The City, the Subject and the Digital Image - Essay Example

?Q] Red Road (Andrea Arnold, 2006 In what ways does the film link electronic surveillance to contemporary urban alienation? From the evidence of the film, how far can the viewer of the urban surveillance screen be regarded as a latter-day flaneur?        Urban life has ever been subjected to analysis in movies as well as literature. The specialization of life in closed physical areas has divided the urban spaces in to an amalgamation of several moral and social worlds that are distinctly different in race, ethnicity, culture, religion, sexuality, etc. Alienation becomes the result of this isolation and people get accustomed to demarcate each other on the basic grounds of class, economy and occupation. Urban alienation, therefore, becomes a favored subject in the works of literature and visual arts.        Red Road, an impressive, idiosyncratic and directorial debut by Andrea Arnold, the winner of the Jury Prize at the Cannes Film Festival of 2006, is a suspense thriller known for its complex structure and theme of alienation. This movie is the first of three films that originated as a part of Lars von Trier’s post-Dogma Advance Party project, wherein Arnold and two other new directors were to create three low-budget DV films in different genres around a minimally outlined set of characters that are to be played by the same group of actors. The movie unfolds with the theme of abuse of information through the electronic surveillance devised by the governments of the twentieth century. Electronic surveillance, which is practiced for the benefit of the public for their social coherence and protection, in fact becomes a tool in the hands of some who desire more from the society. The modern surveillance technology is effective in delivering virtual truth through the proliferation of high-resolution cameras that are largely looming over urban areas. If this can be seen as a mode of protection, then it can also be identified as a fine example of modern authoritarianism that is progressively diminishing our privacy. In Red Road, we find electronic surveillance becoming a personalized virtual power used by the protagonist to serve her purpose of revenge. Plot:        Set in Glasgow, Red Road depicts the story of Jackie (Kate Dickie), who is a low-paid CCTV operative whose duty is to scan the northern side of the city and to alert the emergency services to events like stabbings and muggings that require their presence. Jackie is in her thirties who is devoid of family and friends and her life, mostly robotic, is limited to the occasional smiles that occur while watching over the normal life of ordinary folks on-screen. She closely monitors the many CCTV cameras from a lonely dark room and passes her time by watching the life of those people who live nearer to cameras. Her routine is disrupted when she spots Clyde (Tony Curran), the man responsible for the deaths of her husband and young child, who is in parole for good behavior. Jackie tries to gather some dirt on Clyde by misusing her position of CCTV operator. In vengeance, she begins to remotely pursuit Clyde and to learn more of his life she even begins to physically stalking Clyde. Clyde, who shares a flat in the Red Road Estate with the disturbed youngsters Stevie (Martin Compston) and April (Natalie Press), draws himself closer to Jackie. Jackie, after several meetings, sleeps with Clyde and then accuses him of rape. Clyde's attempts to re-unite with his own teenage girl dissolve the hatred in Jackie and she drops the charges. The movie ends with a positive note, wherein we find Jackie reconciling with her in-laws and is contemplating a future. Analysis: Choosing Glasgow for the plot invites our attention and appreciation as the city serves as a location where the story unwinds, characters meet and explore their own racial and sexual identities. Being a city Glasgow captures the consciousness of its citizens and accentuated social cohesion, where every citizen is dependent on each other for their very existence. The city through its citizens, therefore, gains a sense of I own self and transforms to a rational unity. Since the city is an autonomous political unit it also require independent and effective defense systems that will help to foster social cohesion and prevent the looming danger from the 'outsiders'. The electronic surveillance used as a part of defense mechanism hence carries a vital role in urban life since it is used for both watching over and to watch the fellow citizens. (Flanagan 1993).        Glasgow, which has a high potential for producing landscapes of alienation, when was chosen for the setting of Red Road, it gave Arnold the freedom to depict the bleak and devastating urban world that can be clearly identified by the viewers. Since the urban space is the unitary image of contemporary culture, Glasgow becomes any place and the story transcends to become an art film rather than entertainment. The film then becomes an analysis of the inner turmoil and flows of people, which we, being the modern viewers, can easily relate to. Arnold successfully has detached her story from the regional and national peculiarities of Glasgow and gave the emphasis on “anyplace setting” by avoiding “recognizable markers of Scotland or Scottishness” (Marmysz 2011, p.162). By distancing the Scottish culture and traditions from the setting of the urban space, Arnold could easily bring in the extent of alienation of the protagonist.       