Peopling of New York City, Spring 2012

In The Pawnbroker, there are mainly three types of races: white, black, and latino, and the blacks were depicted the superior of them all. The first scene of a black man comes out when Sol gets a phone call from Rodriguez. The camera first shoots Rodriguez from the back, then from under him, showing authority and power. Then, there is another scene where two black men and one white man come into the pawnshop and Ortiz looks a bit uncomfortable. While the other people come into the pawnshop begging for more money for their belongings, these men walk in with the whirring lawnmower and ask for the money with authority. They look down on the pawnshop, especially Ortiz, who works there. And it seems as if the Latino are the lowest in status of the three, as shown through  the contrast between Ortiz’s and Sol’s houses. The scenes of the two men in their houses are put together to show the difference between the cramped house of Ortiz and the neat, moderately large house of Sol. Also, Ortiz is only an assistant to Sol, who constantly yells at him.

The Pawnbroker showed me that the Holocaust took away not only millions of lives, but also souls of those who survived. I thought the film was well-made in the way that it juxtaposed the passionless, aimless life of Sol Nazerman with his post-traumatic flashbacks, thereby somehow relating the 1960s Harlem to the concentration camps. The violence and immoral things that go on in Harlem remind Sol of what happened in the camp. There is a scene where a boy is getting beat up by a group of guys, and the boy tries to escape by climbing the fence. This reminds Sol of the man who was trying to escape the concentration camp over the barbed wired fence. As no one helps the Jewish man who was trying to escape, no one comes to the boy’s aid. This is one of the first “long” flashbacks that the film gives us. As Hirsch mentions, classical flashbacks would lead to it step by step, from plot to dialogue to camera zoom, etc. But The Pawnbroker gives the audience little time to prepare for the flashbacks, many of which last for a split second. The flashbacks are set in a way that it seems as if we are in the mind of the protagonist, who has no control over their brevity or timing. The main connection between the two “ghettos” seems to be the fences that imprisoned Sol in the concentration camp, and the fences that imprison him in the pawnshop. And it is ironic that the fences through which Sol desperately wanted to escape from at the camp were now his haven at the pawnshop.

Going into The Pawn Broker, I had expected the mix of cultures to be healthy and to encourage acceptance and all that cliché jazz. I was surprised when I saw Nazerman’s character right off the bat.  When I realized that he had survived the Holocaust and had a crazy life story, I thought he would share his built wisdom and advice to generations below him. However, I was less than pleased to find how he presents himself around others.

In one of the first scenes, in the pawnshop, Nazerman’s character is developed fast and without much question. A strong tool is used in the film as each visitor walks in during this scene. The camera is set facing the customers, and all we see is Nazerman, looking straight down, focusing on whatever he is writing. It shows that he doesn’t care to show that he cares for what his customers have to say. However, this is also a good tool to introduce a bunch of characters from different ethnicities and backgrounds. I noticed how the woman who comes in with the candlestick has a lengthy monologue, which is a great opportunity for her to introduce herself, because Nazerman practically acts as a dead wall for any character to talk to and express himself to for the sake of the film.

This segues perfectly to my point about how the different ethnicities interact with on another. I think the best way to put it into words would be to say that, “The different ethnicities within the film don’t allow more patience with other ones because of their differences.” This may sound confusing, but I think it actually sums up what I got from the film well. For example, referring back to a past example, the woman with the candlesticks puts on a little saleswoman-like show to try to boost the amount she’ll receive for them. However, Nazerman has no patience with her and doesn’t play along her routine. He has the same interaction with Jesus. In “City of Nightmares,” Grace writes about how Dominguez, the big, rich black man has the seat of authority in the film and how that was a bold move for the director. I think this further illustrates me point, because it shows that he has no more patience with Nazerman than he does with any other people that are like he is (a.k.a. black).

Basically, I thought different cultures mixing together is always a beautiful thing, and it is; however, it doesn’t always happen in perfect harmony like I thought it did.

From east to west, from south to north, “Hester Street,” “West Side Story,” “The Brother From Another Planet” and “The Pawnbroker” have depicted the major underprivileged neighborhoods in New York City: the Lower East Side, West Side, and Harlem. All three neighborhoods have their unique ethnic compositions and problems, which would be presented in various ways in these films.

