MLITT in Film and Television Studies
A Girl Walks Home Alone at Night (2014) as a cinematic proof
of the evolutionary characteristic of hybrid genres
Based on the following question:
4. Using A Girl Walks Home Alone at Night (2014) as a case study, how
useful is genre as a framework for examining film criticism/reception?
Student ID: 2285910Y
Submitted: 31/10/2016
Jeffrey Weinstock, whose area of expertise include American literature,
popular culture, and the gothic, believes that all vampire cinema virtually
explores and narrates what it means to be a vampire (cited in Holte, 2013,
p.120). Ana Lily Amirpour's A Girl Walks Home Alone at Night is
essentially one such account of the life and adventures of a young female
vampire who lives in the fictional realm of Bad City, a shadowy place set
somewhere in Iran, where her immortality and wisdom allow her to
implement justice among the sinful citizens. The nameless vampire, whose
penetration in the other characters' lives brings the needed progression to the
general plot and gradually interconnects the fates of all, undoubtedly, stands
as the backbone of the story. From Arash, the boy who captures her heart,
and his father, Hossein, who's a heroin-addict and subsequently becomes one
of the vampire's victims, to the town's prostitute, Atti, and her abusive pimp
and a drug-dealer, Saeed, the town appears unsuspicious upon the rising
number of deaths and quite oblivious to the numerous acts of injustice,
everyone being occupied with their own individual problems but The Girl.
Defined as ''the first Iranian vampire Western'', the film deals with themes
such as drug addiction, violence, sexuality and prostitution, street culture
and growing up on the street, the contrast between rich and poor, and, last
but not least, feminism versus misogyny. Having said that, Amirpour's black
and white cinematographic masterpiece carries a multiplicity of motifs,
issues and references that make it impossible to confine it to the category of
a specific genre or a sub-genre, thus, calling for a further investigation into
the interrelations between its genres.
Mark Kermode manages to capture beautifully the complicated nature of A
Girl Walks Home Alone at Night by describing it as an example of a hybrid
genre, simultaneously defying time and space, and unifying cultures and
film traditions: ''Cinematically, it exists in a twilight zone between nations
(American locations, Iranian culture), between centuries (late 19th and early
21st), between languages (Persian dialogue, silent cinema gestures) and,
most importantly, between genres.''1
As stated by Tasker (1998), ''genres developed in the classical cinema as a
response to the need to rationalise production'' (p.11), while Neale (1990)
has explicitly confirmed in his reasearch that ''genres are inherently
temporal'' (p.56) and are subject to constant mutation. It is clear that in the
21st century, which is defined by largely expanded globalization and ever-
growing consumerism, cinema is pressured to keep up to date with popular
culture and either produce more of what's desired already, or try to
implement its own rules and influence the guidelines of pop culture.
Consequently, in the abundance of sources for entertainment nowadays, the
element of surprise, that manages to catch the fans unprepared and,
ultimately, gets them re-fascinated by the medium, remains one of the big
screen's biggest strengths. By the element of surprise, I mean precisely the
hybridization of genres and cultures skillfully blended by Ana Lily
Amirpour in her debut project.
According to Williams (1984), “as genres change over time, they and their
audiences become more and more self-conscious” (p.123), thus progressing
from transparency to opacity, from a rather clichéd idea of the genre to a
more unpredictable storyline and characters. What's more, according to
Raphaëlle Moine, ‘the more familiar one is with a genre, the more one is in a
position to appreciate its mutation, its evolution, and its diversity’ (cited in
Todd, 2013, p.96). Many online reviews of A Girl Walks Home Alone at
Night try to avoid putting a genre description, but, for example, The
Telegraph classifies it as a ‘horror’ film whereas The Irish Times labels it as
a ‘film-noir’. In reality, the film is both, and it is also a western, a romance, a
woman’s film, and perhaps even, a neo-realist film.
