tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-59758906834747714092024-03-13T00:39:34.574+00:00A Nos Amours<b>A space for writing, comment and discussion...</b>
<p>
A Nos Amours will post writing that compliments our film programming or is likely to be of interest or value to our members. <p>Find A Nos Amours on the web at <a href="http://www.anosamours.co.uk"><b><em>www.anosamours.co.uk</em></b></a></p>
</p>
A Nos Amourshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12115094544456729887noreply@blogger.comBlogger25125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5975890683474771409.post-92223361161205203262014-03-18T23:48:00.001+00:002014-03-18T23:50:05.776+00:00Dis-Moi: First Impressions of New and Expanded Interests by Keifer Taylor<div style="text-align: center;">
<!--[if gte mso 9]><xml>
<o:OfficeDocumentSettings>
<o:AllowPNG/>
</o:OfficeDocumentSettings>
</xml><![endif]--><span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;"><b>Dis-Moi: First Impressions of New and Expanded Interests</b></span></div>
<div style="text-align: center;">
<span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;"><br /></span></div>
<!--[if gte mso 9]><xml>
<w:WordDocument>
<w:View>Normal</w:View>
<w:Zoom>0</w:Zoom>
<w:TrackMoves/>
<w:TrackFormatting/>
<w:PunctuationKerning/>
<w:ValidateAgainstSchemas/>
<w:SaveIfXMLInvalid>false</w:SaveIfXMLInvalid>
<w:IgnoreMixedContent>false</w:IgnoreMixedContent>
<w:AlwaysShowPlaceholderText>false</w:AlwaysShowPlaceholderText>
<w:DoNotPromoteQF/>
<w:LidThemeOther>EN-US</w:LidThemeOther>
<w:LidThemeAsian>X-NONE</w:LidThemeAsian>
<w:LidThemeComplexScript>X-NONE</w:LidThemeComplexScript>
<w:Compatibility>
<w:BreakWrappedTables/>
<w:SnapToGridInCell/>
<w:WrapTextWithPunct/>
<w:UseAsianBreakRules/>
<w:DontGrowAutofit/>
<w:SplitPgBreakAndParaMark/>
<w:EnableOpenTypeKerning/>
<w:DontFlipMirrorIndents/>
<w:OverrideTableStyleHps/>
</w:Compatibility>
<w:DoNotOptimizeForBrowser/>
<m:mathPr>
<m:mathFont m:val="Cambria Math"/>
<m:brkBin m:val="before"/>
<m:brkBinSub m:val="--"/>
<m:smallFrac m:val="off"/>
<m:dispDef/>
<m:lMargin m:val="0"/>
<m:rMargin m:val="0"/>
<m:defJc m:val="centerGroup"/>
<m:wrapIndent m:val="1440"/>
<m:intLim m:val="subSup"/>
<m:naryLim m:val="undOvr"/>
</m:mathPr></w:WordDocument>
</xml><![endif]--><!--[if gte mso 9]><xml>
<w:LatentStyles DefLockedState="false" DefUnhideWhenUsed="true"
DefSemiHidden="true" DefQFormat="false" DefPriority="99"
LatentStyleCount="267">
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="0" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" QFormat="true" Name="Normal"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="9" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" QFormat="true" Name="heading 1"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="9" QFormat="true" Name="heading 2"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="9" QFormat="true" Name="heading 3"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="9" QFormat="true" Name="heading 4"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="9" QFormat="true" Name="heading 5"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="9" QFormat="true" Name="heading 6"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="9" QFormat="true" Name="heading 7"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="9" QFormat="true" Name="heading 8"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="9" QFormat="true" Name="heading 9"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="39" Name="toc 1"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="39" Name="toc 2"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="39" Name="toc 3"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="39" Name="toc 4"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="39" Name="toc 5"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="39" Name="toc 6"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="39" Name="toc 7"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="39" Name="toc 8"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="39" Name="toc 9"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="35" QFormat="true" Name="caption"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="10" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" QFormat="true" Name="Title"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="1" Name="Default Paragraph Font"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="11" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" QFormat="true" Name="Subtitle"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="22" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" QFormat="true" Name="Strong"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="20" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" QFormat="true" Name="Emphasis"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="59" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Table Grid"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Placeholder Text"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="1" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" QFormat="true" Name="No Spacing"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="60" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Light Shading"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="61" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Light List"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="62" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Light Grid"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="63" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Medium Shading 1"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="64" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Medium Shading 2"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="65" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Medium List 1"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="66" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Medium List 2"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="67" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Medium Grid 1"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="68" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Medium Grid 2"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="69" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Medium Grid 3"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="70" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Dark List"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="71" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Colorful Shading"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="72" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Colorful List"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="73" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Colorful Grid"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="60" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Light Shading Accent 1"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="61" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Light List Accent 1"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="62" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Light Grid Accent 1"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="63" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Medium Shading 1 Accent 1"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="64" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Medium Shading 2 Accent 1"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="65" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Medium List 1 Accent 1"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Revision"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="34" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" QFormat="true" Name="List Paragraph"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="29" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" QFormat="true" Name="Quote"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="30" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" QFormat="true" Name="Intense Quote"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="66" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Medium List 2 Accent 1"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="67" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Medium Grid 1 Accent 1"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="68" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Medium Grid 2 Accent 1"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="69" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Medium Grid 3 Accent 1"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="70" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Dark List Accent 1"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="71" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Colorful Shading Accent 1"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="72" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Colorful List Accent 1"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="73" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Colorful Grid Accent 1"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="60" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Light Shading Accent 2"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="61" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Light List Accent 2"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="62" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Light Grid Accent 2"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="63" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Medium Shading 1 Accent 2"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="64" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Medium Shading 2 Accent 2"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="65" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Medium List 1 Accent 2"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="66" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Medium List 2 Accent 2"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="67" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Medium Grid 1 Accent 2"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="68" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Medium Grid 2 Accent 2"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="69" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Medium Grid 3 Accent 2"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="70" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Dark List Accent 2"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="71" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Colorful Shading Accent 2"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="72" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Colorful List Accent 2"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="73" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Colorful Grid Accent 2"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="60" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Light Shading Accent 3"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="61" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Light List Accent 3"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="62" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Light Grid Accent 3"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="63" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Medium Shading 1 Accent 3"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="64" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Medium Shading 2 Accent 3"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="65" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Medium List 1 Accent 3"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="66" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Medium List 2 Accent 3"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="67" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Medium Grid 1 Accent 3"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="68" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Medium Grid 2 Accent 3"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="69" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Medium Grid 3 Accent 3"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="70" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Dark List Accent 3"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="71" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Colorful Shading Accent 3"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="72" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Colorful List Accent 3"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="73" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Colorful Grid Accent 3"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="60" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Light Shading Accent 4"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="61" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Light List Accent 4"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="62" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Light Grid Accent 4"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="63" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Medium Shading 1 Accent 4"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="64" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Medium Shading 2 Accent 4"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="65" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Medium List 1 Accent 4"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="66" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Medium List 2 Accent 4"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="67" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Medium Grid 1 Accent 4"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="68" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Medium Grid 2 Accent 4"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="69" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Medium Grid 3 Accent 4"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="70" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Dark List Accent 4"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="71" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Colorful Shading Accent 4"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="72" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Colorful List Accent 4"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="73" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Colorful Grid Accent 4"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="60" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Light Shading Accent 5"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="61" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Light List Accent 5"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="62" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Light Grid Accent 5"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="63" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Medium Shading 1 Accent 5"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="64" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Medium Shading 2 Accent 5"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="65" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Medium List 1 Accent 5"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="66" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Medium List 2 Accent 5"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="67" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Medium Grid 1 Accent 5"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="68" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Medium Grid 2 Accent 5"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="69" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Medium Grid 3 Accent 5"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="70" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Dark List Accent 5"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="71" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Colorful Shading Accent 5"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="72" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Colorful List Accent 5"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="73" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Colorful Grid Accent 5"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="60" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Light Shading Accent 6"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="61" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Light List Accent 6"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="62" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Light Grid Accent 6"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="63" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Medium Shading 1 Accent 6"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="64" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Medium Shading 2 Accent 6"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="65" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Medium List 1 Accent 6"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="66" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Medium List 2 Accent 6"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="67" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Medium Grid 1 Accent 6"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="68" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Medium Grid 2 Accent 6"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="69" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Medium Grid 3 Accent 6"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="70" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Dark List Accent 6"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="71" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Colorful Shading Accent 6"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="72" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Colorful List Accent 6"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="73" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Colorful Grid Accent 6"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="19" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" QFormat="true" Name="Subtle Emphasis"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="21" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" QFormat="true" Name="Intense Emphasis"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="31" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" QFormat="true" Name="Subtle Reference"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="32" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" QFormat="true" Name="Intense Reference"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="33" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" QFormat="true" Name="Book Title"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="37" Name="Bibliography"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="39" QFormat="true" Name="TOC Heading"/>
</w:LatentStyles>
</xml><![endif]--><!--[if gte mso 10]>
<style>
/* Style Definitions */
table.MsoNormalTable
{mso-style-name:"Table Normal";
mso-tstyle-rowband-size:0;
mso-tstyle-colband-size:0;
mso-style-noshow:yes;
mso-style-priority:99;
mso-style-parent:"";
mso-padding-alt:0cm 5.4pt 0cm 5.4pt;
mso-para-margin-top:0cm;
mso-para-margin-right:0cm;
mso-para-margin-bottom:10.0pt;
mso-para-margin-left:0cm;
mso-pagination:widow-orphan;
font-size:12.0pt;
font-family:"Cambria","serif";
mso-ascii-font-family:Cambria;
mso-ascii-theme-font:minor-latin;
mso-hansi-font-family:Cambria;
mso-hansi-theme-font:minor-latin;
mso-ansi-language:EN-US;
mso-fareast-language:EN-US;}
</style>
<![endif]--><span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;"><span style="mso-ansi-language: EN-GB;">Slipping into 1980,
Chantal Akerman widened and polished her scope of interests with <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Dis-moi </i>(aka, <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Aujour’dui dis-moi</i>). While <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Les
Rendez-vous d’Anna </i>(1978)<i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"> </i>hauntingly
alluded to the Holocaust, this short performative documentary engages with its
harsh remnants. Commissioned for French television, focusing on grandmothers,
the 30-year-old Belgian filmmaker decided to interview numerous survivors.
Including her mother, whose hushed voice is spread across the film’s narrative,
the four testimonials tend to dwell on their family lives before the Ashkenazi
Jews’ insufferable avalanche of systematic murders.</span></span><br />
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;">
</span><br />
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;"><span style="mso-ansi-language: EN-GB;">The performative
qualities can be discerned by the director’s own presence. By constructing
sequences with reverse angle shots, presenting her and the speakers, there lies
a clear wish for personalisation. After the first two visits, a camera peers up
onto the elderly women’s balconies. Cutting down to ground level, outside the apartments,
a solemn Akerman stares up with fascination and respect for her subjects. Being
the daughter of a lady sent to Auschwitz as a child, its ceremonial nature is
unsurprising. As an unspoken fifth member of this story, she comes from a
disparate generation of European children who will never truly understand the
Nazis Final Solution, but lug its solidly traumatic load.</span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;"><span style="mso-ansi-language: EN-GB;"></span></span></div>
<a name='more'></a><br />
<span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;">
</span><br />
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;"><span style="mso-ansi-language: EN-GB;">An obvious comparison
to <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Dis-moi</i> is Claude Lanzmann’s towering
1985 investigative piece, <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Shoah</i>.
Brimming with the faces and voices of witnesses, survivors and perpetrators,
archival footage is discarded, rendered an inadequate form of expression.
Akerman’s obscure study is a concise precedent of this apparently singular
approach, relying on us to imagine the unimaginable. Curiously, though mass
trauma looms over the film’s entirety, it’s a thinly strung topic of
discussion. The hospitable interviewees offer cake, tea, and vodka and speak of
a period before genocide. Two accounts are brief, ending with “I have nothing
else to say” With slim knowledge of their misfortune, it’s an odd (yet
understandable) ending to their verbal memoirs, leaving us no less informed
than before. Effusing a radiant humility, Chantal listens without forcibly
raking in historical details of morbid intrigue. </span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;">
</span><br />
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;"><span style="mso-ansi-language: EN-GB;">Unlike this terse
pair, the third and final elderly lady asserts to having 10 days worth of
material. I wouldn’t doubt her one bit. One tale of young love, set in the
early 1900s, involves an infatuated man proposing to her grandmother, only to
be rejected. A true romantic, he exclaims, (though I can’t remember
word-for-word) “if I can’t be with you I will die tomorrow” The very next day,
he is killed. From here, fate becomes a cruel force, whose heft is increased
when the woman recalls her grandmother claiming the Jewish people must suffer.</span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;">
</span><br />
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;"><span style="mso-ansi-language: EN-GB;">All of this
irremovable dread never tramples over the hearty humour. Entranced by these
experiences, food is not a priority for the filmmaker. It clearly bugs this
particular woman, pushing her timid guest to eat at every pause. Hilariously,
she even threatens to discontinue speaking. In a final shot of this rather
merry survivor’s coarsely wrinkled face, nothing is said. She just stares into
an off screen space. Almost still, like a rough-hewn sculpture of a foggy era, her
later years into the 1940s are left to ponder. </span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;">
</span><br />
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;"><span style="mso-ansi-language: EN-GB;">Chantal Akerman
evolves with each screening. Here, domestic oppression is put aside, expanding
on her research into migration and displacement. If anything operates as a
source of oppression, it would be the past bleeding into present consciousness.
Its visual absence asks, what else can be said or shown of our ancestors’
horrid times? What took place needs no elaborate divulgence. Just be aware of
its unfading stain.</span></span></div>
A Nos Amourshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12115094544456729887noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5975890683474771409.post-55936639534267014442014-02-11T23:06:00.000+00:002014-02-11T23:06:50.923+00:00Spot Light on North Korea Part Three by Ella Harris and Eve Marguerite Allen<h4>
<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">Spot Light on North Korea Part Three: Propaganda for All </span></h4>
<div>
<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;"><i>Since the death of Kim Jong-il in
2011, North Korean cinema has received a surge of interest. The facts and
fictions surrounding the North Korean cultural propaganda industries are as
dark as they are bizarre. This three part article interrogates the construction
and the function of the myths surrounding North Korea’s global image by
examining the film produced <a href=""></a><a href="">there</a></i><i>. <o:p></o:p></i></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<i><span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;"><br /></span></i></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">Critical
geopoliticians have long been alert to the ways in which films not only
represent but also influence<i> </i>the way
in which the world is understood. From the unrelenting American heroism of <i>Independence Day </i>to the post-Franco
‘Spanishness’ (re)created by Almodovar – the global film industry has a central
role in the way we imagine national cultures. Film assists us in developing a
national identity internally (in Britain we affiliate with black comedy and
social realism) and determines the way in which we imagine other cultures from
the outside. Far from being absurd or unusual, Kim Jong-il’s overt use of film
as a geopolitical weapon is merely a more frank rendition of the conscious and
subconscious politics of film globally. True, most national rulers don’t kidnap
directors and insist upon being executive producer – but you only have to look
to the UK Olympic opening ceremony last year to appreciate that the cultural
output of most nations is very carefully considered. What is so fascinating
about Kim’s film industry is not that it is peculiar or anomalistic, but that it
displays such frankness and openness about promoting national ideology at a
time when other national film cultures promote their ideologies far more insidiously.
North Korea’s blatant and overt use of film to spread a message seems in some
senses parodic of other national cinema industries. In a telling interview with
The Seoul Times, a reporter asks Shin Shang-ok what impact Kim Jong-il’s
isolated state has on his awareness of how the world works. Shin responds
saying that “sometimes Kim looks at films like social documentaries. I told him
that most American films are fiction.”<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;"></span></div>
<a name='more'></a><span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;"><br /></span><br />
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">That
said, Michelle Obama recently appeared at the 2013 Oscars, accompanied by
several soldiers to announce <i>Argo </i>(2012)
as best film of the year (I know!). So although Hollywood is technically
unaffiliated with the US government, they can be seen to be in understanding in
that they prop up each other’s myths, like the one that frames the ‘merican’s
as the good guys and any <a href="">one</a><span class="MsoCommentReference"><span style="line-height: 115%; mso-ansi-font-size: 11.0pt; mso-bidi-font-size: 11.0pt;"> </span></span>
with dark skin and an accent as suspicious.<span style="background-color: white; background-position: initial initial; background-repeat: initial initial;"> <o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="background-color: white;"><span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">While North Korean film has frequently depicted a
swift defeat of American troops perhaps it is a sign of a more powerful global
power, a more stable nation-state that can also use cinema to play out national
fears of change or threats to current ways of life (usually before restoring
the status quo in the finale).The topical threat of North Korea has indeed been
played out by Hollywood recently in the 2013 ‘militainment’ flick<i> Olympus has Fallen</i>. A film that
possibly did more scare/warmonger against North Korea than anything coming out
of Pyongyang. Here leftists and North Korean-led guerrilla forces storm the
White House by ground and air attack, intent on destroying America as a global
super power and harnessing the US’s nuclear stash. They sneak in under the
guise of harmless garbage men and tourists. Unsurprisingly the wicked
insurgents are eventually defeated and the order of things is restored by the
Americans who are portrayed victoriously as just and democratic saviours. Is
this a play out of the threat of counter-ideologies? Is it fear mongering and
war propaganda? <o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="background-color: white;"><span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;"><br /></span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">In the
media commentary on North Korean film from the West there is another
ideological game play. The West’s focus on the kitsch and the ludicrous serves
to make North Korea appear less threatening, to render it ridiculous and exotic
and to detract from the fact that it is, in its own way, a viable country and
an alternative and possible political system, albeit monstrous (and we would be
naïve to think that there are no equivalent monstrosities in the West). This
fetishization of North Korean cinema allows us to safely and enjoyably consume
the ‘otherness’ of the DPNK without having to take it seriously. Western
approaches to the North Korean film industry make Kim Jong-il into a cute baby
Pulgasari that we can coo at and laugh at whilst being able to ignore the fact
that people in North Korea may very well live and believe in the <i>Juche</i> mentality just as we live and
believe in capitalism. In doing so, the western approach to North Korean cinema
betrays our own anxiousness at the potential contingency of the ideology that
we ourselves enforce via our film and our media.<span style="background-color: white; background-position: initial initial; background-repeat: initial initial;"> <o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">Western
media is also preserving its own cultural narrative by refusing to seriously
recognise an alternative (if unappealing) political ideology. Undermining the
cultural output of North Korea also serves to negate the challenge to
capitalism; such a laughable country could pose no threat to our current way of
life, nuclear or otherwise. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">Political
scientist Joseph Nye’s concept of soft power describes the ability of a nation
to exert influence and thus gain power by co-opting rather than coercion, with
‘culture’ being a primary currency. As he states in <i>Soft Power: The Means to Success in World Politics </i>(2004) <span style="background-color: white; background-position: initial initial; background-repeat: initial initial;">"A country may obtain the outcomes it
wants in world politics because other countries – admiring its values,
emulating its example, aspiring to its level of prosperity and openness – want
to follow it.” Disseminating one’s ideologies and myths by spreading one’s <a href="">culture.</a></span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">Cinema is a highly important
medium for most cultures to echo, confirm and broadcast their ideologies. By trying
to deny North Korea the ability to stage its cinema in any serious, meaningful
way the Western reception to North Korean film is also undermining the
associated political ideologies. Everyone knows that bullies laugh to hide
their insecurity, and there is an element of this in the laughter which greets
North Korea, a (hysterical) laughter which bellies a nervousness, a fear of
taking something seriously in case in doing so you are forced to critically
re-examine your own standing. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">But what
is worrying about this approach is not just that it exposes the insecurities of
the Western cultural ideology. Most alarming is that maintaining our laughter
requires us to skirt over the reports of torture and starvation. These reports
are given attention only in so far as their juxtaposition against mass dances
in awe of the Dear Leader intensifies the humour of such spectacles – but we
don’t think too long about these terrifying details for fear that we might
become sombre and fall into considering North Korea in a more serious light. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">Maybe
this evasion of seriousness works for North Korea too; the image of North Korea
as a two dimensional place led by a bumbling cartoon of a man is not just a
reading from the West but, at least partially, a projection from North Korea
itself. Projecting this image, in part through the cinema screen, courts the
West’s amusement and allows the administration to, quite literally, get away
with murder. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div>
<div>
<div class="msocomtxt" id="_com_5" language="JavaScript">
<!--[if !supportAnnotations]--></div>
<!--[endif]--></div>
</div>
A Nos Amourshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12115094544456729887noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5975890683474771409.post-13637772466442465032014-02-02T20:20:00.001+00:002014-03-18T23:50:13.705+00:00Jeanne Dielman: A Soundtrack of the Everyday by Keifer Taylor <div align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;">
<b><u><span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;"><br /></span></u></b></div>
<div align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;">
<b><u><span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;"><br /></span></u></b></div>
<div align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;">
<b><span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">Jeanne Dielman: A Soundtrack
of the Everyday</span><u><span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;"><o:p></o:p></span></u></b></div>
<div align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">When referring to her 1993 film <i>From
The East </i>in a lengthy interview for The A.V. Club, Chantal Akerman notes,
“you feel as a viewer, when you face the film and experience the film, you feel
an implosion” Reaching beyond this particular film, the quotation befits the
filmmaker’s recently screened work. In all of its unyielding simplicity, <i>Jeanne Dielman, 23 quai du Commerce, 1080
Bruxelles</i>, is no exception. With each assured cut, Akerman’s second feature
length narrative becomes a precarious game of jenga, casually building pressure
until its eventual collapse. The result is a quietly painful, tense and
nauseating ordeal that doesn’t seep out of the mind for days after the viewing.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
</div>
<a name='more'></a><br />
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">Produced in 1975, <i>Jeanne Dielman </i>emerged
during a period when a growing concern for spectatorship was developing amongst
filmmakers and theorists. In practical circles, Pier Paolo Pasolini’s indignant
farewell to cinema, <i>Salo or the 120 Days
of Sodom </i>denounced the – as he put it –
“commodification of the human body,” and<i> </i>revealed the ethical implications of our
nonchalant engagement with images of sex and violence. Theoretically, luminaries,
such as Christian Metz, Jean-Louis Baudry, Laura Mulvey and Peter Wollen
examined the tacit positioning of the spectator via the cinematic apparatus,
integrating the psychoanalytic ideas of Jacques Lacan and Sigmund Freud. In
doing so, the notions of pleasure and identification became the main threads of
their argument.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;">By stripping down the filmic mechanics to its bare essentials, Akerman
eradicates these two common joys of cinematic interaction. A typically
emotional proximity is consistently evaded, favouring far removed, stylised
tableaux over close-ups. Displeasure aside, the superficially aloof director
clearly wishes for us to experience every millisecond of the titular
character’s everyday activities. Dielman (played by Delphine Seyrig with an
impervious elegance) cleans, babysits, and prepares evening meals for her
pubescent son, moonlighting as a prostitute prior to his return. We spend three
days merely looking at this regimented lifestyle. By the second, order is
fractured, revealing the brittle pieces behind the icy demeanour. </span><span style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;"> </span><span style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;">A key factor in soaking up these miniscule
moments is the firmly grounded and exact compositions, extensively utilised
across the film’s 201 minutes. Eventually, depending on individual patience, one
adapts to the steadfast rigour, becoming loosely involved in the calculated widower’s
ritualistic manoeuvres.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">Another major contributor towards this sense of inclusion is the often-undervalued
acoustic properties. The subtly crafted sound design is tantamount to <i>Jeanne Dielman</i>’s strict visual layout.
The constant distance sustained by the symmetrical framing is counterbalanced
by close attention to the manipulation of specific audio elements. Even a
couple days after the screening I was locked inside Akerman’s echo chamber with
an acute sensitivity to otherwise minor sounds. From flaming gas hobs to the jabbing clack of
heels, our ears become attuned to this heightened soundscape of the mundane. Seemingly
effortless in its employment, these auditory qualities operate as an immersive
tool.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">In order to raise tension and create proximity between character and
spectator, the sharp amplification of Dielman’s audible surroundings remains an
indispensable aspect. In its entirety, this well-calibrated medley of household
items and rhythmic gestures jar the audience through their tonal shift. Moreover,
it is here where Akerman’s intention of generating an implosive experience are
realised. From the outset, as hissing gas rises during the opening credits, an
ominous atmosphere is established before we enter this solitary existence of
concealed passions.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">Once inside, we must look and listen to the soft (but prevailing)
scrubbing of Dielman’s body whilst in the bath and the clanging of cutlery
against dinner plates. On the second day, after an evening with a regular
customer, the sounds become coarse assailants, rattling our senses. For
example, in a taut series of shots, the curtains (which were previously less
piercing) screeching along the pole, and the harsh cry of rusty hinges and
closing doors underscore an anxiety bubbling beneath the fallacious apathy.
Even the occasional grunting buzz of the intercom evokes a growing uneasiness.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;">By day three, the presence of silence and the distant outside streets
envelop us within the gradual deterioration. In a possible attempt to snip
these deep-rooted feelings, the housemaid lounges in the living room, gripped
to her chair with a monastic stillness. Unseen vehicles breeze by, containing
the same looming menace. Moments later, Dielman’s ephemeral state of calm is
rived by her usual babysitting job. The baby’s infernal cry only swells the
composed sitter’s nerves while the noise lacerates our eardrums.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">The remaining portion of the narrative continues its descent into
Dielman’s imbalance until she can no longer maintain control. At this stage,
the film’s pronounced application of sounds is a reminder of the impending
outburst. Unlike Chantal Akerman’s preceding films (excluding <i>Hotel Monterey </i>and <i>La Chambre</i>), which reveal an early attention to the power of sound
design, <i>Jeanne Dielman </i>seems, so far,
her most potently enthralling. At age 25, the precocious director and her sound
department’s skilful construction of differing tones certify the pivotal role
it plays in gauging a character’s undisclosed vulnerabilities. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">Displaying the burning conviction of a fiery young filmmaker in her
prime, the film is a challenge for the most hardened cinephile yet captivating
in its technical and performative expertise. To paraphrase Laura Mulvey, “Each
sequence demands a reaction”<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
A Nos Amourshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12115094544456729887noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5975890683474771409.post-75438964921280690092014-01-23T18:00:00.000+00:002014-03-04T00:09:19.202+00:00Akerman and Space-Time by Ella Harris, Eve Marguerite and Keifer Taylor<span style="background-color: white; font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: medium; line-height: 25.200000762939453px;">An ongoing collaborative research project on space and time in Chantal Akerman's films between Ella Harris, Eve Marguerite Allen and Keifer Taylor.</span><br />
<span style="background-color: white; font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: medium; line-height: 25.200000762939453px;"><br /></span>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;">
<b><span style="font-family: "Palatino Linotype","serif"; font-size: 14.0pt; line-height: 115%; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-font-size: 11.0pt;">Spaces of Refraction - Ella Harris</span></b><b><span style="font-family: "Palatino Linotype","serif"; line-height: 115%; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-font-size: 10.0pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></b></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<b><span style="font-family: "Palatino Linotype","serif"; font-size: 14.0pt; line-height: 115%; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-font-size: 11.0pt;"><br /></span></b></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<b><span style="font-family: "Palatino Linotype","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-font-size: 10.0pt;">Three
Geographical Encounters </span></b><b><span style="font-family: "Palatino Linotype","serif"; font-size: 16.0pt; line-height: 115%; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-font-size: 11.0pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></b></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<b><span style="font-family: "Palatino Linotype","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-font-size: 10.0pt;"><br /></span></b></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<b><span style="font-family: "Palatino Linotype","serif"; font-size: 10.0pt; line-height: 115%; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman";">Premises: <o:p></o:p></span></b></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<b><span style="font-family: "Palatino Linotype","serif"; font-size: 10.0pt; line-height: 115%; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman";"><br /></span></b></div>
<div class="MsoListParagraphCxSpFirst" style="margin-left: 18.0pt; mso-add-space: auto; mso-list: l0 level1 lfo1; text-align: justify; text-indent: -18.0pt;">
<!--[if !supportLists]--><b><i><span style="font-family: "Palatino Linotype","serif"; font-size: 10.0pt; line-height: 115%; mso-bidi-font-family: "Palatino Linotype"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Palatino Linotype";">1.<span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 7pt; font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; line-height: normal;">
</span></span></i></b><!--[endif]--><b><i><span style="font-family: "Palatino Linotype","serif"; font-size: 10.0pt; line-height: 115%; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman";">“</span></i></b><i><span style="font-family: "Palatino Linotype","serif"; font-size: 10.0pt; line-height: 115%;">The site is defined by relations
of proximity between points or elements”</span></i><b><span style="font-family: "Palatino Linotype","serif"; font-size: 10.0pt; line-height: 115%; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman";"><o:p></o:p></span></b></div>
<div class="MsoListParagraphCxSpMiddle" style="margin-left: 18.0pt; mso-add-space: auto; text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoListParagraphCxSpLast" style="margin-left: 18.0pt; mso-add-space: auto; mso-list: l0 level1 lfo1; text-align: justify; text-indent: -18.0pt;">
<!--[if !supportLists]--><b><i><span style="font-family: "Palatino Linotype","serif"; font-size: 10.0pt; line-height: 115%; mso-bidi-font-family: "Palatino Linotype"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Palatino Linotype";">2.<span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 7pt; font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; line-height: normal;">
</span></span></i></b><!--[endif]--><i><span style="font-family: "Palatino Linotype","serif"; font-size: 10.0pt; line-height: 115%;">“one
could describe, via its network of relations, the closed or semi-closed sites
of rest—the house, the bedroom, the bed, et cetera. But among all these sites,
I am interested in certain ones that have the curious property of being in
relation with all the other sites, but in such a way as to suspect, neutralize,
or invent the set of relations that they happen to designate, mirror, or
reflect.” </span></i><b><i><span style="font-family: "Palatino Linotype","serif"; font-size: 10.0pt; line-height: 115%; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman";"><o:p></o:p></span></i></b></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<i><span style="font-family: "Palatino Linotype","serif"; font-size: 10.0pt; line-height: 115%;">(Foucault,
Of Other Spaces, Heterotopias and Utopias)
</span></i><b><i><span style="font-family: "Palatino Linotype","serif"; font-size: 10.0pt; line-height: 115%; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman";"> <o:p></o:p></span></i></b></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<b><i><span style="font-family: "Palatino Linotype","serif"; font-size: 10.0pt; line-height: 115%; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman";"><br /></span></i></b></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: "Palatino Linotype","serif"; font-size: 10.0pt; line-height: 115%; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman";">The mirror is a semi-real/semi-unreal site. It is <i>real</i> because it takes up a literal
portion of spacetime, it occupies an actual site in a given room. However, the
mirror is also <i>virtual</i> because it has
the potential to take on countless images, and <i>unreal</i> because it shows things <i>where
they are not. </i>In ostensibly displaying you in your own real site the mirror
actually transports your image <i>over there
– </i>reframing it in a curious elsewhere, where it is given a new site and takes
on a whole new set of relations and therefore characteristics, changing your
image before you have a chance to catch it. The mirror is therefore a not a
space of reflection: its surface is one which refracts, bends and distorts what
it shows by a process of theft and motion, taking <i>what is</i> and transfiguring it into something else, in its passage
via the virtual. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: "Palatino Linotype","serif"; font-size: 10.0pt; line-height: 115%; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman";"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: "Palatino Linotype","serif"; font-size: 10.0pt; line-height: 115%; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman";">For Foucault, there are certain spaces, which he names ‘heterotopias’,
that function like mirrors, in that their relations with other sites have a
transformative effect. The relational connections that heterotopias have with other
sites are not relations of affirmation or propping up, a neighbourly proximity
that secures each’s place – they are relations of questioning and destabilisation;
relations which cast a critical light upon all spaces and their relations. As Foucault suggests, even the most seemingly
circumscribed of sites, ‘the house, the bedroom, the bed’ can have this
transformative power.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: "Palatino Linotype","serif"; font-size: 10.0pt; line-height: 115%; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman";"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: "Palatino Linotype","serif"; font-size: 10.0pt; line-height: 115%; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman";">Akerman’s early work demonstrates a fixation on the
interiority of precisely these places, the bed, the bedroom and the apartment<i>. </i>This is<i> </i>spelled out in <i>La Chambre </i>but
more acutely explored in <i>Je Tu Il Elle
and Saute Ma Ville </i>and<i> 15/8. <o:p></o:p></i></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: "Palatino Linotype","serif"; font-size: 10.0pt; line-height: 115%; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman";"><i><br /></i></span></div>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg8p5IhFP96GZkOe_4oqGpcB6QWqVYXvkrT7JFtAMubmscZjx6Kzb3aszu6QKjHadD2EcGu6-GxKXePHbjWdpNAAh3_ugHutSb1-qH-VsA1vcEyntsGzt_DGqkxkd5wYLU_QkdJztBqOA/s1600/LaChambreforweb.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg8p5IhFP96GZkOe_4oqGpcB6QWqVYXvkrT7JFtAMubmscZjx6Kzb3aszu6QKjHadD2EcGu6-GxKXePHbjWdpNAAh3_ugHutSb1-qH-VsA1vcEyntsGzt_DGqkxkd5wYLU_QkdJztBqOA/s1600/LaChambreforweb.jpg" height="400" width="640" /></a></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: "Palatino Linotype","serif"; font-size: 10.0pt; line-height: 115%; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman";"><i><br /></i></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: "Palatino Linotype","serif"; font-size: 10.0pt; line-height: 115%; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman";"><i>La Chambre - </i>Eve Marguerite Allen</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: "Palatino Linotype","serif"; font-size: 10.0pt; line-height: 115%; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman";"><i></i></span></div>
<a name='more'></a><i><br /></i>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<b><i><span style="font-family: "Palatino Linotype","serif"; font-size: 10.0pt; line-height: 115%; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman";">Saute Ma Ville</span></i></b><i><span style="font-family: "Palatino Linotype","serif"; font-size: 10.0pt; line-height: 115%; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman";">:
<o:p></o:p></span></i></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<i><span style="font-family: "Palatino Linotype","serif"; font-size: 10.0pt; line-height: 115%; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman";"><br /></span></i></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: "Palatino Linotype","serif"; font-size: 10.0pt; line-height: 115%; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman";">As Ivone Margulies describes, <i>Saute Ma Ville, </i>Akerman’s first piece of cinema,<i> </i>is a sort of coming of age film. It
begins as Akerman bounds up the stairs into her first adolescent apartment. For
Margulies, the apartment is a space of youthful experimentation and the suicide
finale of the film is a rite of passage through which Akerman passes into her
creative adult life. Importantly, we see the suicide in the apartment’s mirror
– it is performed as much for the benefit of the character as for the audience
and, as Margulies argues, this mirror-image performance does not just reflect
Akerman – it propels her into her future. A real hetertopia, the mirror’s
relationship with exterior spaces is one of transformation. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: "Palatino Linotype","serif"; font-size: 10.0pt; line-height: 115%; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman";"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: "Palatino Linotype","serif"; font-size: 10.0pt; line-height: 115%; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman";">A bedroom or an apartment is crucial as a private space. It
is a space to <i>be yourself,</i> so to
speak. But whilst <i>being yourself </i>is
about identity, it is not about being <i>identical
</i>to your own image, to who you are day to day. When you’re young, being
yourself in your bedroom, as we all remember, is more to do with experimenting.
The little kid plays with the dressing up box, imagining themselves as other in
order to advance themselves as themselves. The teenager too uses the walls as a
set to be endlessly redecorated with posters -also an act of <i>trying on.</i> Being in the bedroom is being
+, it is you + the tentative creation of what you might become. You, but you in
relation to known and future others, and therefore more than just you. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: "Palatino Linotype","serif"; font-size: 10.0pt; line-height: 115%; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman";"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: "Palatino Linotype","serif"; font-size: 10.0pt; line-height: 115%; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman";">Three minutes before the end of <i>Saute Ma Ville, </i>after Akerman has found and explored herself in the
mirror, Akerman’s mirror image climbs onto the radiator and crouches in the
window. The mirror Akerman then jumps, sideways, back into real space. In the
mirror Akerman’s antics in the apartment have come into a new set of relations
– what seemed a film about the untroubled and chaotic explorations of youth,
becomes about self-consciousness and (at the end of the film) self-sacrifice in
the artistic process. This theme is discovered in the mirror, and this
discovery changes our protagonist. It is not the reflected but the <i>refracted </i>Akerman who jumps back,
equipped with a more worldly knowledge. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: "Palatino Linotype","serif"; font-size: 10.0pt; line-height: 115%; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman";"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: "Palatino Linotype","serif"; font-size: 10.0pt; line-height: 115%; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman";">From this point on she is the virtual Akerman from the
mirror, the Akerman who could be anything and who awaits a world with which to
relate her performances. Her subsequent
suicide is therefore also virtual: a symbolic death designed to create
not to destroy, represented in the mirror because literally an act of
self-reflection within which both Akerman, and the spaces her world come into
relation with, are reconfigured. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<b><i><span style="font-family: "Palatino Linotype","serif"; font-size: 10.0pt; line-height: 115%; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman";">La Chambre: <o:p></o:p></span></i></b></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<b><i><span style="font-family: "Palatino Linotype","serif"; font-size: 10.0pt; line-height: 115%; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman";"><br /></span></i></b></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: "Palatino Linotype","serif"; font-size: 10.0pt; line-height: 115%; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman";">La Chambre starts with an empty chair, with a missing
person. The camera works methodically to find its subject. Panning round, then
back, catching glimpses of the young woman in her bed. The woman is looking
directly into the camera. Ironically this means we know her less. If she was
not looking she would just be a character within the world of the film and we’d
know how to take that. Characters are not <i>unknown
</i>because they cannot be known, they exist in a different realm. But this
character’s stare, her direct address, transforms her from the known- because-unknowable
protagonist into a stranger in the real world, somebody we don’t know and whose
coy stare suggests that she is keeping something from us. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: "Palatino Linotype","serif"; font-size: 10.0pt; line-height: 115%; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman";"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: "Palatino Linotype","serif"; font-size: 10.0pt; line-height: 115%; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman";">The bedroom we find her in is, on the one hand, completely
circumscribed by the circular motion of the camera. On the other it is
penetrated by the camera which Akerman stares straight back into like a mirror
– making us the image – the result of her glance refracting as it passes
through the lens. The table we pan past is set for two and this private space
is certainly transfigured into a space of encounter. But it’s unclear who found
who, which is the original gaze, our slow panning or Akerman’s stare? Either way, this is an encounter which
complicates the act of looking and the resultant relationship between the
viewer and the viewed. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: "Palatino Linotype","serif"; font-size: 10.0pt; line-height: 115%; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman";"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<b><i><span style="font-family: "Palatino Linotype","serif"; font-size: 10.0pt; line-height: 115%; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman";">Je Tu Il Elle: </span></i></b><i><span style="font-family: "Palatino Linotype","serif"; font-size: 10.0pt; line-height: 115%; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman";"><o:p></o:p></span></i></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<b><i><span style="font-family: "Palatino Linotype","serif"; font-size: 10.0pt; line-height: 115%; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman";"><br /></span></i></b></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<i><span style="font-family: "Palatino Linotype","serif"; font-size: 10.0pt; line-height: 115%; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman";"> </span></i><span style="font-family: "Palatino Linotype","serif"; font-size: 10.0pt; line-height: 115%; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman";">In <i>Je
Tu Il Elle </i>the protagonist, Julie, begins by telling us that she has spent
the week repainting all her furniture. Whilst the first shot that greets us is of
an unassuming room that we have no reason to question, Julie’s narration
immediately unsettles this apparent stasis by conjuring images of the room’s
alternative appearances. It seems we’re not necessarily meant to believe that
the room was a series of different colours, Julie’s main aim is just to press
upon us that despite initial appearances this is a highly unstable apartment. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: "Palatino Linotype","serif"; font-size: 10.0pt; line-height: 115%; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman";">As if to prove her point, Julie proceeds to rearrange and
then banish all the furniture, systematically dismantling the ordinariness of
the space. She heaves the furniture across the floor until at last she is
satisfied to sit, pushed up against a cold looking corner. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: "Palatino Linotype","serif"; font-size: 10.0pt; line-height: 115%; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman";"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: "Palatino Linotype","serif"; font-size: 10.0pt; line-height: 115%; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman";">This deconstruction, and Julie’s tales of redecoration
immediately establishes the space’s lack of fixity and its virtuality: another
space of exploration. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: "Palatino Linotype","serif"; font-size: 10.0pt; line-height: 115%; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman";"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: "Palatino Linotype","serif"; font-size: 10.0pt; line-height: 115%; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman";">Julie herself is in also in state of unrest. She dresses and
undresses, eats sugar straight from the bag, spills it, piles it back in, and
intermittently examines herself in the window at various stages of undress, as
if to catch snap shots of her alterations. It’s a lover that has generated this
unrest and Julie’s main pursuit is to write letters to them. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: "Palatino Linotype","serif"; font-size: 10.0pt; line-height: 115%; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman";">However, her letters are less acts of communication than
props in an internal dialogue. They are themselves unstable: we are pointedly
told that they have been crossed out and started over again<span style="color: red;">. </span>Performatively, she lays the letters across the
floor of her room. There, they are rendered not methods of communication, but an
exhibition for her own benefit, an exhibition which displays and therefore
objectifies otherness, neutralising it and ensuring Julie’s safety within her
space of interiority.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: "Palatino Linotype","serif"; font-size: 10.0pt; line-height: 115%; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman";"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: "Palatino Linotype","serif"; font-size: 10.0pt; line-height: 115%; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman";">But this bounded space cannot hold. The energy of its
oscillations eventually breaks the walls and thrusts Julie into relation with
real others. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: "Palatino Linotype","serif"; font-size: 10.0pt; line-height: 115%; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman";">In retrospect we feel like Julie’s apartment has been like
an incubator where she tosses and turns until she is ready to emerge into the
world outside. At night she uses the window as a mirror to examine her naked
body, self-reflecting again. But by the morning the window has become something
to <i>see through </i>rather than to see in.
