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Home , De brug, Helen van Dongen, Indonesia Calling, Joris Ivens

46 EDVARD MUNCH

acter on the screen and the individual in the NOTES audience has the same intensity and jarring emo- tional effect that one experiences when peering 1. Gary Arnold, "Music Lovers," Washington Post, 25 February 1971, Section C, p. 14, cols 1-2. into the eyes of Munch's figures in such paintings 2. The film, which was originally a Norsk Rikstringkasting/ as The Voice, Self-Portrait with Burning Cigarette, Sveriges Radio production, has been shown on European tele- and most notably Death in the Sickroom, where vision in its original 31/2 hour version. The theatrical version presently being screened in the United States was trimmed by Munch's sister, Inger, stares directly out at Watkins the himself to 2 hours and 45 minutes. All references in viewer. this essay are to the original version. At present, Watkins is somewhat reluctant 3. Allto of Watkins's comments are from his unpublished writings discuss the possible impact of Edvard Munch or oninterview-discussions with the author. the genre of the biography film or all the complex 4. Reinhold Heller, Munch: The Scream (London: Allen Lane, 1973), pp. 36-7. reasons why he made the film, but he notes 5.that Nic. Stang, Edvard Munch (Oslo: Johan Grundt Tantum "if there is any 'reason' needed to justify the film-- Forlag, 1972), p. 73. it is because I knew, instinctively, that Edvard 6. Cited in Werner Timm, The Graphic Art of Edvard Munch Munch himself-despite endless hardship (London:and Studio Vista, 1973), pp. 29-30. 7. John Simon, "Suffering Artist, Smiling Dictator," New York, personal anguish, despite the acute repressiveness 13 September 1976, p. 90. of his background and the social environment 8. Citedin in Oswald Doughty, Dante Gabriel Rossetti: A Victor- which he worked-remained entirely true to him- ian Romantic (New Haven: Yale University Press, 1949), p. 5. self, on every level of his existence, and let nothing 9. See the attack on Lust for Life in John Berger's Permanent Red (London: Methuen, c. 1960), pp. 33-8. stand in the way of his self-expression ... It is on this level that I have tried to create this film-in recognition of the example that Edvard Munch set for me, and sets for all of us."

BEN ACHTENBERG :An Interview

Although she produced and directed a number of in film history but which has tended to obscure films of her own, Helen van Dongen is primarily Helen van Dongen's own quite distinct talent. That known as a documentary editor. She was one of talent came into its own with the two war-record the most active and best known - films, Russians at War and News Review No. 2 of makers working in the thirties and forties but is which she was producer as well as editor. These two best remembered today as the associate producer films can be set against the Capra newsreel compilations on the one hand, and the and editor of Robert Flaherty's Louisiana Story. Rotha argument films on the other, to indicate a Most of her earlier films were done in collaboration third possible use of compiled material.... Both with Dutch film-maker ; among these had the function of expressing the unity of the struggle were New Earth, , The Four for all participants however distant from one another. Hundred Million (about China) and Power and This binding together of human beings in a common the Land, which was commissioned by enterprise was achieved almost without the aid of for the Department of Agriculture. In The Film commentary.... The factor governing the editing Till Now, Richard Griffith wrote of Ivens and was the content of the shot ... The theme arose van Dongen: wordlessly out of the material as edited. .... No one at work today observes more subtly the implications They worked on equal terms as joint creators, a and possibilities of isolated shots, nor has a surer collaboration which has been one of the most fruitful instinct for the links between them.

FILM QUARTERLY, vol. 30, no. 2, Winter 1976-77 Although primarily concerned with the visual aspects of editing, van Dongen also devoted a great deal of time and study to sound recording and editing, and very early became noted among docu- mentary film-makers for the complexity and effec- tiveness of her sound work. She also had a talent for eliciting superb music from composers, includ- ing and , and narration from writers who included John Dos Passos, , and Stephen Vincent Benet. The result was an unusually well-integrated visual and aural counterpoint. Helen van Dongen was born in 1909. She began work with Ivens around 1928 and retired from film-making in 1950. Many of the more than 30 films she worked on are still regarded as docu- mentary classics. She now lives in Vermont, where she was interviewed in October, 1974.

BA: How did you get started in film-making? HvD: My first introduction was by way of audience participation. That was in 1926, 1927-the flower- ing years of the European avant garde. Other than Helen van Dongen working with Robert Flaherty some newsreel and scientific production, there was during the shooting of LOUISIANA STORY not much of a film industry in Holland. Films shown in the theaters were primarily German or American imports. Yet in student circles and I was soon drafted into translating the speakers' among the young intellectuals there was enough introductory statements. information that a great deal of cinematic experi- You didn't have any background in photography? mentation was being done in Europe. Being around optical equipment [at the time How does one get to the point where you say,van Dongen worked in Ivens's father's firm] I "I won't take this commercial slush any more. started to use still cameras out of curiosity. I There are better films. Let's find them, show already had to learn to operate a projector be- them in private screenings, and invite the makers cause lack of money for trial screenings prevented to discuss them." A group of us, Joris Ivens, us from hiring professional projectionists. Even- , Henry Scholte, Ed Pelster and tually, because of necessity, I also had to learn to others, organized a small group interested in operate a film camera. seeing better films. A small contribution was paid Of the founding group, Joris Ivens was the most to cover the costs of renting films and a projection film-minded. Apparently he always had a great hall called the Uitkyjk (the Lookout) and paying interest in cameras and had made several short for a one-day trip to Amsterdam for the film- home movies. His father owned a wholesale optical makers to introduce and discuss their work. The equipment firm; Joris was destined to follow his first film ever shown was Pudovkin's The Mother, father in the business. Unfortunately for the firm, and a stormy session it was. I don't remember Ivens was far more interested in using cameras whether Pudovkin was present at that first show- than in selling them. He turned his theories of ing; he certainly came in 1928. And with their cinematography into practical film-making. films also came Eisenstein, Vertov, Hans Richter, I myself had neither plans nor upbringing for a Victor Eggeling, , Ren6 Clair, cinematographic career. As Ivens experimented I and many others. Being fluent in four languages helped with everything. Lack of funds forced us

