Thursday, March 12, 2015
Louie, Louie, Louie, Louie-ee-ee
Shot
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Video (all
MS)
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Audio
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1
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Louis coming out of NYC subway (rising from the bottom of the screen,
Washington Sq)
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2
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Louie walking down NYC street at night, “Louie” DFX in white, upper R
of screen, next to his face
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Louie, Louie, Louie, Louie
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3
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Louie walking down another NYC street at night
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Louie, Louie, Louie, Lou-I
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4
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Louie enters pizza joint, buys slice, starts eating it in the doorway
(smash editing between actions)
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Louie, Louie, Louie, Louie
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5
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Louie stands, eating the pizza quickly, in large bites, people
watching
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Louie, Louie, you’re gonna cry
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6
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Louis stuffs in a few more bites, throws pizza in trash can propping
up door, returns to sidewalk
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Louie, Louie, Louie, Louie
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7
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Louie walking down another NYC street at night
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Louie, Louie, Louie, Lou-I
Louie, Louie, Louie, Louie |
8
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Louie turns to enter a building, smiles and shakes hands briefly with
a man outside, descends the stairs to Comedy Cellar
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Louie, Louie, you’re gonna die
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9
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Lit up Comedy Cellar sign, basement entrance, “Written and directed by
Louis C.K.” DFX
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Louis C.K.’s semi-autobiographical
sitcom, Louie, features succinct, often
dark, vignettes of a comedian’s daily struggles in New York City. (C.K. insists
that his character on Louie is different than his “real-life” persona; for the
purposes of this analysis, “Louie” refers to the eponymous character, while
“C.K.” refers to the actor/comedian/writer/producer behind it.) The series open exposes viewers to Louie’s themes of finding depth in the
mundane, dealing with social anxiety and personal failure, and engaging with
the urban landscape all in a brief thirty seconds. As you can see in the shot-by-shot analysis,
the series open is a simple narrative: Louie emerges from the subway, walks
down a few city blocks, ducks into a restaurant for a quick slice, continues
his walk, and enters Comedy Cellar.
Despite consisting of less than 10 shots, this opening credit sequence
sets up tropes and patterns that Louie develops more fully.
The clear presence of a narrative in
this series open differentiates it from ones that rely more on symbolic
imagery. The opening shot of Louie climbing the stairs of a subway station
establishes travel, movement, possibly part of a regular commute – his casual
attire and meandering pace make this feel like an everyday occurrence and
suggest that the series is interested in Louie’s mundane experiences rather
than extraordinary or over-the-top situations. The way in which Louie rises
from the bottom of the screen as he ascends from the subway may also reference
Louie’s relatively new phase of life – a divorced father of two – that are
revealed to the viewer in the pilot.
Louie returns to below ground at the
end of the sequence when he descends the stairs to Comedy Cellar. Louie’s
nocturnal lifestyle, both a symptom of and rationalization for his career as a
stand-up comedian dictates the ways in which he interacts with New York
City. He spends most of his time
underground, either in the subway or in the basement club, and the sequence
features him moving through the city at night, visually signifying the series’
dark subject matter and the character’s (and C.K.’s public persona in general)
misanthropic perspective.
Before he reaches Comedy Cellar,
though, he stops at a casual pizza restaurant and scarfs down a slice in front
of a door propped open by a trash can. Louie’s patronage of a working-class business like a
pizza stand may act as a signifier of his self-perceived outsider status among
showbiz elites, but the series itself belies this construction by inscribing
Louie within a decidedly white, heterosexual, upper class habitus. Rather,
Louie’s stop at the pizza joint can be seen as an overt reference to his issues
with binge and over-eating as well as a subtle metaphor for the ways his vices
and weaknesses constantly derail his efforts and plans. The way Louie
instantaneously order, pays for, and receives the pizza (through smash-cut
editing techniques) and then stuffs his mouth with huge bites speaks to the
unthinking ways he falls victim to his character flaws; on the other hand, he
shoves the unfinished slice into the trash, maybe because he’s in a hurry, but
probably because he is already guilty about this unnecessary pit stop on his
way to a performance. Finally, the smile on Louie’s face while he’s people
watching from the restaurant’s doorway reveal his complicated attraction to
(and simultaneous repulsion from) humanity – perhaps he isn’t quite as
misanthropic as he’d like us to believe.
Finally, the editing techniques,
digital effects, and music of the series open provide another layer of meaning
for the viewer. The song, “Brother Louie” by Stories and released in 1973,
syncs with the chronological connotations brought up by the graphics of the
opening credits – a heavy, rounded, seriphed font reminiscent of ‘70s sitcoms.
The lyrics tell the story of a white man dating a black woman whose family
disapproves of the relationship, but Louie
only uses the chorus: a repetition of the name “Louie” followed by “you’re
gonna cry” (as he enters the pizza parlor) and “you’re gonna die” as Louie
enters Comedy Cellar and the credits come to a close. Not only do the lyrics
reference his inevitable guilt accompanying his vices and stand-up jargon that
equates “dying” with a poor performance, but the repetitive use of the name “Louie”
underlines C.K.’s showrunner status – the credits identify him first as
“starring” in and finally “writ[ing] and direct[ing]” the series. In
addition, the smashcut editing techniques mentioned above parallel Louie’s
disjointed and anxious interactions with people; things happen in quick
succession with few contextual details, leaving Louie and the audience grasping
at straws, trying to make sense of the scene.
Louie’s 45-second series open reveals multiple themes explored within the show itself. It quickly sets up its protagonist as a misanthropic, indulgent character; its setting as urban and nocturnal; and its topics as deeply mundane. The layers of meanings available to viewers in these 9 brief shots speaks to the multivalent signifying practices of the medium that, at least partially, give both television studies and normal viewing practices their exuberance and nuance.
Louie’s 45-second series open reveals multiple themes explored within the show itself. It quickly sets up its protagonist as a misanthropic, indulgent character; its setting as urban and nocturnal; and its topics as deeply mundane. The layers of meanings available to viewers in these 9 brief shots speaks to the multivalent signifying practices of the medium that, at least partially, give both television studies and normal viewing practices their exuberance and nuance.
# posted by Bailey Kelley @ 12:36 PM 
