Wikipedia:Reference desk/Archives/Entertainment/2011 November 29

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November 29

Lack of familiarity with zombie fiction in zombie fiction...

Now, I haven't watched every zombie apocalypse movie ever made, but I'm yet to see one where the characters are familiar with the concept of zombies - before the dead rise to feed on the living, I mean. It's as if they exist in a world much like ours - only one that never had zombie movies and the old legends about voodoo zombies that inspired zombie movies. I suspect that if corpses got up and started shambling around in this world, people would be all like "OMG! Zombies! Zombies are real!", but not with these folks. Is there a name for this effect? If you understand what I mean... --Kurt Shaped Box (talk) 00:00, 29 November 2011 (UTC)

I think what you are wrestling with here is the distinction between the "classic" or "type" work in a genre, and the "postmodern" treatment of a genre. Postmodern fiction is very self-referential and self-aware in its understanding of the conventions of a genre, and in its deliberate "tweaking" of those conventions. See metanarrative and metafiction for some of these ideas. Consider the way films like Scream (film) are clearly aware of the horror-film conventions, while itself being a horror film. Very post-modern. What you seem to be looking for is a "postmodern zombie apocalypse" film. Perhaps Shaun of the Dead is the best example I can think of. Also Zombieland. While the characters are not necessarily aware of the conventions of the zombie film, the writers clearly are, and they let the audience know that the writers know what zombie films are like... --Jayron32 00:14, 29 November 2011 (UTC)

You see that in most genres. It avoids a lot of tedious self-reference. James Bond's enemies never just give up in futility when they realize that a super-spy is on their tail. Cmdr Data never says "This situation is not unlike science fiction programs from the late twentieth century", etc.

TVTropes calls it Genre Blindness.

APL (talk) 01:43, 29 November 2011 (UTC)

White Zombie (film) was a popular low budget indie movie from 1932, with Bela Lugosi, and conveyed some of the notions present in some later Zombie movies, more in the Voodoo tradition of Haiti. Someone made someone a zombie by giving them a bit of a sly poison, and then could make them a living dead slave. It had sequels or legacy movies in 1936, 1940, 1942, 1943, and 1966. The Zombie (cocktail) came along after the White Zombie movie (The joke name alluded to the movies or the Haitian tradition and implied "Drink them and you become like a zombie." The characters in these films included some who were aware of the notion of zombies, but who might be a bit skeptical. The "brain eating" and infectious zombieism from a bite seems to come from Romero's Night of the Living Dead from 1968, and to be the basis for subsequent zombie movies. The characters in the Romero and legacy films seemed to be less awareness of zombies in these before the initial outbreak. Edison (talk) 03:20, 29 November 2011 (UTC)

Offhand, two films and an anime series where characters know of zombies; Zombieland, Shaun of the Dead, and High School of the Dead; all of these have deliberate instances of comedy so it is a self-referential thing. The last two also specifically try not to say "zombie" because even though they know what they are, they don't want to believe what is really happening. — Preceding unsigned comment added by 209.145.88.147 (talk) 04:08, 29 November 2011 (UTC)

You specified films, so may or may not be interested in written fiction. If you are, the Newsflesh series of novels and stories by "Mira Grant" (Seanan McGuire), beginning with Feed is set in a post-zombie apocalypse world in which reports of the earliest victims had at first been thought hoaxes because of their resemblance to classic Romero-style zombies. Incidentally, that last-linked article includes lists of zombie-featuring works in various media that you may find useful. It doesn't run to non-fiction, but one work of relevance (which I happen currently to be reading in its English translation) is the classic anthropological study Voodoo in Haiti by Alfred Métraux. {The poster formerly known as 87.81.230.195} 90.197.66.111 (talk) 09:26, 29 November 2011 (UTC)

Thanks for all the replies guys - just what I was looking for. --Kurt Shaped Box (talk) 01:22, 2 December 2011 (UTC)

Citypulse suv from the building

What's up with the building in Toronto having a truck or SUV coming out from it? It has CityPulse on it. What vehicle is it? Chevy? Ford? — Preceding unsigned comment added by 70.31.17.122 (talk) 02:58, 29 November 2011 (UTC)

It's just an attention grabber (and it doesn't say Citypulse anymore[1]). No clue as to the brand. Clarityfiend (talk) 05:25, 29 November 2011 (UTC)

I don't know what kind of truck it is, but we have an article on the building itself, 299 Queen Street West. CityTV used to be known for other attention-grabbing things like having news anchors present the news standing up instead of behind a desk...I guess see CityTV and Moses Znaimer for a general picture of why they would have a truck exploding out of the wall. Adam Bishop (talk) 22:10, 29 November 2011 (UTC)

Looks like an eight generation Chevy Suburban. --Daniel 22:30, 29 November 2011 (UTC)

