The film “Tarnation” was an amazing tour-de-force of personal struggle and growth. It was one of the most moving films I had ever seen. A collaboration of home videos, recorded messages, horror film/television/commercial footage, photography and music which were constructed and edited on iMovie to create a biographical documentary of the director’s life and his relationship with his family.I found myself summarizing the film for a lot of my friends and family. I was intrigued by Caouette’s journey and how he was able to cope with a family that was not the American Dream ideal.
In the opening scenes of the film, I felt that it was a little stagy. Jonathan and his partner, David wake up and Jonathan tells him he’s had a bad dream. That whole scene until he goes to the bathroom and starts crying looks very scripted and fake. I initially wasn’t very impressed with the film because of the staginess. However, the performance aspect of the beginning and ending scenes are representative of the director’s identity. He was a performer, an actor, even from the age of eleven. It wasn’t until Jonathan showed his ability to be a performer and show how his performances were used to understand and cope with his problems, did the film really grab me emotionally.
Overall, I liked how the film didn’t use a narrator or a voice over that told the story. I thought that Jonathan’s use of text to explain what was happening and to move the story along was really interesting and it made the viewer pay attention that much closer. I don’t know much about movie editing but I really like the sort of psychedelic spin he added to many of the scenes where 4 different screens had different things going on at once with a multitude of colours and sounds. This experience was probably Jonathan’s way of portraying the disorder he experienced called depersonalization disorder, described as a “feeling of disconnection from the body and a constant sense of unreality” (Arthur, 19) The music also played an important part in setting the tone to how the director and the other characters were feeling in the film. It was a mélange of softer as well as faster music.
In Paul Arthur’s article, “Feel the Pain: First-person docs are soothing the angst of their makers. What do they do for us?” he discusses how filmmakers are “eager to tell their own stories in feature-length treatments” (17); Similar to a therapist session but on screen. Ideally the film would create clarity for the filmmaker and help them to resolve the problems they’ve experienced throughout their lives. I agree that there has been an upsurge of films that are dominated by the voice of the filmmaker and actually portray their opinions and ideas, but I also think that this is a valuable way of getting the filmmakers message across, even if it’s a personal therapeutic message to themselves.
One of the most moving scenes in the film, is in the end when Jonathan admits that he doesn’t want to become like his mother. I know that Arthur also talks about this in his piece, but I think this is the crux of the film and the most important message Jonathan gives to himself. I think he tries to show his journey into becoming more than what his mother was. In the film you meet the grandmother and you see how her mental state has deteriorated and has led to her becoming mentally unstable, and then you see the mother in one of the final scenes (after her Lithium overdose) with the pumpkin, and she acts almost identically to the mother. It makes sense that he would draw this parallel between them, and then make a point of saying he doesn’t want to become like them.
I think overall, that this film is an important artifact and story for Jonathan to tell and remind himself of. His life wasn’t easy, and it seems like he was still able to make something out of himself (a filmmaker); his story is an inspirational one.
Citation:
Arthur, Paul. “Feel the Pain: First-person docs are soothing the angst of their makers. What do they do for us?” Film Comment. Sept/Oct 2004; 40, 5. 17-20.
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