Over my doctoral dissertation (06/09/14)
“From the uncanny to Roman Polanski: An approach to the genre developed by the director,
throughout his films Repulsion (1965), Rosemary’s Baby (1968), Chinatown (1974), The Tenant (1976), The
Ghost Writer (2010) and Carnage (2011)”
SUBJECT AND GOALS:
This thesis continues a previous work about the film Rosemary’s Baby and its links with the
definition provided by Sigmund Freud on the uncanny feeling.
From a previous analysis that was focused on the so-called “apartment trilogy”, this investigation
considers stylistic resources, influences and the creation of milieus which connect with Roman Polanski’s
films and the idea of the uncanny.
Could we study the exact way in which the filmmaker creates that special atmosphere? Is it possible
to explain the identity and singularity of his work
The question narrows down to this: it is necessary to get to the bottom of his cinema, by a selection
of just a few of his most representative movies. It is also necessary to cut them into pieces in order to enable
a connection between their themes and the meaning of Sigmund Freud’s theories about the uncanny.
A delimitation of the field of study has been a turning point. Sigmund Freud’s theories are so well
known that it could have been difficult to arrange a proper analysis of his ideas, together with Roman
Polanski’s cinema. According to that, it has been taken the decision of working just with the essay Das
unheimliche (1919). By using terms of the Literature analysis, the essay has been schematically depicted and
the results have helped the author for her aims.
The genuine impact of Roman Polanski’s films on the audience, deals directly with a searching of a
style that doesn't actually exist and which involves the whole filmography of the filmmaker until now.
This thesis aims to find that style, demarcate it and put it into contrast with Sigmund Freud’s essay
on the uncanny.
METHODOLOGY:
As it happened with the first mentioned work on the film Rosemary's Baby, this thesis draws on
basic notions of Comparative Literature, to approach together both Roman Polanski’s films and Sigmund
Freud’s essay.
Most of the sources employed have a literary nuance. Those parts that had to do with textual analysis
have mostly to do with the literary narrative, in spite of being applied to the analysis of cinema.
From the various concepts of "structure" existing, to the relationship between literature and cinema
and even the possibility musically outline a novel, the principles of Professor Mariano Baquero Goyanes
have been followed in this analysis.
There have also been handled the theories compiled by Professor Antonio Garrido Dominguez on his
essay El texto narrativo in comparison with the different basis of the research.
We have selected the following six films by Roman Polanski.
Repulsion (Repulsión, 1965)
Rosemary’s Baby (La semilla del Diablo, 1968)
Chinatown (Chinatown, 1974)
The Tenant (El quimérico inquilino, 1976)
The Ghost Writer (El escritor, 2010)
Carnage (Un dios salvaje, 2011)
Given the formal and structural aspects of each work besides its plot development, it has been
noticed that the six films deserve another thematic and stylistic grouping:
• Reversal of the detective genre: Chinatown, The Ghost Writer.
• Main character’s madness: Repulsion, The Tenant
• The supernatural in the space of the everyday: Rosemary’s Baby
• Back to detachment / estrangement: Carnage
We proceeded to search for a definition of "uncanny" according to Sigmund Freud's essay, for which
a detailed analysis has been developed. Dr. Jaime Gordo Sánchez’s article “Reflexiones en torno al concepto
de Lo Siniestro: lo siniestro y la Escisión del Yo” has been such a great help on that purpose.
In order to elucidate why the six films are not registered on the margins of a conventional film genre,
on the contrary they belong to a personal style developed by Polanski, and which is also in a deep
relationship with Freud’s ideas, this thesis has worked on a definition for horror, dealing with cinema. Las
raíces del miedo by Roman Gubern & Joan Prat was used on that purpose.
The aspects that link the movies with the concepts of “surrealismo”, “distanciamiento”, “absurdo”
have also been reviewed, in order to avoid misreadings that could have nothing to do with the main point of
the thesis.
To work with each film, they all have been submitted to an intuitive decomposition into independent
temporal sequences. Professor Baquero Goyanes suggests an interesting “musical” sense for that, which
consists of searching for rhythm during the action of each one. That rhythm makes them particularly
sensitive for cuttings.
Once the films have been sequenced, we have proceeded to textual analysis. A series of individual
reviews have been added to each one. This section has always taken into account the relationship between
the films, thanks to a listing of so-called “Roman Polanski’s tools”, previously established by key frame
sequence, comprising the following:
-Circularity
-Subjective point of view
-“Companion” point of view
-Point of view treated as an object
-Furniture
-Peepholes
-Fridges
-Nosy figure
-Reflects
-Mirrors
After the analysis, there have been reached a number of conclusions about the style of Roman
Polanski’s films and Freud’s theories.
With the bibliography, general titles and references of articles have been compiled and published in
Spain and abroad as well as an assortment of online texts.
It has been interesting to annex to this work, a transcript of the text of Sigmund Freud, which has
been handled by the author during the research.
RESULTS:
Maybe the end of each film has been the most interesting discovery after the research: all of them
conclude with a sort of desperate fate which is directly transferred to the audience.
While Sigmund Freud explains that the ending of Die Elixiere des Teufels is a complete
disappointment for the reader, the audience from Repulsion (1965), Rosemary’s Baby (1968), Chinatown
(1974), The Tenant (1976), The Ghost Writer (2010) and Carnage (2011) experiment exactly the same: the
secrets are revealed but the conclusion is so frustrating for both the main characters of the stories and the
audience. That is the hallmark of Roman Polanski.
CONCLUSIONS:
This is the uncanny feeling, that bitter confusion about the information that comes through our
senses. The awareness of losing control over what we perceive, reaches its finest in a false world, in a broken
and corrupted society. Nowadays more than ever, we live in a weird and uncanny context. The films here
exposed, provoke that sense because of some themes that are shown but not in the proper way. They are not
typical thrillers, neither ordinary horror. Fictional narrative is written by someone who lives in this weird
world. The stories brought to the screen, were born out of a mind that has grown up in a world full of lies
that we all admit to be familiar. Roman Polanski deals with that matter. He develops a sort of personal
cinema and explains it.
Repulsion and The Tenant, joined by the portrait of a mind in progressive decay in their arguments,
propose the viewer a crash of views between what happens objectively and what each of the characters think
that is going around. Fears and phobias don’t remain hidden away from the rest of people who make up the
social environment: All of them appear and provoke violent attacks on others or against themselves.
Rosemary’s Baby, deals with the issue of supernatural intrusions into everyday space. The story never
abandons the possibility of whatever happens may be the result of a prodigious imagination. It is this
uncertainty that displays the sinister effect on the viewer
Chinatown and The Ghost Writer are both reversals of the detective genre. They play with the
audience by setting out typical plots on that field, but reaching their endings on a completely different way
and style. Both films are definitively uncanny.
Carnage is a crisis that affects human beings and universal viewers without forgetting what a
fictional story is. We see four characters that lose control over their impulses. This is not understood as
someone else’s troubles, but ours. It affects us more deeply than a simple comedy. It is actually a tragedy.
The world is a chaos which we are determined to govern.
All six films of Roman Polanski are based on the idea of the uncanny to get ahead, each one with an
outcome that disturbs everybody who has attended viewing.
