Cinematic Vitalism Film Theory and the Question of Life
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INGA POLLMANN INGA FILM THEORY FILM THEORY IN MEDIA HISTORY IN MEDIA HISTORY CINEMATIC VITALISM FILM THEORY AND THE QUESTION OF LIFE INGA POLLMANN CINEMATIC VITALISM Cinematic Vitalism: Film Theory and the INGA POLLMANN is Assistant Professor Question of Life argues that there are in Film Studies in the Department of Ger- constitutive links between early twen- manic and Slavic Languages and Litera- tieth-century German and French film tures at the University of North Carolina theory and practice, on the one hand, at Chapel Hill. and vitalist conceptions of life in biology and philosophy, on the other. By consi- dering classical film-theoretical texts and their filmic objects in the light of vitalist ideas percolating in scientific and philosophical texts of the time, Cine- matic Vitalism reveals the formation of a modernist, experimental and cinema- tic strand of vitalism in and around the movie theater. The book focuses on the key concepts rhythm, environment, mood, and development to show how the cinematic vitalism articulated by film theorists and filmmakers maps out connections among human beings, mi- lieus, and technologies that continue to structure our understanding of film. ISBN 978-94-629-8365-6 AUP.nl 9 789462 983656 AUP_FtMh_POLLMANN_(cinematicvitalism)_rug17.7mm_v02.indd 1 21-02-18 13:05 Cinematic Vitalism Film Theory in Media History Film Theory in Media History explores the epistemological and theoretical foundations of the study of film through texts by classical authors as well as anthologies and monographs on key issues and developments in film theory. Adopting a historical perspective, but with a firm eye to the further development of the field, the series provides a platform for ground-breaking new research into film theory and media history and features high-profile editorial projects that offer resources for teaching and scholarship. Combining the book form with open access online publishing the series reaches the broadest possible audience of scholars, students, and other readers with a passion for film and theory. Series editors Prof. Dr. Vinzenz Hediger (Goethe University Frankfurt, Germany), Weihong Bao (University of California, Berkeley, United States), Dr. Trond Lundemo (Stockholm University, Sweden). Editorial Board Members Dudley Andrew, Yale University, United States Raymond Bellour, CNRS Paris, France Chris Berry, Goldsmiths, University of London, United Kingdom Francesco Casetti, Yale University, United States Thomas Elsaesser, University of Amsterdam, the Netherlands Jane Gaines, Columbia University, United States Andre Gaudreault, University of Montreal, Canada Gertrud Koch, Free University of Berlin, Germany John MacKay, Yale University, United States Markus Nornes, University of Michigan, United States Patricia Pisters, University of Amsterdam, the Netherlands Leonardo Quaresima, University of Udine, Italy David Rodowick, University of Chicago, United States Philip Rosen, Brown University, United States Petr Szczepanik, Masaryk University Brno, Czech Republic Brian Winston, Lincoln University, United Kingdom Film Theory in Media History is published in cooperation with the Permanent Seminar for the History of Film Theories Cinematic Vitalism Film Theory and the Question of Life Inga Pollmann Amsterdam University Press Cover illustration: Diorama ‘A Dog’s World’, American Museum of Natural History, New York (1937). Cover design: Suzan Beijer Lay-out: Crius Group, Hulshout Amsterdam University Press English-language titles are distributed in the US and Canada by the University of Chicago Press. isbn 978 94 6298 365 6 e-isbn 978 90 4853 400 5 doi 10.5117/9789462983656 nur 670 Creative Commons License CC BY NC ND (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/3.0) I. Pollmann / Amsterdam University Press B.V., Amsterdam 2018 Some rights reserved. Without limiting the rights under copyright reserved above, any part of this book may be reproduced, stored in or introduced into a retrieval system, or transmitted, in any form or by any means (electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording or otherwise). Every effort has been made to obtain permission to use all copyrighted illustrations reproduced in this book. Nonetheless, whosoever believes to have rights to this material is advised to contact the publisher. Table of Contents Acknowledgments 7 Introduction: ‘The sanguine, pulsating, enterprising modern life’: Cinema and Vitalism Taking Life for a Spin 9 Turn-of-the-century Vitalism and Philosophy of Life 20 Early Film Theory 27 Cinematic Vitalism 34 1. Vitalism and Abstraction 47 Rhythm and Non-Organic Life from Hans Richter to Sergei Eisenstein The Reinvention of Cinema in Abstract Film 47 A Universal Language 50 