Entry 1: Pithy Fable

Mr.Arkadin 1955
Dir.Orson Welles
Actors:
Orson Welles
Robert Arden
Paola Mori
Trailer: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uAvBE0Y1WQI
Extra Information: http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0048393/

After II War World, the European mentality was shuttered by weariness for a new possibility to build up Europe once again. From the pieces of old dynasties that once ruled in Europe, man believed to have an opportunity to make Europe become again the place where the culturel had potential to grow on something different that it had never been before. Orson Welles’ film Mr .Arkadin is critical towards this modernistic mentality in which man was becoming to be enlightened when he had the possibility to practice his abilities freely. Especially, in Middle Europe under the Nazi occupation, people did not have this option to openly express their opinions. Welles saw modernism to be based on false notions because it did not review the recent history that happened in Europe (holocaust, famine, poverty, etc). Many of the nations had urgent need to forget history through art and entertainment, as if nothing happened. In Mr.Arkadin, the main characters are using escapist methods for making their lives simpler, so that they do not have to worry about the past. Unfortunately, they become aware of the past when they are facing each other in closed spaces.

When Mr.Arkadin hired Guy Van Stratten to make a report about his past, he gradually finds out that Mr.Arkadin is using him for different purposes. There is the Paris scene in which the main characters (Van Stratten, Mr Arkadin, and his daughter Raina) encounter each others in an unpleasant manner. As Raina and Van Stratten are heading to his hotel room, they are unexpectedly met by Mr. Arkadin, who directly starts to question his daughter’s intentions. When Van Stratten has put the lights on, Mr.Arkadin starts verbally to attack both of them, as if they are participators in a Greek play. In dutch-angle shot, Mr.Arkadin is in the menacing position ready to commit something that is not yet revealed. His treatment of Raina is completely different than for Van Stratten, which symbolizes Mr.Arkadin’s hidden motives. Mr.Arkadin wants to make Van Stratten pay because he knows too much already about his past, which he does not want to his daughter to know. On the other hand, Raina is not aware of her father’s and Van Stratten’s business that they have done before. For Raina, her father’s actions seem to be obscure, as if Mr.Arkadin has never behaved in this manner in front of his daughter.

All of these characters have a past of which they are aware, but they truly do not have control over their past. Mr Arkadin has a desire to have control over his past, but he is not capable of doing so. In a low-angle-shot, Raina emasculates her father from the power through questioning when she wants to have an answer why her father is demonizing Van Stratten. Raina has the power over both of these men because she does not have anything to hide. In a childish manner Mr.Arkadin and Van Stratten are blaming each other for being hypocrites, as if they are fighting over Raina’s attention. Mr.Arkadin, in his calm manner, loses his control when he accuses Van Stratten, when Van Stratten puts the blame over on Mr.Arkadin. Von Stratten confesses his history by stating the obvious; whereas, Mr. Arkadin is facing part of his own history that he does not want to remember.

The presence of Mr.Arkadin mingles together with shadows in the room; as if he is the man whose past does not want reveal to itself. He is always ready to answer to the question with riddles or obscure statements in order to make other people feel guilty too. He is morally guilty just like everyone else. A film theorist James Naremore explains how “the moral, as in Welles’s other movies, seems to be that life is determined by irrational principles”(186). For Welles, the characters’ distrust is based on the irrational reasons that are used as excuses to explain how certain decisions can be seen as “rational” actions. For instance, when Van Stratten does not have a particular reason for why he accepted Mr.Arkadin’s offer. Maybe his decision in the first place seemed to be rational, but in the long run, Van Stratten starts to regret his decisions.

The flashing lights coming from the off-screen space express how these characters are in vulnerable positions to each other. The environment’s instability is depicted through the mise-en-scene in which the high ceiling makes the characters look small in comparison to their circumstances, as if their personal drama is not a spectacle. In this case the film does not try to “entertain” the audience, as it would be in typical Hollywood film. On the contrary, Welles provokes the audience to experience the story through rationality and emotion at the same time. For Welles, this is not anescapist film that tries to glorify European mentality because in this mentality the characters could not be redeemed from their actions in the past. The only character to have purity to her actions is Raina, who seems to be the most interesting character in whole movie. She does not have a reason to lie or hide her past because Raina has everything she needs. Unfortunately, Raina cannot have a stable relationship with her father and Van Stratten as they have their own personal competition against each other about who can redo their past actions.

