Viewpoints cinema at ABC
VIEWPOINTS
FORTHCOMING
http://viewpointsabcgallery.blogspot.com/
FRENCH MOVIES FROM THE 1920s TO THE PRESENT, PART TWO
A Man Escaped (1956) - Robert Bresson 8PM 127 CAMPBELL ST COLLINGWOOD
A Man Escaped or: The Wind Bloweth Where It Listeth is the English title of the 1956 French film Un condamné à mort s'est échappé ou Le vent souffle où il veut, directed by Robert Bresson. It is based on the memoirs of André Devigny. In the film, Fontaine (François Leterrier), a member of the French Resistance during World War II, is captured by the Nazis and sentenced to death. He forms a plan to escape, but before he can carry it out, he is given a cellmate. Unsure of whether he is a French patriot or a German agent, Fontaine must choose between letting him in on the plan or killing him.
For Fontaine, the French résistance fighter imprisoned in a Vichy jail, the visible world is limited within the walls of his cell or the prison courtyard, but the sounds heard by Fontaine place allude to him and the viewer that there are several levels outside his immediate visual realm from which experience is restricted. Where the image remains more or less static, comprised of tightly framed close up and medium shots that give little spatial information, the experience of space and time in A Man Escaped are determined by the worlds created by the orchestration of the off-screen sounds. Key sounds like footsteps and door locks reverberating against the cold prison walls expand a space that would be difficult to place on camera as well as act as markers of time for an environment and routine for which the passage of time is very difficult to establish. The boundaries between these worlds and environments are constantly put into play as the characteristics of the sound environments fluctuate between Fontaine’s inner world through narration, the sound of his cell, the area of the prison outside his cell, the nearby town center, and the sounds that evoke images of a world outside all these factors.
Sounds within the cell and jail exist within a frame of silence, whereas the texture of the outdoors as heard through the window operates with vastly different properties. Juxtaposed with the cold, near-silence of the jail cell, the viewer can see how the cold, stagnant sonic texture of the jail behaves when in the context of being near a bustling town center. The placement of the jail microcosm is established by the sonic texture of the town center and the larger surrounding space: cars, the streetcar bell, children playing, and the sounds of people moving about their daily business. These sounds, associated with movement, travel and freedom, help define the prison space as somewhere where movement or travel does not happen, and elicits a desire to escape and be closer to that world. As much as the audience receives the impression of lush imagery from these acousmatic markers, visual cues are not given, denoting instances of visual image superfluous for the audience as they are able, like Fontaine, to comprehend the extremities of the space through sound alone. The streetcar for instance, seen only for a short moment in the first scene of the film, is heard ringing brightly as Fontaine views the outside from behind the bars of his window. The audience never again sees the streetcar after the initial arrest scene, but it is heard ringing throughout the film, invoking a noticeable presence and sense of imagery with the audience, reminding them of the world that continues to move outside this jail while inside, the perception of time inside the prison seemingly ceases to exist. In addition, the train image brought on by the ringing also marks Fontaine’s desire to leave, and the effects of the environment that constantly remind him that he must escape at any cost.
Within this short scene, the properties of the prison are set in place for the rest of the film. As Fontaine and the audience are introduced to the physical properties of the jail and the surrounding areas, expectations can be made for the reasons what sounds in any of the spaces would mean. Because the visual spectrum is so sparse, both Fontaine and the viewer are required to explore the space through what is heard rather than what can be seen. Once the range of sounds that the prison and its inhabitants are made familiar, steps can be taken to introduce themes of instability by simply adding other sounds or forgoing a sound that the audience is trained to expect. As a result, by instilling a connection of familiarity between the audible, spatial world of the film to the viewers, the incorporation of unknown sounds, sounds at a different volume, pitch or density, and sounds the guards are not expected to make all become that much more monumental to the experience.
A Man Escaped (1956) - Robert Bresson 8PM 127 CAMPBELL ST COLLINGWOOD
A Man Escaped or: The Wind Bloweth Where It Listeth is the English title of the 1956 French film Un condamné à mort s'est échappé ou Le vent souffle où il veut, directed by Robert Bresson. It is based on the memoirs of André Devigny. In the film, Fontaine (François Leterrier), a member of the French Resistance during World War II, is captured by the Nazis and sentenced to death. He forms a plan to escape, but before he can carry it out, he is given a cellmate. Unsure of whether he is a French patriot or a German agent, Fontaine must choose between letting him in on the plan or killing him.
For Fontaine, the French résistance fighter imprisoned in a Vichy jail, the visible world is limited within the walls of his cell or the prison courtyard, but the sounds heard by Fontaine place allude to him and the viewer that there are several levels outside his immediate visual realm from which experience is restricted. Where the image remains more or less static, comprised of tightly framed close up and medium shots that give little spatial information, the experience of space and time in A Man Escaped are determined by the worlds created by the orchestration of the off-screen sounds. Key sounds like footsteps and door locks reverberating against the cold prison walls expand a space that would be difficult to place on camera as well as act as markers of time for an environment and routine for which the passage of time is very difficult to establish. The boundaries between these worlds and environments are constantly put into play as the characteristics of the sound environments fluctuate between Fontaine’s inner world through narration, the sound of his cell, the area of the prison outside his cell, the nearby town center, and the sounds that evoke images of a world outside all these factors.
