Page 23 - Studio International - November December 1975

Two frames from Jean- Marie Straub's The Bridegroom,
The Comedienne and the Pimp 1968

optical re-combinations, like cinematic anagrams, but an see now how wrong Godard was in some of his
investigation into narration itself, which by counterposing judgements—the shots which were missing from his film
different narrative tones, so to speak, neither dissolves nor would be supplied by the other avant-garde — and it is not
repeats Lumière's simple story, L'Arroseur Arrosé, but clear that he has ever realized this.
foregrounds the process of narration itself. And this, as Nonetheless, though a simple convergence is very
we have seen, is semiotically very different from unlikely, it is crucial that the two avant-gardes should be
foregrounding the process of projection. The way into confronted and juxtaposed — this is part of the value, for
narrative cinema is surely not forbidden to the avant- instance, of the Bristol Festival of Independent Cinema, as
garde film-maker, any more than the way into verbal opposed to Knokke or Pesaro. History in the arts goes on,
language.15 as Viktor Shklovsky long ago pointed out, by knight's
Cinema, I have stressed earlier, is a multiple system — moves. During the first decade of this century, when the
the search for the specifically cinematic can be historic avant-garde embarked on its path, the years of
deceptively purist and reductive. For most people, after the coupure, the cinema was still in its infancy, scarcely
all, cinema is unthinkable without words and stories. To out of the fairground and the nickelodeon, certainly not
recognize this fact is by no means to accept a yet the Seventh Art. For this reason —and for others,
conventional Hollywood-oriented (or Bergman/ including economic reasons—the avant-garde made
Antonioni / Bunuel-oriented) attitude to the cinema and itself felt late in the cinema and it is still very marginal, in
the place of stories and words within it. It is perhaps the comparison with painting or music or even writing. Yet in
idea, so strongly rooted by now, that film is a visual art a way, the cinema offers more opportunities than any
which has brought about a blockage. Yet this idea is other art—the cross-fertilization which was so striking a
obviously a half-truth at best. The danger which feature of those early decades, the reciprocal interlocking
threatens is that the introduction of words and stories — of and input between painting, writing, music, theatre, etc.,
signifieds — will simply bring back illusionism or could take place within the field of cinema itself. This is
representationalism in full flood. Clearly this fear is the not a plea for a great harmony, a synesthetic
converse of Eisenstein's anxiety about 'unmotivated gesamtkunstwerk in the Wagnerian sense. But cinema,
camera mischief'. There are good reasons for these fears, because it is a multiple system, could develop and
but surely they can be overcome. elaborate the semiotic shifts which marked the origins of
I have tried to show how the two avant-garde we find the avant-garde in a uniquely complex way, a dialectical
in Europe originated and what it is that holds them apart. montage within and between a complex of codes. At
To go further, I would have to discuss as well the least, writing now as a film-maker, that is the fantasy I like
institutional and economic framework in which film- to entertain.
makers find themselves. The basis of the Co-op
movement, as has often been pointed out, lies in
artisanal production, with film-makers who do as much as
possible themselves at every stage of the film-making
process. If there are performers involved they are usually
few, generally friends of the film-maker, often other film-
1 Stephen Dwoskin, Film Is London, 1975. David Curtis, Experimental
makers. The other avant-garde has its roots much more in Cinema, London, 1971.
the commercial system, and even when filming in 16mm 2 Standish Lawder, The Cubist Cinema, New York, 1975.
Godard would use stars known in the commercial See Sophie Lissitzky-Küppers, El Lissitzky, London, 1968.
'Theo Van Doesburg, 'Film as Pure Form', Form, Summer 1966,
cinema. The difference is not simply one of budgets —
translated by Standish Lawder from Die Form, 15 May 1929.
Dwoskin or Wyborny have made films for TV as well as 6 See Victor Burgin, 'Photographic Practice and Art Theory', Studio
Godard, and Dwoskin's are clearly much more International, July/August 1975.
conventional, yet they are almost automatically assigned 6 See Roland Barthes, Elements of Semiology, London, 1967.
'Christian Metz, Language and Cinema, The Hague, 1974.
different cultural places. It is much more one of the film-
Barbara Rose, 'The Films of Man Ray and Moholy-Nagy', Artforum
makers' frames of reference, the places from which they September 1971.
came and the culture to which they relate. 9 See my forthcoming article on ontology and materialism in film, to be
The facts of uneven development mean too that it published by Diacritics.
10 Sergei Eisenstein, 'The Cinematographic Principle and the Ideogram',
would be Utopian to hope for a simple convergence of the
Film Form, New York, 1949.
two avant-gardes. The most revolutionary work, both of 11 Eisenstein, 'A Dialectic Approach to Film Form', op. cit.
Godard and of Straub- Huillet, was done in 1968 — Le Gai 12 Jean- Luc Godard, Le Gai Savoir, Paris 1969. The script, 'mot-à-mot
Savoir and The Bridegroom, The Comedienne and the d'un film encore trop réviso', was published by the Union des Ecrivains
Pimp. In comparison Tout Va Bien and Moses and Aaron formed during May 1968. (My translation).
13 Julia Kristeva, Semeiotike, Paris, 1969.
are a step backwards. Godard works increasingly in 14 See Ian Christie, 'Time and Motion Studies : Structural Cinema and the
isolation, cut off from any real collective work or Work of Bill Brand', Studio International, June 1974.
movement. In Le Gai Savoir, Juliet Berto says towards the 15 The British landscape film-makers often use a new type of narrativity,
end that half the shots are missing from the film, and in which both film-maker and 'nature' as causal agent play the role of
protagonist. A pro-filmic event, which is a conventional signified
Jean-Pierre Léaud replies that they will be shot by other ('landscape'), intervenes actively in the process of filming, determining
film-makers : Bertolucci, Straub, Glauber- Rocha. We can operations on the 'specifically cinematic' codes.
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