“Driving Miss Daisy” Mad

Sorcha Jennie Siobhan Matthew

http://blog.southernoutdoorcinema.com/movies-filmed-in-georgia-driving-miss-daisy/

The Film Itself

Searching for a New NarrativeAt the end of the film, it was strongly implied that Miss Daisy has alzheimers, something we thought was a bit over-looked, therefore we decided to research the disease and explore the potential of an unreliable narrator. “Traumatic brain injury resulting from an impact to the head that disrupts normal brain function.” A traumatic brain injury may affect a person’s cognitive abilities, such as learning and thinking skills.

First hand image

Research and InspirationTrue Colours - Francis Bacon lucien frued

This inspired us to just go crazy with the new narrative, that there was no wrong answers.

Images from True Colours exhibition

Artifact ~ Suitcase

The main plot of the film is that an elderly Jewish woman and her African American chauffeur in the American South have a relationship that grows and improves over the years. However the audience knows that the real connections between the chief characters occur when they are on the road.

A traditional travel companion, vintage. Then with Daisy having Alzheimer's could hold more than luggage, it could hold lost memory.

Images from True Colours exhibition

Alzheimers in Art

Self-Portraits by William Utermohlen(Above)

Fratured- A portrait of Alzheimer's by Ria Hills (Top Right)

Portrait of alzheimer's By Katharine Cobey (Right)

Alzheimer’s Society Artwork

Images taken from http://www.alzheimers.org.uk/

Creating the schematic Drawing ink through pools of PVA glue to create a flexible and expressionistic canvas for our schematic. The ultimate result was inspired by the Alzheimers society artwork using a colour scheme implicit of horror and gore, lending itself to our new genre for Florine’s view of the story.

First hand images.

Further inks Experimenting and being creative with ink and glue, fun stuff!

First hand images

Experiments for schematic

The fact that Daisy had Alzheimer's inspired an abstract way of thinking for the schematic, how her mind would drift in and out.

The New Narrative being that Daisy is in denial, and things are not the way she

sees them.

Contextual ResearchThe film begins in 1948 America, a segregated society that’s racist and anti-semantic, conflicting against both main characters, Hoke and Miss Daisy. Two of the most prominent opposing groups at the time were:

The Black Panthers The ten points are as follows: 1. We want freedom. We want power to determine the destiny of our Black Community; 2. We want full employment for our people; 3. We want an end to the robbery by the white men of our Black Community; 4. We want decent housing, fit for shelter of human beings; 5. We want education for our people that exposes the true nature of this decadent American society. We want education that teaches us our true history and our role in the present day society; 6. We want all Black men to be exempt from military service; 7. We want an immediate end to POLICE BRUTALITY and MURDER of Black people; 8. We want freedom for all Black men held in federal, state, county and city prisons and jails; 9. We want all Black people when brought to trial to be tried in court by a jury of their peer group or people from their Black Communities, as defined by the Constitution of the United States; 10. We want land, bread, housing, education, clothing, justice and peace.

The Ku Klux Klan

The second KKK preached "One Hundred Percent Americanism" and demanded the purification of politics, calling for strict morality and better enforcement of prohibition. Its official rhetoric focused on the threat of the Catholic Church, using anti-Catholicism and nativism. Its appeal was directed exclusively at white Protestants. Some local groups took part in attacks on private houses and carried out other violent activities. The violent episodes were generally

in the South.

Image from http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ku_Klux_Klan

Florine as the Anti-hero ● How she gets only around 2-3 minutes of screen time.● We could play around with her narrative much more as it was

flexible ● We could completely flip the movie on it’s head which is fun and

more appealing than just re-telling the story.● We got inspired by the time-line of the movie and researched what

was going on around this same time ● We also got inspired by the implicit content of the movie, the

underlying racism was something we wanted to incorporate ● We got inspired by history itself. The extremist fascist groups, both

the The KKK and The Black Panthers. ● Charles Manson came to mind during the conceptualisation of all

this thought. Then we joked about how Florine was part of the Manson family, and the final new narrative was born.

Florine Werthan

Image taken from http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Patti_LuPone

Schematic Plan

Image taken from http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Charles_Manson

First hand image

Florine’s Journey

Ordinary WorldMarried to Boolie, an ordinary peaceful life.

Call to adventureMeeting Charles Manson (Also Mentor)

Refusal of the CallTries to act normal and dismiss what happened when she met Charles.

Crossing the ThresholdJoining the Manson Family, becoming an accomplice in murder

Tests, Allies and EnemiesHer First attempt to kill Daisy is foiled by Hoke, who replaced the poisoned salmon. Boolie find out about the Manson family yet remains Florine’s steadfast ally.

Approach to the Inmost caveDaisy Becomes suspicious of her actions, figuring out that Florine was using her house while she was away. Florine prepares a plan to silence her Mother in law by threatening and killing her closest friend, Idella.

Image from http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Monomyth

Central OrdealFlorine discovers that she can manipulate Miss Daisy’s denial and make her suppress her memories when she is discovered committing murder in the garden of Miss Daisy’s houseRewardFlorine, Boolie and the Manson Family act freely in and around miss Daisy’s house with discretion, unlikely to be caught.The Road BackThe police track down a case of multiple murders to the house after chasing up cold cases. The condemning evidence unveils Florine’s actions and atrocities.ResurrectionBoolie confesses to the Murders to protect his wife, shouldering all the blame. He is arrested and testifies that Florine knew nothing.Return with the ElixirFlorine walks away free, becoming an influential republican politician and using the media attention garnered by her husband to further her campaign.

Image from http://decider.com/2014/12/12/my-first-time-watching-driving-miss-daisy/

First Hand Image

The Development of the Artefact Originally we were going to sculpt a suitcase in a certain fashion to illustrate our new narrative , however plans grew when the idea of filming a short piece was brought to discussion.

Inspired by Psycho

https://divyasharma06.wordpress.com/2014/09/28/script-breakdown-of-the-shower-scene-from-the-movie-psycho/

Saul Bass’ StoryBoards http://filmmakeriq.com/2010/11/hitchcocks-storyboards-from-13-classic-films/

Making Storyboards

● Close up shot of an eye

● The suitcase

Photographs of murders being burned to represent memories being forgotten

● Tap with blood dripping out of it

Source: Youtube

Bibliography http://www.alz.org/dementia/traumatic-brain-injury-head-trauma-symptoms.asp

Francis Bacon Lucien Frued- True colours exhibition 2015 pieceAnonymous- True colours exhibition 2015 piece

Cobey, K. (2014). [image] Available at: http://mainetoday.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/11/97635_977590-

201401120_fiber_02.jpg [Accessed 18 Feb. 2015].

Hills, R. (2015). http://www.dailypainters.com/paintings/206548/fractured-a-portrait-of-Alzheimer-s/Ria-Hills. [image].

Utermohlen, W. (2015). https://jasmineelphea.wordpress.com/about/. [image].

Dan Aykroyd and Patti LuPone on the set of Driving Miss Daisy, 1989

http://robertflach.com/genre/installation/

https://timelifeblog.files.wordpress.com/2012/08/09_117272283.jpg?h=372&w=563

http://vashivisuals.com/directed-shower-scene-psycho/

Bibliography https://www.pinterest.com/pin/105693922479804603/http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0097239/http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Driving_Miss_Daisyhttps://www.yahoo.com/movies/how-driving-miss-daisy-became-one-of-the-most-105004366092.htmlhttp://www.alzheimers.org.uk/http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Racismhttp://www.rogerebert.com/reviews/driving-miss-daisy-1990