The theme of alienation in fact plays a vital role in the movie. Jackie, the protagonist, is alienated from the real world and real life since she started her role as CCTV operator. She is connected to the real world only through the surveillance cameras and the people she recognizes are those who live nearer to these cameras. She is emotionally alienated and leads a social life of impersonal interaction. We find her content with her robotic life that is limited to the surveillance room so much so that she happily abuses her role of an unseen watcher. At the wedding, she remains aloof from the lure of the wedding in stark contrast to others who live their life to the full by enjoying the fleeting the moments. Gradually we learn that Jackie is a widow and that it is deaths of her closed ones that alienated her from the real world. When Jackie recognized Clyde, she made it her obsessive mission to send him to the prison. As a CCTV operator Jackie could easily manipulate the videos of Clyde's activities. She even gives a terrifying appearance to the Red Road Estate where Clyde lives. In order to know more about Clyde, Jackie steps in to the real world shedding the role of an indifferent and remote watcher. Since she existed in a self-controlled, emotionally alienated world devoid of the colors, sensations or sounds of the real world and viewed life through the lens of CCTV cameras, Jackie finds the real world and the company of Clyde horrifying. While closely watching Clyde, Jackie realizes that Clyde leads a normal life and this revelation forces her to face her lonely inner self that was fragmented and locked up with the deaths of her child and husband.  Jackie as a representation of the post-modern flaneur        The term flaneur, which means ‘stroller’, is derived from the French masculine noun ‘flaneur’, which means ‘to stroll’. Charles Baudelaire gave a derived meaning to flaneur which is ‘a person who walks the city in order to experience it’. The term thenceforth was widely used by thinkers in various arenas and today, it has become a referent to understand urban nature and post-modernity. This term finds applications in post-modern visual media. In post-modern visual arts a flaneur is perceived as a detached solitary and voyeuristic walker who stalks and observes the cityscape and discover it to be a space of extremities. The flaneur, though will be insightful and is able to recognize the city's threats, intimidations and menaces, will be disengaged by them. (Jenks1995).       Andrea Arnold, renowned for her unrelenting modernity, in Red Road tells the story of alienated and indifferent CCTV operator who becomes obsessed with the image of a man that recognizes her about her past. Jackie becomes an emblematic postmodern alienated self, who struggles to keep her emotions at bay by choosing to stay aloof from the real world. She happily plays the role of voyeur, subjects everyone to screening and displaces herself from the social relationships. Here, Jackie, being the viewer of the urban surveillance screen, becomes the post-modern flaneur. She recognizes the possible threats and informs police about those individuals whom she strongly disapprove. She watches over every nook and corner of the northern side of the city and reports crimes and calls for the emergency services. Though she is introduced as a post-modern flaneur, she does not restrict herself to mere watching over the CCTV cameras. Instead, she transcends to become an avenger, steps in to the real world from behind the surveillance screens, in order to trap her prey in to her weaponry, i.e., high-tech electronic surveillance cameras and virtual evidence captured by them.        The theme of the consequences of surveillance is playing a vital role in this movie, especially when the psychology of the protagonist is itself a question. Jackie is unable to connect with the world and is still suffering from the trauma of deaths of her kith. Hence, she is frozen and is detached from the fellow beings screened. Jackie is a mere observant and predictor of the threats looming over the presumed victims. But, unlike normal people, Jackie is devoid of emotions and hence does not feel sympathy to the victims nor anger towards the criminals. But being a psychological victim herself, she has the inherent capability to preconceive people as victims or criminals. Conclusion:        Arnold's Red Road is a teaser that effectively produces an analogy between the post-modern flaneur (Jackie) and the cinema audience. The story, unlike in literature, is not unfold in the linear pattern. Instead, we are forced to guess the identity of Jackie and the motif of her actions by interpreting the CCTV visuals that Arnold bares before us. Similar to Jackie, we, the viewers, also become flaneurs, the mere observant of the challenges and threats that befall on those screened.        Arnold has also devised Jackie to stop being a voyeur and made her to participate in the life of the character that she was observing. This allows the character to break through her emotional alienation and detachment and she bonds with Clyde and overcomes her depressive emotions, self-hatred and recklessness. Clyde, living at Red Road, from being a person observed, rises to become the healer of Jackie. Jackie, with the help of Clyde learns to re-connect with the world, though it is through a series of emotional processes. The movie ends up in a positive note for Jackie as she is transformed in to a sociable and open hearted individual. The themes of alienation and effects of surveillance cameras portrayed by Arnold makes this movie gripping, complex and refreshing.        Reference List Flanagan, WG 1993. Contemporary Urban Sociology. Cambridge University Press. Available at [Accessed on 10 January, 2012]. Jenks, C 1995. Modernity and the Flaneur. Visual Culture. [Online] Available at [Accessed on 10 January, 2012]. Marmysz, J 2011. Film-Philosophy. Edinburgh University Press. Available at [Accessed on 10 January, 2012]. Read More