Comparing Taymor's Frida And Across The Universe
Titus was an independent film, co-produced and written by Taymor and based on Shakespeare’s tragedy play Titus Andronicus. The film opened with a little boy playing with toy soldiers on the kitchen floor while watching cartoons. Then the background noises started to play sounds of war, as the house started to shake. The boy was then taken by a man and rushed down the stairs heading for outside, but as they enter outside, they enter an empty Colosseum. As the unnamed child was placed in the center, Roman soldiers entered in a solid formation surrounding him all wearing masks. Once they were in their final position, Roman general Titus entered the Colosseum. The boy’s, “private little war game builds to an imaginary explosion that magically
…show more content…
plunges him Alice-like through a tunnel under the floor into the world of the play” (Holden, 1999, para. 4). Titus had finally returned from 40 years at war with the Goths. However, his last task before he returned home was to execute the eldest son of Tamora, Queen of the Goths. This action set off a long chain of revenge aggravated when Tamora married the new Emperor, Saturninus (Holden, 1999, para. 10). At the end of the film, the unnamed boy was cornered to make the decision to either kill a baby or he dies to become a sacrifice for the Gods. The boy did neither and walked out of the Colosseum with the sunset ahead of him while everyone else remained frozen.
Taymor used ritual masks along with representations of body movements to prove that she had a theater background when creating this film. By adding visual special effects, the use of rapid cutting, and audio blending she was able to tell the story of Titus different from her 1994 theater production (Anderon, 2013). She worked with masks since the story was set during a Roman period. Just like the Greeks, the Romans would use masks in performances to allow the actor to become who he needed to be. Different masks were worn for different ways to tell a story. The Roman soldiers that entered the Colosseum all wore the same outfit and mask in order to have the same uniform. Also, the use of the soldier's body posture and actions were important. Their faces were hidden from the viewers so body movement was very important. It allowed the actor to not just play the character but become the character. Taymor did this in The Lion King production with her costumes it connected the actor with the puppet costume. However, in her next film, Frida, it concentrated more on the ritual of Frida living her life with body pain.
Frida (2002) is a biographical film that is based on the life of the Mexican artist Frida Kahlo (Nyman, 2016). Taymor co-wrote it with Edward Norton and it was based on A Biography of Frida Kahlo by Hayden Herrera (Briley, 2003). Norton never received a writing credit for the script. The film started by showing Frida looking at herself in the mirror lying on the bed. It then fades back to when a younger Frida going to school and being known to speak her mind. One day heading home on the bus Frida and her boyfriend are in a horrible accident. Her boyfriend had a few scratches but she had broken many bones in her body and could not walk. Her boyfriend left her, breaking her heart, after learning she could not walk again. Frida stayed busy by painting to pass the time and eventually she learned to walk again with a help from a cane. A few years later, she met Diego Rivera for his feedback and his help to sell her paintings. As time passed they fell in love and got married. However, Rivera was never faithful to her and slept with many different women including her sister. Frida ended with Frida laying on the bed being carried out of her house, across town, to her first public gallery. Even though she was in pain every day of her life she lived her life.
Taymor showed the disabled body by placing a narrative around Frida’s body creating it as the subject (Nyman, 2016). Taymor wanted to show Frida living in horrible pain but that she was able to push through it and live her life. The film showed rituals of Frida living her daily life in Mexico and what events that could have happened to encouraged her to paint. One very unique effect Taymor did in the movie was the recreation of Frida’s work. Occasional she would use 3-D paintings that would come to life, or it appeared as an image in Frida’s life (Nyman, 2016). The mixture of bright and dark colors that Frida used in her paintings Taymor used in her production. When the “paintings” would transition into a real moment with Frida the color filter in the scene would match the colors from it. Taymor relied on the colors to convey Frida’s point of view. When Frida is happy the screen dominated in bright colors like bright blues, reds, and yellows (Nyman, 2016). When she was sad the colors changed to grays, greens, and browns (Nyman, 2016). This is not the first time Taymor has used color to express the mood of the setting. It is a common avant-garde theme that she used in all of her projects. Depending on Tyamor’s approach she would would set the main color to help set the mood of the story. Titus was overall darker than Frida because of their stories. In Across the Universe (2007) she used the same technique and added digital collages to aid her style. The film opened up a medium shot of Jude sitting on a beach and as the camera gets closer he turns to sing to it. He sang only a few lines then the image froze on him and then outlined his face. The shot faded into clips of waves crashing as the audio changed from the waves into people yelling and music playing from a guitar getting louder. As the music changed into the song “Helter Skelter” a collage of images are shown in the waves of young people fighting to get away from cops. Across the Universe is a love story based during the Vietnam War and was told through songs by The Beatles. Taymor sets her she selected 32 songs from a catalog of 200 and mostly focused on their early songs (LaPorte, 2007).
