Main Plot
In this episode of Black Mirror we follow the actor Brandy Friday (Issa Rae) as she’s looking for her next big role, not one where she’s playing the sidekick or love interest, but the main lead. She finally finds the opportunity in the role of Dr. Alex Palmer from the in universe 1940’s classic “Hotel Reverie” by Keyworth Studios. Utilizing “Redream” technology, Brandy Friday is transported into the movie. “Redream” uses technology to build an entire simulated universe based on the final copy of the movie. Then actor(s) are able to upload their likeness(es) and consciousness(es) into the simulated movie universe as already present in-movie characters and play the role. Everyone in the movie only understands themselves as really being the characters they portray and everything they do and experience feels real and authentic to them. To remaster this classic film, Friday’s full likeness and consciousness is put into a simulated movie universe, and even though the original Dr. Alex Palmer was played by a white man—Ralph Redwell—while Brandy Friday is a black woman, everyone in the simulated movie knows her as Dr. Palmer. That is to say the simulated characters do not discriminate against her based on her race or gender, they treat her like Dr. Alex Palmer, but one simulated character does take notice of this difference in gender especially. Clara Ryce-Lechere—in universe played by Dorthy Chambers (Emma Corrin)—is the unhappily wedded heiress to the Ryce-Lechere fortune, target of her husband’s multiple murder plots (to inherit her fortune), and the love interest of Dr. Alex Palmer. Dr. Palmer is meant to fall in love with Clara and save her, but the boundaries between Brandy Friday – Dr. Palmer and Clara Ryce-Lechere – Dorthy Chambers begin to blur, complicating their relationship and possibly raising ethical questions about the use of “Redream” technology within the film industry.
“Seduction Scene”
The scene starts at about 34 minutes into the episode. After Clara sprains her ankle on the stairs outside of the hotel, Dr. Palmer brings her up to her room. Clara sits in a chair and takes her heels off while Dr. Palmer kneels and asks to check her swollen ankle. Clara raises her foot to Dr. Palmer’s chest as she holds her foot in one hand. Soft and gentle orchestral music begins to play in the background. As Clara goes to pull down her stocking, she looks up to see Dr. Palmer looking down with an empty stare. As Dr. Palmer looks up at her with glittering eyes Clara stops for a moment. She looks off to the side with a contemplative look on her face before blinking herself back into reality. Once her stocking is completely off of her leg, Dr. Palmer begins to conduct the examination. Clara says that Dr. Palmer’s touch “doesn’t hurt at all”. At her ankle they joke about her being able to join the Bolshoi (a prestigious ballet academy in Moscow Russia). Still she asks Dr. Palmer to “try a little bit higher” to “make certain” of the diagnosis. Friday moves further up. Now at her calf, Friday asks if she’s in the correct spot. With a small gasp Clara tells Friday, “that’s good”. Friday moves further up and asks again. Finally at her knee, Clara gasps again, repositioning herself in her chair. Friday asks “Is that tender?” Clara quickly responds, almost sighing “Ever so tender.” In the real world the license holder/script supervisor, Judith Keyworth (Harriet Walter) comments. . .
“. . .a bit fruiter than the original.”
There is a knock on the door. The tune changes to something more sinister and suspenseful. It’s the ice that Dr. Palmer requested for the swelling, but it came with champagne that wasn’t ordered. While the second murder plot is set into motion—a scorpion is released from underneath the bedskirt—Clara invites Dr.Palmer to stay for a drink. Friday knows of the scorpion and saves Clara by trapping it beneath a coup glass. Clara shoots up from her chair, placing her hand on Dr. Palmer’s chest and thanks her for saving her life. Once the danger is thwarted their eyes lock and they passionately kiss, pulling each other closer, as romantic music swells in the background. Keyworth comments again. . .
“She wasn’t like this with Ralphy.”
Analysis
I think it’s in this scene that Clara’s character moves from object to subject, especially as she begins to embody more of Dorthy Chambers’ characteristics. She gains a greater sense of agency in her gestures that express a desire for more contact with Brandy Friday’s Palmer. Brandy has already entered this role with agency and self-consciousness that surpass Clara’s digitally generated consciousness, i.e. Brandy knows she’s in a movie and Clara doesn’t. Yet Brandy is still in love with both the real life Dorthy Chambers and the character of Clara who embodies her.
Gesture is used throughout the scene to indicate an attraction between Clara/Dorthy and Brandy/Dr. Palmer that goes beyond the characters that they are playing. In this scene Brandy’s eyes are glittering as she looks at Clara with a mesmerized look on her face. Throughout the entire episode Brandy’s eyes linger on Clara even past the moments where the original movie scene would’ve ended. When Clara takes a little bit longer—looking off to the side, thinking about whether or not to pull her stocking further down for Brandy to check for swelling before eventually doing so; every one of Clara’s gasps and Brandy moved her hand further up Clara’s leg are evidence of their mutual understanding and attraction between them. These gestures allow them to speak in this language of potentialities, “out of sound’s reach” (Rodriguez, Queer Futures).
There is so much more that I could talk about when it comes to “Hotel Reverie”, but I’ll stick with gestures because I’d be writing too much and it’s my birthday. Here’s the link to the rest of the episode on Netflix, so you can watch it for yourself. <3
2 replies on ““She wasn’t like this with Ralphy”: Gestures in Black Mirror’s “Hotel Reverie””
This is actually my favorite episode of season 7. Clara indeed experiences the transformation from object to subject. I believe that Clara never forgot about what she had gone through with Brandy, which is why she changed the ending of the story. Clara makes a crucial choice that wasn’t in the original script—she shoots and kills her husband Claude along with Inspector Lavigne, which leads to her being fatally shot as well. Clara makes this choice to protect Brandy and to exert her free will, which she was previously denied while living as an AI construct having to follow a script. This change represents Clara’s transformation from being a passive object in someone else’s story to becoming the subject of her own narrative. By altering the ending, she demonstrates agency and makes a sacrifice driven by her own emotions and desires, not by programming.
First off, happy belated birthday!
I think the scene you selected was rich with gestures and especially their quality of lingering in the space between actions and meaning. As Rodriguez put it, “gestures hang and fall; they register the kinetic effort of communication.” I think the “medical” examination scene was full of that kinetic effort.
The gasps, gradual encroachment, and sustained eye contact are unmistakably read as signs of intimacy. I do not know the full context of the clip/show, but I wonder how much of our interpretation was shared by the actress playing Dr. Palmer. The production crew’s reactions sort of do the interpretation work for us, but I wonder if they got 100% of the gestures’ meaning between the two characters on screen.
I wonder too if Rodriguez would extend the capacity to perform gestures to AI (or whatever kind of simulation technology Redream is), considering their description included calls to “extending the limits of one’s spirit to diminish the space between bodies” (Rodriguez, 4).