Strange men catch glimpses of her standing uneasy in the light. She is back in
a space of relation and her first foray into communication is to take up with
an unpleasant truck driver whose deplorable traits she pretends not to notice,
studying instead the back of his neck. Luckily, this proves merely to be a test
run of human interaction and Julie soon arrives at an ex lover’s house. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: "Palatino Linotype","serif"; font-size: 10.0pt; line-height: 115%; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman";"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: "Palatino Linotype","serif"; font-size: 10.0pt; line-height: 115%; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman";">In the lover’s homely apartment she and Julie, perform a
strange, negotiated geometry of relations. First they establish a line of
connection, a line defined by the lover’s giving (first time, attention, then
food, then wine), then, in bed, they twist and push themselves into new shapes,
new relations of self/other until, having completed some kind of quasi platonic
coming together, they sleep, and Julie leaves. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: "Palatino Linotype","serif"; font-size: 10.0pt; line-height: 115%; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman";"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: "Palatino Linotype","serif"; font-size: 10.0pt; line-height: 115%; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman";">The noises which accompany the sex scene are reminiscent of
the crazed humming which supervenes over <i>Saute
Ma Ville.<a href="file:///C:/Users/user/Downloads/Akerman%20and%20refraction%20write%20up.docx#_ftn1" name="_ftnref1" title=""><span class="MsoFootnoteReference"><!--[if !supportFootnotes]--><span class="MsoFootnoteReference"><b><span style="font-size: 10pt; line-height: 115%;">[1]</span></b></span><!--[endif]--></span></a> </i>In
both, the self becomes its own narrator, providing its own accompaniment –and
this discordance of voice and image coming from same-but-separate sources sets up
a space of dis-identity (as does the sequential disjunction of narration and
action throughout Akerman’s early work). This space-between, like the mirror in
<i>Saute Ma Ville</i>, functions as a space
for refractions of the self and for the invention and transfiguration of its
relations.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
</div>
<div>
<!--[if !supportFootnotes]--><br clear="all" />
<hr align="left" size="1" width="33%" />
<!--[endif]-->
<br />
<div id="ftn1">
<div class="MsoFootnoteText">
<span style="font-size: x-small;"><a href="file:///C:/Users/user/Downloads/Akerman%20and%20refraction%20write%20up.docx#_ftnref1" name="_ftn1" title=""><span class="MsoFootnoteReference"><!--[if !supportFootnotes]--><span class="MsoFootnoteReference"><span style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; line-height: 115%;">[1]</span></span><!--[endif]--></span></a>
These noises are conspicuously absent on version of the film available online
but I am certain they existed in the A Nos Amours screening. Any
verification/refutation of this would be very appreciated! </span><o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoFootnoteText">
<span style="font-size: x-small;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoFootnoteText">
<span style="font-size: x-small;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoFootnoteText">
<br /></div>
<div align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;">
<b><span style="font-family: 'Palatino Linotype', serif; font-size: 14pt; line-height: 21.466665267944336px;">Catching sight of the Real - Keifer Taylor</span></b></div>
<div align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
For Slavoj Zizek “the
Real” and “symbolic reality” we inhabit is inextricably linked. In ideological
terms, we are governed by a “false consciousness” that prevents a clear understanding
of our “Real” surroundings. As many are aware, Zizek’s lofty theoretical
framework stems from Lacanian Psychoanalysis. Jacques Lacan proposed that our perception
is constructed by a symbolic order of laws and language, featuring an “absence”
that “cuts the real” When we encounter this “Real” it becomes a traumatic
symptom that ruptures our cushioned everyday routines.<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
Returning to Zizek, these
two realms intermingle via the corresponding symptom of the Real. Despite the
indirect nature of this area, he explains, “the real (the part of reality that
remains non-symbolised) returns in the guise of spectral apparitions” that
“gives body to that which escapes (the symbolically structured) reality” In
relation to the spatial properties of Chantal Akerman’s <i>Jeanne Dielman, 23 quai du Commerce, 1080 Bruxelles</i>,<i> </i>the unspoken traumas and regimented
procedures of the eponymous housewife’s daily life collide over the three-day
narrative. <o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
Usually, before we
even consider the thematic basis of <i>Jeanne
Dielman </i>or other Akerman films, the vividly constructed spaces demand
primary attention. Symmetrical framings of this mundane setting presents
obligatory household chores, against a backdrop of bland patterned walls, a
marble green bathtub, a spacious living room and compact kitchen. These images
illustrate a utopian bubble of domestic bliss. The compositional rigour of
these spaces and its central figure’s manoeuvres can be considered a symbolic
reality of Dielman’s attempts to repress her closeted pain.<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
The first day is a
steady visual summary of this symbolic order: the phlegmatic single-parent
housewife’s daily routine consists of preparing the food for her young son,
Sylvain, babysitting, cleaning, engaging in her additional role as a prostitute
and sleeping until the following day’s aforesaid activities. The stringency of
its formal qualities proposes a sense of oppression within this seemingly
natural environment. The stiffening absence of camera movement alone implies a
lack of emotional fluidity. Instead, Dielman is locked inside her securely
barred tedium of homely rituals.<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEijPqRV8NioUUiaBniiGCjag4ZA9340D8JwftYx6DApEOSuIVMwHRMRV8ASBSBcFFGfY5-PrYwG9M1vKaSO6WUKKk0NK-NA2ZOWLAoPZWYpWAXwQS_gOW-tV411B2hE8Oq5j3Gae9aO9w/s1600/Sautemaville2forweb.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEijPqRV8NioUUiaBniiGCjag4ZA9340D8JwftYx6DApEOSuIVMwHRMRV8ASBSBcFFGfY5-PrYwG9M1vKaSO6WUKKk0NK-NA2ZOWLAoPZWYpWAXwQS_gOW-tV411B2hE8Oq5j3Gae9aO9w/s1600/Sautemaville2forweb.jpg" height="362" width="640" /></a></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<i style="font-family: 'Palatino Linotype', serif; font-size: 13px; line-height: 15.333333015441895px; text-align: justify;">Saute Ma Ville - </i><span style="font-family: 'Palatino Linotype', serif; font-size: 13px; line-height: 15.333333015441895px; text-align: justify;">Eve Marguerite Allen</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
By the second day, the
invisible wounds of trauma (the Real) begin to surface, projected by slight
disorders. After a visit from one of her customers, phlegmatic housewife
attends to other business. Money is placed in the jar without placing the lid
back on. The potatoes are overcooked, forcing her to purchase a new bag and
concoct the same meal. Sylvain returns, commenting that her hair is tangled.
These minor details all constitute the character’s tacit inner disturbance.
Despite the rigid precision of shots being intact, the triggered agitation of
the Real taints the ostensible normality of Dielman’s impenetrable symbolic
order. Once the Real arises, it becomes an indelible stain on the composed
character’s symbolic space of repression.<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
It’s difficult to grasp
the enigmatic trauma haunting Dielman across the film’s duration, though pinholes
of insight into her past shed light on this. Perhaps her husband’s death is the
cause of her emotional and sexual repression? Possibly the numb divorcée’s
evening visit from a customer sparked an incandescent surge of thoughts and
feelings, holding close ties to her true self? Towards the film’s convulsive
climax, the photograph of a married couple resting upon the make-up table may
solidify these claims. <o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;">
</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
The power of
suggestion is an integral part of this investigation. To scope out symptoms of
the looming Real one must pierce Chantal Akerman’s stiffly balanced frames.
Gradually, the well-engineered space becomes a permeable sight of repressed
desires, highlighting the unvoiced imperfections of Dielman’s symbolic reality.
Once present, it is uncertain whether these two worlds are separate or exist
concurrently. The final handful of images leans towards the latter, indicating
the inextinguishable traumas that lurk within the seemingly prosaic.<o:p></o:p></div>
</div>
</div>
A Nos Amourshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12115094544456729887noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5975890683474771409.post-70599755821153332522014-01-14T21:24:00.000+00:002014-01-14T21:24:15.160+00:00The Virtues of Boredom by Jessica Fletcher <div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;">
<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;"><b><br /></b></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;">
<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;"><b><br /></b></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;">
<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;"><b>The Virtues of Boredom </b></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">Films as diverse as Chantal Akerman’s <i>Jeanne Dielman, 23 quai du Commerce, 1080 Bruxelles </i>(1975), Michelangelo
Frammartino’s <i>Le Quattro Volte</i> (2010)
and Terrence Malick’s <i>The Tree of Life</i>
(2011) can be linked through their denial of immediate visual or narrative
gratification, indeed by their apparent determination to bore their viewer.
They can be off-putting and antagonistic towards their audience, but their insistence
on boredom is arguably intrinsic to their epic scopes. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<o:p><span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;"></span></o:p></div>
<a name='more'></a><br />
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;"><i>Jeanne Dielman</i>,
for instance, can be seen as a cinematic counterpart to James Joyce’s <i>Ulysses</i>, albeit set over a period of
days, rather than a single one. It is an epic of the everyday that follows its
protagonist as she goes about her mundane routine of shopping, preparing dinner
and helping her son with his homework. This repetitive structure and insistence
on minimal action is in one sense meant to bore the audience: to make them
acutely aware that time is passing. As Akerman once remarked in an interview, <span lang="EN-US">‘the way cinema was done was mostly
to escape time. When people say, “Oh, I had a good evening. I didn't see the
time passing by.” Well – they were robbed of two hours of their life.’ </span>A
couple of tactics are used by Akerman to ensure that her audience is not robbed
of their time: the first three hours of the film consist of a series of
repetitions with very slight variations on Dielman’s carefully calibrated days,
which deny any sense of narrative arc. One is invited to notice time passing –
to be bored – through Dielman’s highly regulated routine. And, like Yasujirō Ozu, Akerman often uses
a static camera set at hip height, so that characters move in and out of shots
and the audience is asked to look at a kitchen interior and ingredients for
meatloaf as much as the ostensible protagonist of the film. Unpeopled spaces
are used to challenge human attention spans.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">Frammartino’s <i>Le
Quattro Volte</i> is another case of this audacious use of non-human scenes, as
only a quarter of the “action” is human; the rest centres on a goat, then a
tree, as it transforms from being the centrepiece of a village festival to
charcoal. He gives roughly equal space to humans, animals, plants and minerals
and this breadth of scope indicates the film’s epic intent. Sometimes the
sections mirror each other; so a fly on the face of the goatherd in the opening
quarter is echoed when a human climbs the tree in the latter half of the film. One
is asked to expand one’s anthropocentric notions of action in films further
than the confines of human activity.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">Malick interweaves the story of the origins of the world
with the origins of a man in <i>The Tree of
Life</i>. From the Biblical quotation that opens the film: ‘where were you when
I laid the earth’ (Job 38:4), to the National Geographic-esque sequence in
which the audience is invited to twin an interaction between two dinosaurs and
the mother’s religious ethic as a history of the growth of compassion, Malick insists
on setting human activity within a cosmic context.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">Frammartino and Malick seem interested not simply in drawing
parallels between the human and the natural, but also, like Akerman, in
presenting unpeopled scenes in order to confront human concentration with non-human
subjects. Part of the aim seems to be to make one aware that time is passing as
one is watching the films. This can be seen as an inherent part of their epic
scope; Thomas Mann once noted, ‘an epic is a sublimated boredom’. And as Clive
James suggests when he glosses Mann’s gnomic statement, <span lang="EN-US">‘simply by its outline, an epic demands of us
that we submit to having our time consumed, and be conscious of it’. </span>This
provides a helpful way to think about the sequences of the formation of the world
set to operatic music in <i>The Tree of Life</i>.
Some saw them as a failed attempt at epic scope that was instead numbingly
dull. However the young Malick proffered some useful advice in an early
interview that echoes Akerman’s and Mann’s, when he said of <i>Days of Heaven </i>(1978)<i> </i>that it should be experienced ‘like a
walk in the countryside; you’ll probably be bored, or have other things in
mind, but perhaps you will be struck, suddenly, by an act, by a unique portrait
of nature’. Malick’s remark highlights a proposition essential to these films:
the epic form involves boredom as well as revelation. Dielman’s dull and
unrelenting routine in the first couple of thirds of the film is necessary, so
that its derangement is startling. Similarly, Frammartino limits action and
character in his film, until the final sequence that shows charcoal forming,
which reduces the cinema screen to shades of black. But this ostensibly reduced
scope paradoxically expands one’s vision to a grand panorama that encompasses a
universal life cycle. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;"><span lang="EN-US">The epic
ambitions of these films – Akerman’s cinematic <i>Ulysses</i>, Malick’s intertwining of cosmic and personal histories,
and Frammartino’s illustration of the Pythagorean four – ask the audience to
re-evaluate the place of immediate gratification in cinema and instead to
discover the virtues of boredom.</span><o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;"><span lang="EN-US"><br /></span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<i><b style="background-color: white; font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: 15px; line-height: 21px;">Jessica Fletcher</b><span style="background-color: white; font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: 15px; line-height: 21px;"> is a BA graduate in English at University College London</span></i></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
A Nos Amourshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12115094544456729887noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5975890683474771409.post-79179092522028450932014-01-03T18:12:00.000+00:002014-01-03T18:12:40.558+00:00Spot Light on North Korea Part Two by Ella Harris and Eve Marguerite Allen <div class="MsoNormal">
<b><span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">Spot Light
on North Korea Part Two: The View from the West <o:p></o:p></span></b><br />
<b><span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;"><br /></span></b></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<i><span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">Since the death of Kim Jong-il in
2011, North Korean cinema has received a surge of interest. The facts and
fictions surrounding the North Korean cultural propaganda industries are as
dark as they are bizarre. This three part article interrogates the construction
and the function of the myths surrounding North Korea's global image by
examining the film produced there. <o:p></o:p></span></i></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<b><span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">The
‘Othering’ of North Korea<o:p></o:p></span></b><br />
<b><span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;"><br /></span></b></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">The West’s recent fascination with North Korean cinema is
perhaps unsurprising given that films are one of the only things that regularly
manage to escape the country’s tightly maintained borders. </span><span style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;">Despite constant attempts, few people successfully ‘defect’ from
North Korea and images of real life in the country are limited to what can be
glimpsed from the border zones with the South, or related by those who have
managed to flee. In an age of near total communication, life inside North Korea
is perhaps the globalised world’s best kept secret; endlessly discussed but
barely understood. So it is fascinatingly peculiar when from the depths of this
sinister black hole what greets us is kitsch, B-movie Godzilla rip-offs
executive-directed by Kim Jong-il.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;"></span><br />
<a name='more'></a><br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">In this light it’s clear why Western attention to North Korean
cinema fixates on the ‘exotic’ nature of their film industry. Surely what we
are drawn by is the layers of performance at play in North Korean films; by
actors who we assume must play a double role, also ‘pretending’ to be happy
North Korean citizens. Moreover, we are struck by how earnestly and naively
they play the role of global movie stars, seemingly unaware of their country’s
bizarre cinematic status. We look at them with an anthropological gaze,
wondering what kind of humans they must be, or must have become, who spend long
days at film school in order to dutifully and unquestioningly carry out the
artistic desires of the dear leader. <o:p></o:p></span><br />
<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">Thanks to this ‘otherness’, North Korea’s film has garnered a
cult status in the West and everyone from counter-culture aspirant <i>VICE </i>to international news vender <i>Al Jazeera </i>has been getting in on the
act (pun intended) to celebrate the strangeness of the North Korean film
industry. <i>Al Jazeera </i>even visited the
film school in Pynogynang (after three failed attempts when the school was
‘closed for refurbishment’) to witness a carefully choreographed ‘lesson’ for
Pynongyang’s budding acting talent. <o:p></o:p></span><br />
<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">It seems that this attention is knowingly coaxed and charmed by
North Korea’s PR department which produces laughably bold statements about Kim
Jong-il’s wide-reaching prowess (Kim is, according to North Korean press, the
world’s best golfer, the inventor of the hamburger, and able to control the
weather) and no less grandiose claims about the nation’s cultural output: “In
recent years our film art has created an unprecedented sensation in the world’s
filmdom… The revolutionary people of the world are unstinting in their praise…
of [our] immortal revolutionary and popular films” <i>Korean Review 1974. <o:p></o:p></i></span><br />
<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;"><i><br /></i></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">These assertions of Kim’s North Korea’s talent for ‘film art’
are all the more amusing once you’ve actually seen the films made in North
Korea (several are available on youtube <a href="http://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PL4D1A9E71A707338B">here</a>). The
most widely discussed is <i>Pulgasari. </i>Made
in 1985 it is Kim’s answer to the Godzilla franchise; a monster-movie directed
by the captured Shin Sang-ok. ‘Endearing’ feels like the wrong word for
anything produced under a dictator and as the direct result of a kidnapping but
<i>Pulgasari, </i>is, amongst other things,
a charmingly bad piece of cinema. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<b><span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">Pulgasari <o:p></o:p></span></b><br />
<b><span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;"><br /></span></b></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">From its crude special effects to the neo-mythical narrative
Pulgasari has the erratic amiability of a film like ‘The Clash of the Titans’
but is set in a feudal village more akin to Monty Python’s take on medieval Britain
in ‘Monty Python and the Holy Grail.’ The plot opens with the village people in
turmoil. The Governor’s men are confiscating all items made of iron from the
distraught villagers to melt into weapons for the ‘war effort.’ A village elder
clinging too tightly to his pans is beaten and imprisoned by the authorities.
He dies in jail, leaving two children behind him, but not before fashioning a
tiny monster out of rice from the bottom of his cell. This monster, Pulgasari,
takes on a life of its own and is adopted by Ami (the man’s daughter and the
story’s heroine) and her younger brother. At first he is a tiny dragon-like
being (“so cute!”) with a quirky desire to eat metal and jerky, awkward
movements (probably the result of the actor straining to move in a monster
costume.) He warms the hearts of Ami and her brother, prancing around their
room and eating sewing needles. <o:p></o:p></span><br />
<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">As he eats more iron Pulgasari grows bigger and bigger, eventually
getting so big that he terrorises not only the chaotic army (who try to defeat
him) but the villagers too. The long action scenes glorifying Pulgasari’s
strength (full of ‘peowww peowww’ sounds as he heroically fires cannon balls straight
back at the army after catching them in his teeth!) are interspersed with shots
of concerned locals lamenting the loss of their iron possessions to Pulgasari’s
stomach (“It even ate my pot!, “Oh, no! Not you pot too!?”)</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">Whilst Pulgasari is basically invincible, it soon becomes
apparent that his insatiable iron addiction will end in world wars fought to
provide for him. Eventually Ami is forced to sacrifice herself for the greater
good. She smuggles herself into Pulgasarai’s open jaws within an iron cylinder
and as Pulgasari crunches down on her small body they both meet their ends.
Pulgarsari shrinks back down to a cute baby monster and leaps with a flash onto
Ami’s lifeless face where he becomes a single tear drop. <o:p></o:p></span><br />
<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">Like many North Korean film narratives, the plot of <i>Pulgasari </i>can be read as a praise of the
overcoming of Japanese rule in North Korea (1910 – 1945). The army are the
Japanese occupiers and the revolutionary people are to be the citizens of the
new North Korea under Kim Il-sung; their collective spirit but their lack of
greed (they only want to keep their iron implements in order to be able to farm
and cook!) are typical of North Korean cinema and its reiteration of the
‘Juche’ spirit. <i>Fate of a Self-defence
Corps Man (1970), </i>developed from a story reportedly written by Kim Il-sung
during the battle against the Japanese occupation also celebrates
self-sacrifice and collective unity, as does <i>Sea of Blood </i>(1969) which is derived from another war-time novel
about a farmer who becomes a national heroine through her fight with the
Japanese. Self-sacrifice as a favourite theme is perhaps second only to the
depiction of how contented, self-reliant and hardworking village life is,
reflected in the titles of feature films like <i>A Family of Workers, Rolling Mill Workers </i>and <i>A Flowering Village. </i><o:p></o:p></span><br />
<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;"><i><br /></i></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">The country’s isolation means that unbiased facts on the
reaction to films like Pulgasari from within North Korea are hard to come by.
Though for outside audiences Kim’s curious productions have gained a somewhat
cult following for their dodgy special effects and kitschy charm it is hard to
determine whether cinema going is a popular or even available activity in North
Korea. The Pyongyang International Cinema Hall and Kaeson Cinema apparently
hold regular screenings but any North Koreans in attendance would certainly not
be familiar with many of the Kim’s own points of reference, gained from the
hours he spent consuming North American and Japanese movies. There is a
manipulative absurdity of a despot who regulates cultural production inside the
country he rules while having the sole privilege of experiencing arts outside
his own nation: North Korean cinema is tangibly influenced by external filmic
cultures (as in the obvious Godzilla/Pulgasari comparison), however its
audience could only glean reflections from this external industry in the North
Korean output; a Juched-up (sorry) synthesis of Western film. <o:p></o:p></span><br />
<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">Whilst there is certainly something funny about a dictator who
convinces his captive/captivated country that his cinema is globally celebrated
it is also incredibly sinister that to gain this reputation (and indeed to
limit understanding of how forceful his general political rule is) he chooses
to ban all cultural imports. </span><span style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;">Interactions with other nations are limited but when visitors do
come Pynongyang is held up as the show city, where closely monitored guests,
including Google executives and sports stars are given meticulously planned
tours around the certain parts of the city; a pseudo-film set built to impress
which, presumably, is a million miles from the conditions that most North
Koreans live in.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<b><span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">Sly links
to the outside<o:p></o:p></span></b><br />
<b><span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;"><br /></span></b></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">Pynongyang also hosts the <a href="http://www.pyongyanginternationalfilmfestival.com/">Pyongyang
International Film Festival</a><span class="MsoHyperlink"> which is
one of the few events planned with the international community in mind. Two
unlikely international collaborations with the North Korean film industry have
received some press attention in the West. <i>Comrade
Kim Goes Flying, </i>a joint British-Belgian-North Korean rom-com, and <i>Aim High in Creation, </i>a comedy about the
‘cinematic genius’ of Kim Jong-il by Australian Anna Broinowski, are both
released this year. It will be interesting to see the reaction to these films.
Whilst a good reception from North Korea’s indoctrinated citizens would be
unsurprisingly (especially given the regime’s zero tolerance attitudes towards
criticism or debate), surely the cheer of North Korean produced film must be
jarring to a viewer with access to the news and to cinema from the rest of the
world? </span><o:p></o:p></span><br />
<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;"><span class="MsoHyperlink"><br /></span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">But the West does seem to be totally capable of enjoying the
oddities of North Korean culture despite the fact that leaked reports from
defectors about prison camps and national starvation are increasingly published
(<a href="http://www.huffingtonpost.co.uk/2013/10/12/north-korea-defector-yodo_n_4088122.html?utm_hp_ref=uk">North
Korean Defector Reveals The Horrifying Conditions Inside Secretive State's
Concentration Camps</a>, <i>Huffington Post. </i><a href="http://www.amnesty.org.uk/news_details.asp?NewsID=19434">North
Korea: New images reveal true scale of political prison camps</a><i>, Amnesty International). </i>Such reports indicate that outside of the
cities life differs harshly from the cheerful feudal scenes in many North Korean
films. <o:p></o:p></span><br />
<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;"><span class="MsoHyperlink">That collaborations
even exist between North Korean and Western cinema industries is a testament to
the extent to which the comic face of North Korea is enjoyed and the horror
of the country downplayed entirely. For North Korea to agree to collaborate
with the West or for Western film makers to want to engage with the North
Korean industry there has to be a distinct lack of Western coverage of North
Korean human rights abuses. Flippantly, we could say that when there are plenty
of human rights violations elsewhere it is more interesting, amusing and
profitable for Western media to celebrate absurdity in North Korean than to
condemn the government’s treatment of its people. But is there a more profound
geopolitical sense in which the image of North Korea as a funny fantasy land
works for the West and for North Korea itself?</span><o:p></o:p></span><br />
<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;"><span class="MsoHyperlink"><br /></span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">Whilst <i>Pulgasari </i>might,
on one level, be deeply funny, and whilst there is certainly something
ludicrous about a kidnaping motivated by cinematic aspirations, the message of
North Korean cinema is clearly deeply thought out, not just accidentally
hilarious. Stories of dire conditions in North Korea continue to reach the West
and it is difficult to reconcile reports of torture with the stranger than
fiction tales of Kim’s childlike obsession with film, his 15,000 DVD collection
and his love of Elizabeth Taylor. It’s hard to believe that North Korea isn’t a
toy-town Disneyland owned by a benevolent cartoon villain and this is certainly
how the nation is treated by much of the Western press. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">Arguably, this means that maybe some of the propaganda has
worked on us. We need to ask ourselves what work does this image of the comic
dictator/director do? Does it enable North Korea to function, in some respects,
as a wolf in sheep’s clothing, allowing filmic collaborations with the West
and, more sinisterly, shrouding the country’s multiple human rights abuses in a
double-bluff spectacle of naff cinema? Who benefits from this internationally maintained facade? We may laugh and proclaim Kim Jong-un
the <a href="http://www.theonion.com/articles/kim-jongun-named-the-onions-sexiest-man-alive-for,30379/">‘World’s
Sexiest Man Alive’</a> (The Onion) but the cuddly-film-fanatic-despot is a
convenient distraction story for one of history’s most frightening characters. </span></div>
A Nos Amourshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12115094544456729887noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5975890683474771409.post-12289566370662570222013-12-12T09:08:00.000+00:002013-12-12T09:08:08.364+00:00Akerman 2 by Keifer Taylor <div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;">
<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;"><u><b>Akerman 2</b></u></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">As we tread deeper into the Promethean vault of Chantal Akerman’s vast
filmic corpus the director’s personal vision seems to be taking shape. Already
six films into the retrospective we are miles away from the brisk energy of <i>Saute Ma Ville </i>as Akerman tenaciously
grips to a more emotionally restrained, pared down approach with numerous
stylistic ventures.<o:p></o:p></span><br />
<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">In the article before this I referred to <i>Hotel Monterey </i>as an experimental film. At this point, however, it
is clear that Akerman’s stylistic choices weren’t tentative exercises in
cinematic expression. <i>La Chambre</i>, <i>Le 15/8 </i>and <i>Je, Tu, Il, Elle </i>all retain the themes and aesthetic principles of
the previously screened films: lonely, anxious figures who yearn for excitement
beyond the tedium of their confined spaces, loneliness and, of course, broken
barriers where documentary and fiction conflate in a series of precisely framed
shots governed by a uniquely hypnotic rhythm.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
</div>
<br />
<a name='more'></a><span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;"><br /></span>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">Made the same year as <i>Hotel
Monterey </i>(1972), <i>La Chambre </i>is a
continuation of Akerman’s interest in space and spectatorship. The mute short
(accompanied by the whirling 16mm projector and warm crackle of the film print)
consists of one 360-degree pan around a cramped New York bedsit of typical
household items and the lone director herself wrapped in a white dressing gown
on an unkempt bed. Akerman’s stare possesses something haunting and growingly
charming with each languid spin. During the second sight of her she seems
restless, rocking about under the covers, indicating to us her anxiety and
longing for more. This image alone could be a touch of irony, mocking our own
search for action. Midway through the third rotation, drifting past Akerman now
eating an apple, the camera abruptly decides to return to the lonesome subject.
Subsequently, the camera begins to shift back and forth between the mahogany
chest of drawers flanked to the right and the cluttered desk on the left. After
being lulled by the film’s leisurely orbit around the small dwelling one is
caught within its stirring pot of indecision and agitation until it’s blunt
ending of ceaseless movement. Seamlessly, as images of worn celluloid and grain
travelled across the screen, the second film began. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">After returning back to Europe the Belgian nomad co-directed <i>Le 15/8 </i>(1973)<i> </i>with her compatriot filmmaker Samy Szlingerbaum. A poetic
documentary of displacement that observes a young Finnish woman named Chris who
is staying in a sparse Parisian apartment (apparently owned by Szlingerbaum himself).
Chris’ banal activities are shown with a delicate eye for detail through flat,
black-and-white images of her smoking, eating, sitting in the kitchen,
pensively staring out onto the unseen streets and reclining on the floor
against the crisp shadow of a railing pattern. Parallel to these scenes Chris’
high-pitched voice-over rapidly flows through the narrative, imparting a stream
of both trivial and personal thoughts.<o:p></o:p></span><br />
<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">The narration gradually dissects the warmth of Chris’ enchanting smile
and marbled eyes that stare back at the audience, revealing the aimless Nordic
wanderer’s fragility. After the amusing reiteration of “I’m sitting in the
kitchen,” other seemingly mundane descriptions seem to convey an unspoken
sorrow. For example, the self-conscious critique of her dirty blonde hair
alludes to the subject’s inner conflict. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">Chris’ doleful situation deepens as she briefly recounts her experiences
in London and Paris. As the film never escapes the confines of the apartment,
imagining the timid Finn roaming the glitzy districts and parched gullies of
both capital cities like a lost Whooper swan amongst thousands brings us closer
to her possible desire for an emotional connection. Despite preferring the city
of love and light (after expressing how “cold” the stares are in London) her
encounter with a man grabbing her arm only accentuates this hankering. Even the
natural sounds of off-screen cars roaring a long the streets amplify Chris’
predicament with the stuffy air of melancholy trumping all romantic
associations of the city. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;"><i>Je, Tu, Il, Elle </i>(1974) blends elements of Akerman’s preceding
films, solidifying them into a boldly austere debut narrative feature. After a
break-up with her boyfriend a young woman played by Akerman (named Julie in the
closing credits) lives an ascetic lifestyle – involving a cloying diet of
coarse sugar - inside her one-room flat until heading out to experience the
thrills of the outside world. Photographed in steely black-and-white, images
carry the same eeriness and peculiar beauty found in the filmmaker’s other
works.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">Presumably “Tu” refers to the audience members themselves. Akerman even
gives us the odd glance to acknowledge our presence. Through a bulk of static,
uninterrupted takes and occasional movements we observe and absorb the process
of Julie’s immurement. During her brief fling with a truck driver (played by a
young Niels Arestrup) the camera almost becomes an autonomous entity. While the
soft-faced protagonist stares at the trucker shaving, he then decides to
urinate before returning to the mirror. Rather than following Julie’s gaze, the
delayed camera pans to the right seconds later, focusing on the trucker’s
reflection.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">The languorous first half is accompanied by Akerman’s voiceover in which
she describes her day-to-day activities inside the room. Interestingly, the
narration is never in sync with the onscreen action as the latter takes place
some moments after. Each description creates a sense of anticipation with the
impeccable execution of the scene offsetting the minor delay: a prime example
being the deadpan incident where Julie robotically scoffs the bag of coarse
sugar; caught in a daze, nearly gagging, the contents fall out onto the
letters.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">Once again, the domestic space is framed as a suffocating symbol,
signifying the character’s malaise. Eventually, the compulsive rearrangement of
furniture leads to only a mattress and a messy assortment of written letters remaining
inside the glum outcast’s stripped down chamber. As time slips by Julie’s
hermetic existence begins to wane, producing symptoms of discomfort and sexual
desire.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">After viewing her naked body through the faint reflection of a
windowpane the ravenous Julie leaves her self-imposed prison in search of
sexual gratification. She then hitches a ride on a misty highway with the
aforesaid truck driver. This second portion becomes a road movie of sorts,
travelling to multiple public establishments. Sporadic shakiness even begins to
appear, although the dominantly stationary camera pushes the segment forward.
Stasis aside, the truck – however much a tight squeeze – is a mobile force,
granting a loose sense of freedom a long the boundless landscape.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">The pair’s journey involves a silent meal together at an empty diner and
drinking beer at smoky bars. The prevailing silence of their romance drives the
sexual tension between them. After channelling their libidinal energies (more
so the male’s) with a hand job the trucker provides a monologue on his morally
complex background.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">The rambling speech becomes a great insight into male discontentment.
The driver reflects on his empty marriage of bland, obligatory sex with a wife
who no longer arouses him, his occasional hook-ups with other hitchhikers,
familial duties and the repressed attraction towards his eldest daughter. Many
parallels spring to mind: both characters stem from enclosed environments; the
driver’s escape from the numbing home of matrimonial commitments onto the open
road equates Julie’s own dissatisfaction. In the end, regardless of gender, all
people share an inner craving beyond the prosaic.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">Perhaps still unfulfilled, Julie arrives at her female ex-lover’s home.
A sandwich and speechless flirtations leads to the women stripping and
embracing in a lengthy sex sequence. The camera remains clinical, omitting the
erotic intensity found in other films (comparisons have already been made with
Abdellatif Kechiche’s controversial <i>Blue
Is The Warmest Colour</i>). Nonetheless, the scene bleeds passion as the feral
bodies clasp with an irrepressible amatory. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">The differences between Julie’s sexual encounters are clear. For the
trucker, sex is considered a frivolous activity, merely feeding his carnal
appetites while the feminine duo display a tender and searing love. On a
cynical level, there are similarities in both cases. When Julie leaves her
lover in the morning the coldness of their relationship is exposed, rendering
the night’s events as nothing more than an untamed attraction.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">Chantal Akerman’s work remains challenging yet strikingly hits close to
home. By now, attendees should be able to acclimatise to the weight of her
filmmaking. Though undeniably arduous at times these films are acute accounts
of instinctual pleasures and human frailties with cracks of humour to shed
light on these dim realities. We can only brace ourselves for the upcoming
screening of <i>Jeanne Dielman, 23 Quai du
Commerce, 1080 Bruxelles</i>.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;"><i style="background-color: white; font-size: 15px; line-height: 18px;">Keifer Taylor is a BA Graduate in Film Studies at Queen Mary, University of London</i></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
A Nos Amourshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12115094544456729887noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5975890683474771409.post-14769762495009607292013-12-05T11:46:00.000+00:002013-12-05T11:46:46.644+00:00Spot Light on North Korea, Part One by Eve Marguerite Allen and Ella Harris <div class="MsoNormal">
<b><span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">Spot Light on North Korea, Part
One: Film and Propaganda in North Korea<o:p></o:p></span></b></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<b><span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;"><br /></span></b></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<i><span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">Since the death of Kim Jong-il in
2011, North Korean cinema has received a surge of interest. The facts and
fictions surrounding the North Korean cultural propaganda industries are as
dark as they are bizarre. This three part article interrogates the construction
and the function of North Korea’s global image by
examining the film produced there. <o:p></o:p></span></i></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<b><span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">Prisoners of Film <o:p></o:p></span></b></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<b><span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;"><br /></span></b></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">In
1978 Kim Jong-il orchestrated the unusual and high profile kidnapping of two
South Koreans who he brought to his personal
compound in North Korea. A North Korean kidnapping alone is sadly unremarkable.
