The Stage on Screen: the Representation of Theatre in Film
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The Stage on Screen: The Representation of Theatre in Film Mirabelle Ordinaire Submitted in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy under the Executive Committee of the Graduate School of Arts and Sciences COLUMBIA UNIVERSITY 2011 © 2011 Mirabelle Ordinaire All rights reserved ABSTRACT The Stage on Screen: The Representation of Theatre in Film Mirabelle Ordinaire This dissertation explores the various ways in which film uses theatre by representing it onscreen. Neither documentary recordings of theatre nor screen adaptations of plays, films that represent theatre constitute a distinct group among theatre-related films which, as a specific group, has been overlooked. It is my goal to show how these films, beyond providing examples of the function of theatricality in film, offer a unique approach to the relationship between the two art forms. By comparing the historical, social, political, and artistic contexts in which they were created and which they represent, I explore the roles in which European and American film directors have cast theatre since the 1940s, and how these roles rather serve a cinematic logic than a theatrical one. I distinguish three approaches with which to explore the representation of the stage on screen: historical, political, and intertextual. I do not provide an exhaustive survey of all the films in each category, but rather focus on a few significant examples. On the other hand I do not limit my exploration of each film to one approach only. Indeed, far from being mutually exclusive, these three approaches are often valid for a same film, which participates in the complexity of the onscreen representations of theatre. I alternatively rely on Bourdieu’s sociology of distinction, Morin’s study of stars, Genette’s definitions of literary transtextuality, Deleuze’s philosophy of cinema, and Bazin’s theories on theatre and film to elucidate the directors’ various strategies of representing the stage onscreen. In the first part I analyze how cinematic representations of theatre history are informed by film directors’ desire to legitimize film as art. Although this self-legitimizing tendency is not limited to representations of theatre history, I draw on Bergman’s The Seventh Seal, Gance’s Capitaine Fracasse and Carné’s Les enfants du paradis to argue that such representations endow films with the cultural legitimacy that theatre possesses by simple virtue of its “age.” In the second part I look at the ways in which directors use theatre and past political regimes to mirror their current cinematic and political situations. The double distancing that Lubitsch, Truffaut, Szabó, Dresen, and Henckel von Donnersmarck operate in To Be or Not to Be, Le dernier métro, Mephisto, Stilles Land, and Das Leben der Anderen, respectively, exposes the ways in which theatre and film can be coopted by ideological discourse. The third part is centered on Almodóvar’s Todo sobre mi madre and its intricate uses of play-within-a-film (invoking Tennessee Williams and Lorca), film-within-a-film (referring to Mankiewicz’ All about Eve and Cassavetes’ Opening Night), and play-within-a- film-within-a-film. I explore how Almodóvar grounds the psychological and social outlining of the female characters of mother and star in their transtextual dimension, which culminates in an exploration of mirrors as metonymy for film’s representation of theatre. Table of Contents List of Illustrations ii Acknowledgments iv Introduction 1 Part I: From theatre history to film prehistory: theatre in the wings of film’s artistic legitimation 20 Chapter One: Theatre, Film and Religion in Bergman's The Seventh Seal 26 Chapter Two: Theatre, Film and Society in Gance’s Capitaine Fracasse 49 Chapter Three: Going from Theatre to Film in Carné’s Les enfants du paradis 82 Part II: Theatre and film behind the political scenes 112 Chapter Four: Lubitsch’s To Be or Not to Be 118 Chapter Five: Truffaut’s Le dernier métro 146 Chapter Six: Szabó's Mephisto 163 Chapter Seven: Dresen's Stilles Land and Henckel von Donnersmarck's Das Leben der Anderen 181 Part III: The cinematic wings of theatre 199 Chapter Eight: The inner and outer landscape of the stage onscreen 203 Chapter Nine: Manuela and her doubles 224 Chapter Ten: Mirrors 262 Epilogue: Va savoir 274 Bibliography 284 Filmography 294 i List of Illustrations 1. The Knight and Death playing chess with Jof and Mia in the background in Bergman’s The Seventh Seal. © UFOLEIS 2. The Dance of Death in Bergman’s The Seventh Seal. 3. Zerbine and the Marquis des Bruyères’ backstage flirting watched by Blazius in Gance’s Capitaine Fracasse. 4. Sigognac and Pierre open the door to Matamore in Gance’s Capitaine Fracasse. 5. Sigognac’s stage entrance as Matamore in Gance’s Capitaine Fracasse. 6. Frédérick, Baptiste and Garance playing their offstage role in a pantomime in Carné’s Les enfants du paradis. 7. Garance as an Ingres Odalisque in Carné’s Les enfants du paradis. 