Last summer, for Garry Leonard's 'Imperial Imaginary in Cinema' class, we watched a film called "Safe". It's about this woman named Carol White (notice the last name), and she undergoes these spells of hallucinations as the environment around her changes. The entire semester consisted of analyzing first world and third world films and how they depict so called "heroes" and "terrorists". In this particular film, the terrorists are invisible and resides in the air. The cause of her illness was due to the increasing progression of her society, a.k.a. modernity (insert scary music here). Her frantic ill episodes were also the cause of her purity or "whiteness" being stained. In this YouTube clip, we see her reacting to the "whiteness" of her social circle and she begins an angry convulsion that freaks out her friends. The stain on her "whiteness" becomes more visible to her and her friends:
The 'terrorist' in this film (the chemicals in the air) reminds me so much of the creature in "Frankenstein". Although he is a visible threat to society, he embodies 'modernity' by being a creation of modern technology (electricity and science). He also terrorizes a predominately white and pure community. In the film, he drowns a "flower picking white virginal girl" in the water and in the novel, he kills William, Victor's innocent younger brother. He causes everyone anguish yet Victor Frankenstein knows that he is the creation of humankind. In the end of "Safe", we see Carol White in front of the mirror saying "I love you, I love you, I love you ..." and the movie ends there. It is assumed that she committed suicide but the film doesn't show proof of this assumption. In monster films, the monster never dies. It will forever lurk in our existence. It seems that death itself is the end all of all problems. By not showing Carol White's death, Todd Haynes ("Safe"'s filmmaker) suggests that the terror of the invisible galls in our environment will forever haunt us and that there is always something to stain our "paradise".
No comments:
Post a Comment