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Classic Film Actress Wants You to Know that Her Inappropriate Rape Analogy Was Literal, Not Figurative

By Dustin Rowles | Posted Under Seriously Random Lists | Comments (30)

k-novak-vertigo.png

Many weeks ago, Kim Novak, classic film actress and star of Vertigo, took out a full-page ad in Variety to shame the makers of The Artist for borrowing the love theme from Vertigo. In the ad, she wrote:

“This film could and should have been able to stand on its own without depending upon Bernard Hermann’s score from Alfred Hitchcock’s Vertigo to provide it more drama … Even though they did give Bernard Herrmann a small credit at the end, I believe this kind of filmmaking trick to be cheating. Shame on them! … I want to report a rape. I feel as if my body — or, at least my body of work — has been violated by the movie, The Artist.”

At the time, Novak was roundly chastised by critics and rape crises groups for unnecessarily invoking Godwin’s Law of Rape. How do you compare credited plagiarism of a score to rape (especially, where Novak didn’t even compose the score. She merely acted in a movie in which said score was used).

Anyway, Novak doubled-down in an interview with the Associated Press this week, and she would like us to know that she did not mean rape figuratively. What she meant was that the authorized lifting actually felt like rape.

“It was very painful,” said Novak. “When I said it was like a rape, that was how it felt to me. I had experienced in my youth being raped, and so I identified with a real act that had been done to me. I didn’t use that word lightly. I had been raped as a child. It was a rape I never told about, so when I experienced this one, I felt the need to express it.”

“I never reported my real rape, so I felt the need to report this one,” said Novak, who left Hollywood in the 1970s for Big Sur, an isolated section of California coastline, before eventually relocating to Oregon. “I felt that someone needed to speak up because the music has been taken advantage of too much. I hope that in the future, maybe somehow it will do some good.”

Oh, well, in that case whatthefuckisyourproblemlady?

(HuffPo via Vulture)









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Comments

whatthefuckisyourproblemlady?

I think Paul said it best in his letter to the Corinthians: "Bitches be crazy."

Posted by: Fredo at March 6, 2012 7:51 PM

Fredo, you made me laugh hard enough to scare the dog.

Posted by: MM at March 6, 2012 7:56 PM

I think Paul said it best in his letter to the Corinthians: "Bitches be crazy."

-This may be my favorite thing I've ever seen on this site.

Posted by: nixdarling at March 6, 2012 8:29 PM

Fredo FTW!

Posted by: Patty O'Green at March 6, 2012 8:29 PM

C’mon guys, this lady is almost eighty years old. I don’t think we need to burn her at the stake, besides, we’ve got bigger fish to fry. Namely that motherfuckin’ bible toting, gay hating, Jim Duggar lite, snake handling Kirk Cameron. If there every was a motherfucker that deserve our scorn it is this motherfucker.

Posted by: Pookie at March 6, 2012 8:30 PM

how about Santorum and Limbaugh?

Posted by: LordNinja at March 6, 2012 8:57 PM

I have enough hate for Santorum, Limbaugh AND Cameron. You broke my 13 year old heart, you bastard.

Posted by: JenVegas at March 6, 2012 9:15 PM

whatthefuckisyourproblemlady?

Maybe that she was raped as a child and never got over it?

I guess hearing the music not associated with the original movie triggered her trauma. So she felt compelled to speak out against it

She didn't say that using the score for The Artist was equivalent to rape, but that she, personally, felt violated. Feelings are never invalid. I don't think she should be judged for that.

And "Bitches be crazy" is totally unwarranted in this situation.

Posted by: FabMax at March 6, 2012 9:19 PM

Yeah you're right, that totally warrants a full fucking page ad in Variety. Zero correlation. Fail.

Posted by: Jez at March 6, 2012 9:53 PM

how is this a list?

Posted by: el dopa at March 6, 2012 10:42 PM

Let it be known that FabMax is awesome and 1) not only knows exactly what I'm thinking, but 2) knows exactly how to express said feelings.

Kim Novak is an old woman who just admitted to being raped as a child. She may or may not be correct in her analysis of the situation, but she definitely does not deserve the "bitches be crazy" analysis.

Posted by: Three-nineteen at March 6, 2012 10:43 PM

Yeah I'll co-sign with FabMax and Three-nineteen on this one. You understand how ridiculous it is that the ideo of this article is sort of "rape is serious and shouldn't be made light of", and you took that and went, well the rape survivor is acting unstable and traumatized, let's not take that seriously at all and instead focus on (admittedly unfortunate) semantics from months ago. The "feminist bent" of this website gets weird as fuck sometimes.

Posted by: sabz at March 6, 2012 11:51 PM

And by unfortunate I mean "not okay at all", but still, both things are wrong and you don't get points for mocking an old woman.

Posted by: sabz at March 6, 2012 11:53 PM

Given that the literal nature and meaning of rape itself, and the often insensitivity society even by today's standards still views its victims at times, perhaps rape is best left to describe the actual act of rape. As a victim of such a crime herself, Ms. Novak should know better. One is a gross violation of a human being, the other is at worst an annoying act of creative laziness. Now that's not saying that using it figuratively is an incorrect metaphor, but there alternatives that get the point across just as effectively without coming off as just a tad insensitive. The sentiment would still be there without going overboard trying to convey the disagreement she has with the creative ethics. The way Novak expresses it, one would think the filmmakers broke into her home and had their way with her on the way to the vaults. I should think she'd be more accurate to take issue with the original studio dealing the material to another production in the first place.

Maybe it's just a matter of semantics. Would her statement have been as inflammatory had she said she felt Vertigo's score had been hijacked for another movie's score? Would it be more accurate for her to have said that The Artist's filmmakers had unfairly used music that was created for someone else's work and just dropped it into their own work like so much cut & paste? Perhaps her point would have been better made had she said that the movie was unjustifiably used or even outright plagiarized of it's material- credit cited or not. Especially since the original composer and director who are long since dead, would likely have balked on such use of their work.

