SWIMMING TOWARDS A FRAUD

MES (més-en-scène) analysis of The Swimmer (Dennis Hopper, 1969)

Unlike the classical Hollywood melodramas that showed wealthy people enjoying their privilege lives, The Swimmer (1969) shows us a man that seems to be rich and successful, but ends to be a miserable, lonely and hated man. Here, we see the distinction of classes in some short of antagonism, we have the upper middle class, with opulence and parties, and the lower working class on the local pool. In between, we have the main character Ned Merrill, who has nothing and pretends to have everything in order to fit with the social upper class he is used to belong. He is finally shown as an antihero, he is everything that is not right: an alcoholic miserable and lonely cheating men, the opposite of what he sells on his version of the American Dream. We see that what started as an adventurous and successful man, ends with an unhappy ending surrendered by dark and rain.

The film is part of the counterculture critique of America, as Benshoff and Griffin say in America on Film: Representing Race, Class, Gender, and Sexuality (2009). The main idea against opulence, sexism and racism of the 60’s in the US is notorious in this extract of the film, as we see Ned flirting, lying to and intimidating a stranger young woman who clearly doesn't want to be bothered, fighting with a neighbour that forbids him to come to his property again and scorn a new immigrant worker just because he’s new. He pretends that opulence by trying to buy his cart back offering an infamous amount of money that the owner doesn’t accept because he knows he doesn’t have it. Ned is tying to put himself in the same wealthy position, as the host of the party is paying for everything and inviting everyone to eat and drink in his brand new swimming pool. But the sad truth is that he has nothing and everyone knows it. The settings of this scene is also important because it is all filmed outdoors (like the whole film), and this denotes the importance of the revelation from the studios in Hollywood during this years that marries the idea of the film.

In the mes-en-scene (MES), one of the most important thing to analyse is the performance of the actors because the non-verbal can tell us many things. In this extract of the film, Ned rubs his arms the whole time around the pool in order to tell us he’s cold. This happens in a point of the film when everything we know or suppose about this man starts to crumble. His cold means that his facade of lies is starting to fall down and the imminent rain of his un-happy ending is approaching. We see him being portrayed as a womaniser, lonely and repulsive man that no one actually likes, and we can see it in his peculiar way of immerse: he splashes the guests and everyone starts to look at him with anger and pity. Since he comes our from the pool, he is already walking with a poignancy that will go on during the film. During the cart moment, he is presented as a jester, a fool, someone that everyone laughs at and wants to have nothing in common.

Ned is always wet because of the swimming pools water, this helps the light illuminate him more than anyone else in the scene. This denotes every second that he is the only main character in the story. During the fight for the cart, Ned is in the light zone while his neighbour, owner of the house, is darken, hidden in the shadow. Here, the MES is trying to trick us, making us think that he is not crazy and that everyone hates him for no reason. This is what the lying narrator has told us since the beginning, but in this inflexion point, we are starting to believe he is not the man he claims.

By the end of the extract, Ned ends up wet and on the floor like some short of dirty bug, detested and repudiated: he brings chaos everywhere he goes. He finally leaves the house and the scene lonely among the trees painted by the sun, but the weather will change to a stormy rain of summer. He goes deeper in the forest with his dark and lugubrious swimsuit as every guest of the party stares at him dressed with cheerful colours. This is symbolic, because he is leaving behind his happy and fake life and is crumbling into the reality of his sadness and darkness. The path of the forest with the dark and light defines his change into the reality.

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BIBLIOGRAPHY

Benshoff, M. and Griffin, S. (2009): America on Film: Representing Race,

Class, Gender, and Sexuality at the Movies. New York: Wiley-Blackwell

Gibbs, J. (2002). Mise-en-scène: film style and interpretation (Vol. 10).

Wallflower Press.

FILMOGRAPHY

Hopper, Dennis (1969): The Swimmer