Tuesday, March 1, 2016

THE CINEMA OF ANDREA ARNOLD TOLD THROUGH IMAGES & STILLS


My relationship with the filmography of Andrea Arnold is incredibly strange. Red Road is the only film of hers that I really love (and still do to this day). I was a little disappointed by Wuthering Heights, the main reason I really liked Fish Tank was because of the (unexpected) classic hip-hop soundtrack (Nas, Gangstarr, Eric B & Rakim, etc), and while I enjoy Wasp (her Oscar winning short film), the lead character was very frustrating (at the end of the day I think she's an incredibly irresponsible mother yet I feel like we're still supposed to kind of like her and I just don't). But maybe that's the point...

But even with all that said, there's still something about her style that motivated me to do this entry.

I didn't realize I was such an Andrea Arnold fan/defender until Pink Smoker Chris Funderberg referred to me as such in a Sundance piece on Wuthering Heights a while back. After reading his thoughts I thought to myself; "Am I an Andrea Arnold defender?" Then I thought back on how the first time I met Chris a decade ago I defended Red Road right out of the gate. A few years after that I went to see Fish Tank with PINNLAND EMPIRE contributor Doug Frye and found myself kind of defending her work again after sensing he wasn't that impressed (I also defended Fish Tank to PINNLAND EMPIRE contributor Ian Loffill a year after that). I even still want to love Wuthering Heights when I know I shouldn't (I was definitely disappointed but there is an ambiance to that film that I am drawn to).
So I guess I am an Andrea Arnold defender.

But no matter what criticisms I have (this is definitely the most critical "cinema of" entry to date), I still think she's a unique voice in arthouse cinema and her work is worthy of the analysis below.


Enjoy...


FEMALE LEADS
Andrea Arnold's films are always told from the perspective of a female protagonist (naturally there are a few exceptions as she has quite a few important male supporting characters, but at the end of the day her films are geared towards the female point of view). If you look at Arnold's entire body of work as one continuous story it's almost like we're watching one amalgamated woman grow up through her movies. With Fish Tank, Dog & the first half of her (LOOSE) adaptation of Wuthering Heights we get that adolescent/coming of age period. In Wasp she focuses on women in their 20's (who all have some maturing to do), while Red Road & Milk both focus on more mature women in their 30's.
Fish Tank
Milk
Red Road
Wasp
Wuthering Heights
American Honey



This branches off to the female-specific subcategory of motherhood...


MOTHERHOOD
Not only do Arnold's films feature mothers, but their children are always girls (Jackie's deceased child in Red Road was a girl & the mother in Wasp has three daughters) so we get this common theme of the relationship between mothers & daughters...
Red Road
Fish Tank
Wasp



SEXUAL TENSION BETWEEN MEN & WOMEN
A separate analysis could be written on the sexual friction/tension between men & women in the films of Andrea Arnold (this is something I don't think she gets credit for). The politics concerning gender in her movies are always on the nose but interesting nonetheless. Like her exploration of females at various stages, each of her films shows the classic, yet not always positive, sexual relationships between men & women. In Red Road we see the main female lead use sex as a trap (it's a bit more complicated than that but that's what it is on the surface).
In Fish Tank we see the age-old tale of the older man preying on the younger vulnerable girl. And in Wuthering Heights we see the sexual curiosity of young boys & girls in the midst of puberty...
Wasp
Red Road
Wuthering Heights
Fish Tank
American Honey




THE PRESENCE OF ANIMALS & INSECTS
The life of an animal or insect often mirrors that of a character in an Andrea Arnold film. In Red Road, Jackie (Kate Dickie) is still grieving the loss of her husband & daughter. All while this is happening she becomes fascinated with a sick dog that lives in her neighborhood. By the end of the film that dog dies and the owner gets a new a dog which mirrors Jackie getting on with her life and moving past the loss of her family. Arnold kind of recreated this human vs animal relationship in her next film. In Fish Tank, Mia becomes strangely fascinated with a wild horse (just like Jackie's relationship with the sick dog in Red Road). By the end of the film the horse dies just as Mia moves out of her Mother's house to be independent.
Some might say her use of animals is a bit cliche (and it kind of is), but it's still an important part of her work. 

Even when she isn't using animals in a symbolic/metaphorical way, they're always present in the background of all of her films (at a Q&A for Fish Tank I attended a few years ago, Michael Fassbender made it a point to bring up Arnold's love of animals)
Wasp
Fish Tank
Fish Tank
Red Road
Red Road
Wuthering Heights
Wuthering Heights
Wuthering Heights
American Honey




THE PRESENCE OF CHILDREN/YOUTH
Not to compare young children to animals, but Arnold's use of children mirrors her fascination with animals. Children & Teenagers either represent growth and/or transformation, or they're always present in the background...
Fish Tank
Fish Tank
Wasp
Wuthering Heights
Wuthering Heights




RECURRING SHOTS
Fish Tank
Red Road
Wuthering Heights
Fish Tank
American Honey
Red Road
Red Road
Wuthering Heights
Fish Tank
Red Road
Wuthering Heights



MOST RECURRING THEME: VOYEURISM/SPYING
Red Road
Red Road
Red Road
Wuthering Heights
Wuthering Heights
Fish Tank
American Honey
Fish Tank



RECURRING SETTING: DREARY BACKDROPS
Dog
Fish Tank
Red Road
Wuthering Heights




(POSSIBLE) INFLUENCES ON ANDREA ARNOLD'S WORK...
Wuthering Heights / Othello (Obviously her adaptation of Wuthering Heights is based on the classic book, but by making Heathcliff black and rearranging other elements of the story, she essentially transformed Wuthering Heights in to Othello in an abstract kind of way. This is something she had to be conscious of...)
Wuthering Heights/Virgin Spring
Red Road/Ratcatcher
Red Road / Fear X
Wuthering Heights / Valhalla Rising
Fish Tank / American Friend





THE UNSPOKEN: FACIAL EXPRESSIONS & BODY LANGUAGE
Like her other (female) contemporaries we've explored in previous entries (Claire Denis, Lynne Ramsay, etc), Andrea Arnold has the ability to convey a thought or a strong feeling without any dialogue. You can see the fear in Kate Dickie's face below (there is almost no dialogue spoken in the scene where this image is taken from) and the way young Catherine bites her bottom lip in Wuthering Heights shows a sexual curiosity towards Heathcliff....
Red Road
Wuthering Heights
Fish Tank



LONELINESS
Arnold's (main) characters are almost always introverted loners (sometimes holding in explosive rage like in the case of Mia in Fish Tank & Heathcliff in Wuthering Heights). Her teenage female characters in Dog & Fish Tank are in that confusing awkward hormonal period. A depressed Jackie (Red Road) keeps to herself after the loss of her family. Heathcliff (Wuthering Heights) is forced to be a loner given his race & living situation (a black orphan that isn't accepted by the community he lives amongst).
Dog
Fish Tank
Fish Tank
Red Road
Wuthering Heights


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