Political kidnappings are an expected, if undesirable aspect of many coercive
regimes. What is unusual, however, is that these particular South Koreans, Choi Eun-hee
and her ex-husband Shin Sang-ok, were not threatening political figures, but
film makers. They were taken by Kim Jong-il not, as might be expected, because
their films challenged the North Korean regime from across the border and he
wanted them silenced, but rather because Kim had admired their film making so
much that he was determined to have them make films for him. Kidnapping the
pair was just the most efficient way to go about this. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;"></span><br />
<a name='more'></a><span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">Choi,
a much respected South Korean actress, disappeared whilst away in Hong Kong and
when her ex-husband, the director Shin, went looking for her he too was
abducted by North Korean secret agents. Choi was taken directly to North Korea whilst
Shin reported spending five long years in prison, fed mainly on grass, before
finally being delivered to Kim Jong-il. Kim apologised for the
‘misunderstanding’ and welcomed him into North Korean high society. As Shin
soon discovered, Choi was also living amongst the North Korean elite: half
captive and half esteemed guest. At a dinner party held by Kim, Shin and Choi
were reunited and under the auspices of the Great Leader they were hastily
remarried. The reunited couple were to begin making more films together
immediately. This time it would be in keeping with the propagandist objectives
of the North Korean cultural industries. Kim would be at the helm as executive
producer, naturally. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">In
what seems an act of cartoonish dictatorship, Kim forcibly took Choi
and Shin and detained them to manifest his cinematic fantasies. It is no secret
that cinema can be a highly influential tool in persuading the masses of one’s
particular political bent, but Kim took this to another level.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<b><span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">The Kim Jong-il Show<o:p></o:p></span></b></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<b><span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;"><br /></span></b></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">In the
present day the North Korean nuclear program, political tensions with South
Korea and America and a rare change in leadership have put the Democratic
People’s Republic of Korea in the spotlight again. Alongside this, the cultural
propaganda produced in North Korea is also gaining attention; spectacles such
as Arirang Festival, a mass games featuring thousands of synchronised gymnasts
and school children, are relatively famous in the outside world. <a href="http://www.theguardian.com/world/2013/mar/27/north-korea-photoshop-hovercraft">Badly photoshopped images</a> released by the North Korean
government exaggerating military might have also made the rounds. It’s clear
from the stories and images that do reach the West that spectacle and display
play a key part in maintaining the self-purported image of the DPRK.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">North
Korea is as dark as it appears inexplicably weird; essentially a dictatorship
with its roots in Stalinist ideology, as Amnesty International’s screening of <a href="http://www.amnesty.org.uk/events_details.asp?EventsID=2388"><i>Yodok
Stories</i></a>
recently highlighted, it comes complete with labour camps, rural starvation and
zero-tolerance on regime criticism. Coupled with this are stories of Kim
Jong-il the late ‘Great Leader’s’ flamboyant love of sushi and Jean-Claude Van
Damme films amongst other frivolous pastimes. Such light hearted and strange
tales of excess against a back drop of human rights violations are all the more
sinister and disconcerting. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">After
the ruling Kim dynasty changed hands when ‘Great Leader’ Kim Jong-il died at
the end of 2011 and passed the reigns to his son Kim Jong-un, news reports were
accompanied by the disarming spectacle of <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kOquEimPp60">wailing masses</a> of grieving North Koreans, apparently devastated at
the news of their dictator’s death. The Western media began to <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zHMQascICTk">speculate</a>;
did they wail out of fear or was it a form of brainwashed ‘love’ - a kind of
mass Stockholm syndrome?<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;"><b>Film and the Soviet Start</b> <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<b><span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;"><br /></span></b></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">Kim
Young Soon, a defector and former detainee of one of the country’s most brutal
prison camps spoke recently at Amnesty International’s <a href="http://www2.amnesty.org.uk/blogs/country-specialists/my-prison-life-kim-young-soon-north-koreas-secret-prison-camps">North Korea Freedom Week</a>. She asserted that North
Korean’s were generally ‘totally brainwashed’ by lifelong exposure to
propaganda about the regime’s infallibility and many genuinely did believe Kim
Il-sung to be their saviour. A look at the government produced film of North
Korea and the themes it embodies goes some way to explaining why. When the
Soviet Union installed Kim Il-sung as the leader of the newly split DPRK in
1949, the country began producing films in earnest to prop up the story of Kim
as the great liberator of the North Korean people. <i>My Home Village </i>released the year of the separation tells the story
of a poor Korean man who is oppressed and exploited by a greedy feudal landlord
around the time of the Japanese occupation (1910 – 1945). After much struggling
the villager escapes enormous hardship only when Kim Il-sung’s Revolutionary
Army swoops in to save him from the Japanese forces. Thus starts the work on the creation of the
new North Korean society, headed by the Supreme Leader himself. And so it was. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">This
creation myth of North Korea is echoed in much of the state media, always
omitting the defeat of Japan at the end of the 2<sup>nd</sup> World War by the
Americans and the fact that it was the Soviet Union that stormed on North Korea
after the Japanese left and installed Kim as the de facto head of state. Films
and other propaganda from this point onwards paint Korea as a country with a
rich 5,000 year history, much of it plagued by selfish and corrupt aristocrats,
landlords and feudal kings who kept the people poor and would do anything to
preserve their own privilege and lives of luxury. It took Kim Il-sung’s
socialist revolution to break this cycle and free the North Korean people,
guiding them towards collective happiness. The cult of personality around Kim
Il-sung in North Korea is enshrined in law and endures today (he was proclaimed
‘Eternal President’ after his death). <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">Pyongyang
clearly learned a few tricks from the USSR’s propaganda arm, reflected in unmistakeable echoes of socialist realism in the style and subject matter of North Korean
film. Lenin’s aphorism, “<i>Cinema is the
most important of all arts”, </i>was held in high esteem by the late Kim
Il-sung. The film making he oversaw consistently portrayed communist or
revolutionary themes. The Soviet Union reportedly even donated film making
equipment to the North Korean government to get things kick started. Cinema was
seen as an essential vehicle by both regimes for instilling government ideology
in the populace and in the case of the North Korean administration was, and
still is, a tool for bashing the earlier Japanese occupation or disseminating
anti-American and anti-capitalist sentiments. <span style="background-color: white; background-position: initial initial; background-repeat: initial initial;">In 1966 Kim Il-Sung made a call for <i>juche </i>art. <i>Juche </i>is a
specifically North Korean brand of self-sufficiency and resilience: "Our
art should develop in a revolutionary way, reflecting the Socialist content
with the national form" he announced. </span>North Korean films of the
early 1970s such as <i>The Rays of Juche
Spread All Over the World </i>and <i>The
People Sing of the Fatherly Leader </i>envisage a socialist utopia and proclaim
the infallibility of Kim Il-sung’s leadership. <span style="background: white;"><o:p></o:p></span></span><br />
<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<b><span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">Kim Jong-il: Film
Fanatic <o:p></o:p></span></b><br />
<b><span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;"><br /></span></b></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;"><span style="background-color: white;">By the time despot-son Kim Jong-il took in over
the film industry from his father Kim Il-sung he had already been supervising
the North Korean film output for several years. Somewhat fanatical, it is
widely reported that he had amassed a </span>DVD
collection of around 15,000 titles in a temperature controlled vault and was
particularly partial to Japanese and American films. He was delighted by
Elizabeth Taylor and the Japanese Godzilla franchise and sought to emulate the
powerful spectacle of some of the films from around the world that he had been
watching. <span style="background: white;">Kim Jong-il became a master of the art
of propaganda and with his captive audience of 24 million he could use film to
manipulate an entire nation. In 1987 he even wrote a book, </span><a href="http://www.korea-dpr.com/lib/209.pdf"><i><span style="background-color: white; background-position: initial initial; background-repeat: initial initial;">The Cinema and Directing</span></i></a><i><span style="background-color: white;">, </span></i><span style="background-color: white;">on how it’s done.</span><b> <o:p></o:p></b></span></div>
<div style="background: white; line-height: 14.4pt; margin-bottom: 6.0pt; margin-left: 0cm; margin-right: 0cm; margin-top: 4.8pt;">
<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">The
vast journalistic appeal of Kim Jong-il’s obsession with film is unsurprising.
There is something fascinating and absurd about the dictator’s film-fanaticism.
It is an absurdity created by the seeming incongruity of something so serious
(political totalitarianism) with something as frivolous as film (amusingly, one
of Kim’s favourites is said to be <i>Bend It
Like Beckham</i>!). However, Kim’s love
of film, far from highlighting the frivolity of the medium compared to
politics, actually illuminates the vast importance of film as a political
vehicle. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div style="background: white; line-height: 14.4pt; margin-bottom: 6.0pt; margin-left: 0cm; margin-right: 0cm; margin-top: 4.8pt;">
<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">The
bizarre story of Shin and Choi’s kidnapping itself seems like a cinematic
fantasy; it’s difficult to believe that any world leader would spend time,
money and military resources on the kidnap and upkeep of film makers. The story
of Shin and Choi’s capture would perhaps be less surprisingly had the
kidnappings been related to espionage or national security, these being
explicitly <i>political</i> matters. But a <i>cultural</i> kidnapping seems ridiculous.
However, what Kim’s kidnapping of Shin and Choi demonstrates is the extent to
which cultural mediums are very much<i> </i>implicated
in the construction and dissemination of political ideology in North Korea. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div style="background: white; line-height: 14.4pt; margin-bottom: 6.0pt; margin-left: 0cm; margin-right: 0cm; margin-top: 4.8pt;">
<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">Eventually
Shin and Choi managed to escape from Kim’s clutches. Having convinced the Great
Leader to let them travel to Vienna for a film festival they made a run for it
to the American Embassy where the pair were granted political asylum. They
lived and worked for some years in America, before eventually returning to
South Korea. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<span style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;">Far from
being just a means of entertainment for Kim film, along with grand spectacles
such as Arirang Festival, is a vehicle to educate and rally the population.
Behind the outlandish stories and wild claims, the human rights violations and
nuclear threats, North Korea is an apparently functioning society where
socialism has survived long after the Soviet Union collapsed and the Berlin
Wall fell. Kim’s dedication to cinema is not just a funny hobby but, along with
his efforts in other means of cultural propaganda, helps to explain why North
Korea has managed to continue in such discord from the outside world for so
long. </span>A Nos Amourshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12115094544456729887noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5975890683474771409.post-55038592506102732422013-10-25T09:54:00.000+01:002013-10-25T09:54:36.104+01:00Hotel Monterey: New Forms by Keifer Taylor <div align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;">
<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;"><b><i><u>Hotel Monterey</u></i></b><b><u>: New Forms<o:p></o:p></u></b></span></div>
<div align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;">
<b><u><span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;"><br /></span></u></b></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">The initial screening of A Nos Amours’ Chantal Akerman retrospective
marked my first venture into the prolific Belgian film director’s work. Having
only seen <i>La Chambre </i>(1972)<i> </i>and caught glimpses of the venerated
1975 feature <i>Jeanne Dielman, 23 Quai Du
Commerce, 1080 Bruxelles </i>I have remained a novice with only vague ideas of
her aesthetic and thematic concerns. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">My preconceptions were affirmed by the freewheeling shorts on the female
psyche, <i>Saute Ma Ville </i>(1968) and - the less compelling - <i>L’enfant
aimé ou je joue á</i> <i>être une femme
mariée </i>(1971). The third was the austere <i>Hotel Monterey </i>(1972)<i>.</i><o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;"><i><br /></i></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;"><i></i></span></div>
<a name='more'></a><span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;"><i><br /></i></span><br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;"><i><br /></i></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">Whilst digesting each film the standout piece was <i>Hotel Monterey. </i>Influenced by prominent avant-garde filmmakers of
the period: from Jonas Mekas and Andy Warhol to structuralist Michael Snow, Akerman’s
audacious debut feature is an undermined addition to experimental cinema. Like <i>La Chambre, Hotel Monterey </i>is a silent
mantra of extended takes that plays on spectatorial expectations, allowing us
to imprint our own meaning onto the film. By rhythmically cutting from the
ghoulish dwellings of the stiffly seated elderly man and pregnant woman, to
unpopulated corridors, the film eschews conventional narrative. Instead, this
beguiling documentary explores architectural space and film form.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">The emphasis on space displays Akerman’s ability to transform reality. The
opening shot of a mirror reflecting numerous occupants, hooked to a sparse
wall, denotes her intentions to reconfigure the mundane setting. As if it were
an unformed lump of clay, the hotel’s drab interior gradually becomes a
rigorously composed sculpture (shot by Babette Mangolte) of doorframes,
decaying walls and dimly lit hallways, radiating an unexpected beauty. Even the
apparent simplicity of an empty bedroom, with its lurid colour scheme of red
spreadsheets and sickly orange-green flower-patterned curtains, emits a surreal
glow. In this case, nuance is essential in sparking an emotional flare.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">The firm utilisation of long takes becomes a strategic component in coercing
one to acknowledge this sentiment. These static shots cause a suspension in
time in which the spectator is forced to absorb the space, soaking up each
miniscule detail. In doing so, an unnerving sense of anticipation surfaces.
Shifting from ruminative shots expressing the mere emptiness and spatial
precision to the spectral charm of a moving door, tension lurks within the
prosaic. Besides injecting life into the inanimate, these protracted scenes
also contain a self-reflexive touch.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">Judging from <i>L’enfant aimé </i>Akerman
was already dabbling with self-reflexive techniques. The director herself is a
silent character that listens to the lonely protagonist as she divulges her
past experiences in love. Often, the camera remains static with the occasional
zoom used to close in on the subject. This detachment and intimacy of the
camera relates to Akerman’s on-screen presence, encouraging the audience to
engage and become tacit observers. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">In <i>Hotel Monterey </i>the presence
of the camera itself holds a dual-purpose, characterising the filmmaker and
spectator. At an early stage in the film the mounted camera travels inside the
elevator, coming across various occupants. Men and women fill the frame, with
many disregarding the company of the camera. After a small number of cuts the
elevator accelerates downward. Reminiscent of a scene from Kafka’s nightmarish
tales, the elevator doors open, revealing numerous residents in the lobby,
staring unflinchingly into the lens. A mutual acknowledgement is forged between
Akerman and her subjects, inviting the audience a long for a journey through
the eerie establishment.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">Notwithstanding our implication, Akerman playfully manipulates our
position. Down a long corridor, in four consecutive takes, the camera gently
dollies forward towards an open window. Fully aware of our need to escape this
claustrophobic labyrinth of muted tableaux, Akerman impedes this desire, moving
back down the tight passage. By gruellingly tracking back and forth, we are
reminded of the control she holds over the audience and her own position. Moreover,
through the formal rigour of stasis, movement and decisive cuts, the director
establishes herself as a faceless character, probing the geometric intricacies
of architectural space.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">Having only seen <i>Hotel Monterey </i>once
I’m sure it is rewarding with multiple viewings.<i> </i>Nonetheless, the film remains a visually stimulating storage of
rigid shapes and textures with a vast collection of latent subplots to whet our
thoughts. Attempting to pinpoint it’s meaning would be a misunderstanding.
Exhibiting the exactitude and diligence of a pre-Raphaelite painting, Chantal Akerman
produces an unclassifiable feature where documentary and fiction blur. With a
positive first impression, the retrospective looks set to be a rare chance to see
the thematic progression and formal refinement of the filmmaker’s underexposed
output.</span><o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<i style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: 15px; line-height: 18px; text-align: start;">Keifer Taylor is a BA Graduate in Film Studies at Queen Mary, University of London</i></div>
A Nos Amourshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12115094544456729887noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5975890683474771409.post-82839466644223358162013-10-22T10:21:00.000+01:002013-10-22T10:21:35.666+01:00The Ister by Jessica Fletcher <br />
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;"><b>The Ister</b><o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;"><i>The Ister</i> (2004) is
a film of tangents, both intellectual and literal: the filmmakers, David
Barison and Daniel Ross, use a trip down the Danube to loosely structure a
series of reflections on Martin Heidegger’s lectures on Hölderlin’s poem ‘The
Ister’. As befits a film whose central philosophical notion is that experience
is about becoming, not being, there is a constant expansion of the parameters
of debate. And so, alongside charting the vagaries of Heidegger’s thought
through interviews with contemporary French philosophers, <i>The Ister</i> encompasses a history of Western philosophy, European
politics, the geographical formation of land and Greek myth.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;"></span></div>
<br />
<br />
<a name='more'></a><br />
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">The filmmakers invite the viewer, like the contemporary philosophers
that they interview, to make connections independently as the film proceeds
without any singular restrictive programmatic aim. For instance, a chance
meeting with a botanist on the bank of the Danube leads to an impromptu
mini-lecture on the centrality of rivers to human survival. This unexpected
encounter resonates in a number of surprising ways with the planned interviews.
Firstly it echoes a passage from Hölderlin’s ‘The Ister’, quoted in the film,
in which he writes of humans settling by the Ister ‘for rivers make arable/The
land’. When first reading the lines their formal and slightly awkward poetic
diction makes them sound like romanticisation. However after the botanist’s
speech one sees that the poem’s apparent romanticisation of the river can
actually also be viewed conversely as an expression of scientific truth. In
this way ostensible opposites are shown to work in tandem. This is a motif that
works throughout the film, as when Prometheus and Epimetheus – defined
respectively as figures of memory and forgetfulness – are paired, as the same
face is used to represent both of the gods. The montage of the film mirrors
this connection as it plays on the fine line between remembering and forgetting.
Images are introduced before they can be completely understood, forgotten about,
then reintroduced to provoke new associations. An image of a bronze star is
repeated throughout the film, but it is only in a latter section that it is
revealed to be the bronze star that studs Heidegger’s grave. Used in this way
the star signals Heidegger’s idea, as explained by Bernard Stiegler, that death
is the one experience that you can’t live and the only experience guaranteed to
happen to you, and that once this apparently conclusive event is seen as a
phantasm all fixed points become suspect. The star of Heidegger’s grave haunts
the film and enacts this theory as it is revealed to hold a hidden significance
that disorientates the viewer once revealed, thereby showing the phantasmal
nature of supposedly fixed points. This is nicely embodied by the image of a
bronze star that literally has eight fixed points, but symbolically stands for
indeterminacy. The botanist’s interview can stand as a paradigm of the
structure of the film, as the constant extension of subject is mirrored in the
fact that the film doesn’t end at its ostensible endpoint – the source of the
Danube – but instead extends beyond to find another source. This multiplication
of ends and aims is borne out in both the content and structure of the film. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;">This creates an interesting dynamic with the audience as the
breadth and density of the subjects discussed creates a barrage of data that
denies complete comprehension. As Daniel Ross (the co-director) remarked, ‘the
impossibility of holding everything together in one’s head, and of putting all
the pieces together intelligibly in one sitting, is […] something the audience
is forced to acknowledge’. The film offers a disorientating experience of spectatorship
that oscillates between informing the viewer – the anticipated intent of a
documentary – and exposing both how fallible that information is and how
inadequate one’s own mental capacity is to absorb it all in one sitting. </span><i style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;">The Ister</i><span style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;"> repeatedly draws attention to
the fact that the readings of Heidegger that are offered in the film are refracted
through each of the philosophers’ own personal opinions. The film also
foregrounds its lack of interest in providing definitive information or
interpretation. This is epitomised in its opening quotation, taken from a
remark Heidegger made of his lecture series on Hölderlin’s poetry: it is meant
to ‘provide a few markers, signs that call our attention, pauses for
reflection’. The filmmakers provide a series of meditations on Heidegger’s
thought that do not necessarily build into a coherent body of knowledge, but
rather branch off, digress and stop short, like the Ister itself.</span></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<o:p><span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">Read <i>The Ister</i>: </span></o:p><a href="http://jacketmagazine.com/27/hold-trans-2.html">http://jacketmagazine.com/27/hold-trans-2.html</a></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;">Watch <i>The Ister</i>:<a href="http://www.blogger.com/goog_2055461266"> </a></span><a href="http://www.amazon.co.uk/Ister-DVD-Region-Import-NTSC/dp/B002EOVWTS/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1381751962&sr=8-1&keywords=the+ister">http://www.amazon.co.uk/Ister-DVD-Region-Import-NTSC/dp/B002EOVWTS/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1381751962&sr=8-1&keywords=the+ister</a></div>
A Nos Amourshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12115094544456729887noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5975890683474771409.post-2994290302988408252013-09-10T10:45:00.000+01:002013-09-10T10:45:57.063+01:00White Epilepsy - Everything/Everything by John Bradburn<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;">
<span lang="EN-US"><span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;"><b><br /></b></span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;">
<span lang="EN-US"><span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;"><b><br /></b></span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;">
<span lang="EN-US"><span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;"><b>WHITE EPILEPSY – EVERYTHING / EVERYTHING</b><o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span lang="EN-US"><span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">There has been much written about slow
cinema. Possibly too much. It’s a taste thing certainly. There is apparent
within small factions of the cineaste community a type of extreme sport
mentality or you could even compare them to a group of drunk alpha males in a
curry house. Bring me the slowest thing you’ve got! They then force down
something that is just slow with out any concerns for the millions of flavours
and textures than duration can allow for.<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span lang="EN-US"><span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">This is a sort of messy preamble into my
discussion of Phillippe Grandrieux’s new work – White Eplilepsy – and the fact
that it takes the notions of slow to a new extreme as well as being the kind of
wonderfully and willfully experimental cinema we see all too little off (and
outside of the Edinburgh Film Festival and the DVD I was sent by the production
company the chance of seeing it is very slim indeed). This is a film of a
single evolving event. Two naked figures, one male and one female, are involved
in an interaction in some deep woodland. I say event because this moment is
never clearly described. It seems violent so it may be a fight but it seems so
stylized it may be a dance. The act seems to have some importance so it may be
ritual. Both figures are intimately close so is this some strange foreplay?
What can be said for certain is it is slow in every sense of the word. This
event is all the content of the film and it is presented in a very slowed down
image – every gesture has literally been stretched to breaking point. Even the
sounds of breath, shouts and contact have been so elongated as to become almost
inhuman. This film may have little narrative but what this film gives me is a
wonderful space to explore elements of collective and personal unconscious. This may be the slowest most minimal work I
have ever seen but it is also one of the most beautifully crafted and
considered films I have seen in a very long time. To continue the probably misguided analogy in
the first paragraph – this is a film full of the flavours, textures scents
possible through durational cinema. It is not just slow. <o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span lang="EN-US"><span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;"></span></span></div>
<a name='more'></a><span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;"><br /></span><br />
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span lang="EN-US"><span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">The space the film opens up is for a
viewing of the very known and the very unknown. It allows for collision of the
basest of ideas and primal archetypes. Grandrieux’s films - from his
deconstructed liminal serial killer flick Sombre (1998) through to the almost
folk tale simplicity of Un Lac (2004) - have been obsessed with physicality –
never has the body been felt more than in a Grandrieux film. The killings in Sombre
are terribly physical – bodies are thrown around, hands enter mouths and flesh
is gripped. This is made all the more disturbing by the manic humanity of the
cinematography – figures are too dark, out of focus and the camera careers
around in wild hand held motions – not the angelic cinematography of Hollywood.
In La Vie Nouvelle (2002) we end with an elongated sequence filmed in night
vision – blackened noses and white hot genitals fill the screen. Here the
presence and real being of the images is in the forefront of the narrative –
these are stories about the death, lusts and endurances of bodies. But they
still possess a narrative. What White Epilepsy does is to remove all of the
necessary of cinema and boil down Grandrieux’s film to an essence. That essence
is a physical wordless communication. Sure there is no dialogue but what I mean
here is that the ideas being communicated here are a pure cinema – they cannot
be fully described in language. Something I will now foolishly attempt with
varying degrees of success. <o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span lang="EN-US"><span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">To return to the ‘event’ of the film for a
moment as I feel this is the center of the films mode of wordless
communication. What is set up is a neither / neither situation. Not fight / not
fuck. Both and neither exist clearly on screen. What this allows is for an
audience to be given a space to negotiate. When I watched the film my thoughts
became over run with a plethora of different ideas. How ambivalent human
relationships can be, how we all feel a return to the primal forest every now
and then, how violent sex can be, how human sounds are only so few steps away
from the animal. What I think you may be thinking at this point is that surely
this is just another open text – reader makes the meaning and all that. True –
but what I am attempting to communicate is the masterful double negation of ‘narrative’
apparent here. Over time it allows for a fully engrossing experience and allows
myself as an audience member to sink deeper and deeper into more primordial
levels of experience and thought. <o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span lang="EN-US"><span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">In “You are Not a Gadget” by Jarod Lenier –
a book about changing social interaction in the face of new technologies - he
discusses at great length the problems of deeply embedded errors. For example there
may be some mistake made in the very earliest versions of DOS that means
everything from Window 3 through to Windows 8 will be affected. It is is now
impossible to fix this primal problem without rewriting everything from that
point onwards. The foundations are faulty. Strangely I thought of this when
sinking into that primordial space in my mind viewing White Epilepsy – here I
am given an experience so simple (maybe read pure or original but neither
actually express the nature of the film), shorn of storytelling and character
that I have been given permission to work on these primordial elements of my
consciousness. To really think how these problematics of humanity bubble up
through relationships, families, wars etc. In many ways I feels this is a very
Jungian film – it deals in rich archetypes. These archetypes are presented in a
mystery play and turn on to the audience for analysis but not resolution. To
continue with the psychoanalytic discussion it strikes me now that White
Epilepsy is constructed from that neither/neither notion found in the Rorsach
Ink Blot Test. What do you see in these images? What does this tell you about
yourself rather than the fictional characters on the screen?<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;"><span lang="EN-US">It is impossible to continue any discussion
where I have so liberally used the term neither/neither without referring to
Austin Osman Spear – London’s lost occult painter of the early 1900s. Spare was
renown for his strange images of part plant, part human figures as gates to
meditative states – the neither/neither state. It is in this act of
contemplation of a double not-being that a middle ground can be found where space
can be held negating both strict definitions of an image. In this vacuous space
– similar to a Yogic or tantric meditation – the subconscious can be unleashed
and explored. It is very interesting that in Marcus M. Jungkurth’s essay –
Neither-Neither; Austin Osman Spare and the Underworld he references the writer
and psychologist </span><span lang="EN-US">James Hillman who <i>“has
even gone further claiming that each individual appears to be re-living some
archetypal drama from ancient mythologies prevailing as a main theme underlying
individual life.”</i> Certainly while this is not something we are consciously
aware of in everyday life White Eplilesy allows this idea to be investigated.
The negation of plot and character allows for a deeper submerging into the
mythic level as an audience we are not distracted by a concreting reality. <o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span lang="EN-US"><span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">So
is this cinema? Certainly it is based on a video art piece with its inherently
different modes of spectatorship. While watching the film I was overcome by how
deeply it is cinema. The effects I have detailed above could only happen in an
experience where I was seated (admittedly slumped in my living room). The
cinematic experience is one of bodily death – the warm comfortable seats, the
dark with the lack of movement etc. The video art spectatorship is entirely
different – it is about the body. People stand, walk around, enter a space and then
leave it. To view White Epilepsy in this space would be to see it more akin to
a very slow moving painting and would result in a very different reading. My reveries
were only possible because my body was becalmed. Through my many experiences of
sitting watching video art on hard floors as people block my view or standing
with tired legs as people fall over each other in the dark I can say that this
is a cinematic film. The body needs to be ‘laid to rest’ for the work to have
it’s full effect. <o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span lang="EN-US"><span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">Grandrieux’s
film is quietly amazing. While this piece may be highly personal – not in the
content from the author but in the experience it stirs in the viewer. I feel
the work cannot really be approached with the usual tools of textual analysis
and I do hope you forgive me my digressions but few films have stirred up so
much in me. I implore you to go and see the film or more correctly to enter
it’s space. And once you have left that space you could always spend time
considering it over a curry.<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal">
<i><span lang="EN-US"><span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">John Bradburn is a
filmmaker, academic and journalist based in Birmingham. This goes someway to
explaining the foregrounding of curry in the above article. </span></span><span lang="EN-US"><o:p></o:p></span></i></div>
A Nos Amourshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12115094544456729887noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5975890683474771409.post-43020869913660267632013-09-10T10:28:00.001+01:002013-09-10T10:32:08.119+01:00Persona: Time & Proximity by Keifer Taylor <div align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;">
<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;"><b><i><br /></i></b></span></div>
<div align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;">
<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;"><b><i>Persona</i>: Time & Proximity</b><u><o:p></o:p></u></span></div>
<div align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;">
<br /></div>
<div align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;">
<o:p><span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;"><br /></span></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; text-align: left;">
<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">To this day the close-up remains a unique
aspect of the cinematic experience. On the big screen its nuanced details and
poetic properties widen our anthropological understanding and breathe life into
inanimate objects. In abstract terms the close-up holds a strong affinity to
time. In her intriguing (though maddening) article ‘The Close-up: Scale &
Detail’, Mary Ann Doane believes the close-up is “always at some level an
autonomous entity” operating “synchronically rather than diachronically.” As a
synchronic element, which hinders narrative progression, this intimate
component creates a “temporality of contemplation,” allowing the audience to
examine the subject in frame. Ingmar Bergman’s volatile 1966 feature <i>Persona</i> contains a plethora of close-ups
of its voiceless protagonist Elisabet Vogler (Liv Ullmann). Two scenes in
particular relate to, and contradict, Doane’s argument of the close-up as a
separate, synchronic entity.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; text-align: left;">
<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">From the eerie vacuity of Ullmann’s face in the
psychiatric ward to the climactic sequence of dual-sided revelations <i>Persona </i>denies clear explanations.
Having watched the film innumerable times I have managed to untangle threads of
its complex web of enigmas whilst revelling in its opacity. If the typical dose
of hyperbole demonstrated by many actors was present then the meaning behind Ullman’s spiritless visage could be easily deciphered. Doane highlights
the inherent opposition between “exteriority and interiority” suggesting that
there is always something beyond our visual understanding. When confronted with
an indefinable stare in close-up, the spectator is encouraged to contemplate
its presence on screen and “dismantle it as a pathway to the soul.” Thus the
face itself becomes a sight of subjectivity, granting viewers a bottomless
supply of interpretations. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; text-align: left;">
<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">Analogous to Doane’s statement, Bergman himself
exalts film as the only art form that “goes beyond ordinary consciousness” into
“the twilight room of the soul.” With the taciturn Elisabet, including the
unhinged nurse Sister Alma (Bibi Andersson), Bergman employs the camera as a
tool that transcends the exterior limits in order to reveal the characters’
hidden imperfections.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; text-align: left;">
<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;"></span><br />
<a name='more'></a><span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;"> <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; text-align: left;">
<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">In the sparse hospital bedroom, a lonesome
Elisabet is left lying on her bed listening to Bach’s <i>Violin Concerto No.2</i>. The uninterrupted close-up of Ullman’s face
remains static for just over a minute as her blank expression is gently
obscured by an unknown shadow. Ullmann’s eyes glisten through the darkness with
a luminous gloom. This bewitching moment corresponds to Doane’s notion of the
face being a sight of subjective meanings, reaching beyond interpretation,
enabling the spectator to dig beneath the external surface of the character
into the marred interior. With the length of this shot being held for over a
minute the close-up becomes an autonomous, synchronic element as the audience
concurrently scrutinise the face in an attempt to decipher its meaning whilst
acknowledging the ambivalence of its features. Moreover, as Bergman halts the
narrative flow for a languid rumination, Ullmanm’s inexpressive stare remains
stark with an inexplicable allure.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; text-align: left;">
<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">Though the stony stoicism of Ullmann’s face
elicits a myriad of feelings and ideas, this autonomous entity of speculation
also holds a clear meaning, connected to the narrative. When referring to the
final scene of Rouben Mamoulian’s 1933 pre-code film <i>Queen Christina</i>, Doane herself proposes that the close-up does not
always operate synchronically. Despite the potent ambiguity of Greta Garbo’s
inscrutable face the scene “invites a reading that is indissociable from the
narrative’s adamant production of overwhelming loss.” <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; text-align: left;">
<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">The same can be said of the tightly knit
close-up in the hospital bedroom. Already, at an early stage of this neurotic
tale, the audience learn that Vogler is mentally healthy with no signs of
lunacy. These facts of her mental stability, accompanied by Bach’s melancholic
strings, push the narrative forward, indicative perhaps of Elisabet’s soul
being polluted with an unforeseeable pain. The close-up reveals the pain
lurking within the catatonic actress, constituting the narrative whole in
preparation of later scenes as the film gradually unmasks her apparent apathy.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; text-align: left;">
<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;"> In this
sense, the close-up can be seen to function both synchronically and
diachronically. On the one hand, Bergman’s use of the close-up suspends the
narrative for a contemplative moment of scrutiny and admiration for Ullmann’s
stolidity. On the other, while still prompting the audience to scrape away her
external gloss of indifference, the notion of the close-up as synchronic is
questioned due to our awareness of Ullmann’s character and the emotional
intensity of Bach’s baroque composition.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; text-align: left;">
<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">In order to remove the close-up from the space
of the narrative, Doane states that the focus must be on spectatorial space. In
relation to the commodity system, the close-up is simultaneously part of the
gigantic and the miniature. In the auditorium, the size of the face is given
greater detail, momentarily constituting “itself as the totality, the only
entity.” When referring to Susan Stewart, the movie star is seen to exemplify
the “commodification of the gigantic.” Perhaps when projected on theatre
screens movie stars become sanctified figures who fill the screens as the
spectator is awed by their proximity. Doane’s and Stewart’s argument, however,
seems more applicable to the softly lit stars of Hollywood as the faces of
Audrey Hepburn and Marlene Dietrich are often admired for their irresistible
charm. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; text-align: left;">
<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">Though Ullmann’s face fills the frame in the
hospital scene, the ostensible appreciation of her natural beauty is capsized
by Bergman’s wish to encourage the audience to probe his characters’ internal
corruption. Furthermore, with its extended length, the enlarged image of
Ullmann briefly becomes a portrait of appreciation and an unbroken,
self-contained element to ponder.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; text-align: left;">
<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;"> In
comparison to the gigantic, the miniature enables the bearer to possess the
object in hand, imparting “an illusion of mastery.” Though the spectator is
unable to physically touch the subject the shot becomes a palpable “object of
vision” enforced by its intimacy. One would believe that the amount of
close-ups Ullmann inhabits<i> </i>denotes Bergman’s
love for the actress, as if she were a shared prize for both him and the
audience. However, during the infamous sequence in which both women are
confronted with their mutual depravity, the spectator’s momentary sense of
possession is dispelled by Bergman’s self-reflexivity.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; text-align: left;">
<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">As Sister Alma coldly narrates Elisabet life
story to her the camera slowly dissolves from a medium shot to an entrapping
close-up. Doane argues that this intimacy of the close-up as “miniature”
bestows upon the audience the power of possessing this separate entity. With
Liv Ullmann broodingly staring directly into the camera, however, a
double-edged gaze of inquiry is created. Here, Bergman has invaded the
spectatorial space, causing the audience to become conscious of their implication.
<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; text-align: left;">
<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">This self-reflexive tactic prevents the
spectator from possessing the close-up, though its intimacy is enhanced as the
narrative space and spectatorial space merge. In addition, the fervour of
Ullmann’s stare not only contradicts the notion of intimate ownership but also
Doane’s argument of the close-up’s synchronic traits. Ullmann’s uneasy gaze
arouses complicity, as if the audience were scrutinising and reciting
Elisabet’s life with Sister Alma, stripping away her stoic façade.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; text-align: left;">
<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">In the same sequence, as spaces merge within
and outside the narrative, the diachronic and synchronic are also bound. The
most indelible image of <i>Persona </i>resides
in the last twelve seconds of the sequence as both Ullmann and Andersson’s
faces are spliced together in close-up. For twelve seconds this experimental
fusion of both actresses’ faces are frozen, rupturing narrative time for
another contemplative moment of scrutiny. With the collapse of the narrative’s
spatiotemporal coordinates the image becomes synchronic, marked as “an isolable
entity” that can be “taken and held within memory.” <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; text-align: left;">
<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">In diametric opposition to this, it can be
argued that this shot is deeply rooted within the narrative itself, as a symbol
of the characters’ indistinguishable personalities. At this point Sister Alma
has already confessed her infidelity and self-loathing of her tedious
lifestyle. Whilst narrating, Alma reveals Elisabet’s furtive hatred of her
unborn child and the façade she built as a woman content with her maternal future.
Furthermore, by conflating both faces, the close-up may also have a diachronic
drive, linked to the thematic basis of the plot to emphasise the moral vacuum
shared by both characters.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; text-align: left;">
<o:p><span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;"> </span></o:p><span style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif; line-height: 150%;"> </span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; text-align: left;">
<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;"><i>Persona</i> refutes Doane’s argument, proving that the
close-up is caught in a paradoxical realm with an overlapping temporal purpose.
Though the unparalleled technique may offer room for reflective scrutiny upon
the framed subject, its stance as a self-governed entity detached from the plot
can be questioned as it may always pertain to the themes of the film. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; text-align: left;">
<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">It seems that Doane also neglects the
employment of the long-take as a synchronic element of film form. To an extent,
numerous shots from <i>Persona</i>,
including elaborate sequences from Kenji Mizoguchi’s <i>Sansho The Bailiff</i> or Jean-Luc Godard’s <i>Weekend </i>could be considered autonomous segments that create a
meditative string of images with each one engraved in the viewer’s psyche.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0cm;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0cm;">
<span style="background-color: white; font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif; line-height: 18px;"><i>Keifer Taylor is a BA Graduate in Film Studies at Queen Mary, University of London.</i></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0cm;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0cm;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0cm;">
<br /></div>
A Nos Amourshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12115094544456729887noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5975890683474771409.post-55036634087236875442013-08-02T09:54:00.000+01:002013-09-10T10:57:58.044+01:00Four Views of Cinema - Part Four: Searching for Ways of Experiencing Films by Charles Rees<div class="MsoNormal">
<div style="text-align: center;">
<div style="text-align: center;">
<span style="text-align: justify;"><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;"><b>Abstract</b></span></span></div>
</div>
</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<div style="-webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; color: black; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; line-height: normal; orphans: auto; text-align: start; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; widows: auto; word-spacing: 0px;">
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt; text-align: justify;">
<div style="margin: 0px;">
<div style="text-align: left;">
<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;"><br /></span></div>
</div>
</div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt; text-align: justify;">
<div style="margin: 0px;">
<div style="text-align: left;">
<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;"><span lang="EN-US">In this article Charles Rees offers his personal insights about how image and </span>sound can be re-‘read’ in such a way as to transcend current narrative constraints. He offers examples of films which have influenced and impressed him, and extrapolates on ways in which cinema might develop in the future.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
</div>
</div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt; text-align: justify;">
<div style="margin: 0px;">
<div style="text-align: left;">
<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;"><br /></span></div>
</div>
</div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt; text-align: justify;">
<div style="margin: 0px;">
<div style="text-align: left;">
<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;"><span lang="EN-US">My four views stretch over a long period.</span><o:p></o:p></span></div>
</div>
</div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt; text-align: justify;">
<div style="margin: 0px;">
<div style="text-align: left;">
<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;"><span lang="EN-US">Each individual sees differently.</span><o:p></o:p></span></div>
</div>
</div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt; text-align: justify;">
<div style="margin: 0px;">
<div style="text-align: left;">
<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;"><span lang="EN-US">The Camera Image sees differently from humans.</span><o:p></o:p></span></div>
</div>
</div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt; text-align: justify;">
</div>
</div>
</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<div style="text-align: left;">
<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;"><br /></span></div>
</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<div style="text-align: left;">
<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;"><br /></span></div>
<div style="text-align: center;">
<div style="text-align: center;">
<span style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;"><b>Fourth View: The Director's Voice</b></span></div>
</div>
</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<div style="text-align: left;">
<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;"><br /></span></div>
</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt; text-align: justify;">
<div style="text-align: left;">
<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;"><span lang="EN-US">The
last view is in my mind’s eye. One day, I imagine, the image in time </span>will be just that. I mean the image itself will
be in motion. It shall no longer be achieved by an illusion of movement,
the projection of a series of static images in rapid succession. We shall
have captured time. However, until then we still have to deal with the
flickering frame’s adverse effect on our visual apprehension. The
flickering puts us into a mild hypnotic trance.<o:p></o:p></span><br />
<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;"><br /></span></div>
</div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt; text-align: justify;">
<div style="text-align: left;">
<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;"><span lang="EN-US">Compare
the way you look at anything in your room with the way you </span>look at the flickering image. Flickering screens
make us see differently. Mesmerized, our sensibility shifts. We become
more susceptible emotionally and less sensitive rationally and spiritually.
