Hi Tim,
I saw the Joseph Mankiewicz (writer and director) movie The Barefoot Contessa a couple of days ago. It’s a flashback-movie, and I was struck by the way the flashbacks do or don’t coincide with Frank’s idea of the 8-sequence structure.
Opening on funeral
After the titles we see a small cemetery in Rome. (Note that credits claim the picture was shot entirely on the Cinecittá lot outside Rome, though there are location shots along the coast. Also of interest is that this is a ‘Figaro Production’ so I would say that Mankiewicz had almost total control here – this is his baby all the way, although he might not have been able to get his ideal cast.)
Harry Dawes (Humphrey Bogart in trench-coat) appears as our main narrator. Although it’s raining, Harry’s VO tells us that the lighting is ‘exactly’ what the Contessa would have wanted. We see the statue of the Contessa in Grecian robe showing beneath the hem one bare foot, and Harry launches us into his first flashback.
This is entirely expositional, and sets up the flashback structure; more like a prologue. If this picture is anybody’s story, it is Maria’s. This scene tells us
- She was famous
- She is dead at a young age
- She was a Contessa although a recent one
- She is buried here in Rome
- She was a famous and beautiful movie star in her life
Flashbacks:
Harry No 1 part 1
This flashback consists of 4 technical scenes, or one ‘greater scene’ set in a small nightclub in Madrid. It introduces us to most of the main cast.
We open with a scene of Maria Vargas (Ava Gardner) doing her dance, the fame of which will bring super-rich oil-man and neo-producer Kirk Edwards (Warren Stevens) and his entourage from Rome to Madrid. But we don’t get to see Maria dance. Instead while she dances, we get shots of a half dozen patrons watching her dance, and we are treated to mini-stories of each of them – the fat rich man who’s trying to seduce an unwilling younger girl, the rich man who sits alone and lusts after Maria, the wife angrily watching her husband get hot under the collar while watching the dance, and one or two others. This scene is covered by Harry’s VO and the music only. At first I wondered if this was a clever way of giving us the idea that ‘Maria is a great and super-sexy dancer with tons of charisma’ without having to teach Gardner how to dance. But later on in the story we do get to see Maria dance. So I guess that this is just part of the buildup to her: the delayed or indirect introduction. We’ve seen the statue and heard how famous she is, now we see how a typical audience reacts to her performance.
The second technical scene is in the same space. To the ‘Reservado’ table which has been featured prominently in the montage of audience, are ushered the American movie people: Kirk Edwards, producer; Harry Dawes, famous though over-the-hill writer-director; Oscar Muldoon (Edmond O’Brien), press agent; and a slightly over-the-hill blonde actress we assume is Kirk’s latest mistress. Kirk is producing a big, big picture (his first) and is seeking ‘a fresh face’ he can launch as a star (and own exclusive rights to, and get to fuck as well). To this end he has bought Harry Dawes who has a great script he’s been working on at least 6 months, in all of which time he’s been on the wagon. Harry is a drunk trying to stay sharp for his comeback. Oscar is the typical press agent, and the blonde is here to help establish Kirk’s character and contrast with Maria, who will never take the shit this blonde must swallow all the time.
They’ve come too late to see the dance so they tell the manager to get Maria out there. But Maria has a rule, she never mingles with the customers, and the manager returns Oscar’s money. Kirk sends Oscar in to fetch Maria; soon Oscar returns, without Maria. All the while Harry has been enjoying the sight of Kirk not getting his way, and needling him. Now Kirk tells Harry to go and bring Maria back – if he doesn’t, Kirk will drop the picture and Harry’s comeback, and let it be known that Harry’s script is no good and Harry was too drunk to do the job.
