This paper will present a queer reading of a movie-musical NINE which comes from an openly gay Academy Award winning director Rob Marshall. He uses a broad range of cinematic tools while editing separate shots of individual music performances to present a story of Guido Contini’s creative and personal struggle. I propose that Guido’s persona is queered, but closeted due to a gender performance which is forced upon him from early childhood. Extracts from David Gauntlett’s book Gender and Identity will support this argument alongside selected lyrics from the film. The second half of the analysis will focus on Marshall’s use of cinematic techniques and his directorial attempt to prevent the possibility of applying queer theory to NINE’s reading. But I shall begin by introducing some of the problems associated with queer interpretation of this particular film.
Using queer theory on Rob Marshall's NINE (2009) is challenging from a start. To begin with, the movie sees its origins in a well-known Broadway musical of the same name and secondly, its storyline draws parallels between main character Guido Contini and one of the most influential filmmakers of the 20th century - Federico Fellini (who is also known as a real ladies man). In other words, NINE has a strong history behind it which leaves very little space for alternative reading of the film's text. Secondly, the term ‘queer’ itself has to be liberated from its common use of describing the “abnormal” when talking about gay/lesbian part of the society and linked to theory of fluid gender possibilities. As Aylish Wood points out:
Considerations of histories, contexts and consumptions are vital to our understandings of queer cinema, the queer audience(s), and what we imagine queer-infected film studies might be able to do; [...] ‘Queer’ seems to be understood as pertaining to sexualities and genders, and often, though not exclusively, to the pleasurable perversions of normative representations of these categories (Wood, in Screen, 1998:408)
However, queer reading is, indeed, possible even behind all the relationship drama surrounding the main protagonist and his often semi-dressed women. Therefore, I believe, it is necessary to abandon any previous knowledge of Contini's heterosexual love life and instead focus on what is expected of him as a man in a social order. Likewise, the queer theory requires a new way of seeing the subject of representation through the encoded meaning that appears in front of the often unaware spectator while challenging the traditional views on gender and sexuality.
In the opening sequence, we meet Guido emerging from behind cameras and microphones at a press conference. His appearance instantly gives away his gender - male - and we expect his further actions to play up to this social role. In Media, Gender and Identity author David Gauntlett presents an interesting opinion on gender when he calls it a performance - and nothing more. He argues that gender cannot be used to distinguish who anyone is since it can only show what one does at particular times (Gauntlett, 2002:139). Consequently, Guido is showing that he is a determined performer of his role as a man throughout the film, given that it is also the only role he has been taught to know during his upbringing in a prevailing female crowd. Guido’s early memory of expectations laid on him is brought on screen by prostitute Saraghina and her performance of the film’s song “Be Italian”:
“If you want to make a woman happy,
You rely on what you’re born with, because it is in your blood.
Be Italian,
Be Italian,
Take a chance and try to steal a fiery kiss.”
It reluctantly suggests that man’s sexuality is fixed due to his gender and Italian nationality, but presents perplexity for young Guido and his search for identity while generating possibility of a queer reading. Gauntlett quotes Judith Butler to explain that:
There is no gender identity behind the expressions of gender;...identity is performatively constituted by the very "expressions" that are said to be its results (Butler, in Gauntlett 2002:139).
Identity needs to be a part of fluid gender and not depend on sexual characteristics alone, presenting a challenge not only for Guido, but also for viewers of the film who have to acknowledge unconventional identity politics.
Nevertheless, there are other signs to suggest that Guido’s heterosexual performance might be in danger. Guido Contini is portrayed as a heavy smoker – almost every scene captures the main character embracing his signature look with a cigarette in hand. In chapter “Gender and Film” Jill Nelmes refers to Freud’s theories when talking about patriarchal society and phallocentrism on screen. She points out that phallus is a symbol of power, of having (Nelmes, 2007:229) and therefore cigarette could be seen as Guido’s phallistic tool to maintain his male supremacy, as well as his way of showing who is in control.
In fact, it gives Guido’s presence a very masculine edge for the most part of film’s running time, yet his male performance is in danger again when he seeks advice from costume designer and closest on-screen friend Liliane La Fleur. There are two scenes when Guido is seen lying on Lillian’s working desk – legs crossed as in protection, eyes shut or covered in sunglasses, and puffing a cigarette. Meanwhile Lillian’s character comes into view as the dominant one denying Guido’s phallistic presence. This proves that all gender performances depend on other actors in the society – may it be theatre, film or real-life social crowd, and gender is a rather fluid part of it.
In NINE, world famous film director Guido Contini drives the narrative forward, trying to end his personal and creative misery, while attempting to balance numerous women in his life. He is cheating on his loving wife Luisa with a married mistress Carla and everyone, including Luisa herself, knows that. Yet, the representation of Guido’s actions suggests that women do not provide him with pleasures which tradition-favouring society expects. Firstly, it is Guido’s non-verbal communication with women in form of a body language that initiates some gender trouble. Guido is seen kissing his long-time muse Claudia Nardi twice – both shots being taken from the same angle against a darkened background with Guido’s eyes closed (as if to emphasize on the lack of sexual tension between the two). The montage of shots itself suggests that Guido might have something more vital to hide besides his inability to provide the film-crew with a script. Is the famed ladies man only heterosexual on the surface? Is his sexuality going beyond the traditional Italian/Western society’s perceptions associated with his male role?
