Studio 1 - Week 9 - Related Works HH

Watchmen, episodes 1-4, HBO series, 2019

Admittedly I have only watched the first four episodes of this show but I am truly hooked, a rare feat for me as I don’t normally watch TV shows. This series is a true sequel to the iconic graphic novel Watchmen (Alan Moore/ Dave Gibbons, 1986-1987) which follows a group of mostly non-super powered masked vigilantes in a United States that is similar to but not the same as the real thing. We are again in that same version of the United States, but in a present day setting. Centering on race-relations in the US might seem like a strange tangent for the series but it actually fits very well. This may be partly because the series is so well made: intense action sequences, clever and unpredictable choices, peppered with the odd ethereal and philosophical moment, a bit like the original comic. And the characters actually seem smart, and nuanced, and dark; there’s no fluff to be seen here, and the gloomy black comedy from the original comic has returned in full force.

Melbourne literary map, Steph Hughes

Artist Steph Hughes (no relation) made this pretty cool map of the best literary places to visit in the CBD and beyond (Melbourne became a UNESCO City of Literature in 2008), which I found when looking at music festivals’ quirky maps (Hughes also made a map for Golden Plains festival one year). I like this type of work for a few reasons. Firstly, it is a reasonably accurate and detailed map and points out many places to visit. Secondly, it is hand drawn and has several illustrations; for example, Hughes has drawn a snake and a ladder between La Trobe St and Little Lonsdale which means that for a second you are taken out of the moment and your brain thinks it’s looking at a board game. This balance between seriousness and play is something I strive to strike in my work, and I think this is a great example of it working well- a practical tool and also an interesting work of art.

Matthias & Maxime, directed by Xavier Dolan, 2019

Two childhood friends, now young men, are asked to act in their friend’s sister’s student film. Though both of them are straight, the characters are required to kiss for an extended period, an innocent act that goes on to completely reshape their relationship which each other and what they know about themselves. Matthias is a fairly conservative and successful finance guy, Maxim struggles to find success but we learn that he cares for his mentally unstable mother and has been abandoned by his brother. Their large group of male friends (and their girlfriends) would definitely be shaken up if they knew that the two men had feelings for each other, and so they try and repress these feelings. This is so heartbreaking; you want to tell them to COMMUNICATE, but they seem totally incapable, resulting in Matthias breaking down and Maxime wanting to run away to Australia. This tension of unalterable feelings being repressed and the inability for close friends and family to communicate drives this and most of Dolan’s other films.