Monthly Archives: April 2010

M.I.A.’s “Born Free” Music Video – Who’s on the Bus?

Posted on by Colleen Claes
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UPDATE: As predicted, YouTube yanked the other upload of this video that I happened to find within 24 hours. You can watch it here on Vimeo – from the actual director’s page. (WARNING: This music video contains explicit, violent images)

This new M.I.A. video “Born Free” is something you have to watch, let roll around in your mind for a few hours, watch again, etc. Rinse, repeat.

In a nutshell, it’s a graphic political video that doesn’t hold back. A group of American soldiers storm through buildings and apartments searching for someone, and beating anyone who gets in their way. And who are they looking for? It turns out to be a resistant, young, white redheaded man. It becomes clear soon after that redheaded males are the only targeted group – and there’s an army-driven bus full of them. Ultimately, they are being driven off to be massacred.

One thing that this explicit video makes me think of is how the reign of MTV – and music television in general – is over. Not surprisingly, this video was primarily heard about through viral online tactics. As I’ve said before, the new music video platform is the internet. And what can you get away with on the internet? That’s right: Everything.

Sure, Marilyn Manson shocked everyone in the 90s when he released, for example, “The Dope Show” on MTV. But compare that to this M.I.A. video or the new Erykah Badu video and Manson just looks silly. I mean, the dude is only walking around in an alien body suit that gives him breasts…But this new wave of videos – these are forms of art that feel like they matter and are standing up for something. Artists are making statements not because they want to out-shock each other, but because they’re genuinely pissed off or impassioned. They are screaming to be heard.

As for M.I.A.’s video itself, there’s so much you could say. But I’ll give my first impressions. The choice of redheaded men as the target is the first thing to boggle your mind. Why them? It’s obviously symbolic in one way, or possibly in every way. You could say they represent Jewish people. You could say they represent Palestinians (and it’s interesting to note that the redheads attacking the bus are wearing red and white keffiyehs, most often associated with Jordan).

But for me what’s striking about this video isn’t who’s on the bus, but who’s not on the bus. People of color. Women. Girls. Blonde people. Dark-haired people. Old people. The only people targeted are light-skinned, redheaded boys and young men. But are M.I.A. and French director Romain Gavras trying to draw our attention to everyone who is and has been persecuted by marking their absence?

Another way to look at it is that it’s meant to make us realize how ridiculous profiling is. By asking, “Why the hell target redheaded young men?”, you might as well be asking, “Why the hell target Jewish people? Black people? Japanese people? Muslim people? Hispanic people?” The list goes on. The point being: There’s never a good reason for ethnic cleansing, prejudice, and profiling. It is never humane and it is never justified. And what good timing on M.I.A.’s part – just days after Arizona demands that Hispanics (or, sorry, only illegal immigrants…) show them their papers.

As for the artist herself, I do know this: Anyone who thought M.I.A. was done was horribly, horribly wrong. Long gone are the days of overplayed and eventually mediocre “Paper Planes.” M.I.A. does not just exist for you to announce that no one has “swagger” like you. This is why M.I.A. exists – to scream out against the world’s injustices. So get ready. ‘Cause it’s gonna get loud.

Retrospective Admiration for Monica Vitti

Posted on by Colleen Claes
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It’s not hard to become fascinated with actresses in older, black-and-white films – especially when you’re viewing them for the first time in your college years decades later. There’s something about the mystique of this glamor of the not-so-ancient past: the cigarette smoking before it was publicly deemed life-threatening; the delicate implication of sex instead of, well, what we have now; the classic but on-the-brink-of-modern flirtatiousness; the early 60s. Some glamorize Jean Seberg. For me, it’s Monica Vitti.

The late Italian director Michelangelo Antonioni really knew what he was doing by casting the uniquely captivating Italian actress in all three of his “trilogy” films (L’Avventura, La Notte, L’Eclisse).  I say “uniquely captivating” because – aside from the tousled blonde sex hair and the big, pensive eyes – you can’t exactly place your finger on what else draws you to Vitti, though you know it’s a culmination of things.

