The Cinema of Discomfort: Disquieting, Awkward and Uncomfortable Experiences in Contemporary Art and Indie Film

298 Pages·2021·57.395 MB·English

by  Geoff King

The Cinema of
Discomfort
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The Cinema of
Discomfort
Disquieting, Awkward and
Uncomfortable Experiences
in Contemporary Art and
Indie Film
Geoff King
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BLOOMSBURY ACADEMIC
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BLOOMSBURY, BLOOMSBURY ACADEMIC and the Diana logo are trademarks of
Bloomsbury Publishing Plc
First published in the United States of America 2022
Copyright © Geoff King, 2022
Cover design: Eleanor Rose
Cover image: D ogtooth , Dir. Yorgos Lanthimos, 2009 © Boo Productions
/ DR / Collection Christophel / ArenaPAL
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Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Names: King, Geoff, 1960– author.
Title: The cinema of discomfort : disquieting, awkward and uncomfortable
experiences in contemporary art and indie fi lm / Geoff King.
Description: New York : Bloomsbury Academic, 2021. |
Includes bibliographical references and index.
Identifi ers: LCCN 2021018237 (print) | LCCN 2021018238 (ebook) |
ISBN 9781501359309 (hardback) | ISBN 9781501359293 (epub) |
ISBN 9781501359286 (pdf) | ISBN 9781501359279
Subjects: LCSH: Discomfort in motion pictures. |
Independent fi lms–History and criticism. | Experimental fi lms–History and criticism. |
Motion picture audiences. | Motion pictures–Psychological aspects.
Classifi cation: LCC PN1995.9.D554 K56 2021 (print) | LCC PN1995.9.D554 (ebook) |
DDC 791.43653–dc23
LC record available at https://lccn.loc.gov/2021018237
LC ebook record available at https://lccn.loc.gov/2021018238
ISBN: HB: 978-1-5013-5930-9
ePDF: 978-1-5013-5928-6
eBook: 978-1-5013-5929-3
Typeset by Newgen KnowledgeWorks Pvt. Ltd., Chennai, India
Printed and bound in the United States of America
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CONTENTS

List of figures vii
Introduction 1
1 Into the discomfort zone 17
2 ‘Uncomfortably great’: Todd Solondz and Palindromes 67
3 Ulrich Seidl: Far from paradise 107
4 Weirdly discomforting: Dogtooth and the Greek new
wave 149
5 Forces majeure and minor: From existential alienation
to personal obligation in the films of Roy Andersson and
Ruben Östlund 181
6 A very English discomfort: Joanna Hogg 219
7 The comedy of discomfort: Towards a conclusion 249
Select bibliography 277
Index 285
vi
FIGURES
1 Quietly unbearable tension: Keeping the candle alight in Nostalgia
(1983) 30
2 Joyless sex: The discomfort of Aviva and Judah after their first
encounter in Palindromes (2004) 70
3 Camera movement accompanies Aviva’s happy mood after the motel
sex scene in Palindromes (2004) 74
4 Distinctly ‘uncool’ Christian religious song and dance played straight
in Palindromes (2004) 81
5 Genuine close-up emotion on the part of Mama Sunshine
accompanies the story about the girl who ran away … with no legs in
Palindromes (2004) 85
6 Spokesman for the filmmaker? Mark’s speech about the impossibility
of change in Palindromes (2004) 86
7 Framing sex in Import Export (2007) 111
8 The machinery of online pornography: Olga watching a performance
in Import Export (2007) 119
9 Less mediated sex: Olga’s first online performance to camera in
Import Export (2007) 120
10 Olga on the ward in Import Export (2007) 123
11 The reality of end of life: The final shot of the ward, with English
subtitle, in Import Export (2007) 126
12 Comical appearance but taken seriously in the narrative: The father
after faking attack by a cat in Dogtooth (2009) 152
13 Uncomfortable prelude to incest: The son choosing which of his
sisters should be his next sexual partner in Dogtooth (2009) 154
14 Aestheticized stylization: Water drops on the lens in the play-fencing
scene, with English subtitle, in Dogtooth (2009) 157
15 Decapitation: Off-kilter framing of the two sisters in Dogtooth
(2009) 158
16 Awkward kissing at the start of Attenberg (2010) 168
17 Silly walks and gestures in Attenberg (2010) 169
viii LIST OF FIGURES
18 Nightmare colonial ‘musical instrument’ in A Pigeon Sat on a Branch
Reflecting on Existence (2014) 184
19 Hyperbolically extended recession in the airport check-in scene in
Songs from the Second Floor (2000) 188
20 Embarrassing scene framed with characteristic receding depth in
Songs from the Second Floor (2000) 190
21 Figures in an urban landscape in Play (2011) 201
22 Flight rather than fight: Tomas flees the apparently oncoming
avalanche in Force Majeure (2014) 205
23 Hiding in the herd with downcast eyes as ape-impersonation
performance crosses the line in The Square (2017) 212
24 Distance in initial shot of Cynthia’s lunchtime complaint about her
food in Archipelago (2010) 226
25 Edward, in background, seeks more contact with Rose, to the
annoyance of Cynthia, in Archipelago (2010) 227
26 Reducing and abstracting: Christopher talks, reflexively, about his art
in Archipelago (2010) 229
27 Listening to the off-screen shouting match in pained silence in
Unrelated (2007) 231
28 Cringe-making: Swanson ‘trying to get out of his comfort zone’ in the
bar scene in The Comedy (2012) 255
29 Winfried bursts into the frame in his Toni disguise, startling Ines, in
Toni Erdman (2016) 262
30 ‘Hardcore! So Hardcore!’ Gerald’s reaction to Winfried’s giant
Bulgarian folk costume during the nude party in Toni Erdman
(2016) 264
Introduction
A na ï ve underage girl has anal sex with an unprepossessing truck driver,
implausibly declaring the experience to have been ‘so beautiful’. A bullying
male exerts his (limited) authority on a semi-clad woman in his hotel room,
at one point forcing her to crawl around and bark like a dog; other scenes
take place in a geriatric ward peopled by real patients, some clearly senile
and/or approaching death. An upper-middle-class group sits in embarrassed
silence around a restaurant table while one complains to the staff about
her food, her tone quiet but nonetheless needlingly irksome. A young man
who has been brought up in isolation from society sits naked in the bath
choosing which of his two teenage sisters should become his new sexual
partner. A vast crowd, including religious and civic dignitaries, watches as
a blindfolded young girl is walked up to the edge of a quarry and pushed
off, a sacrifi ce that is unexplained but apparently an effort to avert some
unidentifi ed social collapse. A couple’s relationship slowly and painfully
comes apart after the husband fails to admit to momentarily abandoning his
family in panic in the face of an avalanche. A seemingly impervious and well-
heeled white male complains about being ‘stereotyped’ by the occupants of a
black-neighbourhood bar, commenting, with a cringe-inducing insensitivity,
that he offers a source of diversity. The father of a brittle businesswoman
intrudes exasperatingly on her life, disguising himself with a wig and false
teeth to pose in front of important clients as a life coach. 1
These are just a few scenes from what can be viewed as a cinema of
discomfort; of the disquieting, the awkward and the embarrassing: the
subject of this book. What is involved in the fi lms from which these examples
come is usually some form of sustained discomfort that characterizes the
experience offered to the viewer throughout the navigation of their fi ctional
worlds. I distinguish this from passing moments of discomfort that might
more often be found in fi lms in which such a quality is offered only on a
local basis, the premise of which is usually that it will soon be alleviated
or overcome; in such cases, discomfort is a stage usually founded on the
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