A Disquieting Notion (Freaks by Tod Browning)

            In Tod Browning’s film Freaks, there are a number filming and story telling techniques that are far more complicated than people give them credit.  These various key details are discussed in part in Rachel Adams’ book Sideshow USA: Freaks and the American Cultural Imagination.  The first detail I noticed near the end of the film was the clear connection between this film and the fears of the time, being attached to World War I.  The reality of the time was that many young men went off to war and a fair amount came back amputated or no longer whole in some way.  This sort of fear, that you or someone you love, could end up amputated living a much harder life was a harsh reality; one that many of the ‘freaks’ represented.  The scene most reminiscent of this war like connotation is the one in which the freaks are crawling in the mud towards Cleo and the strong man.  This scene is not far from what one might expect to see in the entrenched first world war.  This depiction also somewhat reminds me of the uncanny principle as discussed by Freud in that it is something similar but different to what the men coming home from battle would have seen, making this an effective scare-tactic.

            The attraction of these marginalized people on a surface level could be seen as the embodiment of the cinema of attractions as discussed by Tom gunning.  When taking scenes such as the quadriplegic lighting his cigarette this is a moment the conversation becomes background noise that we do not need to understand the plot of the show.  This invites the audience to just stop, look and be amazed.  This is of course not the only instance so devoted to this voyeuristic way of seeing, take for instance the moment Frita hanging her close.  It’s as if the director is holding our heads and saying look this is what you wanted, a spectacle.  Also the moment where the girl is feeding herself with her feet, the story lulls and we are once again invited to stare.  The cinema of attractions will always be present in circumstances depicting carnivals; the two are inseparable, one and the same.

            The use of scale was quite interesting as well, it had a clear visual representation of underlying psychological qualities of the characters within these sets.  Take the scene where Frita goes into Cleo’s tent after she has been emotionally defeated in her fight for the love of Han.  She is belittled in the sense that Cleo won Han’s affection under false pretenses whilst he and Frita were engaged.  This can be seen in a visual way in the difference of space.  Cleo’s tent is large enough for her and so she looks at home and comfortable where as Frita is seen as small and clearly out of place.  Then take the moments where Cleo is in Han’s place and she is this looming powerful force taking over his space.  The constant shifting between spaces allows for a visual representation of the psychological shifts in the characters.  This can be seen also in the scene after the wedding party where Han is discussing his issues with Cleo and the strong man kissing, while in Cleo’s trailer.  Han looks incredibly small which is how one assumes he is feeling after the humiliation occurring at what was supposed to be celebration honoring him.

            I enjoyed the representation of the audience expressed through the character of Josephine/Joseph, this was a subtle but effective way for the film to point at itself as a medium.  This character is an example we can relate with being an audience of men and women watching from the sidelines with little affect on the goings on within the film.  And the moment where the strong man punched Joseph but not Josephine was an interesting comment on the ridiculous and meaningless nature of gender expression.  The strong man is arguably one of the simpler characters and he places such high value on the expression of gender that he only punches one side of the face as it the other would be unaffected simply because it was wearing lip stick.

            This film dealt with a lot of contemporary issues in a fairly sophisticated manner, while other parts were simply an attempt to draw the eye.  It was odd that the film started with a fantastical description of the history and otherness of freaks while ending on the note that they are people too who have struggled.  This was visually demonstrated when the whole film focused on the difficulties of being an outsider or a ‘freak’, then ending with ew gross look at the freakish duck lady.