Tag: amanda stewart

Entertainment & Media

Mr. Grey Will See You Now

amwilla7

Originally published on CulturalWeekly.com

Grey

With the theater crowded to capacity, business women and rich housewives alike occupy each seat, anxiously awaiting their fantasies, once written in ink, soon to be played out in front of them on the big screen. Men had their Die Hard and Stars Wars while the teens had their Twilight, and now, women across the globe can finally hear those sweet words, “Mr. Grey will see you now.”

Since making its print debut in 2011, Fifty Shades of Grey has been multiplying its way into the hands of women across the globe. Granted, E.L. James will likely never be up for a Pulitzer, but damn can she make a damaged soul and bondage look more attractive than your typical Prince Charming. Fifty Shades has become a widespread topic of conversation between women, whether they’re salivating over its sensual and erotic scenes or debating how it’s a humiliating and abusive piece of cheap porn. Regardless, when news spread that Fifty Shades of Grey would be adapted to film every avid Grey reader began imagining their ideal actor of choice to fill Christian Grey’s shoes.

The power of the books was the freedom they gave each reader to imagine their own ideal Christian Grey. While the books deliver heavily passionate chemistry between its two main characters Anastasia Steele and Christian Grey, the same can’t be said with its film adaptation. Dakota Johnson fulfills the image Steele to a tee, body language and all. From her plain but subtly attractive appearance to the way she bites down on her lip when she’s nervous, Johnson is Ms. Steele. However, the same can’t be said for Johnson’s counterpart, Northern Irish actor, Jamie Dornan. As a former Calvin Klein underwear model, one might assume his physical assets deemed him worthy of the title Christian Grey, but there’s more to the character than his sultry looks. Dornan fails in presenting Grey as a powerful force whose presence stops women in their tracks. His delivery, stiff and forgettable, Dornan’s quick casting into the film is more noticeable than his character’s overwhelming heightened sex appeal. As the film progresses and Dornan’s performance remains unaffected, the audience’s desire for the original choice for Christian Grey, Charlie Hunnam, increases, one monotone delivered sentence at a time.

Where Dornan’s performance as Grey and chemistry with Johnson lacked, director Sam Taylor-Johnson makes up with the film’s visually appealing and quality shots, amplifying the audience’s interest through a mood-enticing soundtrack. Due to the trilogy’s poor writing and often obnoxious dialogue, its controversial sex scenes are what paved its way onto countless best-selling novel lists. The film took the opportunity to translate the book’s brainless dialogue and create an attractive piece of art that captivates its audience’s attention. Taylor-Johnson had stated pre-filming that her take on Fifty Shades would consist of more than just soft porn and would be approach the S&M scenes with care. Beyonce’s sensual remix of “Crazy in Love” slowly increasing in the background as Dornan and Johnson play out scenes in the infamous playroom exemplifies how you can expand a bondage scene into a safe and alluring act. True to the book, the film accurately captures the intense and highly erotic sex scenes without going into NC-17 rating and resembling porn. Let’s be honest–no one is going to see Fifty Shades of Grey for its unique creativity and thought-provoking storyline. They’re going for the romance and sex.

Fifty Shades of Grey won’t be gracing its way through acclaimed awards shows nor will it be on AMC’s Top 100 Movies list. It’s entertainment, pure and simple. For those who were sucked into its trilogy, you’ll likely find it fun and for those who are stewing over the fact this ill-written piece of literature has become so wide-spread, be happy that there will only be three movies as opposed to Twilight’s five.

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Entertainment & Media

Gained in Translation: The Power of Film Adaptation

amwilla7

Originally published on CulturalWeekly.com

ImitationThe translation of nonfiction literature into film is a daunting task. Difficulties range from adapting sensitive subject matter to condensing complex stories into a cinematic framework. Literature allows both writer and reader to experience the subject on a more intimate level and requires a much greater commitment on the reader’s part rather than just watching the film adaptation. It relies on the readers’ imagination while film utilizes multiple sources and techniques to not only create that same effect, but intensify it to a higher degree. Movies combine imagery, score, dialogue, and performance to evoke emotion and access a wider audience that is not so easily done with literature. Furthermore, books are read over a period of time with multiple interruptions occurring in the readers’ lives between chapters, while film has the advantage of capturing their audience’s attention for two straight hours, allowing viewers to escape their own reality and into that that of the film’s protagonist. Two of this year’s Oscar contenders illustrate how movies can translate nonfiction literature and contextualize it for a modern audience, thus bringing to life significant and unknown characters to audiences across the world.

