300 varia Th e Life of Jesus by Bruno Dumont

magnus von horn Director

abstract. Horn Magnus von, Th e Life of Jesus by Bruno Dumont. „Images” vol. XIX, no. . Poznań . Adam Mickiewicz University Press. Pp. –. ISSN -X. DOI ./i.... Th e thesis will focus on analysing what “Th e Life Of Jesus” is about and how this is portrayed through the main character, Freddy. It will discuss the concept of the fi lmic character as a “common human being”, who does not have access to intellectual refl ection and verbal articulation of emotional confl ict and crisis, but who, at the same time, is capable of feeling a great deal. He feels the emotional confl ict and crisis that make up the story. I will also attempt to step inside the same fi lmic character itself and analyse how to visualize the morals, ethics and emotions that the character can’t verbalize or communicate in any direct or intellectual way. Bruno Dumont speaks about fi lming the inside of a person as his highest dream. I will discuss fi lm directing using Th e Life Of Jesus as an example, but I will also draw on my own experiences as a fi lmmaker. keywords: Th e Life Of Jesus, Bruno Dumont, analyse, actor, emotional confl ict

not being able to articulate whatever they were thinking. How they seemed to be prisoners of their primitive bodies and inarticulate thoughts and, without ever becoming pretentious, longed for a bigger meaning that was always present in the fi lm’s language but never through the characters’ language. How the strict cinematog- raphy killed life but, simultaneously, the fi lm an inspiration actually presented much more life than most other realistic dramas. How the fi lm tells a story Introduction of reckless youth through a language that is not Th e fi rst time I saw Th e Life Of Jesus was in at all youthful or reckless. And how that gave 2006 at the Polish National Film School in Lodz. the fi lm a certain depth that I had never before At the time, I didn’t know who Bruno Dumont seen in cinema. It infl uenced and inspired any was and I had no idea what to expect from the serious work of fi ction fi lmmaking I directed fi lm. It was just another class and another fi lm from that day on. In this thesis I aim to dissect one of our teachers thought we should see. Aft er what it is that attracts me so much to this par- the screening I knew immediately that I had ticular fi lm. It is not a thesis that aims to present seen something of great importance to me. the complete oeuvre of Bruno Dumont and his I didn’t know exactly what it was but I felt that work as a fi lmmaker. It is rather a personal re- the fi lmic language used by Dumont communi- fl ection on Th e Life Of Jesus and certain theories cated with me in a way superior to any previous articulated by Dumont. fi lm experience. It had to do with how the actors What interests me is life, people, the small things. moved and looked. How the landscape refl ect- Cinema is for the body, for the emotions. It needs to ed their internal state of mind that they them- be restored among the ordinary people, who don’t selves were never able to articulate. And how speak a lot, but who experience an incredible inten- the characters seemed to hate themselves for sity of joy, emotion, suff ering, sympathy in death.

IImagesmages XIX.inddXIX.indd 300300 22017-02-28017-02-28 16:58:0116:58:01 varia 301 Th ey don’t speak, speaking is not important. What’s cared much to fi nd a job and prefers to ride his important is the emotions. It is for the spectator motorbike with his other unemployed friends. to make these things conscious, it is not for me to He lives with his mother who owns a small bar. do it… Th e power of cinema lies in the return of He has a girlfriend, Marie, whom he’ll love to man to the body, to the heart, to truth. Th e man of the people has a truth that the man of the city, the death. And that is exactly what happens when intellectual, has lost. (Walsh 1997) the young Arab, Kader, starts approaching Ma- rie. Freddy decides that the “dirty immigrant” Th e thesis will focus on analysing what Th e needs to be punished for daring to look at his Life Of Jesus is about and how this is portrayed girlfriend. But it is fi nally Marie who decides to through the main character Freddy. It will leave Freddy and instead accept the love Kad- discuss the concept of the fi lmic character as er is showing. Freddy’s desire for punishment a “common human being” who does not have looses proportions and he kills Kader. Freddy access to intellectual refl ection and verbal ar- is immediately caught and the fi lm ends with ticulation of emotional confl ict and crisis. But him escaping from the police station and hiding who, at the same time, feels a great deal. Feels in the high grass of a farm fi eld looking at the the emotional confl ict and crisis that make up slowly moving clouds in the sky. the story. I will also attempt to step inside the Th e main plot line is simple and without same fi lmic character itself and analyse how to clever twists and turns. It is even a predictable visualize moral, ethics and emotions that the story but there is a reason for this. Th e story character can’t verbalize or communicate in is not the most important element. According any direct or intellectual way. Bruno Dumont to Dumont the audience needs a simple story speaks about fi lming the inside of a person as to be able to relate and access the more impor- his highest dream. I will discuss fi lm directing tant elements of the fi lm. Th e story of a boy using Th e Life Of Jesus as an example but I will who commits a crime because of jealousy is also use my own experiences as a fi lmmaker. the access point into a world of emotions and thoughts about universal existence. It is the What is Th e Life Of Jesus about relationship between the fi lm and it’s audience Bruno Dumont started making fi ction fi lms that is the most important. Being the audience at a rather late point in life. He had previous- should not be simple and without eff ort. Th e ly been a teacher of philosophy who also shot fi lm doesn’t fi nish when the end credits roll. pre-ordered industry fi lms. For years he was Th e audience fi nish the fi lm when they keep fi lming candy-manufacturing machines, the thinking about it long aft er the screening is over. building of highways, real estate attorneys’ con- Th e Life Of Jesus is a fi lm about the human be- gress’, and other seemingly banal projects. Du- ing’s longing for purpose. Or as Dumont puts it: mont describes how, looking back on this pe- riod, everything he was fi lming, no matter how I had the desire to tell the life of Jesus. Not to repeat dull, became interesting, “I learnt how to make what everybody knows but it is the signifi cance uninteresting things interesting. Th e way I work of that life that interests me. I invented a story today is completely linked to those ten years of to regenerate the meaning, to show that there is fi lming nothing.” (Walsh 1997) At that time he humanism in Christianity that they don’t teach in was physically able to fi lm the inside of a ma- the Church or in the schools. It is concerned with the power of man. I think that man has power. chine, something he would try to adapt to his Man is elevated. At the same time, I think that fi ctional work with actors. His fi rst feature fi lm, man is also very base, like Freddy. I think that Th e Life Of Jesus (original title La Vie De Jesus) his life is suff ering, pain, sadness, love, joy, sex. was made in 1997 and is a contemporary drama Evil is a part of life. It is necessary to confront about Freddy – a boy, living in Bailleul, Flanders it. Perhaps in that confrontation man can raise who, aft er having completed high school, hasn’t himself. (Walsh 1997)

IImagesmages XIX.inddXIX.indd 301301 22017-02-28017-02-28 16:58:0116:58:01 302 varia Rise and fi nd purpose. At the end of Th e destroyed it for fun. What always gets me is Life Of Jesus Freddy is in complete despair. He the calm with which Merrick leaves his be- has killed a boy. He has confronted his own loved model. He doesn’t cry and doesn’t seem evil. Only at that moment is he ready to rise to feel the pain I feel. And that makes it so and become something better or fi nd meaning much more painful. I get the same feelings in life. Or only at that moment is he ready for from reading about Prince Mysjkin in Dos- the grace of God. Th e fi lm fi nishes just as a ray tojevskij’s Th e Idiot. Prince Myshkin believes of light appears and the possibility of change in beauty and acts on emotion and is therefor to something better begins. It is the audience’s considered dumb and naive by others. Th is is job to deal with the thought or possibility of both a handicap and a weapon but Myshkin change. It is more important for the real peo- never uses his personality in any manipula- ple to feel provoked to do something rather tive way. He just is. It’s the same with Freddy. than the fi lm off ering a solution of what is to Dumont reminds us constantly of this brutal be done. plight by lingering on shots of Freddy’s body, Th roughout the fi lm there are several which appears broken and punished. Scarred scenes and moments that signify this meaning by frequent falls from his motorbike and rav- of the fi lm. Or that ask us to look for a deeper aged by epileptic seizures. Dumont’s broken meaning than the obvious story line. Th e fi lm heroes personify his idealized vision of the diverges most radically from the simple story “ordinary people”, who don’t speak a lot, but because of the treatment of its “hero”. Freddy is who experience an incredible intensity of emo- a hero born of the same stock as Hemingway’s, tion. Th e big diff erence between Th e Life Of Eliot’s, and Antonioni’s: characters desperate Jesus and the previous examples is that there to discover communion, beauty, and purpose is no context (society or group of people) in an alienating and amoral world (Hughes that makes Freddy stand out. We like Forrest 2002). Other, more recent, characters from Gump, John Merrick and Prince Myshkin be- big blockbuster fi lms can also be found carry- cause we secretly know (even if they don’t) ing these elements. Th ink of Forrest in Forrest that it’s the context they live in that is stupid Gump who says, “I might be dumb, but I know or deformed, not them. Freddy’s world is rich what love is.” Forrest Gump remains pure by in grey and lacks clear blacks and whites. Still acting on emotions in a world that is forever I feel sympathy with Freddy because I know changing and becoming dirtier. Forrest Gump that he is not a bad person and I hope for him is a feeler among thinkers, and we feel more to discover that as well. In this way Th e Life by sharing a feeling than by sharing a thought. Of Jesus is an internal drama rather than an Th e key to the sympathy we feel for Forrest external one. A psychological drama rather Gump and the key to his own sympathy for than a social one. others is that he is not calculative. When he While visiting their AIDS-sick friend in acts he does so because he feels it must be right. the hospital, Freddy’s friend notices a small Another fi tting example is the main charac- painting on the wall depicting the resurrec- ter in David Lynch’s Th e Elephant Man. John tion of Lazarus. He looks over at Freddy and Hurt’s character, John Merrick (the Elephant says, “Have you seen this poster. It’s the story of Man), is pure and that’s why he gets ridiculed. a guy who came back to life.” Freddy answers As part of the audience I am very sensitive “Shut up!” and walks over to their sick friend to such characters because their goodness who’s lying motionless in bed, looking rather is exploited for the cruel pleasures of others. dead. Freddy puts his hand on his chest and I will always remember the scene when John stares at him as if wanting to resurrect him. But Merrick walks down the corridor to throw his Freddy is not able to resurrect anyone. Th e Life model city in the trash bin because someone Of Jesus is in a way the story of Jesus (Freddy)

IImagesmages XIX.inddXIX.indd 302302 22017-02-28017-02-28 16:58:0116:58:01 varia 303 in a world where there are no divine powers as him to forgive her. Kader looks up to the sky described in Th e Bible. It’s rather the quest of as if waiting for a sign but there is none. Th e fi nding the divinity of man in a world where clouds just move slowly. According to Dumont we are prisoners of our own bodies and there the landscape is the inside of the character. is no simple, greater meaning waiting for us. My dream is to fi lm inside of people. As you know Th e divine power is inside us and Freddy is the this is impossible, even when people make love, one who will be resurrected only at his own will they cannot go inside each other – this is the trag- when he has destroyed himself. We are only edy of humanity. So I try to represent what’s inside able to resurrect ourselves. It’s a story about with the outside. A Landscape is not just a character, the absence of God. We are reminded of this it’s THE character. Th ey are inspired by the sky but several times in the fi lm by characters looking there is nothing in the sky, they’re looking for God up into the sky as if trying to see God but not but God does not exist. Th ey are connected with the landscape but something is missing, you can seeing anything. feel something is missing. I make fi lms to fi lm what Th e look of longing for purpose or com- I don’t understand. Th e mysteries of love and evil munion, like when Freddy is looking at his for example. But fi lms don’t bring answers, they’re AIDS sick friend, is repeated in diff erent ways not meant to, they’re mysteries too and that’s what throughout the fi lm. Very oft en the landscape I fi lm. I think as fi lmmakers we continue to make is used. It even becomes one of the main char- fi lms to repair the ones before, to get it more right. acters of the fi lm. Aft er Marie has broken up I try to make it better every time. I don’t know if with Freddy, he fi nds himself standing on a de- I do but I try and that’s what it’s all about. (Con- terio 2008) serted countryside road with his moped look- ing out over the open fi elds. Th ey are empty, I fi nd this extremely interesting because it peaceful and quiet. It’s as if he wants to fi nd is a description of what, in my opinion, is one an answer in the scenery of what the hell he’s of the most powerful fi lmic eff ects. Observing doing on this earth and why everything seems a character who is not in touch with his/her to fail. But there is no answer. Freddy starts feelings and who is not in any state to articulate his moped and crashes it on purpose into the what emotions exist inside the body. Still the ditch falling violently to the ground, collect- fi lmic language gives the audience a chance to ing a couple of more bruises on his already understand these feelings just like the non-ver- scarred body. Looking at the landscape is not bal and non-intellectual character feels them. only a longing for an answer but it also refl ects It’s emotional communication on a very high Freddy at that given moment. Th e landscape is level and brings so much more compassion never just a landscape. Th ere is no point in just and understanding for the character than any fi lming a landscape. Th ere is however a point words would ever be able to describe. It is at in fi lming a landscape through Freddy’s point moments like that when I fi nd cinema moving. of view because it refl ects his feelings and inte- It is a purely emotional moment that I am happy rior state. Th e landscape is particularly chosen to never be able to describe in words. to fi t Freddy at that very moment. Dumont is interested in trying to get inside characters Th e common human being and using the outside to represent whatever Th e common human being in Th e Life Of was found inside. Th e locations are never just Jesus is Freddy – a young man who does not locations. In this way Dumont partly manages intellectually refl ect upon his own situation to fi lm the inside of his characters just like he or existence in any verbal or communicative physically managed to fi lm the inside of a can- way. He does not have a higher education and dy machine. he does not have any clear dreams of what he In another scene Marie is standing in the ru- would like to become. He cares only about what ins of an old church hugging Kader and asking directly aff ects him. But on the other hand he

