One of the great joys of The Watchmen is that not only is it about anti-heroic superheroes, but it is anti-heroic and anti-comic in structure. Written after the Star Wars phenomenon began to change most films into comics, The Watchmen helped change comic books into novels. The graphic novel blew up in the 80s with mind-blowing works such as The Dark Knight, Sandman and Sin City, but although each of those titles put forth excellent stand alone efforts most were written as series. The Watchmen could only ever have been a one off and you know that in your bones going in—it offers up a complete world, takes up its history and posits a future. A truly finite work is rare these days, rarer still is one with a great third act—a third act that leaves the world slightly changed.Besides serializing and syndicating every frame of film that came after it, the Star Wars altered the very structure of the movies that got made in its wake [although, oddly enough, this did not hold true for A New Hope, which had a fairly slow build] . As we know, with the rise of the blockbuster era most movies, in pursuit of greater punch and bigger first weekends, started front loading the crap out of themselves. More and more films were launched with more and bang before the credits—if there even were credits. Exposition was for losers.
It would seem that if you feed people corn long enough, eventually they are going to shit corn, and since the notion of front loading came to prominence everything from film to tv to comics and the novel has been infected by that approach. Even most authors who came of age post Star Wars sucked on the tit of big first scenes and suck at endings. They have the same pressure to grab the reader early and often, and sell books based on perfectly wrought first chapters. The rest, well, fuck third acts—you can’t make a living off great third acts. But you can make immortal works of art with them.
The Watchmen has a very slow, uncanny build. At times you feel like the piece will never lift off and yet you stay with it. Rereading it, the story came back to me—in a slow build. The end fits together brilliantly, but even that has an anti-climactic bittersweet bite to it. Moore has a depressive’s mind, but it is a mind that is inexorably trying to overcome its own darkness.
I will be watching Zack Snyder. Not just to see if the man who put buff men in diapers and made it work can improve on the original’s slightly underwhelming but apt visuals, but to see if he will dare to create an anti-blockbuster blockbuster. I will be watching to see if Snyder will be able to create goofy realistic anti-super superheroes, if he will have the guts to maintain the historical sweep of Cold War America so important to the piece, but mostly I will be watching to see if he will manage to resist the temptation and no doubt he pressure to follow the standard Syd Fields formula that has been handcuffing Hollywood for 30+ years. Batman Returns certainly made it possible for mega-blockbusters to venture into new creative territory. It remains to see if anyone else will follow.
Coraline
Coraline is one film that successfully resists the shackles of Syd. Gradual and abrupt in turns like its sophisticated stop action/computer animation format, Coraline’s story proceeds like a dream and resists those classic event markers that are even more prevalent in animated films than they have become in live action films.The most resonant image to take away from Coraline occurs once she passes beyond the borders of the Other House’s property—the Other Mother only created what was necessary. When Coraline gets far enough away the animation begins to fail and break down to a white back drop. While this moment is not new, the geniuses at Warner Bros. did this to Daffy Duck decades ago, it does seem very timely as our economy recedes and shrinks back so that only what is necessary remains.
Bag Props for Hendrik Kerstens
Found this guy when I clicked on a photo of Scarlett Johansson as Girl with a Pearl Earring. He poses his daughter, a younger, chubbier, less groomed version of Johansson in poses from Vermeer and other Flemish masters [or in their spirit]—but with arch and subtle twists.
Some of his other pics: girl against barren sea, little girl in makeup—more expected/less enchanting. Overall, though, surprising, odd and immaculate photos.
http://www.hendrikkerstens.com/index.html
