《上海风光》1941_The Shanghai Gesture_The Exotic And The Melodrama_Frank Krütnik

The Shanghai Gesture--The Exotic And The MelodramaBy Frank KrütnikLike Morocco and Shanghai Express,Josef von Sternberg's1941film.he Shanghai Gesture, signals itself as being an"exotic melodrama.""Exoticism"is a term frequently used in describing Sternberg's style:for example,what is seen as his animation of the"dead space"of the image,a hyper-charging of the visual field by set and dress design;1stylized object and character emplacement;the use of veiling,masking and lighting effects;and the measured dissolves and the slow,exploratory.camera tracks and cranes.Andrew Sams'description of Sternberg as"a lyricist of light and shadow"perhaps best indicates the tendency to treat his films as though the image were an end in itself.2But to concentrate solely upon the"exotic/poetic beauty"of the visuals leads one into submitting to an image fetishism encouraged by the films themselves.To balance this tendency,one must consider the significance of the"melodramatic"and its relation to the image and to the diegesis.What Christian Metz has termed the script comprises"elements with something to do with the plot,'situations,'characters,landscapes,possibly period details,etc.; in short,the manifest thematic complex of the film."It is through the script that the narrative and thematic organization of the film is achieved,and through which ideological processes are anchored and naturalized.To dismiss the script,as does John Baxter,for example,is to conceive of the film as otherwise innocent,as the exclusively pleasurable visual object.In he Shanghai Gesture,the script betrays a stylization as marked as that of its images,and elements of this stylization shall be considered below.The Shanghai Gesture is based upon a sensational play of Oriental wickedness written by John Colton in the1920s.The scripted material had by1941become highly conventionalized-clichéd even-and thus susceptible to a stylized and"melodramatic"realization.What follows is an exploration of the manifest narrative and thematic complex of the film,the intention being to trace the motivating problematics of the text,the ways in which these determine the"melodrama"and the"exoticism"and the ways in which the spectator's responses are structured by these factors.A Distorted MirrorShanghai,the setting of the story,is a city of exotic perversity.The film is prefaced by titles that inform the spectator about this"wicked city":not only is it a"modern Tower of Babel."but also"a distorted mirror of problems that beset the world today."This statement indicates the metaphorical significance of Shanghai in the film:it is used as a model of the"exotic"the unknown and alluringly strange.The film presents the"normality"of the spectator-itself a determination of a precise set of Western ideologies,including capitalism and patriarchy-in an inverted,distorted form.For example,not only is promiscuity rather than marriage the norm here,but there is also a confounding of the security of language:the very British Hawkins(Eric Blore)continually mimics the speech of the Chinese,where as the Chinese waiter Fen Chi speaks immaculate English.Withlanguage threatened，so too is identity,and the film is populated with cases of split identity: Victoria/Poppy(Gene Tierney),the mongrel Omar(Victor Mature)and Mother Gin Sling(Ona Mundson).Shanghai is introduced visually by a cluttered street enveloped in thick fog,and this sense of enclosedness carries on through the fum.The street scenes are all shot in a studio,the only true exteriors occurring during a brief daytime montage of the city that is patently composed of stock footage.Most of the action,indeed,is set inside Mother Gin Sling's Casino,the hub of Shanghai, the center of the"exoticism"of the film and the main locus of the inversions of"normality."It is the House of Mother,run under Mother's Law,under the control of an Eastern figure who has the representatives of the Western authority-the Commissioner,the police and others--in her pocket. The economic base of the Casino is,of course,gambling--a parody of capitalism--and,being under the direct control of Mother,one can see that there is an explicit inversion of Western capitalism and patriarchy.Mother/FatherEstablished in direct opposition to Mother Gin Sling is Sir Guy Charteris(Walter Huston)who is both in charge of the India-China Trading Company and the father of Victoria/Poppy.He aims to gain control of Shanghai,banishing the likes of Mother and in the process re-establishing capitalism and the Law.The conflict between the two figures is structured through a series of dualistic textual oppositions:East/West,Mother/Father,Gambling/Capitalism.The narrative is centered around Mother's attempt to defeat Sir Guy