ADAPTABLES – Philip K. Dick’s dreams and EvaGreen’s realities: Who’s searching for whom?!!

By Emad El-Din Aysha, PhD

[[Body of text, 1425 words]]

I’ve always wanted to ‘help out’ a recurring central character inthe works of Philip K. Dick – the dark haired girl – because shehasn’t got enough screen time or critical appreciation. Then, lo andbehold I watched Franklyn (2008), and both found her and found outmore about the person who should play her!

Literary aid

That is, Eva Green aka Emilia in the movie. Eva looks EXACTLY likeher, down to the odd 'proportions' that Rachael has in Do AndroidsDream of Electronic Sheep:

… with her heavy mass of dark hair her head seemed large, andbecause of her diminutive breasts her body assumed a lank,almost childlike stance. But her great eyes, with theirelaborate lashes, could only be those of a grown woman; therethe resemblance to adolescence ended.

The character seems to be based on one of PKD’s many failed loves, aneurotic woman that left a permanent scar. And neurotic is theappropriate word that characterises Emilia!

Paradoxically, she also represents everything he wanted in a woman,from the maternal warmth and understanding he doesn’t seem to havealways found in his mother, to the kind of cultural stereotypes offemininity PKD believed in. (Me too!) The only difference, this timeround, is that she takes the form of a dashing redhead. And,

wouldn’t you know it Eva pops up a second time in the movie, thistime as the angelic ‘redhead’ Sally!!

You can see this in Doreen from Martian Time-Slip, who vindicated thetruism that: "Nice eyes, hair, and skin produced a pretty woman, buta truly excellent nose created a beautiful woman." Moreover, this'girl' (while in her thirties) had such a 'Mediterranean' nose and"level of beauty". By contrast, the hero's wife "Silvia had a gay,turned-up Irish nose; she was pretty enough by any standard. But--there was a difference." Well, for what it’s worth Sally looks Irishand her altered complexion deemphasises the (Nordic) nose a bit, butthere are plenty of redhead shots Eva’s done that fit this like aglove. And Eva is about as Mediterranean as you can get, withArabic, Spanish and Turkish blood in her veins!

Doreen is also gifted with the clear “skin coloration” of a “high-school girl”. (Note also that she is being manhandled by the badguyin the novel, Arnie Kott). Well, Eva has that radiant, youthfulskin, and she’s played the sexually exploited type more than once.What was it Carl Jung said about synchronicity? (Thanks, Caryll!)

Literal therapy

But that’s only the half of it. Rereading some of Dick’s classics, Ifound some disturbing parallels with Green's own personality. Theremight be a larger ‘existential’ problem behind the scenes. (Ah,Deckard comes from ‘Descartes’!)

Read an interview snippet of her where she talked about adocumentary she’d watched about pollution and how the earth is‘dying’, adding that that’s the reason she doesn’t want to havekids. Look at this passage in PKD’s We Can Build You, about a group offriends who are in the simulacra business (robotic replicas ofhistorical figures). Pris says, about the Lincoln simulacrum: “It'sa dreadful world to bring him into.”

The example she gives for that is the technique used to kill somekind of insect – yellowjackets – that involves slowly suffocatingthem to death. The narrator consoles her to “look on the bright side

once in a while. You do fine creative work... Doesn't that cheeryou? Don't you feel inspired by the sight of your own creativity?"She says it “...doesn't matter. It isn't enough.” What bothered meabout this portion of the novel is it reminds me of Eva’s wish to goto India to do something with her life, feel some desire, feelalive.

Could you think of anyone that’s any more active, alive and full ofpassion, being the tremendous artist that she is? And I think thisemotionally fatigued feeling comes out in the makeup. Havingconsulted a French 'person', it emerges that too much makeup isconsidered "low class or vulgar" over there. (All the more reasonfor Eva to look at herself outside he French cultural frame?!)Pris/Daryl Hannah's makeup in Blade Runner actually comes from Pris inWe Can Build You. But I’m reading too much into this since Pris iscolder than the machines she builds. Eva, by contrast, feels toomuch.

