Edward Scissorhands-remember the images
Peg Boggs: Oh, my. What happened to you?
Edward: I’m not finished.
EDWARD SCISSORHANDS is the kind of film that appeals to you at all times, whether you know the legends or not, whether you have any nostalgic connects or not. This 1990 film by TIM BURTON has a special Indian connection, given the advent of satellite channels and the multiple runs it had on TV. I remember catching it often on TV but never been able to watch it in entirety. Something about it disturbed me all the time. “What’s with that guy?” “What’s so good about this film anyways?” and so on…
When I see the film now, I look at all the images and marvel at their timelessness. And when I see PUBLIC ENEMIES, I wonder at the ease with which JOHNNY DEPP paints his portrayals real and always a little oddball for distraction, in a tone and texture that only grows iconic with times. EDWARD was a true rock star/popculture god of the early nineties films (I don’t know why but I find his ‘design’ quite similar to WOLVERINE, albeit different in character and intentions). Here was a role that everyone ranging from TOM CRUISE, ROBERT DOWNEY JR., WILLIAM HURT and even MICHAEL JACKSON wanted to portray! But DEPP fell in the plan along with other things in this event of a film, and things were never the same again. And thank god that the film wasn’t made in this decade, or Hollywood would again be bidding for countless sequels, hybrid-inter-medium-avatars and the works.
The film, despite its interesting film trivia connections(WINONA RYDER looking like a dream and capturing every teen fantasy that side of Hollywood, DIANNE WIEST chronicling the AVON era, ALAN ARKIN in a quintessential nineties-suburban-father much before the other forgiving-screen-dads of the current decade, and VINCENT PRICE in an epic climactic turn as maybe-himself-maybe-the-person-he-could-be), now-common-film-devices(slick credit sequences, eccentric hero-get-up, an overdramatic film score by the ever-enchanting DANNY ELFMAN in a film about normal lives in a realistic suburban setting etc.) remains as fresh as ever.
Talking more about the film might not make sense, as we all have experienced it in our own nostalgic ways. Enough has been said about the film’s ironical/good-bad dilemma, the conflict between the real and the fantastical, the symbolism of ‘breaking free’ etc.
Here is something our good friend from MOONINTHEGUTTER, Jeremy Richey often does on his iconical blog, and revives a world otherwise lost in words. I thought I will try some visual analysis for a change too for EDWARD…
The Memorable Credit Sequence
AVON CALLING! – a looking-glass through the perfectly-flawed small town, with its share of insecurities and fears.
Peg Boggs: Why are you hiding back there? You don’t have to hide from me – I’m Peg Boggs, your local Avon representative and I’m as harmless as cherry pie…
The proverbial mysterious-house-at-the-end-of-the-street offers a final solution for Peg, as she grows tired of her failed attempts at finding buyers for her AVON goodies.
THE CASTLE, the stuff of dreams, ironic in its mix of life and tragedy, cornucopia and solitude…
The angled roof/window, something to be seen much later in SWEENEY TODD…
“I think you should just come home”, says Peg and the introspective sense of wonder and shock cuts almost dramatically to an overwhelmed EDWARD in the car.
And despite the ironies, the predictable ways of the neighborhood puts its predictable instruments to use…
The Eternal Rockstar, the punk-idol, the neighborhood miracle, the maestro of a quiet and humdrum symphony of ennui, the almost-powerful-man-but-for-scissors-in-place-of-hands. He longs to touch but doesn’t, for the fear of hurting.
The face of innocence
Young Kim sees her own reflection in EDWARD, as he preserves his own individuality in the changing and fast-evolving times, pleasantly misunderstood, as if it was the theme of the times…
KIM is the stuff of teenage alienation, something that sounds nasty if not for that pretty face…
THE INVENTOR puts a heart on the machine, an image that echoes his intentions, a dream so pure and ambitious; it is bound to come down crashing.
“You just have to be yourself” takes EDWARD back to the horrors of his origin, a cookie-factory shaped in strangely human parts, a kind of a cross between the innocence of PEE WEE and the gothic-gruesome world of SWEENEY.
“I know it is a little early for Christmas Ed, but I have a present for you…”
The becoming of EDWARD, in a FRANKENSTEIN moment. The Inventor reads him out some poetry.
