"The Unknown": Response Paper One

The film I have chosen to respond to is “The Unknown”. I enjoyed this film a lot, and I think I enjoyed it in part because it retained elements of the earlier spectacle films. The strange moments with the “freaks” were captivating on their own—however, I did not think the story was overshadowed by the spectacle. One complaint that arose during class was that it did not make sense when Nanon overcame her fear of men’s arms. However, I believe the film prepares the audience for Nanon’s change in several ways, namely through Nanon's dialogue and behavior.  

First of all, regardless of her fear of arms, Nanon never appears to be afraid of Malabar. In each interaction with Malabar, Nanon is friendly to him until the moment he tries to touch her. Once he tries to touch her, she rejects him. But each rejection is temporary, and Nanon is friendly to him the next time they meet. Nanon never explains to Malabar why she rejects him. Her mixed signals keep Malabar at a distance, but because she never tells him that she hates men’s arms he is encouraged to continue trying. Nanon’s willingness to give Malabar multiple chances shows that whether or not she is afraid of his arms, she does not mind receiving his attention.

Her stated fear of men’s arms keeps Alonzo’s attention on her as well. Alonzo fully believes Nanon is afraid of men’s arms (he perhaps believes in it more seriously than she does herself), and each time Nanon rejects Malabar, his own confidence in his chances with her are bolstered. Whether Nanon’s fear of arms is real or not, it is conveniently and perfectly designed to keep the attention of both men.

            If Nanon’s fear of arms is meant to keep both men on the hook, her comment that God should take away men’s arms seems less of a harmless comment and more a cruel tease aimed directly at Alonzo. It is a sadistic wish that all men were disfigured, but also a promise to love a man who is disfigured; it is a tease designed to both hurt and encourage Alonzo. Essentially, Nanon is telling him that “it sucks that you don’t have any arms, but at least it means you’ll probably get me!”  Again, her continual assertion that she is afraid of men’s arms solidifies Alonzo’s hope that she will fall in love with him.

            However, Alonzo underestimates Nanon’s interest in Malabar. In one scene, Nanon expresses her wish that Malabar was “different from other men”, and that he would not try to hold her. This is a strange thing to say to Alonzo, who is already different from other men, and (as far as Nanon knows) is physically unable to hold her. It signals to the audience that even though Nanon outwardly rejects Malabar, he is more of a romantic interest to her than Alonzo is.

 Alonzo thinks separating Nanon from the carnival is what she wants—he wants to save her from Malabar’s arms—to “take [her] away from the things [she] hates”, but as Nanon watches the circus leave, she looks anything but happy to see it go. And when the camera uses eye line match to cut from her gaze to Malabar, it is obvious that she is anything but happy to see him go.

Alonzo continues to believe more in Nanon’s fear of arms than she does. And while he is in the process of removing his arms to secure her love for him, Nanon finds another person to give her attention. Suddenly, when she is spending time with Malabar—when it is he, not Alonzo, who she relies on for attention—her fear of arms is gone. This abrupt change in her fears accompanies an abrupt change in who her companion is, and it hints that her fear of arms was never as great as she led Alonzo to believe.

Alonzo’s unwavering belief in Nanon’s fear of arms proves him to be the most naïve, and perhaps the most innocent character in the film. His hope to one day marry Nanon is so strong that he chooses to see only the behavior that supports his wish. The possibility that Nanon is playing with his feelings never occurs to him. He takes Nanon at her word and stakes his entire life on marrying her. Nanon’s fear, which is perhaps partially sincere on her part, still works to keep Alonzo firmly on her hook. Nanon has no idea that Alonzo has put so much hope into her fear, and has no idea what he is willing to do to preserve the relationship Alonzo thinks her fear promises him.

I also want to add a quick note on the music, which I think also contributes to the development of the story with Nanon. I thought the music used in the film was wonderful (it signaled to me that I was going to enjoy the film before the opening credits were even finished), and I found the songs in it stuck in my head days after. I enjoyed the heightened reliance on music to control the mood of the film in the place of spoken lines, and I found it interesting that the majority of the songs were used in multiple scenes.

There were two repeating songs that I thought were especially important to Nanon’s development. There is a “sad song” that plays only when she is with Alonzo, and there is a “love song” that only plays in the scenes with Malabar (the scenes that were filmed with gauze over the lens). The sad song that played when Nanon first kisses Alonzo, and contradicts Alonzo’s own mood in the scene—while he is ecstatic, the sad music hints to us that the kiss is perhaps the closest he will ever get to possessing Nanon’s love. When the same song is used the second time Nanon kisses Alonzo, we know the kiss is all he will get. We know that the kiss is a bittersweet moment because we know Nanon is already engaged to Malabar.

Additionally, the love song that plays in Nanon and Malabar’s romantic scenes is notably absent from their “happy ending”. Instead, the sad song—the music connected with Alonzo’s kiss—is playing. Therefore, in the final moments of the movie the audience cannot fully rejoice in Nanon and Malabar’s romantic triumph. Instead, we are left thinking of Alonzo’s hope, and the role Nanon and Malabar’s relationship played in destroying it.