Air Pollution in Cinema

ENV3C63

In our discussion of the perception of air pollution we have looked at verbal description with in literature and visual representation. Paintings and other flat art, contain lots of visions of air pollution, and many writers have commented on this. Film, by contrast is rarely discussed in this way. This is particularly surprising given the association of the flim industry with Hollywood and Los Angeles, the birthplace of photochemical smog. We would have a further expectation to find material in film given the fascination of the medium for detective thrillers, which are typically rich in images of polluted environments because crime is easily associated with:

urban areas
poorer places within towns
low visibility conceals evil deeds (as in Sherlock Holmes)
air pollution is sometimes related to evil in literature ("cleanliness is next to godliness")
incidence of crime may be related to air pollution eg:
- Pollution is linked to violent crime [Anon] BIOCYCLE 38: (7) 6-6 JUL 1997
- Pollution may lead to a life of crime Motluk U NEW SCIENTIST 154: (2084) 4-4 MAY 31 1997 )
hysteria

Obviously there are difficulties in showing all the films in class and I know I tend to mention them at odd times whenever it seems relevant, so I provide the checklist below:

Who Framed Roger Rabbit (1988)

Philip Marlowe type detective story, but linked with cartoon characters.
Air Pollution relevance: the sinister descruction of LA's public transport system. This decline is also mentioned in Chandler's novels as reflected in his detective Philip Marlowe's repeated descriptions of abandoned tracks.

The Big Sleep (1946)

Moody Philip Marlow detective story from Raymond Chandler. It is the architypical LA detective story
Air Pollution relevance: not much although one might note the air pollution book The Big Smoke has an oddly simlar title. Is this also a detective story?

Mildred Pierce (1945)

Dowdy housewife splits with her husand and makes a success of things
Air Pollution relevance: not sure, I love the film... it is just something about the closing vista of LA as she leaves exit through an arch into the morning sun - is it, is it not polluted?.

Falling Down

Air pollution and traffic jams drives an unemployed defense worker beserk. A sort of Don Quiote character on a crazed quest for breakfast and his child's birthday present. air pollution as a trigger for illness/crime?
Air Pollution relevance: Some fine images of polluted city scenes and a wonderful poster.

Safe (1995)

The heroine becomes allergic to everything she enjoys: clothes, food, sex, friends
Air Pollution relevance: Environmental horror story in which the killer lurks in the air we breathe.

Blade Runner

Chandleresque detective visits LA in 2019AD and kills many baddies.
Air Pollution relevance: everywhere is polluted from the openning vistas onwards. It is so dark, mostly it seems like night. Whenever you seen the sun it cuts through orange pollution. Even the interiors seem full of smog. Environmental decay is everywhere. I always think this is a very appropriate film to sum up all the issues of air pollution in LA film noir. Note the design in which furniture (chairs in Deckard's apartment designed by the famous Scottish artist Charles Rennie Mackintosh), buildings, clothes, and hairstyles, all date this film to the 1940's when Philip Marlowe roamed the streets of LA, that was experiencing its first smogs.

You might also think about the social issues in relation to poverty and wealth in relation to air pollution. Note that the villian lives at the top of a pyramid shaped building.

Lots written about the movie if you have a particular enthusiasm you might read:

Bukatman, S Blade Runner, BFI Modern Classics, London (1997), which relates the film in points to Metropolis (1926). Some important quotations from this book :

Ridley Scott " ...is a film set forty years hence, made in a style forty years ago"
"Clothing and hairstyles were also borrowed from ealier styles.... Rachel is most evidently '40s', resembling an upscale Mildred Pierce
"Blade Runner and related works owe much to the alienated spaces of Raymond Chandler... "
"New dimensions lies between the dimensions of traditional mathematics.... Blade Runner reveals the city to be a complex, self-similar space, a fractal environment, but the fractal camera tracks through endless levels of scale." ie street vendors do electron microscopy - city scale images.

Sammon, P.M. The Making of Blade Runner, Orion Media, London (1996).

"This hellish environment is dotted by dozens of fireball-belching cracking towers cocooned in a thick petrochemical haze. Strange futuristic vehicles zip by in the polluted sky overhead "

LA Confidential (199)

Incompatible police detectives ultimately join forces to get the bad cops.
Air Pollution relevance: Set in the '50s: mostly night shots, but days are hazy and polluted (great vista of the tall courthouse building(?) in smog), except the Mildred Pierce style ending. Interesting poster...

The Lodger: A Story of the London Fog

This was Alfred Hitchcock's first film and historically very interesting within cinema history. Screen play for The Lodger was written by Eliot Stannard from a popular novel by Marie Belloc which derived from a conversation she overheard about Jack the Ripper. It may be the reason why Jack the Ripper is now associated with the London fog, even though he tended to operate on summer nights.

Godzilla Vs. The Smog Monster

For the true enthusiasts of japanese monster movies....
Air Pollution relevance: I have not seen it, but the reviews sound interesting. I guess it is not set in LA, although the book Sunsmoke by J.Killus mentions Godzilla and the smog monster.

and a student has recently written..., " recently went to cinema city where they were showing Canadian films. one of the movies featured was called "waydowntown". it was about this group of people who make a bet on who can stay the longest in a complex of buildings without going outside. it was a perfect example of indoor air pollution and i immediately thought back to the lectures you gave us on it. i thought you might be interested in it. the movie managed to put across how horrible the air was inside the buildings because of the airconditioners and lack of fresh air, and that the effect of that air to peoples behaviour. if you do have the chance to see it, please spare some time to watch it.

Erifili "