Throwback Thursday – The Stanford Daily https://stanforddaily.com Breaking news from the Farm since 1892 Mon, 03 May 2021 03:29:50 +0000 en-US hourly 1 https://wordpress.org/?v=6.4.3 https://stanforddaily.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/03/cropped-DailyIcon-CardinalRed.png?w=32 Throwback Thursday – The Stanford Daily https://stanforddaily.com 32 32 204779320 Ten years later: The enduring vice of The Weeknd’s debut mixtape ‘House of Balloons’ https://stanforddaily.com/2021/04/08/ten-years-later-the-enduring-vice-of-the-weeknds-debut-mixtape-house-of-balloons/ https://stanforddaily.com/2021/04/08/ten-years-later-the-enduring-vice-of-the-weeknds-debut-mixtape-house-of-balloons/#respond Fri, 09 Apr 2021 02:44:09 +0000 https://stanforddaily.com/?p=1180862 In "House of Balloons," The Weeknd paints soundscapes of beaten-down basements and blurry memories, setting the standard for alternative R&B of the 2010s and beyond.

The post Ten years later: The enduring vice of The Weeknd’s debut mixtape ‘House of Balloons’ appeared first on The Stanford Daily.

]]>
My first exposure to The Weeknd was in the summer of 2015 with his smash hit “Can’t Feel My Face.” I remember the buzz around my high school at the start of a new year, when we grooved to the funk rhythms and laughed over The Weeknd’s pineapple-like hairstyle. At first, we thought we were mouthing along to a tale of romance. Then, we found out the truth: We whispered to each other, wide-eyed, “Did you know that ‘Can’t Feel My Face’ is actually about cocaine?” To 9th graders, it was a shocking revelation that a Billboard-topping single could be about such a taboo substance. 

A darker, elusive truth underneath the façade of glamour. This theme is omnipresent in The Weeknd’s entire discography, from his murky beginnings in 2011 to the record-breaking success of his latest album “After Hours” in 2020. Ten years after the original release of “House of Balloons” on March 21, 2011, now is a crucial moment for music lovers to look back on the roots of this brilliant R&B artist. 

The lyrical message of HOB is simple. Abel Tesfaye’s debut single, “Wicked Games,” clearly spells out his truth: “Bring your love, baby, I could bring my shame / Bring the drugs, baby, I could bring my pain.” Throughout the mixtape, The Weeknd speaks of loving, manipulating and sleeping with women; combined with drugs, alcohol and partying, these vices make up The Weeknd’s entire life. However, the devastating and gritty production enveloping these words of decadence ultimately leads me to believe that Tesfaye is left feeling hopeless and empty at the end of these pleasures. Immersed in HOB’s atmosphere of self-loathing and dread, I always marvel at the unforgettable moods and sounds of this mixtape.

Ten years later: The enduring vice of The Weeknd’s debut mixtape 'House of Balloons'
Photo: NRK P3

From the opening moments of “High For This,” a mysterious warbling pulls you into Abel Tesfaye’s abyss. The Weeknd denies responsibility for the sins and destructions of his underworld, singing, “You don’t know what’s in store / But you know what you’re here for … Trust me girl, you wanna be high for this.” These words are as much of a caution for the listeners as they are for the girl. 

After the deceptively calm track “What You Need,” the mind-numbing club bass of “House of Balloons / Glass Table Girls” kicks off what I believe to be the best three consecutive tracks on this project. This titular two-part track is brilliant in creating the dizzying and ominous soundscape of a party with no limits. The Weeknd looks for “two puffs for the lady who be down for that,” and the dense layers of the instrumental hypnotize the listeners as if they are growing more intoxicated by the atmosphere of this mixtape. 

“The Morning” features The Weeknd’s very best songwriting. With astonishing guitar melodies, refreshing synth waves and The Weeknd’s shimmering voice telling a whirlwind tale of vice, “The Morning” is undoubtedly one of the best R&B tracks of the 21st century. Tesfaye sets the scene of his frenetic and exhilarating life: “Drinking Alizé with our cereal for breakfast / Girls calling cabs at dawn, quarter to seven.” He also meditates on the trajectory of his career while at the brink of mainstream recognition: “Push it to the limit / Push it through the pain / I push it for the pleasure like a virgin to the game … The higher that I climb / The harder I’ma drop.” His prophecies are chilling, full of almost venomous ambition. 

Then, the breakout single “Wicked Games” sits squarely in the middle of the tracklist. This song is exquisitely crafted, with stunning crescendos that evoke the sounds of rock bands. The Weeknd’s voice conveys urgency, but it never sounds strained; he has expert control over his singing. 

The Weeknd takes his music in yet another unexpected direction with the most melancholy song on the mixtape: “The Party & The After Party.” Throughout HOB, he samples musicians who are completely unexpected for an R&B project, including Beach House and Cocteau Twins. The intense melodies of previous tracks continue unravelling in the remorseful and more minimalistic “Coming Down.” The impressive, unconventional “Loft Music” is next — it is a single-verse song, and the lyrical density of this track provides momentum for the severely underrated closing song, “The Knowing.” As The Weeknd tells of his partner’s and his own infidelity, he says, “It don’t hurt like you thought it would … the more of you the merrier.” The ambiguity — whether or not he is satisfied with his life — provides the infinite allure of this mixtape. 

It’s stunning to think that Tesfaye released this mixtape at 21 years old. The vocal talent, songwriting and production — handled primarily by Doc McKinney and Illangelo — show a fully realized artistic vision that surpasses even the most seasoned musicians. The Weeknd paints soundscapes of beaten-down basements and blurry memories, setting the standard for alternative R&B of the 2010s and beyond. 

Ten years later: The enduring vice of The Weeknd’s debut mixtape 'House of Balloons'
Photo: NRK P3

What to make of the frightening levels of debauchery? YouTube comments under his “House of Balloons” music videos constantly describe the songs as featuring “the voice of an angel, the words of the devil.” In 2013, The Weeknd confessed on Reddit that “all of” his lyrics come from his actual experiences. In truth, I feel that this level of freedom was only possible because of his anonymity back in 2011. I can hardly imagine him releasing a record so riddled with tales of cocaine now when he is mainstream enough to perform at the Super Bowl halftime show.

The mixtape beckons us to wrestle with our fetishization of destructive lifestyles. Drugs, sex and partying are everywhere in music, and listeners love it. However, in HOB, “the drugs are harder, the come-ons feel predatory and lecherous, and the general feeling is self-hating rather than celebratory,” as described by Pitchfork. The words — delivered in achingly beautiful singing — also express abandon and nihilism. 

I want to refrain from making absolute declarations like “The Weeknd regrets these days!” or “The Weeknd is proud of these days and glorifying them!” The Weeknd presents us his narrative, which is that of a partier who loves his vices but struggles with the consequences. The lyrical content may be despicable, but it is frank. And I can’t help but be addicted to this mixtape for it. 

It’s good that 10-year-old me didn’t listen to songs about drugs, sex and partying when HOB was released in 2011. But I’m glad that 19-year-old me discovered this previously unknown side of The Weeknd last year. 2015’s “Beauty Behind the Madness” was The Weeknd’s first Billboard-200-topping album, but I didn’t bother to explore what he released prior to that project until recently. Initially, the depravity of “House of Balloons” shocked me. Then, I grew to appreciate the singular and daring vision of The Weeknd’s early days. I still believe “House of Balloons” is The Weeknd’s best project. I invite you to take a deep dive into this brilliant and eerie mixtape. 

The post Ten years later: The enduring vice of The Weeknd’s debut mixtape ‘House of Balloons’ appeared first on The Stanford Daily.

]]>
https://stanforddaily.com/2021/04/08/ten-years-later-the-enduring-vice-of-the-weeknds-debut-mixtape-house-of-balloons/feed/ 0 1180862
‘Zoom Gaieties’: An opportunity for creative and institutional change https://stanforddaily.com/2020/09/03/zoom-gaieties-an-opportunity-for-creative-and-institutional-change/ https://stanforddaily.com/2020/09/03/zoom-gaieties-an-opportunity-for-creative-and-institutional-change/#respond Fri, 04 Sep 2020 03:08:23 +0000 https://stanforddaily.com/?p=1171980 After Stanford’s announcement that in-person gatherings will be prohibited on campus, many student groups revised their plans for the upcoming school year once again. Gaieties, an annual musical held by The Ram’s Head Theatrical Society that celebrates Stanford’s quirks while calling out the University on its pitfalls, is no exception. Gaieties already went through a […]

The post ‘Zoom Gaieties’: An opportunity for creative and institutional change appeared first on The Stanford Daily.

]]>
After Stanford’s announcement that in-person gatherings will be prohibited on campus, many student groups revised their plans for the upcoming school year once again. Gaieties, an annual musical held by The Ram’s Head Theatrical Society that celebrates Stanford’s quirks while calling out the University on its pitfalls, is no exception.

Gaieties already went through a major structural change earlier this summer, and after evaluating different ways to respond to Stanford’s prohibition of public gatherings, Producer Chloe Chow ’23 and Stage Manager Liam Smith ’23 decided to change Gaieties’ format again. In an email sent to Ram’s Head on July 29, the production team announced that Gaieties would move to an entirely virtual platform, abandoning its traditional format of a full-scale, in-person musical. Instead, as stated in the email, “the show will be accompanied by devised skits created by company members.” In addition, the email included that “this year’s Gaieties will center the struggles, frustrations, and moments of joy of being a Stanford student through a mix of old & new songs, updated to reflect the current Stanford experience” instead of a completely original soundtrack.

During this unprecedented time, what it looks like to perform “on stage” has been completely reinvented. Below, read more about how, for the first time in history, the production team plans to shift the musical online while still keeping the essence of Gaieties alive.

How was this decision made?

Worsening public health conditions and updates from Stanford were significant in the decision to go virtual. The idea to move Gaieties online was formed by Chow and Smith, who brought it up to Kaitlyn Khayat ’21, Ram’s Head’s Executive Producer, for review.

“We realized that it would be a really big disappointment to plan for an in-person event [knowing] it was likely that it wouldn’t happen. [Since] we don’t have as much familiarity with online events, it’s better to plan for the more complex and technologically involved thing rather than [try] to come up with that on the fly,” Khayat explained. “[Since] we’ve decided to go with this option before we even start hiring and casting for a lot of our positions, hopefully it doesn’t feel like a disappointment, and instead feels like a really cool, unique opportunity.”

Director Justine Sombilon ’22 also offered her input on the decision: “If the alternative is no Gaieties, I think online Gaieties is the best thing to do right now.”

Khayat noted that “it made a lot more sense and felt more equitable to move [Gaieties] online to a platform that is hopefully more accessible to everyone. By and large, the ability to include all four classes instead of just the two that would be on campus [during fall quarter under the University’s original plan] was another big decision-making factor.”

Who’s invited to join?

With the shift to a virtual platform comes the ability for a greater number of students to join and attend the musical. Gaieties 2020 will be open to all Stanford students, regardless of grade level or musical ability.

Sombilon noted that with an online platform, many Stanford students will have equal access to the same opportunities, and there will be less of an information gap between different communities on campus. Sombilon also said, “A problem in the past [was] that outreach for Gaieties can tend to be to one or very specific groups of people, such as the theater community on campus,” and that often, students without previous theater experience didn’t know how to join Stanford’s theater scene.

Chow added, “It’s no secret that Gaieties is a positive feedback loop. In the most respectful way possible, white and privileged individuals are drawn to Gaieties because it is [similar to the] theater community they experienced in high school, while others may not be as willing to take a risk because they’re daunted by the fact that it’s highly populated by white individuals.”

Chow stated that the same people who participate in Gaieties tend to return to more Ram’s Head productions, as “these [individuals] end up staying in Ram’s Head and leading Ram’s Head, shaping future Gaieties and only soliciting to the people who are like them.” Chow said this year’s team will be doing their best to make this Gaieties as accessible as possible by, for instance, “getting proper internet access to people and if possible, distributing cameras, microphones and green screens so that everybody will have, to some extent, an equal Zoom platform to perform on.”

What will the whole show look like? 

The production team has decided to do a sketch-style Gaieties. The show will be performed and filmed mainly on Zoom, edited and then broadcast through ShowTix4U livestream on Nov. 13 – 15 as a pre-recorded production. Ideally, “it’ll be cabaret-style, where you have like a few songs and a skit, then a song, then maybe two skits — but for sure, it’s going to be bookended by original ensemble pieces,” said Chow. Skits will also include songs from past Gaieties, and Chow hopes original songs will also be composed and performed.

Chow also mentioned the significance of incorporating songs from previous Gaieties, stating that “our twist [is] that we are going to be rewriting a lot of the lyrics. I want to return back to my original vision of diversity and inclusiveness and how Gaieties should embody that moving forward, while also acknowledging the damage that was done in the past.” She is aiming to have “as many different communities — underrepresented communities — performing in this Gaieties, singing these songs, performing these skits, telling their stories, since it’s now in their hands without a preconditioned script.”

What’s going to look the same?

The musical style of Gaieties 2020 will stay somewhat consistent with a traditional Gaieties. Additionally, Khayat believes that what makes Gaieties unique will still stay the same, such as “the kooky, fun, ridiculous energy of people making fools of themselves, as well as the critique of things that aren’t so great about Stanford but are important to acknowledge and call out in a constructive and fun way.” 

Paulo Makalinao ’23, videographer, believes that “the meanings, messages, campus unity and community that we try to promote through Gaieties will hopefully still be there. The overall message of promoting a more inclusive community within Stanford will also still be there. While it’ll be quite different from a typical Gaieties, the heart and the soul of what Gaieties stands for and why we do it is always going to remain.”

Both Chow and Khayat hope to create a bonding experience as close to a traditional Gaieties as possible. “By and large, the community-building aspect is something that people really value in Gaieties,” said Khayat. “I hear it over and over, and I see people make friends in Gaieties that stay friends throughout Stanford. And we are striving to provide that experience for people this year.”

What’s going to change? 

Gaieties 2020 will no longer be in a traditional narrative style. The cast will be responsible for writing the script for their own skits, with the artistic vision led by Sombilon. “Hopefully with this entire production, we’ll come up with a theme that we want [the cast] to follow,” said Chow. 

Since there will be no pit orchestra this year, the music will be simplified and mainly in a piano-ballad style, according to Composer Katie Pieschela ’23. Music director Sophie Opferman ’23 said, “[There] will probably be shorter songs … [that are] simpler in terms of orchestration and harmony, just so it’s suitable and performable in an online format.”

Khayat believes that the virtual format opens an opportunity for increased participation, especially from upperclassmen. “[Gaieties 2020] will have a really different feel for the people involved, and that will be really exciting,” said Khayat. “Hopefully, we’ll get a lot more upperclassmen turnout because it won’t feel like people are performing the same show over and over again.” Additionally, Khayat noted how “Gaieties says something that’s really specific to Stanford, and a lot of alumni hold it really dear in their hearts. I’m excited about the opportunity to reach out and see if we can engage other Stanford alumni or families at home who might not otherwise get to see their students perform.”

What will the music sound like, and the composition process look like?

Katie Pieschala was initially in charge of composing original pieces for Gaieties. She has become more of a music facilitator with this virtual format, however — she will be meeting and working with different performers to help them create one or two new songs and lyrics for each skit. In addition, Pieschala will now work closely with the recording and video engineers to ensure their plans for sound quality are viable. She added that since it’s difficult to coordinate singing with other people and instruments virtually, most of the songs will be written and sung solely with piano accompaniment. “The devised skits are just going to be smaller-scale scenes of a traditional Gaieties, so I figure the music and lyrics will be pretty Gaieties-like, just on a smaller scale,” said Pieschala.

As music director, Sophie Opferman ’23 originally signed on to hire pit-orchestra musicians, lead rehearsals and ultimately conduct the show. With the online format, she is now responsible for selecting songs from previous Gaieties to revise. Opferman will work closely with Pieschala to make sure the old and new songs work together well. She will also help recording engineers create the backing tracks for singers to use in performances. For Opferman, the biggest difficulty, she said, is not having “as much freedom to create those truly magical moments that Gaieties is about” — they no longer have a pit orchestra or as many full-length songs as before.

As to what revamping old songs from Gaieties might look like, Opferman recalled how “one of the things that Gaieties 2019 did so beautifully was centering a same-sex storyline and having that be the focal point, but not really treating it any differently. It’d be very interesting to take a love song from a past ballad or a past Gaieties that was between a guy and a girl and change it so that it’s between two guys or two girls, so that it’s more inclusive and more representative of what Gaieties should be.”

Opherman noted advantages that come with doing a virtual show: “There are lots of opportunities for doing things — like adding tracks or sampling different songs and putting them in — that you couldn’t necessarily do in a live performance. [I also love] that we’re going to have so many attempts because we’re filming instead of doing it live, [allowing us] to really experiment.”

What will the set design look like?

While Gaieties 2020 no longer has a physical stage, the production team is hoping to create a similar visual experience by creating graphics to use on Zoom. Liam Fay ’22, set designer, must figure out how each scene will look visually through a virtual format. “I’m getting to reinvent what set design means to the show,” said Fay. “In this case, it’ll be up to me working with our videographer Paulo to figure out, ‘What does the green screen background that we have behind him look like? And how are the panels of people going to be arranged on screen?’ — which is obviously not what I signed up for, but is a cool, creative challenge.”

In terms of what the set might look like, Fay said, “What will be in common [with a traditional Gaieties] is the general whimsy and slightly cartoonish look that Gaieties normally has. It doesn’t look Seussical — [Gaieties] sets are usually fairly realistically painted, but the contrast is turned up a bit because it adds to the excitement and the fun.”

For Fay, working with the videographer will be important for the set design process: “The way that tiles or different camera shots are lined up has to do with the way that the set design then ends up looking.” Although collaborating with Makalinao and other members of the production team will be more difficult than usual, Fay believes the process will be easier — he has worked with almost everyone on the production team and trusts their creative vision.

How will virtual filming work?

The majority of each skit will be recorded through Zoom — each performer will be in their individual rectangle on the screen. The production team predicts that the cast will individually record their parts and send them to Makalinao to stitch together.

Makalinao, who initially joined the team as the videographer, has shifted more into the role of a video editor, as he is responsible for putting all the videos, edited audio and graphics together for the final product. Makalinao described himself as “a very camera and gear oriented person” rather than someone who enjoys editing. Instead of thinking about how he wants to shoot something and what equipment to use, he is now “putting that all aside and directing people to get the content that we’re looking for in a virtual sense.”

“When I have camera equipment and gear, I’m thinking, ‘How do I want to compose the shot … to convey the storyline the best?’” Makalinao said. “And now [I think,] ‘How do I take all these different shots of all these people … on their iPhone and put this on a canvas? How do I arrange these people to get the best version of storytelling that we want to convey? How do I go from this scene number to the skit … to a more musical number? How can I use my video editing … to keep the heart and soul of Gaieties still wrapped up in what we’re producing?’ And I think that’s the challenge that I’m looking for.”

In addition, instead of having an autonomous role where the bulk of the work comes at the end of the production for the videographer, he now must work constantly with the sound engineers, set designer, creative team and others: “My role has changed greatly — from somebody who can be on the sidelines and pop in every other week to somebody who is now going to constantly be there to help form that final vision.”

Makalinao emphasized, however, that he views his role as a messenger rather than the sole creator: “I want to give [the creative team] as many creative tools as I can possibly give them … I just want to make people’s visions and dreams that they have about [Gaieties 2020] come to life.”

What will the audition process look like?

Auditions will be held during the first week of fall quarter. Chow hopes the production team can hold them live over Zoom, as the team would prefer meeting with auditionees face-to-face rather than watching audition videos. 

“The traditional Gaieties audition is unlike any other theatrical audition you will ever do,” Khayat explained. “Everyone is wearing crazy clothes and costumes. You come in, and everyone cheers for you and hypes you up through it. You’re supposed to tell a joke, and then you read a side that’s absolutely nonsense. We ask people to deliver it in different ways, and it’s really funny, kooky and hilarious for the people watching — and also the people auditioning … Chloe and I have been talking about how to use Zoom to [recreate that and] make it feel as though we are providing the same excitement and support for auditionees.”

How will the cast rehearse?

Kelsey Carido ’22 will be the vocal director, working with the cast to rehearse their songs. “Rehearsals are going to be low-maintenance, probably twice a week,” said Chow. However, cast members can reserve additional times, if needed.

How can I watch?

On Nov. 1, the Gaieties team is planning to livestream the final video on YouTube. Chow said the performance will be uploaded to YouTube afterward for anybody to watch in the future — although she “hopes people will still treat the November 1 date as like an actual Gaieties performance.” 

Final thoughts from the production team

Paulo Makalinao (video editor): “Now that we’ve transitioned to a virtual Gaieties, there’s really no playbook for anybody. This is the first time that we’re all going to go through this, and I’m happy we get to go through this together … I anticipate it’ll be a very interesting product. But at the end of the day, I don’t think this is going to be any different … Having this in an online format accentuates the idea that Gaieties has always been wacky, fun and different.”

Chloe Chow (producer): “We really want to use this Gaieties to right the wrongs that Gaieties sent in the past … I’m hoping that, because [we’re aspiring] to hire more people of color both in the cast and the production [team], we can start to turn things around and make it more of a representative production rather than an exclusionary one.”

Justine Sombilon (director): “The exciting thing for me about this Gaieties is that we’re not trying to write a new story — we’re trying to bring to light the experiences of every Stanford student: people from every single community and group on campus. And so we really encourage people from every single corner and crevice of Stanford to just audition. We would love to have you. We don’t care if you can sing or act or dance — we just want you to have fun. The biggest goal of Gaieties is not to put on a Broadway show — it’s to have fun. And we want to provide, we want to be a vehicle for that, especially this fall quarter, because we know it’s gonna be difficult, but we want to be some kind of light in someone’s life. I also feel that Gaieties is the most undaunting form of theater on campus, because it’s silly, it’s fun and it can be meaningful. I think there’s a possibility for it to be especially meaningful as a community-builder right now.”

A common theme throughout each interviewee’s response was the emphasis on how every one of them found a home and support system in the process of creating Gaieties. Many members of the production team also expect community-building to be difficult this year. Even so, Sombilon emphasized that she wants to provide a support system for everyone in the company, as quarantine can feel very isolating. “I want this to be a positive experience,” said Sombilon. “Even though it’s over Zoom, I want [Gaieties] to feel as personal and as face-to-face as possible, even if we’re thousands and thousands of miles away.”

Contact Vivian Jiang at jiang.vivian2 ‘at’ gmail.com.

This article has been corrected to reflect that Gaieties will be broadcast on ShowTix4U, not YouTube. The Daily regrets this error. Additionally, this article has been updated to reflect changes to the rehearsal process.

The post ‘Zoom Gaieties’: An opportunity for creative and institutional change appeared first on The Stanford Daily.

]]>
https://stanforddaily.com/2020/09/03/zoom-gaieties-an-opportunity-for-creative-and-institutional-change/feed/ 0 1171980
Top 100 hip-hop/rap albums of the 2010s: #20-11 https://stanforddaily.com/2020/03/12/top-100-hip-hop-rap-albums-of-the-2010s-20-11/ https://stanforddaily.com/2020/03/12/top-100-hip-hop-rap-albums-of-the-2010s-20-11/#respond Thu, 12 Mar 2020 10:34:35 +0000 https://stanforddaily.com/?p=1165201 See which albums Nick Sligh ranked #20-11 of the top 100 hip-hop/rap albums of the decade.

The post Top 100 hip-hop/rap albums of the 2010s: #20-11 appeared first on The Stanford Daily.

]]>
To read more about the background of the list and my thoughts on making it, check out the introduction to my rankings. Without further ado, here are #20-11 of my top 100 hip-hop/rap albums of the 2010s list:

Top 100 hip-hop/rap albums of the 2010s: #20-11

20. Rapsody: “Laila’s Wisdom” (2017)

The title track of Rapsody’s greatest work “Laila’s Wisdom” features one of the best hip-hop intros of the decade. The uplifting intro sets the tone for the album with a tribute to the wisdom of Rapsody’s grandmother, Laila, and her messages of empowerment, love and triumph that have shaped Rapsody’s life. The soulful production, featuring a sample of Aretha Franklin’s “Young, Gifted, and Black,” and Rapsody’s talent combine to form a beautiful song that builds the foundation for an excellent project. The most emotionally rich and captivating work of the phenomenal career of Rapsody, “Laila’s Wisdom” showcases great lyrical ability, production value and messages of black and female empowerment executed at the highest artistic caliber.

Favorite Songs: “Laila’s Wisdom,” “Nobody,” “Black & Ugly,” “Knock On My Door,” “A Rollercoaster Jam Called Love”

Top 100 hip-hop/rap albums of the 2010s: #20-11

19. Denzel Curry: “TA13OO” (2018)

“TA13OO” is the modern trap album that delivers everything. Whether you are looking for great lyrical content, extremely hard-hitting beats or incredible flows and pure rapping ability, Denzel’s third studio album delivers it. Inspired, psychedelic, focused, passionate and about as energetic as humanly possible, the whole album is an enthralling listening experience. Any modern trap album going forward should look to “TA13OO” as one of the blueprints for how to make music deeply meaningful and also appealing to audiences encompassing everyone from longtime fans of trap to new ones.

Favorite Songs: “SIRENS,” “SWITCH IT UP,” “BLACK BALLOONS,” “SUMO,” “BLACK METAL TERRORIST”

Top 100 hip-hop/rap albums of the 2010s: #20-11

18. Noname: “Telefone” (2012)

Chicago’s poet, activist, singer and rapper Noname delivers a beautiful and heartwarming experience on her debut mixtape. As Noname explores and reflects upon her youth and her experience as a black woman in America, her wisdom and passion is constantly charming and engaging. Incredible production, variety of flows, impressive writing and a contagious soulful joy are just some of what makes Noname’s debut so enjoyable. As one of the most feel-good rap albums of the decade, “Telefone” is the birth of a multi-talented star in Noname.

Favorite Songs: “Yesterday,” “Shadow Man,” “Sunny Duet,” “Diddy Bop,” “Casket Pretty”

Top 100 hip-hop/rap albums of the 2010s: #20-11

17. Vince Staples: “Shyne Coldchain II” (2014)

“Shyne Coldchain II” is both one of rap’s top mixtapes and one of Vince Staples’ best projects, bringing heart, authenticity and narrative at the highest levels. “Nate,” one of the greatest rap songs of the decade, begins with chilling lines that describe experiences from Vince’s youth and the effects that what he witnessed had on him: “As a kid all I wanted was to kill a man, be like my daddy’s friends, hopping out that minivan.” The triumphant production contrasts the trauma of Vince’s background, which “Shyne Coldchain II” goes into great detail describing. The authenticity of Vince Staples is undeniable and creates some of the most genuine and poignant music possible. The genius and legitimacy of Vince make him one of the most personal and best hip-hop artists in modern rap.

Favorite Songs: “Nate,” “Earth Science,” “45,” “Progressive 3,” “Locked and Loaded,” “Oh You Scared,” “Trunk Rattle”

Top 100 hip-hop/rap albums of the 2010s: #20-11

16. Little Simz: “Grey Area” (2019) 

London’s Little Simz has helped to lead the waves of growth of rap in the United Kingdom. The 2019 release “Grey Area” is a display of one of the best pure rappers currently in the global industry. With elements of trap, jazz, soul and R&B, “Grey Area” is a collection of diverse sounds and styles. From the menacing “Venom” to the moving “Flowers” and the innovative and refreshing “101 FM,” every song is meaningful and serves a purpose. A consistent focus and vision leads to the best and most complete project for Little Simz by a wide margin. It is obvious that the 25-year-old rapper has found her sound and is one of the most promising hip-hop artists at the moment.

Favorite Songs: “Venom,” “101 FM,” “Flowers,” “Pressure,” “Selfish,” “Sherbet Sunset”

Top 100 hip-hop/rap albums of the 2010s: #20-11

15. J.I.D: “Para Tu” (2013)

2013’s “Para Tu” mixtape only came to public light officially in 2017, when a series of leaks inspired J.I.D to release the project that he had developed out of the public eye. The young and talented Dreamville rapper’s sophomore mixtape might just be the most interestingly produced project of the entire decade. With sounds that are uplifting, gloomy, classical, angelic, psychedelic, futuristic and purely enjoyable, the production across “Para Tu” is truly a work of art in modern hip-hop that leads to the best project in the young rapper’s career thus far. J.I.D showcases an array of flows, an innovative pen and an artistic vision, for which he has come to be known. “Para Tu” sees the beauty of an undeveloped young J.I.D shining and showcasing his incredible potential while setting the foundation for a great career to follow.

Favorite Songs: “Creep Inspire,” “Heather,” “Para Tu,” “Pro – Verbs,” “Drew,” “Gustav’s Revenge Pt. 1”

Top 100 hip-hop/rap albums of the 2010s: #20-11

14. A$AP Rocky: “LIVE.LOVE.A$AP” (2012)

“LIVE.LOVE.A$AP” knows no boundaries and presents Rocky’s most exciting project, as well as one of the most exciting debut projects from any modern rapper. The grand taste of the eccentric Rocky is unveiled to the world of music on the 2011 mixtape. Exploring old-school east coast hip-hop, cloud rap, chopped and screwed and pop rap, Rocky attempts to touch every corner of the rap universe that he can. Fantastic beat selection and an immaculate swagger translate to a mixtape that is as exciting and well-executed as it is diverse.

Favorite Songs: “Palace,” “Kissin’ Pink,” “Brand New Guys,” “Bass,” “Demons,” “Trilla,” “Houston Old Head”

Top 100 hip-hop/rap albums of the 2010s: #20-11

13. Kendrick Lamar: “Section.80” (2011)

The studio debut of an emerging legend is always exciting and special to hear. “Section.80” is the young Compton rapper and future Top Dawg Entertainment (TDE) member beginning to really find his voice and style in music. Somebody who has become known for great intros, Kendrick begins his studio debut with one of the greatest songs of his career, “F*ck Your Ethnicity.” The album is filled with great amounts of thoughtful political commentary and detailed lyricism, including “Ronald Reagan Era” and “Keisha’s Song,” among others. Not as refined as some of Kendrick’s future work, “Section.80” still provides a great collection of work that shows just how special he would come to be in the world of music.

Favorite Songs: “F*ck Your Ethnicity,” “Rigamortus,” “Ronald Reagan Era,” “Hiiipower,” “Keisha’s Song,” “Hol’ Up,” “A.D.H.D”

Top 100 hip-hop/rap albums of the 2010s: #20-11

12. IDK: “IWASVERYBAD” (2017)

Jason Mills, better known as IDK (an acronym for “Ignorantly Delivering Knowledge”), tells the gangster rap story from a perspective that is practically never seen. Coming from a middle-class background in Prince George’s County, Maryland, with two parents who were both college graduates, Mills tells the absolutely captivating story of how he ends up becoming the only person in his family to ever go to jail and to be enamored by a criminal life. The cinematic journey through IDK’s youth and upbringing touches on the aspects of the street life that he was infatuated with and all of the resulting strife and trauma that he went through. A collection of standout tracks wraps up with the heartfelt and gripping song “Black Sheep, White Dove.” The song brings together IDK’s coping with the trauma of his youth that made him the “Black Sheep” with the pain of the passing of his beloved mother, the “White Dove,” that he let down through his past wrongdoings. IDK’s storytelling, authenticity and artistic ability lead to “IWASVERYBAD” being one of the most detailed and uncut narratives presented in rap music. 

Favorite Songs: “Black Sheep, White Dove,” “No Shoes On The Rug, Leave Them At The Door,” “Pizza Shop,” “17 Wit a 38,” “Mrs. Lynch, Your Son Is The Devil”

Top 100 hip-hop/rap albums of the 2010s: #20-11

11. Vince Staples & Larry Fisherman: “Stolen Youth” (2013)

In what is one of the greatest recent mixtapes, Vince Staples and Mac Miller (whose producer moniker was Larry Fisherman) form an unlikely duo that creates some of the most authentic, beautiful and touching music of the decade. The entire project is Vince Staples’ exploration of the many factors of his life growing up in Long Beach, California, that “stole” his youth from him. Drugs, crime, violence and death all played a part in robbing Vince and many others from his background of the innocence of their youth. These themes are all expressed in Vince’s most heartfelt and emotional work over Mac Miller’s magnificent and soulful production. “Thought About You,” the signature track of the album, is Vince’s poignant narrative of his struggles to cope with all of the trauma of his youth over one of Mac Miller’s best beats of his career. The entire project is heartfelt and explores a very important theme with terrific execution.

Favorite Songs: “Thought About You,” “Intro,” “Sleep,” “Back Sellin’ Crack,” “Guns & Roses,” “Heaven”

After every segment of my Top 100 rankings are published, I will be creating a Spotify playlist with my favorite songs from the albums that are in each section. Just go to my Spotify Profile (@nicholassligh) where I will be posting the playlists in descending order of rank. Go to this link to view this week’s playlist for albums 20-11! I hope that my list gives credit to deserving artists and helps people that enjoy Hip-Hop/Rap (and even those less familiar with the genre) to find new music that connects with them and that they simply enjoy.

Contact Nick Sligh at nick1019 ‘at’ stanford.edu.

