Appendix 3.2: Sample films, synopses and character lists
MARY POPPINS US 65
George is rewarded for his daring by the encounter with the
bankers who, joyously flying their kites, not only reinstate
him in the bank but make him a partner. He has taken his
medicine and, like the children in the nursery, is now enabled
to perceive that it tastes sweet. So the film encourages its
audience to query conventional values, to explore the
contemporary meanings of maturity, sanity and madness and to
understand their relativity. As Mary Poppins tells us lIt all
depends on your point of view. You see, in every job that must
be done there is an element of fun..., It is not so much that
Mary (and the film) urge irresponsibility but rather that they
insist on a fresh and inventive approach to people and events,
an approach relieved of the deadening weight of traditional
rules. Mary 'brings chaos in her wake, but through it she and
Bert provoke George into the recognition of both the fleeting
nature of childhood and, more profoundly, of the value of
childhood innocence and curiosity as a model for adult
behaviour. This valorising of the young and the new is
absolutely consistent with other popular films of the period.
In addition there are numerous unmistakable references to the
youth culture of the sixties with its emphasis on personal
liberation, instant fulfilment and a kind of hedonism as the
birthright of all who cared to claim it.
Running alongside the thematic preoccupations outlined above
is another set of references, rather more problematic for a
British audience. I have shown how London is represented
through a series of symbols: looking at the film overall it is
clear that an American concept of 'Britishness1 is represented
in a similarly schematic fashion. It is particularly
interesting to note the preferred readings invited apropos the
institutions selected to convey this 'Britishness'. They are
either the subject of ridicule or they are located at the
negative pole of oppositions suggested in the diegetic value
structure. Thus the British navy is represented by the absurd
Admiral Boom marooned in his rooftop ship's deck. The British
banking system, so proudly announced by George is revealed,
later in the film, to be hopelessly weighed down by senile and
blinkered men dominated by the laughable visions of the
British Imperial past. The British public school system is
referred to rather more obliquely, but the reference is
nevertheless clear in both George's requirements of a Nanny 'A
British nanny must be a general' and in his ritual punishment
at the bank. Here the emblems of George's position in the
world of (British) men - his red carnation, his furled
umbrella and his bowler hat - are ceremonially destroyed by
the banker Dawes following his ancient father's instructions.
The British system of class and domestic hierarchies,
announced in George's opening song
It's grand to be an Englishman in 1910
King Edward's on the throne, it's the age of men.
I'm the lord of my castle, the sovereign, the liege
I treat my subjects, servants, children, wife
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