IImagesmages XIX.inddXIX.indd 303303 22017-02-28017-02-28 16:58:0116:58:01 304 varia feels a great deal. Th e problem is however that the world have repeated emotional responses to he is not able to understand or defi ne what he far more accessible fi lms than Th e Life Of Jesus feels. Th e longing for meaning, communion or this does not mean that Dumont’s fi lm would purpose is a feeling too abstract for Freddy to gain from using fi lmic elements in a diff erent ever verbalize. But he feels it and the emotion way to create emotional responses. A good ex- is strong. Dumont speaks of “the return of man ample of this is when Dumont explains why he to the body, to the heart, to truth. Th e man chooses to depict sex the way he does. of the people has a truth that the man of the city, the intellectual, has lost.” He means that When I see a love scene with American actors in an American fi lm, I fi nd that there is nothing within this lays the power of cinema. But what more intellectual. Th ere is no sound of colliding does it mean? Most importantly his statement bodies. Th ey rather add some sweet music. Th e is underlining the importance of abandoning camera starts to slide over the bodies and ends the intellect and giving space to emotions. Th is up in the pillow to make us understand, without is however done by many fi lmmakers today showing, that the characters are now fornicating. and the common human being seems to be Th is is intellectual. I prefer the rawness of sex. Th e exploited by every reality show on TV. Th e Life act of love is violent. People who love are violent. Of Jesus presents a more complex image of the Penetration is hyper-violent. Th e sexual act is not sweet. It is a desperate attempt to physically enter common human being. An image we are not another human being. (Pichené, Devanne 2003) used to but, in fact, holds more truth. In his article Bruno Dumont’s Bodies Darren Hughes umont has not made a fi lm that is supposed argues that: to be consumed as pure entertainment or to forget the bitter world outside the movie theatre. Instead of simply turning a hand-held camera on He clearly states that he has made a fi lm that ‘real people’ living ‘real lives,’ a manipulative fi ction should not be complete and should therefore now broadcast nightly on network television, Du- mont has rediscovered the transcendent and the provoke us to fi nish it in our own minds. Th e beautiful in the common, by giving us stunning and fi lm doesn’t give answers. Th at is the audience’s oft en shocking images of the body. (Huges 2002) job. All characters in the fi lm are common peo- To provoke an emotional response from the ple but they still have signifi cant diff erences. audience Dumont has chosen to present us with Th e defi nition of Common People is used here images that we are not used to so that we might, as a broad roof under which characters of fl esh to some extent, escape the image language we and blood live. Freddy’s mother is mostly to be are used to and in that way stop using our intel- found behind the bar where she, with one eye, lect and resign to our emotions. Th is is a tough tries, rather eff ortlessly, to look aft er her de- task, which might seem more conceptual than structive son while the other eye watches the TV actual when watching the fi lm. But I truly ad- presenting images from all over the world. Im- mire the idea of how he wants us to meet the ages of starvation in an unknown African coun- characters of the fi lm. While watching the fi lm try, Tour de France and Sunday movies. Th e he wants us to meet on a level that is non-intel- images pass through her without great eff ect. lectual and non-verbal. Both the characters in Just like Freddy, subjects that are not directly the fi lm and the audience return to the body of connected to her current situation do not touch the common human being. A return to emo- her. She wants Freddy to get a job, but she only tions. wants it to the extent that it won’t make things Dumont has rather decided to use this kind more diffi cult between them. For example, she of emotional approach towards story telling be- would never say, “Get a job or move out.” When cause it fi ts his point of view on the world and Freddy and his friends molest a young girl aft er on existence. Even though audiences all over band practice, he is grounded by his mother.

IImagesmages XIX.inddXIX.indd 304304 22017-02-28017-02-28 16:58:0116:58:01 varia 305 Grounded as if he was half the age he is. Freddy unsatisfi ed souls. However, this does not mean is never asked to take responsibility or forced to that the characters in Th e Life Of Jesus are doing deal with it consequences. He is never told to it wrong. It does not mean that people who fi t ask the young girl he molested for forgiveness. into the social groups of nobility or priesthood Freddy’s girlfriend, Marie, has a job in the lo- would get on better with life. But maybe the cal supermarket. It is never clear why she loves suff ering of the common people is what Du- Freddy and there probably is no good reason. mont calls the return to the body because the Th eir relationship is kept together by the small emotions are not fi ltered through the intellect. town they are stuck in and by the fact that there Th e death of Michou’s brother is dealt with by is no better option. Marie is similar to Freddy another kind of tenderness proposed by Freddy. but changes to the better. Aft er Freddy and his Th e gang takes a Sunday AT the beach. Th ey do friends have molested the young girl from band it in the name of Michou’s brother but they don’t practice she leaves Freddy and accepts Kader’s speak about death. Th ey don’t try to comfort invitation. She experiences something better. Michou with words but they take a trip in the Something she didn’t know existed. Maybe it’s name of it. Michou tells Gege, “Freddy thinks tenderness. Th e paradox is however that this is of everything. Freddy is a thinker.” Maybe the something Freddy wanted to give Marie, but correct sentence would be, “Freddy is a feeler.” he didn’t know how. Th at’s also what provokes A young man, who leads a gang of apostles, has him to commit murder at the end of the fi lm. a Marie, lacks a father but has a mother, collects Freddy wants to express himself. He wants to scars on his body as if he’d been fl ogged and fi - have sex in a violent way just like Dumont de- nally resurrects with the possibility of becoming scribes sex as a hyper-violent act of wanting to a better human being. enter another human being. He wants to beat Th e Life Of Jesus according to Bruno Du- up Kader to the point where he depraves him mont. Th at is really what the title means. Just of life. It is of less importance if his actions are like the Gospels of Matt, Luke, Mark and John, good or bad. What is of most importance is that Bruno Dumont has interpreted the life of Je- he wants something and that he looses control sus. Jesus came from Galilee, a Jewish region to get it. Th is is a greater sign of life than stand- in the northern part of ancient Palestine. In ing passively next to Freddy and never acting his book Jesus Th e Jew, Geza Vermes describes on emotions. Freddy’s friends lack ambitions the region as… just like Freddy does. What keeps the group populous and relatively wealthy. Th e reason for its together is the small town they are stuck in, economic well-being was the extraordinary fer- their motorbikes, the car they are fi xing and tility of the land and the full use made of it by its band practice. Th e death of Michou’s AIDS- people. As Josephus (Flavius Josephus – a rebel sick brother shows us that they are unable to commander-in-chief of the region during the fi rst discuss the bigger aspects of life. In one scene, Jewish War, AD 66-70) describes it, it is “so rich the gang, except Freddy, is fi xing up the car and in soil and pasturage and produces such variety of giving it a paint job. Michou says he can’t be trees, that even the most indolent are tempted by with girls anymore because he’s mourning his these facilities to devote themselves to agriculture. (Vermes 2001, p. 28) dead brother. Gege asks Michou, “How does it make you feel?” Michou touches his black Geographically this northern district of mourning ribbon that is tied around his wrist. Palestine was like a small island in unfriendly “I don’t know. I don’t feel good.” Th ey are not seas, surrounded by Roman Gentiles. It became able to discuss the subject further. Th is lack of known as the most troublesome of all Jewish verbal communication between the characters districts in the pre-Christian century and was in the fi lm gives birth to the emotional long- the core of revolutionary movements, which ing for purpose and understanding. Th ey are very much disturbed the Romans. Th e Galileans

IImagesmages XIX.inddXIX.indd 305305 22017-02-28017-02-28 16:58:0116:58:01 306 varia were proud and fought for their independence. Freddy: My father was always telling me what to do. Th eir own country nourished them and they Freddy’s Mother: He won’t like what he sees from were able to live a very unsophisticated lifestyle. up there. Jesus is to begin with Freddy: You’re talking nonsense. Jesus began working when he was about an appreciative child of the Galilean countryside. 30 years old (Luke 3: 23). Does that mean that Th e metaphors placed in his mouth are mostly ag- ricultural ones, as would be expected from a man he was unemployed, like Freddy, when he was who has spent the major part of his life among in his late teens/early twenties? Was his father, farmers and peasants. For him the ultimate beauty God, looking down from up there, feeling un- is that of the lilies of the fi eld, and the paradigm of satisfi ed with his son until he began his preach- wickedness the sowing of weeds in a cornfi eld, even ing? In this respect Th e Life Of Jesus could be in one belonging to an enemy. (Vermes 2001, p. 30) looked at as the early life of Jesus that is by the Vermes describes Jesus as a product of the gospels relatively undocumented. Galilean society and this becomes especially Freddy has a girlfriend, fi ttingly named interesting in the context of Bruno Dumont’s Marie, but he seems to be much more com- fi lm when exploring Jesus’s antipathy towards fortable with his male friends (disciples) with Gentiles. “For not only did he feel himself whom he challenges the ghost rider of the sent to the Jews alone; he qualifi ed non-Jews, red GTi (the devil or a demon) in road races. though no doubt with oratorical exaggera- He has no respect for Arab immigrants and tion, as dogs and swine” (Vermes 2001, p. 31). calls them dirty wogs. When Freddy, in the A more concrete example is when a man from end of the fi lm, kills Kader and is caught by one of the Trans-Jordanian pagan cities has the police, he is called a racist by the police been freed from demons by Jesus and asks to offi cer. We, the audience, know that racism join the fellowship. Jesus categorically refuses was not what fuelled Freddy’s rage. It was jeal- with the words, “Go home to your own folk…” ousy. Just like Jesus, he is misunderstood when (Mark 5: 18-19; Luke 8: 38-9). Jesus was fi nally, charged by the law. He is charged like a con- and most likely, charged, prosecuted and sen- temporary right wing European mostly found tenced because he was considered a Galilean on the countryside. He escapes and wishes he revolutionary and not because he was consid- could raise people from the dead. He wishes he ered the Son of God (Vermes, Geza. Jesus the could undo his actions. Is this what it takes for Jew, p. 32). a person to change and become a better human Freddy in Th e Life Of Jesus is, just like Je- being? Is this something similar to what made sus from Galilee, an uneducated youth who Jesus’s family reject him while he proclaimed, has grown up on the countryside surround- “A prophet will always be held in honour except ed by fi elds and farms. He has a mother but in his home town, and among his kinsmen and no father (if we accept the idea that Jesus was family.” (Mark 6: 4; Matt. 13: 57; Luke 4: 24) conceived by the virgin Mary and Joseph was Th e Life Of Jesus shows what happened to not the biological father). Only once, during Christianity aft er having been declared the re- a conversation with his mother, is Freddy’s fa- ligion of the Gentiles. It is a gospel of what has ther mentioned. become of Jesus in a modern interpretation. How modern Christianity has declared war on Freddy’s Mother: When are you going to fi nd a job? the region that bred the religion we are now Freddy: Stop nagging me. based on. How the modern Jesus is unable to Freddy’s Mother: Jobs won’t come to you. You have heal others, and how he himself is actually pos- to go and look. Freddy: I’ve looked but there is nothing. Stop telling sessed by illness (epilepsy). Th e modern Jesus is me what to do. not being fl ogged; he fl ogs himself in frustration Freddy’s Mother: If I don’t tell you, who will? over the lack of divine powers.