FILM QUARTERLY, vol. 30, no. 2, Winter 1976-77 48 HELEN VAN DONGEN

to make the cameramen,most simply had ofto be editors. primitive There was working conditions: winding large no play or norolls dialogue to depend on.of It was purelyunexposed film onto small reels to be used and simply a visualin development, the knowing Kinamohow camera, developing and printing to readthe the content film of a scene, knowing ourselves, where it splicing with a pair of scissors wantsand to be in a filma because piece of its inner content, of glass. It all sounds so romantic now, the juxtaposition and it needs to otherprobably scenes to reveal it was, despite work- ing 24 hours its fullaround value. That, essentially, is film-making.the So clock. For me it was sheer serendipity, I consider something myself a film-maker, not just an editor. I had not looked for and did not know I also tookI upwanted. independent work. What even- Obviously I had found the way in which tually becameI thecould short film New Earth really started as express myself. I have worked on alla film about thethe building of theaspects: dike to close off cameraman, director, producer, editor, the Zuiderzee from the North sound Sea, an elaborate recorder-because these many years project,ago a long filmone to celebrate thewas 25th anniver- a film-maker, and not just a specialist in sary of onethe Guild of Constructionpart Workers. ofMany it. What was the subjects firstwere covered: pile-driving, film home con- you worked on? Outside of some struction, architecture, experimental anything that had to do films it was Ivens's The Bridge. with Ivensthe skills and crafts of thosehimself who were mem- had to learn about editing. He berskept of the Guild. The mosta ambitiousvery of the films elaborate card system of every scene washe the one recordingshot, the building short of the dike sketches of the details of the bridge, itself, but sincethe the building ofposition the dike spanned of the bridge at that moment (open so many yearsor I made closed several films out of the or moving), the movement within the scene, enormous amount of film shot.camera movement, etc., etc. The editing was Wastherefore New Earth the first film in which you werepartly done in the cards, which I studied working with stock very footage as well as materialcarefully. you Overshooting was out of the question and your crew had shot? because of the cost; very little film was wasted. Yes. But actually thereI arekept very few stock shots.the film scenes in the same order in the Some compartments of the scenes which look like stock footage of an egg box. For the rest I just watched were shot by us in re-enactment. and We bought listened. a Did you, at fewsome sacks of wheat and burnedpoint, it, and filmed make a choice to begin to emphasize that. Theediting? milk being thrown away, yes, that is No. For a stocknumber footage, and so are the scenes of theof stock years I worked as a cameraman exchange as crash. well. Ivens would go away, yet certain things There are severalwould versions of New Earth.have The to be continued. There was for example one now ending with thethe economic crash,Zuiderzee accom- project which, for many years, panied had by Hanns Eisler'sto song, bewas not plannedrecorded on film whenever something essential like that originally. It grew out of thedeveloped. economic- If Ivens had to be away for other political situation films in Holland and the resthe of the simply put me in charge. Or, as in the world. Atcase the time we thoughtof it was thea fantastic film Rain, there might be a cloudburst idea, but when whileI saw the film again a fewhe years was absent from Amster- dam. What agoelse I realized that itto is just an endingdo hung butonto to pick up a camera and record thespecific film for a purpose. It jars. If you wantdetails to use a which might be of interest to filmhim? as a political stick youEach have to use it at onethe understood what the other one wanted. appropriate time. The timeWe then was probablyhave been a team for many years. right; it was right during the Depression. But it With films like Bridge, Rain, Zuiderzee, there is also true that, Depression or no Depression, is no script other than a certain natural progres- when an enormous project like the draining of the sion, but there are ten thousand ways in which Zuiderzee is finished then you do get immediately you can develop that dramatically. In the early a great number of unemployed unless the govern- days film-makers, aside from having to be good ment or private industry takes precautions well

