5 - Identity - Distancing Effects

7/31/2019 5 - Identity - Distancing Effects

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Focus Questions(what you should be able to answer by the

end)

- What does Verfremdungseffekt mean?

- In what ways are the characters symbols?

- How does the casting work as a

defamiliarising/distancing/V-effekt?


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Im Not ThereSymbols and Alienation Effects


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Symbolism

Basically, the film is just all symbols all the time.

Everything always means something else in this film,

which is why its great for us to analyse. Well focus todaymainly on the different Dylans.

So, what does each represent?

e.g. Jude represents Dylans shift to electric music, buthe also represents the attitude that art cant impact on

the world, i.e. no ones going to be changed with a song.


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Symbolism

Your turn:

Woody represents...

Billy represents...

Robbie represents...

Rimbaud represents...

Jack represents...

First, put the stage of Dylans career/biography being

represented. Then try to suggest a more universal issue

being represented by each character.


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Strange Vocab...

Verfremdungseffekt

Basically, a fancy word for distancing effect or alienation

effect.

The term comes from Bertolt Brecht, a stage director who

was interested in finding ways of stopping the audience

connecting with characters, so they wouldnt become

emotionally involved in the drama.


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From Wikipedia...

Brecht wanted to "distance" or to "alienate" his audience fromthe characters and the action to render them observers whowould not sympathize emotionally or empathize by identifyingindividually with the characters psychologically.Rather, he wanted the audience to understand intellectually thecharacters' dilemmas and the wrongdoing producing thesedilemmas exposed in his dramatic plots.

By being thus "distanced" emotionally from the characters andthe action on stage, the audience could be able to reach anintellectual level of understanding (or intellectual empathy).


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In practise...

The Verfremdungseffekt of Celebrity

This is an interesting one, and a little difficult to write about because its

not technically tied to a technique. However, Haynes is often called a

Brechtian, in that he is very interested in creating these

distancing/alienation effects. One of the key ways he does this in the film

is through casting. Not only are we literally distanced from Dylan because

he keeps reinforcing that an essence of Dylan is absent, he keeps

reminding us that even within each character there is a massivedisconnection from Dylan. Gere doesnt look anything like Dylan, and

then the one that looks identical to him is infact the least identical to him

because its a her not a him.


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Focus Questions(what you should be able to answer by the

end)

- What does Verfremdungseffekt mean?

- In what ways are the characters symbols?

- How does the casting work as a

defamiliarising/distancing/V-effekt?

Documents

5 - Identity - Distancing Effects