The post Top 100 hip-hop/rap albums of the 2010s: #20-11 appeared first on The Stanford Daily.

]]>
https://stanforddaily.com/2020/03/12/top-100-hip-hop-rap-albums-of-the-2010s-20-11/feed/ 0 1165201
Top 100 hip-hop/rap albums of the 2010s: #30-21 https://stanforddaily.com/2020/03/04/top-100-hip-hop-rap-albums-of-the-decade-30-21/ https://stanforddaily.com/2020/03/04/top-100-hip-hop-rap-albums-of-the-decade-30-21/#respond Thu, 05 Mar 2020 07:14:52 +0000 https://stanforddaily.com/?p=1164899 See which albums Nick Sligh ranked #30-21 of the top 100 hip-hop/rap albums of the decade.

The post Top 100 hip-hop/rap albums of the 2010s: #30-21 appeared first on The Stanford Daily.

]]>
To read more about the background of the list and my thoughts on making it, check out the introduction to my rankings. Without further ado, here are #30-21 of my top 100 hip-hop/rap albums of the 2010s list:

Top 100 hip-hop/rap albums of the 2010s: #30-21

30. Jay-Z & Kanye West: “Watch The Throne” (2011)

Very rarely is the rap world treated to such a combination of stardom as it was with “Watch The Throne.” Two of the greatest hip-hop artists of all time simply coming together for a full-length project is a feat in and of itself. The execution is what would be expected from two individuals who are so talented. Jay-Z and Kanye West’s collaboration results in one of the most epic and exciting projects of the 2010s and is a thorough showcase of the chemistry — in both style and vision — between two of rap’s all-time greats.

Favorite Songs: “Otis,” “Ni**as in Paris,” “No Church In The Wild,” “Made In America,” “Murder To Excellence”

Top 100 hip-hop/rap albums of the 2010s: #30-21

29. Mick Jenkins: “The Water(s)” (2014)

One of the most lyrically gifted artists in hip-hop, Chicago’s Mick Jenkins delivers one of the most well-executed and impressive conceptual mixtapes in modern rap. Using water as a metaphor for truth throughout, the entire project revolves around the commentary and philosophy of Mick, using the water metaphor in various creative ways to express his points. The production is smooth, soulful and jazzy, which serves as a great compliment to Mick’s style. There is even an aqueous-type feel which is created throughout the album by the samples and production. Overall, “The Water(s)” lays a blueprint for what a modern concept album can look like at its highest level of quality.

Favorite Songs: “Healer,” “Martyrs,” “Shipwrecked,” “Who Else,” “Jazz,” “Comfortable”

Top 100 hip-hop/rap albums of the 2010s: #30-21

28. Common: “The Dreamer, The Believer” (2011)

Nearly 20 years following his first album release, Common came through with the No I.D.-produced “The Dreamer, The Believer.” No I.D. crafts one of his finest production works ever, with soul samples, beats and instrumentals that compliment Common’s style perfectly. In the midst of a beef with Drake, which Common addresses with the great diss track “Sweet,” Common made a triumphant return after a string of sub-par albums following an incredible early entrance to rap. Not as political as some of his earliest work, “The Dreamer, The Believer” is still an extremely impressive project lyrically. Common’s rap proficiency and No I.D.’s incredible production give the Chicago lyricist his best album since 2005’s classic “Be.”

Favorite Songs: “Celebrate,” “Lovin’ I Lost,” “Ghetto Dreams,” “Sweet,” “Gold”

Top 100 hip-hop/rap albums of the 2010s: #30-21

27. A$AP Rocky: “LONG.LIVE.A$AP” (2013)

Harlem rapper and A$AP Mob member A$AP Rocky was one of the most colorful and adventurous artists of the decade. With multiple quality full-length projects, all with different styles and sounds, Rocky’s creativity was on full display. Building off of the momentum of one of the greatest modern rap mixtapes, Rocky came through with a showing of his artistry and versatility by way of “LONG.LIVE.A$AP.” Old-school East Coast-style hip-hop receives a nod with the six-feature “1Train.” Club bangers are present with “F**kin’ Problems,” “Wild for the Night” and “PMW.” Triumphant songs like “Hell” also coexist with somber and introspective tracks like “Phoenix” and even dark, grimy trap like “Jodye.” Rocky’s swagger is on full display, and his versatility and talent fully backs his always-present confidence.

Favorite Songs: “Hell,” “1Train,” “F**kin’ Problems,” “Fashion Killa,” “Jodye,” “Goldie,” “PMW,” “Ghetto Symphony”

Top 100 hip-hop/rap albums of the 2010s: #30-21

26. Flatbush Zombies: “BetterOffDEAD” (2013) 

One of the most talented modern rap groups in hip-hop came through in its most uncut and best form on “BetterOffDEAD.” Meechy Darko, Zombie Juice and Erick Arc Elliott all mesh perfectly with their vintage lyrical styles and Erick’s nearly-flawless production. As the title suggests, the 2013 mixtape mainly revolves around very dark themes. Passion, energy and raw emotion are continuously on full display, and the personalities of each member are so vividly presented that it’s nearly impossible not to be captivated. This defining moment for the Flatbush trio was also one of the defining moments for underground rap and modern East Coast hip-hop.

Favorite Songs: “Club Soda,” “Palm Trees,” “Amerikkkan Pie,” “G Tearz,” “LiveFromHell,” “MRAZ,” “222”

Top 100 hip-hop/rap albums of the 2010s: #30-21

25. Earthgang: “Shallow Graves For Toys” (2015)

Few projects that I have ever listened to have shone through with so much potential as “Shallow Graves For Toys.” The infectious energy of the Atlanta duo is enough to make any project incredible. The energy, paired with some of the most unique production in modern rap music and the unreal talent of Earthgang, creates one of the most exciting listens possible. “Sweet Haste” showcases Earthgang’s abstract style and lyricism over some of the most unique production that hip-hop saw over the last decade. The chaotically-triumphant production of “16 Albinos in the S.W.A.T.S.” and the ultimately soulful and passionate “No Peace” provide a pleasant diversity of sound. The uncut and yet refined style of Earthgang’s members play into their own favor, as they are allowed to explore basically every kind of hip-hop music well, all of it done very successfully. “Shallow Graves For Toys” is one of the most exciting showcases of historic levels of potential.

Favorite Songs: “Sweet Haste,” “16 Albinos in the S.W.A.T.S.,” “No Peace,” “The F Bomb”

Top 100 hip-hop/rap albums of the 2010s: #30-21

24. Freddie Gibbs & Madlib: “Bandana” (2019)

Following 2014’s collaborative modern classic “Piñata,” it truly seemed like the rapper-producer duo of Freddie Gibbs & Madlib could not make a better album. 2019’s follow up “Bandana” proved otherwise. A showcase of the duo’s amazing chemistry, many of the strengths from “Piñata” are carried over while presenting new, but similar, street rap and narratives on this album. Confident, tough, refined and wise, the second full-length release from the two has no real weak spots. “Bandana” is simply another masterpiece of production and rapping from the now-iconic duo of “Gangsta” Gibbs and Madlib. 

Favorite Songs: “Palmolive,” “Practice,” “Freestyle Sh*t,” “Fake Names,” “Giannis,” “Cataracts,” “Soul Right”

Top 100 hip-hop/rap albums of the 2010s: #30-21

23. Joey Bada$$: “1999” (2012)

Joey Bada$$’s debut mixtape has proven to be his greatest work so far. The Pro Era member and Brooklyn’s Own came onto the scene with one of the most promising debuts of the decade and of hip-hop history. Joey manages to craft his own version of the East Coast boom-bap style that he stays so devoutly loyal to from front to back. One of the most shocking facts of rap in the past decade is that Joey Bada$$ was 17 years old when he released his classic mixtape. Wise and talented beyond his years, the lyrical content and delivery in the entire project is outstanding. “1999” truly set the foundation for what has been a very successful career so far for Joey. It is rare to find a project that is this great, let alone from a 17-year-old rapper.

Favorite Songs: “Hardknock,” “Survival Tactics,” “Don’t Front,” “World Domination,” “Snakes,” “Waves”

Top 100 hip-hop/rap albums of the 2010s: #30-21

22. Lupe Fiasco: “Drogas Wave” (2018)

Arguably the greatest lyricist ever in rap music, Lupe Fiasco executes one of his finest works with his seventh studio album. Both sprawling and dense, “Drogas Wave” is a thought-provoking journey and an incredibly detailed concept album. The album builds off of a story surrounding a group of slaves who are thrown off of a ship going from Africa to the West Indies. Rather than drowning, the slaves stay alive and manage to live under the sea. The album provides thought-provoking and intricate commentary on societal issues, racial injustice and the African American experience, among many other topics. The wordplay, lyricism, layered meanings and rhyme schemes throughout the album are astounding and further cement Lupe’s pure abilities as a rapper. One of the deepest and most thought-provoking listens of the decade, “Drogas Wave” is the result of one of rap’s finest talents refining his artistic expression to the fullest. (Side note: Hamza Zahurallah covered this album in a fantastic October 2018 Daily review). 

Favorite Songs: “WAV Files,” “Manilla,” “Sun God Sam & The California Drug Deals,” “Stack That Cheese”

Top 100 hip-hop/rap albums of the 2010s: #30-21

21. Kendrick Lamar: “DAMN” (2017)

Kendrick Lamar won a Pulitzer Prize for “DAMN,” making him the first-ever non-jazz or classical artist to receive the honor. One of Kendrick’s greatest feats was his ability to make an album that was very commercialized and much more pop-oriented than almost all of his previous work, while maintaining the meaningful content that makes him one of the world’s most renowned rappers. Featuring Rihanna, U2 and Zacari, Kendrick’s aims for the sound of the project were very different than in his first three studio albums and much more pop-influenced. “DAMN” is a unique project in Kendrick’s discography, and another classic in his line of masterful artistry.

Favorite Songs: “DUCKWORTH,” “HUMBLE,” “PRIDE,” “FEAR,” “XXX,” “ELEMENT”

After every segment of this series is published, I will be creating a Spotify playlist with my favorite songs from the albums that are in each section. Just go to my Spotify Profile (@nicholassligh), where I will be posting the playlists in descending order of rank. Go to this link to view this week’s playlist for albums 30-21! I hope that my list gives credit to deserving artists and helps people that enjoy Hip-Hop/Rap (and even those less familiar with the genre) to find new music that connects with them and that they simply enjoy.

Contact Nick Sligh at nick1019 ‘at’ stanford.edu.

The post Top 100 hip-hop/rap albums of the 2010s: #30-21 appeared first on The Stanford Daily.

]]>
https://stanforddaily.com/2020/03/04/top-100-hip-hop-rap-albums-of-the-decade-30-21/feed/ 0 1164899
Top 100 hip-hop/rap albums of the 2010s: #40-31 https://stanforddaily.com/2020/02/26/top-100-hip-hop-rap-albums-of-the-decade-40-31/ https://stanforddaily.com/2020/02/26/top-100-hip-hop-rap-albums-of-the-decade-40-31/#respond Thu, 27 Feb 2020 03:13:23 +0000 https://stanforddaily.com/?p=1164558 See which albums Nick Sligh ranked #40-31 of the top 100 hip-hop/rap albums of the decade.

The post Top 100 hip-hop/rap albums of the 2010s: #40-31 appeared first on The Stanford Daily.

]]>
To read more about the background of the list and my thoughts on making it, check out the introduction to my rankings. Without further ado, here are #40-31 of my top 100 hip-hop/rap albums of the 2010s list:

Top 100 hip-hop/rap albums of the 2010s: #40-31

40. J.I.D: “DiCaprio 2” (2018)

J.I.D’s sophomore Dreamville album and sequel to his earlier “DiCaprio” (2015) mixtape, “DiCaprio 2” provides an array of flows and styles that demonstrate his already-refined expertise in understanding and making quality rap music. On songs like “Off Deez” and “151 Rum,” J.I.D showcases an undeniable ability to simply rap well, with refreshing flows and great delivery. Songs like “Despacito Too” and “Slick Talk” show J.I.D’s ability to deliver various other flows over more subdued and less chaotic production. “Skrawberries” and “Workin’ Out” allow J.I.D to effortlessly glide over smooth and jazzy production and effortlessly cross over into more of a soul and R&B sound. Any fan of rap can probably find something among the diverse array of sounds in the album to enjoy.

Favorite Songs: “Off Da Zoinkys,” “Skrawberries,” “151 Rum,” “Workin’ Out,” “Hasta Luego,” “Despacito Too”

Top 100 hip-hop/rap albums of the 2010s: #40-31

39. Phonte: “Charity Starts at Home” (2011)

One-third of North Carolina trio “Little Brother”, Phonte ventured out with his first full-length solo release of his career on his 2011 album “Charity Starts at Home.” The tremendously personal and soulful work had production mainly handled by Little Brother member and famous producer 9th Wonder, which allowed Phonte to not have to stray too far from his comfort zone in his earlier collaborative albums. The tone and lyrics of this album are very unique, with Phonte often reflecting on the development of his life as a father and as a veteran in the rap game. An album filled with wonderful and uplifting wisdom, Phonte’s talent combines with his meaningful content to create a modern masterpiece with an old-school feel.

Favorite Songs: “The Good Fight,” “The Life of Kings,” “Sendin My Love”

Top 100 hip-hop/rap albums of the 2010s: #40-31

38. Drake: “Nothing Was The Same” (2013)

“Nothing Was The Same” is the result of a man who has catapulted into global superstardom. The combination of singing and rapping that made Drake into a superstar gets a new sound from previous work with a very different set of production selections. Although not as emotionally captivating at times as Drake’s famous album “Take Care” (2011), “Nothing Was The Same” is its own journey through Drake’s emotions as he matures and comes to grips with the way that his life has changed since “Take Care” and even before. Although the album seems to be an expression of Drake’s discomfort with his life changes, his comfort in his ability to rap and make quality music never wavers. (Side Note: “Furthest Thing” has one of the best beat switches of the decade.)

Favorite Songs: “Too Much,” “Worst Behavior,” “Tuscan Leather,” “Pound Cake / Paris Morton Music 2,” “Furthest Thing,” “The Language”

Top 100 hip-hop/rap albums of the 2010s: #40-31

37. J. Cole: “Truly Yours” (2013)

One of the things that makes J. Cole one of the most popular and well-liked rappers in all of music is that he seems like an “every man.” He does not dress lavishly, is not known for excessive brag rapping, and has historically been very vulnerable with his struggles. The more vulnerable Cole is, the better the result of the music typically is. “Truly Yours” is Cole at the most vulnerable that he has ever been. Intended to just be a two-EP compilation to hold fans over between studio albums, “Truly Yours” resulted in some of Cole’s greatest work ever. An immensely enthralling and emotional collection, this is the kind of work that leads to fans becoming such devout supporters of the Dreamville leader. “Cole Summer” is an absolute classic in the hip-hop genre, and certainly one of Cole’s greatest songs of his career. The flawless production and the vulnerability and self-doubt of Cole create one of the most soulful and personal songs of the decade. The somber “Tears for ODB” provides a wonderful ode to late rapper Old Dirty Bastard of the Wu-Tang Clan, the jazzy “Stay” sees Cole struggle with his relationship problems, and the emotional “Cousins” explores how relationships fade and shift with changes in success and wealth. “Truly Yours” is Cole at his most vulnerable, and his best. (For clarification: I am considering both of the 2 “Truly Yours” EPs (“Truly Yours” and “Truly Yours 2”) as one collective project for the sake of ranking.)

Favorite Songs: “Cole Summer,” “Kenny Lofton,” “Stay,” “Head Bussa,” “Cousins”

Top 100 hip-hop/rap albums of the 2010s: #40-31

36. YBN Cordae: “The Lost Boy” (2019) 

The irony in the title of this album is that Cordae is far from lost in the rap game. The 22-year-old native of Raleigh, North Carolina, shows on his debut album that he belongs in rap, and that he deserves respect as a solo artist. While still finding his sound in some ways, like practically any young rapper, Cordae explores a variety of sounds and styles, all with the precision and execution of a veteran. Great lyrics, production selection and narrative make Cordae’s debut feel much more like a third or fourth album than a first. Cordae shows an incredibly high ceiling and asserts himself as one of the must-listen rappers in years to come. 

Favorite Songs: “Thanksgiving,” “Broke as Fuck,” “Nightmares are For Real,” “Lost and Found,” “Bad Idea,” “RNP”

Top 100 hip-hop/rap albums of the 2010s: #40-31

35. Drake: “Take Care” (2011)

“Take Care” is the defining moment of Drake’s career. From the smash hit title track with Rihanna to the meme sensation “Marvin’s Room,” “Take Care” was the point when Drake went from rising star to global superstar. The album has spent over 350 weeks on the Billboard 200, which only three other hip-hop albums have been able to ever do — and for good reason too. Drake really masters the art of being a pop rapper, providing styles that everybody can appreciate if they really listen. The versatility and emotional captivation of “Take Care” makes it one of the most well-known and successful albums of the 21st century.

Favorite Songs: “Buried Alive Interlude,” “Lord Knows,” “Under Ground Kings,” “Cameras,” “Over My Dead Body,” “Shot For Me”

Top 100 hip-hop/rap albums of the 2010s: #40-31

34. Tyler, The Creator: “Flower Boy” (2017)

“Flower Boy” feels like the peak of the roller-coaster that is the evolution of Tyler, The Creator. Tyler opens up to his audience more than ever before, and does so over a beautifully and thoughtfully-produced album. In his most cohesive and consistent work, Tyler’s focus feels so fixated on making his most refined piece of art. His attention to detail is clearly evident through the production and the writing, which bring to life Tyler’s emotions and storytelling. “Flower Boy” turned out to be one of the most pleasant surprises in hip-hop of the past decade.

Favorite Songs: “Glitter,” “911/Mr. Lonely,” “Boredom,” “See You Again”

Top 100 hip-hop/rap albums of the 2010s: #40-31

33. Ab-Soul: “Control System” (2012)

The Top Dawg Entertainment rapper establishes his prominence within his label, the west-coast hip-hop scene and the entire world of rap with “Control System.” With a lyrical style that could be best described as abstract and dense, Ab-Soul constructs a full project in line with his style. “Control System” presents a wordy and enjoyable rap adventure that ranges in mood and style throughout and encompasses everything from spirituality and philosophy to politics. The Top Dawg label received one of its strongest releases from a rapper not named Kendrick Lamar by way of Ab-Soul’s sophomore album.

Favorite Songs: “Illuminate,” “Terrorist Threats,” “Lust Demons,” “The Book of Soul,” “Double Standards”

Top 100 hip-hop/rap albums of the 2010s: #40-31

32. Chance The Rapper: “Coloring Book” (2016)

Before releasing a disappointing debut album with “The Big Day” (2019), Chance The Rapper released a series of mixtapes that were very well-received. 2016’s “Coloring Book” sees Chance in his most gospel and pop form, which he executes at a very high level. Triumphant, promising and inspiring, Chance’s youthful exuberance is contagious. Great production comes primarily from frequent collaborating group The Social Experiment. An unlikely feature crew that included Lil Wayne, 2 Chainz, Young Thug, Justin Bieber and Future actually turned out to be a great fit for the album. “Coloring Book” successfully thrusted Chance The Rapper into the mainstream with an enjoyable and uplifting album.

Favorite Songs: “Same Drugs,” “Angels,” “No Problem,” “Summer Friends”

Top 100 hip-hop/rap albums of the 2010s: #40-31

31. Dreamville: “Revenge of the Dreamers III” (2019)

Dreamville’s 2019 summer blockbuster “Revenge of the Dreamers III” was one of the major releases of the year and one of the defining releases for the label. Thirty-five artists and 27 producers contributed to the mega project, whose release and rollout felt more like that of an Avengers film than a music album. The project does about as well as could be hoped for with what is basically one massive posse-cut. Though there is no theme and little consistency, there isn’t supposed to be. The famed recording sessions, initiated by an epic invitation from J. Cole that took Twitter by storm, resulted in a fantastic collection of tracks that allowed veterans to continue to thrive and emerging rappers to establish themselves and make their push to the mainstream.

Favorite Songs: “Under The Sun,” “Sacrifices,” “Down Bad,” “Sleep Deprived,” “Costa Rica,” “PTSD”

After every segment of my Top 100 rankings are published, I will be creating a Spotify playlist with my favorite songs from the albums that are in each section. Just go to my Spotify Profile (@nicholassligh) where I will be posting the playlists in descending order of rank. Go to this link to view this week’s playlist for albums 40-31! I hope that my list gives credit to deserving artists and helps people that enjoy Hip-Hop/Rap (and even those less familiar with the genre) to find new music that connects with them and that they simply enjoy.

A previous version of this article incorrectly listed the release year of “DiCaprio 2.” The Daily regrets this error.

Contact Nick Sligh at nick1019 ‘at’ stanford.edu.

The post Top 100 hip-hop/rap albums of the 2010s: #40-31 appeared first on The Stanford Daily.

]]>
https://stanforddaily.com/2020/02/26/top-100-hip-hop-rap-albums-of-the-decade-40-31/feed/ 0 1164558
Top 100 hip-hop/rap albums of the 2010s: #50-41 https://stanforddaily.com/2020/02/19/top-100-hip-hop-rap-albums-of-the-decade-50-41/ https://stanforddaily.com/2020/02/19/top-100-hip-hop-rap-albums-of-the-decade-50-41/#respond Thu, 20 Feb 2020 07:23:04 +0000 https://stanforddaily.com/?p=1164274 See which albums Nick Sligh ranked #50-41 of the top 100 hip-hop/rap albums of the decade.

The post Top 100 hip-hop/rap albums of the 2010s: #50-41 appeared first on The Stanford Daily.

]]>
To read more about the background of the list and my thoughts on making it, check out the introduction to my rankings. Without further ado, here are #50-41 of my top 100 hip-hop/rap albums of the 2010s list:

Top 100 hip-hop/rap albums of the 2010s: #50-41

50. J Cole:2014 Forest Hills Drive” (2014)

“J Cole went double platinum with no features”. By now, everybody has probably seen the memes, but they really do have some merit. “2014 Forest Hills Drive” was truly J Cole’s breakthrough album. After a group of mixtapes and two studio albums, Cole was still looking for the album to really put him into the top echelon of the rap industry. This album delivered on this aim. From the intricate storytelling of “Wet Dreamz” to the album’s biggest hit “No Role Modelz” to the emotional and uplifting “Love Yourz”, Cole provided something for a wide audience and delivered his most successful project yet.

Favorite Songs: “03’ Adolescence”, “Wet Dreamz”, “No Role Modelz”, “Apparently”

Top 100 hip-hop/rap albums of the 2010s: #50-41

49. Elzhi: “Lead Poison” (2016)

Former Detroit-based Slum Village Member, Elzhi, brought incredible lyricism and writing to his sophomore studio album. “Lead Poison” is one of the greatest recent displays of lyricism and delivery from a severely underrated artist. One of Elzhi’s trademark abilities is his vivid storytelling, which is constantly present in “Lead Poison”, particularly in songs like “Friendzone”, “Weedipedia”, and “February”. All of these songs present soul, emotion and lyrical work that is to be admired. The personal and captivating Detroit emcee coasts smoothly and effortlessly over a variety of soulful, old-school hip-hop-influenced beats. 

Favorite Songs: “Friendzone”, “Alienated”, “Weedipedia”, “February”

Top 100 hip-hop/rap albums of the 2010s: #50-41

48. Freddie Gibbs & Madlib: “Piñata” (2014)

As the first project from what would come to be one of the best current rapper and producer duos in hip-hop, “Piñata” is one of the most innovative and refreshing gangster rap albums in the modern era. The Gary, Indiana-native rapper Freddie Gibbs and the famous producer Madlib show one of the most unique chemistries that led to a glorious collection. Two artists with very different styles and backgrounds, the typically hard and menacing “Gangsta Gibbs” meshes effortlessly with the soulful and jazzy background of producer Madlib. An unlikely duo comes through with some of their own best work that happens to work excellently as a collective masterpiece.

Favorite Songs: “Shame”, “High”, “Harold’s”, “Lakers”, “Robes”

Top 100 hip-hop/rap albums of the 2010s: #50-41

47. Big K.R.I.T: “4eva Is A Mighty Long Time” (2017)

Justin Scott, better known as Big K.R.I.T, represents the South with a unique pride and passion. Spirituality and introspection are constants in “4eva Is A Mighty Long Time”, withScott developing an album that really allows listeners to get a better understanding of his personal life and his struggles. In a time where the Atlanta trap scene seems to dominate much of the hip-hop scene of the South, “4eva Is A Mighty Long Time” feels like Big K.R.I.T’s attempt to preserve lyrical, jazzy, soulful rap and give the South deeper representation outside of just Atlanta trap music.

Favorite Songs: “Drinking Sessions”, “Price of Fame”, “The Light”, “Bury Me In Gold”

Top 100 hip-hop/rap albums of the 2010s: #50-41

46. Capital STEEZ: “AmeriKKKan Korruption” (2012) 

Beast Coast and Pro Era founder, the late Capital STEEZ, certainly made his mark on modern East Coast hip-hop before his unfortunate passing in 2012. The spiritual, witty and philosophical lyricist left us with only one individual full length project. “AmeriKKKan Korruption” is a mixtape full of political commentary, lyricism, wordplay and a true old-school East Coast hip-hop feel. One of the marvels of this album was that Capital STEEZ was only 18 years old at the release of this project. Who knows what could have been given the potential displayed in one of the best mixtapes of the decade? 

Favorite Songs: “Dead Prez”, “135”, “Dead on Arrival”, “Vibe Ratings”

Top 100 hip-hop/rap albums of the 2010s: #50-41

45. J Cole: “Friday Night Lights” (2010)

Before he was a superstar rapper, J Cole was a young kid from Fayetteville, North Carolina and the first signee to Jay Z’s Roc Nation label. In retrospect, many would consider ‘mixtape J Cole’ to be a completely different artist than ‘album J Cole’. The hunger and emotion shown by Cole throughout “Friday Night Lights” is extremely captivating and instantly makes him an intriguing rapper worthy of listening to. J Cole delivers some of his most emotionally-rich and promising work along with some of his finest rapping that results in a top-tier modern rap mixtape.

Favorite Songs: “The Autograph”, “Premeditated Murder”, “Home For The Holidays”, “Villematic”, “Before I’m Gone”, “See World”

Top 100 hip-hop/rap albums of the 2010s: #50-41

44. Rapsody: “Eve” (2019)

Looking at the tracklist of “Eve” gives the listener a good idea of what the album is about. Every track is named for a Black female icon, with tracks including “Serena” (Serena Williams), “Maya” (Maya Angelou) and “Sojourner” (Sojourner Truth) among many others. In the third studio album for Rapsody, she continues her messages of Black empowerment with a new twist and an innovative approach. Rapsody uses her ever-strong lyricism and artistry to explore a long line of important Black women in an album of triumph and empowerment.

Favorite Songs: “Iman”, “Sojourner”, “Ibtihaj”, “Whoopi”

Top 100 hip-hop/rap albums of the 2010s: #50-41

43. J.I.D: “The Never Story” (2017)

J.I.D introduced himself to much of the rap world with his studio debut “The Never Story”. An Atlanta native who found his rap start through the Spillage Village collective, J.I.D quickly came onto the main scene of rap due to his incredible writing and rapping ability. Already showing the potential to be a rap legend, J.I.D’s flow and lyricism can compete with practically any current artist. “The Never Story” is a compilation of diverse production, soul, narrative and pure rap. Every song showcases great writing, but J.I.D’s verses on “Lauder” will go down as some of the best lyrical work of the entire decade. This will likely be a debut that is looked back at as an introduction to one of the greats in rap.

Favorite Songs: “Lauder”, “D/vision”, “Hereditary”, “All Bad”, “NEVER”

Top 100 hip-hop/rap albums of the 2010s: #50-41

42. Vince Staples: “Big Fish Theory” (2017)

When looking at total body of work from the decade, very few rappers did quite as well as Vince Staples. Vince managed to put out a group of seven high-quality projects with no real weak spots in his discography. If I had really wanted to, I could have considered all 7 of these major projects in the top 100, but for the sake of the list, I thought it was unfitting to give one artist seven spots. Nevertheless, “Big Fish Theory” was some of Vince’s boldest and most adventurous work. His second studio album plays host to a highly experimental combination of electronic, rap house and avant-garde dance music. Vince utilizes a variety of sounds in his production selection, but lyrically never strays too far from what he does best. “Big Fish Theory ” is a very well-done chaotic and artistic journey through the paranoia of Vince Staples.

Favorite Songs: “SAMO”, “745”, “Party People”, “BagBak”, “Big Fish”, “Yeah Right”

Top 100 hip-hop/rap albums of the 2010s: #50-41

41. EarthGang: “Mirrorland” (2019)

Two of the original members of Spillage Village and now two members of J Cole’s Dreamville Records, EarthGang (Johnny Venus/Olu and Doctur Dot/WowGr8) released their Dreamville debut with the mystical “Mirrorland”. The duo paints a “reflection” of their city of Atlanta, and displays from start to finish their incredible flexibility and versatility. The transitions between trap, funk, jazz rap, neo-soul and R&B are so seamless and well-executed that it is hard to even notice how many different styles exist in tandem with each other. The vocal and rapping abilities of Johnny Venus and Doctur Dot are present throughout, and are always in sync with the array of production that is offered. The comparisons between EarthGang and legendary Atlanta duo Outkast have already begun, and for good reason, given the style and incredible potential made apparent with albums like this.

Favorite Songs: “Top Down”, “Bank”, “Proud Of U”, “Fields”, “Wings”

After every segment of my Top 100 rankings are published, I will be creating a Spotify playlist with my favorite songs from the albums that are in each section. Just go to my Spotify Profile (@nicholassligh) where I will be posting the playlists in descending order of rank. Go to this link to view this week’s playlist for albums 50-41! I hope that my list gives credit to deserving artists and helps people that enjoy Hip-Hop/Rap (and even those less familiar with the genre) to find new music that connects with them and that they simply enjoy.

Contact Nick Sligh at nick1019 ‘at’ stanford.edu.

The post Top 100 hip-hop/rap albums of the 2010s: #50-41 appeared first on The Stanford Daily.

]]>
https://stanforddaily.com/2020/02/19/top-100-hip-hop-rap-albums-of-the-decade-50-41/feed/ 0 1164274
Top 100 hip-hop/rap albums of the 2010s: #60-51 https://stanforddaily.com/2020/02/12/top-100-hip-hop-rap-albums-of-the-decade-60-51/ https://stanforddaily.com/2020/02/12/top-100-hip-hop-rap-albums-of-the-decade-60-51/#respond Thu, 13 Feb 2020 04:00:32 +0000 https://stanforddaily.com/?p=1163937 See which albums Nick Sligh ranked #60-51 of the top 100 hip-hop/rap albums of the decade.

The post Top 100 hip-hop/rap albums of the 2010s: #60-51 appeared first on The Stanford Daily.

]]>
To read more about the background of the list and my thoughts on making it, check out the introduction to my rankings. Without further ado, here are #60-51 of my top 100 hip-hop/rap albums of the 2010s list:

Top 100 hip-hop/rap albums of the 2010s: #60-51

60. The Roots: “Undun” (2011)

Rarely is a concept album so well thought out and executed as The Roots’ “Undun.” Their 13th studio album paints a vivid picture of the life of fictional character “Redford Stevens” through an album-length narrative  told in reverse chronological order. The legendary group is able to portray the specific struggles of life in Philadelphia as well as the general plight of African-Americans in the United States. The lyricism, production and genius concept result in “Undun” being a ‘can’t miss’ album and some of The Roots’ greatest work. 

Favorite Songs: “Make My,” “One Time,” “Kool On”

Top 100 hip-hop/rap albums of the 2010s: #60-51

59. Pusha T: “Daytona” (2018)

For what the seven-track album lacks in quantity, it more than makes up for in quality. Kanye West’s production on every track laid the foundation for Pusha T to deliver a great performance. The sync between Pusha and the incredible production is special, and leads to the most refined project from the coke rap legend. The summer of 2018 would soon become associated with and known almost more so for Pusha T’s beef with Drake, which produced the infamous diss track “The Story of Adidon.” However, the real defining moment for Pusha and his artistry in 2018 was delivering his greatest solo work yet with the grand and authentic “Daytona.”

Favorite Songs: “The Games We Play,” “Come Back Baby,” “If You Know You Know”

Top 100 hip-hop/rap albums of the 2010s: #60-51

58. Saigon: “The Greatest Story Never Told” (2011)

After a string of 10 mixtapes, Saigon’s debut studio album arrived in 2011 via “The Greatest Story Never Told.” The Brooklyn rapper gathered a star-studded guest list for his debut. Production came primarily from Just Blaze and Kanye West, and the features came from rap legends including, Jay Z, Q-Tip, Black Thought and Bun B. Saigon displays great writing and soulful delivery, which complement great production and make a captivating and emotionally potent album that is in-focus and precise.