“Hester Street” presented a European immigrants populated Lower East Side. From the dirty and crowded tenement houses and street scenes, viewers could “feel” the neighborhood was overpopulated. Yet, it was more prosperous than other “ghettoes” in New York City because of its numerous small stalls along the street and the bars and dance halls. For many immigrants, the Lower East Side was the first destination of the “American dream.” The sweatshops represented immigrants’ diligence in gaining wealth and the dance halls represented their aspiration toward assimilation. All of these have depicted the joyful but difficult beginning of the adventure of fulfilling the “American dream” the immigrants have longed for.

“West Side Story” depicted the struggles of the underprivileged people living in the West Side, as shown by the aerial shots at the beginning of the film. The scene first showed the skyscrapers in the affluent part of New York City, then gradually changed to the old and torn houses in the ghettos, and finally landed on the basketball court in West Side. These shots set a great contrast between the privileged and the underprivileged parts of the city. Rather than showing how the immigrants worked hard to gain wealth, “West Side Story” emphasized on depicting the difficulties of assimilating between the European and Puerto Rican immigrants. The conflicts between two gangs demonstrated the gang members’ desire to be recognized in the mainstream society. They wanted to prove their worthiness, so they fight with each other. These conflicts revealed the difficulties that different underprivileged groups have in assimilating into the mainstream society of New York City.

“The Brother From Another Planet” and “The Pawnbroker” depicted one of the poorest neighborhoods in New York City—Harlem. Because Harlem mainly populated with African Americans, many people had various stereotypes about this neighborhood. Both films presented the problems and the humanities of Harlem in attempt to eliminate these stereotypes. “The Brother From Another Planet” disclosed the problems of poverty and drug abuse in Harlem. As the film proceed, it indicated that African Americans could unite together to help and protect each other. That was the reason Brother could escape from the slave catchers. “The Pawnbroker” showed a more humane Harlem. Compare to Mr. Nazerman’s flashbacks of his experiences at the concentration camp, Harlem was much safer and more peaceful. Yet, Harlem could also awake reminiscences of his past experiences. For example, the pregnant woman pawning her ring made him recollect how the Nazis took away the victims’ rings; the prostitute evoked his memory about his wife sitting on the bed, naked, and ready to be raped by the Nazi soldier; the crowded subway train forced him to recall how his son had died on the floor of the extremely overcrowded cart. To Mr. Nazerman, Harlem was a place where he could have peace, but could also bring up his unpleasant memories. At the end of the film, Jesus was shot in order to protect Mr. Nazerman showed the humane aspect of Harlem. After all, Jesus saved Mr. Nazerman without hesitation even though Mr. Nazerman has hurt so many people, including Jesus. “The Pawnbroker” showed New York City from a traumatized man’s views. Mr. Nazerman has represented the traumatized people living in the city; all of them have their bitter stories and no one could understand their sufferings.

“Hester Street,” “West Side Story,” “Brother From Another Planet” and “The Pawnbroker” presented the characteristics of various neighborhoods in New York City. The residents of theses underprivileged neighborhoods make up a large proportion of the city population. Through these films, people can have better understandings about the problems exist in these neighborhoods, and to lessen their misunderstanding they have toward the residents in these neighborhoods.

Neighborhoods can be depicted very differently depending on the director that created the movie. In my post, I will analyze three different movies to demonstrate how locations and cinematic effects can contribute to the “feel” of the neighborhoods. I will use the movies: Brother From Another Planet (1984), West Side Story (1961), and The Pawnbroker (1964), their film components, and the similarities and differences between them to show how each movie represents a different kind of neighborhood.

All three movies are shot in poor areas of Manhattan, Harlem (Brother From Another Planet and The Pawnbroker) and the Upper West Side (West Side Story) with gloomy broken-down buildings being the locational focus and tension being the moral focus. All three movies seem to incorporate the use of these crowded and typically shadowy locations to emphasize the chaos and dark times that occur throughout the historical periods represented in them. Although the general settings of the movies may in fact be very similar, the effects in each differ drastically.

Brother From Another Planet depicts a ghetto African American neighborhood that is full of vandalism, noise, and violence. The streets are crowded, filled with music and yelling, and something to be avoided when the sun goes down. It is not a neighborhood in which one desires to be lost in. For example, the two white males that found themselves there instead of their intended destination. They were very afraid to be in Harlem, partly because of the neighborhood itself, but mostly because of their own differing skin color. This interaction between characters and the movie’s neighborhood strongly shows the discrimination and stereotypes that were dominate in the past. Another excellent example to use in explaining the “feel” of this movie would be the scene where, once Brother has tried heroin, we are shown what truly happens once the night comes. It begins with a man finding Brother in an alley that is filled with trash. The movie then shows us the people that can be found in the city at night, such as workers, prostitutes, and thieves. People doing anything they can just to get by. Perhaps the most interesting cinematic effect at this point would be the lighting used in the scene, this kind of orange glow that softly illuminates the crimes of the night. It isn’t strong enough to fully expose the setting, but it is enough to give the viewer a glimpse of what it looks like. Similar to how the movie gives us just a glimpse of the issues present at the time (racial discrimination, violence, immigration).

