I didn’t want to go! I weaseled out of two movie dates, but Karl finally lured me into going with some friends. He promised dinner afterwards.
Isaac Asimov and Ray Bradbury are certainly on my reading list, but I admit I haven’t got much use for the usual fare of science fiction or gaming, either in print or on film. It’s really hard for me to get excited about paying to see a bunch of other-worldly characters who are mostly mean and just plain ugly. I’ve also got a history with disliking cartoons and animated films. Just ask my mom. As a very young movie goer, I hid under the seat when the warty witch filled the screen of Snow White. I knew what looked nasty, and I wasn’t having any. Four years old, and already a film critic!
Fast forward to Oscars 2010. Yes I’m rooting for Kathryn Bigelow. She’s made a movie as outstanding in action, tension and real life military as the prolific stills from the camera of my hero, James Nachtwey, longtime war correspondent. Story telling is everything to me, especially when all the technical is right too. Girl director and a little husband-wife (well, ex.) competition don’t hurt – pun intended.
Actually according to Cameron, they cooperated a bit on the 2 movies. Bigelow patiently screening and commenting on multiple edits of Avatar, he demanding that she “change nothing in her consummate film making” art of Hurt Locker and stating that “she outdid the boys”, while knowing that she would reject out of hand any claim to feminine favoritism, or a sort of Title 9 of the movies.
Fast forward again to IMAX, 3D glasses, ear plugs and my expectation of a $25 disappointment. I did my homework, and was prepared to give justice to Cameron’s 15-year vision and four year toil to bring a new kind of hybrid film to the public. Hmmm… Hybrid… Isn’t that a parallel concept to what we’re doing with stills and video? OK, better pay attention, I told myself.
Overlooking the formulaic sci-fi opening, complete with Alien-monster-mother Sigourney Weaver and all that baggage, my interest was piqued by the subtle, well maybe not so subtle, mythological references. The word “avatar” references the Hindu concept of multiple incarnations, primarily of the deity Vishnu. An avatar’s role is typically to slay demons and restore righteousness to the order of the worlds and cosmos. The swaying congregation of Na’ví around the great tree resemble the traditional Hindu Balinese Kecak dance where at least 50 men, bare chested, wearing checkered pants, chant, wave their arms and emote in unison.
And the references keep coming! Starship warp drives are generally powered with dilithium crystals, as precious to Star Trek captains as the unobtanium sought by the unscrupulous invaders of Pandora. And of course the Pandora of myth (she had a jar, not a box, in the original) gives us the whole story line of the movie – once evils are released on the world, there yet remains hope. Remember the Diva in The Fifth Element? She was big and blue too, and literally contained the solution to world peace. The Dances with Wolves comparison has been made by many reviewers. And how about the big-eyed kids and animals, ubiquitous in popular art of Keane, Maio, Lee, Gig and many others in the 60’s? Big marks for cute.
Of course the “eyes have it”. All my still photo colleagues say that “eyes are the window of the soul”. I don’t think I’ve ever seen a child’s portrait with big, liquid, innocent eyes fail in competition. Cameron’s insistence on real eyes with depth and reflection is a technological marvel, and an insane budget buster. The eyes alone are worth double the price of admission. But for me the top adorability factor has to be the twitchy little ears, followed closely by the synapsy tail feathers, also twitchy.
It was the elvish ears that put me on track. Avatar’s mythological antecedents’ spring from the dawn of civilization, but the character development, set design and story detailing have specific literary roots 121 years old. 1889 was the publication year of Andrew Lang’s beloved first volume of collected and definitively researched tales from various cultures and traditions around the world, called the Blue Fairy Book. Immensely popular and unprecedented in sales success, it was followed over the course of the next two decades by 11 more volumes, each named for a different color. Hundreds of tales flowed from different continents and societies unknown to each other. Yet they show not just threads of commonality, but aircraft carrier mooring ropes of shared theme, character, form and development. These amazing cross-cultural similarities that I explored with gusto as a pre-teen formed the basic interest that emerged for me 11 years later as a master’s degree in Comparative Literature.
But how do traditional fairy tales promote understanding of the artistic building blocks of Avatar? In both, characters are cardboard flat: good or evil, militant or peace-loving, innocent or sinister, gallant or grasping, heros or villains. Black or white; they have no shades of gray, and they don’t change. You can tell right away who is going to try to eat whom, thought the characters themselves don’t immediately recognize each other’s traits. Lack of perception of motives drives the form and tension of the ensuing story lines. The nasty characters zone in on the obliviously virtuous quarry, yet generally underestimate the strength and resourcefulness of the pure and innocent. Mostly they get their comeuppance. Of course there is collateral damage – like the ferocious beast which eventually sacrifices itself for the Na’ví. Grace cannot be saved, even with heroic effort. The great heritage tree is destroyed before good triumphs and hope re-emerges on Pandora.
Flatness of character is offset with lush detail of the environment. Fairy tales usually regal us with wildly dimensional and detailed descriptions of castles and dungeons, rich garments and paupers’ rags, fairy queens and evil beasts, verdant valleys and ice caves. And the jewels – oh the precious stones that sparkle and pulsate with words so vivid they almost come alive! The Avatar environment abounds with a fantasy garden so real-seeming, so dimensional, festooned with jewelry cascading in trees of light, body crystals, and glisteny jellyfish creatures that are the delicate harbingers of fate and promise and hope. Floating islands that look like updates of M.C.Escher, steeds with six legs, flying partner-beasts that make Harry Potter look rather amateur. The stuff of Avatar just keeps coming at you. And the 3-D effect literally puts us outside the audience box and into the action. I want to reach out and tickle the ears.
The wealth of parable-like references and drama of environment made me think Cameron dropped in everything, including the kitchen sink, in outrageous overkill, or perhaps over compensation for lack of character development and ridiculously predictable story line. He confirmed my opinion in a recent interview with Charlie Rose. “Unsure” and “charting new ground”, he readily claims he “threw in every trick [he] knew to draw in the audience”.
And he certainly drew me in! The visuals are just too wonderful for words. In spite of the inevitable story and dearth of character development, I found myself enthralled almost to end, when the lackluster script finally was just too much to bear, and I really wanted it to be over. The villain and his great knife were just too stupid, and I really wanted the great tree to be at least partially saved.
So I ended up an avid Avatar supporter; I know I’m responsible for at least 10 ticket sales to people who were not intending to go until they talked to me. One of those is a good friend and optical engineer who worked on the Hubble. He’s already got plenty of other-worldly visuals. We both agree the jewels in the crown of Avatar are something to see.
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Known as the Velcro Couple, Sara Frances and Karl Arndt's talents mesh gently, sometimes not so gently, when debating techniques or artistic principles. Fusion is their media, on the edge of contemporary technology. Their collaboration between still and cinematic imagery is sometimes refined and quiet, sometimes raucous and noisy. That's the sound of those pesky muses that flit back and forth between still and motion editing bays. Husband and wife yes, but also a marriage of art, idea and approach. "We're not satisfied if we don't learn something new every day. Our goal is to make what we do appear effortless and far more than the sum of the parts.”
"We are Foto Griots, tellers of tales of insight, culture and expression, through photographic or cinematic based imagery that is sometimes realistic, sometimes abstract. Starting out as documentarians, our style and ability have evolved far past photojournalism into what we call 'Storytelling from the Heart'."
To learn more about Sara Frances, M.Photog.CR. and Karl Arndt, please visit www.photomirage.com or email them at imagination@photomirage.com . You may also view their portfolio at www.photomirage.smugmug.com.
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