Ghostly Poetry

The nature of dreams is that the events or images depicted in dreams are rooted in reality; usually whatever occurs in dreams happened in some form or fashion in reality. If Stan’s life depicted in Charles Burnett’s Killer of Sheep is a collection of dream sequences then the portrayals of the people around him including his wife and his daughter are askew versions of themselves that reflect what Stan truly thinks about them. If Stan’s life is perceived as a real-life and not a collection of dream sequences then Killer of Sheep is about a man who makes his boring life bearable by choosing to avoid conflict and refuse the temptations that come his way. The temptations present in Stan’s life are always available to be consumed; it all depends on if Stan wants to consume the temptations.

If the images in Sheep are perceived as dream sequences than all the images are representations of Stan’s inner thoughts that speak truthfully in a sometimes abstract way. Stan’s wife is depicted in Sheep as a glamorous woman who wears long, fake eyelashes, shiny jet-black tresses, sparkling doe eyes and a megawatt smile that could light up a Christmas tree. She’s an embodiment of beauty that Stan may feel he doesn’t deserve. Stan’s wife could give Diana Ross a run for her money when it comes to glamour, so it’s no wonder he feels a bit intimidated by her beauty and joyful presence. Stan is a depressed man and when people are depressed, they don’t want to see someone always smiling and constantly trying to be positive. It only makes them more depressed. When Stan and his wife slow dance to Dinah Washington’s ‘This Bitter Earth,” and his wife cries in despair after Stan pulls away from her and walks away out of the scene, it is communicating that Stan is aware of what his distance is doing to his wife and how it is making her feel. The slow dancing is definitely something that Stan and his wife often did in happier times, as well as when Stan, his wife and daughter are sitting together side by side in the backseat of the car; these are all images that refer to better times, times that are seemingly lost. If the image of Stan’s wife throughout Sheep is a reflection of what he truly thinks about her then it means that he genuinely thinks she’s beautiful, but she is emotionally and sexually-deprived because of him.

When watching Sheep, one gets the sense that goodness and light is buried beneath all the foggy despair of life in Stan’s Watts neighborhood. Just as Dinah Washington’s lyrics state, “And if my life is like the dust that hides the glow of a rose/what good am I, heaven only knows,” Stan and the people that surround him are looking for something more. Stan’s life really is this dusty reel of images that roll without color or energy. Sheep is no doubt a lethargically-paced film, but it’s reflects what Stan really feels about his life. Race is not at the forefront of Sheep, but as black people, the characters feel forgotten by society and feel that they have something to offer, but there’s no one to listen to them or give them a chance. Most people regardless of race, whether poor or middle-class are forced to live life working 9 to 5 earning an average salary. In Cliff Thompson’s 1997 Cineaste article, “The Devil Beats His Wife,” he uses a quote from Burnett that shows how the themes in Burnett’s films are “universal.” “There’s something unique about different peoples and what they’ve experienced…the thing is to not reduce it, not trivialize it, but show what it is, and show its universality” (Thompson, 26). In The things that make an average life bearable are the love of family and friends and hobbies and interests, but Stan has reached such a level of depression that he can’t appreciate the little things in life. Many people live life as if they’re running out of time and that every year that goes by is another year closer to death. The lyrics from “Bitter Earth” reflect this philosophy on life. “Lord, this bitter Earth, yes can be so cold/today you are young, too soon you’re old.” The interspersing of children playing definitely shows how the carelessness of youth is very short-lived and adulthood brings the harsh reality of working to pay the bills and other problems. As people grow older, they become more complicated. Whether it’s holding down a job to pay the bills, sexual needs or dealing with the complexity of human relationships, being an adult requires so much more than it does being a child; that’s why so many people fear adulthood and age in general.

Sheep is a film without an immediate conflict, despite having potential conflicts within it. Conflict is usually required in a plot because dissonance is created when a plot unfolds and drives the film forward. Most dreams are static and Sheep stays true to the nature of dreams because it doesn’t move forward and just stays in the same place. There’s really no beginning, middle or end, but instead just dream sequences depicting life or imitations of life. In the Thompson’s Cineaste article, he compares and contrasts Burnett’s two films, Sheep and My Brother’s Wedding and mentions how the presence of conflict affects a film. “…it has something Sheep doesn’t have—an immediate conflict. When Pierce’s best friend is released from prison, Pierce is forced to choose, finally, between his upright family and his friend’s criminal ways” (Thompson, 25). In general, many films are about people living their uneventful lives when something unexpectedly pops into their lives and makes their lives interesting and usually causes some type of conflict. The conflict makes way for the plot, which will drive the rest of the film and steer the film to its conclusion or climax. Thompson writes that “Pierce is forced to choose…,” and Stan is not forced to choose anything in Sheep mainly because he chooses to not invite conflict.

