Brechtian Cinemas

Nenad Jovanovic

Description

In Brechtian Cinemas, Nenad Jovanovic uses examples from select major filmmakers to delineate the variety of ways in which Bertolt Brecht's concept of epic/dialectic theatre has been adopted and deployed in international cinema. Jovanovic critically engages Brecht's ideas and their most influential interpretations in film studies, from apparatus theory in the 1970s to the presently dominant cognitivist approach. He then examines a broad body of films, including Brecht's own Mysteries of a Hairdressing Salon (1923) and Kuhle Wampe (1932), Jean-Marie Straub and Danièle Huillet's History Lessons (1972), Peter Watkins's La Commune (2000), and Lars von Trier's Nymphomaniac (2013). Jovanovic argues that the role of montage—a principal source of artistic estrangement (Verfremdung) in earlier Brechtian films—has diminished as a result of the technique's conventionalization by today's Hollywood and related industries. Operating as primary agents of Verfremdung in contemporary films inspired by Brecht's view of the world and the arts, Jovanovic claims, are conventions borrowed from the main medium of his expression, theatre. Drawing upon a vast number of sources and disciplines that include cultural, film, literature, and theatre studies, Brechtian Cinemas demonstrates a continued and broad relevance of Brecht for the practice and understanding of cinema.
Illustrations
Acknowledgments

1. Introduction: Revisiting Brecht and Cinema

2. Brecht the Filmmaker: The “Great Method” Adjusted

3. Jean-Marie Straub and Danièle Huillet: The Caveman’s Avant-Garde

4. Peter Watkins: Intuitive Brechtianism

5. Lars von Trier: Brechtian Cinema in the Postmodern Era

6. Whither Brecht?

Notes
Works Cited
Index

Sujets

• Película fotográfica
• Theatre
• Visual culture
• History of film
• Film

Informations

• Publié par: State University of New York Press
• Date de parution: 30 janvier 2017
• Nombre de lectures: 0
• EAN13: 9781438463650
• Langue: English
• Poids de l'ouvrage: 1 Mo

Extrait

Brechtian Cinemas
Also in the series
William Rothman, editor, Cavell on Film
J. David Slocum, editor, Rebel Without a Cause
Joe McElhaney, The Death of Classical Cinema
Kirsten Moana Thompson, Apocalyptic Dread
Frances Gateward, editor, Seoul Searching
Michael Atkinson, editor, Exile Cinema
Paul S. Moore, Now Playing
Robin L. Murray and Joseph K. Heumann, Ecology and Popular Film
William Rothman, editor, Three Documentary Filmmakers
Sean Griffin, editor, Hetero
Jean-Michel Frodon, editor, Cinema and the Shoah
Carolyn Jess-Cooke and Constantine Verevis, editors, Second Takes
Matthew Solomon, editor, Fantastic Voyages of the Cinematic Imagination
R. Barton Palmer and David Boyd, editors, Hitchcock at the Source
William Rothman, Hitchcock: The Murderous Gaze, Second Edition
Joanna Hearne, Native Recognition
Marc Raymond, Hollywood’s New Yorker
Steven Rybin and Will Scheibel, editors, Lonely Places, Dangerous Ground
Claire Perkins and Constantine Verevis, editors, B Is for Bad Cinema
Dominic Lennard, Bad Seeds and Holy Terrors
Rosie Thomas, Bombay before Bollywood
Scott M. MacDonald, Binghamton Babylon
Sudhir Mahadevan, A Very Old Machine
David Greven, Ghost Faces
James S. Williams, Encounters with Godard
William H. Epstein and R. Barton Palmer, editors, Invented Lives, Imagined Communities
Lee Carruthers, Doing Time
Rebecca Meyers, William Rothman, and Charles Warren, editors, Looking with Robert Gardner
Belinda Smaill, Regarding Life
Douglas McFarland and Wesley King, editors, John Huston as Adaptor
R. Barton Palmer, Homer B. Pettey, and Steven M. Sanders, editors, Hitchcock’s Moral Gaze
Will Scheibel, American Stranger
Brechtian Cinemas
Montage and Theatricality in Jean-Marie Straub and Danièle Huillet, Peter Watkins, and Lars von Trier