Favorite Songs: “Clap,” “Come On Baby,” “The Greatest Story Never Told”

Top 100 hip-hop/rap albums of the 2010s: #60-51

57. Pro Era: “PEEP: The aPROcalypse” (2012)

The Pro Era-posse mixtape provided a great group of tracks from one of the most talented collectives in rap music. With a roster featuring the likes of Joey Bada$$, the late Capital Steez, Kirk Knight, Dyemond Lewis, Powers Pleasant and Dessy Hinds, the project had all of the pieces for a great result. The production is very old-school and laid back, which is the fitting style to accompany many of the Pro Era rappers. Pro Era found a way to stay true to the roots of east coast hip-hop while giving it an innovative twist.

Favorite Songs: “School High,” “K.I.N.G.S,” “Vinyls,” “F a Rap Critic,” “Know The Rules”

Top 100 hip-hop/rap albums of the 2010s: #60-51

56. Maxo Kream: “Brandon Banks” (2019) 

“Brandon Banks” is one of the best trap albums of the decade. The narrative of Maxo Kream’s youth in Houston is told over a series of primarily-menacing and hard beats that perfectly capture much of the pain and emotion built up through Maxo’s struggles. It is not just a cold and bleak representation either because there is a massive amount of soul and heart poured throughout the entire project. It is not easy to create an album that contains club bangers, heartfelt music and wonderful narrative all in one. Nevertheless, Maxo Kream accomplishes this feat on his second studio album.

Favorite Songs: “Bissonet,” “Drizzy Draco,” “Meet Again,” “She Live,” “Murda Blocc”

Top 100 hip-hop/rap albums of the 2010s: #60-51

55. Mac Miller: “Faces” (2014)

After starting his career as a “frat rapper” whose music often had a lack of substance, Mac Miller comes into full form with his greatest project, “Faces.” The late Mac Miller released the massive 24-track mixtape following a long string of other mixtapes and his first two studio albums. While still containing some of the immature content that filled Mac’s early career, the project primarily contains much heavier subject matter. Mac is constantly introspective and aware to the point that is almost haunting. “Faces” is the drug-fueled adventure of a young man who is coming into his own and beginning to understand his issues and his life as a whole. Mac capitalizes on his strengths of making fun and enjoyable music while  balancing out with more somber and introspective tracks. A beautiful, personal and emotional project, Mac Miller successfully creates one of the best mixtapes of the modern era of hip-hop.

Favorite Songs: “New Faces,” “Wedding,” “Polo Jeans,” “Diablo,” “Funeral,” “Rain”

Top 100 hip-hop/rap albums of the 2010s: #60-51

54. Kanye West: “The Life of Pablo” (2016)

In what has felt like a career full of constant bold statements, “The Life of Pablo” was another fearless step for Kanye West. The absurdity of Kanye West is on center stage, as gospel, trap, pop and R&B all blend into one giant showcase of Kanye. “The Life of Pablo” is one of the most interesting and exciting collections in the career of one of hip-hop’s iconic artists.

Favorite Songs: “No More Parties in LA,” “Ultralight Beam,” “Saint Pablo,” “Waves”

Top 100 hip-hop/rap albums of the 2010s: #60-51

53. Earl Sweatshirt: “Doris” (2013)

As the members of Odd Future began to pursue their own solo endeavors, solo projects were heavily anticipated from a multitude of the artists. One of the most mysterious and intriguing artists in this group was Earl Sweatshirt. Following the acclaimed 2010 self-titled mixtape “EARL” came his debut album, “Doris.. Though not as refined or cohesive as Earl’s future work would grow to be, “Doris” contains some of Earl’s best work to date. Contained in the album is one of the most impressive three-track runs (three songs that occur in succession on an album) of the decade. The run begins with “Sunday,” the melodic and personal track containing one of Frank Ocean’s greatest rap features. Then the mood turns much darker, with the horror rap “Hive,” featuring the one-and-only Vince Staples, who fits the track perfectly and delivers one of the best guest features of the entire decade. The final song of the three is “Chum,” a somber and heartfelt lyrical display over a sorrowful piano riff. A rapper that has always been known for incredible writing and rapping, “Doris” contains some of the best production and some of the most enjoyable music of the Earl’s career.

Favorite Songs: “Sunday,” “Hive,” “Chum,” “Centurion”

Top 100 hip-hop/rap albums of the 2010s: #60-51

52. Flatbush Zombies: “3001: A Laced Odyssey” (2016)

An obvious play on words of Stanley Kubrick’s legendary film “2001: A Space Odyssey,” the Flatbush Zombies bring an eccentric and drug-laced odyssey of their own into the rap game with their 2016 studio debut. The follow-up to their incredible 2013 mixtape BetterOffDEAD,” the Flatbush trio stay true to their style with a compilation of great writing, introspection, political commentary and their undeniable energy and creativity. With this album, Erick Arc Elliott, Meechy Darko and Zombie Juice prove why they are one of the most entertaining and special groups in hip-hop.

Favorite Songs: “This Is It,” “A Spike Lee Joint,” “R.I.P.C.D,” “Good Grief”

Top 100 hip-hop/rap albums of the 2010s: #60-51

51. The Underachievers: “Indigoism” (2013)

If you are looking for philosophical music with incredible pure rapping, there are few better projects than The Underachievers’ first full length release, “Indigoism.” The 2013 mixtape from Issa Gold and AKTHESAVIOR showcases technical abilities of rapping at levels that very few are capable of achieving. Refreshing flows, incredible lyricism, political commentary and potent philosophy are present for the entire duration of the album. “Indigoism” will go down as one of the landmark results of the “Soundcloud Era” of rap and one of the quintessential underground rap albums of the 2010s.

Favorite Songs: “T.A.D.E.D,” “Philanthropist,” “Revelations” 

After every segment of my Top 100 rankings are published, I will be creating a Spotify playlist with my favorite songs from the albums that are in each section. Just go to my Spotify profile (@nicholassligh) where I will be posting the playlists in descending order of rank. Go to this link to view this week’s playlist for albums 60-51! I hope that my list gives credit to deserving artists and helps people that enjoy hip-hop/rap (and even those less familiar with the genre) to find new music that connects with them and that they simply enjoy.

Contact Nick Sligh at nick1019 ‘at’ stanford.edu.

The post Top 100 hip-hop/rap albums of the 2010s: #60-51 appeared first on The Stanford Daily.

]]>
https://stanforddaily.com/2020/02/12/top-100-hip-hop-rap-albums-of-the-decade-60-51/feed/ 0 1163937
Top 100 hip-hop/rap albums of the 2010s: #70-61 https://stanforddaily.com/2020/02/05/top-100-hip-hop-rap-albums-of-the-decade-70-61/ https://stanforddaily.com/2020/02/05/top-100-hip-hop-rap-albums-of-the-decade-70-61/#respond Thu, 06 Feb 2020 03:57:25 +0000 https://stanforddaily.com/?p=1163522 See which albums Nick Sligh ranked #70-61 of the top 100 hip-hop/rap albums of the decade.

The post Top 100 hip-hop/rap albums of the 2010s: #70-61 appeared first on The Stanford Daily.

]]>
To read more about the background of the list and my thoughts on making it, check out the introduction to my rankings. Without further ado, here are #70-61 of my top 100 hip-hop/rap albums of the 2010s list:

Top 100 hip-hop/rap albums of the 2010s: #70-61

70. Earl Sweatshirt: “Some Rap Songs” (2018)

From the blurry album cover to the 24-minute-total runtime and the less-than-creative title, don’t be fooled into thinking that this is a short and shallow project. Since his days with Odd Future, Earl Sweatshirt has shown incredible lyrical abilities and been known primarily for his wordplay and witty lyrics. A rapper that has often dealt with grief and pain in his past music, Earl finds a refreshing and emotional way to continue some of the dark themes of his early work, but with a completely different manner and sound. “Some Rap Songs” is potent, dense and captivating.

Favorite Songs: “Ontheway!,” “Riot!,” “Azucar,” “The Mint”

Top 100 hip-hop/rap albums of the 2010s: #70-61

69. J. Cole: “4 Your Eyez Only” (2016)

J. Cole’s fourth studio album finds a rapper that is typically very self-aware at even deeper levels of introspection. Some of the most cohesive work of Cole’s entire discography is found on “4 Your Eyez Only.” With the exception of “Foldin Clothes” (Cole, why did you make this song?), every song on this album really feels like it belongs, and the quality of work is certainly there. There is a consistent mood that Cole does a great job of setting with mellow flows and smooth, jazzy production. The narrative and storytelling featured is very impressive and is truly what makes the album special. “4 Your Eyez Only” finds Cole vulnerable and the most focused that he’s been across the duration of an entire LP.

Favorite Songs: “Change,” “4 Your Eyez Only,” “Neighbors,” “Deja Vu,” “Immortal”

Top 100 hip-hop/rap albums of the 2010s: #70-61

68. Travis Scott: “Rodeo” (2015)

Travis Scott has been one of the emerging rappers of the later part of the decade after his long-awaited “Astroworld” became a massive commercial success. However, 2015’s “Rodeo” might have been the defining project for the Houston rapper and producer. With this project, Scott was well underway with refining his sound with a trap style that is dark, psychedelic and futuristic. The style that is popularized with “Rodeo” would catapult Scott into the mainstream and lead all the way up to his current status as one of the most popular figures in hip-hop. 

Favorite Songs: “90210,” “Pray 4 Love,” “I Can Tell”

Top 100 hip-hop/rap albums of the 2010s: #70-61

67. Denzel Curry: “Imperial” (2016)

Denzel first began to make his push to the national scale and the broader hip-hop universe with the incredibly inspired “Imperial.” The hunger, ferocity and pure skill that Denzel raps with is astonishing. From the machine-gun paced flows of “Knotty Head” and “Gook,” to the dark “Story: No Title,” to the uplifting “Good Night,” Denzel crafts an immensely entertaining listen filled with an energy and sound that is uniquely his.

Favorite Songs: “Good Night,” “Story: No Title,” “Knotty Head,” “Gook”

Top 100 hip-hop/rap albums of the 2010s: #70-61

66. Dave B: “Punch Drunk” (2015) 

David Bowman, the 27-year-old rapper, singer, writer and producer from Seattle is what many would consider a product of the “SoundCloud rap” era. On his first full length project, “Punch Drunk,” Dave B was able to capture and exemplify many of the best things about how the internet has influenced rap. An ultimately relaxed LP, “Punch Drunk” finds Dave B examining his young life and getting lost within nostalgia. Smooth, jazzy and soulful production lets Dave B rap effortlessly and fuse many different sounds and styles to create a chill compilation that is simply one of the most enjoyable listens that can be found in underground hip-hop.

Favorite Songs: “Outside,” “Leaves,” “Polaroid,” “Rain”

Top 100 hip-hop/rap albums of the 2010s: #70-61

65. Earl Sweatshirt: “I Don’t Like Shit, I Don’t Go Outside” (2014)

Following “Huey,” a fantastic intro which sounds like some combination between a sorrowful baseball game and a joyful funeral, we are introduced to Earl Sweatshirt in possibly his most pure form. A bleak and minimalist project, Earl’s pen guides the way. The writing and delivery of Earl are at the center stage of “I Don’t Like Shit, I Don’t Go Outside,” and the result is a precise and dark portrait of Earl’s paranoia. Earl strips back the sounds of the mainstream, and for that matter, many of the sounds of a conventional hip-hop album. There is an obvious lack of an attempt to make this LP a mainstream compilation, and it allows Earl to shine at his most artistic form.

Favorite Songs: “Huey,” “Wool,”“Faucet,” “Grief”

Top 100 hip-hop/rap albums of the 2010s: #70-61

64. Schoolboy Q: “Blank Face” (2016)

The first three full-length albums for Schoolboy Q were all very solid projects, but nothing in his discography compares to the eerie, psychedelic and authentic essence captured so masterfully in “Blank Face.” Not straying too far from his vintage gangster rap style, Schoolboy Q adjusts the sound enough to create a new and enjoyable sound for him. A testament to Q’s artistry, “Blank Face” makes for his most refreshing record, blending a variety of unique sounds and features, and infusing it with his authenticity, soul and energy. Often menacing, sometimes uplifting and always focused, Schoolboy’s fourth album shows what his finest work can be.

Favorite Songs: “Blank Face,”“JoHn Muir,” “Dope Dealer,” “Str8 Ballin,” “Lord Have Mercy”

Top 100 hip-hop/rap albums of the 2010s: #70-61

63. Joey Bada$$: “B4.Da.$$” (2015)

For starters, this is possibly the best album name of the decade. The triple entendre represents an alternate stylization of Joey’s rap name Bada$$ (B4.Da.$$ = Bada$$), the phrase “before the money” (referring to a time before wealth) and the phrase “be for the money” (referring to the prioritization of wealth). Joey’s lyrical abilities are on full display, as the Brooklyn native touches on topics of money, struggle, family and growth. One of the top songs of this decade comes with “Paper Trail$,” a track containing fantastic wordplay and a clever twist on Wu-Tang Clan’s popularized acronym C.R.E.A.M (Cash Rules Everything Around Me). The beat selection is very old-school hip-hop and boom-bap influenced, with classic samples and production contributed by DJ Premier, Statik Selektah, J Dilla and Kirk Knight. The Pro Era executive stands firmly in his comfort zone and lands one of the best recent studio debut projects.

Favorite Songs: “Paper Trail$,” “Curry Chicken,” “O.C.B,” “Christ Conscious”

Top 100 hip-hop/rap albums of the 2010s: #70-61

62. A$AP Rocky: “AT.LONG.LAST.A$AP” (2015)

“AT.LONG.LAST.A$AP” was A$AP Rocky’s successful experiment at producing a colorful combination of almost every genre imaginable while still staying true in ways to himself and the sound that his success has been built upon. Psychedelic funk, classic rock, blues, trap and many others form the varied collection of production. Surely Rocky will never fully leave his vintage brag rap behind, but “A.L.L.A” certainly sees a more serious version of himself presented with much more emphasis on lyricism and narrative. 

Favorite Songs: “Excuse Me,” “Jukebox Joints,” “Pharsyde,” “Electric Body”

Top 100 hip-hop/rap albums of the 2010s: #70-61

61. Smino: “Blkswn” (2017)

St. Louis’ own delivered one of the smoothest rap albums of the decade, and on his debut full-length project at that. Smino has the ability to bend words and flows with his southern drawl, which he constantly utilizes throughout “Blkswn.” A deeply soulful record heavily influenced by southern jazz and blues, Smino was able to create an album that is relaxing but never dull. Catchy and enjoyable hooks, melodies and production combined with Smino’s witty writing and delivery establish him as one of the legitimate artists in hip-hop going forward.

Favorite Songs: “Long Run,” “Netflix & Dusse,” “Father Son Holy Smoke,” “Lobby Kall,” “Amphetamine”

After every segment of my Top 100 rankings are published, I will be creating a Spotify playlist with my favorite songs from the albums that are in each section. Just go to my Spotify profile (@nicholassligh) where I will be posting the playlists in descending order of rank. Go to this link to view this week’s playlist for albums #70-61! I hope that my list gives credit to deserving artists and helps people that enjoy hip-hop/rap (and even those less familiar with the genre) to find new music that connects with them and that they simply enjoy.

Contact Nick Sligh at nick1019 ‘at’ stanford.edu.

The post Top 100 hip-hop/rap albums of the 2010s: #70-61 appeared first on The Stanford Daily.

]]>
https://stanforddaily.com/2020/02/05/top-100-hip-hop-rap-albums-of-the-decade-70-61/feed/ 0 1163522
Top 100 hip-hop/rap albums of the 2010s: #80-71 https://stanforddaily.com/2020/01/29/top-100-hip-hop-rap-albums-of-the-decade-80-71/ https://stanforddaily.com/2020/01/29/top-100-hip-hop-rap-albums-of-the-decade-80-71/#respond Thu, 30 Jan 2020 03:55:52 +0000 https://stanforddaily.com/?p=1163093 See which albums Nick Sligh ranked #80-71 of the top 100 hip-hop/rap albums of the decade.

The post Top 100 hip-hop/rap albums of the 2010s: #80-71 appeared first on The Stanford Daily.

]]>
To read more about the background of this list and my thoughts on making it, check out the introduction to my rankings. Without further ado, here are #80-71 of my top 100 hip-hop/rap albums of the 2010s list.

Top 100 hip-hop/rap albums of the 2010s: #80-71

80. The Underachievers: “Evermore: The Art of Duality” (2015)

The Underachievers, the eccentric and spiritual duo from the Beast Coast collective, delivered an artistic and lyrical album exploring the duality of life with “Evermore: The Art of Duality.” The two-part album is arranged into two “phases,” the first representing much lighter sounds and perspectives and the second representing much darker sounds and perspectives. Just looking at the album cover gives the listener a good sense of the layout and the purpose of the album. With great writing, concepts and production, The Underachievers created one of the decade’s best underground projects.

Favorite Songs: “Illusions,” “Rain Dance,” “Chasing Faith,” “The Dualist”

Top 100 hip-hop/rap albums of the 2010s: #80-71

79. Danny Brown: “Atrocity Exhibition” (2016)

After a long string of mixtapes and album releases, Danny Brown arrived with one of the craziest releases of the decade with his fourth studio album, featuring Danny’s famous writing and delivery throughout. The production and his lyricism are likely not for everybody, but they masterfully complement each other. Intentionally unsettling, chaotic and grimy, “Atrocity Exhibition” feels like one of the most startling and unique albums put together in recent memory. Drug rap takes on a completely different style and sound that it has never seen before. A full listen through feels like an audio horror movie that is well-done, often comedic and crafted by a revolutionary. “Atrocity Exhibition” will easily go down as one of the most peculiar and creative records in recent rap.

Favorite Songs: “Really Doe,” “Get Hi,” “Pneumonia,” “Rolling Stone”

Top 100 hip-hop/rap albums of the 2010s: #80-71

78. Open Mike Eagle: “Brick Body Kids Still Daydream” (2017)

There is nothing new about rapping about struggles in rap or about how poor the current state of America is believed to be. However, open Mike Eagle’s concept album “Brick Body Kids Still Daydream” presents these ideas in some of the most beautiful and creative ways seen in rap. The artistic rapper and poet is known for incredible songwriting and storytelling. He is able to capture his emotions almost flawlessly through his stories of the Robert Taylor Homes on Chicago’s South Side. The famous housing project serves as the backdrop of his album, as Open Mike Eagle weaves through stories of the formative years of his life with allegory, love and cleverness.

Favorite Songs: “Legendary Iron Hood,” “95 Radios,” “Happy Wasteland Day,” “Hymnal”

Top 100 hip-hop/rap albums of the 2010s: #80-71

77. Pusha T: “My Name Is My Name” (2013)

“My Name Is My Name” established what we have come to know as vintage Pusha T. Through his debut studio LP, Pusha tells stories of his drug dealing past and his present life with masterful delivery. One of the decade’s best songs finds itself on the tracklist: the incredible “Nosetalgia” featuring Kendrick Lamar. The iconic opening lines to this song set the tone not only for this album, but frankly for Pusha’s rap career: “Twenty-plus years of selling Johnson and Johnson; I started out as a baby-faced monster. No wonder there’s diaper rash on my conscience; my teething ring was numbed by the nonsense.”

Favorite Songs: “Nosetalgia,” “Sweet Serenade,” “Numbers on the Boards”

Top 100 hip-hop/rap albums of the 2010s: #80-71

76. Denzel Curry: “ZUU” (2019)

“ZUU” is a return his roots and a salute to South Florida for Denzel Curry. From the production to the features to the content, this album is deliberate in creating a sound and style that represent Miami and all of the energy and swagger associated with South Florida trap music. The pure rapping ability of Denzel is displayed, with varied flows and passionate (often aggressive) delivery. Denzel claims that he freestyled the entire project without actually having to write down any of the content, making the technical aspects of the album even more impressive. The production choices are on point, with credits to Tay Keith, Charlie Heat and frequent collaborating duo FnZ. “ZUU” captures the essence of his Miami summers and successfully creates a street anthem full of fun, energy and wisdom.  

Favorite Songs: “Ricky,” “Birdz,” “Automatic”

Top 100 hip-hop/rap albums of the 2010s: #80-71

75. Choosey & Exile: “Black Beans” (2019) 

Titled for Choosey’s mixed heritage, “Black Beans” is a journey through Choosey’s early life in Los Angeles growing up with a Mexican father and an African-American mother. The combination of Choosey’s excellent rapping and storytelling combined with Exile’s phenomenal production creates a compilation that is focused, emotional and captivating. Exile, one of the best underground producers in hip-hop, delivers a masterfully produced collection that could not fit the album any better. With influences from Latin jazz, gospel, funk, soul and old school hip-hop, the result is a peaceful and uplifting sound from start to finish. “Black Beans” is truly a modern underground rap masterpiece.

Favorite Songs: “Brown & Beautiful,” “Familia,” “Black Beans,” “Low Low” 

Top 100 hip-hop/rap albums of the 2010s: #80-71

74. Big Boi: “Sir Lucious Left Foot: The Son of Chico Dusty” (2010)

One-half of one of hip-hop’s greatest duos of all time (Outkast), Big Boi came through with arguably his finest solo work in 2010. The pure rapping ability from Big Boi is undeniable throughout, as his technical ability is constantly put on display. The soulful and groovy production creates a fun atmosphere that really allows the Georgia rapper to thrive. Exuding glamour and swagger, “Sir Lucious Left Foot: The Son of Chico Dusty” proved that Big Boi was a great rapper on his own and could produce high quality work outside of Outkast.

Favorite Songs: “Shine Blockas,” “Be Still,” “General Patton,” “Daddy Fat Sax”

Top 100 hip-hop/rap albums of the 2010s: #80-71

73. Erick Arc Elliott: “Almost Remembered” (2011)

Best known for being the producer and a member of the Brooklyn-based Flatbush Zombies, Erick Elliott is one of the most versatile figures in rap. In “Almost Remembered,” Erick shows that he is much more than just the “Third Flatbush Zombie.” A marvelously constructed mixtape, the tone is set with soulful, warm, emotional and nostalgic production. The relaxed and laid-back vibes go very well with the content of the album. Erick goes through introspection and struggles in his life, from the difficulty of making it in the music industry to coping with the death of his loved ones. “Almost Remembered” establishes Erick as a legitimate talent not only in the Flatbush Zombies group, but also in the greater rap scene.

Favorite Songs: “Weed Fronter,” “Uncle Bernard,” “Sleep,” “After Lovin U”

Top 100 hip-hop/rap albums of the 2010s: #80-71

72. Danny Brown: “Old” (2012)

Less daring but more personal than “Atrocity Exhibition,” “Old” certainly finds Danny Brown at his most personal. With a selection of outrageous sounds and club bangers, “Old” is far from simply somber introspection. Still showing flashes of the adventurous sounds that Danny Brown has become synonymous with, this album does the best job out of Danny Brown’s discography in providing storytelling and content that allow listeners to understand Brown better. From the chilling “Torture” to the self-aware “Clean Up,” this album has a much more serious tone than his previous work. The LP offers a deep look into the emotions, thoughts and maturation of Danny Brown, showing that there is far more to him than crazy production choices and quirky drug rap.

Favorite Songs: “Torture,” “Clean Up,” “Dope Fiend Rental,” “The Return”

Top 100 hip-hop/rap albums of the 2010s: #80-71

71. Kanye West: “Yeezus” (2013)

It’s obvious that Kanye West is a musical genius. Sure, not every project made by Kanye has been stellar, but that is part of being one of the boldest and most fearless figures in music. Kanye has been one of the most influential and defining artists of the 21st century, not only in rap, but also in music in general. “Yeezus” was just one of Kanye’s defining works that left its own unique mark. A dark, intense and metallic turn from the soulful and more upbeat Kanye of his early days, the album provided a more sinister look into the life of Mr. West. Yeezus is one of the loudest and most daring artistic statements made by West in his long and successful career.

Favorite Songs: “Bound 2,” “Blood On The Leaves,” “New Slaves,” “Black Skinhead”

After every segment of my Top 100 rankings are published, I will be creating a Spotify playlist with my favorite songs from the albums that are in each section. Just go to my Spotify profile (@nicholassligh) where I will be posting the playlists in descending order of rank. Go to this link to view this week’s playlist for albums 80-71! I hope that my list gives credit to deserving artists and helps people that enjoy hip-hop/rap (and even those less familiar with the genre) to find new music that connects with them and that they simply enjoy.

Contact Nick Sligh at nick1019 ‘at’ stanford.edu.

The post Top 100 hip-hop/rap albums of the 2010s: #80-71 appeared first on The Stanford Daily.

]]>
https://stanforddaily.com/2020/01/29/top-100-hip-hop-rap-albums-of-the-decade-80-71/feed/ 0 1163093
Top 100 hip-hop/rap albums of the 2010s: #90-81 https://stanforddaily.com/2020/01/22/top-100-hip-hop-rap-albums-of-the-decade-90-81/ https://stanforddaily.com/2020/01/22/top-100-hip-hop-rap-albums-of-the-decade-90-81/#respond Thu, 23 Jan 2020 03:46:14 +0000 https://stanforddaily.com/?p=1162737 See which albums Nick Sligh ranked #90-81 of the top 100 hip-hop/rap albums of the decade.

The post Top 100 hip-hop/rap albums of the 2010s: #90-81 appeared first on The Stanford Daily.

]]>
To read more about the background of the list and my thoughts on making it, check out the introduction to my rankings. Without further ado, here are #90-81 of my top 100 hip-hop/rap albums of the 2010s list.

Top 100 hip-hop/rap albums of the 2010s: #90-81

90. Young Thug: “Jeffery” (2016)

In a decade that saw the release of 22 Young Thug projects, the 28-year old rapper from Atlanta gave fans a massive quantity of music to choose from. Arguably his greatest artistic statement came in the form of “Jeffrey,” his third mixtape release of 2016. Rapping, singing, howling, screaming, mumbling and rasping, Thug’s sound itself makes enough for an entertaining listen. “Jeffery,” with its flare and swagger, thrusted Young Thug into his position as one of the more iconic rap figures of the decade.

Favorite Songs: “Guwop”, “Kanye West”, “RiRi”

Top 100 hip-hop/rap albums of the 2010s: #90-81

89. Isaiah Rashad: “The Sun’s Tirade” (2017)

On his sole studio album release of the decade, Isaiah Rashad created an album that felt so much more in touch and comfortable than a typical debut. The Top Dawg Entertainment signee followed up his acclaimed EP “Cilvia Demo” with a confident, smooth, spaced-out compilation that highlighted all of Isaiah’s strengths. The mellow flows, soulful introspection, jazz-influenced production and southern sound produce an album that is both relaxing and refreshing and shows a glimpse towards the enormous potential that Rashad holds.

Favorite Songs: “What’s Wrong”, “Brenda”, “4r Da Squaw”

Top 100 hip-hop/rap albums of the 2010s: #90-81

88. Nas: “Life is Good” (2012)

The rap legend and icon, who has been going strong for over 25 years since the release of his classic album Illmatic,” put together his best project of the decade in the form of “Life is Good.” Nas blends new sounds while never straying too far from his classic sound and what has made him one of the most renowned rappers of all time. Throughout, Nas provides introspective and personal music over well-executed jazz-influenced and soulful production. The result is a great look into the life and maturity of one of rap’s most iconic figures.

Favorite Songs: “Daughters”, “The Don”, “Stay”, “Cherry Wine”, “Nasty”

Top 100 hip-hop/rap albums of the 2010s: #90-81

87. Rick Ross: “Teflon Don(2010)

The founder of Maybach Music Group (MMG), Rick Ross has become known for his lavish raps, soulful production choices and commanding voice. There was a point early on in Rick Ross’ career where people mainly considered him and his music comedic, but “Teflon Don” helped to truly establish his image as a serious and respected rapper. “Teflon Don” certainly provides its share of vintage bragaddocio rhymes from Rick Ross, but it also provided introspective music that cemented Ross as a serious artist.

Favorite Songs: “Live Fast, Die Young”, “Tears of Joy”, “Aston Martin Music”, “B.M.F”

Top 100 hip-hop/rap albums of the 2010s: #90-81

86. YG: “My Krazy Life” (2014) 

An exploration into his own truly “crazy life”, YG delivers a street anthem with wide reaching sounds that appeal to more of a mainstream audience. The typical ‘old school gangster’ cliches are still there, but YG gives a refreshing spin on gangster rap by adding his West Coast bounce and a deep level of authenticity and emotion. The production throughout greatly compliments the lyrical content and themes presented, with dark, chaotic, electronic and even funk influences. “My Krazy Life” provides the bangers it seeks to provide, and it infuses narrative and an innovative bounce to the West Coast gangster rap album.

Favorite Songs: “1AM”, “Who Do You Love?”, “I Just Wanna Party”, “Sorry Momma”

Top 100 hip-hop/rap albums of the 2010s: #90-81

85. Pusha T: “King Push: Darkest Before Dawn” (2015)

The GOOD Music president stuck to what he knows best with his second solo studio LP. Littered with cocaine references and a relentless hunger, Pusha crafts an even darker look into his life and his thoughts. From the very onset of the intro, it’s obvious that this album has an even more sinister tone, even from a rapper who is notorious for menacing rap. From the production, to his flows, to the writing, “King Push: Darkest Before Dawn” contains some of Pusha’s darkest and most well-done work to date. 

Favorite Songs: “Intro”, “Crutches, Crosses, Caskets”, “M.P.A”, “Untouchable”

Top 100 hip-hop/rap albums of the 2010s: #90-81

84. Blu & Exile: “Give Me My Flowers While I Can Still Smell Them” (2012)

Beautiful production and great rapping simply equate to a great album. The chemistry between Blu, the West Coast underground rap veteran, and Exile, the Los Angeles based producer, is on full display throughout this collection. Exile lays the foundation with beautiful soul samples, jazz influences and lo-fi beats. Blu masterfully works with the elegantly produced tracks, offering great lyrics and complimentary deliveries. Everything is simply in sync between rapper and producer from start to finish. “Give Me My Flowers While I Can Still Smell Themis certainly one of the underground gems of the decade.

Favorite Songs: “Growing Pains”, “A Man”, “Don’t Be Jelly”, “The Only One”

Top 100 hip-hop/rap albums of the 2010s: #90-81

83. Tierra Whack: “Whack World” (2018)

Calling “Whack World” creative would be an understatement. The visual album was certainly one of the most colorful and creative releases that the past 10 years have witnessed. The album has a run time of exactly 15 minutes, and at 15 tracks, every song on the album runs for exactly one minute. The project was initially released as a 15-minute video and as 15 different minute-long Instagram videos posted on Tierra Whack’s Instagram account. It isn’t just witty videography either; Tierra Whack shows off incredible versatility and rapping ability with a variety of styles, moods and flows all throughout. There’s effortlessness in her artistry that is something truly special to see. “Whack World” is certainly an experience, and it is about as fun of a music experience as you can find at that.

Favorite Songs: “Pet Cemetery”, “Pretty Ugly”, “Silly Sam”, “Hungry Hippo”

Top 100 hip-hop/rap albums of the 2010s: #90-81

82. Big Sean: “Detroit” (2012)

In all honesty, Big Sean’s career hasn’t really panned out how I thought it would after his earliest work. After being supported by a rap visionary like Kanye West and the rest of the GOOD Music group, Big Sean’s ceiling appeared to be higher than he would achieve in retrospect. However, “Detroit” was one of the shining moments that showed all of the potential that Big Sean held. Sean’s most complete work, “Detroit,” showcased great production, good writing, determination and a focus from Sean that simply rises to a higher degree than any of his other work. Named for his home city, “Detroit” proves to be Big Sean’s greatest project and one of the top mixtapes in recent rap.

Favorite Songs: “How It Feel”, “Life Should Go On”, “Higher”, “24K of Gold”

Top 100 hip-hop/rap albums of the 2010s: #90-81

81. J Cole: “Born Sinner” (2013)

A landmark rapper of the past decade, J Cole put out plenty of projects that led to success and acclaim. On his second full-length studio album, Cole begins to find himself and his footing under Jay Z’s Roc Nation records. On the album’s intro “Villuminati”, J Cole sets the tone for the album with the simple phrase “It’s way darker this time.” Many of the themes in “Born Sinner” are much darker and more somber in nature than those in Cole’s earliest works. An adventure through the trials and tribulations of J Cole, “Born Sinner” was the album that made J Cole such a personable figure in rap and led to the growth of his fan base to the mass that it is now.

Favorite Songs: “Villuminati”, “Power Trip”, “Chaining Day”, “Crooked Smile”

After every segment of my Top 100 rankings are published, I will be creating a Spotify playlist with my favorite songs from the albums that are in each section. Just go to my Spotify profile (@nicholassligh) where I will be posting the playlists in descending order of rank. Go to this link to view this week’s playlist for some of my favorite songs from albums 90-81. I hope that my list gives credit to deserving artists and helps people that enjoy hip-hop/rap (and even those less familiar with the genre) to find new music that connects with them and that they simply enjoy.

Contact Nick Sligh at nick1019 ‘at’ stanford.edu.

The post Top 100 hip-hop/rap albums of the 2010s: #90-81 appeared first on The Stanford Daily.

]]>
https://stanforddaily.com/2020/01/22/top-100-hip-hop-rap-albums-of-the-decade-90-81/feed/ 0 1162737
Top 100 hip-hop/rap albums of the 2010s: #100-91 https://stanforddaily.com/2020/01/15/top-100-hip-hop-rap-albums-of-the-decade-100-91/ https://stanforddaily.com/2020/01/15/top-100-hip-hop-rap-albums-of-the-decade-100-91/#respond Thu, 16 Jan 2020 03:46:25 +0000 https://stanforddaily.com/?p=1162434 See which albums Nick Sligh ranked #100-91 of the top 100 hip-hop/rap albums of the decade.

