text:
This action might not be possible to undo. Are you sure you want to continue?
History Goes to the Movies
Can films be used as historical evidence? Do historical films make good or bad history? Are documentaries more useful to historians than historical drama? Written from an international perspective, this book offers a lucid introduction to the ways films are made and used, culminating with the exploration of the fundamental question, what is history and what is it for? Incorporating film analysis, advertisements, merchandise and Internet forums; and ranging from late nineteenth-century short films to twenty-firstcentury DVD 'special editions', this survey evaluates the varied ways in which filmmakers, promoters, viewers and scholars understand film as history. From Saving Private Ryan to Picnic at Hanging Rock to Pocahontas, History Goes to the Movies considers that history is not simply to be found in films but in the agreements and arguments of those who make and view them. This helpful introductory text blends historical and methodological issues with examples to create a systematic guide to issues involved in using historical film in the study of history. History Goes to the Movies is a much-needed overview of an increasingly popular subject. Marnie Hughes-Warrington is Senior Lecturer in Modern History at Macquarie University, Sydney. She is the author of Fifty Key Thinkers on History (2000), 'How Good an Historian Shall I Be?': R. G. Collingwood, the Historical Imagination and Education (2003) and editor of Palgrave Advances in World Histories (2005).
History Goes to the Movies
Studying history on film
Marnie Hughes-Warrington
or other means. I. p. 2006.H84 2007 791.2.First published 2007 by Routledge 2 Park Square. No part of this book may be reprinted or reproduced or utilized in any form or by any electronic. Oxon OX14 4RN Simultaneously published in the USA and Canada by Routledge 270 Madison Ave. NY 10016 Routledge is an imprint of the Taylor & Francis Group. Historical films—History and criticism. Marnie History goes to the movies / Marnie Hughes-Warrington. "To purchase your own copy of this or any of Taylor & Francis or Routledge's collection of thousands of eBooks please go to www. including photocopying and recording. Title. without permission in writing from the publishers.43′658—dc22 ISBN10: 0–415–32827–6 (hbk) ISBN10: 0–415–32828–4 (pbk) ISBN13: 978–0–415–32827–2 (hbk) ISBN13: 978–0–415–32828–9 (pbk) 2006014053 . 2.tandf. PN1995.co. Includes bibliographical references and index. cm. Motion pictures and history. now known or hereafter invented. or in any information storage or retrieval system. New York. an informa business © 2007 Marnie Hughes-Warrington This edition published in the Taylor & Francis e-Library." All rights reserved.eBookstore. British Library Cataloguing in Publication Data A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data Hughes-Warrington.uk. 1. mechanical. Abingdon. Milton Park.
For Jill. Helen V.. the State Cinema and my parents .
Contents List of figures Acknowledgements Permissions Introduction: why history on film? 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 Words and images. presents. futures Identity Reality Documentary Propaganda Selling history Conclusion: beyond 'historiophoty': film as history Glossary Filmography Index viii ix xi 1 16 36 58 80 101 122 144 165 187 195 198 211 . images and words Genre Pasts.
1 5. 1988) Frame enlargements.1 6.3 2.2 3.1 2. Distant Voices. The Patriot (2000) Frame enlargement. Saving Private Ryan (1998) Frame enlargement. Hadashi no Gen (Barefoot Gen.2 2. Pocahontas (1995). Gladiator (2000) Promotional poster for The Last Days (1998) Frame enlargement. 1983) and Hotaru no Haku (Grave of the Fireflies.1 8.5 3.4 Frame enlargement.1 2.1 3.1 8.4 2.2 8.1 5.3 4.Figures 1. Anastasia (1998) Advertisement for the Titanic soundtrack sequel (2000) Advertisement for the Franklin Mint Rose portrait doll (2000) Advertisement for Max Factor Titanic offer (2000) Inspired by Titanic Simplicity sewing pattern (2000) 29 39 40 42 44 47 62 65 66 84 105 109 123 127 148 167 169 170 175 . Mister Prime Minister (1966) Promotional poster. Still Lives (1988) Australian and US promotional posters for Rabbit-proof Fence (2002) Digital effects shots. The Story of the Kelly Gang (1906) Frame enlargements. Picnic at Hanging Rock (1975) Advertisement for Graustark (1925) Advertisements for The Lives of a Bengal Lancer (1936) and Pearl Harbor (2001) Advertisement for The Three Musketeers (1939) Advertisement for Aan (1952) Frame enlargements.2 6. and frame enlargement.3 8.2 7.
