L'Argent - Richard Bresson 1983

The slippery slope theory is real; at least it was in Richard Bresson’s 1983 film L’argent. The premise of the film is that the quest for attaining money leads humans into a chain of terrible events all interconnected to each other. Essentially the film is the story of money, as the title so appropriately translates in English into. This was a film that I had to watch twice in order to truly appreciate the specific nuances and details that are often overlooked by modern moviegoers. This was an interesting film to watch as there really were no extroverted displays of emotion. This gave the film a feeling of purity, something that I hadn’t seen in cinema in a long time. That is to say there were no emotions, no actions, no music, none of the "artificiality" that has normally been associated with current film making. Bresson's style was new to me and I truly appreciated his minimalist techniques. Although, I had serious reservations regarding the quality of acting in the film, I was truly impressed by Bresson’s “freezing” of certain moments in the film to garner more attention and give more power to the scene. It almost felt that the scenes were more powerful because of the lack of music and “special effect” noises that I’ve become accustomed to in watching modern day movies, i.e. Inception. The ending of the movie, Yvon committing the murder, was so much more powerful and shocking because there was no accompanying music.

It was clear that Bresson, who I was unfamiliar with prior to watching this film, had a particular notion of how money corrupts humanity. And he displayed this belief through a film of sequential, terrible chain of events. That was obvious to me; everything began with the forged 500-franc note which had then unleashed a series of horrible and undeserved events, to the most unlikely victim, Yvon Targe, a shy gas station attendant. This led me to think of the indiscriminate nature of money. With money, bad things can happen to everyone, regardless of the character of the person.

The film gave me a feeling that Bresson was attempting to portray a manifest destiny with money, a predetermined fate for people handling money, that the evil chain of events is unstoppable and predetermined. If this was truly the belief he was attempting to reveal, then money, in Bresson’s eyes is evil. My understanding of Bresson’s theory was that evil does not lie in every human, but rather that evil lie in inanimate things such as money. It was quite clear to me that Bresson in the beginning of the film was attempting to show the viewer that Yvon was a good, morally righteous man. It was not the case that evil stemmed from Yvon, but rather the circumstances that money placed Yvon in, transformed Yvon, from the good man into Yvon the murderer.

Although, I truly appreciate the film for what it stood for, and the lessons told by Bresson, I can’t help but think that the idea of L’argent may have been greater than the film itself. I truly respected the cinematic devices employed by Bresson, however, the story could have been better visualized. I can imagine a better adaptation of this film. A producer could revision this film to fit today’s standards given the grotesque situation this nation currently finds itself in. Such a film could have a profound effect on Americans given the existing zeitgeist of emotions and sentiments towards Wall Street, large corporations, and capitalism.

Shepard Fairey's "Two Sides of Capitalism: Bad"

The piece of art I chose to analyze is a 30 x 49 inch screen print on paper signed and printed by Shepard Fairey in 2007. The screen print is titled “Two Sides of Capitalism: Bad” and is from an edition of 89. The screen print is part of a two-part series of screen prints, with the other print titled “Two Sides of Capitalism: Good”. The two prints were meant to resemble the front and back of the US one dollar bill. The “Two Sides of Capitalism: Bad” print resembles the back of the US one dollar bill. Therefore, in resembling the dollar bill note, the screen print is symmetrically balanced in the sense that nearly every shape is mirrored. The color of the screen print is generally light green with shades of cream and black outlined fonts, similar to the US dollar bill. Roman and Greek patterns and shapes are ubiquitous in the print. Fairley replaced the center icon of George Washington with his signature “Obey” slogan. Featured throughout the print are phrases such as “Indiscriminate Capitalism”, “New World Order”, “In Lesser Gods We Trust”, “Obedience is the Most Valuable Currency”, and “Ransom Note”.
Shepard Fairey issued this statement about his artwork, “The OBEY campaign can be explained as an experiment in Phenomenology. Heidegger describes Phenomenology as “the process of letting things manifest themselves.” Phenomenology attempts to enable people to see clearly something that is right before their eyes but obscured; things that are so taken for granted that they are muted by abstract observation”. The title and phrases within this screen print truly set the theme and tone of this screen print and what Fairey is attempting to convey. “Indiscriminate Capitalism” is vastly important because capitalism’s greatest pro is that its indiscriminate therefore eliminates culturally divisive elements in society such as race when it comes to trade. Therefore the best capitalists are those who simply look for the best deals revolving around principles of supply and demand. However, capitalism is indiscriminate to the losers as well. There are winners and losers in capitalism and just as those who win, those who lose have no ethnicity or race making them unified by the principals of capitalism as well. New World Order, is actually featured on the actual US dollar bill note in Latin as “NOVUS ORDO SECLORUM". This phrase is part of the Great Seal of the United States and refers to the “New American Era” as the Declaration of Independence was signed declaring independence from Great Britain. The phrase is powerful; many attribute the phase to a Masonic conspiracy connecting the United States, the dollar, and the Free Masons to the occult with the attempt for world domination. Fairey knew the connections and various interpretations of the phrase and purposely positioned it within the screen print in English. Instead of the Eye of Providence and the pyramid, Fairey featured the Earth with a hand attempting to grab it. Within the hand is the dollar symbol. This seal can be interpreted as the almighty dollar taking over the world. The phrase ransom note draws connections to the idea that we are hostages to money. This phrase coupled with “In Lesser Gods We Trust”, and “Obedience is the Most Valuable Currency” creates the theme of people being subjects to money and capitalism and that we, humanity, are slaves to the system so long as we simply obey, and accept the system. Money and capitalism are almost elevated to deities and religions in a sense that part of faith and believing in God and religion is simply accepting that God exists, by simply accepting the role of money and capitalism in our lives not questioning its motives, role, and purpose we are continuing its longevity, power, and existence in our lives. The bad side of capitalism is that it creates a greed for accumulating money by any means necessary and that quest for money can be dangerous and can change us as humans and turn us into a greedy civilization whose sole purpose for existence is the worship of money.