Notably, Harry M. Benshoff introduced four possible and overlapping constructions of queer male identity in relation to the functioning of social and psychological closets. According to those, Guido can be seen as an individual who is both unconsciously queer and, as a result of that, socially closeted as well (Benshoff, 2004:174). In other words, there is an unacknowledged same-sex desire in Guido which is repressed by society’s demands to maintain his straight persona and play the role of a true Italian. He is, after all, placed in the centre of erotic circuit where women adore him, where they wear provocative outfits and promise, like mistress Carla in one of the scenes, to wait for him with her legs open. Nonetheless, NINE is a musical which has an ability to use its numbers to reveal more meaning through its musical performances and to make the implied connections more explicit for spectators. While it becomes clear that spectators’ views are blurred into thinking that the attention should be maintained on Guido’s search for inspiration – we see him singing the lyrics of “Guido’s Song”:
One limitation I dearly regret –
There’s only one of me I’ve ever met [...].
I would like to have another me to travel along with myself,
I would even like to be able to sing a duet with myself.
The song resembles his search for identity and, more importantly, a partner to share this journey with. It is noteworthy that ‘another me’ for Guido would mean another man keeping in mind that it is who he is (while nothing suggests that it could be a female partner). In the meantime Guido’s women use individual performances to drive film’s narrative away from his queered persona: Luisa Contini delivers an emotional “My Husband Makes Movies” about her man who rarely comes to bed while Carla is seductive in “A Call from Vatican”. Both musical numbers are drawing attention to unreturned love for the leading man who, on the other hand, seems to care only about himself and expectations laid on him.
It is thus becoming
even more apparent that Guido’s straightness is subverted. All the fetishised displays of female form make little impact on the male lead that is forced to continue earlier talked about gender performance. Moreover, he is never given a chance to come out of the closet within NINE’s narrative. Surely, there are scenes where Guido is surrounded by men, but it is mainly his film crew who do not get direct interaction, close-ups and screen time with him. As spectators we are only allowed to witness one friendly kiss and a handshake between Guido and his PR man Dante, but camera quickly zooms on the next action without allowing us to even notice a spark, if such is present. Significantly, the layout of NINE as a musical is rather unusual – characters are never brought on screen together to support the storyline with a duet, nor do they appear in dialogues or share any scenes. Marshall’s earlier work Chicago (2002) contains countless queer scenes between its female characters and therefore, I believe, the separation of shots in NINE is clearly intended to avoid such reading. The group of film’s characters is gathered on stage in NINE’s opening and final sequences only to acknowledge the element of entertainment it contains and link it to musical’s theatrical origins – where actors would bow for audiences at the end of their performance. All in all, as a gay director Marshall knows where the signs of queerness might become evident to the mainstream audiences and tries to avoid them. His intent is to portray Guido as an indisputable heterosexual, but it is also possible that movie was meant to pose an opportunity of queer identity all along. According to Harry Benshoff, there exists a significant and troubling gap between a film’s queer intent and the mainstream reading of it.
It must be remembered, however, that reading queerly often involves reading against the grain, not just against the grain of the text but, more aptly for our times, against the grain of one’s own preferences. (Benshoff, 2004:197).
And while the mainstream audiences see Guido’s inspirational struggle, he is actually looking for identity which he’s comfortable with socially and sexually.
Overall, it must be noted that queer theory poses no threat to culture industries even if its reception in society is still a bit sceptical. Quite the opposite – it could be incorporated into its numerous disciplines – from education to entertainment – and help understand them better. In fact, queer theory is involved in the production of culture already due to numerous debates surrounding homosexual culture, gay/lesbian lifestyle and their impact on the society in general. Seeing queered personalities on screen might help to remove homophobic stereotypes linked to the harmless word ‘queer’ and prove that gender can (and should) be seen as a performance within ever changing identities. NINE proves that there is more queered material directed at the audiences than seen at first glance and keeping it visible or rather hidden is in the hands of the film’s director. Either way, queer theory is there to help us think what has not yet been thought not only regarding performances on screen, but also our own social lives.
BIBLIOGRAPHY:
* Benshoff, H. M. (2004) “Reception of a Queer Mainstream Film”. Aaron, M. (ed.) New Queer Cinema: A Critical Reader. Edinburgh: Edinburgh University Press
* Gauntlett, D. (2002) “Queer Theory and Fluid Identities” in Media, Gender and Identity: An Introduction. Routledge: Oxfordshire
* Nelmes, J. (2007) “Gender and Film”. Nelmes, J. (ed) Introduction To Film Studies. Oxon: Routledge
* Wood, A. 1998, ‘Deviant Imaging: Lesbian/Gay/Queer – Film, University of Warwick, 23 May 1998’, Screen 39, downloaded from screen.oxfordjournals.org on January 4, 2011
FILMOGRAPHY:
* Chicago (Marshall, 2002, United States/Germany)
* NINE (Marshall, 2009, United States/Italy)
