Fifty Shades of Feng- some notes on House of Cards 2, ep5


A couple of years ago I was in Washington, looking for the story of Archie Bunker's iconic chair from the fantastic seventies-show All in the Family, now a museumpiece at the Smithsonian. It was a great trip and the chair turned out to be a good story. But that's a different matter.

During that trip, I stayed in a hotel in the best part of the city. I could see the White House from my window. Outside, shiny, chic, chauffeured cars passed by, transporting a politician or some other hotshot.

Inside, in my hotelroom I discovered that not all of the amenities of this hotel were mentioned on their website. The room came with a bonus.

In the little hallway there was a huge pile of leaflets. Really a strikingly big pile. Some of hem were for theatreshows. But most of them were advertisements for a different branch of the entertainmentindustry: sex.

I have stayed in a lot of hotels, but in most cases such ads are hidden from plain sight. Not in Washington.There were way more sex-ads here than for pizzadelivery or Chinese takeaway.

Mistresses clothed in black leather and moustached guys with black leather caps were staring at me from every page. It was all SM, bondage, and other refined delicacies of this nature combining sex with some sort of aggression.

So to say that the bondage scene involving a Chinese captain of industry named Xander Feng and two American sexworkers in Episode 5 of House of Cards 2 came as a surprise? Nah.

It was a good scene though, and an even better opener of the episode. All you see as the episode starts, is some guy trying to breath through a plastic bag. Could be anything, right? Could be a murder, an attack - and to whom? You can't see. Then the zoom out gradually reveals what is going on here. It's masterly well done.

The connection between sex and power is as old as the world itself.
It's also a strong Washington reality, and House of Cards reflects that, notably in this episode. The sexworkers were sent to the Chinese as a, well, lubricant, for the relationship between the Chinese and Francis Underwood. Fifty Shades of Feng, New York Magazine's Vulture playfully called it.

The sexworkers in House of Cards remained anonymous. They are not important here, they're mere decoration to the story. Still, thinking of that pile of sex-ads, you wonder whether that is justified. How much of politics is done at night, between the sheets? Or whipped to conclusion by some Mistress clothed all in leather?
It adds a whole new meaning to the word majority-whip. 

House of Cards 2 It's wartime and Underwood is in to win 

Start coughing today so you can call in sick on Friday, fans tweeted earlier this week. The new season of the political thriller House of Cards is quite the event, and for bingeviewers this will be some Valentine's Day. Even if on screen things are more loveless than ever. 

Ilse van der Velden @cinema.nl

It all starts pretty normal but then your throat is slowly squeezed tight, followed by a firm slap in the face at three quarters (an OMG moment, as fans call it) and for dessert Francis Underwood, take note of  his initials, gives you the finger. And that's just the first episode. It's gripping, it's daring, and it's very, very well done. In every episode of the 4 we watched beforehand, House of Cards 2 displays strong and daring dramatic choices. They don't fool around, people.

The openingscene sets the tone. A dark park, sirens, the sound of heli's and two people running - what 's happening? But then there's the close up that pulls the plug out of the accumulated tension: it's only Frank and Claire, on their morning run. Or is it? In their tight black gear they could easily be a pair of burglars. Or hitmen. Something's off here. It's over the top, like the clouds in a painting by Dutch surrealist Carel Willink are hyperrealistic, and have an alienating effect.

In every aspect the new season of this noir thriller is an intensified version of the first. It's all just a little more dramatic: the light, the outfits (severe, dark colours), the plot and Kevin Spacey's diction. He spits his d's like bullets. It's theatrical. The whole thing hovers slightly above reality, a deliberate choice that really works out well.

Alea iacta est. In the first season, Frank and Claire have shown us what they are capable of. Now, the struggle for power has accelerated and that's how we enter season two: at full force. There is more at stake, every decision counts and even the slightest failure can be fatal. But as we soon find out, the hunter is hunted, by his own past.

The language is striking. The dialogues are beautifully written and rhythmic - the comparison with Shakespeare must be made at some point and writer Beau Willimon admits he's an inspiration. A lot of the metaphors used refer to the animalistic: its about sharks, claws, blood, the battlefield. 'The road to power is paved with hypocrisy. And casualties', says Underwood. Claire, for her part, is a  contemporary version of Lady Macbeth. To get what she wants for herself and Frank, she's prepared to cross boundaries. How far she will go? Over your dead body.

'All politicians are killers,' says Willimon in an interview with the The Telegraph about the theme of his hit show. House of Cards is 'a dramatisation of that thing in them which allows them to do the unspeakable.'

'Look at the war in Iraq,' says Willimon, who's grandfathers both fought in WWII and who's own father was a marine for 31 years.  'That was justified by an outdated and erronous piece of intelligence. With thousands of American soldiers dead and hundreds of thousands of people abroad dead, is that more or less heinous than what we see Francis Underwood do?' Good question. According to Willimon, there's nothing surreal about House of Cards: this, this scenario, is his truth. It's wartime. And in House of Cards, Washington is the battlefield.

