Bad decisions. Also, this is another one about fascism.
At or around this time, Spud, Sick Boy, and I made a healthy, informed, democratic decision to get back on heroin as soon as possible.
Mark Renton, Trainspotting
For good and for ill, Vertigo is all of Alfred Hitchcock’s perversions and neuroticism on display. The relationship between reason and emotion is fascinating; reason is undoubtedly the superior method of making day-to-day decisions, but it’s often a terrible way to make art and worse for choosing the direction of one’s life. When you have neither strategy chosen nor a way of processing emotions, reason can drive you down some bizarre places, when you think purely in what would solve your immediate problem. Culturally, we talk about trauma and mental illness far more and more coherently than we used to, but I think we end up ignoring madness.
Vertigo is both a demonstration and product of madness, carefully expressed in a socially acceptable way when it comes to the latter (an awesome movie), and it even carefully delineates the difference between mental illness and madness. Scottie (James Stewart) has developed the eponymous condition after an incident on the job; one of the little things about post-war cinema was how sympathetic it was to mental illness in a way many of its descendents – especially boys raised on Eighties action movies – were and are not. At no point is Scottie considered less of a man – which is to say, less of a person – for being triggered by heights. There’s always a difference between people who’ve done something and people who haven’t.
On the other hand, he’s considered wildly responsible for the decisions he makes throughout the film – reasoned, comprehensible decisions that climax in slowly attempting to manipulate his girlfriend (Kim Novak) into appearing more like the woman he loved (Kim Novak). One of the infamous elements of the film is the ridiculous melodrama it indulges in; fans would agree that this is what makes it great, and I notice people who claim it as an influence tend to make even more dreamlike and odd art than the original film, pulling out that aspect of it. But I also think the ability to comprehend what’s happening is an underrated element of its appeal.
Scottie is presented with options, over and over and over, and each time, he makes a small decision that makes sense, only to compound with others into a fantastic and ridiculous whole. Judy, too, makes decisions, and if the film has a weakness it’s that these ones require more of a leap, but they are still comprehensible. This is the definition of madness; mental illness is simply a disease with a symptom, like a sudden sense of dizziness and weakness when confronted with a great height. Madness is the conscious choice to fall down a rabbit hole.
Little side jump here, and into an area I fear I’ll make a fool of myself on: there is a strong connection between this film’s storytelling process and the thought process of a fascist. Now, I’m not saying the film is fascist or even bad. What I am saying is that fascists have an obnoxious habit of trying to appear entirely reasonable on the surface, which tends to be expressed as nitpicking factual statements until they either browbeat you into agreeing with them, or more often – because most people are not stupid – someone instigates violence. But they don’t have a long-term emotionally-chosen strategy outside of the vague feeling of being powerful.
The nice thing about making art is that not only can you put your worst and most destructive instincts into it, they’ll usually make the art itself better. It’s not that traumatised or unpleasant people inherently make better art; it’s that they inherently make weirder art, driven by their more specific compulsions that they’re trying to expunge. It’s possible to do this badly, of course, just as it’s possible and even admirable to make ‘normal’ art that’s moving and exciting.
But a weirdo can put their weirdness into a work and have those impulses become something productive and pleasant for other people; not just fellow weirdos who see themselves in the work and gain a sense of comfort and connection to other human beings – the sense that they aren’t alone – but also more general audiences who gain an insight into what it’s like to be another person; to have their sense of what can be expand a bit.
With Vertigo, I actually feel kind of sad for fascists; that they could have put their miserable, bleak outlook into a piece of art, and felt both that sense of domination they crave – for only art can equal violence in giving one a sense of domination over existence and make you one with the cosmic dust for all eternity – whilst also giving them that sense of human connection, as others would find their work and connect to it.
About the writer
Tristan J. Nankervis
Tristan J Nankervis (aka Drunk Napoleon) has been a writer, pop culture critic, dishwasher, standup comedian, waiter, potato cake factory worker, gamer, TV worker, and various other things. You can find him in Hobart, Tasmania.
MST3K, “HG Wells’s The Shape of Things to Come” – Important fact: this has zero resemblance in the least to Wells’s moderately prophetic novel. It has little resemblance to a good movie, though this is an instance where I do wonder if it’s more coherent at its full length. (It’s kind of fascinating that Best Brains was always content to make movies shorter even when there was no longer a network mandated time limit.) As presented, however, it makes little sense, more a series of random events around a very weak frame. Jack Palance is here, and contributes little. Canadian character actor Barry Morse, however, is actually pretty good.
