Everyone wants to be Cary Grant. Even I want to be Cary Grant.
I pretended to be somebody I wanted to be until finally I became that person. Or he became me.
Cary Grant
Being the venue for an ever influential entertainment industry, L.A's
culture itself requires its residents to assert and profile themselves with
an illusory, immaculate, successful persona. The way in which tinsel
town was constructed and its modus operandi trickled into the entire
culture of the city. As skillfully as the movie industry has woven and
spread dreams of various natures, they just as easily sold the concept
"from rags to riches" to the receptive audience. The optimism this
message bears has spurred many generations and powerfully lured
people from near and far. Nowhere else is the phrase "Fake it 'till you
make it" more fitting and nowhere else is the social acceptability of
pretense higher. This does not just apply to self promotion at the lower
strata of society, where the virtuosic feigning of importance and success
proved to be a feasible strategy to climb up the ladder, it is also widely
approved in the realms of the established and wealthy, i.e. when tax
reduction is packaged as philantrophy and the resulting applause for the
perceived generosity is audaciously pocketed. Philantrophy deteriorates
to a form of investment, monetary as well as relating to reputation.
Virtue and integrity appear to be of no importance in aquiring status for
this can be achieved and maintained by corrupt means. The audience
seems to clap just as enthusiastically.
Bjoern Segscheider explores the dichotomy between real and mock,
man made constructs such as the monetary system and its effects on
its holders particularly those that inhabit Los Angeles, and how the
practice of the film industry shaped the mind set of surrounding citizens.
He examines connotations between the structure of acting and the
composition of personas and how and why we identify with a figure. It
all flows back to the city of Los Angeles, this evasive, absurd place
soaked with entitlement to instant gratification, and the willingness to
attain it with sheer illusiveness.
Much of the city has been used as a set for film, which further
complicates the distinction between film and reality as well as the
difference between being and seeming. With Batman serving as the
lustrous example and by imagining the perspective of this figure,
Segscheider examines the resemblance of the figure's patterns
regarding its transitions from Alter ego and public persona to the shifts
of our desires and reference points regarding the formation of our
identity through time. There is a shift in what we yearn to become as we
are aging: at young age most of us strive for and admire qualities
represented by Batman the hero, such as integrity, spine and
willingness to stand up for principles even if it breaks the (man made)
law. Later, as we advance to learn about the world, we pursue
characteristics associated with the worldly and publicly known
counterpart of the Alter ego, Bruce Wayne, the successful billionaire
with alluring luster. Differences and common grounds between the
protagonist and L.A.'s population emerge: Wayne strived
for worldly success solely to finance his Alter ego, he actually despised
the selfish mentality of the world he was part of and regarded its
superficial objectives as nonsense. The mind set of the average L.A.
resident on the other hand supports flippant attainments. The gadgets
Batman needed i.e. were custom made for his purposes and probably
expensive, notable is the lack of brands in the movie. This contrasts the
giant focus on labels assisted by celebrities. The purchase and need of
gadgets increases with the own status in order to maintain it it seems.
His impressive mansion covered the so-called Bat cave, in which the
transformation to the hero entity took place and in which the Batmobile
was parked at, it distracted from his noble actions. We can see the
sinister mirror-inverted version of that in examples where dirty actions
are undertaken or a vapid, boring life is put up with in order to acquire
huge manors. Angelenos heavily depend on their cars and spend a fair
amount of time in them even if not caught in gridlocks. The importance
of the car as status indication is the direct opposite of the brandless,
custom made, merely purposeful Bat car.
When corrupt actions are being rewarded, when it does not matter
where the money comes from, and when appearances are
predominantly important, the ontological constitution is being discarded
entirely in favor of the role one chooses to play and of purchases that
scream status. In a city where real locations are being used for fiction,
or even transformed completely - as it has been done with Griffith park
in Los Angeles for the first Batman movie, as well as many other times
at which Los Angeles has been turned into New York with enormous
effort - the own home becomes a simply a backdrop in which the
narcissistic fantasy version can be manifested and the persona one
presents is the replacement for actual being.
No comments:
Post a Comment