Lars von Trier's Renewal of Film 1984-2014

Bodil Marie Stavning Thomsen

Description

Danish director Lars von Trier has produced more than 20 films since his first appearance with The Elements of Crime in 1984. One of the most acknowledged - and most controversial - film directors of our time, Trier's films often escape the representational production of meaning. In Lars von Trier's Renewal of Film 1984-2014. Signal, Pixel, Diagram scholar Bodil Marie Stavning Thomsen offers a comprehensive discussion of Lars von Trier's collected works. Examining Trier's experiments with narrative forms, genre, camera usage, light, and colour tones, she shows how Trier's unique ethically involving style activates the viewer's entire perception apparatus. In understanding this affective involvement, the author frames the discussion around concepts from Gilles Deleuze, Alois Riegl, Brian Massumi and others on the haptic image, the diagram, affect and the signaletic material.

Sujets

• The arts
• Theatre
• Film studies
• Filmmaking
• History of film

Informations

• Publié par: Aarhus University Press
• Date de parution: 01 juin 2017
• Nombre de lectures: 2
• EAN13: 9788771846379
• Langue: English
• Poids de l'ouvrage: 10 Mo

Extrait

Lars von Trier’s Renewal of Film 1984 -2014
“Lars von Trier’s Renewal of Film is a
masterDanish director Lars von Trier has ful study of the full breadth of von Trier’s Lars von Trier’s
produced more than 20 films since work. The book presents a chronicle of the
Bodilhis first appearance with The Elements work, expertly situated in the history of the
medium of film, in its relation to video and of Crime in 1984. One of the most Marie Renewal of Film
digital media. More than that – and this is acknowledged – and most controversial Stavning
what puts the book in a league of its own – film directors of our time, Trier’s films Thomsen 1984-2014 – Thomsen develops an original theory of often escape the representational
the image unique enough to merit a new production of meaning.
name: “signaletic materialism” might do. SIGNAL PIXEL DIAGRAM
But don’t be misled by the weightiness of
In Lars von Trier’s Renewal of Film
the term. It signposts an approach uniquely
1984-2014. Signal, Pixel, Diagram
equipped to make felt immediacy of the
scholar Bodil Marie Stavning Thomsen
image, accounting for its embodied nature
offers a comprehensive discussion and affective force with both evocative power
of Lars von Trier’s collected works. and analytical precision. Thomsen’s in-depth,
Examining his experiments with narra- often scene-by-scene, analyses of von Trier’s
tive forms, genre, camera usage, light, compositional techniques go beyond formal
and colour tones, she shows how analysis to convey how the logic of the
Trier’s unique and ethically involving medium is one with an event of perception,
ever renewed and endlessly varied.”style activates the viewer’s entire
perception apparatus. In understanding Brian Massumi
this affective involvement, the author author of Semblance and Event:
Activist Philosophy and the Occurrent Artsframes the discussion around concepts
from Gilles Deleuze, Alois Riegl, Brian
Massumi a.o. on the haptic image,
“An inspiring and insightful work of passion the diagram, affect, and the signaletic
and scholarly dedication, Bodil Thomsen’s
material.
thorough analysis of Lars von Trier’s oeuvre
is an aesthetic revelation of haptic quality
and potentialities. While the
DeleuzeGuattarian inspired concept of the ‘affect
diagram’ is the guiding method to navigate
Trier’s audio-visual style across pixels,
colors and digital signals, one can almost
feel and touch the images on every page
AARHUS UNIVERSITY PRESS that disclose always new senses and
sensations beyond the film’s stories and Bodil Marie Stavning Thomsen
representations.”
Patricia Pisters
University of Amsterdam
108027_cover_lars von trier_cc18_r1_.indd 1 11/05/18 07:19Lars von Trier’s Renewal of Film
1984‑2014
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108027_lars von trier_cs6_.indd 1 04/05/18 09:08This page is protected by copyright and may not be redistributed.
108027_lars von trier_cs6_.indd 2 04/05/18 09:08Lars von Trier’s
Renewal of Film
1984‑2014
signal, pixel, diagram
Bodil Marie Stavning Thomsen
aarhus university press | a
This page is protected by copyright and may not be redistributed.
108027_lars von trier_cs6_.indd 2 04/05/18 09:08 108027_lars von trier_cs6_.indd 3 04/05/18 09:08To Andreas, Malthe and Thomas
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108027_lars von trier_cs6_.indd 4 04/05/18 09:08To Andreas, Malthe and Thomas It is common knowledge that photography depends on an atmos‑
pheric perspective, which means that the contrast between light
and shadow diminishes towards the background. Maybe an idea
for an interesting abstraction lies in a conscious elimination of