Vitti in 'L'Avventura'

In Antonioni’s films, she often plays the role of “the lost woman,” in a state of limbo in romance and in life. And she plays it well. Though the audience knows she is unsure and she admits it herself at times, she always somehow retains a sense of self-assurance, striking in its tenacity. While her roles in Antonioni’s films often require copious amounts of staring off deep in thought, Vitti accomplishes this by refusing to bore the audience. Simply put: You just can’t stop looking at her. Beauty helps, I’m sure. But I like to think it’s more of what she can produce with her eyes alone. It’s a look of profoundness masked with boredom.

Overall, she is effortless – walking or running in strappy heels, leading on a suitor, or putting on an outrageous show. There’s a scene in L’Eclisse that happens to be one of my favorite examples of Monica Vitti as an actor. Though – I must warn – this clip is drenched in racism, it’s one of the rare opportunities where we get to see Vitti break out of her more somber role. Vitti’s character, Vittoria, is over at a friend’s apartment – a white woman with a family-owned plantation in Kenya who also expresses blatant notions of racism towards Africans. In this scene, Vittoria and another friend put on a crudely offensive show and dance, mocking the Kenyan women who appear in numerous photos around the friend’s apartment.

I’ve always believed that this scene is meant to caricaturize the white Kenyan’s unabashed racism (and presumably the more suppressed racism of the other two), while also pointing to the desperately sad states of these bored, well-off Italian women cut off from the reality of the rest of the world. And here, Vitti is the obvious “star” – the ultimate vessel of upper-class boredom and yet provocative introspection.

While Monica Vitti is 78 years old now, she feels indefinitely suspended in the first few years of the 60s – placed in an Antonioni black-and-white film, playing the beautiful and charismatic “lost” woman with the intense, preoccupied eyes.

Sunday Brief: On Sweets, ‘Marie Antoinette’

Posted on by Colleen Claes
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Is Sofia Coppola’s Marie Antoinette partially responsible for the recent “cupcake backlash” and the macaron trend storming in?

Regardless, finding pictures of Marie Antoinette-clad Kirsten Dunst surrounded by expensive French sweets has been a casual fascination of mine for quite a few years now…Is that strange?

Janelle Monae Cover Art Channels 1927 ‘Metropolis’

Posted on by Colleen Claes
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Clearly, Janelle Monae is a big fan of somewhat-obscure film references. She already tipped us off by referencing a Maya Deren film in her video, “Tightrope.” But how awesome is this?

The left is the cover for Monae’s upcoming album (due for release on May 18th), The ArchAndroid; and the right is the promotional image for Fritz Lang’s 1927 sci-fi classic, Metropolis. I’m really digging this modern homage to the old movie.

Janelle Monae’s personal style is clearly unique with an emphasis on the futuristic and all things space-related. And interestingly enough, her EP was entitled Metropolis, which The Hydra called back in January a “neo-soul/dance interpretation of Fritz Lang’s Metropolis.“

Monae herself seems pretty excited about the cover art, with tweet after tweet about it on her Twitter. As she should be.

At this rate, maybe there will be a class like, “Janelle Monae: References to Film Culture through Music” at some film school someday. I’d enroll.

Tina Fey: Victim of ‘Superior’ Feminism

Posted on by Colleen Claes
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Writers: Do you ever get that feeling when you read something truly spectacular – whether it be a novel, a poem, or a commentary – and think, “Damn! I wish I wrote that…” Most likely you do, and I refer to this as “Writer’s Envy.” (Surely I am not the first to dub it this, and again, I feel that self-loathing setting in…)

Well, I felt that this morning when I read Rebecca Traister’s “The Tina Fey backlash” on Salon.com. (Don’t be put off by the length – it’s totally worth the read.) It was everything I’ve been wanting to say since I read Sady Doyle’s post ripping Tina Fey and her character Liz Lemon to ideological bits and pieces. Though I can never say it better than Rebecca Traister did, I feel the need to add on/give my two cents anyhow.

