La Matière Du Passé : Une Analyse Du Film Edvard Munch De Peter Watkins

Total Page:16

File Type:pdf, Size:1020Kb

La Matière Du Passé : Une Analyse Du Film Edvard Munch De Peter Watkins UNIVERSITÉ DU QUÉBEC À MONTRÉAL LA MATIÈRE DU PASSÉ: UNE ANALYSE DU FILM EDVARD MUNCH DE PETER WATKINS MÉMOIRE PRÉSENTÉ COMME EXIGENCE PARTIELLE DE LA MAÎTRISE EN COMMUN! CATION PAR ARIANE AUBIN-CLOUTIER AVRIL 2018 UNIVERSITÉ DU QUÉBEC À MONTRÉAL Service des bibliothèques Avertissement La diffusion de ce mémoire se fait dans le respect des droits de son auteur, qui a signé le formulaire Autorisation de reproduire et de diffuser un travail de recherche de cycles supérieurs (SDU-522 - Rév.0?-2011 ). Cette autorisation stipule que «conformément à l'article 11 du Règlement no 8 des études de cycles supérieurs, [l 'auteur] concède à l'Université du Québec à Montréal une licence non exclusive d'utilisation et de publication de la totalité ou d'une partie importante de [son] travail de recherche pour des fins pédagogiques et non commerciales. Plus précisément, [l 'auteur] autorise l'Université du Québec à Montréal à reproduire, diffuser, prêter, distribuer ou vendre des copies de [son] travail de recherche à des fins non commerciales sur quelque support que ce soit, y compris l'Internet. Cette licence et cette autorisation n'entraînent pas une renonciation de [la] part [de l'auteur] à [ses] droits moraux ni à [ses] droits de propriété intellectuelle. Sauf entente contraire, [l'auteur] conserve la liberté de diffuser et de commercialiser ou non ce travail dont [il] possède un exemplaire .» REMERCIEMENTS Elle est parfois sinueuse, la route de la rédaction. Elle s'étire sur des kilomètres et mène à une destination toujours changeante. J'aimerais prendre un temps pour remercier les personnes, nombreuses et nécessaires, qui ont parcouru un bout de chemin à mes côtés. Il y a tout d'abord mon professeur de philosophie, Frédérik Dufour, qui m'a initiée il y a de cela huit ans au film Punishment Park, d'un obscur cinéaste nommé Peter Watkins. Je me rappelle avoir été à la fois émerveillée et horrifiée par la puissance de ces images. Deux années plus tard, Diane Poitras me confrontait aux enjeux éthiques et esthétiques de la reconstitution historique, me transmettant alors sa passion pour le cinéma du réel. Fort heureusement, elle acceptait, quelques années plus tard, d'endosser la direction de ce mémoire. Martin Petitclerc se joignit alors à l'aventure, m'ouvrant l'esprit aux enjeux liés à la mémoire et à la connaissance du passé. Sa participation à mon jury, tout comme celle de Gilles Coutlée, alimenta considérablement mes réflexions. Il me serait impossible de passer sous silence mes complices de tous les jours, Fanie Pelletier et Balint Demers, avec qui je partage depuis des années un désir ardent de comprendre et de fixer sur image la beauté des luttes quotidiennes. Je franchis aujourd'hui cette étape grâce à vos critiques rigoureuses et à vos encouragements constants. Plusieurs des idées présentées dans ce mémoire ont germé aux suites des discussions colorées et animées que j'ai partagées avec mes camarades de classe, Sarah St-Denis, Marc Boulanger, Jean-Sébastien Morency et Marylin Chevrier. À vous et à celui qui a su guider ces échanges avec finesse, Mouloud Boukala, je suis particulièrement reconnaissante. J'aimerais ensuite remercier certaines personnes qui, par leur simple présence, contribuèrent à éloigner la grisaille du quotidien. Je pense aux colocataires et amis, Eugénie Loslier-Pellerin, Frédéric Legault, Claude Hurtubise et Isabelle Cadieux-Landreville, qui transformèrent l'austérité de mon bureau en un repère chaleureux. Je pense également à mon ami précieux, Martin Robert, qui eut la iii patience de commenter mes demandes de bourses et qui attisa mon intérêt pour l'histoire. Finalement, je