FILM QUARTERLY, vol. 30, no. 2, Winter 1976-77 HELEN VAN DONGEN 49

ahead of time building. to Then transfer if, after sufficient time, you workersare from one pro- ject to another. told that theyI arewas now all unemployed, too you haveyoung at the time to be very politically more compassion. or Instead, economically in its present form, all aware. I was not really a student the aspects ofof the dike politics, building are reduced to but I was aware that, yes, 20,000 workers their essentials; all of a sudden are the dam is closedsuddenly out of a job. How are they and going then, whammy, comesto the shoutingmake voice a living? In addition, tellingat you thatthis 20,000 workers point after so many I began to be aware and concerned years of withlabor are now unemployed. the The intentionplight of people and not just involved waswith to jar you into thereality. In a waybuilding it does, but of a beautiful and terrific dike. I think The it could have construction been done better and with a of a dike and the fight against morethe lasting effect sea by not usingare the sledge-hammer fascinating and wonderful but one can getmethod. I know lost why it was donein this wayformalism and I that way and forget about workedthe on it myself, fact but I do not thinkthat any longer people built this dike. From childhood that this was theI right had way of doing it,no artistically. more background in politics or economics I can think of different ways whichthan could have I had in film-making. Why this development? been more effective. It was in the beginningI do of not know. Things just happen to me. using film When as a political weapon, Ithough, was and as aware of what hap- pened I just suchpursued it served probably a very goodit; purpose. but I am not a political activist. You said that you had a very close working Do you think relationship there with Ivens; can you compareis thatsomething about the making of documentary with working with Flaherty? films that tends to lead one toward human concerns? My collaboration with Ivens was so close that, Does one get into the making of documentary for instance, in Power and the Land, I finished films because one is aware of economics, politics, the editing, worked with Douglas Moore on the and humanity, or vice versa? I do not know. musicI and with Stephen Vincent Benet on the think it goes both ways. Working within the docu- text, did the whole recording and finished the mentary field it is rather difficult to remain aloof editing and mixing while Ivens was filming in from humanity without becoming purely formalis- Colorado. An occasional phone-call was sufficient. tic in one's approach. If I had not been working With Flaherty I only made two films: The Land, in films I would probably do the same thing as editor, and Louisiana Story, as producer and through writing or painting. being responsible for the editorial composition-I When I saw New Earth recently I thought hadit two editors working with me. During The seemed very pertinent to today. There were the Land it was unknown territory to me. During grain-burning scenes and the week before there Louisiana Story, when I knew Flaherty somewhat had been scenes on television of Wisconsin farmers better, it was a completely different relationship. slaughtering calves because they couldn't get the One had to be very careful with Flaherty, who prices they needed. wanted everything just his way. Any innocent Scenes like that are symbols of a deeper eco- suggestion sounded to him like interference, nomic and political illness. They are used to make which is all right; but he distrusted any kind of part of the population aware of what is happening independence. No, that is not quite the right in the land. I also feel that we are getting word,so because I was independent as an editor, but saturated with them that they lose their impact. Flaherty would not let a day go by without de- One forgets immediately. And it is not just the manding to see everything that had been done, farmers who are getting the short end; everyone even if it was only putting rushes in order. is involved. I have the sense that Flaherty really always When I saw New Earth about two years ago preferred I things the way they were for Nanook-to remembered how beautiful the film could be when be off on his own with a camera and not have to one takes enough time to develop the theme of the worry about anyone else. That he resisted having dike building and show the people who do the to have an editor or a cameraman.

FILM QUARTERLY, vol. 30, no. 2, Winter 1976-77 50 HELEN VAN DONGEN

As film-making especially became not a fable. However, theremore are certain and more complex he needed a crew, sections of thecollaborators film which I think I can call mine: who could work independently the andintroduction andcontribute especially the section which their knowledge. This sounds like a contradiction to what I said is usually referred to as the "ballet of the rough- before and it was. He had quite a struggle with it necks" (the drilling pipes going down the hole). in his own mind. To get someone competent, Those, I can freely say, are my creations. Naturally who could do the work technically as well as I contributed a great deal to the editing of the artistically, to hold the ropes tight and yet, when rest of the film. necessary, abdicate "authority." It must have Collaboration is, at best, a very difficult situa- been difficult for him. tion. The more you want to be yourself the less It was so much Flaherty 's style to go to a place, you find it possible to be a collaborator and experience it, and find a story there. He couldn 't subject part of yourself to someone else's work. really do that on The Land. Was the way the film With Ivens it worked because we complemented was made imposed by the government, was it just each other and he did not worry about what was his own difficulty with the material, or what? my contribution and it did not interfere with his If you have to make a film about migratory film-making. But I am neither Ivens nor Flaherty, workers who move from crop to crop you can and my own films are different from theirs. hardly settle down and dream up a story-you One thing that surprised me in your Film shoot as you follow them. Another problem was Quarterly article [Summer 1965] was how little that, as he once said, "I am not here to show contact Flaherty seemed to have with the local misery and degradation; I want to show the beauty people. It doesn 'tfit the Flaherty legend. of life." In all his previous films it was Flaherty Legend indeed. I too was the victim of this who set the rules of life. Here he had to take it as portrait of a man who, essentially, was very lonely. he found it and it was not beautiful. It was a tremendous disappointment to me and I think Flaherty would have been a very good one of the difficulties of staying in Louisiana so archivist. If a society would have made use of him, long. He had this life completely isolated from given him sufficient money and the commission: the community in which we lived. We were com- "All right, shoot what you see," in a place with a plete outsiders, never saw anybody except those cultural background attractive to him, he would who worked for us. I described this in my article have made a marvellous record of a way of life. I shortly after he died, and it describes him better don't mean an edited film. Store it in the archives than anything I could remember now, 25 years as it was shot, unedited, no story line. He could later. look at the rushes of a film endlessly, just the way In New York City it was the same, because in they came out of the camera, and say, "Oh God, New York he would just hold court in the Coffee it's going to be beautiful." But he jealously guarded House. He would call up everyone. As long as he each frame, hated to part with any scene, loathed had money everybody would get free dinners and "organizing" scenes into a logical development. free drinks. The moment he was poor he wouldn't The dream of beauty was forever in his mind. see a soul. I thought he had very few friends-real On Louisiana Story he must have known more friends. He had a lonely life, or so I think. clearly what he was after. Flaherty also was an extremely possessive person; There were many unpredictables during the he set the rules and most people took it and even- shooting which affected the ultimate form of the tually suffered from it. I was sufficiently stubborn story. It is not my favorite way of making a film; and had enough of a mind of my own to say "No" an awful lot of time is wasted by pursuing digres- and resist his rules, but it didn't make life very sions. Had Flaherty lived I would probably never much easier because he would get cross. If you have made another film with him. I liked him very didn't do and say what he wanted he could be just much as a person and I have no regrets that I about as petulant as a spoiled child. Yet he would worked with him on Louisiana Story, but I had no give the shirt off his back to you. He was a very intention of being tied down so long on one film, strange combination. HELEN VAN DONGEN 51

