Inara's spongebath scene

POSTED BY: Sleeter
UPDATED: Tuesday, February 26, 2008 18:14
VIEWED: 8259
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WORLDOFHIGLET

Tuesday, February 26, 2008 12:53 AM

Yes, there are those, but what I meant was the DVD set was actually flawed - it froze, jumped and then didn't play at all so I got another set.......:)

You are beholden to no man
http://worldofhiglet.blogspot.com/

QUIETUDE

Tuesday, February 26, 2008 3:18 AM

Definitely on purpose as I have watched the show on TV and the effect happens there as well.

WORLDOFHIGLET

Tuesday, February 26, 2008 3:34 AM

Erm, I know that bit of it is done on purpose now, but the DVD set I had to begin with had jumps/freezing and then missing menus - it was actually a bad DVD nd it happened in many places were it wasn't supposed to. Sorry, this sounds like I'm being a right pain. It was a throw away comment because, in my case, the dvd boxset had errors on every dvd so HMV replaced the set.

So, how am I doing with my first posts then? Wuz sort of hoping to post discretly and build up to the more exciting areas later on.....

:)

You are beholden to no man
http://worldofhiglet.blogspot.com/

OUT2THEBLACK

Tuesday, February 26, 2008 6:01 AM

Quote:
Originally posted by worldofhiglet:

...Sorry, this sounds like I'm being a right pain. It was a throw away comment because, in my case, the dvd boxset had errors on every dvd so HMV replaced the set.

So, how am I doing with my first posts then? Wuz sort of hoping to post discretly and build up to the more exciting areas later on.....

:)
You are beholden to no man
http://worldofhiglet.blogspot.com/

You're doing fine , and you're among friends...

Welcome aboard...Make yourself to home...

Thanks for the 'wave' !

WYTCHCROFT

Tuesday, February 26, 2008 10:57 AM

hi Sleeter,
sorry to be slow in replying - the site crashed on me when i tried to post yesterday - grr argh!

Well now – talk about a difficult scene to critique!

My opinion of the sponge bath sequence changes every time I watch!

I don’t believe for a moment that Joss just stuck it in arbitrarily to titillate – sorry, that’s just not him.
However, if you are studying theories of the male gaze (and be warned, some theorists – cough – laura mulvey – cough – have changed their minds about a lot of things more recently) then the possibility must be entertained that the scene works in that regard anyway – or at least in the sense of objectification.
Such may be the case with any such scene anywhere, in other words it has been suggested that whatever the conscious aesthetic idea - the camera lense always attempts to replicate the male gaze, seeking acquisition and dissection of the female form.
Therefore, you could argue that to film and include such a scene was just a bad judgement call on Whedon’s part.

Of course such a view renders almost any attempt at expressing the female form in a visual way suspect and the history of art becomes a battleground. Some very great and often controversial artworks seem to recognise this – Monet’s painting ‘Olympia’ is probably the prime example, where the gaze of the prostitute* is turned against the viewer** and she fights back – and gets labelled ‘brazen’ in typical male reviewer parlance. (Speaking personally though – such a view can be used for the blanket bashing of so much art that it becomes almost fascist – am I gonna go burn Modigliani? I think not! But does this mean that all ideas of the male gaze are nonsense? No, it doesn’t.). Another example would be the photography of Cindy Sherman.

It may be helpful to look at the scene in two separate ways –
1. What is Whedon’s rationale behind its inclusion and is there relevance to the narrative of the pilot episode and the show as a whole?
2. Does the scene work on a technical level to achieve the aims of the rationale – or does the shooting and editing and performance negate the purpose?

