In general, I really enjoyed the Billie Holiday movie. I of course love Diana Ross and Billy Dee Williams, and I thought Diana Ross was a great character to play Billie Holiday for this movie. Especially to portray the emotional and psychological impact that drug abuse had on Billie Holiday’s life.
For me it was really difficult to see Diana Ross be ravaged by drug abuse, mostly because of her star power. When I firsts viewed Ross in the movie, I did not see her as Billie Holiday but as Diana Ross. But after a while I think Ross’ performance was so good in the Billie Holiday movie that I was convinced that she was Holiday. Although the star power of Diana Ross was still there for me.
Music in this movie of course was very important. The one song that I believed had significant emotional appeal was the one that began at the beginning of the movie. The lyrics that played, “there ain’t nothing I can do” not only played at Holiday’s worse moments during her life but it echoes her situation and personal position in life. The song played when she was sexual harassed by the drunk, while she was in jail, and when she had to wash stairs at the brothel.
Furthermore, I think that the movie was able to reveal some significant information about the roles that black women were able to participate during Holiday's life and career. At the beginning of the movie black women were either maids, servants, prostitutes or showgirls.
In addition, in Holiday's young adult life, in order for women to be successful or make money, black women had to use their bodies sexually, either by being a show girl or a prostitute. Because Holiday's identity growing up was constructed by these realities, it makes sense that they would still effect and influence her.
The important symbolism of these positions is that in the night club black women are defined by their bodies and sexuality. For example, Holiday at the beginning of the movie cannot even be a prostitute because her body was not sexual. She could not perform as a showgirl either for the same reasons. The manager at the club would not even hear Holiday sing because her body did not advertise sexuality; he was not able to market her body.
Monday, March 31, 2008
Monday, March 10, 2008
“It’s a dog eat dog world” Sweet Smell of Success and D.O.A
“Sweet Smell of Success.”
Overall, I do not really like this film’s content or plot setup. It has too many unmoral politics and manipulation. But I do like the esthetic makeup of the movie. The picture is clear and the close up shots of the characters enhances the quality of the movie. My critiques are as follows:
Sydney is a character that owes everyone something. JJ is suppose to be his best friend but he does not want to converse with Sydney when he goes to the club. That particular scene reaffirms the precarious position with people and his career. Sydney uses everyone just to succeed for marginal reasons. Just to get something published in a column Sydney acts like a pimp ready to pawn of Rita to Otis the columnist.
Music plays a strong roll in helping the plot move along in this movie. When Sydney leaves Susie at the hotel, you know that he is about to do something bad or manipulative because of the music. When Sydney tells JJ that he is going to take care of the “problem” the music begins again. It is interesting that music surrounding JJ is mostly dark and menacing.
This movie also has a lot of dog imagery. At the beginning of the movie Sydney says that, “every dog will have its day.” This is interesting because Sydney is a dog. Steve, Susie’s boyfriend, critiques Sydney personal morals and politics effectively when he says, “don’t scratch for information like a dog, but do it upfront like a man instead.”
In addition, the relationship with Susie and her brother JJ is weird. Especially, JJ’s possessiveness over his sister, it screams some complexes to me. And when JJ kisses Susie cheek at the studio, it was creepy.
D.O.A
The music in this film functions similarly as, “Sweet Smell of Success,” it helps progress the plot and tie the characters together. When Frank is at his hotel after the big night out at the Jazz club he orders a drink. Simultaneously, eerie music begins in his hotel room, as he is about to drink from the cup. Then he randomly sends the drink away. The same eerie music proceeds around Frank on his way to the doctor. The music of course is a type of foreshadowing of something to come, predictably something bad or menacing. And at the end of the movie when Frank confronts his killer, the club music with the woman’s voice begins again, possible demonstrating the conclusion of the mystery and death to both characters.
In addition, the secretary for Frank is very dramatic, and she is having a relationship with her boss. Interestingly, Sydney in “Sweet Smell of Success” has more than a platonic relationship with his secretary. She actually functions as a moral standard that Sydney judges himself against. But Frank’s relationship is more platonic and intimate with his secretary; but it creates problematic tensions between the two characters. Especially because Frank is a flirter and other women in the movie are very attracted to him.
Furthermore, I thought the club scene featuring the all black band was interesting. The progression of the pace of the music intensifies the chaotic environment of the space in the club. There were also close up shots of the musicians, which mostly focused on the face; it portrayed the intensity of the music and the intensity of the musicians.
In this movie the club functions as a place of danger, sin and adultery. It is in the club where Frank is poisoned and where the married woman is able to openly flirt with him, even though she is intoxicated.