You can't sit in the same house and sulk all like a land of enchantment, just the atmosphere day because nobody gets anything done. I wedidn't needed for a fable. contribute anything under such conditions. Twice The sounds that are used were recorded on the I had enough. I went to New York for a couple rig, onof discs, by Benji Donniger, the sound cam- weeks, said, "If you cannot talk to me or say eraman. 'Good I asked him to record everything, the morning,' I cannot work with you and you dogeneral not sounds, the individual sounds-to put the need me. Call me when you want me." And microphone he everyplace. Tape recorders were not would take his time about it, but after three yet weeks in existence. We used a disc recorder because he would call: "When are you coming back?" of theHe difficulty of getting constant electricity, really could be a pain in the neck, but, you theknow, distance from source of power to the recorder he was a good person and he always remained being arather long. It couldn't be used as it was, good friend. so I had to re-record all that onto film separately in a recording studio before I could even start Many things written about Flaherty still treat working with it. Some of it had to be slowed down him as the father of documentary. Nobody really a little because of the unevenness of the electricity. talks about what he was doing, which in some ways This sequence had to be edited in New York, was not documentary at all, as most of us use the where I took it because we had no sound equip- term. ment in Louisiana. Flaherty was a little suspicious Some of the confusion arises because "documen- about that because it meant that I was out of his tary" is a confusing word, a catch-all for almost control. It was very hard for me to explain to anything that is not straight fiction. To me Flaherty him that if you look at the film without the sound is not a documentarian; he makes it all up. He some of it is not there-it isn't just half, it's that does use the documentary style and background the whole quality changes. To tell Flaherty that in but, except for The Land, they are all, to a degree, so many words was just impossible. He just had stories. He sets back the clock a hundred years toif see it when it was done. And then he liked it this suits him, so that living conditions, clothes (orvery much, and even was very excited about it. no clothes) and weapons look more historic, not to Your sound work is one of the most striking say more romantic. Certainly the Eskimos at one things about your editing. time had to literally fight for survival, but by the I have been known for my sound innovations, time Flaherty came to Eskimo-land they already if you can call it that, ever since Industrial Sym- bought their guns and gramophones at the local phony, also known as Philips Radio. No, ever trading post. I have no quarrel whatsoever with the since the original Zuiderzee film, where I analyzed way he makes his films. They are part of our sounds, breaking them down into their separate history of film-making, but I do hesitate to call parts and then reassembling them. I have done a them documentaries. They are Flaherty-films, and great deal of research in sound, the use of sound, worthwhile enjoying. the components, their use-what does one sound The sequence of the roughnecks was shot twice, consist of. wasn't it? Once in the daytime? Can you give an example? An oildrilling well is just a dirty, filthy place. If, for instance, you walk over a bridge in Thousands of feet of film were shot to show how Amsterdam you would hear general city noises. the pipes were pulled up, stacked, and finally If you record that on film you have only a general the drill-bit changed. Then the reverse, the pipes noise. But if you record separately, in close-up so re-assembled and sunk into the pit. I worked and to speak, a streetcar passing over the bridge, worked but could not get anything exciting out ofclanging of the bicycle bells, whistle of the street- it. The whole thing fell flat. But they worked also car conductor, claxons of cars, the tune of a street at night under tremendous floodlights. I do not fiddler, a fish vendor hawking his wares, tooting remember whose idea it was to go back at night; of boats passing underneath, urchins yelling, in any case the night shooting produced some ofsqueaking brakes, crackling of sparks on the the most exciting film material I have seen. It was electric wires, a train coming out of the station- 52 HELEN VAN DONGEN