Scene 3 of the flashback shows Harry back in Maria’s dressing room meeting her for the first time. At first the room seems empty, then Harry sees her bare feet under the curtain to the closet, and reveals Maria kissing her ‘cousin’ a guy who plays in the band. (This is to be the first in a line of many ‘cousins’ or nameless penniless studs Maria takes up with, all the while refusing to go to bed with any of the stars, producers, or rich men who lust after her.) Harry and Maria have a talk. She knows his name from his great pictures of the 30s, which surprises him. She has mixed feelings about the whole movie star life and is only really interested in whether Harry can help her become a great actress. She consents to go back out to Kirk, since Harry reframes it not as mingling with the customers, but having a business meeting with a famous producer. But she takes her shoes.
Scene 4 brings us back to the showroom of the club. Maria takes the measure of Oscar and Kirk. She excuses herself for a moment. And Harry tells Kirk he’s lost and that Maria won’t return. Harry enjoys needling Kirk. Kirk sends Oscar to get Maria but sure enough, she has left. Kirk is furious and tells Harry to meet them in an hour at the airport where they will take off with Harry and Maria, or without both of them – which will mean the end of Harry’s career.
Harry No 1 part 2
Harry’s flashback continues without (I think) a return to the cemetery and present time. But clearly the Inciting Incident has taken place in Maria’s story: she has met with rich Americans and been offered a screen test and a chance to become a movie star. But she has turned her back on it.
The flashback continues and will carry us through the second sequence. This one flashback will give us the entire First Act (after the expository Prologue of the funeral scene.) ‘Harry No 1 part 2’ has two scenes.
Harry comes to a poor section of Madrid, to the squalid apartment buildings where the Vargas family have their home. At first the Mother refuses to admit that Maria is at home. Then the brother says she is. Maria comes out and she and Harry have a long scene on the open walkway outside the apartment. I didn’t clock the scene but it must run more than 5 minutes of two people standing and talking.
There isn’t much overt conflict in the scene, let alone action. They stand and are blocked here and there on either side of a support pillar, and closer to the building or to the railing over the street in the moonlight. Harry does want to bring Maria back with him, direct his comeback picture, and get his career back on track. But he also hates the idea of delivering Maria into Kirk’s money-stained hands. Maria tells Harry all about herself and her childhood in the Civil War and how she only feels safe with bare feet and her toes in the dirt. She also wants fame and fortune, but she distrusts Kirk and all rich men, doesn’t want to wear shoes and all that shoes entail, and is wary about ending up like the blonde (though she doesn’t say so explicitly). She ends up agreeing. She and Harry come to an understanding that they will support each other against Kirk and the other Kirk types in the business (though this too is left unstated).
The second scene of this sequence is in a screening room in Rome. Maria’s screen test has just been run for Kirk and Oscar and Harry and three distributor/producers, one American, one English, one French. This is the first time any of them have seen it (Harry probably has seen it though.) The other producers recognize the test for what it is, that one improbable great screen test where a star is born. They all want to deal with Harry; Kirk insists he owns the rights to Maria, but it’s a lie, as Maria has signed no contract at Kirk’s own insistence – he wanted to see the test before he committed any money. Now Harry has outfoxed Kirk; Kirk can no longer sink Harry or bury Maria, as they can go to any one of the other producers and get a deal. Kirk is defeated, angry about it (although he never much shows emotion) and agrees to Harry’s terms.
This ends Act 1. We go back to the present at the cemetery, and the camera moves from Harry to oscar who is also present at the side of a black-haired man who we’ll later learn is the Argentine Maria Bavano (Marius Goring – couldn’t they even have gotten an Italian Lothario to play this part? Why an Englishman? Weird casting). Oscar then launches his first flashback:
Oscar No 1
Oscar’s first flashback has 3 scenes, but really only one. Oscar is explicitly a man who doesn’t understand Maria and doesn’t know any of her secrets; his flashbacks are mainly expositional in nature and tell us not only of Maria’s rise to stardom but also of the incomprehension of the Hollywood establishment to understand a woman of Maria’s caliber.
In the first semi-scene Oscar back in Hollywood is hard at work in his office as his VO explains how Maria made the picture, but never went to the famous nightclubs where the elite of Tinseltown do their gossiping, flirtations, and important business. She stayed completely out of all that and even though Oscar tells us he succeeded in planting lots of rumor-stories in the rags about Maria’s dates with famous stars, none of it was true, and nobody knew the real Maria.
