Wayne Wang, Smoke And André Bazin
By Christine Jacobson
Cinema and theater theorist, André Bazin contributed much to understanding the dynamics of these two art media. He began his film criticism career just as the medium of cinema was finding its cultural and artistic voice in the early part of the twentieth century and yet certain of his tenants and observations on film and film criticism are still pertinent to the study of that discipline today. His years of film critique culminated in his role as founding editor of the influential French film journal, Cahiers due Cinema in 1951, eight years before his death. Wayne Wang began his career of film-making in Hong Kong before he began directing his first independent American film, Chang is Missing in 1983 and directed Smoke in 1995. André Bazin's ideal of a real director of cinema is associated with his predisposition for the 'Cornellian'(1) in live-theater. His director ideal does not seem to apply to a director of low-budget, low-key dramatic comedy such as the 1995 film Smoke. As I find Smoke to be an engaging narrative film and interesting on many different levels and also that critical views are supportive of the film in particular and supportive of the work of Wayne Wang in general I wanted to understand why this film worked. When we examine Wang's film Smoke in comparison with Bazin's theories on the art of creating good cinema, it becomes evident that there are areas of theory where Bazin and Wang are in agreement, and yet still other areas where their approaches to presenting narrative on film evidently diverge.
Recognition from film critics is also an indication that Smoke is cinema worth watching and subsequently a film worthy of analysis in the tenants of André Bazin's theories. I base this opinion on the critical reviews in Film Review Annual and acclaim for Smoke in Canadian newspaper reviews (eg. Wilner on two best films of 1995 in Toronto Star) and the testimony of the film's co-director, Paul Auster's on his positive work relationship with Wayne Wang, Smoke's director, together with my own experienced enjoyment in watching Smoke , ((730-36. Wilner, N. 1,(respectively)). Smoke also won recognition for acting in the category of best supporting actor - Perrineau, from the Independent Spirit Awards and nomination for best supporting actress - Stockard Channing, from the Screen Actors' Guild Awards, both in 1996, (Martin, Connors Craddock, editors, 822).
Further to the critical acclaim mentioned above as reason for justifying
analysis of this film, Smoke's co-director, Auster and André Bazin,
Cinema theorist , share a similar degree of dissatisfaction with the narrative
efficacy of most film. In particular Bazin uses the term "disenchantment"
in relationship to spectator response to cinema and identifies "...a
process of depersonalization of the spectator." as the cause, (Corrigan
178). Paul Auster's views concur "...I also have certain problems
with them (movies). Not just with this or that particular movie, but with
movies in general, the medium, itself.",(Tschofen 5). In his quoted
interview with Annette Insdorf in Reading File, Paul Auster goes
on to explain the limited mental involvement that cinema demands of the
audience in general partly because of the "two-dimensionality",
the flatness of the screen posing as a real setting and the passivity
invoked while watching the images. Auster tells Insdorf: "We tend
to watch them passively, and in the end they wash right through us.",
(Tschofen 6).
Actor-audience relationships as perceived within Bazin's Concept of
Presence are of a different substance as they relate to the different
art mediums, theater and cinema. In this regard, Bazin and Auster both
feel that audience involvement on the intellectual level is the quotient
missing in the average film. Of course, Auster's way of understanding
the problem is to relate movies to literature. He suggests that "novels
are different" and goes on to describe the act of reading a novel
as one which is more interactive demanding an emotive and intellectual
response to the text, triggering the imagination and therefore making
novel reading a more three-dimensional experience, and logically, a more
satisfying experience, (Tschofen 6). This is essentially the same argument
against film adaptation of theater and theater-on-film that André Bazin
presents to us: "The cinema calms the spectator, the theater excites
him."(Corrigan 179).
Whether considering the level of spectator satisfaction , or lack of it in the case of each art medium, live-theater, film, or a novel, the problem as Bazin so effectively explains it really centers around the type of spectator-actor (or spectator-protagonist) dynamic, (Corrigan 178-81). The spectator-protagonist relationship is different in each case. Actors on stage essentially provokes a psychological reaction in the spectator, and sets up a perspective of opposition to the actor, as Bazin explains it, but the intellectual involvement necessary for a more satisfactory processing of the narrative element in both novel reading and theater viewing is still similar, as in both medium, the spectator or reader is required by means of activating imaginative faculties to be involved in the suspension of disbelief.