West Side Story uses comparable scenery but has a different purpose. This movie depicts a mix of a White and Hispanic neighborhood. However, it is not a harmonious mixture. In fact, this movie shows the viewer the ethnic tension that was found in the past between the native New Yorkers and the immigrants. The movie uses effects such as dark lighting, numerous street and playground shots, narrow spaces, and colorful characters (compared to their backgrounds) to portray the neighborhood that the Puerto Rican immigrants found themselves in. The “feel” of this movie based on both the effects and the action in the movie, I would have to say, is kind of this cramped and conflicted area where territorial issues, in this case between the Jets (White) and Sharks (Puerto Ricans), are developed into violence.

The Pawnbroker is different from the previous movies predominantly because it is not focused on the current issues present during the historical period of the movie’s release. Instead, the movie uses flashbacks, dream sequences, and black and white to address painful memories and experiences of the main character; Sol. Using these effects, particularly flashbacks, allows the viewer to experience events the way that the character experienced them. And, as explained in one of the readings, because none of the flashbacks are ever verbally narrated to another character, the viewer must make a leap to experience what the witness himself would prefer to forget. As for the movie’s setting, it is designed for a purpose just like that of Brother From Another Planet and West Side Story and, in my opinion; it gives the movie a sort of “torn-apart feel”. By presenting such horrendous outer realities (damaged cities), we can begin to infer about the characters’ inner realities. Just as many of my classmates and I have already done.

The Pawnbroker depicts the interaction among ethnicities in a populated neighborhood. This interaction is seen between the Jewish, African-American, and Puerto-Rican residents in this diversely fashioned Harlem environment. First and far most, the beginning of the movie shows various types of people coming into the pawnshop. What is prominent about this is that they are all here for a reason. Somehow, at some time, they were given the chance to come to New York; a chance to make a living however they choose. However, the pawnbroker, Sol Nazerman has a completely different story. When asked by Marilyn why he came here, Sol repeatedly says, “I don’t know.” What he does know is that his pawnshop is enough to make him a living.

Sol, in a sense, is not part of the relationship between other ethnicities. Though he claims that he does not discriminate, he actually does; not racially, but intellectually. Sol feels everyone else is just scum, and he is not. However all the other ethnic groups intermingle well with each other as seen when Rodriguez’s  trio is composed of an African-American, a Puerto-Rican, and (to use the term very loosely as a result of Richard Dyer’s reading) a ‘white’ man. Everyone is trying to make a living, somehow and someway and this is what relates the ethnic groups to one another.

There is an additional relationship addressed in the movie. This relationship is the past ghetto (concentration camps) and the present ghetto where the film takes place (Harlem). The first relationship between these two ghettos is the father-son relationship. In a cattle car ride, Nazerman’s son perishes. Once in Harlem, he is, in a sense, given another son, another chance to be the father of Jesus. Jesus, who had no other father figure present, is then turned away. Though the ghetto in the first scenario took away Sol’s son, the latter of the situation is because of Sol’s inability to reconcile with his past. Additionally, the brutal violence is present in both ghettos as seen when the young teenager was attacked by a gang. In the old ghetto, the Jewish man was attacked by a dog with no one to help him either. Lastly, the most obvious relationship between the past and present ghetto is the idea that Sol is trapped. In the old ghetto, he was imprisoned and that is what he continues to do in Harlem. The bars in his pawnshop represent that he himself is still mentally trapped of images of the past, something he cannot escape.

The film enables us to make these connections as a result of its flashbacks which mimics that of post-traumatic stress disorder. Sol’s images of the past flood his mind and as he describes, “they keep rushing in.” More so, we can draw these connections because of the use of flashback in certain scenarios. The film utilizes ‘graphic match’ which is cutting scenes between Mabel his Sol’s wife to indicate that Sol is being reminded of what happened in the old ghetto, thus establishing the connection.

I would like to answer blog prompt two.