“We want your hands high up in the air where we can see ‘em…”
EDWARD gets the first brush of hatred from this otherwise friendly-small-suburb…, and so the friendly neighborhood turn-on, who brings the proverbial beast out of secure households and wardrobed-privacies, loses, somewhere along the way,the little sense of decision that he picked up on his new found haven.
Metal strikes Metal…
A Connection to KASPAR HAUSER
Officer Allen: Will he be OK, Doc?
Psychologist: The years spent in isolation have not equipped him with the tools necessary to judge right from wrong. He’s had no context. He’s been completely without guidance. Furthermore, his work – the garden sculptures, hairstyles and so forth – indicate that he’s a highly imaginative… uh… character. It seems clear that his awareness of what we call reality is radically underdeveloped.
Officer Allen: But will he be all right out there?
Psychologist: Oh yeah, he’ll be fine.
The local Beauty & the Beast.
A love that is almost real, to believe and to embrace, yet has failure written all over it. Doomsday is counting down its hour of fate. A classic tragedy-the fated I LOVE YOU registers as well, within the other apparent symbols of any great classic tragedy.
And we see the first signs of anger, revenge, basic human emotions, few things that he could well do without.
EDWARD looks at the bully…
A frame that leaves one speechless..
THE RETURN
He has had enough of this civilization bullshit by now, and wants escape from the plastic smiles, the instant pleasures, the fake exteriors, the hollow principles and the odd excuses for a short-lived happiness, as he quietly recedes into being the nameless demon that he was, meant to be.
THE SNOWMAKER
The snow. Catharsis. Artistic expression. The cry of love. The snowflakes continue to fall down the undeserving little town, an image that resonates in its melancholy.
EDWARD SCISSORHANDS, a film that many still rate as Burton’s best. As of me, I am still exploring Burtonworld. Keep checking this space as I discover more classic surprises along the way.
Moving on to the next Burton dhamaka….
9 – The 11 minute dream that is fated to redefine contemporary animation
Shane Acker, a UCLA student in Architecture made this 11 minute short as his thesis film. What began as a student film to open new doors and took almost four-and-one-half years to wrap, 9 became quite a talk of the festival circuits with its striking characters, thought-provoking science-fiction concepts, and exciting chase sequences.
SHANE ACKER
“There was a real emotional core, too. What was surprising was how often I would be approached, following screenings, by women or girls who had gotten invested in the character of #9.”
“I would take jobs on-and-off to pay for the cost of living. I went to New Zealand for six months to work on [Peter Jackson’s multi-Academy Award-winning The Lord of the Rings:] The Return of the King. That was an amazing learning experience, like animation boot camp.”
SHANE ACKER
“The short was among the most extraordinary 11 minutes of film I’ve ever seen. Shane’s conception was and is a stunningly detailed and hauntingly beautiful universe that resonates not only visually but emotionally.”
TIM BURTON
“As a viewer, Shane’s short hooked me, so I wanted to hear the end of the story – and what happened before. I sought to help Shane and support his vision of an epic, meaningful, and entertaining movie.”
TIMUR BEKMAMBETOV
“I absolutely felt that this short could become a full-length feature and a great adventure movie, since animation is a marvelous art form. Fundamentally, this is a universal story about a world not defined by country or race; there is struggle, but it is about hope and optimism.”
PAMELA PETTLER, screenwriter and collaborator with TIM BURTON
Inspiration for 9
Stop-motion animation masters like Jan Švankmajer, the Brothers Quay, the Lauenstein brothers.
What is STEAMPUNK/STICHPUNK?
“They’re ‘stitchpunk’ creations, if you will. That’s a term which I first heard coined from a fan of the short film, and I’d say it fittingly describes the characters’ aesthetic, in what they physically are and in that they have been designed not as toys but to survive in a barren landscape. I realized that the world they exist in should have real grit and texture, with debris of a past and new life forms rising out of it. For that scenic design, I was inspired by photographs of European cities destroyed in World War II, as well as the fantasy artwork of Zdzislaw Beksinski.”