Jude traveled from England to America to find his dad. After Jude found his dad he moved to New York City with his new best friend Max. Max’s sister, Lucy, was a senior in high school and lost her boyfriend in the war. Lucy moved out to New York City where Jude and her fell in love. Later in the movie, Max gets drafted by the army and was sent to Vietnam. Lucy started to get involved with protesting against the war because of the death of first boyfriend and Max was there. Jude was at a peaceful protest to apologize to Lucy about an argument they had earlier but the protest turned hustle. Jude ended up getting arrested and sent back to England because he did not have a visa. The movie ends with Jude singing “All you Need is Love” on a rooftop that was airing on a radio channel. Lucy does hear him singing but ended up being on a different roof because the way was blocked to get to him. Jude and Lucy see each other, smile, and it fades to black.
In both Frida and Across the Universe Taymor showed daily rituals how people lived during their time period and location.
Frida is shown living her life in Mexico in pain but not letting anyone be aware of it. She was known for wearing long native dresses to hide her scars and braces from the accident (Nyman, 2016). In Across the Universe when Max went through the process of getting screened for the army. Taymor used masks again for the soldiers to all be synced and the masks had a similar look of the ones from Titus. This scene also showed the ritual of young people being sent out to a fight a war that they do not want to fight. Frida and Across the Universe are a bit different from Titus because what of what Taymor wants to show her audience for the purpose of her …show more content…
story.
In 1979, she got her first job to design the stage production for The Odyssey on the Baltimore stage.
Nine years later, in 1988, she worked on the production Juan Darien, A Carnival Mass which “Lincoln Center revived in 1996, giving Taymor her first broadway credit” (“PBS,” n.d. p. 2). She combined elaborate costumes and various form of puppetry that was influenced by the Japanese bunraku style (“PBS,” n.d). In 1997, she made her directorial debut with the musical The Lion King. Disney liked Taymor’s stage production in Juan Darien, A Carnival Mass and wanted to work with her on The Lion King franchise. She created puppets and masks to continue her avant-garde trademark style to connect the actor and the costume (“PBS,” n.d.). Avant-garde is an experimental method of theater or film work using visual, literary, or musical arts to explain a story. For example, a giraffe, was an actor “wearing a conelike giraffe neck and head - balanced on arm and leg stilts” (“PBS,” n.d. p. 3). Taymor wanted the actors and the puppet costume to work as one in order to become the
character.
Taymor did have a small conflict with Disney because they kept wanting to change her vision of her play (Anderson, 2013). Disney did not like that Taymor changed Rafiki to a female, but she argued that it sets a darker tone when Simba transitions into adulthood. Disney loved her avant-garde style so much they were willing to overlook her decision on changing the sex of Rafiki (Anderson, 2013). After working with Disney Taymor had to get out of the franchise because she does not want to get stuck (Anderson, 2013). So she did a project complete opposite of The Lion King and directed her first feature film Titus released in 1999.
Since 1999, Taymor has directed three more feature films and they all including her avant-garde trademark style with ritual themes. She continued working with masks, body parts, and color patterns in her films. Not only is the production style the same but all four movies share a common theme in their stories. The transition from childhood to adulthood is the major theme that can be found in all four feature films by Taymor. Also, Taymor used a variety of different ritual performances in her movies to fit the story that is being told. Since Taymor was interested in learning about other cultures, she learned about rituals from those cultures. The ritual theory emerged within media studies in the 1970s (Pauly, 2014). Rituals have been around for a long period of time but were not studied for media communication purposes. Rituals have been a part of religion as long as it has been around. Greeks would have festivals for each of their God or Goddess they would worship to. Plays would be performed for the Gods covering their faces with masks and using their bodies to send messages. Also, during these festivals a sacrifice, usually a goat, would be given to the Gods for thanks. However, rituals today are a lot different from the Greek times. They are special moments in lives of people all around the world and not only routine moments in our daily life (Pauly, 2014). Rituals symbolize the passage from one state to another, for example, the transition from childhood to adulthood (Pauly, 2014). The purpose of this paper is to compare Taymor feature films Titus, Frida, Across the Universe, and The Tempest by using ritual theory perspectives.
