Friday, October 17, 2008
Well that was something else...
I think I may have found my vocation.
I decided tonight to go into town and do some busking as there is a guy called George who is usually in town who I sing Knockin' on Heaven's Door with. On my way, I saw a man called Jason who I know from Church who is homeless. He's just recently got out of prison. The police were walking with him and I had just seen them pour his beer away in front of him. After the police had finished with him we walked and talked together into town. We set up for busking a couple of Johnny Cash songs in a pedestrianised area with a cool guy who was playing mandolin. We were singing Folsom Prison Blues quite awfully, when suddenly a guy out of nowhere comes along and spits in Jason's face. I was horrified...this is the kind of thing that the homeless face in Brighton. I felt terrible because I had encouraged him to put himself in a public position and draw attention to himself. I felt awful for Jason. He told me he'd been hit that day in the face as well. We decided to call it a night after that incident but then he said he wanted to sing when we got to another area with seating outside a bar. He sings really loudly and well! He'll sing even better when he is sober...
We did a number of songs, including 'Knockin' on Heaven's Door', 'Folsom Prison Blues' and 'Panic'. Jason has all the balls I don't have so he was egging on the bystanders and customers to listen to us and give money. And they did! We made £10 in an hour! We belted out The Smiths' 'Heaven Knows I am Miserable Now'. I remembered the chords from when I learned it years ago. Given all that had happened that evening, I found it rather poignant. I feel this could be the beginning of a beautiful friendship.
Natalie Paruz 'Saw Lady'
She came, she saw, she conquered...
I just had an email from a talented lady called Natlie Paruz who busks in New York City, playing the Saw. She was interested to know which saint appears in stained glass windows with a saw. I discovered the saw is in general a sign of martyrdom, particularly for St Simon the Apostle (or Zealot as he is often known) and St Joseph, foster father of our Lord due to his carpentry.
I have never heard saw music before this but have listened to a couple of tracks on the website and they are really lovely. Below is a link where you can listen to saw music.
Today in Pavillion Gardens there was a fabulous busking duo crooning golden oldies who also had amps and microphones. I thought it was great. I met another busker today who unfortunately is having a terrible time because his father is terminally ill with cancer and he got a call today saying he had been taken to a local hospital. We had a chat about life and family. Say a prayer for him, Michael, and his critically ill father.
In Brighton there is such a large volume of musicians, buskers and street performers. It would be so nice to gather a few together to do more entertaining busking and put a bit of spirit back into Brighton town centre. One thing I like about buskers is that even though some feel they are viewed often as being 'just the rung above street beggar', as a busking friend, Gary, told me, they are not materialistic and in many ways have renounced much of what so many in society hold most dear in terms of material possessions, wealth and status. Nowadays, that is always something precious. What with the economic crisis being as it is, it may be that in the next year people in Brighton could do with some light musical relief from the hardships which are coming our way.
Persecution in India Worsening
St Alphonsus of India, please pray for the Persecuted Church
Early Monday morning, St Anthony Catholic Church at Yedavanahalli village in Attibele, near Hosur, in Bangalore Urban district, was set on fire - in spite of the presence of two police constables outside and the building.
Police said they had kept the main doors of the church open in order to take shelter during heavy rain. They the noticed fire at 1am i and called the fire brigade.
Eye witnesses said the fire was deliberately set by a group who went in and burnt Bibles and hymn books, as well as vandalising religious objects and breaking up a music system. The altar was damaged by fire and a photograph of the new saint Sister Alfonsa with a yellow sari and other decorations that were covering the images, were burnt on the feet of the altar.
Karnataka chief minister said the fire had been caused by an electrical fault, but witnesses said the electric system in the church was intact.
Human rights groups are appealing for a through police investigation.
Elsewhere, hundreds of Christians have been forced to renounce their faith and convert to Hinduism.
In Orissa on Monday, more than five thousand women held a demonstration calling for the marrriage on a nun who was raped on August 26 to the man who raped her.
