COMICS IN FILM: GOLDEN EIGHTIES (1986) BY CHANTAL AKERMAN

Comics in Film: Golden Eighties (1986).

by BK Munn

The French poster for the rerelease of the 1966 Batman movie starring Adam West appears in the background of several scenes in this frothy, delightful musical by Chantal Akerman about the romantic lives of employees in a Brussels shopping mall. While tackling serious themes of class war and feminism, the film is a comedy and has some charming song and dance numbers featuring characters played by French pop stars and well-known actors. There is a repertory cinema in the mall and the changing posters in the mise-en-scène play into Akerman’s satire of the heightened, artificial landscape of American cultural hegemony the characters passively consume or inhabit. Early on, a poster for the 1950 noir Gun Crazy is shown, and later a poster for the 1981 heist thriller Green Ice ironically comments on the lowkey shenanigans of the hairdressers and retail clerks in the mall. At the climax of the film, barista Sylvie (Miriam Boyer) updates clothing store owner Mme Schwartz (Delphine Seyrig) about her boyfriend who has gone to seek his fortune in Labrador before talking about the main plot of the film, the love triangle between Mme Schwartz’s son and the two hairdressers from the salon next door. The violent pop art poster by Franco-Russian designer Boris Grinsson of Batman and Catwoman stands sentinel over this cartoonish conversation about the riches of America and the news of the return of Lili, the owner of the hair salon who is fond of leopard prints. However, the final act will not be a cat fight but instead a philosophical diffusion of conflict in a climactic MGM-style dance number featuring the entire cast, as befits a romantic comedy.