plunges him Alice-like through a tunnel under the floor into the world of the play” (Holden, 1999, para. 4). Titus had finally returned from 40 years at war with the Goths. However, his last task before he returned home was to execute the eldest son of Tamora, Queen of the Goths. This action set off a long chain of revenge aggravated when Tamora married the new Emperor, Saturninus (Holden, 1999, para. 10). At the end of the film, the unnamed boy was cornered to make the decision to either kill a baby or he dies to become a sacrifice for the Gods. The boy did neither and walked out of the Colosseum with the sunset ahead of him while everyone else remained frozen.
Taymor used ritual masks along with representations of body movements to prove that she had a theater background when creating this film. By adding visual special effects, the use of rapid cutting, and audio blending she was able to tell the story of Titus different from her 1994 theater production (Anderon, 2013). She worked with masks since the story was set during a Roman period. Just like the Greeks, the Romans would use masks in performances to allow the actor to become who he needed to be. Different masks were worn for different ways to tell a story. The Roman soldiers that entered the Colosseum all wore the same outfit and mask in order to have the same uniform. Also, the use of the soldier's body posture and actions were important. Their faces were hidden from the viewers so body movement was very important. It allowed the actor to not just play the character but become the character. Taymor did this in The Lion King production with her costumes it connected the actor with the puppet costume. However, in her next film, Frida, it concentrated more on the ritual of Frida living her life with body pain.
Frida (2002) is a biographical film that is based on the life of the Mexican artist Frida Kahlo (Nyman, 2016). Taymor co-wrote it with Edward Norton and it was based on A Biography of Frida Kahlo by Hayden Herrera (Briley, 2003). Norton never received a writing credit for the script. The film started by showing Frida looking at herself in the mirror lying on the bed. It then fades back to when a younger Frida going to school and being known to speak her mind. One day heading home on the bus Frida and her boyfriend are in a horrible accident. Her boyfriend had a few scratches but she had broken many bones in her body and could not walk. Her boyfriend left her, breaking her heart, after learning she could not walk again. Frida stayed busy by painting to pass the time and eventually she learned to walk again with a help from a cane. A few years later, she met Diego Rivera for his feedback and his help to sell her paintings. As time passed they fell in love and got married. However, Rivera was never faithful to her and slept with many different women including her sister. Frida ended with Frida laying on the bed being carried out of her house, across town, to her first public gallery. Even though she was in pain every day of her life she lived her life.
Taymor showed the disabled body by placing a narrative around Frida’s body creating it as the subject (Nyman, 2016). Taymor wanted to show Frida living in horrible pain but that she was able to push through it and live her life. The film showed rituals of Frida living her daily life in Mexico and what events that could have happened to encouraged her to paint. One very unique effect Taymor did in the movie was the recreation of Frida’s work. Occasional she would use 3-D paintings that would come to life, or it appeared as an image in Frida’s life (Nyman, 2016). The mixture of bright and dark colors that Frida used in her paintings Taymor used in her production. When the “paintings” would transition into a real moment with Frida the color filter in the scene would match the colors from it. Taymor relied on the colors to convey Frida’s point of view. When Frida is happy the screen dominated in bright colors like bright blues, reds, and yellows (Nyman, 2016). When she was sad the colors changed to grays, greens, and browns (Nyman, 2016). This is not the first time Taymor has used color to express the mood of the setting. It is a common avant-garde theme that she used in all of her projects. Depending on Tyamor’s approach she would would set the main color to help set the mood of the story. Titus was overall darker than Frida because of their stories. In Across the Universe (2007) she used the same technique and added digital collages to aid her style. The film opened up a medium shot of Jude sitting on a beach and as the camera gets closer he turns to sing to it. He sang only a few lines then the image froze on him and then outlined his face. The shot faded into clips of waves crashing as the audio changed from the waves into people yelling and music playing from a guitar getting louder. As the music changed into the song “Helter Skelter” a collage of images are shown in the waves of young people fighting to get away from cops. Across the Universe is a love story based during the Vietnam War and was told through songs by The Beatles. Taymor sets her she selected 32 songs from a catalog of 200 and mostly focused on their early songs (LaPorte, 2007).