I would like to thank Michelle Arrow for her invaluable help with locating print and online resources in the early stages of this project and for . I have spent a lifetime wondering about how people draw upon and are drawn into films. Philippa Grand and Anna Hines at Routledge for their support and patience with this project. But a book is not just about beginnings. With thanks to them. More particularly. and I hope that this publication marks not the end but the continuation of our good-natured banter over visual culture and history. though. Sydney. Additionally. I would like to thank those individuals who read and commented on the proposal for this work. I dedicate this book to Jill. Helen Verrier. the State Cinema and my parents. Hobart. this book might have begun with the many outings that my school friend. this book might have its origins in my parents' act of naming. when Professor Jill Roe encouraged me to design an undergraduate unit that combined my interests in film and historiography.Acknowledgements How is it possible to unravel the ideas and arguments presented in a book? If I cast my mind back. I thank the Department of Modern History. Looking back even further. though of course any responsibility for errors is entirely my own. Or going back further still. I am deeply appreciative of the advice they offered. In recognition of these beginnings. Helen V. including the generous financial support provided for this project through the Macquarie University Research Development Scheme. including Professor Robert Rosenstone and Associate Professor Judith Keene. I would like to thank Vicky Peters. organised to the State Cinema. In that time and place. prod and argue it into shape. whose efforts as a proof-reader continually inspire me to do better. the starting point for this book may have been a late summer's day in 1999. the films that I saw continue to organise and keep vivid my memories of friends. I am also grateful for the support provided by Macquarie University. Thanks again to Bruce. for supporting my explorations of film in teaching and research. And as with some of the viewers whose experiences are described in this book. I caught sight of worlds that I have never forgotten. I thank Jill for her supportive and thought-provoking comments over the past seven years. it is also about the many people who tug. now led by Professor Angela Woollacott.
. messages and enduring support. which processed countless requests for materials with efficiency and great patience. I cannot finish without noting the support of family and friends: to the folks at St David's Lindfield for their interest and words of encouragement. Additionally. Bronwyn and Evan for their calls. talks and papers. Thanks are also owed to Mary Spongberg and Bridget Griffen-Foley. whose love and support for one another never cease to amaze. I thank each of you for allowing me to test out my ideas and for stimulating me to explore ideas and issues. at whose side I can find no greater happiness. and to Bruce and Alice. an enormous vote of thanks is owed to the hundreds of students who have now completed HIST243: History on Film. to the Warringtons. Andrew. Helen Groth in the Department of English prompted me to think about special effects in novel and promising ways.x Acknowledgements bringing new dimensions to the topic through her lectures. whose comments and encouragement never cease to help and bring a smile. Thanks are also owed to Nicola Myton for her work on the filmography. to Cath. Acknowledgement must be made of the document supply staff in the Macquarie University library.
