Wednesday, July 04, 2012
The Hands Of Time Video With Screenplay By Amanda Knox - A Confessional Obsession?
Posted by Fly By Night & Thundering
Amanda Knox rarely, if ever, mentions her “˜close friend’, murder victim Meredith Kercher. Perhaps out of her self-proclaimed desire to “˜move on with her life’.
So the recent Hands of Time (H.O.T.) music video The Mistral Blows which was posted on YouTube with a screenplay attributed to the Seattle native is nothing if not astonishing.
Whilst there is some discussion as to whether Amanda Knox wrote the entire screenplay, or a section of it, or whether the screenplay was created through a merging of several versions, the screenplay is clearly attributed to her in the credits that appear on the video.
Crediting Amanda Knox with the screenplay is repeatedly emphasized by H.O.T. themselves who posted multiple Twitter entries:
And this screenplay does Amanda Knox and her claims of innocence in the brutal murder of Meredith Kercher no favours at all.
Although provisionally “˜acquitted’ at the trial of second instance, Amanda Knox still stands accused of a capital crime, aspects of which she seems compelled to continue to portray in her various writings.
The hapless band H.O.T. might be well-advised to disassociate themselves from this endeavour and drop the video like a hot potato. The more-so as they have already burnt their fingers, tampering with the so-far elusive Brand Knox, finding themselves “˜forced to remove [clips of Knox dancing in Capanne] from the file, after a sudden, unexpected and “very strange” last-minute opposition from Amanda’s entourage.’
They state with a hint of bitterness:
The result? A compromise. The image of Knox dancing with carefree abandon in Capanne Prison (easily retrieved from other internet sites) remains, but is obliterated by a large “˜censored’ notice.
The reasons to attempt to disappear this video or, at the very least, any identifiable links with Knox, are abundantly clear to anyone having followed this dreadful case over the last four and a half years.
1) The video is riddled with allusions to the crime itself and features an easily-identifiable Amanda Knox as “˜heroine’ or “˜victim’ as she may now prefer to be seen and depending on how you look at it.
2) Any pre-book-release publicity will potentially devalue the carefully branded and preserved Amanda Knox product.
A cursory look at the video demonstrates the depraved audacity of the writer, a person who simultaneously insists she was found innocent of the crime of murder and of which she still stands accused.
The video features a Knox look-alike ““ recognizable by her clothing - in a prison-cum-house of horrors.
It opens with the heroine sitting down, colouring pictures in a prison cell. Amanda Knox was reported to spend time colouring pictures of her hands whilst in prison.
From there she leaves the cell and embarks on a journey through a range of horrifying experiences, until she finally flees the house but not the prison to which she is eternally condemned.
As she runs through the house of horrors she encounters:
1) Ghost-like figures lurching out at her hinting at the night of Halloween before the murder and the ghouls and demons of the house of horrors both in which the crime took place and in which she is forever imprisoned.
2) A tall, faceless black-haired figure dressed in black carrying an umbrella resembling Meredith Kercher dressed as a vampire on her last night alive, the red belt reminiscent of the fake costume blood and the actual blood spilled the night of the murder.
3) A faceless butcher figure dressed in a blood-stained apron holding a knife, who hands her a maggot-infested apple, reminiscent of the photograph of co-accused Raffaele Sollecito as posted on his Facebook page. The apple is suggestive of the poisoned apple offered by the witch to the innocent Snow White ““
4) Or a subliminal suggestion of Raffaele’s guilt in handing her the infested and poisonous apple “¦.. Remember: she claimed Raffaele may have pressed the murder knife with Meredith’s DNA into her hand whilst she was sleeping.
5) A figure tied to a chair covered in a red cloth hinting of the pools of blood and of Meredith unable to move to defend herself. As she reaches out to lift the red cloth the bound figure screams, sending her running out down staircases and steps and out of the house.
In the same way, witness Nora Cappezzali heard Meredith’s desperate, blood-curdling scream, followed shortly afterwards by running footsteps out of the house of horrors and onto the steel staircase near her home.
The video ends with the Knox look-alike remaining in prison. Both real and imagined.