It’s clear that Stan loves his family, but he’s lost in connection with them because he’s lost his sense of self. He’s not working towards anything in his life. His desire to be wealthier is evident when he says, “I’m not poor, I give away things to the Salvation Army. You can’t give away things to the Salvation Army if you’re poor.” When people want to be more than what they are or want to achieve something, they become restless. They end up just waiting for something to come along and they end up not appreciating each day of their life and living in the moment. Stan is waiting for something, even if it’s a conflict. There are already potential conflicts waiting to be grasped, but Stan is waiting for a conflict worth grasping that could lead him to a life of wealth.

Some critics have referred to Burnett’s films as elegies and that they are. Elegies are sorrowful poems and through the reliance of mostly facial expressions and wistful jazz music, Sheep is an elegiac poem that tears the heartstrings, but in a very subtle way. The fact that the film is in black-and-white shows that Stan’s world is drained of life and energy. The use of poetry in Sheep comes in literal form when Bracy starts rapping after Gene’s car gets a flat tire while Stan and company are on the way to the racetracks to make a bet on a horse. “Man, I’m out here singing the blues, got my money on a horse can’t lose, and you’re out here on a flat. I always told you to keep a spare, but you’s a square. That’s why you can’t keep no spare. Now how are we going to get there?” These rhyming couplets sum up the entire film. Bracy is communicating that every time something that could rescue everyone from their misery, there’s something thwarts it. Also, when Bracy raps “I’m out here singing the blues,” he’s referring to not only his lamenting, but of the blues music that serves as the soundtrack to Sheep and as the crying voices of the characters.

If the characters in Sheep are viewed as people that the audience can relate to and care about then there’s one question to be asked: what does the future hold for Stan and his family? It makes the audience wonder what could cure Stan’s depression. One could assume that serious cash flow would definitely make Stan feel better, but in the meantime, Stan’s depression will increase and possibly bear tragic fruit. Since Stan spends his day killing sheep, surrounded by lifeless sheep corpses and cleans up all the blood, it wouldn’t be unusual if Stan’s became quite morbid. There are elements of Sheep that are prime material for a macabre Stephen King tale. Decapitated sheep heads being squeezed along with the big lifeless black eyes of the sheep staring like the glass eyes of stuffed animals are prime examples of the gruesome present in Sheep. There ingredients are all there.

Whether the meaning of Killer of Sheep is understood by analyzing the film as a collection of dream sequences or by analyzing as if the images are depictions of real-life, the message of Sheep is conveyed. The message is of regular people going through life in a monotonous routine where they go up nor down, yet have a better chance of going down than up. After watching Sheep, it remains in the psyche as if seeing someone’s life drift past you like a ghost.