In the second semi-scene Oscar tells of the premiere of The Dark Dawn (or something) Harry and Maria’s first picture together for Kirk. Maria doesn’t even bring a date to the premiere, but shows up with Harry and his young script-girl wife. But the premiere is a success and the picture will surely be a blockbuster.
In the third, and only full scene of his flashback, Oscar arrives in the London hotel suite Kirk has rented to launch the picture internationally. Kirk is there and the British distributor/producer we saw earlier. Everything looks good about the picture except one bit of bad news: back in Madrid Maria’s father has just murdered her mother. Mother-worship is one of the main stays of the Hollywood bible, so Kirk tells Oscar to call Harry back in Los Angeles and make sure that Maria never learns of this news until the picture can have its European premieres. They are all afraid that Maria, who hated her mother and loves her father, might get involved in the scandal, which would sink not only the picture but Maria’s career.
But when Oscar calls Harry he learns that Harry already knows – Maria told him, and she’s already flying to Madrid to be by her father’s side.
So this flashback gives us success in Hollywood, playing by her own rules, and a setback to the rise to stardom. So it’s Sequence 3, the first of Act 2?
Harry No 2
Back to the cemetery, and Harry launches us into his second flashback.
Harry attends the trial of Maria’s father – so does Oscar. The trial is a semi-scene, with no dialogue, covered entirely by Harry’s VO. Maria, Harry tells us, spares no expense and effort to get her father cleared. She even takes the stand herself and gives the greatest speech of her life in which she says everything that no star should ever say – her poverty and squalor, how her mother was a bad person, etc. And she wins her father’s acquittal, and walks out of the courtroom a bigger star than she was when she walked in, thereby disproving every rule Oscar and his kind live by.
The second scene (actually 3 technical scenes) of the flashback tells of a party a year later after 2 more pictures; she is now a super-star, Kirk is holding this party (improbably in Maria’s house) to celebrate their grand success. But Maria is thinking of leaving Hollywood and going back to Madrid. She is being courted by the Argentine, a man even richer than Kirk, and the two big-wallets are engaged in some rivalry over her. Oscar meanwhile is courting the Argentine, hoping for a bigger job and paycheck from the international playboy. Harry and his wife play backgammon. The blonde is also around, her career even bleaker than when we saw her in Madrid.
Third technical scene gives us Maria and Harry out on her terrace, apart from the other party-goers. Here Harry and Maria discuss again her fairy tale life, and compare her to Cinderella without, so far, any Prince Charming. Harry hears music playing from the property’s bungalow, and he surmises Maria is keeping yet another ‘cousin’ there for fun and games. In the balcony scene in Madrid, Maria called her sexual dalliances with handsome studs her own ‘sickness’ and claims she can’t help it; though it’s an important plot device to call her a nymphomaniac and liken it to a disease, by today’s standards her sex life is about the healthiest part of her whole life. But Harry thinks it’s really bad for her, and he has heard that this latest ‘cousin’ even abuses her. But Maria claims he is no better or worse than any of the others.
Fourth technical scene brings Harry and Maria back into the main living room where a pissing-match has sprung up between Kirk and the Argentine. Kirk calls the Argentine immoral, the Argentine admits it freely and laughingly, but says that what he does openly, Kirk does in secret, so Kirk in addition to all the Argentine’s vices is also a hypocrite. Maria gets dragged into the quarrel, the Argentine invites her to sail with him on his yacht in the Mediterranean, and Kirk forbids her. In defiance of Kirk, and with no love for the Argentine, Maria agrees to go sailing.
This flashback then would be Sequence 4, and it would follow the pattern of the previous flashback: success followed by a check, danger, or setback. It also brings us to the Midpoint, which would mark a big change, and so it does: Maria leaves Hollywood and begins a new phase of her life. She will never make another picture, and we know that, because in the opening cemetery scene Harry has told us that Maria only made 3 pictures in her life.