British mathematician Alan Turing’s legacy was brought to life in Andrew Hodges 1983 biography, Alan Turing: the Engima. A mathematician himself, Hodges’ critically acclaimed biography explores Turing’s life in depth, describing in great detail the brilliant mind that went on to crack the Nazi Enigma code and laid the foundations for modern computing. Hodges also detailed Turing’s homosexuality, for which he was legally prosecuted and forced to undergo chemical castration. Hodges’ biography was published during the early days of the AIDS epidemic when gay rights in the UK were limited-to-non-existent and Turing wouldn’t receive his posthumous royal pardon for another 30 years. The 2014 film adaptation, The Imitation Game, was able to show Turing’s place in history, while at the same time contextualizing his struggles within the modern climate of gay rights. While Turing’s persecution may have been viewed as unfortunate in the 1980s, in today’s culture it is considered appalling and unimaginable. The father of modern computer science has now taken on the added dimension of gay icon.

It is through flashbacks of Turing as a young student at boarding school that audiences see how Turing has always been an outcast amongst his peers. Bullied and misunderstood, Turing showed signs similar to that of autism with his OCD tendencies and inability to socially connect with his fellow students. Turing’s relationship with his one and only friend, Christopher Morcom, gently alludes to his homosexuality, while displaying his fascination with codes. Flash forward from his school days to WWII, the film captures the significance of his relationship with Christopher when Turing names his code-breaking machine Christopher, and confirming the audience’s suspicions of his homosexuality when he relays to a colleague that he doesn’t have feelings for fiancé Joan Clark, but rather prefers men. Despite the film’s alterations from actual events,The Imitation Game excels at grasping the audience’s sympathy and admiration for Turing and showing what crippled Turing socially helped him excel professionally, saving millions of lives during WWII and paving the way for computer science.

Wild_film

Fellow Oscar contender Wild is the film adaptation of Cheryl Strayed’s story of loss, infidelity and drug use, Wild: Lost and Found on the Pacific Crest Trail. The book creates an intimate relationship with the reader through first-person narrative and the author’s exposed, uncensored thoughts. While some of this intimacy is lost in the film, her smallness and isolation are intensified on the big screen through cinematography that shows the ruggedness of the terrain and physical isolation Strayed experienced. The film opens with Strayed (played by Oscar winner and 2015 nominee Reese Witherspoon) resting atop a steep rock, surrounded by silence and solitude, sweaty and exhausted from what appears a long day’s hike. Immediately upon discarding her hiking boot, it trickles down and into oblivion, leaving Strayed stranded with one boot in the middle of a 1,100-mile hike. The audience holds their breath as the boot disappears, quickly developing fear and concern for Strayed. Immediately, Strayed throws the other boot off the rock, releasing her building frustration by screaming “fuck” into the open wilderness, while a series of flashbacks strummed together conclude the scene. Both the novel and film’s openings are identical, but the film’s vivid scenery mixed with Witherspoon’s raw performance give the audience an intense visual of Strayed’s emotional and physical state that was not as dramatically depicted in the book.

One significant aspect of Strayed’s life that is intertwined throughout Wild is Strayed’s difficulty in dealing with the loss of her mother. In the book, we hear and learn about Strayed’s close relationship with her mother through Strayed’s own memories, while in the film, the audience sees this relationship play out through highly emotional flashbacks and gain a better understanding of the hardships with which Strayed’s mother struggled. From escaping an abusive husband to keeping her family financially afloat as a single mother, the audience develops their own relationship with Strayed’s mother, provoking emotions brought on by their own experiences.

There are always sacrifices made in the translation from literature to film since the film adaptation requires a simplification in the narrative and character motivation. However, the power film holds can outweigh its damage in the translation by appealing to a wider audience and bringing to life a story that may otherwise go unnoticed. Despite altering facts and characters for cinematic purposes, these individuals’ stories are being presented to the mass audience, gaining wider notoriety, and encouraging audiences to discover the source material. When asked what made her want to take the hike, Strayed replied, “That’s a long answer. You’ll have to read the book.”