then you have by Ernestso Hemingway. many It was important components at the with which to orchestrate thetime to get "names"sounds connected with the film,of and a city and give them meaning and wedramatic were to use , who impact. was at the And do not forget silence which is also a sound. height of his radio fame at that time. Orson Welles Or if a chimney would fall down, you get a was, indeed, the "voice of God," demanding all crash, but what is a crash? A crash is a great the attention, clashing with the pictures. As far number of individual sounds. Some of them you as I was concerned it wrecked the film. I asked can recreate in a studio and then put them Hemingway why he couldn't read his own nar- together to get the sound of a crash which is far ration. He didn't want to, didn't have a trained more impressive than the sound of a real crash. voice. That was a poor excuse. "If you can write I was doing this breaking down of sounds almost it you can read it," I told him. He did, and it was from the beginning of . I was laughed wonderful. at by many a sound engineer who then, after Flaherty's was a different case. The narrator weeks of trying, got terribly interested in the had carefully listened to Flaherty's narration. process. And then I would get cooperation, but Flaherty is a master of the spoken story, each not until I demanded things of them. cadence, each inflection is just so. Once he has Even a scream, like one of the screams in it right it stays that way never mind how often he Spanish Earth-there were two or three different tells the story. It is like a musical performance. sounds to give that horrendous scream of the And all we could get out of the professional woman when the bombardment comes. And that narrator was someone imitating Flaherty. Even is what really does give it this quality. I think, Flaherty didn't like it, but he wouldn't do the although I don't like electronic music, that it's narration a on my request either. He can be so self- little like that-a combination of things that youconscious. Finally I urged him to record it only have to invent and make, reassemble, and finally temporarily, so that we had something to work you get the effect which is what you want. with, and when all was in place we could show it Someone wrote that the battle effects in Spanish to a different narrator and record the new voice. Earth were among the most effective ever done Well, he did that, and Flaherty's voice remained until that time. on the film in spite of the fact that the level is Those were done in a similar way, as were those not always the same. I don't think it could be any in my films New Review No. 2 and Russians better. at It is not the perfection of the voice that War. I tired of seeing so many war films which does it, it is the inflection. Sound film is not just went continuously "Bang, bang," relentlessly, sound and picture. It is the amalgamation and without nuances. If you do not break it down into fusion of many different details that gives it a separate parts, use silence to create effects, youquality all its own. are subjected to one continuous noise which no I wish you would talk about the films you made longer has any effect and certainly has nothing on to your own, apart from Ivens or Flaherty. do with proper film-making. For the US Signal Corps I did one of Capra's Can you talk about your use of Hemingway's series, Know Your Enemy Japan. It was a com- voice in Spanish Earth and then Flaherty's in pilation film, a short-lived project because at that Louisiana Story? Particularly at that time, it wastime no one in charge was sure any more what we much more common to find films using-like werethe going to do with Japan. The whole thing sort March of Time films-a "voice of God" narrator, of collapsed and I wasn't sorry-you were handed with the big booming voice ... an enormous scenario which had to be illustrated. The March of Times were not films, they were When I left the Signal Corps, the Office of War illustrated lectures over the voice of doom. If youInformation immediately asked me to make a film silenced the voice and screened the picture there about total war on all fronts with the working title was no film that made any sense, just a random (which became permanent) News Review No. 2. succession of scenes which illustrated the voice. Compilation film is something I like to do enor- For Spanish Earth the commentary was written mously provided one has enough material to work HELEN VAN DONGEN 53 with. In this For case example, if you I have coulda tremendous row ofdraw from every foot of film that miserablecame Germans comingfrom out of Moscow I don'tthe camera of every war photographer. want you Millions to say that here are so many prisonersupon millions of feet. It was a pretty oftremendous war and so on. I want you to add something- subject to be covered. In a way I faced that thesethe people were same invaders and they problemgot the as in the Capra unit. Phil Dunne, worst of it." So, what a they Hollywoodcame up with, all it producer, was in charge and he says is "Well,started we didn't invite you. .. the." You see, Hollywood way, with story conferences they understood almost and immediately scriptswhat I wanted. to be written before you can make And ano onefilm. else could have done Ia better was job than straining at the leash. All I wanted was they did. to look at film; history itself was my story writer. I seem to have Ia knack didn't for this kind of film- need a lot of narration or dialogue. But making. howOne has to know howdo to read scenes.you If go about telling an important Hollywood you theorize about the order of certainproducer scenes that the story is already written nothing much in will happen. the You must takefilm time, as it comes from the fronts? I sat digthrough and dig into the possible contents many of a scene, a story conference, endlessly confused like an archeologist who has asto put togetherto a story its purpose, and I must have looked outlike of the minute alittle piecesdummy. he finds, being able I would just discard all the "stories" to separate true I from was fake-if you canhanded put that and proceed my own way. amount of time and knowledge into the reading You had to keep up, constantly, over a period of scenes as they come out of the camera, then the of a year and a half, with the war effort on all scene will tell you by what it wants to be preceded fronts as it appeared in the papers and magazines and by what followed. and on film. Which was quite complicated because You cannot always control yourself. There seems you never knew what might become an important to be a necessity at times for some order. You also battle and what might end up as a side event. have to have a fantastic memory for what you have And I did not want it to become a story of war seen somewhere because you are playing around machines. No gun shoots itself; there is a man with millions of feet of film. If, all of a sudden, behind every gun. It was a global war, where at a certain point in the film you expect a certain soldiers and civilians were involved. I wanted to scene to appear and it is not there, you know that show the war fought, suffered, and won by people. you are on the right track. Go and find it some- Sometimes the emphasis in the film is entirely on where and put it in because that is where it faces. Naturally there are also sequences of belongs. mechanical warfare, but never without the people There are the ususal ABC's of editing, about behind it. directions within the shot, movement of the shot, And thanks to Phil Dunne, he let me be. We critical length of scenes. This is merely technique. decided to stop with the Normandy invasion and Anyone can learn that. It comes later, after your then add an epilogue. When the visual part was dramatic content is in order. It is secondary to as far advanced as possible without sound I asked composing your pictures. for and got-again thanks to Phil Dunne, who Did you do any films after Louisiana Story? probably never understood why I did not use his Almost always after working strenuously for lengthy scripts-the collaboration of Frances and two or three years I liked to take a year off. After Albert Hackett, famous Hollywood writers who Louisiana Story I went to Europe for 18 months had never before written commentary for a docu- to do a research project. When I returned to New mentary but who were tremendously interested York the Film Division of the United Nations when I explained what I wanted. I said, "Come asked me to make a short film about the Declara- and see the film. I want not to underline: if you tion of Human Rights. It is called Of Human say something and the film shows it too, the one Rights, is two reels long and, except for parts kills the other. I want an additional dimension to which are stock shots, is entirely shot in a studio. it, where you can add things that are not shown. I was producer, director, and editor. That was my 54 HELEN VAN DONGEN