She’s very ‘sensitive’. You can see it in childhood photos. Rosy,health checks, lovely, fresh, vibrant smile, and an adventurousplayful spirit – but the shoulders are in a defensive posture. Youstill get that now that’s she’s all growd up, except when she’sacting, depending on the part. In Casino Royale, you have veryconfident, pushed forward shoulders, 'following' the makeup scene.(Could the psycho-babble scene have been her idea?!) I’d also wagermost of her emotions are more than positive, but big things ‘affect’her more than others. And she sees them, beyond what ‘normal’ peoplesee. (Like David Lynch in Mulholland Drive).

I also think there’s a nationality-identity problem here. She oncesaid that she’s too lazy to diet properly – loves food and smoking –because she’s ‘French’. That doesn’t make any sense because Frenchwomen are the skinniest women in Europe – (the very word for diet,in Arabic usage, is regime!) – whilst French teens start working froman early age. (Egyptians who've lived in France always tell me howimpressed they are by the modesty and work ethic of the French).

I always wondered why she follows the fashion example of Anglo-Saxonactresses, even complaining about the obsession with ‘Gallic’ womenas the most beautiful, elegant and sexy. Take a peek at IngloriousBasterds, and you can ‘see’ how wrong Eva is on that count. French

personality outweighs German features. If you watch French womenwalking, they look like gazelles – tip toeing and ‘hoping’ around!

Regime change

I think Eva dislikes the insincerity of it all – (she doesn’t evenlike being called beautiful) – and that is one thing you could neveraccuse her of. The warmth of her smile comes from its sincerity, andher face is all smiles. Having bumped into Frenchies while a student,you did notice that girls spoke better English than boys, and thatthey were more enthusiastic about having multiple ‘identities’. Evahas also said that she liked being seen as an ‘alien’ by kids,thanks to The Golden Compass.

As an actress she's into role-playing, and she may have been doingthat from an early age – imagining herself in scenarios like kidshave imaginary playfriends. (Franklyn again?) She'c have more mentalresources to do that than most as well because her father's Swedish(though he speaks only French) and both she and her sister haveforeign names. (Eva, 'first-born' and Joy, 'happiness'; or'Horselover Fat' for Philip Dick!)

The French at least do know what their names mean, unlike theEnglish, and 'may' even think like Arabs – essence-capturing oressence-determining. And then there's ‘acoustic’ persona as Emilia.Her accent is a little French but in the scenes where she yells, heraccent becomes more English. Controlling your voice is harder thanyour face and body, and actors tend to act and ‘look’ better intheir own language, slipping up specifically in angry scenes. (WhenI really start swearing, it’s usually in English!)

Not so with Eva. (Her voice varies with her emotions as well, in TheDreamers and the Kingdom of Heaven... documentary!) What you see withthis actress is raw, raging talent, but disciplined, studied andchannelled. The only actress I know of who can outdo her when itcomes to eye-motions is Dakota Fanning.

Anyway, to finish off on a positive note, even if anything that I’vesaid above is even remotely true, I’m sure Eva Green can find her

way out of her problems through her creative, artistic, emotivetalents. That was the whole message of Franklyn, and Philip K. Dick.In that scene with Pris, the narrator tells her how he once tried tohelp a baby bird that had fallen from its nest, finding it’sreaction not be defensive. It reached out to be fed: “It shows thatthere’s benevolence and kindness and mutual love and selflessassistance in nature as well as cold awful things.”

Here’s another synchronised coincidence. At the doorway of mybuilding I found a cat hissing at me for no apparent reason, andthen I found it was a mommy cat with kittens. Three of them,suckling. Have you ever seen anything so beautiful? Yes, EvaGreen!!!

Very special thanks to Samantha (means 'the Listener') Devinck!

Posture Power: Eva Green’s shoulders versus Dakota Fanning’s eyes.Ah, the battle for the deadly sweet sixteen look continues!

PKD's Mellowness of Red: If only we could all find our light-hearted, lightly coloured dream girls!

Nasal Analysis: Hollywood’s Rachael (Sean Young) and the moresubstantive PKD lookalike Eva Green!

Beautiful Imbalances: Hair, skin, eyes and body – all in thedisproportions you need to match an old PKD favourite, EdvardMunch’s Puberty!

Dangerous Hair Days: You can see why Eva Green fits into Philip K.Dick’s wacky world of made-up women (Daryl Hannah and Sean Young)!

Jealous Elegance: Did you know that the necklace she’s wearing is anAlgerian love-knot? What cold Anglo-Saxon could ever match thewarmth of the Mediterranean!