Sounds within the cell and jail exist within a frame of silence, whereas the texture of the outdoors as heard through the window operates with vastly different properties. Juxtaposed with the cold, near-silence of the jail cell, the viewer can see how the cold, stagnant sonic texture of the jail behaves when in the context of being near a bustling town center. The placement of the jail microcosm is established by the sonic texture of the town center and the larger surrounding space: cars, the streetcar bell, children playing, and the sounds of people moving about their daily business. These sounds, associated with movement, travel and freedom, help define the prison space as somewhere where movement or travel does not happen, and elicits a desire to escape and be closer to that world. As much as the audience receives the impression of lush imagery from these acousmatic markers, visual cues are not given, denoting instances of visual image superfluous for the audience as they are able, like Fontaine, to comprehend the extremities of the space through sound alone. The streetcar for instance, seen only for a short moment in the first scene of the film, is heard ringing brightly as Fontaine views the outside from behind the bars of his window. The audience never again sees the streetcar after the initial arrest scene, but it is heard ringing throughout the film, invoking a noticeable presence and sense of imagery with the audience, reminding them of the world that continues to move outside this jail while inside, the perception of time inside the prison seemingly ceases to exist. In addition, the train image brought on by the ringing also marks Fontaine’s desire to leave, and the effects of the environment that constantly remind him that he must escape at any cost.
Within this short scene, the properties of the prison are set in place for the rest of the film. As Fontaine and the audience are introduced to the physical properties of the jail and the surrounding areas, expectations can be made for the reasons what sounds in any of the spaces would mean. Because the visual spectrum is so sparse, both Fontaine and the viewer are required to explore the space through what is heard rather than what can be seen. Once the range of sounds that the prison and its inhabitants are made familiar, steps can be taken to introduce themes of instability by simply adding other sounds or forgoing a sound that the audience is trained to expect. As a result, by instilling a connection of familiarity between the audible, spatial world of the film to the viewers, the incorporation of unknown sounds, sounds at a different volume, pitch or density, and sounds the guards are not expected to make all become that much more monumental to the experience.
In the meantime, this Friday Peter Jetnikoff's Shadows features his weekly movie at 7pm (see http://pj-shadow.blogspot.com/).
Army of Shadows, 8 July at 8 pm.
"Army of Shadows (French: L'armée des ombres) is a 1969 French film directed by Jean-Pierre Melville. It is a film adaptation of Joseph Kessel's 1943 book of the same name, which blends Kessel's own experiences as a member of the French Resistance with fictionalized versions of real Resistance members who fought against the Nazi occupation of France during World War II. Army of Shadows follows a small group of Resistance fighters as they move between safe houses, work with the Allied militaries, kill informers, and attempt to evade the capture and execution that they know is their most likely fate. While portraying its characters as heroic, the film presents a bleak, unromantic view of the Resistance.
At the time of its initial release in France, Army of Shadows was not well received or widely seen. In the wake of the events of May 1968, French critics denounced the film for its perceived glorification of Charles de Gaulle. At the time American art-film programmers took their cues from Cahiers du cinéma, which had attacked the film on this basis, and so it was not released in the United States for almost forty years. In the mid-1990s Cahiers du cinéma published a reappraisal of the film (and Melville's work in general), leading to its restoration and re-release in 2006. The film was greeted with critical adulation in the U.S., landing on many critics' year-end top ten lists."
"Army of Shadows (French: L'armée des ombres) is a 1969 French film directed by Jean-Pierre Melville. It is a film adaptation of Joseph Kessel's 1943 book of the same name, which blends Kessel's own experiences as a member of the French Resistance with fictionalized versions of real Resistance members who fought against the Nazi occupation of France during World War II. Army of Shadows follows a small group of Resistance fighters as they move between safe houses, work with the Allied militaries, kill informers, and attempt to evade the capture and execution that they know is their most likely fate. While portraying its characters as heroic, the film presents a bleak, unromantic view of the Resistance.
At the time of its initial release in France, Army of Shadows was not well received or widely seen. In the wake of the events of May 1968, French critics denounced the film for its perceived glorification of Charles de Gaulle. At the time American art-film programmers took their cues from Cahiers du cinéma, which had attacked the film on this basis, and so it was not released in the United States for almost forty years. In the mid-1990s Cahiers du cinéma published a reappraisal of the film (and Melville's work in general), leading to its restoration and re-release in 2006. The film was greeted with critical adulation in the U.S., landing on many critics' year-end top ten lists."
thanks to Wayne Clarke, the Stainless Steel Rat, Milos and Peter Jetnikoff
Viewpoints
ABC Gallery
127 Campbell St Collingwood
Door near intersection with Perry St
8pm
20 May 2010
Paris Belongs to Us
Jacques Rivette
1960
27 May 2010
Céline and Julie Go Boating
Jacques Rivette
1974
3 June 2010
The Fire Within
Louis Malle
1963
10 June 2010
Lacombe, Lucien
Louis Malle
1974
17 June 2010
Mesrine: Part One, Killer Instinct
Jean-Françoise Richet
2008
24 June 2010
Mesrine: Part Two, Public Enemy Number One
Jean-Françoise Richet
2008
No comments:
Post a Comment