The demand of the locals came on the day when three men were arrested in connection with the rape case. The women argue that in their tradition, if a man exchanged physical relationship with a woman forcibly, he should be married to the victim. "So we demanded that if the nun was raped, she should be married to the rapist," they said.
Source: Ancy DSouza/agencies
© Independent Catholic News 2008
Today is also the Feast of St Ignatius of Antioch
St Ignatius was martyred in 107.
There may be worse ways to be killed, but I can't think of many...The blood of the martyrs is the seed of the Church.
From Fr Ray Blake of St Mary Magdalen's Church
The second bishop of Antioch after St Peter, sentenced to be thrown to the wild beasts in the arena, sent to Rome suffered death their under Trajan in 107.
I tell you, my friends, do not be afraid of those who kill the body but after that can do no more. I shall show you whom to fear. Be afraid of the one who after killing has the power to cast into Gehenna; yes, I tell you, be afraid of that one. Are not five sparrows sold for two small coins? Yet not one of them has escaped the notice of God. Even the hairs of your head have all been counted. Do not be afraid. You are worth more than many sparrows.
Pray to St Ignatius that priests and bishops will prefer death than denying their Lord in deed or word or thought, or by one act of mortal sin.
From The Ecclesiology of St Ignatus of Antioch
For Ignatius man does not have life of himself. Only God is self-life (autozoe). Man lives be participation. Because man is held captive in death by the devil his communion with God is of a distorted nature and ends in the grave. The act of restoration of permanent and normal communion between God and man can be accomplished only by a real resurrection of man by God Himself. (Ezek. 37:12ff.) "Who alone hath immortality." (I Tim. 6:16.) This immortality of God, however, is not to be separated in its bestowal upon creation, from God's energy of love. Therefore, "the drink of God, namely His Blood, ... is incorruptible love and eternal life." (Ign. Rom. 7.) The love of God is not a relationship (to pros ti) dominated by ulterior motivations. If God were within the realm of happiness and so dominated thereby, then all His relationships, if such could really exist, would be necessary. [ 6 ]
The life of God the Father, however, who by essence generates the Son and projects the Spirit, is personal and selfless love, which by grace and in complete freedom through the Son and in the Spirit creates ex nihilo, sustains, saves, and sanctifies creation, not by created means, but by His own uncreated energy. Salvation is not a mere restoration of proper relations between God and man. On the contrary man is saved by being restored to life which is given to created beings only by God. Saving grace, therefore, is the very uncreated life-giving energy of God which vivifies and justifies man by defeating the devil. [ 7 ] The flesh of Christ is the source of life and justification [ 8 ] not as flesh per se, but because it is the flesh of God. It is for this reason that St. Ignatius can say, "I desire the drink of God, namely His Blood." (Ign. Rom. 7; also Eph. 1.) [ 9 ]
Arms Manufacturer Quashes Protest
Article from The Argus:
In April 2005 The Argus ran a story about how an arms manufacturing company had managed to secure a ban on civil protest against the production and export of weapons to be used in war-torn countries. Over the years the company secured more than that, it secured a ban on civil protest even in Brighton's town centre, therefore a march against the factory was denied grounds by the Council.
EBO MBM Technology, an arms factory in Home Farm Road, Brighton, obtained a High Court ruling banning demonstrations of larger than ten people outside their premises and only permitting protests once a week.
An interim injunction has been in place since April 2004 which forbids anyone from entering an exclusion zone around the factory for the purpose of protesting.
EDO MBM is part of the US-owned EDO Corporation which supplies weapons components to governments around the world. The Brighton plant makes bomb release and interface equipment which has reportedly been used in Iraq.
The defendants argued that the Iraq war was illegal and so weapons manufacturers in the UK which make equipment for use by the British military there can be held responsible for war crimes.
Then a few days ago this happened.'Baton-wielding police clashed with protesters yesterday as an anti-arms demo erupted into violence.
About a dozen people were injured as skirmishes flared during the demo – the latest in a series aimed at EDO/ITT, the Brighton-based weapons component manufacturer.
The main flashpoint occurred on Lewes Road, by the junction with Home Farm Road in Moulsecoomb, as hundreds of protesters came up against scores of police.