H.O.T. suggest that the video and screenplay are a means of documenting the tale of the events in Perugia and, of course, Amanda Knox hopes to chronicle the nightmare in which she “˜innocently’ found herself. In so doing, she inadvertently describes the crime and the images, sounds and memories that will seemingly not leave her alone.
Not only are there many references to the crime, but there seems as well a clear jealous obsession with Meredith, given the numerous references and comparisons to Kristian Leontiou’s video Some Say in which Meredith hauntingly starred.
The Knox look-alike emulates Meredith from the Some Say video both in her dress and appearance as well as in her actions. She descends an old staircase, appears in doorways and through arches reminding us of the shots of Meredith and the church of the “˜Some Say’ video.
Emulation is a form of envy. Guilty or innocent, it seems Knox cannot exorcise her memories of the crime, and remains compelled to depict it in screenplays and short stories. Knox is seemingly still jealous of Meredith which had proved her original undoing. Here, in a bizarre reversal of reality, Meredith becomes the foreboding, frightening presence, whereas Knox is the shocked and terrified victim.
At a time when a tough Galati appeal to the Supreme Court and a $4 million book deal are on the table, the memory of Meredith and the crime seem to haunt and obsess Amanda Knox who may reveal a deep-seated need to confess. But while still accused, Amanda Knox cannot afford to engage in such obsessive, confessional activity.
Could this prove to be her final undoing?
Comments
[Friday noon] Erk. This backup which the hoster just loaded is maybe 6 hours older than when the MySQL drive crashed - it was a rare physical crash, they tell us.
In this version on a new drive we lost comments by Black Dog, Stilicho, James Raper and Hopeful, and we’ve asked the hoster for a more recent backup if there is one. [Added: there isnt.]
New comments here would be very welcome - but you might want to keep a copy of them just in case. [Added: okay the data base is now stable and the gremlins quarantined.].
You forgot the broken window.
Windows are meant to allow fresh air and/or light. Both are supposed to bring enlightenment.
Borken window brings dakrness and perhaps the mistral blows. She can run but can she hide?
The first thing she admitted to the police, before it was generally known and confirmed by others, is the scream. I find it strange that the scream has not been the focus of much discussions on the boards.
And the primordial apple.
The mosquito exists to keep the mighty humble.
My comment was about this being a startling first professional writing effort for Knox. She cannot seem to divorce herself from her violent fantasies.
I feel one of the reasons for removing the image of AK dancing in prison is to avoid exposing the elaborate lies she has come up with saying she was mistreated in prison, she was miserable etc etc. As anyone can plainly see, she was neither mistreated nor miserable and the prison video can actually put some questions in the minds of those who believe the lies. If the people who accept that she was miserable in jail just go through a few backdated entries on google, they will realize that she actually drew flak for being cheery-smiling most of the time, even in court when the grim aspects of the case were being discussed.
6/7/12
Bravo again to Thundering and Fly By Night for insightful synopsis of this bizarre death-filled video. Refrain of H.O.T. song is “And when you go, you go forever”... reminder that death permanently removes you from this life.
The female prisoner racing everywhere in this video is an Amanda twin. She contrasts with the faceless “woman in black” who has hair like Meredith, and like Meredith, no face at least not that Amanda can see, but a ghoulish covering like shroud over her face. This MK figure stands wearing a long black dress with blood red belt, and holds a black umbrella as she stands by a tall clear window. The Amanda character approaches her with trembling right hand and reaches out to touch the umbrella, the MK figure turns and her faceless head frightens “Amanda” who runs away.
I see the contrast of the active, mini-skirt sexy hip young modern female wearing her black boots almost like combat boots (or reminiscent of rockclimbing boots?) in direct opposition to the more demure, silent, listless or constrained MK woman who stands for Old World values versus Amanda’s wild wild West, the U.S.A. modern morals of No Rules, No Boundaries. Freedom run amok. England and Italy to her are the Old School, the cautious traditional values of Meredith’s England and her Old Palace School versus Foxy’s anything goes philosophy.
