The inaugural International Conference on Twenty-First Century Film Directors, organised by The University of Wolverhampton in conjunction with Redeemer University College, Ontario, focused on Tim Burton. The choice of Burton as subject was an appealing one, as his lengthy career has been varied, including such eclectic works as Beetlejuice (1988), Ed Wood (1994) and Charlie and the Chocolate Factory (2005). Though his films have attracted attract large audiences (particularly 2010’s Alice in Wonderland, which grossed over a billion dollars at the worldwide box-office), Burton’s productions invariably display the hallmarks of his idiosyncratic sensibilities. His oeuvre can be analysed through any number of prisms, but this event specifically explored the theme of ‘curious bodies’ in his films, many of which are fantasy horrors featuring unusual beings including ghosts, vampires and zombies. Held at Light House Media Centre in Wolverhampton in February 2018, this one-day gathering brought together contributors from around the world in stimulating discussion that built on existing scholarship about Burton and challenged some existing notions.
Dr Frances Pheasant-Kelly (University of Wolverhampton) introduced proceedings, talking briefly about the origins of the event, before Dr Samantha Moore (University of Wolverhampton) delivered the day’s first keynote address. She discussed the various functions of metamorphosis in animation, defined as the fluid transformation of one body into another. Moore situated metamorphosis historically as a subversive tool that serves to disrupt narrative structure and causal logic. Correspondingly, she suggested that its use in animation is widely regarded with scepticism, noting that the technique does not feature in the ’12 Basic Principles of Animation’ developed by the so-called ‘old men’ of Walt Disney Studios. Nonetheless, she observed that Burton, who had a fraught time working for Disney in the 1980s, exhibits a clear affinity for the spontaneity and chaos engendered by transformation. With reference to a range of films including Alice in Wonderland, Moore claimed that metamorphic spatialities in Burton’s films are presented as far more appealing locations than real-world ones, whilst his transformative characters, including the eponymous figure in Corpse Bride (2005), are particularly empathetic ones within his canon. Moore’s presentation proved a compelling start to the day and, fittingly, metamorphosis would emerge as a reoccurring theme of the conference. Furthermore, Burton’s animated work would be examined in a number of subsequent presentations.
Indeed, the day’s first panel concentrated on animated bodies within Burton’s films. Dr Christopher Holliday (King’s College, London) considered the issue of ‘unruliness’, a cultural label associated with transgression. Specifically, he applied Kathleen Rowe’s conception of the term to the body of the titular protagonist in Corpse Bride. More broadly, he remarked that Burton himself appears to be an unruly figure, whose visual style, characterised by expressionist tendencies, runs counter to most mainstream filmmaking. Finally, Holliday wondered, with reference to the opening sequence of Frankenweenie (2012), whether stop-motion itself, a visibly labouring form characterised by staccato and stuttering movements, constitutes a fundamentally unruly type of animation. This was a thought-provoking note on which to finish, and Holloway’s incisive paper was one of the highlights of the day. He was followed by Emily Mantell (University of Wolverhampton), who worked as a crew member on Corpse Bride. She offered a fascinating insight into the film’s production, a process that began without a completed script. She suggested that the personnel of the storyboard department were pivotal in getting the film’s plot ‘whipped into shape’, reflecting that Burton is primarily a visual filmmaker rather than a story-driven one. Mantell discussed the daily rituals of the artists working on the film, such as physical embodiment, positing a key relationship between bodily creative processes and cognitive ones. With reference to exciting visual aids such as storyboards, she engagingly explicated the unseen influences that affected the film’s script.
