Contextual Studies Presentation

Hamza Kaleem

Subject: Pulp Fiction (1994)

- Quentin Tarantino

SEQUENCE ANALYSED FOR TEXTUAL ANALYSIS:

Duration in movie: 00:52:20 - 01:01:03

Vincent and Mia have just returned home from an evening out and Vincent has gone to the bathroom to talk himself into saying goodnight and leaving, keeping his loyalty to boss Marcellus Wallace.
Mia is sitting on the couch wearing Vincents coat and smoking, until she finds a drug in the coat pocket which is referred to as mad man in the movie. As soon as she sniffs the drug, blood starts dripping from her nose and she passes out.

Horrified when he finds her, Vincent takes her to his drug supplier to give her an adrenaline shot, after which she regains consciousness.

Mise-En-Scene
Costume During the sequence Vincent is
wearing a suit, as he does throughout most of the movie. This tells us about his profession and builds up his character smart and well dressed! I think Tarantino builds on Vincents character when you see Mia wearing his coat. Vincent has given her his coat because it may have been cold and this gives him a gentlemans image. However, she finds the drug in his coat pocket, and that initiates the situation aiding narrative progression. Mias clothes are also very formal and professional, as you would expect from someone of her social standing. Lance is wearing shorts and a t-shirt underneath a bathrobe as is his wife Jodie, and this represents the same thing, their social position which is far lower than Mias.

Mise-En-Scene
Location The two main locations in this scene
give a sense of the difference between higher class and lower-middle class. We start the sequence at Mias house which is big, features grand interior, high scale decor and in all, looks like the owner is wealthy and rich. Contrast is explored when Vincent rushes Mia to Lances house who is his drug supplier. Lances house is the stereotype of what a small time drug dealers house would be like. Its small, messy, has low maintenance interior and compared to the inside of Mias house - modernized for the time period, Lances house looks to be outdated. A crooked lamp, a small box television and the messy room full of books/files that Lance goes through to find a medical book serve this purpose.

Lighting Contrast is continued between the two houses through lighting. Mias
house featured high key lighting from lamps and chandeliers while at Lances house; lighting is dim, coming from a crooked high lamp and the television.

Mise-En-Scene
Props As mentioned before, props which serve as
interior decorations in the houses act as a difference of class and wealth. Other props that represent this are the alcohol glasses in Mias house and that Mia sniffs the drug with a rolled up note of money. Significant props that build character profiles in this sequence are the cigarette Lance is smoking, and his friend Trudy smoking pot. Along with building up character profiles this is stereotyping Lance and his friends to be your average drug dealers and addicts. The car Vincent uses to get Mia to Lances house and the phone he calls Lance on simply serve their purpose in progressing narrative.

Mise-En-Scene
Camera Angle / Movement At the start of
the sequence Vincent is talking to himself in the mirror. We see a low angle shot of him with the camera looking upward making Vincent look dominating. The audience can clearly see his facial expression when he is in dialogue through a mirrors reflection. We then see a close up of Mia lighting a cigarette, which shows her face before the incident occurs and a similar shot is shown after she passes out so the audience clearly sees what has happened and understands the seriousness of the situation through her state. During the extreme close up when she passes out, the camera is moving slightly and is unstable, much like her unstable condition so the narrative is also being progressed through Tarantinos camera work
This is then preceded with an extreme long shot on the road to show Vincents reckless driving. This shows the audience his desperation, driving recklessly to get to Lances house fast and how distressed he is.

Mise-En-Scene
Camera Angle / Movement When he is
driving the camera is deliberately positioned to Vincents left as it also shows Mia in the passenger seat Important in showing Mias state through this clip! When lance gets up to answer the phone, the camera pans to follow his movement as he goes to pick up the phone, his casual and slow walk is a differentiation to the frantic pace Vincent has adopted which provides contrast again something Tarantino is now showing regularly!
The last key camera movement worth noting is when Lance looks for the medical book, the camera is purposely waiting outside and doesnt go in the room that he is in. This is giving the audience a view of the room from an outside position and from one angle where the rest of the room is a blind spot. In my opinion this technique may have been used by Tarantino to slow down the visuals, which have been fast paced for the last few minutes, leading to audiences concentrating on the dialogue.