The post Top 100 hip-hop/rap albums of the 2010s: #100-91 appeared first on The Stanford Daily.

]]>
To read more about the background of the list and my thoughts on making it, check out the introduction to my rankings. Without further ado, here are #100-91 of my top 100 hip-hop/rap albums of the 2010s list.

100. Tyler, The Creator: IGOR (2019)

Tyler, The Creator’s evolution throughout his career has been interesting to watch. From his Odd Future days, to his early albums, to his most recent work, the tone and maturity of Tyler has been pretty remarkably different. On IGOR, Tyler’s heartfelt and vulnerable writing meshes with his elaborate and nuanced production to create a listening experience that feels like a mystical journey through Tyler’s emotions and his complications within his love and relationships. This is an album that truly pushes the boundaries of the hip-hop genre, experimenting with the synthesis of many different genres, including neo-soul, pop and funk. It is hard to be able to tell the long-term impact of this album in the moment given its relatively recent release, but IGOR will likely prove to serve as one of the most impactful experimental hip-hop albums to come out of this decade.

Favorite Songs: “A Boy is a Gun”, “Earfquake”, “Gone, Gone / Thank You”, “Are We Still Friends?”

Top 100 hip-hop/rap albums of the 2010s: #100-91

99. Migos: Culture (2017)

Migos were able to put together their most complete album in their discography with Culture. The Atlanta trio has never been known (and will never be known) for intricate wordplay or conceptual work. However, Culture does a great job in achieving what it is aiming for. Setting the bar for much of the modern southern trap scene, this album provides an energy and an authentic southern bounce over iconic trap production. Donald Glover claimed that Migos were “The Beatles of This Generation”, and while that statement may be a reach, the Migos did provide a classic trap album with true cultural influence that they targeted.

Favorite Songs: “T-Shirt”, “Bad and Boujee”, “Call Casting”

Top 100 hip-hop/rap albums of the 2010s: #100-91

98. Kota The Friend: FOTO (2019)

A mellow and smooth listen from front to back, FOTO provides one of the most well constructed lo-fi hip-hop records of the decade. The 27-year-old rapper from Brooklyn offers a vulnerable and calm journey through his childhood, his current life and his philosophy. An immensely personal album, Kota creates moving music through fairly simple and pleasant production and relaxed flows. Kota’s ability to build off of the sound and personality built in his earlier music with constantly evolving levels of maturity and technical ability make FOTO a great listen.

Favorite Songs: “Solar Return”, “Chicago Diner”, “Full Bloom”, “For Colored Boys”

Top 100 hip-hop/rap albums of the 2010s: #100-91

97. 2 Chainz: Pretty Girls Like Trap Music (2017)

On Pretty Girls Like Trap Music, 2 Chainz shows how to effectively evolve in rap music without completely leaving behind a familiar sound. A great job is done in developing and refining the sound that the southern rap veteran has become associated with while experimenting with new ways of presenting it. Providing a handful of enjoyable “party” songs, 2 Chainz was able to create a fun and complete collection. This album is one of the primary examples of how trap music can be made fun and appealing to mainstream audiences while staying true to its roots.

Favorite Songs: “Riverdale Rd”, “Good Drank”, “Burglar Bars”, “4 AM”

Top 100 hip-hop/rap albums of the 2010s: #100-91

96. Mac Miller: The Divine Feminine (2016) 

The Divine Feminine was Mac’s attempt at experimenting with making a love album that utilized elements of jazz rap and neo-soul in ways that he previously hadn’t gone as deep with. The result of this experiment was Mac’s most cohesive and consistent project and a great album that accomplished his goals. Singing significantly more on this project than on his previous works, Mac really aims for a different feel with The Divine Feminine. Although his singing voice is certainly far from the best, his imperfect vocals almost make him a more personable figure to follow through this journey throughout his love. From front to back, there is a degree of focus that far exceeds much of his earlier work. With features from Anderson .Paak, Kendrick Lamar, Ariana Grande, CeeLo Green and Bilal, the whole album oozes soul and emotion. Mac’s Divine Feminine was a triumphant journey through his world of emotions.

Favorite Songs: “God Is Fair, Sexy, Nasty”, “Planet God Damn”, “Stay”, “Dang!”

Top 100 hip-hop/rap albums of the 2010s: #100-91

95. Future: Dirty Sprite 2 (2015)

Future’s brutally honest journey through his chaotic life provides one of the landmark trap albums of the decade. Future’s music is sometimes criticized for its simplicity or lack of substance (and to be fair, these claims are well justified in some of his projects), but DS2 is much more than a simple trap album with club bangers. There is a deep drive and hunger within Future that manifests to make an epic and almost cinematic listen. A dark album that explores the tormented state of Future’s life and mind, DS2 culminates in Future’s most focused and most influential work. 

Favorite Songs: “Slave Master”, “Kno The Meaning”, “The Percocet & Stripper Joint”

Top 100 hip-hop/rap albums of the 2010s: #100-91

94. Schoolboy Q: Oxymoron (2014)

Top Dawg Entertainment’s very own, Schoolboy Q, fights to make sure that Gangster Rap gets a fresh adjustment in sound while remaining true to its roots. Oxymoron is a focused, gritty, and bleak album that encompasses a sound that Schoolboy Q has refined with great precision. The primarily dark and intense production throughout blends very well with the often dark and intense lyrics and tone that are delivered. An undeniable hunger and passion is exuded for the duration of the project, and the modern west-coast gangster rap album that Q was hoping for was achieved. 

Favorite Songs: “Man Of The Year”, “Collard Greens”, “Hell of a Night”

Top 100 hip-hop/rap albums of the 2010s: #100-91

93. Childish Gambino: Because The Internet (2013)

What can’t Donald Glover do? Donald Glover had arguably the most interesting decade of any rapper. The 2010s saw Glover release three studio albums, five mixtapes, three extended plays; win song of the year and record of the year at the Grammys for “This is America”; voice Simba in the live action remake of The Lion King; play Lando Calrissian in Solo: A Star Wars Story and executive produce, direct, write and act in his critically acclaimed television series Atlanta. In the midst of this prolific decade for the modern-day renaissance man, Because The Internet served as one of the most fascinating and bold efforts put forth by a rapper. Gambino refines many of the severely immature aspects of his younger rap work, while maintaining the energy and creativity that make him such a likeable personality.

Favorite Songs: “3005”, “Telegraph Ave.”, “Sweatpants”, “The Worst Guys”

Top 100 hip-hop/rap albums of the 2010s: #100-91

92. Drake: If You’re Reading This, It’s Too Late (2015)

A rapper that needs no introduction. With seven chart-topping solo albums over the last decade, Drake’s success speaks for itself. Sure, popularity doesn’t correlate directly to quality, but Drake has put out some of the most quality work of the past decade in the genre. If You’re Reading This, It’s Too Late is an immensely confident work that shows that Drake knows exactly where he stands in hip-hop. A variety of refined and epic production, flows and themes, IYRTITL provides some of Drake’s most quintessential music.

Favorite Songs: “Jungle”, “6 PM in New York”, “Legend”, “6 God”, “No Tellin’”

Top 100 hip-hop/rap albums of the 2010s: #100-91

91. Noname: Room 25 (2018)

It is hard to find many rap albums over the past decade that would commonly be described as having a “sweet” or “bubbly” sound, but Room 25 is certainly one of them. Noname, the Chicago wordsmith, began her rise to prominence with her fantastic early collaborations with Chance The Rapper and has since proved her incredible solo talent. Noname is able to relay her thoughts, her struggles, and her life in a truly special way over elegant production. Room 25 is a coming-of-age record for Noname that is triumphant and powerful while soothing and beautiful.

Favorite Songs: “Ace”, “Don’t Forget About Me”, “With You”

After every segment of my Top 100 rankings are published, I will be creating a Spotify playlist with my favorite songs from the albums that are in each section. Just go to my Spotify Profile (@nicholassligh) where I will be posting the playlists in descending order of rank. Go to this link to view this week’s playlist for the albums ranked #100-91! I hope that my list gives credit to deserving artists and helps people that enjoy hip-hop and rap (and even those less familiar with the genre) to find new music that connects with them and that they simply enjoy.

Contact Nick Sligh at nick1019 ‘at’ stanford.edu.

The post Top 100 hip-hop/rap albums of the 2010s: #100-91 appeared first on The Stanford Daily.

]]>
https://stanforddaily.com/2020/01/15/top-100-hip-hop-rap-albums-of-the-decade-100-91/feed/ 0 1162434
‘The Women’ is about far more than femininity https://stanforddaily.com/2019/05/13/the-women-is-about-far-more-than-femininity/ https://stanforddaily.com/2019/05/13/the-women-is-about-far-more-than-femininity/#respond Mon, 13 May 2019 08:00:30 +0000 https://stanforddaily.com/?p=1154728 When “The Women” was released in 1939, MGM’s publicists went to town. They stressed the novelty of the movie. It boasted an all-female cast. As the publicists noted, the production team went to great lengths to ensure there was no male onscreen. Even the dogs in the film were certifiably female. Despite the preponderance of […]

The post ‘The Women’ is about far more than femininity appeared first on The Stanford Daily.

]]>
When “The Women” was released in 1939, MGM’s publicists went to town. They stressed the novelty of the movie. It boasted an all-female cast. As the publicists noted, the production team went to great lengths to ensure there was no male onscreen. Even the dogs in the film were certifiably female. Despite the preponderance of women onscreen, however, “The Women” probably could not be considered a feminist film classic. The publicists may have made bizarre claims about casting, but the tagline that they used was perceptive— “‘The Women’ is all about men!” 

Although they are absent, men play an outsized role in the movie. Amazingly, this all-female film does not pass the Bechdel test, a diagnostic used to determine whether a story is sexist. While the movie certainly has women who talk to each other, they cannot stop talking about their husbands. Mary (Norma Shearer) is happily married to Stephen, but then he runs off with an avaricious perfume saleswoman (Joan Crawford). Her friends Sylvia (Rosalind Russell) and Peggy (Joan Fontaine) are also saddled with less-than-satisfactory spouses. They spend scenes describing their partners’ shortcomings. Yet, their remarks are so colorful that it seems reductive to call this film regressive. While “The Women” may not offer a particularly profound commentary on relationships between the sexes, it does display Hollywood craftsmanship at its highest level.

A few minutes into “The Women,” it becomes clear that the film was never intended to be a realist examination of obstacles women face. All of the characters in the film are immensely wealthy. They have maids to cook and clean, so they can spend their days at spas or in each other’s salons. Still, the actual elite do not converse in such catty language. The dialogue in the film glitters with wit. A few examples culled from the film— “I wouldn’t trust my husband on Alcatraz, the mouse,” “Can you believe that? He almost stood me up for his wife,” “There’s a name for you ladies, but it isn’t used in high society.”

Lines like these were the work of the playwright Clare Boothe Luce and the screenwriter Anita Loos. Although their subject was the shallow lives of socialites, both were highly unconventional women. Luce was a leading figure in Republican politics. In 1943, a few years after “The Women” was released, Luce would be elected to the House of Representatives. She would later serve as the U.S. ambassador to Italy and Brazil.

While Loos never left show business, she also had a distinguished career. When the pioneering filmmaker D.W. Griffith hired her as a scriptwriter in 1912, she became one of the first women to play a major role in the movies. She wrote 105 scripts for Griffith in four years. As Griffith’s influence waned and the sound film emerged, Loos continued working at a prodigious pace. Not only did she write screenplays for mogul Irving Thalberg at MGM, but she also found time to author a classic American novel— “Gentlemen Prefer Blondes,” which would later be adapted into a hit Broadway musical and an iconic film starring Marilyn Monroe.

Luce and Loos’ dialogue is a testament to their talents, but perhaps their pithy lines have larger implications. The women talk about their marital predicaments with Luce and Loos’ sharp acumen, so they never become vacuous. Even as they adhere to traditional gender roles, the characters in the film remain idiosyncratic individuals.

The actresses’ performances also serve to make these women much more than stereotypes. Much of the writing on this film focuses on the feuds between divas. Norma Shearer, Rosalind Russell and Joan Crawford were all determined to steal the picture. For me, Crawford has the juiciest role and gives the most memorable performance. She plays the gold digger who has married into this well-to-do milieu. Although Crawford is dressed in the choicest mink, her slouched posture and her hard-edged voice remind us of her character’s impoverished upbringing. Shearer, however, is almost as incredible. While she starts the movie as the paragon of womanhood and domesticity, by the end of the film, she has become as sly and manipulative as her compatriots. If Shearer remains restrained, Russell’s performance is so energetic and exaggerated that it borders on camp or slapstick comedy. Although they are all playing wives and mothers, their diverse personas suggest that there is not simply one model of femininity.

George Cukor was chosen to direct “The Women” because MGM executives thought he could make these varied performances cohere into a unified film. He was known as a “woman’s director.” The term was halfway between a compliment and a slur. Many of Hollywood’s leading ladies genuinely enjoyed working with him, but the label also pointed to his gay identity. The excellence of the actresses onscreen speaks to his skill in directing performances, but the film also contains some subtle indications of homosexuality. One of the women is an unmarried writer who dresses in a man’s suit. In a later scene, Rosalind Russell soaps down Joan Crawford’s back in the bathtub. Beyond these hints of lesbianism, it isn’t difficult to see “The Women” as actually a coterie of drag queens, all obsessed with their love lives and all trying to one-up each other. The film quickly attracted a gay following. As the critic Christopher Harrity writes, for gay men of a certain generation, “if you heard a man quoting the film, you knew you were among friends.” 

For viewers like Harrity, “The Women” was more than a cliched exploration of femininity. Then again, even viewers who are not queer can appreciate the work of Luce, Loos, the actresses and Cukor. Ultimately, perhaps “The Women” is not about men at all, but about the skill of men and women who made it.

Contact Amir Abou-Jaoude at amir2 ‘at’ stanford.edu.

The post ‘The Women’ is about far more than femininity appeared first on The Stanford Daily.

]]>
https://stanforddaily.com/2019/05/13/the-women-is-about-far-more-than-femininity/feed/ 0 1154728
In ‘Shame,’ Ingmar Bergman examines evil in ordinary people https://stanforddaily.com/2019/04/22/in-shame-ingmar-bergman-examines-evil-in-ordinary-people/ https://stanforddaily.com/2019/04/22/in-shame-ingmar-bergman-examines-evil-in-ordinary-people/#respond Mon, 22 Apr 2019 07:30:19 +0000 https://stanforddaily.com/?p=1153183 When Ingmar Bergman’s “Shame” premiered in 1968, the critic Renata Adler was quick to offer an interpretation. Reviewing the film in The New York Times, she asserted that “the shame of the title is God’s.” Indeed, throughout his career, Bergman elucidated existential questions of faith and fate.  Adler’s analysis, however, misses what is for me the […]

The post In ‘Shame,’ Ingmar Bergman examines evil in ordinary people appeared first on The Stanford Daily.

]]>
When Ingmar Bergman’s “Shame” premiered in 1968, the critic Renata Adler was quick to offer an interpretation. Reviewing the film in The New York Times, she asserted that “the shame of the title is God’s.” Indeed, throughout his career, Bergman elucidated existential questions of faith and fate.  Adler’s analysis, however, misses what is for me the most disquieting element of the film. Perhaps God feels disgrace somewhere off-camera, but on camera no deity exists. Bergman unabashedly explores the foibles of mortals. Throughout the film, he reveals that people who seem ordinary can commit the most shameful acts of all.

“Shame” is set in an unidentified country and concentrates on a married couple, Eva and Jan Rosenberg. Since a war has broken out on the mainland, they have moved to a small island. Jan and Eva do not seem predisposed to become politically active. Although Bergman cast the accomplished actors Max von Sydow and Liv Ullmann in the parts, the characters seem to be completely ordinary. They argue over inane affairs—Eva forces Jan to get up early to take the produce to market, and Jan does not find Eva’s work in the field satisfactory. They have quotidian aspirations—they want to start a family before they’re too old to have children. In one aspect, Jan and Eva are unique. They are artists. Before they were forced to flee the mainland, they played in a prestigious orchestra. Jan still treasures his cello and hopes to be able to perform again in peacetime. For both of them, music is pure and transcendent, representative of their uncomplicated lives before the conflict. In a certain sense, they adhere to the painter James McNeill Whistler’s doctrine of art— “art should be independent of all claptrap—should stand alone…and appeal to the artistic sense of eye or ear, without confounding this with emotions entirely foreign to it, as devotion, pity, love, patriotism and the like.” 

When the war arrives, however, “claptrap” consumes everything, even music. Jan’s cello is ruined when a stray bullet hits it. He will never perform again. Most of their dreams die more slowly. Surrounded by wreckage, Eva quietly and mournfully states, “I guess we’ll never have children.” The atrocities of war force Eva and Jan to change, but they never adopt an ideology. Instead, their main aim becomes survival. To achieve that end, they have to become as cruel as their oppressors. In the penultimate scene of the film, they discover a soldier hiding in their greenhouse. He has deserted the army, and he is looking for a place to sleep. In a frenzy, Jan drives him out with his gun. Eva pleads with Jan to show some mercy, but he is desperate to take the soldier’s boots and extract some intel from him about a refugee boat. If von Sydow and Ullmann seemed underutilized in earlier scenes, here, Bergman’s casting is richly rewarding. The fight that Jan and Eva have over the soldier is reminiscent of their earlier squabbles, but now, life and death hang in the balance. 

 Others around Jan and Eva are even more callous. Revolutionaries destroy their home and their livelihood, laying the entire island to waste. Eva comes across a young child that they have run down in the road, and Jan finds a parachutist that has been left to die in a tree. After an armistice is declared, Jan and Eva try to negotiate with the new leaders of the government. They discover that they are not young punks looking to upset the system, but wizened politicians. On the surface, they seem perfectly decent. The people who authorized atrocities present a veneer of kindness that masks the coldness of their souls. 

Bergman made “Shame” in 1968, when inhumanity seemed ubiquitous. The film was released in September. By that time, Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. and Senator Robert F. Kennedy had already been assassinated. Soviet troops had already crushed pro-liberalization protestors in Prague. Riots had occurred outside of the Democratic National Convention in Chicago. A few days after the film was released, student activists in Mexico City would be slaughtered by government troops. Throughout the year, the war in Vietnam continued to escalate.  Other filmmakers had more pointed rejoinders to the events of 1968. The director Haskell Wexler captured the violence at the Democratic convention firsthand, and the French filmmaker Jean-Luc Godard threatened to quit making movies altogether. 

Yet, “Shame” is perhaps a more powerful statement, because Bergman’s analysis of wartime atrocities is not constricted by its era. Strangely, while watching the film, I was reminded of some 1915 photographs showing the lynching of Leo Frank. Frank was a Jew who lived in Georgia, and he was the manager of a factory where a young girl was murdered. With no evidence whatsoever, anti-Semites in the town quickly decided that he was the culprit. Although the governor urged caution, some were unwilling to wait for justice. A mob abducted him from the county jail so that they could lynch him. The photographs capture the moments after Frank died. He is hung from a tree, his head bent toward heaven. The killers gather around him, their faces visible. Some even stand on tiptoes to be present in the photograph. They all seem like common people, but they are proud of their crime.

The person who took the image is anonymous, and perhaps he was a part of the mob. Still, his photograph is valuable, because it shows that terror in the Jim Crow South was not just carried out by vigilante groups of hooded men. How can this unthreatening group have done something so horrific? “Shame” ponders this paradox. Ultimately, Bergman cogently considered the nature of both God and man.

Contact Amir Abou-Jaoude at amir2 ‘at’ stanford.edu.

The post In ‘Shame,’ Ingmar Bergman examines evil in ordinary people appeared first on The Stanford Daily.

]]>
https://stanforddaily.com/2019/04/22/in-shame-ingmar-bergman-examines-evil-in-ordinary-people/feed/ 0 1153183
American culture is under fire in ‘The Big Heat’ https://stanforddaily.com/2019/04/16/american-culture-is-under-fire-in-the-big-heat/ https://stanforddaily.com/2019/04/16/american-culture-is-under-fire-in-the-big-heat/#respond Tue, 16 Apr 2019 07:30:21 +0000 https://stanforddaily.com/?p=1152746 Toward the end of Fritz Lang’s 1953 film noir, the detective Dave Bannion suddenly realizes that he has been double-crossed. The widow of a slain policeman reveals that she was complicit in her husband’s murder. In a rage, Bannion pushes her into the mantlepiece and puts his coarse hands around her neck.  “With you dead,” he […]

The post American culture is under fire in ‘The Big Heat’ appeared first on The Stanford Daily.

]]>
Toward the end of Fritz Lang’s 1953 film noir, the detective Dave Bannion suddenly realizes that he has been double-crossed. The widow of a slain policeman reveals that she was complicit in her husband’s murder. In a rage, Bannion pushes her into the mantlepiece and puts his coarse hands around her neck.  “With you dead,” he snarls, “the big heat follows,” and he believes that all the criminals in the city will be exposed.

This moment in and of itself is unexpectedly intense, because Lang presents Dave Bannion as an exemplar of conventional manhood. He is a detective who conducts routine investigations. He is married to a doting wife who cooks him steaks for supper. He is the father of a small child who begs him to recount a bedtime story. Then, Bannion’s fellow officer Tom Duncan is murdered, and he becomes subsumed in sordid society. He encounters a conniving political boss, a ruthless gangster and his gregarious girlfriend, and a maleficent auto mechanic. By toiling on the wrong side of the tracks, Bannion uncovers a colossal conspiracy, but Lang unearths something even more disturbing than rampant wrongdoing. By examining Bannion’s exploits, Lang reveals that American society is colored with crime and cruelty.

Lang is an odd director to comment on American mores. He did not come to this country by choice, but only because the Nazis drove him out of Europe. He found employment in Hollywood because of his distinguished resume. In the Weimar period, Lang had been one of Germany’s preeminent directors. He made the landmark science fiction film “Metropolis” and the seminal thriller “M.” Yet, his films were never escapist entertainments. As the critic Siegfried Kracauer observed in his study of the German cinema, “From Caligari to Hitler,” Lang’s films always responded to contemporary developments, even if the stories they conveyed were fantastical. For example, Lang’s 1922 film “The Testament of Dr. Mabuse” focuses on an upstanding man who is hypnotized by a mad scientist. Kracauer argued that “the film foreshadows Nazi practices” because its plot parallels Hitler’s seduction of the bourgeoisie. As Kracauer notes, some of Dr. Mabuse’s maxims, like “‘mankind must be thrown into an abyss of terror’” reflect fascist philosophies. 

In the postwar period, however, Lang was not fascinated by Joseph McCarthy, who could be construed as a Dr. Mabuselike demagogue. Rather than find terror in paranoiac speeches, Lang discovered it under the peaceful façade of suburbia. Middle-class Americans yearned to live in model towns like Levittown, New Jersey. In these developments, all houses were affordable but identical, and they fostered a lifestyle of unbounded consumption. An ad for Levittown describes some features of the homes — “air conditioning, rich wall-to-wall carpeting…sliding glass doors to patio area, complete landscaping, 2-car garage.” In an abode armored with all these amenities, what could go wrong?

Everything, Lang asserts. Dave Bannion lives in a Levittown-like home. All the rooms in the house and spacious and comfortable, and his kitchen is sparkling clean. Everyone abides by prescribed roles, especially Bannion’s wife. She is introduced as she makes dinner in the kitchen. Her only problem seems to be getting their child to bed at an appropriate hour. She doesn’t drink or smoke. Instead, she simply “samples” his beer or cigarette. She moans every time he has to answer the phone. She knows that duty beckons him, and she cannot live without him. 

Interestingly, the trouble begins when she does something out of the ordinary—she answers the telephone instead of him. She is shocked. Even in Levittown, you can receive obscene calls. Their quaint life soon comes undone. One evening, when the car exits the garage, it explodes. The criminals have weaponized a key component of Bannion’s existence. The wreck causes so much damage that Bannion must evacuate the house. By the end of the film, even the most banal consumer objects have become armaments in an atrocious arsenal. A hot pot of coffee allows the gangsters to disfigure their victims.

In some sense, Lang’s critique of postwar culture anticipates Andy Warhol’s renowned “Death and Disaster” series. Beginning in 1962, Warhol became increasingly fascinated with the macabre. He asked newspapers for photographs that they deemed too gruesome to print and silkscreened them on canvas. Even vivid colors cannot lessen the disturbing qualities of these images. In paintings like “Five Deaths on Turquoise,” Warhol directs our attention to a modern tragedy—bodies, mangled and crushed by a car. The art historian Thomas Crow asserts that Warhol depicts the moment when “the supreme symbol of consumer affluence, the American car of the 1950s, lost its aura of pleasure and freedom to become a concrete instrument of sudden and irreparable injury.” Ultimately, Warhol offers “a stark, disabused, pessimistic vision of American life.”

The same adjectives can be used to describe Lang’s vision. Unlike Warhol, however, Lang does not believe that consumer culture has gone awry. Under the lustrous patina, there is an engulfing abyss. Over the course of “The Big Heat,” Dave Bannion and his whole milieu are swallowed by it. That’s why his encounter with the policeman’s widow is so striking. Bannion believes that “the big heat” is coming in the future, but he does not realize that he is already under fire.

Contact Amir Abou-Jaoude at amir2 ‘at’ stanford.edu.

The post American culture is under fire in ‘The Big Heat’ appeared first on The Stanford Daily.

]]>
https://stanforddaily.com/2019/04/16/american-culture-is-under-fire-in-the-big-heat/feed/ 0 1152746
‘Detour’ provides a dark commentary on dreams and destiny https://stanforddaily.com/2019/04/12/detour-provides-a-dark-commentary-on-dreams-and-destiny/ https://stanforddaily.com/2019/04/12/detour-provides-a-dark-commentary-on-dreams-and-destiny/#respond Fri, 12 Apr 2019 07:30:08 +0000 https://stanforddaily.com/?p=1152522 Even before they take a consequential detour, the characters in Edgar G. Ulmer’s 1945 film have difficulty making their dreams come true. Al Roberts aspires to play piano at Carnegie Hall, but he has been stuck serenading seedy patrons of the Break o’ Dawn Club for years. His girlfriend, Sue, wants to be a Hollywood […]

The post ‘Detour’ provides a dark commentary on dreams and destiny appeared first on The Stanford Daily.

]]>
Even before they take a consequential detour, the characters in Edgar G. Ulmer’s 1945 film have difficulty making their dreams come true. Al Roberts aspires to play piano at Carnegie Hall, but he has been stuck serenading seedy patrons of the Break o’ Dawn Club for years. His girlfriend, Sue, wants to be a Hollywood star. After arriving in Los Angeles, however, she can only secure a job as a fry cook. To revitalize his ambitions, Al sets off from New York to join Sue in Tinseltown. Charles Haskell Jr., a shady bookie, offers to drive him part of the way, but en route, Haskell mysteriously dies. Afraid he will arrested for murder, Al becomes a fugitive, and Sue sinks into depression once she realizes that Al will never arrive. This bleak film is hard to take, yet it provides illuminating commentary on the constraints of dreams and the fickleness of fate.

While “Detour” may leave an indelible impression on modern audiences, it was not produced with posterity in mind. Director Edgar G. Ulmer was an émigré who spent most of his career churning out banal B-pictures at small studios. “Detour” was made in fourteen days on a shoestring budget, and the finished film seems unpolished. It is riddled with enough continuity errors to make a film theorist faint. Ulmer often uses the same backdrops and stock footage over and over again, but he does not try to conceal these shortcuts.  Instead, by exposing them, he enriches the surreal nature of the story. Dreams can warp reality just as much as clumsy cuts, and they too are replete with insignificant images that repeat.

Of course, the areas through which Al travels are already haunted with dreams. The barren deserts of the Southwest sparked the imaginations of his ancestors. In 1845, a century before the film was released, the journalist John L. O’Sullivan argued that the United States had a right to annex Texas and another lands from Mexico. He envisioned that America would eventually “overspread and… possess the whole of the continent.”  O’Sullivan did not believe that this idea was fantastic but declared that it was inextricably linked to fate. It was America’s “Manifest Destiny” to conquer the continent. Indeed, O’Sullivan’s dream quickly moved from the ethereal to the real. By the end of the 19th-century, the United States spanned from sea to shining sea. 

It could be destiny or just a coincidence, but it seems appropriate that Hollywood was established in the West. Al’s destination was often referred to as “the dream factory” in the 1930s and 1940s. As the scholar Benjamin Schwarz writes in The Atlantic, Hollywood movies did not just provide entertainment for their audience. Instead, “they taught generations of Americans… how to light a cigarette, wear a suit, kiss, decline or accept a pass, [and] how a gentleman ought to behave.” Not only did the movies purvey an ideal vision of life, but they were also fraught with portents of destiny. They promised viewers that they could be as successful as the stars, if only they followed their scripts.

The protagonists in “Detour” are doomed not because they reject those scripts, but because they adhere to them too closely. Just as Americans were “destined” to create a colossal country, Al and Sue naively believe that they are destined for love and happiness. They think that they are in a deluxe Hollywood production when they are in a dismal B-film. The only person in the film who seems to recognize this sad truth is the venal Vera. Al picks her up while he is on the lam, and she immediately suspects he killed Haskell. Many movies of this era feature a femme fatale, a dangerous, brazen woman who leads the hero astray. Vera does deepen Al’s misery. She prevents him from calling Sue to tell her what has happened, and she blackmails him into doing her bidding. Yet, in other respects, she’s less of a femme fatale and more of a feisty fatalist. As she brashly tells him, “people knock themselves out trying to buck fate… we’re all gonna kick off someday. It’s only a question of when.”  Vera’s statement is nihilistic and contradicts all mythology. Pioneers and moviemakers espoused an attractive ideal—that every person was entitled to a glorious destiny and could achieve his dreams. Yet, even as they follow in the footsteps of frontiersmen and film stars, no one in “Detour” can transcend their limits.

It is strange that this scroungy, sobering film remains compelling today, but then again, the discourse on dreams and destiny has not died. Songwriters Justin Paul and Benj Pasek supplied lyrics for the 2016 film “La La Land.” An aspiring actress sings their first musical number, “Another Day of Sun.”  She recalls how she left a paramour “at a Greyhound station west of Santa Fe.” Like Al, she traveled through the western landscape. Just as Al and Sue hoped to find happiness in Hollywood, the singer explains that she took such drastic action because the movies “called [her] to be on that screen and live inside its sheen.” Since she was “called,” she is fated for stardom. Still, while Pasek and Paul celebrate the chutzpah of youth, Ulmer reminds us that we are just one detour away from despair.

Contact Amir Abou-Jaoude at amir2 ‘at’ stanford.edu.

The post ‘Detour’ provides a dark commentary on dreams and destiny appeared first on The Stanford Daily.

]]>
https://stanforddaily.com/2019/04/12/detour-provides-a-dark-commentary-on-dreams-and-destiny/feed/ 0 1152522
‘Death in Venice’ documents the decline of the bourgeoisie https://stanforddaily.com/2019/04/02/death-in-venice-documents-the-decline-of-the-bourgeoisie/ https://stanforddaily.com/2019/04/02/death-in-venice-documents-the-decline-of-the-bourgeoisie/#respond Tue, 02 Apr 2019 07:30:46 +0000 https://stanforddaily.com/?p=1151650 Because many retirees live there, some cynics have called Florida “God’s waiting room.” In his 1971 film, director Luchino Visconti proposes another candidate for the title—Venice. Visconti’s adaptation of Thomas Mann’s novella centers around the composer Gustav von Aschenbach, who arrives in the Italian metropolis after a disastrous concert. Yet, his stay proves far from […]

The post ‘Death in Venice’ documents the decline of the bourgeoisie appeared first on The Stanford Daily.

]]>
Because many retirees live there, some cynics have called Florida “God’s waiting room.” In his 1971 film, director Luchino Visconti proposes another candidate for the title—Venice. Visconti’s adaptation of Thomas Mann’s novella centers around the composer Gustav von Aschenbach, who arrives in the Italian metropolis after a disastrous concert. Yet, his stay proves far from restful. At his hotel, he spies an adolescent named Tadzio. The Polish youth speaks neither English nor German, but his beautiful features can be universally appreciated. Soon, he becomes fascinated with Tadzio, and he falls madly in love. Yet, Visconti’s “Death in Venice” is not just a gay romance, but a meditation on the demise of bourgeois values.

In his review of the film, the distinguished Roger Ebert expresses the critical consensus. Visconti’s film is a “straightforward story of homosexual love” that veers toward the “vulgar and simplistic.” Some feel that the film’s depiction of homosexuality is particularly unnuanced. Aschenbach’s homosexual desires lead to his undoing. To quote Andrew Holleran’s brilliant novel “Dancer from the Dance,” Aschenbach is a “doomed queen.” He “consider[s] [himself] worthless because [he is] queer and…fall[s] into degradation and sordidness!” 

