A keynote stimulus for high school film studies students who may be studying science fiction and allegory or metaphor.

1. Metamorphosis
and Transformation in Film
Conceptual framework for teaching.
John Carozza
jcaro2@eq.edu.au

2. Why is this framework full of such possibilities
for the film teacher to explore?
Where does it fit?
By transforming humans in fable, myth
or fantasy, storyteller s are able to
address the perils of being human in
metaphorical form.

3. Humans are now and have always been
storytellers.
Stories that are thousands of years old still maintain
a core of relevance to contemporary audiences
because of their allegorical qualities and their
insight into the human condition.
Charles Darwin’s Origin of Species told an old story in a new
way : bodily metamorphosis is not supernatural but natural.
Given deep time, biological evolution is :
natural metamorphosis.

4. Film is an
extraordinary
medium in that it
allows a visual
interpretation of
ideas.
As an artistic medium
that is reliant on
storytelling and
technology, it has
allowed the artist a way
to represent the process
of transformation
graphically and aurally.

5. Metamorphosis can
depict the universe in a
constant state of flux.
Often the
metamorphosis reveals
the true identity of the
character.

6. Metamorphosis in mythological terms
refers to a character in a narrative
transforming into another entity.
In mythology, the transformation that takes
place is significant because it is often the
result of an offense and the resulting
punishment.
Example : Ovid’s Metamorphosis :
(a) Contains over 250 transformations
(b) Origins of contemporary language drawn from latin roots.
(c) Moral fables that are lyrical and poignant.

7. Example : Actaeon, a skilled huntsman and storyteller,
accidentally comes across Diana bathing. She
angrily turns him into a stag and his hunting dogs
pursue him along with his fellow hunters. He is
unable to plead with them, not having a human
voice and consequently is torn apart.

8. The metamorphosis of Actaeon is poignant
because when Actaeon is introduced it is
because of him that :
‘the mountainside was stained with the slaughter
of different wild animals’.
His demise is through an accidental occurrence
and ironic because of the of creature he is
morphed into.

9. The concept of metamorphosis allows a varied
palette for the teacher to explore many ideas that
are embedded within the filmic form.
Primarily the unit can be built around
a core through line of :
(What it means to be) Human.

10. What does it mean to be human?
Man as the ‘paragon of animals’.
What a piece of work is man...The paragon of animals?
from : Hamlet

11. What does it mean to be human?
Man as the ‘paragon of animals’.
Morality and Ethics
Emotional
paradoxes: Love,
hate, betrayal,
loyalty etc
Existential
questions of
life and
purpose
Thought and Action

12. The Human Form
The ‘animal’ within.

13. Sci-Fi as allegory : The Fly is Re-
interpreted from 1958 film by Kurt Neumann.

14. The original Fly explored the metamorphic process literally,
with the scientist, trading heads and body parts.
The idea of teleportation, eliminating costly and polluting
fuels was at the basis of his experiments.

15. The surreal ending resonates with the viewer
because we are witness to the scientist
trapped in a spider’s web, crying for help.

16. The surreal ending resonates with the viewer
because we are witness to the scientist
trapped in a spider’s web, crying for help.

17. Sci-Fi as allegory : The Fly
(dir. David Cronenberg, 1986)

18. Cronenberg’s The Fly is a film where whilst
Metamorphosis is a core element of the narrative, it
sits above the storyline because of the humanistic
concepts embedded.
Dr Seth Brundle (Jeff Goldblum)

19. Ethics in Scientific
Advances
The body and the
aging process
Disease and
plague
Quantum
Mechanics
Being
HumanMorality

20. In a time of 80‘s excess,
Brundle will potentially
solve such issues as :
(a) transport
(b) fuels
(c) pollution
ways of getting foreign
aide to third world
countries.

21. Opening at a science fair,
Seth Brundle invites a
journalist to be witness to his
teleportation devices.
These are referred to by Brundle as
pods, but are shaped like a metallic
chrysalis.