Overall, I do not really like this film’s content or plot setup. It has too many unmoral politics and manipulation. But I do like the esthetic makeup of the movie. The picture is clear and the close up shots of the characters enhances the quality of the movie. My critiques are as follows:
Sydney is a character that owes everyone something. JJ is suppose to be his best friend but he does not want to converse with Sydney when he goes to the club. That particular scene reaffirms the precarious position with people and his career. Sydney uses everyone just to succeed for marginal reasons. Just to get something published in a column Sydney acts like a pimp ready to pawn of Rita to Otis the columnist.
Music plays a strong roll in helping the plot move along in this movie. When Sydney leaves Susie at the hotel, you know that he is about to do something bad or manipulative because of the music. When Sydney tells JJ that he is going to take care of the “problem” the music begins again. It is interesting that music surrounding JJ is mostly dark and menacing.
This movie also has a lot of dog imagery. At the beginning of the movie Sydney says that, “every dog will have its day.” This is interesting because Sydney is a dog. Steve, Susie’s boyfriend, critiques Sydney personal morals and politics effectively when he says, “don’t scratch for information like a dog, but do it upfront like a man instead.”
In addition, the relationship with Susie and her brother JJ is weird. Especially, JJ’s possessiveness over his sister, it screams some complexes to me. And when JJ kisses Susie cheek at the studio, it was creepy.
D.O.A
The music in this film functions similarly as, “Sweet Smell of Success,” it helps progress the plot and tie the characters together. When Frank is at his hotel after the big night out at the Jazz club he orders a drink. Simultaneously, eerie music begins in his hotel room, as he is about to drink from the cup. Then he randomly sends the drink away. The same eerie music proceeds around Frank on his way to the doctor. The music of course is a type of foreshadowing of something to come, predictably something bad or menacing. And at the end of the movie when Frank confronts his killer, the club music with the woman’s voice begins again, possible demonstrating the conclusion of the mystery and death to both characters.
In addition, the secretary for Frank is very dramatic, and she is having a relationship with her boss. Interestingly, Sydney in “Sweet Smell of Success” has more than a platonic relationship with his secretary. She actually functions as a moral standard that Sydney judges himself against. But Frank’s relationship is more platonic and intimate with his secretary; but it creates problematic tensions between the two characters. Especially because Frank is a flirter and other women in the movie are very attracted to him.
Furthermore, I thought the club scene featuring the all black band was interesting. The progression of the pace of the music intensifies the chaotic environment of the space in the club. There were also close up shots of the musicians, which mostly focused on the face; it portrayed the intensity of the music and the intensity of the musicians.
In this movie the club functions as a place of danger, sin and adultery. It is in the club where Frank is poisoned and where the married woman is able to openly flirt with him, even though she is intoxicated.
Monday, March 3, 2008
Comparative analysis: Larsen and Cabin in the Sky
James Naremore mentions in his article the influence of, “four conflicting discourses about blackness,” which influenced the film Cabin in the Sky. What was really interesting, that the article briefly mentioned, was the social propaganda behind the idea of “The Negro Problem.” But Naremore does not go into detail about the critical or theoretical writings that have influenced the population at the time. For example, I know that influential scholars such as Frazier and Mydal actually conducted case studies that researched, “The Negro Problem.” And of course Dubois discusses his position on race dynamics in the United States, and explained in “The Souls of Black Folks” how he viewed the Negro problem.
Understanding the theoretically or sociological discourses surrounding race dynamics is important because a lot of those case studies reaffirmed racial stereotypes about blacks and other racial or ethnic minorities at the time. It becomes especially difficult to change the ideology about a group of people when there is scientific research “supposedly” proving that a certain group of people are intellectually and culturally inferior. Therefore, I then began to become even more interested in the connections between literature, film, and theoretically research. And how all of those mediums work to influence or construct popular culture in the United States.
But for this blog I think that I will just stick to some basic comparative analysis and pull out segments from different modernist novels and a passage from the bible to show how those discourses have influenced certain aspects of Jazz and the “space” of the Jazz club.
There are a lot of things that I became fascinated with in Cabin in the Sky but what I began to analyze in the film is the juxtaposition of the secular to religion, and Jazz music to Gospel music. It was obvious that the film was clearly making the distinction that Jazz music, as something originating from low sinful blacks in the city, was something that corrupted rural blacks and it would send them to hell. Gospel music or biblical hymns are sung in the church and Petunia and Little Joe’s house. The audience does not begin to see Jazz music, in the form of a trumpet player, until Lucifer Jr. is plotting with his idea men
.
