Saturday, October 31, 2009
Word Study: Quasi
Politics vs. Violence in French Film Censorship
In 1955, just ten years after the defeat of Nazi Germany, concentration camp survivor Jean Cayrol boldly implied “that the horror [had] not ended but simply moved elsewhere, taking on a different form” in his narration of Alain Resnais’ revealing documentary Nuit et brouillard, or Night and fog (Nowell-Smith 332). Cayrol and Resnais seem to have had a specific, contemporary example in mind: “the brutal counter-revolutionary activities of French forces in Algeria” (Nowell-Smith 332).
It took eleven more years, however, after the making of Nuit et brouillard for a film exposé to be released about the French-Algerian conflict, with the backing of Italian director Gillo Pontecorvo (Imdb.com). Although the film is a fiction narrative, the documentary-styled Battle of Algiers (1966) was banned from France for a five-year period, and American and British versions cut out the torture scenes because of their anti-French implications, according to Wikipedia. It has been rumored that Pontecorvo opposed any romanticism of his main characters (both French and Algerian); nevertheless, there was some disagreement between the Italian screenwriter and Algiers as to how the story should be told (Wikipedia.org).
In comparing the receptions of both Nuit et brouillard and The Battle of Algiers, one would think that the former would have been more censored or suppressed by the French for its violent and graphic images. Although the film is centered on revealing the horrors of German concentration camps, it also shows “evidence of French collaboration in the Holocaust” (Nowell-Smith 332). These segments were censored, but this and the fact that it was dropped from any consideration at Cannes were the only government-implemented setbacks of the film’s screen life (Nowell-Smith 332). The Battle of Algiers, on the other hand, was banned altogether in France. While its images can at times be graphic and emotionally raw, its depiction of violence is not to the extremity shown in Resnais’ film (nor is it “real” footage, like Resnais’).
In light of this surface comparison, it can be surmised that political messages, no matter what the film format in which they were packaged, bore more weight in national cinemas (in this case, France’s) during the post-war period than any attempts to censor violence or other grotesque images. History testifies to the fact that politics, not ethics, reigned in film censorship: real-life footage of anti-Nazi violence films was allowed, staged-life resistance movements in French colonies was forbidden.
Documentaries of that era were already associated with political themes and propaganda, but the French – indeed, the Western world – seemed unprepared for such a forceful display of resistance and political statements in fiction, though Czech and other Eastern filmmakers (mostly those in the Soviet bloc) had already been doing so for years (Nowell-Smith 330). While their films mastered subtlety, however, The Battle of Algiers was unafraid to show its bias toward Algerian resisters, perhaps for the best, at least cinematically. It is now among the most widely acclaimed films of all time.
Nowell-Smith, Geoffrey. The Oxford History of World Cinema. Oxford, 1996. 330, 332.
Internet Movie Database. La battaglia di Algeri (The Battle of Algiers). http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0058946/
Internet Movie Database. Nuit et brouillard (Night and fog). http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0048434/
Wikipedia.org. The Battle of Algiers (film). http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Battle_of_Algiers_(film)
Friday, October 30, 2009
Battle of Algiers
The Battle of Algiers was a film that was made in such a way that it seems like a documentary rather than a narrative. Some of the elements of the film that added to the documentary style were the use of non-actors. Most of the characters were real people playing this role and that may have added to the gritty, real feel of the film. Another thing was the use of the zoom lens. The cinematographer would zoom into crowds from a great distance away; a technique that has been used in many documentaries when the camera doesn’t want to get too close to the action or cannot get to close. This happened primarily when the attacks were happening or the crowds were uprising. All of these techniques helped to provide the feeling of this film to one coinciding with documentaries.
Another different thing about this film was the role of women. In the scene with the three women abandoning their traditional garb and wearing modern, French clothes, there is a sense of empowerment and strength. The women would do anything for the sake of their country and some of them were deeply involved in the main conspiracy. They were a great symbol of power in a time when women weren’t thought to be in roles of power.
Word: Document - To document (verb) is to produce a document artifact by collecting and representing information.
Tuesday, October 27, 2009
Chronicle of a Summer
A Hop, Skip, and a Jump through the history of Documentary and Non-Fiction Film
Please add your own suggestions, film titles, excerpts, and resources!
To start off, here is one of the earliest "ethnographic" films, Robert Flaherty's silent documentary film Nanook of the North: A Story Of Life and Love In the Actual Arctic (1922) includes many staged sequences and is historically inaccurate. Yet, the film also grew out of Flaherty's observations and relationships with the Inuit community through his travels and work there. In the tradition of what would later be called salvage ethnography, Flaherty captured the struggles of the Inuk Nanook and his family in the Canadian arctic. Flaherty has been criticized for distorting the reality of his subjects' lives.
Flaherty has been criticized for deceptively portraying staged events as reality, yet staging events for the camera was the norm of documentary filmmakers of the time. With much of the action was staged for the camera, the film presents a romanticized and inaccurate view of Inuit life during the early 20th century. Some examples of the changes that Flaherty made are that "Nanook" was in fact named Allakariallak, while his "wife" as shown in the film was not actually Allakariallak's wife. And although Allakariallak normally used a gun when hunting, Flaherty encouraged him to hunt after the fashion of his recent ancestors in order to capture the way the Inuit lived before European influence. Flaherty also exaggerated the peril to Inuit hunters with his claim, often repeated, that Allakariallak had died of starvation two years after the film was completed, whereas it is now known that he more likely died of tuberculosis.
Flaherty defended his work by stating that a filmmaker must often distort a thing to catch its true spirit. Later filmmakers have pointed out that the only cameras available to Flaherty at the time were both large and immobile, making it impossible to effectively capture most interior shots or unstructured exterior scenes without significantly modifying the environment and subject action. For example, the Inuit crew had to build a special three-walled igloo for Flaherty's bulky camera so that there would be enough light for it to capture interior shots.