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Entertainment & Media

Power Triangles: Love, Sex, and TV’s Modern Heroine

amwilla7

Originally published on CultralWeekly.com

Scandal

Her intelligence is as enticing as her wit. Her appe­­­arance, impeccable and flawless, as if she stepped right off the cover of Vogue. Pass on the Pinot Grigio; she only takes red and prefers it by the bottle. Give her an unsolvable problem and she’ll not only rise to the occasion and conquer the issue at hand, but will do so with a smile on her face and not a hair out of place. Who is she? She’s the modern heroine gracing your television screen several nights a week. She’s the woman pulling females out of subordinate victim roles and placing them in the forefront. She’s the woman calling the shots except when it comes to her love life and in this case, it’s always complicated by two irresistible successful and charming men claiming her affection week after week.

Women have been making their mark on television for over half a century now. They’ve outshined their male leads, carried popular shows on their own, and have been listed as trailblazers for actresses today. The housewife of the ‘50s and ‘60s transformed to the single working girl and matriarch of the ‘70s and ‘80s. The ‘90s and early ‘2000s, presented a further evolution. There was the housewife who kept the family alive and fed while her husband made one dimwitted mistake after another. Then you had the woman who, despite career success, was always going through a revolving door of relationships, kissing frog after frog with no prince in sight.

The fact that female-centric shows are popular is nothing new, but the modern incarnation is something completely unique. This woman is powerful, fearless, has a closet full of designer suits and handbags, and always has her pick of bachelors to choose from. This woman is someone we could never be, but the fantasy is undeniably attractive.

Three of the most powerful heroines on television today are Scandal’s Olivia Pope (played by Kerry Washington), The Good Wife’s Alicia Florrick (played by Juliana Margulies), and newcomer How to Get Away with Murder’s Annalise Keating (played by Viola Davis). It’s not enough that Olivia Pope runs a lucrative crisis management firm and can graciously self-medicate with a bottle of ’94 du Bellay without leaving a drop on her spotless white Armani suit. No, she also scores the attention of the President of the United States and a CIA Operative. Alicia Florrick’s situation differs slightly but only in the fact that she struggles between lusting after Will Gardner, her boss and managing partner of Chicago’s most successful law firm, and her commitment to Illinois Governor Peter Florrick, her unfaithful but remorseful husband. The men stealing our leading lady’s attention are just as wealthy and victorious as their female counterparts. Gone are the days of the girl next door tied between the bad boy from the streets and the popular jock. Our girl doesn’t settle for anything less than wealth, power, and model looks. Even Annalise Keating has one arm clutching a respected Homicide Detective and the other around her Psychology Professor husband.

Much like the horror movie conceit of the virgin’s survival, television dramas featuring female protagonists are relying more and more on simultaneous love affairs involving their main character. We’re less concerned with Olivia Pope’s latest crisis case and Alicia Florrick’s parenting skills, and more fixated on who will be occupying their bed this week. It’s the romance in these series that women viewers crave. They admire the fact that Olivia Pope and Alicia Florrick don’t need a man but rather choose to have one (or two) because they can.

One criticism is that this strips our heroine of her power and strength, but that isn’t necessarily true. The power triangles aren’t diminishing our leading ladies. Instead, our women are standing firm, controlling the fate of their male counterparts and leaving viewers obsessing over their next move. Call it a step back for women’s advancements in television, but the reality is that women viewers want their Cinderella fantasies and writers are expanding on that fairytale by dropping in a second Prince Charming. They’re utilizing the power triangle to expose our female and male characters’ vulnerability and flaws. They never twitch from fear nor doubt in the Oval Office and courtroom, but when in the presence of their lover, they lose control, leaving their weaknesses exposed to viewers. Train wrecks draw attention and keep these television series high in the ratings. We tune in each week to see our female protagonists triumph once again over overwhelming odds. As viewers, we enjoy placing bets over which lover they’ll choose this week. Triangle affairs are juicy. They keep viewers coming back each week and burning up the discussion boards proclaiming loyalty to “Team Fitz” or “Team Jake.” Final Score: Olivia Pope and Alicia Florrick – 2, Bachelors – 0

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