Officers closed both lanes of Lewes Road just after 1pm and prevented most of the group from moving south of the viaduct, which crosses the road.
Pepper spray was used on the crowd as it surged forward, attempting to break through the ranks of police. A number of people were hit with batons and needed first aid.
There were also other minor clashes around The Level as a small number of protesters managed to make their way into the city centre.
A handful of arrests were made.
Assistant Chief Constable Jeremy Paine criticised those involved in the demo.
He said: “There was clear intent to use violence and cause damage evidenced by the high level of tension among the demonstrators and articles observed and seized by police.
“Disruption was caused to citizens and motorists by a large gathering of protesters on the main A270 Lewes Road leading into the city.”
Hundreds of officers from across the country, including from the Metropolitan Police, Hampshire and Surrey, were deployed to oversee the protest.
It got under way just after noon, with protesters marching down Lewes Road from Falmer station.
They intended to arrive outside the EDO/ITT factory on Home Farm Road but were outflanked by a ring of steel formed around the building by several rows of police, fences and dogs.
It was an entirely different tactic from the one used during a similar demo on June 4, which led to violence when protesters were allowed right up the factory gates.
A spokesman for the Smash EDO group which organised the demo said: “Right from the word go police were basically saying, ‘We’re going to destroy you’. It was a completely disproportionate response.
“We were outnumbered but today has been a success because we’ve managed to get the message out there and show we are prepared to stand up and be counted for our beliefs.”
He confirmed that further highly publicised demos would be held in the future.
The number of officers present at the demo was criticised by Sussex Police Authority member Ben Duncan, who said: “There is a perception, rightly or wrongly, that the police do not have the resources to police our neighbourhoods properly and people are worried about crime as a result.
“Clearly they do not have a problem with resources at all if they can muster this many officers.
“In my view these protesters did not present a real danger and did not warrant this many police officers.”
Lionel Barnard, chairman of the police authority, disagreed.
He said: “We would be expected to make an appropriate response and take measures against this sort of demonstration. I believe that is what has happened.”
Mr Barnard said the overall cost of policing the demo would not be known for a number of days. However, the figure is thought to run into tens of thousands of pounds.'
I understand that many of the protesters are deemed by society and give themselves the title 'anarchist'. However, as far as I could see, their protest was peaceful and it is a bit worrying that unjust companies, backed by the State, can quash any kind of protest or dissent. Peaceful protest is meant to be one of our long cherished civil rights. It looks like it is disappearing fast. In this country i would imagine a small gathering of protesters against the local abortion clinic would end up in arrest also.
Today's Saint: St Margaret Mary Alacoque
The First Saint of the Sacred Heart of Jesus
From Catholic.Org
Daughter of Claude Alacoque and Philiberte Lamyn, Margaret was born on July 22, at L'Hautecour, Burgundy, France, was sent to the Poor Clares school at Charolles on the death of her father, a notary, when she was eight years old. She was bedridden for five years with rheumatic fever until she was fifteen and early developed a devotion to the Blessed Sacrament. She refused marriage, and in 1671 she entered the Visitation convent at Paray-le-Monial and was professed the next year.
From the time she was twenty, she experienced visions of Christ, and on December 27, 1673, she began a series of revelations that were to continue over the next year and a half. In them Christ informed her that she was His chosen instrument to spread devotion to His Sacred Heart, instructed her in a devotion that was to become known as the Nine Fridays and the Holy Hour, and asked that the feast of the Sacred Heart be established. Rebuffed by her superior, Mother de Saumaise, in her efforts to follow the instruction she had received in the visions, she eventually won her over but was unable to convince a group of theologians of the validity of her apparitions, nor was she any more successful with many of the members of her community. She received the support of Blessed Claude La Colombiere, the community's confessor for a time, who declared that the visions were genuine.
