Session Five Tourist Movies Department of Film & Audiovisual Culture, Masaryk University Dr. Richard Nowell holiday.jpg vicky_cristina_barcelona.jpg ¨ ¨ ¨To develop a sound understanding of: ¨ ¨1. Tourist movies and repatriation. ¨ ¨2. Tourist movies as Comfort Viewing. ¨ ¨3. Tourist movies as a vacation substitute. ¨ ¨As well as industry and cultural history, and character-types, the Comfort Viewing Mode helps enrich understandings of media formats ¨ ¨Formats are industry equivalents of genres; ever-expanding clusters of conventions professionals draw from in order to shape their media texts ¨ ¨With content also drawn from elsewhere, formats are “open structures” offering professionals and viewers a balance of familiarity and novelty ¨ ¨Seen this way a format is a building block that can be combined with others, especially those that are modes (ways of presenting material) ¨ ¨Recognizing a format is combined with a mode like Comfort Viewing promises to expand or alter our understandings of individual formats ¨ ¨As we have seen, the Comfort Viewing Mode has been combined with other formats, from sci-fi and sitcoms to musicals (and more) ¨ ¨This range of comfort viewing reminds us media industries know varied consumer taste creates profitably large taste-communities ¨ ¨Even those using polarizing genres like horror, real crime, and porn employ the CVM, often by branding output as female-friendly ¨ ¨But the CVM has typically been paired with formats renowned for using uplifting content to inspire similar responses in their viewers ¨ ¨Tales of folks pursuing better lives through travel represent one of the most enduring, high-profile, lucrative formats to use the CVM ¨ ¨ ¨ ¨ ¨ ¨ ¨ ¨ ¨Negra furnishes us with the most insightful understanding of tourist movies, derived from an analysis of female-oriented examples of the 90s ¨ ¨She argues that these films are distinguished by their narrative structure and audience address, which helps us understand how they use the CVM ¨ ¨1. What problems facing American women does Negra suggest ¨ tourist movies address? ¨ ¨2. What solutions do 1990s tourist films offer their primary female audience? ¨ ¨3. How does the Comfort Viewing Mode help us better to ¨ understand these films? ¨ ¨Negra shows us how Hollywood tourist movies of the 1990s were tailored to be highly relevant to certain American women ¨ ¨She suggests they invited straight, white, middle-class women in their 30s to consider the negative impact of major social shifts ¨ ¨This is not to say every viewer was experiencing them, but they were likely aware of, worried by, or one day burdened by them ¨ ¨She argues that the films offer a fantasy of Europe which invites viewers to imagine a way of life free from such stressors ¨ ¨She argues they draw on a then-new idea of immersive tourism, where travelers experience (fantasies of) everyday life overseas ¨Raise issues facing white middle-class US women: ¨ ¨1. Rootlessness due to economic migration ¨2. Loss of community (see above, and competition) ¨3. Pressure to choose between a career and a family ¨4. Body issues and a troubled relationships to food ¨5. Whiteness as lacking in cultural authenticity ¨ ¨Posit Tourism as a fantasy solution to these issues: ¨ ¨1. & 2. Presented as rooted and community-centered ¨3. Slower pace makes family and career possible ¨4. “Nature boy” re-harmonizes American woman with food, making her happier in her own skin ¨5. Whiteness enriched by old-world cultural heritage ¨ ¨ Hugh-Grant-Julia-Roberts-Notting-Hill-movie.jpg dinner.jpg 288916_full.jpg ¨Negra’s problem-solution model helps us to better understand how and why tourist movies use the Comfort Viewing Mode ¨ ¨They pursue positive viewer sentiments, by raising and offering solutions to real-world problems relevant to targeted audiences ¨ ¨They show travelers experiencing uplift through connections with the spaces, inhabitants, and customs of a foreign territory ¨ ¨These are invariably presented as detached from the modern world; as rooted in the past (nostalgia) and authentic (sincerity) ¨ ¨Tourist movies also project familiarity, by exposing viewers to time-honored content derived from earlier examples of the genre ¨ ¨ ¨ ¨ ¨ ¨ ¨ under the tus.jpg ¨ ¨ ¨1. What problems is the protagonist facing? ¨ ¨2. What solutions does the film offer to these problems? ¨ ¨3. What does this film say about the role tourist media might play for actual viewers? ¨ ¨Echoing Sex & the City, this film amplifies the fantasy dimensions of the tourist film to a modern-day fairy-tale ¨ ¨In Boston, the heroine’s emphasis on socio-economic status barely conceals her alienation, trauma, and sadness ¨ ¨Here, her life is cast as inauthentic; food, real estate, partnership, identity, and community are merely resources ¨ ¨Her priorities are reset by a nature boy associated with cooking, homeliness, romance, village life, and integrity ¨ ¨Ultimately, it suggests relocation to Europe can serve as a tonic with a possibility for real therapeutic rejuvenation ¨But this quite generic promotion of tourist film values also directly addresses real-world criticism of the genre ¨ ¨The film pointedly suggests the unpalatable alternative of departing from the genre’s romantic fantasy formula ¨ ¨Such dark scenarios represent alternatives for those who, like Declan, reject its romantic premise as “poo” ¨ ¨The film invokes horror and tragedy, hinting at gang rape, insularity, backwardness, suicide, and butchery ¨ ¨Foreclosing such alternatives thus represents a defense against criticism of the film’s comforting ambitions ¨Negra’s model fails to account for many of her own examples (beyond Notting Hill that is), let alone other tourist movies ¨ ¨Her model needs to be treated loosely, especially when applied to films containing different types of protagonist and aimed at different viewers. ¨ ¨One way around this, is to ask a serious of more general questions: ¨ ¨1. What problems does the protagonist experience at home? ¨2. What solution do they expect abroad to provide to these problems? ¨3. To what extent does abroad fulfil these expectations? ¨4. In the final reckoning, which comes out better – home or away? ¨ ¨Such adaptions help us understand the dynamics of all tourist movies… ¨ ¨ ¨ ¨1. What problems is the protagonist facing? ¨ ¨2. What solutions does the film offer to these problems? ¨ ¨3. What does this film say about the role tourist media might play for actual viewers? ¨ ¨This film promotes the act of comfort viewing, including tourist movies like itself, as a superior alternative to actual tourism ¨ ¨Its concerns a bereaved, lonely, mistreated man whose alienation from his modern city life has left him with little-to-no self-esteem ¨ ¨Struggling with such pressures, he seeks uplift from movie-like daydreams in which he transforms into a dynamic go-getter ¨ ¨Retreating from everyday life into familiar media scenarios ¨enrich him through connection, sincerity, nostalgia, and uplift ¨ ¨In spite of his very real personal and professional defeats, cinematic tourism increases Walter’s self-esteem and confidence ¨ ¨The Secret Life of Walter Mitty is not alone as a tourist film that promotes the benefits of comfort viewing like itself over actual travel ¨ ¨Apart from income derived from themed resorts, the media industries do not benefit directly from consumers investing in international travel ¨ ¨One could argue tourism is a direct competitor to the media industries in the fight for consumers’ leisure time and expendable income ¨ ¨The cost of international travel, especially intercontinental travel, requires a reduction in other leisure expenses like media consumption ¨ ¨It is ultimately in the media industries interests to cast tourist media as preferable to tourism, by undermining the appeal of actual tourism ¨ ¨As well as industry and cultural history, and character-types, the Comfort Viewing Mode helps us develop our understandings of formats ¨ ¨Formats are clusters of conventions industry professionals draw from to balance familiarity and novelty, and manage creative and economic risks ¨ ¨As a lens through which content is presented and potentially understood, the Comfort Viewing Mode has been combined with myriad formats ¨ ¨Understandings of Tourist films derive from female-oriented examples wherein an American woman finds happiness by relocating overseas ¨ ¨The CVM expands understandings of this format to include those aimed at other viewers, and the promotion of tourist film viewing over travel ¨The Comfort Viewing Mode also enriches understandings of media politics, including a format routinely dismissed as right-wing hate ¨ ¨Topic: Geriaction ¨ ¨Readings: Frame, Geriaction Vigilante Cinema. ¨ ¨Home Screenings: Nobody (2021), ¨ Top Gun: Maverick (2022) ¨ ¨[Preparatory Questions on MS TEAMS and in the Syllabus] ¨ ¨Meeting: Thursday 14 December