Fragmented bodies were discussed in the second panel, which began with Elsa Colombani (University of Paris-Nanterre) scrutinising the influence of Frankenstein (both Mary Shelley’s 1818 book and James Whale’s 1931 film adaptation) on Burton. By analysing a range of films, Colombani contended that Burton sometimes inverts aspects of Shelley’s story, one example being the elderly inventor played by Vincent Price in Edward Scissorhands (1990), who contrasts with the youthful figure of Victor Frankenstein. However, as in Shelley’s book, Burton’s creatures also bear the mark of their manufactured nature. She identified repeated visual motifs that bolstered her case, such as Burton’s use of sutures and of broken mirrors, which expose fractures in his characters’ psyches. Recurrent themes were also considered, including the themes of disintegration and rebirth that pervades Burton’s productions. Dr Rob Geal (University of Wolverhampton) also drew on Shelley’s Frankenstein in his presentation. Noting that contemporary adaptation studies suggests that texts mutate to reflect the cultures in which they are rewritten, he argued that Burton celebrates the monstrous in his films, thus displacing Shelley’s proto-feminist critique of male creation in a manner that is reductive. In Burton films including Frankenweenie (2012), Geal claimed, male creation is presented as benevolent, unlike its female equivalent, which Burton appears to associate with banality. Visual synecdoches in Burton’s work provided the focus for a paper by Dr Helena Bassil-Morozow (Glasgow Caledonian University), who paid particular attention to the symbolism in films including Edward Scissorhands and Big Eyes (2014). For instance, she suggested that Edward’s damaged hands represent creativity in the former film, as does the depiction of exaggerated eyes in the latter. She also applied the attributes of the Jungian archetype of the child to Burton’s work, identifying a range of ‘child’ figures in his films, including monsters and superheroes. Bassil-Morozow noted that characters with pertinent childlike traits in these films never become the hero, even those that adopt ostensibly heroic guises, such as Batman. The Caped Crusader was also relevant to the panel’s final paper, in which Peter Piatkowski (Independent Scholar) reflected on Michelle Pfeiffer’s role as Catwoman in Batman Returns (1992). After highlighting the overlap between Southern Gothic literature and Burton’s films, namely the shared celebration of the grotesque, Piatkowski observed the ways in which Burton manipulates Pfeiffer’s attractive star image to convey Catwoman’s breakdown, as her physicality fragments in conjunction with her mental collapse. He also reflected on the contemporary resonance of the film, situating Max Shreck (Christopher Walken) as a Donald Trump analogue, and finding the narrative to be a vivid illustration of the destructive powers of misogyny and unchecked privilege. Overall, Piatkowski’s paper added to the fascinating ways in which representations of corporeal disintegration were considered in this panel.
Monstrosity and embodiment were the focal points of the first afternoon session in which Ana Rita Martins and José Duarte (University of Lisbon) again located Shelley’s Frankenstein as a key antecedent of Burton’s films. However, they suggested that for contemporary audiences physical disfigurement may no longer constitute a necessary aspect of monstrous figures, citing the eponymous characters of the successful television series Dexter (2006-2013) and Hannibal (2013-2015) as examples. Therefore, they posited that contemporary scholars should think about monsters through the effect of their actions, offering a persuasive reading of Frankenweenie to make their case. They argued that the film may represent Burton’s most personal work, as it reflects many of his aesthetic and thematic obsessions, in addition to depicting a range of different bodily forms. Ultimately, its narrative implies that true monstrosity lies within as opposed to being primarily a set of physical characteristics, Martins and Duarte suggesting that this may be Burton’s salient contribution to the ongoing discussion about what it means to be monstrous. Cath Davies (Cardiff Metropolitan University) noted that previous papers had touched upon the visual motif of stitching, before delivering her accessible and engaging disquisition about the relationship between embodiment and clothing in Burton’s films. She referred to the self-fashioning figure of Jack Skellington in The Nightmare Before Christmas (1993) to demonstrate that fabric is related to subjectivity and acts as a conduit for character, supporting this claim with examples from Corpse Bride. She contended that dissolution and deterioration are the key conceptual factors that shape this aspect of Burton’s work, and the identification of fabric’s mediating effect on somatic instability inspired lively exchanges in the question and answer session that immediately followed the panel.
The final session of the event showcased two papers that were related in their consideration of gender and sexuality. Firstly, Dr Antonio Sanna (Independent Scholar) talked about the history of ‘Catwoman’, referring to the differing incarnations of the character in comics, television and film since 1940. He favourably compared Michelle Pfeiffer’s portrayal to other notable onscreen personifications, including those of Eartha Kitt, Julie Newmar and Halle Berry. Though Sanna noted that the villainess typically embodies certain characteristics including ambition, dynamism and capriciousness, he claimed that the popularity of Burton’s Catwoman can be attributed to persuasive feminist readings of the character, which he deftly contextualised. He also remarked on Catwoman’s apparent supernatural powers, a trait almost exclusive to Burton’s personification of Batman’s feline foe. In the next presentation, Alexandra Hackett (Sheffield Hallam University) observed that sexuality and social anxiety are attributes not often associated with key Burton characters, arguing that their misunderstood ways of communicating who they are is more important to making them ‘peculiar’ than their physical appearances. To support this case, she utilised the prism of Freud’s stages of psychosexual development to posit Edward Scissorhands as an asexual figure, offering a detailed reading of the constituent parts of Johnny Depp’s performance, especially in relation to figure movement. Hackett subsequently examined Edward’s sense of self through Lacan’s notion of the mirror stage, her paper situating one of Burton’s most iconic characters in a stimulating way. She also considered Barnabas Collins, the protagonist in Dark Shadows (2012), also played by Depp, finding that he exhibits similar behaviour to Scissorhands.