In 1683, opposition in the community ended when Mother Melin was elected Superior and named Margaret Mary her assistant. She later became Novice Mistress, saw the convent observe the feast of the Sacred Heart privately beginning in 1686, and two years later, a chapel was built at the Paray-le-Monial to honor the Sacred Heart; soon observation of the feast of the Sacred Heart spread to other Visitation convents. Margaret Mary died at the Paray-le-Monial on October 17, and was canonized in 1920. She, St. John Eudes, and Blessed Claude La Colombiere are called the "Saints of the Sacred Heart"; the devotion was officially recognized and approved by Pope Clement XIII in 1765, seventy-five years after her death. Her feast day is observed on October 17.
From Catholic.Org
Daughter of Claude Alacoque and Philiberte Lamyn, Margaret was born on July 22, at L'Hautecour, Burgundy, France, was sent to the Poor Clares school at Charolles on the death of her father, a notary, when she was eight years old. She was bedridden for five years with rheumatic fever until she was fifteen and early developed a devotion to the Blessed Sacrament. She refused marriage, and in 1671 she entered the Visitation convent at Paray-le-Monial and was professed the next year.
From the time she was twenty, she experienced visions of Christ, and on December 27, 1673, she began a series of revelations that were to continue over the next year and a half. In them Christ informed her that she was His chosen instrument to spread devotion to His Sacred Heart, instructed her in a devotion that was to become known as the Nine Fridays and the Holy Hour, and asked that the feast of the Sacred Heart be established. Rebuffed by her superior, Mother de Saumaise, in her efforts to follow the instruction she had received in the visions, she eventually won her over but was unable to convince a group of theologians of the validity of her apparitions, nor was she any more successful with many of the members of her community. She received the support of Blessed Claude La Colombiere, the community's confessor for a time, who declared that the visions were genuine.
In 1683, opposition in the community ended when Mother Melin was elected Superior and named Margaret Mary her assistant. She later became Novice Mistress, saw the convent observe the feast of the Sacred Heart privately beginning in 1686, and two years later, a chapel was built at the Paray-le-Monial to honor the Sacred Heart; soon observation of the feast of the Sacred Heart spread to other Visitation convents. Margaret Mary died at the Paray-le-Monial on October 17, and was canonized in 1920. She, St. John Eudes, and Blessed Claude La Colombiere are called the "Saints of the Sacred Heart"; the devotion was officially recognized and approved by Pope Clement XIII in 1765, seventy-five years after her death. Her feast day is observed on October 17.
Thursday, October 16, 2008
Horrific Melodrama, Or Melodramatic Horror?
Before I skitter off to film class tonight, I thought I would regale you with my first essay written for that class. Enjoy!
Horrific Melodrama, Or Melodramatic Horror?
The question of genre is important to the study and analysis of film. It is also a fluid concept, as our class discussion have shown. Jacques Tourneur’s Cat People (1940) is an interesting film in this regard, as it stands at the nexus of a variety of genres and story forms, incorporating elements from each. This essay will compare Cat People with Roman Polanski’s Rosemary’s Baby (1968) to how a film can be both horror and melodrama simultaneously, and indeed to argue that these two genres are complementary rather than contradictory. One of melodrama’s earmarks is its focus on the personal relationships and interactions of its characters - what Marcia Landy calls “A constant struggle for gratification and equally constant blockages to its attainment” (Landy 14). Horror often addresses the same concerns as melodrama in allegorical or symbolic fashion, embodying social fears, anxieties and gender struggles in literal monsters or demons. Barry Keith Grant feels that “it may be possible to see the entire genre… as about patriarchy and the challenges to it” (Grant 2). These films contain elements of both genres, which complement and play off of one another.
Although Cat People is a horror movie, its centers around character relationships. Irena is the central character, a woman tormented by her repressed sexuality and desires. She is fascinated by cats, a symbol of her repressed sexuality. Her inner demons are evident in the opening scene; she is attracted by the panther in the city zoo, and yet repulsed by it, sketching several pictures and then throwing them way - one of them, a drawing of it impaled with a dagger (shown in extreme close-up). She is obsessed with this imagery: the film repeats the image, from Irena’s drawing, to the sculpture of a Serbian King she keeps in her home - not only foreshadowing her transformation (and the film’s conclusion, where she is fatally stabbed by Doctor Judd while in panther form) but making clear that she is struggling with her inner demons - she is one of the legendary Cat People, transformed into a panther by sexual desire. Tourneur uses heavy shadows and darkness during Irena’s scenes - as well as the sequences where Alice is stalked by the big cat - to show that though Irena’s desire may repressed, it is always present. Irena attempts at self-control, and social constructs of marriage and religion - Oliver keeps Cat-Irena at bay with a cross-shaped tool at the end - keep her in check at first. She wishes to do away with her demons altogether. But Oliver is not King John, and cannot slay her demons - in the end, they overtake her.
