Modernist Cinema

Ted Perry, ed.. Masterpieces of Modernist Cinema. Bloomington: Indiana University Press, 2007. 344 pp. $65.00, cloth, ISBN 978-0-253-34771-8. Reviewed by Heike Polster Published on H-German (November, 2007) Ted Perry's collection of thirteen essays will (1972), Au hasard, Balthasar (1966), and Last Year be helpful for scholars interested in flm and cul‐ at Marienbad (1961) together as they confront one tural studies. This volume is focused on what Per‐ of the central problems addressed by modernist ry calls "emblems of flmmaking imagination," or film: how to connect to the viewer while simulta‐ films created under the influence of the various neously eschewing the "illusionary tactics of the principles relating to and defined by what is re‐ kind of emotional identification so prevalent in ferred to as modernism (p. 1). These diverse and the conventional entertainment flm" (p. 3). Perry disparate principles necessitate a fexible defini‐ identifies two exceptions to the demand to identi‐ tion of modernism, and Perry makes an argument fy modernist flmmaking tactics: Tom Gunning's for the idea of modernist flm by offering a wide essay on early cinema, and P. Adams Sitney's on range of examples with certain common charac‐ Stan Brakhage. The editor found an excellent teristics. The essays included seek to show how placement for an essay that traces the genesis of particular flms relate to flmmaking traditions, film art out of the emerging culture of spectacle, how they present "a reified statement about the Gunning's contribution "The Birth of Film Out of nature of flm," and how they create "a distinctive the Spirit of Modernity." This essay opens the dis‐ viewing experience" (p. 1). The image emerging cussion on modernist flm and argues that it origi‐ from these articles of the interplay between rep‐ nates from the kind of totalized experience "care‐ resentation and interpretation is nuanced and fully orchestrated to fashion a new generation of complex, and adds much to our understanding of citizens eager to consume the world visually" (pp. modernist visual culture. 14-15). Gunning comments at length on the emer‐ Perry's selection is based on flms that pro‐ gence of the mobilization of the virtual gaze and a vide the best example of the range of strategies changing culture of consumption. He traces the used by modernist flmmakers. He groups The origins of modernist flm out of that "contradicto‐ Cabinet of Dr. Caligari (1921), Lives of Performers ry energy of modernity," which consists of "the de‐ sire to experience the shock of extreme motion, H-Net Reviews yet experience it somehow from a safe position" fers an adequate medium to think about time and (p. 22). The sensual over-stimulation of the specta‐ its genesis, as it perpetually re-creates a relation‐ cle is achieved through dazzling displays of mod‐ ship of time to movement. Eight of the twelve con‐ ern technology and produces ambiguous imagery tributions to the volume frame the present in par‐ as well as a scenario of "dizzying transformation ticular ways. and continuous motion" (p. 18). Gunning's partic‐ Sitney detects one particular technique for ular focus is on the manner in which Loie Fuller's such framing in "Brakhage and Modernism": vis‐ dance performance, Serpentine (1892-93), links ually imitating processes of perception and the dominant avant-garde aesthetic of symbolism thought. Brakhage's modernism, the author and art nouveau. He shows the reliance on light claims, "grew out of a passionate reading of twen‐ and movement that lies at the heart of Fuller's art, tieth-century poetry," in particular that of expanding it to flm art: "The mammoth screen," Gertrude Stein and Ezra Pound (p. 161). Sitney he explains, "reflected these images and trans‐ traces lines of development in Brakhage's work, formed them again into forms of light, image of especially the evolution of his mastery of the mov‐ movement, tutor-texts in a new way of seeing the ing camera. Underlying his emphasis on "interior‐ world" (p. 37). But by what exactly is the way of ity and subjectivity, there has always been a sense seeing the world altered? Do modernist art move‐ of art as mimesis, the imitation or representation ments retrain the viewer's perception? of perceptual and mental processes in motion" (p. Masterpieces of Modernist Cinema does more 169). Camera movement is thus seeking to emu‐ than align cinematic examples with art move‐ late the movement of thought by creating a repre‐ ments. A persistent subtext addresses issues of sentation of the mind's present on the screen. In temporality, not merely the temporal architecture the introduction, Ted Perry notes that modernist of the flms in question despite the fact that repe‐ films necessitate and initiate an unusual viewing tition and simultaneity are recognized as popular experience. "The space between screen and view‐ editing devices. Rather, modern consciousness er is animated by the viewer's consciousness of and its particular view of temporality is ad‐ watching the flm," explains Perry (p. 7). Thus, dressed in the majority of the essays. Sylviane modernist flm's motivation is to introduce a con‐ Agasinski has argued that modern consciousness scious process of perception, "celebrating the diffi‐ is one of continuous passage, and she questions culty and duration of that experience" (p. 8). Perry whether passage can make an epoch or whether it explains further that the work on the screen is compromises even any possibility of a present.