This is the second Emily hosted episode I have seen, and she is much better this time around, and also has really good flow with her versions of the Bots. (Crow voiced by Kesley Ann Brady and sounding a bit like Cubert Farnsworth takes a bit of getting used to, but it’s still Crow.) There are a lot of good riffs, some really great (including some pokes at Netflix.) The interstitials, especially a spoof of true crime podcasts, are really good. And as ever, the less said about Kinga and Max, the better.
Elementary, “Paint It Black” – The Corsican mob is holding Joan hostage, trying to force Mycroft to find the whereabouts of a missing financier who stole thousands of client records to sell them on the dark web. So Mycroft comes to his brother for help. Only things are not what they seem, and at episode’s end we learn that maybe Mycroft is less feckless restaurateur and more secret agent. No subplot here, just the brothers trying to work together and Sherlock barely containing his rage that Mycroft endagers the life of his closest friend. Generally entertaining, but why would the kidnappers think a restaurateur can even find a financier on the run?
Frasier, “Freudian Sleep” – Frasier, Daphne, and Niles have anxiety dreams. Frasier’s are interesting and at least feel a bit like dreams, the others are duds (and Daphne’s worries about not being attractive after givimg birth turn into fatphobic nonsense). And to top it all off, Martin’s dream is a song and dance number, pure filler. We’re really spinning our wheels now.
Knicks stuff – I did not watch the end of the NBA Finals live. Too old to get the end of any late game, and too easily made anxious. (Dear lord, watching it live might have killed me.) But it’s so easy to find any manner of highlight reel, interview, or analysis. And as a life long Knicks fan, I am reveling in it all.
Live music — 90s cover band (with some deviations outside the decade) for a themed party. Fun stuff although their guitarist needed more volume. TURN IT UP WE’RE OLD
Ponyo — family movie outing! In the theater with the nephews, pretty full house on a Sunday afternoon. This is a weird one, the protagonists are younger than Miyazaki generally goes with kids (and Ponyo herself is even younger behaviourally) and the parental units get a fair amount of screen time to themselves, Neeson in particular. He’s excellently frazzled (and him repeatedly demanding his daughter’s return is a funny meta joke that seems unintentional) but his actions and motivations can feel made up as they go along, the way a kid would tell a story (as opposed to the not-always-coherent but more dreamlike story of The Boy And The Heron). But the animation is just lovely, all of these prehistoric sea creatures under the water and Ponyo running across a storm of fish while the score finds a more joyous spin on “Ride Of The Valkyeries,” and if the gentle humanism feels weird with a quasi-genocidal sea wizard in play it is right in tune with the folks on land, a community that generally rolls with whatever comes their way and a cranky old lady whose crankiness is its own strength in time of need. The boys had seen it before but forgotten a lot of it, they were restless (the theater experience and its sitting in one space with no breaks is not how they watch stuff at home) but were enthusiastic afterward, what else do you want.
Send Help – agreeable gross-out fun. I’ve probably said it many times before but Raimi is a filmmaker who I’m never quite all the way in on, he’s doing good crowd-pleasing work here and the premise is a lot of fun. Seems to be a lot of people complaining about the length on Letterboxd, but it never dragged for me. Rachel McAdams is pretty delightful in the early island scenes where she’s living her Survivor dream.
Seinfeld, S8: “The Checks” – pretty overstuffed and zany in a similar way to the previous episode, but this one doesn’t come together quite as well. Elaine’s boyfriend drifting off into a reverie whenever he hears The Eagles was pretty great though.
Yeah, I think McAdams actually sells “hot but nerdy woman realizing she’s beautiful” where most movies fail to do so, in part because she’s genuinely socially awkward and seems largely indifferent to her appearance otherwise. (Would put her up for an Oscar nom here, it’s great work.)
Yeah she’s convincingly awkward, it’s a strong performance. I like that she’s got a pet bird too, much as I’m a fan of cat movies it’s nice to see a variation on the cat-lady cliche!
That performance has been great for my social skills just for giving me such an exhaustive catalog of what not to do. It’s amazing how a little bad posture and desperate angling for laughs makes you forget Rachel McAdams is, you know, Rachel McAdams
Tape – the play at the Philadelphia Playhouse. Writing a review tonight but this is a pretty provocative and intelligent piece of work, especially how Vincent, despite being a “low-level” Oakland drug dealer, is smart and manipulative, if only up to a point. There’s an apparent understanding here from playwright Stephen Bieber of limitations of memory as well as ability (and how to best judge others’ ability).