Every effort has been made to trace copyright holders and to obtain their permission for the use of copyright material. Gen Productions for the frame enlargement from Hadashi no Gen (1983).Permissions The author and publisher gratefully acknowledge the permission granted to include the following images in this book: the Australian Film Commission for the frame enlargement from Picnic at Hanging Rock (1975) and promotional posters for Rabbit-proof Fence (2002). . Screensound Australia for the frame enlargements from The Story of the Kelly Gang (1906). Centropolis Effects for the 'before' and 'after' shots from The Patriot (2000). Max Factor Cosmetics for the Titanic promotional advertisement (2000). the Franklin Mint for the advertisement for the Rose portrait doll (2000). Touchstone Pictures for the advertisement for Pearl Harbor (2001).usc. the Australian Broadcasting Corporation for the frame enlargement from Mister Prime Minister (1966). and Simplicity Patterns for the cover of the Titanic-inspired sewing pattern (2000). Dreamworks SKG for the frame enlargements from Saving Private Ryan (1988) and Gladiator (2000). Sony Classical BMG for the advertisement for the Titanic soundtrack sequel (2000). The author and publisher apologise for any errors or omissions in the above list and would be grateful if notified of any corrections that should be incorporated in future reprints or editions of this book. Still Lives (1988).edu/vhi) for the promotional poster for The Last Days (1998). 20th Century Fox for the frame enlargement from Anastasia (1998). Akiyuki Nosaka/Shinchosha for the frame enlargement from Hotaru no Haku (1988). the USC Shoah Foundation Institute for Visual History and Education (www. Disney Corporation for the promotional poster for Pocahontas (1995). the British Film Institute for the frame enlargement from Distant Voices.
How can film and television be so popular but at the same time less persuasive than other historical media? The challenge of these findings. is that 'History professionals need to work harder at listening to and respecting the many ways popular history makers traverse the terrain of the . the study of historical films is significant. 81 percent of the 1500 people interviewed indicated that they had watched films or television programs about the past in the previous year. . Yet those same surveys also revealed that people trust historical films and television programs far less than books.2 Similar results have been reported in the 'Australians and the Past' project. . respondents in the Australian study held that objects and places were better evidence for the past than books and films. In the future. academic historians and museums. The number of people engaged in that activity was second only to taking or looking at photographs and much higher than the number of people who read books about the past (53 percent) or who participated in a group devoted to studying. for instance. Moreover.1 Why devote an entire book to history on film? The answer to this question might at first sight be obvious: for many people. respondents registered a stronger connection with the past when they watched films and television than when they studied history in school. preserving or presenting the past (20 percent). please try to be serious. 'history' is what they see in films and television programs. Moreover.Introduction Why history on film? Why. devote an entire issue to film when there are serious issues to discuss? . History has come out of the little box it was in [in] primary school. as Roy Rosenzweig and David Thelen have argued. I feel connected to the past all the time.4 While far from global in scope. In the US-based 'Presence of the Past' project.3 As one respondent in that study reported: [on] a monthly basis I can see documentaries on the Second World War. . . . these studies suggest that in terms of popular presence alone. may I ask.
it may be argued. intended affect. This Noël Carroll puts down to the very nature of 'mass artworks'. . certain 'specialised' skills are assumed to be required to access academic monographs. and even [their] content) toward those choices that promise accessibility with minimum effort. 'untutored' audiences. and if not. sometimes. How has it come to be that we might think of a popular medium like film as something less than serious? We start with the observation that viewers— including film scholars—are often described as being engaged in a form of 'escape' and consequently interested only in mere entertainment.g.9 People are not born with an ability to interpret film. it is even assumed that with training. does not bestow on a topic importance. or as Marshall Poe put it in the quote that opens this book.2 History Goes to the Movies past that is so present for all of us'. although many more studies of viewers' responses to historical films in different historical and cultural contexts remain to be done. If these accounts are to be believed. And. as Carroll puts it. By contrast.7 At work in these definitions are two key untested assumptions: that films offer access with minimum effort. 'seriousness'. viewers will move beyond or outgrow film or some kinds of film.6 Similarly. [and] anything calling for mental effort is painstakingly avoided'. and that they are accessible to 'mass'. Popularity. the charges against history on film as a serious endeavour are charges against both the medium and its audience. he argues: intentionally designed to gravitate in [their] structural choices (e. and is it immune to change? Does 'mental effort' allow for emotional effort. is a barrier to independent thought and action. No independent thinking must be expected from the audience . It is possible to rebut these charges without going to the other extreme and uncritically valorising the efforts of filmmakers and their audiences. Max Horkheimer and Theodor Adorno have credited films with the production of boredom. for the largest number of relatively untutored audiences. Northrop Frye holds that 'the most obvious conventional fictions are the easiest to read'. .5 But there is another challenge: that of explaining people's ambivalence towards history on film. At the very least. why not? And why do we assume that sharing or following the ideas of others is necessarily an effortless act? In raising this last question.8 The problem with this view is that it conflates 'effort' with 'mental effort' and 'mental effort' in turn with 'independent thinking'. They are. By what means did we arrive at this view of effort. symbolism. because they 'do not demand any effort. Similarly. . empirical evidence from studies of film and television watching suggests otherwise. It is argued that history on film provides little scholarly satisfaction because it can be understood. and filmic conventions . [their] narrative forms. for example. It might be objected that we should not confuse popularity with significance. . we move on to the assumption that film. by its formulaic nature. virtually on first contact. . with 'minimum effort'.