Our viewing is made systematically unbalanced.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div style="text-align: left;">
<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;"><br /></span></div>
</div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt; text-align: justify;">
<div style="text-align: left;">
<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;"><span lang="EN-US">
This was not the case in the seventeenth century when Dutch painters, </span>such as Johannes Vermeer, gazed at the image in
time at their camera obscuras. The painters saw nature’s image in its
essential state on large ground-glass screens. They were not encumbered by
the effect of mechanical and chemical means of capturing it: the whirring
cameras and photographic or digital reproduction. The painters fixed the
image by paint. The image in their camera obscura was extraordinarily calm
– calmer than looking at the subject with their own eyes. It
encouraged contemplation. We, on the other hand, have had to make do with
an image that makes us enervated and more emotional.</span></div>
<br />
<a name='more'></a><br />
<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt; text-align: justify;">
<div style="text-align: left;">
<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;"><span lang="EN-US">
Some time in the future, we will look at an image in time that does not </span>systematically unbalance our way of seeing. We
will see the moving image in the same way that we look at paintings or
anything else. Every art has its own particular way of capturing our
attention. Great art aims for balance.<span lang="EN-US">The distinction of the camera’s art will
be that it enables a more balanced </span>way of seeing.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div style="text-align: left;">
<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;"><br /></span></div>
</div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt; text-align: justify;">
<div style="text-align: left;">
<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;"><span lang="EN-US">
This improved technology of the ‘actually moving’ image will </span><span lang="EN-US">encourage
greater artistry, since filmmakers will know that they can no </span>longer rely on an already emotionally
softened-up audience. The formal discrepancy between dramatic acting and
real backgrounds, which we discussed in the Second View, will become more
obvious – perhaps even distracting. We already notice something this kind
in the High-Definition documentaries shown in Imax cinemas. While IMAX
images still flicker their resolution is so fine that we seem to be
looking at reality. These films demand a more naturalistic style of
performance by presenters and actors.</span></div>
<div style="text-align: left;">
<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;"><br /></span></div>
</div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt; text-align: justify;">
<div style="text-align: left;">
<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;"><span lang="EN-US">
Deprived of their power over a hypnotized audience filmmakers may </span>develop a more expressive, aural and visual
style. Writers and directors may find themselves exploring the essence of
the art of the camera and the sound recorder; relying less on the dramatic
arts and music. The non-hypnotic recorded image will encourage a new
honesty in certain types of filmmaking. Viewers of the new image will
develop different ways of hearing and seeing films. We will become
instantaneous in our perception and more alert and less dreamily strung
out along the concerns of story. <span lang="EN-US">We shall become accustomed to feeling the
moment before needing to </span>understand
or work out the story. The camera as an instrument of art will finally
have come of age.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div style="text-align: left;">
<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;"><br /></span></div>
</div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt; text-align: justify;">
<div style="text-align: left;">
<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;"><span lang="EN-US">
Here is a conjectural expression of the ways of hearing and seeing </span>motion pictures of the future.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
</div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt; text-align: justify;">
<div style="text-align: left;">
<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;"><br /></span></div>
</div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt; text-align: justify;">
<div style="text-align: center;">
<div style="text-align: center;">
<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;"><b><span lang="EN-US">First, Sound</span></b><o:p></o:p></span></div>
</div>
<div style="text-align: left;">
<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;"><b><span lang="EN-US"><br /></span></b></span></div>
</div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt; text-align: justify;">
<div style="text-align: left;">
<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;"><span lang="EN-US">A
man in a room hears an unusual sound outside in the street that </span><span lang="EN-US">intrigues
him. Curiosity would normally drive him to the window to get </span>the explanation for the sound. His curiosity
might be satisfied but there would also be a loss. Discovering the cause
of the sound will tend to wrap up the whole question of the sound. His
conjuring with it will stop and his mind will move on to other things.</span></div>
<div style="text-align: left;">
<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;"><br /></span></div>
</div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt; text-align: justify;">
<div style="text-align: left;">
<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;"><span lang="EN-US">
The aural and visual surface of the <i>New Film</i>, however, would
be </span>instantaneous so that
the person would not feel the need, as it were, to get up from their chair
and to catch up on what they don’t understand. They are already in the
instantaneous present – as they might be in life. The sound, instead,
causes them to reflect. They savour it the way they might listen to music.
An abstract sound can evoke a feeling or an emotion. They trust that at
later point they will be able to discover what they may need to understand
about it. Understanding has thus become secondary. What is primary is the
full experience of the moment, allowing understanding of the ‘story’ to be
postponed. For example, in <i>L'argent</i>, Robert Bresson <span lang="EN-US">selected
the overwhelming sound of a large lorry passing close-by to </span>express ’the act of murder’.</span></div>
<div style="text-align: left;">
<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;"><br /></span></div>
</div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt; text-align: justify;">
<div style="text-align: left;">
<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;"><span lang="EN-US">
The audience felt the emotion before understanding what it meant in the
story. </span>The human voice reveals
the interior of a person. We are extraordinarily sensitive to it. Isolated
from its surroundings, say by a telephone, the voice can be heard as an
abstract sound.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
</div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt; text-align: justify;">
<div style="text-align: left;">
<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;"><span lang="EN-US">
The sound that an object makes is governed by three things:</span><o:p></o:p></span></div>
</div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt; text-align: justify;">
<div style="text-align: left;">
<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;"><br /></span></div>
</div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt; text-align: justify;">
<div style="text-align: left;">
<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;"><span lang="EN-US">1.
The inside of the object. What is its essence?</span><o:p></o:p></span></div>
</div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt; text-align: justify;">
<div style="text-align: left;">
<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;"><span lang="EN-US">2.
The shape of the object (is it thick or thin etc?);</span><o:p></o:p></span></div>
</div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt; text-align: justify;">
<div style="text-align: left;">
<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;"><span lang="EN-US">3.
What is happening to the object? (Is it being hit, scraped, or</span><o:p></o:p></span></div>
</div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt; text-align: justify;">
<div style="text-align: left;">
<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;"><span lang="EN-US">buffeted
by the wind?)</span><o:p></o:p></span></div>
</div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt; text-align: justify;">
<div style="text-align: left;">
<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;"><br /></span></div>
</div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt; text-align: justify;">
<div style="text-align: left;">
<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;"><span lang="EN-US">
When we are dealing with the human voice the essence is what is inside </span>a person – the uniqueness of a person. A certain
sonority in a voice may indicate a more developed uniqueness, or spirit.
(I recall Robert Bresson’s voice on the telephone – it was deeply
sonorous. You could tell that he listened intently. I felt self-conscious,
exposed.)<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div style="text-align: left;">
<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;"><br /></span></div>
</div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt; text-align: justify;">
<div style="text-align: left;">
<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;"><span lang="EN-US">
You can also hear the ‘shape’ of a person – the mood they are in at the </span>time of listening. It is comparable to the
quality of light that shines on a colour. It is extraordinary how we
distinguish instinctively between the essence of a person and their
fleeting mood.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
</div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt; text-align: justify;">
<div style="text-align: left;">
<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;"><span lang="EN-US"> </span></span></div>
<div style="text-align: left;">
<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;"><span lang="EN-US"> Finally, the content: what is happening or the story.</span><o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div style="text-align: left;">
<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;"><span lang="EN-US"><br /></span></span></div>
</div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt; text-align: justify;">
<div style="text-align: left;">
<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;"><span lang="EN-US">
If, when we are listening to a voice, say on the telephone, we </span><span lang="EN-US">concentrate
not only on the content of the speech but also the abstract </span>sound of the voice, we will get a clearer idea
of what is going on.</span></div>
</div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt; text-align: justify;">
<div style="text-align: left;">
<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;"><br /></span></div>
</div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt; text-align: justify;">
<div style="text-align: center;">
<div style="text-align: center;">
<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;"><b><span lang="EN-US">Second, Picture</span></b><o:p></o:p></span></div>
</div>
<div style="text-align: left;">
<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;"><b><span lang="EN-US"><br /></span></b></span></div>
</div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt; text-align: justify;">
<div style="text-align: left;">
<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;"><span lang="EN-US">Where
sound shows the inside of things picture shows the outside. We see </span>from only one angle and what we see is only
partially true and can often be deceptive. We interpret from one point of
view only. Vision is necessarily speculative and incomplete.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
</div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt; text-align: justify;">
<div style="text-align: left;">
<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;"><span lang="EN-US">
Looking at something does not mean that we are able to see it. That </span>person whom you think you recognize on the other
side of the street seems strange. Is it your friend or not? It looks
exactly like them but you cannot decide.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
</div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt; text-align: justify;">
<div style="text-align: left;">
<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;"><span lang="EN-US">
It is when that person sees you that the question is resolved. Their </span>whole aspect changes as the person tunes to you.
They become the familiar person that you know.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
</div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt; text-align: justify;">
<div style="text-align: left;">
<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;"><span lang="EN-US">
Since such two-way communication cannot happen in a film, what </span>would be the method by which we can ‘know’ the
strangers on the screen?<o:p></o:p></span></div>
</div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt; text-align: justify;">
<div style="text-align: left;">
<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;"><br /></span></div>
</div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt; text-align: justify;">
<div style="text-align: left;">
<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;"><span lang="EN-US">
‘Let the cause follow the effect, not accompany or precede it.’</span><o:p></o:p></span></div>
</div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt; text-align: justify;">
<div style="text-align: left;">
<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;"><span lang="EN-US">
This is one of Robert Bresson’s notes from his book Notes on the </span>Cinematographer. The note also has a note:<o:p></o:p></span></div>
</div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt; text-align: justify;">
<div style="text-align: left;">
<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;"><br /></span></div>
</div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt; text-align: justify;">
<div style="text-align: left;">
<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;"><span lang="EN-US">
The other day I was walking through the gardens by Notre-Dame </span>and saw approaching a man whose eyes caught
something behind me which I could not see: at once they lit up. If at the
same time as I saw the man, I had perceived the young woman and child
towards whom he now began running, that happy face of his would not have
struck me so; indeed I might not have noticed it. (Bresson 1977: 51)<o:p></o:p></span></div>
</div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt; text-align: justify;">
<div style="text-align: left;">
<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;"><br /></span></div>
</div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt; text-align: justify;">
<div style="text-align: left;">
<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;"><span lang="EN-US">
Something like this must have happened to all of us. A man is walking </span>towards you and his eyes light up. He appears to
be looking directly at you, but since he is a stranger, you assume that he
must be seeing somebody behind you. You just happen to be in his line of
sight. His emotion transmits itself quite forcefully by this alignment. It
is comparable to the experience of a solar eclipse. By the sole virtue of
your placement, you feel his raw emotion. The man is oblivious of you: you
do not exist for him.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
</div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt; text-align: justify;">
<div style="text-align: left;">
<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;"><span lang="EN-US">You,
on the other hand, do not know the reason for his emotion, or the </span>story behind it. Being in alignment allows you
to bypass story to directly feel his emotion. You are inside him
empathizing.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
</div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt; text-align: justify;">
<div style="text-align: left;">
<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;"><span lang="EN-US">
His eyes, lighting up in your direction, take you out of your own life </span>and into an imaginary one. You do not know the
man’s experience, so any imagining you do is bound to be fictional (the
camera’s strangeness frees up everything for fiction).<o:p></o:p></span></div>
</div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt; text-align: justify;">
<div style="text-align: left;">
<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;"><span lang="EN-US">
What, besides the man, are you seeing from this angle, and what are </span>you hearing?<o:p></o:p></span></div>
</div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt; text-align: justify;">
<div style="text-align: left;">
<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;"><span lang="EN-US">
Behind him, a poster on a passing bus depicting a Mediterranean </span><span lang="EN-US">landscape
might influence your interpretation. It might trigger a particular </span>memory or sensation, the smell of plants in the
rocky southern landscape. Sounds of children playing in the garden might
lead on to other associated memories.</span></div>
</div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt; text-align: justify;">
<div style="text-align: left;">
<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;"><span lang="EN-US">
This kind of imaginative excursion is yours for as long as you like. You </span>created it. You can draw on its memory later – a
possession. All this comes from a glimpsed alignment with a man.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
</div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt; text-align: justify;">
<div style="text-align: left;">
<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;"><br /></span></div>
</div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt; text-align: justify;">
<div style="text-align: left;">
<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;"><span lang="EN-US">
Alignment is the principle of the camera’s art. It is the means of its </span>expression. The lens creates a picture by an
alignment of light. However, the picture is strange and cold to humans.
There needs to be a second alignment, a human one, to warm this image up
so that it can become communicative. Robert Bresson’s films are an example
of this alignment principle at work. Bresson had a great desire to infuse
his images with humanity. He positioned the objects in a frame in order
for them to be expressive visually. As for his performers (who were not
performers but models) he found that by talking to them during a shot, he
was able to enter them in a fictional-visual way. It was as if the desire
in the sound of his voice entered the model and affected the model,
revealing a new unity<o:p></o:p></span></div>
</div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt; text-align: justify;">
<div style="text-align: left;">
<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;"><span lang="EN-US">that
was fictional. Bresson rejected altogether the interaction that happens </span>between actors in a frame and which always ends
up reducing us viewers to mere onlookers of a story. He found a practical
way of having the models communicate directly with his camera, himself and
the viewer. Any interaction by the models amongst themselves was wasted
energy as far as the camera was concerned, as if creating a blur.
Bresson’s technique was direction by alignment.<o:p></o:p></span><br />
<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;"><br /></span></div>
</div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt; text-align: justify;">
<div style="text-align: left;">
<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;"><span lang="EN-US">
First, the model needed to be separated from everyone in the room, </span>including the director. Bresson ensured this
physical disconnection by creating a mental one. He insisted that the
model think of nothing. Mentally separated from people, the model would
appear alone in the room. Naturally, in this situation the model lost any
self-consciousness. The model, being no longer ‘socialized’ and uncommunicative
in a human way, is now ready to participate in cinematographic
communication. The director’s voice enters the interior of the model
through the ear and affects their behaviour in the subtlest way. This the
camera, which contemplates more alertly than us, can see. The model is,
simultaneously, themselves – natural – and part of the director’s
fictional frame. The camera unites director and model on the visual plane.
Extraordinarily, the sound of the director’s voice, which is his essence,
affects the frame visually. The director’s voice establishes a line of
human </span><span style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;">communication which the viewer is later able to climb down in his
imagination. </span><br />
<span style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;">The human connection by sound precedes and enables the fast
connection by light. It is as if that alignment of the director’s voice,
allows you to empathize with the characters. You feel what he feels about
what he sees. This is the real playing of the camera as an instrument of
art. Sound is at the heart of the visual medium.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;"><br /></span></div>
</div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt; text-align: justify;">
<div style="text-align: left;">
<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;"><span lang="EN-US">
Bresson did not film stories. He did not film actors with their
story-parts. </span>He filmed moments of
sound and picture. It was for the individual viewer to construct a story
out of these moments. For Bresson the stories in his films were for the
viewer to interpret, the result of the viewer’s participation. Story ought
not to exist on the screen where the viewer would have to follow it and
anticipate it. The cinematic screen is too alive with the instantaneous
present to carry a story (story is the view of the past in the present).<o:p></o:p></span></div>
</div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt; text-align: justify;">
<div style="text-align: left;">
<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;"><br /></span></div>
</div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt; text-align: justify;">
<div style="text-align: left;">
<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;"><span lang="EN-US">
Based on the principal of aloneness, Cinema is the negative of dramatic
storytelling, of actors playing and interacting. The separateness of the
individual from others is the platform for the camera’s drama, which is a
visual thing. A model seeming alone amongst others also seeming alone charges
the frame, makes it pregnant…</span><o:p></o:p></span></div>
</div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt; text-align: justify;">
<div style="text-align: left;">
<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;"><br /></span></div>
</div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt; text-align: justify;">
<div style="text-align: left;">
<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;"><span lang="EN-US">
To sum up: There are two extremes of seeing and hearing: the passive </span>attitude of following and anticipating an
already existing story as it unrolls before us; or venturing, by distant
contemplation and empathy, to construct a story and so participate fully
in the work of art.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
</div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt; text-align: justify;">
<div style="text-align: left;">
<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;"><span lang="EN-US">
The way of watching films that I am proposing may not be the way we </span>normally see them. Art with its beauty teaches
us to see and to listen. Humans mostly apprehend in a narrative way: they
need to understand before they feel. The camera sees abstractly. Like the
abstract art of music, it can offer us moments that may become feelings –
and then we can interpret them into stories. The camera cannot recognize
anything, so it gives us a new start in seeing. We experience the delight
of a baby’s first apprehension of things, preceded by the sounds of the
womb.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
</div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0cm;">
</div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt; text-align: justify;">
<div style="text-align: left;">
<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;"><span lang="EN-US">
Audiences listening to concert music acquire a skill. Should watching </span>films be any different?<o:p></o:p></span></div>
</div>
</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<div style="text-align: left;">
<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;"><br /></span></div>
</div>
<div style="text-align: left;">
<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;"><span style="-webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; background-color: white; color: black; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; line-height: normal; orphans: auto; text-align: left; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; widows: auto; word-spacing: 0px;"></span><br />
</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="-webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; background-color: white; color: black; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; line-height: normal; orphans: auto; text-align: left; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; widows: auto; word-spacing: 0px;">
<div style="text-align: left;">
<i><span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">Charles Rees is a freelance film editor who studied at the London School of Film Technique in 1966. He has worked on several BFI Production Board films as editor or assistant director and edited television documentaries including by Geoffrey Haydon whose ‘fine-art approach’ inspired Rees in his recent work on film as radically visual and on painting as influenced by the camera obscura. </span></i><span style="font-family: Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 12px;"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
</div>
</div>
A Nos Amourshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12115094544456729887noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5975890683474771409.post-14068605724091762542013-07-29T12:54:00.000+01:002013-09-09T22:41:53.967+01:00Architecture and Place in Documentary Film by Eve Marguerite Allen<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%;">
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%;">
<div style="text-align: left;">
<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;"><span style="line-height: 200%;">Eve Marguerite Allen discusses the way architecture and place
undergo construction and destruction at the hands of inhabitants in two
documentaries: </span><i style="line-height: 200%;">Over Your Cities Grass
Will Grow</i><span style="line-height: 200%;"> (2010) dir. Sophie Fiennes and </span><i style="line-height: 200%;">Village at the End of the World</i><span style="line-height: 200%;"> (2012) dir. Sarah Gavron.</span></span></div>
</div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%;">
<div style="text-align: left;">
<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;"><br /></span></div>
</div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%;">
<div style="text-align: center;">
<div style="text-align: center;">
<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif; line-height: 200%;"><b>Architecture and Place in Documentary Film</b><u><o:p></o:p></u></span></div>
</div>
</div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%;">
<div style="text-align: left;">
<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif; line-height: 200%;"><br /></span></div>
</div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%;">
<div style="text-align: left;">
<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif; line-height: 200%;">All places are in a continuous, gradual flux of being built
or unbuilt, both physically and ideologically.
All buildings are temporary; some are just more temporary than others,
as was asserted by the British architect Cedric Price. At times, structures are
designed to be impermanent, even moveable and nomadic like the Canadian
Newfoundland fishing communities that float their lightweight houses behind
them when moving across water to new grounds. Others are built to last
indefinitely like the Greek amphitheatres or the Pantheon but will in all
likelihood crumble at some point. And occasionally places are forced into
disuse. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div style="text-align: left;">
<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif; line-height: 200%;"><br /></span></div>
</div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%;">
<div style="text-align: left;">
<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif; line-height: 200%;">Two contrasting documentaries examining places at key points
in their own process of being constructed or unconstructed are Sophie Fiennes’
Over Your Cities Grass Will Grow and Sarah Gavron’s Village at the End of the
World. In the first, an artist has taken on an abandoned space occupied by
disused manufacturing works, he then builds multiple structures of his own,
making physical his own idea of an imaginary space. It is the vast creation of
one individual. When visualised on film it is often physical structure,
inhabited and uninhabited, that offers visual clues to permanency. But this
space is not intended for permanency or occupancy and instead is used to
demonstrate the industrious process of art making. In the second documentary a
tiny fishing village in Greenland may become abandoned as the population falls
below 60. It has been lived in for countless generations and the handful of
existing structures evolve to meet the necessities of the seasonal or quotidian
activities of the inhabitants.</span></div>
<br />
<a name='more'></a><br />
<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif; line-height: 200%;"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%;">
<div style="text-align: left;">
<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;"><br /></span></div>
</div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%;">
<div style="text-align: center;">
<div style="text-align: center;">
<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif; line-height: 200%;"><b>Over Your Cities Grass Will Grow (2010) Sophie Fiennes</b><u><o:p></o:p></u></span></div>
</div>
</div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%;">
<div style="text-align: left;">
<u><span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif; line-height: 200%;"><br /></span></u></div>
</div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%;">
<div style="text-align: left;">
<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif; line-height: 200%;">Fiennes’ film is a documentary study of German post-war
artist Anselm Kiefer. Sophie Fiennes is well versed in art and cinema having
first studied painting before working with the director Peter Greenaway. In the
past Fiennes has directed documentaries that focus on a Pentecostal church
(Hoover Street Revival, 2002) and an intense dance performance (VSPRS Show and
Tell, 2007). There is a significantly meditative, religious quality to the way
the buildings are filmed in Over Your Cities Grass Will Grow that reflects this
previous work. She also worked with Slavoj Zizek for The Pervert’s Guide to
Cinema (2006).<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div style="text-align: left;">
<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif; line-height: 200%;"><br /></span></div>
</div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%;">
<div style="text-align: left;">
<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif; line-height: 200%;"> The film focuses on
the expansive, hermetic world of La Ribaute, in Barjac, France, a space Kiefer
inhabited between 1993 and 2010. La Ribaute is the site of an old silk factory
and now Kiefer’s vast studio complex where production has once again resumed.
It’s spread over 35 hectares and encompasses multiple working ateliers,
outbuildings, installations and living areas which Kiefer moves through during
the film. Significantly this documentary was conceived as Kiefer was planning to depart from rural
Barjac for the outskirts of urban Paris and leave the space to nature.</span></div>
<div style="text-align: left;">
<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;"><span style="line-height: 200%;"><br /></span>
<span style="line-height: 200%;"><o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
</div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%;">
<div style="text-align: left;">
<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif; line-height: 200%;">The film roams through mud walled tunnels, around precarious
looking tower structures constructed from cast concrete slabs and through glass
houses. The opening credits inform us that Kiefer built “tunnels, an
amphitheatre, 47 buildings, bridges, lakes and towers”. We know from the outset
this place is vast and complex, Fiennes’ camera work makes it seem practically immeasurable,
infinite. It would be a task to map out La Ribaute. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div style="text-align: left;">
<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif; line-height: 200%;"><br /></span></div>
</div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%;">
<div style="text-align: left;">
<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;"><span style="line-height: 200%;">It could be argued that the elaborate world of La Ribaute
fulfils the concept of </span><i><span style="background-color: white; background-position: initial initial; background-repeat: initial initial; line-height: 200%;">gesamtkunstwerk</span></i><span style="line-height: 200%;"> for Kiefer, a Wagnerian idea of a
total all-encompassing artwork. Slow panning through one structure and into
another further immerses the viewer as we are lost in Kiefer’s silent world. <o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
<div style="text-align: left;">
<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;"><span style="line-height: 200%;"><br /></span></span></div>
</div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%;">
<div style="text-align: left;">
<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif; line-height: 200%;">The camera also spends some time following Kiefer’s working
process of creative destruction and industrial art production. The human
contact is a welcome intrusion to the eerie quiet in the earlier section of the
film. He throws ash, smashes glass sheets and pours molten led over mounds of
dirt. He also instructs an assistant in digging a kind of cave. Kiefer is
forceful in making his mark on this landscape. His work and La Ribaute itself
appear to be in a continuous process of quietly fervent destruction and
reconstruction. Cement mixers and muscular assistants in overalls are in
abundance and the industrialization of art is a key comment in Kiefer’s process
of building up and breaking down. Some of the structures are reduced to
post-war like ruins and they form a space that is sprawling but contrived.
Kiefer’s landscape is also very cine-genic, it’s more like a film set than any
‘real’ city.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
</div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%;">
<div style="text-align: left;">
<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;"><br /></span></div>
</div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%;">
<div style="text-align: left;">
<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;"><span style="line-height: 200%;"> The most striking architectural
part of the site Kiefer has built is a cluster of tall concrete towers.
Fiennes’ camera encircles them, removing all sense of scale. This physical
motif is also repeated in miniature in another shot where we see Kiefer gluing
a version of them to one of his paintings. </span><span style="line-height: 200%;"><o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
<div style="text-align: left;">
<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;"><span style="line-height: 200%;"><br /></span></span></div>
</div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%;">
<div style="text-align: left;">
<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;"><span style="line-height: 200%;">Kiefer’s work tends to centre on issues of memory, loss and
the dogmas and ideologies that allowed the </span><span style="line-height: 200%;">Nazis to come to power
in pre-war Germany. This dark past is ever present and is a consistent subtext
in all his work</span><span style="line-height: 200%;">. More recently
he has focused on exploring the trauma and upheaval that entire societies
undergo and the continual rebirth and renewal that occurs in life. Poignantly,
in the director’s commentary Fiennes speaks of how </span><span style="line-height: 200%;">parts of
Kiefer’s buildings and piles of concrete rubble remind her of war-torn Gaza.</span><span style="line-height: 200%;"><o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
</div>
<div style="text-align: left;">
<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;"><br />
</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%;">
<div style="text-align: left;">
<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif; line-height: 200%;">The Space overall acts as a repository for the concepts in Kiefer's work and the constructions and materials are in their own cycle of creation and destruction at the hand of Kiefer. The industrial tool he uses add an element of fabrication and assembly. </span></div>
<div style="text-align: left;">
<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif; line-height: 200%;"><br /></span></div>
</div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%;">
<div style="text-align: left;">
<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;"><span style="line-height: 200%;">Working in the tradition of artists such as Gustav </span><span style="line-height: 200%;">Metzger, </span><span style="line-height: 200%;">Kiefer collects materials intent on
breaking them or deconstructing them then reforming them as a new space or
structure.</span><span style="line-height: 200%;"> </span><span style="line-height: 200%;">There is a
tension between enduring materials and temporary nature of the mimetic city
structures he builds. The walls of the towers take cranes to lift them, there
is a heavy permanency in the materials he uses contrasting with the fact that
we know the buildings won’t be lived in; it is the process of building Kiefer
is interested in and the imminent abandonment is almost an afterthought. The
tunnels and corridors exist physically in Barjac but they also occupy a strong
psychological space in Kiefer’s practice. They are ‘real’ but the way they are
imitations of occupied spaces makes them feel at the same time ‘unreal’. It is
a preconceived and a prefabricated ghost town. It’s highly self-conscious and
appears to evolve in part according to a detailed plan and in part as a result
of Kiefer’s impulsive intuition.<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
</div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%;">
<div style="text-align: left;">
<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif; line-height: 200%;"><br /></span></div>
</div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%;">
<div style="text-align: center;">
<div style="text-align: center;">
<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif; line-height: 200%;"><b>Village at the End of the World (2012) Sarah Gavron</b><u><o:p></o:p></u></span></div>
</div>
</div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%;">
<div style="text-align: left;">
<u><span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif; line-height: 200%;"><br /></span></u></div>
</div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%;">
<div style="text-align: left;">
<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;"><span style="line-height: 200%;">Sarah Gavron’s Village at the End of the World (2012) is a
mirrored but inverse exploration of the way a space is shaped by the people
that use it but it is a far cry from the artist’s semi-derelict wasteland. The
issue of abandonment which has been artificially illustrated by Kiefer’s empty
buildings appears here as a real world example – the threat of abandonment
looms as an ever-dwindling community in northwest Greenland is faced with
‘closure’ by a government that no longer considers the hamlet sustainable.</span><span style="line-height: 200%;"> The
population has declined steadily from 87 in 1991 to under 60 people in 2010
when Gavron finished her documentary.<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
</div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%;">
<div style="text-align: left;">
<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif; line-height: 200%;">Aside from the film in question Sarah Gavron has also
directed Brick Lane (2007) a drama about a woman leaving Bangladesh for a
turbulent new life in London and several shorts including The Girl in the
Lay-By (2000) about a woman working at a roadside café in the Scottish
highlands while dreaming of visiting New York. Thematic parallels to Village at
the End of the World are clear. The ways ideas of a distant place can bleed
into the experience of living in another and how the identities of people are
influenced by this crossover of places is explored eloquently in Gavron’s
projects.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div style="text-align: left;">
<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif; line-height: 200%;"><br /></span></div>
</div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%;">
<div style="text-align: left;">
<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;"><span style="line-height: 200%;">We are introduced to Niaqornat,
the Village at the End of the World in the opening shots. It is filmed from
above, which vividly illustrates the isolation of the village in the landscape.
It appears as an ideal of pre-industrial village life that is picturesque and
twee to the point of unreality, something city-dwellers may have only seen on a
postcard. Certainly, the lure of the larger towns, cities and metropolitan life
is pretty palpable for Lars, one of the lonely teenagers the film follows. He’s
on Facebook and Google Earth a lot, connecting with highly populated places
thousands of miles away, looking down the frenetic streets of NY through his
screen. He spends </span><span style="background-color: white; background-position: initial initial; background-repeat: initial initial; line-height: 200%;">time virtually exploring downtown
New York and access to the internet has completely changed his mental
landscape. Equally, you can see Niaqornat in surprising detail on Google maps;
you can see their boats, their graveyard, the windows on their houses. Although
there’s no Streetview yet. There can now so easily be an exploration and
exchange of physical space in a virtual way and this amongst other things is
changing Niaqornat.</span><span style="line-height: 200%;"><o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
<div style="text-align: left;">
<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;"><span style="background-color: white; background-position: initial initial; background-repeat: initial initial; line-height: 200%;"><br /></span></span></div>
</div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%;">
<div style="text-align: left;">
<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;"><span style="background-color: white; background-position: initial initial; background-repeat: initial initial; line-height: 200%;">In Niaqornat </span><span style="line-height: 200%;">there’s a
frequent invasion from the ‘out-side’ world, virtual and physical. At one point
a cruise ship appears unannounced, Danish tourists unload and are taken on a
brief tour of the inlet as villagers rush to put on traditional costumes to
entertain them.</span><span style="line-height: 200%;"> IIannguage, the sewage collector acts as their
guide, he can speak Danish and is the only resident not born in Niaqornat. He’s
from South Greenland and moved there after meeting his partner while online
dating, it’s another reminder the impact the internet has on this community.<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
<div style="text-align: left;">
<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;"><span style="line-height: 200%;"><br /></span></span></div>
</div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%;">
<div style="text-align: left;">
<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;"><span style="line-height: 200%;">Along with the interaction
with the outside world comes a desire for another life beyond the island. Since
the fish-factory closed families have begun to leave to find work in towns.
Karl, the village’s Major has become an MP in Greenland since filming ceased.
He is a passionate spokesperson for small Greenlandic communities. The irony is
he has now has to leave himself in order to protect his village.</span><span style="line-height: 200%;"><o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
<div style="text-align: left;">
<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;"><span style="line-height: 200%;"><br /></span></span></div>
</div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%;">
<div style="text-align: left;">
<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif; line-height: 200%;">The biggest change facing
Niaqornat is the possibility villagers could be forced to abandon their space
altogether. Greenland’s government is keen to become financially independent
from Denmark, which heavily subsidies Greenland. Some of the country’s tiny
village and town settlements are seen as unsustainable as changes in culture
have increased a demand for imported food and goods and environmental changes
have made it harder to subsist on fishing and hunting. So there are plans to
make people move into towns to push Greenland into a more independent
situation. However in becoming financially independent people in places such as
the village in Gavron’s documentary worry about losing their identities to
larger towns and cities. There’s a population tipping point talked about: 50,
when a population falls under 50 the government pushes to move people from
their homes. This village has 59 people and if they are forced to move
Niaqornat could become as empty as Kiefer’s La Ribaute.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div style="text-align: left;">
<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif; line-height: 200%;"><br /></span></div>
</div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%;">
<div style="text-align: left;">
<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;"><span style="line-height: 200%;">Autonomy is highly important to the villagers, the oldest
member, Annie laments that even if the supply ships are cut off, she will stay.
She </span><span style="background-color: white; background-position: initial initial; background-repeat: initial initial; line-height: 200%;">recalls a time when the ice was thicker and they relied
on seal blubber for light in winter, living only off what they caught. </span><span style="line-height: 200%;">The </span><span style="line-height: 200%;">15 or so houses have no gardens as</span><span style="line-height: 200%;"> no one owns land in Greenland</span><span style="line-height: 200%;">, they
are free to shape the immediate environment they inhabit according to their
collective need. Filmed in summer and winter it’s clear their existence is
largely dictated by the changing seasons and the transformations in climate
their small population endures is remarkable. <o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
<div style="text-align: left;">
<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;"><span style="line-height: 200%;"><br /></span></span></div>
</div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%;">
<div style="text-align: left;">
<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;"><span style="line-height: 200%;">Towards the end of Village at the
End of the World, the villagers strike a deal with the owner of the fish-factory
turning it into a cooperative and allowing increased self-sufficiency,
providing jobs that draw people back to the village. Niaqornat is free from
closure until further notice but changes in the environment and the seeping in
of the ‘outside’ world through increased connectivity continues.</span><span style="line-height: 200%;"><o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
<div style="text-align: left;">
<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;"><span style="line-height: 200%;"><br /></span></span></div>
</div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%;">
<div style="text-align: left;">
<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;"><span style="background-color: white; background-position: initial initial; background-repeat: initial initial; line-height: 200%;">Niaqornat’s
inhabitants’ resistance to the dismantling of their community paired with
Kiefer’s deliberate creation of an all-encompassing artwork at La Ribaute are fascinating binary opposites in terms of closure and
construction and ideas of permanency.</span><span style="line-height: 200%;"> Kiefer is exploring and revelling in industrialisation while
the inhabitants of Niaqornat have long resisted it. In La Ribaute Kiefer built
close to 50 buildings; the unpopulated installation at La Ribaute would easily
dwarf the genuine village in Gavron’s documentary. <o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
<div style="text-align: left;">
<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;"><span style="line-height: 200%;"><br /></span></span></div>
</div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%;">
<div style="text-align: left;">
<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;"><span style="line-height: 200%;">These films both explore places where ideas of permanency and
destruction of a space are central to the people who have built or used them
and how imposing outside virtual, political or psychological ideas of spaces
and the way they can be used end up shaping them physically. The concepts
Kiefer explores in his work are the driving force behind the changing face of
the landscapes he builds, it mimics the structures and motifs of a ‘real’ city,
and he is conscious that it will change and disappear; in fact destruction is
part of the process. In Village at the End of the World the community faced
with ‘closure’ and relocation, resisting being forced out of a space they feel
ownership over, while it is increasingly influenced by ideas of other places
and the far flung delights the internet brings to their fingertips.</span> <span style="line-height: 200%;">While the pace of Fiennes film is
slow and lingering, the speed of Gavron’s documentary is much faster and
livelier. This is fitting as the subject of Fiennes’ film - Anselm Kiefer’s
idiosyncratic and solitary building project - is about the considered
alteration of a space and (as the title suggests) how this space will very
slowly be taken over by nature. In contrast Village at the End of the World is
about the spirited endurance of a community’s attachment to their space, the
villagers willfully adapt to a quickening pace of life so a more rapid pace of
film-making feels dynamic and apt.<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
<div style="text-align: left;">
<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;"><span style="line-height: 200%;"><br /></span></span></div>
</div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%;">
<div style="text-align: left;">
<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif; line-height: 200%;">Shown by Fiennes, Kiefer’s world is quietly mesmerising,
devoid of people. He shuts out other influences, making contrived, artificial
changes to his solitary environment; he pushes the landscape into a static
existence only to leave it to nature. In contrast Niaqornat and Village at the
End of the World are all about the community life force, the <i>lebenskraft</i>. The villager’s immediate
landscape evolves according to outside influences, welcome or otherwise as they
fight for existence and endurance.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
</div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%;">
<div style="text-align: left;">
<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif; line-height: 200%;"><br /></span></div>
</div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%;">
<div style="text-align: left;">
<i><span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;"><span style="line-height: 200%;">Eve Marguerite Allen is an artist
working in London. She is interested in space, transgression, the city
structure and destruction in art and film.</span></span></i></div>
</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
</div>
A Nos Amourshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12115094544456729887noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5975890683474771409.post-48046789599112782442013-07-05T12:37:00.000+01:002013-09-10T10:54:23.180+01:00Four Views of Cinema - Part Three: Searching for Ways of Experiencing Films by Charles Rees<div style="text-align: center;">
<span style="text-align: justify;"><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;"><b>Abstract</b></span></span></div>
<div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt; text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt; text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;"><span lang="EN-US">In this article Charles Rees offers his personal insights about how image and </span>sound can be re-‘read’ in such a way as to transcend current narrative constraints. He offers examples of films which have influenced and impressed him, and extrapolates on ways in which cinema might develop in the future.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt; text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt; text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt; text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;"><span lang="EN-US">My four views stretch over a long period.</span><o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt; text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;"><span lang="EN-US">Each individual sees differently.</span><o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt; text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;"><span lang="EN-US">The Camera Image sees differently from humans.</span><o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt; text-align: justify;">
</div>
</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;"><br /></span>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal">
<div class="MsoNormal">
<div style="text-align: center;">
<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;"><b>Third View: Sound Should Lead </b></span></div>
</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">I ran into a student friend who told me he was
using a pinhole camera. He had punctured a film-can and covered the
hole with camera-tape, which he would remove to expose frames of 35 mm
film stock inside the can. This lens-less technique gave his
photographs a special atmosphere, as if they had ‘grown’ in the dark.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;"> He
offered to demonstrate this particular camera obscura to me by taping large plastic bags to the windows of one
of my rooms. I cut a small hole in this blackout and suddenly the image of
what was outside filled the whole room: dim and upside-down. It moved: the
room was full of swaying leaves.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;"> I
brought a blank sheet of A4 paper near to the hole. There was a perfect image, bright and focused. The image
was authoritative but it did not have a human-expressive quality. Yet it was
beautiful and strange. Particularly strange were the clouds and the
leaves of the trees. They seemed to count for more than when we saw them
with our eyes. Conversely, the objects of human construction:
the parked cars, the motley street-furniture and the buildings appeared
drab and seemed to count for less. This strangeness was not due to the
accentuating of what was already bright. The camera had a different way of
seeing altogether. The image was qualitatively different to the same scene
seen with one’s eyes. It was disposed more towards nature than human-made
things.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;"><br /></span>
<a name='more'></a></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;"> I
saw the same phenomenon in several different weathers. I saw it again when I visited the Camera Obscura on Castle
Hill in Edinburgh. The city was spread out on a large dish as in a scene in <i>A Matter of Life and Death</i> (Powell & Pressburger 1946) but it was
nature, in the trees and the clouds, which stood out.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">
Perhaps ‘nature’s picture’ responds to living nature? It was a mystery. I concluded that the discrepancy between our
way of seeing and the camera obscura’s tells us more about the way we humans
see. We humans probably assume that we can see objectively. We do not.