pense à mes deux alliés de tous les jours, qui m'ont écoutée patiemment exposer mes incertitudes et hésitations, m'offrant quotidiennement leur présence, leur réconfort et un peu de leur folie. Merci à ma sœur Florence Aubin­ Cloutier et à mon copain Arnaud Dumas ; votre amour fut le meilleur carburant qui soit pour mener à bien ce voyage. Cette recherche a bénéficié du soutien fmancier du Conseil de recherche en sciences humaines du Canada (CRSH) et du Fonds de recherche du Québec- société et culture (FRQSC). TABLE DES MATIÈRES LISTE DES FIGURES.......... ...... ............. ...... .. ...... ... ... ..... ... ..................... ....... vt RÉSUMÉ....... .. ........................ .... ........................... ........ .. ... .............. ......... ...... Vll INTRODUCTION ................................... ..... .......... ............ ................ ......... .... ' CHAPITRE I PROBLÉMATIQUE : ÉTAT DES LIEUX, REVUE DE LITTÉRATURE ET OBJECTIFS VISÉS 1.1. État des lieux................ .. ........................................................................ 9 1.1.1 . D'une histoire-mémoire à une histoire de la mémoire............... 10 1.1.2 La révolution mémorielle.. .......................................... ............... 14 1.1.3. La mémoire à 1' écran................................................ ........ .... .. ... 16 1.2. Revue de littérature.. .. ..... ... ............................ .... .. .... ..... .......... ............... 21 1.3. Objectifs visés.. ................................. ................ .. ...... ............................. 26 CHAPITRE II CADRES THÉORIQUE ET CONCEPTUEL 2.1. Histoire et mémoire............................................ .................................. .. 30 2.2. Paul Ricœur et l'opération historiographique.................................. ........ 34 2.2.1. Documentation: à l'école du soupçon.. .................. ..................... 35 2.2.2. Explication/compréhension : découper le vécu temporel............ 37 2.2.3. Représentation: les pouvoirs de l'image................................ ...... 39 2.3 . Frank Ankersmit et l'esthétisme historiographique................................ 42 2.3.1. Sublime Historical Experience (Ankersmit, 2005).......... .. .. ....... 43 2.3.2. Johan Huizinga et The Waning ofthe Middle Ages (1919)......... 46 2.3.3. Traduire l'expérience en mots et en images.. .. .. .......................... 48 2.4. Georges Didi-Huberman........................................................................... 51 2.5. Pertinence communicationnelle................................................................ 57 CHAPITRE III CADRE MÉTHODOLOGIQUE............... ... .......... .............. .................... ... ........ 60 v CHAPITRE IV ANALYSE DES CONDITIONS DE PRODUCTION : LA MATIÈRE MÉMORIELLE À L' ŒUVRE DANS EDVARD MUNCH 4.1. L'élaboration d'Edvard Munch : une démarche historienne ? . .. ... ... ... .. 65 4.2. La fusion des expériences : une mémoire partagée.................... ............ 71 4.2. 1. La mémoire de Munch.... .... ............... .. .. .................... .. ... ............ 71 4.2.2. L'expérience historique de Watkins... .. ...................... .. .. .......... .. 73 4.2.3. L'expérience des participants..... ............................ .................... 80 CHAPITRE V ANALYSE FORMELLE : TRADUIRE L'EXPÉRIENCE SOUS FORME FILMIQUE 5.1. Un film à couleur expressionniste....................... .. .. ......... ..................... 83 5.2. Une structure fragmentée et anachronique... .... .................. ............. .. .... 91 5.3 . Figurer l'émotion.............................. .. ......... ... ... ................................... 99 CONCLUSION................ ... ... ... ...... .... .. .... ... .......... .. .. .. .. ... .. .............. ...... .. .... .... 