House of Cards, Netflix, Febr 14th 2014

Second Wave 

Sidse Babett Knudsen in '1864' 

Gothenburg Film Festival,  TV Drama Vision 2014

Scandinavian tv-series have caught the eye of the world. After a first wave of excellent crime series, the focus now seems to shift to historical drama. Ilse van der Velden @cinema.nl visited the Gothenburg Film and TV Festival 2014 and picked some cherries.

A love triangle between two brothers and an adorable, smart girl in the idyllic nineteenth-century countryside is shattered by the war - it's a story that could take place in almost every European country. And that's what the creators of the new Danish epic 1864 are aming for: a large, European audience. Sidse Babett Knudsen from Borgen plays one of the lead roles, Ole Bornedal wrote the script and directs.

With a budget of 23 million euro it's the most expensive Danish production ever, funded by a number of Scandinavian countries, ARTE and the Czech Republic, and released both as an 8-part TV series and as a feature film to attain more viewers and publicity. We'll see that more often in the future, as the boundaries between film and television are fading. Think of Jane Campion's Top of the Lake, which won an Emmy for best camerawork. Viewers nowadays expect quality of both their films ánd their tv series. And so they should.

1864 is gripping drama with impressive mass scenes and images that last - although we do hope the number of slowmotion scenes with people running on the battlefield stays limited. The fragment we saw, was screened January 31st in Gothenburg during TV Drama Vision 2014, a day of exploring new series from Finland  Iceland, Norway, Denmark and Sweden.

The quality was remarkably high. Instead of crime the emphasis now seems to be on historical drama. The Oscar nomination for the film A Royal Affair,  shown in 80 countries, could well turn out to be prophetic: like in crime, in historic drama too the Danes play in the premier league.

On the Norway set of The Heavy Water War

Most impressive, both visually and in every other aspect, was ​​The Heavy Water War. Again an expensive co - production ( Norway, Sweden and Denmark ) on a historical subject. Here, it's about the attempt of the Nazis to create the atomic bomb. It stranded in, of all places, Norway, in an heroic act of sabotage. Who knew? But now we do, and we want to see more. As it happens, Danny Boyle is currently working on a similar series. It's amazing that after 60 years there still are new, thrilling stories to tell about the Second World War.

These co-productions are a smart move. It means big budgets, so you can actually compete internationally, even with the giants such as Netflix and HBO.

Last but not least, there's Welcome to Sweden, a comedy by Amy Poehler's brother. Greg Poehler moved to Sweden a few years ago and used his newbie-confusion first for his stand-up comedy routine, than for his script. Thanks to his famous surname he got Lena Olin (Chocolat), Patrick Duffy (Dallas) en Ileana Douglas to co-star and cameo. Welcome to Sweden has been sold to good old NBC where it will fit just fine. Like his sister, Greg Poehler has a natural gift for comedy and he maximally exploits the differences between them funny Swedish and his own loose, noisy Americanness.

In the fragment shown, his father in law stands before him naked in the sauna - enfin. Think Meet the Parents. Not bad at all. 'Real and sweet', is what Poehler wanted it to be he said in Gothenborg. After a full day of serious business his pitch was funny and relaxed.
It had that one ingredient you can only find in America: pazazz.

And now, the end is near

2013 was a great year for television – or was it?

House of Cards made quite a splash in February, Orange is the New Black got us all by surprise, Top of the Lake mesmerized us. Mad Men had us- but not quite as much as it did before. Girls broke our heart. And then there were other, less refined pearls, like Ray Donovan. The beautifully build-up finale of Breaking Bad was without a doubt the highlight of the year, while Homeland both jolted and disapointed us, all in one (fast) heartbeat.

But the true story of tv this year, is not about tv. It's about different ways of viewing, about the growing diversity of players in a fast-changing game, with Netflix and Amazon showing us what the future will look like. But most of all, the story of 2013 is about the shift from tv to video. 

#Cordcutters are a global phenomenon, that affects providers and cable companies, says Business Insider November 24 ('TV is Dying and there are stats that prove it'). Cable tv ratings are in historic slump.  

But cord cutting also affects a seemingly untouchable institution like the BBC.
More than 428,000 British households had claimed exemption from the licence fee in 2012, Intelligent Magazine reports in their fall issue, as they no longer used television sets to watch live broadcasts. That's only 2% of the viewers, but it still means a loss of more than 62 million BP in revenue (and it’s slowly rising: up almost 2,500 from the previous year). 
  
Meanwhile, Facebook and Google have built up an audience that is about to overtake all of TV in terms of reach.Think about that.

Those making money in tv advertising industry, this year will have trouble with the traditional New Year's Eve toast 'happy new year'. 

About viewers control


@IlseCinemanl

Three months later, Kevin Spaceys passionate MacTaggart Lecture at the Edinburgh TV Festival still resonates.