The expectatives on horror films are not assumed. The audience perceives a plot that has not the
typical clichés. Once the ending is reached, anyone feels that the logic has been exchanged on purpose.
Repulsion, Rosemary’s Baby, Chinatown, The Tenant, The Ghost Writer and Carnage meet the needs
of a creator. On his willingness to show that face of the world that is normally hidden from the daily life,
Roman Polanski makes his audience be aware of a message about something that keeps on happening
without them noticing. A trace of a trouble that has taken place leaving consequences behind, and which
unavoidably will be happening in the future.
---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
MAIN BIBLIOGRAPHY:
-BALLÓ, Jordi y Xavier Pérez. La semilla inmortal. Los argumentos universales en el cine. Madrid:
Anagrama, 1997. 83-84. Printed.
-BAQUERO Goyanes, M. Estructuras de la novela actual. Barcelona: Planeta, 1970. 85-102;
103-129. Printed.
-BERGER, John. Modos de ver. Barcelona: Gustavo Gili, 2000. 13–42. Printed.
--- El sentido de la vista. Madrid: Alianza, 2002. Printed.
-BORDWELL, David. La narración en el cine de ficción. Paidós: Barcelona, 1996. Printed.
- BUTLER Ivan. The Cinema of Roman Polanski (The International film guide series). New York: A.
S. Barnes & Co. 1970, 81-82; 165. Printed.
--CASTRO, Antonio. “El quimérico Inquilino de Roman Polanski”. Dirigido por. Abr. 1977: 24.
Printed.
-CÉSAR, Samuel R. “Estudio Roman Polanski (1)”. Dirigido por. Num. 206. Oct. 1992.
54-67.Printed.
---“Estudio Roman Polanski (2)”. Num. 207. Nov. 1992. 54-67. Printed.
-FREUD, Sigmund. “Lo siniestro”. El hombre de la arena. Trad. Carmen Bravo-Villasante y L.
López Ballesteros y de Torres. Palma de Mallorca: José J. de Olañeta, 1991. 8-35. Printed.
-GARRIDO Domínguez, Antonio. El texto narrativo. Madrid: Síntesis, 1996. 105-122; 271-278.
Printed.
-GONZÁLEZ Requena, Jesús. “Emergencia de lo siniestro”. Trama&Fondo Num. 2. 1997. 3.
Printed.
-GORDO Sánchez, Jaime. “Reflexiones en torno al concepto de Lo Siniestro: lo siniestro y la
Escisión del Yo”. INTERSUBJETIVO. Num.1. Junio 2005: 83-95. Printed.
-GREGORY, R. L. Ojo y cerebro. Psicología de la visión. Trad. J. A. Valtreña. Madrid: Guadarrama,
1965. Printed.
-GUBERN, Román y Joan Prat. Las raíces del miedo. Barcelona: Tusquets, 1979. 33-46. Printed.
-LÓPEZ Villarquide María.”Roman Polanski: Visiones siniestras de lo cotidiano”. Cuadernos de
Documentación Multimedia. Universidad Complutense de Madrid. Num. 17. 2006. 12 dic. 2012. Web.
<http://multidoc.rediris.es/cdm/viewissue.php?id=4>
-MOLDES, Diego. Roman Polanski. La fantasía del atormentado. Madrid: Ediciones JC, 2005.
43-45; 202-227; 290. Printed.
-ORR, John y Elżbieta Ostrovska. The Cinema of Roman Polanski: Dark Spaces of the World.
London: Wallflowers Press, 2006. Printed.
-POLANSKI, Roman. Roman por Polanski. Trad. Mª Antonia Menini. Barcelona: Grijalbo, 1985.
229 y 419. Printed.
-REIG, Guillem. “Estudio sobre Roman Polanski”. Dirigido por. Num. 19. En. 1975. 1-11. Printed.
-TRIAS, Eugenio. Lo bello y lo siniestro. Barcelona: Ariel, 1988. 29-38; 97-114. Printed
“From the uncanny to Roman Polanski: An approach to the genre developed by the director,
throughout his films Repulsion (1965), Rosemary’s Baby (1968), Chinatown (1974), The Tenant (1976), The
Ghost Writer (2010) and Carnage (2011)”
SUBJECT AND GOALS:
This thesis continues a previous work about the film Rosemary’s Baby and its links with the
definition provided by Sigmund Freud on the uncanny feeling.
From a previous analysis that was focused on the so-called “apartment trilogy”, this investigation
considers stylistic resources, influences and the creation of milieus which connect with Roman Polanski’s
films and the idea of the uncanny.
Could we study the exact way in which the filmmaker creates that special atmosphere? Is it possible
to explain the identity and singularity of his work
The question narrows down to this: it is necessary to get to the bottom of his cinema, by a selection
of just a few of his most representative movies. It is also necessary to cut them into pieces in order to enable
a connection between their themes and the meaning of Sigmund Freud’s theories about the uncanny.
A delimitation of the field of study has been a turning point. Sigmund Freud’s theories are so well
known that it could have been difficult to arrange a proper analysis of his ideas, together with Roman
Polanski’s cinema. According to that, it has been taken the decision of working just with the essay Das
unheimliche (1919). By using terms of the Literature analysis, the essay has been schematically depicted and
the results have helped the author for her aims.
The genuine impact of Roman Polanski’s films on the audience, deals directly with a searching of a
style that doesn't actually exist and which involves the whole filmography of the filmmaker until now.
This thesis aims to find that style, demarcate it and put it into contrast with Sigmund Freud’s essay
on the uncanny.
METHODOLOGY:
As it happened with the first mentioned work on the film Rosemary's Baby, this thesis draws on
basic notions of Comparative Literature, to approach together both Roman Polanski’s films and Sigmund
Freud’s essay.
Most of the sources employed have a literary nuance. Those parts that had to do with textual analysis
have mostly to do with the literary narrative, in spite of being applied to the analysis of cinema.
From the various concepts of "structure" existing, to the relationship between literature and cinema
and even the possibility musically outline a novel, the principles of Professor Mariano Baquero Goyanes
have been followed in this analysis.
There have also been handled the theories compiled by Professor Antonio Garrido Dominguez on his
essay El texto narrativo in comparison with the different basis of the research.
We have selected the following six films by Roman Polanski.
Repulsion (Repulsión, 1965)
Rosemary’s Baby (La semilla del Diablo, 1968)
Chinatown (Chinatown, 1974)
The Tenant (El quimérico inquilino, 1976)
The Ghost Writer (El escritor, 2010)
Carnage (Un dios salvaje, 2011)
Given the formal and structural aspects of each work besides its plot development, it has been
noticed that the six films deserve another thematic and stylistic grouping:
• Reversal of the detective genre: Chinatown, The Ghost Writer.
• Main character’s madness: Repulsion, The Tenant
• The supernatural in the space of the everyday: Rosemary’s Baby
• Back to detachment / estrangement: Carnage
We proceeded to search for a definition of "uncanny" according to Sigmund Freud's essay, for which
a detailed analysis has been developed. Dr. Jaime Gordo Sánchez’s article “Reflexiones en torno al concepto
de Lo Siniestro: lo siniestro y la Escisión del Yo” has been such a great help on that purpose.
