Clue.py

Summary

Medium: Live narration over footage from Ridley Scott’s Blade Runner

Status: Complete (2014)

Presentation/Publication history: Presented at the Brown University Evening of Neo-Benshi, curated by Konrad Steiner

Description

An homage to the Japanese tradition of live-narrating silent film, neo-benshi is a practice in which performers replace the soundtrack of an existing film with their own live performance. In this particular neo-benshi piece, Ridley Scott’s dystopian sci-fi film, Blade Runner, is recast as a Clue-themed mystery. As the gritty violence of Blade Runner plays out on screen, the performer transfigures the hyper-masculine Rick Deckard, the overtly-victimized Rachel, and the smug Eldon Tyrell to absurd counterparts in the world of Clue. In this re-imagining, Harrison Ford plays a somewhat dense detective investigating the death of Mr. Boddy, who had come up with the next great thing in internet pornography just before he was murdered.

Much of the humor of the piece stems from how little needs to be changed to divert the grim dystopia of Blade Runner into the silliness of Clue. The piece asks its audience to acknowledge some of Blade Runner’s excesses without detracting from its genius. Toward the end, Clue.py flips the established relationship between its source texts, however. The performer shifts from dubbing over character’s lines to reading a code poem memorializing Mr. Boddy. With this shift, the dark visuals of the film suddenly reassert their significance. The audience is reminded that both Blade Runner and Clue ultimately end in death.

By juxtaposing these two texts, Clue.py raises questions about what we allow ourselves to laugh at and what requires our seriousness. The death of Mr. Boddy in Clue is just as much of a death as that of Roy in Blade Runner, yet only one demands our respect. In drawing attention to these contradictions, Clue.py invites a more nuanced response to tragedy, making room for both humor and seriousness.