Existentialism and Mental Dilemma in the Spaces of Birdman

By Prem Jongdeenarn

Riggan Thomson, the main character of the Birdman, is a voice of freedom, passion, and ambition. Riggan has characteristics relating to egotism and nostalgia, and how this leads to his mental dilemma. The director, Alejandro Gonzales Iñárritu was inspired to produce Birdman (or The Unexpected Virtue of Ignorance) from his own experiences of curiosity, sarcasm, insatiability, and yearning for perfection in everything (1). The film depicts the behavior of the egotism of the main character, Riggan Thomson, who lacks public attention leading to an existential crisis, thus affecting his mental dilemma. Moreover, he always repeats himself with disappointments from society’s ignorance, and desires to overwhelm all the negative experiences by returning to be famous in society. Therefore, the philosophy of existentialism is related to Birdman through the description of the freedom, action, prestige, and the yearning for existence in society of the main character through architectural elements. In addition, the concept of realism in cinematography known as a long take is used to clarify the central character’s crisis, which will be discussed in the next paragraphs from an architectural viewpoint.

According to Iñárritu’s script, Riggan Thomson, the main character, used to be a well-known actor in the role of a superhero known as Birdman; however, he is a forgotten actor who wants to revive his reputation and trust back from society. Birdman is similar to a voice of an emphasized experience in the past: the moment of prosperity, reputation and also crux in his mind (2). Furthermore, the voice of the Birdman within his subconsciousness continues to hunt and follow Riggan’s life; thus, Birdman is a person who is always sarcastic and yearns for perfection as Riggan aspires to be. Due to the fact that Riggan used to be known among people in New York as a famous actor in the role of the Birdman superhero; therefore, he must fight with the sound occurring inside his psyche in order to rescue his reputation. He starts to prove himself by working as a director and writing role plays in St. James, a Broadway theater in New York (Figure 1). On the other hand, his works always face many issues from a fellow actor, Mike who has embedded the philosophy of egotism in Riggan’s life as well as experiences problems from a critic, Tabitha who always critiques his work without watching the performance and reading the plays. In the end, Riggan attempts to commit suicide because of the ultimate stress and pressure from society. Thereafter, he recovers from this incident, and it seems like he has conceded his purpose. However, he accidentally sees birds in the sky, which provoke his subconsciousness of egoism and freedom, which is similar to a bird who can fly anywhere it wants.

1- Interview: Alejandro Gonzalez Inarritu Talks ‘Birdman,’ The Film’s “Bad” Original Ending, Critics, ‘True Detective’ & More. 2015TV.

2- Dr. Pradeep G. Sonawane. “Ayn Rand’s The Fountainhead: Individualism V/S Collectivism”. Pune Research Scholar an International Multidisciplinary Journal 3 (1): 2. (2019).

Figure 1: St. James Theater in Broadway.

Birdman is not an action or hero film, as the title might suggest. Iñárritu created the concept of Birdman to reflect moments of insanity in the creative process within the human mind, which comes from failures and disappointments. In addition, passion in honor, reputation, ego and freedom are desired by Riggan Thomson who has embedded these aspects in his subconsciousness. All of the feelings, touching and acting are presented through the technique of cinematography known as a long take.

Cinematography is the form of visual art that uses a camera to record moments, and it has the potential to expose the narrative of a story to the audience. In general, most films use the technique of montage that consists of seven production procedures; namely, development, pre-production, production, principle photography, wrap, post-production and distribution (3). In Birdman, Iñárritu adapted the basic seven procedures by eliminating the post-production step and using a technique of a moving camera, a long take, following Riggan’s subconsciousness in order to record all of the context and situation. Simultaneously, a long take presents the philosophy of existentialism through esthetic forms of realism.

One of the cinematographic techniques of Birdman is storytelling, which is the movement of the camera through architectural elements in order to create a more realistic sense to the audience. Iñárritu used the technique of a long take by utilizing the camera to record the moments without any conventional editing so to immerse the audience in the reality of the context in the film. Likewise, its strategy focuses on realism in the perception of the audience by continuously presenting real time and space the same as the character’s action (Figure 2) (4)

3- Futurelearn. "The Seven Stages of Film Production - Film Production". (2019).

4- Movie Mezzanine. "Why Long-Take Cinema Needs To Be More Than An Experiment". (2019).

As a viewer, the specialty and elegance of a long take are not only moving the camera with the characters, but also the movements like a bird, which match the concept of the film. In Birdman, Iñárritu tried to illustrate the lives of disappointments occurring in the past, which caused the insanity within Riggan’s psyche. Undoubtedly, a long take without editing would allow viewers to feel like waking up from a dream: floating on air, following Riggan’s ego and mental dilemma through architectural elements, which would be able to clarify the central character’s existential crisis.

The philosophy of existentialism refers to an individual who wants to find the meaning of life, freedom, and yearns for success regarding to his or herself as the first priority based on personal experience and thought (5). The existentialism in Birdman consists of the freedom, ego and self-confidence of Riggan who wants to gain public attention as well as pursue his tasks with intense determination regardless of any opposition (6). In Birdman, Riggan used to be famous in a superhero role as Birdman; however, generation and age changes had an effect on Riggan’s existence. According to Stark (6), the character of Birdman inside Riggan’s mind represents his lost ideal and identity, as well as the standard of life’s meaning, which he once possessed. Because of his ego and self-confidence, he attempted to return by opening his Broadway work regardless of opposing disagreements and opposition from society. This philosophy has some strategies similar to the individualism concept of the film The Fountainhead. According to Sonawane, The Fountainhead displays the individualism of the main character who has freedom, ego and yearns for success even though there are plenty of obstacles (7). The main character of The Fountainhead is an architect who is always opposed by the architect committee in compromising the design between modern versus post-modern architecture even though it affects his career and well-being.