The story is complicated by Irena's relationship with her husband, Oliver, and Oliver’s friend and co-worker Alice. Although powerfully attracted to her - “There’s a warmth from her that pulls at me” - Oliver grows weary of Irena’s bizarre, erratic behavior and personality, and feels that though married, “we are strangers in many ways”. Alice clearly loves Oliver - describing herself as “the new other woman”, who wants to help his relationship with Irena, because she “can’t stand to see him unhappy”. Irena’s Serbian ancestry adds another symbolic dimension to her character; she is the alluring, mysterious foreigner, who is both beautiful and deadly - a classic, if unwitting, femme fatale (providing us also with a link to film noir). Irena becomes jealous of Alice and begins a campaign of intimidation and revenge. This romantic triangle could take place in any number of melodramas - although it switches the usual character roles, with the sexually alluring, dangerous woman (Irena) as the wife, and the kind, loving girl (Alice) the “other woman”. It would be reasonable for critics and viewers to assume that the movie, which doesn’t veer into overt horror until the last half hour, is more of a melodrama than a horror film.
What makes Cat People a horror movie, however, is its use of fantasy and allegory. Shape-shifting and human transformation are not realistic events, but overtly fantastic ones; thus, they fall outside the generally realistic (if exaggerated) realm of melodrama. Irena’s transformation into a murderous panther (triggered by jealousy towards Alice, and later, the advances of Doctor Judd) symbolizes loss of control over her primal sexual instincts. The movie cleverly concludes with a contrived logical “explanation” for the events - Irena dies of a stab wound, a panther escapes and is then run over by a truck. With Irena dead, only the audience is privy to what really happened - a clever denouement which transports the film back into the “realistic” world of melodrama. However, the audience knows what really happened - and as a result, we know Cat People is a horror film.
Rosemary’s Baby is similarly focused on the dynamic of character relationships, interweaving elements of both horror and melodrama into its story. As in Cat People, the actual “horror” element - the birth of the anti-Christ - is largely secondary to the relationships of Rosemary Woodhouse to her husband Guy, her neighbors the Castevets, and other friends and associates. The movie deals with a myriad of issues: It is simultaneously about a marriage gone sour, a woman repressed by a close-knit social structure, and questions and fears of motherhood and pregnancy, to such an extent that the additional supernatural trappings are almost superfluous.
Rosemary’s relationship with her husband Guy is one of the key elements of the movie. Initially, the Woodhouses seem an ideal couple: young, ambitious, in love with each other. But after moving into their new apartment, their relationship begins to change. Guy becomes distant, cold and uncaring, expecting to control his wife, openly yelling and berating Rosemary when she disobeys him or takes her own initiative. He spends most of his time with the Castevets, plotting his own career advancement, leaving the pregnant Rosemary alone, vulnerable and isolated. Over the course of the film, Guy transforms from an ideal husband to the spouse from Hell - a common enough theme in melodrama, and one that enhances the terror of the film.
Another major theme of the movie is the issue of pregnancy and its intended fears and anxieties. Rosemary undergoes a decidedly unusual pregnancy: her impregnation by demonic rape, her weight loss, constant pain and pallid appearance. “What passes for Rosemary’s demented musings are consonant with representations of women’s ordinary fears of parturition” (Fischer 419). As her pregnancy develops, she transforms from a chipper, happy young woman to a haggard, helpless and weak character, easily controlled by her husband, neighbors and Doctor Saperstein. Rosemary finds herself fearing for herself and her baby, at the mercy of her associates, all of whom have a sinister agenda. The controlling society of the apartment dictates how a pregnant woman should behave - submissive, quiet and obedient. (As in Cat People, a religious element is present to show one way females are kept under male control, with overt parallels between the Satanic cult and Catholicism.) The birth of the anti-Christ is not so much a literal horror, as an allegorical representation of the fears and stigma of pregnancy and childbirth. Rosemary may initially reject her child, but ultimately “Maternal instinct triumphs; ambivalence is quashed” (Fischer 424), and she accepts it - thus, as in many melodramas, redeeming herself in the eyes of her “society”.
