One of my favorite examples of dark matter in film is from the 2007 film Funny Games. The movie, a shot-for-shot remake of the 1997 film of the same name, is an experiment in the deconstruction of the "torture porn" sub-genre of horror. Two young guys decide to mentally and physically mess with a family and force them to play a series of twisted games. All of the violence, the juicy parts that made the Saw and Hostel franchises so popular, happens just outside of the frame. You can hear it and see everyone's reaction to it, but almost everything is right out of view of the audience. While violence here is the dark matter of the film, we discussed for a while in class about how the audience can sometimes be categorized into dark matter. Throughout the film, the fourth wall is repeatedly broken when the two guys wink at the camera (to let the audience know they're in on a joke) or even asks the viewer a question at one point. Funny Games is a wonderful exploration into the dark matter of violence and the audience as these are two things the horror genre almost depends on. The movie fully acknowledges that the viewer is present, but then refuses to give it want it wants. It's a brilliant movie and makes me feel sick in the best ways.
I struggled with this second part for a while, and when I first read the prompt it just made me mad that I even had to face this question. It's like asking me to shoot a dog with rabies - inevitable and unwilling. I decided that theatre, the stage, is just not the vehicle for representing the Holocaust. I've been thinking all week of plays that deal with particularly sensitive real moments from history. Theatre never shows events and grand pictures. Theatre zooms in, and focuses on how an event/war/movement affects a group of people. Hair focuses on WWII but only shows how it affects a group of hippies. Often, theatre uses an event as a backdrop and chooses to focus on how the event affects someone. It doesn't strive to accurately depict a whole event. Clybourne Park, 1776, Spill, Aftermath… all of these shows deal with an event, but don't actually show the event. You could almost call the event the dark matter. Theatre is just not the place to represent the Holocaust. I feel like film could depict it on a larger scale than theatre could. You would get a better image, a clearer idea of the big picture. Imaging a set designer designing an internment camp for a show is horrifying. Casting actors for SS officers and Jewish people is even more uncomfortable. It's just not the medium an event of that magnitude belongs in. If not handled with care, it could even come off as a parody, or just generally unfaithful to history. You can show people dying in a movie and it can be incredibly powerful and seem "real". It holds weight. Deaths are never particularly believable or strong on stage. It's very difficult to represent accurately. You can't show believable death on stage. It just seems too mocking and playful. An accurate, complete, faithful representation of the Holocaust belongs on the screen, not the stage.
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