108 APPENDICE A FICHE TECHNIQUE EDVARD MUNCH, LA DANSE DE LA VIE... ............. 116 BIBLIOGRAPHIE.................................. ... .. .......... .. ... .............. ...... .... .............. 117 FILMOGRAPHIE.............................................. .......... ....... .. .... ..... ... .. .............. 124 LISTE DES FIGURES Figure Page 2.1. Reproduction du pan de La Madone des ombres (Fra Angelico, environ 1450) 52 2.2. Arcade with a Lantern (Guardi, environ 1765) 54 5.1. Les toiles intégrées au récit I 85 5.2. Les toiles intégrées au récit II 86 5.3. Les regards caméra 89 5.4. Les premières apparitions de Mme Heiberg 103 RÉSUMÉ Ce travail de recherche vise, par l'analyse du film Edvard Munch (Watkins, 1974), 1' engagement d'un dialogue entre la discipline historique et ses représentations filmiques. Plus précisément, il s'agit d'étudier le lien complexe entre expérience, mémoire et temporalité sous la lunette des études cinématographiques. Si 1'histoire écrite fixe le temps et permet au lecteur de le remonter à sa guise, l'histoire imagée infiltre cette brèche temporelle et permet au spectateur d'expérimenter le passé. Or, comment traduire un tel contact historique sous forme intelligible? Et si 1'écriture cinématographique, avec ses images chargées affectivement, était plus propice à la découverte et à la transmission des sentiments et humeurs du passé ? Partant des acquis de la New Philosophy of History, il s'agit donc d'envisager le lieu filmique comme un territoire donnant accès à l'expérience historique, c'est-à-dire au repli d'une part du passé sur le présent du spectateur. L'analyse ainsi proposée se déploie en deux temps : il y a d'abord le choc vécu par Watkins au contact des œuvres de Munch. Il s'agit ici de cerner les liens qui unissent les deux artistes, tant au niveau affectif que politique, puis d'entrevoir leur implication dans l'élaboration du film. Vient ensuite l'analyse esthétique qui, en tirant profit des chocs mémoriels et temporels, étudie la transmission de l' expérience de Watkins aux spectateurs qui y sont réceptifs.
Recommended publications
  • Barbie Bake-Off and Risk Or Role the Apprentice Model? Documentary Pokémon Go Shorts
    FEBRUARY 2017 ISSUE 59 POST-TRUTH RESEARCHING THE PAST BARBIE BAKE-OFF AND RISK OR ROLE THE APPRENTICE MODEL? DOCUMENTARY POKÉMON GO SHORTS MM59_cover_4_feb.indd 1 06/02/2017 14:00 Contents 04 Making the Most of MediaMag MediaMagazine is published by the English and Media 06 What’s the Truth in a Centre, a non-profit making Post-fact World? organisation. The Centre Nick Lacey explores the role publishes a wide range of of misinformation in recent classroom materials and electoral campaigns, and runs courses for teachers. asks who is responsible for If you’re studying English 06 gate-keeping online news. at A Level, look out for emagazine, also published 10 NW and the Image by the Centre. System at Work in the World Andrew McCallum explores the complexities of image and identify in the BBC television 30 16 adaptation of Zadie Smith’s acclaimed novel, NW. 16 Operation Julie: Researching the Past Screenwriter Mike Hobbs describes the challenges of researching a script for a sensational crime story forty years after the event. 20 20 Bun Fight: How The BBC The English and Media Centre 18 Compton Terrace Lost Bake Off to Channel 4 London N1 2UN and Why it Matters Telephone: 020 7359 8080 Jonathan Nunns examines Fax: 020 7354 0133 why the acquisition of Bake Email for subscription enquiries: Off may be less than a bun [email protected] in the oven for Channel 4. 25 Mirror, Mirror, on the Editor: Jenny Grahame Wall… Mark Ramey introduces Copy-editing: some of the big questions we Andrew McCallum should be asking about the Subscriptions manager: nature of documentary film Bev St Hill 10 and its relationship to reality.