Movie title

Is there a term to describe the concept of, for instance, Silence of the Lambs possessing such a title when, in reality, the entire sub-sub-sub story that provides the background for such a title is ostensibly so inconsequential and isolated from the film at large that it could have been left out of the movie altogether without leaving any noticeable deficiency? DRosenbach ^{(Talk | Contribs)} 05:07, 29 November 2011 (UTC)

Maybe you could find it in the Title Tropes list on TVTropes but it could take you a while to go through all those. --Colapeninsula (talk) 09:51, 29 November 2011 (UTC)

Word salad title?--90.165.117.197 (talk) 23:14, 29 November 2011 (UTC)

Title Drop. Comet Tuttle (talk) 08:26, 30 November 2011 (UTC)

Charlies Angels Full Throttle movie / Scene location

Would like to know what house or location was used for the scene in the charlies angels full throttle movie When Matt Leblanc & John Cleese were talking about Lucy lu . — Preceding unsigned comment added by 1.124.227.244 (talk) 09:42, 29 November 2011 (UTC)

imdb talks about the Sheats-Goldstein Residence in Hollywood Hills, I'm not sure if that's the spot you're looking for. This lists other movies that have been filmed there. The Mark of the Beast (talk) 00:12, 30 November 2011 (UTC)

Thank you , the reference supplied was spot on !!! Sheats Goldstein residents. — Preceding unsigned comment added by 101.171.221.120 (talk) 13:58, 30 November 2011 (UTC)

Music from Bronson film

I'm trying to remember in which film I've heard this piece of music before. In this clip it comes in around 1:00 until about 2:00. CAUTION, the clip has swearing and prison violence in it. I think it's by Wagner and I'm sure that it's been used in another film at some sort of key dramatic point.2.24.234.131 (talk) 15:41, 29 November 2011 (UTC)

I think it's from the funeral of Siegfried at the end of Götterdämmerung. -- Finlay McWalterჷTalk 15:51, 29 November 2011 (UTC)

Yes, it's Siegfried's Funeral March. -- Jack of Oz ^{[your turn]} 08:12, 30 November 2011 (UTC)

That's it thanks, and it's John Boorman's Excalibur that I'm thinking of. When the sword is thrown back into the lake.2.24.234.131 (talk) 16:55, 29 November 2011 (UTC)

Excalibur also used "O Fortuna" prominently, a number that's frequently heard in different places nowadays. ←Baseball Bugs ^{What's up, Doc?} carrots→ 21:15, 29 November 2011 (UTC)

Yea, O Fortuna is used a lot, see the long list at Carl Orff's O Fortuna in popular culture. Pfly (talk) 23:38, 1 December 2011 (UTC)

Oh dear: Australian beer advert.--Shirt58 (talk) 07:16, 2 December 2011 (UTC)

Name of this Donald Duck comic?

There is an ongoing comic story in the Donald Duck pocket books called "McDuck's Secret Service" (fi:Ankan Tiedustelupalvelu in Finnish). It's about Donald Duck and Fethry Duck working as secret agents for Scrooge McDuck. In contrast to Paperinik and DoubleDuck, where Donald's alter ego is successful either as a vindicator or as a secret agent, in this comic he and Fethry are hopeless bumbling oafs. In the Finnish translation, Donald's code name is "LäPä 7" ("Lähes pätevä", "nearly adequate") and Fethry's code name is "Tota 12" ("Toistaitoinen", "incompetent"). What is the original name for this comic? Is there an English translation? JIP | Talk 21:16, 29 November 2011 (UTC)

The pocket books aren't translated from English, they collect stories that were originally published in the "Topolino" pocket books in Italy. I haven't read any of the recently published Topolinos for quite a while so I don't recognize the story...for what it's worth, here is an index of all the stories published in the Italian magazine. I found some websites in Finnish about the story but I didn't really understand much :P - is there a Finnish site that lists from what story (and ideally from which issue of Topolino) it has been translated? If you can get that information, I'd probably be able to dig up the original -- Ferkelparade π 23:28, 29 November 2011 (UTC)

Addendum: is it this story? If so, it's originally from Topolino #2407, and unfortunately it looks like there is no English translation yet -- Ferkelparade π 23:39, 29 November 2011 (UTC)

Yes, it's that story. Is there an original Italian name for the story's theme ("Ankan Tiedustelupalvelu" in Finnish)? JIP | Talk 05:11, 30 November 2011 (UTC)

Scrooge's secret service is called "P.I.A." (Paperon Intelligence Agency) in the Italian comics, Donald is Agent Qu-Qu 7 (for agente quasi qualificato, which I guess is understandable without translation), Fethry is Me-Se 12 (mezzo servizio, half service). Here's the article on it.wiki: it:Paperon_Intelligence_Agency -- Ferkelparade π 09:39, 30 November 2011 (UTC)