When these two clashed, the aggressive AK character has to run to prison, runs down stairs and through a confusing building that seems to have two faces when she exits the upstairs level to dash through the area where the H.O.T. band is playing the rock song “Mistral Blows”. She doesn’t stop there, but continues back to the jailhouse where her last view is again seen from behind as she walks down the desolate hallway of the prison in orange prison clothes (not a one-piece jumpsuit, my correction here, but a two-piece orange prison issue uniform, her long brown hair loose).
The “cook” or chef with his white apron also exits the bleak house, and so does the MK figure, to stand among the hooded black clad ghouls and other faceless wonders on the upper landing of the stairs, they watch Amanda’s flight from the premises. Then the “woman in black” and the “chef” are seen with their heads spinning round and round like an exorcism, then flames engulf both of the heads, and poof! they disappear completely in a puff of smoke leaving falling ashes in the air around them. Ashes to ashes, dust to dust. The final goodbye forever, when you go you go forever. This is the deathwish of the author (at least for her characters! the two she must hate the most) it seems.
Many a killer sets fire to the house or car where the crime took place to remove all traces of his DNA. I believe Amanda may have considered setting fire to the cottage. Her story written shortly after incarceration had images of a house filled with smoke.
The lonely image of the AK figure fighting all her battles alone against faceless forces, who are restrained but sinister like the chef who sits on a stool with a knife, the woman in black who doesn’t move from the window, the man with red cloth over his head who is tied to a chair, these are her encounters. Nowhere does she partner with positive characters of any sort. What, no Madison Paxton loyal friend, or sweet Seattle sisters and mom?
Where is DJ, Rocco, her Italian lawyers doing battle for her, even the father and stepfather flying to Italy to save her, not to mention the illustrious adrenaline junkie Steve “Jack Bauer 24” Moore, convinced of her innocence and telling tv audiences all about it. There is a despair to this entire video, with AK’s aggression contrasted with the impotence of the 3 main characters and many many other figures clawing at her in video who cannot detain her but who do terrify her and send her running once again back to her prison cell to find release in art, art about a band named Hands of Time. HOT…some like it hot. Or is that House of Torment?
The dice represent the gamble, two dice have same number on them IIRC, both are “6” but are different colors; one is red, one is black. So maybe one is Raf and one is Rudy. The “5” is Amanda, identical in color to one of them, but lacking the Y chromosome.
Red silk gloves on MK character hold a “bone of contention”? The police have this bone on the desk, along with the apple. Bone also looks like a scepter, but it probably represents death.
The shroud coverings over faces of the cook, the woman, the chairbound man suggest death shrouds. The fact that the AK figure has no covering whatsoever for her head compared with the umbrella over MK woman, the red fabric over man in chair, the policeman’s hat on prison guard may suggest the AK figure feels uncovered and vulnerable, or rejecting the head covering such as Apostle Paul urged Christian women to wear in church. Throwing off all restraint or doctrine is depicted visually. Modern waywardness versus any form of containment or docility. Evangelical Christian teaching declares that married parents provide a spiritual covering for their offspring which keeps the children safe. Divorce breaks this covering, although God is always merciful. “Healing is the children’s bread.”
Fear and chaos with no answers seems the final message of this miserable video, with constant implied denunciation and disgust (even to maggots) of those who seem foreign, strange, or even dead to the AK character.
It’s as if this AK character is going from person to person begging to be taught, craving answers, looking for something, seeking reassurance. But long dresses of mourning, parasols of the past, not for ‘AK’. She is progressive, active. These others are the past, moribund, unable to run and leap or be creative like she is. She is the adventurous one, this is her only identity: physical energy, cartwheel queen. Egotism egotism, thy name is author Marie Pace. Where are the rainbows, the visual statements of purity and innocence of the high achieving misunderstood duo who claimed they loved each other? Where is some semblance of Amanda’s early joy in Perugia’s quaint city, cafe life, happiness. Happiness, it’s worth the trouble. Why were there not images of some of this or even her earlier happiness in Seattle! if that were the central truth of her life, lost in unfair accusations against her and Raffaele?
