Director: Jane Campion

Director: Jane Campion

• Director: Jane Campion

• Release date: 1989

Dawn

• Dawn

• Kay

• Louis

• Gordon

• Flo

• Bob

What is Kay’s job, her social position?

• What is Kay’s job, her social position?

• How about Louis?

• Bob and Sweetie?

• Flo and Gordon?

• What is the narrative function of the women whom Kay works with?

What sort of physical environment do the characters live in?

• What sort of physical environment do the characters live in?

• How might it reflect their internal states and lives?

Do we sympathize with

• Do we sympathize with

• Sweetie?
• Kay?
• Louis?
• Gordon?
• Flo?

How responsible is Dawn for her situation?

• How responsible is Dawn for her situation?

• When are other characters cruel to her?

• What motivates their cruelty?

• Why is the film called Sweetie and not Kay?

Does Flo speak with the voice of reason?

• Does Flo speak with the voice of reason?

• Why do several characters (Gordon, Louis, and Kay) question what is real or not real, what is normal or abnormal?

• Are any of the characters in this film normal?

Is there any hope at the end for Kay and Louis, for Flo and Gordon, for anyone?

• Is there any hope at the end for Kay and Louis, for Flo and Gordon, for anyone?

• What is the meaning of Gordon’s hallucination at the end?

What range of meanings does fate have—in the sense of the different contexts in which you might use this word or idea?

• What range of meanings does fate have—in the sense of the different contexts in which you might use this word or idea?

• How are fate and chance similar to each other?—a philosophical question

• How much of our lives seem dictated by chance (or fate if you prefer)?

How does Kay “choose” Louis as her partner?

• How does Kay “choose” Louis as her partner?

• How does Louis respond to this choice?

• Why is this situation unusual, especially for him? Or possibly it is not.

cracks in the pavement

• cracks in the pavement

• tea leaves

• meeting in the garage (section number!)

• elapsed time before the tree shows (!)

• “gently close the eyes”

• meditation

How do both Kay and Louis rely on or use “spiritual” solutions to their problems?

• How do both Kay and Louis rely on or use “spiritual” solutions to their problems?

• Where do these solutions and practices come from?

• Are they using them in a healthy way?

• What are they trying to deal with or escape from or explain in their lives in this way?

Unlike Kay and Louis, Dawn and Gordon do not look to some “spiritual” or “mystical” solution.

• Unlike Kay and Louis, Dawn and Gordon do not look to some “spiritual” or “mystical” solution.

• How do they contrast with them in this respect?

• How might they represent another side of the problem—another kind of determinism?

What is the symbolic meaning of roots, especially in relation to family relations or origins?

• What is the symbolic meaning of roots, especially in relation to family relations or origins?

• How does Kay feel about trees in childhood?

What is Louis’ motive for planting the alder tree?

• What is Louis’ motive for planting the alder tree?

• How does Kay react to the tree?

• How does his symbolic understanding of the tree contrast with Kay’s?

• Where does Kay put the tree and why is this important?

• Why is it important that Sweetie finds the tree?

Tree symbols culminate in the tree house.

• Tree symbols culminate in the tree house.

• What might a tree house represent generally?

• What does this specific tree house seem to mean?

Who collects horses?

• Who collects horses?

• What do the horses differ from each other?

• What do the identities of the horses reveal about Kay?

• segment: 14.40

What happens to the horses and why is this significant?

• What happens to the horses and why is this significant?

• Who plays at being a horse?

• segment: 38.45

• segment: 51:45

What is the significance of seeing the line of broken and mended horses at the end?

• What is the significance of seeing the line of broken and mended horses at the end?

• segment: 1:28.40

Incest is portrayed indirectly. What are the consequences of this relation and how does it reverberate through and help to explain the film?

• Incest is portrayed indirectly. What are the consequences of this relation and how does it reverberate through and help to explain the film?

• Why is it insufficient to explain the condition of the characters?