last film. As soon as that was finished Kenneth films you have done have been effective in those Durant and I were married and I dropped every- terms? thing. It has never been my intention to change people's What films or scenes do you feel represent your minds; my only intention was to make people think most successful work ? about certain situations. After that, they should I must first of all define "successful." Successful make up their own minds, after they have become in terms of artistic achievement in my own eyes. aware. If I have achieved this some of the time This does not always coincide with what reviewers then my work has been successful. or others think. I like especially a short sequence I have been called two things: one, an activist, (or rather two) in Spanish Earth, where the irri- and two, a "premature anti-fascist," which was a gation of the village is being completed and, dirty word at that time. I am not now and never later on, the bombardment of Madrid. I don't was an activist in the political sense. I certainly think The Land has anything which is particularly was not in agreement with the policies of Hitler, mine. There are certain indications of my style, , or Mussolini. That makes me an anti- but the film scatters over too many things to have fascist, but how can you be a premature anti- time to develop. In Louisiana Story, certainly the fascist? Is it all right to be one after Hitler slaugh- introductory sequence and the oil-drilling sequence. tered millions of Jews or Japan attacked Pearl And Zuiderzee-not New Earth, but Zuiderzee as Harbor? I am not a soap-boxer, but I am tremen- it used to be in the long version. It is inevitable that dously interested in what happens to people, all there are things in there which are mine, but you people, be it in war or during the law-and-order can't separate them because if you have a very regime of Watergate. In the long run it concerns close working relationship you work together and us all. fuse each other's styles. Who has done exactly I and a few others were among those who, what? Does it matter as long as the film is good? through the medium of film, were warning people But my own films, I mean the ones I have done about impending dangers which eventually would from beginning to end, such as , engulf the whole world. That is my attitude toward Russians at War, News Review No. 2, Of Human humanity; if I know that something is wrong I Rights, etc.-those are me. Anything you do not tried, through film, to send out warnings and like in those films you know that it is I who have make people think about what was happening. either done it or not done it. We did not win any big victories with our films, Spain in Flames was a compilation film? nor win any wars, nor even avoid them, but maybe It was the first compilation film on the Spanish we were successful to a degree in making people Civil War. It is a short, only two reels, with com- think about what was happening. mentary by John Dos Passos. It is not very good You may have seen the recent interview of Leni because we lacked money, time, and sufficient Reifenstahl in which she disclaimed any attempt film to work with, but it was badly needed at the at propaganda and said that essentially all she did time. I am afraid that the film which I like best, was to document what happened-in Triumph News Review No. 2, does not exist anymore. Our of the Will, I mean.... government has the bad habit of dismantling It was excellent propaganda. But there is films after they have fulfilled their purpose, using another film which is called Behind the Triumph each scene as a stock shot, filing them under their of the Will, which shows the organization of the subject matter. We have been unsuccessful in enormous gatherings, the flags and banners, the finding a copy since the end of the war. parades, the camera setups and all the other facilities to film the Nazi rally. Certainly excellent Most of the films you have been involved in have use of the cinematographic medium. From a been aimed at changing people's minds in some fascist point of view the film had enormous power way, getting them to take an interest or to take to whip up thousands of people into a frenzy, action in some situation. Do you think it works? but so did Hitler's speeches. Do you give Hitler a Do you think films can do that? Do you think the medal for that? The film was a weapon, but was HELEN VAN DONGEN 55

