It is very difficult to make modern entries in the camp cinema canon. This is partly because many of the films now considered cornerstones of camp cinema were never meant to fit that definition. As paradoxical as it may sound, these artists’ forgetting that they fit into the Camp mold, not to mention the confidence in their creative vision, gives their work a particular air of mannerism. Diligently trying to replicate the “lightning in a bottle” creativity that filled the work Douglas Sirk, for example, will only lead to a pale shadow of the past. But there are exceptions to every rule Pearlnew entry in Ti Westhorror series that began with Xmanages to be a stunning contemporary ode to the wonders and fundamentals of camp cinema.
It doesn’t mean that Pearl eschews the horror elements of its predecessor, X. There are a lot of slow tense sequences in this feature, a screamer abounds during execution, and our main character, Pearl (Mia Goth), eventually finds very rude ways to deal with the people around her. Such gruesome deaths culminate when Pearl slaughters her sister-in-law and feeds her to an alligator that lives in the swamp behind her family’s farm. But even with all the visual violence and unnerving moments, Pearl is still seen as a love nod to a vintage camp movie as it functions as a simple horror movie.
The camp influences Pearl only apparent from the film’s color scheme. Although the action takes place in 1918, PearlIts appearance is strongly reminiscent of the classic Technicolor extravaganzas of the 1950s. In that era, films used color in every possible way. It didn’t matter if certain hues didn’t match their colors in the real world, the goal was to offer a visual spectacle that people couldn’t get on their black and white TVs. The result is a range of features such as All that heaven allowswho engaged in pompous color choices that defined the extravagant qualities associated with camp art.
Pearl is fully committed to capturing this visual influence, especially when Pearl leaves her dreary farm for the city. Here, even the alleys are painted in juicy colors, and rain pipes come off the screen, draped in a bright pink hue. Production design Pearl shines, and the same can be said for the costumes, namely the crimson dress that Pearl wears throughout most of the third act. The sumptuous quality of these colors, throwing a sense of realism to the wind, makes Pearl according to author Susan Sontag’s iconic definition of camp: “love of the unnatural: art and exaggeration.”
This attachment to “exaggerations” is also evident throughout Pearl, especially when its protagonist decides to throw caution to the wind and openly embrace his dark side. She doesn’t just push the corpse into a crocodile-infested swamp; she emphasizes the act by calling out a farewell in French to accompany this demise. Meanwhile, a tense mother-daughter confrontation is full of brief phrases that may never come out of the mouth of real people, but certainly seem appropriate in the world. Pearl. This list goes on and on, even if limited to script elements, characters in Pearl choosing wildly exaggerated movements and dialogue. Their behavior simply exudes the very foundations of the camp.
The inextricable link between the queer community and camp entertainment has also led to a very specific recurring element in the latter area: the absurd portrayal of heterosexual relationships. Straight people and the love that consumes them tend to have a hard time at camp entertainment with productions such as dancers often depicting heterosexual intimacy in an overtly comical manner. This is just another way that camp entertainment subverts and distorts the norms of mainstream art. So often, intimacy between men is ridiculed, or kissing between women is only acknowledged for the pleasure of cis-male viewers. Camp thus often goes in the opposite direction, exposing heterosexual attraction and turning it into a ridiculous spectacle.
So with Pearl and one of his most memorable sequences, in which Pearl’s attempt to find a torn strip of film from a movie booth leads her to a scarecrow in an abandoned cornfield. At first just dancing with this effigy, Pearl soon has sexual intercourse with him, writhing on his body and moaning with pleasure. It’s an extravagant, darkly comic scene showing how Pearl is sexually repressed and how she copes with difficult feelings of attraction to a new man while her husband is abroad. But it’s also a ludicrous portrayal of the heterosexual intimacy that camp movies always embrace. Even the less overtly comical depictions of Pearl’s relationship with a male projectionist are just preparation for dark climaxes that this lady’s romantic entanglements will never work. Heterosexual attraction is as much ridiculed as intimacy of the opposite sex in subversive mannerisms. Pearl.
Perhaps most noticeable Pearl also focused on the female protagonist rather than any female female protagonist. This is a film about a sleazy woman, such a shamelessly flawed figure around whom the camp cinema loves to rally. Once again, we see how camp filmmaking is based on a violation of the norms of traditional cinema, as the norms of mainstream films suggest that women must be prim and decent even to appear in feature films, let alone be the main characters. Pearl is not like that at all, because she dances around the farmyard, her whole face covered in blood, and she sobs indiscriminately as soon as she finally has an ear to turn to. She is a recognizably human creation, while unsettling, but also unusual for mainstream cinema. She is, in fact, the typical protagonist of a camp movie.
Pearl’s plight is linked to the world of camp filmmaking even through her desire to leave her parents’ farm world. The camp cinema has become strongly associated with terms such as “personal liberation”, a concept that is in many ways in keeping with Pearl’s core desires. Even her eventual killings are a twisted version of this concept, as she gets rid of people who restrict her ordinary existence or could jeopardize her path to glory. Liberation can take many forms in cinematic narratives, and in the case of Pearl, is a twisted display meant to unnerve the audience. It’s also something that, as brutal as it is, feels right at home with the themes and dark sense of humor that often inhabit camp movie classics.
Even the big dance retreat in PearlThe third act, which combines light dance choreography with a backdrop of No Man’s Land, seems like the film offers even clearer evidence of its camp cinema’s good faith. To be mannered, you must show a desire to be outlandish, break away from the norm, and love what others might find disgusting. In many ways, including how it undermines expectations of what viewers can expect from X prequel be, Pearl fully meets the requirements of the camp cinema.
Source: Collider