She seems only to reconfirm the worst fears of that horrible night in 2007 (right down to MK’s vampire cape and Scream mask, MK’s dark robes also suggesting judge’s robes or a nun’s habit?) In this video Amanda shows clearly in what she herself authored a character who ran crazily hither and yon, reaching out to touch 3 other people she didn’t know well or understand, unable to help them, rejecting each of them in turn, afraid of all of them, seeing death or limitations in all of them (chef, MK, man in chair) and then shows the viewer that her character wound up in a prison from which she’d just come. Home Sweet Home Not.
(this is rusty effort to rewrite an earlier comment, in which I remarked on “Rear Window” with Jimmy Stewart as the man in chair seeing a crime but unable to act, and the stained glass window drawing AK made thus equating her naked body seen from rear as a fragile church window you can’t see through. Amanda colored that in prison. That art was very different from this black and white video montage which may be result of a more cautious control of her imagination as she faced court trial and learned to watch her words as lawyers advise. Also I said the whole acting out in Perugia may have been subconsciously motivated by a desire for notoriety and fame which would lead to moneymaking, as only an instinctual con artist can sense, like a devious 6th sense.)
My comment was that I dont think the video/story will be her final undoing but her obsessive jealousy and envy of Meredith is clear to see.
I said at the time ‘Some Say’ first appeared and I will say it again that I wonder what goes through the mind of a sociopath while inanely strumming the same chord over and over again due to her ineptitude on the instrument (to the chagrin of everyone else in the room with her) while carrying the knowledge that Meredith had already featured in a professional and slickly produced music video.
I’d like to add that as shown in the post, the similarities and references between Merediths murder itself and the ‘Some Say’ video are striking and out of no coincidence. This simply cannot be.
Perhaps ‘Marie Pace’ should have been credited instead of Amanda Knox?
My comment was as follows -
“Here, in a bizarre reversal of reality, Meredith becomes the foreboding, frightening presence, whereas Knox is the shocked and terrified victim.”
Interesting. We know that psychopaths, sociopaths and narcissists, to varying degrees, lack empathy.
But that is not to say that they are uninterested in what they lack. Indeed that can become something on which they dwell with fascination. and the only way that they can “experience” the feelings of others is to mimic the behaviour sympyomatic of it. As to their victims they act the role of the victim from the behaviour observed.
Likewise, they must also yearn for others to know what it is like to be them. After all, they have feelings.
I think the forgoing accounts for the underlying dynamic of Knox’s screenplay. This video is, obsessively, all about her and Meredith.
The Knox entourage will be shocked by this video but only because it is so telling.
I can’t believe what that band HOT has been doing here, by using such a screenplay by such a person. It’s so… callous and abject. Anyone innocent of a crime, who would have spent years falsely imprisoned, would automatically stear clear of anything jail-related in fiction works - not keep being fascinated by it and glamorizing it.
And who is this girl who deserves “signs of respect”, “which the Perugia trial and 2007 events refer to”, and who still is alive to enjoy “her quiet and tranquility” ?
The Perugia trial was entirely about one girl named Meredith Kercher. She’s dead.
Any still-living girls have never been whom “the Perugia trial refer to” - despite what their hubris leads them to believe.
The worm of guilt eats from the inside out.
Point is that no matter how Amanda Knox handlers try to edit and control her life the worst enemy to Amanda Knox is Amanda Knox herself.
This will never go away and I see her still on the slippery slope to total madness. She has nothing after this because any writing will of course be edited just as the video which still results in a confession.
Don’t forget that she still has to pay back for all the legal/PR her family hired. Even the plane used to whisk her away immediately after the trial was not free. That is why in order for her handlers to get their money back and keep her in the public eye I expect a guilty plea sometime soon. There must be a great deal of tension between them and her family. The lawyers on both sides could care less about Knox and Sollecito are quite willing to throw them under the bus in order to be paid.
In one way the Italian Justice system moving very slowly is a good ploy which lets Knox’s guilt manifest itself,just like ‘The sword of Democlis.’
After all. The worm of guilt eats from the inside out.
Good to know that Thursday’s closing was not the result of a “hack job.”
As to the video, which is fragmented & surreal & much too brief in its episodic flashes of the screenplay (& very bad to boot) I think there’s another way to consider its possible meaning.