At the time, few "documentaries" had been made and there was little precedent to guide Flaherty's work. In addition, the colonial traveler/adventurer trope was quite prevalent as well as the romanticized and nostalgic narratives of the "other" (i.e. non-European and non-Caucasian). Since Flaherty's time, huge shifts (though many not huge enough) have occurred in terms of colonialism and post-colonialism as well as the politics of race, as well as ethnographic/anthropological study and self-representation. In documentary film, staging action and attempting to steer documentary action have come under intense scrutiny and have been the cause of many debates, controversy, and revisionist history. There are cinéma vérité purists who believe that reenactments deceive the audience, while others still hold to Flaherty's belief that a filmmaker, even a documentalist, is an artist who must steer and create his work of art in order to reveal the truth not always visible in straight-forward reportage. This position is most famously as stated by Werner Herzog in his manifesto, the "Minnesota Declaration: truth and fact in documentary cinema", which includes such statements as, "Cinema Verité confounds fact and truth, and thus plows only stones. And yet, facts sometimes have a strange and bizarre power that makes their inherent truth seem unbelievable. "Sunday, October 25, 2009
Word Study: Fin de Siecle
I was curious about the meaning of this word when I came across it in the reading.
fin de siècle |ˌfan də sēˈəkl(ə)|
adjective
relating to or characteristic of the end of a century, esp. the 19th century : fin-de-siècle art.
• decadent : there was a fin-de-siècle air in the club last night.
noun
the end of a century, esp. the 19th century.
ORIGIN French, ‘end of century.’
In a broader sense the expression fin de siècle is used to characterise anything that has an ominous mixture of opulence and/or decadence, combined with a shared prospect of unavoidable radical change or some approaching "end."
Word Study: Fascism
fascism |ˈfa sh ˌizəm| (also Fascism)
noun
an authoritarian and nationalistic right-wing system of government and social organization.
• (in general use) extreme right-wing, authoritarian, or intolerant views or practice.
The term Fascism was first used of the totalitarian right-wing nationalist regime of Mussolini in Italy (1922–43), and the regimes of the Nazis in Germany and Franco in Spain were also fascist. Fascism tends to include a belief in the supremacy of one national or ethnic group, a contempt for democracy, an insistence on obedience to a powerful leader, and a strong demagogic approach.
Word Study: Cahiers Group
More explanation on what the Cahiers Group is:
The critics of Cahiers du cinéma, like most left-leaning French intellectuals, were taken unawares by the massive revolutionary upsurge of May-June 1968. The revolutionary fervor of the French working class infused filmmakers, actors, technicians and students of cinema with rebellious enthusiasm. The Cahiers group gives an excellent account in its August 1968 issue (No. 203), "Estates General of Cinema." With the dissolution of the May-June movement, which had been effected by July, Cahiers du cinéma turned for political leadership to the French Communist Party (PCF). From this point forward, the Cahiers group's Marxism was characterized by its uncritical — albeit passive — acceptance of the political line of the party.
Word Study: Lithograph
I chose this word because I wanted a more detailed explanation of what a lithograph really is.
lithograph |ˈliθəˌgraf|
noun
a lithographic print.
verb [ trans. ]
print by lithography : [as adj. ] ( lithographed) a set of lithographed drawings.
ORIGIN early 19th cent.: back-formation from lithography .
The printing process which creates a lithograph is different from other traditional methods. Most printing presses require the printmaker to etch an image or text into metal plates or physically carve out the image on blocks of wood or other soft material. To create a lithograph, however, no etching is required. The artist uses a set of greasy crayons or pencils to draw a mirrored image of the original artwork onto a smooth stone tablet. This is by far the most time-consuming part of the lithograph process.
After the image has been recreated to the satisfaction of the original artist or other authority, it is ready to be turned into a lithograph. The lithographic process hinges on the principle that oil and water cannot mix. An oil-based variety of ink is applied directly to the plate and immediately bonds with the equally greasy crayon lines. Water is then wiped onto the remaining unpainted areas to discourage the ink from smearing. A sheet of paper, preferably one with a high cotton content, is then placed over the entire plate.
The inked stone or metal plate and the paper are placed in a press and light pressure is used to transfer some of the ink. If the original image were a monochrome pen and ink drawing, this would be the only press run necessary. A color lithograph of an elaborate Van Gogh painting, however, might require several different runs with up to four different color inks -- black, red, yellow and blue. The same paper would be placed precisely over the re-inked plates, eventually creating a satisfactory lithograph copy. This same process is used to create color pages in newspapers.
Since the process for creating a lithograph can be just as time-consuming and detailed as an original painting, printing runs are often kept low to preserve value. A signed lithograph may have a set of numbers expressed as a fraction on one corner, such as 12/300. This means that the lithograph was the twelfth one produced in a series limited to three hundred prints. Some famous artists, notably Salvador Dali and Pablo Picasso, were more than willing to authorize or create numerous lithographs during their lifetimes. Others are not always eager to see their work reproduced on a commercial scale, making it more difficult to find authorized lithographs from them.
Saturday, October 24, 2009
Animations to Sample
http://covertress.blogspot.com/2008/11/foreign-animation-film-fest.html
En Tus Brazos: This one is not dark, but still not for kids. It is sweet and kind of looks like a Tim Burton animation.
Bendito Machine 1&2: In the style of the shadow puppets we discussed. Black silhouetted figures against a colored background. This is definitely an animation made for adults. It has no dialogue and it seems to be a social/political commentary. I recommend this one!
Arka: This is definitely not a kids’ animation. It was not my favorite at first, but it becomes rather interesting. It’s a little slow starting off, but it is worth watching.