References to Batman (1989) occurred regularly throughout the day, so it was appropriate that the second keynote address also focused on the Dark Knight. Dr Adam Barkman (Redeemer University College) surveyed Burton’s contribution to the identity of Batman, his analysis acknowledging that the various iterations of the character present inconsistencies that are impossible to fully unite. He remarked on areas in which Burton was relatively unsuccessful in embodying Bob Kane’s character, one example being the director’s unconvincing depiction of Bruce Wayne (played by Michael Keaton in both Batman and Batman Returns) as a socialite. Barkman reflected more positively on the psychological complexity Keaton brings to the character, and on Burton’s emphasis on villains. He argued that The Joker (Jack Nicholson) plays a crucial role in illuminating Batman’s darkness, praising Burton’s decision to tighten the duality between the two characters. Ultimately, Barkman concluded that the filmmaker’s considerable contribution to the character’s mythology paved the way for Christopher Nolan’s subsequent trilogy. This reference to Burton’s influence on subsequent directors rounded off the lecture, and was followed suitably by the launch of A Critical Companion to Tim Burton (2017). The book was edited by Barkman and fellow conference contributor Antonio Sanna, and is intended to be the first in a series focusing on auteur filmmakers. Miss Peregrine’s Home for Peculiar Children (2016) was screened in the venue’s main cinema, the family adventure being an apt choice, as its quirky mystery story about youngsters with special powers encapsulates many of the ideas that had previously been discussed. Finally, a conference dinner brought a close to the day, which had been a success. The variety of topics, issues and themes touched upon made for invigorating listening, and served as a reminder of the diverse scholarship required to properly appraise Burton’s work. The standard of presentations was high, and the question and answer sessions generally elicited lively conversation. Also welcome was the inclusion of a number of speakers with filmmaking experience, as this helped ensure that a wide range of perspectives were represented. Therefore, the first International Conference on Twenty-First Century Film Directors promised significant potential for future iterations of the conference, with the 2019 event scheduled to focus on the films of Kathryn Bigelow.
Dr Frances Pheasant-Kelly (University of Wolverhampton) introduced proceedings, talking briefly about the origins of the event, before Dr Samantha Moore (University of Wolverhampton) delivered the day’s first keynote address. She discussed the various functions of metamorphosis in animation, defined as the fluid transformation of one body into another. Moore situated metamorphosis historically as a subversive tool that serves to disrupt narrative structure and causal logic. Correspondingly, she suggested that its use in animation is widely regarded with scepticism, noting that the technique does not feature in the ’12 Basic Principles of Animation’ developed by the so-called ‘old men’ of Walt Disney Studios. Nonetheless, she observed that Burton, who had a fraught time working for Disney in the 1980s, exhibits a clear affinity for the spontaneity and chaos engendered by transformation. With reference to a range of films including Alice in Wonderland, Moore claimed that metamorphic spatialities in Burton’s films are presented as far more appealing locations than real-world ones, whilst his transformative characters, including the eponymous figure in Corpse Bride (2005), are particularly empathetic ones within his canon. Moore’s presentation proved a compelling start to the day and, fittingly, metamorphosis would emerge as a reoccurring theme of the conference. Furthermore, Burton’s animated work would be examined in a number of subsequent presentations.
