A Place In The Sun

It was tough this week to just select one topic to chose to write on. Ultimately I decided to chose an idea I had that we did not discuss in class and is a left-of-field idea. In the process of watching the film, several noir-like elements kept constantly surfacing such as the dark shadows and silouettes and the case of murder itself, but one question I pondered was: To what extent can Angela Vickers be viewed as a 'femme fatale'?
On outward appearances, the arguement can be made that she is not what is classically considered to be a femme fatale, Elizabeth Taylor is not the stereotypical blonde bombshell with the sharp and quick humour combined with the smoldering stare and sense of danger that surrounds her. In fact, she is one of the few characters in this film who is almost always well lit and with very few instances when shadows creep across her face. Her general attitude and behaviour as well is not on first examination aligned to that of the stereotypical femme fatale, she seems breezy, naive and most crucially of all to set her apart from the femme fatale, innocent.
Whilst watching, however, certain lines of her dialogue slowly began to make me view her as a femme fatale character. With such lines as "Tell Mamma" before kissing George, demonstrating an idea that she knows how to manipulate him by talking like his mother and then expressing a desire to, "Show you (George) off" demonstrates the idea that she's treating him like an object, and being a rich society girl, she carries herself like she is entitled to all the good things in life such as the lavish holiday we see her on and the attractive man. Although, I thought her most interesting line in the whole film was "Are they watching?"at the party when they first kiss, she is obviously slightly embarrased to be seen with him, eventhough they are roughly on the same level of social standing.
Perhaps the best way to look at her character with regards to a femme fatale is the fact that she is responsible for the breaking down on the relationship between George and Alice by inticing him in with her charms and causing George to murder Alice in order to be with her (feel free to take me up on that debate). Now this clearly indicates a femme fatale character, however, it has to be said that she is unaware of the relationship and the turmoil she has caused, a true femme fatale would be aware of her destructive actions and be doing it all for sport, enjoying her power over the man. Angela, however, is innocent of her "crime" and arguably she does genuinly seem to love George, she is all ready to deny her father's authority so that she can be happy with him, she even visits him in jail before his execution, despite what he has done, a true femme fatale would have just left him alone to suffer his fate.
In conclusion, it is obvious that Angela is not a femme-fatale, but rather a clever subversion of the notion of such a stereotypical character and is one of the few innocent characters in the whole film.

The Distinguishing Features Of Film Noir

Film Noir is a term coined from French film critics when they were commenting on the new dark and downbeat attitude of the wave of post war American films. The classic film noir period was between the 1940s and 50s in which time approximately 350 film noirs were made, most of which were simply B-features. Film noir was highly influenced by 20s German expressionist films, particularly in the use of a harsh contrast between light and darkness. The main influence on film noirs was the hardboiled pulp fiction detective stories which were immensely popular in America at the time, many of which were adapted into film noir films. Raymond Chandler is perhaps the most famous of these pulp fiction writers, having written the novels that inspired some of the most famous film noirs, such as ‘The Big Sleep’ and ‘Farewell My Lovely’. The most famous film noir director was Howard Hawks who was responsible for the successful adaptations of ‘The Big Sleep’ and many others.
From the distinguishing features of film noir, we can gain a great understanding of America in the in1940s and 50s, capturing the pessimistic and anxiety filled mood of a society at the dawn of a new age and still suffering from the after effects of the war. Throughout their history, film noirs have reflected the society from which they have been created, recent examples such as ‘LA Confidential’ and ‘The Black Dahlia’, both written by James Ellroy, focus once again on 50s corruption and anxiety as a comparison to events such as the gulf war and general feeling of mistrust in America. An even more recent example would be ‘Sin City’ which centers around today’s more violent and extreme world full of terrorism and threat and danger from everywhere. The distinguishing features of mood, male and female characterization and dark lighting will always be recognized as key indicators of a film noir.

Sullivan's Travels: Satirising the Film Industry and it's influence on other films

As was clearly highlighted both in clas and in the process of viewing the film, oneof the key components of the comedy in 'Sullivan's Travels' is that of layer of satirical jokes aimed directly at the film-making business itself of the time.
The film opens with a screening of Sullivan's new film to the studio producers, who begin to quickly de-construct it in order to get what they want to see in the film in order to make a profit. "With a little sex in it" is the humourously repeated demand by one of the executives, which would be later imitated in Tim Burton's 'Ed Wood' in the lines;
"What is the one thing, if you put it in a movie, it'll be successful?"
" Tits"
Despite the code still being in full swing, producers, as displayed in these two examples, were clearly desperate to try and get away with as much saucy and racy material in their films as possible as they knew it would see big profit and audience attendence numbers. When viewing other films from around the same time, it is truly remarkable to see how in some instances, such as Veronica Drake in the shower, the director was able to get past the code.
It is argued that Sturges' aim behind the film was to prove that whilst hard hitting drama's can be effective, as the final line of 'Sullivan's Travels' highlights, there really is something to be made out of just making people laugh. It is ironic that this line should come from Sullivan himself, since at the very start of the film, he was grossly adament against comedy and musicals.
"How can you ctalk about a musical at a time like this?"
In order to advance as a film maker, he believes he must make a gritty epic that "holds a mirror up to the world" to relfect the dark times or the Depression, using 'O,Brother Where Art Thou?' as a reference source to highlight the plight of the nation's tramps and forgotten men. With regards to comedy, it is also interesting to note how Sullivan berates the classic comic films involving "keystone chases, bathing beauties, custard pie" when later in the film, we see an almost tribut to such stlye of comedy with the boy's high speed car and the mayhem going on inside the land yacht as they try to follow him. As previously mentioned, the film also contains a bathing beauty in the form of Veronica Lake in the shower.
With regards to Veronica Lake's character, she is the embodiment of the dazzling Hollywood beauty and the film's clear love interest however, the stereotype is turned on its head as she has no name throughout the film, this does the opposite of not shaping her character as a plot device however, she is sassy, has a quick wit to keep up with Sullivan and doesnt mind getting dirty and dressing down living amoung tramps. She is the very antithesis of the blonde bombshell stereotype that studios use(d) to sell their films.
The concept that still exists today of film makers or studios seeking to be seen to be sympathetic on certain issues and tragedies is clearly lampooned in the film, of course Sullivan has no idea at all of the hardships of life on the streets, but to his credit, he does in fact walk the walk with regards to gaining the proper experience in perhaps the film example of method acting for a film. This notion of exposing celebrities in the film business to appear foolish and knowing nothing of real life harships has become a staple effective plot for hit comedies such as 'Tropic Thunder' and 'Galaxy Quest', where the actors are actually thrown into a real life dangerous situation to see how they would really cope.
The clearest comparrion film I can make to 'Sullivan's Travels' is that of under-rated gem, Kiss Kiss (Bang Bang) which is like 'Travels' but in reverse, where the low-life crook, Harry Lockheart (Robert Downey Jnr.) accidently stumbles into the film industry and all its prospects whilst Sullivan was so desperate to escape it in order to get the feel for his part.
It will of course remain a sad yet undeniable fact, that depsite the best intentions to gain laughs from the audience and mock the industry, the films will always still be a product of that same business, and the actors themselves not playing characters too far from the truth of how they themselves would act in such situations/