The camera shows us truly objective seeing. All animals of the Earth see
in ways appropriate to their species. Like them, we see in a way appropriate
to our bodies and our concerns.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;"> We
have evolved two eyes to be able to judge distances and to prevent our physical bodies bumping into things and two
ears to sense changes in our environment.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;"> The
camera, which is without a body and a mind to interpret with, has a single eye. A pure and innocent watcher, it
is coolly unbiased. It contrasts with the way we see principally in that it attaches
no more importance to any one thing than to another.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;"> The
camera image is a phenomenon of wild nature. It is apart from us, like a snow-capped mountain in whose rarefied
air we cannot stay for long.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;"> Many
of us spend the greater part of our lives in the human-constructed environment, the city, preoccupied by our
concerns about jobs, money and so on. We often think about the
future. We become addicted to looking forward to small pleasures. We do
not live very much in the instantaneous present, nor do we see in the
spontaneous way of nature’s other creatures. We tend not to notice the wild
nature that surrounds us: the trees, the leaves, the clouds, the shadows.
Perhaps this is because they are part of a world we have left behind.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;"> Eons
before human beings: a cave. The cave’s mouth stopped with foliage: it is dark inside. A light-beam
penetrates this leafy covering, filling the interior of the cave with an image of what
is outside – an image always in the instantaneous present. The cave or dark
chamber (‘camera obscura’) has a way of imitating life. It is a natural
phenomenon like wind, rain or the everlasting waterfall. It is nature’s image
of nature.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;"> Much
later, mammals evolved, amongst whom are the apes. They developed communication amongst themselves, an
‘echoing’ of nature. This is an imitation on a different principle:
the body. By gesticulating and by sound (the voice) the apes developed
language. They hunted together for survival and became a society. They learned
to control nature. They acted according to their view and their
interest.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;"> Two
types of imitation: the action of light in a dark enclosed place and the evolved languages of humanity. For
Aristotle, imitation of nature was the basis of all art. The camera’s imitation is
different from ours. They do not overlap: there is a gap between them.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;"> The
invention of photography in the 19th century
captured nature’s image permanently. We tried to bridge the gap.
We tried to make the image fit our own human-constructed world. We
designed film emulsions to ‘correct’ the disparity between the camera’s
way of seeing and our own. We enlisted the help of our old, familiar arts
of theatre and music to accompany and discipline the image.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;"> As a
form of art, the theatre epitomizes our human communication by gesture and speech. Theatre amplifies the
communication techniques we use in everyday life in order to reach a
large audience. The players, set apart from the audience, create a
re-enactment. The actors sense the audience’s response and fine-tune their
performance in order to tell a story.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;"> In
this art based on the body, the individual spectators become part of a single, greater body, the audience. The actors
sometimes call this ‘the monster’ (a slow-moving ‘bubble’ of response to
the action which is not in the instant, but is rather following behind as
well as simultaneously anticipating ahead). This following and
anticipating ahead is the audience’s primary way of grasping what is
happening in front of them. The grip is story-orientated: one has to
understand what is going on before one is able to feel.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;"> The
camera, on the other hand, is not to do with meaning or story, and the response it draws from us reverses the
process. So instantaneous is the camera (at the speed of light) that you can
feel an emotion before you understand. Aristotle’s theory of imitation as
the basis of all the arts is irrelevant in the case of the camera’s art,
since the camera has already done all the imitating that should be necessary. The
camera provides the platform for an artist to move beyond aesthetic
matters to a moral venture. The camera invites us to aspire beyond
ourselves – like voyaging into space. When we persist in employing our
human-evolved imitation technique, we are using the camera as a
reproductive device, not as an instrument of art.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">
Narrative film has been based on the theatrical approach. It subjugated nature’s camera, as if taming a wild animal and
harnessed it, as if to a wagon. Today it still loads the wagon with
selected material derived from other arts and leads it away from nature.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;"> To
make natural films we need to lead the audience towards nature not away from it. The audience needs acclimatizing
to wildness. By tradition humanity came closer to wild nature by hunting.
Today we can hunt with a camera.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;"> We
can use the camera the way an angler fishes. The river is time. We approach the bank and select our spot (the
camera position) so that we do not disturb the life in the stream. Then begins
the wily, patient procedure of trying to lift these cold, slippery live
creatures into a different environment (art). Laying them in line on the
bank the sun warms them up (the transformation by montage).</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;"> We
should not tame the camera. The camera is wild, like an animal trapped in our human-built environment, the
city. Perhaps that is the explanation for how doors and doorways seem to
fascinate it. It seeks them out the way a squirrel collects nuts (more than
half the shots in Robert Bresson’s <i>L'argent</i><i> </i>(1983) are of doors).</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;"> What
is the explanation for this? Does the wild camera want to escape our environment? Perhaps it is intent in what
is on the other side of every door? Whatever the case, the camera, as with
the other phenomena of nature – wind, rain and the waterfall – has a
unique character.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">
Nature’s imitation is outside us. Our human-evolved imitation is inside us. How is nature’s mode of imitating the
outside of us to communicate to inside us without being changed?</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">
Sound can lead the way and Robert Bresson shows us how. The great clarity of Bresson’s films derives
principally from their contemplation of involuntary and unselfconscious behaviour –
behaviour that is instantaneous. His <i>L'argent</i> is a natural film – like a leaf or a tree. Its surfaces are so close to nature it will be
intelligible 500 years from now when most other films will seem weird and
expressive only of their time. If we do not respond whole–heartedly to this film
today – perhaps feeling that it lacks warmth and drama – it is because
we are acclimatized to a cinema idiom that is unnatural.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;"> The
sound in <i>L'argent</i><i> </i>often precedes
picture. Bresson taught that in writing a script one should try to find a way
of expressing something by sound before by picture. By giving priority to
sound filmmakers can find their use of the camera becomes more vivid.
Having an expressive sound already in mind, they are free to frame a shot
more daringly. They begin to understand precisely what they need to see.
Their camera comes nearer to people and to things. The 50 mm lens, the
non-dramatic lens, gives optimal clarity without distortion. Finally,
the raw images become subtly and powerfully expressive through montage.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;"> An
example might be a railway station scene. Begin with the sound, that grubby, echoing sound. Refrain from trying
to shoot an interesting establishing shot of the station – in any case
how to match brilliant images of the past such as in F.W. Murnau’s <i>Sunrise</i> (1927)?</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">
Begin by listening and you are already inside the station, not only physically but also as a feeling. However, you
need to select the sound with great care. Robert Bresson would listen to
dozens of sound effects, such as car drive-bys, recorded ‘clean’ at a country
airfield, to get the feeling he was looking for. Having begun by listening you now
search for something to see which might have been unimaginable
beforehand – perhaps a pair of walking feet, as in the beginning of Alfred
Hitchcock’s <i>Strangers on a Train</i><i> </i>(1951).</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">
Sound provides our way of bridging the gap to the camera’s<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">strangeness. A face can deceive us – think of
the faces of murderers in newspapers. Sound, on the other hand reaches
directly inside us, affecting us and moving us before we think. We already
connect with what a sound means.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;"> We
can guide and help our eyes’ speculations by attending to sound first. Sound should lead the picture. It
travels slowly, arriving to us, by means of the material air, later than what we
see. It nevertheless penetrates us first. Our slow metabolisms can feel sound directly.
We should concentrate first on sound to attune ourselves
more accurately to the picture that is beyond us.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;"> It
is like going into space. We communicate first through air. All the initial effort is to do with passing through
the Earth’s atmosphere. Once we have passed through that – you might call it
our desire – our momentum propels us all the way. We have
crossed over the wide gap. In this place of sensory deprivation, dead like
the inside of the camera obscura, it is the view of the living Earth
that draws us. How wonderfully balanced it is between icecaps and deserts,
oceans and forests! We see no evidence of humanity’s constructions at this
distance. All the dramas, conflicts and wars are not visible here. This
contemplative place shows us where we live, a wonderful wholeness that needs
careful management.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;"><br /></span></div>
</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<div class="MsoNormal" style="background-color: white;">
<i><span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">Charles Rees is a freelance film editor who studied at the London School of Film Technique in 1966. He has worked on several BFI Production Board films as editor or assistant director and edited television documentaries including by Geoffrey Haydon whose ‘fine-art approach’ inspired Rees in his recent work on film as radically visual and on painting as influenced by the camera obscura. </span></i><span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
<br /></div>
</div>
A Nos Amourshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12115094544456729887noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5975890683474771409.post-22622677336855632192013-07-02T09:42:00.001+01:002013-09-10T10:54:55.915+01:00Signification: The Naming of Characters in Solaris by Guy Dugdale<!--[if gte mso 9]><xml>
<o:OfficeDocumentSettings>
<o:AllowPNG/>
</o:OfficeDocumentSettings>
</xml><![endif]-->
<!--[if gte mso 9]><xml>
<w:WordDocument>
<w:View>Normal</w:View>
<w:Zoom>0</w:Zoom>
<w:TrackMoves/>
<w:TrackFormatting/>
<w:PunctuationKerning/>
<w:ValidateAgainstSchemas/>
<w:SaveIfXMLInvalid>false</w:SaveIfXMLInvalid>
<w:IgnoreMixedContent>false</w:IgnoreMixedContent>
<w:AlwaysShowPlaceholderText>false</w:AlwaysShowPlaceholderText>
<w:DoNotPromoteQF/>
<w:LidThemeOther>EN-US</w:LidThemeOther>
<w:LidThemeAsian>JA</w:LidThemeAsian>
<w:LidThemeComplexScript>X-NONE</w:LidThemeComplexScript>
<w:Compatibility>
<w:BreakWrappedTables/>
<w:SnapToGridInCell/>
<w:WrapTextWithPunct/>
<w:UseAsianBreakRules/>
<w:DontGrowAutofit/>
<w:SplitPgBreakAndParaMark/>
<w:EnableOpenTypeKerning/>
<w:DontFlipMirrorIndents/>
<w:OverrideTableStyleHps/>
<w:UseFELayout/>
</w:Compatibility>
<m:mathPr>
<m:mathFont m:val="Cambria Math"/>
<m:brkBin m:val="before"/>
<m:brkBinSub m:val="--"/>
<m:smallFrac m:val="off"/>
<m:dispDef/>
<m:lMargin m:val="0"/>
<m:rMargin m:val="0"/>
<m:defJc m:val="centerGroup"/>
<m:wrapIndent m:val="1440"/>
<m:intLim m:val="subSup"/>
<m:naryLim m:val="undOvr"/>
</m:mathPr></w:WordDocument>
</xml><![endif]--><!--[if gte mso 9]><xml>
<w:LatentStyles DefLockedState="false" DefUnhideWhenUsed="true"
DefSemiHidden="true" DefQFormat="false" DefPriority="99"
LatentStyleCount="276">
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="0" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" QFormat="true" Name="Normal"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="9" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" QFormat="true" Name="heading 1"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="9" QFormat="true" Name="heading 2"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="9" QFormat="true" Name="heading 3"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="9" QFormat="true" Name="heading 4"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="9" QFormat="true" Name="heading 5"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="9" QFormat="true" Name="heading 6"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="9" QFormat="true" Name="heading 7"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="9" QFormat="true" Name="heading 8"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="9" QFormat="true" Name="heading 9"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="39" Name="toc 1"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="39" Name="toc 2"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="39" Name="toc 3"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="39" Name="toc 4"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="39" Name="toc 5"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="39" Name="toc 6"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="39" Name="toc 7"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="39" Name="toc 8"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="39" Name="toc 9"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="35" QFormat="true" Name="caption"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="10" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" QFormat="true" Name="Title"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="1" Name="Default Paragraph Font"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="11" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" QFormat="true" Name="Subtitle"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="22" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" QFormat="true" Name="Strong"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="20" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" QFormat="true" Name="Emphasis"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="59" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Table Grid"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Placeholder Text"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="1" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" QFormat="true" Name="No Spacing"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="60" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Light Shading"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="61" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Light List"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="62" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Light Grid"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="63" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Medium Shading 1"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="64" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Medium Shading 2"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="65" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Medium List 1"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="66" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Medium List 2"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="67" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Medium Grid 1"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="68" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Medium Grid 2"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="69" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Medium Grid 3"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="70" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Dark List"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="71" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Colorful Shading"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="72" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Colorful List"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="73" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Colorful Grid"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="60" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Light Shading Accent 1"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="61" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Light List Accent 1"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="62" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Light Grid Accent 1"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="63" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Medium Shading 1 Accent 1"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="64" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Medium Shading 2 Accent 1"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="65" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Medium List 1 Accent 1"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Revision"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="34" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" QFormat="true" Name="List Paragraph"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="29" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" QFormat="true" Name="Quote"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="30" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" QFormat="true" Name="Intense Quote"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="66" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Medium List 2 Accent 1"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="67" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Medium Grid 1 Accent 1"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="68" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Medium Grid 2 Accent 1"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="69" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Medium Grid 3 Accent 1"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="70" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Dark List Accent 1"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="71" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Colorful Shading Accent 1"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="72" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Colorful List Accent 1"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="73" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Colorful Grid Accent 1"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="60" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Light Shading Accent 2"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="61" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Light List Accent 2"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="62" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Light Grid Accent 2"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="63" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Medium Shading 1 Accent 2"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="64" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Medium Shading 2 Accent 2"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="65" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Medium List 1 Accent 2"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="66" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Medium List 2 Accent 2"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="67" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Medium Grid 1 Accent 2"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="68" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Medium Grid 2 Accent 2"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="69" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Medium Grid 3 Accent 2"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="70" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Dark List Accent 2"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="71" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Colorful Shading Accent 2"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="72" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Colorful List Accent 2"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="73" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Colorful Grid Accent 2"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="60" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Light Shading Accent 3"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="61" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Light List Accent 3"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="62" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Light Grid Accent 3"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="63" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Medium Shading 1 Accent 3"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="64" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Medium Shading 2 Accent 3"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="65" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Medium List 1 Accent 3"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="66" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Medium List 2 Accent 3"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="67" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Medium Grid 1 Accent 3"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="68" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Medium Grid 2 Accent 3"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="69" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Medium Grid 3 Accent 3"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="70" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Dark List Accent 3"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="71" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Colorful Shading Accent 3"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="72" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Colorful List Accent 3"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="73" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Colorful Grid Accent 3"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="60" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Light Shading Accent 4"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="61" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Light List Accent 4"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="62" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Light Grid Accent 4"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="63" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Medium Shading 1 Accent 4"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="64" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Medium Shading 2 Accent 4"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="65" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Medium List 1 Accent 4"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="66" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Medium List 2 Accent 4"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="67" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Medium Grid 1 Accent 4"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="68" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Medium Grid 2 Accent 4"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="69" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Medium Grid 3 Accent 4"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="70" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Dark List Accent 4"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="71" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Colorful Shading Accent 4"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="72" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Colorful List Accent 4"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="73" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Colorful Grid Accent 4"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="60" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Light Shading Accent 5"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="61" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Light List Accent 5"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="62" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Light Grid Accent 5"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="63" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Medium Shading 1 Accent 5"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="64" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Medium Shading 2 Accent 5"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="65" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Medium List 1 Accent 5"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="66" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Medium List 2 Accent 5"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="67" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Medium Grid 1 Accent 5"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="68" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Medium Grid 2 Accent 5"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="69" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Medium Grid 3 Accent 5"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="70" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Dark List Accent 5"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="71" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Colorful Shading Accent 5"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="72" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Colorful List Accent 5"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="73" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Colorful Grid Accent 5"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="60" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Light Shading Accent 6"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="61" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Light List Accent 6"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="62" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Light Grid Accent 6"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="63" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Medium Shading 1 Accent 6"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="64" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Medium Shading 2 Accent 6"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="65" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Medium List 1 Accent 6"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="66" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Medium List 2 Accent 6"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="67" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Medium Grid 1 Accent 6"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="68" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Medium Grid 2 Accent 6"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="69" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Medium Grid 3 Accent 6"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="70" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Dark List Accent 6"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="71" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Colorful Shading Accent 6"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="72" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Colorful List Accent 6"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="73" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Colorful Grid Accent 6"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="19" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" QFormat="true" Name="Subtle Emphasis"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="21" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" QFormat="true" Name="Intense Emphasis"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="31" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" QFormat="true" Name="Subtle Reference"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="32" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" QFormat="true" Name="Intense Reference"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="33" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" QFormat="true" Name="Book Title"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="37" Name="Bibliography"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="39" QFormat="true" Name="TOC Heading"/>
</w:LatentStyles>
</xml><![endif]-->
<!--[if gte mso 10]>
<style>
/* Style Definitions */
table.MsoNormalTable
{mso-style-name:"Table Normal";
mso-tstyle-rowband-size:0;
mso-tstyle-colband-size:0;
mso-style-noshow:yes;
mso-style-priority:99;
mso-style-parent:"";
mso-padding-alt:0cm 5.4pt 0cm 5.4pt;
mso-para-margin:0cm;
mso-para-margin-bottom:.0001pt;
mso-pagination:widow-orphan;
font-size:12.0pt;
font-family:Cambria;
mso-ascii-font-family:Cambria;
mso-ascii-theme-font:minor-latin;
mso-hansi-font-family:Cambria;
mso-hansi-theme-font:minor-latin;
mso-ansi-language:EN-US;}
</style>
<![endif]-->
<!--StartFragment-->
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal">
<i><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">Where do the
characters in Solaris get their names? This brief study suggests that Stanislaw
Lem, a cultured Middle European intellectual, is using them, playfully, to
point back to specific historical individuals, and, in this way, to the nature
and origins of the characteristic concerns of all his work.</span></i></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="mso-layout-grid-align: none; mso-pagination: none; text-autospace: none;">
<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="mso-layout-grid-align: none; mso-pagination: none; text-autospace: none;">
<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;"><i><span lang="EN-US">Solaris</span></i><span lang="EN-US"> follows the convention, found in other Soviet
science fiction, of a world apparently, though not explicitly, unified on the
model of the Soviet Union (and, in the film, speaking Russian). Black and Asian
faces are seen, and names are often not Russian, as here. Apart from anything else,
this ‘internationalism’ doubtless flattered Soviet authority on whom these
artists depended.</span><span lang="EN-US"><o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="mso-layout-grid-align: none; mso-pagination: none; text-autospace: none;">
<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="mso-layout-grid-align: none; mso-pagination: none; text-autospace: none;">
<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;"><span lang="EN-US">There is more to these
names. With one exception, each of Stanislav Lem’s characters appears to allude
to a specific historical individual. Learning something of these namesakes
supplies the means of guessing at the author’s thoughts about his own
creations, or his novel more generally. ‘Guessing’, because the intention is
often clearly playful or ironic. The final effect of these shared names is that
the characters in <i>Solaris </i>are themselves something almost like
‘Visitors’ - fantastical re-imaginings from the recorded fragments of long-dead
actual personalities.</span></span><br />
<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;"><span lang="EN-US"><br /></span></span>
<a name='more'></a><span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;"><span lang="EN-US"><o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="mso-layout-grid-align: none; mso-pagination: none; text-autospace: none;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="mso-layout-grid-align: none; mso-pagination: none; text-autospace: none;">
<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;"><span lang="EN-US">Fanciful explanations for
the origin of words or phrases are called ‘folklore etymology’ by linguists. It
is a very human tendency to supply them. Likewise, some of the connections set
out below are purely speculative. Some may be the sort of after-the-fact
rationalisation which arises from thinking too much about another’s work, and
of which film analysis is certainly not free. However, that is the game Lem has
set us. In none of the available comments by the author, all dating long after
the book was published, does he add greatly to our understanding of <i>Solaris</i>.
Research into primary Polish-language materials might reveal more about its
origins and realization, and thus these names.</span><span lang="EN-US"><o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="mso-layout-grid-align: none; mso-pagination: none; text-autospace: none;">
<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="mso-layout-grid-align: none; mso-pagination: none; text-autospace: none;">
<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;"><span lang="EN-US">Tarkovsky was evidently
happy to go along with all this. The third person who had a part in translating
these character names from novel to film, probably in some degree of
co-operation with Lem, was the screenplay’s co-writer, Friedrich Gorenstein.
Gorenstein led an eventful life, touched by hardship and tragedy. The film
presumably contains traces of his (as distinct from Lem’s or Tarkovsky’s)
thinking, but Gorenstein would seem to be a subject for future ‘Solaristics’.</span><span lang="EN-US"><o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="mso-layout-grid-align: none; mso-pagination: none; text-autospace: none;">
<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="mso-layout-grid-align: none; mso-pagination: none; text-autospace: none;">
<div style="text-align: center;">
<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;"><b><span lang="EN-US">The names</span></b><span lang="EN-US"><o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
</div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="mso-layout-grid-align: none; mso-pagination: none; text-autospace: none;">
<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="mso-layout-grid-align: none; mso-pagination: none; text-autospace: none;">
<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;"><i><span lang="EN-US">Fechner</span></i><span lang="EN-US"> - The lost scientist for whom Berton
searches on Solaris. <b>Gustav Fechner</b> was a 19thc German philosopher,
psychologist and mystic. He proposed a (logarithmic) relation between the physical
intensity of stimulus and the resulting psychological sensation. He was also a
vivid animist, imagining man halfway between the souls of plants and of stars,
which he thought were angels. God, he felt, must have an existence analogous to
human beings.</span><span lang="EN-US"><o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="mso-layout-grid-align: none; mso-pagination: none; text-autospace: none;">
<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="mso-layout-grid-align: none; mso-pagination: none; text-autospace: none;">
<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;"><i><span lang="EN-US">Henri Berton</span></i><span lang="EN-US"> - In the novel called ‘Andre Berton’, a
play on the French surrealist Andre Breton. <b>Richard Burton</b> was a hugely
intelligent 19thc explorer and cultural interpreter, bringing ‘The Arabian
Nights’ and ‘Kama Sutra’ to Britain. His unorthodox and dissenting character
brought him considerable trouble with authority. Famously, his widow burned his
papers after his death, including much suspected to be of great merit and
interest.</span><span lang="EN-US"><o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="mso-layout-grid-align: none; mso-pagination: none; text-autospace: none;">
<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="mso-layout-grid-align: none; mso-pagination: none; text-autospace: none;">
<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;"><i><span lang="EN-US">Snaut </span></i><span lang="EN-US"> - One of the remaining scientists on the
Solaris space station. ‘Snaut’ is Polish for <b>snow</b> (‘shneek’, or ‘snyeg’
in Russian). Snow is a Tarkovsky trope, in this film perhaps mediating liquid
(the Ocean) and solid (the Earth), although as the attention given to the
Brueghel painting makes clear, snow is central to the nostalgic vision of Earth
itself – this would presumably be felt most clearly by a Russian audience.</span><span lang="EN-US"><o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="mso-layout-grid-align: none; mso-pagination: none; text-autospace: none;">
<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="mso-layout-grid-align: none; mso-pagination: none; text-autospace: none;">
<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;"><i><span lang="EN-US">Sartorius</span></i><span lang="EN-US"> – The other space station scientist. <b>Ernst
Sartorius</b> was a 19thc Lutheran theologian. Among the doctrines his writings
explore are the pre-existence of Christ (before his appearance on Earth), and
‘kinosis’ (‘self-emptying’), the idea that God set aside the fullness of His
divine nature to live a human life (as Christ). These ideas throw an intriguing
perspective on the Ocean and the Visitors it sends.</span><span lang="EN-US"><o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="mso-layout-grid-align: none; mso-pagination: none; text-autospace: none;">
<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="mso-layout-grid-align: none; mso-pagination: none; text-autospace: none;">
<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;"><i><span lang="EN-US">Hari</span></i><span lang="EN-US"> – Kelvin’s dead lover and Visitor. Called
‘Rheya’ in the novel, perhaps deriving from <b>Aphrodite</b> (‘</span><span lang="EN-US">Afrodyta’ in Polish), the Greek goddess of love
who arose from sea foam. One might likewise consider an allusion to <b>Mata
Hari</b>, an exotic dancer who has become the archetype of the femme fatale,
seducing secrets from men. She was executed in 1917 as a German spy, much, one
might suggest, as Kelvin dispatches the first Hari who visits him. Mata Hari’s
act derived from Java, where she lived for a time, and in Javanese, ‘Mata Hari’
is the name for the sun – literally, ‘eye of the day’. The actress Natalya
Bondarchuk, who plays Hari in <i>Solaris,</i> bears a passing resemblance to
the younger Mata Hari (although she was not the first choice for the part).<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="mso-layout-grid-align: none; mso-pagination: none; text-autospace: none;">
<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="mso-layout-grid-align: none; mso-pagination: none; text-autospace: none;">
<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;"><i><span lang="EN-US">Kris Kelvin</span></i><span lang="EN-US"> – ‘Kris’ may be intended as an echo of a
cartoon space hero, although the name is spelt with a ‘K’ in Latinised Russian.
Or Saint Christopher, who carried travellers across water on his back. Or
Christ – ‘Khristos’ in Russian. William Thompson, <b>Lord Kelvin</b>, was a
polymath 19thc scientist. His most famous quote concerns measuring. Another is:
</span><i><span lang="EN-US">“I am never content until I
have constructed a mechanical model of the subject I am studying. If I succeed
in making one, I understand. Otherwise, I do not." </span></i><span lang="EN-US"> For a namesake lying in the arms of a
Visitor, this has irony. The historic Kelvin also determined the temperature of
absolute zero, or as he termed it, “infinite cold.”<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="mso-layout-grid-align: none; mso-pagination: none; text-autospace: none;">
<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="mso-layout-grid-align: none; mso-pagination: none; text-autospace: none;">
<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;"><i><span lang="EN-US">Solaris</span></i><span lang="EN-US"> - Simply means ‘of the sun’ in Latin. It
is possible to imagine some irony between the fiery nature of any sun and the
fluid mystery of the Ocean. However, a passing remark by Lem in a late
interview gives some weight to the idea that he simply needed almost a generic
title, something like: ‘(Just a) planet’.<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="mso-layout-grid-align: none; mso-pagination: none; text-autospace: none;">
<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;"><i>Guy Dugdale is a freelance
researcher and writer.</i></span></div>
<!--EndFragment-->A Nos Amourshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12115094544456729887noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5975890683474771409.post-89537461173060201782013-06-29T09:32:00.002+01:002013-09-09T22:15:35.556+01:00Tokyo Night Ride: A Shadow Story Arc In ‘Solaris’ by Guy Dugdale<!--[if gte mso 9]><xml>
<o:OfficeDocumentSettings>
<o:AllowPNG/>
</o:OfficeDocumentSettings>
</xml><![endif]-->
<!--[if gte mso 9]><xml>
<w:WordDocument>
<w:View>Normal</w:View>
<w:Zoom>0</w:Zoom>
<w:TrackMoves/>
<w:TrackFormatting/>
<w:PunctuationKerning/>
<w:ValidateAgainstSchemas/>
<w:SaveIfXMLInvalid>false</w:SaveIfXMLInvalid>
<w:IgnoreMixedContent>false</w:IgnoreMixedContent>
<w:AlwaysShowPlaceholderText>false</w:AlwaysShowPlaceholderText>
<w:DoNotPromoteQF/>
<w:LidThemeOther>EN-US</w:LidThemeOther>
<w:LidThemeAsian>JA</w:LidThemeAsian>
<w:LidThemeComplexScript>X-NONE</w:LidThemeComplexScript>
<w:Compatibility>
<w:BreakWrappedTables/>
<w:SnapToGridInCell/>
<w:WrapTextWithPunct/>
<w:UseAsianBreakRules/>
<w:DontGrowAutofit/>
<w:SplitPgBreakAndParaMark/>
<w:EnableOpenTypeKerning/>
<w:DontFlipMirrorIndents/>
<w:OverrideTableStyleHps/>
<w:UseFELayout/>
</w:Compatibility>
<m:mathPr>
<m:mathFont m:val="Cambria Math"/>
<m:brkBin m:val="before"/>
<m:brkBinSub m:val="--"/>
<m:smallFrac m:val="off"/>
<m:dispDef/>
<m:lMargin m:val="0"/>
<m:rMargin m:val="0"/>
<m:defJc m:val="centerGroup"/>
<m:wrapIndent m:val="1440"/>
<m:intLim m:val="subSup"/>
<m:naryLim m:val="undOvr"/>
</m:mathPr></w:WordDocument>
</xml><![endif]--><!--[if gte mso 9]><xml>
<w:LatentStyles DefLockedState="false" DefUnhideWhenUsed="true"
DefSemiHidden="true" DefQFormat="false" DefPriority="99"
LatentStyleCount="276">
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="0" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" QFormat="true" Name="Normal"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="9" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" QFormat="true" Name="heading 1"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="9" QFormat="true" Name="heading 2"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="9" QFormat="true" Name="heading 3"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="9" QFormat="true" Name="heading 4"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="9" QFormat="true" Name="heading 5"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="9" QFormat="true" Name="heading 6"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="9" QFormat="true" Name="heading 7"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="9" QFormat="true" Name="heading 8"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="9" QFormat="true" Name="heading 9"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="39" Name="toc 1"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="39" Name="toc 2"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="39" Name="toc 3"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="39" Name="toc 4"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="39" Name="toc 5"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="39" Name="toc 6"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="39" Name="toc 7"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="39" Name="toc 8"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="39" Name="toc 9"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="35" QFormat="true" Name="caption"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="10" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" QFormat="true" Name="Title"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="1" Name="Default Paragraph Font"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="11" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" QFormat="true" Name="Subtitle"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="22" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" QFormat="true" Name="Strong"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="20" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" QFormat="true" Name="Emphasis"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="59" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Table Grid"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Placeholder Text"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="1" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" QFormat="true" Name="No Spacing"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="60" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Light Shading"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="61" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Light List"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="62" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Light Grid"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="63" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Medium Shading 1"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="64" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Medium Shading 2"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="65" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Medium List 1"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="66" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Medium List 2"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="67" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Medium Grid 1"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="68" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Medium Grid 2"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="69" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Medium Grid 3"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="70" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Dark List"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="71" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Colorful Shading"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="72" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Colorful List"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="73" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Colorful Grid"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="60" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Light Shading Accent 1"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="61" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Light List Accent 1"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="62" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Light Grid Accent 1"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="63" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Medium Shading 1 Accent 1"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="64" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Medium Shading 2 Accent 1"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="65" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Medium List 1 Accent 1"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Revision"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="34" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" QFormat="true" Name="List Paragraph"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="29" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" QFormat="true" Name="Quote"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="30" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" QFormat="true" Name="Intense Quote"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="66" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Medium List 2 Accent 1"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="67" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Medium Grid 1 Accent 1"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="68" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Medium Grid 2 Accent 1"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="69" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Medium Grid 3 Accent 1"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="70" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Dark List Accent 1"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="71" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Colorful Shading Accent 1"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="72" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Colorful List Accent 1"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="73" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Colorful Grid Accent 1"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="60" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Light Shading Accent 2"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="61" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Light List Accent 2"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="62" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Light Grid Accent 2"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="63" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Medium Shading 1 Accent 2"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="64" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Medium Shading 2 Accent 2"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="65" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Medium List 1 Accent 2"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="66" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Medium List 2 Accent 2"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="67" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Medium Grid 1 Accent 2"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="68" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Medium Grid 2 Accent 2"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="69" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Medium Grid 3 Accent 2"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="70" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Dark List Accent 2"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="71" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Colorful Shading Accent 2"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="72" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Colorful List Accent 2"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="73" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Colorful Grid Accent 2"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="60" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Light Shading Accent 3"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="61" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Light List Accent 3"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="62" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Light Grid Accent 3"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="63" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Medium Shading 1 Accent 3"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="64" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Medium Shading 2 Accent 3"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="65" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Medium List 1 Accent 3"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="66" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Medium List 2 Accent 3"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="67" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Medium Grid 1 Accent 3"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="68" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Medium Grid 2 Accent 3"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="69" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Medium Grid 3 Accent 3"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="70" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Dark List Accent 3"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="71" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Colorful Shading Accent 3"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="72" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Colorful List Accent 3"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="73" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Colorful Grid Accent 3"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="60" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Light Shading Accent 4"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="61" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Light List Accent 4"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="62" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Light Grid Accent 4"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="63" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Medium Shading 1 Accent 4"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="64" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Medium Shading 2 Accent 4"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="65" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Medium List 1 Accent 4"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="66" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Medium List 2 Accent 4"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="67" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Medium Grid 1 Accent 4"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="68" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Medium Grid 2 Accent 4"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="69" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Medium Grid 3 Accent 4"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="70" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Dark List Accent 4"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="71" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Colorful Shading Accent 4"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="72" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Colorful List Accent 4"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="73" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Colorful Grid Accent 4"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="60" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Light Shading Accent 5"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="61" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Light List Accent 5"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="62" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Light Grid Accent 5"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="63" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Medium Shading 1 Accent 5"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="64" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Medium Shading 2 Accent 5"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="65" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Medium List 1 Accent 5"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="66" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Medium List 2 Accent 5"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="67" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Medium Grid 1 Accent 5"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="68" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Medium Grid 2 Accent 5"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="69" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Medium Grid 3 Accent 5"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="70" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Dark List Accent 5"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="71" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Colorful Shading Accent 5"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="72" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Colorful List Accent 5"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="73" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Colorful Grid Accent 5"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="60" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Light Shading Accent 6"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="61" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Light List Accent 6"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="62" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Light Grid Accent 6"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="63" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Medium Shading 1 Accent 6"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="64" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Medium Shading 2 Accent 6"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="65" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Medium List 1 Accent 6"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="66" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Medium List 2 Accent 6"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="67" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Medium Grid 1 Accent 6"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="68" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Medium Grid 2 Accent 6"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="69" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Medium Grid 3 Accent 6"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="70" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Dark List Accent 6"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="71" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Colorful Shading Accent 6"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="72" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Colorful List Accent 6"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="73" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Colorful Grid Accent 6"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="19" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" QFormat="true" Name="Subtle Emphasis"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="21" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" QFormat="true" Name="Intense Emphasis"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="31" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" QFormat="true" Name="Subtle Reference"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="32" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" QFormat="true" Name="Intense Reference"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="33" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" QFormat="true" Name="Book Title"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="37" Name="Bibliography"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="39" QFormat="true" Name="TOC Heading"/>
</w:LatentStyles>
</xml><![endif]-->
<!--[if gte mso 10]>
<style>
/* Style Definitions */
table.MsoNormalTable
{mso-style-name:"Table Normal";
mso-tstyle-rowband-size:0;
mso-tstyle-colband-size:0;
mso-style-noshow:yes;
mso-style-priority:99;
mso-style-parent:"";
mso-padding-alt:0cm 5.4pt 0cm 5.4pt;
mso-para-margin:0cm;
mso-para-margin-bottom:.0001pt;
mso-pagination:widow-orphan;
font-size:12.0pt;
font-family:Cambria;
mso-ascii-font-family:Cambria;
mso-ascii-theme-font:minor-latin;
mso-hansi-font-family:Cambria;
mso-hansi-theme-font:minor-latin;
mso-ansi-language:EN-US;}
</style>
<![endif]-->
<!--StartFragment-->
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">
<!--[if gte mso 9]><xml>
<o:OfficeDocumentSettings>
<o:AllowPNG/>
</o:OfficeDocumentSettings>
</xml><![endif]-->
<!--[if gte mso 9]><xml>
<w:WordDocument>
<w:View>Normal</w:View>
<w:Zoom>0</w:Zoom>
<w:TrackMoves/>
<w:TrackFormatting/>
<w:PunctuationKerning/>
<w:ValidateAgainstSchemas/>
<w:SaveIfXMLInvalid>false</w:SaveIfXMLInvalid>
<w:IgnoreMixedContent>false</w:IgnoreMixedContent>
<w:AlwaysShowPlaceholderText>false</w:AlwaysShowPlaceholderText>
<w:DoNotPromoteQF/>
<w:LidThemeOther>EN-US</w:LidThemeOther>
<w:LidThemeAsian>JA</w:LidThemeAsian>
<w:LidThemeComplexScript>X-NONE</w:LidThemeComplexScript>
<w:Compatibility>
<w:BreakWrappedTables/>
<w:SnapToGridInCell/>
<w:WrapTextWithPunct/>
<w:UseAsianBreakRules/>
<w:DontGrowAutofit/>
<w:SplitPgBreakAndParaMark/>
<w:EnableOpenTypeKerning/>
<w:DontFlipMirrorIndents/>
<w:OverrideTableStyleHps/>
<w:UseFELayout/>
</w:Compatibility>
<m:mathPr>
<m:mathFont m:val="Cambria Math"/>
<m:brkBin m:val="before"/>
<m:brkBinSub m:val="--"/>
<m:smallFrac m:val="off"/>
<m:dispDef/>
<m:lMargin m:val="0"/>
<m:rMargin m:val="0"/>
<m:defJc m:val="centerGroup"/>
<m:wrapIndent m:val="1440"/>
<m:intLim m:val="subSup"/>
<m:naryLim m:val="undOvr"/>
</m:mathPr></w:WordDocument>
</xml><![endif]--><!--[if gte mso 9]><xml>
<w:LatentStyles DefLockedState="false" DefUnhideWhenUsed="true"
DefSemiHidden="true" DefQFormat="false" DefPriority="99"
LatentStyleCount="276">
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="0" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" QFormat="true" Name="Normal"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="9" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" QFormat="true" Name="heading 1"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="9" QFormat="true" Name="heading 2"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="9" QFormat="true" Name="heading 3"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="9" QFormat="true" Name="heading 4"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="9" QFormat="true" Name="heading 5"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="9" QFormat="true" Name="heading 6"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="9" QFormat="true" Name="heading 7"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="9" QFormat="true" Name="heading 8"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="9" QFormat="true" Name="heading 9"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="39" Name="toc 1"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="39" Name="toc 2"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="39" Name="toc 3"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="39" Name="toc 4"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="39" Name="toc 5"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="39" Name="toc 6"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="39" Name="toc 7"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="39" Name="toc 8"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="39" Name="toc 9"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="35" QFormat="true" Name="caption"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="10" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" QFormat="true" Name="Title"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="1" Name="Default Paragraph Font"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="11" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" QFormat="true" Name="Subtitle"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="22" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" QFormat="true" Name="Strong"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="20" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" QFormat="true" Name="Emphasis"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="59" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Table Grid"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Placeholder Text"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="1" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" QFormat="true" Name="No Spacing"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="60" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Light Shading"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="61" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Light List"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="62" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Light Grid"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="63" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Medium Shading 1"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="64" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Medium Shading 2"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="65" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Medium List 1"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="66" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Medium List 2"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="67" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Medium Grid 1"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="68" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Medium Grid 2"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="69" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Medium Grid 3"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="70" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Dark List"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="71" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Colorful Shading"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="72" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Colorful List"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="73" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Colorful Grid"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="60" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Light Shading Accent 1"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="61" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Light List Accent 1"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="62" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Light Grid Accent 1"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="63" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Medium Shading 1 Accent 1"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="64" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Medium Shading 2 Accent 1"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="65" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Medium List 1 Accent 1"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Revision"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="34" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" QFormat="true" Name="List Paragraph"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="29" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" QFormat="true" Name="Quote"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="30" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" QFormat="true" Name="Intense Quote"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="66" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Medium List 2 Accent 1"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="67" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Medium Grid 1 Accent 1"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="68" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Medium Grid 2 Accent 1"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="69" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Medium Grid 3 Accent 1"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="70" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Dark List Accent 1"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="71" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Colorful Shading Accent 1"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="72" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Colorful List Accent 1"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="73" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Colorful Grid Accent 1"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="60" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Light Shading Accent 2"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="61" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Light List Accent 2"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="62" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Light Grid Accent 2"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="63" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Medium Shading 1 Accent 2"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="64" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Medium Shading 2 Accent 2"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="65" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Medium List 1 Accent 2"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="66" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Medium List 2 Accent 2"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="67" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Medium Grid 1 Accent 2"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="68" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Medium Grid 2 Accent 2"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="69" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Medium Grid 3 Accent 2"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="70" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Dark List Accent 2"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="71" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Colorful Shading Accent 2"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="72" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Colorful List Accent 2"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="73" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Colorful Grid Accent 2"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="60" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Light Shading Accent 3"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="61" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Light List Accent 3"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="62" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Light Grid Accent 3"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="63" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Medium Shading 1 Accent 3"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="64" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Medium Shading 2 Accent 3"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="65" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Medium List 1 Accent 3"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="66" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Medium List 2 Accent 3"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="67" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Medium Grid 1 Accent 3"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="68" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Medium Grid 2 Accent 3"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="69" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Medium Grid 3 Accent 3"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="70" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Dark List Accent 3"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="71" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Colorful Shading Accent 3"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="72" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Colorful List Accent 3"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="73" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Colorful Grid Accent 3"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="60" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Light Shading Accent 4"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="61" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Light List Accent 4"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="62" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Light Grid Accent 4"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="63" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Medium Shading 1 Accent 4"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="64" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Medium Shading 2 Accent 4"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="65" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Medium List 1 Accent 4"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="66" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Medium List 2 Accent 4"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="67" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Medium Grid 1 Accent 4"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="68" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Medium Grid 2 Accent 4"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="69" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Medium Grid 3 Accent 4"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="70" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Dark List Accent 4"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="71" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Colorful Shading Accent 4"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="72" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Colorful List Accent 4"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="73" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Colorful Grid Accent 4"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="60" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Light Shading Accent 5"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="61" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Light List Accent 5"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="62" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Light Grid Accent 5"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="63" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Medium Shading 1 Accent 5"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="64" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Medium Shading 2 Accent 5"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="65" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Medium List 1 Accent 5"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="66" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Medium List 2 Accent 5"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="67" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Medium Grid 1 Accent 5"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="68" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Medium Grid 2 Accent 5"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="69" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Medium Grid 3 Accent 5"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="70" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Dark List Accent 5"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="71" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Colorful Shading Accent 5"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="72" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Colorful List Accent 5"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="73" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Colorful Grid Accent 5"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="60" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Light Shading Accent 6"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="61" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Light List Accent 6"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="62" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Light Grid Accent 6"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="63" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Medium Shading 1 Accent 6"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="64" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Medium Shading 2 Accent 6"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="65" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Medium List 1 Accent 6"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="66" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Medium List 2 Accent 6"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="67" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Medium Grid 1 Accent 6"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="68" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Medium Grid 2 Accent 6"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="69" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Medium Grid 3 Accent 6"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="70" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Dark List Accent 6"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="71" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Colorful Shading Accent 6"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="72" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Colorful List Accent 6"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="73" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Colorful Grid Accent 6"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="19" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" QFormat="true" Name="Subtle Emphasis"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="21" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" QFormat="true" Name="Intense Emphasis"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="31" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" QFormat="true" Name="Subtle Reference"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="32" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" QFormat="true" Name="Intense Reference"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="33" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" QFormat="true" Name="Book Title"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="37" Name="Bibliography"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="39" QFormat="true" Name="TOC Heading"/>
</w:LatentStyles>
</xml><![endif]-->
<!--[if gte mso 10]>
<style>
/* Style Definitions */
table.MsoNormalTable
{mso-style-name:"Table Normal";
mso-tstyle-rowband-size:0;
mso-tstyle-colband-size:0;
mso-style-noshow:yes;
mso-style-priority:99;
mso-style-parent:"";
mso-padding-alt:0cm 5.4pt 0cm 5.4pt;
mso-para-margin:0cm;
mso-para-margin-bottom:.0001pt;
mso-pagination:widow-orphan;
font-size:12.0pt;
font-family:Cambria;
mso-ascii-font-family:Cambria;
mso-ascii-theme-font:minor-latin;
mso-hansi-font-family:Cambria;
mso-hansi-theme-font:minor-latin;
mso-ansi-language:EN-US;}
</style>
<![endif]-->
<!--StartFragment-->
</span><br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="font-style: italic;">
<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;"><i><span lang="EN-US">How
to understand that strange floating freeway ride in Solaris? A dark parody of
Kubrick's 'Stargate' sequence in 2001. A glimpse of a kind of hell, the
'fallen' cosmonaut Berton's alienated view of life on Earth, and so a warning
or 'shadow narrative' for Kelvin: return home is impossible.</span></i><span lang="EN-US"><o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="font-style: italic;">
<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;"><span lang="EN-US">Just over half an
hour into Tarkovsky’s <i style="font-style: italic;">Solaris</i><i> </i>we are suddenly tracking, with that
familiar smooth disembodied unfolding perspective of the passenger, down the
urban ring-roads of Tokyo, though the city is not identified. In plot terms,
Henri Berton has quarreled with soon-to-depart Kris Kelvin and his father, and
is travelling away from the dacha. Though less than five minutes long,
the sequence seems overextended at first, referring to nothing else in the
film. In fact, it is oddly pivotal, serving several clear purposes.</span><span lang="EN-US"><o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;"><span lang="EN-US">As those who
enjoyed the 2012 BFI season will be aware, there had been a history of
occasional Soviet science fiction cinema since 1924. Famously, Tarkovsky,
though he proposed the project, had no interest in the genre. Details of “the
material structure of the future” and its “technological processes”, he
complained, express only an empty “exoticism” which substitutes for and
prevents the fiction being grounded in that human reality which is the only
subject for art. For Tarkovsky, surfaces, objects and places are what the
‘exterior’ art of cinema has to work with, to refer to deeper, more oblique,
uncertain, interior things. He could hardly agree to subsume this visual
language to a techno-fetishised spectacle.</span><span lang="EN-US"><o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;"></span><br />
<a name='more'></a><span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;"><span lang="EN-US">Rather, he said, a
moon landing should be depicted incidentally, as one would film passengers
boarding a tram. It is a subtle but emphatic distinction. Because film, the
film-<u>maker</u>, must depict <u>something</u>. “We are striving to make
this imagined world as concrete as possible, especially in its purely external
manifestations. Reality shown in Solaris must be materially tangible,
almost graspable. We are achieving it through the textures of the decorations,
through cinematic style.”</span><span lang="EN-US"><o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;"><span lang="EN-US">And this is why the
ring-road sequence feels very specific. The core truth is the same: human
reality. But for just a few minutes Tarkovsky adopts an exactly opposite style,
(spectacle concrete, perhaps), expressing his remark that “Ordinary life
is full of the fantastic.” Here he is saying: ‘This may be just traffic, but
look, look again. How strange is our human existence, our structures and
movements, our civilization! What frantic mysterious madness, this night-time
city intersection, these endless intersecting series of rushing lights!’ This
is the entire dialectic progression of Solaris: that we step away from
life on Earth to look back with fresh ‘alien’ eyes.</span><span lang="EN-US"><o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;"><span lang="EN-US">Solaris</span><span lang="EN-US"> was (and remains) fated, in the
Manichean geometry of the Cold War years, to be the ‘Soviet 2001’, the
‘anti-2001’; that is, defined by a film Tarkovsky quite openly
despised. So, more specifically, the night ride is also a sarcastic
‘cheap n’ cheerful’ parody of the fantastical nine-minute ‘Stargate’ sequence
in the earlier part of Kubrick’s third act, with all its receding slit-scan
corridors and heavily filtered aerial landscapes. Frontal cutaways make the
comparison quite clear: for a few moments Berton is a wrecked, all-too-human
version of Bowman, the ‘Star Child’. And the sequence’s intensifying musique
concrete, by Eduard Artemiev who scored the film, comments on the Ligeti
piece, ‘Atmospheres’, which powers the ‘Stargate’ ride.</span><span lang="EN-US"><o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;"><span lang="EN-US">At the end of
Kubrick’s ‘Stargate’ is, indeed, the Star Child. The Tokyo night ride likewise
involves a child: the monstrous proto-Visitor, four metres of moving colloidal
treacle, which the Ocean, evidently still to ‘get it quite right’, has somehow
extracted from Fechner. We have seen that Berton’s later insistence on the
reality of this manifestation, at his de-briefing many years prior to the
film’s action, has done him much harm. The night ride sequence begins with Berton
en route, revealing by videophone to Kelvin pere (and Kelvin, who
enters), that the child was a replica of Fechner’s actual son back on earth.
