Edward O'Neill comments:



> Example one:  what Bingham identifies as "a prostitute's
> Asian clients."  The character is not yet a prostitute when
> we first meet them, and they're in drag and in their
> underwear (semi-drag? un-drag?).  Exactly which Asian
> stereotype is this?  It's all a bit too mixed up and
> perverse to be easily decipherable.
>
> Later when these two men appear, they do indeed seem to be
> the girl's clients (with her father's blessings).  At that
> point they're dressed in something closer to business
> attire, and then we might say they're stereotyped Asian
> businessmen--had we not already seen them in wigs and
> makeup.

It is even unclear at first as to whether they might be the costumier's
employees!  In retrospect, I'm reminded of the client with the buzzing
box in BELLE DE JOUR.


>
> Example two:  why is the tailor "Jewish"--or "New York
> Jewish," to be more exact?  I read him as middle-eastern or
> Arab American.  Is he a type?  And he isn't really a
> tailor:  he rents costumes.  Does the tailor-ness make him
> closer to a type or narrow middle-eastern-ness to
> Jewishness?

I agree that Milich seemed quite non-Jewish to me.  Rade Serbedzija,
the actor who played him, is apparently Croatian.


>
> This does also fit with the use of (Proppian) 'helper'
> characters in the film and helps lend it a fairy tale
> quality.  (This is also lifted from _North By Northwest_.)
> Everyone the hero meets seems to help him:  (a) because he's
> a doctor, (b) because he's charming as all getout, and (c)
> becaus otherwise the film couldn't happen.
>
> Try, just try, to find that many people to help you do
> *anything* in New York City.  (Kubrick's isolation from
> reality perhaps takes its toll here--unless you don't want
> the film to be about the New York we know but rather a fairy
> tale version, which actually makes a bit more sense.)
>
> Perhaps my point is the same as Bingham's:  one needs
> certain categories in order to read the film, but the film
> also refuses these categories to some extent.


I haven't yet read the Schnitzler novel on which the film is based (it
will be soon reprinted along with the screenplay in paper), but
according to Raphelson (screenwriter) and those who've read the book,
it is quite "faithful" to the novels details.  One thing that Raphelson
has mentioned in writing about his collaboration with Kubrick is that
Kubrick wanted to tone down or eliminate most Jewish references in the
film, to make it more specifically about a gentile world.

Don Larsson


----------------------
Donald Larsson
Minnesota State U, Mankato
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