Wednesday 20 January 2010

Notebook Extract

The Fly

For most of Cronenberg's male protagonists, sexual contact results in disease and / or mutation. Personal identity and notions of the self disintegrate as Cronenberg represents the infected male as a womb in which the abstracted life form gestates. Often unable to cope with this transformation the male relies upon the strong female of the narrative in order to rectify the status quo. After his disastrous teleportation, Seth Brundle slowly transforms into a hybrid of human and fly, resulting in a breakdown of the human form into Brundlefly. Unable to deal with the consequences of his actions, Brundle retreats into science, cataloging his decay and keeping his rejected body parts in specimen jars. Accepting his mutation with a rational mind, Brundle's clinical approach emphases his self-alienation. As such Brundle becomes another Cronenberg male: obsessional, incapable of dealing with emotions and alienated from those who surround him.

Sunday 10 January 2010

Notebook Extract

The Silence of the Lambs

Buffalo Bill is not endowed with supernatural powers nor does he require the use of specialist tools to aid him in his killing. He is simply human but one who has been constructed through years of systematic abuse. He exists on the periphery of the narrative, shrouded in partially darkness. The viewer sees only fragments - a hand, an angle on his face; they hear his unusual voice. The viewer only fully sees him when he chooses to present himself to them through his own video camera.

Jame Gumb's desired transformation gives The Silence of the Lambs a two fold rite of passage subtext. Both protagonist and antagonist desire change, a shift that will align them with their opposite sex. By realigning their gender this way both can overcome the traumas of the past and accept themselves into society.