and retain control of Shanghai,and the struggle between the two types of Law.It is with Victoria--the superior Western beauty with a deadly fascination for the decadence of the East(indicated especially in her chosen pseudonym, Poppy)--that Mother's schemes are largely concerned."Mother"/"Gin Sling"As revealed in her first conversation with Poppy,Mother's name is a compounding(and confounding)of the names,"Mother"and"Gin Sling,"a combination that ridicules the Western idealization of motherhood and the family.She has made herself into an anti-mother,but furthermore,in the contrast between the cool beauty of Poppy/Victoria and the grotesqueness of Mother--with her mask-like features,the shapeless Oriental dresses and the bizarre collection of asymmetrical waxen wigs she tends to wear-it is clear that,visually,she has made herself also an anti-woman.She has"unsexed"herself,made herself into a distortion of the Western conception of Woman.Through most of the film,this severe disruption of"normality"in sexual positioning is a"given"of the text,contributing to the general atmosphere of decadence and inversion that infuses the"exoticism."It is at the showdown on Chinese New Year's Eve that this disruption--along with the others-finds apparent explanation.Chinese New Year,as Mother announces,is a time for the settling of debts,and it is also the date on which she is supposed to close down the Casino.The night before she gathers together at a dinner party all of the main characters in the fum who range from high Western society to the "lower"elements such as the Chinese How,Omar and the Brooklyn chorus girl,Dixie Pomeroy. Sir Guy is the guest of honor,and all of what follows is part of Mother s plan to defeat him.She manipulates the guests as though they were the small wax dolls she had made of them,and in a series of lengthy speeches she relates the story of her life.It is worth considering this in detail.1)Marriage.Mother tells that as a young girl she had been married to Sir Guy who,under the name Victor Dawson had gone to China to make his fortune.While he was absent one day,she was sold into slavery by to Mends and then underwent a life of degradation as a"junk girl."At this point she illustrates her story:a curtain is drawn back to reveal in the street outside an auction of scantily-clad girls who are suspended in bamboo cages while a crowd of lascivious and grasping Chinese barter for them below.Mother has put on this show for her male guests and explains that it is only a mock auction put on for the tourists.But it serves as a demonstration of the subjection of women to male authority,a situation that has a parallel in her marriage:die trusted Sir Guy totally and believes that he engineered her kidnapping so he could gain control of her father's money.2)"Mother"-hood.Escaping from slavery,Mother says,she was helped financially by the merchant How;she set up the Casino and changed her name.This new identity seems an overt revolt against her previous position of subservience.As she tells Sir Guy,"The meek girl who trusted you with her life-she is dead.In her place now stands Mother Gin Sling who trades in the weaknesses of others."This is the explanation for her status as anti-woman:she desires total control,i.e.,to be the phallus,the establishment of a Law that is in opposition to the patriarchal Law ruling the marriage.3)Mother's Revenge.Her revenge against Sir Guy is doubly motivated m that he is both her betraying husband and her rival for power.This revenge takes the form of the degradation of his daughter.She is robbed of her Western superiority in a dependent and humiliating relationship with Mother's bored and promiscuous hireling Omar,and,it is also implied,she is ruined through drugs and thus made totally"Poppy"rather than Victoria.Thus the revenge is directed against Sir Guy father when Victoria/Poppy is brought into the room at the climax of this episode she has no respect at all for her father but instead drools over the uninterested Omar.Melodrama and"Melodrama"Classical Hollywood cinema strives for an invisibility of technique in regard both to the transition from one shot to the next and in the dominant emphasis on narrative,on the story in itself.The former provides a grounding for the latter;the codes of editing and"matching"allow for the creation of an Imaginary world for the spectator in which there is a denial of contradiction.a denial also of the ways in which the spectator is positioned by and in the text.It is the complexity of the scriptual organization that is especially disguised,the multiple determinants motivatingthe various narrative and thematic decisions,tensions and compromises.The"realist"surfaceenforces a passive role for the spectator,a submission to a seemingly already-worked-out