“they could have put their miserable, bleak outlook into a piece of art, and felt both that sense of domination they crave – for only art can equal violence in giving one a sense of domination over existence and make you one with the cosmic dust for all eternity – whilst also giving them that sense of human connection”
I don’t know about this. I think the fascist does not want connection, like you say they want dominance. An artist can put a supremely personal and domineering work in the world, but connection happens because the audience brings their own interpretation to it (like, say, finding insight into fascism in a psychosexual thriller). The fascist does not accept anything outside of their own interpretation, does not think anything outside of their own interpretation should even exist.
This June, you can write up any of these movies, albums, books, etc. from 1958.
Jun. 5th: Gillian Nelson: Paul Bunyan
Jun. 12th: Gillian Nelson: Grand Canyon
Jun. 14th: Tristan Nankervis: Vertigo
Jun. 19th: Gillian Nelson: Elfego Banca
Jun. 23rd: Bridgett Taylor: Basil of Baker Street
Jun. 25th: John Bruni: Mon Oncle
Jun. 26th: Gillian Nelson: Disneyland Gay Days
Jun. 28th: Tristan Nankervis: Touch of Evil
And in July, we’re opening up submissions for your writing on any of these movies, albums, books, etc. from 1979.
Jul. 3rd: Bridgett Taylor: Apocalypse Now
Jul. 14th: Lauren James: Flowers in the Attic
Jul. 28th: John Bruni: All That Jazz
Jul. 29th: Lauren James: Ghost Story
The relationship between reason and emotion is fascinating; reason is undoubtedly the superior method of making day-to-day decisions, but it’s often a terrible way to make art and worse for choosing the direction of one’s life. ”
I think the most effective way of begin creatively engaging with the noir sensibility, as an artist and a critic, is to recognize that the social role of a story, and storytelling, depends on making the emotionally opaque world of the subconscious comprehensible through form–to work out psychological problems through narrative tropes and archetypal representations. Reason helps the reader to recognize emotional conflict by giving it form, behavior, action and consequences.
In VERTIGO, reason manifests itself in Scotty’s public persona, that of a logician with a socially circumscribed role of using deductive methods to aid in the discharging the mandate of justice. Even at the outset of professional trauma, however, Scotty’s ambivalence towards women, which seems, through his relationship with Marge, foregrounded in an desire of the female form over the messiness of actual sexual consummation, suggests a latent personal conflict with that social role that manifests itself through a traumatic incident in which other aspects of masculinity, that of valor and Virtu, are negated. His implied impotence regarding Marge and his knightly recusal in molesting “Madeline” at her moment of apparent vulnerability becomes a problem that he must solve, both professionally by curing the latter, and thus resuming his public face, and privately by regaining his potency through a love object who embodies his aesthetic fetishes.
This therapeutic ethos that guides this film, in which a chosen narrative framework (the detective film) is logically deployed to obliviate a private issue, is both utilize and critiqued in the film, as the cycle of lust and method keeps repeating itself, and adding more and more tension until the pattern repeats itself after the sexual act is completed. Hitchcock is often interpreted as a technical artist whose subject matter is defined through his own erotic hang-ups and fixations, but at his heights I think he was able, in his films to use what was in his head and explore American culture’s Freudian hallucinations.
Atari 50: The Anniversary Celebration on Nintendo Switch
I got this on sale and holy shit there is
SO
MUCH
STUFF
in here.
Browsed a few short docs and old TV reports, fascinating stuff. Also played the Atari 7800 version of Galaga, which is pretty impressive. This could have been a big hit if it was an original 7800 game, honestly.
What did we watch?
MST3K, “HG Wells’s The Shape of Things to Come” – Important fact: this has zero resemblance in the least to Wells’s moderately prophetic novel. It has little resemblance to a good movie, though this is an instance where I do wonder if it’s more coherent at its full length. (It’s kind of fascinating that Best Brains was always content to make movies shorter even when there was no longer a network mandated time limit.) As presented, however, it makes little sense, more a series of random events around a very weak frame. Jack Palance is here, and contributes little. Canadian character actor Barry Morse, however, is actually pretty good.
This is the second Emily hosted episode I have seen, and she is much better this time around, and also has really good flow with her versions of the Bots. (Crow voiced by Kesley Ann Brady and sounding a bit like Cubert Farnsworth takes a bit of getting used to, but it’s still Crow.) There are a lot of good riffs, some really great (including some pokes at Netflix.) The interstitials, especially a spoof of true crime podcasts, are really good. And as ever, the less said about Kinga and Max, the better.