What’s grown to be known as a cross-genre, or a hybrid genre, is, in fact, a
product “designed to appeal to a range of audiences and capitalise on
different markets” (Tasker, p.11). Esfandiary (2012) agrees that “when
1
A Girl Walks Home Alone at Night review – exhilarating vampire girl power (2015),
Mark Kermode [Link]
home-alone-at-night-review-mark-kermode
‘cosmopolitan’ film-makers produce ‘transnational cinemas’ with universal
themes that go beyond local/national prejudices” (p.4), their ideal adressee
would be a much more global and diverse audience than that of a single-
minded genre.
Fig.1
If we are to take a look at the western, as Williams (1984) notes, ''in one
sense all Westerns are about 'the same' issues of individual versus
community, the taming of the frontier, and so on'' (p.123), even if details
within the genre are subject to changes, such as the main protagonist being a
vampire seeking justice by sucking the blood from the guilty ones, namely,
the Girl Who Walks Home Alone at Night, opposed to the cowboy to be
found as the protagonist in classic westerns. In Figure 1, the choice of font
for the opening title further suggests that the film will be a western or will
contain elements of the genre – a rather minor but at the same time
significant detail about the film.
Clover (1992) goes so far as to suggest that the two genres of the western
and the horror are, in fact, remarkably similar, following his observation that
''each is the other ‘underneath,’ that the terms of the one are inherent, if not
manifest, in the terms of the other, and that each enables the other to be told''
(p.165). Williamson (2005), having completed the process of the unification
between the two genres, writes that the Western vampire is a rather
ambiguous figure that portrays the alienated nature of the capitalist societies
in the West, thus, representing ''no longer an expression of terror'' (p.183),
but that of an outcast.
Holte (2013), in a more classical approach, on the one hand, considers the
role of the cinematic vampire to be of a great sexual allure, and that his/her
sexual nature will inevitably engage others into participating in sexual
behavior. In an interview with Wired, on the other hand, Ana Lily Amirpour
defends the depth of the vampire character by emphasizing its multi-layered
nature and ability to be simultaneously “a serial killer, a romantic, a
historian, a drug addict – they’re sort of all these things in one.”2
The Girl Who Walks Home Alone at Night is, of course, more than simply a
vampire who seeks blood donors or sexual partners. She is practically
neither, even if she does feed on her victims and she does carry a strong
sexual presence around her. Amirpour's vampire character is close to
Williamsons's description of an outcast, but she is more than just an
outcasted presence in the shadows. By riding her skateboard on the deserted
night streets, the noise by the friction of the wheels with the asphalt
notifying the town of her presence, The Girl proves her readiness to
participate actively in bringing justice to Bad City where laws and
regulations are not enough to stop the crimes from happening.
According to L. Williams (1984), ''like the female spectator, the female
protagonist often fails to look, to return the gaze of the male who desires
her'', since back in the classical narrative cinema to 'see' was directly
translated as to 'desire'. The Girl Who Walks Home Alone at Night,
however, sees everything: she’s part of the darkness, part of the shadows,
part of the night, part of the unknown, part of the mysterious. What's more, it
is her strong gaze that makes other people turn their heads, from kids to old
men. ''The bold, smoldering dark eyes of the silent screen vamp offer an
obvious example of a powerful female look'' (L. Williams, 1984) and the
dance scene from the film offers the perfect example of the female
2
MEET THE WOMAN WHO DIRECTED THE WORLD'S ONLY IRANIAN VAMPIRE
WESTERN (2014), Angela Watercutter [Link]
walks-home-alone-at-night/
protagonist's power over her male 'accomplice', the pimp, Saeed, just
moments before his final verdict.
Fig.2
Another important remark is delivered by the careful observations of L.