And we see a boy in the back seat behind Berton. Simply Berton’s own young son?
A memory of Fechner’s boy, relocated to his car? A Visitor, a ghost, a
flashback? The particular spatial arrangement of a car interior, the
conventions of filming this interior, are artfully employed to keep Berton’s
response to this child ambiguous to us.</span><span lang="EN-US"><o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;"><span lang="EN-US">Kelvin pere
sees the boy on screen, but does not comment or react, just as Kelvin will not
later, seeing Gibarian’s visitor on-screen. Why? One can ask many other
‘housekeeping’ questions of Solaris: About the fate of the ‘first’
Hari, marooned in space. About the multiple Hari’s, with Kelvin’s mother and
the dog, ‘summoned’ in Kelvin’s fever near the end of the film. About
Gibarian’s ‘orphaned’ young Visitor. Is this whom we glimpse (an ear over the
top of a hammock) in Snaut’s room?</span><span lang="EN-US"><o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;"><span lang="EN-US">The director is
hardly obliged to say. The questions are naïve, ultimately. Tarkovsky is
showing us the layering and ambiguity of presence and representation itself.</span><span lang="EN-US"><o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;"><span lang="EN-US">The ring-road
sequence moves between day and night, in and out of colour, suggesting an
interplay of reverie or memory with reality. But then the very next sequence,
where Kelvin burns his papers, turns out to be monochrome because it is the
rural twilight. Having initially resented having to film in colour, Tarkovsky
uses it playfully, ambiguously. Modes of consciousness are not colour-coded for
us.</span><span lang="EN-US"><o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;"><span lang="EN-US">In formal terms,
the Tokyo night ride concludes one of the film’s ‘shadow narratives’ or
‘alternative arcs’. In cinema, such an alternative serves to highlight the
actual story arc of the protagonist by pointing out the consequence of a ‘what
if’. A common variant is to show the fate of an equivalent character. A
longstanding and repugnant habit of mainstream Hollywood was to kill the
African-American friend or colleague of the protagonist to underline the peril
the white hero or heroine is in. (The murder of John Book’s black police
colleague, Elton Carter, back in big-city Philly, in Witness (1985) is
one among innumerable examples).</span><span lang="EN-US"><o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;"><span lang="EN-US">Three alternative
outcomes shadow Kris Kelvin’s path through Solaris. The first is
suicide. Kelvin becomes, in story-form terms (though not in the fiction)
Gibarian’s replacement, the third man on the Solaris station. And in these
terms, Gibarian is defined by his shame and suicide, something Kelvin rejects
(perhaps – how does one understand the very final scene?)</span><span lang="EN-US"><o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;"><span lang="EN-US">The second ‘what
if’ falls into that often revealing category, the idea expressed in draft and
not subsequently realised. Tarkovsky originally proposed that Kelvin returns
home to a wife, Maria, so that his Visitor, Hari, becomes no more than a means
of his redeeming himself. So this arc is simply a loop, a rupture and closure
of ‘normality’, satisfying but banal. Stanislav Lem, author of the source
novel, who complained in any case that Tarkovsky was simply remaking Crime
and Punishment (he has a point) dissuaded the director from reducing the
film to “nothing more than the melodrama of a family squabble.”</span><span lang="EN-US"><o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;"><span lang="EN-US">The third
possibility is suggested by Snaut, after Hari’s destruction. That Kevin simply
returns home. This ‘what if’ is embodied in Berton who did just that. So
clearly is Berton the shadow self to Kelvin that their conflict is in part a
kind of sibling rivalry. Kelvin pere makes this quite clear: “It
wouldn’t be that you’re jealous of him, that he will be the one to bury me, not
you?”</span><span lang="EN-US"><o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;"><span lang="EN-US">What if? Well, we
already know. Because we have seen Berton, humiliated, broken, oddly doll-like,
fragile, petulant, haunted (perhaps literally) and worn out, isolated,
apparently unable to share the burden of his experience by truly persuading
anyone. And it is Berton’s earlier return to Earth which provides the final
perspective on the Tokyo night ride. Elsewhere, Tarkovsky rejects ‘spectacle’
because “it is only through <u>the perception of [real views] by the characters</u>
in the film that it will become comprehensible to the viewer.” But Berton,
whose view it is, is no longer a human among humans, he is ‘the man who fell
(back) to Earth’, so his perception of life on Earth is utterly ‘alienated’. It
is one thing for us to refresh our sense of wonder at ourselves for a few
minutes. The matter is different for Berton. Berton is living it, as a kind of
hell.</span><span lang="EN-US"><o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;"><span lang="EN-US">Very far away but
surely recalling Berton, Kelvin realizes that he too can never really go home
again.</span><span lang="EN-US"><o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;"><i>Guy Dugdale is a
freelance researcher and writer.</i></span></div>
<!--EndFragment--></div>
<!--EndFragment-->A Nos Amourshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12115094544456729887noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5975890683474771409.post-43142499362950070782013-06-28T16:34:00.001+01:002013-09-10T10:55:23.281+01:00Solaris: A Pilgrimage of Self-Examination by Kiefer Taylor<!--[if gte mso 9]><xml>
<o:OfficeDocumentSettings>
<o:AllowPNG/>
</o:OfficeDocumentSettings>
</xml><![endif]-->
<!--[if gte mso 9]><xml>
<w:WordDocument>
<w:View>Normal</w:View>
<w:Zoom>0</w:Zoom>
<w:TrackMoves/>
<w:TrackFormatting/>
<w:PunctuationKerning/>
<w:ValidateAgainstSchemas/>
<w:SaveIfXMLInvalid>false</w:SaveIfXMLInvalid>
<w:IgnoreMixedContent>false</w:IgnoreMixedContent>
<w:AlwaysShowPlaceholderText>false</w:AlwaysShowPlaceholderText>
<w:DoNotPromoteQF/>
<w:LidThemeOther>EN-US</w:LidThemeOther>
<w:LidThemeAsian>JA</w:LidThemeAsian>
<w:LidThemeComplexScript>X-NONE</w:LidThemeComplexScript>
<w:Compatibility>
<w:BreakWrappedTables/>
<w:SnapToGridInCell/>
<w:WrapTextWithPunct/>
<w:UseAsianBreakRules/>
<w:DontGrowAutofit/>
<w:SplitPgBreakAndParaMark/>
<w:EnableOpenTypeKerning/>
<w:DontFlipMirrorIndents/>
<w:OverrideTableStyleHps/>
</w:Compatibility>
<m:mathPr>
<m:mathFont m:val="Cambria Math"/>
<m:brkBin m:val="before"/>
<m:brkBinSub m:val="--"/>
<m:smallFrac m:val="off"/>
<m:dispDef/>
<m:lMargin m:val="0"/>
<m:rMargin m:val="0"/>
<m:defJc m:val="centerGroup"/>
<m:wrapIndent m:val="1440"/>
<m:intLim m:val="subSup"/>
<m:naryLim m:val="undOvr"/>
</m:mathPr></w:WordDocument>
</xml><![endif]--><!--[if gte mso 9]><xml>
<w:LatentStyles DefLockedState="false" DefUnhideWhenUsed="true"
DefSemiHidden="true" DefQFormat="false" DefPriority="99"
LatentStyleCount="276">
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="0" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" QFormat="true" Name="Normal"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="9" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" QFormat="true" Name="heading 1"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="9" QFormat="true" Name="heading 2"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="9" QFormat="true" Name="heading 3"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="9" QFormat="true" Name="heading 4"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="9" QFormat="true" Name="heading 5"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="9" QFormat="true" Name="heading 6"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="9" QFormat="true" Name="heading 7"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="9" QFormat="true" Name="heading 8"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="9" QFormat="true" Name="heading 9"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="39" Name="toc 1"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="39" Name="toc 2"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="39" Name="toc 3"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="39" Name="toc 4"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="39" Name="toc 5"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="39" Name="toc 6"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="39" Name="toc 7"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="39" Name="toc 8"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="39" Name="toc 9"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="35" QFormat="true" Name="caption"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="10" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" QFormat="true" Name="Title"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="1" Name="Default Paragraph Font"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="11" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" QFormat="true" Name="Subtitle"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="22" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" QFormat="true" Name="Strong"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="20" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" QFormat="true" Name="Emphasis"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="59" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Table Grid"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Placeholder Text"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="1" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" QFormat="true" Name="No Spacing"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="60" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Light Shading"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="61" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Light List"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="62" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Light Grid"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="63" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Medium Shading 1"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="64" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Medium Shading 2"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="65" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Medium List 1"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="66" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Medium List 2"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="67" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Medium Grid 1"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="68" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Medium Grid 2"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="69" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Medium Grid 3"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="70" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Dark List"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="71" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Colorful Shading"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="72" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Colorful List"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="73" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Colorful Grid"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="60" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Light Shading Accent 1"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="61" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Light List Accent 1"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="62" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Light Grid Accent 1"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="63" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Medium Shading 1 Accent 1"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="64" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Medium Shading 2 Accent 1"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="65" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Medium List 1 Accent 1"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Revision"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="34" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" QFormat="true" Name="List Paragraph"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="29" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" QFormat="true" Name="Quote"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="30" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" QFormat="true" Name="Intense Quote"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="66" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Medium List 2 Accent 1"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="67" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Medium Grid 1 Accent 1"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="68" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Medium Grid 2 Accent 1"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="69" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Medium Grid 3 Accent 1"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="70" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Dark List Accent 1"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="71" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Colorful Shading Accent 1"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="72" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Colorful List Accent 1"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="73" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Colorful Grid Accent 1"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="60" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Light Shading Accent 2"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="61" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Light List Accent 2"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="62" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Light Grid Accent 2"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="63" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Medium Shading 1 Accent 2"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="64" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Medium Shading 2 Accent 2"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="65" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Medium List 1 Accent 2"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="66" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Medium List 2 Accent 2"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="67" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Medium Grid 1 Accent 2"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="68" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Medium Grid 2 Accent 2"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="69" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Medium Grid 3 Accent 2"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="70" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Dark List Accent 2"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="71" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Colorful Shading Accent 2"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="72" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Colorful List Accent 2"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="73" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Colorful Grid Accent 2"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="60" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Light Shading Accent 3"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="61" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Light List Accent 3"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="62" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Light Grid Accent 3"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="63" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Medium Shading 1 Accent 3"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="64" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Medium Shading 2 Accent 3"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="65" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Medium List 1 Accent 3"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="66" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Medium List 2 Accent 3"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="67" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Medium Grid 1 Accent 3"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="68" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Medium Grid 2 Accent 3"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="69" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Medium Grid 3 Accent 3"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="70" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Dark List Accent 3"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="71" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Colorful Shading Accent 3"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="72" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Colorful List Accent 3"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="73" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Colorful Grid Accent 3"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="60" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Light Shading Accent 4"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="61" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Light List Accent 4"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="62" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Light Grid Accent 4"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="63" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Medium Shading 1 Accent 4"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="64" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Medium Shading 2 Accent 4"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="65" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Medium List 1 Accent 4"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="66" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Medium List 2 Accent 4"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="67" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Medium Grid 1 Accent 4"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="68" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Medium Grid 2 Accent 4"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="69" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Medium Grid 3 Accent 4"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="70" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Dark List Accent 4"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="71" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Colorful Shading Accent 4"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="72" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Colorful List Accent 4"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="73" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Colorful Grid Accent 4"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="60" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Light Shading Accent 5"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="61" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Light List Accent 5"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="62" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Light Grid Accent 5"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="63" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Medium Shading 1 Accent 5"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="64" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Medium Shading 2 Accent 5"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="65" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Medium List 1 Accent 5"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="66" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Medium List 2 Accent 5"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="67" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Medium Grid 1 Accent 5"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="68" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Medium Grid 2 Accent 5"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="69" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Medium Grid 3 Accent 5"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="70" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Dark List Accent 5"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="71" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Colorful Shading Accent 5"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="72" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Colorful List Accent 5"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="73" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Colorful Grid Accent 5"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="60" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Light Shading Accent 6"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="61" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Light List Accent 6"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="62" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Light Grid Accent 6"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="63" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Medium Shading 1 Accent 6"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="64" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Medium Shading 2 Accent 6"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="65" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Medium List 1 Accent 6"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="66" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Medium List 2 Accent 6"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="67" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Medium Grid 1 Accent 6"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="68" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Medium Grid 2 Accent 6"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="69" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Medium Grid 3 Accent 6"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="70" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Dark List Accent 6"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="71" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Colorful Shading Accent 6"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="72" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Colorful List Accent 6"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="73" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Colorful Grid Accent 6"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="19" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" QFormat="true" Name="Subtle Emphasis"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="21" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" QFormat="true" Name="Intense Emphasis"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="31" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" QFormat="true" Name="Subtle Reference"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="32" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" QFormat="true" Name="Intense Reference"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="33" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" QFormat="true" Name="Book Title"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="37" Name="Bibliography"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="39" QFormat="true" Name="TOC Heading"/>
</w:LatentStyles>
</xml><![endif]-->
<!--[if gte mso 10]>
<style>
/* Style Definitions */
table.MsoNormalTable
{mso-style-name:"Table Normal";
mso-tstyle-rowband-size:0;
mso-tstyle-colband-size:0;
mso-style-noshow:yes;
mso-style-priority:99;
mso-style-parent:"";
mso-padding-alt:0cm 5.4pt 0cm 5.4pt;
mso-para-margin-top:0cm;
mso-para-margin-right:0cm;
mso-para-margin-bottom:10.0pt;
mso-para-margin-left:0cm;
mso-pagination:widow-orphan;
font-size:12.0pt;
font-family:Cambria;
mso-ascii-font-family:Cambria;
mso-ascii-theme-font:minor-latin;
mso-hansi-font-family:Cambria;
mso-hansi-theme-font:minor-latin;
mso-ansi-language:EN-US;}
</style>
<![endif]-->
<!--StartFragment-->
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Courier;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: 15px;">
<!--[if gte mso 9]><xml>
<o:OfficeDocumentSettings>
<o:AllowPNG/>
</o:OfficeDocumentSettings>
</xml><![endif]-->
<!--[if gte mso 9]><xml>
<w:WordDocument>
<w:View>Normal</w:View>
<w:Zoom>0</w:Zoom>
<w:TrackMoves/>
<w:TrackFormatting/>
<w:PunctuationKerning/>
<w:ValidateAgainstSchemas/>
<w:SaveIfXMLInvalid>false</w:SaveIfXMLInvalid>
<w:IgnoreMixedContent>false</w:IgnoreMixedContent>
<w:AlwaysShowPlaceholderText>false</w:AlwaysShowPlaceholderText>
<w:DoNotPromoteQF/>
<w:LidThemeOther>EN-US</w:LidThemeOther>
<w:LidThemeAsian>JA</w:LidThemeAsian>
<w:LidThemeComplexScript>X-NONE</w:LidThemeComplexScript>
<w:Compatibility>
<w:BreakWrappedTables/>
<w:SnapToGridInCell/>
<w:WrapTextWithPunct/>
<w:UseAsianBreakRules/>
<w:DontGrowAutofit/>
<w:SplitPgBreakAndParaMark/>
<w:EnableOpenTypeKerning/>
<w:DontFlipMirrorIndents/>
<w:OverrideTableStyleHps/>
</w:Compatibility>
<m:mathPr>
<m:mathFont m:val="Cambria Math"/>
<m:brkBin m:val="before"/>
<m:brkBinSub m:val="--"/>
<m:smallFrac m:val="off"/>
<m:dispDef/>
<m:lMargin m:val="0"/>
<m:rMargin m:val="0"/>
<m:defJc m:val="centerGroup"/>
<m:wrapIndent m:val="1440"/>
<m:intLim m:val="subSup"/>
<m:naryLim m:val="undOvr"/>
</m:mathPr></w:WordDocument>
</xml><![endif]--><!--[if gte mso 9]><xml>
<w:LatentStyles DefLockedState="false" DefUnhideWhenUsed="true"
DefSemiHidden="true" DefQFormat="false" DefPriority="99"
LatentStyleCount="276">
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="0" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" QFormat="true" Name="Normal"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="9" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" QFormat="true" Name="heading 1"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="9" QFormat="true" Name="heading 2"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="9" QFormat="true" Name="heading 3"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="9" QFormat="true" Name="heading 4"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="9" QFormat="true" Name="heading 5"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="9" QFormat="true" Name="heading 6"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="9" QFormat="true" Name="heading 7"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="9" QFormat="true" Name="heading 8"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="9" QFormat="true" Name="heading 9"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="39" Name="toc 1"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="39" Name="toc 2"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="39" Name="toc 3"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="39" Name="toc 4"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="39" Name="toc 5"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="39" Name="toc 6"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="39" Name="toc 7"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="39" Name="toc 8"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="39" Name="toc 9"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="35" QFormat="true" Name="caption"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="10" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" QFormat="true" Name="Title"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="1" Name="Default Paragraph Font"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="11" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" QFormat="true" Name="Subtitle"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="22" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" QFormat="true" Name="Strong"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="20" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" QFormat="true" Name="Emphasis"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="59" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Table Grid"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Placeholder Text"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="1" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" QFormat="true" Name="No Spacing"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="60" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Light Shading"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="61" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Light List"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="62" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Light Grid"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="63" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Medium Shading 1"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="64" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Medium Shading 2"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="65" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Medium List 1"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="66" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Medium List 2"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="67" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Medium Grid 1"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="68" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Medium Grid 2"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="69" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Medium Grid 3"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="70" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Dark List"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="71" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Colorful Shading"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="72" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Colorful List"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="73" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Colorful Grid"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="60" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Light Shading Accent 1"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="61" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Light List Accent 1"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="62" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Light Grid Accent 1"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="63" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Medium Shading 1 Accent 1"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="64" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Medium Shading 2 Accent 1"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="65" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Medium List 1 Accent 1"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Revision"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="34" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" QFormat="true" Name="List Paragraph"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="29" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" QFormat="true" Name="Quote"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="30" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" QFormat="true" Name="Intense Quote"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="66" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Medium List 2 Accent 1"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="67" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Medium Grid 1 Accent 1"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="68" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Medium Grid 2 Accent 1"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="69" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Medium Grid 3 Accent 1"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="70" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Dark List Accent 1"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="71" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Colorful Shading Accent 1"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="72" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Colorful List Accent 1"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="73" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Colorful Grid Accent 1"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="60" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Light Shading Accent 2"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="61" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Light List Accent 2"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="62" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Light Grid Accent 2"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="63" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Medium Shading 1 Accent 2"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="64" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Medium Shading 2 Accent 2"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="65" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Medium List 1 Accent 2"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="66" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Medium List 2 Accent 2"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="67" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Medium Grid 1 Accent 2"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="68" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Medium Grid 2 Accent 2"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="69" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Medium Grid 3 Accent 2"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="70" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Dark List Accent 2"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="71" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Colorful Shading Accent 2"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="72" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Colorful List Accent 2"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="73" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Colorful Grid Accent 2"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="60" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Light Shading Accent 3"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="61" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Light List Accent 3"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="62" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Light Grid Accent 3"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="63" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Medium Shading 1 Accent 3"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="64" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Medium Shading 2 Accent 3"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="65" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Medium List 1 Accent 3"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="66" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Medium List 2 Accent 3"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="67" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Medium Grid 1 Accent 3"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="68" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Medium Grid 2 Accent 3"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="69" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Medium Grid 3 Accent 3"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="70" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Dark List Accent 3"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="71" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Colorful Shading Accent 3"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="72" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Colorful List Accent 3"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="73" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Colorful Grid Accent 3"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="60" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Light Shading Accent 4"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="61" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Light List Accent 4"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="62" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Light Grid Accent 4"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="63" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Medium Shading 1 Accent 4"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="64" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Medium Shading 2 Accent 4"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="65" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Medium List 1 Accent 4"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="66" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Medium List 2 Accent 4"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="67" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Medium Grid 1 Accent 4"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="68" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Medium Grid 2 Accent 4"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="69" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Medium Grid 3 Accent 4"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="70" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Dark List Accent 4"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="71" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Colorful Shading Accent 4"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="72" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Colorful List Accent 4"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="73" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Colorful Grid Accent 4"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="60" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Light Shading Accent 5"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="61" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Light List Accent 5"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="62" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Light Grid Accent 5"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="63" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Medium Shading 1 Accent 5"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="64" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Medium Shading 2 Accent 5"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="65" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Medium List 1 Accent 5"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="66" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Medium List 2 Accent 5"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="67" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Medium Grid 1 Accent 5"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="68" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Medium Grid 2 Accent 5"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="69" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Medium Grid 3 Accent 5"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="70" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Dark List Accent 5"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="71" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Colorful Shading Accent 5"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="72" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Colorful List Accent 5"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="73" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Colorful Grid Accent 5"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="60" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Light Shading Accent 6"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="61" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Light List Accent 6"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="62" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Light Grid Accent 6"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="63" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Medium Shading 1 Accent 6"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="64" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Medium Shading 2 Accent 6"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="65" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Medium List 1 Accent 6"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="66" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Medium List 2 Accent 6"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="67" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Medium Grid 1 Accent 6"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="68" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Medium Grid 2 Accent 6"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="69" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Medium Grid 3 Accent 6"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="70" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Dark List Accent 6"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="71" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Colorful Shading Accent 6"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="72" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Colorful List Accent 6"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="73" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Colorful Grid Accent 6"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="19" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" QFormat="true" Name="Subtle Emphasis"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="21" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" QFormat="true" Name="Intense Emphasis"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="31" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" QFormat="true" Name="Subtle Reference"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="32" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" QFormat="true" Name="Intense Reference"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="33" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" QFormat="true" Name="Book Title"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="37" Name="Bibliography"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="39" QFormat="true" Name="TOC Heading"/>
</w:LatentStyles>
</xml><![endif]-->
<!--[if gte mso 10]>
<style>
/* Style Definitions */
table.MsoNormalTable
{mso-style-name:"Table Normal";
mso-tstyle-rowband-size:0;
mso-tstyle-colband-size:0;
mso-style-noshow:yes;
mso-style-priority:99;
mso-style-parent:"";
mso-padding-alt:0cm 5.4pt 0cm 5.4pt;
mso-para-margin-top:0cm;
mso-para-margin-right:0cm;
mso-para-margin-bottom:10.0pt;
mso-para-margin-left:0cm;
mso-pagination:widow-orphan;
font-size:12.0pt;
font-family:Cambria;
mso-ascii-font-family:Cambria;
mso-ascii-theme-font:minor-latin;
mso-hansi-font-family:Cambria;
mso-hansi-theme-font:minor-latin;
mso-ansi-language:EN-US;}
</style>
<![endif]-->
<!--StartFragment-->
</span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<i style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;">Kiefer Taylor sees Solaris as an invitation to
confront and examine the fragility and complexity of the human spirit. He
argues that Tarkovsky’s declared lack of interest in science fiction allowed him to
make a film cracking open the fantastical edifice of the genre, leading
audiences to nothing less than a spiritual reawakening.</i></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"><span style="color: black; font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;"><br /></span></i></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">Upon its release in 1972 Andrei
Tarkovsky’s meditative science fiction feature <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Solaris </i>was greeted well amongst critics and general audiences. Not
only did it receive the Special Jury Prize at Cannes (back then considered the
second most prestigious award of the festival) but it also ran for more than
fifteen years without breaks in the Soviet Union. Due to Tarkovsky’s vehement
rejection of genre, however, the director himself was left underwhelmed. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">In his insightful (at times
baffling) book <i>Sculpting In Time </i>Tarkovsky
states, “Unfortunately the science fiction element of <i>Solaris </i>was nonetheless too prominent and became a distraction.”
When viewing <i>Solaris </i>one may be
puzzled by the director’s severe self-assessment. Even with the visual tropes
of science fiction – from high-tech spaceships to rockets - the film retains
the mystical charms of Tarkovsky’s world with the core themes of longing and
the sullied souls of man being ever-present. In doing so, the film asks us to
look beyond futuristic sensations of outer space and technological advancements
and into the interior feelings of its distraught protagonist.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;"><br /></span>
<a name='more'></a><span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">Whilst writer Stanislaw Lem’s novel
explored humanity’s inability to communicate with non-human species,
Tarkovsky’s concerns reside in humanity’s inability to communicate with
themselves, spiritually. Sent to investigate the strange occurrences on a space
station orbiting the oceanic planet Solaris, the protagonist, psychologist Kris
Kelvin, is swiftly examined by the sentient planet itself. By digging deep into
the dusty corners of Kris’ unconscious the planet summons his dead wife Hari. A
disorienting pilgrimage of self-examination subverts the scientific quest as an
initially indifferent Kris, riddled by guilt, is forced to confront feelings
and thoughts he had suppressed over the years. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">This conflict between emotions and
scientific reason pervades <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Solaris </i>from
the outset. In the tranquil opening of submerged greenery and chirping birds
(atypical of science fiction with the first forty minutes set in a pastoral
location) a pensive Kris strolls a long the lakeside of his childhood home.
What purports to be a man in tune with his feelings within the serene realm of
nature proves to be the opposite. For example, during a conversation with a
fragile Henri Berton, a former space pilot, Kris coldly remarks, “I can’t draw
conclusions based on reasons of heart,” highlighting how the logic of science
has plucked away his spiritual well being. Only once aboard the ship does Kris’
emotional paralysis become clear.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">With the resurrection of Hari,
Kris’ emotions are rekindled, albeit with torturous consequences. What was
deemed lost and intangible is materialised, causing Kris to lose sight of
reality as he grips to his chest-locked desires. The once rational psychologist
becomes so attached that when a delirious Dr. Snout kisses Hari’s hand an
awkward silence briefly fills the library until Kris continues his recital.
