Hipster Culture and Branding Concepts

SOC 902 Lecture 5

• The lecture covers auteur theory, Wes Anderson films, and nostalgia.

Part One: Auteur and Auteur Theory

• "Politique des auteurs" (auteur theory) dominated cinematic criticism from 1968-1973.
• Francois Truffaut initially formulated the theory in 1954, further developed by Andrew Sarris in 1962.
• Auteur theory suggests that "aesthetically important" films are products of a director (auteur), akin to authors of literature or classical music composers.
• According to Truffaut, the auteur transforms the film into a personal expression.
• The theory posits directors' personal vision strongly influencing a film's style and themes.
• Auteur theory is a highly debated idea in classic film criticism and history.

Auteur Theory

• Classic auteur theory: a director transforms a film to embody their personal personality.
• Contemporary auteur theory views a director's work as not solely an individual expression but a complex interaction with biography, Hollywood's institutions, and historical context.
• It emphasizes external factors influencing a film, such as genre, technology, capitalism, and popular culture.
• This contemporary view focuses less on individual genius and more on how external forces shape the film.

Auteur and Auteur Theory

• Andrew Sarris argues that films by an auteur reflect the director's personal vision through consistent style and thematic elements.
• He identifies key characteristics in trailers for films by Wes Anderson, such as:
  • Composition of shots and editing
  • Interaction between sound and image
  • Use of color and setting aesthetics.

Auteur Theory

• Auteur theory attributes films to a director, wherein consistency, meaning, style, issues, and themes are revealed.
• Examples include Wes Anderson, Spike Lee, Martin Scorsese, Sofia Coppola, and Kathryn Bigelow, among others.

Assembled Worlds: Intertextuality and Sincerity

• Kim Wilkins (2015) argues that Wes Anderson's artistic choices extend beyond stylistic effect by integrating narrative and thematic elements.
• The films utilize irony and artificiality to explore sincere emotional and psychological themes.

Wes Anderson: Nostalgia and Marketing of the Past

• André Bazin (1945) emphasized personalization in films; however, he cautioned against defining culture through films.
• Wes Anderson films complicate this notion by being explicitly situated within contemporary culture and consumerism, particularly by:
  • Appropriating various 2000s "hipster" cultural trends.
  • Filtering specific cultural tropes and tendencies through artistic lenses to evoke a consumerist "quirky" effect, rather than authentic depictions of culture or history
  • Using artistic style to present a more stylized narrative.

Wes Anderson: Nostalgia and Marketing of the Past

• Michael Newman (2011) notes how Anderson's unusual style has been emulated.
• He views this style as "new sincerity, intellectual whimsy, and access to purity.”
• Anderson’s films, though stylized, still explore themes of family, social class, power, masculinity, loss, and regret.

The Anderson Stage

• The aesthetic characteristics discussed in these lecture notes are applicable to analyzing how Wes Anderson films are developed, notably pertaining to a unique style when compared with other cinematic approaches.
• Examples from films such as Rushmore, The Grand Budapest Hotel, The Life Aquatic, or The Royal Tenenbaums can be considered relevant to understanding this theory.

Nostalgia and the Seduction of Melancholy

• Classic Hollywood films conceal their artifice, while Anderson films explicitly call attention to their presentation, akin to dioramas.
• Anderson's use of enclosed and self-contained world-building creates a "timeless" experience for viewers.
• Characters in the Anderson films are often seen in transitions - they don't quite "belong" in these worlds.

Nostalgia and the Seduction of Melancholy

• Identities are shaped within the film's unique environments.

Branding Wes Anderson

• Frederic Jameson (1984) argues that nostalgia in films often attempts to escape the present or reclaim a more distant past.
• Anderson's films often engage in binary oppositions: those who see the films as representing history, memory and nostalgia, and those who view them merely as stylish pastiche.
• Another perspective interprets Anderson's films as conveying nostalgia through a consumerist lens.

Part Three: Branding Wes Anderson, Hipster > Capitalism > Nostalgia

• Timothy Corrigan argues that consumerism, capitalism, and marketing are essential aspects of postmodern culture and influenced the 1960-70s anti-establishment movement (e.g., punk and hip-hop)
• Anderson's influence is linked to re-interpreting and commodifying nostalgia.
• He sees Anderson's emphasis on nostalgia as a way of materializing the past in a viable aesthetic and business form
• Anderson and auteur theory are criticized for their collaborative approach in film production.

Branding Wes Anderson

• A common criticism is Anderson’s films are heavily collaborative.
• Innovation theory highlights how genre, such as quirkiness, is constructed and conveyed through cultural production, including important elements like co-creation.
• Style, fashion, and costuming play vital roles in creating distinct film genres like mob movies.

Hipster Branding

• Mark Greif defines the 1990s and 2000s hipster as a subculture profoundly shaped by neoliberal beliefs.
• The hipster character is seen to simultaneously embrace and reject aspects of consumer culture and capitalist values, acting as a bridge between sub-culture and dominant consumer culture).
• Aesthetic choices are central to a hipster identity, often seen as a form of symbolic rebellion and a marker of status.

Hipster Branding

• The character is deliberately constructed to bridge both rebel subculture and the dominant culture.

Outside > Inside

• The title "Outside > Inside: the Capitalism of Nostalgia, Memory, and 'Pastiche'" describes how external influences can mediate and reshape concepts of individual identity.

Hipster Branding

• Hipster identity is linked to the early 2000s cultural market, involving significant trends such as Urban Outfitters and the rise of items like vintage clothing.

Seduction of Melancholy

• Urban Outfitters incorporates a re-articulated retro, vintage-inspired market
• Retro clothing is seen as offering a nostalgic experience without the actual experience itself
• Mediated and consumer-driven nostalgia is a common theme, where viewing the past is often a replacement for actually having experienced it.

Mediated Nostalgia

• Uncritical, backwards-looking, and media-defined nostalgia utilizes past culture elements to create a modern worldview
• Businesses, like Urban Outfitters, deliberately evoke this nostalgia.

Hipster Capitalism

• The subculture is characterized by aspects of both rebellion and capitalist engagement (e.g., items as status symbols)