it film art? It job? is very I did difficult. what I wantedI have never to do, been not because it able to define was precisely a man's where job. Thepropaganda fact that begins I am a woman is and art is left irrelevant. behind. As I never a weapon, thought Triumph that I wasof doing some- the Will is terrific. thing Ifextraordinary. you had been unemployedThe only thing a that was long time and extraordinary had fascist tendencies was that Iand broke you out saw of my family this film you environment probably put and on started the brown to work, shirt but once having when you came made home. that break, all that followed did not make Is Borinage a thegood least film bit or ofa piecedifference-not of propaganda? to me nor to anyone Photographically else outside and technically of my family. it is not very good, because Init privatewas made life under I have very no objections difficult when men conditions. Ivens hold often the doorsaid thatopen thefor photographyme or take off their hats. should not be That beautiful is a woman'sbecause itprerogative. did not fit Ithe like it and it subject. Whatever makes is shownme feel in thegood. film But was when actually I work, I work, true. The film with had mangreat or value woman, because they it areshowed all alike. It is the the plight of thework miners that incounts, the Borinage, and the the result, strike not whether it and the police is terror, done by the a manmismanagement or a woman. ofHave the you ever heard mines, etc., and of yet,a man-pianist, as cinematography a man-painter is it orart? a man-musician? I have seen better There films. is no suchI don't animal. think Nor it always are there woman- matters much, composers as long as or you women-artists. are not after medals. In the film Antonia, I never by worked Jill Godmilow in the Hollywood and Judy "industry," Collins, your countrywoman,though. It is quite orchestra possible conductor that you find there Antonia Brico, discrimination talks about the against things women, that have but I have never prevented her beenfrom in playing that situation. her "instrument, " the orchestra. Film-making If I had to is doa lot it likeall overconducting, again I would do in that you have exactly to assemble what I have great been resources doing, andwith one excep- numbers of people. tion, something I wondered I onlywhether thought you hadabout a few days ever been prevented ago. Now from that working I am advancing as much asin you years with rela- would have liked, tively or little on thetime kind left ofcompared things youto the time I have would have likedlived, toI wish do, eitherthat I hadbecause taken of off the more time to problems of raising take courses money in or certain because subjects, of prejudice had more time to against you as read. a woman. I do not have enough time left to learn all I saw the film the recently things on I stilltelevision want to[apparently know. When I worked I the abridged sectionsworked awfullyaired on hard,CBS's "60without Minutes" time for other program] and things. it sounded That is like why, a storyafter twowe areor three years I hearing recently would over always and takeover offagain: for discrim- about a year, doing ination against research, women. and I have refresh never my experienced mind. But, having come it. Not being to able the topoint raise where money I am fornow, certain I'll never have time projects is a problem all artists meet from time to catch up on all the things I want to know. to time. Speaking only for myself, I never had any trouble finding CAREER films AND FILMOGRAPHY to make; there was always more than I could or wanted to handle. Ever since I began working Helen van Dongen in began filmsher film career as generalmy contemporaries have been men, and assistant andmost pupil to Joris Ivens of on his films them were ten to fifteen years my senior. (The Bridge, completed Yet in 1928, a study no of the railroad one ever seems to have had any objection bridge over the Maasto River inmy Rotterdam) andjoining Regen them and no one ever told me (Rain,that 1929, the city andI peoplewas of Amsterdam only during a woman. The prob- a rain shower). She also did some of the camera work lem just did not come up. I neither asked for for Rain. During 1929-30, she was Ivens's assistant nor gave quarter. editor on Wy Bouwen I (Wenever Are Building), a film consideredcom- myself doing a man's job. Who missioned for the ever25th Anniversary celebrationdecided of the that it was a man's 56 HELEN VAN DONGEN

Dutch Construction American techniques Workers' of production, directing, andUnion, as well as on three subsidiary films sound recording. produced as part of the same project: Heien (Pile Driving), In New York, Van Nieuwe Dongen produced and edited Architecture, Spain and Zuiderzee. She spent six inmonths Flames (1936), with narration at by Johnthe Dos Passos, Tobis Klangfilm Studios in (and later the first of several three compilation films on monthsthe Spanish at UFA in Berlin) studying sound Civil War.recording It was followed a year later by andSpanish soundtrack editing. She then returned Earth, to directed Holland by Ivens and photographed to by Ivens edit Ivens's Phillips Radio (also known as and IndustrialFerno in Spain. Helen van Dongen Symphony, was again 1931). This was one of the first Ivens's collaborator commercially and editor on this film, the story of sponsored industrial documentaries, a Spanish and village whose is efforts still to irrigate their noted newly for its early creative use of sound. Van acquired land areDongen paralleled with Spain's fightalso for resumed work as one of the camera operators freedom against the fascists.filming The music was arranged the building of the Zuider- zee dike. For the by Virgil ThomsonNetherlands and . Government, she edited two silent "record" Van Dongen's next film films in collaboration with Ivensfrom this material, The Zuiderzee Dike and Nieuwe Polders, which deals with was , the epic of Chinese resistance to the land reclamation efforts. (In 1933, she produced the Japanese invasion in 1937. It was filmed on location a third of these "record" films, this one dealing with in China, under extremely difficult conditions, by Ivens, the first cultivation of the reclaimed polders.) She was John Ferno, and . It was narrated by assistant editor, with Jean Dreville, of Ivens's Creosoot, and scored by Hanns Eisler. Following a documentary-cum-advertising film on the manufacture this Van Dongen produced, directed, and photographed and uses of creosote. a very different kind of film, You Can Draw (1938) For Ivens's Zuiderzee, Van Dongen combined material based on a book by Frances O'Brien Garfield. It was from Wy Bouwen with additional footage shot over shota with the pupils and during art classes in the three-year period in order to show the entire dike Brewster, New York, elementary schools. building and land reclamation project. Later, in Nieuwe During this same period (1937-39), she worked as Gronden (New Earth, 1934), she combined footage of a producer on a variety of films for educational purposes. the reclamation work with archival and other material Some used scenes from Hollywood features to promote in a dramatic denunciation of the economic crisis which discussion of "human relations." The unfinished We followed the completion of the drainage project. The Who Made America (1939-directed and edited by Van music for New Earth was composed by Hanns Eisler. Dongen) dealt with immigrant contributions. Pete- Under Ivens's supervision, Van Dongen edited the Roleum (1939) was a color puppet-animation film for original version of Borinage (Belgium, 1933) and sub- the NY World's Fair; produced by Joseph Losey, it was sequently edited and recorded the Russian version. This directed, and the animation designed, by Van Dongen, film, shot under difficult and hazardous conditions by with music by Hanns Eisler. Ivens and Henry Storck, was a grim look at the con- Power and the Land (1939-40) was produced for the ditions of Belgian coal miners following the repression Department of Agriculture, and was, with the exception of a strike in the Borinage district. of the never-completed Know Your Enemy Japan, Van In 1934, Van Dongen returned to Paris, where she Dongen's last collaboration with Joris Ivens. Photo- observed productions in at Joinville and assisted graphed by Floyd Crosby and Arthur Ornitz, with music several producers and directors, including Tual and by Douglas Moore and an effective narration by Stephen Marcel l'Herbier. In Paris she edited Hans Richter's Vincent Benet, the film illustrates the importance of Daily Life: "A short film about daily life with all its rural electrification to the American farmer, as seen by repetitions, from very dull to very exciting, routine one Ohio farm family. movements. Part of the film was realistic, part abstract. The first of Van Dongens films with Robert Flaherty Edited rhythmically." The film was in silent version was The Land, produced in 1940-41, again for the only, because no funds were available for sound. Department of Agriculture, but never distributed. It From June, 1934, to June, 1936, Van Dongen studied dealt with migratory workers, and was considered with Eisenstein, Pudovkin, Vertov, and others at the outdated when the entrance of the US into the war Academy of Cinematography in Moscow. She also created increased employment, as well as changing the lectured there as an expert on editing, and worked as national mood. assistant director and editor of Borza (The Struggle), In 1942, Van Dongen made Russians at War, the first a film by Gustav von Wagenheim on the facts behind of her highly regarded wartime compilation films. It the Reichstag fire in Berlin. After leaving Moscow, she is the story of the war on the Russian front and behind visited Hollywood studios for several months to study the lines, filmed by Russian military cameramen. The HELEN VAN DONGEN 57

