 plumbing the 1 i have
this dream
"This is where you're going to begin to know what the human race is all about. We're going to start by showing you the toilet and it's only going to get worse." Psycho screenwriter |
a flush of guilt ok, so back to my dream: I remember being shocked to discover Francis Ford Coppola's interpretation of it in "The Conversation'' ('74); not only did I think these images were locked deep in my psyche, but it had never occurred to me that they could be pulled out of the darkness and projected on a screen. (But then, I used to think that cameras simply would not photograph certain ultra-forbidden things, such as poop and genitalia.) Surveillance expert Harry Caul (Gene Hackman) is what you might call anal. He uses the technological tools of his trade (cameras, lenses, microphones, tape recorders) to muck around in other people's dirty laundry, but the devices are also buffers that keep him at a safe physical and emotional distance from other people.
caul sneaks into a sparkling clean motel bathroom to scour the scene for residue of a murder. When he enters room 773 of a characterless motel, he knows deep down that he has been partially responsible for a killing he's witnessed there -- even though all he perceived were a few indistinct angry voices, some muffled sounds of struggle, and a splash of scarlet on glass (similar to the one later seen on the bathroom window during the infamous chainsaw murder in Brian DePalma's "Scarface" -- a chilling distancing device that magnifies the impact of violence offscreen with a few bold visual strokes). Caul inspects the bathtub faucet and drain, looking for indications that someone has attempted to wash this crime away. Then he lifts the seat of the toilet, which has that familiar paper band around it: "Sanitized For Your Protection.'' Exactly.
but when caul flushes the toilet, the paper-thin, sanitized technological and psychological membrane that has been protecting him, separating his work from its consequences, bursts wide open: the bowl fills with blood and scarlet billows spread onto the white tile floor. The screen goes black, as if passing out from the psychic shock of the image. Here's a stunning reversal of the familiar scenario from countless movie thrillers, where the guilty party in a murder enters the privacy of the water chamber to wash away the evidence (usually that telltale bright red blood) of his crime. Or, in another variation, the innocent (or partially innocent) man who tries to flush away the circumstantial evidence that might cause others to suspect him. After witnessing the terrible knowledge that this backup in blood represents, Harry Caul will never quite be the same. |
plumbing 2 
|
