Videoplaylist

One guest
6 videos (or more)
their selection

Every month we invite a guest to present their selection of six videos that exist online and that revolve around a subject of their choice, a favourite genre, a personal take on things or an obsession. Go ahead, take a look around our archive.

Jul. 2013
Felipe G. Gil

Remixed masculinity

I?m very excited about doing this videoplaylist for several reasons. Firstly, because even though I couldn?t make a career of it, I?m a theatre person at heart. Secondly, because I?m a big fan of ?They call me Rúben Ramos Nogueira, like everybody else?. Thirdly, because the videoplaylist format is a lot like Audiovisual Source Code. And lastly, because it gives me a chance to apply a methodology that I?m very familiar with (image remix and/or reinterpretation) to start to think about a subject that interests me (masculinity). I?m going to try a very simple exercise (without skipping all the videoplaylist rules!): take 6 audiovisual scenes and suggest a re-reading of the identity and feelings of the male characters that appear in them. Beware spoilers!

  • I?m your father

  • The Wire - Avon and Stringer's Rooftop Reminiscing

  • Drive (2011) "Thanks for staying" scene

  • Django Unchained - Scene in the middle of traveling to Candyland

  • The Sopranos: 6x06 Live Free or Die - Tony and Dr Melfi talk about Vito

  • Don Draper on Compensation

I?m your father

Darth Vader is fighting Luke Skywalker. Just as young Skywalker is on the point of defeat, Darth Vader decides to confess that he is his father. When he says ?You do not yet realise your importance,? he actually means ?I?m sorry that I didn?t tell you earlier? and I?m sorry I almost killed you; it?s my job.? When he says ?With our combined strength, we can end this destructive conflict,? he really means ?Love me so that I can overcome the war within me, for all the atrocities I?ve perpetrated.? When he says ?join me, and together we can rule galaxy,? what he means is ?I really feel like hanging out with you, getting to know you, lets give each other a chance.?

The Wire - Avon and Stringer's Rooftop Reminiscing

Avon is fresh out of jail and his bro Stringer had been looking after their business interests. Here they are chatting on a rooftop about the past, the present and the future. Both of them think they?re quite tough and brave, but neither of them dares to put into words the things that men sometimes feel towards each other: I?ve missed you, I sense you?re no longer the same, maybe our lives and identities aren?t on the same path any longer? But even so, I don?t know why, I love you.

Drive (2011) "Thanks for staying" scene

Irene?s husband has just come out of jail and his friends organise a welcome home party for him. Ryan (?Driver?, as his character is known) has been taking care of her and now he is not there. In the film, he hangs on to his male impenetrability until the end. But at this instant, he seems to be thinking just that? why didn?t I share my vulnerability? What do I get out of pretending to be invincible, impassive and undaunted?

Django Unchained - Scene in the middle of traveling to Candyland

Django has just been released and the whites look on, dumbfounded, amazed at seeing a black man hop on a horse ? highly unusual behaviour for a slave. Django doesn?t feel either black or white. At that moment, he feels powerful. He feels free. But he also feels afraid. He is afraid of the reaction of the other blacks. He is afraid because he knows that he is saving himself but he isn?t really fighting for the others. Beneath his seemingly ruthless determinism, Django has doubts.

The Sopranos: 6x06 Live Free or Die - Tony and Dr Melfi talk about Vito

In this scene, Tony Soprano turns to his psychologist Doctor Melfi again, this time to talk about one of his employees who has been outed as gay and has now gone missing. Tony is dismayed and worried about how the whole thing will affect his business interests, because Vito was one of the lynchpins of his operation. Melfi leads Toni into shaky ground. By admitting that sex among men is justified in jail because there are no women, Toni smashes his own mythology around homosexuality. So much so that a re-reading is almost superfluous? He just needs the courage to acknowledge what all of us men know: in certain circumstances ? not just when there are pressing needs imposed by oppressive contexts like jails, but also in spaces that we choose voluntarily ? desire knows no gender. Or is there any man reading this who hasn?t had some experience of teenage group masturbation?

Don Draper on Compensation

Peggy thinks she has broken up with her boyfriend on her birthday. She was about to go out to dinner, but she angrily returns to the office, deciding she may as well tackle some work that needs to be done. She finds Don there. Their discussion perfectly encapsulates of many of the contradictions of contemporary masculinity. Here is a list:

? When Don says ?you could have just told me it was your birthday? he is perfectly aware that he should have known, and his words conceal a certain cynicism that she effortlessly deflects: ?Right. And there would be no repercussions.?

? Don is perfectly aware that Peggy has had to suffer in order to gain a foothold as a copywriter in a male-dominated world. Even so, the type of trust that has developed between them in their peculiar friendship allows Peggy to tell him ?It?s not my fault you don?t have a family or friends or anywhere else to go.? Don doesn?t realise that Peggy is really telling him that even though he is a total chuck who can?t look after anybody, she has gone to him as a friend to avoid being alone. Don gives a textbook response: ?Go run to him, like in the movies? (talking about Peggy?s boyfriend).

? Obviously, Don orders Peggy to relax and asks her if she?s crazy (two of the great male totems when we start to feel that we?re on shaky ground in an argument, as though reason and calmness belong to us).

? When Peggy claims authorship for an idea that Don has appropriated, Don refuses to see it as an intellectual property issue. What she seems to be saying is: ?you could be affectionate for once and say thank you, you damn aloof egomaniac.? And he of course replies with the yardstick that can deal with anything, that acts as a magic wand and/or a superpower to deactivate arguments: ?That?s what the money is for!? If we step into Don?s shoes, what he means is: ?I pay you to give me ideas, so don?t ask me to thank you for what is supposedly your job.? From Peggy?s point of view it would be: ?You?re telling me that the world you have built consists of giving money in order to avoid having to say thanks?? That?s one of the abysses of masculinity.

? And right at the end, the crowning moment of the scene. Peggy cries. And Don can?t stand it. Because he thinks that crying is confusing the issue in a conversation. An unbearable type of vulnerability. One which appeals to his protective, paternal instincts. But Don either doesn?t get it or pretends not to. When he says ?I?m sorry about your boyfriend, ok??, he may not realise that she is crying because Don has put up one of those comfortable male barriers, that make us feel safe, but are ultimately one of our most obvious exercises in incomprehension. The question for Don and for masculinity would be... Is this incomprehension conscious or unconscious?