The film maintains trappings of melodrama throughout; the only moments of overt horror or fantasy are Rosemary’s hallucination/dream sequence of her child’s conception, and the ending, when Rosemary is confronted with her child. Everything else remains solidly within the realm of reality, however exaggerated or dramatized. Polanski enhances this by maintaining an aesthetic distance from its actions, through use of long takes and medium shots (particularly the argument between Rosemary and Guy about her stomach pains) to prevent us from relating to the characters. Polanski shuns the usual techniques of making the audience identify with the characters; as spectators, we are not supposed to have the visceral thrill one might expect from a horror film. Instead of watching two characters menaced by a monster, we’re watching a couple trapped in an unhappy marriage. If not for the Satanic child, this film could easily be a relationship drama.
In both Cat People and Rosemary’s Baby, character relationships are the driving forces of the plot. If anything, these films show that problems of family relationships are more terrifying than Satan and cat monsters combined. However, this only shows that horror and melodrama are complementary rather than divergent genres. As Grant writes, “Horror is hardly (a) simplistic, limited genre… It is simply too versatile and complex to be contained by any one theory or interpretation” (Grant 8). Landy also notes that “Melodrama traverses a number of genres” (Landy 15). We may provide a general definition of horror or melodrama, but it is inaccurate to say that two genres can’t intertwine.
Works Cited:
Cat People. Dir. Jacques Tourneur. Perf. Simone Simon, Kent Smith, Tom Conway, Jane Randolph, Jack Holt, Elizabeth Russell. RKO, 1942.
Fischer, Lucy. “Birth Traumas: Parturition and Horror in Rosemary’s Baby”. The Dread of Difference: Gender and the Horror Film. Ed. Barry Keith Grant. Austin: University of Texas Press, 1996. 412-432
Grant, Barry Keith. “Introduction”. The Dread of Difference: Gender and the Horror Film. Ed. Barry Keith Grant. Austin: University of Texas Press, 1996. 1-12
Landy, Marcia. “Introduction”. Imitations of Life: A Read on Film and Television Melodrama.
Ed. Marcia Landy. Detriot: Wayne State University Press, 1991. 13-30
Rosemary’s Baby. Dir. Roman Polanski. Perf. Mia Farrow, John Cassavetes, Ruth Gordon, Sidney Blackmer, Maurice Evans, Ralph Bellamy. Paramount, 1968.
We are continuing our melodrama unit in class tonight after a week off. We watched Blonde Venus last class but I could honestly think of nothing I wanted to say about it, except to mark my shock at seeing an extremly young Cary Grant. That, and I was ill. This week's offering is Stella Dallas, and I'll have to see it before I determine if it's worthy of discussion.
Horrific Melodrama, Or Melodramatic Horror?
The question of genre is important to the study and analysis of film. It is also a fluid concept, as our class discussion have shown. Jacques Tourneur’s Cat People (1940) is an interesting film in this regard, as it stands at the nexus of a variety of genres and story forms, incorporating elements from each. This essay will compare Cat People with Roman Polanski’s Rosemary’s Baby (1968) to how a film can be both horror and melodrama simultaneously, and indeed to argue that these two genres are complementary rather than contradictory. One of melodrama’s earmarks is its focus on the personal relationships and interactions of its characters - what Marcia Landy calls “A constant struggle for gratification and equally constant blockages to its attainment” (Landy 14). Horror often addresses the same concerns as melodrama in allegorical or symbolic fashion, embodying social fears, anxieties and gender struggles in literal monsters or demons. Barry Keith Grant feels that “it may be possible to see the entire genre… as about patriarchy and the challenges to it” (Grant 2). These films contain elements of both genres, which complement and play off of one another.