Animate:
| an·i·mate (ān'ə-māt') tr.v. an·i·mat·ed, an·i·mat·ing, an·i·mates 0. To give life to; fill with life. 0. To impart interest or zest to; enliven: "The party was animated by all kinds of men and women" (René Dubos). 0. To fill with spirit, courage, or resolution; encourage. See Synonyms at encourage. 0. To inspire to action; prompt. 0. To impart motion or activity to. 0. To make, design, or produce (a cartoon, for example) so as to create the illusion of motion. adj. (ān'ə-mĭt) 0. Possessing life; living. See Synonyms at living. 0. Of or relating to animal life as distinct from plant life. 0. Belonging to the class of nouns that stand for living things: The word dog is animate; the word car is inanimate. [Latin animāre, animāt-, from anima, soul; see anə- in Indo-European roots.] an'i·ma·cy n. |
Word Origin & History
animate (v.)
1538, "to fill with boldness or courage,"from L. animatus pp. of animare "give breath to," from anima "life, breath" (see animus). The adj. meaning "alive" is from 1605. Animated "full of activity" is from 1585. In ref. to "moving pictures" it dates from 1895; animation in the cinematographic sense is from 1912.
Online Etymology Dictionary, © 2001 Douglas Harper
Function: adjective
1 : possessing or characterized by life
2 : of or relating to animal life as opposed to plant life
Merriam-Webster's Medical Dictionary, © 2002 Merriam-Webster, Inc.
Antonyms:
1. kill. 7. dead.
Norman McLaren's "Synchromy"
In the late 1980s, British artist Robert Darroll truthfully stated on behalf of many experimental animators, “I am not interested in Film as visual literature . . . I am interested in Film as a visual process which can evoke, via physical awareness, also a metaphysical awareness” (Nowell-Smith 552). For many, music can lead to this kind of awareness, as well, and in his piece 1971 “Synchromy,” successful animator Norman McLaren plays with the evocation of visual music (Nowell-Smith 552).
For his original musical score, McLaren created a seven and a half minute animation of colorful lines and bars morphing (by color and height, in and outside of each other) in reaction to the staccato music (http://www.youtube.com/ watch?v=Jqz_tx1-xd4). The animation looks, essentially, like what a human brain would imagine the music would look like, if we could see it. Although “Synchromy” is simplistic in terms of content, its effect is mesmerizing, evoking psychological responses from the audience member as we watch “the music” move up and down, and respond as certain colors elicit various emotions.
As the title suggests, the film’s effect hinges on synchrony. The audience is invited to not only watch the bars and hear the music as they relate to each other, but become synchronized with them, as well. At times, the staccato score can pull the listener out of a trance-like state, and keep one on edge for a while, until their ears again adjust and the visuals lead them back into a false sense of comfort, or comfort in familiarity.
Although McLaren “enjoyed the greatest career of any” experimental animator, he was not the only artist who dabbled with “drawn soundtracks” (Nowell-Smith 552). Several years before “Synchromy,” German animator Oskar Fischinger’s “Composition in Blue” (1935) synchronized various sized shapes with a musical score (Nowell-Smith 273). While McLaren was fortunate enough to have the backing of his adopted country, Canada, and the National Film Board, Fischinger was not so lucky. The Nazis disapproved of abstract films, and Fischinger was obliged to screen his “Composition” without “proper permits” (Nowell-Smith 273). Canada, however, has maintained its prestige as a producer of quality animations, experimental or not, and we still have access to McLaren’s films – even on YouTube!
Nowell-Smith, Geoffrey. The Oxford History of World Cinema. Oxford, 1996. 273, 552.
Word Study: Synchromy/Synchrony
I looked up the word “synchromy” (or “synchromie” in French), and learned that this is not a real word! At least, according to the dictionary. Synchrony, however, is a word that is defined as “synchronistic occurrence, arrangement, or treatment,” and put more simply, occurrences that “happen, exist or arise at precisely the same time.” (Merriam Webster’s Collegiate Dictionary)Animation as Rebellion and Sexual Propaganda
Betty Boop, The Failed Femme Fatale of Animation
When I was growing up, Betty Boop was one of my favorite cartoon characters. My parents bought me tapes of her cartoons in black and white, some with dialogue and some with only music, and I would watch them entranced by the unrealistic yet seemingly possible stories and movement. They also bought me Betty Boop watches, cups, and clothes. After reading William Mortiz essay “Animation”, I see the subtle inappropriateness of my parents’ choice to encourage my viewing of Betty Boop cartoons.
Betty gained her stardom from the Willard Bowsky and Ted Sears hit Mysterious Moose, a story about “sexy Betty Bop falling in love with a seemingly magical Bimbo, who dances to Cab Calloway music but turns out to be an automaton; Bimbo’s mysterious charm stems partly from his continuous transformations, which follow a narrative logic, as when his masked heart shoots out to ‘steal’ Betty’s” (Mortiz 268). From the very beginning the best adjective to describe Boop was “sexy” and her inability to get around this description is what lead to her eventual demise, but that will come later.
After her first film, Boop starred in Minnie the Moocher, a result of Bowsky teaming up with Ralph Sommerville. In this film “Betty runs away from home because of her authoritarian parents, but encounters in a cave where she hides a ‘spook’ who brings the title song alive with images that demonstrate the evil wiles of the city and the ungrateful behavior of children: when kittens suck a mother cat dry, she offers them a bottle, which they transform into a hookah, while ghostly criminals re-enact cycles of crime, walking through prison bars, enjoying electrocution, and scoffing at the authorities as they begin their antics over again” (Mortiz 268). It is here that my parents’ choice to let me watch Betty Boop really comes into question, seeing as her second feature employed a number of unacceptable society wrongs. Cartoon characters enjoying hookah, committing crimes, enjoying the punishment meant to deter their deeds, and mocking the authorities that try to keep them in line, are not the type of role models that should be put on screen for children to watch. They are rebellious and unsuitable.
