Welcome to The Queue — your daily distraction of curated video content sourced from across the web. Today, we’re watching a video essay about how the Wachowski sisters’ debut film, ‘Bound,’ subverts the genre conventions of film noir.
Auteur cinema has its sins, I’ll admit. Many a megalomaniac has arrogantly traipsed into the jungle armed with a film crew and an ego the size of Greenland to risk real human lives for the sake of art. But one of the boons of following a director’s career is watching their inaugural attempt at movie-making. Reservoir Dogs feels like a concise thesis of everything Quentin Tarantino would go on to do. Spike Lee’s She’s Gotta Have It was a veritable door-kick. And it’s unbelievable that Sidney Lumet’s first crack at a feature film was 12 Angry Men.
So when I first learned that The Wachowskis‘ directorial debut was a subversive, queer noir thriller, my jaw dropped to the floor like a cartoon wolf. And it stars Jennifer Tilly, Gina Gershon, and Joe Pantoliano? Holy crap!
After penning 1995’s Assassins (which was, supposedly, a mixed experience), the sisters chose to make their foray into feature filmmaking by doing something no one had done before. Namely: a film noir from the perspective of the femme fatale. In a move that would prove a telling, they chose to work from within a well-known genre, while at the same time making it wholly theirs. Film noir is a genre that mutates quite readily; its conventions are clear and transferrable. And more to the point: it is a ready and willing space for a good twist.
So, with all this in mind, let’s dive in. Here’s how The Wachowskis announced their presence by breaking all the rules.
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Who made this?
This video essay comes courtesy of Now You See It. They are a YouTube channel dedicated to film analysis searching for meaning in unexpected places. You can follow Now You See It on YouTube and check out their back catalog here. Now You See It is run by Virginia-based software engineer Jack Nugent, who you can follow on Twitter here.
More Videos Like This
- Here’s another taste of Now You See It’s work: a video essay on the terror of cinematic basements.
- And here’s another: a breakdown of the delicate art of the cinematic courtroom scene.
- And one more: on the uniquely cinematic ways movies break the fourth wall.
- For a greater understanding of film noir, here’s a video on why Double Indemnity exemplifies the genre.
- But, as Bound proves, film noir has many permutations, subversions, and subgenres. Here is Lessons From the Screenplay with a look at what makes Blade Runner a future-noir.
Related Topics: The Queue, The Wachowskis
