Themes
editDark City parallels second-century Gnosticism as dispensed by Valentinus.[1] The classic Gnostic myth tells of "a radically transcendent power", not the Biblical God, creating life. In this reality emerge aeons, androgynous and eternal beings. These elements compromise the pleroma, the plenitude. The aeon Sophia produces Ialtobaoth, who believes he is the only god and creates a universe that is comprised of "discordant matter instead of spiritual concord". The aeons instill the pneuma, the "divine spark", in humans who suffer "the weight of manner" so when the spark is ignited, they can realize their true origin in the pleroma and their exile to the discordant universe.[2]
Valentinus inflects the myth psychologically, and the Gospel of Truth is the core text of the Valentinian school. The aeons want to know their origin in the pleroma, and their lack of knowledge agitates them and blinds them. Their error that knowing should have an object leads to the fashioning of a world believed to be beautiful, and "[the] world is ours, a precipitation of spiritual misapprehension". Valentinus says that wanting to know and not being able to control an object leads to one's entrapment. Film Literature Quarterly's Eric Wilson writes, "In contrast, when one relinquishes fear and desire—when one realizes that there are no separate objects and no threatening outside—then one enjoys what one envisions: infinite visions of spirit."[2]
According to Gnosticism, people live in a realm that they do not know is an illusion. Valentinus questioned how people could tell reality from the illusion; perceived reality could be another illusion, and their perception of reality could be considered insanity by standards of behavior in the illusory realm. Valentinus suggests paranoia, as a mode of interrogation, for resolving the conundrums.[2] In Dark City, John Murdoch exhibits paranoia as "the aspiring Gnostic", where the Strangers are ignorant eternals.[1] The Strangers combat death by trying to understand the human soul; they hope to discover an enduring essence when they change the identities of humans in their experiment. Their lives are fragmented, as evidenced by their names, like Mr. Hand and Mr. Book. Wilson writes, "[The Strangers] incorrectly believe that the soul is but a finite thing that can be manipulated. Fittingly, they perceive, and thus produce, only gloomy, moribund objects—the Gothic cityscapes that they nightly concoct."[3]
Notes
edit- ^ a b Wilson 2006, p. 232 harvnb error: multiple targets (2×): CITEREFWilson2006 (help)
- ^ a b c Wilson 2006, p. 233 harvnb error: multiple targets (2×): CITEREFWilson2006 (help)
- ^ Wilson 2006, p. 234 harvnb error: multiple targets (2×): CITEREFWilson2006 (help)
References
edit- Wilson, Eric G. (2006). "Gnostic Paranola In Proyas's Dark City". Film Literature Quarterly. 34 (3): 232–239.
Online references
edit- VISIONS OF 'STRANGERS' DANCE IN HIS HEAD
- Interview with Director Alex Proyas
- Alex Proyas - Director, Dark City
- Hayles, N. K. (2004). "The Slipstream of Mixed Reality: Unstable Ontologies and Semiotic Markers in The Thirteenth Floor, Dark City, and Mulholland Drive" (PDF). Modern Language Association. 119 (3): 482–499. doi:10.1632/003081204X20541. 0030-8129.
{{cite journal}}: Unknown parameter|coauthors=ignored (|author=suggested) (help) - Nunn, Samuel. "Designing the Solipsistic City: Themes of Urban Planning and Control in The Matrix, Dark City, and The Truman Show".
{{cite journal}}: Cite journal requires|journal=(help)
- Wilson, Eric G. (2006). "Gnostic Paranola In Proyas's Dark City". Literature Film Quarterly. 34 (3): 232–239.
- Murray, Robin (2006-02-04). "Dark City, Noir, and the Space Between: Or Is It Our Nature to Live in the Dark?". Scope: An Online Journal of Film Studies.
{{cite journal}}: Unknown parameter|coauthors=ignored (|author=suggested) (help) - Hantke, Steffen. "Encapsulated Noir: Hybrid Genres and Social Mobility in Alex Proyas' Dark City". Scope: An Online Journal of Film Studies.
- Bordwell, David (Spring 2002). "Intensified continuity: visual style in contemporary American film". Film Quarterly. 55 (3): 16–28. doi:10.1525/fq.2002.55.3.16. Archived from the original on 2004-11-05.
Saved references
edit- Blackmore, Tim (2004). "High on Technology—Low on Memory: Cultural Crisis in Dark City and The Matrix". Canadian Review of American Studies. 34 (1): 13–54. (saved)
- Gerlach, N. (2004). "Preserving Self in the City of the Imagination: Georg Simmel and Dark City". Canadian Review of American Studies. 34 (2): 115–134. doi:10.1353/crv.2004.0009. 0007-7720.
{{cite journal}}: Unknown parameter|coauthors=ignored (|author=suggested) (help) (saved) - Hamming, Jeanne (2008). "The Feminine "Nature" of Masculine Desire in the Age of Cinematic Techno-Transcendence". Journal of Popular Film & Television. 35 (4): 154–163. doi:10.3200/JPFT.35.4.146-153.
