Clueless 1449988

Clueless #

Clueless is the 1995 creation of Amy Heckerling as an appropriation of the plot of Jane Austen’s novel Emma. Heckerling does a magnificent performance of bringing Emma back to life in 20th Century America.

Heckerling was cashing in on a major revival of Austen in the mid 1990s as about five different adaptations of Austen’s novels were released within a two year period.

Initially Clueless was considered just another vacuous Teenpix with a limited lifespan, however its appropriations of Austen’s Emma, gave it sustenance and developed its cult following and a status as a worthy text.

Clueless is a feisty chick flick lit that can stand on its own merits as a well constructed lasting text. Though it appropriates much from Emma it updates and enhances the concerns, situations to universalise them and provides an access to the original text motivating young people to read and find relevance in it.

Its major worthy attributes are its subtle witty quick repartee, its credible situations, its sound score and its visual effects.

Characters in Clueless #

We must remember that character creation is a construct; an artefact and central ones do not necessarily represent the author. Characters are either portrayed sympathetically or unsympathetically. The former are called protagonists, heroes or good guys while the latter are antagonists, villains or bad guys. Sometimes main characters are picaresque – likeable but harmless rogues, larrikins or scoundrels –“loveable rogues”.

Martin Amis points out that over two millennia humans first told stories of Gods, then Kings, then Epic Heroes, then ordinary people , then anti-heroes, then villains, then demons and finally themselves.

Cher – play on name – share, French for dear - Named after Sonny and Cher; Folk singers of the 60’s.

Cher: Dionne and I were both named after famous singers of the past, who now do infomercials.

Cher, like Emma, is parochial, naïve, oblivious of the real world, innocent and ignorant of anything outside their own boundaries. Isolated and insular; Emma has never seen the sea - Cher avoids the Valley. Yet morally and

They give the appearance of air-heads:

      Josh:  “ you found someone more clueless than yourself to worship you”.

Cher: If it’s a concussion, you have to keep her conscious, okay? Ask her questions. Elton: What’s seven times seven? Cher: Stuff she knows.

Dionne – African American who is depicted as her loyal friend and confidant - the counterpoint to Mrs Weston.

Cher: Would you call me selfish? Dionne: No, not to your face.

Cher: Dionne and her boyfriend Murray are in this dramatic relationship. I think they’ve seen that Ike and Tina Turner movie too many times.

Mel - Mr Horowitz – fast-talking, high-strung litigation attorney in poor health. Mel is much more active than his counter-part, Mr Woodhouse.

Mel: “Anything happens to my daughter, I got a .45 and a shovel, I doubt anybody would miss you.”

Cher: Daddy’s a litigator. Those are the scariest kind of lawyer. Even Lucy, our maid, is terrified of him. And daddy’s so good he gets $500 an hour to fight with people. But he fights with me for free because I’m his daughter.

Despite this Cher is left too much on her own and is used to “having rather too much her own way. (as is Emma)

Mel: Do you know what time it is? Cher: A watch doesn’t really go with this outfit, daddy.

Mel: You mean to tell me that you argued your way from a C+ to an A-? Cher: Totally based on my powers of persuasion, you proud? Mel: Honey, I couldn’t be happier than if they were based on real grades

Amber: The antagonist and foil to Cher. Drama has to have conflict and Amber represents the opposite to Cher even though she is an intelligent and socially acceptable alternative. Her counter-point could be Mrs Elton as both are prone to breaking social conventional codes of behaviour.

Amber: Was I the only one listening? I thought it reeked. Cher: No I believe that’s your designer impostor perfume.

On Amber’s attractiveness, Cher replies:

“No, she’s a Monet; looks great from a distance but all spotty close up”.1.

Monet belongs to the post impressionist school of French painters who painted in a spontaneous and luminous style with pure or unmixed colours. Some in the school used Pointillism – a series of pairs of opposite dots of colour spectrum which from a distance blend in a process of “optical mixture”.

Josh – Mr Horowitz’s step-son. Since his mother left and remarried he chose to stay with the Horowitz family. He and Cher spar with put-downs and witty repartee:

Cher: I want to do something for humanity. Josh: How about sterilization?