Death Comes Unexpectedly

Capri is the final disintegration of Paul and Camille’s relationship happens. It’s no coincidence that it is in Capri when Jeremy “Jerry” Prokosch reappears. Jerry is a catalyst in the death of Paul and Camille’s relationship. Their relationship was already on the skids and would be doomed even if Jerry wasn’t in their lives. The scenes in and around the villa are some of the most beautiful scenes in Jean-Luc Godard’s 1963 film Contempt, yet also some of the most symbolic. The film documents the beginning of the end for a young French couple who symbolize the decline of the experimental artistry of European filmmaking.
When Paul arrives at the villa in Capri, he looks for Camille and can’t find her. He walks up to the roof to continue looking. As he walks up the roof, the camera stretches out into a wide shot. When he reaches the roof and is standing atop it, the wide shot presents Paul as a man who’s alone. Paul is this small singular figure standing in the middle of a wide roof. This wide shot symbolizes Paul’s aloneness. It’s also a foreshadowing of the ending of Contempt: Camille and Jerry are together while Paul is at a distance somewhere else. Paul is standing on the roof of the villa while Camille and Jerry have sex inside the villa. When Camille and Jerry head to their deaths, Paul is someplace else. When Paul leans over from the top of the roof, he senses that Camille and Jerry are close by. This setup is nothing new because from the moment Paul let Camille ride in Jerry’s car at the beginning of Contempt, Paul has been sensing something between Camille and Jerry. It’s very much a self-fulfilling prophecy because Paul was the one who let the relationship between Camille and Jerry happen. Paul constantly had the choice to prevent Camille from going with Jerry, even when she looked at Paul with a desperate face that said, “Please don’t let me go with him.” Maybe the reason Paul did nothing to save his marriage even when he was given the chance is that he wanted to live his life as if he’s in one of his screenplays. He needs melodrama in his life in order for him to live out a dramatic storyline.
When Camille and Paul are each separately on the villa’s roof, they are both filmed alone, which makes the roof seem to be a place that both of them use for solitude. The roof is a huge contrast to the confining space of their apartment. Camille and Paul take advantage of the spaciousness of the villa’s roof; this is made evident visually by the huge long-shots that look like the camera decided to stretch its arms out.
The scene when Paul is climbing the stairs up to the roof of the villa in Capri brings to mind scenes from Alfred Hitchcock’s 1958 film, Vertigo. In Vertigo, when James Stewart is climbing rooftops as well as he went and he and Kim Novak move upwards to the top of a bell tower. Maybe Vertigo influenced Godard to make Contempt because the similarities are clear; it’s ironic since Vertigo is such a very American film that influenced the entire thriller/mystery film genre. Both Contempt and Vertigo feature women who are objectified by men. It’s probably no coincidence that it was rumored that Godard originally wanted Novak to play the role of Camille. Novak would have been interesting, but Bridgette Bardot’s French Camille adds a crucial layer of complexity to Contempt. The film is a commentary on European filmmaking versus American filmmaking, so the French nationality of Camille and Paul is essential to the film’s meaning and impact. The French nationality of the couple is supposed to contrast against the American nationality of Jerry and the American film industry that Jerry represents.
Before arriving at the villa in Capri, Paul, Camille and company were on a boat filming the Fritz Lang’s The Odyssey-inspired film. Jerry wanted to take Camille on a ride with him back to the villa, and Paul let Camille ride back. This scene is a repetition of the beginning of the film when Paul allows Camille to ride with Jerry in his sports car back to Jerry’s house. This repetition of scenes is comparative to Guy in Rosemary’s Baby selling out his wife and child for fame and fortune. Paul is willing to let his wife to ride alone with a man he doesn’t even like just so he can further his career. Paul essentially participates in a self-fulfilling prophecy because he certainly must have suspected the relationship between Camille and Jerry. Also, most men would not let their beautiful wives be alone with a sleazy American actor. It’s like Indecent Proposal without all the parties being aware of the terms.
After Camille and Jerry return from having sex to meet Paul in the villa’s living room, Camille just sulks around. She sits down on the sofa with a sour frown on her face. Camille and Jerry look a bit disheveled, which could indicate that they were having sex or at least rolling around somewhere. After Camille sits down, Jerry proceeds to ask Camille over and show her something while Paul is in the room watching. Paul and Camille essentially flaunt their relationship for all to see, especially for Paul to see. Camille and Jerry have different reasons for making Paul suffer and feel foolish. Camille is trying to get attention from Paul. She resented the fact that Paul allowed her to ride alone with Jerry. She felt like a tool, a doll passed around. Camille was angry with Paul and became bored with him. Jerry wanted to humiliate Paul because Paul wanted to stay faithful to the source material of The Odyssey-inspired film, while Jerry wanted to create a loose adaptation of The Odyssey. Jerry’s direction was indicative of his American sleaziness and the American film industry. Paul thought the American industry corrupted anything it touched and made films into capitalist products instead of pieces of art. Jerry spoke to Paul’s want for money. Paul wanted to have his cake and eat it too. He wanted the riches and wealthy way-of-life that commerce brings, but he wanted to remain traditional in his approach to screenwriting. Jerry resented Paul’s opinion as much as Paul resented Jerry’s opinion. When Fritz Lang said that “In today’s world we have to accept what others want,” that statement applies to the film industry as well as Paul’s marriage. In the film industry, there are so many cooks in the kitchen compromises must be made. In Paul and Camille’s marriage, Camille seems to be the one who has to accept what Paul wants. Paul also uses Camille as a pawn in his chess game of becoming successful.
The irony of Contempt is that as much as Paul resents the American film industry and American-associated sleaze and slickness personified by Jerry, Paul emulated American film culture. The fact that Paul wore a hat and with a cigar in his mouth while he took a bath shows how much Paul was influenced by American film culture or Hollywood. When he was wearing the hat and had the cigar, he was trying to be like Dean Martin from the Rat Pack. Even Camille was a tool that Paul used to achieve the Hollywood image, the life of a movie star. Camille was blond and beautiful; she was a blond bombshell. When Paul saw Camille in her black wig, he said that he prefers her better as a blonde. Of course he would prefer Camille better as a blonde because all the hot actresses were blond like Marilyn Monroe. This is another example of Paul embracing Hollywood culture. For most of Contempt Camille looks like a Barbie doll being passed around for people to play with her. Lang is the only man in Contempt who doesn’t treat Camille like an object. This connection between Lang and Camille may exist because of Lang’s respect for women and how he views women as if they were Greek goddesses or like the soft and pure women in Sandro Botticelli paintings.
While in Paul and Camille’s hotel room, Camille constantly fought against the stereotypical female role that Paul was pushing her into. When Paul sits on the couch, he expects Camille to remove his shoes from his feet, but she leaves him to do it himself. The traditional female role requires a woman to take off her husband’s shoes for him since he’s had such a hard day at work. Camille rejects her assigned sex role again when she volunteers to sleep on the couch after she and Paul start fighting.
In Contempt, Paul said that Ulysses used the Trojan War to get away from his wife. By writing the screenplay for Lang’s film based on The Odyssey, Paul was using the Trojan War to escape from his wife. He was immersing himself in his work and pretty much being self-centered. Paul always claimed all the work he did was done for Camille and so that they could both live happily and wealthily, but as Camille said, Paul uses her as an excuse. If he fails at what he does then the blame can be placed on Camille. Camille got tired of being the excuse, or rather bored.
It’s in Capri where Camille becomes an object or rather like a roaming cat looking for a home. She walks around sullenly like a cat. She lies nude on rooftops. She’s just waiting for someone to have to sex with her or notice her in a sexual way. Camille is not even a person anymore.
Contempt is a film about death figuratively and literally: the death of a relationship, the impending death of film as an art form and the death of human beings.

