Marie Antoinette and her sneakers. Why directors use anachronisms

Anachronisms connect eras

In most cases, the mention of objects, personalities or phenomena in the context of an era to which they could not belong serves as a bridge between the past and the present. And in this vein, anachronisms were used long before the advent of cinema. So, in the play "Julius Caesar" William Shakespeare mentioned hats that could not be in real history. Also, the playwright combined two battles into one, transferred the assassination of Caesar to the Capitol. Interestingly, the deviation from the evidence of Plutarch allowed future directors to change characters to modern politicians.

The Knight's Story shows 14th-century England. But for his first knightly duel, the hero comes out to the song of the Queen group "We Will Rock You". In the noughties, when the film appeared, this track was regularly played at sports competitions. And it was he who allowed the director to show that for a medieval viewer, duels are the same as football for a modern Englishman.

A similar technique is used in the film "The Great Gatsby». The action takes place in 1922, but director Baz Luhrmann chooses music that is completely atypical for that time - rap and pop. The fact is that bragging about money is much more logical to show under the Jay-Z tracks dedicated to success than under the compositions of 1922. And Lana Del Rey's song Young and Beautiful, which became the soundtrack, demonstrates that some problems are relevant for people of different eras.

Sometimes anachronisms become a radical part of cinematic language. The 1987 film Walker, directed by Alex Cox, is an example of how creators can play with the viewer and their perception. time. According to the plot, in the middle of the 19th century, the American William Walker becomes the dictator of Nicaragua.

There are a huge number of anachronisms in the film, and every minute they become more and more rude. Some of them are quite minor (the use of weapons that did not exist in the middle of the 19th century, or cigarettes Marlboro and Coca‑Cola in the frame), and others as serious as possible (change in historical events, a computer in the office hero). And all this is only so that the viewer does not associate this period of time with the 19th century, but on the contrary, sees in it America and Nicaragua of the 20th century.

Alex Cox took the historical event as a source of inspiration, abandoned the details that he did not like. But the audience did not appreciate such moves at all - the fees barely exceeded 250 thousand dollars with a 6-million budget. And the young director who shot the cult "Sid and Nancy', ruined his career with this failure.

Anachronisms help describe the character

Sometimes anachronisms emphasize the personality of the hero. So, director Sofia Coppola in her film "Marie Antoinette" tried to reveal in a new way the personality of the legendary, but distant and incomprehensible French queen.

In one of the scenes, the queen's dressing room is shown, where Converse sneakers lie among different shoes. As soundtrack Coppola chooses post-punk - The Cure, New Order, The Strokes and similar groups. This is how the director creates the image of a disgruntled teenage girl - this is exactly how Marie Antoinette is usually described.

There are also reverse cases. Napoleon Dynamite is set in 2004, but the content hints at a different era. The main character wears clothes from the 80s, listens to music from a tape recorder, and his favorite performers are representatives of the last century. All this is done in order to emphasize the hero's anxiety and the feeling of being forced out of the present time.

In Derek Jarman's film "Caravaggio" the great artist lives in timelessness. The picture begins as a biographical one, but there are so many details from other eras (clothes, equipment, even a moped) in it that you can easily forget about the 16th century. Thus, the director pulls the hero out of his time and shows that he does not belong to him. Caravaggio himself in this case is not treated as a specific artist. This is the image of the creator, a certain spirit of art.

Anachronisms create a comical effect

This receive function is very common. The 1975 film Monty Python and the Holy Grail is a classic comedy of the absurd. The events unfold in the 10th century, when King Arthur and 10 knights go in search of the Holy Grail. At the beginning of the film, the king meets with the peasants. But they flatly refuse to listen to him, because they did not vote for him. At the same time, the peasants explain that they are loyal to the local count - and indeed, this is logical for the era of feudalism. Against the background of reality, the anachronism stands out too much, which should create a comical effect.

Anachronisms are actively used in comedies about time travel. This is the easiest way to make the viewer laugh, because he knows something that the characters do not yet know. For example, in the 1989 film Bill & Ted's Excellent Adventure, schoolchildren in a telephone booth are transported to the present time of various historical figures, including Ludwig van Beethoven and Napoleon Bonaparte from 1805 of the year.. In one of the scenes, the French emperor goes to the Waterloo water park, in the other he shows the plan for the invasion of Russia, which will be his biggest failure.

The combination of two objects from different eras, for example, a 17th-century aristocrat and a microwave oven, is a popular comedy technique. In the animated series The Flintstones, the family lives their life in the Stone Age, but their pet is a dinosaur, which only adds to the comedy. “Ivan Vasilievich changes his profession” is exactly the same way, in which most of the jokes are related to the absurdity of the tsar against the backdrop of the Soviet entourage.

In general, anachronism is a bright and multifunctional device. In the hands of a skilled author, he is able to reveal the characters and talk about time and history, while in a more mundane one, he can make them laugh.