IImagesmages XIX.inddXIX.indd 306306 22017-02-28017-02-28 16:58:0116:58:01 varia 307 New images penis penetrating Marie. Th e frame is fi lled In an interview Bruno Dumont is asked if with skin and body parts colliding against he considers himself a provocateur. He answers each other. Only some grass can be seen from that provocation doesn’t interest him at all, but time to time as the bodies move up and down. that astonishment is something he fi nds of ma- It feels like a hammer drill making repeated jor importance. (Hall 2010). He wants the audi- holes in some tough material. It looks brutal ence to feel astonishment. According to me this and there is nothing erotic about the image. Just doesn’t have anything to do with an astonish- like previously mentioned, the sex is hyper-vi- ing or surprising plot development like a great olent. Like a failed attempt to enter another turning point in the drama. It has more to do human being. Th e second image is a close up of with the feeling we get from certain images. their faces in profi le. Again, a little bit of grass And I think that one of the biggest strengths of is visible in the foreground. Th ey keep their Th e Life Of Jesus is the images and not the story heads over each other’s shoulders and their line. It is because of the feeling I get from the eyes never meet. Th eir facial expressions are images that I am able to access the deeper levels forced and they actually appear to be involved of the fi lm that are covered by a storyline I have in something painful. Finally Freddy orgasms encountered many times before. Th e images tell and falls down over Marie. Again, there are no me to look for other meanings than the direct erotic feelings connected to this image. Th e action present on the screen. Th e images need next image is a shot of a tree that has been to have an impact (or be astonishing) for me to split in half a long time ago and has continued feel what’s underneath the story. I have entitled growing in two parts. Freddy and Marie are this chapter New Images because I feel that Th e not present in the image and in the context Life Of Jesus presents me with situations I have of the previous image it is not a clear point of seen many times before on the screen but they view shot. Th e image lasts for eleven seconds are presented with what, for me, are new images and the only sound is the sound from the birds fi tted to a recognizable situation. Th e new imag- and the wind. Pure and clean nature. Th e next es cause me to feel diff erently about a situation image makes us understand that the image of that is already known to me. Th e defi nition of the tree is Marie’s point of view. She is sitting an image in this chapter is a single shot but in- next to Freddy who’s leaning his head on her volves everything within that shot – the way the shoulder with closed eyes. She feels like that frame is composed, the face of the actor, colours, tree – split in half (physically and mentally). sound etc. Th e image exists in the context of Still she is happy and smiles to Freddy. the scene and the scene within the context of For these images (the scene) I feel a lot of the whole fi lm. beauty and a lot of sadness. Beauty because Th e fi rst couple of images I want to analyse they go to a fi eld to have sex, as if they were appear in a scene where Freddy and Marie welcoming spring. Sadness because the sex is have sex in a fi eld. Th e action in the scene is so instrumental and joyless. Beauty because very simple and very recognizable. Th e cou- Freddy and Marie seem to be very happy and ple arrives on Freddy’s motorbike, they park united aft erwards. Sadness because they are and walk out into the fi eld. Th ey undress and unable to look at themselves from where I am start having sex. When done, they sit together sitting. Maybe then they could have become watching the landscape. Freddy rests his head more aware human beings. But on the other on Marie’s shoulder. Neither the drama nor the hand, maybe their momentary happiness is characters change in the scene. But the images only possible because they don’t contemplate speak of much more and when the scene is their situation. Like they are both sitting in the fi nished I feel a lot. Th e sex act is shown in Garden of Eden but there is no God. Both sad, two images. First a close up of Freddy’s erect beautiful and very true.

IImagesmages XIX.inddXIX.indd 307307 22017-02-28017-02-28 16:58:0116:58:01 308 varia slowly rises above the ground. Th e frame slowly looses the boys and soon we only see the wide landscape unfolding in front of us – full of fi elds and distant farms in a slight late winter/ early spring mist and sunlight. To me it is as if Freddy’s spirit is abandoning his body. Th e medical term might be that he suff ered a Sud- den Unexpected Death in Epilepsy (SUDEP). Th at would mean that his presence in the next frame (where we see that an obvious time jump has occurred – it is summer) is because he has resurrected. I don’t mean to say that this infor- mation is directly communicated in the fi lm. It is just my interpretation in the context of the title of the fi lm. Th e camera levitating from the ground is extremely interesting because once again we are told a very diff erent story by what the camera chooses to show. And if the camera has to be provoked by something or someone to make a move, I would guess that Freddy’s soul is the provocation. Th e action in the scene shows Freddy having an epileptic fi t and his friends trying to help him. Th e camera move- ment shows me that this moment is a transi- tion into another, deeper layer of the fi lm. Th e following image shows trees in full blossom. Summer. Th e camera pans down and pulls back. We still only hear the sound of birds and nature. Suddenly we come through a window and we see Freddy in a hospital bed. Chords Th e next image I would like to discuss ap- and hospital equipment attached to his head. pears in a scene where Freddy and his friends He is getting his epilepsy researched with an are driving around the countryside on their EEG. In the time of Jesus (the time of prophets) motorbikes and suddenly a red Peugeot GTi physicians, or doctors, were not looked upon comes racing towards them on the narrow road. favourably. “Recourse to the service of a doctor Last one to pull over wins they scream and race in preference to a prayer is held to be evidence towards the car. Aft er the GTi has passed them in lack of faith, an act of irreligiousness meriting and one of the boys has won they gather in ec- punishment.” (Vermes 2001) In the end of the stasy to decide who was the biggest coward and fi lm we understand that Freddy does not need pulled off the road fi rst. While they scream and doctors, he needs redemption. laugh at each other Freddy falls to the ground Aft er Freddy and his friends have gone to and suff ers an epileptic fi t. His friends try to the beach in the name of Michou’s dead brother, help him and it is at this moment that the im- Freddy returns home. He has an argument with age becomes very interesting. We watch Fred- his mother about fi nding a job. He walks outside dy’s friend trying to help him in a full shot (we and stands looking up the street towards where see them all clearly, full body, hunched over Marie lives. It’s late aft ernoon and very warm. Freddy) and slowly the camera levitates and He sees a family with kids enjoying lazy and re-

IImagesmages XIX.inddXIX.indd 308308 22017-02-28017-02-28 16:58:0116:58:01 varia 309 Freddy is standing looking down the street at his own house, it is not yet clear. But a second later, Marie comes and playfully jumps on him from behind. Th ey walk over to the sidewalk and stand close to each other. Th e dialog that follows explains the rest.

Marie: Well, how did it go? Freddy: Fine. (pause) We went as far as Dunkirk. Marie: Really? Freddy: Gégé even let me drive his car. We went really fast. We did something for Michou too. Marie: Really? Th at’s nice. Freddy: My mum’s driving me nuts. Marie: Stop it! Your mum is great. Freddy: You reckon? (pause) You stink of sweat. Marie: You can be such an asshole. Freddy: I want to make love. Marie: And I want to go home because I’m tired. And my dad will yell at me. And you hurt me last time. Freddy: What do you mean? Marie: You hurt me don’t you understand? Freddy: I’ll take you up the ass then. Marie: Stop being such a shit. Freddy: I was only joking. Marie: I hope so.

Th en they kiss and walk separate ways. We laxing free time, eating ice cream. Aft er a while follow Freddy in a long, frontal, medium close- Freddy starts walking up the street. We follow up, tracking shot as he walks home. Th ere is him in a long tracking shot as he passes his no narrative reason for this shot but I look at neighbours. Finally he arrives at Marie’s house Freddy and see that he’s not aware of the pow- and just by looking at the windows he knows erful dialog he just had with Marie. He’s not that no one is home. He turns around and looks aware of how much he needed tenderness at down the street towards his own house. Th e that moment and how much he wanted to share camera is behind him, with his head in the cen- what he felt about the trip he just had with his tre of the frame. Th ere is something strange friends. I fi nd it moving and similar to the shot about this little sequence where nothing really with the broken model I described earlier from happens. Th ere is a strange rhythm that slows Th e Elephant Man. everything down. I feel that this little journey Each element of fi lmmaking (such as sound, shows the distance of how far Freddy could be frame composition, actors, location etc.) adds from having something he desires – a family. it’s own layer to the storytelling. Th ese elements And the distance is not great at all. It’s just up have been chosen to appear as they appear so the street to Marie’s house. Th e eff ect when this that they can serve the idea of the fi lm in the becomes clear is powerful. At the moment, as best possible way and communicate this idea to

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IImagesmages XIX.inddXIX.indd 310310 22017-02-28017-02-28 16:58:0216:58:02 varia 311 the audience. I choose to write about it because compassion or pity. Th ey diff ered from animals I very rarely experience this eff ect in cinema. It in their capacity for free will. As they began to is the ultimate cinematic eff ect and when it is live in groups and form clans they also began to experienced everyone can feel it. It doesn’t mat- experience family love, which Rousseau saw as ter how intellectual or common you are. It’s an the source of the greatest happiness known to emotional experience and partly what Dumont humanity. As long as diff erences in wealth and means when he speaks about return of man to status among families were minimal, the fi rst the body. Similar to Rousseau’s conviction that coming together in groups was accompanied fundamental moral truth is just as accessible to by a fl eeting golden age of human fl ourishing. the common human being as it is to the philos- Th e development of agriculture, metallurgy, opher and that true happiness is to be found in private property, and the division of labor and our primitive state (Wood 2008, p. 53). resulting dependency on one another, howe- Hence although men had become less forbearing, ver, led to economic inequality and confl ict. As and although natural pity had already undergone population pressures forced them to associate some alteration, this period of the development of more and more closely, they underwent a psy- human faculties, maintaining a middle position chological transformation: Th ey began to see between the indolence of our primitive state and themselves through the eyes of others and came the petulant activity of our egocentrism, must have to value the good opinion of others as essential been the happiest and most durable epoch. Th e to their self esteem. Does Freddy’s life falls to more one refl ects on it, the more one fi nds that pieces as jealousy, fear and suspicion enters his this state was the least subject to upheavals and the best for man, and that he must have left it only by Garden of Eden? Or is Freddy from the begin- virtue of some fatal chance happening that, for the ning Rousseau’s nightmare and the product of common good, ought never to have happened. [1] failed society that spirals into more and more pain. Personally I think Th e Life Of Jesus has Rousseau insisted that man was born with a greater depth than just a contemporary com- the potential for goodness and that civilization, ment on France and western society. I am happy with its envy and self-consciousness, has made to think Freddy begins the fi lm in something men bad. “Nothing is so gentle as man in his like the Garden of Eden where a certain har- primitive state, when placed by nature at an mony and agenda rules. Th e Garden of Eden is equal distance from the stupidity of brutes and disturbed as the foreign element enters (Kader) 2 the fatal enlightenment of civil man.”[ ] Mate- and the woman makes her own decision (Marie rial progress undermines the possibility of true leaving Freddy). Jealousy, suspicion and hate friendship by replacing it with jealousy, fear, destroy Freddy and the agenda that ruled. Th e and suspicion. In the context of Dumont’s Com- comment made in Th e Life Of Jesus is that Th e mon Human Being and the return of man to Garden of Eden is a rotten place that is allergic the body, Rousseau’s argument is very relevant. to life and change. In Discourse on the Arts and Sciences, Rous- Rousseau’s glorifi cation of the natural hu- seau traces man’s social evolution from a primi- man being should however, not be spoken abo- tive state of nature to modern society. Th e earli- ut out of context. His standpoint was strongly est solitary humans possessed a basic drive for connected to the debate on the concept of the self-preservation and a natural disposition to Noble Savage – a construct of European explo- ration used to characterize the natives of foreign [1] Discourse on the Origin of Inequality (1754), lands. Part Two, pg 65 of Jean-Jacques Rousseau: Th e Basic Political Writings. Th e term noble savage has a positive connotation. [2] Discourse on the Origin of Inequality (1754), Th ose who prescribe to the concept of the noble Part Two, pg 64 of Jean-Jacques Rousseau: Th e savage believe that the native is “free from the op- Basic Political Writings. pressive bonds of civilizations… without social or

IImagesmages XIX.inddXIX.indd 311311 22017-02-28017-02-28 16:58:0216:58:02 312 varia sexual restrictions”. Th e noble savage is described as complicates everything (Bresson 1977, p. 72). having a natural existence. Th e term ignoble savage Dumont means that cinema is for the body and has an obvious negative connotation. Th e ignoble for the emotions just like Bresson means that savage is detested – described as having a cruel and cinema takes him away from the intellect and primitive existence.[3] it’s analytical nature. Th e intellect destroys the Is the Noble Savage something similar to emotion by naming and describing it. I feel very what Dumont calls the Common Human Be- closely connected to this idea because it has to ing? A glorifi cation and longing for primitive do with the big question: Why cinema? Why purity? In a New York Times interview from should a story be told through cinema and not 1972 Stanley Kubrick said the following: written down in a book or debated in an arti- Man isn’t a noble savage, he’s an ignoble savage. cle? Cinema is necessary to show emotions that He is irrational, brutal, weak, silly, unable to be we can’t describe in words but that we can feel. objective about anything where his own interests Feeling what the character on the screen feels are involved – that about sums it up. I’m interested is powerful. Even more so if we can’t identify in the brutal and violent nature of man because it’s the emotion but we know that we experienced a true picture of him. And any attempt to create so- a sudden connection. And if someone askes us cial institutions on a false view of the nature of man why, we are unable to describe it with anything is probably doomed to failure. (McGregor 1972) more than “Sometimes I feel like that as well.” Dumont and Kubrick share a common in- Th is feeling is divine. And what’s even more terest even though they stand on completely divine is that Dumont lets his characters in Th e diff erent sides. Since none of them have made Life Of Jesus experience the same feeling. Th ey their statements as a comment on colonialism are looking for us, the audience, who feels with but rather as comments on the characters they them. fi lm it doesn’t matter if they are noble or ignoble. “To think it more natural for a movement Th ere is a deeper thought that surpasses con- to be made or a phrase to be said like this than structs and classifi cations. Namely, that there like that is absurd, is meaningless in cinematog- is some truth to be found in people who are raphy.” (Bresson 1977, p. 4). However obvious exposed in their most primitive and brutal state. this might sound it is still very rare in cinema and this quote goes hand in hand with anoth- Dumont and Bresson er statement by Bresson. Nine-tenths of our Truth in the primitive is something used movements obey habit and automatism. “It is very widely in fi lmmaking and any kind of art anti-nature to subordinate them to will and to form. Bruno Dumont and Robert Bresson share thought.” (Bresson 1977, p. 11). Th is is all about not only this but also very many other similari- letting life corrupt and infi ltrate the sterile blue ties in their approach to fi lmmaking. Th ey have print of a fi lm production. Th ere is no escaping a similar idea about the power of cinema and in that we as viewers have certain expectations what way it should be used according to them. in cinema. We expect a certain reality on the To show this similarity I have decided to jux- screen however much it might derive from tapose quotes from Robert Bresson’s Notes on our natural behaviour in real life. It’s a silent cinematography with Th e Life Of Jesus. I believe contract between audience and screen. When this method will spread light over Dumont’s one character looks at another one it has to way of working and put his method in a (fi lm) be a marked look, oft en very unrealistic from historical perspective. how we’d behave in reality. Another reoccur- “DIVINATION – how can one not associ- [3] Borsboom, Ad, Th e Savage In European ate that name with the two sublime machines Social Th ought: A Prelude To Th e Conceptua- I use for my work? Camera and tape recorder lization Of Th e Divergent Peoples and Cultures carry me far away from the intelligence which Of Australia and Oceania.