    [Show full text]
  • Documentarists and Documentary/Narrative Filmmakers Those Listed Are Directors, Unless Otherwise Noted
    1 COM 321, Documentary Form in Film & Television 1/15/14 Documentarists and Documentary/Narrative Filmmakers Those listed are directors, unless otherwise noted. Documentary/Narrative Filmmakers—Many have done both: Name & Key Documentaries Key Narrative Works Nation Allen, Woody Zelig, 1983 (mockumentary) Annie Hall, 1977 US Manhattan, 1979 Altman, Robert The James Dean Story, 1957 M*A*S*H, 1970 US The Player, 1992 Short Cuts, 1993 Anderson, Lindsay Thursday’s Children, 1954 (with Guy if. , 1968 Britain Brenton) O Lucky Man!, 1973 Anger, Kenneth Kustom Kar Kommandos, 1963 Fireworks, 1947 US Scorpio Rising, 1964 Apted, Michael The Up! series (1970‐2012 so far) Gorillas in the Mist, 1988 Britain Nell, 1994 The World is Not Enough, 1999 Brakhage, Stan The Act of Seeing with One’s Own Dog Star Man, 1962 US Eyes, 1971 Mothlight, 1963 Bunuel, Luis Las Hurdes (Land Without Bread), Un Chien Andalou, 1928 (with Salvador Spain/France 1933 (mockumentary?) Dali) L’Age D’Or, 1930 The Discreet Charm of the Bourgeoisie, 1972 Cameron, James Expedition Bismarck, 2002 Titanic, 1997 US Ghosts of the Abyss, 2003 Avatar, 2009 Capra, Frank Why We Fight series, 1942‐44 Mr. Deeds Goes to Town, 1936 US Mr. Smith Goes to Washington, 1939 It’s a Wonderful Life, 1946 Chukrai, Grigori Pamyat, 1971 Ballad of a Soldier, 1959 Soviet Union Cooper, Merian C. Grass: A Nation’s Battle for Life, 1925 The Four Feathers, 1929 US (with Ernest B. Schoedsack) King Kong, 1933 Chang: A Drama of the Wilderness, 1927 (with Ernest B. Schoedsack) Demme, Jonathan Stop Making Sense,
    [Show full text]
  • A Communication Study of Contemporary Documentary Film
    University of Mississippi eGrove Honors College (Sally McDonnell Barksdale Honors Theses Honors College) 2007 Art and Persuasion: A Communication Study of Contemporary Documentary Film Lauren Elizabeth Freeman Follow this and additional works at: https://egrove.olemiss.edu/hon_thesis Recommended Citation Freeman, Lauren Elizabeth, "Art and Persuasion: A Communication Study of Contemporary Documentary Film" (2007). Honors Theses. 2004. https://egrove.olemiss.edu/hon_thesis/2004 This Undergraduate Thesis is brought to you for free and open access by the Honors College (Sally McDonnell Barksdale Honors College) at eGrove. It has been accepted for inclusion in Honors Theses by an authorized administrator of eGrove. For more information, please contact [email protected]. ART AND PERSUASION: A COMMUNICATION STUDY OF CONTEMPORARY DOCUMENTARY FILM By Lauren Elizabeth Freeman A thesis submitted to the faculty of the University of Mississippi in partial fulfillment of the requirements of the Sally McDonnell Barksdale Honors College. Oxford May 2007 Approved by , , L Ad^or: Professor Joe Atkins Readei1p^fessoLPmch£ll££maiiuel,PhD Reader: Professor Charles Gates, PhD ©2007 Lauren Elizabeth Freeman ALL RIGHTS RESRERVED ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS The author of this paper incurs many debts of gratitude throughout the long and tedious process of completing this honors senior thesis. A special expression of gratitude goes to my thesis adviser, Professor Joseph Atkins, for his supportive direction throughout the preparation of this research project. Sincere appreciation is extended to niy thesis readers. Dr. Michelle Emanuel and Dr. Charles Gates, and to those filmmakers who shared their time and thoughts with me on documentary filmmaking. I extend my heartfelt gratitude to my family and fnends for their continued support and encouragement.