Elementary, “Paint It Black” – The Corsican mob is holding Joan hostage, trying to force Mycroft to find the whereabouts of a missing financier who stole thousands of client records to sell them on the dark web. So Mycroft comes to his brother for help. Only things are not what they seem, and at episode’s end we learn that maybe Mycroft is less feckless restaurateur and more secret agent. No subplot here, just the brothers trying to work together and Sherlock barely containing his rage that Mycroft endagers the life of his closest friend. Generally entertaining, but why would the kidnappers think a restaurateur can even find a financier on the run?
Frasier, “Freudian Sleep” – Frasier, Daphne, and Niles have anxiety dreams. Frasier’s are interesting and at least feel a bit like dreams, the others are duds (and Daphne’s worries about not being attractive after givimg birth turn into fatphobic nonsense). And to top it all off, Martin’s dream is a song and dance number, pure filler. We’re really spinning our wheels now.
Knicks stuff – I did not watch the end of the NBA Finals live. Too old to get the end of any late game, and too easily made anxious. (Dear lord, watching it live might have killed me.) But it’s so easy to find any manner of highlight reel, interview, or analysis. And as a life long Knicks fan, I am reveling in it all.
Live music — 90s cover band (with some deviations outside the decade) for a themed party. Fun stuff although their guitarist needed more volume. TURN IT UP WE’RE OLD
Ponyo — family movie outing! In the theater with the nephews, pretty full house on a Sunday afternoon. This is a weird one, the protagonists are younger than Miyazaki generally goes with kids (and Ponyo herself is even younger behaviourally) and the parental units get a fair amount of screen time to themselves, Neeson in particular. He’s excellently frazzled (and him repeatedly demanding his daughter’s return is a funny meta joke that seems unintentional) but his actions and motivations can feel made up as they go along, the way a kid would tell a story (as opposed to the not-always-coherent but more dreamlike story of The Boy And The Heron). But the animation is just lovely, all of these prehistoric sea creatures under the water and Ponyo running across a storm of fish while the score finds a more joyous spin on “Ride Of The Valkyeries,” and if the gentle humanism feels weird with a quasi-genocidal sea wizard in play it is right in tune with the folks on land, a community that generally rolls with whatever comes their way and a cranky old lady whose crankiness is its own strength in time of need. The boys had seen it before but forgotten a lot of it, they were restless (the theater experience and its sitting in one space with no breaks is not how they watch stuff at home) but were enthusiastic afterward, what else do you want.
Send Help – agreeable gross-out fun. I’ve probably said it many times before but Raimi is a filmmaker who I’m never quite all the way in on, he’s doing good crowd-pleasing work here and the premise is a lot of fun. Seems to be a lot of people complaining about the length on Letterboxd, but it never dragged for me. Rachel McAdams is pretty delightful in the early island scenes where she’s living her Survivor dream.
Seinfeld, S8: “The Checks” – pretty overstuffed and zany in a similar way to the previous episode, but this one doesn’t come together quite as well. Elaine’s boyfriend drifting off into a reverie whenever he hears The Eagles was pretty great though.
Yeah, I think McAdams actually sells “hot but nerdy woman realizing she’s beautiful” where most movies fail to do so, in part because she’s genuinely socially awkward and seems largely indifferent to her appearance otherwise. (Would put her up for an Oscar nom here, it’s great work.)
Yeah she’s convincingly awkward, it’s a strong performance. I like that she’s got a pet bird too, much as I’m a fan of cat movies it’s nice to see a variation on the cat-lady cliche!
That performance has been great for my social skills just for giving me such an exhaustive catalog of what not to do. It’s amazing how a little bad posture and desperate angling for laughs makes you forget Rachel McAdams is, you know, Rachel McAdams
Happy Endings, Season One, Episode Ten, “You Got Male”
“No, the sixth sense is love.”
“Show me on the cup man where he touched you.”
“Legends have it that the locals used it as an aphrodisiac.”
“Listening…”
“Check out Max, makin’ gay stuff happen.”
“He needs a boyfriend. I am sick of holding him during thunderstorms.”
“You’re an idiot. But yeah, we do that.”
“You can be my Gay Guvera!”
“Hate that nickname. Addicted to lemon bars. I’m in.”
“I’m so sorry to bother you, I gotta take another knee.”
“By the way, I don’t have any money. I’m gonna pay you back in poems.”
“I need to get some shampoo. I’ve been washing my hair with hand sanitiser the past three weeks.”