or the 'worlds' presented by films—be homogeneous. but not to all of them. as some scholars maintain. let us be clear. It could be that viewers have more sense of historical films as representations than other history media such as museums or books. are they unfit for scholarly attention? Quite the contrary if our interest is in acquiring a better understanding of the nature and purposes of history. it is believed that where there is disagreement. question and modify conventional and uncontested activities.Introduction 3 have not remained static over time. it is important to disentangle the concept of a 'mass audience' from 'multitudinous audience' or even 'everyone'. But all historiographical assumptions. while others are so persistent and widespread that they appear to be universal or even natural. Moreover. Every practice associated with the making. a historiographer is needed to set things aright. films are characterised by multilayered and nuanced meanings. That is. Far from being transparent and universal clusters of conventions. or 'history wars' as they are sometimes called. However.12 then the perception of film as a simple or accessible medium—ill-founded or not—might work in its favour. Failure to recognise these may be more a reflection of a lack of willingness or training on the part of critics to understand them than anything else. As Shusterman explains: A particular taste group sharing a distinct social or ethnic background or specific subculture may be clearly distinguishable from what is considered the homogeneous mass audience of average Americans or Britons.10 Particular films may appeal to a lot of viewers.11 If historical films are characterised even in part by conventions. Finally. contract or extend understandings of 'history'. Some historiographical assumptions vary markedly across cultures and times. the illumination and study of historiographical assumptions is no easy matter. communication and reception of histories either establishes or confirms assumptions that define. historiography is not ancillary to historical practices and cannot be disentangled from them. This perception. If. historiography can also be used to illuminate. their status as the products of particular groups of people in . We have yet to chart the effort involved when a viewer first encounters a construction of history on film. Moreover. whether that construction is novel or conventional. They are consequently not so popular as to require that their devices and diegeses—ways of 'telling' by 'showing' on screen. and yet still be numerous enough to constitute a multitudinous audience whose satisfaction will render an art sufficiently popular to count as popular art. may explain an observation I noted above: viewer ambivalence towards historical films. Historiography is often portrayed as a tool that can be used to examine and resolve debates between historians. otherwise known as historiography. are subject to change and open to question. Put simply. for instance. novelty may be generated in the relation and juxtaposition of even the most hackneyed of conventions.
