Mirrors and Uncanniness

It would strike me as odd, the idea of writing about a connection between two things in a movie that isn’t ever made. Nevertheless, when I think about Uncanniness and Saturday Night Fever, I think about an instance in which something might have been uncanny if it had happened. The situation I’m thinking of is when Bobby falls from the bridge after crying and imploring of Tony, “Why didn’t you call me?”

the almost effect

because we’re at the beginning of the semester i feel like i should be making sense of the term “passing” in the simplest form so that as the semester goes on i can add to that definition and make sense of it as a theory more so than a word or an action.  in reading running a thousand miles for freedom one sentence in particular helped me begin thinking about the basis for this “simple” definition:

Knowing that slaveholders have the privilege of taking their slaves to any part of the country they think proper, it occurred to me that, as my wife was nearly white, I might get her to disguise herself as an invalid gentleman, and assume to be my master, while I could attend as his slave, and that in this manner we might effect our escape (7).

thinking about the points we made in class about the structure of the writing, particularly of the conditional tense that william craft uses, i reread the sentence, highlighting all of the conditionals and all of the “almosts” i could find:

Knowing that slaveholders have the privilege of taking their slaves to any part of the country they think proper, it occurred to me that, as my wife was nearly white, I might get her to disguise herself as an invalid gentleman, and assume to be my master, while I could attend as his slave, and that in this manner we might effect our escape (7).

looking at all of these “almosts,” his wife being nearly white because of the lighter shade of her skin even though she was a black slave, the fact that she would have to disguise herself not as a “complete” man who is fully healthy but an invalid one, and all of the surrounding questions of whether or not everyone else would buy into these identities, made me realize that this notion of “passing” seems to center around an “almost effect.” in order to “pass” one thing off as another thing you attempt to conceal all indications of the original identity but, in many cases, not all of that original can be concealed and therefore one may have to compromise for a “nearly” version of the identity being acquired. trying to fully immerse into another identity is hard to accomplish, therefore the way to “pass” is to “almost be.”

there were some moments in saturday night fever that played into this “almost effect” and even added a new dimension to it. in the beginning we come across the scene where tony is going through his grooming rituals before he goes out dancing (00:06:40). the slow combing of his hair, the fact that he is staring into a mirror the entire time, the thought that goes into him picking his outfit – all of these factors constitute what is typically seen as “female” habits. but these feminine instances are countered with a camera angle that enhances tony’s masculinity. at several instances the camera focuses on him from below his waist, facing upward, angled so that there is a clear crotch shot on the screen, reminding the viewer that though this scene is one that is stereotypically feminine he is still a man. there is one part in particular where he is putting on his pants and the camera focuses on his hands zipping them up, again focusing on his crotch region (00:07:40). the interesting contrast here is that, yes, we are looking at a man’s crotch, but his pinkish-coral colored bellbottoms reinforce the feminine again. in this case, we know he is a man because we are constantly seeing his scantily clad groin area, but the nature of the scene add the “almosts” of how feminine he can be. later on, when tony and his crew arrive at the dance club one of the guys says, “hey looking sharp huh?” to which another replies, “sharp as you can look without turning into a nigger or a spic” (00:12:25). the “almost effect” comes up again here where they are as sharp as black men or latinos (because looking “sharp” or “slick” is associated with minorities) and the comparative language again points out the “nearly.” though they are saying that they are almost as sharp as blacks or latinos the key here is that they aren’t completely immersing in that identity and, consequentially, they are reinforcing the fact that they are white italian guys who look sharp and slick, almost slick like blacks and latinos, but not completely slick  and therefore bringing focusing on the white part of them that would be “not sharp enough” –  our attention is then ironically drawn to what isn’t blatantly being called to our attention.