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  5. Volume 10, Issue 2, 2019

Film Matters - Volume 10, Issue 2, 2019

Volume 10, Issue 2

Volume 10, Issue 2, 2019

Language: English

    • Werner Herzog’s Burgeoning Voice in

      https://doi.org/10.1386/fm_00002_1
      Abstract

      At forty-three minutes long, (1974) narrowly fulfills the forty-minute requirement of feature length. This duration places the film as Werner Herzog’s third feature-length documentary out of the current total of twenty-eight. The film was initially aired on television in West Germany as part of an hour-long episodic sports series. It follows Walter Steiner, the world champion ski jumper, as he practices for and then participates in a competition in Yugoslavia. Visually, the film unfolds on the steep, snowy slopes. The narrative, however, is created from three voices: Steiner himself, Herzog’s voice-over, and finally, at the mandate of the West German Television Station, Herzog as an on-camera reporter (Cronin 117). In the film, he waits at the slope of the mountain to see how Steiner’s jump unfolds, but the Herzog in the studio already knows the result. The shift of forcing an additional voice has pushed the comparably omniscient voice-over further into the subjective mode so there can be a differentiation between the two different voices.

    • Generational Reenactment: Participating in Historical Reenactment to Confront Post-Deportation Trauma

      https://doi.org/10.1386/fm_00003_1
      Abstract

      The interpretation of trauma from memory, the belatedness of events, is important to a broader understanding of generational trauma and collective identity, especially in relation to the deportations at the core of (2018), directed by Robert Greene. Affirming Grierson’s claim that “no construction of collective identity can entirely dispense with memory,” the use of memory and reenactment in is a way to deconstruct the trauma that perforates the town of Bisbee following the Bisbee deportation of 1917 (112). complicates the concept of participatory reenactment as a form of recovery, where “in these participatory reenactments, subjects use their words and bodies to both describe and perform their historical selves” (Fuhs 58). In the instance of the deportation is reimagined through performance, the townsfolk playing historical characters that come to both represent themselves and the figures of the past – in the case of Mel and Steve Ray, this relationship is further complicated by their portrayal of ancestors involved in the deportation. Most notably, Greene’s use of Fernando Serrano, a young Mexican American, who is both directly and indirectly impacted by the Bisbee deportation – his own mother was deported back to Mexico – is an attempt to juxtapose past and present.

    • This Is How I Remember: , Documentary Narration, and Building a Self in Film

      https://doi.org/10.1386/fm_00004_1
      Abstract

      ( Varda, 2008) could be described as a film essay, a memoir, an autobiography, or categorized as a documentary; while each of these may be accurate, the film pushes at the edges of these terms, playing with ideas of truth, fictionality and methods of re-creation. There is a constant tension in the film between “La Varda” the legendary French New Wave filmmaker, Agnès Varda the human director, and Agnès Varda the subject of investigation. From a narrative theory standpoint, there is a constant tension between the Narrated-I (the Varda being investigated as a historical subject) and the Narrating-I (some combination of the Varda we see on-screen and the implied Varda-author). The documentary nature of the film, documentary being heavily dependent on ideas of authority, recreation, and facticity, is a concern for Varda as she plays with these conventions in her own recreations and playful fictionalizing. These efforts and effects all lead to an amount of purposeful distancing between the real Varda, the on-screen Varda, and the Varda in recreation. This distancing mirrors the construction of the “author” – “implied author” – “narrator” system: the author Varda (actually visible, perhaps, glimpsed in the acts of directing); the implied Varda-author (present in the final decisions we see in camerawork, framing, and story progression) (the implied author here also, curiously, is the subject of the film); and the character-narrator, the Varda who takes the viewer through the film. These complications of self and past provide an opportunity to examine the film’s narrative construction, in which different aspects of the same self are presented simultaneously but are being put to different purposes. These techniques are part of Agnès Varda’s larger desire to destabilize the center subject of the film and to mediate that destabilization in the film’s construction. Varda mirrors in the film’s construction the techniques she’s using to outline the image of herself as the film’s subject: using techniques of fictionality and conventions of narrative to build an assemblage film and assemblage subject. Varda produces an impression of her subject, an outline built as decentered assemblage, giving a portrait of herself in a new type of “modest” (Bonner 121) autobiography-documentary.

    • In the Presence of Other Bodies: Ear-Opening Internal Sound in Nicolas Philibert’s

      https://doi.org/10.1386/fm_00005_1
      Abstract

      Silence: for hearing individuals, it is difficult to find and even more difficult to imagine. Even in situations devoid of human speech, sound is unavoidable. Relative silence is often found in rooms with creaks in the floors or trains in the distance. One of the last places someone might look for silence is in film, and since the late 1920s this would be logical. There are rare moments in cinema where music and dialogue are completely absent; both storytelling tools are so readily used. In French documentarian Nicolas Philibert’s (1992), silence is loud. As Philibert captures insightful interviews and slice-of-life moments, dialogue is refused as the principal storytelling instrument. In a suitable anomaly, the culture of deaf persons is filmed and edited with sonic consciousness.

    • The 5th Annual Cinema Revival: A Festival of Film Restoration in Columbus, Ohio

      https://doi.org/10.1386/fm_00006_1
      Abstract

      The Wexner Center for the Arts showcased thirteen films over six days during its 5th annual Cinema Revival: A Festival of Film Restoration. These films ranged over a variety of genres and featured world-renowned directors and actors. The films featured over the weekend have origins that stretch the globe. From Argentina to Italy, the festival programming allowed viewers to get a glimpse into the history of world cinema, while the speakers introduced the films and shared not only their knowledge but also the detailed steps required for each film’s restoration. Although some films received more attendance than others, the festival was successful in its goal of sharing classic cinema with a modern audience and providing an even mix of technical discussion, background information, and entertainment.

    • Books

      https://doi.org/10.1386/fm_00010_5
      Abstract

      , Paula Albuquerque (2018)

      Amsterdam: Amsterdam University Press, 244pp., ISBN: 9789462985582 (hbk), $120.00, ISBN 9789048536733 (ebk)

      , Patricia R. Zimmermann and Scott MacDonald (2017)

      Indiana University Press, 360pp., ISBN: 9780253026248 (hbk), $25.00

      , Lars Weckbecker (2016)

      Intellect, 200pp., ISBN: 9781783204953 (hbk), $86.00

      , Joshua Glick (2018)

      University of California Press, 277pp., ISBN: 9780520293717 (pbk), $34.95

      , Noah Tsika (2018)

      University of California Press, 300pp., ISBN: 9780520297647 (pbk), $34.95

    • DVD/Blu-ray

      https://doi.org/10.1386/fm_00012_4
      Abstract

      (2017)

      USA

      Director Abbas Kiarostami Runtime 114 minutes

      Blu-ray

      USA, 2019 Distributed by The Criterion Collection (Region A/1)

      (2002)

      USA

      Director Michael Moore Runtime 120 minutes

      Blu-ray USA, 2018

      Distributed by The Criterion Collection (Region A/1)

      (2015)

      USA

      Director Laurie Anderson Runtime 75 minutes

      DVD USA, 2016

      Distributed by The Criterion Collection (region 1)

      (1968)

      USA

      Director D. A. Pennebaker Runtime 79 minutes

      Blu-ray USA, 2017

      Distributed by The Criterion Collection (region 1)

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