Nad Rzeką Traw. Antywesternowość filmów Kelly Reichardt
At the “Rivers of Grass”. The Anti-western-ness of Kelly Reichardt’s Films

Author(s): Natalia Grabka
Subject(s): Film / Cinema / Cinematography
Published by: Wydawnictwo Uniwersytetu Śląskiego
Keywords: Kelly Reichardt; borderland landscape in contemporary cinema; American independent film
Summary/Abstract: Kelly Reichardt is an American independent director, who shoots most of her films in the far West. Yet, her kind of west may not be associated with the American dream fulfilled, or the Gold Rush. The landscapes discussed in the present article, which represent crucial symbols of the western United States of America, are depicted in her films in accordance with realistic principles. Not only does she demythologise the Wild West, but also indicates in hindsight the ramifications of the infamous colonisation inflicted upon the American frontier, whereby nature and culture are still axiologically opposed. While criticising the contemporary West, she draws the map of birthplaces of the American civilisation. Her characters, however, not only seize land on which to settle, but more often than not lose it, and so, when they attempt to find river, they often reach highway, railway, landfill, or a shopping mall. According to ecofeminist theory, the planet Earth is also a home, yet contrary to a literal home (or: a household), where the pater reigns, the new home is centred around caring for and tending to the Mother, that is, both the environment and the Nature epitomised. The anti‐western‐ness of Kelly Reichardt’s films is, therefore, concentrated on the criticism of patriarchal system, capitalism, or consumerism, so the interpretations presented in the article are simultaneously social and environmentalist in their character.

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