8. One of the tableaux from L’auberge des Adrets: Frédérick Lemaître as Robert Macaire with the Policeman in Carné’s Les enfants du paradis. Roger Forster, Les enfants du paradis (plateau), ©ADAGP, Paris 2011. 9. Othello’s first tableau: Frédérick Lemaître as Othello with Iago in Carné’s Les enfants du paradis. Roger Forster, Les enfants du paradis (plateau), ©ADAGP, Paris 2011. 10. Othello’s second tableau: Frédérick Lemaître as Othello killing Desdemona in Carné’s Les enfants du paradis. 11. Lacenaire’s final coup de théâtre in Carné’s Les enfants du paradis. Roger Forster, Les enfants du paradis (plateau), ©ADAGP, Paris 2011. 12. The children of paradise in Carné’s Les enfants du paradis. Roger Forster, Les enfants du paradis (plateau), ©ADAGP, Paris 2011. 13. Dobosh pointing to the picture which Bronski’s Hitler should look like in Lubitsch’s To Be or Not to Be. 14. Jack Benny as Hamlet in Lubitsch’s To Be or Not to Be. 15. Siletsky’s theatrical death in Lubitsch’s To Be or Not to Be (Astoria Film (Roma); Métropole Film, Soci). 16. Daxiat’s escape in Truffaut’s Le dernier métro. 17. Manuela as the modern Eve in Almodóvar’s Todo sobre mi madre (Pathé Distribution). 18. Margo’s offscreen curtain call in Mankiewicz’ All about Eve. © 20th Century Fox ii 19. Huma rehearsing Haciendo Lorca with Lluís Pascual in Almodóvar’s Todo sobre mi madre (Pathé Distribution). 20. Myrtle’s split reflection in Cassavetes’ Opening Night. 21. Nancy’s death in Cassavetes’ Opening Night. 22. Myrtle, Maurice and Manny rehearsing in front of the photograph of the old woman in Cassavetes’ Opening Night. iii Acknowledgments Although the idea for this dissertation has been percolating in my mind for many years, it was during my orals that the decision to embark on this theatrical and cinematic journey crystallized. My first thanks thus go to the members of my orals committee, Professor Martin Puchner, Professor Martin Harries, Professor Andreas Huyssen, and Professor James Shapiro, for their constant encouragement, invaluable guidance, numerous comments, and faithful attention to the projects I have been involved in. I would also like to thank Professor Arnold Aronson for his ongoing support since my arrival at Columbia. In the spirit of the practical orientation of the Doctoral Subcommittee on Theatre, I wish to extend my thanks to my dance teachers, who provided me with much-needed physical, spiritual, and performance guidance; and to the directors Kim Weild and Christophe Perton, for giving me the opportunity to be part of amazing theatrical experiences and to learn the craft of directing at their side. I am indebted to Anne Le Goff for her comments on my introduction; to Professor Edward Baron Turk for his comments on my first chapter; and to Hélène Valance, Lola De Azcarraga Bertone, and David Paul for their careful proofreading of my translations. I am grateful to the Bibliothèque du Film of the Cinémathèque française for giving me access to its collections of books, articles, reviews, archives, and films, to the Iconothèque for its photographs, and to the ADAGP for giving me permission to reproduce them. This dissertation would not have existed without my grandmother Boum who recorded hundreds of tapes and created our private cinémathèque; Philippe Eckert who watched them with me and introduced me to the world of film; and Aurore, with whom I first visited New York and shared so many formative life experiences. I will miss her always. Lastly, I would like to thank Papa, Maman, and Philippine for being here, and believing in me; and Patrick for having read, meticulously edited, and commented at length iv on both the form and the content of my writing; for printing out and distributing my dissertation; for helping me organize my time and priorities; for encouraging me without fail in my intellectual and artistic quests; and for being the most thoughtful and inspiring listener. v To Grand-Maman vi 1 Introduction Although it has been a recurrent device, from D. W. Griffith's 1909 A Drunkard's Reformation to Matias Lira's 2010 Drama, the representation of theatre in film brings forth a unique situation in which the intertwining of the two arts leads each to shed a new light on the other. Rather than on the similarities and differences between theatre and film, I focus on the ways in which film uses theatre by representing it onscreen, and explore how this representation affects both theatre and film. However, because the impact that each art has on the other’s image takes its roots in their simultaneous proximity and distance, some preliminary comparative remarks are necessary. Theatre and film’s proximity, sometimes overlooked in the constant effort made to distinguish them, is what makes the conditions of their comparison and combination so special: Both are performance arts that ordinarily involve an audience gathering at a prescribed time in a theatre to witness a scheduled event (like dance and live music and unlike painting, sculpture and novels).