5- All About Philosophy. "Existentialism". Allaboutphilosophy.Org. (2019).

6- Michael D. Stark. “Birdman and The Search for Meaning”. (August 10, 2015).

7- Dr. Pradeep G. Sonawane. “Ayn Rand’s The Fountainhead: Individualism V/S Collectivism”. Pune Research Scholar an International Multidisciplinary Journal (1): 2. (2019).

Therefore, to clarify the use of a long take to present the existential crisis of Riggan Thomson, one screen shows the context of Riggan’s room, which he is sitting and thinking about all of the issues from his Broadway play in front of the mirror. Simultaneously, Birdman from his subconsciousness appears and convinces him to continue going in the same direction regardless of any opposition. Moreover, the voice of the Birdman said, “Look at that. These people do not know what you are capable of” (Figure 3). As an audience, this phenomenon represents Riggan’s egotism that he believes in himself and decides to continue on his own way. Another example of his existential crisis is that one screen displays Riggan’s pressure and strain after his performance and role plays were critiqued by Tabitha. Because of the strain and exhaustion, he fell asleep on the street right after arguing with Tabitha and woke up similar to be a homeless person who has desperation in life. Then, he decides to walk back to his room to rest because of his mental dilemma and also disappointment in his life as well as the Broadway theater issues; concurrently, wings appear on Riggan’s back and Birdman emerges (Figure 4).

Figure 3: Riggan in his room. (theatlantic.com)

Figure 4: The emergence of Birdman (thewrap.com)

A long take is a technique to facilitate the audience in understanding the narrative of the film as well as embeds viewers to follow the main character’s psyche, mental dilemma, situations and shambolic flow of nonstop motion (8). However, a general technique, montage, might not be able to sufficiently clarify his existential crisis when there are many jump cuts; thus, the audience may not be able to adequately capture the main character’s thought and existential crisis. For example, in returning to the situation in Figure 4, the camera records all of his existential crisis and shows the processes since he woke up on the street, walked back home, then the mental dilemma and wings appear and at the same time he floats in the air, as well as flies like a bird above the city. As a viewer, a long take provides the full processes of the main character’s subconsciousness and context at the same time. Thus, it is able to facilitate the philosophy of existentialism by showing the creative processes from the negative to positive thoughts of the main character.

8- The Take. “Birdman: Ending Explained | Video Essay. Video”. (2018).

In addition, the realistic perception of a long take presents the beautiful landscape and architecture: the interior of St. James Theater and exterior of New York City. It shows the overall comprehension of the context through architectural elements, which represent Riggan’s existential crisis and mental dilemma (9). As such, the author believes that a long take describes the interior space, St. James Theater, reflecting his chaos and conflict with the fellow actor. The exterior space represents Riggan’s egotism and self-confidence. For instance, in the interior of the Theater, the camera moves along the narrow corridor and provides a feeling of discomfort and chaos following Riggan’s action. One scene shows the conflict between Riggan and Mike, the fellow actor, quarreling along the corridor, and Mike disagrees about Riggan’s scripts and role plays even though he is just a fellow actor (Figure 5). On the other hand, the exterior space displays him floating above New Yorkers surrounded by large concrete and brick buildings. The architecture represents his power and freedom while the floating describes his capability of superiority over other New Yorkers (Figure 6).

Figure 5: The interior space (indiewire.com)

When mentioning about the movement of the camera through architectural elements, Bazin states that cinema becomes more realistic when having the mechanical adjustment of the camera; such as, the combination between cinema and art. Furthermore, he claimed that the way to succeed in creating a feeling of reality in film is to avoid distorting the time or editing many sequences like a montage (10). Figures 7 and 8 below show the camera’s angle of a long take, which present the reality of the perception of the whole processes of Riggan’s existential crisis between the interior and exterior.

9- Pierce Singgih. "The Narrative Benefits Of The Long Take". Film School Rejects. (2019).

10- Donato Totaro. "Introduction to André Bazin, Part 1: Theory of Film Style in Its Historical Context". OFF SCREEN 7 (7). (2003).

In the long run, Iñárritu has succeeded in producing Birdman by using the main character’s identity to describe the philosophy of existentialism. Birdman reflects Riggan’s life and society in the modern age; such as, sarcasm in society, ambitiousness of the main character, contrast of thought between people, as well as adaptation of people’s lives in the modern generation. Undoubtedly, Iñárritu is known as the master of the long take, which the techniques have the potential in showing realistic processes and the perception of Riggan’s existential crisis to the audience. Moreover, this technique immerses the audience with Riggan both in his action and subconsciousness by chasing all of the situations occurring to Riggan as well as the processes of his psyche from negative thought, when he is stressed, to positive thought, when Birdman appears. A long take also uses the angle of the camera to display the architecture that represents Riggan’s existential crisis by using the different environments between the interior, St. James Theater and the exterior, New York City. In conclusion, this film is very valuable for architecture students to analyze the behavior of the main character, which provides both advantages and disadvantages of the ego and self-confidence. Therefore, architecture students might be able to adapt this theory in designing and compromising projects.

Figure 7: A long take in the interior of St. James Theater.

Figure 8: A long take of the exterior presenting Riggan’s ego and freedom.

Bibliography

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