Mise-En-Scene
Editing Once the situation with Mia has arisen, the
sequence all of a sudden develops a quick pace, with fast camera movements and cuts to different angles show the fast paced nature of the scene, through cinematography.

This helps the audience get into the mood of desperation, equal to that of what Vincent is feeling at that time. The viewer hopes and urges that they make it for the protagonists sake.

Music / Sound
When Mia and Vincent arrive at the house, Mia plays Overkill Youll Be A Woman Soon on the stereo which is Tarantinos one of many references to pop culture. The music continues to play while Mia is smoking the cigarette and then sniffing the drug and remains a constant theme during this short clip. The music then stops when she has passed out. The sound of the telephone and television make up the rest the significant sounds other than the dialogue and street noises when driving the car. During the duration of this sequence, non-diegetic sound is not used at any point.

Acting Performance
Uma Thurman who plays Mia Her facial expression stays true throughout the sequence and her rolled up eyes display the critical condition of her character effectively. I think John Travoltas acting is brilliant in this sequence. At the start of the sequence the way he is talking to himself, trying to convince himself of his loyalty to Marcellus Wallace shows the audience a genuine concern on his part, not to do anything stupid like make a move towards Mia in the fear of his boss. When he sees that Mia has passed out, his facial expressions in the car and body language throughout the sequence perfectly show his desperation in trying to save her because of the fear that Marcellus Wallace will kill him. His frantically delivered speech also shows this to the audience. Do you know who Marcellus Wallace is? If she croaks on me, Im a fucking greasepot. - This proves my point!

Acting Performance
Eric Stoltz (Lance) also plays his part to perfection, concerned that if Vincent brings Mia into his house, it will come back on him, because he is the dealer. His anxiety also shows through his deliverance of dialogue and body language when they bring Mia into his house. Lances wife Jodie (Rosanna Arquette) is also a concerned, agitated woman and her being abusive yet submissive to Vincent and Lances demands, shows anger yet fear of what might happen, along with raising the femininity debate. Bronnagh Galagher playing Trudy underplays her part well too, she is an addict and couldnt care less about whats going on or another reading of this text could be that she is high, and is slightly unaffiliated from whats happening.

SEQUENCE ANALYSED FOR CONTEXTUAL ANALYSIS:

Duration in movie: 1:58:21 2:12:00

Vincent Vega accidentally shoots Marvin in the face whilst in a car and Jules goes to Jimmies house to hide the bloodridden vehicle. Jimmie is aggrieved because his wife is due home from work soon and he thinks she would be horrified and divorce him if she saw the dead body in her house. After Jules speaks to Marcellus Wallace on the phone, Wallace tells Jules that he has sent the The Wolf to clean up the situation.
The Wolf then arrives at the scene and helps Jules and Vincent stabilise the situation.

Gender
Masculinity & Femininity - In this sequence Jimmie is scared that Bonnie
will leave him if she comes home and sees the dead body, making Jimmie look dependant on her, the quote from Jimmy ... divorce, no marriage counselling, no trail separation sums up my point accurately that he wont get a say, showing how feminine movements have evolved in time. When The Wolf gives Jimmie some money; he takes it as if he is in serious need. This leads me to believe that Jimmie has left the life of crime for the sake of Bonnie, so if she saw the dead body, it would be a straight divorce, again highlighting her power over him. However patriarchy re-enters as Jimmie says When Bonnie goes shopping, she buys shit trying to ridicule the female and make himself look dominant.

Gender
Masculinity & Femininity Putting gender roles into the context of film noir
then women often have a strong role in film noirs, usually playing the femme fatales. -Uma Thurmans character is not of an average gangsters wife - not submissive! (Scarface?) Butchs (Bruce Willis) girlfriend is more of a stereotypical Hollywood woman, emotional as she bursts into tears when Butch gets angry.
This is a prime example of Tarantino using existing structures while putting his own ideas into the movie.

The dominant figure in this scene is The Wolf. During the sequence Jimmie and Jules seem to be in awe of him because of his reputation making him the dominant male. He tells Vincent and Jules what to do and they comply, however Tarantino not wanting the other males to look too defamed, makes Vincent rebel in a minor way:

Please would be nice... I dont like people barking orders at me thats all.