Still, Aschenbach is already degraded before he meets Tadzio. His life is kitsch. He possesses pictures of his wife and children and kisses them when he goes out. He gives rambling, portentous monologues about the nature of time. The people around him don the most extravagant fashions. Their plumaged hats alone would provoke envy in any arbiter of camp. Everyone in Aschenbach’s bourgeois milieu is a “doomed queen,” but it’s not queerness that forces them into degradation and sordidness. It’s their class.

The art the bourgeoisie produce is similarly degraded. Aschenbach’s contemporaries around the turn of the 20thcentury scorned the avant-garde. Instead, they collected the works of painters like William-Adolphe Bouguereau. Bouguereau produced charming scenes of rustic villagers. His figures are all unnaturally cheerful. He often made facile allusions to other artists. For example, in his painting “The Elder Sister,” he replicates Raphael’s composition in his “Small Cowper Madonna.” By referencing Renaissance works, Bouguereau suggests that the country folk of today are just as spiritually ennobled as holy personages were in the 16th-century. Bouguereau’s clientele collected his art because it didn’t ask too much of them. They could celebrate the peasantry without worrying about their plight. They could easily grasp the connections to Renaissance masterpieces and feel enlightened.

Aschenbach would probably appreciate Bouguereau’s art. While in Venice, he flashes back to a conversation with a protégé. His student encourages him to experiment, but Aschenbach produces music that he thinks his compatriots will like. “The creation of beauty and purity is a spiritual act,” he argues. The artist “must be a model of balance and strength.  He cannot be ambiguous.” Aschenbach’s music is just as balanced and as unambiguous as Bouguereau’s paintings. He may not be a good composer, but he is a successful one. 

Although Visconti came from the upper echelon of Italian society, in contrast to his protagonist, he did not possess bourgeois taste. While his forebears had ruled Milan during the Renaissance, Visconti was not concerned with his heritage, just the here and now.  Preoccupied with the plight of the lower classes, he joined the Italian Communist Party and became a lifelong Marxist. Enamored with the performing arts, he chose to pursue the lowly vocation of a theater and film director. These unconventional decisions allowed him to comment on his country when his compatriots could not. In his early neorealist films of the 1940s, he portrayed the poverty of the Italian peasantry so brutally that Bouguereau would flinch.  He did not allude to the past so much as explore it. His 1963 film “The Leopard” is set in 1860, the year that Italy became a unified nation. He considers how political change affects an elite family not unlike his own.  

Therefore, it is unsurprising that Visconti sharply critiques Aschenbach’s view of art. He voices his criticisms through Tadzio. True, Tadzio never speaks during the movie, but his very existence challenges Aschenbach. His beauty is purely physical, not spiritual. As Aschenbach becomes more and more obsessed with his visage, he ceases to be the model of balance and strength. Furthermore, his intentions toward him are ambiguous. Is this married, ostensibly heterosexual man lusting after Tadzio? Does he wish that he could be as young as Tadzio again and write better music? As he is still recovering from the death of his daughter, does he wish that Tadzio was his son? 

Yet, Tadzio’s presence is consequential not only for Aschenbach, but also for every aging bourgeois in Europe. Tadzio is not a street urchin, but a Polish count. He will become part of Europe’s next generation of aristocrats. Yet, Tadzio will not simply supersede Aschenbach, but will come of age in more troubling times. While Aschenbach lives on a relatively stable continent, in his lifetime, Tadzio will witness two world wars and a catastrophic economic depression. Expensive trips to Venice will no longer be possible. After World War II, when his country is taken over by the Soviets, he will be stripped of his title and his land. Then, the entire notion of the “bourgeoisie” will fade into history.

Aschenbach is not sitting alone in God’s waiting room. He’s joined by everyone he meets in his opulent milieu. Of course, Tadzio will survive. Yet, even his classically beautiful profile will not escape unscathed. “Death in Venice” does not document the demise of a doomed queen but chronicles the end of an entire worldview.

Contact Amir Abou-Jaoude at amir2 ‘at’ stanford.edu.

The post ‘Death in Venice’ documents the decline of the bourgeoisie appeared first on The Stanford Daily.

]]>
https://stanforddaily.com/2019/04/02/death-in-venice-documents-the-decline-of-the-bourgeoisie/feed/ 0 1151650
Scorsese uses allusion to conjure up ‘The Age of Innocence’ https://stanforddaily.com/2019/02/26/scorsese-uses-allusion-to-conjure-up-the-age-of-innocence/ https://stanforddaily.com/2019/02/26/scorsese-uses-allusion-to-conjure-up-the-age-of-innocence/#respond Tue, 26 Feb 2019 09:00:04 +0000 https://stanforddaily.com/?p=1150303 During “The Age of Innocence” at the end of the 19th century, a select set of New Yorkers naively emulated Europeans. To this end, they held balls that would make Queen Victoria blush, imported the latest fashions from Paris and attended operas and plays that had already graced foreign stages. They created an elaborate system of […]

The post Scorsese uses allusion to conjure up ‘The Age of Innocence’ appeared first on The Stanford Daily.

]]>
During “The Age of Innocence” at the end of the 19th century, a select set of New Yorkers naively emulated Europeans. To this end, they held balls that would make Queen Victoria blush, imported the latest fashions from Paris and attended operas and plays that had already graced foreign stages. They created an elaborate system of social mores and coveted conformity. Edith Jones came of age in this opulent milieu. Her family was so wealthy that everyone else seemed to be “keeping up with the Joneses,” but she aspired to become more than a socialite. After her marriage to Edward Wharton in 1885, Edith Wharton became one of America’s most renowned writers.

Although he is one of America’s most acclaimed filmmakers, Martin Scorsese might seem like a strange director to adapt Wharton’s work. Like Wharton, Scorsese is a New Yorker, but he grew up in the 1950s, in the less lavish neighborhood of Little Italy. Yet, Scorsese’s 1993 film version of Wharton’s Pulitzer Prize-winning novel “The Age of Innocence” is an unqualified triumph. Against all odds, the Catholic cineaste is able to provide insight into the cultured debutante’s resplendent world. As an outsider, Scorsese can capture the discontent lurking under the sumptuous surface.

Wharton’s story is certainly suffused with sorrow and anguish. Newland Archer, the scion of a distinguished family, is engaged to the comely May Welland. Just before their wedding, however, the Countess Ellen Olenska returns from Europe. She married a nobleman, but their relationship disintegrated. Her failed union quickly becomes the subject of scandal, but Newland is drawn to her. They have an affair. Still, despite their infatuations with each other, they both know full well that their romance is futile.

Scorsese makes their passion and pain the center of the film, but he is careful to situate the plot in its proper context. Scorsese’s great strength as an auteur is his commitment to verisimilitude. In “Taxi Driver,” he peerlessly depicts the somber streets of 1970s New York. In “Gangs of New York,” he painstakingly details the societal strife in the city during the 1860s. Similarly, in “The Age of Innocence,” Scorsese illuminates the rites of the rich. He uses long tracking shots to showcase the splendor of their social events. He employs wide shots to exhibit the colossal architecture that they inhabit. When characters attend the opera, he includes only a brief shot of the stage. For the rest of the sequence, he focuses on the reactions of the patrons. Therefore, he emphasizes that these viewers care more about being seen than seeing the scene onstage.

Scorsese is able to evoke this atmosphere not because he was ever a part of it, but because he has carefully studied the visual culture of the era. He is selective in drawing inspiration from other sources. He considers what people in Wharton’s time would have admired. Many of Wharton’s compatriots had their portraits done by the American expatriate John Singer Sargent. Sargent produced massive but skillful paintings of society’s most prominent personages. He paid close attention to their couture and used warm, hazy light to render them in the most flattering manner. Several of Scorsese’s shots are indebted to Sargent’s aesthetics. Ellen or May will often fill up the entire frame, and their surroundings are imbued with similar hues.

Of course, cinema was not a mass medium in Wharton’s time. While Scorsese quotes other movies, he alludes to films that affluent New Yorkers in the 1890s would have appreciated.  Even the Joneses would have been jealous of the film director Luchino Visconti, who belonged to the oldest and most respected family in Italy. Visconti continually referenced his illustrious heritage in his work, and Scorsese seems to have borrowed entire scenes from his movies. Scorsese’s sequence in the theater hews closely to the template Visconti creates in his film “Senso,” and his staging of the grand ball is nearly stolen from Visconti’s “The Leopard.”

Yet, by drawing on the works of artists like Sargent and Visconti, Scorsese is not only able to enter Wharton’s world, but also convey her social critique. Wharton was concerned with the role of women in high society. Although they may have had money, these women were powerless. A glance at Sargent’s catalogue confirms this—female sitters are always introduced by their husband’s name, as Mrs. Carl Meyer or Mrs. Hugh Hammersley. By telling the stories of unconventional women like Ellen Olenska, Wharton hoped to upend her readers’ conceptions of gender. Scorsese finds a filmic equivalent of Wharton’s tactic. It is striking to see the Countess Olenska portrayed as if she is the subject of a Sargent portrait. When Newland talks to her, however, he does not address her by her husband’s name, but by her own. Subtly, Scorsese disturbs our notions about Wharton’s era. When Scorsese’s filmmaking suddenly seems derivative of Visconti’s, he is echoing another of Wharton’s fundamental insights. Wharton stressed that no matter how closely the wealthy copied their continental counterparts, they were still only Americans. Just as they were pale imitators of Europeans, Scorsese cannot help but be a lesser Visconti.

Scorsese’s success in adapting “The Age of Innocence” challenges the old maxim “write what you know.” Edith Wharton’s New York may not resemble the landscapes of Scorsese’s other prominent pictures. Yet, through skill and allusion, Scorsese is able to enter an ephemeral era and create an emotional, exquisite film.

 

Contact Amir Abou-Jaoude at amir2 ‘at’ stanford.edu.

The post Scorsese uses allusion to conjure up ‘The Age of Innocence’ appeared first on The Stanford Daily.

]]>
https://stanforddaily.com/2019/02/26/scorsese-uses-allusion-to-conjure-up-the-age-of-innocence/feed/ 0 1150303
Ford and Fonda examine the legend of ‘Young Mr. Lincoln’ https://stanforddaily.com/2019/02/13/ford-and-fonda-examine-the-legend-of-young-mr-lincoln/ https://stanforddaily.com/2019/02/13/ford-and-fonda-examine-the-legend-of-young-mr-lincoln/#respond Wed, 13 Feb 2019 09:00:44 +0000 https://stanforddaily.com/?p=1149597 Near the end of John Ford’s 1962 Western “The Man Who Shot Liberty Valance,” a newspaper publisher gives some curious advice. Although he is obligated to chronicle events around town, he is not concerned with the veracity of his stories. Instead, his maxim is, “When the legend becomes fact, print the legend.” Ford printed a […]

The post Ford and Fonda examine the legend of ‘Young Mr. Lincoln’ appeared first on The Stanford Daily.

]]>
Near the end of John Ford’s 1962 Western “The Man Who Shot Liberty Valance,” a newspaper publisher gives some curious advice. Although he is obligated to chronicle events around town, he is not concerned with the veracity of his stories. Instead, his maxim is, “When the legend becomes fact, print the legend.”

Ford printed a legend long before he made “The Man Who Shot Liberty Valance.” In 1939, he directed “Young Mr. Lincoln,” starring Henry Fonda as the American icon. The film focuses on the formative years of the 16th president and depicts his time as a lawyer in Springfield, Illinois. By the time Ford and Fonda made the movie, Lincoln’s early life had already become mired in legend. Legions of writers praised his ability to split rails, described his folksy charm and lauded his constant honesty. Ostensibly, both Ford and Fonda subscribe to the publisher’s mantra; they print the legend, showing us all of Lincoln’s virtuous characteristics. Yet, Ford and Fonda are also able to suggest that perhaps the legend is more complex than it appears.

History buffs might get a kick out of “Young Mr. Lincoln” because the film is full of foreshadowing. Although the film is set in 1837, long before he becomes president, Lincoln keeps meeting figures who will play a consequential part in his later career. At an Independence Day celebration, Lincoln converses with an ambitious politician named Stephen Douglas; in 1858, Lincoln will rise to prominence in the Republican Party by debating Douglas. A belle from Lexington, Kentucky comes to town. When her family holds a ball, Lincoln dances with her; little does he know that he will marry Mary Todd in 1842.

While these figures exist mostly in the background of the movie, events in the foreground portend future developments as well. In accordance with legend, Ford depicts Lincoln as a man devoted to compromise. He is asked to judge a pie contest early in the film, but he is hesitant to declare a winner. He vacillates between the apple and peach pies. The contest ends not when he chooses a winner, but when he consumes both slices. Less humorously, the young lawyer is called to defend two brothers accused of murder. Lincoln presses the boys’ mother to tell him which son actually killed the man. She refuses to tell him, so Lincoln decides to defend both of them. As the scholar Joseph McBride notes, both the contest and the court trial are fraught with symbolism. Just as he wants to keep both bakers happy, Lincoln strives to keep all parts of the country in the Union during the Civil War. Just as Lincoln has sympathy for the aggrieved mother, he will also resent that brothers must fight each other in the war.

It’s easy to debunk this part of the legend: Lincoln was not indecisive during the war. He made clear that, “this government cannot endure, permanently, half-slave and half-free.” As the conflict continued, he became more and more determined to abolish the South’s “peculiar institution.” Furthermore, even if he did regret the human cost of the war, Lincoln argued that the dead had “not died in vain” and were making possible “a new birth of freedom.” The film does not depict the heated debate over slavery or the pervasive racism of the 19th century. This is a serious shortcoming, but its omission is understandable. Early in his career, Lincoln did not have strong opinions about abolition and did not believe in full equality between blacks and whites. By concentrating on these issues, Ford would have irreparably damaged the legend of the “Great Emancipator.”

Still, Ford suggests the legend’s shortcomings in subtler ways. The American landscape captivates him: He calls attention to the delicate beauty of the forest, the rustic charm of a wood fence and a panoramic view of a river. As beautiful as Ford’s images admittedly are, they are also somewhat puzzling — there is no river that runs through Springfield. Ford, however, is not concerned with recreating reality. Instead, through his images, he evokes the long tradition of American landscape painting. His shot of the river resembles Thomas Cole’s “The Oxbow,” which features a river winding through an idyllic scene. By citing Cole instead of actual geography, Ford acknowledges the artificiality of his project: “Young Mr. Lincoln” is not so much about history as about how Americans have imagined it.

Henry Fonda’s performance as Lincoln further exposes the legend’s limits. Fonda demonstrates why Lincoln came to play a preeminent role in national politics. First and foremost, Lincoln is a politician. After the murder takes place and the brothers are accused, an angry mob rushes over to the jail. They want to hang the boys before their trial, but Lincoln stops them by explaining the importance of justice. Fonda, however, does not preach to the crowd. Instead, he fluctuates his tone; he desperately pleads with them to spare his clients until after the “legal pomp and show.” Then, he lowers his voice, warning them that if they take the law into their own hands, “the next thing you know, [you’ll] be hanging one another just for fun.” In this moment, Lincoln seems to be a skillful politician, able to moderate his message for myriad audiences. Fonda’s performance complicates the simple rhetoric of the screenplay. Is Lincoln being entirely genuine when he speaks of high-minded principles, or is he considering a larger political calculus?

In in printing the Lincoln legend, Ford and Fonda do not just regurgitate it. Rather, they realize how it is removed from reality and subsequently reckon with its flaws. Ultimately, their approach reveals that although legends can be fake, they can still fascinate.

 

Contact Amir Abou-Jaoude at amir2 ‘at’ stanford.edu.

The post Ford and Fonda examine the legend of ‘Young Mr. Lincoln’ appeared first on The Stanford Daily.

]]>
https://stanforddaily.com/2019/02/13/ford-and-fonda-examine-the-legend-of-young-mr-lincoln/feed/ 0 1149597
‘Midnight Cowboy’ critiques American mythology https://stanforddaily.com/2019/02/08/midnight-cowboy-critiques-american-mythology/ https://stanforddaily.com/2019/02/08/midnight-cowboy-critiques-american-mythology/#respond Sat, 09 Feb 2019 05:41:55 +0000 https://stanforddaily.com/?p=1149347 “Midnight Cowboy” begins inconspicuously. Joe Buck, a 6-foot-4 stud, stands in front of mirror, clad in full cowboy regalia, a cigarette hanging out of his mouth. As Harry Nilson’s classic song “Everybody’s Talkin’” resounds, he takes his suitcase, quits his job and boards a bus. For three minutes, John Schlesinger’s 1969 film seems like a […]

The post ‘Midnight Cowboy’ critiques American mythology appeared first on The Stanford Daily.

]]>
“Midnight Cowboy” begins inconspicuously. Joe Buck, a 6-foot-4 stud, stands in front of mirror, clad in full cowboy regalia, a cigarette hanging out of his mouth. As Harry Nilson’s classic song “Everybody’s Talkin’” resounds, he takes his suitcase, quits his job and boards a bus. For three minutes, John Schlesinger’s 1969 film seems like a conventional Western. Granted, John Wayne traveled on a gorgeous gray horse, not a gas-guzzling Greyhound. Still, Joe differs from John in a more consequential way. He is not bound for Monument Valley, but Manhattan. Beneath his spurs and Stetson hat, he is a prostitute. Yet, “Midnight Cowboy” is not just a history of a hustler; rather, it documents a seismic shift in the American imagination.

The cowboy has long been an American archetype. In the early 20th-century, Americans became fascinated with the Southwest. Railroads adopted the cowboy as a symbol of Western life. The cowboy was independent. He charmed women. He maintained his honor, no matter the price. He quickly became a central part of the American culture because moviemakers were among the most prominent passengers on these trains. Enchanted with the desert landscape, they decided to make myriad movies set in the Old West. By the end of the 1930s, the Western had become a staple of the cinema, and John Wayne became the greatest actor in the genre.

Schlesinger subverts every stereotype associated with the cowboy. While an ordinary cowboy is fiercely independent, this midnight cowboy is dependent on the whims of wealthy women. Joe Buck is unable to fascinate any woman he encounters on the street. He loses his dignity when he runs out of cash and is forced to occupy a condemned building with Ratso Rizzo. Ratso, a con man, attempts to school Joe on his profession, but he’s not very successful. He justifies his failure by declaring, “That great, big, dumb cowboy crap of yours don’t appeal to nobody except every jockey on 42nd Street. That’s faggot stuff!” Aghast, Joe responds, “John Wayne! You wanna tell me he’s a fag? I like the way I look. It makes me feel good.”

As Vito Russo writes in “The Celluloid Closet,” his groundbreaking study of gays in cinema, this exchange exemplifies an anxiety at the heart of the film. He asks, “If there is no real difference between the cowboy hero and the faggot on 42nd Street, then what remains of American masculinity?” Earlier cowboys had furthered the American way by driving Native Americans off land that was rightfully theirs. Joe tries to preserve conservative American values by constantly attacking queers. Joe is unsuccessful even at spreading homophobia, however, because he is desperate for money. He has no choice but to become gay for pay: A timid student gives him a blowjob in the balcony. As they have oral sex, Joe watches the film. It’s some absurd adventure involving astronauts, but Schlesinger ingeniously cuts between the braggadocious swashbucklers on screen, and the vulnerable Joe, glued to his seat. For some strange reason, tears come down his face. It’s as if he’s in mourning — he will never be as manly as the heroes he idolizes.

Schlesinger does not just deconstruct the image of the cowboy or the concept of masculinity, but all the illusions the movies provide. In a strange way, Joe resembles Molina from Manuel Puig’s “Kiss of the Spiderwoman.” Molina, a window dresser unwilling to hide his homosexuality, has been locked in an Argentinian prison for years. He passes the long, excruciating days in reminiscing about Aurora, the diva of his dreams. She is all the things he wants to be — a glamorous icon, a sex symbol, catnip to men. Over the course of Puig’s novel, however, Molina is forced to come out of his reverie. He must confront cruel reality.

Joe must face reality too. He develops a close bond with Ratso, but unfortunately, the slick operator is sick. Ratso has always dreamed of going to Florida and soaking up the sun. Joe abandons his dreams of fame and fortune in New York and resolves to take Ratso to Miami. Still, Joe is not the only figure who must face facts; Schlesinger’s film exhorts his audience to scrutinize what they see onscreen. The epitomes of strength that have dominated American cinema cannot speak to all American experiences. “Midnight Cowboy” attends to the grime and crime in New York City. It compels us to pay attention to people who would ordinarily be overlooked.

Contrary to all expectations, “Midnight Cowboy” was a success. At the 42nd Academy Awards, lead actors Jon Voight and Dustin Hoffman both received nominations. Ironically, they lost the Oscar to none other than John Wayne. Yet, even if Wayne still prevailed in acting category, “Midnight Cowboy” won Best Picture, beating Wayne’s “True Grit.” The victory was deserved, but it was also symbolic: “True Grit” had yielded to a truer and grittier vision of America.

 

Contact Amir Abou-Jaoude at amir2 ‘at’ stanford.edu.

The post ‘Midnight Cowboy’ critiques American mythology appeared first on The Stanford Daily.

]]>
https://stanforddaily.com/2019/02/08/midnight-cowboy-critiques-american-mythology/feed/ 0 1149347
‘My Man Godfrey’ supplies sidesplitting comedy and social commentary https://stanforddaily.com/2019/01/22/my-man-godfrey-supplies-sidesplitting-comedy-and-social-commentary/ https://stanforddaily.com/2019/01/22/my-man-godfrey-supplies-sidesplitting-comedy-and-social-commentary/#respond Tue, 22 Jan 2019 09:00:05 +0000 https://stanforddaily.com/?p=1148448 It’s a pity the Bullocks, the wealthy family at the center of “My Man Godfrey,” never came across Jack London’s definition of charity. London, the author of “Call of the Wild” and “White Fang,” naturally described the concept in canine terms. “A bone to the dog is not charity. Charity is the bone shared with […]

The post ‘My Man Godfrey’ supplies sidesplitting comedy and social commentary appeared first on The Stanford Daily.

]]>
It’s a pity the Bullocks, the wealthy family at the center of “My Man Godfrey,” never came across Jack London’s definition of charity. London, the author of “Call of the Wild” and “White Fang,” naturally described the concept in canine terms. “A bone to the dog is not charity. Charity is the bone shared with the dog, when you are just as hungry as the dog.”

The fashionable Bullocks do not go hungry, but nonetheless, they want to give out bones. Therefore, they attend a scavenger hunt at the Waldorf Ritz hotel. The proceeds from the event go to charity, but nevertheless, it develops into a competition, with the participants vying for bragging rights. Yet, winning is difficult because the contestants must find an animate “forgotten man.” Desperate to come out on top, Cornelia Bullock goes to the city dump and finds Godfrey living in squalor. She convinces him to go back to the hotel with her, and she triumphs. Then, she decides to throw another bone. The family’s butler has just quit, so she offers Godfrey the job. He accepts, but Cornelia’s kindness fails to make his life easier. Instead, his sojourn at the Bullocks’ Park Avenue mansion devolves into a sidesplitting sequence of shenanigans. Throughout all these pratfalls, director Gregory La Cava considers the pitfalls of proffering charity.

Most of La Cava’s commentary is tied to American anxieties about the Great Depression. After all, the film was made in 1936, at the height of the crisis. Yet, his comedy is timeless. When an employee at any establishment in any era tells a new hire that “people are dropping in and out” of his position “all the time,” it is never a good sign. Thus, when the maid informs Godfrey that the family has been through a surfeit of servants, he has reason to worry. It quickly becomes apparent why people are turning down his job despite the Depression—the Bullocks are bonkers. Cornelia is fond of booze and breaks windows along Fifth Avenue when she is intoxicated. Cornelia’s sister, Irene, also embarrasses herself under the influence. During Godfrey’s first day at work, she rides a horse into the library. The girls’ father is too preoccupied with his stocks to look after them, and their mother is too busy looking at Carlo, a dashing Italian she has adopted as a “protégé.” Cornelia becomes jealous that her mother is mentoring a man, so she determines to take on Godfrey as her protégé.

She hits a surprising number of snags in executing her plan. Most notably, Godfrey will not submit to night school, held under Cornelia’s covers. Godfrey’s reluctance to romance Cornelia, however, goes beyond the bedroom. Even as her protégé, he wants to preserve his independence. In spite of his outlandish situation, he still subscribes to the credo expressed in the Declaration of Independence, the belief that every person has the right to “life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness.” What kind of life does Godfrey lead attending to the Bullocks? How can he possess “liberty” as a protégé? Even if he were happy within the Bullock household, how can he pursue any goal if he is constantly dependent on their charity?

These questions are not only at the core of “My Man Godfrey,” but are also crucial to understanding the Great Depression. In his first inaugural address, President Franklin D. Roosevelt sought to reassure to a nation in distress. After boldly declaring that “the only thing we have to fear is fear itself,” he asserted that the Depression was insignificant “compared with the perils which our forefathers conquered” and that “old and precious moral values” would endure. Yet, how can Americans seek “life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness” if many of them rely on the government for work? Roosevelt resolved this paradox by noting that he was treating the crisis “as we would treat the emergency of a war.” In short, desperate times call for desperate measures.

Godfrey is willing to take desperate measures to stay employed because putting up with the Bullocks is “more desirable than living in a packing case on the city dump.” Therefore, he weathers Irene’s envious attempts to fire him and withstands Cornelia’s capricious whims. Similarly, the speaker in E.Y. Harburg’s song “Brother, Can You Spare a Dime?” also goes to extreme ends to survive. While Godfrey becomes involved in antics, Harburg’s man becomes involved in an even less distinguished vocation—he begs. Impassioned, he implores passerby, “Say, don’t you remember? You called me Al. It was Al all the time. Say, don’t you remember, I’m your pal. Brother, can you spare a dime?”

La Cava and Harburg share another common concern besides the degradation of dependency. Both realize that charity can be temporary. The Bullocks or the government can retrieve their bones at any time. As Harburg’s speaker states, “Once I built a tower. Now it’s done.” Therefore, he must ask once again, “Brother, can you spare a dime?” What happens to him when the Depression is no longer a national emergency?

Over the course of La Cava’s film, Godfrey’s future is assured. He progresses from Cornelia’s protégé to her paramour. Yet, La Cava does not shirk away from the issues Harburg raises. At one point, Godfrey leaves the Bullock home and returns to the dump. His old compatriots have yet to be picked up as proteges, and they are still penniless. The Bullocks may be crazy, but when their behavior is put into the context of the Depression’s devastation, they seem only mildly eccentric. The entire world is insane if people are treated as trash. “My Man Godfrey” may be hysterical, but between hijinks, it confronts realities that are far from hilarious.

 

Contact Amir Abou-Jaoude at amir2 ‘at’ stanford.edu.

The post ‘My Man Godfrey’ supplies sidesplitting comedy and social commentary appeared first on The Stanford Daily.

]]>
https://stanforddaily.com/2019/01/22/my-man-godfrey-supplies-sidesplitting-comedy-and-social-commentary/feed/ 0 1148448
In ‘Some Like It Hot,’ Billy Wilder explores the attributes of artifice https://stanforddaily.com/2019/01/18/in-some-like-it-hot-billy-wilder-explores-the-attributes-of-artifice/ https://stanforddaily.com/2019/01/18/in-some-like-it-hot-billy-wilder-explores-the-attributes-of-artifice/#respond Fri, 18 Jan 2019 08:40:05 +0000 https://stanforddaily.com/?p=1148370 The director Jean-Luc Godard once claimed, “Cinema is the most beautiful fraud in the world.” Joe and Jerry in Billy Wilder’s “Some Like It Hot” are two of the most beautiful frauds in all of cinema. These impoverished musicians, living in Chicago in 1929, try to make a living performing in speakeasies. En route to […]

The post In ‘Some Like It Hot,’ Billy Wilder explores the attributes of artifice appeared first on The Stanford Daily.

]]>
The director Jean-Luc Godard once claimed, “Cinema is the most beautiful fraud in the world.” Joe and Jerry in Billy Wilder’s “Some Like It Hot” are two of the most beautiful frauds in all of cinema. These impoverished musicians, living in Chicago in 1929, try to make a living performing in speakeasies. En route to a gig, however, they accidentally witness the St. Valentine’s Day massacre. Desperate to escape the mafia, they are forced to take the only job they can find out of town — playing with an all-girl band in Miami. They dress in drag, adopting the personas of “Josephine” and “Daphne,” respectively. The lead singer in the band is Sugar Kowalczyk, played by Marilyn Monroe. Inevitably, Joe falls in love with Sugar, while Jerry is courted by an aging multimillionaire. Comic complications ensue.

Before he made “Some Like It Hot,” Wilder had made dramas about serious subjects. “The Lost Weekend” was a sobering examination of alcoholism, and “Stalag 17” was set in a Nazi POW camp. “Some Like It Hot” is about drag queens. Some might fault Wilder because he spent his skill making a frivolous film, yet, in “Some Like It Hot,” Wilder asserts that creating a carefree illusion can be just as illuminating as relaying an impactful story.

After all, artifice keeps Joe and Jerry alive. Initially, they see drag as merely a means to outmaneuver mobsters, but eventually, it becomes more than a disguise. As the film progresses, Joe and Jerry embrace their female personas; they become actors as well as musicians. Joe enjoys performing to such an extent that he adopts another guise altogether. Before the band arrives in Florida, Joe asks Sugar what she hopes to accomplish on the trip. Without hesitating, she responds that she is intent on ensnaring a handsome tycoon. She describes her ideal man down to the smallest detail — he wears glasses and is sweet and helpless. Infatuated with Sugar, Joe becomes determined to meet all her criteria. He pretends to be Shell Oil Jr., a bachelor who has made billions dealing in black gold. In doing so, Joe not only draws inspiration from Sugar’s firsthand description, but also from movies; Shell Oil Jr. is really an impersonation of Cary Grant. Of course, this is anachronistic — Grant did not become a star until the late 1930s, so no one in 1929 would have appreciated his suave manners. Indeed, Jerry can’t make sense out of Joe’s act. Poking fun at Joe’s debonair diction, Jerry asks, “Who talks like that, anyway?”

Obviously, no one does — even Grant himself did not use that accent in everyday life. Jerry’s question could also be asked of the gangsters in the film. The head of the syndicate in the film is called Little Bonaparte. That moniker recalls the name of a seminal 1931 gangster film, “Little Caesar.” Furthermore, Little Bonaparte and his associates all seem to have taken lessons from Edward G. Robinson, a renowned character actor, and not Al Capone. Wilder’s gangsters scowl more in two hours than Capone did in 48 years. Just as a real crook would not be as expressive as these movie mobsters, an ordinary singer in an all-girl band would not be as sultry as Marilyn Monroe. Perhaps Wilder should have cast a different actor in the part.

Interestingly, Wilder was almost forced to make the film without Monroe. She felt that she had played enough “dumb blondes” for one lifetime and sought to expand her range, but her husband, Arthur Miller, picked up the screenplay. Perhaps he admired how Wilder and his writing partner IAL Diamond revisit gags throughout the film. (For example, in an early scene, Jerry makes a comment that he has “type O” blood. The phrase “type O” recurs in the most unexpected moments — when Jerry and Joe witness the massacre, when Jerry tries to fend off the advances of a lascivious multimillionaire, and when Joe, as Shell Oil Jr., tells Sugar about his previous romances. By using this technique, Wilder and Diamond’s crazy comedy coheres.)

Monroe’s mistake was that she did not realize that it takes skill to write material for a “dumb blonde” and craft to portray one. No one talks like Shell Oil Jr. or the gangsters in reality, but that does not make watching them on screen any less of a pleasure. Audiences in 1959 flocked to see the film, but there was something subversive about its success. Wilder chose to release the film without approval from the Motion Picture Production Code so that he could use cross-dressing as a plot element, suggest homosexual entanglements and preserve his risqué humor. The film’s box office returns proved that the Production Code’s seal was not necessary to make a profit. Two beautiful frauds, one dumb blonde and a myriad of movie mobsters succeeded where noble, valiant heroes had failed. This ingenious work of illusion was able to elude the censors. With the Production Code gone, filmmakers would have a field day tackling touchy themes that had previously been forbidden. Perhaps some critics would rather revisit those films than this one.  Still, even if it does not concentrate on an issue dragging humanity down, let it be said that “Some Like It Hot” never drags.

 

 

Contact Amir Abou-Jaoude at amir2 ‘at’ stanford.edu.

The post In ‘Some Like It Hot,’ Billy Wilder explores the attributes of artifice appeared first on The Stanford Daily.

]]>
https://stanforddaily.com/2019/01/18/in-some-like-it-hot-billy-wilder-explores-the-attributes-of-artifice/feed/ 0 1148370
Orson Welles documents a family’s dizzying decline in ‘The Magnificent Ambersons’ https://stanforddaily.com/2019/01/17/orson-welles-documents-a-familys-dizzying-decline-in-the-magnificent-ambersons/ https://stanforddaily.com/2019/01/17/orson-welles-documents-a-familys-dizzying-decline-in-the-magnificent-ambersons/#respond Thu, 17 Jan 2019 08:30:35 +0000 https://stanforddaily.com/?p=1148332 The writer L.P. Hartley once opined that “the past is a foreign country; they do things differently there.” Since “The Magnificent Ambersons” was released in 1942, critics have lamented that crucial parts of Orson Welles’ second movie never made it past customs into the present. After a test screening of the film went badly, studio […]

The post Orson Welles documents a family’s dizzying decline in ‘The Magnificent Ambersons’ appeared first on The Stanford Daily.

