MovieChat Forums > Cracks (2011) Discussion > Miss G copies Fiamma's velvet coat colla...

Miss G copies Fiamma's velvet coat collar

posted 12 years ago by bima55
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Where would Miss G have found a matching hue of the unique velvet fabric with which she was duplicating Fiamma's coat collar? Fiamma runs her fingers over it before she finds her postcards from Spain.
Miss G inviting students into her room with this collar on display on the sewing mannequin seems to be an indication of her profound confusion.
While she is considering Fiamma less than a separate person, Miss G cuts any distance between them in order to fashion a realm wherein Fiamma can be reduced to allow Miss G to gain what long escapes her grasp - a sort of freedom. One that transpires to be less cosmopolitan sophistocation and more desire constrained by desperation.

[–] morganseer 12 years ago

Only if you mean freedom to take what she wants, including another persons's body. Otherwise it seems to me she was very much a prisoner of her own obsession.

[–] bima55 12 years ago

Thank you for adding the spoiler note; I'm glad it was noted. Yes, Miss G's desire seems to have been that Fiamma should be both weak and strong, but not at the same time, and as long as Miss G could decide which one it would be in order to suit only herself. Miss G is too bound to free herself from the tether of her innate and profound selfishness, and she cannot face a recognition of that. Fiamma's presence brings both of these things to light.

Perhaps in the book Fiamma's actions differ somewhat from the movie during important timelines, but it doesn't essentailly change perception of Miss G.

[–] morganseer 12 years ago

You're saying she was seeking freedom from her own life and from herself through Fiamma? Yes, that makes sense. Losing herself in someone else. Especially since she had no real self. She was making it up as she went along.

[–] bima55 12 years ago

That's it in a charming nutshell. Miss G's scope narrowed on Fiamma for that purpose from the moment that she saw her; her imagination sparked from thinking about the life of a 'princess' and how to explore/exploit that, and it flared persistently as she watched Fiamma dive and while she managed to gain respect among the girls without resorting to lies or manipulations.

Miss G tried to be exemplary in her lessons to the girls, and she gained their admiration, but she scheduled their activities primarily to amuse herself. Her desire for metamorphosis and her covetous nature made her less than the ideal mentor for loyal, aspirational students. Miss G was vibrant - different than other teachers; she played that to her advantage. That she was nourished by adoration more than she was able to nurture her young girls became evident.

Fiamma's arrival and the contrast of her character to Miss G's caused an urgency. Something between them, or even one of them, had to diminish, which ever came first. When Fiamma fingered the velvet collar in Miss G's room, the game was on. Miss G's nonchalance in that moment was astonishing to observe. It's a quick moment in the film but a very pivotal, creepy one. Somehow we liked Miss G too much - we didn't see the villainess - but we cannot miss Fiamma's many strengths and her courage dealing with her unfortunate weakness.

Miss G rather tugged the parachute cord of her own persona upon the arrival of Fiamma, and although she was free-falling and lifted as the 'merging' of the two seemed imminent - while she was feeling alive in someone else - ultimately she had to realize her inevitable descent, where she had no self to touch down.

[–] morganseer 12 years ago

Interesting that you saw her as being nonchalant. I thought she looked uncomfortable, embarrassed even, at having her crush exposed. I got the impression she wanted to insinuate, but not to declare herself. But then she did leave that stuff out for any and all to see, didn't she?

[–] bima55 12 years ago

Yes, yes! Yes. All of that in a moment. A tsunami of subtle guilelessness that pierced like a champion archer. So much to glean from it, to relish.

[–] bima55 12 years ago

I like looking at it through another facet, and I hadn't recognized it as a crush or thought how that might play out. I was thinking Miss G was of the mind 'this is how I replicate someone' - postcards as cliff notes. I didn't see the postcards as a fetish or that they could say "You know, I'm liking you."

Thin slices such as the box with the postcards not being closed by habit and the contents seeming to be on exhibit were breadcrumbs leading me away. A dust cloth over sewing work seems sensible but then it was really out, wasn't it? What was the purpose? Oops? Observers might be left with sorting out Miss G's lack of ability to see those things from another's perspective as strange, or they could conclude that she'd constructed a web, gossamer and dewy; a trap. Fiamma's expression might have indicated that she sees the scale of the trap now and will evade or fight it, then she burns off a little smoke afterwards.

The bravado and risk in the scene seemed accompanied by Miss G's disregard for Fiamma and for herself. Miss G might've been stung in the moment but not as if she had been caught out or owed Fiamma an explanation. More as if she liked the sting of it and had the anti-venom in her pocket anyway. Maybe she didn't see any difference. For just a click I thought it was an oops but that she didn't care enough to be ashamed or know how to address it. It could've gone so wrong, but it only seemed to affect Fiamma. Such a memorable vignette.

Miss G, if smitten, had little to go on in that arena; she was unwordly there after all, even moreso than young Fiamma. Miss G appeared predatory because what she wanted could have been many different things, but they were all about her needs. Fiamma, to whatever extent that she acquiesced via peer pressure, seemed to recognize Miss G's desire to eventually absorb, not befriend her.

But perhaps me overthinks much.

[–] morganseer 12 years ago

I meant the word crush in the broad sense, but obsession may be a better word here. I like the way you put it, "desire to absorb." Like a scorpion sucking out the innards of a mouse and leaving nothing but a hair ball.

[–] bima55 12 years ago

Even wrestling with it I haven't been able to pin it down, and knowing how people get thrown in crush or obsessive scenario with eveything turned topsy-turvy, it makes sense that it was something crushy and that's why the things following it seemed chaotic and unsensical.

Hair ball, I like that. T hee.