Oscar No 2
Oscar (who has also won the job with the Argentine) now tells of Maria’s life among the rich and titled. She won’t sleep with the Argentine, but Oscar tells us the Argentine doesn’t care about that, so long as everybody believes that she is sleeping with him. The first semi-scene of the flashback takes place on the yacht, where we get no location sound, just music and Oscar’s VO. The Argentine sports a black eye – evidently he was more insistent than Kirk – and Maria takes off her robe to sunbathe on the deck, while all the men present leer and ogle her in a scene that somewhat mirrors the nightclub dancing scene.
The second scene, a full one, lets Oscar tell us about the ‘International Set’ in Monte Carlo, composed of rich Americans and European penniless Pretenders. The Argentine is gambling, Maria seems somehow happy – it’s the first time we’ve seen her happy, and Oscar wants to know why. Maria offers only a vague answer. Then the Argentine comes in from the tables, furious at Maria. He says she stole money from him at the table, which ruined his luck, and he curses her publicly. Then a handsome stranger intrudes, slaps the Argentine’s face, offers his hand to Maria, and takes her away. And that’s the last time Oscar saw Maria alive.
Oscar’s second flashback might comprise a full sequence, but here the notion that a flashback = a sequence falls apart. In terms of the story, Oscar’s second overlaps with the Count’s flashback, and the end of sequence 5 straddles the two, is I would say doubled – it shows up in both.
Count
Back in the cemetery, the camera moves over to the Count (Rossano Brazzi) also mourning his beloved dead Contessa. His flashback is the most complicated with the most scenes.
It opens as the Count, plagued by insomnia, drives into France to distract himself from what is bothering him, but whose cause he doesn’t tell us. Along the way his car overheats, and he stops and gets water from a gypsy camp. There the gypsies are playing, and the Count has his first sight of Maria, dancing with a handsome young gypsy. The Count gets a pail of water and drives off, sure that he will meet Maria again, even though they only exchanged a single glance of a few moments.
He goes into a casino that night, and wins his second sight of Maria taking up some chips at the side of the Argentine, all smiles and winning; sees Maria cash the chips and go out to a balcony where she tosses down the wad of bills to the young gypsy, who tips his cap and races off. Maria and the Count exchange glances again; Maria seems unsettled and goes on to the table where Oscar and the ‘International Set’ are whiling away the empty hours. The Argentine comes in and curses Maria, and the Count slaps his face and takes Maria away.
Out in his car, the Count proposes that Maria go get her things at her hotel and go back with him to his home. She resists, though she’s attracted to the Count, but the Count insists that there is a mystical bond between them, they are destined to be united, and it’s no use even resisting. She agrees.
At the Count’s ancestral palazzo he shows her the paintings of his ancestors, and shows Maria off to his widowed sister (Valentina Cortese). Maria admires one painting and sees a resemblance to the Count, which flatters him: this ancestor was one he especially likes, and was one of Cesare Borgia’s assassins.
Some days or weeks later, Maria enjoys dipping her bare feet (hmm, maybe Buñuel should have directed this one, that would be a treat) in the surf, and on the heights above, the Count asks his sister if she would approve if he married Maria. The sister says that she’s never seen a woman as much in love as maria is, and claims that it would be cruel if the Count married her. She herself is barren, and so with these two their illustrious house will end, and she accuses the Count of only wanting to have a beautiful portrait of the last Count and Contessa. The Count is moody and sad, and grimly mentions the date of October 25, 1942 as his justification for doing what he will do. He has made up his mind and his sister won’t stop him.
This ends the Count’s flashback. So the close of Sequence 5 must be meeting the Count, but actually going away with the Count is what really changes Maria’s life, so maybe it comes in the middle of this flashback.
Harry No 3
Back at the cemetery the camera picks up Harry again, and he launches his third flashback.
He is now location scouting in Italy. Maria appears – of course she has written him many letters about meeting the Count and falling in love.