though. Offering a mixture of reviews. Underpinning these arguments was recognition of the complex relationship between films and the times of both their production and diegeses. but in 1971 it was put on a new footing with the creation of a specialist journal. new specialist journals like Screening the Past 16 and new space at conferences and in journals like The Journal of American History. though. with the former seeing it as the best way to 'recover all the past's liveliness' and the latter maintaining that it could not represent the past with any complexity because of its 'poor information load'. O'Connor Prize—awarded by the American Historical Association in recognition of one of the founding editors of Film and History—for outstanding achievement in historical filmmaking. for example .13 Sorlin and Ferro. saw historical films as divided into those 'inscribed in the dominant (or oppositional) currents of thought and those that propose an independent or innovative view of societies'. If that is the case. O'Connor argued for the recognition of film as a 'representation of history' and 'evidence for social and cultural history'. R. as one of the contributors to Image as Artefact put it. then films might offer a more approachable route to the study of historiography than other media. American Historical Review and History Today. educators and students alike. for instance. Image as Artefact: The Historical Analysis of Film and Television (1990). Addressing researchers. Barbara Abrash and Janet Sternberg took a practical approach. 'film is radically different from other and more familiar [historiographical] tools'. Raack and Ian Jarvie presented divergent accounts of the potential of film as a medium for history.17 Many more writers. Film and History stimulated the creation of monographs. survey articles and pedagogical suggestions. the latter of which defined the historical film as 'a reconstruction of the social relationship which.15 Belief in film as something 'radically different' was reinforced in the 1980s and 1990s with the production of multiple monographs. film review issues in other journals and eventually. Historical film studies I cannot claim credit for being the first person to note the historiographical potential of historical film studies. though. A similar view was advanced in Marc Ferro's Cinema et Histoire (1977. 'actuality footage as evidence for history' and 'the history of the moving image as industry and art form'. reorganizes the present'.4 History Goes to the Movies particular contexts—and the limitations of those products and contexts— may be more obvious to viewers. moved beyond debating film as poor or rich and sought to spell out how the medium could best show history. using the pretext of the past. Notable is the work edited by O'Connor himself. Film and History. Analysis of films representing history is as old as the medium itself.14 As with O'Connor. the John E. Ferro.J. they endorsed the view that. were insistent that films tell us more about the times in which they were produced than the times represented on screen. 1988) and Pierre Sorlin's The Film in History (1980). translated as Cinema and History.
in his view. From Ousmane Sembène's Ceddo (1976) to Shohei Imamura's Eijanaka (1981) and Alex Cox's Walker (1987) to Terence Davis' Distant Voices. Phillip Rosen employed André Bazin's historicised notion of 'reality' to highlight the historicity of all filmic statements. works like Anton Kaes' From Hitler to Heimat (1989) or Sue Harper's Picturing the Past (1994) consider historical film production in particular cultural contexts. for example. O'Connor and Robert Brent Toplin endorsed the distinction between 'history in images' and 'history in words'. for example. I. Guy Barefoot and George Custen have analysed representations of slavery. To take just a small number of examples: Jon Solomon has surveyed representations of the ancient world. In a special forum on history and film in American Historical Review in 1989.19 In their responses to Rosenstone's article. there are many more that consider particular aspects or kinds of historical films.23 Toplin suggested that even the most derided Hollywood films 'can arouse emotions. he claimed. he argued. Still Lives (1989). film offered new ways of thinking about the past and could be studied and appreciated on its own terms. historical adventure films.Q.26 For every monograph that explores the nature and purpose of historical films in general terms. films set during the London gaslight period and biographical pictures (biopics). It was high time. Rosenstone worked with other scholars to sketch out the features of what he called 'new' visual histories. that historiography was joined by 'historiophoty'.22 Visions of the Past (1995) and Revisioning History (1995) were part of a new surge of publications on historical films that has not yet lost its force. respectively. by contrast. David Herlihy. and Imelda Whelehan illuminated the fictional nature of constructions of the past. Brian Taves.24 Frank Sanello argued the opposite. and Leger Grindon and Deborah Cartmell.27 Aspects of film art have also been of interest: Charles Tashiro. and prompt viewers to consider significant questions'. Robert Rosenstone directed attention instead to the theoretical assumptions that he saw as a barrier to the scholarly treatment of historical films. Drawing on Gramsci and Nietzsche. there are even more publications that consider the merits of . and Natalie Zemon Davis. as if the latter were an unquestioned and unproblematic standard for history making. Hunter.28 There are also numerous books on filmic representations of particular events like the Holocaust. was the routine comparison of filmic histories with written histories.Introduction 18 5 looking for opportunities for historians and filmmakers to work together.20 Another respondent—Hayden White— went one step further and coined a term to distinguish the study of visual histories from written history.29 Furthermore.21 In subsequent publications. has looked at the use of costumes to represent the past. To Rosenstone.25 Finally. the Second World War and the Vietnam War. Marcia Landy connected cinematic uses of the past with the desire to either escape or engage with the present.30 Finally. stir curiosity. we see a move away from the presentation of history as a polished and complete story and towards its being a representation that can and ought to be questioned. The major problem.
