What makes a movie ‘Pretentious’? Might it just be a term used by American audiences to describe something they don’t understand? Pretentious is a term that I found correlating with critiques of The Killing of A Sacred Deer directed by Yorgos Lanthimos. But what does that even mean?
Based on the play “Iphigenia At Aulis” by Euripides. When King Agamemnon kills a deer in the sacred grove of Artemis, the goddess keeps the Greek fleet from sailing off to Troy. The only way Agamemnon can get his massive fleet sailing off to war is to sacrifice his daughter, Iphigenia, to the goddess of the hunt.
Yorgos Lanthimos is at the cusp of what is known as the Greek weird wave. These films create an initial reaction of bewilderment and even laughter from American Audiences. Characters referred to as ‘quirky’ or ‘kooky’. But are the filmmakers looking for that kind of response? “I dislike ‘quirky’ or ‘kooky’… I didn’t want Marina to be a weirdo; I wanted her to be very solid, very dedicated to her principles, but not at ease with humans.” – Athina Rachel Tsangari. These films have an inclination to use fragmented story structures. In effect, it shifts the significance from the narrative to the performance of the actors. This style is a preference of non-causality stories, which opens the narrative to moments of happenings that go above a conventional plot arrangement.
Lanthimos prefers a simple, sometimes breath-taking, aesthetic. His films utilize a different kind of cinema; ‘Cinema of the Body.’ A type of cinema that opts for gestures, postures, and attitudes over concrete characters and plot development, thus, giving us a more performative cinema that replaces causality scripts. Discussed by film scholar Gilles Deleuze. ‘Cinema of the Body’ relies heavily on Bertolt Brecht’s concept of gestus, which refers to physical acting. The actor does not ‘become’ the character in a traditional manner. This is an attempt to give us a simplified character through attitudes and postures which allows the audience to pay attention to the character’s social relations and causes of their behavior rather than the psychological metaphysical aspects. It is the aim to show or quote an action rather than to imitate it, even at times rendering the actors as part of the mise-en-scene (the setting or surroundings of an event or action.) Deleuze’s ‘Cinema of the Body’ is a performative piece rather than a straight forward narrative, allowing the performing body and the camera to interact with each other. The film begins to skew from the script. As a result, the film becomes filmic, meta-filmic, staged, and real events. ‘Cinema of the Body’ filmmakers are interested in asking more questions than answering. The audience is given time to think and reflect on the portrayed actions instead of passively watching them. Lanthimos uses ‘Cinema of the Body’ to his advantage by having his actors perform activities rather than dramatizing the situation. A fact, which is particularly apparent in his 2009 film, Dogtooth.
The Greek weird wave is a borderline obsession of young filmmakers that are up against the tyranny of their ancestry and its nostalgia of families and own history. It can be found all over this cinema style. However, this style is ultimately epitomized by Dogtooth. Dogtooth comes right out and jabs at the family unit; calling it incest and an obedience competition, with literal incest and literal barking. Greece is a mess and the fact that all of these young filmmakers are making these ‘weird’ films in response is something America could take notes on.
You actually liked Killing of a Sacred Deer somewhere deep down inside, I can tell. Lanthimos uses references that American audiences love: a form of intertextuality that some may notice and others will be oblivious to, those long takes of hallways are not by accident, nor is that tracking shot of the car. He takes what Americans love from movies and implements ‘Cinema of the Body’ along side it. This renders different outcomes. But in the case of The Sacred Deer, it enhances the eeriness of the serial killer archetype within the thriller genre. The film, despite what I have read, is an excellent interpretation of a play. The Greek filmmaker is once again jabbing at his Greek heritage. Is there a better way to point out the absurdity of mythology? He takes a mythological tale and puts it right in the center of a realistic modern day setting. The characters act as if this is normal when to the audience it is clearly not. Think on the last time you saw something like this. Let’s actually go broader. When was the last time you saw something different? Think of the countless simplified narratives with boring characters that favor visual dramaturgy. Think of all the films that spoon feed you information so that they can quicker get to their CGI and set pieces. Yorgos Lanthimos is not an easily accessible director yes, but I think it’s the act of trying to understand him which makes you less passive. It’s a breath of fresh air. ‘Cinema of the Body’ allows you time to look at what the characters are doing and reflect on those choices. Resulting in a film that is no longer a generic independent film trying to be a Hollywood produced film. That for me is one of the biggest selling points to watching a Yorgos Lanthimos film and why I am very excited to see what he is going to bring to his new film ‘The Favourite’ this November.
So going back to my original question. I think the word pretensions used in American jargon stems from a viewers lack of desire to understand the film. If you don’t understand the film then it must be pretensions. If we tried to really understand ‘Cinema of the Body’ and where Greek filmmakers are coming from, then I think the word pretentious would disappear from the American dialect. Instead of labeling films as pretentious, these films might actually be enjoyed for what they are offering, or at the very least an attempt might be made by viewer to understand what the filmmaker is trying to accomplish with their film. It would be replaced with either liking the film, or at the very least understanding what the filmmaker was trying to say or accomplish and have an appreciation for that attempt. Perhaps the filmmaker failed to accomplish their vision, but to label such a film pretentious is to be dismissive of an artist trying to create something that for them holds meaning.
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