Mumblecore: The New Talkies
Monday, July 13th, 2009Author’s Note: I had written this article for the last issue of IndianAuteur.com
“You tell me; I don’t know! Mumblecore … I don’t know. I have mixed feelings. First of all, if there has to be a term for what we’re doing, I wish it didn’t sound so lame.” -Aaron Katz, Major Mumblecorp
Our story begins in 1958, in the United States of America. Hollywood heavyweight John Cassavetes takes his A-list paycheck and gathers a small crew of trusted men in New York to shoot what will later turn out to be Shadows (1959). Critics and fans of John Cassavetes are not sure what to think of it- after all, it was not a very conventional film. Location shooting, handheld camera, guerrilla tactics, choppy editing and grainy filmstock were all considered inadequate in terms of refined filmmaking. Then someone makes the mistake of complimenting Cassavetes on his tasteful use of handheld camera, which results in John, never quite known for his tolerance, quickly grabbing the man’s collar and yelling in his face:
“You stupid bastard, that’s because we couldn’t afford a tripod!”
Fast forward to 2002, a film shot on 16mm filmstock and a budget less than that of most cosmopolitan women’s make-up expenditure and going by the rather curious title of Funny Ha-ha catches attention at the South by Southwest festival, unknowingly breaking the bottle to a rising tide. It would be the year 2006, at this very same festival the word “Mumblecore” would become synonymous with what turned out to be a full-fledged cinematic movement. The term was first used by indieWIRE, which used it to describe the type of films that were creating this particular category and to the makers they bestowed upon the honourable title: Mumblecorps. Then there is the story that it was first uttered by Eric Masunaga, a sound editor to describe the way the characters in these films “mumble” to each other so much that sometimes they are barely even audible.
Though still unofficial, the name “mumblecore” serves the purpose for now although there have been other names given to this elusive new genre- “bedhead cinema” they call it, and some even called it “slackavetes” a wink perhaps? To the idol of so many Mumblecorps and the man who first dared to think of it in 1958.
The Traits of a Mumble-film
The most defining trait of a Mumblecore film is perhaps its depiction of truth and a deep need to portray realism in its most uninspiring parts. Real life is nearly 80% uninspiring after all, and directors like Jim Jarmusch have expressed interest in the insignificant space that exists between two significant events- just like how the fractions of silence between two notes in music create what the music really is. And it is this moment of silence which the Mumblefilm dares to tread upon. It’s walks all over it like a big dog and everyone loves it and go “awww, isn’t that cute.”
But the Mumbleness of these films is far from Jarmusch-ian indifference or Linklater-ish slacking for it harvests its silence in depths of realism and real people. That is where a Quiet City (2007) stands on its own and as far away from a Napolean Dynamite as Quentin Tarantino is sometimes from decency.
And what more? The most expensive product of Mumble-factory will cost less than the marked price of the rented digital video camera that it was shot on. Really, Aaron Katz shot Quiet City on a borrowed Panasonic HVX200 which he returned after he finished filming and In Search of a Midnight Kiss (2008) rose out of director Alex Holdridge’s friend trying out a new HD camera that he had then recently purchased and one thing led to another and you know the rest. These very low-end HD cameras form the harsh depth-of-field realist look of the Mumble movies. They don’t look as if they’ve been shot on handycams like an Ellie Parker or The Blair Witch Project but still manage to instill a sense of digital camera realism for the extra layer of truth depiction.
Friends are important, for another common trait of the Mumble art-house is the presence of friends. First of all, most mumblecorps studied together in film school and knew each other probably even before that. They end up helping each other out on projects so much that there is a rather prominent thread of connectivity running through the entire movement, reminding us of the Godard-Truffaut collaborations on Breathless (1960), the infamous firestarter of the French New Wave. So the director of one M-movie might take on a supporting acting role in another’s M-movie and then operate the boom mic on a third film. It’s basically what you would’ve done in your backyard if you had slightly more money and something better than your dad’s home movie camera (although the mumblecorps might just borrow it from you for their next project).
The stories almost always rely on the boomeranging lives of present day 20-somethings: the Generation Y. There is an ample presence of the digital age in the form of chatrooms, craigslist, web 2.0 and other such topics and there probably never was a seasoned actor who played a role in any of these films.
“And I think the main thing that we’re all interested in is getting at a truthful human interaction and using experiences from our own lives and what we observe about the people around us as a template for that.” -Aaron Katz.
Not a Second No-Wave
Although the subject matter and topics of discussion within the films of the No-Wave movement are similar, they don’t tend to have the same need to reach down to a lower level of truth that the mumbloids are craving for. Jarmusch, Kevin Smith, Steve Buschemi, Richard Linklater and a certain percentage of Wes Anderson have invested their faith in the deadpan, the immobile and the patience-testing to create the No-Wave movement of the 1980s and 1990s, Mumblecore doesn’t try that hard.
Dance Party, USA: about a bunch of 20 somethings hanging out at a party. Quiet City: a young woman arrives in New York city, unable to reach her friend befriends a stranger and spends the entire night with him walking across the city, going to a party and then hanging out more on the following day. In Search of a Midnight Kiss: a young man, unemployed and single decides to put up an ad for a new year’s eve date on craigslist and gets a response. Mumblecore indulges in the mundane, the slow-moving and the unassuming, moves it around in its mouth, gargles it and quietly lets it fall out.
Generation D.I.Y.
In these rush-times of Multi-tasking and customizable user interfaces, the Mumblecorps have successfully adapted what is quickly turning out to be the new modern way of life into an age old artform- the philosophy of D.I.Y. So could you really make a few re-writes then go set the camera up and then go hold the boom stick while some guy you knew from college walks into the frame with that girl you cast from a friend of a friend of friend who once did this play when she was twelve? Why not.
Another significant area where the Mumblecorps showed great heart is in the rather tricky mountainous steppes of the distribution sector. Most of these guys just make their own decent looking DVDs and sell them over the internet for anyone who would be interested to pay a reasonable price for them. Aaron Katz went as far as combining his first two films (Dance Party, USA and Quiet City) into a double-disc package for the price of what would generally be a single DVD. Anyway, both his films together add up to a meagre 138 minutes in unison which is still a good 20 minutes short of the latest Batman movie. So why would anyone buy their DVDs? The same reason anyone would buy the EP of an unsigned musician or the rather under-priced work of an upcoming painter- either a sense of finding a rare work of art or just being one of the first to subscribe to what you feel would eventually grow out into a full grown cultural revolution.
But Mumbleness is far from revolution- as far as Quentin Tarantino is sometimes from decency. If the Mumblecorps were to create an impact, it would not be loud enough to be noticed and they wouldn’t bother to re-inforce it. Perhaps it will reach its peak in the first part of the next decade or perhaps it has already reached it highest possible height. Maybe we will see the Mumblecorps getting the backing of major studio players, eventually making them abandon their roots for a more “conventional” direction of filmmaking or maybe not. Maybe they learned from the downfalls of the New Waves- Godard, Truffaut, Richardson, Reisz and Anderson have all abandoned their humble New Wave skins at the first chance to more comfortable means, will the Mumblecorps follow the same winding path? Not sure, we’ll have to just wait and see, after all, it is a revolution sans revolution.