Past Imperfect. is whether their significance may be exhausted through the analysis of these on-screen features alone. critics and scholars. few studies of actual historical film viewers exist to complement the many film and literary studies that construct 'hypothetical' viewers. editing and so on: in short. or fact and fiction. commercial outfits or governments that inscribe and fix meaning. we must see them rather as sites of relation. In this work. I have written this book because I believe that despite the prodigious outpouring of publications on historical films. costuming. dialogue. I have endeavoured to unite the often quite separate efforts of film scholars. promotion and reception of historical films. I hope to highlight and unpack five in this work. I argue that there is more to historical film studies: I combine textual analysis with a study of the evidence we have for the promotion and reception of historical films. Third. the Internet and digital effects—on the production. The first is that relatively few publications explore the impact of technologies—particularly new technologies such as DVDs. ranging from Mark Carne's edited collection of sixty reviews. agreement and even contestation among film producers. historical film scholars. or photorealism and simulation. and they can be and have been appreciated by viewers as such. Finally. large and serious gaps in the discussion and therefore understanding remain. The first is that they are synonymous with diegeses. Why then. I do not hold that we can understand the claims that historical films make upon audiences if we judge them solely in terms of proximity to historical evidence. no single group consistently emerges with the controlling hand. Nor do I believe that historical films can be treated simply as the property of directors. promoters and viewers.31 This study Publications on historical films now number over a thousand and are beginning to reflect global interest in and uses of the medium. their on-screen worlds. To begin to understand historical films. I have worked to address these five gaps above all others because I hold them to be symptoms of two fundamental—and limiting—assumptions that scholars routinely make about historical films. as well as editing techniques and costumes. historians and historiographers. effects. this is not my prime motivation for offering History Goes to the Movies. Theoretical studies of historical . In this relationship. to the hundreds of articles in specialist and general journals. though. for instance. Second. merchandise and viewer fan fiction are considered. film crews. Fourth. Historical films are also aesthetic expressions. is it necessary to add another publication to this arguably overcrowded field? Although there is merit in drawing together the information on historical films that is currently scattered across specialised and general print and online publications. What I question. Advertisements.6 History Goes to the Movies individual films. you might ask. scholars have tended to treat the study of historical films as being synonymous with the analysis of on-screen representations. Films clearly cannot be understood apart from their plots.
I have opted to 'go behind the scenes' and to focus attention on the ideas and issues that give shape to the production. promoters and creators. have tended to favour the experiences of British viewers before the 1960s. the best result is a lively pocket of specialist scholarship. The question of how many films may be addressed in a single work of historical film research is important. Arguing for the recognition of film as distinct is taken to be an effective strategy for encouraging us to think of and value historical films on their own terms. but this process of identification may do little to challenge or re-articulate the deep-seated historiographical assumptions that explain their treatment as marginal forms. So. In every chapter. and methods for studying them. this strategy is logically unsustainable and does not guarantee that the 'seriousness' of historical film studies will be recognised. John Gaddis and David Christian provide an accessible route to the discussion of this question when they liken histories to maps. it is my claim that they are both history. have offered us insight into the ways in which viewers are both drawn into. and draw upon. distribution and promotion. However. reception and scholarly discussion of historical films. A growing number of reception studies. nor is it an appraisal of how particular historical films. yet largely unexplored. Moreover.32 These studies. That new specialism may not disrupt understandings of history in other areas of specialist research. promotion. such as Annette Kuhn's Dreaming of Fred and Ginger (2002). it is a reflection on how some of the themes that currently run through historical film scholarship might be used as an entry point to prompt discussion on the features and functions of history. It is not a collection of film reviews. they need to be drawn together with a consideration of how new technologies can be used and with the intellectual and commercial imperatives that shape film production. though. Second. Arguably. historical film scholars have assumed a gap between— as Hayden White put it—'historiophoty' and 'historiography'. My preoccupation with the assumptions made about historical films and history is reflected in the focus and structure of this book. rather than arguing for words or images as forms of history. Rather. films to organise their experiences. gets history 'wrong' or 'right'. teaching and publication. Scholars may identify more and more forms of history. or history on film in general.Introduction 7 films therefore need to be complemented by historical accounts of the relationships that they secure and enhance among viewers. My primary aim in doing so is to highlight judgements about how and why visual histories are made. maps on the same scale as the phenomena they represent are not very helpful. as I will begin to argue in the next chapter. This book is thus as much about 'history' as it is about particular historical films. . with specialist courses of study and specialist texts. Maps are conventionally on smaller scales than the phenomena they represent. This explains the thematic focus of the chapters and my decision to analyse a wide range of films. in routinely stressing the differences between 'history in images' and 'history in words'.