Jude traveled from England to America to find his dad. After Jude found his dad he moved to New York City with his new best friend Max. Max’s sister, Lucy, was a senior in high school and lost her boyfriend in the war. Lucy moved out to New York City where Jude and her fell in love. Later in the movie, Max gets drafted by the army and was sent to Vietnam. Lucy started to get involved with protesting against the war because of the death of first boyfriend and Max was there. Jude was at a peaceful protest to apologize to Lucy about an argument they had earlier but the protest turned hustle. Jude ended up getting arrested and sent back to England because he did not have a visa. The movie ends with Jude singing “All you Need is Love” on a rooftop that was airing on a radio channel. Lucy does hear him singing but ended up being on a different roof because the way was blocked to get to him. Jude and Lucy see each other, smile, and it fades to black.
In both Frida and Across the Universe Taymor showed daily rituals how people lived during their time period and location.
Frida is shown living her life in Mexico in pain but not letting anyone be aware of it. She was known for wearing long native dresses to hide her scars and braces from the accident (Nyman, 2016). In Across the Universe when Max went through the process of getting screened for the army. Taymor used masks again for the soldiers to all be synced and the masks had a similar look of the ones from Titus. This scene also showed the ritual of young people being sent out to a fight a war that they do not want to fight. Frida and Across the Universe are a bit different from Titus because what of what Taymor wants to show her audience for the purpose of her …show more content…
story.
In 1979, she got her first job to design the stage production for The Odyssey on the Baltimore stage.
Nine years later, in 1988, she worked on the production Juan Darien, A Carnival Mass which “Lincoln Center revived in 1996, giving Taymor her first broadway credit” (“PBS,” n.d. p. 2). She combined elaborate costumes and various form of puppetry that was influenced by the Japanese bunraku style (“PBS,” n.d). In 1997, she made her directorial debut with the musical The Lion King. Disney liked Taymor’s stage production in Juan Darien, A Carnival Mass and wanted to work with her on The Lion King franchise. She created puppets and masks to continue her avant-garde trademark style to connect the actor and the costume (“PBS,” n.d.). Avant-garde is an experimental method of theater or film work using visual, literary, or musical arts to explain a story. For example, a giraffe, was an actor “wearing a conelike giraffe neck and head - balanced on arm and leg stilts” (“PBS,” n.d. p. 3). Taymor wanted the actors and the puppet costume to work as one in order to become the
character.
Taymor did have a small conflict with Disney because they kept wanting to change her vision of her play (Anderson, 2013). Disney did not like that Taymor changed Rafiki to a female, but she argued that it sets a darker tone when Simba transitions into adulthood. Disney loved her avant-garde style so much they were willing to overlook her decision on changing the sex of Rafiki (Anderson, 2013). After working with Disney Taymor had to get out of the franchise because she does not want to get stuck (Anderson, 2013). So she did a project complete opposite of The Lion King and directed her first feature film Titus released in 1999.
Since 1999, Taymor has directed three more feature films and they all including her avant-garde trademark style with ritual themes. She continued working with masks, body parts, and color patterns in her films. Not only is the production style the same but all four movies share a common theme in their stories. The transition from childhood to adulthood is the major theme that can be found in all four feature films by Taymor. Also, Taymor used a variety of different ritual performances in her movies to fit the story that is being told. Since Taymor was interested in learning about other cultures, she learned about rituals from those cultures. The ritual theory emerged within media studies in the 1970s (Pauly, 2014). Rituals have been around for a long period of time but were not studied for media communication purposes. Rituals have been a part of religion as long as it has been around. Greeks would have festivals for each of their God or Goddess they would worship to. Plays would be performed for the Gods covering their faces with masks and using their bodies to send messages. Also, during these festivals a sacrifice, usually a goat, would be given to the Gods for thanks. However, rituals today are a lot different from the Greek times. They are special moments in lives of people all around the world and not only routine moments in our daily life (Pauly, 2014). Rituals symbolize the passage from one state to another, for example, the transition from childhood to adulthood (Pauly, 2014). The purpose of this paper is to compare Taymor feature films Titus, Frida, Across the Universe, and The Tempest by using ritual theory perspectives.