]]>
The writer L.P. Hartley once opined that “the past is a foreign country; they do things differently there.” Since “The Magnificent Ambersons” was released in 1942, critics have lamented that crucial parts of Orson Welles’ second movie never made it past customs into the present. After a test screening of the film went badly, studio executives cut the film down from two-and-a-half hours to 88 minutes, irreparably damaging Welles’ original vision.

Even in this compromised version, however, Welles is able to transport viewers to a lost land of days gone by. He intones in his rich baritone voice that “the magnificence of the Ambersons began in 1873. Their splendor lasted through all the years that saw their midland town spread and darken into a city.” Then, in both his images and his narration, he surveys the strange customs of America’s Gilded Age. For Welles, the past is a procession of horse-drawn carriages, a profusion of coats and top hats that go in and out of style, and a plethora of elegant society balls. Yet, after this splendid opening sequence, Welles turns his attention to the real subject of the film — how the foreign past transforms into the familiar present. Ultimately, despite their magnificence, the Ambersons fade away because they are never able to adapt to modernity.

“The Magnificent Ambersons” was based on a novel by Booth Tarkington. While Tarkington received the Pulitzer Prize in 1912 for his work, the story he told was not especially unique. America had been filled with families like the Ambersons in the period after the Civil War. The Rockefellers, Vanderbilts and Astors became enormously wealthy. By the time Tarkington wrote the book, most of these families were in decline. The Supreme Court forced them to break up their monopolies on oil, steel and other commodities, and the government began to keep a closer watch on their unscrupulous business dealings.

Like the Astors in Manhattan, the Ambersons in the Midwest built up their fortune by dealing in real estate. Still, the courts and the government do not doom the family. Their own personal failings contribute to their downfall. Isabel, the matriarch of the clan, has never really loved her husband. She has always been enamored with the entrepreneur Eugene Morgan. Her spoiled son, George, decides that he would rather become a professional playboy than worry about real estate. He chases after Eugene’s daughter, Lucy. The relationship between the Morgans and the Ambersons becomes strained, however, because of the actions of George’s crazed Aunt Fanny. Fanny was also in love with Eugene once, and she keeps resurrecting old feuds.

Amidst all this interpersonal turmoil, it is not surprising that the Ambersons neglect their business. Indeed, they do not behave as an elite family should. After making a sizable fortune in the steel business, mogul Andrew Carnegie wrote “The Gospel of Wealth.” In this essay, Carnegie proposed that the most prosperous members of society should become philanthropists and assist the poor. Towards the end of his life, Carnegie gave away most of his fortune to establish libraries, museums, concert halls and universities throughout America. The Ambersons, however, do not abide by any of Carnegie’s advice. While Carnegie cautioned that “it is not well for the children that they should be so burdened” with money, George has full access to the family fortune. He becomes a spoiled brat. Carnegie warned that wealthy families must look forward and not anticipate “a relapse to old conditions.” Still, neither Isabel nor Fanny can move past the past. Most damningly, Carnegie claimed that “there is no class so pitiably wretched as that which possesses money and nothing else.” The Ambersons are so obsessed by their own problems that they possess few virtues. Sequestered in their sprawling mansion, they are totally insulated from the community.

Because of their isolation, they do not realize their splendor is fading until it is too late. Eugene’s last invention is a motorcar, and the advent of the automobile has adverse effects on the Ambersons. If everyone has a car, they no longer need to own real estate downtown, and the prestige of the Ambersons will plummet. Welles foreshadows this coming cataclysm in one startling shot. Eager to prove that his invention can withstand winter weather, Eugene invites all the Ambersons to join him on a joyride. Welles shows the car gliding through the pure, white landscape, and his shot resembles a Currier and Ives print. In their colorful and cheerful pictures of the snowy countryside, Currier and Ives would depict some townsfolk seated on a sleigh. Welles and Currier and Ives create similar images, but Welles has replaced the plush, carpeted sleigh with a hideous, gas-guzzling machine. Just as the Currier and Ives sleigh has fallen out of the frame, the Ambersons will soon lose their place in society.

All of the characters spend much of the movie denying this fundamental truth. “Automobiles are a useless nuisance,” George protests. Even Eugene admits that “they may be a step backward in civilization,” but ultimately, he concludes “automobiles have come.” No amount of money can change that. As the Ambersons face their inevitable downfall, Welles starts to linger over the shadows in the mansion. By end of the film, even the magnificence of the Ambersons has become a slight shadow.

Since only a shadow of Welles’ initial version exists, some critics might say that we cannot fully appreciate his artistry. They would curse the executives who cut the film. Still, perhaps Welles was partly to blame for the mutilation of his movie. Like the Ambersons, he was removed from the tenor of his times. Americans felt that they were capable of winning World War II, but the Ambersons could not surmount the challenges of modernity. Yet, if the splendor of the Ambersons was lost “as their midland town spread and darkened into a city,” the fragment of “The Magnificent Ambersons” that remains resonates magnificently in the present.

 

Contact Amir Abou-Jaoude at amir2 ‘at’ stanford.edu.

The post Orson Welles documents a family’s dizzying decline in ‘The Magnificent Ambersons’ appeared first on The Stanford Daily.

]]>
https://stanforddaily.com/2019/01/17/orson-welles-documents-a-familys-dizzying-decline-in-the-magnificent-ambersons/feed/ 0 1148332
Sex, society and ‘Shampoo’ https://stanforddaily.com/2019/01/14/sex-society-and-shampoo/ https://stanforddaily.com/2019/01/14/sex-society-and-shampoo/#respond Mon, 14 Jan 2019 09:00:26 +0000 https://stanforddaily.com/?p=1148156 “Shampoo” takes place on the day that Richard Nixon won the presidency in 1968, but none of the characters in the film are particularly interested in politics. They all live in luxurious estates in Beverly Hills, make glib comments and dress in glamorous couture. No matter who was running the country, they would continue to […]

The post Sex, society and ‘Shampoo’ appeared first on The Stanford Daily.

]]>
“Shampoo” takes place on the day that Richard Nixon won the presidency in 1968, but none of the characters in the film are particularly interested in politics. They all live in luxurious estates in Beverly Hills, make glib comments and dress in glamorous couture. No matter who was running the country, they would continue to play tennis on their private courts and attend posh parties. They would still have their hair done by George Roundy, the most renowned stylist in Beverly Hills. For his part, George is more concerned about his erections than any elections. He takes most of his clients to bed, and at the start of the film, he is entangled in affairs with Felicia, an insecure socialite, Jill, an aspiring actress, and Jackie, a free-spirited social climber. George’s attitude is by no means unique. The women also have multiple partners, and Felicia’s husband Lester is unfaithful. This summary of the movie may make it seem like a facile farce, but “Shampoo” is about something more profound than licentious liaisons. Rather, director Hal Ashby and screenwriters Robert Towne and Warren Beatty use the characters’ sexual entanglements to elucidate profound and irreversible transformations in American society.

At first glance, Beverly Hills might not seem to be a microcosm of American life, but the town was not always associated with debauchery. In the 1930s, Beverly Hills was one of the most conservative communities in California. Before the movie stars moved into their mansions, William H. Hays and Joseph Breen resided there. From their palatial perches, Hays and Breen became concerned about the content of Hollywood films. Therefore, they created the Hollywood Production Code, which placed strict restrictions on filmmakers. They could not take on controversial topics like homosexuality or miscegenation, they had to respect religious dogma, and they must demonstrate that crime doesn’t pay. “Shampoo” could never have been made under the Production Code, because the Code explicitly stated that “pictures shall not infer that low forms of sex relationship are the accepted or common thing.”

For George and his clients, casual rendezvous are common, but the characters realize that their promiscuity would not be accepted in most circles. They all have devised rationales for their behavior, and George’s defense is the most riveting and revealing. He sees all women as sirens. He goes into the beauty salon and “they’re all so great-looking, and [he’s] doing their hair, and they look great, and they smell great.” Sleeping with them makes him feel “like [he’s] going to live forever.”

Perhaps George can only find a constant supply of consenting sexual partners in Beverly Hills, but he is not the only American to lust after immortality. In 1967, the writer Joan Didion traveled to San Francisco’s Haight-Ashbury district and documented the lifestyles of the youth there. Her portraits of these hippies were far from flattering. In her essay “Slouching Towards Bethlehem,” she exposes their shallowness and their senselessness. While they believe that they are fundamentally changing society, Didion reveals that most of them are nothing but drug addicts. High on hashish, cocaine and LSD, they lay out impossible pipe dreams for the future, but they also destroy their own lives. No one in “Shampoo” does drugs, but they get a buzz from lovemaking.

Indeed, Ashby, Towne, and Beatty construct the film as if it were a dazzling drug trip. The first part of the film is a dynamic comedy. In their screenplay, Towne and Beatty create all kinds of complications. George tells each of his women that she is “great” and that she is the only woman he wants. To cover up her affair with George, Felicia convinces her husband that he is gay. Lester pretends that he is just friends with Jackie, his mistress. Ashby quickly cuts between the characters and suffuses the story with manic energy. Still, this farcical euphoria wears off. As these antic affairs continue, the characters come to realize that there is a difference between lovemaking and love. All the lies they have told each other seem inconsequential now because they must confront a larger falsehood — they don’t really know what love is. Beatty and Towne’s witty dialogue gives way to painful pauses. Ashby’s camera lingers over the wounded expressions on the characters’ visages. All of them want to experience the exalted love that the Production Code valorized, but they are only familiar with “low forms of sex relationship.”

In some sense, they are linked to the flower children Didion criticized. Didion stated that the hippies’ habits developed because, “at some point between 1945 and 1967, we had somehow neglected to tell these children the rules of the game we happened to be playing. Maybe we had stopped believing in the rules ourselves, [or] maybe we were having a failure of nerve about the game.” The people in “Shampoo” have forgotten the traditional rules expressed in the Production Code, and there is no going back now.

With so much turmoil in their lives, it’s not surprising that no one in the film would make note of Nixon’s election. Yet, “Shampoo” illustrates a profound historical truth. In his campaign, Nixon promised to restore “law and order” to the country and to make the silent majority heard again. Still, his initiatives are as futile as the characters’ attempts to return to the parameters of the Production Code. America has been altered by the high hippies of Haight-Ashbury and the profligate people of Beverly Hills. Ultimately, societal change is not like shampoo. It’s hard to wash out of your hair.

 

Contact Amir Abou-Jaoude at amir2 ‘at’ stanford.edu.

The post Sex, society and ‘Shampoo’ appeared first on The Stanford Daily.

]]>
https://stanforddaily.com/2019/01/14/sex-society-and-shampoo/feed/ 0 1148156
De Palma steals from the masters in ‘Sisters’ https://stanforddaily.com/2018/11/30/de-palma-steals-from-the-masters-in-sisters/ https://stanforddaily.com/2018/11/30/de-palma-steals-from-the-masters-in-sisters/#respond Fri, 30 Nov 2018 09:00:36 +0000 https://stanforddaily.com/?p=1147402 The literary luminary TS Eliot used a simple maxim to differentiate between writers. He claimed that, “Immature poets imitate; mature poets steal.” By Eliot’s criterion, Brian de Palma was already a mature artist at age 33, at which time he made “Sisters” (1973). Still, a synopsis of the film can make it seem sophomoric; Danielle […]

The post De Palma steals from the masters in ‘Sisters’ appeared first on The Stanford Daily.

]]>
The literary luminary TS Eliot used a simple maxim to differentiate between writers. He claimed that, “Immature poets imitate; mature poets steal.” By Eliot’s criterion, Brian de Palma was already a mature artist at age 33, at which time he made “Sisters” (1973). Still, a synopsis of the film can make it seem sophomoric; Danielle Breton was born a conjoined twin, but after a successful separation surgery, she moves to Staten Island and appears on a game show. One of the contestants falls madly in love with her. Still, any romance that blossoms on the program “Peeping Toms” is destined to end perversely. In the morning, Danielle’s lover goes out to buy her a birthday cake, and when he returns to her apartment, a mysterious figure stabs him to death. Danielle awakens and recoils in terror. She is not the only individual shaken by the murder. Grace, an intrepid reporter, happened to be peering into Danielle’s window when the crime occurred. She calls the police and resolves to find the killer. What mature artist meditates on conjoined twins and “Peeping Toms”?

Yet, despite the story’s contrivances, de Palma’s ingenious execution distinguishes the film from other thrillers. While immature directors would be content to repeat tired tropes, de Palma commandeers the techniques of directors like Alfred Hitchcock and Andy Warhol to create an idiosyncratic thriller.

De Palma first became fascinated with film when he saw Hitchcock’s “Vertigo” in 1958. As he told the journalist Robert Siegel years later, “There was something about the way the story was told and the cinematic language used in it that connected to me.” There are numerous references to Hitchcock’s captivating cinematic language in “Sisters.” Just as James Stewart follows an enigmatic woman in “Vertigo,” Grace must uncover all of Danielle’s secrets. In Hitchcock’s “Rear Window,” Stewart witnesses a murder while gazing out of his apartment. Grace watches the murder from a similar vantage point. Late in the film, Danielle has a disturbing dream. It recalls the surreal sequence that Salvador Dali designed for Hitchcock in “Spellbound.” De Palma reinforces the connection by rendering the scene in Hitchcock’s stark black-and-white. The film also alludes to Hitchcock’s work sonically. Bernard Herrmann scored some of Hitchcock’s greatest films, and de Palma lured the veteran composer out of retirement to score “Sisters.” Herrmann’s music matches de Palma’s mise-en-scène. He uses some of the same haunting harmonies featured in “Vertigo” and the screeching violins of “Psycho,” but he recombines these elements into a delightfully disquieting melody.

Likewise, de Palma reinvents the elements he embezzled from Hitchcock. While many of Hitchcock’s films are set in exotic locales or idealized American towns, “Sisters” takes place on the gritty streets of New York in the 1970s. Grace is a reporter, so she is inextricably connected to the social climate of her times. While James Stewart in “Rear Window” simply describes the crime he saw as heinous, Grace believes that bigotry played a role in this murder. Danielle’s lover was African-American, and his assailant was white. Hitchcock’s original conceit is transformed because of the realities of race relations. Many of Hitchcock’s protagonists are wrongly accused of transgressions and are forced to become fugitives; Grace is on the run from the law, too, not because of an infraction, but because she has been critical of the police’s harsh tactics. Even Danielle’s dream reflects her milieu – the camera invades her personal space, and grotesque imagery frightens her less than the cruel curiosity of New Yorkers.

“Sisters” is also a film about New York in that it draws on the underground pictures made in the city. Perhaps the most famous of these movies is Andy Warhol’s “Chelsea Girls,” released in 1966. Warhol made 12 half-hour films documenting various happenings in New York’s Chelsea Hotel, but during editing, he realized that a six-hour film was unlikely to be commercially lucrative. Therefore, he decided to use split-screen and show two films at the same time. Viewers would be overwhelmed with visual information, and they would have to decide which film to watch.

De Palma employs split-screen to an analogous effect in “Sisters.” Shortly after the murder occurs, de Palma divides the frame in two. On one side, Grace calls the police. On the other, Danielle frantically tries to dispose of the body. It is impossible to concentrate on all of their minute actions, so a viewer must decide which side of the story he cares most about. Does he follow Grace’s dogged effort to uncover the truth, or does he sympathize with Danielle’s attempts to maintain her innocence?

The split-screen is not only disorienting, but it also reflects the film’s themes. Danielle was born a conjoined twin, and although she now functions independently of her sister, the split-screen conjoins her to Grace. Just as conjoined twins share a body part, Danielle and Grace are forced to coexist within the same frame. In a strange sense, these two protagonists become sisters. Despite their different aims and attitudes, the flighty French model and the hardboiled journalist have a kind of kinship.

De Palma is similarly conjoined to earlier auteurs. Yet, just as Danielle is able to survive separately from her sister and from Grace, de Palma’s work is able to stand on its own. “Sisters” is far from a facsimile: It’s a fully formed masterpiece from a major filmmaker.

 

Contact Amir Abou-Jaoude at amir2 ‘at’ stanford.edu.

The post De Palma steals from the masters in ‘Sisters’ appeared first on The Stanford Daily.

]]>
https://stanforddaily.com/2018/11/30/de-palma-steals-from-the-masters-in-sisters/feed/ 0 1147402
In ‘Andrei Rublev,’ Tarkovsky contemplates artistry and reality https://stanforddaily.com/2018/11/28/in-andrei-rublev-tarkovsky-contemplates-artistry-and-reality/ https://stanforddaily.com/2018/11/28/in-andrei-rublev-tarkovsky-contemplates-artistry-and-reality/#respond Wed, 28 Nov 2018 09:00:14 +0000 https://stanforddaily.com/?p=1147285 Many art historians believe that Andrei Rublev was the greatest painter of the 15th century, and his religious icons still adorn churches throughout Russia. In analyzing Rublev’s art, it would be strange to call him a romantic. His images of Jesus, the Virgin Mary and the disciples are not sensuous or rhapsodic. Yet, the writer Ambrose […]

The post In ‘Andrei Rublev,’ Tarkovsky contemplates artistry and reality appeared first on The Stanford Daily.

]]>
Many art historians believe that Andrei Rublev was the greatest painter of the 15th century, and his religious icons still adorn churches throughout Russia. In analyzing Rublev’s art, it would be strange to call him a romantic. His images of Jesus, the Virgin Mary and the disciples are not sensuous or rhapsodic. Yet, the writer Ambrose Bierce defined romance in his 1906 work “The Devil’s Dictionary” as that which “owes no allegiance to the God of Things as they are.” Rublev’s icons may not have been erotic or exotic, but they were certainly ethereal.

In his 1966 film about Rublev, Andrei Tarkovsky emphasizes that Rublev’s art does not reflect reality. Tarkovsky envisions Rublev’s medieval Russia as a harsh, inhuman locale. Bestial Tartars roam the countryside, slaughtering innocent Russians. The Russians themselves, however, are not much better. Powerful lords cruelly abuse their subordinates. The poor peasants are squalid and simple-minded. They seek salvation from the Orthodox church, but the clergy is often corrupt and inhospitable. By portraying Rublev’s times in such a spectacularly harsh light, Tarkovsky forces viewers to reconsider the painter’s oeuvre. Rublev constantly depicted miracles in his work, but it seems a miracle that his work was able to come out of this brutal milieu. Ultimately, Tarkovsky’s “Andrei Rublev” examines the artist’s capability to reconfigure reality.

“Andrei Rublev” is not a traditional biopic. Tarkovsky neglects to show many major events of Rublev’s life. For example, from watching the film, it would be impossible to know that Rublev lived for many years on the outskirts of Moscow. Important commissions are mentioned only in passing, and Tarkovsky does not show Rublev creating his masterpieces at the Trinity Cathedral. Rather, Tarkovsky renders eight separate episodes from Rublev’s life. Two of them seem to exemplify the film’s commentary on artistry. Rublev is not the foremost figure in these scenes. He simply happens to be present when a jester is dragged off to prison or when some pagans are persecuted.

Yet, these segments illustrate something more profound than the facts of Rublev’s life. Instead, they reflect different facets of the artist’s character. The jester’s tribulations remind us that the artist is a fool. In these scenes, Tarkovsky echoes the philosophy of the American artist Winslow Homer. In 1868, Homer contributed an illustration to the magazine “Harper’s Weekly,” “Fireworks on the Night of the Fourth of July.” Most of Homer’s crowd reverently watches the pyrotechnic display, but in the foreground, Homer included a self-portrait. This doppelganger wears a titanic top hat, and a stray rocket has hit him on the head. The top hat slides down his face, completely covering his eyes. Compared to his fellow spectators, Homer seems like a jester. In later parts of Tarkovsky’s film, Rublev seems foolish too. He wastes time vacillating about what to paint. Just as the jester is arrested, Rublev’s reputation may be ruined if he cannot carry out the commission. Miraculously, Rublev is finally able to start working. However crazy he may have seemed beforehand, when he is finished, it is undeniable that he has made a masterpiece.

Likewise, when he comes into contact with a group of pagans, Rublev rushes to observe their rituals. In this moment, he exhibits the artist’s fascination with alien cultures. He is not unlike the late 19th-century French painter Paul Gauguin. In 1890, Gauguin paid his first visit to the South Pacific island of Tahiti. He recorded his observations upon arrival. Gauguin went to Tahiti to escape the diseased West, but as he noted in his diary, one woman’s “majestic sculptural form” made him “think of the Triangle of the Trinity.”

While Gauguin proclaimed that he had discovered utopia in Polynesia, Rublev witnesses a horrific scene. Some mysterious rites have been interrupted, and a nude woman runs from vengeful Christians. As he sits in a boat, Rublev watches her reach the riverbank. Then, she starts swimming. She struggles to keep her head above water, but she is not terrified. With a despondent expression on her face, she continues fighting the current. The scene fades out.

This episode may seem detached from Rublev’s gilded images, but towards the end of the film, Tarkovsky features details from the painter’s sublime works. Rublev’s most famous icon is his depiction of the Trinity. Ostensibly, he portrays the three angels who visited Abraham, but through symbolism, he suggests the power of the Holy Trinity. These figures, however, do not seem omnipresent or omniscient. Rather, like the helpless woman, they appear resigned. It is as if Rublev has transplanted her face onto the melancholy visages of these angels. Like Gauguin, he sees the sacred elements of reality.

Yet, painters are not the only artists able to transfigure the real. Even as he unflinchingly captures a crude and cruel world, Tarkovsky crafts transcendent moments. After the jester is taken away, Tarkovsky calls our attention to a cluster of tranquil trees, shrouded in mist. When the pagan swims for her life, Tarkovsky does not focus on her struggle. Instead, he tilts the camera upward and reveals that she is a lone figure in an impressive idyll. By closing the episode on this image, Tarkovsky asserts that this natural beauty is more significant than the woman’s fate. Although Tarkovsky does not shirk from the unpleasantness of medieval times, he is not enslaved by reality. Like the icon painter whose life he documents, Tarkovsky is also a romantic in Bierce’s sense. Because he owes “no allegiance to the God of things as they are,” he is able to create a heavenly work of art.

Contact Amir Abou-Jaoude at amir2 ‘at’ stanford.edu.

The post In ‘Andrei Rublev,’ Tarkovsky contemplates artistry and reality appeared first on The Stanford Daily.

]]>
https://stanforddaily.com/2018/11/28/in-andrei-rublev-tarkovsky-contemplates-artistry-and-reality/feed/ 0 1147285
In ‘Westfront 1918,’ Pabst evokes the traumas of World War I https://stanforddaily.com/2018/11/12/in-westfront-1918-pabst-evokes-the-traumas-of-world-war-i/ https://stanforddaily.com/2018/11/12/in-westfront-1918-pabst-evokes-the-traumas-of-world-war-i/#respond Mon, 12 Nov 2018 14:00:30 +0000 https://stanforddaily.com/?p=1146643 The French film director Jean Cocteau declared that, “A film is a petrified fountain of thought.” His assertion explains why some films seem dated today; ideas fall out of vogue. Today, GW Pabst’s “Westfront 1918” seems hopelessly naïve. The 1931 film focuses on a cohort of four soldiers fighting in France at the end of […]

The post In ‘Westfront 1918,’ Pabst evokes the traumas of World War I appeared first on The Stanford Daily.

]]>
The French film director Jean Cocteau declared that, “A film is a petrified fountain of thought.” His assertion explains why some films seem dated today; ideas fall out of vogue. Today, GW Pabst’s “Westfront 1918” seems hopelessly naïve. The 1931 film focuses on a cohort of four soldiers fighting in France at the end of World War I. These men have no instinct for self-preservation. They stick together regardless of the costs. Furthermore, by illuminating the horrors of war, Pabst proliferates a pacifist doctrine. Towards the end of the film, a wounded soldier expresses hope that after World War I is fought, people will shed their amity towards one another. Two years after the film was released, however, Adolf Hitler became chancellor of Germany. Another world war became inevitable.

Yet, even if Pabst’s philosophy seems antiquated, 100 years after the armistice, “Westfront 1918” is still captivating. In pressing for peace, Pabst unflinchingly documents the atrocities of war. While the narrative is episodic, Pabst is able to create real human drama. Ultimately, “Westfront 1918” reminds us that World War I was not simply a historic event; it affected millions of lives. While Pabst made the film 13 years after the conflict had ended, even this accomplished auteur could not come to terms with its consequences.

In some sense, Pabst was a strange director for this savage story of war. He had achieved renown by making expressionistic melodramas. His most acclaimed film, “Pandora’s Box,” conveyed the sad saga of Lulu, a woman who changes men as quickly as the protagonists of “Westfront 1918” reload their guns. Unfortunately, one of her paramours is Jack the Ripper, and she is murdered. Pabst paid particular attention to the bizarre elements of Lulu’s milieu and drew stark contrasts between darkness and light.

While “Pandora’s Box” is highly stylized, “Westfront 1918” is filmed with unsparing realism. Everything on the battlefield is rendered in a murky gray. Smoke envelops all surroundings, and the vast, deep trenches make the individual soldiers seem insignificant. “Westfront 1918” was Pabst’s first sound film, but he does not rely on dialogue or music. Instead, the soundtrack is simply an unending barrage of artillery fire and confused shouts. Pabst does not need to resort to the theatrics of “Pandora’s Box” to craft a compelling tale. After all, the anguished screams of shellshocked victims are as bloodcurdling as any one of Jack the Ripper’s crimes.

Like “Pandora’s Box,” “Westfront 1918” features an adulteress. One of the soldiers returns home on leave and, upon walking into the bedroom, finds his wife sleeping with another man. Yet, while Lulu seeks to challenge societal mores, the soldier’s wife is just trying to support herself. Inflation has caused bread prices to rise, so she is in desperate need of money. Unskilled and uneducated, she has no choice but to become a prostitute. Because of the war, even an act of adultery can be morally justified. Just as thick, gray smoke obscures the battlefield, so it complicates traditional notions of right and wrong.

By calling attention to these complexities, Pabst echoed ideas that several writers had already expressed about the war. Just as Pabst made his reputation with “Pandora’s Box,” the young poet Wilfred Owen admired Romantic poets like John Keats and Lord Byron. Writers like Keats and Byron often concentrated on the supernatural and the sensational. When he arrived on the front lines, however, Owen realized that his idols’ mystical lines could not convey war’s abominations. Therefore, in his poetry, he avoided the flowery lyricism of the Romantics. His description of a gas attack in “Dulce et Decorum est” is haunting. Owen and his compatriots are “bent double, like old beggars under sacks, knock-kneed, coughing like hags.” After vividly describing the inhumanity of war, Owen exposes “the old lie” – Horace’s statement that it is good and honorable to die for your country. The war has called into question the classical foundations of Western civilization.

Tragically, Owen perished in the trenches. Still, his poetry has become an immortal declaration of war’s inhumanity. Pabst gives visual expression to Owen’s words. At the end of the film, he shows the wounded arriving at the hospital. A man, his face pale white and his hair tussled, stares lifeless into space. He can do nothing but scream. Two orderlies take his arms and drag him off camera to the hospital. Another man shouts “I’m blind!” with such anguish that Oedipus would be ashamed.

Owen also describes a wounded soldier in his poem and insists that the reader would work to stop to war “if in some smothering dreams, you too could pace behind the wagon that we flung him in, and watch the white eyes writhing in his face, his hanging face, like a devil’s sick of sin.” Pabst does include a scene in which two wounded soldiers link hands and call each other comrades. This may seem unduly optimistic. Yet, Pabst also allows us to “pace behind the wagon” and “watch the white eyes writhing in his face.” Therefore, this “petrified fountain of thought” becomes “a smothering dream.” The events depicted in “Westfront 1918” occurred a century ago, but the film provides access to them. We understand Pabst’s misguided hopes for the future even as he smothers us in the harsh realities of war.

 

Contact Amir Abou-Jaoude at amir2 ‘at’ stanford.edu.

The post In ‘Westfront 1918,’ Pabst evokes the traumas of World War I appeared first on The Stanford Daily.

]]>
https://stanforddaily.com/2018/11/12/in-westfront-1918-pabst-evokes-the-traumas-of-world-war-i/feed/ 0 1146643
Culture and the occult: Eerie reads for Halloweek https://stanforddaily.com/2018/11/01/culture-and-the-occult-eerie-reads-for-halloweek/ https://stanforddaily.com/2018/11/01/culture-and-the-occult-eerie-reads-for-halloweek/#respond Thu, 01 Nov 2018 13:00:23 +0000 https://stanforddaily.com/?p=1146040 Witches, wizards and magical beasts — the trappings of both a Harry Potter-themed YouTube musical and, often, the Freudian parade we have dubbed “Halloween.” Since October comes second only to December in crafting the mood of a full month around a single holiday — on the last day, no less! — it’s worth indulging in […]

The post Culture and the occult: Eerie reads for Halloweek appeared first on The Stanford Daily.

]]>
Witches, wizards and magical beasts — the trappings of both a Harry Potter-themed YouTube musical and, often, the Freudian parade we have dubbed “Halloween.” Since October comes second only to December in crafting the mood of a full month around a single holiday — on the last day, no less! — it’s worth indulging in the spooky spirit sometimes, as I did in my Halloween book recommendations last year. None of the books I’m discussing are really Halloween-specific, so feel free to read these well into the wild, windswept winter — but these titles will help any Halloween hopefuls along, of course.

 

1. Deborah Harkness, “A Discovery of Witches”

A “Twilight” for the Anglophiles among us, “A Discovery of Witches,” written by USC historian Deborah Harkness, is the first in the author’s “All Souls” trilogy, which explores the supernatural society simmering under the surface of our own, populated by witches, vampires and demons. Diana Bishop, our protagonist and the descendent of a Salem-executed witch, is a historian of alchemy researching her latest work in Oxford, where she encounters the complex, polite, self-destructive Matthew Clairmont — a vampire. Detailed and sprawling yet fast-paced, “A Discovery of Witches” is a charismatic romance novel crossed with a fantastical political thriller (if you make it to book two, there’s even time travel!), and, conveniently, now an aesthetically exquisite television series on Sky One.

 

2. Oscar Wilde, “The Picture of Dorian Gray”

Since finally finishing “The Picture of Dorian Gray” in July (in a European coffee shop! With a violet highlighting pen! Wilde would be so proud), my lasting impression is just how funny this novel is — of course, it’s Wilde, so it’s automatically witty and contemplative and sardonic, but Dorian is also hilariously petulant, Henry egotistically pithy and Basil sadly besotted. It’s not really a send-up of hedonism, as is commonly cited, but a condemnation of selfishness and inauthenticity and the harm they inevitably incite, wrapped in the ribbon of Wilde’s prose and the repressed, lamp-lit aesthetic of late-19th-century England.

 

3. Laura Amy Schlitz, “A Drowned Maiden’s Hair”

I think about this book every goddamn day. Yanked at random from the local library’s bookshelf when I was about 10 years old, “A Drowned Maiden’s Hair” was a kind of formative text for me. Following willful, 11-year-old orphan Maud Flynn as she is abruptly adopted by weird sisters Hyacinth, Judith and Victoria, we sink into turn-of-the-20th-century spiritualism and sham séances, in which Maud is ordered to take part. Playing the deceased daughter of a bereaved, wealthy widow, Maud becomes a ghostly child herself, secreted away in the sisters’ attic and doomed to endure heartbreak, psychological manipulation and neglect alone. As Maud grapples with her growing conscience and the insincere smiles of sinister adults, “A Drowned Maiden’s Hair” combines ghost story and Gothic melodrama, becoming a moving and suspenseful tale that is ultimately about a little girl who wants to be loved.

 

4. Scott Westerfeld, “Peeps”

A zombie-apocalypse-meets-vampire-epidemic, Westerfeld’s comedic dystopia is not quite urban fantasy and not quite a biochemical disaster story. With vampirism manifesting as a kind of radical STI, narrator Cal Thompson caught the bug from goth hookup Morgan, but, rather than craving blood and hissing at sunlight, he’s a silent carrier – still contagious, but also still lucid. Action-packed and unsentimental, “Peeps” — named for those who have contracted the infection, “parasite positives” — is an intellectualized explanation for the vampire legend, littered with callbacks to evolutionary science and reminders to the audience that the most terrifying thing of all is how we, more often than not, are at the cold mercy of Mother Nature.

 

5. Libba Bray, “A Great and Terrible Beauty”

The inaugural installment in Libba Bray’s New York Times-acclaimed “Gemma Doyle” trilogy, “A Great and Terrible Beauty” combines the best tropes of the young adult and Gothic genres: a Victorian boarding school, a young ingénue beset upon by dark visions, the lingering ghosts of dead children, gossipy girl groups and an unsettling but breathtaking mansion and a dash of dark academia. “A Great and Terrible Beauty” is complicated, compelling and deliciously dark, the kind of story best consumed on a stormy night, curled up against the cold glass of a window, wondering if there might be something out there you’re not seeing.