This slightly comical moment of fleeting tension conveys the overwhelming
impact of Hari’s presence, unleashing a flurry of emotions as his conjugal
duties as a defensive husband resurge.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">Later on, in the same room, Tarkovsky
illustrates his interest in the emotional efficacy of art over scientific
intrigue through another medium. As Hari stares blankly at Pieter Bruegel’s
vivid painting <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">The Hunters In The Snow </i>the
camera glides across the vast canvas. Fragments of the wearisome dogs, stark
trees and the inhabitants of the wintry landscape fill the frame, accompanied
by the eerie, faint sound of bells, barking dogs and birds. It would seem that
these are the haunting sounds evoked as an inexpressive Hari gazes deeply into
the painting’s majesty. To specify the meaning of this scene would detract from
the essence of Tarkovsky’s intentions. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">Rather than ascribing fixed
meanings to such meditative moments, the Russian director revels in the
ambiguity of the image. Similarly, in the closing of <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Andrei Rublev </i>(1966)<i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"> </i>as
the fiery colours of the icon painter’s work shine on screen to when a young
Alexei in <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">The Mirror </i>(1975)<i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"> </i>flicks through a book on Leonardo Da
Vinci’s oeuvre, art is exalted for its capabilities to evoke a myriad of
emotions and thoughts. Moreover, in the midst of science’s endless hunt for the
truth behind our earthly – and unearthly – surroundings, Tarkovsky illuminates
the emotional power of artistic creation, encouraging the audience to marvel
over its enigmatic beauty, uninhibited by one-sided symbols. Noticeably, during
this ruminative sequence of artistic admiration, a shot of Kris as a child on a
hill caked in snow abruptly appears. It is memory itself that is pivotal in
triggering the remorse and guilt that plague Kris throughout the film.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">In the aforementioned <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Sculpting In Time </i>memory is regarded as
“a spiritual concept.” Tarkovsky further proclaims, “As a moral being man is
endowed with memory which sows in him a sense of dissatisfaction. It makes us
vulnerable, subject to pain.” Kris embodies this statement as a man crushed by
his conscience. Prior to Hari’s suicide Kris was transferred to another city
due to his demanding job with his departure presumably being left on a sour
note, resulting in her death. The potency of Kris’ guilt is evident. On
occasions when leaving Hari to attend meetings with Dr. Snout and the callous,
though pragmatic, Dr. Sartorious, Kris hurries back to the bedroom to embrace
the happiness he had once cherished. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">These sudden pangs of regret
suffocate Kris further as the distressed alien Hari decides to drink liquid
oxygen. Lifeless and pale-faced the suicide alludes to the real Hari’s
injection of poison ten years ago, tormenting Kris with his past traumas. Oddly
enough, Kris anxiously awaits her revival, seeming more pleased than Hari as
she convulsively returns from the dead. At this point it is clear that Hari is
no longer considered a mere living memory for Kris but a near mortal figure he refuses
to detach himself from. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">As Kris’ sanity wanes other
objects and figures of longing begin to appear. Hari, his dog, mother and a
glassed vase of flowers surround him as the past physically merges with the
present. In a sense, this impingement of the past allows Kris to regain spiritual
awareness after Hari’s suicide left him with an amputated soul. Rather than
fluttering emotions of joy, however, a fevered psychologist is strapped in his
bed left enervated by the experience. Eventually, in the end, it appears that
Kris has decided to settle on Solaris as the amorphous planet begins to form
little islands. By reconstructing his childhood home, with the stagnant
lakeside now frozen containing no signs of life, Kris becomes lost in his own uncanny
labyrinth of lost love. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<!--[if gte mso 9]><xml>
<o:OfficeDocumentSettings>
<o:AllowPNG/>
</o:OfficeDocumentSettings>
</xml><![endif]-->
<!--[if gte mso 9]><xml>
<w:WordDocument>
<w:View>Normal</w:View>
<w:Zoom>0</w:Zoom>
<w:TrackMoves/>
<w:TrackFormatting/>
<w:PunctuationKerning/>
<w:ValidateAgainstSchemas/>
<w:SaveIfXMLInvalid>false</w:SaveIfXMLInvalid>
<w:IgnoreMixedContent>false</w:IgnoreMixedContent>
<w:AlwaysShowPlaceholderText>false</w:AlwaysShowPlaceholderText>
<w:DoNotPromoteQF/>
<w:LidThemeOther>EN-US</w:LidThemeOther>
<w:LidThemeAsian>JA</w:LidThemeAsian>
<w:LidThemeComplexScript>X-NONE</w:LidThemeComplexScript>
<w:Compatibility>
<w:BreakWrappedTables/>
<w:SnapToGridInCell/>
<w:WrapTextWithPunct/>
<w:UseAsianBreakRules/>
<w:DontGrowAutofit/>
<w:SplitPgBreakAndParaMark/>
<w:EnableOpenTypeKerning/>
<w:DontFlipMirrorIndents/>
<w:OverrideTableStyleHps/>
</w:Compatibility>
<m:mathPr>
<m:mathFont m:val="Cambria Math"/>
<m:brkBin m:val="before"/>
<m:brkBinSub m:val="--"/>
<m:smallFrac m:val="off"/>
<m:dispDef/>
<m:lMargin m:val="0"/>
<m:rMargin m:val="0"/>
<m:defJc m:val="centerGroup"/>
<m:wrapIndent m:val="1440"/>
<m:intLim m:val="subSup"/>
<m:naryLim m:val="undOvr"/>
</m:mathPr></w:WordDocument>
</xml><![endif]--><!--[if gte mso 9]><xml>
<w:LatentStyles DefLockedState="false" DefUnhideWhenUsed="true"
DefSemiHidden="true" DefQFormat="false" DefPriority="99"
LatentStyleCount="276">
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="0" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" QFormat="true" Name="Normal"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="9" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" QFormat="true" Name="heading 1"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="9" QFormat="true" Name="heading 2"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="9" QFormat="true" Name="heading 3"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="9" QFormat="true" Name="heading 4"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="9" QFormat="true" Name="heading 5"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="9" QFormat="true" Name="heading 6"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="9" QFormat="true" Name="heading 7"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="9" QFormat="true" Name="heading 8"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="9" QFormat="true" Name="heading 9"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="39" Name="toc 1"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="39" Name="toc 2"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="39" Name="toc 3"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="39" Name="toc 4"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="39" Name="toc 5"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="39" Name="toc 6"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="39" Name="toc 7"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="39" Name="toc 8"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="39" Name="toc 9"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="35" QFormat="true" Name="caption"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="10" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" QFormat="true" Name="Title"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="1" Name="Default Paragraph Font"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="11" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" QFormat="true" Name="Subtitle"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="22" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" QFormat="true" Name="Strong"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="20" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" QFormat="true" Name="Emphasis"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="59" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Table Grid"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Placeholder Text"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="1" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" QFormat="true" Name="No Spacing"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="60" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Light Shading"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="61" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Light List"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="62" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Light Grid"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="63" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Medium Shading 1"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="64" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Medium Shading 2"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="65" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Medium List 1"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="66" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Medium List 2"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="67" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Medium Grid 1"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="68" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Medium Grid 2"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="69" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Medium Grid 3"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="70" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Dark List"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="71" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Colorful Shading"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="72" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Colorful List"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="73" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Colorful Grid"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="60" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Light Shading Accent 1"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="61" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Light List Accent 1"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="62" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Light Grid Accent 1"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="63" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Medium Shading 1 Accent 1"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="64" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Medium Shading 2 Accent 1"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="65" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Medium List 1 Accent 1"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Revision"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="34" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" QFormat="true" Name="List Paragraph"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="29" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" QFormat="true" Name="Quote"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="30" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" QFormat="true" Name="Intense Quote"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="66" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Medium List 2 Accent 1"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="67" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Medium Grid 1 Accent 1"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="68" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Medium Grid 2 Accent 1"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="69" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Medium Grid 3 Accent 1"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="70" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Dark List Accent 1"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="71" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Colorful Shading Accent 1"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="72" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Colorful List Accent 1"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="73" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Colorful Grid Accent 1"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="60" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Light Shading Accent 2"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="61" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Light List Accent 2"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="62" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Light Grid Accent 2"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="63" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Medium Shading 1 Accent 2"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="64" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Medium Shading 2 Accent 2"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="65" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Medium List 1 Accent 2"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="66" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Medium List 2 Accent 2"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="67" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Medium Grid 1 Accent 2"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="68" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Medium Grid 2 Accent 2"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="69" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Medium Grid 3 Accent 2"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="70" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Dark List Accent 2"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="71" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Colorful Shading Accent 2"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="72" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Colorful List Accent 2"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="73" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Colorful Grid Accent 2"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="60" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Light Shading Accent 3"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="61" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Light List Accent 3"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="62" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Light Grid Accent 3"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="63" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Medium Shading 1 Accent 3"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="64" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Medium Shading 2 Accent 3"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="65" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Medium List 1 Accent 3"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="66" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Medium List 2 Accent 3"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="67" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Medium Grid 1 Accent 3"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="68" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Medium Grid 2 Accent 3"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="69" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Medium Grid 3 Accent 3"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="70" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Dark List Accent 3"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="71" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Colorful Shading Accent 3"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="72" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Colorful List Accent 3"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="73" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Colorful Grid Accent 3"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="60" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Light Shading Accent 4"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="61" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Light List Accent 4"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="62" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Light Grid Accent 4"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="63" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Medium Shading 1 Accent 4"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="64" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Medium Shading 2 Accent 4"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="65" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Medium List 1 Accent 4"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="66" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Medium List 2 Accent 4"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="67" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Medium Grid 1 Accent 4"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="68" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Medium Grid 2 Accent 4"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="69" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Medium Grid 3 Accent 4"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="70" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Dark List Accent 4"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="71" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Colorful Shading Accent 4"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="72" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Colorful List Accent 4"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="73" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Colorful Grid Accent 4"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="60" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Light Shading Accent 5"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="61" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Light List Accent 5"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="62" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Light Grid Accent 5"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="63" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Medium Shading 1 Accent 5"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="64" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Medium Shading 2 Accent 5"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="65" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Medium List 1 Accent 5"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="66" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Medium List 2 Accent 5"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="67" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Medium Grid 1 Accent 5"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="68" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Medium Grid 2 Accent 5"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="69" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Medium Grid 3 Accent 5"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="70" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Dark List Accent 5"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="71" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Colorful Shading Accent 5"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="72" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Colorful List Accent 5"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="73" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Colorful Grid Accent 5"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="60" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Light Shading Accent 6"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="61" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Light List Accent 6"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="62" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Light Grid Accent 6"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="63" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Medium Shading 1 Accent 6"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="64" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Medium Shading 2 Accent 6"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="65" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Medium List 1 Accent 6"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="66" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Medium List 2 Accent 6"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="67" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Medium Grid 1 Accent 6"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="68" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Medium Grid 2 Accent 6"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="69" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Medium Grid 3 Accent 6"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="70" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Dark List Accent 6"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="71" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Colorful Shading Accent 6"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="72" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Colorful List Accent 6"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="73" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Colorful Grid Accent 6"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="19" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" QFormat="true" Name="Subtle Emphasis"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="21" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" QFormat="true" Name="Intense Emphasis"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="31" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" QFormat="true" Name="Subtle Reference"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="32" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" QFormat="true" Name="Intense Reference"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="33" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" QFormat="true" Name="Book Title"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="37" Name="Bibliography"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="39" QFormat="true" Name="TOC Heading"/>
</w:LatentStyles>
</xml><![endif]-->
<!--[if gte mso 10]>
<style>
/* Style Definitions */
table.MsoNormalTable
{mso-style-name:"Table Normal";
mso-tstyle-rowband-size:0;
mso-tstyle-colband-size:0;
mso-style-noshow:yes;
mso-style-priority:99;
mso-style-parent:"";
mso-padding-alt:0cm 5.4pt 0cm 5.4pt;
mso-para-margin-top:0cm;
mso-para-margin-right:0cm;
mso-para-margin-bottom:10.0pt;
mso-para-margin-left:0cm;
mso-pagination:widow-orphan;
font-size:12.0pt;
font-family:Cambria;
mso-ascii-font-family:Cambria;
mso-ascii-theme-font:minor-latin;
mso-hansi-font-family:Cambria;
mso-hansi-theme-font:minor-latin;
mso-ansi-language:EN-US;}
</style>
<![endif]-->
<!--StartFragment-->
</div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">The question left for one to
contemplate is whether we would fall victim to such paranormal illusions
ourselves. In my view, as humans are conditioned to feel and long for moments
that become indistinct and smoulder over time many would shackle themselves to
Solaris’ alluring chains of illusion as their unconscious desires become
manifest. Whether the planet is considered a malignant, possibly compassionate
or indifferent supernatural force, the indefinable Solaris invites one to
confront and examine the fragility and complexity of the human spirit. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">With this in mind, Tarkovsky’s
self-declared failures of transcending the iconography of science fiction seem
to be an understatement. By substantiating the narrative with a futuristic
pilgrimage the Russian dissident cracks the fantastical edifice of the genre,
sending audiences to an ethereal ground of spiritual reawakening. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<!--EndFragment--><span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;"><br /></span>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;"><br /></span></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
</div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt;">
<span lang="EN-US"><span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;"><i>Keifer
Taylor is a BA Graduate in Film Studies at Queen Mary, University of London.</i></span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="font-size: 15px; margin-bottom: 0.0001pt;">
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Courier;"><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: Courier; font-size: 11.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Verdana;"><br /></span></span></div>
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Courier;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: 15px;">
</span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: 15px;"><!--EndFragment--></span></span>A Nos Amourshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12115094544456729887noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5975890683474771409.post-29626365978091954652013-06-25T12:10:00.000+01:002013-09-09T22:19:35.519+01:00Four Views of Cinema - Part Two: Searching for Ways of Experiencing Film by Charles Rees<div style="text-align: center;">
<span style="text-align: justify;"><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;"><b>Abstract</b></span></span></div>
<div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt; text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt; text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;"><span lang="EN-US">In this article Charles Rees offers his personal insights about how image and </span>sound can be re-‘read’ in such a way as to transcend current narrative constraints. He offers examples of films which have influenced and impressed him, and extrapolates on ways in which cinema might develop in the future.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt; text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt; text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;"><span lang="EN-US">My four views stretch over a long period.</span><o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt; text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;"><span lang="EN-US">Each individual sees differently.</span><o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt; text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;"><span lang="EN-US">The Camera Image sees differently from humans.</span><o:p></o:p></span><br />
<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;"><span lang="EN-US"><br /></span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt; text-align: justify;">
</div>
</div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: left;">
<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;"><span lang="EN-US"><br /></span>
</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: left;">
<div style="text-align: center;">
<span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;"><b>Second View: Story-Orientated Blindness</b><o:p></o:p></span></div>
</div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="mso-layout-grid-align: none; mso-pagination: none; text-align: justify; text-autospace: none;">
<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="mso-layout-grid-align: none; mso-pagination: none; text-align: justify; text-autospace: none;">
<span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="mso-layout-grid-align: none; mso-pagination: none; text-align: justify; text-autospace: none;">
<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;"><span lang="EN-US">This second view of Cinema was
analytical. I was a film-editor in British </span>Cinema – a phrase which the young
director Francois Truffaut considered to be a contradiction in terms. It was
exciting to cut film. I developed an abstracted way of looking at film that
insured me against taking a story-orientated attitude. I would concentrate on
the surface rhythms of a film, however tenuous they might be,
banishing understanding of its content to the back of my mind. I treasured the
way of seeing I had experienced at <i>L'eclisse</i><i><span lang="EN-US"> </span></i><span lang="EN-US">and
needed to exercise and strengthen it. I might need it one day</span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="mso-layout-grid-align: none; mso-pagination: none; text-align: justify; text-autospace: none;">
<span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">for a visual film.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="mso-layout-grid-align: none; mso-pagination: none; text-align: justify; text-autospace: none;">
<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;"><span lang="EN-US">
The film eventually came as a television documentary, <i>Between Dreaming and Waking</i></span><span lang="EN-US">,
about the Ruralist painter David Inshaw, directed by Geoffrey </span><span lang="EN-US">Haydon</span><span lang="EN-US">1</span><span lang="EN-US">. It
brought the viewer towards nature through the sensibility </span>of the painter, in a series of
slow-tempo shots, mainly of the Wiltshire landscape, accompanied by natural
atmospheres and a ‘soundscape’ composed by Mike Ratledge and Karl
Jenkins. Occasional snatches of speech were ‘brushed across the frame’,
in Haydon’s phrase. Here was contemplative material. Everything in
the frame was deliberate, every colour, shape and texture. The natural
sounds were clear and sometimes seemed definitive: we got from the BBC
library ‘the best blackbird song’ that ended unusually emphatically to evoke
the lure of women on the painter. My abstracted approach worked for the
first time. I describe it in detail because it led to a discovery.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;"></span><br />
<a name='more'></a><br />
</div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="mso-layout-grid-align: none; mso-pagination: none; text-align: justify; text-autospace: none;">
<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;"><span lang="EN-US">
Through the act of editing this film I learned to ‘play’ the camera, as </span>one might play a musical instrument. I
felt that I was almost inside the camera operator’s mind, playing the
instrument with him. The playing technique was an overall gaze, the way
the camera sees. You stare at the centre of frame, the area of double or
treble value. You abstract your gaze so that you no longer look at any one
object but become aware of the whole frame. You are not thinking. You float
on the surface of the frame. You see what you already saw but in a new
spirit: hyperaware, the way a cow in a meadow might see. You have shed your
own personal way of seeing and adopted a universal one. You are ‘in
the moment’ like the camera image. T<span lang="EN-US">he shots being visually organized, you
sense their mysterious unity. You </span>sense the director’s emotion – the way
he sees, as if inside his eyes. You feel his motivation and, you hope, the
care he feels towards what he sees.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="mso-layout-grid-align: none; mso-pagination: none; text-align: justify; text-autospace: none;">
<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;"><span lang="EN-US">
Geoffrey Haydon showed the sound and movement cycle of trees in a </span>breeze. A large tree may ‘dance’ for
forty or so seconds. First, it shakes its windward top branches; then its centre
rolls; its lower branches join in on one side and then the other, in a great
balancing act. Then back to the top.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="mso-layout-grid-align: none; mso-pagination: none; text-align: justify; text-autospace: none;">
<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="mso-layout-grid-align: none; mso-pagination: none; text-align: justify; text-autospace: none;">
<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;"><span lang="EN-US">
The discovery I made was when I tried to apply my new editing </span><span lang="EN-US">confidence to fiction films. I wanted
to avoid the actors’ performances </span>dictating the rhythm of the shots. The
kind of film editing where actor rhythms dominate the visual aspect
restricts the audience’s way of seeing. I looked for visual rhythm to set them
free.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="mso-layout-grid-align: none; mso-pagination: none; text-align: justify; text-autospace: none;">
<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;"><span lang="EN-US">
I found that the actors were not of the world that I had contemplated </span>and had become accustomed. The actors
stood in front of that world, where everything visual had had
meaning, every colour, every texture and shape. They interposed themselves
between it and the camera and they trumped it. Natural sounds were muted,
their principal job now to serve the actors’ expression.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="mso-layout-grid-align: none; mso-pagination: none; text-align: justify; text-autospace: none;">
<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;"><span lang="EN-US">
The delicate fiction I had discovered juxtaposing compositions of </span>nature vanished before this stronger
version, a kind of essence of fiction.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="mso-layout-grid-align: none; mso-pagination: none; text-align: justify; text-autospace: none;">
<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;"><span lang="EN-US">
The actors took over the responsibility of storytelling. Actors make us </span>see in a different way. Actors have
roles or parts and these are not visual. Actors’ ‘parts’ are not the
same as parts of the frame, such as colour, texture or depth-of-field. Actors’
parts are of something else: of a drama, a story.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="mso-layout-grid-align: none; mso-pagination: none; text-align: justify; text-autospace: none;">
<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;"><span lang="EN-US">
The actors and their acting dominated the film, even if they could not </span>visually dominate the frame. They took
over the shots with their story-based rhythm – and once they start to do that
you cannot get off that bandwagon. The audience sees the film
primarily through the acting, discounting any surviving visual
rhythms. The image had split in two. It was no longer a harmonious frame, but
one that demanded simultaneously two different ways of seeing. In
practice, one dominated.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="mso-layout-grid-align: none; mso-pagination: none; text-align: justify; text-autospace: none;">
<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;"><span lang="EN-US">
In editing the film I had to give in to this rhythm – a different
rhythm, ‘the rhythm of the acted scene’ not the rhythms of the frame. If I wanted
to keep hold of a shot because I noticed something interesting in the
background of an </span>actor, I could not do so without
seeming pretentious.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="mso-layout-grid-align: none; mso-pagination: none; text-align: justify; text-autospace: none;">
<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;"><span lang="EN-US">
What had happened? When we are looking primarily in a story-orientated </span>way we follow the actors and our visual
imaginations are of secondary importance. We become used to
spoon-feeding in this story-orientated state. We tend to interpret what we see
by what we know already. This makes us expectant. We
anticipate in a state of curiosity – and such anticipation can be
deliciously entertaining. This is our ‘grip’ on the film, a grip between following and
anticipating. It makes for a powerful involvement. It is also limited and
shallow. Following and anticipating, by definition, is not in the
instantaneous, where life and the camera image are.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="mso-layout-grid-align: none; mso-pagination: none; text-align: justify; text-autospace: none;">
<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;"><span lang="EN-US">We do not venture with our whole being
into the unknown instantaneous </span>but rather look for a gratification
that has already been set up. We find ourselves existing on a
gossip-mongering level towards the characters and events. We identify with the characters
– a coldly immature calculation – rather than empathize with them.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="mso-layout-grid-align: none; mso-pagination: none; text-align: justify; text-autospace: none;">
<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;"><span lang="EN-US">
To empathize we would have to be living in the moment, with story </span>concerns relegated to the back of our
minds.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="mso-layout-grid-align: none; mso-pagination: none; text-align: justify; text-autospace: none;">
<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;"><span lang="EN-US">
Here are two instances which demonstrate how story-orientated seeing </span>restricts our vision.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="mso-layout-grid-align: none; mso-pagination: none; text-align: justify; text-autospace: none;">
<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="mso-layout-grid-align: none; mso-pagination: none; text-align: justify; text-autospace: none;">
<span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">1. The Invisible Gorilla<o:p></o:p></span><br />
<span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="mso-layout-grid-align: none; mso-pagination: none; text-align: justify; text-autospace: none;">
<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;"><span lang="EN-US">There was an experiment in perception
at Harvard University</span><span lang="EN-US">.
Several </span>people viewed a video of a basketball
game with the instruction to keep a tally of the passes between the
players. Around half the subjects failed to spot a woman dressed in a gorilla-suit,
who, in the middle of the game, walked across the court for nine
seconds – even though the interloper had passed between the players, stopped in
front of the camera and thumped her chest.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="mso-layout-grid-align: none; mso-pagination: none; text-align: justify; text-autospace: none;">
<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;"><span lang="EN-US">
However, when the subjects were asked to review the video, this time </span>without the instruction to count the
number of passes, they noticed the gorilla easily. The effect was so
striking that some subjects refused to accept that it was the same tape and
thought it was a different version edited to include the ape. In a repeat
of the experiment in London only 40 out of the 400 people who saw
the show managed to spot the gorilla.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="mso-layout-grid-align: none; mso-pagination: none; text-align: justify; text-autospace: none;">
<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="mso-layout-grid-align: none; mso-pagination: none; text-align: justify; text-autospace: none;">
<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="mso-layout-grid-align: none; mso-pagination: none; text-align: justify; text-autospace: none;">
<span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">2. An 'Unseen' Classic<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="mso-layout-grid-align: none; mso-pagination: none; text-align: justify; text-autospace: none;">
<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="mso-layout-grid-align: none; mso-pagination: none; text-align: justify; text-autospace: none;">
<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;"><span lang="EN-US">Story-orientated blindness occurs in
the way we see a film such as Alfred </span>Hitchcock’s <i>Dial M for Murder </i>(1954). Hitchcock transformed a wordy stage melodrama into an intimate study
of evil manipulation and the pride taken in it. Several visual effects in
this great film still go unnoticed after almost sixty years. The audience
attends primarily to the verbal content and only looks in a secondary way. They are
preoccupied with the actors’ performances and the dialogue.
Submerged in the drama, they fail to notice what is on the film’s surface.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="mso-layout-grid-align: none; mso-pagination: none; text-align: justify; text-autospace: none;">
<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;"><span lang="EN-US">
One of the joys of <i>Dial M for
Murder</i> is the high-angled shots, looking </span>down on the characters and expressing
the murderer Wendice’s (Ray Milland) pathological superiority. A
retired tennis player, he intends to murder his wife (Grace Kelly) for her
money. He gets an extraordinary boost from the ingenuity of his scheme.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="mso-layout-grid-align: none; mso-pagination: none; text-align: justify; text-autospace: none;">
<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;"><span lang="EN-US">
The high-angled shots have been noticed and discussed, but has </span><span lang="EN-US">anyone noticed Wendice’s head being set
against flowers encircling it like a </span>laurel wreath or against the corner of
the mantelpiece so that he seems to sprout a small, devilish horn?</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="mso-layout-grid-align: none; mso-pagination: none; text-align: justify; text-autospace: none;">
<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;"><span lang="EN-US">
When Swann, his accomplice, enters, his confusion is expressed (more </span>than by acting) by his check jacket
being thrown subtly out of focus as Wendice pours him a drink. Later, as
Swann begins to make sense of Wendice, his head seems to project
inside an empty rectangular wall moulding.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="mso-layout-grid-align: none; mso-pagination: none; text-align: justify; text-autospace: none;">
<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;"><span lang="EN-US">
Wendice leaves his wife behind for the evening for Swann to strangle </span>and, as he kisses her, Wendice
surreptitiously hides his wife’s latchkey under the stair-carpet in the outer
hall for Swann to find. At this point, literally the ‘key’ to his plan, the
pointed newel-post of the staircase seems to stab him in the small of the back –
the fate which will befall the assassin.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="mso-layout-grid-align: none; mso-pagination: none; text-align: justify; text-autospace: none;">
<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;"><span lang="EN-US">
The first hour of this film (after the appearance of the detective the
film </span>becomes a matter of solving the murder)
is crammed with visual delights. Decorative objects, such as the twin
table-lamps in the sitting room, acquire a life of their own.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="mso-layout-grid-align: none; mso-pagination: none; text-align: justify; text-autospace: none;">
<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;"><span lang="EN-US">
These visual moments greatly increase the audience’s enjoyment. The </span>problem is that we tend to experience
them unconsciously. If we could be less submerged in the story and more
conscious of the surface of the film, we might be able to enjoy
Wendice’s machinations more. The great characters of drama and
literature live in our imaginations in the round, not just in the stories in which
they appear – why not in cinema as well?</span></div>
<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;"><br />
</span><br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="background-color: white;">
<i><span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">Charles Rees is a freelance film editor who studied at the London School of Film Technique in 1966. He has worked on several BFI Production Board films as editor or assistant director and edited television documentaries including by Geoffrey Haydon whose ‘fine-art approach’ inspired Rees in his recent work on film as radically visual and on painting as influenced by the camera obscura. </span><span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"> </span></i><span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
<span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><span style="background-color: white;"><br /></span></span>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
A Nos Amourshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12115094544456729887noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5975890683474771409.post-23550583154023960242013-06-11T12:18:00.000+01:002013-09-09T22:20:37.142+01:00An Undefined Space: Reflections on Frost by Keifer Taylor <div style="text-align: center;">
<div style="text-align: left;">
<span style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif; text-align: justify;">Fred Keleman’s obscure 1997 feature </span><i style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif; text-align: justify;">Frost </i><span style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif; text-align: justify;">is a gruelling yet thoroughly
engrossing experience. A nihilistic world of domestic violence, sexual
degradation and ruptured innocence channelled through muted colours and
meditative long-takes. Whilst watching the film I felt that this simple, though
intricately layered tale of a mother and son’s listless journey across a wintry
German landscape cleverly plays with ones notion of the real and the unreal</span><i style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif; text-align: justify;">.</i><span style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif; text-align: justify;"> In doing so, Keleman delves into the
undefined space where reality and fiction collide.</span></div>
</div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 12.0pt; text-align: justify;">
<div style="text-align: left;">
<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">When referring to cinema Hitchcock famously
said, “drama is life with the dull bits cut out”. </span></div>
<div style="text-align: left;">
<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;"><br /></span></div>
<div style="text-align: left;">
<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">Like his Hungarian acolyte,
Bela Tarr (<i>The Man From London </i>and <i>The Turin Horse</i>), Keleman displays a
radical rejection of this dictum. The reality of <i>Frost</i> resides in Keleman’s observation of quotidian lives wrapped
in the fictitious foil of the plot. This emphasis on the mundane everyday seems
to regard plot as having secondary importance. For example, after arriving at
the hotel, greeted by a sombre, bearded receptionist, Micha and his mother,
Marianne, move out of the frame. Without warning, our focus is shifted to the
taciturn receptionist as we observe him lying down to smoke a cigarette. In a
way, this inexplicable scene may mirror the main characters’ search for relief,
being compared to that of the respite granted by the musky taste of tobacco. On
the flipside, it may merely be read as a moment removed from the narrative,
leaving the spectator to ponder the deep-seated problems of anonymous
characters.</span></div>
<a name='more'></a><span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 12.0pt; text-align: justify;">
<div style="text-align: left;">
<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">Even unseen figures briefly hinder narrative
progression. As Micha’s drunken father sits in a pub across the road waiting
for him and his mother to exit the hotel, a rugged disembodied voice emerges.
The voice rambles – at times humorously – about himself, his friends, his wife
as well as the changes Germany has undergone over the years since reunification.
During these comments a series of disjointed shots present other washed out
members of the pub drinking and smoking their way through the callous night of
New Years Eve. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
</div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 12.0pt; text-align: justify;">
<div style="text-align: left;">
<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">This concern for ordinary people is taken
further as Keleman observes ordinary movements of life. The lingering camera
often tracks Micha and Marianne as they wander through various barren
environments. Simultaneously these lengthy takes of the pairs’ silent trudge
accentuates their perpetual plight as well as the dullness of everyday human
movements. These refusals to propel the plot forward demonstrate Keleman’s
concerns lie in presenting the audience with the ordinary over the extravagant
and dramatic plotlines many filmgoers yearn for. In relation to the plot, all
one can do is muse upon the thoughts and feelings of the characters. Besides
everyday walks of life, Keleman also confronts the audience with the complex
realities of the human condition.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
</div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 12.0pt; text-align: justify;">
<div style="text-align: left;">
<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">These complexities range from loneliness to
human endurance. The inscrutable Micha’s solitude and search for refuge is
clear from the start as he nestles under the dingy stairwell next to a set of
candles as his father rapes his mother. In other scenes of sexual abuse Micha
can be seen gripping to inanimate items like a toy he won at a funfair. This
source of solace is soon replaced by the flame of a lighter Micha wields to
burn clothes and his hotel bedroom. Both the toys and the lighter remain
fleeting forms of comfort, as the child is eventually lost in the vast
landscape of indifference and uncertainty. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
</div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 12.0pt; text-align: justify;">
<div style="text-align: left;">
<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">In the case of human endurance Micha bares
witness to the depraved acts of sexually charged people - including a woman who
attempts to seduce Marianne and then bathes Micha in a scene riddled with
sexual connotations - the constant subjugation of his mother and death. Due to
the apparent apathy of the child it is left to the spectator to question the
seismic effect these events will play on his future. Even the mother, with her
own unspoken problems, shows the absurd will to carry on even after discovering
that her old home in East Germany has transformed into an icy plain. In spite of
her odd behaviour (the disturbing solo dance to tribal techno suggests the
mother may perhaps be attempting to rid herself of her past and present demons)
and predictable descent into further degradation, Marianne shows maternal grace
towards her child; doing everything she can to support them both. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
</div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 12.0pt; text-align: justify;">
<div style="text-align: left;">
<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">These realistic portraits of trivial routines
and human complexities are also laced with a surrealist edge. Keleman counterbalances
“realistic” representations with highly stylised, evocative imagery. Thus, it
is through the artifice of film where both reality and fiction merge. Interestingly,
Keleman’s signature use of the long-take often dwells within this space.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
</div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 12.0pt; text-align: justify;">
<div style="text-align: left;">
<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">Even the extensive use of the long-take found in
<i>Frost</i> does not strictly adhere to the
Bazinian notion of realism. Yes, a concern for continuous time and its duration
with contemplative, unedited sequences are prevalent. The ability to scan the
frame freely is also present as a scene shifts from stasis to movement,
containing a multitude of shots. However, there are occasions where the
long-take also carries an unnatural quality.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
</div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 12.0pt; text-align: justify;">
<div style="text-align: left;">
<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">For example, as Marianne and Micha grip to
one-another in the blistering cold the camera begins a slow-burning 360-degree
turn around the bitter environment. In the distance old tank-traps and trucks
can be faintly discerned. In an interview Keleman has commented on the remnants
of war he discovered when filming on the border of Poland. These remnants imbue
the scene with an ominous realism of Europe’s forgotten past as a war-torn
wasteland. To distance us from reality, the wavy patterns of the barren plain
and the slightly distorted trees are reminiscent of the romantic landscape
paintings of Carl Gustav Carus and Caspar David Friedrich. To heighten the
imagery further, I noticed that when the camera returned to the characters, now
frozen, even the lens itself began to be covered in icy flakes. Soon after this
scene, the land seems to have shifted from a frozen plain to a gleaming, though
equally as fruitless land. Perhaps not to be taken literally, the scene
metaphorically conveys the struggle to find warmth in a punitive landscape.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
</div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 12.0pt; text-align: justify;">
<div style="text-align: left;">
<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">In another fantastical sequence, the long-take
tugs between reality and fiction as Micha’s thoughts are nightmarishly
materialised on screen. In a wide, static shot the snow falls gently outside.
The camera creeps behind Micha as he walks towards the doorframe. Marianne can
be seen on the other side of the road, willingly giving herself to a man. To
intensify the uncanniness of this moment, a herd of cows invade the frame,
blocking Micha from witnessing his mother’s self-debasement. Though Marianne’s foreseeable
plunge into prostitution constitutes the reality of Micha’s life – haunting him
even within his dreams – the cows and snowfall provide an oneiric twist, merging
both realms within a single take.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
</div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 12.0pt; text-align: justify;">
<div style="text-align: left;">
<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">This sly fusion of realism and fantasy is
complemented by the film’s atmospheric and peculiarly framed shots. In the
opening shot, a sleepy Micha rests on his drunken father’s shoulders being precariously
carried home. The haunting soundtrack, a barking dog and a glowing Christmas
tree enhance this seemingly simple observation with an air of dread. In the second,
the camera is framed from a dizzying aerial view, slowly descending through the
apartment’s stairwell. This acrobatic shot defies human perspective via its
visually intoxicating framing, immersing the audience into a skewed, uncanny
world of abjection.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
</div>
<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;"><br /></span>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 12.0pt; text-align: justify;">
<div style="text-align: left;">
<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">After my viewing of <i>Frost </i>the space between the fictitious and the real remains an
unearthly resemblance to the human condition. Visually poetic yet ambiguous in
its nature, Fred Keleman leaves the spectator to distinguish between the two as
he conjures the thoughts and feelings of his characters with minimalist ease.
Not only does he create time but he also constructs a heightened world where artifice
and everyday issues become subtlety entwined.</span><o:p></o:p></div>
</div>
A Nos Amourshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12115094544456729887noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5975890683474771409.post-78491125847540057682013-06-07T09:33:00.000+01:002013-09-10T10:55:56.816+01:00See My Face: Two Singular Visions of Horror by Phoenix Alexander <div align="center" class="Body1" style="text-align: center;">
<b><span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">Two singular visions of horror</span></b></div>
<div align="center" class="Body1" style="line-height: 150%; text-align: center;">
<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="Body1" style="line-height: 150%; text-align: justify; text-justify: inter-ideograph;">
<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;"><span lang="EN-US" style="line-height: 150%;"> </span><span lang="EN-US">Criticised
for decades of increasing mindlessness, paper-thin characters,
cheap-loud-noise-scares, lazy writing, and gratuitous use of violence, horror
movies had to get smart. Specifically,
they had to get <i>meta. </i>Again<i>. </i>Cue last year's <i>The Cabin in the Woods: </i>a gloriously extravagant send-up to the
creatures that haunt our dreams - most of which were granted an exhilarating
frame or two in the bombastic finale.
That the closing spectacle is so effective is, I argue, due to its
embodying the apotheosis of the realisation of horror: by showing, literally, <i>everything </i>(demons, giant reptiles,
pale-faced young girls and myriad other horror clichés), <i>Cabin </i>neutralises the aspect of fear and elides the comedic – even
farcical – despite its inclusion of frequent, very bloody scenes. Simply put: horror dissipates when dragged,
un-obscured, into the field of vision. <o:p></o:p></span></span><br />
<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;"><span lang="EN-US"><br /></span></span></div>
<div class="Body1" style="line-height: 150%; text-align: justify; text-justify: inter-ideograph;">
<span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;"> The movie ends with the
'destruction' of the world by the Dark God: a cataclysm suggesting the
(artistic) death of the genre and the concomitant punishment of an audience
reduced to a baying, bloodthirsty horde that would put the Aztecs to shame
(fittingly, <i>Cabin's</i> deity bursts
forth from the depths of an ancient temple).
Given horror's symbolic 'death', then, we must ask ourselves, again,
that most primal of questions: what is it that makes us afraid? And how can the visual medium of cinema work
to relay these anxieties? It is time to
restore the horror genre to its full potency, to reorient it in the territory
of the frightening; for that, we turn to the past. Audiences, as <i>Cabin </i>satirises, have been reduced to spectators of the suffering
body - and we must ask <i>why, </i>and for
what purpose horror cinema mediates and produces such intoxicating
effects. Put simply, there is something
troubling at work in the psyche, and reflected in the psychic affect of cinema.</span><br />
<span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;"><br /></span>
<a name='more'></a><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;"><o:p></o:p></span><br />
<span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="Body1" style="line-height: 150%; text-align: justify; text-justify: inter-ideograph;">
<span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;"> <i>Les Yeux
Sans Visage </i>and <i>Onibaba </i>are two
films that, literally, restore the mask of the repressed unknown and present
deeply unsettling cinematic explorations of the horrifying. It is not surprising that both incorporate
beautiful – mostly, female – aesthetic forms in often jarring juxtaposition
with scenes of realistic violence.
However, in contrast to the contemporary taste for hyper-realistic
depictions of prolonged human suffering that repulses as much as frightens the
viewer, the films bring <i>beauty </i>closer
to the frame – as in the blurred view of Christiane’s mutilated face, the
heroine of Georges Franju’s <i>Les Yeux Sans
Visage – </i>and places it in jeopardy, revealing it as a veneer for the
horrors beneath: horrors held in the psyche, the libido, and, cinematically,
the visage. Both dramatise the strain of
suppressing the yearnings of the soul – and the often murderous need for
self-expression, for self-realisation, at all costs: <i>see my face.</i> <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div align="center" class="Body1" style="text-align: center;">
<br /></div>
<div align="center" class="Body1" style="text-align: center;">
<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="Body1">
<u><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">Georges
Franju, <i>Les Yeux Sans Visage </i>(Eyes
Without a Face), 1960.<o:p></o:p></span></u></div>
<div class="Body1" style="line-height: 150%;">
<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="Body1" style="line-height: 150%; text-align: justify; text-justify: inter-ideograph;">
<span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;"> Dr. Génessier returns to his opulent
estate, having 'identified' the mutilated corpse of his daughter at a local
morgue. He passes through endless
doorways, ascends two flights of stairs, pauses before a door, and enters. A woman is lying face down on a bed, her face
concealed; a bird swings madly against the bars of its cage. Thus the film's 'monster' is revealed. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="Body1" style="line-height: 150%; text-align: justify; text-indent: 36.0pt; text-justify: inter-ideograph;">
<span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">The masterful transition between physical space builds character in its
own right, and mirrors the equally winding moral and thematic turns of the
narrative. The juxtaposition of the
opening nocturnal scene, in which a young girl dressed in a man's coat is
brutally hurled into a canal, with a lecture by Dr. Génessier that immediately
follows, at once demarcates and blurs the boundaries of the beautiful and the
horrifying. For Dr. Génessier is attempting
nothing less than the 'recapturing of youth' - and his sombre lecture, exposing
the dangers of his 'heterograft' procedure in which bodily tissues are
transplanted from one host to another, thrills the elegant, and mostly female,
audience. Génessier's procedure
culminates in the exsanguination of the transplant host; this somewhat furtive
admission is greeted with rapturous applause.
But in reality he experiments to restore the face of his daughter
Christiane, who he has incarcerated within his mansion: a daughter whose face
he caused to be destroyed in a car accident.
She is the dark heart of the film.
Christiane: the masked, wraith-like figure, the woman on the bed, the
'eyes without a face.' <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="Body1" style="line-height: 150%; text-align: justify; text-justify: inter-ideograph;">
<span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;"> But <i>what </i>eyes! <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="Body1" style="line-height: 150%; text-align: justify; text-justify: inter-ideograph;">
<span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;"> Actress Édith Scob beautifully
balances innocence with murderous intent; her hands flutter to her chest, her
cherubic head tilts as she surveys the latest victims of her father's ghastly
operations: girls whose faces will be cut from their bodies and grafted onto
her own. We feel there is danger in
every scene inhabited by the character, despite - perhaps, because of? - her
unnerving beauty. Franju's frequent
close-ups of Scob's face let her eyes speak their depths of grief: they seem
oceanic, light curving over the glassy depths of gigantic pupils, but just as
easily glaciate in chilling deadpan.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="Body1" style="line-height: 150%; text-align: justify; text-justify: inter-ideograph;">
<span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;"> Franju utilises powerful, if
slightly overt, symbolism to hint at, and finally realise, Christiane's
emancipation. In an early scene, one of
Génessier's victims, having just arrived at his residence, looks away from the
imposing building; Franju reveals the dark, mist-shrouded forest beyond the
gates in a rare shot that teases the possibility of freedom beyond the infinite
doorways and corridors and stairwells of 'Vila de Génessier'. Christiane, wandering through the deserted
mansion, pauses before a painting of a beautiful woman holding a white
dove. Every detail is painstakingly
presented with a true auteur's eye. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="Body1" style="line-height: 150%; text-align: justify; text-justify: inter-ideograph;">
<span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;"> There is violence, too, as well as
beauty. The surgery scenes are shot in a
lingering and surprisingly realistic manner that is excruciating to watch. Faces are cut from their hosts, blood pooling
about elegant necks. The dogs imprisoned
by Génessier - and that we learn serve as test-subjects for his transplant
experiments - are released by Christiane at the film's climax and devour the
doctor in another disturbing and realistic sequence.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="Body1" style="line-height: 150%; text-align: justify; text-justify: inter-ideograph;">
<span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;"> But the film chooses beauty as its
ultimate triumph. Christiane, circled by
doves, ghosts past her father's corpse and out into the darkened forest. The operations have failed. Her mask is still in place - but she is
finally free. "What interests me is
not the macabre," admits Franju, in Labarthe's documentary on the
director, "but the lyricism that follows." This interest evokes the familiar power of
the <i>sublime: </i>the flawless surface of
the mask, the achingly elegant lines of Christiane’s garments (designed by
Givenchy, no less), the circling of doves and the final view of the
mist-wreathed forest work in powerful asymmetry with the horrors of the
narrative, increasing the cathectic effect of the carefully-orchestrated scenes
of graphic violence when they occur. The
strong fantasy and symbolic element is shared by <i>Onibaba</i>, with the mask motif holding together the paradox of a
friable and murderous and beautiful human subject that <i>will not be contained</i>: a human presence far more terrifying than
any spectre, on its journey to self-actualisation. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="Body1" style="line-height: 150%; text-align: justify; text-justify: inter-ideograph;">
<span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">It is a
journey that, in Franju’s hands, is rendered truly breath-taking.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div align="center" class="Body1" style="line-height: 150%; text-align: center;">
<span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">- - - <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div align="center" class="Body1" style="line-height: 150%; text-align: center;">
<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="Body1" style="line-height: 150%;">
<u><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">Kaneto Shindo, <i>Onibaba, </i>1964.<o:p></o:p></span></u></div>
<div class="Body1" style="line-height: 150%;">
<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="Body1" style="line-height: 150%; text-align: justify; text-justify: inter-ideograph;">
<span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;"> Kaneto Shindo's <i>Onibaba </i>is a compelling psychodrama that centres on a woman and her
daughter-in-law eking out a perilous existence in feudal Japan. They live within a vast field of grass,
preying on travelling soldiers and selling their goods to a local
merchant. All seems to be well, in a
bloodthirsty sort of fashion, until the arrival of Hachi: a muscled, coarse,
but nevertheless seductive deserter who informs them that the woman's son (and
her daughter-in-law's husband) has been killed in the war. Settling into a nearby habitation, Hachi
proves a catalyst for the ensuing mayhem to come, disrupting the precarious
stability of the women. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="Body1" style="line-height: 150%; text-align: justify; text-justify: inter-ideograph;">
<span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;"> Jealousy, sexuality, and violence
combine in a heady mélange. The older
woman, 'Baba', is tormented by the proximity of sex and the very real exposure
of her own impotence. Sensing the danger
of her daughter-in-law's seduction she confronts Hachi and presents herself to
him in exchange; the ruse fails. Salvation
comes in the form of a masked samurai, whose fellows have been killed in conflict. He has lost his way. Leading him through the grasses, Baba begs
him to show her his face, which he claims to be 'the most handsome' in Kyoto. In an interesting, revision of masculinity,
he has kept his mask on for fear of marring his features in combat. 'I've never seen anything really beautiful
since the day I was born', spits Baba, poignantly. Refusing her, the samurai is led to his
death, falling into the 'hole': an ancient feature of the landscape in which
the women dump the remains of their victims.
