The Various Theoretical Approaches to Kate and Leopold

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The Various Theoretical Approaches to Kate and
Leopold

• Kimberly M. Radek,
• Humanities, Fine Arts, Social Sciences

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The Various Theoretical Approaches to Kate and
Leopold

• A young man discovers a time warp and goes back
  in time, meeting a duke who would/was to become a
  successful inventor. The duke follows the man
  back to modern day New York, where he falls in
  love with a successful career woman who follows
  him back to the past, apparently to live happily
  ever after.

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Auteur Theory
James Mangold, Director

• I.D. (2003)
• Kate Leopold (2001)
• Girl, Interrupted (1999)
• Cop Land (1997)
• Heavy (1995)

In his own words, on his style Most of what I
try and do is try and construct a story to tell
that comes from my life, but also find something
formal/ architectural, something structural, that
makes it interesting to me cinematically, that
makes it a different movie. It's not just some
fresh spicy dialogue and a neat story.
In his own words, on his heroes They have much
the same kind of tenderness and soulfulness . .
. and much of the same kind of struggle to climb
out of life's shadows and do something.
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Old Historicism

• Look at events in writers or directors life to
  see personal influences in the work.
• Draw parallels between Mangold and the films
  main character.
• Mangold is the son of artists, who went to film
  and art school, had a job at Disney at 21, but
  was let go for refusing to play the corporate
  politics game. After being unemployed, he went
  back to film school where he wrote and directed
  his first film, Heavy, which won him a best
  director award at the Sundance Film Festival.
• Leopold is a man who has a dream to pursue, as
  well, but reality (economics, class, etc.) appear
  to get in his way.

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Formalism

• The focus is on the work itself as a cinematic
  structure and it aims to discover the ways in
  which the work achieves (or fails to achieve)
  unity.
• No part of the work is (or should be)
  superfluous.
• Sees other contextscultural/sociological,
  biographical, historical informationas lacking
  importance or as secondary to the question of the
  films artistic quality.

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Structuralism

• There are two kinds, which are closely related
• One concentrates of the patterns formed by the
  cinematic elements in the work and examines these
  patterns to find ones which unify the text and
  throw certain elements into relief.
• The other sees the cinematic conventions and
  forms as constituting a system of codes that
  contribute to and convey meaning. The special
  interest here is on the organization and function
  of the elements, on how meaning is conveyed
  rather that what meaning is conveyed, on how the
  cinematic devices function rather than how they
  imitate an external reality. (This branch is
  closely related to semiotics.)

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Semiotics

• The study of systems of rules and conventions
  that enable social and cultural phenomena,
  considered as signs, to have meaning. In film,
  this means an analysis of the film (or films in a
  related group) at the shot/frame level.

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Modernism

• Modernism dominated the arts and culture of the
  first half of the twentieth century. It
  challenged the old standards concerning how art
  should be constructed and what art is, favoring
  different and opposing conventions, such as the
  dissolution of harmony and melody in music, and
  the rejection of traditional realism in favor of
  experimental forms in literature and film.
• Modernists view the break with tradition in favor
  of experimentation as mournful they see it as
  leaving behind a longed for (and better) past.

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Post-Modernism

• Postmodernism is an answer to Modernism, as it
  celebrates the freedom of new forms of
  expression.
• A discussion of Modernism and Postmodernism would
  not be complete without some attention to
  culture, specifically high and low or popular
  culture. In brief, whereas Modernists privilege
  'high' culture such as literature and classical
  art and music, Postmodernists refuse to put any
  art forms on a pedestal and revel in combining
  the everyday aspects of popular culture with what
  has been considered high art.

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Marxism

• Marxists see the base (material means of
  production, distribution, and exchange) as the
  driving force of society, and the superstructure
  (cultural world - ideas, art, religion, law) as
  being shaped by the base or as a reflection of
  events that take place within the base. This view
  of society is economic determinism.
• Based on this description of art as a influenced
  by the economic base of society, general Marxist
  literary criticism maintains that a writer's or a
  directors social class and the prevailing
  ideology (outlook, values) thereof have major
  bearing on what s/he writes.

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Deconstruction

• Deconstruction, or Deconstructionsim, grew out of
  philosophy and, consequently, is skeptical
  concerning the existence of absolute truth or
  reliable knowledge. It sees a certain anxiety in
  the reliance on language, and thus on shots and
  scenes, etc., as the path to knowledge.

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• Deconstructionists see meaning as fluid and
  emphasize the lack of attachment between the
  verbal sign and the idea or concept to which it
  is supposed to refer.
• This free play of meaning breaks down the concept
  of signifier/signified in that the relationship
  can be compromised when everything becomes a
  signifier (a sort of chain effect with no
  beginning or end) or when there are multiple
  elements on either side of the relationship.

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• The idea that words, and by extension shots,
  angles, etc., cannot be defined without viewing
  them in terms of their opposites also troubles
  deconstructionists because this relational way of
  acquiring meaning defies the possibility of
  pure or true meaning.
• In the same way that words are influenced by
  other words, they are also contaminated by their
  own histories. Since language does not take place
  within a vacuum , the very history or connotation
  of words influences how they are used in present
  day.

