Page 28 - Studio International - August 1966

Working title - 'Sunday night : Venice'

A note by Ann Turner, the film director, on the
making of the B.B.C. documentary on the British
participation at Venice.
The scene: a special evening showing of art films
at Venice. In the audience a colleague from the
Italian television service and myself in search of
ideas and material for future programmes. On the
platform, a director introducing his films, holding
forth relentlessly on their philosophy, on their form,
on the rhythm of the cutting, on whether they were
(to use the subtle Italian distinction) films 'd'arte' or
'sull 'arte', or both. As in church, there are coughs
and murmurs and shushings from the faithful. Tired
after shooting all day in the heat and crowds of
the Biennale, my own feelings must have been near
those of a Chindit when faced with the exploits of
Errol Flynn.
The art film as such is in danger of being treated
with more reverence than it deserves; and one
could wish that some directors took their subject
matter as seriously as they take themselves. At its
best, the art film can bring delight and understanding,
but all too often the art is eclipsed by technique and
the film tells us more about the director's ego than
the works it is meant to celebrate.
All this is by way of saying that it is dangerous for
a director to write about any films—they should be
seen and not read—and it is certainly risky to
write about one which, like mine, has still to be The five British artists at Venice: left to right, Harold Cohen, Bernard Cohen, Robyn Denny,
edited. All that I can do here is put on record that Richard Smith, Anthony Caro
the film I have been shooting for the B.B.C. over
the last nine months has no pretentions to be
anything but a straightforward document. Five
artists were chosen to exhibit in the British
Pavilion at the Venice Biennale: Bernard Cohen,
Harold Cohen, Robyn Denny, Richard Smith, and
Anthony Caro. Since last November, we have spent
a total of twenty-two days recording on film what
this involved both for them and for Mrs Lilian Somer-
ville and her staff in the Fine Arts Department of
the British Council who are responsible for the
Pavilion exhibition. That both groups should have
agreed to take on a film unit together with every-
thing else in a hectic year is something for which
I must always be grateful. It is impossible to
mention here all the people who have kindly taken
part but the list does include Carola Giedeon-Welcker,
Sir Philip Hendy, Sir Herbert Read, Carl Sandberg,
and James Johnson Sweeney. The film will be
approximately fifty minutes long, is in 16 mm. black
and white, and the provisional transmission date is
September 25 on B.B.C.-1.
From the first it was decided that the film would be
concerned with practical problems rather than Harold Cohen with members of the selection committee: left to right, David Thompson, Alan Gouk,
critical assessments. The five artists are of a
Harold Cohen, Lilian Somerville, Sir Herbert Read
generation but they are not a group, which meant
that they and their work had to be established visited America at the time of his first one-man detailed sequence on them towards the end of the
separately. Each has a short section to himself and show in New York last November, and we asked film. They are talked over in studios, sorted out as
the information they give is mainly on current Henry Geldzahler to interview him to illustrate this photographs for the catalogue, collected and cased
developments—what is concerning them in 1966. kind of exchange. The result was a hard-hitting in the workshops, and assembled and hung in
I was helped in some of these sequences by David and stimulating discussion. Mr Geldzahler, of Venice. In every shot of the Pavilion they more than
Thompson who was questioning the artists before course, makes a second appearance in the film as hold their own against the grand chorus of critics
writing his introductions for the catalogue. One of commissioner for the United States Pavilion. and collectors, diplomats and dealers, photo-
my problems is to strike a balance between all five The city of Venice provides the outer skin of the graphers and film units that besieged Gran Bretagna.
sections and to edit down the information without film—the opening and the close. The British Although it was made up from the work of five
losing the context or some vital qualification. Pavilion and its place in the Biennale, and the work very different artists, the British exhibition as a
The transcripts of the studio material alone would of the British Council in organizing the exhibition, whole had a positive strength and assurance that
make an interesting book. provide the continuity which links the separate made some of the collections in other pavilions
The exchange of ideas is one aspect of the Biennale sequences. The unit followed the visits to the look like bargain basements.
and one of the facts that comes out of the film is artists' studios of the selection committee: Sir The work of the artist in his studio has nothing to
that artists and their work (and consequently their Herbert Read, Alan Bowness, and David Thompson, do with nations and exhibitions and prizes, and
ideas) travel a great deal more than they used to. with Mrs Somerville and her taking part in a film of this kind is just another
For instance, between November and the trans- assistants. Working with photographs and plans of the Pavilion, the distraction from that work. But the British are hardly
mission of the film, all but one of the artists will have artists and the committee discussed the possibilities aware of the international importance of their
crossed the Atlantic either to lecture or for exhibi- of hanging and the selection of exhibits. By being artists, and by focussing on these five, the film may
tions, and the fifth, Bernard Cohen, will probably repeatedly seen in different practical contexts the help to generate more national interest. q
be in New York by the end of the year. Robyn Denny exhibits can establish themselves before the
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