23. Franz Kafka’s Metamorphosis is a
foundation of ideas that can be built upon and
drawn upon for film ideology.

24. As Gregor Samsa awoke one morning from
uneasy dreams he found himself transformed
in his bed into a gigantic insect.
Kafka (The Metamorphosis)1912
Ronnie: I don't know what you're trying to say.
Seth Brundle: I'm saying... I'm saying I - I'm an insect who dreamt
he was a man and loved it. But now the dream is over... and the
insect is awake.
Cronenberg and Pogue (The Fly) 1986

25. Seth Brundle: What's there to take? The disease has just revealed its
purpose. We don't have to worry about contagion anymore...
I know what the disease wants.
Ronnie: What does the disease want?
Seth Brundle: It wants to... turn me into something else. That's not too
terrible is it? Most people would give anything to be turned
into something else.
Ronnie: Turned into what?
Cronenberg and Pogue (The Fly) 1986

26. Kafka emphasized the absurdity of human
existence, the alienating experience of
modern life.
The word Kafkaesque is used to describe
senseless and sinister complexity in human
behavior.

27. Insects and the idea
of changing into one
is a very
complex and
fantastic way of
examining the human
condition.
Insects are often
associated with
decay and clammer
over dead animals
and materials we as
humans find so
repulsive.

28. The metaphor has such
poignancy because an insect’s
form is so radically foreign to a
human and therefore any
sentiment is removed from the
examination and discussion.

29. The metamorphic process in The Fly is far more
than science gone wrong and the resulting mistake
creating a monster.
It is another versionThe Frankenstein/mad scientist
trope.
Cronenberg’s The Fly, is a socio-cultural
commentary on the 1980’s culture of
hedonism at the turning point of a society in
excess.
Aids is about to become a phenomenon,
redefining sex and sexual behavior.

30. The text of the film is rich in allegory.
Dr Seth Brundle begins to think of himself as Brundlefly.
He is aware of his transformation and aware
that he is ‘evolving’ into another species. It is
his level of acceptance that is fascinating.

32. Be afraid, be very afraid.
returns to find Seth transforming and trying to make a girl he is with
go through the teleportation process.
Seth Brundle, (Jeff Goldblum) in ‘The Fly’,1986

33. Initially he feels that his molecules have been rearranged enriching
him, then as the ‘disease’ takes hold, he sees it as a form of cancer.
Seth Brundle, (Jeff Goldblum) in ‘The Fly’,1986

34. Initially he feels that his molecules have been
rearranged enriching him, then as the ‘disease’ takes
hold, he sees it as a form of cancer.
Brundle’s human body parts become arbitrary and they
begin to detach, teeth, fingernails etc.

35. Initially he feels that his molecules have been
rearranged enriching him, then as the ‘disease’ takes
hold, he sees it as a form of cancer.
Brundle’s human body parts become arbitrary and they
begin to detach, teeth, fingernails etc.
He describes his disease as having a ‘purpose’.

36. Initially he feels that his molecules have been
rearranged enriching him, then as the ‘disease’ takes
hold, he sees it as a form of cancer.
Brundle’s human body parts become arbitrary and they
begin to detach, teeth, fingernails etc.
He describes his disease as having a ‘purpose’.
Metaphorically, he is aging, organically deteriorating
and metamorphosing.

37. Cat People
dir.Jacques Tourneur (1942)
Cat People
dir.Paul Schrader (1982)

38. Cat People’s strength
as a film
is the power of
suggestion.
The metamorphosis is
shown in terms of shadows
and sounds and
juxtapositions.
The films draws from
expressionistic conventions.

39. The films draws from expressionistic
conventions and traditional horror motifs.
Significantly, the ‘monster’ is not revealed but
must be interpreted by the audience.
Irena (Simone Simon)

40. As Alice, (Jane Randolph) swims, a shadow
feline figure seems to stalk her.

41. The Swimming Scene

42. The Attack.

43. Jekyll (2007) dir. Douglas Mackinnon and Matt Lipsey

44. James Nesbitt in Jekyll
The Alleyway Transformation

46. Pom Poko ( 1994)
Directed by Isao Takahata

47. District 9 dir. Neill Blomkamp

48. Selki dir. Donald Crombie
2000
Ondine dir. Neil Jordan 2009
The Secret of Roan Inish
1994 John Sayles

49. Tropical Malady dir. Apichatpong Weerasethakul
A romance between a soldier and a country boy Tong.
Based upon a Thai folk legend involving a shaman with
shapeshifting abilities.

50. Tetsuo Iron Man ( 1989)
Tetsuo II: BodyHammer (1992)
dir. Shinya Tsukamoto