Bergson, Intuition, and Art 59 Setting Form into Motion: Scroll Paintings and Empathy 65 The Transition to Film 78 Back into Matter: from Abstraction to Montage 86 2. New Worlds 97 Uexküll’s Umwelt Theory at the Movies Forays 97 A Meditation on Mediated Dogs 103 The Agony of the Starfish: Uexküll’s Chronophotography 114 Of Ticks and Humans 123 Against Anthropocentrism: Umwelt and Cinema 127 A Necessary Field of Action: Benjamin, Umwelt, and Play 136 Painlevé’s Cinema of Bewilderment 147 3. The Interweaving of World and Self 163 Transformations of Mood in Expressionist and Kammerspiel Film The Mediation of a Dog’s World 163 A Brief Aesthetic History of Stimmung 168 Turn-of-the-Century Stimmung and Cinema: Georg Simmel and Hugo von Hofmannsthal 174 Balázs, Kammerspielfilm, and Expressionism 182 The Kammerspiel Film: Naturalist Plots and Progressive Aesthetics 195 4. Open Bodies, Open Stories 207 Evolution, Narration, and Spectatorship in Post-war Film Theory The Axolotl and Cinema: Bazin, Bergson, and Evolution 209 Cinema’s Milieu 221 Life and the Temporalities of Film and Painting 229 Post-Apocalyptic Life: Kracauer’s Theory of Film 237 Conclusion 257 Vital Media Bibliography 269 Index of Films 287 Index of Names 289 Index of Subjects 293 Acknowledgments Academic writing is love and labor: a laborious love, an at times painful love affair, labor enriched and complicated by love. This love and this labor do not end with a book; the latter is simply a product of labor and a child of love, and as such, finishing it—and writing the acknowledgments—comes with both increasing alienation and parting pains. I have been fortunate to have been surrounded and supported by many scholars who love their work, my work, and/or me; by loving and supporting friends and family; and by people and things indifferent to me, yet offering so much. The trees and PhDs of North Carolina have played a significant role in this. I am especially grateful to my colleagues at my home institution at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. I count myself very fortunate to work at a university and within a department defined by collegiality, intellectual exchange, and institutional support. Many of my colleagues have become dear friends. I thank Ruth von Bernuth, Eric Downing, Gregg Flaxman, Julia Haslett, Jonathan Hess, Clayton Koelb, Dick Langston, Radislav Lapushin, Priscilla Layne, Eleonora Magomedova, Paul Roberge, Tony Perucci, Hana Pichova, Aleks Prica, Sarah Sharma, Gabe Trop, David Pike, Stanislav Shvrabin, Ewa Wampuszyc, and Tin Wegel. Many smart students have crossed my path here and enriched both me and my work. I also thank my other colleagues in the Triangle, at Duke University and at North Carolina State University, in particular Stefani Engelstein, Kata Gellen, Markos Hadjiouannou, Toil Moi, Jakob Norberg, Thomas Pfau, and Henry Pickford. Rick Warner has been my film studies brother at UNC, and Ora Gelley a caring friend and film studies force at NCSU. This project began as a dissertation at the University of Chicago. I remain very thankful to my committee chairs, Tom Gunning and Miriam Hansen, whose intellectual curiosity and openness, breadth of knowledge and critical rigor influenced my thinking tremendously, Jim Lastra, David Levin, and Yuri Tsivian. I also thank fellow graduate students and friends Mara Fortes, Matt Hauske, Jim Hodge, Nathan Holmes, Andrew Johnston, Katharina Loew, Sarah Keller, Dan Morgan, Scott Richmond, Ariel Rogers, Julie Turnock, and especially Michelle Puetz for friendship, support, criti- cism, and helping me find my bearings. The writing of this book was supported by several institutions and indi- viduals. I thank Brigitte Berg at the Jean Painlevé archive Les Documents Cinématographiques in Paris and Torsten Rüting at the Uexküll Archive at the University of Hamburg. I have also benefitted from the resources 8 CINEMATIC VITALISM at the Deutsche Kinemathek Berlin, the Bundesarchiv/Filmarchiv Berlin, the Cinémathèque Française, the archives at the Collège de France, and the archive at the American Museum of Natural History in New York. My sincerest thanks go to the series editors of “Film Theory in Media History”, especially Vinzenz Hediger, since I certainly cannot think of a better place for this book, and to my editors Jeroen Sondervan, Maryse Elliott, and Chantal Nicolaes for their professional work and guidance along the way. I am further indebted to a large number of smart and generous colleagues on both sides of the Atlantic who have enriched my work through con- versations, written exchanges, invitations, and comments on presented or written work. I am very thankful to Marco Abel, Jaimey Fisher, Gerd Gemünden, and the members of the German Studies Association seminar on ‘The Berlin School and Its Global Contexts’; Dudley Andrew; Weihong Bao; Robert Bird;