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The above poster is for the 2011 movie
Red Riding Hood (no longer "little"), where
the wolf is now a werewolf,
a man who turns into an anthropomorphic
man/beast creature. The movie is
classified as "Romance, Horror" by
some movie listings. In the original "Little
Red Riding Hood" any amorous encounter
between the wolf and the (little) girl was left
unsaid. In fact, it is a handsome (human) hunter
who saves the girl, and arranges to kill the wolf.
The modern version is explicit about the illicit
affair between girl/woman and man/beast.
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In my previous post, I explain how a "copping out" mechanism is put in place by individuals who cannot, or will not, deal with reality. In clinical terms, this is termed as madness. But, what happens when whole societies turn mad? I believe this is what the Nazi world was all about. But, the Nazis didn't just leave their madness to their private imaginations, and instead refashioned the real exterior world to resemble this utopic interior (mad) one. I think this was possible because they were not isolated individuals, but groups of people who could discuss and build - in real time in their current real world - this new world. Their method involved destroying - the great Götterdämmerung - the current world and replacing it with their twisted vision. But in the end, what they wrought was dead bodies and ruins.
Pre-Nazi society gives us many signs on the direction German society was headed. Art seems the most reliable gauge. German Expressionist paintings, films, musical cabarets (which influenced the Expressionist artists) where their decadence attracted Nazi officials - Cabaret is a great Hollywood version with Liza Minnelli, made between the two world wars were important cultural indicators. Of course the Nazi project was to destroy this decadence, and purify Germany. But their solution was no better than the alienating art or (re)constructed realities in film that they were trying to destroy. Their aim was to use the whole of Germany (and eventually the world) to recreate their paradise. They were paramount artists.
I should qualify that madness is often a willed condition. Natalie Portman's madness in The Black Swan was a condition of her evil narcissism. The German society was no less mad. This is why the German "madness" eventually led to one of the most evil projects of humankind: A willfully planned destruction of life. The great Götterdämmerung.
Our modern world is also going in that direction. I think the signs are there in art, and also in popular films (post WWI German films were also very popular and well-attended). Below is the list of films at my local (giant) theater. I've highlighted the ones that are Horror/Fantasy/Science Fiction/Thriller, or otherwise take us out of our ordinary world and into some fantasy land, or some violent and alien one. Notice how Red Riding Hood is classified both as Horror and Romance by some listings. As the German post WWI films indicated, is all this a sign that we should be paying attention to? Are these films preparing us for an ominous reconstruction of our world, through violence and war, into that elusive paradise on earth?
Here is the tally of films at my local (giant, twenty-room) theater:
- Out of twenty films, seven fit the Horror/Fantasy/Science Fiction/Thriller category
- Of the remaining thirteen films, there are seven listed as "Comedy" or "Romantic Comedy." And these are not sophisticated numbers. Here are descriptive phrases/synopses of some of these "comedies" or "romances":
-"Worst house guest,"
-"[W]ives take a bold approach to revitalizing their individual marriages: granting [their husbands] a "hall pass," one week of freedom to do whatever they want."
- "Two men with autism... advocating for people with autism...take their message global."
- "[A] sardonic screenplay filled with juvenile characters."
- "[The] screenwriters...have turned [the wimpy kid] from endearingly weedy into annoyingly insufferable. "
Even "Little Red Riding Hood" is classified as horror ("Red Riding Hood, minus the "little" in this 2011 film remake.) True fairy tales are frightening (although redemptive) but never "horror."
1. Beastly
Romantic Drama/Fantasy
2. Hop
Comedy
3. The King's Speech
History-based Drama
4. Unknown
Dramatic Thriller
5. Just Go with It
Romantic Comedy
6. Hall Pass
Comedy
7. Red Riding Hood
Horror
8. Paul
Sci-Fi Comedy
9. Diary of a Wimpy Kid: Rodrick Rules
Comedy
10. Rubber
Sci-Fi Horror
11. The Lincoln Lawyer
Drama
12. Wretches & Jabberers
Documentary
13. Wrecked
Thriller
14. Imax: Born to Be Wild
Documentary
15. Win Win
Comedy
16. Insidious
Horror
17. Soul Surfer
Sport Action
18. Arthur
Romantic Comedy
19. Carmen 3D
Musical Drama
20. Thank You
Romantic Comedy