bennet_7 | Inception: icons and meta

Is there anything better than a DVD rip leaking a month before the official release?
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Well, Christmas is pretty good. So is winning the lottery. And getting into grad school (which is what I should have been trying to do instead of making icons).

Still, I was pretty pleased when Inception appeared on the internets last weekend as I've been enjoying the hell out of the fandom. Rewatching the film, the flaws I mentioned previously (characterisation, dialogue: Nolan, get better at these!) are still there but they don't diminish my enjoyment of the film overmuch and hopefully it won't fall apart the more I view it.

The quality of this copy isn't the greatest but it was decent enough for me to waste a couple of hours making icons.

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Usual rules apply: comment, credit, don't hotlink, don't re-militarize the Rhineland, be nice to your mother, there is no rule six, live every week like it's shark week.

Caps are my own. My resources.

If you'll allow me a moment's self-indulgence, I'd like to discuss two of these icons. Firstly, this one

which, let me just say, there is an essay and a fic on the parallels between Jane Eyre and Inception and husbands who lock up their crazy wives and the young women who discover them. However, I find the idea of Ariadne as Jane squicky as hell so if you are tempted to fic the idea, please have her walk a different path.

Secondly, this

was a joke on my part because this scene (where she asks whose subconscious they're going into) is one of the two clunkiest exposition scenes in the film (I think the other is when they get to the third level and she finally gets around to asking if they're killing parts of Fischer's subconscious when they kill a projection). But having thought over it a ~~little~~lot, I don't think Ariadne is just the exposition fairy and she has a lot more agency in the film than I first thought. It's her idea to go to limbo after Cobb and Eames have given up, she then shoots Mal, and she gets herself and Fischer back to safety rather than risk more time in limbo helping Cobb with Saito. Honestly, I think she'd shoot the tyres and that's the highest compliment that I have for fictional characters.

Really, someone needs to write about the representation of women in Nolan's films in general. I don't think he's misogynistic but I do think he's sometimes a little neglectful. Ariadne's something of an exception in that she isn't a love interest or a love interest who dies, although YMMV if you're wearing shipper goggles (Natalie from Memento also, maybe, because her relationship with Leonard wasn't really romantic and I haven't seen Insomnia so I can't comment on that (but I do know that Nolan didn't write that script)). I don't see any reason why Eames or Yusuf couldn't have been female (I do think Arthur and Saito needed to be the same gender as Cobb or his close relationships with them might have been hard for the audience to view as strictly platonic and that would have lessened the importance/impact of the loss of Mal (if there's someone waiting in the wings, as it were)). I'm not saying that Nolan needs to shoehorn women in for the sake of flag waving feminism and he's certainly not the biggest offender out there, but considering he makes such big movies that also garner critical respect, it would be nice to see more women in them, doing things other than dying. I hope Ariadne was a step in a better direction.

Am I expecting too much? Is it a day ending in "y"?

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As someone said there was an article about Nolan's women problem recently and it correctly pointed out that Ariadne is his best female character so far.

Still, she is completely focused on the male hero and on helping him instead of having a motivation and journey of her own, and her main trait is being similar to the protagonist and therefor able to understand him so well.(and the male supporting characters are not like that) She's a cool girl because she just gets you(you being a guy).

I think Nolan is noticeably bad at female characters, I'm actually always a little angry after seeing a film of his for this very reason. I really don't buy this "It's just Hollywood. It's just how the world is!" excuse. Nolan doesn't seem willing and able to get into a female character's head at all.

Only thing I disagree with is Ariadne asking about destroying parts of Fischer's mind. This is actually the first time this question makes sense. Obviously it wasn't planned to shoot any projections beforehand. When it becomes necessary they are actually in mortal peril and her thoughts are probably more along the lines of "OMGOMG" than anything else. Most of the killing is done by Arthur and Eames and, in the next level, Cobb, out of Ariadne's sight anyway. On the mountain, Cobb is calmly shooting projections without provocation, which seems a little cruel, and leads you to question - You are not actually doing any harm here, right?