We need to nurture talent, and execs should put more trust in their writers.

While there's lots of good stuff on screen nowadays in the Golden Age etcetera, there's still a lot of mediocrity, too. Way too much, as we learn from an evening of zapping through a whole squadron of police-, courtroom and hospitalseries: ordinary genrework, predictable and boring.  It lulls you into a sullen state of braindeadness. There's no fantasy there, no visual firework.

Viewers want quality. 'Just good is not good enough,' Spacey said.  'Nobody knew he wanted an iPhone and an iPad, until Apple put them in our hands. We need to be as innovative as Steve Jobs. We must surprise the viewer, push boundaries and offer them new things. The  Lena Dunhams of our world - that’s what it's about,' said the actor and artistic director of London's The Old Vic theater, where he runs a talent class. 'If we do not bring in young talent, soon we’ll loose them forever in these times of do-it-yourself and YouTube channels.'

But there is more at stake. 'Culture is not a luxury, it is a necessity. Storytelling helps us to understand each other and the issues of our time.’ Hear, hear.

Drama production is no longer tied to a single platform. Spacey:  'The success of Netflix proves that the viewer wants control and freedom.' During the Q&A he added, that if everything is available immediately and everywhere at a reasonable price, viewers do not have to steal. 'This new model takes a big bite out of piracy.' Good point, not yet made often enough.  Keeping up the old one episode per week rhythm is the Neanderthaler of tv: on it's way to a sure extinction.

Same goes for the business of pilotmaking. Old school, boys.
Spacey, writer Beau Willimon and director David Fincher took their idea for their series House of Cards, about a perverted, opportunist American politician, to all major U.S. channels. However, all wanted to see a pilot first. They refused.  'Not out of arrogance, but because we wanted to tell a story with complex characters and relationships that develop over time.' Spacey criticized the pilot system, forcing writers to establish all the characters and arbitrary cliffhangers in 45 minutes to prove that your work will be successful. 'Last year, 113 pilots were made. 35 were selected, 13 renewed for a second season, but there are now very few left. The cost is between 300 and 400 million dollars. That makes our House of Cards deal of 100 million look really cost effective. '

So when the talent is dicovered, the idea is born and the series is in the air - then what? Then stations must be patient. 'Breaking Bad had a slow start in terms of viewer rates. The Sopranos took nearly four seasons to peak, and Seinfeld even 5 years.' It's like in the Coldplay song Politik: 'Give me time and give me space'. It's worth it, boss.

Netflix?! Amazon!  

This week online retailer Amazon premiers its first original series: Alpha House 

And boy, do we look forward to it, after seeing both the trailer and the already legendary scene nicknamed the Bill Murray fuck me-bomb. To make a big splash, like Netflix Amazon grabs viewers attention with some honorable names in crew & cast: John Goodman, and Bill Murray notably.

Alpha House is about a lazy Republican senator from South Carolina (Goodman), who loves politics but hates campaigning. He is as tried and tested in the political game as Kevin Spacey 's Francis Underwood, but being the tragicomic actor that he is, in Goodmans hands the political game pretty soon gets pretty funny. The series is produced by political commentator and former Newsweek columnist Jonathan Alter; writer is Garry Trudeau, from the Doonesbury-cartoon; a household name in America, published daily in for example The Washington Post. Trudeau is also the writer of the HBO series Tanner '88.
The first step of Amazon in ' TV ' is carefully planned, abiding the rules of social media with lots of viewers participation. Just like Netflix, Amazon uses focus groups to see what works. This spring, Amazon customers, 215 million people worldwide, were able to vote for  a total of 14 pilots. Alpha House ended high, as did Betas, a Social Network –sort of story about nerds in Silicon Valley that will premier one week later. The viewer commands; that's tv-production in 2013. In a reaction to the New York Times, Jonathan Alter says it’s ‘refreshing’: ‘You take some power away from the men in suits.’

It's war in the business of online video streaming. All players in that market know you can’t dominate without original content. Parties like Netflix and Amazon want to gain access to your phone, tablet and PC. They want to be part of the world of the viewer, a household name and, as David Carr put it, a go-to party for interesting tv-series.

The first three episodes of Alpha House are free and online November 15th; for the rest you'll have to pay through the online service Amazon Prime Instant Video, which is available only in the U.S. and Canada. The first month is free, after that you pay $79 a year , less than $7 a month. Subscribers have access to 40,000 movies and series, to be watched on everything that has ascreen. Sofar it’s similar to Netflix. But there's one difference: Amazon Instant Video also provides access to books that you can borrow from the vast Kindle Library. And maybe, in the future, customers also get the daily online edition of the Washington Post, now that that newspaper is bought by Amazon. Why not. If you think that's cheap, $7 per month, think again. Research shows, that the average consumer spends a lot more money once he becomes a subscriber. In other words, you go there for Alpha House and end up buying a blender and a pile of underpants, too. @DramaQueenIlse, cinema.nl