In her later years Boop became a casualty of the production code, which surprisingly enough targeted her sexuality more than anything, but quickly lead to her demise (Mortiz 268). Without her sexual presence, Boop fails to maintain a distinguishable character or capture the audience’s attention. She was unfortunately unable to adapt to the innuendos of the femme fatales in live action films at the time and therefore faded form the public eye.
International Sexuality in Animation
It was not only in the United States that animation characters where sexual, however. Anthony Gross, a British painter residing in Paris, created Joie de Vivre which “catches the essence of the art deco inter-war decades” (Mortiz 274), but also maintains a very sensual flow of movement (very similar to that of Betty Boop) by the two women. Gross also comes dangerously close to lifting their skirts too far up in his use of clothing as an extension of their movement. He even turns them into flowers at one point, further building on their all white outfits, to establish their pure and virginal visual status.
Animation as an Excuse for Social Rebellion
In Germany the rebellion prior to World War II was less sexual and more aimed at fighting the oppression coming from the Nazi’s. As Germany became poor and more secluded from the world, the government ordered studios to make animations to fill the gap created by the lack of Disney films being imported. Hans Fischkoesen, who had been working with animation in advertising, stepped up to the challenge, and created three German animations that would stand the test of time (Mortiz 274). “Fischerkoesen was an anti-Nazi pacifist, and he managed to charge all three films with a subversive message, which because of the films’ technical brilliance, could not be suppressed” (Mortiz 274). The films employed Jazz, which had been outlawed at the time in Germany, as well as story lines that spoke strongly against the complacency of German citizens (Mortiz 274). The fact that the Nazi’s dismissed Frischkoesen’s treasonous themes and music is a statement to the accomplishments of his animations. Under a regime as notorious as Germany approaching World War II nothing was allowed to slide if it offended the government, so these animations stand in a league of their own, where art actually outweighs the law.
Aesopic
According to the American Heritage Dictionary of English Language Fourth Edition, Aesopic means:
1. Relating to or characteristic of the animal fables of Aesop
2. Using or having ambiguous or allegorical meanings, especially to elude political censorship
The word was first used to describe the types of strategies used by European filmmakers in the post-war era on page 633 in Marek Hendrkowski’s Essay “Changing States in East Central Europe”.
In the segment “Aesopic Film Language”, Hendrkowski discusses the necessity filmmakers found to use “subtle metaphors, symbols, allusions, subtext,and understatements” (632). In cinema, allegories are often used in place of blunt statements as both a way of entertaining audiences, but also in some cases a method of disguised communication under an oppressive government.
The idea also transfers into animation itself because many times animals are used as the primary characters in cartoons to tell children stories that have a deeper lesson and therefore become an allegory.
Work Cited
Hendrkowski, Marek. “Changing States in East Central Europe”. The Oxford History of world Cinema: The Definitive History of Cinema Worldwide. Ed. Geoffrey Nowell-Smith. New York: Oxford University Press, 1996. 267-275. Print.
Mortiz, William. “Animation”. The Oxford History of World Cinema: The Definitive History of Cinema Worldwide. Ed. Geoffrey Nowell-Smith. New York: Oxford University Press, 1996. 267-275. Print.
Friday, October 23, 2009
A Generalization Nation
In the theme of this week’s discussion about European animation, I decided to research a little farther into the current state of European animation. I came across this interesting article about the movement’s status. Recently, many “ proactive steps [have been] taken by the governments of these countries by offering a range of tax breaks” that allow animation studios to start producing for television. Thus, more animation projects have been more suited for the general population, but “still has not achieved the popularity and global appeal of their American counterparts.”
One intriguing point in the article is about the global success of these animations.
“There are very few European films with trans-national success. This is partly due to the diverse cultural backgrounds. However this is undergoing change with a small number of local European productions enjoying European and global success" in the animation industry.
Citation:
Wood, Laura. “Understand the European Animation Industry, and Current Strategies, Trends and Opportunities.” (Aug 19, 2008) from Business Wire. http://www.reuters.com/article/pressRelease/idUS150184+19-Aug-2008+BW20080819
General:
adj
1. relating to or including all or nearly all of the members of a category or group, or all or nearly all parts of a whole
2. applying or happening in most cases
3. shared or participated in by many
4. having a varied content or wide scope
5. not specialized, or lacking specialized knowledge
6. not specific, detailed, or clearly defined
7. with overall authority or of superior rank
n
1. a military rank above a lieutenant general, or an officer who holds this rank
2. See general officer
3. a general anesthetic (informal)
4. a general hospital (informal)
5. a general principle or fact (archaic) (usually plural)
6. the public as a whole (archaic)
Encarta® World English Dictionary © 1999 Microsoft Corporation. All rights reserved. Developed for Microsoft by Bloomsbury Publishing Plc.
Citizen Jane and animation
First off, I’d like to say how fun and amazing Citizen Jane was this year. I was a liaison and at first I thought that it wouldn’t be much good because the first two filmmakers I met were very independent and liked to keep to themselves. However, the last filmmaker I met was Beth Mickle. She was an awesome person to talk to and get to know. She’s been the production designer for several features. We’re both very creative and I love building my own things as well for my productions so we talked about cool and inventive ways to make things and “cheat” as we called it. We ended up talking about the Lord of the Rings production design and how she would’ve loved to help with that. It turns out that she had some friends that worked on the design of those films and she has a brother who is a director.
Making this contact at the film festival was the high light of my weekend. Beth gave me her email address and told me to email her if I ever had a question or if I’m ever in New York to join her for drinks some time. It’s just really exciting for me to get to know film people and be able to connect with them.
Okay, now onto talk about animation. When I read to book I found that European animation was more experimental and not all of it was for kids like the American animation. Something I found that probably influenced this was the fact that America only had two main studios doing animation; Disney and Warner Brothers. In Europe, there were more independent studios that would make animation and they had more freedom to do what they wanted.
