City of culture: Paris

When thinking about ‘cities of culture’, Paris instantly springs to my mind. Like many other romantic fools I have a bit of a love affair with the city and like to get carried away with the ‘idea’ of Paris. For me Paris represents art and creativity, as it has many museums, music festivals, and fashion shows in abundance. (I’d happily give my left arm to go to Paris fashion week just once...) Paris represented all of those things to me before I had even been there due to its overexposure in the media.

I’m going to focus specifically on Paris in films. As a lot of other cities of culture (London, New York etc.) when films are set in Paris, Paris becomes a main character, even appearing in the title in a lot of films for example ‘Midnight in Paris’, ‘Paris, Je T’aime’ and ‘April in Paris’. I feel that a lot of film makers decided to include ‘Paris’ within the title so audiences will instantly know what the film will be about as Paris represents romance and creativity.

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In terms of the skyline, Paris is recognisable and iconic due to certain landmarks, of course The Eiffel tower, but also the Arc de Triomphe and Notre Dame. These landmarks are always shown when films are set in Paris. As stated before, Paris represents romance and due to this a lot of romantic films are set in Paris such as 'Moulin Rouge' and 'Amelie'. These films represent Parisian life as being theatrical and whimsical. However, a lot of action films are also set in Paris, such as The Bourne Identity. 

Due to Paris being such an iconic city gaining a lot of media attention, landmarks and the culture of Parisian life becomes well-known amongst people who have never visited. This can cause problems as tourists gain certain expectations when visiting and may be disappointed by the reality of the city, rather than the image it creates for itself.

Paul Long and David Parker - 'The Mistakes of the Past?'

Paul Long and David Parker (2004) ‘The Mistakes of the Past’? Visual Narratives of Urban Decline and Regeneration’ in Visual Culture in Britain,Vol.5, No.1, pp. 37-58

Long and Parker wish to explore the imagery of Birmingham within this article, by exploring the post-war architecture and the redevelopment of the city. During the 1990’s onwards Birmingham has demolished and rebuilt in order to correct the “mistakes of it’s past” i.e. no charming and uncharacteristic buildings. 

Having grown up in the Black Country which is an area just outside of Birmingham, this article struck a chord with me. When I was younger I used to become so excited to hop on the train and head to Birmingham. The journey only took 20 minutes, but for 3-year old Amanda it felt like I was heading on an adventure to a different part of the world.

As both Parker and Long were born and raised Brummies I can relate to the fact that the redevelopment and demolishing of the landscape they grew up with and connect with would be most distressing. As much as I’d like to think it isn’t so, a large part of your culture is rooted to where you grew up. 

Long and Parker explain how during the post-war period Birmingham tried to create a modern landscape and embraced redevelopment enthusiastically. Birmingham can be defined by four key landmarks that were created during this time: Bullring Shopping Centre, Rotunda, Post Office Tower and the Central Library.

However development plans didn’t go according to place when constructing these four landmarks, which left the buildings almost unfinished. Birmingham received a lot of critique and got described by Lonely Planet travel guides as being a ‘concrete maze’ and even Price Charles chimed in by accusing Birmingham of “ripping out its Victorian heart.”

Birmingham is now trying to reinvent itself and correct these mistakes of the past. However, Parker and Long put forward the idea that Birmingham will repeat its mistakes due to political and economic issues.

Harry Pothead? (Apologies for bad pun.)

Whilst I was doing research into spoof trailers the thing I found most fascinating was how media texts can be twisted and manipulated in order to provide an entirely different meaning. With that in mind I have decided to choice a spoof trailer and analise it’s features and ultimately discover why I find them so fascinating. 

‘Hogwarts Express’ is one I have decided to focus upon as it is fairly new (uploaded 14^th March 2012) but also because I am familiar with both the film franchises in question; The only film footage used in the trailer is that from the ‘Harry Potter’ films but as the video name suggests, the trailers purpose is to mimic ‘Pineapple Express’.  It successfully does this by referencing the films plot throughout the trailer and also copying the red font and headline style at the end of the trailer which can be found on the 'Pineapple Express' film poster.

The plot of ‘Pineapple Express’ focuses on three ‘stoners’ who have accidently witnessed a murder, however the film remains within the genre of comedy, despite its crime and thriller elements. This is mimicked through the ‘Harry Potter’ footage by manipulating film footage to create the illusion of Harry taking drugs and witnessing a murder. The music used in the background is very upbeat and playful which cements the trailer in belonging to the comedy genre.

