The Madness of the Ordinary – The Ordinary Madness: Francis Ford Coppola’s “Rumble Fish”
Abstract
The film Rumble Fish (1983) centers on the relationship between two brothers - younger brother Rusty James, and the older, Motorcycle Boy. Both are trapped within the hopelessness of the suburbia. Rusty is looking for meaning in life, whilst the colour blind and more experienced Motorcycle Boy understands better the drama of freedom and necessity. The situation of the characters is represented through a play on symbolic things. The most important contradictions are reflected through the contrast between black and white picture and colourful fish in an aquarium. The scope of the symbols employed in the film is very wide: animals, both living and stuffed, clocks, a snooker game, motorcycle. Similarly the form is saturated with symbolism - film editing, images, light, moments of colour, metonimic treatment of the image. As a result, in this apparently simple film, one is dealing with a matter woven out of symbolic motifs of exceptional ethical focus.
Keywords:
Francis Ford Coppola, madness, ordinarinessReferences
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Authors
Krzysztof Lipkakwartalnik.filmowy@ispan.pl
The Chopin University of Music Poland
Muzykolog, historyk sztuki, pisarz; autor piętnastu książek (wiersze, opowiadania, powieści, eseje); pracownik Uniwersytetu Muzycznego Fryderyka Chopina. Jego ostatnie trzy książki są poświęcone filozofii sztuki, głównie muzyki: Utopia urzeczywistniona (2009), Pejzaż nadziei (2010), Ponowoczesna pułapka (w druku).
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Copyright (c) 2011 Krzysztof Lipka
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