Nenad Jovanovic
Published by State University of New York Press, Albany
© 2017 State University of New York
All rights reserved
Printed in the United States of America
No part of this book may be used or reproduced in any manner whatsoever without written permission. No part of this book may be stored in a retrieval system or transmitted in any form or by any means including electronic, electrostatic, magnetic tape, mechanical, photocopying, recording, or otherwise without the prior permission in writing of the publisher.
For information, contact State University of New York Press, Albany, NY
www.sunypress.edu
Production, Ryan Morris
Marketing, Kate R. Seburyamo
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Names: Jovanovic, Nenad, 1973– author.
Title: Brechtian cinemas : montage and theatricality in Jean-Marie Straub and Danièle Huillet, Peter Watkins, and Lars von Trier / Nenad Jovanovic.
Description: Albany : State University of New York Press, [2017] | Series: SUNY series, horizons of cinema | Includes bibliographical references and index.
Identifiers: LCCN 2016021651 (print) | LCCN 2016035070 (ebook) | ISBN 9781438463636 (hardcover : alk. paper) | ISBN 9781438463650 (e-book)
Subjects: LCSH: Brecht, Bertolt, 1898–1956—Influence. | Straub, Jean-Marie—Criticism and interpretation. | Huillet, Danièle—Criticism and interpretation. | Watkins, Peter, 1935—Criticism and interpretation. | Trier, Lars von, 1956—Criticism and interpretation. | Motion pictures—History.
Classification: LCC PT2603.R397 Z1475 2017 (print) | LCC PT2603.R397 (ebook) | DDC 832/.912—dc23
LC record available at https://lccn.loc.gov/2016021651
10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1
In memoriam Martin Walsh
Contents
Illustrations
Acknowledgments
1 Introduction: Revisiting Brecht and Cinema
2 Brecht the Filmmaker: The “Great Method” Adjusted
3 Jean-Marie Straub and Danièle Huillet: The Caveman’s Avant-Garde
4 Peter Watkins: Intuitive Brechtianism
5 Lars von Trier: Brechtian Cinema in the Postmodern Era
6 Whither Brecht?
Notes
Works Cited
Index
Illustrations 1.1 Montage in Renaissance Painting: “Vertumnus—Portrait of Rudolph II” (Giuseppe Arcimboldo, 1590). Digital frame enlargement. 2.1 A “naïve” image: “The Fall of Icarus” (Pieter Bruegel the Elder, c. 1558). Digital frame enlargement. 2.2 Dark humor in Mysteries of a Hairdressing Salon (Bertolt Brecht and Erich Engel, Kuprofilm, 1923). Digital frame enlargement. 2.3a, b Juxtaposed diegetic and nondiegetic images in Kuhle Wampe (Bertolt Brecht and Slatan Dudow, Prometheus / Praesens, 1932). Digital frame enlargements. 2.4 Superimposed imagery in Kuhle Wampe (Bertolt Brecht and Slatan Dudow, Prometheus / Praesens, 1932). Digital frame enlargement. 2.5 Epic acting in Kuhle Wampe (Bertolt Brecht and Slatan Dudow, Prometheus / Praesens, 1932). Digital frame enlargement. 3.1a–h Language into images: Machorka-Muff (Jean-Marie Straub, Atlas / Cineropa, 1962). Digital frame enlargements. 3.2 A character looking ahead at the story world and back at the viewer in History Lessons (Jean-Marie Straub and Danièle Huillet, Janus / Straub-Huillet, 1972). Digital frame enlargement. 3.3 Paralleling historical epochs through costume: History Lessons (Jean-Marie Straub and Danièle Huillet, Janus / Straub-Huillet, 1972). Digital frame enlargement. 3.4a, b Gestural acting in Antigone (Jean-Marie Straub and Danièle Huillet, Regina Ziegler / Pierre Grise / Straub-Huillet, 1991) and Sicily! (Jean-Marie Straub and Danièle Huillet, Straub-Huillet / Pierre Grise / CNC / Alia / Istituto Luce, 1999). Digital frame enlargements. 3.5 Architecture of ancient theater space in Antigone (Jean-Marie Straub and Danièle Huillet, Regina Ziegler / Pierre Grise / Straub-Huillet, 1992). Digital frame enlargement. 3.6 The pattern of camera movement in History Lessons (Jean-Marie Straub and Danièle Huillet, Janus / Straub-Huillet, 1972). 