This is further reinforced by characters being shown acting in comedic ways throughout the trailer, for example Hagrid enthusiastically exclaiming “I once had a fish!” whilst sitting next to a wine bottle suggesting that he is both drunk and high. The upbeat tone of the trainer connotes that we are meant to laugh at these parts and find them amusing.

I feel that spoof trailers say a lot about conventions within society. I think one of the main reasons I find them so interesting is that all it takes is an upbeat backing track and a few shots of some plants that are meant to symbolise drugs and the ‘Harry Potter’ films suddenly transforms from being a children’s adventure story and into a stoner comedy that Seth Rogen would be proud of.

New Sincerity?

The term ‘new sincerity’ dates back to the mid-1980’s. The ‘new sincerity’ movement was initially a response and rejection of the cynicism and irony of post-modernism theories. This theory promotes joy, sentimentality and enthusiasm for texts, rather than cold sarcastic irony. However, ‘new sensibility’ doesn’t completely avoid irony. Yurchak describes it is “a particular brand of irony, which is sympathetic and warm.”

In America, Jesse Thorn had a huge part in promoting ‘new sincerity’ to audiences. He is a radio host of PRI’s ‘The Young Sound of America’. His broadcast rejects irony and the term ‘guilty pleasure’. For example, most people are inclined to pretend they like a cheesy 1980’s hit for ‘ironic’ reasons, when in fact they really enjoy the song as a whole. New sincerity celebrates the lack of irony in something that should be very ironic. Thereby ‘guilty pleasures’ simply become pleasures. 

How this theory can be related to a modern day media text is the TV programme ‘Glee’. There should be something deeply ironic about a bunch of high school teenagers covering some of the biggest selling music of all time. Surely audiences can’t watch it fully without being tempted to mock? Or at least pretend that they are watching it for ironic reasons? But who can seriously resist the characters sunny dispositions and their genuine love and passion for singing and dancing? That’s what ‘new sincerity’ is all about, taking something for face value and taking the joy from the media text rather than mocking it. And with the staggering amount of viewers ‘Glee’ receives, it’s unsurprising that more and more consumers are embracing media in a ‘new sincerity’ way.

Key Theories/Further Reading:

Alexei Yurchak, (2008) "Post-Post-Communist Sincerity: Pioneers, Cosmonauts, and Other Soviet Heroes Born Today”

Mikhail Epstein (1999) "A Catalogue of New Poetries”

Jason Morris (2008) “The Time Between Time: Messianism and the Promise of a “New Sincerity””

Chuck Tryon - 'Reinventing Cinema: Movies in the Age of Media Convergence'

Chuck Tryon (2009) Reinventing Cinema: Movies in the Age of Media Convergence. New Jersey: Rutgers University Press, pp149-173.

In this article Tryon examines how video sharing websites like Youtube enable film fans to engage with films and connect with each other in order to form a community. He focuses primarily on 'spoof trailers' created by amateur film makers in order to twist an already established media text to give it an entirely new meaning. However, spoof trailers can also be seen as promotion for Hollywood films, that turns the fans into labours due to video sharing and creating a 'hype' towards certain films. He uses the example of Robert Ryang's version of 'The Shining', which uses film footage from 'The Shining' but manipulates it into appearing to be a heart-warming family drama film. 

Fans engaging with spoof trailers give audiences the opportunity to respond to the film industry and depict positives and flaws within the films that are produced. Spoof trailers often mock the marketing conventions of Hollywood cinema which encourages viewers of spoof trailers to see films critically. This can be described as ‘critical intertextuality’. Tryon uses the example of ‘The Simpsons’ as using intertextuality for humorous purposes. Intertextuality can also be uses in order to critisie social and political practises. However, many intertextual texts sit in the industry that they are satirising. Jonathon Gray describes this as “economic complicity”.

Tryon discusses post-modern ideas during this article by exampling that Wired Magazine ran articles describing how the boundaries between TV/Film and the internet are becoming blurred due to bloggers being “internet famous” and consumers being able to broadcast themselves through Youtube and various other websites.  He also discusses an article written by Nancy Miller that labels Youtube videos as “snack culture” due to the videos short length. She explains how they are used to break up mundane parts of life, digested quickly and forgotten about.

Due to copyright laws and Google being unable to create revenue from amateur film makers, the history of spoof trailers still remains unsure.