One of the most memorable things I read was something about Japanese animation. There had been a small animation with a cartoon drawing that had been set aflame and this person on the paper was trying to stay away from the flame so he could live for as long as possible. Someone had commented that this was an allusion about the atomic bomb that hit Japan after WWII. These sort of things showed me that the animation of different countries aren’t afraid to talk about deeper issues and politics with their animation, thus explaining why the animation in Japan is for adults as well as kids.
Animation - Animation is the rapid display of a sequence of images of 2-D or 3-D artwork or model positions in order to create an illusion of movement. It is an optical illusion of motion due to the phenomenon of persistence of vision, and can be created and demonstrated in a number of ways. The most common method of presenting animation is as a motion picture or video program, although several other forms of presenting animation also exist.
Wednesday, October 21, 2009
Oskar Fischinger
At a time when most people equated animation with Mickey Mouse, Oskar Fischinger's abstract films were taking animation in a new, challenging direction. Listen to this NPR story about his work (click here).
Some more animation
Walter Ruttmann (28 December 1887 – 15 July 1941) was a German film director and along with Hans Richter and Viking Eggeling was an early German practitioner of experimental film. Ruttmann studied architecture and painting and worked as a graphic designer. His film career began in the early 1920s. His first abstract short films, "Opus I" (1921) and "Opus II" (1923), were experiments with new forms of film expression, and the influence of these early abstract films is especially obvious in the work of Oskar Fischinger in the 1930s. Ruttmann was a prominent exponent of both avant-garde art and music, though he is best remembered for Berlin: Die Sinfonie der Großstadt (Berlin: Symphony of a Great City) from 1927. During the Nazi period, he worked as an assistant to director Leni Riefenstahl on Triumph of the Will (1935). He died in Berlin.
More animation: Joie de Vivre (1934)
The popularity of Walt Disney's cartoons in the 1930s encouraged many artists in Europe to produce figurative animation for adult audiences. These films helped establish the art form, although none of the artists involved were able to match Disney's wide distribution and economic success.
Anthony Gross is best known as a print-maker and painter. The animated films he made with Hector Hoppin reflect his distinctive graphic style, but add a sophisticated choreography of the movement of lines in space. The escapist theme of Joie de Vivre developed from an earlier suite of etchings called Sortie d'Usine (Coming Out of the Factory) 1931.
Anthony Gross was born in 1905. He studied at the Slade School of Art and Central School of Art, London, and the Academie Julian, Paris. He settled in Paris in 1926, exhibiting prints and illustrating books then, inspired by Disney cartoons, began making animated films in the 1930s with Hector Hoppin. His filmmaking was supported by Alexander Korda until the Second World War intervened. A distinguished war artist, he afterwards returned to painting and printmaking, teaching the latter at the Slade till 1971. He died at Le Boulve, France in 1984.
Shadow puppets and animation...
I showed an example of Wayang Kulit in order to show how this art form might have influenced Lotte Reiniger's cut-out silhouette animation.
Here is a excerpt of a Wayang Kulit performance.
Here is an excerpt from Lotte Reiniger's best known work, The Adventures of Prince Achmed.
Here is a little background on Lotte Reiniger - a talented and unique filmmaker and female artist (from Jeremy Heilman's blog)
Lotte Reiniger, like many German expatriate filmmakers whose film work began during the silent era, had a long and multi-chaptered career. She designed title cards for many silent films, including Paul Wegener’s The Pied Piper of Hamelin. She co-directed Running After Luck, a live-action feature starring Jean Renoir. She and her husband continued to collaborate with Renoir, working on the scripts of Grand Illusion, The Rules of the Game, and La Marseillaise. She co-wrote Girl of the Golden West, Italy’s first Spaghetti Western.
These significant accomplishments are only footnotes in Reiniger’s career, however. Her place in cinema’s history is clear and immutable. She is famed as an animator of a remarkable series of silhouette films. She took black cardboard cutouts, with moveable joints fastened by thread, and brought them to life through her distinctive, whimsical style. Decades after they were conceived, her silhouette artistry still maintains its considerable magic. From her fairy tale shorts, to her crowning achievement, The Adventures of Prince Achmed, her work has a timeless charm that feels at once delicate and sophisticated.
Reiniger’s animated work, made with the tiniest of crews, is characterized by several qualities. Her films feature remarkably fluid motion effects, which were achieved through manual manipulation of the cutouts. These cutouts were intricately detailed, lending them an uncanny verisimilitude. Beautiful, ornamental lattice work and ostentatious curves are typical features of their design. The films’ backgrounds contrast with the black silhouettes to achieve a chiaroscuro effect, which is further enhanced by the presence of gray details on the white or tinted backdrops. Even when Reiniger later experimented with full-color films, only her backdrops were colorized. Her black silhouette figures remained.
The Adventures of Prince Achmed, which was released in 1926, is undoubtedly the fullest expression of Reiniger’s talent. The oldest surviving animated feature film, it has significant historical importance, and yet its virtues extend far beyond that. This simple fairy tale draws its inspiration from “The Arabian Nights”. It tells the story of a gallant prince who is tricked by a sorcerer into being transported away from his homeland on a magical mechanical horse. The rest of the movie details his journey home, as he confronts demons and finds true love. It’s a simple, but strong, plot, which provides a perfect framework for Reiniger to showcase her art.
Reiniger would use such fairy tales throughout the rest of her career, melding the bold simplicity of their narratives to the same elements in her visual style. A series of fairy tale shorts, made mostly in 1954-1955 saw her revisiting this fertile ground. In this series of silhouette films, each about ten minutes long, she managed to relay stories that have inspired many feature films with a great deal of class and economy.