Indeed, the day’s first panel concentrated on animated bodies within Burton’s films. Dr Christopher Holliday (King’s College, London) considered the issue of ‘unruliness’, a cultural label associated with transgression. Specifically, he applied Kathleen Rowe’s conception of the term to the body of the titular protagonist in Corpse Bride. More broadly, he remarked that Burton himself appears to be an unruly figure, whose visual style, characterised by expressionist tendencies, runs counter to most mainstream filmmaking. Finally, Holliday wondered, with reference to the opening sequence of Frankenweenie (2012), whether stop-motion itself, a visibly labouring form characterised by staccato and stuttering movements, constitutes a fundamentally unruly type of animation. This was a thought-provoking note on which to finish, and Holloway’s incisive paper was one of the highlights of the day. He was followed by Emily Mantell (University of Wolverhampton), who worked as a crew member on Corpse Bride. She offered a fascinating insight into the film’s production, a process that began without a completed script. She suggested that the personnel of the storyboard department were pivotal in getting the film’s plot ‘whipped into shape’, reflecting that Burton is primarily a visual filmmaker rather than a story-driven one. Mantell discussed the daily rituals of the artists working on the film, such as physical embodiment, positing a key relationship between bodily creative processes and cognitive ones. With reference to exciting visual aids such as storyboards, she engagingly explicated the unseen influences that affected the film’s script.
Fragmented bodies were discussed in the second panel, which began with Elsa Colombani (University of Paris-Nanterre) scrutinising the influence of Frankenstein (both Mary Shelley’s 1818 book and James Whale’s 1931 film adaptation) on Burton. By analysing a range of films, Colombani contended that Burton sometimes inverts aspects of Shelley’s story, one example being the elderly inventor played by Vincent Price in Edward Scissorhands (1990), who contrasts with the youthful figure of Victor Frankenstein. However, as in Shelley’s book, Burton’s creatures also bear the mark of their manufactured nature. She identified repeated visual motifs that bolstered her case, such as Burton’s use of sutures and of broken mirrors, which expose fractures in his characters’ psyches. Recurrent themes were also considered, including the themes of disintegration and rebirth that pervades Burton’s productions. Dr Rob Geal (University of Wolverhampton) also drew on Shelley’s Frankenstein in his presentation. Noting that contemporary adaptation studies suggests that texts mutate to reflect the cultures in which they are rewritten, he argued that Burton celebrates the monstrous in his films, thus displacing Shelley’s proto-feminist critique of male creation in a manner that is reductive. In Burton films including Frankenweenie (2012), Geal claimed, male creation is presented as benevolent, unlike its female equivalent, which Burton appears to associate with banality. Visual synecdoches in Burton’s work provided the focus for a paper by Dr Helena Bassil-Morozow (Glasgow Caledonian University), who paid particular attention to the symbolism in films including Edward Scissorhands and Big Eyes (2014). For instance, she suggested that Edward’s damaged hands represent creativity in the former film, as does the depiction of exaggerated eyes in the latter. She also applied the attributes of the Jungian archetype of the child to Burton’s work, identifying a range of ‘child’ figures in his films, including monsters and superheroes. Bassil-Morozow noted that characters with pertinent childlike traits in these films never become the hero, even those that adopt ostensibly heroic guises, such as Batman. The Caped Crusader was also relevant to the panel’s final paper, in which Peter Piatkowski (Independent Scholar) reflected on Michelle Pfeiffer’s role as Catwoman in Batman Returns (1992). After highlighting the overlap between Southern Gothic literature and Burton’s films, namely the shared celebration of the grotesque, Piatkowski observed the ways in which Burton manipulates Pfeiffer’s attractive star image to convey Catwoman’s breakdown, as her physicality fragments in conjunction with her mental collapse. He also reflected on the contemporary resonance of the film, situating Max Shreck (Christopher Walken) as a Donald Trump analogue, and finding the narrative to be a vivid illustration of the destructive powers of misogyny and unchecked privilege. Overall, Piatkowski’s paper added to the fascinating ways in which representations of corporeal disintegration were considered in this panel.