In addition, I can usually analyze these movies through disassociation and depersonalization, but when Lucifer Jr said, “ I am stuck with a bunch of B idea men all the A idea men over there in Europe" to his idea man, it screams Eurocentrism. I was irritated at the ludicrousness of the statement.
Nevertheless, what I really want to write about is the jazz club and what the film, in its depictions of the club, is demonstrating and why it becomes problematic. Naremore has already pointed out the modernist juxtaposition of the Jazz club, as a social and cultural problem in the city, to the poor rural south. But it is the last scene with Petunia in the Jazz club that caught my interests.
In this scene, Petunia enters the Jazz club and is transformed into this seductress that drinks alcohol, dances and flirts openly with men. Petunia is not only sexually available but she is also singing Jazz songs, and has fallen to the lowest denominator of sin. (according to the movie) This scene comes to a climax when Petunia is caught in the middle of the dance floor surrounding by dancing, gyrating bodies. Everyone is rubbing against each other, toughing, feeling, and the scene is presented as an orgy. Sexuality in the space of the Jazz club is not regulated or restrained. The Jazz club is a place where people loose morality, and sexual restraint. But Petunia, the religious mammy, does not fit in that space. This is why she begins to scream for Little Joe to save her from Dominoe and the primitive dancing.
In one chapter of Nella Larsen’s novel, Quicksand, she depicts an all black jazz club where her main character Helga Crane becomes lost, emotionally, mentally, and bodily in not only the music but the club itself: “ A glare of light struck her eye, a blare of jazz split her ears…they danced , ambling lazily to a crooning melody, or violently twisting their bodies…to a sudden streaming rhythm, or shaking themselves ecstatically…For the while Helga was oblivious of other gyrating pairs…the noise, and the childlessness” (italics mine 88)
I wanted to obviously parallel Larsen’s depiction of a jazz club in Harlem to the films similar depiction of the jazz club to say three things. First, it is important to understand that even through race and racism is something that is fluid or changing, the stereotypically ideologies of jazz and a jazz club are still being depicted as a place of sin, unbridled sexuality and primitive taboo sex. Larsen’s novel was published in 1928 and the film released in 1943. Almost a twenty year difference yet the specific way in which jazz is linked to blackness is still similar. (at least it does so in this film, as Knee explains in his article) Secondly, the discourse surrounding the jazz club as a space and jazz across genres, (i.e film, poetry, literature) with its link with primitiveness and sexuality is also discussed similarly regardless of race. We cannot assume that only white middle class Americans had these assumptions or stereotypes about jazz and the jazz club. Thirdly, the jazz club as a space (either in the film or in Larsen’s novel), is presented as a place of unbridled and unregulated sexuality. Jazz therefore represented in this context is something that is so hypnotic that it acts like a drug to the dancers in the jazz club as Larsen reiterates as she writes: “She (Helga Crane) was drugged, lifted, sustained, by the extraordinary music, blown out, ripped out, beaten out, by the joyous wild, murky orchestra.” (89)
Furthermore, I was very interested when Petunia offers up her prayer to God in the Jazz club, “to destroy this wicked place.” That scene screamed biblical illusion, specifically in the Old Testament, Genesis chapter 19 when God destroyed the cities of Sodom and Gomorrah with brimstone and fire for their “wickedness.” Yes, I do realize that the Jazz club was destroyed by a tornado not fire and brimstone, but I wanted to focus on the idea of both places being so wicked that God is needed to destroy them.
In conclusion, there is so much more that I wanted to point out in the movie. For example, the juxtaposition of Petunia, the motherly savior of Little Joe (the mammy stereotype), to Georgia, the promiscrous woman out to steal everyone’s man (the jezebel stereotype.) I also wanted to mention the color hierarchy in the film. Did anyone notice that the devil was darker than the General considerably in skin color? But Georgia was much lighter than Petunia. Or that both Petunia and Georgia can both read but Little Joe does not even know how to sign his own name. Or was anyone else suspicious that Louis Armstrong was in accomplice with the devil as an idea man, but Duke Ellington was the handsome talented piano player?
Understanding the theoretically or sociological discourses surrounding race dynamics is important because a lot of those case studies reaffirmed racial stereotypes about blacks and other racial or ethnic minorities at the time. It becomes especially difficult to change the ideology about a group of people when there is scientific research “supposedly” proving that a certain group of people are intellectually and culturally inferior. Therefore, I then began to become even more interested in the connections between literature, film, and theoretically research. And how all of those mediums work to influence or construct popular culture in the United States.
But for this blog I think that I will just stick to some basic comparative analysis and pull out segments from different modernist novels and a passage from the bible to show how those discourses have influenced certain aspects of Jazz and the “space” of the Jazz club.
