DOCUMENTARY FILM, OBSERVATIONAL STYLE AND POSTMODERN ANTHROPOLOGY IN SARDINIA: A VISUAL ANTHROPOLOGY SILVIO CARTA Department of Modern Languages and Cultures, University of Birmingham Thesis submitted for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy. I hereby declare that this thesis has not been submitted to this or any other University for another academic programme. 1 University of Birmingham Research Archive e-theses repository This unpublished thesis/dissertation is copyright of the author and/or third parties. The intellectual property rights of the author or third parties in respect of this work are as defined by The Copyright Designs and Patents Act 1988 or as modified by any successor legislation. Any use made of information contained in this thesis/dissertation must be in accordance with that legislation and must be properly acknowledged. Further distribution or reproduction in any format is prohibited without the permission of the copyright holder. TABLE OF CONTENTS ACKNOWLEDGMENTS ................................................................................................................................................ 4 ABSTRACT ...................................................................................................................................................................... 5 INTRODUCTION DOCUMENTARY FILM, OBSERVATIONAL STYLE AND POSTMODERN ANTHROPOLOGY IN SARDINIA ............................................................................................................................... 6 1 RATIONALE OF THE THESIS.......................................................................................................................................... 6 1.1 Problems of Perspective...................................................................................................................................... 9 2 VISUAL ANTHROPOLOGY........................................................................................................................................... 12 2.1 Rethinking Anthropology................................................................................................................................... 14 2.2 A Difficult Marriage.......................................................................................................................................... 16 3 ETHNOGRAPHIC FILM:BETWEEN ART AND SCIENCE ................................................................................................. 19 3.1 Observational Style ........................................................................................................................................... 23 4 HISTORICAL OVERVIEW............................................................................................................................................. 27 CONCLUSION ................................................................................................................................................................ 36 CHAPTER 1 REPRESENTATION OF CULTURE IN ETHNOGRAPHIC/DOCUMENTARY FILM.......... 37 1 IMAGINATIVE GEOGRAPHIES AND ANTHROPOLOGY .................................................................................................. 37 2 THE ILLUSTRATIVE VERSUS THE REVELATORY ......................................................................................................... 40 2.1 A Difference of “Another Order” ..................................................................................................................... 44 2.2 “Showing” and “Telling”................................................................................................................................. 48 3 NATURE AND NURTURE:PICTURES AND LANGUAGE ................................................................................................. 51 CONCLUSION ................................................................................................................................................................ 55 CHAPTER 2 ILLUSTRATIVE DOCUMENTARIES: A DOMINANT WAY OF SEEING............................. 56 1 SARDINIA IN FASCIST DOCUMENTARY FILMS (1922-45) ........................................................................................... 56 1.1 Fascism and Documentary Film ....................................................................................................................... 57 1.2 The Illustrative Mode of Fascism...................................................................................................................... 60 1.3 The Città di Fondazione (New Towns): Mussolinia di Sardegna, Carbonia and Fertilia di Sardegna. ........... 62 1.3.1 Fernando Cerchio’s Carbonia.......................................................................................................................................63 1.3.2 Raffaello Matarrazzo’s Mussolinia di Sardegna...........................................................................................................64 1.3.3 The “Old” and the “New”.............................................................................................................................................66 1.3.4 Gino Rovesti’s Fertilia di Sardegna.............................................................................................................................69 1.4 Fascist Documentary: a “Colonial” Gaze........................................................................................................ 71 2 VOICE-OVER AND PICTURESQUE:IL REGNO DEL SILENZIO AND VIAGGIO IN SARDEGNA........................................... 75 2.1 Il Regno del Silenzio.......................................................................................................................................... 78 2.2 Viaggio in Sardegna.......................................................................................................................................... 85 CONCLUSION ................................................................................................................................................................ 89 CHAPTER 3 VITTORIO DE SETA’S BANDITI A ORGOSOLO (1961): AN ANTHROPOLOGICAL FILM OR A FILM ABOUT ANTHROPOLOGY? ................................................................................................................ 92 1 BANDITI A ORGOSOLO ............................................................................................................................................... 93 1.1 Banditi’s Argument ........................................................................................................................................... 96 2 1.2 Italian in Place of Sardinian Speech............................................................................................................... 103 2 DE SETA’S WORKING PRACTICE .............................................................................................................................. 105 2.1 The Copernican Camera ................................................................................................................................. 112 CONCLUSION .............................................................................................................................................................. 117 CHAPTER 4 VISUAL ANTHROPOLOGY AND SENSORY ETHNOGRAPHY IN CONTEMPORARY SARDINIA: A FILM OF A DIFFERENT KIND ...................................................................................................... 119 1 TEMPUS DE BARISTAS.............................................................................................................................................. 120 1.1 Between Observational and Participatory Cinema......................................................................................... 123 2 EPISTEMOLOGY AND OPEN-ENDEDNESS................................................................................................................... 125 2.1 Filmmaker, Subjects, and Ethics ..................................................................................................................... 128 2.3 Unprivileged Camera and Long Take ............................................................................................................. 132 2.4 The Position of the Spectator .......................................................................................................................... 138 3 A DIFFERENT KIND OF KNOWLEDGE ....................................................................................................................... 141 3.1 Body and Senses: Corporeal Images............................................................................................................... 145 4 SENSORY ETHNOGRAPHY AS A FORM OF SELF-INSCRIPTION ................................................................................... 148 4.1 The “Eye” and the “I”.................................................................................................................................... 150 4.2 Speech and Existence ...................................................................................................................................... 155 5 SILENCE AND BEYOND:EMOTIONS AND TRANSCENDENCE...................................................................................... 158 CONCLUSION .............................................................................................................................................................. 161