IImagesmages XIX.inddXIX.indd 312312 22017-02-28017-02-28 16:58:0216:58:02 varia 313 ring example is when a character lift s an object if you detach it from what usually surrounds for closer inspection. In real life we probably it.” (Bresson 1977, p. 26). I have discussed this wouldn’t even touch the object, we’d see right earlier while describing how Dumont shoots away what is wrong or right with it. But for sex scenes in Th e Life Of Jesus but it is also use- the sake of camera movement and suspense ful while discussing the example when Freddy we accept this movement as believable. I’m not kicks the wall because it’s so simple. Th ere is trying to argue that dramatic quality goes hand a close up of Freddy in the hospital. He’s star- in hand with the ability to mimic reality. Th at is ing out of the window, observing the gardeners not the case. But very oft en certain movements working the bushes on the hospital grounds. or behaviour are removed from the actor’s be- A nurse enters and tells him it’s time for his haviour because it looks “weird” or “strange” EEG examination. Th e next shot is a wide shot in the camera. Unattractive movements. But of Freddy leaving the hospital gates on his bike. once we see these unattractive or complicat- He stops on the road and gets off his bike and ed movements that have no extra meaning starts kicking the wall. Aft er a while there is we are surprised and fascinated by them. It’s a medium shot of him where we see his face a fi ne balance between allowing strange life to while kicking. It’s so simple but I understand the enter the shooting but at the same time being atmosphere and the feeling of the whole fi lm. aware of the audience reading meaning from Aggressions are hidden and they burst out when everything shown. A good example of this is we least expect it. We have seen such scenes when Freddy in Th e Life Of Jesus has just left a million times before. Someone is unhappy the hospital aft er having had an Electroenceph- with something but instead of showing it he/she alography exam (EEG). He takes his motorbike hits the wall in the other room. But the way this and leaves the hospital area only to, aft er a few sequence is shot, directed and casted makes it meters, stop the engine, park on the sidewalk become fresh, new and unexpected. and take off his helmet. He then starts kicking “An actor needs to get out of himself in order the wall surrounding the hospital. His kicking to see himself in the other person. Your models, is methodical and never out of control. Th ere once outside themselves, will not be able to get is something strange about this behaviour but in again.” (Bresson 1977, p. 23). Bresson called I don’t really know what. I actually think that it his actors models. He was not interested in ac- only looks strange on screen. In reality I’d say tors acting something they were not and reap- it’s completely understandable. But since the pearing in several fi lms as diff erent characters. screen doesn’t show me how Freddy exits the He casted normal people who had a natural fi t hospital and slams the door shut and how he’s with the characters he had composed. Some- breathing heavily before starting to kick the times, probably oft en, the characters changed wall, I immediately react and look extra close. because the real person was so much more in- Whatever his behaviour, the action is concrete. teresting. He never wanted his models to act. Freddy kicks the wall. He hates his sickness and He just wanted them to be. “Model – preserved he hates the hospital. I just feel that this fi lm is from any obligation towards the art of drama.” trying to tell me something in a way that maybe (Bresson 1977, p. 29). Dumont uses a very similar I haven’t seen so many times before. Th is brings technique. For him casting is the most impor- me to another Bresson quote. “Th ings made tant and time-consuming element. It’s never more visible not by more light, but by the fresh about fi nding someone who can act the part angle at which I see them.” (Bresson 1977, p. 22). of Freddy; it’s always about fi nding a real Fred- According to me this has not only to do about dy. “I directed them based on what came from single shots but also about complete scenes within them… I observed their body language and in the end the entire fi lm. Th e quote can and composed my shots around it.” (Hughes be followed up by: “An old thing becomes new 2002). Th ere are no real actors in Th e Life Of Je-

IImagesmages XIX.inddXIX.indd 313313 22017-02-28017-02-28 16:58:0216:58:02 314 varia sus, there are just normal people modelling as maintain the authenticity and truth of a living space themselves because they fi t the part. I fi nd this with genuine history. (Pichené, Devanne 2003) approach very interesting because it touches Th is is not a safe way of working because the core of fi lmmaking. It erases the boarders they are not in complete control. Dumont pre- between documentary and fi ction. It’s about fers the ingenuity of non-actors who do not fi nding a person that is, in the best possible way, resort to performance tricks. Th ey don’t bring able to communicate what the director wants in a “prepared colour”. Non-actors convey with to say. It’s about real people and real emotions their real-life personality (which belongs to the meeting an audience made up of real people story) everything that is needed for the fi lm and real emotions. Th e eff ect, when successful, credibility. Acting virtuosity is prohibited. “I ex- is diffi cult to describe but it’s there, in the gut. pect nothing, I wait for a miracle to happen, “I can only form or shape what already exists. an accident,” (Pichené, Devanne 2003) he de- I need someone’s truth to push him/her to be clares. He knows exactly what he wants from the character. I can’t teach somebody how to be the actors, so improvisation is not welcomed. my character because I don’t choose someone to And he makes sure the actors do not know too be a character. I choose my character to fi t the much about the action planned in a scene to person acting, it’s like a sculpture, the character preserve spontaneity and surprises. He’s very springs from the person I’ve chosen to act and demanding with actors, pushing them to their the actor makes his/her own character. It’s very limits, against their resistance. And then being philosophical you see.”[4] Bresson says more or able to give up when it fails to happen, dropping less the same thing. “It would not be ridiculous the scene altogether. Th ere are a lot of wasted to say to your models: I am inventing you as you out-takes. He’s not constrained by script im- are.” (Bresson 1977, p. 14). peratives. He lets chance and accidents rewrite “To shoot extempore, with unknown model, the course of the story, according to what suc- in unforeseen places of the right kind for keep- ceeds or not during shooting. What he likes is ing me in a tense state of alert.” (Bresson 1977, to work where the sense is gone. Reality off ers p. 12) I believe that one of the most important the presence of things that do not imply a nar- duties of a director is to push every artistic ele- rative construction. Dumont struggles against ment outside the circle of safeness. By safeness construction. Dissipate sense. Prevent an actor I mean the comfort of repeating what we have to formulate meaning. Make the auteur (ego, done before, and know well enough, to not get gaze) vanish. Because the non- neutral audience too nervous or out of control about. A director is there, coming in with their own emotional needs to push an actor because the actor would load (desires), and a need of sense. Th e viewer by intuition and refl ex choose a safer road if in is “full”. Th e heart of the work is in the story charge. Th e diffi cult thing for the director is (conveyed by actors and scenes), the goal is to to push him/herself into unsafeness. Th e au- carry this story. Takes can be or should be me- dience will only feel unsafe if the character on diocre, unfi nished, spontaneous and real. Th ey the screen is unsafe. And it’s impossible to fake should move away from the overstated styliza- unsafeness. Dumont elaborates on this in the tion. He says “cut” when he feels the exposition context of set design. of the audience was suffi cient. Cinema is in the Th e most diffi cult is to make the set designer under- montage, that’s where Dumont gives meaning. stand he/she shouldn’t touch anything on location. Associating banal shots that will surge with an Aft er a long location scouting, the right place im- extraordinary exposure on the editing table by poses itself and should be preserved intact, thus dis- ways of confrontation with another fl at shot. missing all the intentions mentioned in script. Any Th e fi lm is a “viewer montage”. What is edited accentuation, characterization is out of question. Th e scenes will adapt to the real location instead, to [4] Conterio interviewing Dumont

IImagesmages XIX.inddXIX.indd 314314 22017-02-28017-02-28 16:58:0216:58:02 varia 315 isn’t what is seen on screen but the sensations, cially it requires huge amounts of money from culture, experience, sensibility inside the au- many diff erent sources tied to a crew of many dience. (Pichené, Devanne 2003). Th e thrill is diff erent people with diff erent responsibilities generated by an alteration of the viewer’s hab- who are all trying to pull the production in one its by projecting something unusual. Th e fi lm direction as smoothly as possible. And at the is a go-between, which leads the scenario and same time there is the director who fi ghts to mise-en-scene to operate from the audience. bring life and surprise into this controlled ma- chinery. Th e Life Of Jesus and Bruno Dumont’s Directing directing is a good example of this confl ict be- cause in its visual and audial form the fi lm is My fi lm is not cinema of reality. Reality does not very controlled but the actors are not. Well, the interest me. Th e representation of horror and love actors are controlled and directed but this life interests me. that we so desperately seek shines through them Bruno Dumont and not through the improvisations of intuitive camerawork. Th is is eventually what allows the For the director to be able to push the artis- camera to tell a diff erent story from what the tic elements outside the safe zone, he/she needs actors’ actions are telling. Dumont means that to be able to resign to intuition and emotions. the actors hold the truth of the scene so he, as Th is is only possible if extensive preparations the director, is there to make sure that they do have been made before the actual shooting and not deviate from who they are. “It is she (in this directing begins. It’s arriving on set knowing case an actress) who has the truth to her tears, exactly what you want and need to shoot and not me. I will not tell her to weep like this or like then allowing to improvise and loose yourself that. She walks like she wants and she cries like to intuition and emotion because there is al- she wants.” (Pichené, Devanne 2003) ways a safety net to fall back on. All the intel- Th e emotions are always very clear and lectual work has been done earlier so during direct. Th e spectra of manners in which they the shooting life and surprise is allowed to express themselves are not covered by irony, re-enter. Filmmaking is about confrontation sarcasm or emotional manipulation. Behind and allowing confrontation to happen. Th e these clear emotions, in the unconscious there confrontation between the fi lm and its audi- is a backdrop of existential doubts and urge ence, between what has been planned and what of meaning. But that backdrop never makes happens, between words written in a script and them analyse their own behaviour further or the actions of a casted actor. It is impossible to question their actions. Th ey never become predict all these confrontations, and trying to aware of the backdrop. So for directing actors control them is not only boring but it’s also an the whole idea of the unconscious backdrop attempt to prevent life from entering the art we is uninteresting and shouldn’t be presented to are trying to create. Art that is eventually about the actors as something they could use. Th e life. Bruno Dumont explains that he has always backdrop will exist in the fi nal fi lm thanks to liked working with people who contradict him. aware and good directing, camerawork, sound Th at he prefers working with strangers. “Almost and editing. Aft er having found a good cast for all my DOP’s normally shoot comedies. I’m not the character of Freddy, the actor only needs to interested in the guy who drank Pasolini all follow the narrative storyline and be himself in his life. I like confrontation because it’s really an artifi cial situation. Aft er Freddy has escaped rewarding.” (Pichené, Devanne 2003). I have from the police station he lies in the grass of always found this contradiction amazing be- a fi eld and watches the sky. He’s there because cause fi lmmaking, as I know it, is a production he doesn’t have anywhere to go and he doesn’t that requires a very high level of control. Finan- know what to do. Th e sequence is moving and