 

6. Emily Brontë, “Wuthering Heights”

While one might recall “Wuthering Heights” as the book that Stephanie Meyer had Bella Swan read and reread to make her seem “intellectual” to teen audiences, Emily Brontë’s only novel is actually an exemplary model of 19th-century Gothic fiction in and of itself. With its bleak, blustery moors and toxic, symbiotic love, “Wuthering Heights” is “a fiend of a book – an incredible monster,” according to Daniel Gabriel Rossetti, the very embodiment of the terrifying, exhilarating sublime. “Wuthering Heights” is wild, possessive, bewitching, tempestuous, violent — neither Cathy nor Heathcliff are likable, and they can’t be, but they are deeply compelling and fascinatingly complicated. Ripe with Gothic tropes such as the frame narrative, the unhealthy heterosexual relationship and the sins of the past revisited and the liminality of death, “Wuthering Heights” probes the duality of man, the monstrosity inherent in the human and wonders just how layered, how dangerous, the human mind can be.

 

It seems deeply ironic to end this article on the number six, since — according to an extremely surface-level Google search — six, in numerology, is the number of empathy and loving relationships, of a “unconditional love, healing, and nurturing.” While it’s no seven — the most powerfully magical number, according to both JK Rowling and alchemical texts — and no 13  — how I wish this article had been published on Oct. 13, but alas, it remained unwritten — I’ll leave you with the wry, sarcastic number and wish you creepy reading.

 

Contact Claire Francis at claire97 ‘at’ stanford.edu.

The post Culture and the occult: Eerie reads for Halloweek appeared first on The Stanford Daily.

]]>
https://stanforddaily.com/2018/11/01/culture-and-the-occult-eerie-reads-for-halloweek/feed/ 0 A Very Potter Musical Act 1 Part 1 nonadult 1146040
Dietrich is an extraordinary actress in ‘The Scarlet Empress’ https://stanforddaily.com/2018/10/23/dietrich-is-an-extraordinary-actress-in-the-scarlet-empress/ https://stanforddaily.com/2018/10/23/dietrich-is-an-extraordinary-actress-in-the-scarlet-empress/#respond Tue, 23 Oct 2018 14:30:52 +0000 https://stanforddaily.com/?p=1145470 In “How to Marry the Man of Your Choice,” self-help sultan Margaret Kent gives advice to all those afflicted with mania for males. She cautions her adherents that they should not deploy sex as a weapon against their men. Sex, she states, is as powerful as “the hydrogen bomb,” and therefore should be used only […]

The post Dietrich is an extraordinary actress in ‘The Scarlet Empress’ appeared first on The Stanford Daily.

]]>
In “How to Marry the Man of Your Choice,” self-help sultan Margaret Kent gives advice to all those afflicted with mania for males. She cautions her adherents that they should not deploy sex as a weapon against their men. Sex, she states, is as powerful as “the hydrogen bomb,” and therefore should be used only “in the most extreme circumstances.”

In Josef von Sternberg’s “The Scarlet Empress,” Princess Sophia Frederica finds herself in extreme circumstances. She is forced to leave her parents, change her name to Catherine and travel to Russia to become Peter III’s bride. Although Peter is the heir to the throne, he is crazed, fixated on his toy soldiers rather than the future of Russia. He treats Catherine as little more than a prized mare. Her only function is to bear Peter’s child. Catherine, however, refuses to play her part. She is preoccupied with power, and therefore, she starts to craft a coup. By the end of the film, Sophia Frederica has transformed into Catherine the Great, otherwise known as The Scarlet Empress.

Von Sternberg elucidates how Catherine employs sex to become enthroned. Yet, the film is no salacious saga. His muse, Marlene Dietrich, portrays Catherine not as a screen siren, but as a skilled actor. While Von Sternberg creates a highly stylized world, Dietrich demonstrates that pretense is a crucial component in seizing power.

At the start of the film, von Sternberg makes clear that Catherine does not have much agency. He introduces the adult Catherine as she frolics at her home in Germany. She is seated on an enormous swing, and she dramatically flies through the frame. For this image, von Sternberg drew inspiration from Jean-Honore Fragonard’s “The Swing,” a painting made in 1767 during Catherine’s reign. Just as a young woman is the focal point of Fragonard’s composition, Catherine is at the center of von Sternberg’s shot. Luscious greenery surrounds both, and even as their skirts billow, their environments seem to engulf them. A young man tries to peek up the skirt of Fragonard’s figure. Catherine actually swings toward the camera, and it peers into her skirt. Von Sternberg has transformed his entire audience into voyeurs. Therefore, Catherine does not seem like a real woman, but an object of desire.

When Catherine arrives in Russia, however, circumstances change. Just as von Sternberg referenced Rococo paintings in depicting Catherine’s Germany, the look of his Russia is influenced by another style of painting popular in the late 18th century — Romanticism. Gargoyles and grotesque religious icons populate the halls of the imperial palace. These bizarre creatures seem to come out of paintings by the British artist Henry Fuseli. Fuseli, whose career was roughly contemporaneous with Catherine’s, achieved renown for his stark, haunting portraits of demons. As she tries to survive alongside these abominations, Catherine seems doomed.

Still, “The Scarlet Empress” is enthralling because Catherine does manage to surmount all obstacles that stand in her way. In a certain sense, von Sternberg’s mise-en-scene compliments Marlene Dietrich’s performance. While von Sternberg’s stylized shots emphasize the severity of Catherine’s plight, Dietrich always remains calculating and coy. While von Sternberg keeps viewers cognizant of the difficulties she faces, Dietrich assures them that Catherine will triumph.

Dietrich’s performance may be off-putting to some. After all, wouldn’t a woman trapped in this Fuseli-esque nightmare panic? How can Dietrich nonchalantly tell a priest she doesn’t need the church’s help to organize her coup? How can she coolly convince him that she “has weapons that are more powerful than any political machine?”

Catherine has no reason to possess such confidence, but she acts as if her ascension to the throne is all but assured. In a 2001 lecture he delivered for the National Endowment for the Humanities, the playwright Arthur Miller asserted that actors and politicians were very much alike. He noted that President Ronald Reagan was able to “disarm his opponents by never showing the slightest sign of inner conflict about the truth of what he was saying.” Similarly, Dietrich never gives expression to Catherine’s inner conflict. By keeping calm throughout the film, Dietrich reveals how Catherine seizes the crown.

Of course, when Catherine claims she “has weapons that are more powerful than any political machine,” she is describing “the hydrogen bomb.” Indeed, Dietrich uses sex to win the crucial support of the army. She engages in a long romance with the captain of the guard, but soon, she discovers that she is not his only paramour. Thus, after one amorous evening, she asks the captain to answer the door. Outside, another brave soldier awaits her affections. Ultimately, the captain is disposable. Just as Reagan “could tell you that atmospheric pollution came from trees or that ketchup was a vegetable in school lunches,” Catherine can tell men that she loves them. They accept it unquestioningly.

In her quest for power, Catherine contradicts Margaret Kent. There is a weapon more powerful than sex — artifice. Although she is trapped in an artificial world, Catherine commandeers artifice for her own purposes. By the end of the film, Catherine isn’t only “the scarlet empress.” She’s an empress of an actress.

 

Contact Amir Abou-Jaoude at amir2 ‘at’ stanford.edu.

The post Dietrich is an extraordinary actress in ‘The Scarlet Empress’ appeared first on The Stanford Daily.

]]>
https://stanforddaily.com/2018/10/23/dietrich-is-an-extraordinary-actress-in-the-scarlet-empress/feed/ 0 1145470
Marin Theatre Company’s ‘Oslo’ gives us a piece of narrated history https://stanforddaily.com/2018/10/18/marin-theatre-companys-oslo-gives-us-a-piece-of-narrated-history/ https://stanforddaily.com/2018/10/18/marin-theatre-companys-oslo-gives-us-a-piece-of-narrated-history/#respond Thu, 18 Oct 2018 11:30:48 +0000 https://stanforddaily.com/?p=1145101 The 2017 Tony Award-winning play by J.T. Rogers depicts a fictionalized tale of the story of the Oslo Accords, a 1990s agreement between Israel and the Palestine Liberation Organization. At Marin Theatre Company, “Oslo” is essentially a political drama — the set is built like a government meeting room, with perfectly clean-cut wooden tables and […]

The post Marin Theatre Company’s ‘Oslo’ gives us a piece of narrated history appeared first on The Stanford Daily.

]]>
The 2017 Tony Award-winning play by J.T. Rogers depicts a fictionalized tale of the story of the Oslo Accords, a 1990s agreement between Israel and the Palestine Liberation Organization. At Marin Theatre Company, “Oslo” is essentially a political drama — the set is built like a government meeting room, with perfectly clean-cut wooden tables and velveteen blue love-seats that yearn for pressed suits and newly-bought dresses to sit upon their oft-groomed surfaces.

Even in the first few minutes, it’s clear that “Oslo” isn’t your ordinary Tony Award-winning play. In fact, it defies expectations of Tony-winning plays — it’s realistic, but it strays just far away from reality and a perfect representation of people existing in reality. Mona Juul (Erica Sullivan), an official in the Norwegian ministry of foreign affairs, narrates the nearly three-hour-long play by breaking out of the world of the play and speaking directly to the audience.

It’s often seen as a theatrical cliché — something that’s overused by amateur playwrights by placing narration directly into the script instead of depicting it onstage. However, I’ll give “Oslo” a pass for this — on two accounts.

First, breaking down the Oslo Accords does require some background. I came into the play with just superficial exposure, and Mona’s explanations of each key player helped immensely. Her narration also serves a secondary (and perhaps more important) purpose of showing her lens into the world. She’s extraordinarily clever and well-respected, and she knows way more than people usually expect from her. Although she’s a diplomat, she’s also the wife of Terje Rød-Larsen (Mark Anderson Phillips), another relatively prominent diplomat and head of a research institute — and thus, she’s constantly overshadowed (at least, in the fictionalized version — I can’t speak for reality). With her help, the audience can understand the complex politics of the “Oslo” world without losing sight of the fast-paced dialogue and narrative.

Second, Rogers pushes this boundary of the fourth wall and steers the audience to see the world through Mona’s eyes. Even though it’s Terje who supposedly “leads” the push towards creating the accords, ultimately it’s Mona’s efforts that make it work. She’s the one that the Israelis and Palestinians want to talk to and entertain; she’s the one who helps Terje out of his anxiety-induced moments of panic. Through her eyes, we can see Oslo how one might see if you were approaching it analytically — even though the play is presented in an “objective” sense, we’re ultimately seeing it the way she sees it — the dimwit men and all. She’s the level-headed one, the smart one, the one who should be making all the decisions — but unfortunately, Marin still doesn’t give her enough credit.

Again, it’s Rogers who pushes for the audience to question how Mona is treated in “Oslo.” Even though it is a play about the Oslo Accords, it’s also (and more importantly) a play about power dynamics — what is said and what isn’t said. The characters push and pull between who to tell important information, who not to tell — when to sneak in a key piece of knowledge and when to withhold it. Mona is perhaps the most effective at this, and this is also why she’s the narrator — Terje is just too self-absorbed, and other characters don’t know enough of the story.

No matter how well-produced, there is still something about “Oslo” that begs some sort of deeper investigation of the script — there’s something about the production that’s missing. It’s pristinely directed by Jasson Minadakis, every set piece beautifully designed by Sean Fanning — but even in the three hours that we all sit in the dark, I craved more. Mona was pushed to her limits but she never truly breaks through — even in the end, she comforts Terje when he realizes that they won’t be honored at the Oslo Accords ceremony even though they facilitated the entire thing in secret. In that moment, I hoped that Terje would recognize Mona, or that some sort of recognition that would pass over her. Instead, she’s left as a symbol of male fragility even in the face of female empowerment and authority that should have left her as a mark of resilience in the world.

Contact Olivia Popp at oliviapopp ‘at’ stanford.edu.

The post Marin Theatre Company’s ‘Oslo’ gives us a piece of narrated history appeared first on The Stanford Daily.

]]>
https://stanforddaily.com/2018/10/18/marin-theatre-companys-oslo-gives-us-a-piece-of-narrated-history/feed/ 0 1145101
Satyajit Ray muses on movies and money in ‘The Hero’ https://stanforddaily.com/2018/10/12/satyajit-ray-muses-on-movies-and-money-in-the-hero/ https://stanforddaily.com/2018/10/12/satyajit-ray-muses-on-movies-and-money-in-the-hero/#respond Fri, 12 Oct 2018 15:00:37 +0000 https://stanforddaily.com/?p=1144729 The artist Andy Warhol once commented that, “All art is commercial art.” Satyajit Ray’s cinema, however, was steadfastly noncommercial. Ray was a certified auteur who made no concessions to the box office and preserved his personal vision at all costs. Although his films were acclaimed both in India and abroad, they were not as profitable […]

The post Satyajit Ray muses on movies and money in ‘The Hero’ appeared first on The Stanford Daily.

]]>
The artist Andy Warhol once commented that, “All art is commercial art.” Satyajit Ray’s cinema, however, was steadfastly noncommercial. Ray was a certified auteur who made no concessions to the box office and preserved his personal vision at all costs. Although his films were acclaimed both in India and abroad, they were not as profitable as big Bollywood spectacles or popular Bengali movies.

Therefore, Ray’s 1966 film “The Hero” comes as a surprise. He cast matinee idol Uttam Kumar as the protagonist. Like Kumar, Arindam Mukherjee is also a beloved movie star. All of his films have enjoyed smashing success, and his romantic exploits fill the pages of fan magazines. Still, Mukherjee knows that his status is far from secure. He has a premonition that his latest film will flop, so he takes a train from Calcutta to New Delhi. En route, he meets a young journalist, and when she interviews him, he is forced to reevaluate his life and career.

In conveying Mukherjee’s existential crisis, Ray expounds on Warhol’s statement. He draws attention to the striking parallels between “commercial” art and “high” art. In doing so, he considers the purpose of movies and the insecurity of moviemakers.

In some sense, the hero of “The Hero” is troubled because he has “sold out.” He began his career in the theater and he had modest ambitions; then, he booked a part in a major motion picture. His shrewd mentor cautions him not to become embroiled in the movie industry, claiming that, “There’s glamour in films, but they have nothing to do with art.” Nonetheless, Mukherjee pursues stardom.

Myriad directors have made films on the theme of earning cash at the expense of craft. In Damien Chazelle’s recent musical “La La Land,” Sebastian (Ryan Gosling) is lured away from his love of jazz when Keith (John Legend) promises him financial security. The protagonists in the various versions of “A Star is Born” are all wealthy but creatively moribund, so much so that they seek out an ingénue to revitalize them.  While these movies illustrate the repercussions of losing artistic integrity, Ray’s comment on the subject is more complex. His goal in “The Hero” is not simply to demonstrate that films have something to do with art, but to ponder the utility of creating art.

The writer W. Somerset Maugham argued that art was absolutely necessary to human existence because it is “the refuge which the ingenious have invented … to escape the tediousness of life.” Mukherjee’s romantic dramas are certainly not “ingenious,” yet through his acting, he helps ordinary people “escape the tediousness of life.” The other passengers on the train come from different parts of the country and have diverse reasons for embarking on the journey. Yet, Mukherjee’s popular movies serve as a common language. An old codger rails against the immorality of movie stars. An advertising executive’s young wife aspires to act in films, and she is willing to pursue her dream no matter the cost. Mukherjee shares his compartment with a sick child, and after she sees her screen hero, she speedily recovers. Even if Mukherjee feels empty after playing in banal movies, he has helped his fans feel whole. Had he remained in the theater, he never would have possessed this power.

While Mukherjee surmounts the commonplace through his acting, Ray revels in the mundane. The other characters in the film are not stars, and Ray treats them accordingly. They exist on the margins of the movie. Their stories are fractured into fragments, and when they arrive in Delhi, their stories are not resolved. The films that feature Mukherjee are all fantasies, but Ray allows his audience to escape the ordinary simply by rendering it on screen.

Many critics claim that Ray’s faithful portrayal of everyday life is a signature component of his style. These writers usually subscribe to the auteur theory. Andre Bazin, who played a key role in developing the auteur theory, asserted that the auteur “always tells the same story” and has “the same moral judgments on the actors and the characters.” Ray makes “moral judgments” on his characters by depicting their quotidian actions. Yet, if he is always using this technique and always telling the same story, how is he any different from Mukherjee, who plays the same character over and over again?

Bazin also declared that directors are still artists, even if not all of their films are works of art. He reasoned that, “One can accept the permanence of talent without confusing it with infallibility or immunity against making mistakes.” Over the course of the film, Mukherjee accepts what Bazin asserts – that talent is not a safeguard against starring in a flop. “The Hero” was a critical, but not a commercial success. Like Mukherjee, Ray too had his share of failures. The hero of the masses and the hero of movie connoisseurs encounter the same risks as they try to provide a refuge from the tediousness of life. Yet, perhaps Mukherjee and Ray are heroes precisely because they accept these risks and continue to make art – commercial or not.

“The Hero” will screen at SFMOMA on Sunday, Oct. 14.

 

Contact Amir Abou-Jaoude at amir2 ‘at’ stanford.edu.

The post Satyajit Ray muses on movies and money in ‘The Hero’ appeared first on The Stanford Daily.

]]>
https://stanforddaily.com/2018/10/12/satyajit-ray-muses-on-movies-and-money-in-the-hero/feed/ 0 1144729
In ‘The Awful Truth,’ McCarey crafts a comedy about class https://stanforddaily.com/2018/10/08/in-the-awful-truth-mccarey-crafts-a-comedy-about-class/ https://stanforddaily.com/2018/10/08/in-the-awful-truth-mccarey-crafts-a-comedy-about-class/#respond Mon, 08 Oct 2018 12:30:07 +0000 https://stanforddaily.com/?p=1144417 The awful truth is that husband and wife Jerry and Lucy Warriner love each other, but, as Lucy notes, there’s “nothing less logical than the truth.” Indeed, Jerry and Lucy’s love seems to defy logic. They are soulmates, but they invite other mates into their beds. They can’t remain separated, but they can’t stand being […]

The post In ‘The Awful Truth,’ McCarey crafts a comedy about class appeared first on The Stanford Daily.

]]>
The awful truth is that husband and wife Jerry and Lucy Warriner love each other, but, as Lucy notes, there’s “nothing less logical than the truth.” Indeed, Jerry and Lucy’s love seems to defy logic. They are soulmates, but they invite other mates into their beds. They can’t remain separated, but they can’t stand being together. They reveal their innermost feelings to each other, but they can’t resist taking cheap shots at the other’s expense. They decide it would be best for both of them to divorce, but over the course of “The Awful Truth,” they realize they have to stay married.

The success of Leo McCarey’s film seems similarly illogical. It was released in 1937, at the height of the Great Depression. In The New York Times, reviewer B.R. Crisler critiqued the film, writing, “To be frank, ‘The Awful Truth’ is awfully unimportant.” Crisler probably would have preferred “important” 1937 productions like “The Good Earth,” a sobering study of Chinese farmers, or “The Life of Emile Zola,” a tribute to one of France’s greatest writers, or “Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs,” the first animated feature ever produced. “The Awful Truth” has none of the social relevance of “The Good Earth,” none of the prestige of “The Life of Emile Zola” and none of the technological novelty of “Snow White.” Still, this movie was a hit. Why did contemporary audiences enjoy this examination of eccentric elites?  McCarey’s film is expertly written and directed and features stellar performances from Irene Dunne and Cary Grant. Yet, the movie is also important because it reflects Depression-era conceptions of class in America.

Jerry and Lucy certainly belong to the upper echelon of New York society. At the beginning of the film, Jerry visits the Gotham Athletic Club, an establishment that only caters to an exclusive clientele. Lucy takes voice lessons with a preeminent European instructor. Jerry wears fine tuxedos. Lucy dons lavish dresses and is decked in furs. They own a spacious home and hire a maid. Their martial problems have no effect on their pocketbooks. After divorcing, they both move into posh apartments and woo people just as prosperous as they are. Lucy takes up with an oil tycoon from Oklahoma while Jerry courts a-stuck-up socialite.

Even as they engage in these romantic pursuits, however, Lucy and Jerry are discontent. Lucy sits in her apartment, staring listlessly into the distance. When Jerry runs into Lucy and her new beau at a dance club, he is riveted as they cut a rug. McCarey was not the only artist interested in the melancholy of the millionaires at this time. As he was shooting “The Awful Truth,” Cole Porter was writing a song called “Down in the Depths on the 90th Floor.” The protagonist of Porter’s work is the proud owner of a penthouse, but she does not possess a paramour. Desperately, she asks, “When the only one you wanted wants another, what’s the use of swank and cash in the bank galore?” McCarey echoes Porter’s sentiment. Money cannot solve Jerry and Lucy’s difficulties when they are together or ease their longing for each other when they are apart.

Porter and McCarey not only express a similar idea, but they also express it in the same way. Porter employs extravagant language in his lyric. No one, not even a despondent debutante, uses the word “galore” in everyday parlance. Likewise, McCarey makes Jerry and Lucy go to ludicrous lengths to demonstrate their shared love. Jerry must best Lucy’s lecherous voice teacher in a jujitsu match. He wreaks havoc on her apartment when her fiancée from Oklahoma visits. To break up Jerry’s affair, Lucy pretends that she is his sister. She regales her rival with tales of his excessive drinking and loose morals. After she says that she works in a nightclub, she treats the society heiress to a salacious (and hilarious) performance.

These absurd acts of devotion illustrate an idea that President Franklin Roosevelt articulated in his First Inaugural Address. Shortly after he assured Americans that “the only thing we have to fear is fear itself,” Roosevelt reminded them that “happiness lies not in the mere possession of money; it lies in the joy of achievement, in the thrill of creative effort.” Jerry and Lucy are ingeniously imaginative as they win each other over. In fact, their inventiveness explains their eventual success in solving their disputes. Lucy’s suitor tempts her with his assets in Oklahoma City. Jerry’s flame offers him a permanent position in New York society. Yet, these promises of wealth cannot compare to the pranks Lucy and Jerry pull on each other. Therefore, they must stay together.

Just as Jerry and Lucy’s creativity rescues their marriage, McCarey’s creativity prevents “The Awful Truth” from becoming dated. While it reflects the rhetoric of its era, Jerry and Lucy’s antics are ageless. Jerry and Lucy’s witty repartee and slapstick shenanigans are so delightful that they defy description. Even B.R. Crisler had to admit that this film was “original and daring.” Perhaps the least logical truth of all is that, 80 years after its release, this “unimportant” diversion is as original and as daring and as entertaining as ever.

 

Contact Amir Abou-Jaoude at amir2 ‘at’ stanford.edu.

The post In ‘The Awful Truth,’ McCarey crafts a comedy about class appeared first on The Stanford Daily.

]]>
https://stanforddaily.com/2018/10/08/in-the-awful-truth-mccarey-crafts-a-comedy-about-class/feed/ 0 1144417
In ‘El Sur,’ Victor Erice contemplates childhood https://stanforddaily.com/2018/10/05/in-el-sur-victor-erice-contemplates-childhood/ https://stanforddaily.com/2018/10/05/in-el-sur-victor-erice-contemplates-childhood/#respond Fri, 05 Oct 2018 15:00:59 +0000 https://stanforddaily.com/?p=1144356 If, as the writer Charles Baudelaire asserted, “genius is childhood recalled at will,” then the Spanish director Victor Erice is a genius. In his 1983 film “El Sur,” he conveys the poignant story of Estrella, a girl growing up during Franco’s reign in Spain. Estrella lives in the cold, forbidding north of the country. Her […]

The post In ‘El Sur,’ Victor Erice contemplates childhood appeared first on The Stanford Daily.

]]>
If, as the writer Charles Baudelaire asserted, “genius is childhood recalled at will,” then the Spanish director Victor Erice is a genius. In his 1983 film “El Sur,” he conveys the poignant story of Estrella, a girl growing up during Franco’s reign in Spain. Estrella lives in the cold, forbidding north of the country. Her father is a scientist. To the ignorant villagers, he seems to be some kind of miracle worker as he uses a pendulum or measures depth for a well. He explains to Estrella the mechanics of each phenomenon, but he refuses to tell his daughter about his own childhood. He grew up in the south of Spain in a time of intense strife. At first, Estrella is too young to comprehend her father’s demons. To her, the south is simply a tropical locale. As she gets older, however, she realizes that her father is a complex, tortured man. Through Estrella’s story, Erice explores the profound mysteries of youth and examines the lingering effects of trauma.

“El Sur” is only 90 minutes long, and in that time, Estrella ages from a curious child to a contemplative woman. Yet, the film never seems rushed. The adult Estrella comments on her childhood in voiceover. She bridges some of the abrupt cuts in the film. For example, after Estrella tries to hide from her father as a little girl, the adult Estrella enigmatically says, “I grew up more or less like everyone else does. I got used to being alone.” These comments not only provide transitions between moments in time, but they also supply perspective. Within the frame, Estrella carefully experiences youth and adolescence, but on the soundtrack, a mature adult ponders the meaning of her formative years.

Erice’s images similarly mark the passage the of time and the acquisition of insight. Erice worked with the cinematographer Jose Luis Alcaine to create painterly compositions, flooded with light and color. Early in the film, the frames seem tinged with a golden hue. In some sense, these shots recall the work of the 19th-century painter Francisco Goya. Goya was the court painter for Charles III, and he often focused on families of the Spanish nobility. He painted the son of the count and countess of Altamira. The little boy appears in a gossamer crimson dress, and bright light bounces off a wall behind him. Likewise, Erice and Alcaine photograph Estrella in her communion dress. She too is ensconced in glorious, bountiful light.

Yet, just as Goya exchanged his warm color palette for bleak black tones, so Erice and Alcaine alter the hues they use. As Estrella ages and begins to understand that her father is a complicated man, he transforms into a monumental presence that eclipses everything around him. In a way, he resembles Goya’s depiction of Saturn in his late painting. Just as Saturn devours his son, Estrella’s father has devoured the light that filled the earlier images. As she comes closer to adulthood, Estrella’s perspective of her father shifts once again. He shrinks and becomes an ordinary man. These final images are suffused with cool colors. Frequently, the camera observes Estrella’s father from a distance. Now that she is grown, Estrella can consider her father’s actions objectively. He no longer appears to be an incarnation of Goya’s monster.

Erice, however, shares another concern with Goya – the lingering traumas of war. Goya made a series of stark etchings highlighting the human cost of the Napoleonic Wars in Spain. Erice does not actually portray the events of the Spanish Civil War, but throughout the film, he suggests that it has permanently shaped Spain and affects Estrella’s childhood. Estrella cannot understand why her father left the south. She knows the region only from picturesque postcards, and it seems irresistibly exotic. Then, her grandmother and friend come up north to visit. They tell her that her father had a falling out with her grandfather. While her grandfather supported Franco, her father fought in the Republican Army. After Franco won, her father resolved never to return. The decision has weighed heavily on him.

Later, Estrella sees her father surreptitiously visit a movie theater. He keeps patronizing films that star an obscure actress, Irene Rios. Estrella soon discovers that her father had a romance with Irene, but their idyll was disrupted by the conflict. His inability to stay with her has become a source of turmoil.

It’s significant that Estrella’s encounters with the country’s past are all mediated through art. She needs her grandmother’s stories or the movies in order to understand history. Ultimately, in “El Sur,” Erice reflects on art’s capacity to serve as a conduit to the past. If Estrella turns to art to comprehend the civil war, Erice’s art illuminates a more intimate, but no less interesting, past – that inscrutable realm called childhood.

 

Contact Amir Abou-Jaoude at amir2 ‘at’ stanford.edu.

The post In ‘El Sur,’ Victor Erice contemplates childhood appeared first on The Stanford Daily.

]]>
https://stanforddaily.com/2018/10/05/in-el-sur-victor-erice-contemplates-childhood/feed/ 0 1144356
Von Sternberg creates a land of light and shadow in ‘Shanghai Express’ https://stanforddaily.com/2018/10/04/von-sternberg-creates-a-land-of-light-and-shadow-in-shanghai-express/ https://stanforddaily.com/2018/10/04/von-sternberg-creates-a-land-of-light-and-shadow-in-shanghai-express/#respond Thu, 04 Oct 2018 15:00:08 +0000 https://stanforddaily.com/?p=1144285 “Shanghai Express” was initially released in 1932, and in its opening credits, it shows its age. The title is displayed as a man hits a large gong. Other credits are superimposed on images of lotus blossoms. The text itself resembles the font used on Chinese restaurant menus. Then, the film proper begins. A train is […]

The post Von Sternberg creates a land of light and shadow in ‘Shanghai Express’ appeared first on The Stanford Daily.

]]>
“Shanghai Express” was initially released in 1932, and in its opening credits, it shows its age. The title is displayed as a man hits a large gong. Other credits are superimposed on images of lotus blossoms. The text itself resembles the font used on Chinese restaurant menus.

Then, the film proper begins. A train is about to depart from Peking, bound for Shanghai. A plethora of peculiar passengers arrives. All are deceitful in some sense. The French military officer who boards the train is just pretending to be a soldier. Mrs. Haggerty appears to be a kindly old biddy, but she is trying to sneak her beloved dog onto the train. Captain Harvey is not actually going to Shanghai for pleasure—he is performing a secret operation on the city’s governor.

Most immoral of all are the two courtesans onboard—the intrepid Hui Fei and the notorious Shanghai Lily. Captain Harvey is surprised when he discovers Shanghai Lily is actually his former lover, Madeline. When he confronts her about her dramatic transformation, she simply responds, “it took more than one man to change my name to Shanghai Lily” and notes that if she has only one regret about how things turned out. If she had to do it all over again, she wouldn’t have bobbed her hair. Yet, when Harvey is held hostage by Chinese revolutionaries, Shanghai Lily’s nonchalance disappears. Both she and Hui Fei are forced to make difficult choices in order to save his life.

In conveying this story of courtesans and crooks, von Sternberg dispenses with gongs, lotus blossoms, and other Chinese clichés. Instead, he sets “Shanghai Express” in his own imaginary domain—a domain shaped by light and shadow and dominated by Marlene Dietrich.

When the film was released, New York Times reviewer Mourdant Hall felt that it transported viewers to “the country where ‘time and life mean nothing.’” Yet, even he acknowledged that the movie was much more exciting than a real trip to China. Hall breathlessly wrote that the film includes “a killing by stabbing, men popped off by machine gun fire, the revelation as to the real identity of a few of the passengers and a romance between a woman of many casual affairs and a British Army surgeon.” The film was not a document of the Orient, but an escape from the mundane.

Von Sternberg’s form of escapism, however, differed from entertainment his peers produced. He is not really concerned with the “romance between a woman of many casual affairs and a British Army surgeon.” The real romance is between Dietrich and von Sternberg. He makes her the focus of every shot. Just as Titian floods the Virgin Mary’s face with light in the Assumption, von Sternberg’s cinematographic choices are determined by Dietrich’s actions. When she moves, all the light and shadow in the frame shifts with her. Because she controls these two essential elements of cinema, she appears divine. As her face fills the frame, she also appears unreachable. In Titian’s work, mourners try to reach up to the heavens to commune with the departed Virgin Mary. Likewise, viewers could try to identify with Dietrich’s character, a woman who gives up everything for love. Yet, they would be as unsuccessful as Titian’s figures. While clouds blocked the faithful from reaching the Virgin, viewers of “Shanghai Express” are separated from Dietrich by the silver screen itself. For von Sternberg, these images of Dietrich are altarpieces. His audience is supposed to worship her.

Von Sternberg’s compositions are worthy of comparison to the Old Masters. At one point, Shanghai Lily sits in her compartment and prays for Captain Harvey. A shaft of light enters through the window, just as a ray of sunlight filters through the window of a gambling den in Caravaggio’s “The Calling of St. Matthew.” The light illuminates Jesus’ finger in that painting, and similarly, the light calls attention to Dietrich’s hands, clasped in prayer. In another scene, Dietrich walks into a packed dining car. The studied arrangement of characters begs comparison with Pieter Brueghel’s vibrant canvases or William Hogarth’s elegant studies of aristocratic mores.

Von Sternberg’s imagination is fertile enough to create spectacles of light and shadow, to transform Dietrich from an actress to a goddess, and to allude to art history. Von Sternberg believes that the cinema itself is exotic. Here, “time and life mean nothing,” because von Sternberg’s chiaroscuro cinematography is timeless, and life is simply a means to contemplate the face of Marlene Dietrich.

Contact Amir Abou-Jaoude at amir2 ‘at’ stanford.edu.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

The post Von Sternberg creates a land of light and shadow in ‘Shanghai Express’ appeared first on The Stanford Daily.

]]>
https://stanforddaily.com/2018/10/04/von-sternberg-creates-a-land-of-light-and-shadow-in-shanghai-express/feed/ 0 1144285
John Waters’ ‘Female Trouble’ is twisted and terrific https://stanforddaily.com/2018/10/03/john-waters-female-trouble-is-twisted-and-terrific/ https://stanforddaily.com/2018/10/03/john-waters-female-trouble-is-twisted-and-terrific/#respond Wed, 03 Oct 2018 12:00:01 +0000 https://stanforddaily.com/?p=1144237 As the opening credits of “Female Trouble” roll, a singer croons, “I’ve got lots of problems. Maybe I’m twisted, but I don’t care.” While all of the characters in the film have problems, the most anguished of them is Dawn Davenport. At the start of the film, Dawn is in high school, and she only […]

The post John Waters’ ‘Female Trouble’ is twisted and terrific appeared first on The Stanford Daily.