André Bazin deals with the phenomenon of the spectators' tendency towards passive reaction to cinema first in his essay titled The Concept of Presence and secondly in Opposition and Identification, (Corrigan 176-81). Bazin's analysis of the first phenomenon has as it's focus the degree of the 'presence' of the actor, and how effective this intermediary presence transcends verisimilitude of mere representational art and overwhelms actor-spectator opposition. Further, Bazin explains the differences in the actor-spectator relationship in each respective medium. The phenomenon occurs because the actor-spectator relationship is different in cinema than it is in live theater. The interaction between spectator-actor in theater is an interaction of intellectual involvement, as the actor presence within the context of the staged scene are experienced more objectively by the audience, whereas in the movie theater the spectator-actor relationship is one of emotional bonding or identification transference and is more comparable to the melding of identities between reader and protagonist in a novel. The spectator in the cinema experiences the narrative differently, as he is encouraged for various reasons, (the presentation of 'real' space on film, monumentality of screen size, etc.) to put aside intellectual barriers and experience the narrative through identification with the actor-protagonist, (Corrigan 176-78). The differences in sound acoustics between the three art mediums, live-theater, cinema and literature (in the later, the narrator's voice in your head) also affects the degree to which our intellect absorbs narrative elements such as plot, themes and subtleties such as sub-text. These differences affect the degree to which we gain satisfaction from the respective art mediums mentioned above.
Although André Bazin's primary focus for the purpose of this course is his opinion of the aesthetics of the theater as adapted or presented to a mass audience in film and problems and solutions pertaining to theater adaptations and filmed theater, this narrative film Smoke resulting from a collaborative effort between author, Paul Auster, (Leviathan and Mr. Vertigo) and director, Wayne Wang, (The Joy Luck Club and Dim Sum), (Tschofen. 4, 7) serves to reveal certain strengths in theorist Bazin's writings on cinema as well as helps us recognize the limits of Bazin's arguments, especially as regards to what degree technology is useful as a tool with which to convey narrative content and engage the spectator in the action.
André Bazin's 'Concept of Presence' and insights into the psychological
element of identity transference from spectator to actor are very important.
These observations help film-makers understand why it is so difficult
for film producers as opposed to theater directors, to effectively convey
narrative on film in such a way that leaves audiences with more than just
a sense of experiencing a gyrating ride in a fairground mid-way. In other
words, to help directors produce film which affords spectators an experience
closer to that presented audiences of, in Bazin's argument, live-theater
or as in Paul Auster's argument, the novel.
So, considering the ontological-psychological differences in these two
art mediums, theater and cinema, it is quite logical to conclude, that
problems around adaptation of any narrative text, whether novel, or screen
play would share some of the same solutions.
Some film makers, as is the case with Wayne Wang, are more successful than others in conveying narrative and subtle sub-texts to their audiences and Wang's Smoke is one film that works in that it stimulates the intellect of the audience, lets the narrative come through. This film's narrative transcends sensory burn-out and relevant elements of Smoke such as form, mise-en-scene and the degree to which cinematic tools are employed or not employed to communi- cate narrative are worth examining.
In Bazin's philosophy of 'real' cinema, any cinematic reminder of technological affinity for photography as presented to spectators via the cinematographic device of montage should be suppressed. Bazin would have directors rely on skillful use of mise-en-scene for mood and effects in narrative film, (Tschofen, 26). Bazin prefers a 'seamless' a presentation of the narrative as possible, denying any reference to photographic art with an end to stylistic and technical empathy towards the craft of live theatre production, (Tschofen, 26). In this regard, Wang uses mise-en-scene skillfully throughout Smoke, keeping his use of montage to a minimum. He manages to convey dialogue and thematic subtleties without employing a lot of distracting technical tricks available to cinematographers. Wang allows people to listen. First he establishes the atmosphere of moody reverie in Auggie Wren's cigar store with subdued lighting, the smoking motif, periods of silence and composition. The smoking motif is a frequent element of many scenes throught this film associated with story-telling. Smoke is a many-layered symbol here, representing obscuring of the facts (as in the expression, smoke and mirrors), the fallibility of memory, their dissipation, the concealing of emotions and truths and the passing of time.