Cher: I have direction. Josh: Yeah’ towards the mall.

Josh: You want to practice parking? Cher: What’s the point? Everywhere you go has valet.

Cher: Oh look, Josh is dancing with Tai, he never dances. Christian: I can see why.

Lucy: He your gardener, I don’t know why you no tell him. Cher: Lucy, you know I don’t speak Mexican. Lucy : I NOT A MEXICAN. [storms off] Cher: Great, what was that all about? Josh: Lucy’s from El Salvador. Cher: So? Josh: So, it’s an entirely different country. Cher: What does that matter? Josh: You get mad if anyone thinks you live below Sunset.

Josh: You know maybe Marky Mark wants to use his popularity for a good cause, make a contribution. In case you’ve never heard of that, a contribution is… Cher: Excuse me, but I have donated many expensive Italian outfits to Lucy, and as soon I get my license, I fully intend to brake for animals, and I have contributed many hours to helping two lonely teachers find romance. Josh: Which I’ll bet serves your interests more than theirs. You know, If I ever saw you do anything that wasn’t ninety percent selfish, I’d die of shock. Cher: Oh, that’d be reason enough for me.

Christian: A Counterpoint to Frank Churchill in that just as Emma began to think of Frank as a potential suitor, Cher considers Christian a potential sexual partner until she finds out about his sexual orientation:

Murray: Your man Christian is a cake boy! Cher, Dionne: A what? Murray: He’s a disco-dancing, Oscar Wilde reading, Streissand ticket holding friend of Dorothy, know what I’m saying? Cher: Uh-uh, no way, not even! Murray: Yes even, he’s gay! Dionne: He does like to shop, Cher. And the boy can dress.

Cher: He likes shopping as much as I do.

Cher: He does dress better than I do, what would I bring to the relationship?

Cher: Christian said he’d call the next day, but in boy time that meant Thursday.

Christian has a social stigma just like Frank Churchill who flirts with Emma while engaged to Jane Fairfax, a social faux pas (See codes of behaviour).

Tai – Counter-point to Harriet Smith, she becomes the victim Cher wants to “make-over”.

Cher: Are you talking about drugs? Tai: Yeah. Cher: Tai, how old are you? Tai: I’ll be 16 in May. Cher: My birthday is in April and as someone older, can I please give you some advice? It is one thing to spark up a doobie and get laced at parties, but it is quite another to be fried all day.

On Tai to Elton: “She looks like one of those Botticelli chicks”

(S*xually attractive - voluptuous) For more info go to: http://www.ibiblio.org/wm/paint/auth/botticelli/

Cinematic Techniques in Clueless: #

Film uses subtext to communicate often subconsciously with the audience. Everything on the screen talks to us and language suddenly becomes secondary to visual and auditory spectacle. We need to be aware of how our emotions are being subtly manipulated,

Satire and dramatic ironies abound as both Heckerling and Austen portray indulged, self-deluded manipulators.

Cher’s voice-over is frequently at odds with what is depicted on the silver screen and we are expected to take her conclusions with a large dose of salt:

She begins the movie telling us “but seriously, I actually have a way normal life for a teenage girl. I mean I get up, I brush my teeth, and I pick out my school clothes”.

Meanwhile the visuals show her choosing her clothing by computer and the sound effects play Fashion by Bowie.

Satire and irony are used with self deprecation as Cher reveals her shallow superficial posing as an intellectual. This is low brow pop culture meets high brow classical art:

Cher: That’s Ren and Stimpy. They’re way existential.

Cher: Isn’t my house classic? The columns date all the way back to 1972.

Cher: It’s like that book I read in the 9th grade that said “’tis a far far better thing doing stuff for other people.” A misquote of Dickens’ A Tale of Two Cities.

Cher: “Rough winds do shake the darling buds of May….”

Dionne: “Did you write that?”

Cher: Duh, it’s like a famous quote.

Dionne: From where?

Cher: Cliff Notes.

Heather: “it’s just like Hamlet said ,’to thine own self be true.’

Cher: “Ah, no, uh, Hamlet didn’t say that.”

Heather: “I think I remember Hamlet accurately”.

Cher: “ Well I remember Mel Gibson accurately, and he didn’t say that. That Polonius guy did .”

