When first viewing this film in my Surrealism class last semester, the teacher asked us if it fell under the category of surrealist film. He told us that it can go either way--depending on the viewer and how they interpret it.
After seeing the film a second time, I still believe the film is surreal. Yes, there is somewhat of a narrative, but it is non-linear. Right in the beginning of the film, we are shown the end of it- immediately freezing a frame and taking the audience back a couple days prior. The jumping around that early on alreaady throws the audience through a loop and says hang on cause this is gonna get a little crazy.
Surreal films are filled with dreamlike sequences and flashbacks. Vanishing Point has plenty of flashbacks that leave the almost empty plot/logic of the film openended for the viewer. Flashbacks include Kowalski as a cop, a racer, and a scene with his love interest who dies in a surfing accident The girlfriend scene is very surreal because she appears almost angelic and the whole scene is dreamlike. The audience is left with all these random pieces of information on Kowalski, and are left to figure out their own backstory for themself. Because in surrealism, anyone's guess is as good as the next.
However, the author does make some very interesting points when it comes to pieceing the puzzle that exists within this film. I feel that the author is really reaching for answers in their attempt to understand a surreal film that necessarily doesn't hold any specific meanings. Like with the whole claim that the white Challenger is a "ghostly premonition,a passing of death on the highway" and that the black Chrysler is a memory trace for Kowalski to trigger a certiain moment from where it all started.
The claims do make sense, but I feel that it is just one person's belief, not necessarily being the true intent of the filmmakers. I believe that the film was created to be left for interpretation, just like any great surreal film should. The white car could have represented Kowalski's love interest who died in the surfing accident. She could have been possibly calling him to join her in the after life, and that is why Kowalski plowed into the bulldozers to die. I'm not saying it this theory is correct, but it is just one person's interpretation.
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To be honest, the film never really felt that surreal to me, at least when compared to some of the other stuff we've seen this semester. Sure there are moments that aren't exactly conventional per se, but unlike Deren's shorts or Last Year at Marienbad, the surreal atmosphere in some of Vanishing Point's scenes never really bring attention to themselves. To me, it felt like another exploitation film and it never really significantly jarred me off guard.
ReplyDeleteI don't know, maybe if I saw this before our experimental/foreign phase in the class, I'd probably think differently.
That is an interesting question, for sure. I'm not sure that dreamy flashbacks and non-linear sequence define surreality very well, because for the most part, the world is the world, and although the narrative sequence is out of order, the progression through time is still there. But there is that whole strange moment at the beginning, the black car/white car freeze-frame, that tosses the whole thing into the realm of the strange, for sure. Was the whole movie a flashback the moment he hit that shining spot between the bulldozers?
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