In order to elucidate why the six films are not registered on the margins of a conventional film genre,
on the contrary they belong to a personal style developed by Polanski, and which is also in a deep
relationship with Freud’s ideas, this thesis has worked on a definition for horror, dealing with cinema. Las
raíces del miedo by Roman Gubern & Joan Prat was used on that purpose.
The aspects that link the movies with the concepts of “surrealismo”, “distanciamiento”, “absurdo”
have also been reviewed, in order to avoid misreadings that could have nothing to do with the main point of
the thesis.
To work with each film, they all have been submitted to an intuitive decomposition into independent
temporal sequences. Professor Baquero Goyanes suggests an interesting “musical” sense for that, which
consists of searching for rhythm during the action of each one. That rhythm makes them particularly
sensitive for cuttings.
Once the films have been sequenced, we have proceeded to textual analysis. A series of individual
reviews have been added to each one. This section has always taken into account the relationship between
the films, thanks to a listing of so-called “Roman Polanski’s tools”, previously established by key frame
sequence, comprising the following:
-Circularity
-Subjective point of view
-“Companion” point of view
-Point of view treated as an object
-Furniture
-Peepholes
-Fridges
-Nosy figure
-Reflects
-Mirrors
After the analysis, there have been reached a number of conclusions about the style of Roman
Polanski’s films and Freud’s theories.
With the bibliography, general titles and references of articles have been compiled and published in
Spain and abroad as well as an assortment of online texts.
It has been interesting to annex to this work, a transcript of the text of Sigmund Freud, which has
been handled by the author during the research.
RESULTS:
Maybe the end of each film has been the most interesting discovery after the research: all of them
conclude with a sort of desperate fate which is directly transferred to the audience.
While Sigmund Freud explains that the ending of Die Elixiere des Teufels is a complete
disappointment for the reader, the audience from Repulsion (1965), Rosemary’s Baby (1968), Chinatown
(1974), The Tenant (1976), The Ghost Writer (2010) and Carnage (2011) experiment exactly the same: the
secrets are revealed but the conclusion is so frustrating for both the main characters of the stories and the
audience. That is the hallmark of Roman Polanski.
CONCLUSIONS:
This is the uncanny feeling, that bitter confusion about the information that comes through our
senses. The awareness of losing control over what we perceive, reaches its finest in a false world, in a broken
and corrupted society. Nowadays more than ever, we live in a weird and uncanny context. The films here
exposed, provoke that sense because of some themes that are shown but not in the proper way. They are not
typical thrillers, neither ordinary horror. Fictional narrative is written by someone who lives in this weird
world. The stories brought to the screen, were born out of a mind that has grown up in a world full of lies
that we all admit to be familiar. Roman Polanski deals with that matter. He develops a sort of personal
cinema and explains it.
Repulsion and The Tenant, joined by the portrait of a mind in progressive decay in their arguments,
propose the viewer a crash of views between what happens objectively and what each of the characters think
that is going around. Fears and phobias don’t remain hidden away from the rest of people who make up the
social environment: All of them appear and provoke violent attacks on others or against themselves.
Rosemary’s Baby, deals with the issue of supernatural intrusions into everyday space. The story never
abandons the possibility of whatever happens may be the result of a prodigious imagination. It is this
uncertainty that displays the sinister effect on the viewer
Chinatown and The Ghost Writer are both reversals of the detective genre. They play with the
audience by setting out typical plots on that field, but reaching their endings on a completely different way
and style. Both films are definitively uncanny.
Carnage is a crisis that affects human beings and universal viewers without forgetting what a
fictional story is. We see four characters that lose control over their impulses. This is not understood as
someone else’s troubles, but ours. It affects us more deeply than a simple comedy. It is actually a tragedy.
The world is a chaos which we are determined to govern.
All six films of Roman Polanski are based on the idea of the uncanny to get ahead, each one with an
outcome that disturbs everybody who has attended viewing.
The expectatives on horror films are not assumed. The audience perceives a plot that has not the
typical clichés. Once the ending is reached, anyone feels that the logic has been exchanged on purpose.
Repulsion, Rosemary’s Baby, Chinatown, The Tenant, The Ghost Writer and Carnage meet the needs
of a creator. On his willingness to show that face of the world that is normally hidden from the daily life,
Roman Polanski makes his audience be aware of a message about something that keeps on happening
without them noticing. A trace of a trouble that has taken place leaving consequences behind, and which
unavoidably will be happening in the future.
---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
MAIN BIBLIOGRAPHY:
-BALLÓ, Jordi y Xavier Pérez. La semilla inmortal. Los argumentos universales en el cine. Madrid:
Anagrama, 1997. 83-84. Printed.
-BAQUERO Goyanes, M. Estructuras de la novela actual. Barcelona: Planeta, 1970. 85-102;
103-129. Printed.
-BERGER, John. Modos de ver. Barcelona: Gustavo Gili, 2000. 13–42. Printed.
--- El sentido de la vista. Madrid: Alianza, 2002. Printed.
-BORDWELL, David. La narración en el cine de ficción. Paidós: Barcelona, 1996. Printed.
- BUTLER Ivan. The Cinema of Roman Polanski (The International film guide series). New York: A.
S. Barnes & Co. 1970, 81-82; 165. Printed.
--CASTRO, Antonio. “El quimérico Inquilino de Roman Polanski”. Dirigido por. Abr. 1977: 24.
Printed.
-CÉSAR, Samuel R. “Estudio Roman Polanski (1)”. Dirigido por. Num. 206. Oct. 1992.
54-67.Printed.
---“Estudio Roman Polanski (2)”. Num. 207. Nov. 1992. 54-67. Printed.
-FREUD, Sigmund. “Lo siniestro”. El hombre de la arena. Trad. Carmen Bravo-Villasante y L.
López Ballesteros y de Torres. Palma de Mallorca: José J. de Olañeta, 1991. 8-35. Printed.
-GARRIDO Domínguez, Antonio. El texto narrativo. Madrid: Síntesis, 1996. 105-122; 271-278.
Printed.
-GONZÁLEZ Requena, Jesús. “Emergencia de lo siniestro”. Trama&Fondo Num. 2. 1997. 3.
Printed.
-GORDO Sánchez, Jaime. “Reflexiones en torno al concepto de Lo Siniestro: lo siniestro y la
Escisión del Yo”. INTERSUBJETIVO. Num.1. Junio 2005: 83-95. Printed.
-GREGORY, R. L. Ojo y cerebro. Psicología de la visión. Trad. J. A. Valtreña. Madrid: Guadarrama,
1965. Printed.
-GUBERN, Román y Joan Prat. Las raíces del miedo. Barcelona: Tusquets, 1979. 33-46. Printed.
-LÓPEZ Villarquide María.”Roman Polanski: Visiones siniestras de lo cotidiano”. Cuadernos de
Documentación Multimedia. Universidad Complutense de Madrid. Num. 17. 2006. 12 dic. 2012. Web.
<http://multidoc.rediris.es/cdm/viewissue.php?id=4>
-MOLDES, Diego. Roman Polanski. La fantasía del atormentado. Madrid: Ediciones JC, 2005.
