Welcome to The Queue — your daily distraction of curated video content sourced from across the web. Today, we’re watching a video essay about how the Wachowski sisters’ debut film, ‘Bound,’ subverts the genre conventions of film noir.
Auteur cinema has its sins, I’ll admit. Many a megalomaniac has arrogantly traipsed into the jungle armed with a film crew and an ego the size of Greenland to risk real human lives for the sake of art. But one of the boons of following a director’s career is watching their inaugural attempt at movie-making. Reservoir Dogs feels like a concise thesis of everything Quentin Tarantino would go on to do. Spike Lee’s She’s Gotta Have It was a veritable door-kick. And it’s unbelievable that Sidney Lumet’s first crack at a feature film was 12 Angry Men.
So when I first learned that The Wachowskis‘ directorial debut was a subversive, queer noir thriller, my jaw dropped to the floor like a cartoon wolf. And it stars Jennifer Tilly, Gina Gershon, and Joe Pantoliano? Holy crap!
After penning 1995’s Assassins (which was, supposedly, a mixed experience), the sisters chose to make their foray into feature filmmaking by doing something no one had done before. Namely: a film noir from the perspective of the femme fatale. In a move that would prove a telling, they chose to work from within a well-known genre, while at the same time making it wholly theirs. Film noir is a genre that mutates quite readily; its conventions are clear and transferrable. And more to the point: it is a ready and willing space for a good twist.
So, with all this in mind, let’s dive in. Here’s how The Wachowskis announced their presence by breaking all the rules.
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