Javier Lloret - Essay draft II: Modernity, Film, Art

In this essay I will share some ideas that I have been diving into reading different books that are close to my area of interest. They are all somehow connected to the theme of the second annotation I did this trimester: Film as Art. After reading that essay by Pavel Büchler, I have been reading different books related to the cinema of some of the film directors that tried to break with the tradition and conventions of cinema. The films of these directors, due to their style and intentions, were considered part of the called modernity in cinema.

According with Fabrice Fabrault, we consider modern cinema as the one that breaks with traditions. It is less organized and more free and spontaneous. But not all films that break with traditions are considered as part of modern cinema. Only the ones in which their authors have a clear intention in the who and how are going to break that tradition.

In April of 1955, the film critic and film director Jaques Rivette from the French magazine “Cahiers du cinéma”, published a letter in the edition 46 of that magazine about the italian director Roberto Rossellini. In this letter Rivette concludes that modernity in cinema starts with “Viaggio in Italia” (1955) by Roberto Rossellini. Rivette explains that in that second world war context, “Viaggio in Italia” stays out of it, in a no-place, getting out of the shadows of war. This no-place that he connects with an emptiness is the breakthrough with tradition and the starting point of modernity in cinema.

Those film directors were influenced by the cinema of their generation and they tried to break with tradition. We can see here a connection with a generation of contemporary visual artists that have been fascinated by the phenomenon of cinema. And have tried to analyze it and to fragment it for creating something new that breaks with the way we are used to watch films.

“L'avventura” - Antonioni
The premiere of Antonioni’s film “L’avventura” is remembered as one of the most controversial premieres of the Cannes festival. It was on May 15th 1960. When the film was getting close to the end the audience started whistleing and booing as a sign of disapproval.

What did Antonioni do for creating such a strong feeling of rejection from the audience of the festival of cinema considered the most important by many experts? Antonioni with L’avventura called the primacy of the story into question. The narrative aspect of the film was relegated to the background.

How did Antonioni achieve this purpose? Mainly having the popular actress Lea Massari vanishing at the beginning of the film. The rest of the film focused on the the search for the missing woman, named Anna, that would never appear on the film again. Instead of that, that is what the audience expected, Claudia that was Anna’s friend and Sandro, Anna’s boyfriend, end up in a middle of a love affair. We could say that having the main character (and star actress) of the film vanishing at the beginning of the film Antonioni proposed another type of narrative, one based more on suggestion and omission.

Domenech Font, a Professor of history and theory of Cinema from the Pompeu Fabra University of Barcelona and also author of (between many others) the book “Landscapes of modernity. European cinema, 1960-1980”. In this book we can read: “L’avventura” is the first vertex of a tetralogy about feelings and loneliness formed by “La Notte” (1961), “L’eclisse” (1962) and “Deserto rosso” (1964)... In all of them, the narrative is vague and based on the feeling between characters of bourgeoisie”. So we could say that Antonioni had a concept for those films that goes beyond the narrative. After this tetralogy Antonioni’s interests shift towards the enigma of visibility. Some of his most relevant last films are about characters whose work is connected with sight: a photographer (“Blow-up”), a journalist (“El reportero”) and a filmmaker (“Identificazione di una donna”).

• A sense of the end - Lewis

The work “A sense of the end” (1996) by the artist Mark Lewis consist on nothing but scenes immediately recognizable as film endings. This isolation of scenes could be connected with Antonioni’s decision in L’avventura of breaking with the film conventions regarding film endings. Mark Lewis is one of that contemporary visual artists who uses cinematographic techniques (he actually shoots with a camera the scenes of his Art pieces) for not making a film. He does what he called part-cinema: “Moments that temporarily refuse to reveal an integrity regards to the film as a whole, bur are nevertheless born of it”. Other Artists that have been influenced by cinema don’t use cameras to shoot the visual material that is present in the works. Instead of that they make use of existing film material, which they analyze and modify incorporating it into their own work.

• Douglas Gordon

One of the most well known artists that make use of cinematographic footage for his installation work is Douglas Gordon. Gordon’s most known project is 24 Hour Psycho. By massively slowing-down the film (until it lasts 24 hour) Gordon tried to transfer the cinematrographic tension that characterizes suspense films into the exhibition space.

In “Confessions of a justified Sinner”, a two-channel video installation Gordon modified footage from the films “The Exorcist” by William Friedkin and “The song of Bernadette” by Henry King. Playing these two films at the same time and on the same screen Gordon plays with the contrasts created by the combination of good and evil, a “horror” film and a “musical”, colour and black and white. And they are projected in a way that their frames blend into each other, making difficult to the audience to recognize which frames or areas of the piece represents the idea of “Evil” or “Good”.

• Tarkovski, Buñuel - Rhythm & time

“In cinema, the rhythm appears in an organic way, according with the way the director sees life, according with his search of time” Tarkovski, Sculpting time.

Tarkovski says also that part of the audience would feel connected to the rhythm of the film and other part would not get into it because each person has a different rhythm.

We could considered the use of repetition as a consequence of certain rhythm and timing. Directors like Luís Buñuel in his film “El angel exterminador” have used repetition to break with representation, to create a unique and disorienting atmosphere.

• Bibliography
• "Contemporary art and the cinematic experience. Cinéma, cinéma". Stedelijk Van Abbemuseum Eindhoven.
• "Paisajes de la modernidad. Cine Europeo, 1960-1980". Domènec Font. Editorial Paidós.
• "El estilo transcendental en el cine. Ozu, Bresson, Dreyer". Paul Schrader.
• "Esculpir en el tiempo. Andrei Tarkovski". Libros de cine RIALP.