3.7 The pattern of camera movement in Antigone (Jean-Marie Straub and Danièle Huillet, Regina Ziegler / Pierre Grise / Straub-Huillet, 1992). 3.8a, b Shifting natural lighting in The Witches (Jean-Marie Straub and Danièle Huillet, Pierre Grise / Straub-Huillet, 2009). Digital frame enlargements. 3.9 Decentered composition in Chronicle of Anna Magdalena Bach (Jean-Marie Straub and Danièle Huillet, Franz Seitz / Neue Filmkunst Walter Kirchner / Hessicher Rundfunk, 1968). Digital frame enlargement. 3.10a, b Unemphasized frame symmetry in Sicily! (Jean-Marie Straub and Danièle Huillet, Straub-Huillet / Pierre Grise / CNC, 1999). Digital frame enlargements. 3.11 Intertextual borrowing in Cézanne (Jean-Marie Straub and Danièle Huillet, Le Musée d’Orsay / La Sept / Diagonale, 1989). Digital frame enlargement. 3.12 Photographically representing the object of painterly representation: Cézanne (Jean-Marie Straub and Danièle Huillet, Le Musée d’Orsay / La sept, Diagonale, 1989). Digital frame enlargement. 4.1 A nuclear family under a nuclear attack: The War Game (Peter Watkins, British Broadcasting Corporation, 1965). Digital frame enlargement. 4.2 Political transgressors melting into a mirage in Punishment Park (Peter Watkins / Francoise Chartwell, 1970). Digital frame enlargement. 4.3 An image of death in Punishment Park (Peter Watkins, Chartwell Artists, 1970). Digital frame enlargement. 4.4 An actor acknowledging the camera in Edvard Munch (Peter Watkins, NRK / SVT, 1973). Digital frame enlargement. 4.5a, b, c “Impossible” eyeline matches challenging the sense of filmic space in Edvard Munch (Peter Watkins, NRK / SVT, 1973). Digital frame enlargements. 4.6a, b, c Diverse visual materials combined in a montage sequence of The Freethinker (Peter Watkins, Nordens Folk High School / Biskops Arnö, 1994). Digital frame enlargements. 4.7a, b, c Depth of field in three consecutive phases of the opening shot of La commune (Peter Watkins, 13 Production / La Sept Arte / Le Musée d’Orsay, 1999). Digital frame enlargements. 5.1a, b Violated continuity of space in The Idiots (Lars von Trier, Zentropa / DR TV / Liberator / La Sept Cinèma / Argus / VPRO, 1998). Digital frame enlargements. 5.2a, b An impression of shot-countershot created through figure placement in The Idiots (Lars von Trier, Zentropa, 1998). Digital frame enlargements. 5.3 Honest in the role: Jeppe and Josephine in The Idiots (Lars von Trier, Zentropa, 1998). Digital frame enlargement. 5.4 The real spoiling the fiction: The Idiots (Lars von Trier, Zentropa, 1998). Digital frame enlargement. 5.5 Different types of signs combined in a single frame from Dogville (Lars von Trier, Zentropa, 2003). Digital frame enlargement. 5.6a, b “Mapping” the society in Dogville (Lars von Trier, Zentropa, 2003) and in Tout va bien (Jean-Luc Godard and Jean-Pierre Gorin, Anouchka / Empire / Vieco, 1972). Digital frame enlargements.
Acknowledgments
Parts of this book have appeared previously in different form. I thank the publishers for permission to reuse the material from the following articles: “Montage and Theatricality as Sources of Estrangement: A Tendency in Contemporary Brechtian Cinema” ( Theatre Symposium 19 [2011]), “Estranging the Postmodern: Brechtian Resonances in Lars von Trier” ( The Brecht Yearbook 37 [2012]), and “Between the Poles of Eisensteinian Aesthetics: Editing Patterns in Peter Watkins’ Biographical Films” ( Journal of Scandinavian Cinema 4.1 [2014]).
My gratitude goes next to the people most closely involved in this study since its inception: Charlie Keil, Stefan Soldovieri, Veronika Ambros, and Marc Silberman. All of them generously lent their expertise and insights over the years, helping me refine my ideas and formulations. I am especially indebted to Charlie, who stayed wit