Minutes for - 2 February 2004

Films Viewed –

            Zuckerbaby (1985) – Directed by Percy Adlon.  Starring Marianne Sagebrecht

                        and Eisi Gulp.

            Babycakes (1989) – Directed by Paul Schneider.  Starring Ricki Lake and Craig

                        Sheffer.

In today’s class we watched the first and last 15 minutes of two films - Zuckerbaby, an art-house dark comedy, and its American made-for-TV remake, Babycakes.

Zuckerbaby – First 15 minutes

            - The film begins with a rather plump middle-aged woman (Marianne) floating around in a pool.  The credits begin as the woman is shown getting on a bus, riding the subway, going to work at a funeral parlor.  It’s as if no one notices she’s even there, as light-sounding music plays in the background.  The scenes are dimly lit, almost mysterious looking.  She goes to the store to buy food, snacking all the while.  She goes home, eats more, and goes to sleep.  She says nothing at all.

            The next day, it’s the same all over again. Pool, work, etc. She heads home on the subway, and we just watch her. She just sits there, blankly staring, as we keep hearing the conductor call out “Next stop”.  When she gets off the train, she sees the conductor (Huber), and the scenery becomes a near-blinding light, leaving only faint traces of her and the conductor.  He does not notice her.

            She goes home and takes a look in the mirror. She takes a 5-week leave from work and then begins trying to track Huber down. She buys a subway schedule, she even tries to learn Huber’s name by claiming he harassed her on the train.  She finally succeeds in stealing a work schedule from the personnel room, and that’s where we stopped.

Babycakes – First 15 minutes

            - The film begins with a rather plump woman in her twenties (Grace) floating around in a pool.  She gets on the subway, buys candy, and goes to the store and to her dimly lit apartment.  She watches a show on television where a woman is bashing a man for his looks, and an infomercial from one of those self-help gurus is admonishing people to take control of their life.

            The next day at work (funeral parlor), her friend is talking about some sex dream she had about Gorbechev as our heroine applies makeup to a woman whose funeral is later.  Her boss scolds her for fixing up her hair where no one could see it anyways, and then gets on to her about taking time off to go to her father’s wedding.

            Grace and her buddy go shopping for a dress for her father’s wedding.  After some run-in’s with hideous dresses and a run-in with a snotty store-clerk who teases Grace about her size, they go for hot dogs.  Then they begin to check out the guys that are ice-skating, and one guy totally blows them away. His name is Rob. He’s probably going to be important later, and that’s where we stopped.

Mr. Reimer, at this point, pointed out some similarities and contrasts between the two films.  He told us that both movies run about 1.5 hours long, and the heroines in both films get the guys to come over for dinner in similar ways.  In “Zuckerbaby”, Marianne gets the guy’s wife to go away on some sort of family emergency.  In “Babycakes”, Grace gets the girlfriend to go out of town.

But he said there’s a difference in how the “seduction” goes down in the two films.  In “Zuckerbaby”, Huber is entranced by Marianne’s cooking skills and all the food she has prepared, and then seduced when she stands in front of him and takes off his clothes.  In “Babycakes”, the only reason the guy comes over is because he is drunk, and then he passes out.                                                                                                              

Zuckerbaby – last 15 mins.

Marianne and Huber are in bed talking.  She tells him the story of her mom dying and how alienated she felt, and people’s perceptions of dying as he holds her hand. The camera zooms all around the room, which is pinkly-lit.  In the background hangs a photo of her mother and father with the fathre’s face blanked out.

Apparently Huber’s wife is back and sees something in their home that tips her off as to what’s going on.  So she sneaks over to Marianne’s apartment where she and Huber are playing with a new foosball table.  Marianne says they should go to a rock show that’s happening, and they leave with the wife tailing them.  At the rock show, Huber and Marianne dance happily until Huber’s wife shows up and beats the HECK out of Marianne with her handbag.  The crowd goes dead quiet and just watches as the beatdown ensues.  Huber’s wife drags him out of the building.

Suddenly, we’re back at the pool. Marianne is just floating as she did before, but then she gets up. We see her face is bruised, and she lets out a scream. Then, we see her at the train station, dressed very nicely.  She smiles as she holds up a Sugar Baby candy bar, but we don’t see if there’s anyone else there, or why she’s smiling. Roll credits.

Babycakes – last 15 mins.

Grace is at dinner with her Dad and his new wife.  She is about to leave when the new wife gives Grace an old picture of her Mom and Dad, saying they don’t have anywhere to put it.  Grace, depressed, leaves the picture in the trash and walks down the street. Her father catches up to her, gives her the picture back.  Grace has known for a while that her mother committed suicide, and she and her dad finally talk about it.  She also vents her sadness about losing Rob.  She says that she’s always felt she wasn’t quite what her dad wanted, and her dad tells her she turned out beautifully.

It turns out that Grace’s buddy was the one that tipped off Rob’s girlfriend that Grace and Rob were fooling around. She feels bad, Grace forgives her.

Grace does another funeral at the parlor, where they celebrate the deceased’s birthday since the funeral is on his birthday.  After a few verses of “He’s A Jolly Good Fellow”, Grace’s boss asks her if she’s gone insane. She quits her job. 

We see Rob at the subway, and then at home where his girlfriend and soon-to-be wife is driving him crazy.  He gets that “What in the heck am I doing” look on his face.

Grace is moving on, she gets an interview to go to a hair and makeup school.  Rob sees her at the subway station, chases her down, says “I love you”, and they kiss and make up.  Passangers applaud.  Roll credits.

We also got our first Assignment Questions, due by next class. The questions were –

1 – Describe the differences in the opening 15 minutes of Zuckerbaby (Percy Adlon, 1984) and Baby Cakes (Paul Schneider, 1989).

2 – Do the same for the last 15 minutes of each film.

3 – What are the possible outcomes for the woman in Zuckerbaby? (What is going to happen next?)

4 – On the basis of what you have seen from these two movies, draw up a list of items that are different, then explain the differences on the basis of the type of movie each is. Zuckerbaby is an art house dark comedy. Baby Cakes is a made for TV romantic comedy.

5 – What preconceptions does Adlon appeal to? Which does he try to counter? How does he counter them?

6 – What preconceptions does Schneider appeal to? Which does he try to counter? How does he counter them?