IImagesmages XIX.inddXIX.indd 315315 22017-02-28017-02-28 16:58:0216:58:02 316 varia profound on the screen. It shows how Freddy the drama, just like they don’t understand the is touched by the sun from the sky and is now title. It is very closely connected to the visual- fi nally able to become a better person since he is ization of the inarticulate mind not being able becoming aware of himself. But the actor never to make sense of intense emotions. Workwise acts anything of this. He’s just on the ground it’s a complete dictatorship where the director looking at the sky. Since the character is not yet provides the purpose and the actors follow or- aware of the deeper layers of his situation, the ders without questioning them or even knowing actor shouldn’t be so either. One of the trailers the greater purpose. It’s a paid job. It’s providing to Th e Life Of Jesus shows interviews with the a service and then someone else does some- actors. A cameraman asks if they know why thing else with that service. At the same time the fi lm is called Th e Life Of Jesus. Marjorie Dumont says that “I feel I have a political duty Cottreel who plays Marie says, “I’m not too sure. to reach out to the general public. I want to But I don’t think it has anything to do with the make fi lms that the people want to see. So if the fi lm.” David Douche who plays Freddy says “It’s people want to see Johnny Depp or Tom Cruise, called Th e Life Of Jesus because it’s about good then it is really my job to incorporate them into and evil.” Steve Smagghe who plays Robert says, my fi lms.” I wonder if that kind of collaboration “Why Th e Life Of Jesus? Well, I don’t know… would be possible? Th ere’s a lot of violence in the fi lm and all. I’m I guess the paradox of Bruno Dumont is not sure I understand the title.” Kader Chaatouf manifesting the return of cinema to the com- who plays Kader fi nishes the trailer by saying, mon human being but at the same time being “It’s about everyday life. About what happens very far from that same commonness. In his everyday.” At a quick glance and based on these latest fi lms I feel that Dumont is more and more answers it feels as if the actors are very similar letting his storytelling change. From simple sto- to the characters they portray in the fi lm. Th ere ries with divine undertones (Th e Life Of Jesus) is footage from the making of Mouchette (Bres- to divine stories with few undertones (Hadewi- son 1967) and the cameraman asks the actor jch, Outside Satan). Dumont’s main interest is Jean-Claude Guillbert about his experiences as religion but when his storylines become too an actor working with Bresson. “It’s mindless religious the religious comment becomes too work. I take no initiative. I don’t have to use my accessible and looses its mystery and thought brain at all, assuming I have one… It’s a tire- provoking power. At the same time the storyline some work, but we oft en do tiresome things becomes much less common, less accessible and if they pay well. It’s nothing to be ashamed of, more extraordinary. Th e power of his cinema it’s just mindless.” According to IMDB (www. is fi lming faces that truly don’t understand or imdb.com) David Douche (Freddy) has never even see the bigger drama that we, the audience, acted in another fi lm. Th ere are only two actors feel thanks to the fi lmmaking. When the faces that I have seen in more than one Dumont fi lm. have to understand the bigger perspective and From rumours I’ve heard that most of Dumont’s emotions, because it is part of the storyline the actors never wished to work with him again. eff ect disappears. We no longer feel that there is Th is kind of directing works almost exclu- a hidden communication that is not mentioned sively with amateur actors and not with pro- directly on screen. Or it becomes slightly too fessionals. It works where the actor doesn’t feel exaggerated like in Dumont’s latest fi lm Outside a great need to invest personally and provide Satan when a detached face (similar to Freddy) creative input. Th e rules are more or less what is a prophet able to perform miracles. I person- Jean-Claude Guillbert described his work to be ally feel that Freddy’s hidden and very subtle on the set of Mouchette. Th e eff ect is sometimes signs of prophecy in Th e Life Of Jesus are much amazing because there is a certain detachment stronger and more emotional because they nev- in the actors face. As if they didn’t understand er take centre stage. Th e directorial style and

IImagesmages XIX.inddXIX.indd 316316 22017-02-28017-02-28 16:58:0316:58:03 varia 317 the theme of the fi lms remain the same but the sentence is persuaded to return to his old com- choice of story has radically changed. I think munity and ‘normality’. What no one knows is Dumont was right when he said that the deep- that the boy does not yet feel he has been pun- er meaning of the fi lm needs to be covered by ished for his crime. Th is is a feeling buried deep a banal story so that the audience can access inside the main character and it takes the whole the fi lm. But when his storyline stopped being course of the fi lm for him to understand this accessible I fi nd myself struggling to even see brutal emotion. Th e journey of the main char- the deeper layers. Or maybe there are none. acter is a journey into himself. An exploration of a painful inner confl ict where one side of the Inspiration main character unconsciously strives towards Th e main goal of this thesis is for me to be destruction and the other side intuitively seeks able to connect its content to my own practical love and someone who can save him. work. By studying and writing about Th e Life Th e Here Aft er will be a realistic, contem- Of Jesus and Bruno Dumont I help defi ning and porary and unsentimental fi lm. A story told understanding my own fi eld of interest. Th e with cold images portraying characters that all emotional and thought provoking eff ect Th e suff er from numbness and the inability to ex- Life Of Jesus has had on me is an eff ect similar press their true feelings. Images that, even when to what I want audiences to have while watching events are extreme, will keep cool and ruthless- my fi lms. ly leave the audience to judge the characters Currently I am writing a feature fi lm script by their actions. In other words: a camera that called Th e Here Aft er. John, 17 years old, has doesn’t cry. Th is idea is connected to the loca- just been released from jail aft er having served tion in which the story takes place. Th e coun- a juvenile sentence for a murder he committed tryside and its nature will be used to portray the when he was 15. He returns home to his father inner state of the characters. Th e countryside who has done everything to set up a new be- will exist like a vacuum, almost devoid of people, ginning for his son. A new beginning with no silent and reserved on the surface, but fi lled room for the past. Only when John accidental- with paranoia and fear underneath. However, ly encounters the mother of the girl he killed through nature the main characters also fi nd does it become impossible for him to ignore comfort. Irrational nature becomes a sign of the fact that his crime is still very present in the life being too complicated to always rationally community. Still John tries to live according to understand. Th e camera will, like the nature, his father’s expectations and plans. He starts look at the characters without the moral and school, tries to spend time with old friends ethical system we base ourselves on. We are and even gets a new girlfriend. But pretending part of nature and not the other way around. to move on makes John become violent and We are part of something bigger that doesn’t self-destructive and his behaviour provokes understand the human confusion over aware- a lynch-like atmosphere in the small commu- ness and existence. Our prison is realizing that nity. And when fi nally the true feelings of hate we will never get an answer and we can only and fear surface in the people surrounding him save ourselves – something the main character John understands what needs to be done. He eventually understands. returns to the scene of the crime and confronts Music will be used sparsely and never in an the mother of the girl he killed, seeking what emotionally suggestive manner connected to he’s been lacking – punishment. the main character. Th e countryside is already Th e idea that continuously attracts me and fi lled with sound that will be used in a crea- that I want to explore through Th e Here Aft er, is tive way. An airplane passing by, trees falling the story of a teenager, almost a child, that has in a distance or the wind suddenly changing committed a murder and aft er having served his can equally strongly serve the drama in a scene

IImagesmages XIX.inddXIX.indd 317317 22017-02-28017-02-28 16:58:0316:58:03 318 varia without drawing attention to itself like music science makes the diff erence and we can relate does. Th is idea goes hand in hand with the to the internal confl icts that might follow. Am visual use of the countryside and the location I evil if I committed an evil act? Will I repeat taking the place of a character in the fi lm. Mu- what I did? Is it easier to do evil than good? sic will be used at very specifi c moments when Th e journey for the main character to fi nd out there are no human beings present. It will be makes us look at ourselves in relation to what’s used in small intermezzos as the seasons change happening on the screen. In this regard I have and nature takes on diff erent colors. At those been strongly inspired by Freddy in Th e Life moments the music will make itself heard and Of Jesus – a boy who commits an evil act but is not try to be unnoticeable. not evil. Th e evil act is a result of the confused Th e Here Aft er is a fi lm that aims to fi nd hu- mind unable to deal with feelings. Th is is of manity in places where we least expect it. A fi lm course not a character exclusively to be found that encourages its audiences to take a second in Th e Life Of Jesus. But it’s where I found him. look at people we’d rather not be compared with, I have chosen to set Th e Here Aft er on the because sometimes it hurts to understand that countryside where nature, isolation and dis- we are all very similar. Th e diff erence between tance can play a central part in the story. Th ere “us” and “them” is really very small. are many reasons for this. Some of them are in- Th emes dealing with evil and destructive spired by Th e Life Of Jesus and some of them are parts of human behavior have attracted, moved not. First of all it’s important and crucial for Th e and fascinated me for a long time. I have ex- Here Aft er to present a small community where plored it in two of my earlier short fi lms: Echo everybody knows each other and everybody and Without Snow. It was very much Th e Life knows that the main character has committed Of Jesus that inspired me to keep on exploring murder. Without this plot element I wouldn’t the complicated relationship and co-existence have a story. Mainly because it is not a story between good and bad. It also made me under- about the main character escaping from society stand how good the non-verbal, non-intellectu- or not wanting others to fi nd out about his past. al character (the common human being) works It’s a story about the main character dealing on the screen and in emotional connection with with what he is and eventually accepting him- the audience. For Th e Here Aft er it is extremely self. Just like in Th e Life Of Jesus I want to tell my important that the main character does not un- story and portray my characters in the context derstand his own feelings. Th at he suppresses of nature but I have no wish to make a religious them instead of dealing with them. Actually this comment or have my characters searching for is something most characters in Th e Here Aft er a non-existing God. Th e paradox of nature is suff er from. Th e intellectual explanation to this that it plays such a big part in our lives but at is that they are too scared of what they might the same time we are unable to connect with fi nd if they start digging into themselves. To it. Our consciousness and awareness allow us me it is a vital entrance point for the audience to not feel part of nature even though we are to connect with the fi lm’s characters. We are dependent upon it. Nature doesn’t judge us so drawn to search for meaning and explanation. we have to judge ourselves. In Th e Here Aft er the We wish for the internal confl ict to be solved main character fi nds comfort in nature because because then the character gains insight and it doesn’t judge him. But at the same time this can change by own force. Th e internal confl ict means that he has to judge himself. Th ere is is emotional. We can relate to an evil act but something religious about this argument but it’s we can’t relate to evil. Evil is fi nding pleasure in not forced. To some this might be the defi nition hurting others, mentally or physically, only for of the presence of God within us as a moral the sake of personal satisfaction. An evil act can, standard. To some it might just be the way it is. however be committed by anyone. Th e con- Our own little mental prison we struggle with

IImagesmages XIX.inddXIX.indd 318318 22017-02-28017-02-28 16:58:0316:58:03 varia 319 till we die and no one except human beings lift the big dog. It only becomes possible when John will have any understanding for it. Following helps him. John doesn’t ask any questions. He can see is a sequence from my script between John, his that Bosse knows what he’s doing. Th e animal fi nally mute grandfather and his younger brother that rests in Bosse’s arms and he starts walking towards the main entrance. John follows him but stays in I feel catches these ideas. the doorway when Bosse walks out into the garden Int. Martin’s farmhouse / Living room. Day without putting on his shoes. He carries the dog to the fi eld that starts where the garden ends. Th e old Bubbly saliva has gathered all around the dog’s man takes a step over the small ditch and is only lips and nose. Some of it has landed on the carpet able to, as gently as possible, throw the dog to the forming a small and pathetic puddle. Th e eyes are ground. He then starts walking back towards John wide open and looking in all possible directions as and the entrance of the house. Filip comes running if trying to escape from the skeletal holes they are and joins John. stuck in. Th e breathing is heavy but the mouth still closed. TINY, a big Rottweiler, is lying on the living Filip: I have the number. It’s in Backa but I think room fl oor, stuck in a motionless position she will that’s the closest one, right? Dad doesn’t answer never get out of. Th e panic in the animal is horrible his phone. just because the unawareness of the concept – panic. Bosse enters the house and walks past them. For this Rottweiler it is just another unexplainable emotional state. Tiny just is. Filip: What’s he doing? BOSSE (80 years old) is sitting in his resting chair, John puts on his shoes and walks out into the garden... watching his pet. He does nothing. He just stares. JOHN (17 years old) is sitting in the sofa, not really Ext. Martin’s farmhouse. Day doing anything diff erently from what Bosse is doing. …and towards the fi eld. Filip stays behind. John fi nds But John doesn’t have the same emotional calm. It’s Tiny in the high grass. Still breathing and behaving like he’d want to do something but does nothing. Or like when she was on the fl oor in the living room, but maybe he’s just ashamed of watching this kind of now in a much more uncomfortable position. Slightly suff ering. FILIP (13 years old) is sitting next to Tiny, on her back with one paw involuntarily reaching gently stroking her over the ribcage and stomach. He towards the sky. John just stands watching her until puts his head close to Tiny’s face and kisses her. he hears Filip screaming from the house. Filip: Should we call the veterinarian? Filip: Grandpa! Stop it! He looks up at Bosse. So does John. But they get no John turns around and sees Bosse approaching him answer. Filip continues with the impossible – trying with a shotgun. Bosse arrives, closes the weapon and to calm Tiny down. points the barrel towards Tiny. John only blinks when Filip: How old is she? the shot is fi red. Filip screams from the house. Tiny is dead. Bosse wakes up for a second and looks at Filip. He shrugs his shoulders and tries to say something but no Ext. Forest. Day words come out. He signals with one hand. Something like 20 years old. But in the end it’s diffi cult to tell John is carrying Tiny’s body in a black plastic bag. if he’s just fl ipping dirt from his fi ngers or actually He’s walking on a small path together with Bosse trying to communicate the age of his pet. who’s carrying a shovel. Filip: I’ll call the veterinarian. Th ey can come with Cut to: a car. I’ve seen it. A hole has been dug in the ground. Tiny’s body is Filip gets up when he gets no reply. uncovered and thrown into the hole. John looks at Bosse for confi rmation before he starts covering the Filip: I’ll just need to google the number. body. It’s a peaceful place. No human life in sight. He leaves the living room. A moment of nothing Bosse looks kind of bored and seems more interest- passes. Suddenly Bosse gets up and walks over to ed in the noise from a bird that can be heard from Tiny. He kneels down, with diffi culty, and tries to somewhere up in the trees.

