Clueless

365 Films

Entry #42

Clueless (1995)

Directed by Amy Heckerling

Six years ago I was interning for an undisclosed production company on the Sony lot and we were visiting the set of a big Hollywood picture that was just about to wrap.  The scene in particular being filmed was none too interesting, however we still stood in rapt attention due to the participation of several of the film’s key players.  Among them were one of its stars, its director, and most important to this story: the cinematographer.  As I gazed in wonderment at the director in question, my female co-workers were all breathlessly pointing out the presence of the DP.  “Bill Pope, oh my god, it’s Bill Pope!!!”  I turned around, thinking I had the answer for my star struck friends.  “Yeah, he shot The Matrix, right?”  Their come back was as passionate as it was immediate.  “No! He shot Clueless!!! DUH!!!”  I pulled out a granola bar and retreated back to my corner and meekly stated, “I withdraw my question.”  It was at this point that I knew Clueless as a movie had survived and maintained a legacy.  Soon after that I bought the DVD and finally realized exactly what they were talking about.  Clueless was a film that I’ve always appreciated and have only recently come to love.  I saw it when I was eleven and as embarrassing as it is to admit now, I was much more taken with the previous month’s release of Congo.  I’m sorry but the girl from those Aerosmith videos had nothing on a talking gorilla that drank martinis and jumped out of airplanes.  I don’t want to get on a whole tangent here but seriously, somebody needs to write a graduate thesis paper on Congo, for it is some kind of warped masterpiece.  Anyway, as the years went by I started to appreciate the subtle humanity that writer/director Amy Heckerling brings to her characters and in particular, the adult characters.  The parents and teachers in this film are not treated like the absent-minded; rap lyric quoting buffoons most teen movies reduce them to.  This generosity of spirit extends to the rest of the cast as well.  All of them might not be perfect (I’m looking at you, Elton) but in keeping with the fluidity of the teenage personality complex, they all reveal themselves to be more than we initially thought.  When Cher has to reassess the damage her oblivious personality has wrought, she finally comes to the realization that the world is not a film in which she is the protagonist.  Everybody in her life has a story and they all have their reasons.  And it is in this decision to give herself over to a larger idea of humanity that she is able to find any kind of stable happiness.  That Miss Heckerling is able to introduce these kinds of ideas into a film populated by characters that a lesser filmmaker would take pleasure in glibly mocking is just one of its many revolutionary traits.  I feel I must also acknowledge the films legacy as my personal introduction to the city and culture of Los Angeles.  Needless to say its virtues in this department definitely revealed themselves more thoroughly when I actually moved out here.  Nevertheless, in thinking back to that opening weekend in 1995, the film remains as fresh today as it did almost eighteen years ago.  It’s an exemplary teen movie and a refreshing example of a mind-meld between pop culture and cinema. Bill Pope indeed.