On Amber’s attractiveness,

Cher replies:

“No, she’s a Monet; looks great from a distance but all spotty close up”.

Cher: On Tai to Elton:

“She looks like one of those Botticelli chicks”

Technology

Also secluded but a much more open fast paced society.

Technological advances (?)

Oral communication: telephone (low shots), cellular phones, speeches.

Clueless depicts emotions via facial expressions (Josh seeing Cher dressed up to go out with Christian.

Cars replace carriages – more mobile yet parochial. Driving becomes a significant symbol for the movie-as most activities revolve around cars. Cher is barred from driving because of her lack of discipline indicating she has more to learn.

Visual Images:

Facial expressions – Josh on seeing Cher dressed up to go out with Christian.

Computer image of Miss-Match reinforces many of the issues of the movie.

Action and body language.

Costuming:

Cher is very conscious of how she dresses and critical of Ms Geist, Tai and Travis.

Used effectively at the final wedding to distinguish levels of society. Cher and Josh contrasted with Tai and Travis.

Music:

Am. Anthem during Cher’s Haitian Speech

Gigi - when Josh sees Cher on staircase for date

“Tenderness” during credit roll

Tai’s Make over – “I want to be a supermodel”.

“We are Young, we are Free” –exuberance of youth

Camera angles - Low Camera shot on telephone – imbuing it with status of reverence.

Framing:

Cher generally in centre - Exception where Tai describing her attack in the Mall, Cher is noticeable sidelined, marginalised

At the wedding, Christian in the background, marginalised

Context and Background #

Clueless is set in the fast-paced and pulsating town of Beverly Hills, Los Angeles in the late 20th century, Cher’s home represents the epicentre and epitome of consumerism and pop culture – the home of Hollywood, the Mecca of fantasists.

Cher lives up in the hills and is contemptuous of people who live in the Valley.

In many ways her exclusive world is as narrow and insular as Emma’s Highbury.

Clueless uses the setting of the modern High School with its impersonal melee of themed peer cliques of surfers, skateboarders druggies and other segregated gangs.

Yet there is little teenage angst, rebellion or consideration of social issues. The emphasis is on the self- absorbed, self-indulged, self-obsessed and self deluded group of wannabee princesses who crave the latest consumables and the best image.

A Post- Modern text, Clueless has no strident ideology to push, merely reflects the age old basic inner needs of humanity. Though there is token acceptance of environmentalism, social tolerance, and egalitarianism, it is not tendentious or didactic in pushing any issues. In the superficial and shallow world of Clueless narcissistic self advancement rules as a low brow pop culture comes to terms with high brow classical art.

Film uses subtext to communicate often subconsciously with the audience. Everything on the screen talks to us and language suddenly becomes secondary to visual and auditory spectacle. We need to be aware of how our emotions are being subtly manipulated,

Satire and dramatic ironies abound as both Heckerling and Austen portray indulged, self-deluded manipulators.

Cher’s voice-over is frequently at odds with what is depicted on the silver screen and we are expected to take her conclusions with a large dose of salt:

She begins the movie telling us “but seriously, I actually have a way normal life for a teenage girl. I mean I get up, I brush my teeth, and I pick out my school clothes”.

Meanwhile the visuals show her choosing her clothing by computer and the sound effects play Fashion by Bowie.

Satire and irony are used with self deprecation as Cher reveals her shallow superficial posing as an intellectual. This is low brow pop culture meets high brow classical art:

Cher: That’s Ren and Stimpy. They’re way existential.

Cher: Isn’t my house classic? The columns date all the way back to 1972.

Cher: It’s like that book I read in the 9th grade that said “’tis a far far better thing doing stuff for other people.” A misquote of Dickens’ A Tale of Two Cities.

Cher: “Rough winds do shake the darling buds of May….”

Dionne: “Did you write that?”

Cher: Duh, it’s like a famous quote.

Dionne: From where?

Cher: Cliff Notes.

Heather: “it’s just like Hamlet said ,’to thine own self be true.’

Cher: “Ah, no, uh, Hamlet didn’t say that.”

Heather: “I think I remember Hamlet accurately”.