IImagesmages XIX.inddXIX.indd 319319 22017-02-28017-02-28 16:58:0316:58:03 320 varia Even though John is not very active in this understanding of what it is they are taking part scene it has a huge eff ect on him in the context in. I want to rehearse a lot and I want to discuss of the fi lm and the murder he committed. For the story with them. Maybe not in the way I am the fi rst time he sees a person (his grandpa) who discussing it with myself but in a way where we acts concretely out of what is necessary. Th e dog can understand it together. I believe in building has no function anymore and should die. Th is a trustful relationship with the actors so that is something John fi nally believes should be I can later push them as far as I want knowing his fate as well. Bosse represents the cruelness that they will not leave the set even though the of life. We are born alone and we die alone. He set is ugly and painful. In comparison to Th e is mute just like nature and doesn’t feel judged Life Of Jesus I am looking to put the actors in by anyone. a more emotional state. Bruno Dumont can’t Th is way of thinking and discussing my own make Freddy cry because I don’t think the actor story makes it very easy for me to understand who plays Freddy would ever do it. He doesn’t how my camera should work. As I previous- know how to cry on demand so Dumont makes ly stated, the camera will take the role of the the story by only using behavior that the actor non-judgmental nature. To me it is about visu- is familiar with and ready to share. I very much alizing that thought and being able to use it for respect this way of working but I wouldn’t feel more than just theory. It’s an extension of the comfortable with it. I want my actors to do thought. Still it doesn’t yet tell me where exactly things they would normally not do in front of the camera should be placed but I don’t need to other people. But I don’t want them to fake it. know that yet. I can feel the rhythm and I can Just like Dumont, I believe that casting is key see the temperature of the images. I know that and the person casted holds the rights to his/her the moment when Bosse shoots the dog should tears. I am not allowed to ask them to cry like be shot like he was just giving the dog a piece this or like that. Th ey cry like they cry. But by of candy. Th e drama is in the scene and the building a trustful relationship I can push them camera does not need to underline it. Actually to experience their tears for real even though I believe that by not underlining it the dramat- the camera and the team is watching them. Still ic eff ect becomes even stronger. Th e camera they will know that it is for the good of the fi lm. speaks the language of the characters (Bosse We should all do what’s best for the fi lm and and John) and the language of the non-judg- not what is best for us. Kill the ego and serve mental nature. the fi lm. Th e choice of actors and the work executed A couple of years ago I made a short fi lm with them has to be as intuitive and organic as about an 18 year old boy who murdered a teen- possible. I don’t believe that there is any strict age girl and must relive his crime during theory that can be taught. Knowledge and the- a crime reconstruction led by a psychologist ory of how others work or have worked with and a meeting with the parents of the mur- actors can only be used as a door opener to dered girl. I wanted to make a short fi lm that a room where intuition and gut feeling is the would explore the darkest sides of the human essence. Trying to apply the way Bresson or being that were not to be connected with psy- Dumont work with actors to my own process chopathic behavior. In other words, I wanted would be a huge mistake and a ridiculous at- to make a fi lm about the darkness that exists tempt. Th at would be like trying to Google the in us all. I strongly believe that everyone is answer to people’s feelings instead of trying to able to commit horrible acts of pain, mental- co-exist with them. I need my actors to want to ly or physically, towards themselves or oth- act. Th ey don’t need to be actors but they need er people. I believe that this is in our nature to want to make a fi lm with me. I don’t want and that we very rarely are in control of this them to be indiff erent models that have little side of our behavior. It’s a side we do not feel

IImagesmages XIX.inddXIX.indd 320320 22017-02-28017-02-28 16:58:0316:58:03 varia 321 is part of us because we cannot control it. In him to imagine himself watching his mother the fi lm’s last scene the main character, Arek, being raped. Th en that he is raping a young meets the parents of the girl he murdered in girl and his parents are watching him. I kept a prison visiting room, which results in Arek telling him to imagine other similar scenarios having a complete break down. Arek’s break and suddenly start playing the sound fi le from down was to show his own inability to under- my computer of the female voice reading the stand what he has done. His own inability to mothers lines. I saw that this worked well on logically deal with his emotions of guilt and Arek and I started mixing her calm voice with fear. As if there was nothing left in him except the sounds of the man choking on his own animalistic fury, childish innocence and guilt. blood. I mixed it and played it for him dur- Th is was the scene I was most scared of doing. ing 20 minutes and then I stopped. Arek was I knew that this scene had to be a surprise to me now suff ering. I went over to him and started and I couldn’t control it. I knew that I couldn’t screaming at him to show me more. To show rehearse this scene because then it would be me more fear. I slapped him over the face and controlled and uninteresting. Th e scene would screamed at him repeatedly to show me more. take place one time and one time only, and I wanted him to show hate towards me. At the that would be during the shooting of it. But moment when I saw he was about to hit me one very important thing for me was to check back, I jumped at him and threw him to the if my 19 year old actor, Arek, was able to get to fl oor. I held him violently and told him to cry the emotional level that results in a complete like a child. And he did so. He broke down. break down. I decided to test him without any He was able to go from a little child crying other actors present just to see how far I could to very aggressive emotions if I just pushed push him. We sat down in a room and started him a bit in either direction. I let Arek rest talking about the scene fi rst. I explained to him for a few minutes and then I read some other how I pictured it and what emotions I thought scenes from the script with him and it was were going through his characters head. When amazing. Because of his break down he single he said that he more or less understood I told handedly managed to hit all the right emo- him to take a seat on a chair in the middle of tions in scenes that were not physically con- room and show me those feelings. I very coldly nected to the scene we had just rehearsed. At asked him to try to reach theses kinds of emo- that moment he discovered, on his own, what tions. He looked surprised at fi rst but then sat was the most important things for him in the down and started concentrating. While he was fi lm. Aft er this I knew that Arek was able to doing this, I turned on my computer and con- do the last scene of the script. But I also knew nected a pair of loud speakers to it. In a sound that I was never to rehearse that scene again program I had already prepared a sound fi le and not even talk about it. It would work by with a woman who, in a very monotone voice, itself. Th e one rehearsal we had was to give Arek is reading the lines of the mother in the scene. a trauma. To plant a trauma he could return I also had another sound fi le with the sound to when we shot the scene. Now he would be of a man who is choking on his own blood. very scared that he wouldn’t be able to return I got this sound from a video I found on the to his break down, and this I discovered was internet of a man who gets beaten in the head the best energy for him, because then he would several times and receives internal bleedings in truly break down. And he did. On the set before his throat and starts choking on his own blood we started shooting he was laying on the fl oor when he tries to breath through his mouth. It outside the room where we shot, not wanting sounds more or less like a pig. When I saw that to go in because he was so scared he wouldn’t Arek was ready (that he was seriously push- be able to return to the emotions he once had. ing himself towards painful emotions) I told At the end of the day I knew that I had shot

IImagesmages XIX.inddXIX.indd 321321 22017-02-28017-02-28 16:58:0316:58:03 322 varia something amazing. Th e actor knew it as well. that moved them or made their bodies extract By having established a relationship of trust we liquids. Be it tears, sweat, urine or vomit. It were able to resign to such extreme behavior. takes guts and bravery to dare the audience to Th is method can only be used with actors who feel and remember. are ready to give everything for a single pro- ject. I fi nd this to be mostly common among amateur actors and acting students. But I’m confi dent that the same way of working can references be used with any actor as long as they feel the project is worth investing in. I will always fi ght Films for the actor to be personally involved with the Mouchette, Robert Bresson, France 1967 character. Th e actor fi ghts against being hurt Th e Life of Jesus/La Vie de Jesus, Bruno Dumont, France (getting too involved), even subconsciously, 1998 Hadewijch, Bruno Dumont, France 2009 and I think it’s the directors work to push ac- Outside Satan/Hors Satan, Bruno Dumont, France 2011 tors into the unsafe. Th e Elephant Man, David Lynch, USA 1980 Forrest Gump, Robert Zemeckis, USA 1994 One fi nal thought I honestly want to make fi lms that have an Literature equally strong eff ect on its audience like Th e Borsboo A., 1988, Th e Savage in European Social Th ou- Life of Jesus had on me. Films that push the lan- ght: A Prelude to the Conceptualization of the Diver- gent Peoples and Cultures of Australia and Oceania, guage of fi lm forward and focus on pure emo- KILTV. tions even though the stories touch on themes Bresson R., 1977, Notes On Cinematography, Urizen that can be dissected and discussed for hours. Books New York. To me the greatest challenge of fi lmmaking is Rousseau, J.-J., 1992, Discourse on the Origin of Ine- to be able to look at my project (my fi lm that quality, Hanover. is developing through screenwriting, shooting Vermes G., 2001, Jesus the Jew. London. and editing) with a certain amount of distance. Wood A.W., 2008, Kantian Ethics, Cambridge, Th is certain amount of distance is equal to the Web pages & articles experience one person has while watching my Conterio M., 2008, An Interview with French fi lmmaker fi nished fi lm without having heard earlier what Bruno Dumont, , [dostęp: 4.07.2008]. one cares about the years it took me to fi n- Hall T., 2010, A conversation with Bruno Dumont, ish it or what I intended. What stays in that , [dostęp: my fi lm made? As I mentioned in the begin- 22/12/2010]. Hughes D., 2002, Bruno Dumont’s Bodies, , [dostęp: 13.03.2002]. or its director. What stayed in my mind aft er McGregor C., 1972, Nice Boy from the Bronx?, ”Th e New the screening were images and not the story. York Times” 30.01.1972. Images of bored faces looking at the empty Pichené J., Devanne L., 2003, Bruno Dumont, cinéa- landscape. Freddy and Marie having sex. Th e ste, interview issued for cinéma Désaxés and radio continuous riding on mopeds without any clear Libertaire, 14.09.2003, . er do anything lukewarm. I will keep pushing Walsh D., 1997, Interview with Bruno Dumont – Director myself just like I push my actors. In the end, of “Th e Life of Jesus”, the audience remembers images of moments [source page no longer exists].

IImagesmages XIX.inddXIX.indd 322322 22017-02-28017-02-28 16:58:0316:58:03 varia 323 Odyseusz z Ithaki Profesor Don Lawrence Fredericksen 1946–2015

marek hendrykowski Department of Film, Television and New Media Adam Mickiewicz University, Poznań, Poland

abstract. Hendrykowski Marek, Odyseusz z Ithaki. Profesor Don Lawrence Fredericksen 1946–2015 [Pro- metheus of Ithaca. Professor Donald Lawrence Fredericksen (–)]. „Images” vol. XIX, no. . Poznań . Adam Mickiewicz University Press. Pp. –. ISSN -X. DOI ./i....

Written on the fi rst anniversary of his death, this articleprofi les Profesor Don Lawrence Fredericksen, the renowned Cornell-educated director and a great friend to Poland and Poles. keywords: art of fi lm, psychoanalysis, Carl Gustav Jung, Ingmar Bergman, Polish cinema, Donald Lawrence Fredericksen, hommage, Andrzej Wajda, Krzysztof Zanussi, Cornell University

Pożegnaliśmy Profesora Dona Frederickse- rodzinnym stanem i małą ojczyzną Dona. Tam na, który odszedł od nas przedwcześnie w wie- się urodził i wychował, tam też, ilekroć tylko ku zaledwie sześćdziesięciu dziewięciu lat w po- rozliczne obowiązki akademickie na to pozwa- łowie maja ubiegłego roku. Wiadomość o Jego lały, wracał – mimo wielkich odległości, jakie odejściu pogrążyła w głębokim smutku wielu dzieliły jego strony rodzinne i dom dzieciństwa naukowców na całym świecie, w tym grono oraz wczesnej młodości od miejsca pracy. polskich przyjaciół profesorów, między inny- Swoje naukowe losy związał wkrótce po mi: Alicję Helman, Krystynę Węgłowską-Rzepę, studiach z miejscem szczególnym. Jego wybór Mirosława Przylipiaka i Jana Reka, których ser- padł na Ithakę w stanie Nowy Jork – miasto ca zaskarbił sobie i na trwałe pozyskał podczas uniwersyteckie będące siedzibą słynnego na swoich licznych pobytów i spotkań w Polsce. cały świat Cornell University, jednej z najpotęż- Don Fredericksen był wybitnym amerykań- niejszych i najlepszych uczelni wyższych w Sta- skim uczonym, fi lmoznawcą i psychologiem nach Zjednoczonych. Nie chodzi tylko o to, że analitycznym w jednej osobie. Przede wszyst- Cornell to ekstraklasa akademicka, tak zwany kim jednak ci, którzy się z nim bezpośrednio uniwersytet bluszczowy (Ivy University) – pre- zetknęli, pamiętają Go jako niezwykłego forma- stiżowa uczelnia o międzynarodowej renomie, tu osobowość łączącą w sobie wiedzę, mądrość, zaliczana od wielu dekad do najściślejszej elity ciepło wewnętrzne, kulturę i otwartość na najlepszych universytetów w rankingach ogól- drugiego człowieka. Artykuł niniejszy zawiera noświatowych. skromny z konieczności szkic do portretu tego Niezależnie od zaszczytnej przynależno- niezwykłego uczonego, który ma swój osobisty ści do Ligi Bluszczowej (Ivy League), Cornell udział również w rozwoju polskiego fi lmoznaw- University to o wiele więcej: bezpieczna przy- stwa i polskiej humanistyki. stań intelektualistów, emigrantów i rozbitków Maturę uzyskał w roku 1963 jako absolwent życiowych, którzy trafi ali tu już po pierwszej Mapleton High School w niewielkim mieście wojnie światowej, a potem bardzo licznie po Mapleton w stanie Oregon. Położony na pół- kataklizmie drugiej wojny światowej i Holocau- nocnym zachodzie Stanów Zjednoczonych, ście. Znajdywali tu swój duchowy azyl – miejsce, Oregon był miejscem szczególnie Mu bliskim: w którym można swobodnie wyrażać swe po-