progression,the"unquestionable"logic of the narrative.Pleasure is guaranteed by the classical Hollywood film in the repetition of such a logic from text to text as this sustains the Imaginary experience in spite of certain superficial changes that appear to keep a genre--and the Hollywood film in general--developing.In opposition to this classical,codified"realism"is the"melodramatic,"the word in itself connoting a degree of unpleasure.The term has a complex usage,and I would like here to make what I see as a crucial distinction between the genre and the mode of signification：a)Melodrama as a genre gains its unity from the recurrence of scriptual patterns,in the repetition of a relatively circumscribed set of narrative situations and thematic concerns.These usually involve the domestic sphere or romantic love and often have as a starting point the problem of placing a woman in a position of narrative centrality.The positing of an independent,female, desiring subject is a common problematic,the project of the individual texts--often in a desire versus social constraints dialectic--being to deny this status of the woman,to reinsert her within patriarchy.b)More relevant to he Shanghai Gesture is the"melodramatic"that is,a form of signification not limited to the genre but observable at times throughout the whole spectrum of Hollywood cinema. This usually manifests itself in the breakdown at specific moments of the"realist"surface, occurring at''nervous"points where the problems being dealt with by the script become too disruptive to be contained beneath that surface.The"melodramatic"occurs in examples of "excess"where signification exceeds expectations of the"real"in behavior or representation?it can be seen as an eruption of the primary processes of the text--processes of metaphor and metonymy in effects of combination and substitution that are the work of the signifying chain itself-through the"secondarization"of the"realist"conventions that delimits predication."The"melodramatic"serves to expose the complexity of the scriptual processes,in a sense to allow a possibility for"open readings.Most notable elements of the"melodramatic mode of signification,perhaps,include a concentration of the mise-en-scène,especially in the exaggeration of a particular expressive code(music,lighting,sound,color,etc.)to add connotations seemingly at odds with the denoted action;a non-verisimilitudinous conception of character for example,in The Shanghai Gesture,the high level of typage is suggested in the credits where characters are listed by function rather than by name;and a schematic narrative that makes pointed use of devices such as coincidence and compression.The spectator is liable to be detached from the action and the offered denotations to the extent that there is a complexity in his/her relationship to the film.Another feature of the"melodramatic"is significant in this respect and will be considered in more detail below:there is often a structural ambiguity in viewpoint and character identification, and this tends to occur in the interaction of the"melodramatic"and the scriptual problematics of the melodrama genre.The Past PresentedIn the New Year's Eve sequence,there is much emphasis on content.It is a highly stylized,claustrophobic and notably"stagey"set piece in which the script brings together in a compressed form problems which have been working through the earlier stages of the film.What is achieved here is a foregrounding of the scriptual processes in a manner that does not harmonize with the "realist"conventions of classical Hollywood fiction cinema.The sequence represents a point of textual stress,a point of"melodramatic disruption;the explanatory material is particularly weighty and the action itself seems to stand still so that the schematic significance of the sequence is highlighted.The past is presented in the dual sense of being made present and in not being rendered in accordance with the expected fictional-dramatic"realist"codes,as in a Oashback,for example.(Similar frustrations of the flashback in a"melodramatic"manner can be seen,for instance,in the long Ingrid Bergman confessional in Under Capricorn and the reunion of the Senator[Lionel Barrymore]and Laurabelle[Lillian Gish]in Duel in the Sun.)The overt function of this sequence seems to be to make the general disorder and abnormality seem less mysterious by Mother s revelations,to achieve a withdrawing of the spectator from attraction to the"exotic"(that by its nature has to be mysterious and unexplained).As well as narrative and thematic clarification there is also a distanciation from Mother.In this trial-by-Mother's-Law,identification is increasingly shifted from her to the"victim,"Sir Guy: there are frequent privileging closeups of his