Monstrosity and embodiment were the focal points of the first afternoon session in which Ana Rita Martins and José Duarte (University of Lisbon) again located Shelley’s Frankenstein as a key antecedent of Burton’s films. However, they suggested that for contemporary audiences physical disfigurement may no longer constitute a necessary aspect of monstrous figures, citing the eponymous characters of the successful television series Dexter (2006-2013) and Hannibal (2013-2015) as examples. Therefore, they posited that contemporary scholars should think about monsters through the effect of their actions, offering a persuasive reading of Frankenweenie to make their case. They argued that the film may represent Burton’s most personal work, as it reflects many of his aesthetic and thematic obsessions, in addition to depicting a range of different bodily forms. Ultimately, its narrative implies that true monstrosity lies within as opposed to being primarily a set of physical characteristics, Martins and Duarte suggesting that this may be Burton’s salient contribution to the ongoing discussion about what it means to be monstrous. Cath Davies (Cardiff Metropolitan University) noted that previous papers had touched upon the visual motif of stitching, before delivering her accessible and engaging disquisition about the relationship between embodiment and clothing in Burton’s films. She referred to the self-fashioning figure of Jack Skellington in The Nightmare Before Christmas (1993) to demonstrate that fabric is related to subjectivity and acts as a conduit for character, supporting this claim with examples from Corpse Bride. She contended that dissolution and deterioration are the key conceptual factors that shape this aspect of Burton’s work, and the identification of fabric’s mediating effect on somatic instability inspired lively exchanges in the question and answer session that immediately followed the panel.
The final session of the event showcased two papers that were related in their consideration of gender and sexuality. Firstly, Dr Antonio Sanna (Independent Scholar) talked about the history of ‘Catwoman’, referring to the differing incarnations of the character in comics, television and film since 1940. He favourably compared Michelle Pfeiffer’s portrayal to other notable onscreen personifications, including those of Eartha Kitt, Julie Newmar and Halle Berry. Though Sanna noted that the villainess typically embodies certain characteristics including ambition, dynamism and capriciousness, he claimed that the popularity of Burton’s Catwoman can be attributed to persuasive feminist readings of the character, which he deftly contextualised. He also remarked on Catwoman’s apparent supernatural powers, a trait almost exclusive to Burton’s personification of Batman’s feline foe. In the next presentation, Alexandra Hackett (Sheffield Hallam University) observed that sexuality and social anxiety are attributes not often associated with key Burton characters, arguing that their misunderstood ways of communicating who they are is more important to making them ‘peculiar’ than their physical appearances. To support this case, she utilised the prism of Freud’s stages of psychosexual development to posit Edward Scissorhands as an asexual figure, offering a detailed reading of the constituent parts of Johnny Depp’s performance, especially in relation to figure movement. Hackett subsequently examined Edward’s sense of self through Lacan’s notion of the mirror stage, her paper situating one of Burton’s most iconic characters in a stimulating way. She also considered Barnabas Collins, the protagonist in Dark Shadows (2012), also played by Depp, finding that he exhibits similar behaviour to Scissorhands.
References to Batman (1989) occurred regularly throughout the day, so it was appropriate that the second keynote address also focused on the Dark Knight. Dr Adam Barkman (Redeemer University College) surveyed Burton’s contribution to the identity of Batman, his analysis acknowledging that the various iterations of the character present inconsistencies that are impossible to fully unite. He remarked on areas in which Burton was relatively unsuccessful in embodying Bob Kane’s character, one example being the director’s unconvincing depiction of Bruce Wayne (played by Michael Keaton in both Batman and Batman Returns) as a socialite. Barkman reflected more positively on the psychological complexity Keaton brings to the character, and on Burton’s emphasis on villains. He argued that The Joker (Jack Nicholson) plays a crucial role in illuminating Batman’s darkness, praising Burton’s decision to tighten the duality between the two characters. Ultimately, Barkman concluded that the filmmaker’s considerable contribution to the character’s mythology paved the way for Christopher Nolan’s subsequent trilogy. This reference to Burton’s influence on subsequent directors rounded off the lecture, and was followed suitably by the launch of A Critical Companion to Tim Burton (2017). The book was edited by Barkman and fellow conference contributor Antonio Sanna, and is intended to be the first in a series focusing on auteur filmmakers. Miss Peregrine’s Home for Peculiar Children (2016) was screened in the venue’s main cinema, the family adventure being an apt choice, as its quirky mystery story about youngsters with special powers encapsulates many of the ideas that had previously been discussed. Finally, a conference dinner brought a close to the day, which had been a success. The variety of topics, issues and themes touched upon made for invigorating listening, and served as a reminder of the diverse scholarship required to properly appraise Burton’s work. The standard of presentations was high, and the question and answer sessions generally elicited lively conversation. Also welcome was the inclusion of a number of speakers with filmmaking experience, as this helped ensure that a wide range of perspectives were represented. Therefore, the first International Conference on Twenty-First Century Film Directors promised significant potential for future iterations of the conference, with the 2019 event scheduled to focus on the films of Kathryn Bigelow.