{{cite journal}}: Unknown parameter|month=ignored (help) (saved) - Marsen, Sky (2005). "Against heritage: Invented identities in science fiction film". Semiotica. 152 (1–4): 141–157. (saved)
- Milner, Andrew (2004). "Darker Cities: Urban Dystopia and Science Fiction Cinema". International Journal of Cultural Studies. 7 (3): 259–279. doi:10.1177/1367877904046303. (saved)
- Romney, Jonathan (1998). "The new paranoia". Film Comment. 34 (6): 39–43.
{{cite journal}}: Unknown parameter|month=ignored (help) (saved) - Swope, Richard (2002). "Science Fiction Cinema and the Crime of Social-Spatial Reality". Science Fiction Studies. 29 (2): 221–246.
{{cite journal}}: Unknown parameter|month=ignored (help) (saved) - Tripp, Daniel (2005). ""Wake Up!": Narratives of Masculine Epiphany in Millennial Cinema". Quarterly Review of Film & Video. 22 (2): 181–188. doi:10.1080/10509200590461891.
{{cite journal}}: Unknown parameter|month=ignored (help) (saved) - Tryon, Charles. "Virtual Cities and Stolen Memories: Temporality and the Digital in Dark City". Film Criticism. 28 (2). (saved)
Unused references
edit- Duvall, Daniel S. (2000). "Dark City". Creative Screenwriting. 7 (5): 85–90. ISSN 1084-8665.
- Hauke, Chris (2001). "Dark City". Jung and Film: Post-Jungian Takes on the Moving Image. Routledge. pp. 95–109. ISBN 1583911332.
{{cite book}}: Unknown parameter|month=ignored (help) - Helms, Michael (1998). "Dark City". Cinema Papers: 18–21, 44. ISSN 0311-3639.
{{cite journal}}: Unknown parameter|month=ignored (help) (Interview with director Alew Proyas and producer Andrew Mason about their film DARK CITY) - McGowan, Todd (2004). "Fighting Our Fantasies: Dark City and the Politics of Psychoanalysis". In Sheila Kunkle (ed.). Lacan and Contemporary Film. Other Press. pp. 145–171. ISBN 9781590510841.
{{cite book}}:|format=requires|url=(help) - Perlich, John (2008). "'Small World': Alex Proyas' Dark City and Omnitopia". Sith, Slayers, Stargates + Cyborgs: Modern Mythology in the New Millennium. Peter Lang Publishing. pp. 121–144. ISBN 978-1433100956.
{{cite book}}: Unknown parameter|coauthors=ignored (|author=suggested) (help); Unknown parameter|month=ignored (help)
References to find
edit- Bond, Jeff (1998). "Dark City". Film Score Monthly. 3 (5): 44. ISSN 1077-4289. (LOC)
- Goldberg, Marcy (1998). "Visible cities, invisible freedoms". Cineaction (45): 61–65. (no LOC)
- Helms, Michael (1997). "The Dark Empire strikes back / Life after Riff-Raff". Fangoria (166): 20–25, 71. ISSN 1078-0971.
{{cite journal}}: Unknown parameter|month=ignored (help) (production report and interview with Richard O'Brien on DARK EMPIRE) (no LOC) - Lyssiotis, Peter (2000). "Liquid architecture: Eisenstein and film noir". Architectural Design. 70 (1): 6–8. ISSN 0003-8504.
{{cite journal}}: Unknown parameter|coauthors=ignored (|author=suggested) (help); Unknown parameter|month=ignored (help) (Article on cities in film which refers to Eisenstein, Fritz Lang, film noir and the 1998 film DARK CITY.) (supposedly at LOC) - McDonagh, Maitland (1998). "Dark intrigues". The Film Journal: 20–22. ISSN 1542-0868.
{{cite journal}}: Unknown parameter|month=ignored (help) (supposedly at LOC) - McDonagh, Maitland (1998). "Dark City". The Film Journal: 60–61. ISSN 1542-0868.
{{cite journal}}: Unknown parameter|month=ignored (help) (supposedly at LOC) - Miller, Toby (2004). A Companion to Film Theory. Wiley-Blackwell. pp. 272–273. ISBN 0631206450.
{{cite book}}: Unknown parameter|coauthors=ignored (|author=suggested) (help); Unknown parameter|month=ignored (help) (no LOC) - Newman, Kim (1998). "Dark City". Sight & Sound: 43. ISSN 0037-4806.
{{cite journal}}: Unknown parameter|month=ignored (help) (no LOC) - O'Regan, Tom (1998). "Only one day at the beach". Metro (117): 16–28.
{{cite journal}}: Unknown parameter|month=ignored (help) (A discussion of the merits of DARK CITY and its influence on the Australian film industry) (no LOC) - Shay, Estelle (1998). "Masters of the Dark". Cinefex (74): 71–77. ISSN 0198-1056. (no LOC)
- Svehla, Gary J. (1999). "Dark City". Midnight Marquee Monsters (60): 43–44.
{{cite journal}}: Unknown parameter|month=ignored (help) (no LOC) - Thornton, Steven (1999). "Dark cities: urban hell". Midnight Marquee Monsters (61): 14–24.
{{cite journal}}: Unknown parameter|month=ignored (help) (no LOC) - Wilson, Dawson H. "The Pathological Machine: Dark City's Translation of Schreber's Memoirs". Journal of the Fantastic in the Arts. 15 (2 [58]): 153–164. ISSN 0897-0521. (supposedly at LOC)