IDB©L3®OY. GENRE, AUTEUR by Robin Wood
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IDB©l3®OY. GENRE, AUTEUR by Robin Wood Last summer Robin Wood delivered three lectures at the National Film Theatre in London, in conjunction with the publication of his collection of essays, Personal Visions. FILM COMMENT published the first lecture in the November- December issue. The third lecture, "as I wanted to give it," appears below. "The truth lies not in one dream but in sition. Each can offer insights into differ- cally" need not entail commitment to a many." ent areas of cinema and different aspects system or a cause; it can involve, rather, of a single film. being alive to the opposing pulls, the ten- ach theory of film so far has insisted I have suggested, in these talks, the de- sions, of one's world. on its own particular polarization. sirability for the critic—whose aim should The past two decades have seen a EMontage theory enthrones editing always be to see the work as wholly as number of advances in terms of the as the essential creative act at the ex- possible, as it is—to be able to draw on the opening up of critical possibilities, of pense of other aspects of film; Bazin's discoveries and particular perceptions of areas of relevance, especially with regard Realist theory, seeking to right the bal- each theory, each position, without to Hollywood: the elaboration of auteur ance, merely substitutes its own imbal- committing himself exclusively to any theory in its various manifestations; the ance, downgrading montage and artifice; one. The ideal will not be easy to attain, interest in genre; the interest in ideology. the revolutionary theory centered in Brit- and even the attempt raises all kinds of I want tonight tentatively to explore some ain on Screen (but today very wide- problems, the chief of which is the valid- of the ways in which these disparate ap- spread) rejects—or at any rate seeks to ity of evaluative criteria that are not sup- proaches to Hollywood movies might "deconstruct"—Realist art in favor of the ported by a particular system. From what, interpenetrate, producing the kind of so-called "open text." Auteur theory, in then, do they receive support? No critic, synthetic criticism I have suggested might its heyday, concentrated attention exclu- obviously, can be free from a structure of now be practicable. sively on the fingerprints, thematic or values, nor can he afford to withdraw In order to create a context within stylistic, of the individual artist; recent at- from the struggles and tensions of living which to discuss IT'S A WONDERFUL LIFE tempts to discuss the complete "filmic to some position of "aesthetic" contem- and SHADOW OF A DOUBT, I want to at- text" have tended to throw out ideas of plation. Every critic who is worth reading tempt (at risk of obviousness) some defi- personal authorship altogether. Each has been, on the contrary, very much nition of what we mean by American theory has, given its underlying position, caught up in the effort to define values capitalist ideology—or, more specifically, its own validity—the validity being de- beyond purely aesthetic ones (if indeed the values and assumptions so insistently pendent upon, and restricted by, the po- such things exist). Yet to "live histori- embodied in and reinforced by the classi- 46 JANUARY-FEBRUARY 1977 cal Hollywood cinema. Pressure of time in a characteristically brilliant article on contemptible form: Hopalong Cassidy, enforces drastic simplification; the fol- Hitchcock's SPELLBOUND, argues that the Andy Hardy comedies. lowing list of components is not intended there even Freudian psychoanalysis be- The Hopalong Cassidy films (from to be exhaustive or profound, but simply comes an instrument of ideological re- which Indians, always a potentially to make conscious, and present to a dis- pression. Above all, this assumption disruptive force in ideological as well as cussion of the films, concepts with which gives us that most striking and persistent dramatic terms, are, in general, signifi- we are all perfectly familiar. of all classical Hollywood phenomena, cantly absent), for example, seem to de- 1. Capitalism, the right of ownership, the Happy Ending: often a mere "emer- pend on two strategies for their perfect private enterprise, personal initiative; the gency exit" (Sirk's phrase) for the spec- ideological security: (a) the strict division settling of the land. tator, a barely plausible pretense that the of characters into good and evil, with no 2. The work ethic: the notion that problems the film has raised are now re- "grays"; (b) Hoppy's sexlessness (he "honest toil" is in itself and for itself mor- solved. (HILDA CRANE offers a suitably never becomes emotionally entangled), ally admirable, this and (1) both validat- blatant example among the hundreds hence the possibility of evading all the ing and reinforcing each other. The moral possible.) wandering/settling tensions on which excellence of work is also bound up with Out of this list emerge logically two aesthetically interesting westerns are the necessary subjugation or sublimation ideal figures, giving us: generally structured. (An intriguing al- of the libido: "the Devil finds work for idle 9. The Ideal Male: the virile adven- ternative: the Ideal American Family of hands." The relationship is beautifully turer, potent, untrammelled man of ac- Roy Rogers/Dale Evans/ Trigger). SHANE epitomized in the zoo-cleaner's song in tion. is especially interesting in this connec- CAT PEOPLE. 