reactions to her accusations,and his own restraint gives credence to his protestations that he believed her to be dead.Mother has her revenge,but the aggressivity of her desire for his punishment somewhat alienates the viewer.Through the amount of information revealed in her story,the project of the script becomes much clearer:Mother has to be reinserted within the Symbolic,with in the normality of Western patriarchy and capitalism.But for the restoration of Law,there has also to be the restitution of the spectator to the Symbolic which involves a halting of the immersion in the exotic."The immediate consequences of Mother's revenge do indeed seem to indicate that there wal be an unequivocal Symbolic reassertion.The Return of the FatherFollowing the undermining of Sir Guy as Father,there comes a reassertion,for he possesses knowledge that totally overturns Mother's victory.This is the knowledge that she is a real Mother, the mother of Victoria/Poppy.Thus,Mother's revolt against the Law is shown to be a misapprehension of the"truth":Sir Guy is not guilty and her child is not dead after all.Mother is made to seem monstrous in that she has corrupted her own daughter.Through the use of this knowledge,then,the subversive combination in the name"Mother Gin Sling"is dissolved,and the threatening powerful woman is reinstated as a mother in a position of powerlessness;she is re-sexed.Realizing the extent of her crime,she acts as a"real"mother:she kills Poppy because she is irretrievably degraded,the sign of this being her refusal to heed or respect either parent.Poppy specifically mocks\mother as a mother,bringing clearly to the latter the extent of her culpability in her daughter’s ruination.In killing Poppy,she destroys Mother’s Law,saying to How:"This time we’ll not be able to buy them[the police],will we?"Mother is thus a sacrifice to Law,beingpunished for her sexual revolt and returned to womanhood."You likee Chinee New Year?"The narrative thus seems ready for closure.But there is a problem to the general resolution,and this is concerned with the function of the Coolie(Mike Mazurki).Throughout the film,he is a mysterious figure who embodies the anarchic confusion of Shanghai;as someone mentions,he is far too tall for a Chinaman and he speaks in Russian.Moreover,he is a continual onlooker, seemingly possessed of some inscrutable knowledge in relation to the action around him.Most often he is watching Sir Guy and is doing so when the latter arrives at the Casino for the dinner party.Sir Guy walks over to him and,beaming with Western superiority,says,"You likee Chinee New Year?"But after his daughter's death.Sir Guy wanders out into the street,wholly drawn,and the fum cuts to a closeup of the Coolie who disturbingly throws his question back at ing from this character,"You likee Chinee New Year?"has a complex significance.It is a mocking of Sir Guy's previously superior attitude and it is a harsh reminder of his failure as a father:he was not able to keep a tight enough hold on Victoria.Seemingly all at once the Coolie appears to throw the film sharply away from the conclusion it seemed to be reaching for.He serves to reassert the exotic,acting,in Andrew Sams'words,as"an understated metteur-en-scène and figure of fate."'Immediately after his mocking question,the film dissolves to a crane shot moving up out of the concentric circles of the Casino's latticed terraces,away from the gambling pit that has been the location of much of the film.It is an apparent withdrawal from this"exotic"world,a removal of the spectator,reversing as it does a number of previous crane shots down towards the roulette wheel.But the effect of the Coolie's words,and the Juxtaposition of the two shots through the dissolve,counteracts this implied withdrawal and the film ends ambiguously.The Duplicitous ResolutionA review of the project of the text will be helpful in assessing the significance of this ending: a)The script is concerned with a problem of sexual positioning motivated by the revolt of Mother against the Law.The conflict over Shanghai is an attempt to solidify her aberrant position,her status as“Mother Gin Sling.”The project carried through the script is the closure of the Casino(it is introduced by the neon sign:"Mother Gin Sling's/Casino/Never Closes")and of Mother's Law.b)The"film"-taken to mean the operation of the non-scriptual processes-operates,however,by creating and exploring the"exoticism."The visuals are made extremely seductive in the tension between the Oriental murals and the formal Western dinner suits,for example;the increasingly grotesque but fascinating appearance of Mother;the geometrical attraction of the seemingly endless circles of the Casino;and the stylized groupings of the actors and the many extras. Visually,the