Think back to remarks by Amanda’s publisher at Harper’s when he promised that her treatment would leave nothing unsaid, cover all the hard parts, the worst things (my words & my remembrance of his meaning.)
Given that the book sets her a task of treating of everything publicly known about the event, one could see her screenplay (behind the offered video, not directly acted here) as an imaginary dress rehearsal in which she considers such things & her presentation of them.
Click on the photo of Amanda to enlarge it. Something of the demon in her slanted eyes, if one imagines it. And her lower lip is somehow inked over (viewer’s left, her right.) Also the very faint cleft in the chin here darkened—it’s a doctored photo. As usual, I am fascinated…
The painted hands are among the several paintings colored like that which we have seen posted here (I think.) Although these paintings have invited comment from a psychologist, I think it a mistake to fail to see that they qualify as a valid kind of art. Well drawn, also.
The director & his Italian assistant claim credit for the adaptation—it’s not Amanda’s directly. Overall disappointing & rather mad.
@James Raper, great comment about point of the post: “a reversal of reality…Meredith becomes frightening presence…Knox is terrified victim”. There’s no truth in her screenplay about Meredith. This is how she defends, by attacking and then ascribing to herself the virtues of the deceased. The best defense is an offense. It’s audacity like emotional vampirism by AK to flip the entire truth (black is white, white is black) and then assume Meredith’s fame.
You remember how violently AK resented Hayden Panettiere’s acting her role in TV movie. That envious reaction slipped out despite AK’s effort to zip her lip and pretend to be nonplussed, same bluff she used about the media coverage of Meredith’s murder. She wanted it known that she refused to give any mental energy to the coverage of MEREDITH, as a way of insulting its importance. She was envious of Meredith being in the spotlight, even as a murder victim. Amanda is aggressive, get it straight: that will never change. She will get more and more aggressive. She is always going to minimize her opponent and try to take on their virtues and powers. Lie and mimic.
AK always wrote or spoke by twisting truth, she avoided a straightforward statement like the plague. She verbally flailed in 4 directions or groped backwards. She reminds me of Steve Moore’s triplecross writings on his blog, his real motivations are written in code with the truth barely peeking out and then only to the initiated or Eyes for Lies.
James, great insight that narcissists and ‘paths may lack empathy but can nevertheless dwell on the emotions of others which they lack, maybe to obsession. They surely want their own feelings to be understood, in AK’s case while still showing her backside and hiding parts. Slippery as an eel.
They must study the behaviors of others as a playbook. I think AK wanted to assume Meredith’s persona from the first week they met. She began to emulate Laura, too, with the ear piercings. She was looking for somebody to become.
This H.O.T. video is released roughly at time of John Kercher’s bio of “Meredith” as if to draw the limelight back onto herself.
Thanks to all for their opinions on the screenplay by Amanda Knox. Many astute observations. I agree with Grahame’s idea that slow moving Italian justice may allow time for AK’s guilt to manifest after lucky initial coverup.
@Hopeful,
Yes, the underlying dynamic which I see here is not all that there is but just the vehicle for so much more and you describe well what that is. Layers of manipulation, self-deception, self pity, self absorption and above all resentment abound in the imagery of this video. One would not expect to see all this in somebody falsely accused and who just wants to get on with their own life, but if the video is anything to go by we might expect to see this as the thrust of her book.
If so it might well turn a lot of people off or alternatively it will be stamped on by wiser heads in the entourage - no doubt to Amanda’s frustration and dismay as that will just bottle things up further for her. The book is not going to be easy to write.
One cannot be creative without holding up a mirror to the inner self.
I hate to state the obvious but two things stand out.
(1) Curt Knox and company will do one of two things.
(a) Edit anything that is written by any ghost writer thereby removing anything of relevance. OR (b) (and given Curt Knox’s avaricious greed as evidenced by his refusal for years to even acknowledged AKs existence or give child support.) will throw her under the bus in order to make her more newsworthy and therefore financially more viable.
I am also sure that the family Sollicito will have a lot to say concerning the undeniable evidence that any book will provide.