IImagesmages XIX.inddXIX.indd 323323 22017-02-28017-02-28 16:58:0316:58:03 324 varia

glądy w całkowitym poczuciu bezpieczeństwa. Cornell University stało się znane z bardzo Genius loci tego ośrodka od dawna przyciąga wysokiego poziomu uprawianych na nim dy- też uczonych, dając im nie tylko zasobną we scyplin naukowych. Z powodzeniem konkuruje wszystko bibliotekę i najnowocześniejsze labo- z najlepszymi z najlepszych: Harvardem, Camb- ratoria, ale także warunki skupienia niezbędne ridge, Columbią, Princeton, Stanford i Yale. Nic w pracy naukowej. dziwnego, że po dzień dzisiejszy przyciąga zna- W Ithace znalazł się Fredericksen po ukoń- komitości z Ameryki i całego świata. czeniu studiów w roku 1971. Jedno z licznych Uważając siebie za duchowego ucznia Car- mniejszych miast rozrzuconych po wielkim la Gustava Junga, Don Fredericksen w swoim terytorium stanu Nowy Jork wyróżniało się podejściu do zagadnień psychoanalizy kon- spośród innych właśnie tym, iż od bardzo sekwentnie unikał postawy apologety, dzięki dawna stanowiło siedzibę znakomitego, sław- czemu ustrzegł się pseudonaukowego doktry- nego na cały świat uniwersytetu. Uniwersytet nerstwa, zachowując jednocześnie zdolność ten ufundowali w roku 1865 Ezra Cornell i An- twórczej kontynuacji nauk mistrza w odnie- drew Dickson White. Efekty ambitnego przed- sieniu do fi lmu i sztuki fi lmowej. W Polsce sięwzięcia przerosły najśmielsze oczekiwania. amerykański uczony został odkryty stosunko- Ciesząca się ogólnoświatową renomą uczelnia wo wcześnie dzięki prof. Alicji Helman, która przez dekady skupiała w swoich murach wiele pierwsza omówiła jego nowatorską koncepcję naukowych znakomitości, szczycąc się galerią związku między kinem a psychologią na ła- noblistów w dziedzinie nauk ścisłych, ekonomii, mach miesięcznika „Kino”, a następnie doko- medycyny. nała przekładu na język polski (Fredericksen To niewielkie, ale pełne uroku amerykań- 1992, s. 109–134)[1] klasycznego studium no- skie miasto od ponad stu pięćdziesięciu lat żyje szącego tytuł Jung/Sign/Symbol/Film, którego w organicznej symbiozie z uczelnią i jej środo- pierwodruk ukazał się w roku 1980 na łamach wiskiem. Jego specyfi czną atmosferę i duchową czasopisma „Quarterly Review of Film Studies” aurę bodaj najpełniej i najbardziej sugestyw- (Fredericksen 1980). nie opisał Vladimir Nabokov na kartach Lolity Uwagę badaczy, a zwłaszcza znawców (1955). W okresie powojennym przez dziesięć wczesnego kina i specjalistów zajmujących się lat Nabokov mieszkał w Ithace i pracował jako studiowaniem najstarszych początków teorii wykładowca literatury na Cornell University. Tu [1] Druga część tego studium w przekładzie również w latach 1947–1953 pisał swą powieść. Małgorzaty Owczarek, poświęcona analizie Właśnie jemu Ithaca zawdzięcza nieśmiertelny Pieśni Cejlonu, ukazała się w tomie zbiorowym: literacki portret miasta oraz środowiska akade- Interpretacja dzieła fi lmowego, pod red. Wiesława mickiego z połowy lat 50. XX wieku. Godzica, Kraków 1993, s. 93-100.

IImagesmages XIX.inddXIX.indd 324324 22017-02-28017-02-28 16:58:0316:58:03 varia 325 fi lmu, zwróciła również rozprawa doktorska Dona Fredericksena, poświęcona w całości analizie i reinterpretacji słynnej rozprawy jego kolegi po fachu, psychologa i fi lozofa Hugona Münsterberga. Pionierskie studium Münster- berga zatytułowane Th e Photoplay: A Psycholo- gical Study ukazało się po raz pierwszy w roku 1916 w nowojorskim wydawnictwie D. Appleton and Company, nie wzbudzając w swoim czasie większego zainteresowania. Po reedycji dokonanej przez Richarda Grif- fi tha, czyli tak zwanym „wydaniu doverskim” z roku 1970, Fredericksen odkrył dzieło Mün- sterberga na nowo, dokonując ponownego od- czytania jego doniosłej wartości intelektualnej i kulturowej. W gruncie rzeczy jego rozprawa stanowi rodzaj twórczego dialogu z wielkim poprzednikiem, który skądinąd jako repre- zentant racjonalizmu w psychologii w poglą- dach swoich zdecydowanie negował istnienie nieświadomości. Mimo tej podstawowej różni- cy stanowisk, a może właśnie dzięki niej, Th e Photoplay stał się dla współczesnego badacza z Cornell University punktem wyjścia i ważnym układem odniesienia w Jego dalszych studiach nad fi lmem i sztuką fi lmową jako symboliczną formą doświadczania liminalności. Pierwsza wizyta Dona Fredericksena w Pol- sce była właściwie krótkim rekonesansem. Po nim nastąpiły kolejne pobyty. Wkrótce dała o sobie znać rosnąca fascynacja naszym kra- jem, jego kulturą i ludźmi. Fredericksen nie znał języka polskiego i nie czytał po polsku. Ale za to z rosnącym zainteresowaniem i pasją czytał o Polsce i o Polakach wszystko, co uka- zywało się po angielsku: od Witkacego, Schul- za, Gombrowicza i Miłosza, poprzez Karskiego i Korbońskiego, do Lema, Kołakowskiego, Bar- toszewskiego, Kapuścińskiego, Zagajewskiego i Barańczaka. Wymieniam tutaj jedynie te lek- tury, na które osobiście się powoływał w ko- respondencji i rozmowach ze mną. Z czasem nieznany mu wcześniej kraj, z którym nie miał uprzednio żadnych kontaktów, stał się jego na- miętnością. Przez blisko dwadzieścia lat profesor Donald Lawrence Fredericksen ściśle współpracował

IImagesmages XIX.inddXIX.indd 325325 22017-02-28017-02-28 16:58:0316:58:03 326 varia z kilkoma ośrodkami akademickimi w Polsce: nie było już migotliwie przebiegającym i niepo- Uniwersytetem Łódzkim, Uniwersytetem Jagiel- znawalnie wariantywnym strumieniem wrażeń, lońskim, Instytutem Psychologii Uniwersytetu zależnym wyłącznie od indywidualnej psychiki Wrocławskiego[2] oraz, last but not least, z Kate- widza. Stało się ono – w przymierzu z koncepcją drą Filmu, Telewizji i Nowych Mediów Uniwer- Carla Gustava Junga – przeżyciem wspólnym. sytetu Adama Mickiewicza w Poznaniu. Wie- Jest oczywiste – stwierdził w cytowanym powyżej lokrotnie gościł we wszystkich tych ośrodkach wystąpieniu – że uprawiając historię fi lmu pró- jako profesor wizytujący, zapraszany na semina- bujemy odnaleźć w grupach dzieł pewne wzory ria i wykłady dla studentów. Brał aktywny udział rozwijające się w czasie. Wzory te można określać w organizowanych w Polsce międzynarodowych z wielu punktów widzenia. […] Wzory historyczne, sympozjach i konferencjach naukowych: w Ło- ustalone w tego rodzaju analizach funkcjonalnych, dzi, Wrocławiu, Toruniu i Poznaniu. W zależ- mogą nie przystawać do zmysłowej konkretności ności od tematu występował na nich w dwóch poszczególnych fi lmów bądź nie zgadzać się z tym, co stanowi o specyfi ce medium fi lmowego, jako że rolach: jako fi lmoznawca i jako psycholog. funkcje psychologiczne i antropologiczne, które wy- W końcu października 1996 roku, w Łodzi korzystuje się w historii fi lmu, często nie są swoiście był uczestnikiem międzynarodowego kongresu fi lmowe. Uważam więc, że słusznie postępujemy z okazji setnej rocznicy początków kinemato- oczekując, by w opisach wzorów funkcji psycholo- grafi i, gdzie wziął udział w panelu dyskusyjnym gicznych czy antropologicznych w fi lmie brano pod zatytułowanym Film w kulturze XX wieku, pre- uwagę właściwości estetyczne tego medium, przeja- zentując własny oryginalny punkt widzenia na wiające się historycznie zarówno w strukturze, jak fi lm jako medium komunikowania, dziedzinę i w teksturze dzieł (skorzystać można z uwag Tar- kowskiego, który w swoich esejach podkreśla zna- sztuki i rodzaj społecznego doświadczenia. Dru- czenie tych spraw). Mówię o tym, ponieważ mam kowana wersja wypowiedzi ukazała się w tomie świadomość, iż perspektywa Jungowska, w ramach pokonferencyjnym Kino ma 100 lat: dekada po której od piętnastu lat rozważam funkcje fi lmu, nie dekadzie pod redakcją Jana Reka i Elżbiety Os- wyklucza możliwości abstrahowania od struktury trowskiej. Mówił wówczas między innymi: i materii estetycznej. Być może ci, którzy zajmują inne stanowiska, również zmagają się z tą akade- W prezentowanym wystąpieniu chciałbym zwrócić micką skłonnością do uciekania w sferę czystej abs- uwagę na pewną funkcję fi lmu, której tu jeszcze trakcji, chętnie podyskutuję na ten temat, jako że nie omawialiśmy, a która jak najbardziej warta jest wyjaśnienia, którymi się posługujemy, mają swoje poważnego potraktowania. To, co zaprezentuję, jest własne wątki psychologiczne i estetyczne. częścią większego projektu, którego realizacją zaj- muję się od mniej więcej piętnastu lat. […] Chciał- Po czym, wchodząc w polemiczny dyskurs bym zająć się dość szczególnym wykorzystaniem z koncepcją poetyki historycznej fi lmu w wy- fi lmu do osiągania indywidualnych celów, które – daniu Davida Bordwella, wypowiedział zna- paradoksalnie – ma głęboką wartość psycholo- mienną tezę: giczną ponadindywidualną czy ponadjednostkową. Spróbuję zatem odpowiedzieć na pytanie, którym Istnienie w historii fi lmu psychologicznych i an- Siegfried Kracauer zakończył swoją Teorię fi lmu. tropologicznych wzorów funkcjonalnych jest Pytanie to, zadane w latach 60., było wówczas nie- faktem. Fakt ten musi być uznany, w przeciwnym zwykle istotne, a myślę, że i dziś nie straciło ono na bowiem razie każdy opis dziejów mediów będzie wartości. Mianowicie: jaki jest pożytek z przeżycia niekompletny, choćby poświęcał najwyższą uwagę fi lmowego? (Fredericksen 1998, s. 290). właściwościom estetycznym fi lmu. (Fredericksen 1998, s. 291) Związanie problematyki fi lmoznawczej z problematyką psychologiczną pozwoliło [2] Temat wieloletniej współpracy na polu teorii Fredericksenowi otworzyć nową perspektywę praktyki psychologii głębi, jaka łączyła prof. Fre- badawczą i uzyskać unikatowy wgląd w dzieło dericksena z tą placówką, kierowaną przez prof. fi lmowe jako specyfi czną postać międzyludzkiej Krystynę Węgłowską-Rzepę, zasługuje na osobne komunikacji. Przeżycie fi lmowe w jego ujęciu opracowanie w innym miejscu.