What most distinguishes Reiniger’s work, beyond its striking visual style, is its meticulous attention to detail. Her cutouts are lifelike in ways that constantly surprise. Take, for example, the moment in The Frog Prince when the King calls his three daughters to his chambers. Each is asked to catch a golden ball, which will prophesize a happy marriage for one of them. After the youngest daughter catches the ball, the scene should, by all rights, end immediately, but Reiniger allows her camera to linger. She registers the disappointment of the two princesses left behind. This fleeting moment gives a small demonstration of Reiniger’s humanism and her ability to conjure surprise in a medium that relies entirely on pre-meditation.
Such brief epiphanies are common throughout Reiniger’s work, however. Hansel and Gretel stop their narrative cold so they can contemplate nature. When an old man regrets his wife’s waste of a wish, a slapstick sequence involving some sausages and her nose unexpectedly takes over The Three Wishes. The attention to detail in each gesture astounds. This element of wit and simple sense of humanity keep Reiniger’s work feeling fresh, even in an age when Flash-based animation could be used to achieve the same visual effect easily.
Precious little in modern animation has the consistency of vision that Reiniger’s studies in profile do. So many of today’s animated films consist of empty pop-culture references and hyperactive style, while her films offer a timeless charm. They are old, but they can’t fairly be classified as quaint. No excuses need be made for them, and their fanciful, almost abstract subject matter is perfectly suited to Reiniger’s treatment. Her work reminds us that it’s the simple illusion of movement that provides so much of our so-called movie magic.
Citizen Jane!
This year’s Citizen Jane Film Festival was a lot of fun. I had intimate knowledge of the planning of the festival, so I know how much work went into it, and I think it was pulled off well. I didn’t get to go to the opening night film because I was working the Ragtag merch table, but I heard it went really well and that the party after was fun. I saw the stop motion animated film $9.99. I think this was a really beautiful and meaningful film. The story was intricate and moving. It is about tenants of an apartment building, and how tiny things in their lives intertwine, and even though Dave never gets to read his book about the meaning of life, I think we learn a little bit about it through the film. I think the major message of the film is to just be happy. Dave teaches his dad to swim like a dolphin, the little boy frees his piggy bank, Lenny shaves himself completely to be with the supermodel, the old man gets out and enjoys life by traveling abroad. This film is about finding the happiness you seek without knowing. The animation was beautiful, and definitely allows the story to go in places it couldn’t if it were live action. One of the illustrators from the film, Shira Derman spoke after the film, and she talked about the author of the stories and the painstaking processes that went into making the film, and how the puppets were made. I think it added a lot to get to see her after the film, I feel like I learned a lot about how stop motion is done. I also saw Cold Souls, with Paul Giamatti. I really liked the concept of this film, and it had a very cold look to it, that made me feel really distant and sad the whole time. I did like the film, it had a beautiful look, but seemed very slow and yet almost too fast at times. It didn’t seem like he spent nearly enough time considering the removal of his soul. He tries out soullessness and a replacement soul before finally getting his own back. His story is intertwined with a Russian ‘soul mule’ who helps him out in the end. But when he tries to return the favor, he finds there is no real way of saving her. It ends on a very melancholic tone. There was really no joy in the film, and yet I think it had almost a similar message to the previous film. This one is about accepting who you are, in essence. Beth Mickle spoke afterwards about the set design, and I thought her ideas about the way the souls office should look were really interesting, I would probably never have thought to give it a retro futuristic look, I would have just gone futuristic, but I think the retro thing totally works with the film, it gives it a unity it would not have otherwise had. I also worked the merch table at the Tiny Circus/Videology party. The Tiny Circus films were really cute, and I liked the one they made at Columbia, but I felt really bad for the flower. The rest of the party was a little boring for me at first because I was just working merch and no one came to buy anything. I got really addicted to the rosemary lemonade though. But the party was fun later on because Lydia danced with me for a little while. The videology was really well done, the songs all flowed really well and introduced me to new music. I would recommend getting Darrel to do Videology at just about anything in the future. Overall, it was a great weekend, and I had a lot of fun, I’m sad I won’t be here next year!
Sunday, October 11, 2009
WORD Enlightenment
id·i·o·syn·cra·sy (d--sngkr-s)
n. pl. id·i·o·syn·cra·sies
1. A structural or behavioral characteristic peculiar to an individual or group.
2. A physiological or temperamental peculiarity.
3. An unusual individual reaction to food or a drug.
[Greek idiosunkrsi : idio-, idio- + sunkrsis, mixture, temperament (sun-, syn- + krsis, a mixing; see ker- in Indo-European roots).]
idi·o·syn·cratic (-sn-krtk) adj.
idi·o·syn·crati·cal·ly adv.
Germany's Hell-of-a Honeymoon
The Marriage of Maria Braun (Die Ehe der Maria Braun)
Let me begin by stating the obvious, The Marriage of Maria Braun is an epic entertainment piece—laughs included—demonstrating the trauma of Hitler’s collapsing Germany. I feel this film succeeds as a theatrical brilliance by successfully combining both a comedic and traumatic tone (not to mention Fassbinder’s plethora of death, money and sex!). The film clearly represents Germany’s ‘desire for a deeper historical understanding of West Germany’s repressed past’ around the late 1970s when events concerning Hitler’s rule began resurfacing through terroristic deaths/kidnappings (The Oxford History of World Cinema). Rainer Werner Fassbinder digs deep into the late1940s Germany through Maria—an emotionless newly-wed whom eventually trades in her morality for economic wealth and then proceeds to lose it all at the peak of her power. The dynamics of her character are extreme and effectively represents Germany’s attempt at wealth and growth by any means necessary. Maria grows apart from everything and everyone she has ever known, shoving it in the past without looking back. The readings are easily comparable with the film as Maria demonstrates a desperate Germany attempting to reconstruct by merely forgetting the agonizing events of the past. Material wealth is meaningless without the true presence of happiness. Both meet their undeniable fate. Germany’s disregard to explore and accept psychological and physical debt brings overwhelming consequences later when the past can no longer be suppressed. Maria is constantly focused on nothing more than her materialistic image; she eventually forgets even the simplest tasks such as turning off the stove. Artificial confidence ultimately provokes a preventable ‘explosion’, exposing the weakness of a failed identity.