Back in January, I wrote a post entitled “Liz Lemon: Feminist Icon (Havin’ It All).”Ahh, those were the days when I felt that Liz Lemon as a character on 30 Rock was a favorite amongst feminists, standing out as probably the best female role model on current-day television. Boy, was I wrong!

Turns out, some feminists in the blogosphere are displeased with Tina Fey and Liz Lemon in terms of feminist rank. Because apparently, there’s a hierarchy of feminism now, and the “superior” ones (like Doyle) know far better than the ones who are not quite up to par (like Fey).

In a nutshell: Tina Fey’s satirization of insecurities marked by the independent, career-oriented woman used to be funny and loveable, but are now offensive and non-progressive in the world of feminism. And then the Fey-hosted SNL episode happened, and online commentaries exploded with disappointment – most notably with Fey’s use of the word “whore” when taking jabs at Michelle “Bombshell” McGee. (In my opinion: totally hilarious. Is that so wrong?) If it had only just been creeping in before, the backlash was now officially solidified.

How did we get to this point? As Traister poignantly says:

“While it might be fair to argue that Fey has profited from a feminist embrace, she did not ever pretend to be a standard bearer for contemporary feminism. We’re the ones who made her that, who overidentified with her, or with Liz Lemon, or with the Weekend Update host who declared that bitch was the new black, and attached to her a passel of our highest expectations and ideals.”

Yes, WE projected this feminist role model onto her ourselves. Hence, my blog post in January. Though at the time, it was a light-hearted, short and sweet kind of post embracing Lemon’s differences from other female TV icons (i.e.: Carrie Bradshaw), as well as her relatability.

Here’s the thing though: I should not have to feel ashamed for liking Liz Lemon and being a feminist at the same time. I should also not have to be ashamed for thinking Liz is a good female character on TV right now. But most people who have the “Liz Lemon is not a true feminist” debate have this holier-than-thou attitude, thinking they possess some secret, hidden key to “real, truer” feminism – something that Tina Fey is supposedly failing at implementing.

It’s annoying. It’s also pretty insulting, because the arguer is most likely assuming that Tina Fey and her fans are too shallow or stupid to comprehend this “truer” version of feminism. It’s kind of like, “You know, even though I also watch 30 Rock regularly and probably laugh throughout the episodes, I am a distinguished feminist amongst you all for dissecting Liz Lemon and outing her as a fake.”

These feminists expect too much of Tina Fey. Realistically, how can anyone expect a comedy like 30 Rock to be politically correct and perfect in ideology when it’s whole premise is based upon calling out stereotypes by employing them comedically? Traister beautifully ponders this notion of “where to draw the line” between feminism and humor, saying point blank:

Tina Fey is a professional comedian. She is not a professional feminist.

Thank God. Someone finally said what I was thinking in two succinct sentences. Rebecca Traister, I might just start projecting a feminist role model onto you.

The last thing that bothers me about this backlash? Liz Lemon is growing as a character. Because – imagine that – most main characters grow as the show goes on! (The idea!) So why are we expecting perfection and feminist-to-a-tee behaviors and decisions from a character who is clearly still figuring her shit out in her late thirties? This is another reason why some of us women love Liz Lemon: She’s figuring it out, just like the rest of us. No one is a textbook feminist at all times. (And if you think you are, don’t kid yourself.) Liz becomes more confident as time goes on. She refuses to settle. She starts to realize her true worth. I believe the last few episodes of this season have started to point towards that.

A feminist is not just born; she is grown into throughout life. And who’s to say that by age such-and-such (late thirties, in Fey’s case), you need to have developed all capabilities of the ideal feminist? Regardless, every woman is an individual, and I think sometimes feminism forgets that. Or ceases to care, at least when trying to prove its point.