Williams (1984) that ''there is not that much difference between an object of
desire and an object of horror as far as the male look is concerned.'' In the
fore-mentioned dance scene, it becomes clear that the pimp does not see the
girl as a potential threat; on the contrary, he sees her as a sexual object and
attempts to conquer her attention, whether by offering her cocaine or
dancing for her. Figure 2 portrays the moment between the dance scene and
the attack scene, when The Girl has revealed her true identity of a vampire,
and, simultaneously, has changed her status in the room from the prey to the
predator. Even when she deliberately shows him her fangs, the male's initial
scare fades away quickly.
According to Greven (2011), ''one of the defining features of the woman’s
film is the theme of transformation, which happens on both physical and
emotional levels'' (p.7). In his opinion, an essential female figure that keeps
re-apparing in the horror genre, including in A Girl Walks Home Alone at
Night, is ''the phallic, avenging, retributive woman, the Fury who vanquishes
male deviance, a figure released in fusions of the woman’s film with other
genres, most often film noir but sometimes the western'' (p.84).
The Girl seen as as the Fury transcends the genres of western and horror in
order to add to A Girl Walks Home Alone at Night another genre: the film
noir. One might argue that Amirpour's vampire is actually a femme fatale
and one will be right. However, by acknowledging that The Girl is a femme
fatale, we are not disproving that she is also a Fury: she fits, in fact, both of
the character frames. She uses her mystery and sexual allure to charm the
pimp, and then embraces the nature of the Fury in order to carry out her
main goal: to do justice. As Greven further says, ''in killing off the monster,
she is also killing off a figure whose aberrant sexuality has troubled the
narrative'' (p.147).
Fig.3
The Girl has no other choice but to bring the pimp, with the word 'sex'
tattooed on his neck (Figure 3), both his tattoo and behavior making a
reference to abnormality, to his end. Her main aim being to implement
justice to those who have wronged, ''rather than fighting on behalf of all
women and of her queer subjects as well as her masochistic male
heterosexual ones, she fights on behalf of the law, installing its implacable
logic'' (Greven, p.178). It is not the abusive episode of Saeed attacking Atti,
the prostitute, that she's avenging, but rather the presence of a problematic
figure like the pimp that causes general havoc in society: with his serious
sexual inclinations, his drug-dealing, and, thus, spreading the addiction
among the common people, such as Hossein, the father of Arash.
Having established that A Girl Walks Home Alone at Night is a woman's
film, the last genre that remains to be included in the discussion is, in fact,
romance. A New Yorker Times columnist brings to mind two essential
things with his review – ''this tightly scripted, pictorially lavish, downbeat
romantic fantasy […] is set in a desolate Iranian town but was filmed in
California''3 – that, first of all, whenever one is analyzing a hybrid genre, one
can always find an extra layer to add to its readings, such as the 'fantasy'
added to the romantic description, but also that the difference between film
location and the filming location further adds to the hybridity of the film.
Fig.4
In Figure 4, we see Arash in the hands of The Girl, the one human that she is
willing to go against her animalistic nature for, even if her instincts are
leading up to an escalated thirst for his blood. Interestingly enough, Arash is
not completely innocent himself, having stolen a pair of earings so he can
pay back the drug-dealer for his father's excessive consumption of drugs, a
crime which is either not aknowledged at all, or perhaps ignored for its
minor character, by The Girl.
3
A Girl Walks Home Alone at Night, The New Yorker,
[Link]
alone-night-2
Approaching the end of this essay, now is as good a time as ever to point to
Neale's observations (1990):
Genres do not consist only of films: they consist also, and equally, of
specific systems of expectation and hypothesis which spectators bring
with them to the cinema, and which interact with films themselves
during the course of the viewing process. (p.46)
Therefore, if we are to define A Girl Walks Home Alone at Night as a
'horror' in its narrative image, then fans would expect to be startled in the
cinema and supposing their expections are not met, they will be disappointed
with the film's narrative and plot twists, despite the film's undeniable
qualities. On the contrary, if the poster is to say 'western', they might
imagine cowboys on horses and still feel disappointed upon seeing a reality
that differs drastically from the image their own fantasy had managed to
create in the time frame between seeing the poster and actually watching the
film.
