Here is a short piece that I wrote for my film class journal. It references some reading we did, as well as a screening of The Blue Angel. Feel free to skip it if you don't feel like reading, but I figured it might be worth sharing in this thread since Lew brought up
Les Vampires...
In Vickie Callahan’s article “Screening Musidora: Inscribing Indeterminacy in Film History” she attempts to establish the idea of recursion within the narrative, which is then used to explain how Musidora stood apart from the film and became the most famous aspect of it as the character Irma Vep. However, Callahan’s conception or usage of recursion is slightly flawed when she ascribes to it the idea of recurring narrative devices such as the chase scene or the ongoing use of disguises. Instead what she describes is simple repeated functionality, not a recursive function.
However, she has indirectly brought up a point that does stand out with Feuillade’s serials and perhaps serials in general. Recursion as it is normally used would instead describe a specific type of function that processes a larger task by breaking it down into subtasks and then applying itself (the function) to each of them. In turn this will happen again to those subtasks repeatedly until the function is given a small enough or base portion to which it can apply its actual functionality. Thus the larger solution is created from the summation of these smaller solutions. In the case of serials, and specifically the Feuillade serials like Les Vampires (1915), the overall task might be seen as the entire series of stories. The smaller sections of films or perhaps even groups of films would come next, eventually reaching the smallest base narrative arc, perhaps just a scene or small grouping of scenes. Within that arc the actual functionality is applied and this is where disguises, ambiguity, detective work and chase scenes come in to play. So we see the repetition of these devices in the overall arc as they represent the individual solutions for the smaller sub-sections of the serial story.
In that way Irma Vep more strongly breaks the recursion mold because she does not repetitively appear within the serial, she is not a basic piece that will be found in each sub-section. She lies outside of that “task” (the overall narrative arc) that the recursion is applied to and is instead added to the final solution of it. However, the same functions are available to her as are available to the recursive “serial” function. She can use disguises, engage in chases, and perform the various actions of criminal or detective.
At the same time she seems to also be a character that perfectly represents the entire narrative because of the fact that she is the ultimate go-between character. She sides with both the protagonist and antagonist at various times, linking the two. But of course Feuillade has been doing this since the first chapter of Les Vampires. He immediately establishes a direct connection between the two by showing the primary characters for each side in a sequence of images in which they each are wearing a variety of disguises. Thus at the opening of the film Feuillade tells the audience that both sides will follow the same behavior, utilize the same functionality, and in some ways be indistinguishable. So it is that when Irma Vep literally takes a stance of duality, being for both sides at the same time in effect, that she becomes the strongest representation of the theme for the entire film. What is meant to compel the audience is the idea that each side works with the same methods, and at times the narrative even depends on the protagonist being falsely accused after being setup by the antagonist.
But Musidora and the Irma Vep character did transcend Les Vampires, while at the same time being the ultimate representation of it. In her article Callahan describes Musidora as multi-skilled, highly intelligent woman who not only acted in films, but also directed ten herself and wrote a plethora of various works, from screenplays to children’s books. She also seemed to have an acute awareness of the power of her own sexuality as well as an intense understanding of her persona and how it empowered her within her career. As Callahan says, “Musidora was someone extremely attentive both to her public persona and her ability to construct the narrative(s) that surrounded this persona.” This persona control went even to the point of her choosing her name, which originated as a femme fatal character in the novel Fortunio by Theophile Gautier. This description is remarkably like a modern woman of power/fame, Madonna.
While the feminist point of view might be to downplay Musidora’s use of sexuality to gain power, in order to enhance the respect given to her other abilities, it should be noted for both Musidora and Madonna that this sexuality is only the leverage into a man’s world of power. Once there this power must be accumulated and maintained by wit and skill, and again a focused understanding of one’s own persona. So it would seem to be no accident that Musidora’s Irma Vep was able to transcend the film, as we might be able to imagine that she had envisioned it being that way from the start.
Utilizing the voyeuristic nature of film to her utmost benefit, she breaks through to fame by wearing a body stocking that is notably see-through. Certainly she had to be aware of this. What gives it power is not the “nudity” of it, but rather the voyeuristic nature of seeing what is not supposed to be seen. The body stocking is clothing that hides her skin, yet the sheerness of it allows the audience to feel that somehow a mistake has been made, a window left open, that allows them a glimpse through to her nudity. The idea of this control, this luring, is fitting for a femme fatal and is most often where their power does derive. As an exhibitionist all power is lost because the audience knows that the exhibitor is also aware that they are being watched, but the voyeuristic illusion of innocence or naiveté gives the femme fatal the power of being higher on the hierarchy of knowledge, since only they know the complete truth of the situation (that they realize they are exposed). They allow the prey to feel as though it is the hunter, while an exhibitionist puts the prey on guard by revealing their methods at the outset. It is a power that in a few weeks we will see wielded by Marlene Dietrich in The Blue Angel (dir. Josef von Sternberg, 1930) when she wears costumes that imply an unwitting exposure of her body as well.
If you made it this far, it's a miracle.