There is nothing both families can do. Either they let it all out or they muzzle it. There is still a trial on the horizon that they have to go through don’t forget, and therefore anything which is written is going to become evidence one way or the other.
Sometimes it’s what’s not said speaks more loudly than some trite pulp fiction featuring the killer as victim.
I wouldn’t be surprised if the book ends up looking like a real diary, with different days as chapters. It would give them a good excuse not to talk about the night itself as that occurred well before the time covered in the diary. The format also means she wont have to concern herself with things beyond her, like narrative, or shaping a beginning, a middle, or an end, and it gives a natural structure for the only thing she can write, loads of small, disconnected, unenlightened half-thoughts about herself, her little world, and her own experiences within then.
Hi Spencer
On the other hand I would be surprised if it was in the diary format since it’s only purpose is to generate money. So in order for it to even appear as a book of interest, then it will have to have some sort of salacious content (a-la 50 shades of gray) That being the case of course, then it would blow Amanda Knox’s virginal ‘poor little victim’ persona right out of the water. Must be quite the dilemma for Curt Knox and the forces of evil. Still we live in hopes that the worm or guilt will eat away at Amanda Knox’s soul although I doubt it given her mental illness and her ability to believe her own lie.
I have only been able to watch this disturbing video one time, with the sound completely off (I have no desire to hear the music of these people who would work with an accused and possibly guilty murderer).
Great exegesis here. Thanks, FbN and Thundering.
One more comment on the imagery of the “Meredith” character standing under an open umbrella. According to folklore, opening an umbrella indoors, especially a black umbrella, is an omen of bad luck:
http://voices.yahoo.com/why-opening-umbrella-indoors-considered-bad-296148.html?cat=16
http://www.answerbag.com/q_view/22995
Watching this video was creepy and I would not like to repeat the experience. Amanda seems to be indicating her own guilty conscience whenever she takes up a pen. It should be interesting to read her book.
I’m not sure “interesting” is the right word, Earthling. I’m more in favour of “irritating”. Of course, to read her book means to lay one’s hands on a copy first. Some brave representative will have to obtain one and report for the rest of the class. (thanks to those above whose synopses spared me from having to witness the video). Else we are contributing, en masse, to the coffers of the opposition. ( I read Dempsey’s masterwork only because amazon had a copy for about $1).
Whether or not AK is ever able to internally acknowledge the tragedy of Meredith’s death, the value of Meredith’s life or the sickness of her own behaviour surrounding the crime (even such aspects as giggling over g-strings while the body was still warm), she can’t help but be haunted. Nothing she will ever do in her life will match the scale of that notoriety. Her book could only be “exciting” to the likes of the middle-aged men who filled out her dance card while she was still incarcerated, and are still waiting for the belle of the ball to make her entrance. Unfortunately for them, she will not be offering sex, so anything else she can come up with will be as dull as dishwater. Even the accompanying book tour couldn’t make a dent in the millions her folks went into debt to spring her from her deserved punishment.
However, were she to come clean and tell the truth, that could be interesting reading!
I think this proves that Amanda Knox will always have to live in the prison of her mind, and what happened on the night of Meredith’s murder will haunt her forever. She hoped to convince the Kercher family that she was not guilty, and wanted to visit Meredith’s grave. The Kercher family do not believe her and have made it plain that they do not want her to visit Meredith’s grave. Amanda Knox is very good at being able to talk people round - however, if a person is truly innocent, they would simply state this with conviction and simplicity. People either believe you or they don’t. However, being innocent and having a clear conscience would be enough. This proves that Amanda Knox does not have a clear conscience. She obviously has a troubled conscience. As has been pointed out, there is nothing positive or light in this video. It seems to reflect Amanda Knox’s mind.
I also feel that, by placing herself at the scene of the crime, with ‘Meredith’ screaming, seems like a confession. Why on earth would she portray this scene like this, when she has adamantly denied being at the murder scene? Also, by trying to portray herself as the victim and Meredith as the terrifying presence, she is obviously trying to rob Meredith of her victim status. Meredith was actually the one who was violently murdered. It seems as though she was obsessively jealous of Meredith in life. She is now just as obsessively jealous of Meredith in death and wants to rob her identity (yet again).
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