Cinema as Weather: Stylistic Screens and Atmospheric Change

231 Pages·2013·2.17 MB·English

by  Kristi McKim

Cinema as Weather
How do cinematic portrayals of the weather re(cid:2) ect and affect our experi-
ence of the world? While weatherly predictability and surprise can impact
our daily experience, the history of cinema attests to the stylistic and narra-
tive signi(cid:3) cance of snow, rain, wind, sunshine, clouds, and skies. Through
analysis of (cid:3) lms ranging from T he Wizard of Oz to T he Umbrellas of
Cherbourg , from Citizen Kane to In the Mood for Love , Kristi McKim calls
our attention to the ways that we read our atmospheres both within and
beyond the movies.
Building upon meteorological de(cid:3) nitions of weather’s dynamism and
volatility, this book shows how (cid:3) lm weather can reveal character interi-
ority, accelerate plot development, inspire stylistic innovation, serve as a
momentary attraction, convey the passage of time, and idealize the world
at its greatest meaning-making capacity (unlike our weather, (cid:3) lm weather
always happens on time, whether to further tumultuous, romantic, violent,
suspenseful, or melodramatic ends).
Akin to cinema’s structuring of ephemera, cinematic weather suggests
aesthetic control over what is (cid:2) eeting, contingent, wildly environmental,
and beyond the human capacity to tame. This (cid:3) rst book-length study of
such a meteorological and cinematic af(cid:3) nity casts (cid:3) lm weather as a means
of artfully and mechanically conquering contingency through contingency,
of taming weather through a medium itself ephemeral and enduring.
Using (cid:3) lm theory, history, formalist/phenomenological analysis, and eco-
criticism, this book casts cinema a s weather, insofar as our skies and screens
become readable through our interpretation of changing phenomena.
Kristi McKim is an associate professor of English and chair of the Film
Studies Program at Hendrix College, in Conway, Arkansas.
Routledge Advances in Film Studies
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German Cinema Cinema
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Inga Scharf Critique
Edited by Jyotsna Kapur and
2 Lesbianism, Cinema, Space Keith B. Wagner
The Sexual Life of Apartments
Lee Wallace 10 Korea’s Occupied Cinemas,
1893–1948
3 Post-War Italian Cinema The Untold History of the Film
American Intervention, Vatican Industry
Interests Brian Yecies with Ae-Gyung Shim
Daniela Treveri Gennari
11 Transnational Asian Identities
4 Latsploitation, Exploitation in Pan-Paci(cid:2) c Cinemas
Cinemas, and Latin America The Reel Asian Exchange
Edited by Victoria Ruétalo and Edited by Philippa Gates and
Dolores Tierney Lisa Funnell
5 Cinematic Emotion in Horror 12 Narratives of Gendered Dissent
Films and Thrillers in South Asian Cinemas
The Aesthetic Paradox Alka Kurian
of Pleasurable Fear
Julian Hanich 13 Hollywood Melodrama and the
New Deal
6 Cinema, Memory, Modernity Public Daydreams
The Representation of Memory Anna Siomopoulos
from the Art Film to Transnational
Cinema 14 Theorizing Film Acting
Russell J. A. Kilbourn Edited by Aaron Taylor
7 Distributing Silent Film 15 Stardom and the Aesthetics
Serials of Neorealism
Local Practices, Changing Forms, Ingrid Bergman in Rossellini’s
Cultural Transformation Italy
Rudmer Canjels Ora Gelley
8 The Politics of Loss and Trauma 16 Postwar Renoir
in Contemporary Israeli Cinema Film and the Memory of Violence
Raz Yosef Colin Davis
17 Cinema and Inter-American 20 The Politics of Age and Disability
Relations in Contemporary Spanish Film
Tracking Transnational Affect Plus Ultra Pluralism
Adrián Pérez Melgosa Matthew J. Marr
18 European Civil War Films 21 Cinema and Language Loss
Memory, Con(cid:2) ict, and Displacement, Visuality and the
Nostalgia Filmic Image
Eleftheria Rania Kosmidou Tijana Mamula
19 The Aesthetics of 22 Cinema as Weather
Antifascism Stylistic Screens and Atmospheric
Radical Projection Change
Jennifer Lynde Barker Kristi McKim
Cinema as Weather
Stylistic Screens and Atmospheric Change
Kristi McKim
First published 2013
by Routledge
711 Third Avenue, New York, NY 10017
Simultaneously published in the UK
by Routledge
2 Park Square, Milton Park, Abingdon, Oxon OX14 4RN
Routledge is an imprint of the Taylor & Francis Group,
an informa business
© 2013 Taylor & Francis
The right of Kristi McKim to be identi(cid:3) ed as author of this work has been
asserted by her in accordance with sections 77 and 78 of the Copyright,
Designs and Patents Act 1988.
All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reprinted or reproduced or