Also, beautiful Icons, I especially love 39 and 41! lol

Still, she is completely focused on the male hero and on helping him instead of having a motivation and journey of her own, and her main trait is being similar to the protagonist and therefor able to understand him so well.(and the male supporting characters are not like that) She's a cool girl because she just gets you(you being a guy).

Very true, the only things we see Ariadne do outside of Cobb are her brief interactions with Arthur and a montage of teaching the dream levels. She does essentially play his therapist for an unclear motivation. I'd like to think that she chose to join the mission out of both fear for the others, her own confidence that she could help, and some selfish desire to see her creation through, and not because she had a crush on Cobb and disregarded the risks to help him. I don't get the vibe that it was the latter mostly because of how Ellen Page played the role and that they didn't emphasize any UST between the characters with lingering glances and that sort of thing - the age difference and the fact that they didn't sexualize her through costuming also helped. Generally, the relationship struck me as very platonic, but that doesn't negate the fact that she spent most of her time focused on Cobb in a way that was different from the male characters - who were helping Cobb.

Yusuf seemed to have been motivated by money, Eames by professional curiosity, Arthur...I don't really know. I like to suppose loyalty but only because of the fact that he knew Mal when she was alive and that leads me to think that he and Cobb have been friends for a long time and not merely co-workers. I would have really liked another scene between the two of them just to get a handle on their relationship. We are told that they are partners but I would have liked it to be shown.

I think Nolan is noticeably bad at female characters

I think Nolan is bad at characterisation for both genders but it's perhaps less noticeable with the men because they get more screen time. I think he gives the actors good emotions to play and has the characters do interesting things, but I'm never sure of who they are as individuals. His characters are always in service of the plot - there are no scenes where you just get to see the characters interacting for the sake of the pure enjoyment of watching skilled actors trade back and forth (probably because Nolan isn't good at dialogue, either). This sort of scene between Arthur and Cobb would have explained a lot about their relationship even if it didn't specifically advance the plot.

I really don't buy this "It's just Hollywood. It's just how the world is!" excuse

Yeah, it's just disappointing when you look at his film posters and see a bunch of guys and then one (now two) woman. At my count there are 15 male speaking roles in Inception (if you count the Japanese boy on the train, the young Australian lawyer, the dream den assistant, the passport official, James) in addition to the significant roles of the team members (C, A, E, Y, S), Miles, Robert, Maurice, and Browning.

There are six speaking roles for women. One (the grandmother) is only heard and never seen, the flight attendant has one line, then there's Phillipa and Eames' blonde projection (technically a role for an actress, but actually a male character), and of course, Ariadne and Mal (who is also a male construct). I think the role of Mal is a complex one for an actress to play, but the character itself is said to be not complex - she's a shade, not a real woman.

Only thing I disagree with is Ariadne asking about destroying parts of Fischer's mind. This is actually the first time this question makes sense.

For her, yes, but for the audience? It was something that I'd been wondering about for most of the movie and definitely would have appreciated an answer to earlier. So while it was the right time for her to ask, it seemed a little late in the game to for such important information to come up.

I think that's kind of cool, that it makes sense for the characters to answer an important question that late. That way you can feel all "Aha, okay!", instead of it being buried with all the overwhelming information early on and seeming obvious and superfluous, because you had no time to question it yourself.

I was so relieved there was no UST or, god forbid, more between Cobb and Ariadne. Would have been so wrong on every level!

I definitely think Arthur is loyal and their relationship goes way back. There is also the scene when Cobb tells him to give his regards when he "of course" goes statesside after the Cobol job. I take that to mean he'll visit Cobb's family. Then you get little stuff like Arthur's reaction to Cobb not waking up and Cobb's reaction to torturing Arthur -ha- that just gives you the feeling. More would have been much appreciated, of course!

Inception: icons and meta

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i'm just going to repost for lack of confusion