IImagesmages XIX.inddXIX.indd 326326 22017-02-28017-02-28 16:58:0416:58:04 varia 327 W roku 2001 prof. Fredericksen na zapro- nego Krakowa, ale jego wielką pasją stała się szenie organizatorów współorganizował z ra- Warszawa, zwłaszcza zaś hekatomba miasta mienia Cornell University polsko-amerykańską w roku 1944. Kiedy chodził ze mną ulicami konferencję naukową „Music and Film”, sta- stolicy, krok po kroku odkrywając tragiczną nowiącą część międzynarodowego festiwa- historię powstania warszawskiego, projekt na- lu pod tym samym tytułem, który odbył się szej wspólnej książki poświęconej w całości w Poznaniu. Wysłuchaliśmy wówczas szeregu fi lmowi Wajdy dopiero zaczynał się rysować. niezwykle interesujących wystąpień znawców Nie spodziewaliśmy się wtedy obaj i nie mo- tej problematyki, wśród nich: prof. Klaudii gliśmy nawet przypuszczać, że – zaintrygowa- Gorbman z University of Washington (autorki ny naszym pomysłem amerykańsko-polskiego klasycznej książki Unheard Melodies, 1987), prof. spojrzenia na powstanie z obu stron żelaznej Alicji Helman, Charlotte Greenspan, Krzysz- kurtyny – Andrzej Wajda napisze do mono- tofa Kozłowskiego, Tadeusza Szczepańskiego, grafi i Kanału nie tylko Wstęp, ale i Posłowie Iwony Sowińskiej oraz Krzysztofa Zanussiego, (Fredericksen, Hendrykowski 2007)[3]. Premie- który w swoim utrzymanym w bardzo osobi- ra książki odbyła się w pięćdziesiątą rocznicę stym tonie wystąpieniu wprowadził słuchaczy premiery fi lmu, którą uroczyście obchodzono w perypetie debiutanta przy realizacji Struk- w murach Muzeum Powstania Warszawskiego. tury kryształu oraz tajniki osobliwej alchemii Powróćmy jednak do wcześniejszych poby- późniejszej wieloletniej reżyserskiej współpra- tów amerykańskiego badacza w Polsce. W roku cy z Wojciechem Kilarem. Don Fredericksen 2002 Don Fredericksen gościł po raz kolejny mówił podczas tamtej konferencji o związkach na Uniwersytecie Adama Mickiewicza w Po- fi lmu i muzyki w twórczości fi lmowej Vikinga znaniu, gdzie wygłosił wykłady o Mai Deren Eggelinga. Materiały pokonferencyjne Music i o Swobodnym jeźdźcu. Był znakomitym mów- and Film ukazały się drukiem w postaci an- cą. Od pierwszej chwili zjednał sobie studen- glojęzycznego tomu zbiorowego (Music and tów, odsłaniając przed nimi aspekty i motywy Film… 2002). psychoanalityczne od dawna obecne w kinie Don Fredericksen zaprzyjaźnił się wówczas amerykańskim. Pytaniom nie było końca. Spot- serdecznie z poznańskimi fi lmoznawcami: Mi- kanie z gościem zaplanowane na dwie godziny kołajem Jazdonem, Anną Śliwińską i Julią Mi- przeciągnęło się do niemal pięciu i skończyło chałowską. Nawiązane nici przyjaźni sprawiły, późno w nocy. Całe szczęście, że w grafi ku zajęć że kilkanaście miesięcy później – jako recen- w sali wykładowej nie zaplanowano tego dnia zent wewnętrzny i doradca, a także członek niczego więcej. rady redakcyjnej – został ojcem chrzestnym Warto w tym miejscu dodać, iż został rów- nowo powstałego międzynarodowego czaso- nież zaproszony do jury Międzynarodowego pisma „IMAGES”, którego inauguracyjny nu- Festiwalu Sztuki Operatorskiej Camerimage mer ukazał się w roku 2003. Łamom „IMAGES” w Toruniu oraz jury Międzynarodowego Fe- pozostał wierny przez wszystkie następne lata. stiwalu Filmów Krótkometrażowych w Kra- W jego profesorskim gabinecie na Cornell Uni- kowie. Tamte pierwsze pobyty pozwoliły Mu versity komplet numerów „IMAGES” stał na bliżej poznać nasz kraj i kulturę. Już nie z fi l- półce usytuowany na wprost wzroku gospo- mów i lektur, lecz w bezpośrednim kontakcie. darza. Podczas jednego z nich dziennikarz telewizyjny Don lubił Wrocław, Gdańsk i Poznań, doce- Michał Chaciński nagrał z Nim długą rozmowę niał niezwykłą urodę architektoniczną Torunia o Polsce i polskim kinie emitowaną na antenie i unikatowy w skali światowej urok historycz- TVP Kultura. Z jego wiedzy obfi cie czerpali również pol- [3] Anglojęzyczna wersja monografi i ukazała się scy psycholodzy. Na Uniwersytecie Wrocław- pod tytułem: Wajda’s Kanal w tym samym roku. skim prof. Fredericksen gościł kilkakrotnie,

IImagesmages XIX.inddXIX.indd 327327 22017-02-28017-02-28 16:58:0416:58:04 328 varia prowadząc seminaria i warsztaty praktyczne diów w życiu człowieka. Od tamtego momentu z zakresu psychologii głębi. Materiał ilustra- w dziedzinie komunikowania bardzo wiele się cyjny demonstrowany podczas nich stanowiły wydarzyło i zmieniło. Doniosłość udziału elek- w znacznej mierze fi lmy. Wybrane utwory lub tronicznych środków przekazu we współczesnej też ich fragmenty traktował na zasadzie mode- cywilizacji jest dzisiaj faktem tyleż powszech- lowej ilustracji analizowanego przypadku bądź nym, co oczywistym. W różnych krajach roz- wzorca. Czerpał je z własnych doświadczeń ki- wój refl eksji badawczej nad mediami przeszedł nomana i psychoterapeuty w jednej osobie. znamienną ewolucję: od nie tak dawnej euforii Jeden z fi lmowych obrazów zajmował w jego nad dynamiką niebywałego postępu technolo- pamięci, jak się zdaje, miejsce szczególne. Jest gicznego do coraz bardziej wyrazistego scep- nim słynna scena ukazująca reakcję Elżbiety tycyzmu wobec przerostu i zalewu wszelkiego Vogler na telewizyjne zdjęcia aktu samospalenia typu informacji. mnicha buddyjskiego w Personie Ingmara Berg- Warto zwrócić uwagę, iż dziesiątki lat temu mana[4], o której pisał jako autor monografi i amerykański uczony z Cornell University do- książkowej tego dzieła. Książka o arcydziele strzegał już potencjalne zagrożenia i niebezpie- szwedzkiego mistrza zatytułowana Bergman’s czeństwa wynikające dla milionów użytkowni- “Persona”, pisana w Ithace w latach 2003–2004, ków z bezkrytycznego korzystania z mediów zainaugurowała dwujęzyczną serię Klasyka elektronicznych w życiu codziennym. Pisał Kina/Classics of Cinema, na którą składają się o tym i mówił wielokrotnie. Także na podsta- monografi e książkowe poświęcone analizie wie własnego doświadczenia. Sam osobiście i interpretacji wielkich fi lmów kina polskiego przeszedł w pewnym momencie głęboki kryzys i światowego. wewnętrzny, będący skutkiem niekontrolowa- Przywołana przed chwilą scena z Persony nej inwazji informacji docierających za pośred- stanowi modelowe przedstawienie w dziele nictwem sieci. Sprawa wymagała zastosowania artystycznym wstrząsu afatycznego, jakiego autoterapii. Zaprzyjaźnionych z nim korespon- pewnego dnia nieoczekiwanie doznaje żyjąca dentów uprzedził wówczas o okresowym „re- dotąd w ochronnym kokonie splendid isola- secie” psychicznym, jakiego musiał dokonać, tion bohaterka fi lmu. Można tu mówić wręcz by czasowo zamilknąć wobec świata i tą drogą o porażeniu osobowości, przed którą – w jej odzyskać utracone panowanie nad zaburzonym dotychczasowej normalnej, uporządkowanej, metabolizmem informacyjnym. nastawionej na siebie, wygodnej egzystencji, Obok Kanału Wajdy ulubionym polskim w spontanicznym akcie odzyskania wrażliwo- fi lmem Profesora, na który często się powoły- ści na świat i kontaktu z nim – nagle otwiera się wał w swoich wykładach dla amerykańskich otchłań bólu, cierpienia i współczucia dla dru- studentów i doktorantów, była Iluminacja giego człowieka. Wstrząsająca wiadomość. Ob- Krzysztofa Zanussiego (1973). Odnalazł w niej jawem wywołanego przez nią zaburzenia staje wiele bliskich mu wątków psychologicznych się niemota (symboliczna utrata języka przez i psychoanalitycznych. Zwłaszcza modelowy Elisabeth Vogler) i odmowa dalszego funkcjo- wprost przykład liminalności (progowości) za- nowania jak dotąd w obojętnym na wszystko pisanej przez twórców scenariusza i przez re- świecie. Istnieją takie wieści, po których – jak żysera w sposobie ukazania losów i kolejnych twierdził fi lozof Th eodor Adorno – nie sposób przeżyć bohatera. Bohater Iluminacji, Franci- wyobrazić sobie ludzkie życie obojętnie toczące szek Retman, w poszukiwaniu osobistej prawdy się dalej, tą samą co dawniej drogą. [4] Zob. znakomitą pogłębioną analizę psycholo- Dzieło Bergmana nakręcone w 1966 roku, giczną fi lmu Bergmana zaprezentowaną przez Dona podobnie jak Powiększenie Antonioniego, L. Fredericksena w jego autorskiej książce: Bergman’s odegrało prekursorską rolę w inspirowaniu „Persona”, inicjującej serię wydawniczą Klasyka Kina/ ogólnoludzkiej refl eksji nad znaczeniem me- Classics of Cinema. Poznań 2005.

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przechodzi na naszych oczach fazę pośrednią i kultur, umiejętnością przełamywania dystansu, między sobą jeszcze nie odnalezionym na nowo, głęboką mądrością, życzliwością a także bezpo- a już nie dotychczasowym. Wielka strata dla średniością kontaktu i, last but not least, nie- nas wszystkich, że nie powstanie monografi a zrównanym poczuciem humoru. Iluminacji autorstwa Dona Fredericksena, nad którą pracował od pewnego czasu z myślą o se- rii „Klasyka Kina”[5]. bibliografia Był wspaniałym ambasadorem kultury pol- skiej i promotorem polskiego kina w Cornell Fredericksen D.L., 1980, Jung/Sign/Symbol/Film. “Quar- University. Promował je nieustannie, z głębo- terly Review of Film Studies” Fall. Fredericksen D.L., 1992, Jung – Znak – Symbol – Film, kim wewnętrznym przekonaniem i zapałem. Na przeł. Alicja Helman, w: Panorama współczesnej prowadzonych przez Niego zajęciach nieustan- myśli fi lmowej, red. A. Helman. Kraków, s. 109–134. nie pojawiały nasze fi lmy, między innymi: Ka- Fredericksen D.L., 1993, Pieśni Cejlonu, przeł. M. Ow- nał, Eroica, Popiół i diament, Zezowate szczęście, czarek, w: Interpretacja dzieła fi lmowego, red. Pasażerka, Rejs, Iluminacja, Trzy kolory, Deka- W. Godzic, Kraków, s. 93–100. log oraz dokumenty: Krzysztofa Kieślowskiego, Fredericksen D.L., 1998, Wypowiedź w panelu „Film Marcela Łozińskiego, Marka Piwowskiego i in. w kulturze XX wieku”, w: Kino ma 100 lat: dekada Z czasem miało się to przemienić w oddzielny, po dekadzie, red. J. Rek, E. Ostrowska, Łódź. Fredericksen D.L., 2005, Bergman’s „Persona”, Seria poddany akademickim rygorom, dwuseme- “Klasyka Kina/Classics of Cinema”, Poznań. stralny kurs wykładów o historii polskiego fi lmu. Fredericksen D.L., 2008, „Iluminacja” Krzysztofa Za- Pamięć o Profesorze Donie L. Frederickse- nussiego: psychologiczna forma i duchowa diagno- nie będzie trwała w wielu sercach, które zjed- styka, przeł. T. Kłys, w: Kino polskie: reinterpreta- nywał sobie otwartością na ludzi, rzadko spoty- cje. Historia – ideologia – polityka, red. K. Klejsa kaną empatią na dzielące ich różnice obyczajów i E. Nurczyńska-Fidelska, Łódź. s. 165–174. Fredericksen D.L., Hendrykowski M., 2007, Kanał. Wstęp [5] Swoistą zapowiedź powstania monografi i i posłowie A. Wajda. Seria „Klasyka Kina”, Poznań. książkowej poświęconej „Iluminacji” stano- Gorbman C., 1987, Unheard Melodies. Narrative Film wi szkic interpretacyjny Dona Fredericksena: Music. London–Bloomington. Iluminacja” Krzysztofa Zanussiego: psychologiczna Music and Film, 2002, eds. by D.L Fredericksen, forma i duchowa diagnostyka. M. Hendrykowska, M. Hendrykowski, Poznań.

IImagesmages XIX.inddXIX.indd 329329 22017-02-28017-02-28 16:58:0416:58:04 Fot. Justyna Sulejewska

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