Sunday, October 4, 2009
Korean Artists in Paris
It moved slowly and didn’t have much action to keep an appeal. It did make me wonder about Korean artists in Paris. The cast was Korean and many of them were artists. I found an article entitled, Korean Artists in Paris (Lee Ji-yoon, Dec 2008)
I found that many Korean artists have contributed to works of art in Paris.
“Park pointed out the family atmosphere of the city's Korean art community as the most special thing about Paris. "Unlike New York, Korean artists in Paris get along one another like family members. We don't hesitate to talk about works of others and accept their advice very sincerely."
I also found it interesting in the article that contemporary Korean art has been overshadowed by Japanese and Chinese art in the international art scene. It seems that the Korean art culture is gaining special attention in Paris and is represented more and more.
I chose the word, contemporary. It’s a word we often hear but what is the definition of contemporary?
Contemporary
Living or occurring at the same time
http://www.korea.net/news/news/newsView.asp?serial_no=20081207005
There's no point
I had trouble placing Bicycle Thieves within the realm of neo-realism at first. Then I reviewed my notes and saw that it fits into our basic description of neo-realism. It says that neo-realism presents a problem and then suggests possible solutions to those problems. I imagined that the problems presented in neo-realistic films would be overtly related to the government. However, Bicycle Thieves is not and it does classify as neo-realism according to our class definition. The first problem presented is being unemployed and needing a bicycle to acquire the only available job. The main character’s wife comes up with a solution to the problem: she sells their bed sheets in order to buy the bike back. The rest of the film suggests solutions to a different problem. The main character’s bike (and, essentially, his job and means of living) is stolen and the majority of the film suggests ways to get it back. It suggests looking for the bike or its parts in the markets, tracking down the man who stole it, and stealing someone else’s bike. The thing that confused me about this film in relation to neo-realism is the ending. Since the bike is never found and stealing another bike does not work, the suggestion is that all the suggested solutions are futile. It feels like a message the government would be glad to have presented in film: don’t bother trying to fix things yourself because you’ll just end up tired and disappointed. This message is the main reason I have trouble calling this a neo-realist film.
The Two Worlds of Seong-nam
At 145 minutes, South Korea’s Day and Night (Bam gua nat) is longer than need be. At first the film seems new and different, unlike anything I’ve seen before from Hollywood. It is a true coming of age story except, the main character, Seong-nam, is in his 40’s.
Derek Elley of “Variety” says the film has a “theme of the emotional lies people tell themselves and others is not new in Hong's work, but he recycles it skillfully here with a well-cast team of players.” When I look back at seeing it, I realize that he is right. The characters come up with excuses for themselves, to ease the pain they are feeling. They don’t look ahead, but rather stay in the present. Seong-nam doesn’t hesitate in his love for Yu-jeong, despite his marriage back home. He creates a wall between who he is in Paris and who he is in Seoul. He talks to his wife every night, but doesn’t show remorse for his affair. He tells himself lies to justify his actions, lies he doesn’t realize he’s telling.
Seong-nam finds some truth in himself when he dreams of Yu-jeong and their life together, twice. The first time, it is hard to separate the dream and the reality of the film. Hong Sang- soo makes the audience feel like its really happening, then clues in the following scenes elude to the events being a dream. The same happens in the end of the film. Seong-nam dreams once again of Yo-jeong, this time he is married to her and they are back in South Korea. At first, I, along with a few other audience members, were confused as to what was going on. This time, Hong Sang-soo uses one of Seong-nam’s paintings (one of few seen throughout the film) of clouds in the sky to hint at the events not being real.
Elley believes that by the 80-minute mark, the film loses “it’s original freshness”. I couldn’t agree more. A film that I had liked turned into a film that was never going to end, and when it did, how was it going to end? At least there was freshness in that.
Word Study: Anti-hero
–noun, plural -roes.
a protagonist who lacks the attributes that make a heroic figure, as nobility of mind and spirit, a life or attitude marked by action or purpose, and the like.
The Male Korean Perspective of Sang-Soo Hong
The film begins with the main character Sung-nam Kim fleeing the country because his name has been turned in for smoking marijuana. To Americans this seems more like an excuse to run away from a dulling life than a legitimate reason to pack up everything and move to Paris, abandoning all those close to you. In the discussion after the film, however, I learned that the laws in South Korea were, indeed, strict enough to send a man running across the border.
Throughout the film, Kim periodically reads the Bible, but when asked about it he claims he reads it more as a history book than as anything spiritual. This made me question the importance of Christianity in South Korea. I wondered if Hong put the element in to play off of an important part of the Korean culture, or if it was simply a character quark to incorporate. In my research iI found that “approximately 18 percent of the population of South Korea consider themselves Protestant and nearly 11 percent Roman Catholic…23 percent Buddhist and 47 percent ‘no religion’” (www.newworldencyclopedia.org). With this in mind, Kim seems to fall into a very large percentage of the population, therefore allowing the greatest group (those who do not have a religion) to identify with him. While it seems to me that Hong did not necessarily have this in mind when making the film, it did target the larger audience, as opposed to alienating it.