and certain scales have been favoured over others: namely. But maps are also available on more than one scale. I am personally and acutely aware. In practice. Two more structural features serve to distinguish this work from others in the field of historical film studies. for instance. or the world. the analysis of a single or a small number of sound films in a single or small number of cultural contexts. While this approach to historical film studies has highlighted important issues and ideas. for example.8 History Goes to the Movies because to find a feature. indicated by the recurring heading 'Images and words'. I have also made a deliberate effort to include works that have attracted different audience sizes and that were produced in different cultural contexts. we would have to walk as far on the map as we would in the world. as was suggested above. or a country. A map of a school or university campus. includes different information to that of a map showing a suburb. or even to replace a well-worn VHS copy of. I have tried to provide plenty of opportunities for the reader to shift scales by identifying specialist resources that may be used in further research. or even a single element of a single work. interests of historiographers and historical film scholars and to explore how the insights of each may inform the other. The scales of histories are those of space and time: a work on historical films may range over global sites of production and consider nineteenth-century actualities as well as current productions. Still Lives. Distant Voices. The first is an explicit shift to historiography in each chapter. That larger view.33 Achieving such compression involves selection and thus the omission of particular details. I shift scales and focus on a single work. I believe. these spaces will be used to explore the common. others remain obscured from view. Rather. moving from the analysis of one film through to global patterns of production. they may be more or less detailed and can serve different purposes. This should not be read as an attempt to pin historical film studies down to historiography and thus to reify the latter as an unquestioned standard for analysis. and differing. and maps of different scales serve different purposes. This work seeks not to overturn the efforts of scholars who work on small numbers of sound films but to complement their efforts with a larger view. pragmatic reason for analysing more rather than fewer films is that there is an increased likelihood of reader accessibility. Histories. Scholars may also shift scales within works. like maps. is like taking a step backwards and being rewarded with a new perspective on familiar terrain. can similarly be on different scales. of how difficult and expensive it can be to track down copies of Ceddo. Every now and then. The experiences of both help to illuminate the question running through this work: 'what are histories and what are they for?' Second. say. Moreover. such shifts are unusual. What I have to say in each chapter is thus not a definitive and final pronouncement but the opening of a new and expanded discussion on film and history. I have not assumed that the question 'what is an historical film?' can be answered by a definition with a sharp boundary and a definitive set of necessary and . An additional.