Ghost Town and The Apartment both Contain Ingredients needed for the Recipe for Happiness

The 2008 film Ghost Town and the 1960 film The Apartment are both films about lonely and depressed people. The two films are like opposite sides of the brain that connect as a unit. Both films reach the same goal, but in opposite ways. Ghost Town and The Apartment act just as a multiplication problem would by reaching the same answer regardless of what position they’re in.
Ghost Town, directed by David Koepp, is about a lonely and depressed dentist named Bertram Binkus (Ricky Gervais) who takes his discontent with life out on the world. A woman comes into his life (Tea Leoni) and could possibly change his life for the better.The supernatural comes into play, hence the title Ghost Town but giving away any more details would ruin the movie-watching experience.
The Apartment is a film about an insurance statistician C.C. Baxter (Jack Lemmon) who lets the executives at the company he works for use his apartment for their extramarital affairs with hopes of becoming an executive himself. Baxter falls in love with a woman (Shirley MacLaine), and the plot thickens from there.
Ghost Town is more in the vein of a Billy Wilder film like The Apartment. Both films are categorized as romantic comedies, but both films are also dramas, or rather comedy-dramas. As far as comedy goes, both films have light-hearted humor, but the male leads are from two very different comedic breeds. Gervais’ style of comedy is dry and distinctly British always delivered deadpan, while Lemmon’s comedy is warm-hearted humor usually always delivered with a smile, or at least a smirk.If anyone resembles Lemmon, it’s the female lead Leoni. Leoni is like a female Lemmon because she exudes warmth whether being laugh-out-loud funny or shedding convincing tears.
Both Binkus and Baxter have awakenings on life, but from opposite sides of the spectrum. Binkus discovers that being mean to people will not make him happy or a more complete person and Baxter discovers that letting people use him will not make him happy or a complete person. Discovering the cruelties of people and discovering the goodness of people are both essential ingredients within in the recipe for happiness. Those are two components that help create a balance. Both films show that one cannot be a truly whole person without both of those components. The difference between Gervais and Lemmon is that Gervais is not aspiring towards anything. Gervais is an example that money isn’t the answer to happiness. Lemmon is aspiring towards something. He’s a likeable guy and a people-pleaser who people use for their own purposes. Lemmon doesn’t become depressed until after The Apartment gets settled.
Leoni proves her versatility as an actress. She has the ability to be a tragic drama queen, while also able to perform Lucille Ball-worthy slapstick as she proved on her 1990s television sitcom, “The Naked Truth” and in the big-screen comedy remake, Fun with Dick and Jane alongside Jim Carrey. The film has its jokes, but it is essentially a drama and a character study told with some humor. A drama or character study that uses a healthy dose of humor is unheard of in today’s film industry. For the most part, dramas are always extremely self-serious without a hint of lightness, and the comedies are always goof fests. It’s either one extreme or the other, there’s no middle ground. Leoni is one of the tools that causes Gervais’ awakening on life. In a way, Leoni plays the film’s heroine. By treating Gervais kindly like a human being, Leoni helped him realize the good in people.
Shirley MacLaine adds a different female presence to The Apartment. MacLaine plays more of a passive role. The only way she contributes to Lemmon’s awakening is by simply existing being the cute and friendly elevator operator. If anything, MacLaine acts as a victim for the majority of The Apartment. Leoni plays more of an active role in her male character’s awakening. Leoni also plays a comedic and dramatic role, while MacLaine mostly plays her role straight-faced. Usually MacLaine plays sardonically funny roles, but she plays her role in The Apartment as a waif, a damsel in distress. The situation of MacLaine’s character is closer to Gervais’ situation. She’s depressed, but aspires to be happy and fools herself into thinking a married man is going to leave his wife for her.
Both Lemmon and Gervais go through processes of better understanding humanity. Gervais learns that assuming the worst in people won’t make him a full and happy person. Lemmon learns that being nice and pleasing to the point of being a pushover will not make him a happy person.