- Protagonist – main character
- Plural protagonist – more than one character but all share the same goal
- Multi protagonist – different characters with different goals, creating multi plots
protagonists:
- have will
- have a desire
- may also have unconscious contradictory desire
- must be able to achieve this desire; does not have to actually achieve the desire; but there must be hope that they will achieve their desire
- if they achieve their desire, must achieve it to its full potential
- should take the minimum, conservative action towards achieving their desire
- must have something at stake, risk
- must have either inner conflict, personal conflict, extra personal conflict or a combination
- audiences must bond with protagonist: empathy
There’s a lot riding on this one character…