Although Cat People is a horror movie, its centers around character relationships. Irena is the central character, a woman tormented by her repressed sexuality and desires. She is fascinated by cats, a symbol of her repressed sexuality. Her inner demons are evident in the opening scene; she is attracted by the panther in the city zoo, and yet repulsed by it, sketching several pictures and then throwing them way - one of them, a drawing of it impaled with a dagger (shown in extreme close-up). She is obsessed with this imagery: the film repeats the image, from Irena’s drawing, to the sculpture of a Serbian King she keeps in her home - not only foreshadowing her transformation (and the film’s conclusion, where she is fatally stabbed by Doctor Judd while in panther form) but making clear that she is struggling with her inner demons - she is one of the legendary Cat People, transformed into a panther by sexual desire. Tourneur uses heavy shadows and darkness during Irena’s scenes - as well as the sequences where Alice is stalked by the big cat - to show that though Irena’s desire may repressed, it is always present. Irena attempts at self-control, and social constructs of marriage and religion - Oliver keeps Cat-Irena at bay with a cross-shaped tool at the end - keep her in check at first. She wishes to do away with her demons altogether. But Oliver is not King John, and cannot slay her demons - in the end, they overtake her.
The story is complicated by Irena's relationship with her husband, Oliver, and Oliver’s friend and co-worker Alice. Although powerfully attracted to her - “There’s a warmth from her that pulls at me” - Oliver grows weary of Irena’s bizarre, erratic behavior and personality, and feels that though married, “we are strangers in many ways”. Alice clearly loves Oliver - describing herself as “the new other woman”, who wants to help his relationship with Irena, because she “can’t stand to see him unhappy”. Irena’s Serbian ancestry adds another symbolic dimension to her character; she is the alluring, mysterious foreigner, who is both beautiful and deadly - a classic, if unwitting, femme fatale (providing us also with a link to film noir). Irena becomes jealous of Alice and begins a campaign of intimidation and revenge. This romantic triangle could take place in any number of melodramas - although it switches the usual character roles, with the sexually alluring, dangerous woman (Irena) as the wife, and the kind, loving girl (Alice) the “other woman”. It would be reasonable for critics and viewers to assume that the movie, which doesn’t veer into overt horror until the last half hour, is more of a melodrama than a horror film.
What makes Cat People a horror movie, however, is its use of fantasy and allegory. Shape-shifting and human transformation are not realistic events, but overtly fantastic ones; thus, they fall outside the generally realistic (if exaggerated) realm of melodrama. Irena’s transformation into a murderous panther (triggered by jealousy towards Alice, and later, the advances of Doctor Judd) symbolizes loss of control over her primal sexual instincts. The movie cleverly concludes with a contrived logical “explanation” for the events - Irena dies of a stab wound, a panther escapes and is then run over by a truck. With Irena dead, only the audience is privy to what really happened - a clever denouement which transports the film back into the “realistic” world of melodrama. However, the audience knows what really happened - and as a result, we know Cat People is a horror film.
Rosemary’s Baby is similarly focused on the dynamic of character relationships, interweaving elements of both horror and melodrama into its story. As in Cat People, the actual “horror” element - the birth of the anti-Christ - is largely secondary to the relationships of Rosemary Woodhouse to her husband Guy, her neighbors the Castevets, and other friends and associates. The movie deals with a myriad of issues: It is simultaneously about a marriage gone sour, a woman repressed by a close-knit social structure, and questions and fears of motherhood and pregnancy, to such an extent that the additional supernatural trappings are almost superfluous.
Rosemary’s relationship with her husband Guy is one of the key elements of the movie. Initially, the Woodhouses seem an ideal couple: young, ambitious, in love with each other. But after moving into their new apartment, their relationship begins to change. Guy becomes distant, cold and uncaring, expecting to control his wife, openly yelling and berating Rosemary when she disobeys him or takes her own initiative. He spends most of his time with the Castevets, plotting his own career advancement, leaving the pregnant Rosemary alone, vulnerable and isolated. Over the course of the film, Guy transforms from an ideal husband to the spouse from Hell - a common enough theme in melodrama, and one that enhances the terror of the film.