füm offers itself as a beautiful,pleasurable object to be looked at and loved.In the classical Hollywood film--as Stephen Heath suggests in his analysis of Touch of Evil--the narrative is propelled by violence,the disruption of an initial homogeneity.The narrative drive then takes the form of a movement towards the resolution of the disruptive elements,but there is also the necessity to keep the narrative going and this necessitates the continuation of the disruption,an elaboration upon it,until the narrative is ready to end.Thus,there is a complex system of those strategies promoting narrative closure(minor resolutions,"rhymes,"repetitions) and those keeping the narrative"open"(delays,prevarications,false solutions,reversals).The narrative ends when the chain of specific resolutions is completed,and each element of the initial disruption has been accounted for,or exhausted,and placed in a new homogeneity.In this movement towards the closing off of the disruption,the script has,of course,to attempt to account for the image itself,to limit the significations produced visually(and through music and sound). But in he Shanghai Gesture,as in many Sternberg films,there is this striking lack of integration between"film"and script;each seems to pull against the other.The ending itself seems an attempted compromise:Mother is exposed and punished and there is also the sustainment of exoticism through the Coolie.The ambiguity of the final crane shot is that it can be taken either as a withdrawal or as a kind of repetition-in-reverse of preceeding crane shots which suggest the pleasure of looking.Thus this shot exceeds its scriptual requirement for the removalof the spectator from the"exotic"abnormality.Further,it is clear by the end of the film that Sir Guy only imperfectly incarnates the Symbolic father.There is a clear transference of this role from Sir Guy to the Police:it is they who will close down the Casino and punish Mother.In this way,Mother can be a sacrifice to the Law while Sir Guy is left free for the Coolie's subversion.By such sleight-of-hand,"allowance is made both for seeming narrative closure and the refusal of this closure for the"film":the scriptual apparatus carries the mechanisms of narrative resolution,but these do not account for the image.Voyeurism and LookingThroughout the Film.the power of identification transfers from one character to another according to their status as onlookers and this creates a complexity of point of view.This onlooker/identification chain is as follows:a)Omar and How,who open the film proper,sit back and watch Dixie bargaining with the police. Their talk indicates the importance of looking in the film:Omar:I saw her first.Let's not forget that.How:Next time I go out with you,I'll bring a telescope.b)Victoria/Poppy(see below);c)Mother,who oversees the results of her plan of revenge;for example,she is pointedly shown watching the Coolie as he picks up Sir Guy in his rickshaw;d)Sir Guy,who"lakes the spectator along into the dinner party,and from whose viewpoint the spectator regards Mother during the climactic sequence;e)the Coolie,who is the ultimate onlooker.What all of this indicates is the extent to which the"film"is structured with regard to the voyeurism of the spectator.The onlookers act as mediators between the"exoticism"and the viewer.This can be seen particularly with Victoria/Poppy;it is through her that the spectator is introduced to tlie Casino itself.She is apparently"normal,"that is, Western and detached,but fascinated,like the spectator,by the"exotic.As she remarks to her escort,"It smells so incredibly evil.I didn't think such a place existed except in my own imagination.It has a ghastly familiarity,like a half-remembered dream."This"schizophrenia"of Victoria/Poppy corresponds to that inscribed in the text itself,and structuring the responses of the spectator.All three are torn between a"normality"(Westernness,the"moral"trajectory of the script)and die"exotic"(Easternness,the pleasure of the visuals).For the spectator,the"exotic"becomes a"forbidden pleasure in that he/she sides with the"film'’as opposed to the"script."The attraction offered by The Shanghai Gesture is that the spectator is not finally made to feel guilty for this pleasurable looking as the scriptual processes of resolution are neatly defused.In this,the film valorizes the spectator es spectator,the voyeurism being inscribed so deeply.In psychoanalytic terms--following Lacan’s rereading of Freud--what the film achieves is a staunch assertion of the Imaginary,the pre-Oedipal mirror phase in which identification through the Look with one's reflected image gives the impression of the unity of the subject over the Symbolic,offering a fantasy of escape from the world of"difference"and Law.。