43-45; 202-227; 290. Printed.
-ORR, John y Elżbieta Ostrovska. The Cinema of Roman Polanski: Dark Spaces of the World.
London: Wallflowers Press, 2006. Printed.
-POLANSKI, Roman. Roman por Polanski. Trad. Mª Antonia Menini. Barcelona: Grijalbo, 1985.
229 y 419. Printed.
-REIG, Guillem. “Estudio sobre Roman Polanski”. Dirigido por. Num. 19. En. 1975. 1-11. Printed.
-TRIAS, Eugenio. Lo bello y lo siniestro. Barcelona: Ariel, 1988. 29-38; 97-114. Printed
The Banishing Space: An introduction to the spatial point of view in Alex Roman’s The Third & the Seventh
In 2010, somebody made a very good choice on describing what happens in the mind, when the eye captures architectural concepts, not throughout drawings or sketches, but by using what the experts call “CG” (computer generated) graphics.
Alex Roman’s The Third & the Seventh delves into the Architecture and Photography interplay and sets a new benchmark for CGI: by showing an assortment of real spaces only described since a nonexistent point of view, an impossible space.
I will set out briefly the aspects of this question which are relevant to the aims of this essay: this short film recalls real sensations, although it is not physically true and the audience does not realize until it comes to an end.
More than a hundred years of experience in front of the cinema screen have made possible the “illusion of reality” becoming a reality itself. People go to the cinema and accept the deal with the story that is shown; they pretend to feel it as real although from the beginning they perfectly know it is a fake. It is the accepted magic of cinema.
According to Slavoj Zyzek ideas, There is something more real in the illusion than in the reality behind it moreover, there could be something illusory in front of that illusion that seems real and makes the audience feel as if it would be, that is to say: an illusory point of view.
I want to emphasize the fact that the audience knows in advance that what is going to be watched is a 3D developed short film about architecture; they would never guess how far away the movie will take them.
Alex Roman’s techniques of architectural visualization deal with computer generated projects, first developed on real and then translated into the virtual area. He has said in some interviews that when he was taking part of the industry, he did not communicate properly with customers: he used to propose more photographic and film style ideas for the architectural projects and was a misunderstanding. Maybe thanks to this “failure” he could find the way to finally get astonishing piece of audio visual art.
Let us examine The Third & the Seventh separately:
00:00
The opening images show a fountain pen over a sheet of paper and a steaming bowl in the foreground. There is a page from a book that is horizontally moving and a two sided image of the bowl, the paper and the fountain pen. A travelling to the left allows the audience to contemplate a big library archive and many photos hanging on a wire just in front of it.
The next image is a series of red film roll covering a surface. Again a two sided image, this time showing an antique camera. Now it is possible to check the different angles and spaces of this old machine. The title jumps at its side: “The 3rd & the 7th”.
01:40
The Shiba Ryotaro Memorial Museum is observed since its diverse hidden corners, through its hollows, everywhere. There is the old camera again, overseeing, photographing.
02:11
The Barcelona Pavilion[4] comes to the eye by the recognizable sculpture of “Alba”. The screen is cut in two sides, sharing what the camera sees with the camera itself.
02:19
Many theater seats introduce the spectator into the Auditorium and Music Centre[5] in Barcelona. One more time, the old camera is placed in the middle of the space depicted, among the seats.
The next image is the “lantern” of the Auditorium: a big high space that opens to the sky. There still remains the camera and its silhouette framed by its shadow on the wall. It is moving with the help of a crane.
03:07
The usual image divided into two, now deals with the white windows and walls at MiIlwauwkee Art Museum[6]. The camera travels through its interiors and the audience jumps abruptly into a new space, on the outside.
03:18
There is a white sofa and the tripod in front of it. It seems like a photo shoot stage, again twice divided and again becoming an outside landscape, somewhere by nightfall.
03:42
Phillips Exeter Academy Library[7] is the next place registered by the camera. The slow movements introduce the audience into the travertine walls of the building’s interiors and its teak wood panels.
04:17
One of the most impressive scenarios in the whole film takes place now, when a plane crosses the sky behind one of the stainless steel facades at the Walt Disney Concert Hall[8]. It is an impossible viewing but the spectator just has the chance to see it by means of CG. The result is amazingly real.
04:43
The only human figure in the film is now shown: his shadow appears behind a translucent panel. He is Jorge Seva, the author of the piece, at this time in the shoes of a photographer.
04:50
The image is divided into three and while the lights are turned on, the audience recognizes the “lantern” at the Auditorium and Music Center in Barcelona, again.
05:13
The Barcelona Pavilion with the white “Barcelona Chair” in a two sided image guides the spectator to the silhouette of the photographer, framed on the floor. The stay is traversed one more time.
05:46
A spotlight projected on the ground, shows the photographer’s figure with his camera and an umbrella, now at Riotaro Shiba Museum. Wooden shelves are full of books and the image is again a three cuts framework.
05:58
The stalls Auditorium in Barcelona and the photographer is now reflected on its polished floor.
06:20
The camera is placed at the end of the Milwakee Art Museum. It seems like an ocean liner and links with a two cuts framework image of its interior. Something impossible happens again, a phrase hangs on the ceiling: “architecture as an art”.
06:37
The same photo shoot scenario that has been shown previously, now is quickly repeated in a sort of flash-forward.
06:49
The Phillips Exeter Academy Library appears in half-darkness. The same happens with the Barcelona Pavilion in a sort of “light and darkness” play.
07:24
Some wind-power generators start to move. A green field joins the movement and many small pieces of dust and petals fly in the air.
07:59
A three framed image show the almond trees on the outside of Naoshima Benesee House Museum[9].
08:18
Another spectacular viewing is the blooming of some white flowers in the grass. The camera is there of course, above them and moving forward at the same time.
08:34
The Fuji House[10] again in a two cut framework image appears deep in the woods, just like another hidden tree, perfectly integrated in the nature. The image moves forwards and backwards, to the left and to the right, remains numb and lets the wind be the one that keeps the leaves moving.
09:15
Under the cloudy sky, over the horizon, appears the “Elogio del horizonte”[11] sculpture. The image moves forward and jumps into a new viewing of Milwaukee Art Museum.
09:32
The stunning white figure of Milwaukee Art Museum seems to come alive[12]: its steel fins are opening and the spectator has the illusionary viewing of a bird starting to fly.
Now the interior shows the photographer with his tripod, in front of a tree and under a stormy cloud.
09:56
The Auditorium and Music Centre in Barcelona is filled with perfectly spherical water drops. They are falling slowly by the lantern’s space and the photographer is there again.
10:24
The lamps from the library at Riotaro Shiba Museum are turned on. The point of view is from the ground, so the audience can see the ceiling with all the lights shining.
The image moves up, with the bookshelves on both sides.
10:37
The photographer is now located on the outside of Barcelona Pavilion. The yellow trees are swaying over him.
10:52
In front of the Fuji House, the photographer opens an umbrella: it is beginning to rain, but dozens of paper lamps are wafting in the air.
11:00
The photographer is now crouched down inside the Phillips Exeter Academy Library and captures with his camera the impressive flight of some books, like a flock hoping to escape. But when they are at the point of reaching the top of the ceiling, they burst into millions of sheets and fall down.