Ok, (come in) number one: It is worth noting that Inara is not the only character to appear naked. River Tam and Malcolm Reynolds are also seen naked – as are guest characters such as Nandi and Saffron. Is there a unifying purpose to the use of nakedness?
I would argue YES. Nakedness is used to reveal the nature of those characters in a very real way.
River is first glimpsed in a box curled naked in a foetal position. She is obviously very vulnerable. She is deeply asleep in a manner the audience can identify quickly as ‘innocent’. Her appearance in a box – is almost like a magic trick – indicating something of the fairytale about her (and her brother – later backed up by the flashbacks in Safe and in the un-filmed episode) – she appears literally in a puff of smoke (well, ok, Cryo-steam). This places her as important to the show.
Having given the audience these ‘clues’, Joss is now free to undermine audience expectations – climaxing in the maidenhead scene in Serenity the film. By the time we have watched the whole of Firefly and the movie – while we are in no doubt of the damage inflicted on her by the men at the ‘academy’ - the simple idea that River is weak or defenceless or vulnerable has transformed into a complex investigation into what MAKES somebody vulnerable – on what level is River weak? There is a current thread on this site discussing just what IF ANY are the limits of River’s powers - both psychic and physical?
The discovery of River is also used to tell us much about Mal but his famous ‘Huh’ also serves to deflate any notion of the erotic in the scene. The audience is being told ‘Mal is the hero – and Mal doesn’t see anything sexy here OK!’
And yet… she IS naked – and the image is now well known – and can be easily found on the net – and has been used by thread posters here to argue that River is NOT a child and can be viewed sexually.

River’s sexuality is a heatedly argued topic – my view (for

ASARIAN

Tuesday, February 26, 2008 12:57 PM

Quote:
Originally posted by wytchcroft:

River’s sexuality is a heatedly argued topic -- my view (for what it’s worth) is that in Firefly she is supposed to be viewed as a young girl (effectively a child) ...

In Objects in Space, River's sexuality is briefly, and ever-so gently, explored in a subtle and classy manner. She 'feels with' Zoe and Wash in their romantic moment, holding her own arm, experiencing the tactile aspect of things, as it were. The latter we see return a bit later, in reverse, in the "no touching" scene. Which is actually quite a brilliant acting moment, as Summer has River look in such a way that the viewer understands that she herself realizes the sexual undertones in Mal's "no touching" remark. Or rather, I should say, she herself makes that connection to Mal's words (Mal himself didn't mean it ambiguously). I'd always like to think the "no touching" thingy was Joss' way of building in a stop-sign, telling fic-writers that River's sexuality is off-limits. :) Nah, not really, of course, lol; but I think he WAS telling us that River, in that area, is absolutely innocent still (like Simon's vehement denial when Early asks him whether perchance she grapple with any of the crew).

Now, to get back on-topic, I think the 'stills' in the sponge bath scenes are definitely artsy. Haven't gone to film school my own self, but on me they have the effect of making things timeless, of almost literally capturing the moment, like taking lasting snapshots.

In the 'hour-glass' scene, where we see Inara with rich young man with stamina, there's another small 'disruption' of the scenic flow when Inara rolls her eyes for a brief moment while the young fellow is talking. Now, I'm not a 100% certain, but I've always believed that this does not actually happen, but is more like a visualization of Inara's thoughts at the moment. So, seems to me Joss was just overall being artsy with Inara's profession; and maybe simply to underline the stylefulness of 'companion' (the noun, not the verb), as opposed to being the other thing.

--
"Mei-mei, everything I have is right here." -- Simon Tam

SLEETER

Tuesday, February 26, 2008 5:00 PM

That was amazingly detailed and made me think a lot. Thank you for that Wytchcroft!

I am actually doing a very free and open piece of coursework. I got to choose my subject and my own question. The choice was easy since I love Firefly so much.

Thanks to everyone who has commented so far!

STORYMARK

Tuesday, February 26, 2008 6:14 PM

Quote:
Originally posted by worldofhiglet:
Yes, there are those, but what I meant was the DVD set was actually flawed - it froze, jumped and then didn't play at all so I got another set.......:)

I was responding to the initial post.

"I thoroughly disapprove of duels. If a man should challenge me, I would take him kindly and forgivingly by the hand and lead him to a quiet place and kill him."

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