]]>
As the opening credits of “Female Trouble” roll, a singer croons, “I’ve got lots of problems. Maybe I’m twisted, but I don’t care.”

While all of the characters in the film have problems, the most anguished of them is Dawn Davenport. At the start of the film, Dawn is in high school, and she only has one wish: to get cha-cha heels for Christmas. When she doesn’t receive her favorite footwear, she storms out of her parents’ humble abode. Dawn soon befriends a lonesome truck driver. Unfortunately, he impregnates her, and she becomes a single mother to a child she never wanted. Dawn’s fortunes begin to change, however, when she gets her hair done in a high-class salon. The salon’s proprietors are obsessed with crime and celebrity. Under their tutelage, she transforms into a “fame monster” and begins leading a dissolute life suffused with sex and drugs. The story may sound absurd, but no director could tell this twisted tale as well as John Waters. In relaying the sad saga of Dawn Davenport, Waters ingeniously deconstructs melodramatic conventions and incisively comments on American society.

Waters made “Female Trouble” in 1974 in his hometown of Baltimore. Most of the people who worked on the film were Waters’ close friends. However, Waters was not simply making movies in his backyard but contributing to a larger conversation about the American cinema. In Hollywood, young directors created timely movies that quoted timeless classics. Brian de Palma referenced Alfred Hitchcock’s oeuvre in films like “Sisters.” Robert Altman reimagined the Western in “McCabe and Mrs. Miller.” Martin Scorsese drew inspiration from gangster films and made “Mean Streets.”

In “Female Trouble,” Waters turns to the Hollywood melodrama. Melodramas, also called “women’s pictures,” usually focused on a tragic heroine and documented her trials and tribulations. Waters alludes to a few classics of the genre. When Dawn and her girlfriends sit on a bed in a strange pyramidal arrangement, they resemble Barbara Parkins, Patty Duke and Sharon Tate in the 1967 film “Valley of the Dolls.” At one point in the film, Dawn’s face is disfigured, and she undergoes plastic surgery, just like Joan Crawford in the 1941 film “A Woman’s Face.” Dawn’s incessant arguments with her daughter bring to mind the fraught parent-child relationship in Crawford’s 1945 vehicle, “Mildred Pierce.”

In some respects, however, Waters goes further than his peers in critiquing the melodramatic mode of filmmaking. The story of “Female Trouble” may resemble the narrative of a “woman’s picture,” but Dawn Davenport isn’t really a woman. The legendary drag queen Divine plays the protagonist. Diane Arbus’ disturbing photographs inspired Divine’s look, and therefore, “she” exudes a kind of grotesque glamor that isn’t present in any Hollywood melodrama.

Waters also challenges the timeworn conventions of these old films. Melodramatic plots are usually predictable. It comes as no surprise that the three heroines of “Valley of the Dolls” fall into an abyss of drugs and despair, that the protagonist of “A Woman’s Face” is tortured because of her imperfect visage, and that the hardworking mother in “Mildred Pierce” can’t reform her selfish daughter. Waters, however, defies expectations at every turn. Dawn shoots up liquid eyeliner with glee and without remorse. When her face is damaged, she is overjoyed because the scar tissue makes her look even more beautiful. Unlike Mildred Pierce, she realizes her daughter is a brat and searches for ways to dispose of her.

As he reinvents the melodrama, Waters also considers the audience for the genre. The film scholar Ed Sikov notes that even in their heyday, “women’s pictures were also appealing to a certain strain of men” — gay men. Older melodramas present homosexuality as a perverse phenomenon. “Nellies” were usually encouraged to turn straight. Conversely, “Female Trouble” reflects the burgeoning strength of the gay liberation movement. The kindly Aunt Ida encourages her straight nephew to turn “nelly” because, as she puts it, she worries that he’ll “work in an office, have children, celebrate wedding anniversaries. The world of heterosexuals is a sick and boring life!” Her comment is outrageous, but it demonstrates the development of gay pride in the 1970s.

“Female Trouble” documents American society in the 1970s in other ways as well. Waters’ concern with the confluence of crime and celebrity may seem esoteric. Yet, Waters was making “Female Trouble” in an age of media frenzy. The Charles Manson trial received an unprecedented amount of publicity. The Patty Hearst case was a major news story, and the Zodiac Killer became notorious without revealing his name.

Waters contemplates how this culture has affected the artist. Once Dawn’s crimes make headlines, she presents a one-woman show. She asks her audience, “Who wants to die for art?” When one audience member shouts, “I do,” she pulls out a gun and shoots him. Here, Waters pokes fun at critical pretensions. The homicide victim is so caught up in the Romantic notion of “art” that he overlooks a fundamental fact — the artists of his time are no longer selfless martyrs. Instead, they are sensational celebrities who would rather sacrifice their fans than themselves.

Waters became a cult filmmaker without resorting to Dawn’s drastic measures. “Female Trouble” is usually considered one of his magnum opuses because it is so brilliantly bizarre. It simultaneously follows the rules of the melodrama and breaks them. It not only examines its own era but also contemplates universal questions of art and celebrity. In a sense, we should care about the twistedness of “Female Trouble.” It’s delightful precisely because of its idiosyncrasies.

 

Contact Amir Abou-Jaoude at amir2 ‘at’ stanford.edu.

The post John Waters’ ‘Female Trouble’ is twisted and terrific appeared first on The Stanford Daily.

]]>
https://stanforddaily.com/2018/10/03/john-waters-female-trouble-is-twisted-and-terrific/feed/ 0 1144237
‘Tom Jones’ is strangely timeless https://stanforddaily.com/2018/10/01/tom-jones-is-strangely-timeless/ https://stanforddaily.com/2018/10/01/tom-jones-is-strangely-timeless/#respond Mon, 01 Oct 2018 14:00:51 +0000 https://stanforddaily.com/?p=1144110 “Tom Jones” begins when Squire Allworthy arrives at his country estate after a trip to London. Exhausted, he immediately goes to his bedroom. There, he finds a baby in his bed. Allworthy quickly deduces that Jenny Jones, a servant, must be the mother, but the identity of the father is unknown. Even though the baby […]

The post ‘Tom Jones’ is strangely timeless appeared first on The Stanford Daily.

]]>
“Tom Jones” begins when Squire Allworthy arrives at his country estate after a trip to London. Exhausted, he immediately goes to his bedroom. There, he finds a baby in his bed. Allworthy quickly deduces that Jenny Jones, a servant, must be the mother, but the identity of the father is unknown. Even though the baby is illegitimate, Allworthy still takes pity on him. He names the child Tom and vows to raise him as his own son. Tom Jones grows up, and he travels throughout 18th-century England. He dines with respected colonels and ribald innkeepers, courts grand duchesses and destitute girls, and witnesses hangings and hunts. Tom flourishes in his dynamic times.

In a strange way, the production of “Tom Jones” resembles its story. When the film was released in 1963, critics were as surprised as Squire Allworthy. How could director Tony Richardson and writer John Osborne conceive of this adaptation of Henry Fielding’s seminal classic? For nearly a decade, Richardson and Osborne had been creating realistic dramas about Britain’s socioeconomic ills. Therefore, in the context of Richardson and Osborne’s other works, the gleeful, raunchy “Tom Jones” did seem illegitimate. Yet, just as Tom thrives in his time, the film was a monumental success in its day. It was a boon at the box-office and won the Oscar for Best Picture of 1963. How could this idiosyncratic film accomplish such a feat?

In adapting Fielding’s novel, Richardson and Osborne did not simply film his story. Instead, they drew precise parallels between Fielding’s era of enlightenment and the swinging sixties in Britain. “Tom Jones” is a period piece that ponders its own historical moment and resonates in our times.

The writer Mick Brown describes London in the 1960s as “the global hub of youthful creativity, hedonism and excitement.” Richardson’s vision of the 18th-century abounds in all three. He showcased his own “youthful creativity” by experimenting with a variety of cinematic modes. French New Wave filmmakers like Francois Truffaut and Jean-Luc Godard served as inspiration to Richardson. Truffaut and Godard employed novel editing techniques and broke the fourth wall to tell their stories. Likewise, in “Tom Jones,” Richardson uses abrupt jump cuts to signal the passage of time, and in one of the film’s most delightful moments, Tom stares directly into the camera. He doesn’t want us to see an intimate section of his adventures, so he simply covers the lens with his hat.

Truffaut and Godard both made films chronicling the chaotic developments of youth, and similarly, “Tom Jones” is a bildungsroman. The plot progresses because of Tom’s hijinks and “youthful creativity.” Ultimately, the film ends as all coming-of-age stories do — with the hero’s maturation. In the final shot of the film, Tom embraces Sophie Western, the only woman in the movie that he truly loves. Tom is finally settling down. His surroundings are permeated with new ideas. Just as Tom challenges the authority of his parochial moral and religious instructors, Enlightenment thinkers contradict the dogma of the church. Although she is marrying Tom, Sophie is unlikely to have old hymns played at her wedding. Throughout the film, she expresses enthusiasm for the innovative music of Georg Friedrich Handel, the John Lennon of the 18th-century.

Richardson addresses another central concern of many artists in the 1960s — consumerism. In depicting the 18th-century, Richardson draws attention to his characters’ voracious appetites. Squire Western, the father of Sophie and a peer to Squire Allworthy, sits down for supper early in the film, and the table is covered from end to end in a multitude of meats. When a wealthy lady holds a costume ball, her appetite for money is on full display — she has decorated everything extravagantly.

Richardson does suggest that this consumption can create complications. At one point in the film, the squires go on a hunt, and they are so eager to devour every animal in the forest that they push their horses a little too hard. Blood spurts from a horse’s breast when his rider kicks him too hard. The crimson color of the blood contrasts incongruously with the lush color palette of the rest of the film. Both Squire Western and Tom are visibly uncomfortable after consuming large meals. Furthermore, when people finally arrive at the lavish costume ball, their opulent outfits seem excessively tacky.

The male characters are possessed by another, more troubling appetite — an appetite for amour, no matter what the cost. Tom, the squires and even the clergy seem to treat women as things, not as equal partners. As a narrator explains as Tom embarks on yet another tryst, “to those who find our hero’s behavior puzzling …Tom had always thought that any woman was better than none.” Tom resembles the protagonist of Antonioni’s “Blow-Up,” a seminal film documenting the Swinging Sixties in London. Antonioni focuses on a fashion photographer who treats all his models as mannequins and who is not above engaging in a ménage à trois when he is aroused. Misogyny is pervasive in both the 18th-century and in the 1960s.

Richardson does not go far enough in examining these problematic attitudes, and as a result, “Tom Jones” leaves a strange aftertaste in the mouth of the modern viewer. It is easy to consume Richardson’s fresh take on the coming-of-age tale and his cinematic experimentation, but Tom’s relations with women may leave us feeling as uneasy as the stuffed Squire Western. Tom does not just resemble the protagonist of Antonioni’s film. For all his charm and wit, he recalls the sexual predators of contemporary times. Ultimately, “Tom Jones” not only depicts the 18th-century and documents the 1960s but also stimulates reflection on the events of our day.

Contact Amir Abou-Jaoude at amir2 ‘at’ stanford.edu.

 

The post ‘Tom Jones’ is strangely timeless appeared first on The Stanford Daily.

]]>
https://stanforddaily.com/2018/10/01/tom-jones-is-strangely-timeless/feed/ 0 1144110
Bette Davis shines in ‘The Star’ https://stanforddaily.com/2018/09/25/bette-davis-shines-in-the-star/ https://stanforddaily.com/2018/09/25/bette-davis-shines-in-the-star/#respond Tue, 25 Sep 2018 15:00:56 +0000 https://stanforddaily.com/?p=1143775 Bette Davis and Sterling Hayden in “The Star” (Courtesy of 20th Century Fox) The story of “The Star” is deceptively simple. Margaret Elliott is an aging, broke, washed-up actress. After an alcoholic binge, Elliott finds herself in jail. Jim, a rugged boat builder played by Sterling Hayden, pays her bail and takes her to recuperate […]

The post Bette Davis shines in ‘The Star’ appeared first on The Stanford Daily.

]]>
Bette Davis shines in 'The Star'
Bette Davis and Sterling Hayden in “The Star” (Courtesy of 20th Century Fox)

The story of “The Star” is deceptively simple. Margaret Elliott is an aging, broke, washed-up actress. After an alcoholic binge, Elliott finds herself in jail. Jim, a rugged boat builder played by Sterling Hayden, pays her bail and takes her to recuperate by the seaside. He reveals that he once had aspirations to be in the movies. When his career floundered, however, he decided to go into a different line of work. He encourages Elliott to do the same. Ultimately, Elliott realizes the sagacity of his advice. The final shot of the film shows Elliott coming into Jim’s boathouse, running away from her movie career and towards a more tranquil existence as his wife.

This summary makes “The Star” sound like a lifeless drama, replete with cheap romance and a problematic commentary on a woman’s role in society. Yet, the role of Margaret Elliott is played by Bette Davis, a brilliant actress. With some assistance from screenwriters Dale Eunson and Katherine Albert and director Stuart Heisler, Davis transforms “The Star” into a meditation on the costs of creating cinema.

In later interviews about the film, Davis would try to deemphasize the parallels between her life and her character’s, insisting that the inspiration for Margaret Elliott was her arch-rival Joan Crawford. The similarities between Davis and Elliott, however, are too numerous to ignore. When she made “The Star,” Davis was a middle-aged actress who had been in the movies for 20 years. She was an Oscar-winner, just like Elliott in the film. While she had appeared in successful films such as “Dark Victory,” “Now, Voyager” and “All About Eve,” like Elliott, she was now having difficulty getting roles. Davis not only resembled Elliott in her career, but also in her personal behavior. Like Elliott, Davis smoke and drank and was short-tempered. Davis supported her sister and her mother financially, and in the film, Elliott takes care of her sister’s expenses. Davis was midway through her fourth marriage when she made the film, and Elliott is divorced.

Davis once remarked that she disliked playing heroines because “there’s nothing to hide behind.” She hypothesized that actors fundamentally dislike themselves, so they yearn to play somebody else. Although Elliott resembles Davis, ingeniously, Davis is able to hide behind her. She never shows Margaret Elliott being herself. Instead, she demonstrates that Elliott is constantly acting. Early in the film, Elliott sees her daughter from her failed marriage. Gretchen asks her mother why she hasn’t taken custody of her. Elliott pauses for a moment and her eyes dart back and forth. Very calmly and confidently, she lies, “That’s it, mother has a tiny apartment.” When Gretchen asks her where she is living, she pauses again. In each of these pauses, Elliott seems to be on the verge of telling her daughter the truth. She hasn’t taken custody of her because she cares more about her career than her child. Yet, when she looks back to Gretchen, she decides to carry on the performance.

Elliott is performing in her scenes with Jim too. When she runs into his arms at the end of film, her actions are rehearsed. She stands in the doorway for a few seconds, closes the door, pauses again, smiles a little, then runs toward him. “The Star” is ostensibly a realistic drama, but Davis plays this scene as if it is an ostentatious romance. Therefore, she undercuts the happy ending. Elliott can play the role of the happy wife, but she can never truly be one. In fact, Davis makes the film into a tragedy. Elliott has been acting for so long that she has lost sight of anything genuine.

In some ways, however, Elliott is forced to act. Her previous appearances on the silver screen haunt her. Jim convinces her to get a job in a department store, but she loses her job when two customers find out that she is really a star. Directors refuse to cast her in their films because they know audiences will see her as the leading lady, not as a character actress. When Elliott does land a small part in a film, she insists on looking glamorous and acting regal, even though she is nothing more than a background player. She is trying to give her audience what they expect from her. At one point in the film, Elliott clutches the Oscar she won years ago and drunkenly reflects that she is “going… going… gone,” but she has been in the movies for so long that she can never really be “gone.” People will still watch the films she made at the height of her career, so she is powerless to change her image. The only open option is to continue playing the role of Margaret Elliott.

Even though they have much in common, this is the crucial difference between Davis and Elliott. Elliott is trapped in her own persona, but Davis could always reinvent herself. In “The Star,” she plays a vulnerable actress, but 10 years later, in “Whatever Happened to Baby Jane,” she would portray a vile one. She could be a loyal wife, a cunning schemer or a tragic heroine and bring out the humanity in each character. Unlike Margaret Elliott, Davis was not just a star with shtick. She was an artist with skill.

 

Contact Amir Abou-Jaoude at amir2 ‘at’ stanford.edu.

The post Bette Davis shines in ‘The Star’ appeared first on The Stanford Daily.

]]>
https://stanforddaily.com/2018/09/25/bette-davis-shines-in-the-star/feed/ 0 1143775
LACMA’s current exhibitions provide a diversity of holistically curated work https://stanforddaily.com/2018/08/23/lacmas-current-exhibitions-provide-a-diversity-of-holistically-curated-work/ https://stanforddaily.com/2018/08/23/lacmas-current-exhibitions-provide-a-diversity-of-holistically-curated-work/#respond Fri, 24 Aug 2018 05:35:24 +0000 https://stanforddaily.com/?p=1143533 The Los Angeles County Museum of the Arts is the largest museum of the country, comprised of multiple buildings and several outdoor exhibits. I might even recommend that if you’re in the LA area for more than a few weeks, find a way to spread out your visit to LACMA over a couple weeks — […]

The post LACMA’s current exhibitions provide a diversity of holistically curated work appeared first on The Stanford Daily.

]]>
The Los Angeles County Museum of the Arts is the largest museum of the country, comprised of multiple buildings and several outdoor exhibits. I might even recommend that if you’re in the LA area for more than a few weeks, find a way to spread out your visit to LACMA over a couple weeks — allow yourself to take in a few exhibits at a time (it may be tough due to admissions costs, but if you’re an LA county resident, it’s free after 3 pm). LACMA truly has such a large collection that it’s nearly impossible to appreciate it all unless you have enough time. That being said, I will detail several select current exhibits worth exploring, and there are plenty more depending on your interests.

The museum’s current rotating exhibits, including 3D: Double Vision (through March 31, 2019), attracts the most family audiences giving the exhibit’s content. Visitors can go from piece to piece, some requiring 3D and filtered glasses, exploring not only the variety of aesthetics and visual styles for 3D pieces, but the history of 3D as well as how it reflects American sentiments throughout the ages. Exhibitions that take a holistic approach to art — acknowledging it as a form of expression influenced by society and always in flux rather than what is often considered an elitist, inaccessible and isolated part of culture — are often the most rewarding.

Metropolis II (ongoing), created by Chris Burden in 2010, is a huge kinetic piece that connects pieces of track for toy cars with sculptures of buildings and metropolitan entanglements. When thousands of cars move through the multi-laned, multi-leveled track (available free with general admission during certain days and times), the movement simulates that of a city and is truly a visual and architectural wonder. It might be a car or toy lover’s dream, but it’s also a complex sculpture that is every bit design as it is aesthetics. Even if it’s not active when you visit, the sheer enormity of the detail of the piece is enough to spend a while just simply staring at it.

Rauschenberg: In and About LA (through February 10, 2019) highlights the work of American artist Robert Rauschenberg, popularly known for his works using unconventional materials as well as abstract expressionist and modernist works. This exhibit puts some of Rauschenberg’s works in conversation with one another — ones that were created by him while in and around the LA area, as the name suggests. Many of the works are LA-influenced and have pieces of LA embedded in the works in different forms.

The Chiaroscuro Woodcut in Renaissance Italy (through September 16, 2018) highlights the diversity of chiaroscuro works, diving into the breadth of works created by the artists and the form. Chiaroscuro, a form of woodcut that creates an illusion of depth, layers several colors of ink (think of the Obama “Hope” poster) on different woodblocks and prints them on top of each other. Like 3D: Double Vision, this exhibit takes a more holistic look at the medium and form, taking into account a breakdown of the form, the methods, and the materials used. Like me, you might spend a while staring and wondering how the artists carved out each individual layer on separate woodblocks, eventually cohering to create one full piece.

LACMA’s nooks and crannies are also filled with delightful little treats, including some installation pieces that you might not even recognize as art pieces unless you read into the museum’s brochures or online content. One such example is the Miracle Mile light piece and Barbara Kruger’s 2008 graphically designed mural piece in an elevator shaft, “Untitled (Shafted).”

Contact Olivia Popp at oliviapopp ‘at’ stanford.edu.

The post LACMA’s current exhibitions provide a diversity of holistically curated work appeared first on The Stanford Daily.

]]>
https://stanforddaily.com/2018/08/23/lacmas-current-exhibitions-provide-a-diversity-of-holistically-curated-work/feed/ 0 1143533
‘Won’t You Be My Neighbor?’ revives good old-fashioned love and wholesomeness https://stanforddaily.com/2018/07/11/wont-you-be-my-neighbor-revives-good-old-fashioned-love-and-wholesomeness/ https://stanforddaily.com/2018/07/11/wont-you-be-my-neighbor-revives-good-old-fashioned-love-and-wholesomeness/#respond Wed, 11 Jul 2018 07:39:38 +0000 https://stanforddaily.com/?p=1142752 While I was too young to really know Mr. Rogers, for some reason, I knew who he was — like certain public figures that you know by name and by fame. Before I walked into the theater, I had some faint memories of knowing “Mister Rogers’ Neighborhood,” but I can’t remember if I had ever […]

The post ‘Won’t You Be My Neighbor?’ revives good old-fashioned love and wholesomeness appeared first on The Stanford Daily.

]]>
While I was too young to really know Mr. Rogers, for some reason, I knew who he was — like certain public figures that you know by name and by fame. Before I walked into the theater, I had some faint memories of knowing “Mister Rogers’ Neighborhood,” but I can’t remember if I had ever watched it — was this some kind of bizarre Mandela effect moment or had I really watched some syndicated reruns and his gentle voice that charmed millions of children throughout the 20th century also charmed me?

No matter what the truth really was, “Won’t You Be My Neighbor?” paints an empathetic picture of America’s hero that — right now — we need but don’t deserve. The man with the colorful sweaters, demure personality, soothing voice and beautiful piano skills — a lifelong Republican, as the film is quick to point out in passing but quickly tears down in its present connotation — was a child whisperer and completely went against everything that television and media is nowadays — with great success.

Premiering at Sundance in January to critical acclaim, this Mr. Rogers film isn’t quite a biography documentary, nor is it a close examination of Fred Rogers’ famous show “Mister Rogers’ Neighborhood” that ran from 1968 to 2001. Instead, “Neighbor” takes on the legacy of his iconic show, intertwined with the legacy of Rogers’ himself. They’re unconditionally related, one never standing without the other — Rogers was the writer, producer and star of the show, and he voiced most of the puppet characters on the show.

All in all, “Won’t You Be My Neighbor?” (the eponymous title song that Rogers sings at the beginning of every episode) is a tender film. Director Morgan Neville makes Rogers — the minister with a genuine, eager interest in early child development — into an unlikely star, someone who showed that maybe there really is something special and deep about children. He trusted in the simplicity of himself on each show, and children listened.

That’s a feat that few can claim today. “Neighbor” intersperses archival footage with commentary from Rogers’ wife and children alongside juxtaposing media that caught and catches the eyes of children — war footage, ads for toy weapons, and both older and contemporary cartoons and live-action shows filled with violence and comedy in humiliation and slapstick. It might be a touch on the offensive when it comes to other children’s programming — I’ll say I felt a little attacked over my love for visual effects, but introspectively, I understand where Rogers is coming from — but nevertheless, Neville’s (and Rogers’) message has gained all the more profound meaning today — why are we so hung up on aggression and overloading our senses? What happened to good old-fashioned wholesomeness?

Maybe that’s an ambitious question because the world is changing — it’s impossible to demand children to go back to playing outside and with non-electronic toys. But “Neighbor” forces audiences to confront this question head-on. America lost a one-of-a-kind treasure when “Mister Rogers’ Neighborhood” ended and Rogers passed, and “Neighbor” is dedicated to showing his legacy. “Neighbor” doesn’t choose to glamorize his life, nor does it disclose his darkest secrets or hidden facts about the show — instead, it relies on Rogers’ technique of simple goodness and authentic conversation to initiate closeness and intimacy with Rogers himself, complete with original animations of Rogers’ puppet Daniel Tiger.

Like many, I started crying partway through the film. There were so many emotional scenes, yet the ones that got me were always when Rogers spoke directly to the children. He treated each and every one with such kindness and respect, valuing children’s opinions as much as adults, and in turn as beloved by all — he was like a better, more effective Santa. Neville lays on the emotion as more and more are affected by Rogers’ true generosity and having children’s best interests in mind — and he believed in his own values, transforming him into that American legend. I had barely remembered watching “Mister Rogers’ Neighborhood,” and now I want to go back and watch it all.

Contact Olivia Popp at oliviapopp ‘at’ stanford.edu.

The post ‘Won’t You Be My Neighbor?’ revives good old-fashioned love and wholesomeness appeared first on The Stanford Daily.

]]>
https://stanforddaily.com/2018/07/11/wont-you-be-my-neighbor-revives-good-old-fashioned-love-and-wholesomeness/feed/ 0 1142752
Stanley Donen’s ‘Charade’ provides old-fashioned fun https://stanforddaily.com/2018/06/14/stanley-donens-charade-provides-old-fashioned-fun/ https://stanforddaily.com/2018/06/14/stanley-donens-charade-provides-old-fashioned-fun/#respond Fri, 15 Jun 2018 06:00:57 +0000 https://stanforddaily.com/?p=1142031 “Charade” is a quick-witted and delightful romp from the golden age of cinema. The story is fun, although a little bit predictable. Ultimately, the film is worth a viewing because it is filled with stellar jokes and humor.   Audrey Hepburn plays a woman who is pursued through Paris by three former associates of her […]

The post Stanley Donen’s ‘Charade’ provides old-fashioned fun appeared first on The Stanford Daily.

]]>
“Charade” is a quick-witted and delightful romp from the golden age of cinema. The story is fun, although a little bit predictable. Ultimately, the film is worth a viewing because it is filled with stellar jokes and humor.  

Audrey Hepburn plays a woman who is pursued through Paris by three former associates of her recently murdered husband. These rogues are after the fortune everyone is convinced he left her. The only problem is she has no idea what fortune they are talking about. Along the way she meets and falls for Cary Grant, a mysterious stranger whose name keeps changing and is also after the fortune, although it’s never quite clear whose side he is on.

The plot is fun, light and exciting, although the final twist is fairly obvious. While the film does take a while to get going, once it gets past the stifled character introductions, it really takes off. This is not a particularly difficult movie; there is no deeper message behind it or some greater metaphor. It is undeniably light-hearted and delights in its own quick-witted sense of humor. Even the murders, which in any other circumstances might be cause for a slightly darker tonal shift, are treated with the same comedy as the rest of the film. It’s meant to be a fun ride and that is exactly what it delivers. It does what it says on the tin. Indeed, if you focus too hard on it, it starts to fall apart a bit. None of the characters seem too phased by the fact that people are being picked off one by one, and the final reveal of the sought-after fortune is slightly too simplistic.

Still, these are small points in a relatively blameless movie and are easily overlooked. All its flaws are overshadowed by the extraordinary rapport of the two stars. The romantic story line between Hepburn and Grant works because of their charisma and witty rapport. The back and forth banter between the two is largely responsible for the film’s success, and it’s hard to think of it working with any other actors. You can’t take your eyes off the screen when it’s shared by these two. Both actors also shine on their own. Hepburn delivers a lively performance, and Grant, usually perceived as an accomplished dramatic actor, shows off his comedic talents. In one scene, he washes himself in the shower, but he wears his suit because the label says “wearing this suit during washing helps protect its shape.” This image is utterly hysterical.  This film does an excellent job of proving Hepburn and Grant’s star statuses. There is no better way to watch it, as I did, in the opulent Stanford Theater, where the film would have been originally screened.

The movie shines when it leaves Grant and Hepburn to work off each other. Their charm is palpable and the film flies by as a result. At times, it felt like the plot was just a secondary measure to let the two stars share as much screen time as possible. The story is almost irrelevant in the face of their overwhelming screen presence. You’d be hard pressed to find a movie nowadays that has quite as much banter between co-stars, with the quips and one liners coming faster than one can count. At the risk of sounding too geriatric, they don’t make movies like this anymore.

Contact Abe Thompson at athomps3 ‘at’ stanford.edu.

The post Stanley Donen’s ‘Charade’ provides old-fashioned fun appeared first on The Stanford Daily.

]]>
https://stanforddaily.com/2018/06/14/stanley-donens-charade-provides-old-fashioned-fun/feed/ 0 1142031
Tony Award-winning ‘Jersey Boys’ brings toe-tapping nostalgia to the Bay Area https://stanforddaily.com/2018/06/08/tony-award-winning-jersey-boys-brings-toe-tapping-nostalgia-to-the-bay-area/ https://stanforddaily.com/2018/06/08/tony-award-winning-jersey-boys-brings-toe-tapping-nostalgia-to-the-bay-area/#respond Fri, 08 Jun 2018 20:00:02 +0000 https://stanforddaily.com/?p=1142651 “Jersey Boys,” playing at the San Jose Center for the Performing Arts, chronicles the rise of Frankie Valli, the Four Seasons and finally the combination of the both — eventually Valli’s solo act, known as Frankie Valli and the Four Seasons. Valli (Jonny Wexler, played by Ben Bogen), forever known as the singer with the […]

The post Tony Award-winning ‘Jersey Boys’ brings toe-tapping nostalgia to the Bay Area appeared first on The Stanford Daily.

]]>
“Jersey Boys,” playing at the San Jose Center for the Performing Arts, chronicles the rise of Frankie Valli, the Four Seasons and finally the combination of the both — eventually Valli’s solo act, known as Frankie Valli and the Four Seasons. Valli (Jonny Wexler, played by Ben Bogen), forever known as the singer with the nearly alarmingly strong and high falsetto voice, eventually overshadows self-appointed band leader Tommy DeVito (Corey Greenan) and lanky follower Nick Massi (Chris Stevens). The jukebox musical pays tribute to the band itself as well as the relationships between the members, occasionally humoring, sometimes humanizing but never glamorizing the rocky — or in the case of songwriter Ben Gaudio (Tommasco Antico) and Valli, blossoming — relationships of the men.

With a book by Marshall Brickman and Rick Elice (the team that brought you “The Addams Family”), music credited to Gaudio, “Jersey Boys” weaves snappy scenes with musical and dance numbers, mostly performed as moments from The Four Seasons concerts, shows and recording sessions rather than as part of the plot itself. This doesn’t take away from the importance of the numbers, however; the numbers instead follow their chronological rise to fame, growing into bigger and bigger hits. The musical also includes lyrics credited to Bob Crewe, the band’s long-time producer (whose role and influence in the band’s existence severely reduced due to the musical’s understandable inability to include every possible character in the story).

The initially seemingly overdone play off of the band’s name (each character acted as the narrator in one-quarter of the production — each “season” — cycling through each member) became an effective measure to get varying perspectives without laboring over yet another musical with a narrative. Instead, it allowed deeper insight into each of the characters’ motivations to join (and leave) the band, provided a look into the rickety landscape of show business, and ridded the production of a necessity to actually know who the band was — audience members just needed to bring an open ear and an appreciation for musical spectacle.

Bogen plays Valli with careful tentativeness, turning from the shy teenager into the big-name star that he was once known as, never failing to nail those impressive, ear-blasting high notes as seen in The Four Seasons hit “Sherry” very quickly early in the musical. Greenan, who begins the musical narrating as DeVito plays into the musical’s brash characterization of the band member, his money troubles putting the band in trouble. Stevens as Massi acts as the musical’s comedic relief, both his physical stature and behavior making the audience feel simultaneously sorry for him and impressed he kept with the band so long. Last but not least, Antico as the talented, charming Gaudio becomes the most likable member of the group, Antico’s beaming stage presence providing enjoyable chemistry with Bogen’s Valli.

With a number of hits and standout arrangements, several including clever projection design by Michael Clark in which the performers’ choreography was synced with a corresponding video shown on the back of the set (as if broadcast live), “Cry for You” was the first time the audience sees the most well-known Four Seasons (although the band did cycle through a large number of members) performing together. With Gaudio introducing the song on the piano, Valli and the rest eventually joining it, it remains as a heart-touching moment, far beyond the group’s eventual separation — indicating that it didn’t matter what changed, as that moment The Four Seasons was born.

Even though I didn’t grow up listening to Frankie Valli (and the Four Seasons) like most of the cheering, older and largely female audience (some even stood up and screamed as Bogen hit those iconic Valli falsetto notes), I knew and bopped my head along to classic hits including “Can’t Take My Eyes Off You” and “December, 1963 (Oh, What a Night).” I’m a sucker for classic throwbacks, especially rock — and to be honest, it makes me feel like an old soul. After seeing “Jersey Boys,” I started listening to the soundtrack and the original Four Seasons tracks — so you know the musical was a success.

Contact Olivia Popp at oliviapopp ‘at’ stanford.edu.

The post Tony Award-winning ‘Jersey Boys’ brings toe-tapping nostalgia to the Bay Area appeared first on The Stanford Daily.

]]>
https://stanforddaily.com/2018/06/08/tony-award-winning-jersey-boys-brings-toe-tapping-nostalgia-to-the-bay-area/feed/ 0 1142651