Casual Incest in ‘The Color Wheel’
I saw The Color Wheel, for the first-time, years ago. It stayed with me. It was during a time which was formative for me in regards to cinema literacy. It was a period when I was just starting to look at cinema from a different lens than I had before. I was trying to watch different kinds of films and trying to understand them in different kinds of ways from the one that I knew and read about.
The 21st century American independent films had a major role to play in this period of discovery for me. They were one of the first films that I looked at when I felt the need to go beyond what I was already watching and what was accessible to me. And subsequently, these were the films, that upon watching, ignited a fire in me to explore even beyond. Some of these American indies were loosely categorized as “mumblecores”. The Color Wheel was one of them.
When I saw it for the first time, I remember being enamored by the style of the film. I felt like I was watching something that I had not seen until that point. There was a sort of casualness, which sometimes even seemed like carelessness, in the approach to its filmmaking. I also remember being very impressed with the use of sound in the film, which is interesting because, I don’t think I was at a point yet to completely understand what sort of a role sound played in the effectiveness of a film. But with The Color Wheel, I did. I particularly remember being very intrigued by a specific use of dubbed dialogue in a scene by a busy city street.
Anyway, years passed and my love and appreciation for cinema grew deeper. By this time, I had started aspiring to be a filmmaker, and as part of the manifestation of that aspiration, I had even made a mumblecore feature of my own. However, during all this time, I never went back to re-watch The Color Wheel. And despite that, I always felt a deep connection with it. I didn’t remember much of the film, but it had somehow stuck with me regardless; even more than the other mumblecores. The Color Wheel somehow felt different from them, maybe because it was rehearsed and not improvised and maybe because it was shot on film and not camcorders. Either way, it stuck and I became an Alex Ross Perry fan.
It was only recently when I was watching an interview of ARP, that I was reminded that the film had incest in it. And for some reason, I just couldn’t recollect that sub plot from the film. Somehow, my memory of the film comprised only of independent fearless filmmaking and not of incest. I felt confused. I was pretty sure that I would have remembered something as shocking as incest from a film that I consider an essential inspiration to me. But I didn’t and that surprised me. How was it that I had no memory of this subplot from a film that I claim to love?
I realized that it was time to re-watch The Color Wheel. And so, I did. However, this time watching, I was completely aware of what was going to happen and I knew what I was watching it for. Of course, I was reminded of the style of filmmaking that inspired me so much and which was a pure joy to watch, but I was clear in my head, that what I was there for was incest and incest only.
And so, when the scene finally did come, I was just so amazed to watch it. Firstly, because of the filmmaking of it. It is the second last scene in the film and consists of probably the longest shot of the film. It is preceded by a very lengthy conversation, which eventually leads into sexual activity and ARP just holds and holds and holds. It creates immense tension and intrigue. The use of sound in the scene was great too. This time around, I felt more capable to recognize how sound could be used in the construction of a scene. And in this specific scene, ARP uses ambient sounds with great creativity.
The second reason why I was so amazed watching the scene was because of seeing how casually it was treated. In a way, the whole film was leading to that scene and that moment. Like I mentioned, it was the 2nd last scene and acts sort of as a climax to the film. But what was so interesting about it was that it made absolutely no difference to the film or the story. After the scene, the story continues to the last scene and there is no conflict or awkwardness or any other sort of weird undertones. The act happens, and in the next scene, everything goes back to normal. It would make no difference, whatsoever, to the character developments and the story structure if the scene is taken out. It is funny because the whole film is a buildup to that scene and when the scene finally does come, the film treats it as if it is absolutely inconsequential. And I thought to myself,” Of course I didn’t remember the scene! How could I? It is treated so casually, just in passing.”
So why would someone do that? Why would someone make a film and include an extremely tabooed and shocking subject as a subplot and then treat it like it doesn’t matter? And the answer is, because they could. ARP and Carlen Altman, the leads and the co-writers of the film, are free of all conventional and tradition thoughts and structures. They are bold enough to think something new and do it regardless of how the world perceives it traditionally. They are not concerned with thinking about this in an intelligent, moral or even a psychological way. They are just so dizzy with the idea and the freedom to come up with that idea, that they just want to do it because they can. There is something very Punk Rock about that. They are free and independent and they have that energy of going places that have not been gone before and doing things that have not been done before.
And here, one can see how ARP’s form and content complement each other. There is a strange consistency in his form and content and how the two are treated with such equal casualness. Years ago, when I first saw The Color Wheel, I had thoughts about the freedom and independence of form. Like I mentioned, I was so inspired by the style of it. Why would somebody overlap dialogues in a scene to the point of incoherency? Why would someone get some lines shabbily dubbed and others recorded on-location? Why would someone, every once in a while, in the middle of a conversation scene, cut away to a lengthy shot of just a car cruising on a highway? Why would someone end the film with random few frames of a door opening which has no relation to the film whatsoever? Well, because, why not?
This time when I saw The Color Wheel, I had the exact same thoughts about freedom and independence, but not of form, of content. So why would someone make a film about incest and then treat it so casually? Well, because, why not?
