Rushmore (BFI Film Classics) by Kristi Irene McKim

Author:Kristi Irene McKim [McKim, Kristi Irene]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Bloomsbury Publishing
Published: 2023-10-05T06:00:00+00:00

Margaret Yang and Dirk Calloway

Resonant within the ‘I Am Waiting’ montage, the deeply loving exchange between Bert and Margaret Yang conveys their shared concern for Max’s health. As Margaret hands Bert the succulent, the montage slows and makes audible their dialogue, grounded in real time and diegetic sound, such that we register their bond of mutual care.

Several scenes later, Margaret flies her remote-control plane into Max’s visual field. As Max praises Margaret’s flying skills (‘nice landing’), Mothersbaugh’s musical piece ‘Kite Flying Society’ – a variation and expansion of ‘Appleby’ – smooths over a cut to a medium close-up of Margaret. Mothersbaugh’s ‘Kite Flying Society’ lends their conversation a formal shape that echoes Max’s past ‘Appleby’ scenes with Rosemary, while the music’s introduction of new instrumental layers casts Margaret and Max’s friendship as a form all its own. Margaret’s close-up conveys the cold atmosphere relative to her warmth: she pulls her olive knit scarf down from her mouth to speak, and she approaches Max and Dirk with wilfulness and open eyes (Margaret is the only character who seeks out Max’s friendship without any delusions of his grandeur, yet the crayon flight plan hints that Dirk’s machinations enable this seemingly spontaneous meeting). From shot-reverse shot to a two shot that frames the characters together, the style creates togetherness from isolation.

After Margaret goes her way and Max and Dirk watch their kite against the sky, the sound of seagulls and ocean (first heard when Max encountered the Cousteau passage) fills the silence. Several beats pass, as the frame features a solitary yellow kite, sans sound or context – a slate-clearing moment that yields whatever projection we imagine right then. Yusuf/Cat Stevens’s gentle opening notes of ‘The Wind’ (1971) then warm a close-up of Max, his mouth shaping into an irrepressible smile: ‘Take dictation, please. Possible candidates for Kite Flying Society,’ with a softened timbre rare in this often shouty film.

The perfect timing of ‘The Wind’ emerges synchronous with Max’s decision to create a new Kite Flying Society, a structure built of his effort to forge an alliance with Margaret, as he discovers connection beyond his narrow egoistic circle. The tightly wound film seems to breathe in such a moment, to yawn and reset itself for a truer momentum not overburdened with bravado but moving towards openness and connection. Though the perfect song at the right time – buoyed by environmental elements, no less – is a familiar film trope (music that conveys interiority is the definition of melodrama, entrenched within pathetic fallacy), this change of pace functions as a benedictive lesson that transcends the crude still-learning quality of Max’s decision.

Repeat viewing leaves me newly seeing Dirk here, framed in close-up, his backlit eyelashes, his ear bent under the fold of his knit hat, his mouth slightly parting in visible delight at feeling useful, in bearing witness to his friend’s renewed joie de vivre. The music follows the previous pattern (rising drive = pop montage), and – especially on the heels of the melancholic

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