    [Show full text]
  • Documentarists and Documentary/Narrative Filmmakers Those Listed Are Directors, Unless Otherwise Noted
    1 COM 321, Documentary Form in Film, Television, & Interactive Media 1/27/17 Documentarists and Documentary/Narrative Filmmakers Those listed are directors, unless otherwise noted. Documentary/Narrative Filmmakers—Many have done both: Name & Key Documentaries Key Narrative Works Nation Allen, Woody Zelig, 1983 (mockumentary) Annie Hall, 1977 US Manhattan, 1979 Altman, Robert The James Dean Story, 1957 M*A*S*H, 1970 US The Player, 1992 Short Cuts, 1993 Anderson, Lindsay Thursday’s Children, 1954 (with Guy if. , 1968 Britain Brenton) O Lucky Man!, 1973 Anderson, Paul Junun, 2015 Boogie Nights, 1997 Thomas There Will be Blood, 2007 The Master, 2012 Anger, Kenneth Kustom Kar Kommandos, 1963 Fireworks, 1947 US Scorpio Rising, 1964 Antonioni, Ragazze in bianco, 1949 L’Avventura, 1960 Michelangelo Chung Kuo – Cina, 1972 La Notte, 1961 Italy L'Eclisse, 1962 Apted, Michael The Up! series (1970‐2012 so far) Gorillas in the Mist, 1988 Britain Nell, 1994 The World is Not Enough, 1999 Berlinger, Joe Brother’s Keeper, 1992 Book of Shadows: Blair Witch 2, 2000 US The Paradise Lost Trilogy, 1996-2011 Facing the Wind, 2015 (all with Bruce Sinofsky) Berman, Shari The Young and the Dead, 2000 The Nanny Diaries, 2007 Springer & Pulcini, Hello, He Lied & Other Truths from Cinema Verite, 2011 Robert the Hollywood Trenches, 2002 Girl Most Likely, 2012 US American Splendor, 2003 (hybrid) Wanderlust, 2006 Blitz, Jeffrey Spellbound, 2002 Rocket Science, 2007 US Lucky, 2010 The Office, 2006-2013 (TV) Brakhage, Stan The Act of Seeing with One’s Own Dog Star Man,
    [Show full text]
  • Cold War: a Report on the Xviith IAMHIST Conference, 25-31 July 1997, Salisbury MD
    After the Fall: Revisioning the Cold War: A Report on the XVIIth IAMHIST Conference, 25-31 July 1997, Salisbury MD By John C. Tibbetts “The past can be seized only as an image,” wrote Walter Benjamin. But if that image is ignored by the present, it “threatens to disappear irretrievably.” [1] One such image, evocative of the past and provocative for our present, appears in a documentary film by the United States Information Agency, The Wall (1963). Midway through its account of everyday life in a divided Berlin, a man is seen standing on an elevation above the Wall, sending out hand signals to children on the other side in the Eastern Sector. With voice communication forbidden by the Soviets, he has only the choreography of his hands and fingers with which to print messages onto the air. Now, almost forty years later, the scene resonates with an almost unbearable poignancy. From the depths of the Cold War, the man seems to be gesturing to us. But his message is unclear and its context obscure. [2] The intervening gulf of years has become a barrier just as impassable as the Wall once was. Or has it? The Wall was just one of dozens of screenings and presentations at the recent “Knaves, Fools, and Heroes: Film and Television Representations of the Cold War”—convened as a joint endeavor of IAMHist and the Literature/Film Association, 25-31 July 1997, at Salisbury State University, in Salisbury, Maryland— that suggested that the Cold War is as relevant to our present as it is to our past.
