Alternative Readings
Ghosts of Mars (Short version) : the Truth About Melanie.
Publié le 26 Février 2016 par Kevin
Yep, that's a drug every girl would enjoy. (If its not clear, images of waves are superimposed to her)
Ghosts of Mars tells the story of Melanie Ballard a lieutenant sent to fetch a prisoner in a town called Shining Canyon. On Mars. When she returns to Chryse, the big city, she's attached to a bed, in the locomotive of the train she had left with, asleep, drugged. All of her crew is dead. No sign of the prisoner. Of course, she's asked to explain what happened.
What happened is that, as earth is a matriarchy, attraction towards men is despised and deemed degrading. But on Mars, metaphorically the core of manhood, Melanie is confronted to a situation in which she has an opportunity to explore and experiment a little bit.
She somewhat fancies her subordinate Jericho who is quite forward, but things don't work the way she wishes they would (she cannot know if he is attracted to her social status or her) and she ends up trying her luck with the prisoner she was supposed to fetch. She identifies with him because he is a victim of matriarchy. They're both behind bars. The problem is, he totally manipulates her, as he is homosexual and completely see through her naive teenage conceptions. He manages to bring her to betray her crew and blow the city up so that they can flee together and disappear.
The film is the story she tells her inquisitor to hide her incompetence, her betrayal and also to exonerate her lover. She cannot admit that he totally despises her and thus tries to convince herself that maybe she wasn't enough, or that he was unsure of being released even if she pleaded for him. The story she reconstructs is the one of two individuals finding each other in the middle of chaos and made for one another. She fancies that they're equals. For example, when he saves her life, she modifies her perception of reality to think that she saves his when she actually doesn't. She forces an existential conversation on him as if they had established a connexion, but the conversation is hilariously stupid. And more, she will recall one "mysterious" thing he says as if it announced his return as a messiah. He is supposed to tell her the meaning of life "when the tide is high and the water is rising." And she falls for it.
At the end of the film, she remains confined in herself, hoping that he will come back one day instead of facing the horrible truth.
In her last fantazy, Williams complements her on the fact that she would make "a good crook" referring to the fact that she's lied and invented most of the story she's told the inquisitor.
Inquisitor: Sit Down
Melanie Ballard: Do I get a lawyer or do police officers don't have rights these days ?
Inquisitor: Your rights are protected by the constitution.
Melanie Ballard: I'm not charged ?
Inquisitor: No.
Melanie Ballard: Really !?!
Inquisitor: Charged of what ?
Melanie: Nothing. (whistles)
La mise en scène du capitol. Coup d'état en Amérique.
Dido, Give You Up: Women love men. Part 2 (3300 words)
Deuil et déguisement. (576 mots)
L'Influence de l'absurdité isolée confiante. (1800 mots)
The Perverted Ghosts of Mars (5800 words)
Laissez Mark Watney où il est ! (2800 mots)
Blog d'analyses de films particulièrement poussées et rigoureuses dans leur cohérence interne, tournées vers les sous-textes, métaphores et "secrets" et ayant un intérêt dépassant largement le monde du cinéma.
#27 Clues of a Subtext (1)
#27 Indices de sous-texte (1)
#Articles en français (1)
#Articles in English (1)
Voir le profil de Kevin sur le portail Overblog