The second scene in the flashback is set in the Count’s palazzo with Maria posing for her statue (which reminds us of her death) and Harry talks with the Count, telling him that far from being one of Maria’s lovers, Harry is more like her father, and in fact will be giving her away at the wedding.
The third scene is a half-scene: the wedding, just a few shots of the beautiful bride covered by Harry’s VO.
The fourth scene is the reception. Outside the palazzo the servants and peasants are dancing and enjoying themselves; inside the elite nobility are as lifeless as the paintings and statues. Maria joins Harry at the window overlooking the servants, and suggests they go join them for more fun; Harry is disturbed by the suggestion she might be reverting to her ‘cousin’ loving ways. They are joined by the Count, Maria gets permission to go down outside, and Harry bids farewell to the Count. Harry has a sixth sense about people, and he intuits that something is wrong here in this marriage, but he doesn’t know what. He warns the Count not to hurt Maria.
This flashback (or part of one – see below) brings us Sequence 6 and the second curtain will of course be the wedding. Maria has now met and married Prince Charming and all is well. She has achieved her life’s happiness, fame, fortune, a title, a wonderful man who loves her as her bridegroom. But we have a few intimations that tragedy will follow, and we know that Maria will soon be dead.
Harry No 4
I don’t know if we return to the cemetery or not at this point, to break Harry’s flashback in two. It makes sense, since there is a gap in time, but I don’t remember.
Months later, Harry is in production for his Italian picture, and rewriting the scenes he will shoot tomorrow, when Maria comes without warning into his hotel room. Something is wrong, but at first she denies it; we learn she has been married for 13 weeks, and then she tells Harry her husband kisses her hand. And that is all that he does.
She proceeds to tell Harry the story of her wedding night, and we go into her flashback.
Maria (flashback inside Harry’s flashback)
Inside Harry’s fourth flashback comes Maria’s flashback.
On their wedding night, the Count meets with Maria and professes his total love for her. Then he hands her a paper, an official medical form, and reveals what he should morally have told her before he proposed: that on October 25 1942 he was wounded by a bomb and is impotent. Their marriage will be in name only. He loves her with all his heart – and only his heart. And Maria will sleep alone on her wedding night.
These two flashbacks would be Sequence 7, and the twist is: Prince Charming is not the perfect man for Maria, and her marriage is a sham, and a terrible mockery of her dreams.
Harry No 5 (continued out of Maria’s flashback)
After telling Harry this, Maria goes on to admit, at Harry’s demand, that yes, she has been involved with a new ‘cousin’ since getting married. But this time it’s different, she insists: she only took up with him to make the Count happy. What will make the Count happy is a child and heir; Maria is now pregnant, she will raise the child as the Count’s, and will break off with the ‘cousin’ and proceed to tell everything to the Count, whom she still loves deeply.
Harry protests that she has misunderstood the Count, and he’s a sick, morbid man who would never accept the arrangement. But Maria thinks she knows the Count better than Harry does, and all will be well. She leaves, and from his window Harry sees her drive off in the night – followed by another car. With a terrible foreboding, Harry goes down to follow them both
At the palazzo Harry finds the two cars. No one answers at the door so he goes around back through the gardens. He sees her statue again, and hears two shots. The Count appears bearing Maria’s body. He has shot them both. He had long suspected something was going on, but rather than accept it he had to spy and sneak and finally kill – this confirms that Harry had a better take on the Count’s heart than Maria did. She never got a chance to tell the Count her plans and intentions, and Harry hasn’t the heart to tell him now. The Count calls the police, and Harry sits holding Maria’s corpse in his arms.
So ends the final flashback, and Sequence 8: Rise and Fall of Maria Vargas.
Final wrap-up at cemetery
Back in the present, the sun is now shining over the little cemetery – the lighting at last matches Harry’s original description as being perfect for Maria – and the mourners depart. The Count is taken away in handcuffs by the police. Last to leave is Harry, who walks off as the camera cranes up.
(19 April 2009)
No comments:
Post a Comment