11:45
The screen of the old camera shows the inverted figure of the National Assembly in Dacca[13] and the building behind it. This final image deals with a selection of visual effects, as if the photographer would be trying different ways for capturing the foreground. It ends with the so-called “dolly doom” effect.
Once the subject matter is determined, we all know what the film deals with, and we all are specially conscious about the truth (there is no real footage, everything is CG) the question narrows down to this: the point of view does not exist at all.
To try to understand this matter clearly, it is necessary to imagine which ones should have been the “real” steps on filming The Third & the Seventh in case it would have been an ordinary real film, about ordinary real buildings.
There is always a camera, and since its placement, the story is narrated. Its movements are the obliged movements of the audience's eyes, but on The Third & the Seventh there is no place, because there is no camera (even if the spectator watches the human figure of the photographer and his machine on screen, there is no physical entity for them).
Therefore, where is the audience positioned? Where is supposed to be the “eye” of the story told? The answer is somewhere in the indefinite place of the virtual, and it is hard to grasp.
There we came to the conclusion that paradoxically, The Third & the Seventh, contrary to what happens to many other real documentaries about architecture, allows the audience to be physically close to the subject, it drives the eye through “real” scenarios by creating them again, and by ignoring the real location that the real camera should have had.
----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Bibliography:
-FIENNES, Sophie (dir.): The Pervert’s Guide to Cinema; P Guide Ltd. ICA Projects (UK) 2006. Available at http://www.thepervertsguide.com/clips.html [19/12/12].
-“Entrevista a Alex Roman. Mundos Digitales 2010”. Available at http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DYW_SgiWEoo [12/07/2011].
-“Higashiosaka. Japan by Tadao Ando”. Available at http://architectuul.com/architecture/shiba-ryotaro-memorial-museum [06/1272011].
-SILLOWAY Kari “Art Site Naoshima Kawaga, Japan. Tadao Ando 1992”. Available at http://www.galinsky.com/buildings/naoshima/index.htm [2004].
-“Milwauwkee Art Museum. Museum info”. Available at http://mam.org/info/architecture.php [21/12/12].
----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
[1]FIENNES, Sophie (dir.): The Pervert’s Guide to Cinema; P Guide Ltd. ICA Projects (UK) 2006. At http://www.thepervertsguide.com/clips.html [19/12/12]
[2] Mundos Digitales; 2010. At http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DYW_SgiWEoo [12/07/2011]
[3] Tadao Ando’s Shiba Ryotaro Memorial Museum (2001) is located on Higashiosaka, Japan. <<An effective way of housing his enormous collection of books from around the world needed to take into account the importance of the setting and the fact that they would not be moved. The objective was to create an architecture that allowed people to visualize the inner workings of author's mind>>. Maria Thuroczy at http://architectuul.com/architecture/shiba-ryotaro-memorial-museum [06/1272011]
[4] Ludwig Mies van der Roe‘s Barcelona Pavilion (1929) together with the “Barcelona Chair” and George Kolbe’s sculpture “Alba” are located on Barcelona, Spain. << The sculpture is reflected not only in the water but also in the marble and glass, thereby creating the sensation that it is multiplied in space, while its curves contrast with the geometrical purity of the building>> at http://www.miesbcn.com/en/documentation.html [19/12/2012].
[5]Rafael Moneo, Barcelona (1999)
[6] Santiago Calatrava’s Quadracci Pavillion is located on lake Michigan in Milwaukee Art Museum, Wisconsin (2001)
[7] Louis Kahn’s Phillips Exeter Academy Library is located on New Hapshire (1971)
[8] Frank Gehry’s Walt Disney Concert Hall is located on Los Ángeles (2003).
[9] Tadao Ando’s Naoshima Benesee House Museum is located on Kagawa, Japan (1992). <<The oval shaped hotel Annex is situated higher up the hill above the museum and is accessed by a cable car or walking paths from the museum[…]an oval shaped cut out volume of which in the center is a pool of still water filled to its edges reflecting the surrounding volume and the sky above>>. Kari Silloway at http://www.galinsky.com/buildings/naoshima/index.htm [2004].
[10]Satoshi Okada’s Fuji House is located on Narusawa, Yamanashi Prefecture, Japan (2000).
[11]Eduardo Chillida’s “Eulogy to the Horizon” is located on Gijón, Spain (1989).
[12]<<The Burke Brise Soleil, a moveable sunscreen with a 217-foot wingspan that unfolds and folds twice daily>> at http://mam.org/info/architecture.php [21/12/12]
[13]Louis Kahn’s National Assembly in Dacca is located on Dacca, Bangladesh (1974).
In 2010, somebody made a very good choice on describing what happens in the mind, when the eye captures architectural concepts, not throughout drawings or sketches, but by using what the experts call “CG” (computer generated) graphics.
Alex Roman’s The Third & the Seventh delves into the Architecture and Photography interplay and sets a new benchmark for CGI: by showing an assortment of real spaces only described since a nonexistent point of view, an impossible space.
I will set out briefly the aspects of this question which are relevant to the aims of this essay: this short film recalls real sensations, although it is not physically true and the audience does not realize until it comes to an end.
More than a hundred years of experience in front of the cinema screen have made possible the “illusion of reality” becoming a reality itself. People go to the cinema and accept the deal with the story that is shown; they pretend to feel it as real although from the beginning they perfectly know it is a fake. It is the accepted magic of cinema.
According to Slavoj Zyzek ideas, There is something more real in the illusion than in the reality behind it moreover, there could be something illusory in front of that illusion that seems real and makes the audience feel as if it would be, that is to say: an illusory point of view.
I want to emphasize the fact that the audience knows in advance that what is going to be watched is a 3D developed short film about architecture; they would never guess how far away the movie will take them.
Alex Roman’s techniques of architectural visualization deal with computer generated projects, first developed on real and then translated into the virtual area. He has said in some interviews that when he was taking part of the industry, he did not communicate properly with customers: he used to propose more photographic and film style ideas for the architectural projects and was a misunderstanding. Maybe thanks to this “failure” he could find the way to finally get astonishing piece of audio visual art.
Let us examine The Third & the Seventh separately:
00:00
The opening images show a fountain pen over a sheet of paper and a steaming bowl in the foreground. There is a page from a book that is horizontally moving and a two sided image of the bowl, the paper and the fountain pen. A travelling to the left allows the audience to contemplate a big library archive and many photos hanging on a wire just in front of it.
The next image is a series of red film roll covering a surface. Again a two sided image, this time showing an antique camera. Now it is possible to check the different angles and spaces of this old machine. The title jumps at its side: “The 3rd & the 7th”.
01:40
The Shiba Ryotaro Memorial Museum is observed since its diverse hidden corners, through its hollows, everywhere. There is the old camera again, overseeing, photographing.
02:11
The Barcelona Pavilion[4] comes to the eye by the recognizable sculpture of “Alba”. The screen is cut in two sides, sharing what the camera sees with the camera itself.
02:19
Many theater seats introduce the spectator into the Auditorium and Music Centre[5] in Barcelona. One more time, the old camera is placed in the middle of the space depicted, among the seats.