In the view of Allen (2013), the process of hybridization is not beneficial
when it comes to preserving the cultural identities and traditions, even if she
also acknowledges that they are ''neither static nor natural; they present
constructed worlds and as such they are subject to permanent revision.''
Further in the article, one reads that ''hybrids can serve to measure the
genetic distance between, and compatibility of, two species and thus
ultimately illustrate the principles of common descent and progressive
diversification that underlie the notion of evolution.'' It is in my humble
opinion that Allen, despite her negative approach towards cross-genres, has
incidentally captured the true essence of the beauty hidden in the hybrid
genre's multiplicity, which is, namely, the undeniable recognition of
evolution.
For Boylan (2012), ''the vampire is a media darling who has changed both
through the needs and foibles of the creators of the media and the needs of
the audience'' (p.9). Amirpour's debut film features a vampire sweetheart
whose intuition surely fits the director's personal needs for expression, but
perhaps also society's needs for consolation that there is hope left in the
multiplying shadows of this world. A Girl Walks Home Alone at Night
jumps from one genre to the other: sometimes making you squirm during
scenes fueled by explicit content of sexuality or drug abuse, and sometimes
bringing so much visual and auditory pleasure to your senses that you'd find
a smile stretching on your face. Whether one watches the film because
they're a fan of horror films or because they like mysteries, or perhaps they
are fascinated by the vampire love stories, they will inevitably find both an
element of surprise and an evolutionary characteristic within each of the
genres embedded in the storyline.
BIBLIOGRAPHY & REFERENCES:
Allen, M. (2013). Against ‘Hybridity’ in Genre Studies: Blending as an
Alternative Approach to Generic Experimentation. Trespassing Journal:
an online journal of trespassing art, science, and philosophy 2 (Winter
2013). Web. ISSN: 2147-2134
Boylan, A. M. (2012) The Media Vampire: A study of vampires in
fictional media. Published by [Link] books.
Browning, J. E., Picart, C. J., & MyiLibrary. (2009). Draculas, vampires,
and other undead forms: Essays on gender, race, and culture. Lanham,
Md: Scarecrow Press.
Clover, C. J. (1992). Men, women, and chain saws: gender in the modern
horror film. Chapter 3, pp.114-139. Princeton, NJ: Princeton University
Press.
Esfandiary, S., & Ebooks Corporation Limited. (2012). Iranian cinema and
globalization: National, transnational, and islamic dimensions. Bristol:
Intellect.
Greven, D. (2011). Representations of femininity in American genre
cinema: The woman's film, film noir, and modern horror. Basingstoke:
Palgrave Macmillan.
Holte, J. (2013). The Vampire Film: Undead Cinema. Journal of the
Fantastic in the Arts (24:1) 2013, 116-120,171.
Neale, S. (1990). Questions of Genre. Screen. 31 (1): 45-66. DOI:
10.1093/screen/31.1.45
Spicer, A., & Hanson, H. (2013). A companion to film noir. Chichester,
West Sussex: Wiley Blackwell.
Tasker, Y., & Ebooks Corporation Limited. (1998). Working girls: Gender
and sexuality in popular cinema. London: Routledge.
Todd, E. (2013). Passionate love and popular cinema: Romance and film
genre. Basingstoke: Palgrave Macmillan.
Williams, A. (1984). Is a radical genre criticism possible? Quarterly
Review of Film Studies, 9:2, 121-125, DOI: 10.1080/10509208409361197
Williams, L. (1984). When the woman looks. Essays in Feminist Film
Criticism. Edited by Mary Ann Doane, Patricia Mellencamp and Linda
Williams (Frederick, MD: University Publications of America, 1984).
American Film Institute Monograph Series, Volume 3.
Williamson, M. (2005). The Lure of the Vampire: Gender, Fiction, and
Fandom from Bram Stoker to Buffy the Vampire Slayer. Wallflower
Press.