I think what connected the different ethnic groups as well as those living in the ghettos of the past and present in general were the flashbacks. As mentioned in the Hirsch article, the form and content of flashbacks were used in this film to allow the audience to experience the PTSD of the main character, Sol. I specifically want to talk about the form of these flashbacks. As mentioned in the article, the quick cuts and lack of transitions to the flashbacks were meant to surprise the audience, giving them a feeling of anxiety similar to that of the main character. In addition, the timing and brevity of the flashbacks heightened this sense of anxiety and confusion.

The different ethnic groups were connected in the Pawnbroker through their shared suffering, loneliness, and need for support. Representatives of many ethnic groups came to the pawn shop to sell what little they had for much needed cash, or simply to have the opportunity to talk to someone. They were all connected because they needed compassion from the pawnbroker who no longer had a way of expressing it. The structure of the flashbacks clearly emphasized this point. For example, when Sol impaled his hand on the spike at the end of the film, a flashback occurred consisting of rapid cuts between pictures of numerous characters who had come into the shop. Not only was the audience forced to make a connection between the anxiety produced by by these rapid images and the characters in the images, but also between Sol’s physical pain and the patrons’ emotional pain.

Sol’s flashbacks connected the members of the ghetto of the present with those in the ghetto of the past  as well. First of all, his flashbacks all contained elements of pain, even the flashback of the picnic for that was the day his life was shattered. The fact that both ghettos were represented in those flashbacks provides a connection between the two ghettos. This connection is the pain experienced in them. In addition, similarities between the two ghettos sometimes triggered his flashbacks. For example, when the prostitute came into the pawnshop in trouble, needing money and to keep a secret from her dangerous boss, Sol had a flashback to when his wife was forced into prostitution by the similarly domineering Nazis. Parallels were drawn not only between the emotions experienced by the individuals in both time periods, but between similar situations they found themselves mired in as well.

While viewing The Pawnbroker (1964), I actually commiserated with Sol Nazerman. I agree that his aloof attitude toward others may be harsh, but the distressing events that he witnessed greatly impacted his personality. To see his own two children and wife pass away in front of him due to the Nazis’ inhumane behavior undoubtedly altered his experience of life. The specific scene where the three men try to rob the pawnshop and Rodriguez punches Nazerman made me feel sympathetic toward Nazerman. The vivid memories, depicted by the recurrent flashbacks, relentlessly haunt Nazerman and have become an indelible part of his life. The fact that he has alienated himself from other people, including his assistant, Jesus, makes it rather difficult to get through him. You cannot easily speak to him, in other words. He has absorbed so much bitterness and has already witnessed so much pain that he couldn’t care less about the people around him. For instance, Jesus greatly admired Nazerman and wanted to be like him, but Nazerman didn’t even care about him. What I found ironic was in spite of Nazerman’s traumatic experience, he still decided to live in such a dreary region: the slums in the city.

Moreover, Nazerman’s phlegmatic behavior can be seen when he refused to give the money to the three men robbing the shop and just wanted to die. Essentially, Nazerman had lost his desire to live and became detached with the rest of the world. An instance that demonstrates this is when Ms. Birchfield tries to get close to Nazerman. To her dismay, Ms. Birchfield was coolly treated by Nazerman and was rejected by him. Also, the scene in which the prostitute exclaims, “Look, look” makes him recall of his wife unclad in the jail cell. This scene agonizes Nazerman because he remembers how is innocent wife was mistreated by the vile Nazis’. In addition, this film showed to me how a traumatic event can drastically change one’s life.

Also, the fast motion of the flashbacks played an important role in the film. Even though the viewer could barely see the flashbacks (due to it vanishing rapidly), it illustrated the connection between his past and present. All his flashbacks are the cause of his misery. Nazerman cannot forget what had happened in the past and because of this his present is affected negatively. He dissociates from the people near him and has completely lost faith in life. Without his family, Nazerman feels empty and has lost interest in others. When we see Nazerman piercing his hand near the end of the film, we see how he desperately wants to cease living. Even Rodriguez doesn’t fulfill Nazerman’s wish of dying. Instead, Rodriguez states that Nazerman will die when the time comes and that he will not be the one doing the killing. It’s as if there is no way out for poor Nazerman; he’s just there to continuously suffer from the traumatic moments of his horrible past.

