Epic Theater Illuminations Walter Benjamin
The didactic play
This segment Benjamin telescopes out to the wider aim of epic theater which is to teach. But his way to explain this is first to explain the nature of the audience and the actors as equal participants--all striving for the same goal.
Then we turn to airplanes and heros. Shamefully Brecht wrote a play in which there is a hero but he gets redacted. We then hear Benjamin compare pilots to monks and end with a allusion to Brecht speaking about a hypothetical and alienated struggle.
Venice is treated very much as the city of the 'others.' There is a language barrier but what is strange is this is usually a trope given to people in society that are immigrants or people generally stereotyped as degenerate. There is a language barrier and we are suspicious of whether the people are actually demons and consider that the place might be haunted. On top of this, the city generally bears in mind it's intense ties to culture but the movie seems to question it's place in the contemporary and treats it so frigid that psychological archetypes can be a serial killer.
The trouble begins after a randy display of sex between the posh couple shortly after arriving in Venice. It is not certain what sparks this passionate coupling--they just lost their daughter and are grieving, the mood of the film is foreboding, they are in luxury but it is some what truncated and dangerous. This love making seems to give birth to a phantom that makes the rest of the film a garish farce. The city realizes itself as a decaying but picturesque maze and we struggle with love and alienation as well as truth and paranoia.
Don't Look Now (1973)
The city of Venice is set in relation to an art restorer’s dead child. Water is also a frequent theme and in many ways the source of motion of the drama. Along with the sense of loss and uneasiness we also contemplate high class and treating Venice as a giant tomb.
Venice is treated very much as the city of the 'others.' There is a language barrier but what is strange is this is usually a trope given to people in society that are immigrants or people generally stereotyped as degenerate. There is a language barrier and we are suspicious of whether the people are actually demons and consider that the place might be haunted. On top of this, the city generally bears in mind it's intense ties to culture but the movie seems to question it's place in the contemporary and treats it so frigid that psychological archetypes can be a serial killer.
The trouble begins after a randy display of sex between the posh couple shortly after arriving in Venice. It is not certain what sparks this passionate coupling--they just lost their daughter and are grieving, the mood of the film is foreboding, they are in luxury but it is some what truncated and dangerous. This love making seems to give birth to a phantom that makes the rest of the film a garish farce. The city realizes itself as a decaying but picturesque maze and we struggle with love and alienation as well as truth and paranoia.
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