Shindo exploits the human need to <i>witness</i>
in this sequence; the samurai pauses and torments Baba with the possibility of
unmasking himself, before ultimately refusing.
The climactic unveiling of his corpse yields horror in the place of
beauty: a face buried beneath hideous sores.
<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="Body1" style="line-height: 150%; text-align: justify; text-justify: inter-ideograph;">
<span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;"> The very landscape, too, serves a
similarly obscuring function. Shindo
very rarely presents shots <i>above </i>the
level of the endlessly rippling fronds, with glimpses of sky, and birds in
flight, providing welcome and desperate relief at key, usually post-coital
moments in the narrative. Baba ambushes
the daughter three times, waiting out in the grasses with the demon mask stolen
from the samurai's corpse to bar her from running to the tent of Hachi. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="Body1" style="line-height: 150%; text-align: justify; text-justify: inter-ideograph;">
<span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;"> Interestingly, the three
'apparition' scenes are treated somewhat impressionistically, with the <i>onibaba </i>rising mechanically upwards or
gliding towards the camera, lit in flickering spotlight. However, the inevitable confrontation with
the younger woman leaves her unable to remove the mask. In this especially brutal sequence, all
whirling camera and frightening close ups of the young woman's contorted face
as she takes revenge on her tormentor, the latter has to break the mask from
Baba's face using a hammer, having made her promise that she can see Hachi
'every day and night'. Blood oozes from
the mask's bottom. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="Body1" style="line-height: 150%; text-align: justify; text-justify: inter-ideograph;">
<span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;"> The film finishes where it begins,
with a freed Baba pursuing her appalled daughter-in-law through the grass in a
climax as moving as it is unsettling. Baba's face, too, is now wracked with
sores from where the mask has been torn, a sign of the 'samurai's curse'. The chase leads them to the hole... The young
woman leaps... As does Baba. Shindo
leaves her there, suspended, her last cry echoing across the grasslands: 'I'm a
human being!'<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div align="center" class="Body1" style="line-height: 150%; text-align: center;">
<span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">- - -<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="Body1" style="line-height: 150%; text-align: justify; text-justify: inter-ideograph;">
<span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;"> This final admission of human
frailty is, perhaps, the strongest vindication of all for the horror
genre. In a Nietzschean flourish, Baba’s
donning the demon mask and ‘performing’ her desire to stem the sexuality of her
daughter-in-law pays testament to the power of the mask – of the <i>actor – </i>to ‘safely’ channel negative
emotions; the mask of Apollo, god of music and merriment, supposedly manages
the dark Dionysian impulses that rise from the depths of the unconscious. The effectiveness of these two films lies in
their showing that this mask, too, is itself horrifying: the effort to suppress
or conceal the true self is strenuous, murderous, and inflicts violence in its
own right. ‘My face frightens me, my
mask terrifies me more!’ cries Christiane, significantly. Make no mistake: this is not to advocate a
return to that most well-known of horror clichés: ‘what is most frightening is
that which is unseen.’ <i>Onibaba </i>and <i>Les Yeux Sans Visage, </i>eliding beauty, drawing upon the poetic
symbolism of the sublime, remind us that the <i>failings</i> of the repressive effort can be just as, if not more,
frightening than a relentless cinematic bombardment of suffering bodies. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="Body1" style="line-height: 150%; text-align: justify; text-justify: inter-ideograph;">
<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;"><i><span lang="EN-US">Try to contain me, hide my ugliness, lock me
away, wreath me in beauty </span></i><span lang="EN-US">they seem to say... <i>Like any ghoul, I will not be contained.</i></span></span><br />
<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">
<span lang="EN-US"><i><br /></i></span>
</span><br />
<span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;"><i>Phoenix Alexander is an MA English Student at Queen Mary, University of London, and a doctoral scholar at Yale University as of August 2013. </i></span><br />
<br />
<span lang="EN-US"></span>
<pre style="background-color: white; font-size: 14px;"></pre>
</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
A Nos Amourshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12115094544456729887noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5975890683474771409.post-52083860368769871902013-05-29T22:39:00.000+01:002013-09-10T10:56:31.213+01:00Four Views of Cinema - Part One by Charles Rees<div style="text-align: justify;">
<div style="text-align: center;">
<span style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;"><b>Abstract</b></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt; text-align: justify;">
<div style="text-align: center;">
<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;"><br /></span></div>
</div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt; text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;"><span lang="EN-US">In this article Charles Rees offers his personal insights about how
image and </span>sound can be re-‘read’ in such a way as to transcend current
narrative constraints. He offers examples of films which have influenced
and impressed him, and extrapolates on ways in which cinema might develop
in the future.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt; text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt; text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;"><span lang="EN-US">My four views stretch over a long period.</span><o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt; text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;"><span lang="EN-US">Each individual sees differently.</span><o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt; text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;"><span lang="EN-US">The Camera Image sees differently from humans.</span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt; text-align: justify;">
<div style="text-align: center;">
<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;"><br /></span></div>
</div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt; text-align: justify;">
<div style="text-align: center;">
<b><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">First View: The Eclipse</span></b></div>
</div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt; text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt; text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;"><span lang="EN-US">The first view was only a glimpse. Following an early enthusiasm
for </span>spectacular films - <i>Ben-Hur</i> (Wyler 1959), <i>El
Cid</i> (Mann 1961) – on vast screens that envelop you to put you in
another world, I saw Michelangelo Antonioni’s <i>L’eclisse/The
Eclipse</i> (1962) when I was sixteen. This film put <span lang="EN-US">me in another world in a different way. Rather than being swallowed by
a </span>film, I swallowed. I think I discovered my own way of seeing
films. I was bewitched – at least I seemed to have some kind of affinity
with this film. It stunned me into a way of seeing films that I had not
imagined before. I never forgot this revelation of a way of seeing films,
although <span lang="EN-US">I subsequently used other ways. It was
always there, a way of having a </span>handle on a film and of keeping one’s autonomy in relation to it.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;"><br /></span>
<a name='more'></a><span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt; text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;"><span lang="EN-US"> Taking a distanced view was the key. You looked
at the whole frame </span>because Antonioni made the whole frame expressive. The rhythm of
the film was visual rather than dramatic, as in a painting. The actors,
before they represented anything else, were visual elements of his frame.
As in <span lang="EN-US">Alfred Hitchcock’s films, the frame and
the sounds were the prime means </span>of expression. The film was beautiful: Gianni Di Venanzo’s poetic
black and white photography rivalled that of Josef von Sternberg.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt; text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;"><span lang="EN-US"> When you are visual in this way it means that
the sound has to step </span>up and find its proper place. There are great moments in <i>L’eclisse</i>:
my favourite sounds being the Verona airfield atmospheres and the breezes
in the leaves that we hear again, a few years later, in Antonioni’s <i>Blow-Up</i>
<span lang="EN-US">(1966).</span><o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt; text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt; text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;"><span lang="EN-US"> There was also the Italian approach to dubbing.
Italian films of that time treated sound differently from us. The sound of
British films was recorded sync in a spirit of pride in engineering. The Italians
instinctively separated sound from picture, shooting mute. Their aim was
to capture an expressive moment rather than faithfully record a dramatic
event. They subsequently added the soundtrack, including
post-synchronized dialogue and effects, in a way that often appeared
careless to British </span>technicians.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt; text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;"><span lang="EN-US"> Actually, we were the ones who lacked
care.</span><o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt; text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;"><span lang="EN-US"> It is a question of how you see films. If you
see films in the same way as </span>you go to the theatre and you want primarily to follow and
understand what is going on, you want clear dialogue and the event
distinctly recorded. For that you need perfect sync. If you want, however,
to look and listen imaginatively to an expressive frame, you would be
using your eyes and ears differently. Instead of the share of attention
between seeing and hearing staying around 50%, you would be giving it
fully first to one and then the other, switching rapidly between the two.
A great film will express itself one moment, say, 80% visually and the
next 80% aurally. When you are watching a Fellini or Antonioni film –
really listening and really looking – the question of synchronization does
not arise. The post-synched voices of Italian actors float freely and are
not in slavish sync to the picture. The sounds appear to fit ‘pauses’ in
the images, enabling the audience’s concentration to alternate between
seeing and hearing. This encourages a consciousness of the formal surface
of a film. A film by <span lang="EN-US">Fellini, for example, allows us to switch
between perceiving, in painterly </span>fashion, a cartoon-like face and listening, in a musical way, to
the abstract timbre of a voice. We see and hear intensely by alternating
our attention. The ‘gaps’ between the sounds and the images invite us in
to a more intimate relation with the film. It is a looser, natural rhythm,
nearer the way we see in life. Our alternating attention between picture
and sound can be sensuously rhythmic. We find that we give more of
ourselves. As if we were dreaming – flying imaginatively in the film, rather
than observing it from the ground.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt; text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt; text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;"><span lang="EN-US"> I probably did not understand this at the time
but I knew that I had </span>encountered in <i>L’eclisse </i>a different, exciting
way of making and of seeing films.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt; text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;"><span lang="EN-US"> I had grown up seeing films at the Odeon where
the emphasis was on </span>acting. There you had to concentrate on the actors to connect with
the film. Not contemplating the frame from a distance, as in Antonioni’s
film, but locked into the actors’ professional storytelling. Submerged in
the film, you watched in a state of constant expectation – in a kind of
elongated bubble of following and anticipating events. The film ensured
that your curiosity was never satisfied. You were not in the instantaneous
present since the film did not invite you to look at it visually. The
only instantaneous thing was the generally over-lit filmed record of the
acting.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt; text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;"><span lang="EN-US"> The audience saw films in a public rather than
an individual spirit. </span>There was little encouragement towards free interpretation. You
could not immerse yourself in them personally. You might inadvertently
notice something that took your own particular interest, but nothing could
rock the primary way of connecting with the film. There really was nothing
to connect with – except the acting, which demonstrated the story.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt; text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;"><span lang="EN-US"> We were event-orientated, story-orientated. We
might as well </span>have been watching a stage-play. An audience in a theatre
responds spontaneously to events on the stage and this in turn influences
the actors’ performances. The theatre audience participates in the art.
Here, in the cinema, we were helplessly and stupidly isolated from the
actors. Such helplessness may have contributed to the general belief that
the ‘flicks’ were inferior to stage-plays. We were learning how not to see
films.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt; text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;"><span lang="EN-US"> I knew that, while too young and
inexperienced to understand <i>L’eclisse</i>, </span>I had
participated in a work of art. I emerged from this
vision-changing experience into drab Westbourne Grove, which greatly
contrasted with the elegant EUR suburb of Rome in the film. The glare of
the lamp standards revealed a street in which nothing, from the cars to
the building fronts, was beautiful or potentially eloquent. It seemed that
the materials to create Cinema did not exist here.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt; text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;"><span lang="EN-US"> Strangely, a few years later, Antonioni was to
choose locations </span>within yards of here, for <i>Blow-up</i> (1966) and then <i>The Passenger</i> (1975). Westbourne
Grove, where I live, has become smarter over the years but its <span lang="EN-US">atmosphere has not really changed. I later understood that the
problem </span>goes deeper than any national culture and that it is really about
the way we see films and expect to see them.</span></div>
</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;"><br /></span>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal">
<i><span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">Charles Rees is a freelance film editor who studied at the London
School of Film Technique in 1966. He has worked on several BFI Production
Board films as editor or assistant director and edited television
documentaries including by Geoffrey Haydon whose ‘fine-art approach’ inspired
Rees in his recent work on film as radically visual and on painting as influenced
by the camera obscura. </span></i><span style="font-family: inherit;"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
<span style="font-family: inherit;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
A Nos Amourshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12115094544456729887noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5975890683474771409.post-34686104812799415972013-04-22T14:03:00.000+01:002013-09-10T10:56:42.566+01:00Makhmalbafs's “A Moment of Innocence” by Saeed Zeydabadi-Nejad<i style="line-height: 150%;"><span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">Saeed Zeydabadi-Nejad has kindly allowed us to post the text of his introduction to Mohsen Makhmalbaf's 'A Moment of Innocence", which A Nos Amours presented at the ICA in March 2013.</span></i><br />
<i style="line-height: 150%;"><span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;"><br /></span></i>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%;">
<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif; line-height: 150%;">Rumi, a Persian mystic poet says in a poem,<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span></span></div>
<div class="MsoBodyText" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0cm; margin-left: 36.0pt; margin-right: 36.0pt; margin-top: 0cm;">
<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoBodyText" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0cm; margin-left: 36.0pt; margin-right: 36.0pt; margin-top: 0cm;">
<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif; line-height: 150%;">“Truth is a mirror which fell on Earth from God’s hand and
broke.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Everyone picked up a piece and
saw their own image in it and thought they had the truth.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>But truth was divided among them all"</span></div>
<div class="MsoBodyText" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0cm; margin-left: 36.0pt; margin-right: 36.0pt; margin-top: 0cm;">
<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%;">
<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif; line-height: 150%;">History, multiple truths, documentary, fiction and poetry mix
in “A Moment of Innocence” a deceptively simple film by Mohsen Makhmalbaf who
is one of Iran’s best known film-makers. He is not just remarkable for his
accomplishment in filmmaking but also for taking a metaphoric personal journey
that spans from being a religious guerrilla to becoming a secular
world-renowned director.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>He had not seen
any films until the age of 21 due to a strict religious upbringing. He recalls
his grandmother saying that whoever went to the movies would go to hell in the
afterlife. After the 1979 revolution, he began his career as a self-taught
ideological filmmaker, fully at the service of Islamic Republic.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>He refers to this period as his first phase of
filmmaking. Understandably his films of the period are unremarkable.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif; line-height: 150%;"><br /></span>
<a name='more'></a><span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif; line-height: 150%;"> </span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%;">
<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%;">
<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif; line-height: 150%;">In the second phase, disillusioned by the revolutionary
regime’s failure in addressing the rampant poverty, his focus shifted to social
justice and criticism of the regime from that perspective. It is in this period
that he established himself as an auteur with films such as <i>The Peddler</i>
(1986) and <i>Marriage of the Blessed</i> (1989). He refers to the third phase
in his work as constituting cultural critique when he made some of his best
films such as Salam Cinema and A Moment of Innocence. In this period,
Makhmalbaf came to the realisation that more than any other factor, the problem
on all sides of the political spectrum in Iran was absolutism. In contrast with
his poetic vision Makhmalbaf highlighted the plurality of truth. The quoted
poem at the start of my introduction is from a book by Makhmalbaf. </span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%;">
<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%;">
<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif; line-height: 150%;">In “A Moment of Innocence” there is something far more
significant than the specifics of biographical details of a famous real-life
incidence. In 1975 as a 17-year-old member of an guerrilla organisation, Makhmalbaf
tried unsuccessfully to seize a policeman's gun.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Both the policeman and Makhmalbaf ended up
wounded.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Makhmalbaf was arrested and
spent four years in jail, during which he was tortured by the secret police.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%;">
<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif; line-height: 150%;">Ironically the reworking of this revolutionary story in “A
Moment of Innocence” was considered anti-revolutionary in Iran and the film was
banned for two years.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%;">
<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%;">
<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif; line-height: 150%;">This was partly to do with the prominence of Makhmalbaf as a
public intellectual whose books and articles were read as widely as his films
were seen. In fact, he has always been at the center of many contentious issues
that have had an inevitable impact on his cinema. Perhaps an event in the
reformist president Khatami’s election campaign in 1997 can reveal the major role
Makhmalbaf played in Iran at the time of making “A moment of Innocence”. The
campaigners for Khatami arranged an interview with Makhmalbaf, in which he
called Khatami a “great man of culture”.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>Aware of the statement’s importance, they published it as, and I quote,
the “last ball in their campaign cannon” the last week before the election. </span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%;">
<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%;">
<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif; line-height: 150%;">Makhmalbaf’s continued involvement in Iranian politics has had
grave consequences for him. In 2009, he was one of the leading figures of the
Green Movement which threatened for a while to topple the Iranian regime.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Makhmlbaf has since become a political exile
here in London. Unfortunately though he is at the moment in Italy otherwise he
would have been introducing “A Moment of innocence” himself. </span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%;">
<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%;">
<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif; line-height: 150%;">In A Moment of Innocence there is a creative confusion, a
quiet erosion of the dead certainties, that separates the real from the
make-believe, and that is precisely the trademark of the best of the
post-revolutionary Iranian cinema. In the words of Hamid Dabashi, “When facts
are constituted by history, then they ought to be reversed by art,
re-constituted, re-negotiated, let loose to hunt for their alternatives, all in
a creatively multi-focal thrust that no author or filmmaker, let alone a censorship
official, can control”.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%;">
<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%;">
<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif; line-height: 150%;">Throughout this beautiful film Makhmalbaf opens many doors to
Iranian culture, society, and importantly to his own idealism and poetic views.
Some doors, he leaves ajar, and it is for us, his audience, to open them and
look beyond. </span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%;">
<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%;">
<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif; line-height: 150%;">Saeed Zeydabadi-Nejad</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif; line-height: 150%;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%;">
<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif; line-height: 150%;"><i>SOAS</i></span></div>
A Nos Amourshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12115094544456729887noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5975890683474771409.post-79376917198644588612013-04-16T11:01:00.000+01:002013-09-10T10:56:53.702+01:00A Moment of Innocence?: The Political Potentials of Pop-up Film, by Ella Harris<!--[if gte mso 9]><xml>
<o:OfficeDocumentSettings>
<o:AllowPNG/>
</o:OfficeDocumentSettings>
</xml><![endif]-->
<!--[if gte mso 9]><xml>
<w:WordDocument>
<w:View>Normal</w:View>
<w:Zoom>0</w:Zoom>
<w:TrackMoves/>
<w:TrackFormatting/>
<w:PunctuationKerning/>
<w:ValidateAgainstSchemas/>
<w:SaveIfXMLInvalid>false</w:SaveIfXMLInvalid>
<w:IgnoreMixedContent>false</w:IgnoreMixedContent>
<w:AlwaysShowPlaceholderText>false</w:AlwaysShowPlaceholderText>
<w:DoNotPromoteQF/>
<w:LidThemeOther>EN-GB</w:LidThemeOther>
<w:LidThemeAsian>JA</w:LidThemeAsian>
<w:LidThemeComplexScript>X-NONE</w:LidThemeComplexScript>
<w:Compatibility>
<w:BreakWrappedTables/>
<w:SnapToGridInCell/>
<w:WrapTextWithPunct/>
<w:UseAsianBreakRules/>
<w:DontGrowAutofit/>
<w:SplitPgBreakAndParaMark/>
<w:EnableOpenTypeKerning/>
<w:DontFlipMirrorIndents/>
<w:OverrideTableStyleHps/>
</w:Compatibility>
<m:mathPr>
<m:mathFont m:val="Cambria Math"/>
<m:brkBin m:val="before"/>
<m:brkBinSub m:val="--"/>
<m:smallFrac m:val="off"/>
<m:dispDef/>
<m:lMargin m:val="0"/>
<m:rMargin m:val="0"/>
<m:defJc m:val="centerGroup"/>
<m:wrapIndent m:val="1440"/>
<m:intLim m:val="subSup"/>
<m:naryLim m:val="undOvr"/>
</m:mathPr></w:WordDocument>
</xml><![endif]--><!--[if gte mso 9]><xml>
<w:LatentStyles DefLockedState="false" DefUnhideWhenUsed="true"
DefSemiHidden="true" DefQFormat="false" DefPriority="99"
LatentStyleCount="276">
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="0" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" QFormat="true" Name="Normal"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="9" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" QFormat="true" Name="heading 1"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="9" QFormat="true" Name="heading 2"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="9" QFormat="true" Name="heading 3"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="9" QFormat="true" Name="heading 4"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="9" QFormat="true" Name="heading 5"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="9" QFormat="true" Name="heading 6"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="9" QFormat="true" Name="heading 7"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="9" QFormat="true" Name="heading 8"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="9" QFormat="true" Name="heading 9"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="39" Name="toc 1"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="39" Name="toc 2"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="39" Name="toc 3"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="39" Name="toc 4"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="39" Name="toc 5"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="39" Name="toc 6"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="39" Name="toc 7"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="39" Name="toc 8"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="39" Name="toc 9"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="35" QFormat="true" Name="caption"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="10" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" QFormat="true" Name="Title"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="1" Name="Default Paragraph Font"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="11" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" QFormat="true" Name="Subtitle"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="22" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" QFormat="true" Name="Strong"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="20" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" QFormat="true" Name="Emphasis"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="59" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Table Grid"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Placeholder Text"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="1" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" QFormat="true" Name="No Spacing"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="60" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Light Shading"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="61" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Light List"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="62" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Light Grid"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="63" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Medium Shading 1"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="64" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Medium Shading 2"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="65" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Medium List 1"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="66" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Medium List 2"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="67" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Medium Grid 1"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="68" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Medium Grid 2"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="69" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Medium Grid 3"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="70" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Dark List"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="71" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Colorful Shading"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="72" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Colorful List"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="73" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Colorful Grid"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="60" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Light Shading Accent 1"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="61" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Light List Accent 1"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="62" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Light Grid Accent 1"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="63" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Medium Shading 1 Accent 1"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="64" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Medium Shading 2 Accent 1"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="65" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Medium List 1 Accent 1"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Revision"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="34" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" QFormat="true" Name="List Paragraph"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="29" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" QFormat="true" Name="Quote"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="30" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" QFormat="true" Name="Intense Quote"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="66" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Medium List 2 Accent 1"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="67" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Medium Grid 1 Accent 1"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="68" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Medium Grid 2 Accent 1"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="69" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Medium Grid 3 Accent 1"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="70" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Dark List Accent 1"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="71" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Colorful Shading Accent 1"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="72" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Colorful List Accent 1"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="73" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Colorful Grid Accent 1"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="60" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Light Shading Accent 2"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="61" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Light List Accent 2"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="62" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Light Grid Accent 2"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="63" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Medium Shading 1 Accent 2"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="64" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Medium Shading 2 Accent 2"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="65" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Medium List 1 Accent 2"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="66" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Medium List 2 Accent 2"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="67" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Medium Grid 1 Accent 2"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="68" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Medium Grid 2 Accent 2"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="69" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Medium Grid 3 Accent 2"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="70" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Dark List Accent 2"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="71" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Colorful Shading Accent 2"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="72" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Colorful List Accent 2"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="73" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Colorful Grid Accent 2"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="60" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Light Shading Accent 3"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="61" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Light List Accent 3"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="62" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Light Grid Accent 3"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="63" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Medium Shading 1 Accent 3"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="64" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Medium Shading 2 Accent 3"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="65" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Medium List 1 Accent 3"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="66" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Medium List 2 Accent 3"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="67" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Medium Grid 1 Accent 3"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="68" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Medium Grid 2 Accent 3"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="69" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Medium Grid 3 Accent 3"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="70" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Dark List Accent 3"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="71" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Colorful Shading Accent 3"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="72" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Colorful List Accent 3"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="73" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Colorful Grid Accent 3"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="60" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Light Shading Accent 4"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="61" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Light List Accent 4"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="62" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Light Grid Accent 4"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="63" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Medium Shading 1 Accent 4"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="64" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Medium Shading 2 Accent 4"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="65" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Medium List 1 Accent 4"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="66" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Medium List 2 Accent 4"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="67" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Medium Grid 1 Accent 4"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="68" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Medium Grid 2 Accent 4"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="69" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Medium Grid 3 Accent 4"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="70" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Dark List Accent 4"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="71" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Colorful Shading Accent 4"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="72" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Colorful List Accent 4"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="73" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Colorful Grid Accent 4"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="60" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Light Shading Accent 5"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="61" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Light List Accent 5"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="62" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Light Grid Accent 5"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="63" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Medium Shading 1 Accent 5"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="64" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Medium Shading 2 Accent 5"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="65" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Medium List 1 Accent 5"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="66" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Medium List 2 Accent 5"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="67" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Medium Grid 1 Accent 5"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="68" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Medium Grid 2 Accent 5"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="69" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Medium Grid 3 Accent 5"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="70" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Dark List Accent 5"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="71" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Colorful Shading Accent 5"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="72" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Colorful List Accent 5"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="73" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Colorful Grid Accent 5"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="60" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Light Shading Accent 6"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="61" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Light List Accent 6"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="62" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Light Grid Accent 6"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="63" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Medium Shading 1 Accent 6"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="64" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Medium Shading 2 Accent 6"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="65" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Medium List 1 Accent 6"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="66" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Medium List 2 Accent 6"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="67" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Medium Grid 1 Accent 6"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="68" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Medium Grid 2 Accent 6"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="69" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Medium Grid 3 Accent 6"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="70" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Dark List Accent 6"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="71" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Colorful Shading Accent 6"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="72" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Colorful List Accent 6"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="73" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Colorful Grid Accent 6"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="19" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" QFormat="true" Name="Subtle Emphasis"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="21" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" QFormat="true" Name="Intense Emphasis"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="31" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" QFormat="true" Name="Subtle Reference"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="32" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" QFormat="true" Name="Intense Reference"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="33" SemiHidden="false"
UnhideWhenUsed="false" QFormat="true" Name="Book Title"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="37" Name="Bibliography"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="39" QFormat="true" Name="TOC Heading"/>
</w:LatentStyles>
</xml><![endif]-->
<!--[if gte mso 10]>
<style>
/* Style Definitions */
table.MsoNormalTable
{mso-style-name:"Table Normal";
mso-tstyle-rowband-size:0;
mso-tstyle-colband-size:0;
mso-style-noshow:yes;
mso-style-priority:99;
mso-style-parent:"";
mso-padding-alt:0cm 5.4pt 0cm 5.4pt;
mso-para-margin-top:0cm;
mso-para-margin-right:0cm;
mso-para-margin-bottom:10.0pt;
mso-para-margin-left:0cm;
line-height:115%;
mso-pagination:widow-orphan;
font-size:11.0pt;
font-family:Calibri;
mso-ascii-font-family:Calibri;
mso-ascii-theme-font:minor-latin;
mso-hansi-font-family:Calibri;
mso-hansi-theme-font:minor-latin;}
</style>
<![endif]-->
<!--StartFragment-->
<br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;"><img border="0" height="135" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg6Fsyz8eMnaOqCvHIu4AA4F9J9kbOka5PYXTeuq1XxhU9zWGcHiul3_XUkXIKL4VjLxc9vHgySjRgNb4-KRRFE9_nB-1tQDYwrCYA3ATUONgupBrI8fViO-KGJL-3JODYXhhDWllHufQ/s320/MofIbg.jpg" width="320" /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<div style="text-align: left;">
<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;"><br /></span></div>
</div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<div style="text-align: left;">
<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;"><br /></span></div>
</div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<div style="text-align: left;">
<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">Not so long ago A Nos Amours screened
Moshen Maklmalbaf’s <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">A Moment of Innocence (1996) </i>at the ICA. The
presentation of this Iranian film by A Nos Amours, a pop-up cinema collective,
raised questions about the political potentials of pop-up as a new mode of
cinema spectatorship. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
</div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<div style="text-align: left;">
<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;"><br /></span></div>
</div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<div style="text-align: left;">
<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">Maklmalbaf’s quasi-autobiographical
film, set in his home country, is an exploration of what it means to recreate a
moment in history, and what such a re-exploration can hope to achieve. The film
follows Moshen (playing himself) who is making a movie about an incident which
was pivotal for his 17 year old self; the stabbing of a policeman during a political
demonstration. Unexpectedly, the policeman himself returns, eager to take part
in the film too, albeit with his own emotional agenda. Both men chose a ‘young
me’ to act in the reconstruction and set about training the boys to embody
their past-selves.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;"><br /></span>
<a name='more'></a><span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;"> <o:p></o:p></span></div>
</div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<div style="text-align: left;">
<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;"><br /></span></div>
</div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<div style="text-align: left;">
<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">In the first minutes of the film we are
presented with a question, posed by Moshen’s daughter, a small but self-assured
Iranian girl, who peeps from behind the large door of her father’s house to
address the ungainly ex-policeman. Innocently, she asks ‘why do you want to be
an actor?” <o:p></o:p></span></div>
</div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<div style="text-align: left;">
<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;"><br /></span></div>
</div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<div style="text-align: left;">
<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">The answers explored as the film progresses
are all variations on one central idea, the idea that to stage a performance is
to rediscover what has passed, to relive, reimagine and, thereby, to rework or
alter reality. In the case of <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">A Moment of
Innocence </i>the reality reworked is one which is personal and emotional, but
also deeply political.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><o:p></o:p></span></div>
</div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<div style="text-align: left;">
<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif; mso-spacerun: yes;"><br /></span></div>
</div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<div style="text-align: left;">
<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">Not all cinema makes such overt gestures
into the ‘real’ socio-political world as <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">A
Moment of Innocence</i>. Film as an industry has become expert at escapism, at
creating a fiction we can lose ourselves in briefly, but then leave behind in
the cinema along with discarded pop-corn seeds and Coca-Cola cups. The cinema
has become a container for fantasy worlds which are safely circumscribed within
it and therefore unthreatening to the<i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"> </i>world
outside. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
</div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<div style="text-align: left;">
<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;"><br /></span></div>
</div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<div style="text-align: left;">
<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">However, within the world of pop-up
film there seem to be attempts to do something quite different. By bringing
film out of its designated space and into alternative venues (including disused
properties and even the streets) pop-up film is offering a platform for films
to be understood as directly concerned with lived reality. Pop-up helps to
rediscover films as comments and contestations and, furthermore, as stimuli for
new ways of thinking culturally and socio-politically. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
</div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<div style="text-align: left;">
<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;"><br /></span></div>
</div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<div style="text-align: left;">
<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">Out of the Egyptian revolution, for
example, grew a film collective called ‘Mosireen’ and their campaign ‘Kazeboon’.
Mosireen’s project is to collect and project footage from the revolution and to
screen this footage, along with grassroots and professional documentaries, in
the streets of Cairo. The films are usually projected onto the walls of the
city, drawing large audiences, and aim to show the realities of the revolution
including police and army brutality. In this way, the collective work to contest
the dominant media narrative and provide fuel for political debate and action. These
kinds of screenings do not offer films to be escaped into and then left behind;
they present films which are in, about and for the <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">real world</i>. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
</div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<div style="text-align: left;">
<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;"><br /></span></div>
</div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<div style="text-align: left;">
<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">Clearly most pop-up cinema is not as
overtly political as the work of Mosireen, but perhaps it shares certain
similarities. It has a relationship with reality that can be similarly outward
facing, responsive and combative. It has the potential to ‘take film to the
streets’, to prompt a mode of cinema spectatorship which makes film
instrumental in examining and re-shaping the world. This is true not just of
confrontational political screenings, but also of the endeavours of collectives
like A Nos Amours, who use the agility and mobility of pop-up to keep old or
alternative films alive. The freshness of pop-up’s itinerant movements ensures
that such films are not dragged up as relics for museum display but as
specimens with on-going vitality and relevance. Such a model of cinema
spectatorship regenerates discussion of ideas which might otherwise have been
lost to cinematic history and thereby plays a critical role in instating and
sustaining cultural and political debates. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
</div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<div style="text-align: left;">
<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;"><br /></span></div>
</div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<div style="text-align: left;">
<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">In <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">A
Moment of Innocence </i>the young actor picked to play the director, Moshen,
continually states his life aim as being ‘to save the world.’ The implied
question is whether film can help in this pursuit? <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><o:p></o:p></span></div>
</div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<div style="text-align: left;">
<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif; mso-spacerun: yes;"><br /></span></div>
</div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<div style="text-align: left;">
<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">The answer given by Moshen seems to be <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">yes. </i>The ‘moment of innocence’ promised
by the title is arrived at right in the last frame, when the young actors, hired
to restage a moment of violence, find themselves incapable of repeating the acts
of their adult counterparts, even as charade. The suggestion is that the
elaborate reworking of this socio-political history has had a constructive
effect. The younger generation have in some sense surpassed the adults who are
directing them, moving beyond the mistakes of a historical political moment and
creating a moment of non-violent encounter. We see then, that the fiction
staged in <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">A Moment of Innocence </i>is not
just a fiction; it is a tool in the dissemination of the past and in the construction
of a new reality. This should serve to remind us that all film, if approached
from the right perspective, has this critical and transformative faculty, a
faculty which can be harnessed by the worldly endeavours of pop-up cinema.</span></div>
<div style="text-align: left;">
<span style="text-align: right;"><span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;"><br /></span></span></div>
<div style="text-align: left;">
<span style="text-align: right;"><i><span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">Ella Harris </span></i></span></div>
</div>
<!--EndFragment-->A Nos Amourshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12115094544456729887noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5975890683474771409.post-62124340416259529392012-11-22T14:06:00.001+00:002013-09-10T10:57:06.470+01:00Reading pop-up Cinema by Ella Harris<!--StartFragment-->
<br />
<div align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; text-align: center;">
<b style="line-height: 150%;"><span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">Carnival of Souls: Are we ghosts in the
city?</span></b></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%;">
<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">Introducing
Herk Harvey’s <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Carnival of Souls </i>(1962)
at A Nos Amour’s pop-up screening this Thursday, Rodger Clarke began by
contextualising early cinema within other historical technologies of
entertainment. He outlined the early competition between X-ray and Cinema as
forms of amusement and explained that, at the turn of the 20<sup>th</sup> century,
both were features of pop-up urban spaces, found mainly at travelling fairs.
Alongside ghost shows and mechanised rides, cinema and X-ray evoked awe and
astonishment, poised half way between feats of science and enigmatic
apparitions. That early film was emerging in these transient spaces, alongside
X-ray and ghostly spectacles, goes some way to explaining film’s long
fascination with the ghoulish; an obsession which is at the heart of <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Carnival of Souls. </i>It was therefore an
apt choice for a pop-up film showing; the ghosts on screen, as illusionary as
the shadows of cinema, were in turn as fleeting as the happening itself.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;"><br /></span>
<a name='more'></a><span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;"> <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">The
history of these contending technologies of entertainment betray two converse
urban epistemologies; one, a gaze which sees through to the dry bones of
reality, and the other; a world of shadows and illusions. Whilst X-ray (now)
maps the body <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">objectively, </i>cinema, as
its counterpart, layers parallel realities over one another. Extended to
urbanism, we can understand mapped city spaces as the equivalent to the X-rayed
body, known and chartered, whilst pop-up comes nearer to the world of cinema
and indeed, to the world of ghosts; a spatiality across which plural temporary
worlds flicker, real only in the moment they are <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">seen.</i><o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; text-align: justify;">
<i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"><span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;"><br /></span></i></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">The
scenes that haunted me longest from <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Carnival
of Souls </i>were the ones in which a bewildered Mary stumbles around a town
which she can no longer engage with, which no longer sees or hears her. Harvey’s
simple but effective method of cutting the sound drives home the fact (if we
hadn’t already guessed it from the endearingly suggestive opening scene) that
Mary is a <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">ghost </i>in the city. Confused
and alone Mary flees first to and then from Utah, but finds herself repeatedly
shut out. Unlike the traditional ghost, able to transcend walls, doors, etc.
Mary is trapped by a sensory disjuncture which holds her back from the normal,
human world. Her footsteps remain amidst the silence, but the clash of her heels
against the city streets only reiterates the border between herself and the
living. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">Yet
her separation is not absolute. Suffering a delayed and gradual death, Mary
flickers in and out of focus, at one with the world, and then horribly at odds
with it, one moment pumping holy organ music to her appreciative neighbours and
the next trapped in an oppressive silence, accompanied only by the most unholy
of ghosts. The same can be said of pop-up cinema. Temporary and permanent city
spaces co-exist like Mary and the good people of Utah, separated by different
rhythms of time (pop-up VS permanent, life VS endless death) but falling into
sync at certain junctures to meet each other. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">Are
pop-up cinema goers, then, the ghosts of the city? We find ourselves, like
Mary, in the empty space of entertainment; we, the cinema after hours, she the
dilapidated pavilion. And just as the ghosts are raised from the lake by Mary’s
presence for one last dance at the end of <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Carnival
of Souls, </i>A Nos Amours drag up un-dead celluloid footage to resurface in
the light of the contemporary city. Perhaps it is telling that whilst X-ray
disappeared as a form of urban entertainment to become the objective vision of
science, cinema, the world of illusion, won out. The screen and the city are
natural companions, both spaces of multiplicity, transience and imagination. Escaping
from the mapped city, A Nos Amours offers a returned attentiveness to the
ghostly, a re-engagement with buried films and a throwback to the moving spaces
of the travelling fair, to the urban experience as one of intense, fleeting,
spectral moments. </span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; text-align: justify;">
</div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; text-align: justify;">
<em><span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">Ella Harris is a freelance writer and theorist researching
temporary spatiality and pop-up cinema. She read English at Balliol College,
Oxford, before going on to work in the field of Cultural Geography at
postgraduate level. Ella also works as a script reader and developer.</span></em></div>
A Nos Amourshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12115094544456729887noreply@blogger.com1