There are a lot of things that I became fascinated with in Cabin in the Sky but what I began to analyze in the film is the juxtaposition of the secular to religion, and Jazz music to Gospel music. It was obvious that the film was clearly making the distinction that Jazz music, as something originating from low sinful blacks in the city, was something that corrupted rural blacks and it would send them to hell. Gospel music or biblical hymns are sung in the church and Petunia and Little Joe’s house. The audience does not begin to see Jazz music, in the form of a trumpet player, until Lucifer Jr. is plotting with his idea men
.
In addition, I can usually analyze these movies through disassociation and depersonalization, but when Lucifer Jr said, “ I am stuck with a bunch of B idea men all the A idea men over there in Europe" to his idea man, it screams Eurocentrism. I was irritated at the ludicrousness of the statement.
Nevertheless, what I really want to write about is the jazz club and what the film, in its depictions of the club, is demonstrating and why it becomes problematic. Naremore has already pointed out the modernist juxtaposition of the Jazz club, as a social and cultural problem in the city, to the poor rural south. But it is the last scene with Petunia in the Jazz club that caught my interests.
In this scene, Petunia enters the Jazz club and is transformed into this seductress that drinks alcohol, dances and flirts openly with men. Petunia is not only sexually available but she is also singing Jazz songs, and has fallen to the lowest denominator of sin. (according to the movie) This scene comes to a climax when Petunia is caught in the middle of the dance floor surrounding by dancing, gyrating bodies. Everyone is rubbing against each other, toughing, feeling, and the scene is presented as an orgy. Sexuality in the space of the Jazz club is not regulated or restrained. The Jazz club is a place where people loose morality, and sexual restraint. But Petunia, the religious mammy, does not fit in that space. This is why she begins to scream for Little Joe to save her from Dominoe and the primitive dancing.
In one chapter of Nella Larsen’s novel, Quicksand, she depicts an all black jazz club where her main character Helga Crane becomes lost, emotionally, mentally, and bodily in not only the music but the club itself: “ A glare of light struck her eye, a blare of jazz split her ears…they danced , ambling lazily to a crooning melody, or violently twisting their bodies…to a sudden streaming rhythm, or shaking themselves ecstatically…For the while Helga was oblivious of other gyrating pairs…the noise, and the childlessness” (italics mine 88)
I wanted to obviously parallel Larsen’s depiction of a jazz club in Harlem to the films similar depiction of the jazz club to say three things. First, it is important to understand that even through race and racism is something that is fluid or changing, the stereotypically ideologies of jazz and a jazz club are still being depicted as a place of sin, unbridled sexuality and primitive taboo sex. Larsen’s novel was published in 1928 and the film released in 1943. Almost a twenty year difference yet the specific way in which jazz is linked to blackness is still similar. (at least it does so in this film, as Knee explains in his article) Secondly, the discourse surrounding the jazz club as a space and jazz across genres, (i.e film, poetry, literature) with its link with primitiveness and sexuality is also discussed similarly regardless of race. We cannot assume that only white middle class Americans had these assumptions or stereotypes about jazz and the jazz club. Thirdly, the jazz club as a space (either in the film or in Larsen’s novel), is presented as a place of unbridled and unregulated sexuality. Jazz therefore represented in this context is something that is so hypnotic that it acts like a drug to the dancers in the jazz club as Larsen reiterates as she writes: “She (Helga Crane) was drugged, lifted, sustained, by the extraordinary music, blown out, ripped out, beaten out, by the joyous wild, murky orchestra.” (89)
Furthermore, I was very interested when Petunia offers up her prayer to God in the Jazz club, “to destroy this wicked place.” That scene screamed biblical illusion, specifically in the Old Testament, Genesis chapter 19 when God destroyed the cities of Sodom and Gomorrah with brimstone and fire for their “wickedness.” Yes, I do realize that the Jazz club was destroyed by a tornado not fire and brimstone, but I wanted to focus on the idea of both places being so wicked that God is needed to destroy them.
In conclusion, there is so much more that I wanted to point out in the movie. For example, the juxtaposition of Petunia, the motherly savior of Little Joe (the mammy stereotype), to Georgia, the promiscrous woman out to steal everyone’s man (the jezebel stereotype.) I also wanted to mention the color hierarchy in the film. Did anyone notice that the devil was darker than the General considerably in skin color? But Georgia was much lighter than Petunia. Or that both Petunia and Georgia can both read but Little Joe does not even know how to sign his own name. Or was anyone else suspicious that Louis Armstrong was in accomplice with the devil as an idea man, but Duke Ellington was the handsome talented piano player?
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