I understand her outrage of somebody else taking a piece of something she had proudly taken part in helping to create and using it like so much a patchwork into their own work. I'm just not convinced her choice of words and her continued steadfast determination to remain with the expression was necessarily the only or best way to get across those sentiments.

Posted by: bleujayone at March 7, 2012 12:42 AM

The fact that she the words "real rape" makes me think she wasn't raped at all.

Posted by: Chrispeare at March 7, 2012 1:27 AM

The fact that she used**

Posted by: Chrispeare at March 7, 2012 1:37 AM

If it is credited use of the music then it is not plagiarism it is an alternate use for a piece of music. Which is not the same as rape. That said, old ladies get a pass from me, you get to 80 you can say what ever the hell you like. I look forward to being a crazy old lady and getting to say all sorts of ludicrous stuff.

Posted by: catagisreading at March 7, 2012 4:28 AM

how is this a list?

1. It's a list, dude. Don't ask so many fucking questions.
2. When you watch Slumber Party Massacre you see young, perfect breasts within the first 60 seconds.
3. Spider-Man's hoodie was fucking stupid.
4. Art-Deco architecture is the best architecture.

SAN-DIMAS HIGHSCHOOL FOOTBALL RULES!

Posted by: superasente at March 7, 2012 8:47 AM

Dear Kim, Put it in your bubble and let it go.

Posted by: wsapnin at March 7, 2012 9:14 AM

She merely acted in a movie in which said score was used

If you watch Vertigo, I think you'll find this statement to be incorrect. She did appear in most of the movie looking incredibly beautiful both as the blonde and the brunette, but she could barely force her face into an expression let alone actually act. Hitchcock's blondes were rarely good actors (Grace Kelly being an exception in my opinion); they were there to be untouchable ice maidens for the most part, not to act.

Posted by: PaddyDog at March 7, 2012 11:01 AM

@Chrispeare That was my first reaction too.

Also, "bitches be crazy" seems fairly accurate in this instance. A song that you had nothing to do with except it appeared in a movie that you were in over 50 years ago then appears in another movie and you feel raped? Really. Raped. Assaulted and violated in the worst way a person can be? Humiliated, objectified, brutalized, penetrated physically and emotionally. Really. Because of a song.

Perhaps someone was desperate for attention in her golden years and thought "finally! Here's my chance to be relevant for a moment more!". I'm not buying it. Any of it.

Posted by: JAJenks at March 7, 2012 12:38 PM

Sorry, no...using a childhood trauma that you conveniently reveal to divert backlash does not make her statements any less offensive. She has every right to voice her opinion, but it in no way justifies her claim or attempts to bring negative attention to The Artist. Old or not, Victim or not, her comments are still wildly offensive to other rape victims and to the fucking movie. She deserves every bit of backlash she gets for going out of her way to get this type of attention in Vanity Fair.

Posted by: valerie at March 7, 2012 12:52 PM

Celebruants (TM) * are often chastised for using the word "rape" for things that are not physically rape. However, this lady didn't just say it in earshot of a journalist, or tweet it, or say it in an interview. She took out a FULL PAGE AD in Variety to announce that she wanted to report a rape. I'm in the "Bitches be crazy" camp. Nobody else associated with the movie seemed to feel this way. It's not like they used it and didn't credit the composer. I'm sure he got his royalties.

* My new makeup word for celebrity mutants or truants or whatever. OK, I made a typo and decided to make the best of it. I'm sure this word has been made up by someone else before.

Posted by: BWeaves at March 7, 2012 2:36 PM

BTW, I took that line from over at IDLYITW.com. Nice snarky blog.

Posted by: Fredo at March 7, 2012 5:23 PM

Won't somebody think of the music?!

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Posted by: emily at March 7, 2012 10:06 PM

I think the deck was stacked against her from the word 'go' because her comment was the latest of a rash of comments made by celebrities who voice their own career frustrations by couching them as an act of rape. We've been seeing so much of that hyperbole recently that we have to work past our eye-rolling reflex to actually hear the person out. It was easier to take pause--even if not for long-- because

A) The dead can't defend themselves (look at what happened to Formosus),

B) Vertigo is considered to be one of the best films ever made, so it's sacrosant.

C)She came out retirement, or whatever, to make her claim, she isn't a Twilight Tween who deals with daily overexposure and just snaps in a moment of bad judgement and poor taste.

D) Since we associate 'tantrums' with childishness, something else must have been going on with an octogenarian and it must be significant if she's carried it with her for so long, didn't mince words and publised this. What was truly being provoked, are her mind grape all in a row?

With all sincerity, I thought about this more in light the revelation about the terrible attack she suffered and I don't get it. I'm growing a little venn diagram in my head comprising of 'Vertigo Filmakers' and 'Horrible, Hatreful Act Of Violence', but I just can't see the overap.

It was a case of, 'oh, I get it--wait, no I don't'.

Posted by: Jo 'Mama' Besser at March 8, 2012 2:37 AM

Fredo. Just...Fredo.


Also, seriously? Good LORD. How do you play that card? How do you play the 'I've actually been raped, physically, as a child so I felt like some music from one of my films was also a rape' like...what? Just, WHAT?

Posted by: Nadine at March 8, 2012 1:10 PM

Uuuugh 'THE USE OF SOME MUSIC'

I'm very, very tired today.

Posted by: Nadine at March 8, 2012 1:15 PM

how is this a list?
Posted by: el dopa at March 6, 2012 10:42 PM
Thank you.

Posted by: James at March 8, 2012 3:24 PM