following year Theshe Technique ofmade Film Editing and includesNetherlands a complete America and Peoples of Indonesia for analysis the of the pastoral opening sequence and the oil- Information Office in New York. During drilling sequence fromthis Louisiana Story. period she was also chief film editor on a project Back in Newof York, Vanthen Dongen produced, Co-ordinator directed, of Inter-American Affairs, Nelson and editedRockefeller, her final film, Of Human Rights (1949-50), which proposed to use film to enlighten the for the United underdevelopedNations. While some stock material was countries of Latin America by bringing used in this film, most ofthem it was shot in the studioAmerican with culture and "know- how." Van Dongen Hollywood actress wasDorothy Petersen, unhappy New York stage with the propaganda line of the project, actor Howard Vierum,and and an advancedleft class atit New after a short time to edit Know Your Enemy York's PS 35. Japan for the Army Signal Corps. Directed by Ivens, In May, 1950, Helenwith van Dongen marrieda scenarioKenneth by Ivens and , the film Durant and retired nonetheless from film-making. derived most of its power from Van Dongen's effective selection and editing of newsreel and other footage. The film was eventually discontinued because of policy shifts toward Japan and the Pacific war. BIBLIOGRAPHY Van Dongen regards News Review No. 2 (1944-45) as the most successful of the wartime films she directed The best readily available description of the film projects and edited. It was produced by Philip Dunn for the on which Helen van Dongen worked in collaboration OWI, and had narration by Frances and Albert Hackett. with Joris Ivens is found in Ivens's autobiographical Compiled from all the footage coming in from combat The Camera and I (New York: International Publishers, cameramen on all battle fronts, the film communicated 1969). The book tends to concentrate on the shooting, the unity of human struggle. on the work in the field, and to under-emphasize the Toward the end of the war, Joris Ivens was appointed contribution of editing and post-production. Film Commissioner for the Netherlands East Indies and Her work with Robert Flaherty is better documented. Helen van Dongen was made Deputy Commissioner. In Karel Reisz's The Technique of Film Editing (London She was to be in charge of short film production, & New York: Focal Press, 1958 and later revisions), planned a film school to develop Indonesian film-makers, the chapter on "Imaginative Documentary" consists and was given the interim responsibility of procuring primarily of Van Dongen's notes on Louisiana Story. laboratory and studio equipment in New York while Her complete notes on the editing of that film are in waiting for the Japanese to be driven out of the islands. the MOMA Film Library. Van Dongen discussed the The project was shelved when, after the liberation, the experience of working with Flaherty in an article Dutch government resisted the demand of the Indo- "Robert Flaherty 1884-1951," which was published in nesians for an independent nation. (Ivens, who was then Film Quarterly, Summer, 1965. in Australia, tore up his contract with the government Also written by Helen van Dongen: and produced instead !, on the refusal -. Joris Ivens. Festschrift der Staatlichen Film Archiv of Sydney dockworkers to load arms for the Dutch to use der DDR, Berlin, 1963. against the Indonesians.) -. "Notes on Louisiana Story," "Robert Flaherty," There followed Calligraphy (1946), a project with and "Tonschnitt bei Louisiana Story," three articles Robert Flaherty which had to be discontinued for lack published in Robert Flaherty. (Berlin: Henschell Verlag.) of funds, and Gift of Green, which was begun by David -. "350,000 Feet of Film," in The Cinema 1951, by Flaherty, Robert's brother, and was completed, edited, Roger Manvell. (London: Penguin Books, 1951.) and scored by Helen van Dongen; this was a 16mm color Photographs, manuscripts, notes, and other materials film explaining the process of chlorophyll production about the earlier productions are in the Netherlands Film and produced by the Sugar Research Foundation. Museum, Amsterdam. On Robert Flaherty's Louisiana Story (1946-48), Van Dongen was associate producer as well as being in charge of the editing (with assistant editor ). The cameraman was Richard Leacock, and Virgil Thomson composed the music. During the following year, which she spent in Europe doing research, Van Dongen did a BBC broadcast on the music for Louisiana Story and wrote the material which appears as the eighth chapter of Karel Reisz's