The next image is the “lantern” of the Auditorium: a big high space that opens to the sky. There still remains the camera and its silhouette framed by its shadow on the wall. It is moving with the help of a crane.
03:07
The usual image divided into two, now deals with the white windows and walls at MiIlwauwkee Art Museum[6]. The camera travels through its interiors and the audience jumps abruptly into a new space, on the outside.
03:18
There is a white sofa and the tripod in front of it. It seems like a photo shoot stage, again twice divided and again becoming an outside landscape, somewhere by nightfall.
03:42
Phillips Exeter Academy Library[7] is the next place registered by the camera. The slow movements introduce the audience into the travertine walls of the building’s interiors and its teak wood panels.
04:17
One of the most impressive scenarios in the whole film takes place now, when a plane crosses the sky behind one of the stainless steel facades at the Walt Disney Concert Hall[8]. It is an impossible viewing but the spectator just has the chance to see it by means of CG. The result is amazingly real.
04:43
The only human figure in the film is now shown: his shadow appears behind a translucent panel. He is Jorge Seva, the author of the piece, at this time in the shoes of a photographer.
04:50
The image is divided into three and while the lights are turned on, the audience recognizes the “lantern” at the Auditorium and Music Center in Barcelona, again.
05:13
The Barcelona Pavilion with the white “Barcelona Chair” in a two sided image guides the spectator to the silhouette of the photographer, framed on the floor. The stay is traversed one more time.
05:46
A spotlight projected on the ground, shows the photographer’s figure with his camera and an umbrella, now at Riotaro Shiba Museum. Wooden shelves are full of books and the image is again a three cuts framework.
05:58
The stalls Auditorium in Barcelona and the photographer is now reflected on its polished floor.
06:20
The camera is placed at the end of the Milwakee Art Museum. It seems like an ocean liner and links with a two cuts framework image of its interior. Something impossible happens again, a phrase hangs on the ceiling: “architecture as an art”.
06:37
The same photo shoot scenario that has been shown previously, now is quickly repeated in a sort of flash-forward.
06:49
The Phillips Exeter Academy Library appears in half-darkness. The same happens with the Barcelona Pavilion in a sort of “light and darkness” play.
07:24
Some wind-power generators start to move. A green field joins the movement and many small pieces of dust and petals fly in the air.
07:59
A three framed image show the almond trees on the outside of Naoshima Benesee House Museum[9].
08:18
Another spectacular viewing is the blooming of some white flowers in the grass. The camera is there of course, above them and moving forward at the same time.
08:34
The Fuji House[10] again in a two cut framework image appears deep in the woods, just like another hidden tree, perfectly integrated in the nature. The image moves forwards and backwards, to the left and to the right, remains numb and lets the wind be the one that keeps the leaves moving.
09:15
Under the cloudy sky, over the horizon, appears the “Elogio del horizonte”[11] sculpture. The image moves forward and jumps into a new viewing of Milwaukee Art Museum.
09:32
The stunning white figure of Milwaukee Art Museum seems to come alive[12]: its steel fins are opening and the spectator has the illusionary viewing of a bird starting to fly.
Now the interior shows the photographer with his tripod, in front of a tree and under a stormy cloud.
09:56
The Auditorium and Music Centre in Barcelona is filled with perfectly spherical water drops. They are falling slowly by the lantern’s space and the photographer is there again.
10:24
The lamps from the library at Riotaro Shiba Museum are turned on. The point of view is from the ground, so the audience can see the ceiling with all the lights shining.
The image moves up, with the bookshelves on both sides.
10:37
The photographer is now located on the outside of Barcelona Pavilion. The yellow trees are swaying over him.
10:52
In front of the Fuji House, the photographer opens an umbrella: it is beginning to rain, but dozens of paper lamps are wafting in the air.
11:00
The photographer is now crouched down inside the Phillips Exeter Academy Library and captures with his camera the impressive flight of some books, like a flock hoping to escape. But when they are at the point of reaching the top of the ceiling, they burst into millions of sheets and fall down.
11:45
The screen of the old camera shows the inverted figure of the National Assembly in Dacca[13] and the building behind it. This final image deals with a selection of visual effects, as if the photographer would be trying different ways for capturing the foreground. It ends with the so-called “dolly doom” effect.
Once the subject matter is determined, we all know what the film deals with, and we all are specially conscious about the truth (there is no real footage, everything is CG) the question narrows down to this: the point of view does not exist at all.
To try to understand this matter clearly, it is necessary to imagine which ones should have been the “real” steps on filming The Third & the Seventh in case it would have been an ordinary real film, about ordinary real buildings.
There is always a camera, and since its placement, the story is narrated. Its movements are the obliged movements of the audience's eyes, but on The Third & the Seventh there is no place, because there is no camera (even if the spectator watches the human figure of the photographer and his machine on screen, there is no physical entity for them).
Therefore, where is the audience positioned? Where is supposed to be the “eye” of the story told? The answer is somewhere in the indefinite place of the virtual, and it is hard to grasp.
There we came to the conclusion that paradoxically, The Third & the Seventh, contrary to what happens to many other real documentaries about architecture, allows the audience to be physically close to the subject, it drives the eye through “real” scenarios by creating them again, and by ignoring the real location that the real camera should have had.
----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Bibliography:
-FIENNES, Sophie (dir.): The Pervert’s Guide to Cinema; P Guide Ltd. ICA Projects (UK) 2006. Available at http://www.thepervertsguide.com/clips.html [19/12/12].
-“Entrevista a Alex Roman. Mundos Digitales 2010”. Available at http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DYW_SgiWEoo [12/07/2011].
-“Higashiosaka. Japan by Tadao Ando”. Available at http://architectuul.com/architecture/shiba-ryotaro-memorial-museum [06/1272011].
-SILLOWAY Kari “Art Site Naoshima Kawaga, Japan. Tadao Ando 1992”. Available at http://www.galinsky.com/buildings/naoshima/index.htm [2004].
-“Milwauwkee Art Museum. Museum info”. Available at http://mam.org/info/architecture.php [21/12/12].
----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
[1]FIENNES, Sophie (dir.): The Pervert’s Guide to Cinema; P Guide Ltd. ICA Projects (UK) 2006. At http://www.thepervertsguide.com/clips.html [19/12/12]
[2] Mundos Digitales; 2010. At http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DYW_SgiWEoo [12/07/2011]
[3] Tadao Ando’s Shiba Ryotaro Memorial Museum (2001) is located on Higashiosaka, Japan. <<An effective way of housing his enormous collection of books from around the world needed to take into account the importance of the setting and the fact that they would not be moved. The objective was to create an architecture that allowed people to visualize the inner workings of author's mind>>. Maria Thuroczy at http://architectuul.com/architecture/shiba-ryotaro-memorial-museum [06/1272011]
[4] Ludwig Mies van der Roe‘s Barcelona Pavilion (1929) together with the “Barcelona Chair” and George Kolbe’s sculpture “Alba” are located on Barcelona, Spain. << The sculpture is reflected not only in the water but also in the marble and glass, thereby creating the sensation that it is multiplied in space, while its curves contrast with the geometrical purity of the building>> at http://www.miesbcn.com/en/documentation.html [19/12/2012].