The smoking motif element of Wang's mise-en-scene, among other subtle elements (1), works as a powerful metaphor and instrument of continuity in Smoke, but Wang uses mise-en-scene most effectively in the central segment of scenes in this film which take place in Paul Benjamin's apartment. Continuity of narrative is also provided by the music of Tom Waites and the use of colour. Considering elements such as character placement, composition, lighting and decor in these scenes, Wang sets the mood for optimism and insight. The even, bright lighting, sparely furnished interior, natural tones and frame composition work with, instead of detract from the emotional action of these scenes. In editor Bert Cardullo's book, Bazin at Work, Bazin praises Wyler's use of mise-en-scene in the cynical film, The Best Years of Our Lives: "The whole tendency of the mise-en-scene is to efface itself.", (2). The even lighting and natural tones of decor as well as the choice of mid-range bust shots, forground figure placement and horizontal compositions imbue the scenes with a mood of stability. These mise-en-scene treatments help spectators focus on the verbal exchange, the exchange of ideas and more importantly, help people envisage the developing trust between Paul and Rashid.
If inclusion of the smoke motif in mise-en-scene works for Wang to convey a 'gray' areal of morality or pseudo-truths, then its omission is equally as important. Absence of the smoke motif conveys directness and truth as in the early part of this film when Auggie holds court and tells writer character Paul Benjamin's biography to cigar store regulars. Wang does not stop there, however and reinforces the no-smoke motif effectively with his figure arrangement within that frame. The meaning of 'no smoke' is reinforced by Wang's skillful arrangement of characters. This characters composition around Auggie's cigar store cash counter is evocative of a Renaissance painting, the subject matter of which would suggest a prophet and four disciples. Perspective, subdued lighting and frontality of the main subject, Auggie, in this tableau work to convey a sense of communication of artist to audience.
Subject composition in mise-en-scene treatment is of significance in subsequent scenes of Smoke as they form a visual sub-textual parody for the development of visual arts, starting with the Renaissance painting, then Northern Renaissance (horizontal composition and foreground figure) is suggested in the compositions in the fore-mentioned series of Paul and Rashid's dialogue shots and then Baroque-diagonal compositions between Auggie and Paul-Benjamin in the diner while discussing the Christmas story. (2) Here Wang's knowledge of fine-arts and painting and understanding of how composition interacts with the viewer comes to the fore. Without doubt, Wang's talent for skillful use of mise-en-scene is evident in Smoke.
However, Wang employs certain cinematographic techniques such as a series of cut/reverse shots and particular camera point-of-view just as skillfully, to enhance action and themes and a little montage as well. In particular, the series of cut/reverse shots employed in the dialogue action involving Rashid and Paul Benjamin work well in tandom with the Northern Renaissance type of mise-en-scene composition to reinforce the narrative (the developing relationship between mentor and protege). The exchange of ideas, developing trust and intimacy between men of different generations, class and culture are visually articulated as the cut/reverse shots show each man expressing himself from opposite sides of the round table, then finally together, on the same side of the table. Here the collaborative team of writer and director of Smoke strengthen the action of the exchange of ideas with clever camera technique, without the use of which much of the scenes' dialogue and theme development would be lost on the audience. Further, this series shots accentuates Smoke's ongoing subtext of dialectic process between the arts, (Rashid is a sketch artist and Paul B. Is a fiction writer), stemming from the exchange of ideas and resulting in the absolving of differences. Wang's competent use of mise-en-scene is enhanced here by means of articulating theme and dialogue by taking advantage of versatility of point-of-view and editing available to cinematographers. The same technology emphasizes the unique point-of-view advantage of cinematography. The thematic subtleties conveyed in the above-noted series of scenes could not have been effective on stage without point-of view advantage and medium-shot frontals afforded the director with a camera. The collective series of progressive shots from long shot (opening shot of cigar store from across the street) to medium range shots, bust shots of central series with Rashid and Paul) and super close-ups of facial features between Auggie and Paul in the diner at the end of film, ( just before the transfer of the narrative to the black and white Christmas Story and audience inclusion into Auggie's imagination) is representative of effective non-obtrusive use of technology. This clever handling of the sequence via the camera range reinforces the effectiveness of Wang's mise-en-scene figure compositions. As Auster explains in his interview with Insdorf: "Then, very gradually, as the disparate characters become more involved with each other, there are more and more close shots and singles." (Tschofen 12-13).