Later in the movie, Mr.Arkadin’s and Van Stratten’s competition becomes more direct because both of them are blinded by their own mission to make the past different. Mr.Arkadin wants to get rid of the gang members, with he was associated in the past. From this gang he gained his fortune and fame, but it never gave full satisfaction to Mr.Arkadin. He was always after new fortunes. This mentality was similar to Post-II WW mentality in Europe, in which many countries where after vast fortunes because they did not want mingle in the past failures. Van Stratten represents the sound of reason, as he recognizes his mistakes that he made in the past. He felt redemption from the contract he signed with Mr.Arkadin, in which he promised not to meet Raina anymore. By making Mr.Arkadin responsible for his crimes, Van Stratten would finally get a peace of mind from his past.

In the end, Van Stratten finds the last member of the Sophie’s gang Jacok Zouk who promises to help him, if he only could have food. Van Stratten starts to hunt goose liver around the city without any luck, until he is stopped by Mr.Arkadin’s car. He is driven outside to the restaurant in which there are servants waiting for Mr.Arkadin’s car arrival in dutch-angle-shot. In the background there is a building that resembles a palace, thus symbolizing Mr.Arkadin’s materialistic wealth. Ominous music starts to play when Van Stratten steps out of car, as if his guilt starts to play its part in his personal rivalry with Mr.Arkadin. Film theorist Naremore explains how “the soundtrack is disorientating, often creating a split between words and actions”(189). The conversation lacks context between Mr. Arkadin and Van Stratten because both of them are expecting either one to make their next move. When the camera cuts between Van Stratten and Mr.Arkadin, the sound of violin coming from off-screen space makes the situation more eerie. Both of the characters are faced together in situation from which they cannot escape.

The layers of light are exposing Mr.Arkadin’s shattered identity, which cannot be seen through his actions. Mr.Arkadin does not make sudden movements in his car because this action would symbolize his menacing presence. Van Stratten on some level is intimidated by Mr.Arkadin’s behavior, which obligates Van Stratten to work for him. Van Stratten is the perfect scapegoat for his purposes because then Mr.Arkadin could finally get rid of his past that has bothered him so long. Simultaneously, Van Stratten is shown in the medium shot in which he looks small in comparison to Mr.Arkadin, as if he does not qualify to be in the same level with him. The car window is half-open, reflecting the beams of light into the car that is occupied by Mr.Arkadian. He reveals something personal from his past to Van Stratten when he mentions that Van Stratten is brave enough to ask questions from past deeds. His servants are coming back with goose liver in the fast editing shots that are making this conversation to be absurd. The serious tone of this scene goes away when Stratten finally gets his goose liver, he is left by himself front of the servants. At the same time Mr.Arkadian’s limo roles away at a slow pace, when the half-open window disorientates the perfect image that eventually turns out to be irrational.

In Orson Welles’ movies, the strong story point is usually centralized around conflict between two people who are sharing a similar background. The absence of past is something that cannot be understood without understanding why these characters have become the way they are. There is historical background that is revealed through present actions, and because of this, the characters can have multiple versions of the past. Some of these versions are more accurate than the other versions. For instance, Mr.Arkadian tells Van Stratten that he suffers from amnesia when he really is not. The analogy to 1950’s European mentality is strong in Mr.Arkadian because Welles saw this as a dangerous mindset where the individuals can forget their past deeds if they are not thoroughly investigated. Therefore, the man has to learn to revalue his own actions before they can proclaim something to be completely new, and if this can happen, maybe man is capable of redeeming his past actions.

Works Cited
Naremore, James. The Magic world of Orson Welles. Dallas: Southern Methdodist University, 1989. Print.

Source: http://meta-synthesis.blogspot.com/2010/05/entry-1-pithy-fable.html