    [Show full text]
  • 1,000 Films to See Before You Die Published in the Guardian, June 2007
    1,000 Films to See Before You Die Published in The Guardian, June 2007 http://film.guardian.co.uk/1000films/0,,2108487,00.html Ace in the Hole (Billy Wilder, 1951) Prescient satire on news manipulation, with Kirk Douglas as a washed-up hack making the most of a story that falls into his lap. One of Wilder's nastiest, most cynical efforts, who can say he wasn't actually soft-pedalling? He certainly thought it was the best film he'd ever made. Ace Ventura: Pet Detective (Tom Shadyac, 1994) A goofy detective turns town upside-down in search of a missing dolphin - any old plot would have done for oven-ready megastar Jim Carrey. A ski-jump hairdo, a zillion impersonations, making his bum "talk" - Ace Ventura showcases Jim Carrey's near-rapturous gifts for physical comedy long before he became encumbered by notions of serious acting. An Actor's Revenge (Kon Ichikawa, 1963) Prolific Japanese director Ichikawa scored a bulls-eye with this beautifully stylized potboiler that took its cues from traditional Kabuki theatre. It's all ballasted by a terrific double performance from Kazuo Hasegawa both as the female-impersonator who has sworn vengeance for the death of his parents, and the raucous thief who helps him. The Addiction (Abel Ferrara, 1995) Ferrara's comic-horror vision of modern urban vampires is an underrated masterpiece, full- throatedly bizarre and offensive. The vampire takes blood from the innocent mortal and creates another vampire, condemned to an eternity of addiction and despair. Ferrara's mob movie The Funeral, released at the same time, had a similar vision of violence and humiliation.
    [Show full text]
  • Becoming Edvard Munch: Influence, Anxiety, and Myth
    Janet Whitmore exhibition review of Becoming Edvard Munch: Influence, Anxiety, and Myth Nineteenth-Century Art Worldwide 8, no. 2 (Autumn 2009) Citation: Janet Whitmore, exhibition review of “Becoming Edvard Munch: Influence, Anxiety, and Myth,” Nineteenth-Century Art Worldwide 8, no. 2 (Autumn 2009), http://www.19thc- artworldwide.org/autumn09/becoming-edvard-munch-influence-anxiety-and-myth. Published by: Association of Historians of Nineteenth-Century Art. Notes: This PDF is provided for reference purposes only and may not contain all the functionality or features of the original, online publication. Whitmore: Becoming Edvard Munch: Influence, Anxiety, and Myth Nineteenth-Century Art Worldwide 8, no. 2 (Autumn 2009) Becoming Edvard Munch, Influence, Anxiety and Myth The Art Institute of Chicago 14 February-26 April 2009 Catalogue: Becoming Edvard Munch, Influence, Anxiety and Myth Jay A. Clarke New Haven and London: Yale University Press, 2009. 232 pages; 245 color and 48 b/w illus; chronology, checklist of exhibition; bibliography; index of works. $50.00 ISBN: 978-0-300-11950-3 We all know the script: unstable artistic personality suffers through self-destructive life while producing tormented, but brilliant, artwork. It is the stuff of La Bohème, Lust for Life, and endless biographies of [pick one] Vincent van Gogh, Paul Gauguin, Henri de Toulouse-Lautrec, Frida Kahlo, Jackson Pollack, Andy Warhol, etc., etc., etc. The cliché of the romantic suffering artist has become a signature trope of western art history as well as popular culture.