SHANE ACKER
Acknowledgment:
The Long, Dark Christmas of the Soul
Peter Travers
Jeremy Richey
Tim Burton's 9 releases worldwide on September 9, 2009
Anurag Kashyap
Abhay Deol
Dibakar Banerjee
Hansal Mehta
Khalid Mohamed
Kundan Shah
Anish Kuruvilla
Jaideep Verma
Manish Gupta
Navdeep Singh
Bhavani Iyer
D. Santosh
Onir
Ashvin Kumar
Ramu Ramanathan
Sudhir Mishra
Pankaj Advani
Revathy
Saurabh Shukla
Shilpa Shukla
Sujoy Ghosh
Suparn Verma
Santosh Sivan
Shashank Ghosh
Shivajee
Pavan Kaul
Partho Sen-Gupta
Prroshant Naryannan
Sam Langoria
Satish Kasetty
Dont think could ever forget the images Tushar. And more than the images, it was Burton’s reworking of the classic Beauty and Beast fable, giving it a dark, gothic touch, that makes this movie a masterpiece. And yeah that snow flakes wala scene, pure magic, so romantic. Winona Ryder looked like a dream, no wonder Depp still keeps her tatto on him, though they have broken up in real. Also Depp’s innocence contrasted with the shallow nature of the suburbia residents, and that nightmarish shot of the suburbia homes all looking like. Trust Burton to take Beauty and Beast, put it in a suburbia, and use fantasy to make a comment.
And no comments to date for such a brilliant post, really sad.
Some good observations, as usual. I didn’t know it was a literal reworking of Beauty & Beast.
As of the comments, you came, noor came.
Totenkopf should arrive soon too…
And yes, I need to get back to your De Palma article. So much activity on PFC this week. It’s crazy. Catching up soon.
The tattoo trivia is interesting too. Tu chali gayi, tera tattoo na gaya…Winona leaves that effect is whatever she does, unless we are not talking about the new Trek film of course.
Wow!Tushar- talking through images was a good idea for the movie.great way to reflect back on the movie.Even for me it took more than a few viewings to actually understand why all this fuss over the movie.
Ratnakar- interesting trivia man!!!
Thanks man. The images idea was inspired by Jeremy. He has been doing it for years.
excellent choice of stills. In the glorious tradition of moon in the gutter.
yo man. one intention was to uphold the tradition. cheers.
Excellent Tushar. Those images brought back some wonderful memories of one of my favourite films, almost 19 years back and we still see the undying passion of Burton and Depp since so many years….Its still looks the same and consistent…
Shane Acker also seems to be falling in the same league….Thanks for sharing…wanting for more…
Thanks Sridhar. Nice to see you here. Yes, it is indeed timeless. I am waiting to see if Acker brings back those golden days. Definitely a big ask though.
Stitchpunk… hehe
ya, that term sounds nice, ain’t it.
The inventor suddenly dies after creating ES..Even in 9, once 9 is given form his creator falls thud near the table right….anyways…
I haven’t seen 9 so don’t know about that.
u neednt…trailers enough
….
If only I was that smart…
oops…think u took it the wrong way..never intended that…anyways….just put that then..nothin now…
??????? Tushar,
I’m very inspired by reading this article.
and watching those images.
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I missed this film when it was running on StarMovies long time back, and my younger sister saw it, she told me there was a film about boy with the scissorhands. And then she narrate me the story in fairy tale fashion.
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Much later I saw Edward Scissorhands on vcr, it was like love at a first sight!
Wonderfull Gothic Romance!!!
those question-marks was a mistake!
Thanks man, to inspire you is some achievement.
Tushar,
You should have also copied the quote where Tim Burton talks about a childhood dream he had and how he’d snipped/cut/pasted/reworked the same demented dream into a film form- 20 saal baad.
Also, who can miss out on the actual physical similarity between Johnny Depp and Tim Burton? ( They both have the exact same messed up curly hair, deep set eyes and surly drawn out jaws.) Wasn’t that the unmentioned factor that tilted the scales in his favour over other ‘heavyweights’ like Tom Cruise and (then junkie) Robert Downey Jr.?
On a related note:- Someone should do an article on Directors and their thinly veiled alter-egos. As far back as 1972-Jeetendra had been forced to put on these horrible horn rimmed glasses just so that he could look like the geeky Gulzar (nirdeshak sahab).
I didn’t know about that one. But its interesting how this 20 yrs funda works wonders in films. Few days ago we were discussing Scorsese’s documentaries, the recent ones, and the same thing came up.
Was for me the introduction to all things Burton. The scientist’s lab prologue was the madness. and i’m glad you mentioned the credit sequence. Saw it recently and it was crisp and twsited and warm as ever. Winona’s old lady do is probably the only facet that appears dated. This was probably the first tme where i learned to look at the satire in suburbia.
that is some initiation…
What an excellent movie, this was! I remember I saw it with my brother some 10 years ago on Star Movies..