Daney have already broken up with me: “I would definitely have nothing to do, nothing to share with anybody who wasn’t immediately upset by the abjection of ‘the tracking shot in Kapo’ “.
Before watching the scene, I was unaware of this divorce that was foreseen by Daney; even the quoted sentence did not take my attention at the first reading. The article was totally clear and agreeable for me with the images that I constructed in my mind of the tracking shot. I could no more agree with Daney on his uneasiness towards the “way of adding an extra parasitic beauty or complicit information to scenes that did not need it”. Such pornography was something that I was familiar and uncomfortable with.
The problem of me emerged after the screening of the scene at the class: I was not at all stroke by what I saw and I eventually got confused about what I had read. Now, I, as someone who is out of the profession of film-making, was convinced that it was my unfortunate illiteracy and/or, somehow, my dreadful insensitivity against the genocide to be not “immediately upset” by the scene in question. Yes, I seem to have taken it personal.
The struggle than began. I watched the scene over and over again. I read “On Abjection” of Rivette (can be retrieved from http://www.dvdbeaver.com/rivette/OK/abjection.html) and the article of Daney one more time.
The scene did not strike me in any of the consequent watches. It is not that the scene, for me, was beautiful or impressive. I, without enough knowledge on the techniques of film-making, could agree upon its vulgarity. Being able to differentiate the tracking shot in the scene, I could also consider the absurdity of the shot, because, I could not see the use of it as it seemed to be an excessive attempt to emphasize the death of the woman which was probably already grasped by the audience. Still, this shot was only an unnecessary or an inferior one for me; it was not a pornographic one that deserved such fevered attacks.
Perhaps, such a horror did really become a “part of the mental landscape of modern man” as Rivette claimed. Abasement accepted.
Watching Nuit et brouillard, which was compared to Kapo in the articles of Rivette and Daney, did not ease my confusion. I was certainly disturbed by and terrified of the history. In the film, the documented reality was so ugly that I find it hard to approach and discuss such documentation as an artifact. If the problem in consideration here is, as far as I understand, showing too much of death or aestheticizing death, then, I do question the showing of the vicious pauses on the open eyes of dead men in Nuit et brouillard. Why did not Resnais insisted on showing the scenes that concentrated on the eyes of the dead? Is this because the film judged not only the slaughter but also the coldblooded recording of it? Could be.
Then, is the issue the difference between showing the reality and narrating related to a reality? Perhaps, an emphasize on the spectacle of a dead wo/man in a documentary has its ground on reality which makes the scene reasonable (after all, the showing of such a harsh reality can not be worse than the reality itself), whereas in a fiction, in which everything is in the hands of the film maker, it is objected for redundantly aestheticizing death. Roughly, in the documentary the killer is someone else, whereas in the fiction the killer becomes the film-maker. What is the significance of Kapo? It seems to me that if the fiction is grounded on a historical reality, then aestheticization is perceived as being insensitive to the reality- the criticism targets at not only her/his artistic abilities but also her/his humanitarian side.
Being well aware of its irrelevancy to the discussion, I can not help questioning the screening of Nuit et brouillard at a middle school…
No conclusion. It is just me trying to understand what I read and watched and to exculpate myself.
Segah Sak
Recent Posts
18 Ekim 2009 Pazar
An Overview of Korean Cinema
Gönderen
Film and Genre
When I think about the editing styles, I come think about the recent styles of uses of editing in the modern period. It is going to be like a repetition but being the most significant one of the pieces of the film world for me, I will again mention about the Korean films.
As I read through the piece on the styles of editing. It was very interesting for me to read about the close-up style of editing at times of dialogue. Since, for instance, Kim-ki Duk rarely uses long periods of dialogues in his movies. I have realized that he has transformed the use of close-up on such shots into close-ups where he uses symbolic objects or facial expressions instead of words. When we observe such scenes in for instance 3-Iron, we can clearly get the continuity of the plot through the observation of the close-up scenes. Personally, I find the use of facial expressions on the close-ups to be rather symbolic as well. It thus also increases the potential of the film in terms of delaying the cinema, the sensation and the feeling of suspense by not clearly revealing all the emotional details of the movie and thus keeping the motives of the characters hidden. I find this strategy quite successful since it not only keeps the attention and intrigue of the audience alive but also performs an example of the close-up editing in a different but stylistic and successful manner.
On the other hand, I want to mention another aspect of the film, The Dolls by Takeshi Kitano or Spring, Summer, Autumn, Winter… and Spring by Kim-ki Duk. In both of them the visual imagery of the seasons, famous with the cherry tree and all kinds of different flowers of all colors, stand for different symbolic meanings, while the symbolism of nature in Spring, Summer, Autumn, Winter… and Spring could be interpreted as the cyclic flow of one’s life time and experiences of wisdom, the visual imagery of the nature in The Dolls could well be said to stand for strength and resistance of love between two against the erosion of the flow of time. Of course the symbolism and the meaning behind it can be interpreted as different things by many, but it is something definite that they stand as a symbol like many different objects and mise an scenes in the films.
I cannot help, but look for things that carry multiple causes within and I believe that the films that are rich of them, thus, possess a greater potential within them.
Canan Gürel
As I read through the piece on the styles of editing. It was very interesting for me to read about the close-up style of editing at times of dialogue. Since, for instance, Kim-ki Duk rarely uses long periods of dialogues in his movies. I have realized that he has transformed the use of close-up on such shots into close-ups where he uses symbolic objects or facial expressions instead of words. When we observe such scenes in for instance 3-Iron, we can clearly get the continuity of the plot through the observation of the close-up scenes. Personally, I find the use of facial expressions on the close-ups to be rather symbolic as well. It thus also increases the potential of the film in terms of delaying the cinema, the sensation and the feeling of suspense by not clearly revealing all the emotional details of the movie and thus keeping the motives of the characters hidden. I find this strategy quite successful since it not only keeps the attention and intrigue of the audience alive but also performs an example of the close-up editing in a different but stylistic and successful manner.
On the other hand, I want to mention another aspect of the film, The Dolls by Takeshi Kitano or Spring, Summer, Autumn, Winter… and Spring by Kim-ki Duk. In both of them the visual imagery of the seasons, famous with the cherry tree and all kinds of different flowers of all colors, stand for different symbolic meanings, while the symbolism of nature in Spring, Summer, Autumn, Winter… and Spring could be interpreted as the cyclic flow of one’s life time and experiences of wisdom, the visual imagery of the nature in The Dolls could well be said to stand for strength and resistance of love between two against the erosion of the flow of time. Of course the symbolism and the meaning behind it can be interpreted as different things by many, but it is something definite that they stand as a symbol like many different objects and mise an scenes in the films.
I cannot help, but look for things that carry multiple causes within and I believe that the films that are rich of them, thus, possess a greater potential within them.
Canan Gürel