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• Deconstructionists, then, attempt to show how
  meaning breaks down in a text because of the
  text their goal is to deconstruct the text.
• A deconstruction of Kate Leopold might, then,
  look at what the text says love is (using
  scenes, shots, angles, and definitions from the
  film) and show that Kate and Leopold do not
  really love each other, based on the films
  determination of love or it might show via the
  several different plot lines that the film cannot
  be pinned down to any meaning at all.

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Sociological Criticism

• Focuses on the time/place context that produced
  the work to help explain the works meaning or
  relevance. It holds that the product, the film,
  cannot be understood without understanding the
  world that produced it.
• One might situate this film in the conservative
  movement that began in the1980s and picked up
  speed nationally amid the Clinton-Lewinsky
  scandal.

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New Historicism

• Combines Old Historicism, the Sociological
  Approach, and an understanding of the industry
  factors that control the production and
  dissemination of the film.

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Feminism

• Look at the roles men and women play to see
  whether they are equal or not.
• Are women rewarded for playing traditional roles?
• Are women punished for playing non-traditional
  roles?
• Are men conversely rewarded or punished?

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American Eclecticism

• The movie as being important and speaking to
  people through their American values.
• Approaching it through a specific rubric or
  perspective, like through a particular
  sociological concept.

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Overview of U.S. Values

• Fairy tales, romances, and chick flicks, have a
  great popularity and staying power, as can be
  explained when one analyzes the values they often
  communicate, perpetuate, and reinforce.
• Sociologists have identified several core values
  and beliefs that are communicated by, perpetuated
  through, and reinforced within our culture.
• James Henslin, Southern Illinois University
  Sociology Professor, identifies fifteen.

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Henslins U.S. Values
These values can be either explicit or implicit These values can be either explicit or implicit
Achievement and success Individualism
Activity and work Efficiency and practicality
Science and technology Progress
Material comfort Humanitarianism
Freedom Democracy
Equality Racism and group superiority
Education Religiosity
Romantic love
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The Values within Kate and Leopold
These values can be either explicit or implicit These values can be either explicit or implicit
Achievement and success Individualism
Activity and work Efficiency and practicality
Science and technology Progress
Material comfort Humanitarianism
Freedom Democracy
Equality Racism and group superiority
Education Religiosity
Romantic love
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Achievement and Success

• Achievement and success are defined, at least
  from the female point of view, as concerning love
  and companionship. That is stressed for the
  male, as well, but for men creating something,
  doing something work-related or
  reputation-related is also stressed.

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Individualism

• The female character is portrayed as not being
  like other women, while at the same time
  representing the modern woman to the man from
  the past. This uniqueness among women makes her
  successful at work but, apparently, not at love.

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Activity and Work

• Females do occupy positions in the workplace in
  the film but the heroines ultimate choice, after
  attaining success at work, is to leave it all
  behind for love. The subordinate secretary
  clearly values love over the work, too.
• The male character, apparently, never has to
  choose between work and the past.

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Efficiency and Practicality

• Even the duke from the past values this, as the
  broken toaster scene illustrates.

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Science and Technology

• That science is stressed is obvious, as it
  motivates the entire plot. It is science and
  math that allows the young man from the present
  to visit the past and start the events in action.
  

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Progress

• The idea of progress is challenged in the film,
  as corresponds to the conservative perspective it
  espouses. Life was better in the dukes time
  less caught up in time-wasting technologies, more
  caring, more honest, better educated, more
  devoted to individual happiness.

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Material Comfort

• Female character considers it important, as she
  judges her brother on his lack of success.
  Worrying about money is a value the duke is
  resistant to and resentful of, even though he
  shouldnt be as it is his livelihood at stake.

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Humanitarianism

• The duke is certainly presented as being
  concerned for the average person when he realizes
  that modern society is willing to lie about
  butter just to sell it to the masses. He does
  not feel comfortable lying to the masses in that
  way.

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Freedom

• Freedom of choice is clearly an issue in the
  film. The duke resents that he does not have the
  monetary freedom to choose a companion wife, and
  the heroine does have the freedom to choose
  between work and familyand perhaps will be able
  to continue to work in the past.

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Democracy

• Democracy is an implied value in the film, as the
  duke is feeling entrapped, to a degree, by his
  noble status and position. Hence, he has
  already re-located to America from England.

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Equality

• That equality, or at least honesty, is advocated
  in the film is evident at the way honesty in
  relationships is stressed through the film. The
  duke, too, shows he has not let class prejudice
  interfere with his actions when he informs the
  heroine that he once courted a librarian.

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Racism and Group Superiority

• There is still an example of class superiority as
  the duke, held up as the hero, is clearly of
  noble status. Further, he shows that his
  education and manners are better than his rival
  for the heroines affection.

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Education

• Education, in terms of academics, intelligence,
  and social skills like manners and treating women
  properly, are all used as positives in the film.

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Religiosity

• Love is portrayed as an almost spiritual
  experience in the film, especially in the moment
  the lovers are reunited. The jumping to and from
  the past as fated gives it a larger than real
  significance. Love for science on the mens part
  is clearly held up as more spiritual than the
  heroines love for her work.

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Romantic Love

• The whole plot hinges and depends on the
  supremacy of this value, of course, as do romance
  novels.