However, when arguing in favour of live-theater as form prototype for the 'real' in narrative film, André Bazin contradicts himself. He ignores his own understanding of the common origins of photography and cinematography as the technological development related to the capturing of light and time on celluloid, which he articulates so well in his theory of 'presence', (Corrigan 177).
Ironically, in Smoke, Wang reminds us of this contradiction with
mise-en-scene photo-album objects. Almost perceiving Bazin's imposed restriction
of montage editing for the purpose of conveying mood and effect in film,
Wang and Auster present people with a photo-album, ("time piece-meal")
as a reminder of cinema's affinity with technology, (Corrigan 177, Smoke).
The photo-album ties in with the narrative, but also presents audiences
with a mini-montage metaphor. This small segment of this film's narrative,
Auggie's collection of 4,000 shots from the same location, but not connected
to each other in any way in terms of purpose is suggestive of montage
technique. These albums by way of allusion to cinema's technical
dimensions, capturing light, arresting time via photography, memory insertion,
serve as another reference to differences between the techniques available
to theater directors and those used and available to cinematographers
as tools in developing the narrative. Outside of this metaphor reference,
Wang doesn't use montage at all, with the exception of the two insertions
of moving train shots, set against the Brooklyn skyline, one at the start
of the film, before the cigar-store long shot and at the end of the film,
before Auster's Christmas story segment.(3)
More importantly, the point-of-view determinant afforded the camera in photography and subsequently cinematography is evidence that technology affords film different ways of articulating action in a narrative which the director of live theater does not have at his disposal. It is the power of the point-of-view afforded the camera in the apartment scene with Paul and Rashid which helps the spectator experience the dialectic process of their exchange of ideas through the articulation of action of the dialogue and which underscores the developing intimacy in this film, from beginning to end as stated in the previous paragraph. This at least equals the impact that the same sequence of scenes would have if presented in live theater, if not surpasses it. Supporting the use of montage in film, in the other extreme to Bazin's disdain for it is New York film producer and critic, Fred Manoogian who makes the statement; "Montage is the film's dynamic.",(121).
As previously stated, author Paul Auster felt, in accordance with the views also of theorist André Bazin, that most films presented audiences with an intellectual void. In a very learned but subtle way, by means of this film, Wayne Wang has managed to fulfill what Bazin posited as an aesthetic goal for directors; to engage spectators to a higher degree of objective involvement in the cinema and avoid overloading their sensory capacities with passive identification with the protagonist.
If a mutually beneficial relationship between these two characters and (as intimated in these scenes with the characters, Thomas Cole and Paul Benjamin) as the characters also carry the embodiment of the art forms of story-teller, writer and sketch artist, then their motis operandi within the action of the sub-text, signifies the dissolving of moral, cultural and generational polarity in this film.
Wayne Wang disperses art to the common man, through the photo-documentary hobby of cigar-store owner, Auggie Wren, through the sketches of Rashid, the writing of Paul Benjamin and later as seen in the story-telling of Auggie and author Paul Auster's writing. In-spite of the film's undercurrent of stealing; memories (suggested to us by the stolen camera), identities (Thomas Cole's lie to Cyrus that he is Paul Benjamin) and ideas (Auggie's inspiration for the Christmas story) and not to forget Wang and Auster's stolen idea for character Ruby's role (Stockard Channing's evocation of film noire's Susan Hayward or even Ida Lupino), Wang redeems them through their dreams and through the inevitable spectator identification with the protagonists, all of us through their art, (Ozer, J, 1300).