The many ethnic groups depicted in The Pawnbroker (1964) were Hispanic, African, and Jewish. These ethnic groups relate to one another in the sense that they all have endured certain hardships through the course of their lives. For example, the Nazis’ hatred toward the Jews are responsible for the state Nazerman is currently in. Then, Jesus feels slighted when Nazerman says that Jesus means nothing to him. The African American in the film who was being beaten also suffered a tragic fate. Furthermore, when Nazerman feels that not just Africans but all the other around him are “scums,” we observe a racist attitude. Later on though, Nazerman learns that the money Rodriguez makes comes through prostitution. As a result, Nazerman wants nothing to do with this because he remembers the humiliation his wife’s been through in the concentration camps. This causes a confrontation between Nazerman and Rodriguez, who threatens to kill him.

All in all, Nazerman has lost touch with reality and his depressing past is constantly reminded of through the use of the film’s sequence of flashbacks. There is no apparent happiness in his life, as seen through the gloomy ending of the film. Now that Nazerman has lost his good assistant in the pawnshop, he feels even worse. Nazerman fails to let go of the past and as a result is tormented by it. I just felt that the movie seemed so depressing and wished that there could have been some uplifting scene to cheer me up.

Happy “Get Valentine’s Day Chocolate for Half-Price Day!”

More importantly, Happy Birthday Kathleen! ^_^

As the adage goes, everything happens for a reason. This is especially applicable when studying film. The Jazz Singer, Hester Street, Brother From Another Planet, West Side Story, and The Pawnbroker are all works that converge on the portrayal of the peopling of New York City. They all address in their own unique way, the different plights of immigrants, the struggle to assimilate, or in some cases the struggle to not lose oneself in the hoopla of America. However, the key word here is unique. No one can refute that there are parallels in these films; similarly, no one can claim that they are the same.

On the contrary, these films have extremely different atmospheres. These are not only due to the varying plots of the films but more importantly, their distinct cinematic choices and styles. There are three of these styles in which I would like to compare the films: clothing & colors, shots, and setting.

If you haven’t already, now would be a good time to put your analyzing caps on.

Clothing and Color. These two C words may not seem like much but they can be a very influential driving force to help tell a story. More importantly, it sets all these films apart. In Hester Street, clothing was used as a means of distinguishing those who have retained their old cultural ties and those who have fully assimilated into the American culture. A prime example is comparing Mamie’s dress with Gitl’s. In West Side Story, color plays a huge part in distinguishing between the two gangs. The Jets wear blue, yellow, and white, while the Sharks wear purple, black, and red. Lastly, in the Pawnbroker one instance of color and dress that was significant is Rodriguez’s outfits. He always wore white, a symbol of power, and his clothing was always very refined, very rich folk. Meanwhile Sol’s outfit seemed very mundane and ordinary. Just like any other businessman. These elements help to tell the story. All these films used clothing and color, but they used them for different purposes, creating different “feels” in the films.

Shots. No I’m not referring to the unit of measuring/consuming alcohol but rather the way a film is captured. All these films utilized the power of a cut to help invoke tension in a scene. This was especially evident in West Side Story, which had over 70 cuts in the first opening sequence. The Pawnbroker also had a lot of cuts in various scenes when Sol is dealing with customers. More significantly when he is dealing with Rodriguez. This created an air of tension in West Side Story, the audience could feel the rift between the two gangs and the hatred that fueled their feud. Moreover, the darkness in the plot of The Pawnbroker is amplified by this style of quick cuts between faces and even the shots to flashbacks at key moments during the film. Although all the films do utilize this technique I think the use of it in West Side Story and The Pawnbroker helps make the films “feel” darker than the other films.

Setting. Why a temple? Why a stage? Why a NYC street? Why Ellis Island? Why Harlem? Why the West Side? Why the park? Why a pawnshop? These are all the questions these different directors faced. They chose to shoot and set their stories in these settings. These decisions in turn play a role in the different atmospheres that arise in these films. For instance, the pawnshop is a perfect setting for a grief-stricken Holocaust survivor who has given up on humanity. Sol claims he has no feelings and only cares about money, yet as a pawnbroker he must face human contact on a daily basis. The best element to the setting was the receipt needle thingy. During the course of the film Sol casually placed receipts on it but I never really paid attention to it. But in the powerful finale Sol stabs himself with it. When he bleeds and feels the pain and there is a rush of images of all the individuals who came into the store, it is evident that Sol does in fact care. Now could you imagine Brother going into the pawnshop instead of the bar? Or how about Maria saying she feels pretty in the temple of the Jazz Singer. No way José.