[5]Rafael Moneo, Barcelona (1999)
[6] Santiago Calatrava’s Quadracci Pavillion is located on lake Michigan in Milwaukee Art Museum, Wisconsin (2001)
[7] Louis Kahn’s Phillips Exeter Academy Library is located on New Hapshire (1971)
[8] Frank Gehry’s Walt Disney Concert Hall is located on Los Ángeles (2003).
[9] Tadao Ando’s Naoshima Benesee House Museum is located on Kagawa, Japan (1992). <<The oval shaped hotel Annex is situated higher up the hill above the museum and is accessed by a cable car or walking paths from the museum[…]an oval shaped cut out volume of which in the center is a pool of still water filled to its edges reflecting the surrounding volume and the sky above>>. Kari Silloway at http://www.galinsky.com/buildings/naoshima/index.htm [2004].
[10]Satoshi Okada’s Fuji House is located on Narusawa, Yamanashi Prefecture, Japan (2000).
[11]Eduardo Chillida’s “Eulogy to the Horizon” is located on Gijón, Spain (1989).
[12]<<The Burke Brise Soleil, a moveable sunscreen with a 217-foot wingspan that unfolds and folds twice daily>> at http://mam.org/info/architecture.php [21/12/12]
[13]Louis Kahn’s National Assembly in Dacca is located on Dacca, Bangladesh (1974).
The Forbidden Zone. A nurse's impressions of the First World War. Mary Borden.Hesperus Press. London. 2008
¡Zona prohibida! Una enfermera norteamericana en la Gran Guerra. Trad. Teresa Gómez Reus y Peter Lauber. Biblioteca Javier cay d'Estudis Nord-Americans. Valencia. 2011
etcetera:
It seems quite difficult to figure out a poem without words. The idea may sound like a cliche; it actually sounds like the title of a song or a painting and it probably is but, anyway: when we think about poetry we always think about words and writing.
Then, we get to know Mary Borden's testimonies about the First World War and everything turns upside down. We thought we knew what a poem was; we thought we knew what a chronicle of a war was but we were wrong.
By reading her impressions, anyone can feel the disease she's talking about: the illness of the World War. She's not only a nurse that helps people not dying, she's also a bard, a voice hidden in chaos. She writes poems but not with words.
She bleeds and screams, sinks her pen in terror of the battlefield and in despair of the hospital when it is no longer a real one, but a sad bunch of tents covered in mud.
"We conspire against his right to die. We experiment with his bones, his muscles, his sinews, his blood. We dig into the yawning mouths of his wounds. Helpless openings, they let us into the secret places of his body. We plunge deep into his body. We make discoveries within his body. To the shame of the havoc of his limbs we add the insult of our curiosity and the curse of our purpose, the purpose to remake him. We lay odds on his chances of escape, and we combat with death, his Saviour(...)"
Anyone can feel dirty and desperate after reading those lines and this is not because they are dirty depictions, but because they remind us the saddest part of our soul, even if we had never been on the AID services during the First World War.
Thanks to the interesting work of Teresa Gómez Reus and Peter Lauber from the Universitat de València, Spanish readers can also reach the powerful voice of Mary Borden translated into their language.
We know it is not easy to translate literature, particularly those pieces of strong poetry whose strength is lost along the way. Maybe because as I first said: they are not written with words.
I'd better let E. E. Cummings to talk himself:
my sweet old etcetera
aunt lucy during the recent
war could and what
is more did tell you just
what everybody was fighting
for,
my sister
isabel created hundreds
(and
hundreds) of socks not to
mention shirts fleaproof earwarmers
etcetera wristers etcetera, my
mother hoped that
i would die etcetera
bravely of course my father used
to become hoarse talking about how it was
a privilege and if only he
could meanwhile my
self etcetera lay quietly
in the deep mud et
cetera
(dreaming,
et
cetera, of
Your smile
Eyes knees and of your Etcetera)
[Cummings, Edward Estlin, Collected Poems; N. Y., Harcourt, Brace and C.º, 1938]
¡Zona prohibida! Una enfermera norteamericana en la Gran Guerra. Trad. Teresa Gómez Reus y Peter Lauber. Biblioteca Javier cay d'Estudis Nord-Americans. Valencia. 2011
etcetera:
It seems quite difficult to figure out a poem without words. The idea may sound like a cliche; it actually sounds like the title of a song or a painting and it probably is but, anyway: when we think about poetry we always think about words and writing.
Then, we get to know Mary Borden's testimonies about the First World War and everything turns upside down. We thought we knew what a poem was; we thought we knew what a chronicle of a war was but we were wrong.
By reading her impressions, anyone can feel the disease she's talking about: the illness of the World War. She's not only a nurse that helps people not dying, she's also a bard, a voice hidden in chaos. She writes poems but not with words.
She bleeds and screams, sinks her pen in terror of the battlefield and in despair of the hospital when it is no longer a real one, but a sad bunch of tents covered in mud.
"We conspire against his right to die. We experiment with his bones, his muscles, his sinews, his blood. We dig into the yawning mouths of his wounds. Helpless openings, they let us into the secret places of his body. We plunge deep into his body. We make discoveries within his body. To the shame of the havoc of his limbs we add the insult of our curiosity and the curse of our purpose, the purpose to remake him. We lay odds on his chances of escape, and we combat with death, his Saviour(...)"
Anyone can feel dirty and desperate after reading those lines and this is not because they are dirty depictions, but because they remind us the saddest part of our soul, even if we had never been on the AID services during the First World War.
Thanks to the interesting work of Teresa Gómez Reus and Peter Lauber from the Universitat de València, Spanish readers can also reach the powerful voice of Mary Borden translated into their language.
We know it is not easy to translate literature, particularly those pieces of strong poetry whose strength is lost along the way. Maybe because as I first said: they are not written with words.
I'd better let E. E. Cummings to talk himself:
my sweet old etcetera
aunt lucy during the recent
war could and what
is more did tell you just
what everybody was fighting
for,
my sister
isabel created hundreds
(and
hundreds) of socks not to
mention shirts fleaproof earwarmers
etcetera wristers etcetera, my
mother hoped that
i would die etcetera
bravely of course my father used
to become hoarse talking about how it was
a privilege and if only he
could meanwhile my
self etcetera lay quietly
in the deep mud et
cetera
(dreaming,
et
cetera, of
Your smile
Eyes knees and of your Etcetera)
[Cummings, Edward Estlin, Collected Poems; N. Y., Harcourt, Brace and C.º, 1938]
Walk on the Wild Side; Album Transformer (Lou Reed, 1972). Written by Lou Reed.
Why not?:
Considered as a sharp loving group portrait of the misfit boys and midnight darlings of New York City, this song was written in 1971, when Lou Reed was asked to compose the music for a theatrical adaptation of A Walk on the Wild Side, a realistic novel about addiction and prostitution by Nelson Algren; nevertheless, the production never got past the planning stage.
In order to try to understand this song clearly, it is necessary to examine separately what exactly the "Velvet Underground" was. In brief, a rock&roll band which was born in 1967 and which lasted with Lou Reed as a member only through 1970. They took part in the creation of a new wave in music that is still imitated nowadays, more than 30 years after.