Examining just how Wang manages here to transcend the film-maker's pitfall and create a similar actor-opposition experience closer to that experience in live-theater, closer to the psychological state Bazin has explained (in his essay on Opposition and Identification in Corrigan's portion of the Reading File) is very important, (Corrigan 178). This director-writer team of Wang and Auster manage to impede the degree of audience passive-identification with the protagonist further, by presenting us with three intellectually stimulating alternatives to standard film-narrative. In the first instance, the form of the film alludes to a play in five acts about an assortment of protagonists. These five acts are prefaced by Auggie Wren's recitation of Macbeth's soliloquy after the death of his wife, " Tomorrow and tomorrow and tomorrow Creeps in this petty pace from day to day.....". The five acts motif emphasize the different stories featured in the narrative and distributes protagonist-identification among multi-protagonists with the end-result that spectators consciousness is stimulated anew with each new story. Next, periods of silence during the smoking scenes and the observing scenes (Rashid sketching Cyrus's garage) allow people to take in the scene and assess action and absorb meaning of the dialogue, (Greenaway, K. 2). Accompanying Wang's technique of making the dialogue felt with intervals of silence, it is interesting to note he also avoids emotional manipulatin through musical score. In the third instance Wang and Auster sustain interest by presenting a coda (or a denouement) at the end of the film in black and white by real-life author, Paul Auster with which people can speculate on the subtler elements of the film such as Auggie's true character, and the film's themes. Smoke's unique ending, Auster's "Christmas Story" sustains the interest in the narrative as well as underscores a main theme, that of the sharing of memories, their retelling and therefore alludes to the theme of immortality through art, (Ozer, 1300). Technically, this black and white denouement to this film separates this memory from the main narrative, while cleverly referring back to the beginning of the film, (source). This, along with the recurring motif of Smoke reinforces the continuity of the narrative in this film (Ozer 1301).
On the one hand, smoking motifs, coupled with actress Stockard Channing's portrayal of a Ida Lipino/Susan Hayward or fallen-angle vamp, Ruby (a Mrs. Macbeth who led her husband astray with her own ambitions as is revealed to us in the dialogue between her character and Auggie Wren), refers back to the once-popular film-noire sub-genre of film popular in America in the decades of the 1940's and 1950's. In the second instance Wang and Auster's smoke in this film serves as referential motif to the grey area of morality as an undercurrent throughout this film. When you think of it the later metaphor of the smoke motif, the gray area of morality as realism, plays an integral part of the sub-text of the plays of the most popular and famous of the world's playwrights, Shakespeare.
Wang and Auster are clever narrators, but they are also realists. As the smoke motif implies, people dream up memories with a smoke-screen of subjectivity.
André Bazin idealizes live-theater to the extent that he prefers films emulate the frontality, the stage's opaque architecture and singular focus and the theater's means of creating an objective opposition to actor and action. As regard to the need for heightened objective spectator response, Bazin is right. However, cinema did not evolve to make live-theater redundant. Nor did it evolve solely a tool with which writers, actors and directors can propagate theater arts. The filmart-medium is not limited to reproducing theater experience only. Cinema is an entirely separate medium. Although these two art mediums can co-exist, collaborate and overlap stylistically, thematically and socially, film medium is a distinct form with which to present narrative in its own right.
Wang and Auster form a formidable team of aesthetic commentary via narrative film. They use the reference to the most recognized playwright in Western literature, by throwing in lines from Macbeth, ("..tomorrow and tomorrow and tomorrow creeps in this petty pace from day to day") and reference to theater in general in the way they present the narrative of Smoke to us in five vignettes representative of acts in a play. In juxtaposition of the scene of character, Auggie Wren's photography and the theater motifs (Shakespeare and acts one to five), Wang and Auster present themselves to people as aesthetic commentators. Using the fore-mentioned references these two author-directors convey their own ideas of the relationship between photography, cinema and the theater. The reference to the theater is really the reference to the playwright, distinct from the medium of live-theater itself. With this distinction, they are reminding us that the written play is the mutual source of theater and film medium and from there, each medium, first theater and then the film-medium interpret and present the written material to audiences in the powers of their respective technologies. The distinction is, as I interpret it, that cinema interprets the written work of the play in the medium of film; cinema does not serve only as parallel form of the theater stage or staged theater.
All the arts are part of a mutual exchange of ideas which interrelate. Each takes from the other and gives in return. The continuing stealing motifs in the film Smoke can also be seen to reinforce this concept and articulate the dialectic process which inspires all artists at every level of society. Haig P. Manoogian describes the linking dynamic between the arts in his book The Film-Maker's Art under the section titled "Linking the Arts", in which he states; "...this does not mean that film and theater are alike, but that they draw their basic inspiration from a common source. ..The parallel is not in method, but in intent.",(10).