Hell, maybe I’m a bad feminist for all I know. But for me, feminism should never have hierarchies. This isn’t a goddamned hazing initiation, after all. It’s not about weeding out the bad feminists from the good ones, and it’s not about shaming other feminists for not being feminist “enough.” Let’s all learn from one another, yes. I’m glad that articles like these help me to engage in discourse on women’s issues. And trust me, it’s complicated and difficult when writing a feminist post criticizing feminists who critize women for not being feminist enough.

Last time I checked though, feminism was about equality. And one would hope that a group aspiring towards true equality would at least cheer on and support the ones who are trying – in whatever way that is their own – to break the mold in places where there was little room to make a dent in the first place.

Instead, we find part of that group tearing apart one of the few women in entertainment today who profoundly resonates with us.

And you wanna talk about progressiveness?

Erykah Badu Strips at the Grassy Knoll in “Window Seat” Video

Posted on by Colleen Claes
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Yes, you read that right.

This Erykah Badu video for the song “Window Seat” was filmed guerilla style and plays out in one single take. In a sentence: The camera follows Badu as she gradually takes off her clothes in a walk from a car to the place where President John F. Kennedy was assassinated in Dallas, Texas – while several tourists and bystanders (including children) watch in shock. Badu hails from Dallas herself, for whatever significance that holds on the video. Here’s the full (censored) version:

The video’s biggest strength is the fact that it was (and had to be) done in one single shot. The best parts are when we see Badu fidget and hesitate to take off the next article of clothing, looking around somewhat self-consciously. You can tell that it’s setting in what she’s actually doing, but she has to keep doing it because they literally only have one shot at it before people start to get suspicious. After all, they have no permits and a woman is stripping down in public. Cops are a definite possibility. (She was, in fact, later charged with a class C misdemeanor.) If this was a standard, highly stylized music video with editing cuts galore, it just would not have the same effect.

You can also watch the video on her website right now in reverse, along with a short commentary from Badu in the beginning. Equally fascinating.

Janelle Monae is an Avant-Garde Film Geek (‘Tightrope’ Video)

Posted on by Colleen Claes
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Janelle Monae was already promising to be a distinguishable kind of talent with her 2007 EP and her 60s soul sound with a touch of outer space. And the music video for her new song “Tightrope” (to be released on her upcoming album in May) has given us even more to look forward to.

There’s one thing extra special about this video though. Aside from the smooth dancing, awesome energy, and undeniably catchy song, the video features a Maya Deren reference. (Puttin’ my film history cap on…) See those hooded people with the mirrors for faces? That’s from the mind of the renowned avant-garde filmmaker herself. And unmistakably so. The faceless, cloaked people appear in Deren’s experimental short, Meshes of the Afternoon (1943). See the original image at about 3:18 in this video:

Though made in the early 40s with very simple filmmaking techniques, this image alone effectively disturbs me every time I see it, and haunts me after.

As a fan of Maya Deren and her works, the reference came as a gleeful, nerdy surprise. Did someone really just pay homage to what some consider the “grandmother of avant-garde” in their music video?! I decided to do a Google search to see if my finding was novel. (It wasn’t, most unfortunately.) But I was pleased to find that a few other people took note of this.

Janelle and/or this music video director have earned extra points in my book for this. (Not that anyone’s reading my book, but still). For anyone who’s a fan of – or at least familiar with – Maya Deren, this little homage blows all the rest of them out of the water in its total unexpectedness. I hate to use the word “obscure,” but Deren is too often neglected outside of a film history class (assuming the curriculum covers avant-garde). As this guy says on MuuMuse, “Lady Gaga, eat your obscure cultural reference loving heart out.”

He’s right. I’ll take a nod to Deren over heavy-handed Tarantino references any day.