Andy Warhol helped the band during its beginnings. For them he created "The Factory"; it was their place of work and inspiration, namely, there, they were mixed all sorts of drugs with the art and madness of a "subterranean New York". Reed mines his Warhol/Factory experiences for much of the material on this song.
By listening to the song we are placed in the Factory environment and we learn details about the lifes of its people. Lou Reed talks us about five characters. If we look at the lyrics scheme we will identify them clearly. They are:
Holly Woodlawn (1)
Candy Darling (7)
Joe Dalessandro (14)
Sugar Plum Fairy (20)
Jack Curtis (27)
All of them existed and were a sort of "changelings" or transexuals, you alredy know: men who pass for women (by using make-up and female dressing) in the world of prostitution and show-business.
Analysing the text, we find explicit references of this ambiguity on lines 3-4 and 20 (in contrast with 23, him).
Likewise, we find a metaphoric mention to drug addiction and overdosis between lines 27-30. At first sight, we think that Jackie has died because he/she was driving fast (27) and consequently had a crash (29) but, if we look at the vocabulary we notice that there is another meaning for "speed", in the same way, we get the clue on line 30: by using Valium, Jackie would have reduced the effects of the drug he/she had had.
To conclude, I would like to mention a detail only noticeable if you listen the song until the end: the closing baritone-sax break is performed by Ronnie Ross, the sax teacher of David Bowie.
Now, please listen to the song and read it carefully. In case you have any doubt, you may look at the vocabulary in the footnote.
Holly came from Miami, Fla
Hitchhiked her way across the USA.
Plucked her eyebrows on the way
Shaved her legs and then he was she
She says:"Hey Babe, take a walk on the wild side"
Said: "hey honey, take a walk on the wild side"
Candy came from out on the island
In the backroom she was everybody's darling
But she never lost her head
Even when she was givin' head
She says: "hey Babe, take a walk on the wild side"
Said: "hey babe, take a walk on the wild side"
And the coloured girls go
Doo dodoo...
Little Joe never once gave it away
Everybody had to pay and pay
A hustle here and a hustle there
New York city is the place where they said:
"Hey babe, take a walk on the wild side"
I said: "hey Joe, take a walk on the wild side"
Sugar Plum Fairy came and hit the streets
Lookin' for soul food and a place to eat
Went to the Apollo
You should have seen him go go go
They said: "hey Sugar, take a walk on the wild side"
I said: "hey babe, take a walk on the wild side"
All right, huh
Jackie is just speeding away
Thought she was James Dean for a day
Then I guess she had to crash
Valium would have helped that bash
She said:"hey babe, take a walk on the wild side"
I said: "hey honey, take a walk on the wild side"
And the coloured girls say
Doo dodoo...
---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Vocabulary:
Hitch-hicke (2): to travel by asking for free rides in other people's cars, by standing at the side of the road and trying to get passing cars to stop.
Pluck (3): to pull out hairs with your fingers or with tweezers.
Give sb. their head (10): to allow sb. to do what they want without trying to stop them.
Hustle (16): busy noisy activity of a lot of people in one place.
Hit the streets (20): to become widely available for sale.
Soul food (21): the type of food that was traditionally eaten by black people in the Southern USA.
Speed (27): an illegal amphetamine drug that is taken to give feelings of excitement and energy.
Bash (30): a hard hit.
Why not?:
Considered as a sharp loving group portrait of the misfit boys and midnight darlings of New York City, this song was written in 1971, when Lou Reed was asked to compose the music for a theatrical adaptation of A Walk on the Wild Side, a realistic novel about addiction and prostitution by Nelson Algren; nevertheless, the production never got past the planning stage.
In order to try to understand this song clearly, it is necessary to examine separately what exactly the "Velvet Underground" was. In brief, a rock&roll band which was born in 1967 and which lasted with Lou Reed as a member only through 1970. They took part in the creation of a new wave in music that is still imitated nowadays, more than 30 years after.
Andy Warhol helped the band during its beginnings. For them he created "The Factory"; it was their place of work and inspiration, namely, there, they were mixed all sorts of drugs with the art and madness of a "subterranean New York". Reed mines his Warhol/Factory experiences for much of the material on this song.
By listening to the song we are placed in the Factory environment and we learn details about the lifes of its people. Lou Reed talks us about five characters. If we look at the lyrics scheme we will identify them clearly. They are:
Holly Woodlawn (1)
Candy Darling (7)
Joe Dalessandro (14)
Sugar Plum Fairy (20)
Jack Curtis (27)
All of them existed and were a sort of "changelings" or transexuals, you alredy know: men who pass for women (by using make-up and female dressing) in the world of prostitution and show-business.
Analysing the text, we find explicit references of this ambiguity on lines 3-4 and 20 (in contrast with 23, him).
Likewise, we find a metaphoric mention to drug addiction and overdosis between lines 27-30. At first sight, we think that Jackie has died because he/she was driving fast (27) and consequently had a crash (29) but, if we look at the vocabulary we notice that there is another meaning for "speed", in the same way, we get the clue on line 30: by using Valium, Jackie would have reduced the effects of the drug he/she had had.
To conclude, I would like to mention a detail only noticeable if you listen the song until the end: the closing baritone-sax break is performed by Ronnie Ross, the sax teacher of David Bowie.
Now, please listen to the song and read it carefully. In case you have any doubt, you may look at the vocabulary in the footnote.
Holly came from Miami, Fla
Hitchhiked her way across the USA.
Plucked her eyebrows on the way
Shaved her legs and then he was she
She says:"Hey Babe, take a walk on the wild side"
Said: "hey honey, take a walk on the wild side"
Candy came from out on the island
In the backroom she was everybody's darling
But she never lost her head
Even when she was givin' head
She says: "hey Babe, take a walk on the wild side"
Said: "hey babe, take a walk on the wild side"
And the coloured girls go
Doo dodoo...
Little Joe never once gave it away
Everybody had to pay and pay
A hustle here and a hustle there
New York city is the place where they said:
"Hey babe, take a walk on the wild side"
I said: "hey Joe, take a walk on the wild side"
Sugar Plum Fairy came and hit the streets
Lookin' for soul food and a place to eat
Went to the Apollo
You should have seen him go go go
They said: "hey Sugar, take a walk on the wild side"
I said: "hey babe, take a walk on the wild side"
All right, huh
Jackie is just speeding away
Thought she was James Dean for a day
Then I guess she had to crash
Valium would have helped that bash
She said:"hey babe, take a walk on the wild side"
I said: "hey honey, take a walk on the wild side"
And the coloured girls say
Doo dodoo...
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Vocabulary:
Hitch-hicke (2): to travel by asking for free rides in other people's cars, by standing at the side of the road and trying to get passing cars to stop.
Pluck (3): to pull out hairs with your fingers or with tweezers.
Give sb. their head (10): to allow sb. to do what they want without trying to stop them.
Hustle (16): busy noisy activity of a lot of people in one place.
Hit the streets (20): to become widely available for sale.
Soul food (21): the type of food that was traditionally eaten by black people in the Southern USA.
Speed (27): an illegal amphetamine drug that is taken to give feelings of excitement and energy.
Bash (30): a hard hit.