[1] much less important than the work on the mind It is exactly this issue with which the authors of (p. 8). collection grapple. For Agasinski, it is modernity's Meshes of the Afternoon (Maya Deren, unique view of temporality that creates what we Alexander Hammid, 1934), which John Pruitt in‐ could call an essential modern consciousness. vestigates in "Meshes of the Afternoon: A Model of Modernity, she claims, does not renounce eternity Visual Thinking," creates a cinematic space for a alone, but it also renounces a unique form of tem‐ theoretical reflection on temporality and its visu‐ porality and history. Filmmakers who address alization. Pruitt explains that Deren's flms gener‐ nostalgia and trauma visually explore their his‐ ally exist in a "timeless meditative space" and are torical context, try out various cinematic tech‐ "visual meditations on the moment" indeed so niques of repetition, and attempt to stage the carefully "mapped out they approach the status of present's relationship to history. Thus, they con‐ theoretical argument about cinematic parameters front many aspects of modernity's conceptions of for thought and expression" (p. 139). Likewise, temporality. After all, flm as the moving image of‐ 2 H-Net Reviews Ernie Gehr critically explores temporality in his communicating meaning to its viewers. The flm film Still (1969-71). Gilberto Perez re-characterizes deliberately uses the codes of cinematic viewing this avant-garde flm away from the labels of in order to deconstruct those codes of seeing" (p. "minimal" and "structural" and instead deter‐ 67). It uses Dada's tendency to attack existing cul‐ mines the strategy Still has in common with mini‐ tural concepts, while reenacting the flm experi‐ malism: repetition. He investigates how the flm ence of a decade earlier, a gesture that provokes intensifies our sense of the movement of time and nostalgia. determines that Gehr's stare "is transformative, In "The Cabinet of Dr. Caligari: Expressionism quietly yet deeply transformative" (p. 280). The and Cinema," Anton Kaes explores the event char‐ camera's steady gaze in Still, Perez notes, "regis‐ acter of Robert Wiene's flm. He provides a short ters the present yet couples it with another time, case history of the flm and explains how the flm past or future, superimposed in double exposure" was contextualized within particular art move‐ (p. 287). Thus, if we take the different layers as ments of modernism. Kaes believes that The Cabi‐ temporal layers, we "watch unfold on the screen net of Dr. Caligari (1921) "enacts in its very aes‐ an arresting representation of our temporal expe‐ thetic rupture that the experience of war re‐ rience" (p. 292). The ultimate achievement of this quired" (p. 46). He links the flm to post-World strategy is a staking out a space for the personal, War I debates on shell shock and "war neurosis" Perez claims, "not away from, but in the midst of and argues that it mirrors the content of psycho‐ society and history" (p. 295). Consequently, a par‐ analytic debates. Furthermore, Caligari is de‐ ticular challenge for modernist flm is putting im‐ scribed as "an aggressive statement about war mediate visual experience into temporal context psychiatry, murder and deception" that effectively of modernity. An exceptional achievement of this marks Weimar's beginning engagement with the compilation is frequent, thorough attention to the trauma of war (pp. 53-55). In essence, Kaes shows viewer's experience of the flm as well as its his‐ that the "liminal experience of the front" gets pre‐ torical and flm-historical context. Thus, we fnd a served more authentically than in most existing discussion of specific problematic aspects relating naturalistic war movies: mocking perspective, the to visual and temporal experiences, and particu‐ film undermines any realistic expectation and lar visual methods that elicit a reaction such as challenges representative practices (p. 55). nostalgia, or function as traumatic re-enactments. Yuri Tsivian's "Man with a Movie Camera-- As many of the flms discussed here have Lines of Resistance: Dziga Vertov and the Twen‐ been associated with various movements in twen‐ ties" framing of Vertov's 1929 flm seeks to juxta‐ tieth-century modernism--Surrealism, Dada, Con‐ pose the artwork with the time of its creation structivism, Futurism, Abstract Expressionism, rather than blending both into one picture.

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