Race
Representation of race in this sequence can be seen as derogatory. ... Its the dead nigger in my garage. When you came pulling in here, did you notice a sign at the front of my house that said dead nigger storage - The n-term is used by Tarantinos character Jimmie in a very casual manner. Jimmies character could have easily said dead person/man storage but intentionally used that word. I think Tarantino cleverly picks up references from past pop culture to shock his audience, for example the 70s and 80s that saw black people face this offensive term on a regular basis. Jules character doesnt get offended as if its a normal thing for someone to say, but this again goes with Tarantinos representation of race in Pulp Fiction.

Race
First, Tarantino breaks the ideology that blacks are below whites as Jules and Vincent work as partners and work under Mr. Wallace who is also an African American. But the term nigger in the sequence shows a sense of an unlevel balance of power between Jules and Jimmie. Jimmie knows Jules is in trouble and using this term exploits the situation making Jules look inferior to him. In a recent interview, promoting his new movie Django Unchained (2012)

Samuel L Jackson (Jules from Pulp Fiction) said:

Did they have another name to call the [black] people they were talking about at the time? If you're going to deal with the language of the time, you deal with the language of the time. And that was the language of the time. I grew up in the South. I heard 'nigger' all my life. I'm not disturbed by it.

Pulp Fiction follows a non-linear narrative as events dont take place in a sequential order. This breaks Todorovs theory of equilibrium and narrative structure as flashbacks and flash-forwards are a regular occurrence. For example, Vincent is shot by Butch and dies but appears again a few scenes later as we are taken into another flashback that links with another characters story. This results in a distortion of real time and can be compared to Reservoir Dogs (1992), another one of Tarantinos popular works which has a non-linear narrative.

In the overall context of the movie, Tarantino cleverly leaves parts of the narrative in enigma, for example, what is in that briefcase? Again this shows off Tarantinos storytelling style and leaves an impression on audiences minds.

Pulp Fiction is often seen as a Neo-noir film rather than an all out film noir. Neo-noir is a term used for movies that follow the film noir style from the past but include modern styles, visual elements like SFX and contemporary issues. In my opinion this is film noir targeting a more contemporary audience and using new and creative ways of filmmaking which were unseen in film noir movies in the 1940s and 50s as then, technology wasnt available to the extent it is today.
In the sequence, I would say the use of colour is quite important although originally film noir films were considerably dark. However here, the differentiation between the black and white suits with the colour of blood is an important visual for the audience to know the seriousness of the situation.

Also like many Quentin Tarantino films, the genre of the movie often becomes a hybrid because it features elements from other genres. For example, a lot of Tarantinos movies feature witty, sometimes tongue-incheek humour. Humour stays constant throughout Pulp Fiction as do pop culture references resulting in this movie not entirely belonging to the film noir genre. Example of reference to pop culture: I am the guns of the Navarone Jules Example of tongue-in-cheek humour: Lets not start sucking each others d*cks quite yet Wolf

Many are of the opinion that Tarantinos filmmaking style and most of his works follows the theory of postmodernism. You can argue that the non-linear narrative contributes to making Pulp Fiction a post modern film.

What also leads me to call Pulp Fiction post modern is that the main characters arent your stereotypical heroes that exist in most films, especially ones in the past which show a clear differentiation between good and evil, right and wrong and are always there to save the damsel in distress. The protagonists here are shown to be gangsters who are violent and show no sympathy to victims. However, the audience does get sympathetic towards them when they are shown how this violence and other incidents shape their lives.

Most of Tarantinos films feature amorality. The end scene however shows morality emerge triumphant when Jules allows Pumpkin and Honey Bunny to walk away alive claiming he is trying hard to be the shepherd, almost giving a morale to the story.

Another point which I think shows that Pulp Fiction is following the postmodernism theory is the dialogue. Not added to build character or help the plot grow, it serves its purpose to give the film an essence of reality with a realistic approach. An example of this would be the topic of foot massages and what they mean near the start of the movie, which seems unconnected to the movies plot. When Jules and Vincent arrive at the flat they are suppose to enter, they decide that its early and continue the seemingly unrelated foot massage discussion again a subject of reality and postmodernism.

... The End of Presentation If you have any questions...

Jules: I don't wanna hear about no motherfuckin' ifs. All I wanna hear from your ass is, You ain't got no problem!