Where do we find non-narrative elements?

• Where do we find non-narrative elements?

• Do these parts seem unnatural or out of place or do you generally just accept them as part of the overall meaning of the film?

• Are the non-narrative parts dreams or hallucinations?

• segments: 11.15, 18.00

Whose perspective do we get, especially in the non-narrative parts?

• Whose perspective do we get, especially in the non-narrative parts?

• Who “narrates” the non-narrative parts?

• How is exposition changed in this film from the traditional Hollywood forms of narrative we have been watching so far?

• What questions remain or can we piece together most of the history of this family?

An Angel at My Table (1991)

• An Angel at My Table (1991)

• The Piano (1993)

• The Portrait of a Lady (1996)

• bombsite.com/issues/30/articles/1282

We might understand Sweetie as an anti-melodrama.

• We might understand Sweetie as an anti-melodrama.

• What is the basis of this assertion?

Campion was an outsider director when she made Sweetie, but today she is a big name.

• Campion was an outsider director when she made Sweetie, but today she is a big name.

• What separates her movie from mainstream Hollywood film?

• You should be able to come up with a reasonable list.

• Why was the film nonetheless successful?

Director: Gus van Sant (b. 1952)

• Director: Gus van Sant (b. 1952)

• Release date: 1991

What is representation?

• What is representation?

• Why is representation an issue for women and racial and sexual minorities?

• What does it mean to speak for yourself, especially if you are a member of one of these groups?

How can looking be coded based on gender or sexual orientation?

• How can looking be coded based on gender or sexual orientation?

• What does it mean to be presented with a male or heterosexual viewpoint?

• Why are sexual minorities understood to be outsiders to this system of representation?

River Phoenix (Mike Waters)

• River Phoenix (Mike Waters)

• Keanu Reeves (Scott Favor)

I assert that Sweetie is possibly anti-melodrama.

• I assert that Sweetie is possibly anti-melodrama.

• How does My Own Private Idaho, at least on the surface, conform to the expectations of melodrama?

A young man, innocent and naïve, falls in love.

• A young man, innocent and naïve, falls in love.

• An emotionally-charged love relationship remains central to the action.

• Family influences/obstacles affect outcomes.

• The central love relation (seen through the sympathetic protagonist) remains mostly unsatisfied (conflicting understandings of love).

• A love triangle develops.

The protagonist is rejected and abandoned.

• The protagonist is rejected and abandoned.

• The protagonist loses his mind.

• “Normalcy” is achieved (or re-established after being threatened): rejection of “abnormal” sexuality, confirmation of institutions (marriage, reconciliation with the father’s values), firm distinction between classes and the behavior associated with those classes.

Why would Van Sant, definitely an experimental director, employ these clichés in making his film?

• Why would Van Sant, definitely an experimental director, employ these clichés in making his film?

• Is he able to subvert these conventions?

• Or, does he invite us to reevaluate the idea of convention as an empty form?

Sweetie and My Own Private Idaho are both self-conscious anti-melodramas but for different reasons.

• Sweetie and My Own Private Idaho are both self-conscious anti-melodramas but for different reasons.

• What does each achieve by taking this oppositional stance?

sped up shots (nature, clouds) 3.40

• sped up shots (nature, clouds) 3.40

• surreal elements (barns collapsing on roads) 6.10, 18.00

• documentary style (“interviews” with various street people) 24.15

• freeze frames (sexual encounters) 1:09.20, 1:17.55

• flashbacks (home video segments) constant

• disrupted timelines (sleep) constant

Today’s films were made by “outsider” directors—Campion and Van Sant.

• Today’s films were made by “outsider” directors—Campion and Van Sant.

• Today, both have become big names, but at this point, they weren’t so well-known.

• What separates their movies from mainstream Hollywood film?

• You should be able to come up with a reasonable list.

• Why were the films nonetheless commercially successful (by their own terms)?

Watch: Waking Life

• Watch: Waking Life