Paper 2

(Paper #2) Interview two people about money. Whose picture is on a twenty? Ask them why they ‘believe’ in money. Do they imagine a time in which people might not believe in money? Why is money important? And two of your own questions. Write a page describing the results of your survey.

I conducted two interviews one with an older woman, mid sixties, her name was Eloise, and young man in his mid twenties named Charlie. I asked both the same questions: 1) whose picture is on the twenty 2) why do they believe in money 3) Do they imagine a time in which people might not believe in money? 4) Why is money important 5) Is money the root of all evil? And 6) what is the first thing you would you do if you won a million dollars?

Both Eloise and Charlie answered question one correctly saying Andrew Jackson. When asked why they believe in money I received very different responses. Eloise was baffled by the question and adamantly answered saying she does not believe in money, it’s simply a means to an end. Charlie on the other hand said money was empowerment. With regards to question three, Eloise stated that there will always be greed and therefore always be a belief in money. Charlie answered with the question, “How can people live without money?” A very telling answer, that money is simply accepted as a part of nature as if was born and there is the earth, the sky, and money. Eloise, when asked why is money important, answered that it is not important, referring back to her earlier answer, that its simply the vehicle for obtaining things, and that people are important not inanimate objects. Charlie stated that money “makes the world go ‘round”. Question 5 was exciting because it solidified my original impressions of the two, Eloise answered saying that money was not evil, but people use it as an excuse to do “evil things” whereas Charlie said money was a necessary evil. The final question, what would be the first thing you do if you won a million dollars, Eloise answered take care of her children and grandchildren and go on vacation. Charlie answered quit his job and school and then retire.

The answers were very telling because it shows you a gap in thinking. Eloise believes in humanity, and that people are to blame for the negative characteristics people attribute to money. The consistent theme of money being a vehicle to obtaining things exemplified the notion that what people do with money is an extension of their natural character. Charlie in the other hand is looking for an escape. The very idea of him working, and educating himself is to reach a point in his life where he would no longer have to do such things, money is his solution, a dream. This to me shows the gap between two generations of thinking. One where perhaps people lived within their means and the other which I call the credit generation in which people are willing to indebt themselves in order to obtain and do the things they always wished to fulfill.

Paper 1

Terms such as credit default swaps, collateralized debt obligations, trouble asset relief program, sub-prime mortgages and adjustable rate mortgages were foreign to majority of Americans prior to the financial crisis. Most Americans also accepted several notions as truths, one of them being that your home was an appreciating asset. What we’ve come to realize amidst this global catastrophe is that we are all connected, for better and for worst, Thomas Friedman claimed the “world was flat” due to globalization, this financial crisis proves his thesis.

The root cause of the crisis truly stems from the subprime loan market. A subprime loan is a loan given to borrowers that are considered risky. In the years leading up to the subprime crisis, interest rates had been cut to 1% in order to avoid the country going into recession after the “dot com bubble” burst in 2000. This allowed businesses to borrow money easily which allowed them to spend more generously which is great because it grows the US economy. So much money was now available that financial institutions started offering loans to buyers with poor credit scores. Because these borrowers were considered less likely to be able to pay the loans back, these subprime borrowers were charged higher interest rates. Banks then began to offer diverse types of subprime loans such as interest only mortgages, and adjustable rate mortgages (ARMs) after initial success with subprime lending. ARMs would usually offer an initial low “teaser” rate for a certain period of time and then reset to a higher rate, resulting in a dramatically higher monthly mortgage payment than the initial payment the borrower was making.

Traditionally, if one were to get a mortgage from a bank, the bank would lend the money and then hold the loan, earning money from the fees they charge and the interest paid to the bank on that loan. The bank was limited on how many loans it could lend by the amount of money it had on deposit. The bank held all the risk for those loans as all the loans were on its books. In order to spread the risk and allow banks to make more loans, investment bankers developed a process for securitizing mortgages by selling the risks to other financial institutions and investors in another market. So lending institutions were now able to bundle these loans together and sell them to other financial institutions and investors. The bundles that the loans are put into are referred to as Collateralized Debt Obligations, CDOs. This frees up capital for the bank and reduces their risk, so they can lend more mortgages and earn more fees. The types of financial firms that invested in these CDOs varied from banks, to hedge funds, to pension funds, to insurance companies all over the world including Great Britain, continental Europe, the Emirates, and Asia. In order to insure against the risk in purchasing such CDOs, the buyer may enter into a Credit Default Swap in which the buyer purchases something similar to insurance in order to protect against the risk of buying such CDOs. Corporations such as AIG sold credit default swaps. Yet AIG was unable to meet their CDS guarantees to their clients resulting in the United States government “bailing out” such firms in order to rescue the US economy with fears of a looming depression if the businesses were allowed to fail also resulting in a global financial catastrophe.

The “bailout” term stems from the Emergency Economic Stabilization Act of 2008, in which the Secretary of the Treasury, Henry Paulson, was authorized to spend up to $700 billion to purchase distressed assets from companies involved in the US financial system, especially in mortgage-backed securities, and make capital injections into banks. This brings us to today, fear and uncertainty of the future, and unemployment looming around 10%.