{"id":11834,"date":"2022-12-11T11:30:51","date_gmt":"2022-12-11T10:30:51","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.16-9.dk\/?p=11834"},"modified":"2022-12-11T11:30:53","modified_gmt":"2022-12-11T10:30:53","slug":"169-seconds-thelma-louise","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/www.16-9.dk\/3\/2022\/12\/169-seconds-thelma-louise\/","title":{"rendered":"169 Seconds: Improbable Dialogism or the Art of Flying"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<figure class=\"wp-block-embed is-type-video is-provider-vimeo wp-block-embed-vimeo\"><div class=\"wp-block-embed__wrapper\">\n<iframe loading=\"lazy\" title=\"Improbable Dialogisms or the Art of Flying\" src=\"https:\/\/player.vimeo.com\/video\/772888510?dnt=1&amp;app_id=122963\" width=\"696\" height=\"367\" frameborder=\"0\" allow=\"autoplay; fullscreen; picture-in-picture; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; web-share\" referrerpolicy=\"strict-origin-when-cross-origin\"><\/iframe>\n<\/div><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<p>The iconic ending of the film <em>Thelma and Louise<\/em> (directed by Ridley Scott, and scripted by Callie Khouri, 1991) has divided the critics across three decades. While some believe it is a powerful feminist statement, others have attacked it arguing that it suggests that the only option for women with agency is suicide, and Thelma and Louise\u2019s death is their ultimate punishment for their non-conformity.&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>This video essay deconstructs Scott and Khouri\u2019s controversial ending by putting <em>Thelma and Louise<\/em> into dialogue with two other unrelated films\u2014namely Vittorio De Sica\u2019s <em>Miracolo a Milano<\/em> (1951) and Spielberg\u2019s <em>E.T.<\/em> (1982). Like <em>Thelma and Louise<\/em>, <em>Miracolo a Milano<\/em> and <em>E.T.<\/em> include sequences of police overreaction and violence against vulnerable people (the homeless in Vittorio de Sica\u2019s film and the children in Spielberg\u2019s film), but with opposite outcomes\u2014their protagonists prevail.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>This \u201cimprobable\u201d intertextuality allows me to create an alternative imaginary of fantasy and freedom for the two protagonists. Rather than death as punishment, the two women\u2019s fall is turned into a flight. In this sense, following Helene Cixous, flying (\u201cvoler\u201d in French) becomes ultimately the subaltern\u2019s gesture of defiance. Furthermore, by suspending and defamiliarizing the default classification of its implied (i.e. straight) viewers, the deformation highlights the lesbian undertones of Scott and Khouri\u2019s film.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<blockquote class=\"wp-block-quote is-layout-flow wp-block-quote-is-layout-flow\">\n<p class=\"has-text-align-center\"><strong>* * *<\/strong><\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n\n\n\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\">Facts<\/h2>\n\n\n\n<h3 class=\"wp-block-heading\">Works cited (according to fair use policies)<\/h3>\n\n\n\n<ul>\n<li><em>Thelma and Louise<\/em> (1991), directed by Ridley Scott, scripted by Callie Khouri.<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li><em>Miracolo a Milano<\/em> (1951), directed by Vittorio de Sica.<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li><em>E.T.<\/em> (1983), directed by Steven Spielberg.<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>H\u00e9l\u00e8ne Cixous (1975), <em>Le Rire de la M\u00e9duse<\/em>, Paris: \u00c9ditions Galil\u00e9e.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>169 SECONDS. This installment of 169 Seconds by Barbara Zecchi deconstructs the controversial ending of Scott and Khouri&rsquo;s <em>Thelma and Louise<\/em> by putting it into an improbable intertextual dialogue with two other unrelated films&mdash;namely Vittorio De Sica&rsquo;s <em>Miracolo a Milano<\/em> (1951) and Steven Spielberg&rsquo;s <em>E.T.<\/em> (1982).<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":102,"featured_media":11836,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[227],"tags":[409],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.16-9.dk\/3\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11834"}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.16-9.dk\/3\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.16-9.dk\/3\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.16-9.dk\/3\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/102"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.16-9.dk\/3\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=11834"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"http:\/\/www.16-9.dk\/3\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11834\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.16-9.dk\/3\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/11836"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.16-9.dk\/3\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=11834"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.16-9.dk\/3\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=11834"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.16-9.dk\/3\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=11834"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}