utilised in any form or by any electronic, mechanical, or other means, now
known or hereafter invented, including photocopying and recording, or in
any information storage or retrieval system, without permission in writing
from the publishers.
Trademark Notice: Product or corporate names may be trademarks or
registered trademarks, and are used only for identi(cid:3) cation and explanation
without intent to infringe.
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
McKim, Kristi, 1977–
Cinema as weather : stylistic screens and atmospheric change /
by Kristi McKim.
p. cm. — (Routledge advances in (cid:3) lm studies ; 22)
Includes bibliographical references and index.
1. Weather in motion pictures. 2. Nature in motion pictures. I. Title.
PN1995.9.W37M35 2013
791.43'66—dc23
2012034878
ISBN: 978-0-415-89412-8 (hbk)
ISBN: 978-0-203-58390-6 (ebk)
Typeset in Sabon
by Apex CoVantage, LLC
For Mark William Barr,
in all weather
Contents
List of Illustrations xi
Acknowledgments xiii
Introduction 1
1 Revealing Skies and Screens: The Con(cid:2) uence of Weather
and Cinema 9
Storms, Miracles, and Unusual Weather 12
Skies, Screens, and Collective Experience 16
Weather in the Age of Mechanical Reproduction 20
Revealing the Weather in Film Theory 23
Cinematic Weather as Cinephilic History 31
Cinema as Weather: Scholarly and Lived 32
2 The Cinematic History of Weather and the History
of Cinematic Weather 37
The Cinematic History of Weather 37
Meteorology and Perception 37
Cinematic Landscapes 40
Domesticating Meteorology and Cinema 42
Meteorology and National Identity 45
The History of Cinematic Weather 46
Weather’s Invisibility in Early Film History 46
Cinematic Conquering and Creation of Weather 51
Early Spectacles of Cinematic Weather 59
3 Interiority and Exteriority: Cinematic Weather
as Plot and Effect 65
Weather as Plot and Drive 68
Interiority and Pathetic Fallacy 77
The Cinematic Pathetic Fallacy 81
Causality, Interiority, and Cinephilia 86
x Contents
4 Cinematic Rain 91
A Brief History of Rain Production 93
Breakfast at Tiffany’s (Blake Edwards, 1961) 94
The Double Life of Véronique (Krzysztof Kieslowski, 1991) 97
The Graduate (Mike Nichols, 1967) 100
In the Mood for Love (Wong Kar-wai, 2000) 103
It Happened One Night (Frank Capra, 1934) and
It’s a Wonderful Life (Capra, 1946) 107
Lady Chatterley (Pascale Ferran, 2007) 111
The Last Laugh (F. W. Murnau, 1924) 114
Manhattan (1979), Hannah and Her Sisters (1986),
Another Woman (1988), Manhattan Murder Mystery
(1993), Match Point (2005), Midnight in Paris (2011):
Woody Allen “Love[s] Rain” 117
Sense and Sensibility (Ang Lee, 1995) 124
The Seven Samurai (Akira Kurosawa, 1954) 128
Rain in Cinema and World 132
5 Cinematic Snow 134
A Brief History of Snow Production 138
Away from Her (Sarah Polley, 2006) 140
It’s a Wonderful Life (Frank Capra, 1946) 142
Let the Right One In (Tomas Alfredson, 2008) 145
McCabe & Mrs. Miller (Robert Altman, 1971) 149
Shoot the Piano Player (François Truffaut, 1960) 155
The Umbrellas of Cherbourg (Jacques Demy, 1964) 159
Snow in Cinema and World 162
6 Cinematic Sunlight and Seasons 163
A Brief History of Cinematic Sunlight 166
All That Heaven Allows (Douglas Sirk, 1955) 168
Climates (Nuri Bilge Ceylan, 2006) 174
To Be and to Have (Nicolas Philibert, 2002) 179
Yasujiro Ozu’s Seasons and Sunny Skies 184
Sunlight and Seasons in Cinema and World 188
Conclusion 190
Notes 193
Index 213
List of Illustrations
All images—frame enlargements made by the author—fall within the
provisions of fair use.
1.1 The Wizard of Oz (Victor Fleming, 1939;
United States) 13
1.2 Steamboat Bill, Jr. (Charles Reisner, 1928;
United States) 15
2.1 Snow Dance (Alice Guy, 1900; France) 47
3.1 Citizen Kane (Orson Welles, 1941; United States) 78
3.2 Young Mr. Lincoln (John Ford, 1939;
United States) 83
4.1–4.2 Breakfast at Tiffany’s (Blake Edwards, 1961;
United States) 96
4.3 The Double Life of Veronique (Krzysztof Kieslowski,
1991; France, Poland) 98
4.4 The Graduate (Mike Nichols, 1967; United States) 101
4.5 In the Mood for Love (Wong Kar-wai, 2000;
Hong Kong) 106
4.6–4.7 It Happened One Night (Frank Capra, 1934;
United States) 108
4.8–4.9 Lady Chatterley (Pascale Ferran, 2006; France) 113
4.10–4.11 Sense and Sensibility (Ang Lee, 1995; United States) 126
4.12 The Seven Samurai (Akira Kurosawa, 1954; Japan) 130
5.1 It’s a Wonderful Life (Frank Capra, 1946;
United States) 144
5.2–5.4 Shoot the Piano Player (François Truffaut, 1960;
France) 157
5.5–5.6 The Umbrellas of Cherbourg (Jacques Demy, 1964;
France) 160
6.1–6.2 Climates (Nuri Bilge Ceylan, 2006; Turkey) 176