“She was that girl in high school.”
“I know.”
“It’s okay, he’s just a few half hours late…”
“Gun to your head, who would you hire?”
“Guy with the gun. Over both of you.”
“If you’re going out, can you pick up some bandaids? I cut my armpits shaving.”
“I’m just a guy standing in front of another guy… realising how weird a way this is to do this.”
“Do they even care that we’re here?”
“By the way, I don’t have any money. I’m gonna pay you back in poems.” How dare they quote me.
Tape – the play at the Philadelphia Playhouse. Writing a review tonight but this is a pretty provocative and intelligent piece of work, especially how Vincent, despite being a “low-level” Oakland drug dealer, is smart and manipulative, if only up to a point. There’s an apparent understanding here from playwright Stephen Bieber of limitations of memory as well as ability (and how to best judge others’ ability).
“they could have put their miserable, bleak outlook into a piece of art, and felt both that sense of domination they crave – for only art can equal violence in giving one a sense of domination over existence and make you one with the cosmic dust for all eternity – whilst also giving them that sense of human connection”
I don’t know about this. I think the fascist does not want connection, like you say they want dominance. An artist can put a supremely personal and domineering work in the world, but connection happens because the audience brings their own interpretation to it (like, say, finding insight into fascism in a psychosexual thriller). The fascist does not accept anything outside of their own interpretation, does not think anything outside of their own interpretation should even exist.
A fair point – I’m more idealising what a fascist could be doing instead of what they are doing.
Year of the Month update!
This June, you can write up any of these movies, albums, books, etc. from 1958.
Jun. 5th: Gillian Nelson: Paul Bunyan
Jun. 12th: Gillian Nelson: Grand Canyon
Jun. 14th: Tristan Nankervis: Vertigo
Jun. 19th: Gillian Nelson: Elfego Banca
Jun. 23rd: Bridgett Taylor: Basil of Baker Street
Jun. 25th: John Bruni: Mon Oncle
Jun. 26th: Gillian Nelson: Disneyland Gay Days
Jun. 28th: Tristan Nankervis: Touch of Evil
And in July, we’re opening up submissions for your writing on any of these movies, albums, books, etc. from 1979.
Jul. 3rd: Bridgett Taylor: Apocalypse Now
Jul. 14th: Lauren James: Flowers in the Attic
Jul. 28th: John Bruni: All That Jazz
Jul. 29th: Lauren James: Ghost Story
The relationship between reason and emotion is fascinating; reason is undoubtedly the superior method of making day-to-day decisions, but it’s often a terrible way to make art and worse for choosing the direction of one’s life. ”
I think the most effective way of begin creatively engaging with the noir sensibility, as an artist and a critic, is to recognize that the social role of a story, and storytelling, depends on making the emotionally opaque world of the subconscious comprehensible through form–to work out psychological problems through narrative tropes and archetypal representations. Reason helps the reader to recognize emotional conflict by giving it form, behavior, action and consequences.
In VERTIGO, reason manifests itself in Scotty’s public persona, that of a logician with a socially circumscribed role of using deductive methods to aid in the discharging the mandate of justice. Even at the outset of professional trauma, however, Scotty’s ambivalence towards women, which seems, through his relationship with Marge, foregrounded in an desire of the female form over the messiness of actual sexual consummation, suggests a latent personal conflict with that social role that manifests itself through a traumatic incident in which other aspects of masculinity, that of valor and Virtu, are negated. His implied impotence regarding Marge and his knightly recusal in molesting “Madeline” at her moment of apparent vulnerability becomes a problem that he must solve, both professionally by curing the latter, and thus resuming his public face, and privately by regaining his potency through a love object who embodies his aesthetic fetishes.
This therapeutic ethos that guides this film, in which a chosen narrative framework (the detective film) is logically deployed to obliviate a private issue, is both utilize and critiqued in the film, as the cycle of lust and method keeps repeating itself, and adding more and more tension until the pattern repeats itself after the sexual act is completed. Hitchcock is often interpreted as a technical artist whose subject matter is defined through his own erotic hang-ups and fixations, but at his heights I think he was able, in his films to use what was in his head and explore American culture’s Freudian hallucinations.
What did we play?
Atari 50: The Anniversary Celebration on Nintendo Switch
I got this on sale and holy shit there is
SO
MUCH
STUFF
in here.
Browsed a few short docs and old TV reports, fascinating stuff. Also played the Atari 7800 version of Galaga, which is pretty impressive. This could have been a big hit if it was an original 7800 game, honestly.