    [Show full text]
  • National Gallery of Art Fall10 Film Washington, DC Landover, MD 20785
    4th Street and Mailing address: Pennsylvania Avenue NW 2000B South Club Drive NATIONAL GALLERY OF ART FALL10 FILM Washington, DC Landover, MD 20785 FIGURES IN A STRAUB AND LANDSCAPE: JULIEN HUILLET: THE NATURE AND DUVIVIER: WORK AND HARUN NARRATIVE THE GRAND REACHES OF FAROCKI: IN NORWAY ARTISAN CREATION ESSAYS When Angels Fall Manhattan cover calendar page calendar (Harun Farocki), page four page three page two page one Still of performance duo ZsaZa (Karolina Karwan) When Angels Fall (Henryk Kucharski) A Tale of HarvestA Tale The Last Command (Photofest), Force of Evil Details from FALL10 Images of the World and the Inscription of War (Henryk Kucharski), (Photofest) La Bandera (Norwegian Institute) Film Images of the (Photofest) (Photofest) Force of Evil World and the Inscription of War (Photofest), Tales of (Harun Farocki), Iris Barry and American Modernism Andrew Simpson on piano Sunday November 7 at 4:00 Art Films and Events Barry, founder of the film department at the Museum of Modern Art , was instrumental in first focusing the attention of American audiences on film as an art form. Born in Britain, she was also one of the first female film critics David Hockney: A Bigger Picture and a founder of the London Film Society. This program, part of the Gallery’s Washington premiere American Modernism symposium, re-creates one of the events that Barry Director Bruno Wollheim in person staged at the Wadsworth Athenaeum in Hartford in the 1930s. The program Saturday October 2 at 2:00 includes avant-garde shorts by Walter Ruttmann, Ivor Montagu, Viking Eggeling, Hans Richter, Charles Sheeler, and a Silly Symphony by Walt Disney.
    [Show full text]
  • Documentary Film 3. Filmmakers' Theories Introduction
    Component 2 Global filmmaking perspectives Section B: Documentary Film 3. Filmmakers’ Theories Introduction (from the specification) The documentary film will be explored in relation to key filmmakers from the genre. The documentary film studied may either directly embody aspects of these theories or work in a way that strongly challenges these theories. In either case, the theories will provide a means of exploring different approaches to documentary film and filmmaking. Two of the following filmmakers' theories must be chosen for study: Peter Watkins Watkins established his reputation with two docu-dramas from the 1960s, Culloden and The War Game. Both document events from the past using actors and reconstruction. In asking questions of conventional documentary, Watkins reflects his deep concern with mainstream media, which he has called the ‘monoform’. Nick Broomfield Broomfield, like Michael Moore, has developed a participatory, performative mode of documentary filmmaking. Broomfield is an investigative documentarist with a distinctive interview technique which he uses to expose people's real views. Like Watson, he keeps the filmmaking presence to a minimum, normally with a crew of no more than three. He describes his films as 'like a rollercoaster ride. They’re like a diary into the future.' 1 Kim Longinotto Longinotto has said 'I don’t think of films as documents or records of things. I try to make them as like the experience of watching a fiction film as possible, though, of course, nothing is ever set up.' Her work is about finding characters that the audience will identify with – 'you can make this jump into someone else’s experience'.
    [Show full text]
  • Anarchist Cinema of Peter Watkins
    The Anarchist Cinema of Peter Watkins By David Armitage “This is round shot. This is what it does.” A three-pounder cannon fires its load; the camera moves into a tight focus on its victims. The wounded men—boys, really—are hard to make out amid the smoke of battle and the graininess of 16- millimetre film. An authoritative voiceover tells us their names, ages, and conditions. Alastair MacInnes, twenty years of age: right leg severed below the knee- joint. Malcolm Angus Chisholm, twenty-four years of age: disembowelled. Ian MacDonald, thirteen years of age: shot. The style is pure news-reel: shaky photography, rough film-stock, confused action, on-screen interviews into camera. - 1 - The battle was the last ever fought on British soil, in 1746, but we suspend our disbelief. Surely there wasn’t a camera-crew on Culloden Moor? This is a short scene from Peter Watkins’s Culloden (1964). The film was first shown on BBC television in December 1964 to such strong audience reaction it was re-broadcast six weeks later (on the day I was born, as it happens).1 Scenes like this established Watkins’ precocious mastery of his medium: he was not yet 30 when he directed Culloden. Only a few moments before the harrowing shots of the wounded, we saw the Whig historian Andrew Henderson cowering behind a stone wall, telescope to his eye, telling his viewers, like some eighteenth-century Walter Cronkite or John Pilger, why his vision would be compromised.2 (“It’s going to be very difficult to see what effect our cannon is having on the rebel lines.”) The omniscient camera sees what soldiers in the melée cannot.
