la réponse à la lecture: Week 4

Re-visit Banes's discussion of Scorpio Rising and Greenberg's distinction between avant-garde and kitsch (p. 104-105). Why does she argue that the film is "neither fish nor fowl," meaning somewhere in-between avant-garde and kitsch?

In Bane’s discussion, she states that Scorpio Rising is “neither fish nor fowl”, a good metaphor saying that it cannot be described solely as avant-garde or kitsch, but rather a mixture of the two. I could not agree more after reading the description of the two styles and her (or Greenberg’s) arguments. First of all, the Kitsch style, according to the reading on pg. 104, is the popular, Hollywood narrative style that is responsible for killing high art and folk art and infected the entire world with its dullness. Like Hollywood films even to this day, Kitsch films are lifeless, easily digestible material, because we’ve all simply digested the same type of structure/style before over and over again. It poses as an art form but, in fact, is only a fake and possesses nothing really new or original. Avant-garde, on the other hand, is the complete opposite of Kitsch, allowing the freedom’s discussed in earlier readings to be used by the film artists of this genre to create something totally new and non-Kitsch whatsoever. In Scorpio Rising, there are several Kitsch characteristics, starting with the plotline. It is very much a narrative story of badass biker, on his way to a bike race. The film has a definite beginning and end and a narrative storyline in between. Another Kitsch aspect is the pop culture imagery decorating the wall of the biker that we are introduced to, who apparently has a James Dean fascination and is quite a rebel himself as a result. If that wasn’t enough, imagery of Jesus and Adolf Hitler are thrown in there as well along with a poppy soundtrack of all the best tunes from that time period, much like a Hollywood film would sound like. However, it is the juxtaposition of this collage-like imagery of pop culture, religious, and historical figures along with the harmless music that brings the true avant-gardeness out and sets it apart from another Kitsch film. Barely any dialogue is used so the film relies deeply on the soundtrack and the diagetic noises of the images to move the narrative along. Also, thought was definitely put into the music selection as some songs seem to fit perfectly(or vice versa) with the images, particularly the “Torture” song when the bike gang is causing ruckus upon other members/people(I forget).

Happy Ketchup Week!