Cher: “ Well I remember Mel Gibson accurately, and he didn’t say that. That Polonius guy did .”

On Amber’s attractiveness,

Cher replies:

“No, she’s a Monet; looks great from a distance but all spotty close up”.

Cher: On Tai to Elton:

“She looks like one of those Botticelli chicks”

Technology

Also secluded but a much more open fast paced society.

Technological advances (?)

Oral communication: telephone (low shots), cellular phones, speeches.

Clueless depicts emotions via facial expressions (Josh seeing Cher dressed up to go out with Christian.

Cars replace carriages – more mobile yet parochial. Driving becomes a significant symbol for the movie-as most activities revolve around cars. Cher is barred from driving because of her lack of discipline indicating she has more to learn.

Visual Images:

Facial expressions – Josh on seeing Cher dressed up to go out with Christian.

Computer image of Miss-Match reinforces many of the issues of the movie.

Action and body language.

Costuming:

Cher is very conscious of how she dresses and critical of Ms Geist, Tai and Travis.

Used effectively at the final wedding to distinguish levels of society. Cher and Josh contrasted with Tai and Travis.

Music:

Am. Anthem during Cher’s Haitian Speech

Gigi - when Josh sees Cher on staircase for date

“Tenderness” during credit roll

Tai’s Make over – “I want to be a supermodel”.

“We are Young, we are Free” –exuberance of youth

Camera angles - Low Camera shot on telephone – imbuing it with status of reverence.

Framing:

Cher generally in centre - Exception where Tai describing her attack in the Mall, Cher is noticeable sidelined, marginalised

At the wedding, Christian in the background, marginalised

Evaluation of Clueless: #

Initially Clueless was considered just another vacuous Teenpix with a limited lifespan, however its appropriations of Austen’s Emma, gave it sustenance and developed its cult following and a status as a worthy text.

Clueless is a feisty chick flick lit that can stand on its own merits as a well constructed lasting text. Though it appropriates much from Emma it updates and enhances the concerns, situations to universalise them and provides an access to the original text motivating young people to read and find relevance in it.

Its major worthy attributes are its subtle witty quick repartee, its credible situations, its sound score and its visual effects.

From IMDB

(Comment on this title)

13 out of 13 people found the following comment useful:-

Clueless: An near-perfectly updated classic, 17 August 2006

Author: Flagrant-Baronessa from the kingdom of far, far away (Sweden)

“Isn’t my house classic? The columns date all the way back to 1972.”

When romantic high-school comedy Clueless (1995) was released, it was immediately vaulted into cult-status and firmly stapled as one of the most original teen-flicks of the 1990s. ‘Original’ is perhaps a term wrongly applied since it is based on the queen of romance Jane Austen’s Emma (1815) . But what Clueless did was update the classic story by coating it with high school drama, teenage girls and shopping and sprinkle it with heavy doses of humour.

Emma is no longer Emma; she is Cher (Alicia Silverstone), a spoiled rich girl walking around in her Beverly Hills mansion in a bubble of stereotypes and teen-clichés – but with a great big heart. So big-hearted, in fact, that she takes on the lost goofy new girl in her school to find her love and popularity, knowing full-well that it could destroy her own reputation. Clueless thus sees Cher and her best friend Dionne (Stacey Dash) on a mission to do good. Real good.

All the detours this mission entail are captured brilliantly in the film, taking the form of love-interests, parties, shopping and misunderstandings. From Cher’s grumpy lawyer-father (an hilarious Dan Hedaya) and her nerdy step-brother (a likable Paul Rudd) to her eccentric group of friends at school, Clueless is a superb ride of teenage comedy camp. Only just over 10 years old, it is still extremely dated today. But no matter, because the 90s clichés like skateboarding, Marky Mark and the catch-phrase “As if” just make it so much more contemporary and fun to watch.

What elevates Clueless (1995) above generic high school comedy is its use of stereotypes. In most films they are unintentionally there to create a subconscious effect, but in Clueless they are made fun of to a much higher degree – they are overblown and glorious. It brutally satirizes rich kids and their ‘problems’ and juxtaposes them with a classic, heart-felt love-story. The kind that only Jane Austen can write.

9/10