10. The Ideal Female: wife and tion. A deliberate attempt to create an "Nothing else to do, mother, perfect companion, endlessly "archetypal" western, it also represents Nothing else to do, dependable, mainstay of hearth and an effort to resolve the major ideological I strayed, went a -courting home. tensions harmoniously. 'cause I'd nothing else to do." Since these combine into an Ideal One of the greatest obstacles to any 3. Marriage (legalized heterosexual Couple of quite staggering incompatibil- fruitful theory of genre has been the ten- monogamy) and family. At once the ity, each has his/her shadow, giving us: dency to treat the genres as discrete. An further validation of (1) and (2)—the 11. The settled husband/father, de- ideological approach might suggest why homestead is built for the Woman, whose pendable but dull. they can't be, however hard they may function is to embody civilized values and 12. The erotic woman (adventuress, appear to try: at best, they represent dif- guarantee their continuance through her gambling lady, saloon "entertainer"), ferent strategies for dealing with the children—and an extension of the own- fascinating but dangerous, liable to betray same ideological tensions. For example, ership principle to personal relationships the hero or turn into a black panther. the small-town movie with a contem- ("My house, my wife, my children") in a porary setting should never be divorced male-dominated society. he most striking fact about this list is from its historical correlative, the West- 4a. Nature as agrarianism; the virgin Tthat it presents an ideology that, far ern. In the classical Hollywood cinema land as Garden of Eden. A concept into from being monolithic, is inherently rid- motifs cross repeatedly from genre to which, in the Western, (3) tends to be- dled with hopeless contradictions and genre, as can be made clear by a few come curiously assimilated (ideology's unresolvable tensions. The work that examples. The home/wandering oppo- function being to "naturalize" cultural as- has been done so far on genre has tended sition that Peter Wollen rightly sees as sumptions): e.g., the treatment of the to take the various genres as "given" and central to Ford is not central only to Ford family in DRUMS ALONG THE MOHAWK. discrete, and seeks to explicate them, or even to the Western; it structures a 4b. Nature as the wilderness, the in- define them in terms of motifs, etc.; what remarkably large number of American dians, on whose subjugation civilization we need to ask, if genre theory is ever to films covering all genres, from OUT OF is built; hence by extension the libido, of be productive, is less What? than Why? THE PAST to THERE'S NO BUSINESS LIKE which in many westerns the Indians seem We are so used to the genres that the SHOW BUSINESS. The explicit comparison an extension or embodiment (THE peculiarity of the phenomenon itself has of women to cats connects screwball SEARCHERS). been too little noted. The idea I wish to comedy (BRINGING UP BABY), horror film 5. Progress, technology, the city put forward is that the development of (CAT PEOPLE), melodrama (RAMPAGE), and ("New York, New York, it's a wonderful the genres is rooted in the sort of psychological thriller (MARNIE). An town," etc.). ideological contradictions my brief list example that brings us to tonight's spe- 6. Success/wealth. A value of which suggests. One impulse may be the at- cific topic: notice the way in which the Hollywood ideology is also deeply tempt to deny such contradictions by Potent Male Adventurer, when he enters the family circle, immediately displaces ashamed, so that, while hundreds of eliminating one of the opposed terms, or his "shadow," the settled husband/ films play on its allure, very few can allow at least by a process of simplification. father, in both THE SEARCHERS and themselves openly to extol it. Thus its Robert Warshow's seminal essays on SHADOW OF A DOUBT. ideological "shadow" is produced: the gangster hero and the Westerner 7. The Rosebud syndrome. Money (still fruitfully suggestive, despite the Before we attempt to apply these ideas isn't everything; money corrupts; the obvious objection that he took too little to specific films, however, one more poor are happier.