    [Show full text]
  • The Role of Art in Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep?
    Alex Hines Instructor Andrew Nance English 1102 13 November 2017 Does John Donne Dream of Electric Sheep? The Role of Art in Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep? Despite its futuristic setting, Philip K. Dick’s Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep? features several allusions to classic works of art. Although the androids have the capacity to appreciate such references on technical and even cultural levels, they lack the ability to identify meaningfully with the artworks as experiences. While the androids’ appreciation of art is tethered to a rigid rubric of logic and program-structured emotions, Dick emphasizes the ways in which “organic” humans, on the other hand, synthesize their logical and emotional reactions into a subjective, personal experience of artwork. In making this distinction, Dick suggests that the ability to empathize with the moral motivations and circumstantial emotions of the human subjects within each piece, as well as the capacity to recognize subjective thematic elements and the artists’ intentions behind them, are uniquely human characteristics. One of the first allusions that Dick features comes in the form of an opera: The Magic Flute. Dick chooses to present this allusion when Deckard must retire android Luba Luft, a singer performing as one of the opera’s protagonists. Dick’s decision to include this opera is significant because truth is a central theme in both the play and his novel. Deckard observes that it is “ironic” that an android should play a role where truth is so vital, because androids inherently lack the ability to understand the value of truth to such a role (Dick 96).
    [Show full text]
  • Unravelling Historical and Artist Applied Varnish Layers in Painting Collections
    Eur. Phys. J. Plus (2021) 136:899 https://doi.org/10.1140/epjp/s13360-021-01758-5 Regular Article Munch and optical coherence tomography: unravelling historical and artist applied varnish layers in painting collections Thierry Ford1,2,a , Magdalena Iwanicka3, Elena Platania2,4,PiotrTargowski5, Ella Hendriks6 1 The National Museum of Art, St. Olavs Plass, P.O. Box 7014, 0130 Oslo, Norway 2 Department of Archaeology, Conservation and History (IAKH), Conservation Studies, University of Oslo (UiO), Postboks 1008 Blindern, 0315 Oslo, Norway 3 Department for Conservation and Restoration of Paintings and Polychromed Sculpture, Faculty of Fine Arts, Nicolaus Copernicus University, ul. Gagarina 7, 87-100 Toru´n, Poland 4 Hylleraas Centre for Quantum Molecular Sciences, Department of Chemistry, University of Oslo, Blindern, Post Box 1033, 0315 Oslo, Norway 5 Institute of Physics, Nicolaus Copernicus University. Ul, Grudziadzka 5, 87-100 Toru´n, Poland 6 Programme Conservation and Restoration of Cultural Heritage, University of Amsterdam (UvA), Johannes Vermeerplein 1, 1071 DV Amsterdam, Netherlands Received: 1 November 2020 / Accepted: 14 July 2021 © The Author(s) 2021 Abstract Effective care of large-scale museum collections requires planning that includes the conservation treatment of specific groups of art works, such as appropriate cleaning strategies. Optical coherence tomography (OCT) has been successfully applied as a non- invasive method for the stratigraphic visualisation of the uppermost transparent and semi- transparent layers in paintings, such as varnishes. Several OCT case study examples have further demonstrated the capabilities of the non-contact interferometric technique to measure the thickness of the various varnish layers, to help monitor cleaning and associated optical changes, and to detect past restorations.
    [Show full text]