Another major theme of the movie is the issue of pregnancy and its intended fears and anxieties. Rosemary undergoes a decidedly unusual pregnancy: her impregnation by demonic rape, her weight loss, constant pain and pallid appearance. “What passes for Rosemary’s demented musings are consonant with representations of women’s ordinary fears of parturition” (Fischer 419). As her pregnancy develops, she transforms from a chipper, happy young woman to a haggard, helpless and weak character, easily controlled by her husband, neighbors and Doctor Saperstein. Rosemary finds herself fearing for herself and her baby, at the mercy of her associates, all of whom have a sinister agenda. The controlling society of the apartment dictates how a pregnant woman should behave - submissive, quiet and obedient. (As in Cat People, a religious element is present to show one way females are kept under male control, with overt parallels between the Satanic cult and Catholicism.) The birth of the anti-Christ is not so much a literal horror, as an allegorical representation of the fears and stigma of pregnancy and childbirth. Rosemary may initially reject her child, but ultimately “Maternal instinct triumphs; ambivalence is quashed” (Fischer 424), and she accepts it - thus, as in many melodramas, redeeming herself in the eyes of her “society”.
The film maintains trappings of melodrama throughout; the only moments of overt horror or fantasy are Rosemary’s hallucination/dream sequence of her child’s conception, and the ending, when Rosemary is confronted with her child. Everything else remains solidly within the realm of reality, however exaggerated or dramatized. Polanski enhances this by maintaining an aesthetic distance from its actions, through use of long takes and medium shots (particularly the argument between Rosemary and Guy about her stomach pains) to prevent us from relating to the characters. Polanski shuns the usual techniques of making the audience identify with the characters; as spectators, we are not supposed to have the visceral thrill one might expect from a horror film. Instead of watching two characters menaced by a monster, we’re watching a couple trapped in an unhappy marriage. If not for the Satanic child, this film could easily be a relationship drama.
In both Cat People and Rosemary’s Baby, character relationships are the driving forces of the plot. If anything, these films show that problems of family relationships are more terrifying than Satan and cat monsters combined. However, this only shows that horror and melodrama are complementary rather than divergent genres. As Grant writes, “Horror is hardly (a) simplistic, limited genre… It is simply too versatile and complex to be contained by any one theory or interpretation” (Grant 8). Landy also notes that “Melodrama traverses a number of genres” (Landy 15). We may provide a general definition of horror or melodrama, but it is inaccurate to say that two genres can’t intertwine.
Works Cited:
Cat People. Dir. Jacques Tourneur. Perf. Simone Simon, Kent Smith, Tom Conway, Jane Randolph, Jack Holt, Elizabeth Russell. RKO, 1942.
Fischer, Lucy. “Birth Traumas: Parturition and Horror in Rosemary’s Baby”. The Dread of Difference: Gender and the Horror Film. Ed. Barry Keith Grant. Austin: University of Texas Press, 1996. 412-432
Grant, Barry Keith. “Introduction”. The Dread of Difference: Gender and the Horror Film. Ed. Barry Keith Grant. Austin: University of Texas Press, 1996. 1-12
Landy, Marcia. “Introduction”. Imitations of Life: A Read on Film and Television Melodrama.
Ed. Marcia Landy. Detriot: Wayne State University Press, 1991. 13-30
Rosemary’s Baby. Dir. Roman Polanski. Perf. Mia Farrow, John Cassavetes, Ruth Gordon, Sidney Blackmer, Maurice Evans, Ralph Bellamy. Paramount, 1968.
We are continuing our melodrama unit in class tonight after a week off. We watched Blonde Venus last class but I could honestly think of nothing I wanted to say about it, except to mark my shock at seeing an extremly young Cary Grant. That, and I was ill. This week's offering is Stella Dallas, and I'll have to see it before I determine if it's worthy of discussion.
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