The style that Hong used to approach Night and Day was very interesting. Clair O’Connell described it as “a naturalistic diary style account of Sung Nam’s experiences” (www.londonkoreanlinks.net), which is a very accurate comparison. Various scenes and sequences in the film are separated by the date appearing in very plain, bold letters on the screen, making the film seem like it was recorded day by day in chronological order. Hong was so successful in incorporating this style into the film that he is able to confuse the audience with a dream sequence towards the end of the film. Everyone is puzzled by the fact that there is no date that appears to show the passage of time, yet Kim is married to a completely different woman (one from his past who has already killed herself throughout the course of the film), and is suddenly divorced from his other wife.
The diary style of filmmaking also allows Hong an excuse to explore the smaller incidents in life, those that a person would record in a diary because they have some personal significance but nothing more. O’Connell wrote in her review that Kim is “finding a way to live, making acquaintances, working out where to buy cigarettes, figuring out where his life is going next” (www.londonloreanlinks.net), which are things that most people do not think about putting into a film. For example, Kim does spend a lot of time not only locating a place to buy cigarettes, but one that is open when he needs it to be. This small little detail would be left out of most films because it does not drive the plot, but in Hong’s film the small things are the plot. Buying cigarettes, watching dog poop be washed down the gutters, and sending a hand-made origami boat down the storm drains are all small parts of the larger story, which is Kim’s search to figure out his own life. And even the larger picture in Night and Day, searching for one, is very ambiguous in this film. It is explored so subtly that at the end of the film, the viewer is left to question what it is that Kim really learned through his experiences, something that most Hollywood films would not do.
For my word study I decided to look up the world “artist” because it seems to play an interesting role in the film. According to the American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language Fourth Edition, and artist is:
1. One, such as a painter, sculptor, or writer, who is able by virtue of imagination and talent or skill to create works of aesthetic value, especially in the fine arts.
2. A person whose work shows exceptional creative ability or skill: You are an artist in the kitchen.
3. One, such as an actor or singer, who works in the performing arts.
4. One who is adept at an activity, especially one involving trickery or deceit: a con artist.
In the film, Kim is always talking about being an artist, but is never seen painting, which poses the question of whether or not he is actually an artist. Under the first definition here, Kim barely makes the cut. While he does appear to have talent (in the already complete paintings), he is does not seem to have the much imagination. The fact that there are always clouds in his picture becomes a reoccurring statement on his work, suggesting that clouds are the extent of his creative ability. By the second definition Kim sits even more on the fence between being an artist and being a copy machine. While he does have skill, he lacks the basic and fundamental creativity associated with being an artist.
According to the third definition, Kim is not an artist throughout the course of the film because he never actually participates in the act of creating art. For all the audience knows, he is a want to be painter may or may not have painted the work he calls his own.
This bring us to the final definition, one that definitely suits Kim in Night and Day. According to this definition an artist is good “at an activity, especially one involving trickery or deceit”. Throughout the film, Kim seems to have an aura of suspicion around his circumstances. He seems to be over emphasizing many of his situations to make them seem much worse than they are, and he never tells the whole story. When talking to his wife, he leaves out his love for the young art student, and when he leaves he claims he is going home for his sick mother and not his supposedly pregnant wife. Even when on the beach with two women Kim tries to manipulate both of them. In this sense, he is indeed an artist.
O'Connell, Claire. "Night and Day: Hong Sang-soo in Paris." London Korean Links. World Press, 7 Nov. 2008. Web. 4 Oct. 2009.
"Christianity in Korea." The New World Encyclopedia. Paragon House Publishers, 17 Sept. 2008. Web. 4 Oct. 2009.
Saturday, October 3, 2009
"You Live and You Suffer"
Every-day life (unemployment/poverty) in post-war Italy is brought to life in this classic neo-realism film, The Bicycle Thief. The deep-focus composition of the film allows the viewer to easily sympathize with the main character, Antonio Ricci, as he struggles to maintain the ‘bread-winner’ role, the unity/welfare of his family, and preserve his son’s praise as a fatherly role model.
The director’s choice to cast ‘nobodys’ in his film really seals the realistic humanistic and social nature of the film for that specific period in Italy. The cinematography is beautifully constructed with long close ups, moving rain shots, and a cinema verite’ touch. The irony toward the end is terrific when Ricci, himself, becomes an actual Bicycle thief. This scene is constructed so dramatically fit (music and all!) as it cuts back and forth from protagonist to the stadium/bicycles and back to the protagonist. The frustration and emotion pours from the scene, and forces it upon the audience as we eagerly watch and identify with Ricci.
Word: Shibboleth (pg. 588)
Shibboleth: is any distinguishing practice which is indicative of one's social or regional origin. It usually refers to features of language, and particularly to a word whose pronunciation identifies its speaker as being a member or not a member of a particular group.
Night and Day: North and South
The heavy confrontation at dinner between Sung-nam and the man from North Korea inspired further research on the current situation between North and South Korea. As of 2009, North and South Korea have been in an ongoing confrontation (still technically at war) between the two. After the Korean War (1950-1953) an effort to settle the conflict and pursue peace was made, but heavily provoked beginning in 1993 when North Korea began dabbling into missile testing. Furthermore, North Korea has made several threats toward South Korea (and the U.S. for that matter), abolishing their peace agreement. Recently, South Korea’s president “offered North Korea a ‘grand bargain’ Monday in which the North would receive much-needed economic assistance in return for giving up its nuclear program.” Because of North Korea’s dependency on China, much talk has been said about persuading China to reason and bring North Korea to multilateral negotiations. “The newspaper [The Korea Herald] reported that critics contend the North will not make any concessions until it achieves coveted bilateral talks with the US.”
After reading the article, the confrontation between the two characters in the movie is much more clear-especially the comment about North Korean leader Kim Jong-il.
Chick, Kristen. "South offers grand bargain to North Korea to give up nuclear weapons | csmonitor.com." The Christian Science Monitor | csmonitor.com. The Christian Science Monitor, 22 Sept. 2009. Web. 02 Oct. 2009.