André Bazin states that the unique talents of a strong director is the key to successful film adaptation of theater. He incorporates this idea in his and the Cahier's "auteur theory"(Tschofen 6). I feel that Wang is a candidate for distinction as a director on Bazin's terms. Reviews and analysis of the history of Wang's career as a director, beginning with his first independent film, "Chang is Missing" are mixed, but fall to the greater degree on the better-than-average side as noted in the opening paragraphs of this essay.
There is also compatibility between André Bazin's theories about cinema and this particular Director-movie relationship in Smoke. According to Bazin's "auteur" theory, Bazin stated that the best film directors are like writers in that film directors, like writers should actively participate in imprinting their style and themes on their works, (Tschofen 26 ). Considering the director, Wang's unique approach to filming narrative in light of his dependence on the input from author-scriptwriter, Paul Auster, there is an argument to consider Wang's work as director in the light of Bazin's 'auteur' theory of ideal director. After agreeing to write the screen play for "Smoke" at Wayne Wang's request, and the project actually got off the ground, the director-writer relationship was reinforced instead of terminated. Paul Auster comments:
But Wayne and I forgot to pay attention to the rules." (Those that pertain to the isolation of the director-writer, once the film production has begun). It never occurred to either one of us to part company then. I was the writer, Wayne was the director, but it was 'our film', and all along we had considered ourselves equal partners in the project.
Qtd. In Tschofen, Reading File, 8.
The strongest tribute for Wang's strengths as a director comes from his co-director, Auster:
A screenplay is no more than a blueprint, after all. It's not the finished product. I didn't write the script in a vacuum. I wrote it for Wayne, for a movie that he was going to direct, and I very consciously tried to write something that would be compatible with his strengths as a director!"
Qtd. In Tschofen, Reading File, 6.
Wayne Wang is a director not cut from the usual American director mold.
The close collaboration of himself and Paul Auster while directing Smoke
as stated in the Isodorf-Auster interview is indicative of his usual style
of directing. Writer-director collaboration and a directing style synonymous
with successful cinema resulted in a critically acclaimed sequel to Smoke,
Blue In the Face. Smoke itself was awarded "two thumbs up"
from Siskel and Hiebert. Blue In the Face attracted such recognized
stars as Lilly Tomlin, Roseanne, Lou Reed, Michael J. Fox, Madonna and
more, (Horton, M. 2). Cinema gurus heaped on applause for Wang's directing
successes for such films as Dim Sung, The Joy Luck Club and Chang
Is Missing. The Academy of Motion Pictures nominated The Joy Luck
Club for best picture of the 1997.
Wayne Wang's movies focus on modern themes centering around culture, adaptations
of Asian minorities to the great American melting pot and social issues.
All are offered to audiences in his particularly low-key non-didactic,
but engaging wry-humoured style. He manages to turn tragedies into dramatic
comedies. Like an author of classic novels Wang presents the layered themes
of Smoke to us subtly, within the narrative context without hitting
his audience on the head with extenuating visual pomposity or didactic
pronouncements.
'Cornellian' as André Bazin expresses it, as synonymous with 'realistic';
his ideal of correctly directed cinema as exemplified in the type of film
style of a John Ford style, or that of William Wyler is not Wang's style
of conveying the 'realistic' cinema, either, but Wang, like them, is effective.
Bazin's 'auteur' director term as exemplified in such notable directors'
works, Stagecoach (John Ford), Citizen Kane, Othello, (Orson
Wells) the darkly satirical visual dramas, Brazil and Twelve
Monkeys, (Terry Gilliam) and films of Wyler can also be considered
to encompass the effectiveness of the unique directing style and films
of Wayne Wang.
Copyright Christine Jacobson, 2001
Notes
- Cornellian suggests the perceived realistic style of 17th century French playwright, Pierre Corneille.
- Here the parody also suggests the theme of directness and truth, democratic spectator inclusiveness (Northern Renaissance and Van Delft), as regards the diagnal composition, Baroque trompe d'oeil,
- Together these two shots symbolize the continuous narrative.
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