Class 3

According to Wikipedia, camp is ”a social, cultural and aesthetic style and sensibility based on deliberate and self-acknowledge theatricality”. This style is commonly affiliated with kitsch.

In class, we studied The Rocky Horror Picture Show. Camp is difficult to define and so, the movies that follow this idea of camp are also difficult to find.

To me, the idea of camp is very close to the television and cinematic universe of The Addams Family. Their “gothic” style is very close to what we’ve seen in TRHPS. The tv show and the movies play on the theatricality and on the kitsch side of the images and of the script. For example, I think the style of Morticia and Dr Frank-N-Furter is in some ways similar (with their dark hair, pale skin and gothic style). Both characters are based on the same idea of going against typical beauty.  Both products also play on the "kitsch" side and presents marginal characters that do not look like what we can see everywhere. 

I also find on Wikipedia that soap-operas like Dallas  are considered part of the camp culture. Nowadays, I think that the CW’s Jane the Virgin tv show represents that idea. It plays on the breaking of the fourth wall : interactions with the audience, etc., but takes all the tropes we can find in a classic telenovela. It plays on the dramatization to offer a reflection on what tv shows are.