the atmospheric perspective – or, in other words, in relinquishing
the much‑coveted depth – and the efect of distance. Instead one
ought to work towards a wholly new construction of pictorial colour
surfaces, which all lie on the same plane, forming one large, collated,
multi‑coloured surface, so that the notion of the foreground, mid‑
dle ground and background fully disappears. One should, in other
words, relinquish the perspectival image and begin working with
pure surface efect. In this way it is possible that one will achieve very
distinctive aesthetic efects, maybe precisely suited to flm.
Carl Th. Dreyer: Fantasi og Farve, 1955; in Om Filmen, 1959
One normally chooses a style for a flm in order to highlight a story.
We’ve done exactly the opposite. We’ve chosen a style that works
against the story, which gives it the least opportunity to highlight
itself. […] What we’ve done is to take a style and put it over the story
like a flter. Like encoding a television signal, when you pay in order
to see a flm: here we are encoding a signal for the flm, which the
viewer will later ensure they decode. The raw, documentary style
which I’ve laid over the flm and which completely annuls and con‑
tests it, means that we accept the story as it is. That is, at any rate,
my theory.
Lars von Trier on Breaking the Waves in Sight & Sound Magazine, 1996
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108027_lars von trier_cs6_.indd 4 04/05/18 09:08 108027_lars von trier_cs6_.indd 5 04/05/18 09:08Lars von Trier’s Renewal of Film 1984-2014
© 2018 the author and Aarhus University Press
Cover illustration: Lars von Trier on the set of The Idiots.
Photo: RGR Collection/Alamy stock Photo.
Typesetting: Ryevad Grafsk
Translated by Philip Mullarkey from the Danish edition,
Lars von Triers fornyelse af flmen 1984-2014,
published by Museum Tusculanum Press, 2016
This book is typeset in Vulpa
E-book production: by N arayana Pr ess, D enmark
ISBN 978 87 7184 637 9
Aarhus University Press
Finlandsgade 29
DK-8200 Aarhus N
Denmark
www.unipress.dk
International distributors:
Oxbow Books Ltd
The Old Music Hall, 106–108 Cowley Road
Oxford, OX4 1JE
United Kingdom
www.oxbowbooks.com
ISD
70 Enterprise Drive, Suite 2
Bristol, CT 06010
USA
www.isdistribution.com
Published with the fnancial support of:
The Aarhus University Research Foundation
/ In accordance with requirements of the Danish Ministry of Higher Education and Science, the certification
means that a PhD level peer has made a written assessment justifying this book’s scientific quality.
This page is protected by copyright and may not be redistributed.
108027_lars von trier_cs6_.indd 6 04/05/18 09:13Lars von Trier’s Renewal of Film 1984-2014 Contents
© 2018 the author and Aarhus University Press
Cover illustration: Lars von Trier on the set of The Idiots.
Photo: RGR Collection/Alamy stock Photo.
Typesetting: Ryevad Grafsk
Translated by Philip Mullarkey from the Danish edition,
Lars von Triers fornyelse af flmen 1984-2014,
published by Museum Tusculanum Press, 2016
This book is typeset in Vulpa and printed on Munken Pure 100 g
Printed by Narayana Press, Denmark
Printed in Denmark 2018 Preface 11
ISBN 978 87 7184 230 2
Introduction 18
CHAPTER 1
Aarhus University Press
The theoretical landscape 29
Finlandsgade 29
The »signaletic material« of film 37DK-8200 Aarhus N
Denmark Haptic surfaces and affective effects 39
www.unipress.dk
CHAPTER 2International distributors:
Haptic surfaces and spatial effects in Trier’s Oxbow Books Ltd
The Old Music Hall, 106–108 Cowley Road films of the 1980s 50
Oxford, OX4 1JE
United Kingdom
CHAPTER 3www.oxbowbooks.com
A tiger in The Kingdom 64
ISD The transformation from Gothic to grotesque
70 Enterprise Drive, Suite 2
A ghost story 65
Bristol, CT 06010
From Gothic eeriness to grotesque laughter on the surface USA
www.isdistribution.com of the TV screen 68
The real‑time effect of electronic signals
– introduction to The Kingdom I 75Published with the fnancial support of:
Breaching – the conclusion of The Kingdom I 79The Aarhus University Research Foundation
The perforation from upper to underside in the narrative’s
Möbius strip 86
Grotesque real‑time interfaces: surveillance, scans and X‑ ray 90
The technological and mythological credo of the video medium 94
The haptic level in The Kingdom I and II 98
»The body without organs« and the »becoming‑animal« 106/ In accordance with requirements of the Danish Ministry of Higher Education and Science, the certification
means that a PhD level peer has made a written assessment justifying this book’s scientific quality.
This page is protected by copyright and may not be redistributed.
108027_lars von trier_cs6_.indd 6 04/05/18 09:13 108027_lars von trier_cs6_.indd 7 04/05/18 09:08CHAPTER 4
Dogme 95 and The Idiots 112
A new form of realism
The »Dogme 95 Manifesto« and the »Vow of Chastity« 115
A diagrammatic production of factual reality in the form
of h