I thought back in the day they were all rotary. Big screw-up if i am right.
shareThat was done intentionally.
"Incorrectly regarded as goofs: Characters use telephones with Touch Tone dialing-systems and other modern devices, even though the film is set in the early 1920's. The placement of such anachronistic objects was deliberate on the part of the filmmakers."
Why?
shareHere's what Roger Ebert wrote about the anachronisms, in his review of the film:
"...The movie, shot in black and white, has the look of modern men's fashion photography, and Kalin deliberately allows anachronistic props into the frame (a TV channel changer and a push-button phone, for example) to make the film's reality level more ambiguous. This is a period picture that knows it is a period picture, and is also aware of later periods; there is no attempt to fix the story's attitudes in the 1920s, and there is a subtle but unmistakable level of the film that addresses the killing in terms of sadomasochistic chic. The murder of Bobby Frank is seen not as a criminal act, but as a sexual adventure that got out of hand.
The question then becomes: How should one interpret the film? Kalin does not use the argument that society is to blame, that because homosexuality was outlawed, Leopold and Loeb were somehow forced into the lapse of sanity which led to the murder. There is every indication in the film that Loeb in particular enjoyed the whole event, not just the murder, but the way it demonstrated his power over Leopold; one imagines he would have been capable of the same crime in a more permissive era, or, for that matter, if he had not been homosexual at all. He is simply an evil person."
[full review at http://rogerebert.suntimes.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/19921113/REVIEWS/211130302/1023]
Push button phones didn't come in until about the 70's.
sharevery good dmtjames, do you ever check to see if anyones already answered the question before answering?
sharejust sounds like a lazy excuse to not commit to the time period :P
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Well played!
share[deleted]
I have loved Swoon since its release. Ive seen it many times and try to introduce it to new people as often as I can.
However, these little inclusions of modern technology really bother me. As mentioned, there's the remote control and the push button telephone... but the thing that bothers me most is the abundance of modern cars driving along the highway in the background of the abduction scene.
Whatever Kalin was trying to do, I personally think he has created a distraction to what is otherwise a fantastic film.
All of the anachronisms would seem to be deliberate. I noticed very early in the film background scenery that looked like derelict old industrial buildings. They would have looked new if truly representing being in the 1920s period. Then there was the touch tone phone. That seems like too glaring an error not to be deliberate. The giveaway about whether these things are deliberate or not occurs not long after the appearance of the touch tone phone. There is a line of dialog that mentions them watching Cecil B. DeMille's 1956 "The Ten Commandments". No way could that be a mistake. Hearing that line meant all of the anachronisms were a stylistic device. I was quite comfortable with it and thought it was quite clever all considered. The call between the touch tone phone and the candlestick phone was kind of funny.
As regards the DeMille film, the TEN COMMANDMENTS in question is the 1923 silent, and not the 1956 version.
At any rate, Leopold does appear to be using a Zippo ten years before they were invented.
Did you ever consider that it's a stylistic exercise set in an alternate reality and not meant to be taken literally? No? Thought not.
shareWeird that it was done intentionally. It doesn't seem to add anything to the story and very little to the mood. I would like to hear some reasons from the director, Ebert's take on it seems more like an interpretation.
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