'Words and images. On the contrary.34 As I have already intimated and will argue in more detail. 'costume'. It opens by noting a disjunction between the interest of historical film scholars in identifying works that unambiguously sit in an 'historical' genre and that of film promoters in attracting large audiences through an appeal to multiple story forms. whether or not they like or even recognise it: they shape their works according to conventional story forms or forms of 'emplotment'. 'melodrama'. 'Genre'. Why? The force of this assumption. historical films and written histories are not forms of history. I seek to explain why some combinations of story form. (2) their focus on the actions of individuals to the exclusion of wider contexts. they are history. it is also about the relationships between those events. as Rosenstone has argued. Noting that historical films are mixtures of story forms. It is commonly assumed that films can offer viewers only an impoverished or compromised vision of history. Historians and historical filmmakers are thus stylists. (3) their focus on emotional dimensions of phenomena at the expense of their intellectual dimensions. I turn a critical eye on Rosenstone's and other historical film scholars' attempts to circumvent criticisms of film by separating the efforts of 'historical' filmmakers from the creators of 'faction'. (5) their avoidance of multiple points of view and inconclusive or contradictory explanations of phenomena. In addition. this work opens up the concept of 'historical film'. Chapter 2. . highlights the varying forms of historical films. History is not solely about events. and (6) their purportedly poor information load. So history is not just about the relation of events but is also about the relation of various groups who hold. have been routinely neglected by scholars. 'period' or 'heritage' films. however. I do this by noting the persistence of a metaphysics that holds one 'form' of history to be a 'solid and unproblematic' foundation against which all other expressions of history should be tested. Rather. derives from the lack of involvement of historians in film production and from six perceived shortcomings of 'mainstream' historical films: (1) their routine packaging of history as upbeat comedy or romance. promote and contest the selection. Chapter 1. the order in which they are presented and the selection of emphases. explores these shortcomings and endorses Rosenstone's questioning of written histories as a standard for judging history making. like promoters. participate in discursive sites where meaning is circulated. or resolved in the space of a paragraph or even a chapter. scholars.Introduction 9 sufficient criteria. images and words'. when they work with films. musicals and melodramas. connection and emphasis of events. This explains my interest in exploring not only film forms and activities that are widely accepted as 'historical' but also those deemed by scholars to be marginal or 'nearly' historical. such as historical animations. This investigation highlights academic belief about the functions of historical films and leads to the conclusion that histories are not 'things' that can be clearly and transparently classified by scholars. contested and agreed. (4) their conflation of historical meaning with property ('props').
Titles or a voiceover may set the scene. such as family. Realism is thus a matter of convention: . I note that these three theorists share a vision of viewers as vulnerable to the illusionary effects that cinema presents. reviewers and viewers mean by this term. more believable and more valuable than the real) and Jean-Luc Godard and Walter Benjamin's claim that cinema is organised by reality anterior to our world. filmmakers have formulated and applied conventions that shape cinematic time. I offer an account of some of these conventions and use them to open up a discussion on what times historical films can show. What do filmmakers. fragment 'history' into histories. because it involves conceptual and not numerical. however? Are 'realistic' films the ones that are historical in the double sense mentioned above? The aim of Chapter 5. futures'. involving both being 'drawn into' film and 'drawing upon' film. I conclude. and foster awareness of their sometimes coalescing. sometimes competing forms and functions. presents. Looking more closely. In Chapter 3. Rebutting the claim that historical films are simply statements about the present. Identification with others is possible in both an intellectual and emotional sense.10 History Goes to the Movies Films signal temporal setting in a number of different ways. Finally. may occupy more of the attention of film audiences. realism can never be found apart from viewer constructions of it. when we study the comments of viewers. reception and scholarship make them ill-suited to be lenses for national analysis. diverge and regroup but never in an entirely seamless way. costumes. Since the early days of cinema. dialogue and physical surroundings may tell us that the filmed action does not take place in our present. I note how various time paths open up. I argue. we discover that 'identity' is not simply an outcome—the connection of a viewer to a community—but the process whereby that happens. The time paths of historical films. too. but even if these are missed. is to unpack the meaning of 'realism'. 'Reality'. What kinds of film draw viewers in? One of the terms most commonly used to endorse historical films is 'realistic': the more 'realistic' a picture. and second that. promotion. 'the dream of the nineteenth century'. One of the functions most often connected with historical films is that of establishing. Moreover. and I argue against it by noting first that the 'reality' presented by films is far from seamless. historians. I make it clear that identity is a two-way process. In Chapter 4. Through a consideration of elements such as editing techniques and costume. 'Identity'. the better we assume it to be. I also highlight that other 'imagined' communities. Drawing on historical reception studies. 'Pasts. affirming or challenging national identity. spatial or temporal identity. I begin by noting the purported division between Jean Baudrillard's vision of films as 'hyperreal' (presenting a world that appears more legitimate. Thus films may be historical in two senses: diegeses may draw viewers into an exploration of past activities and be drawn into viewers' lives to delineate and secure understandings of their past. as André Bazin holds. I argue for the recognition of the temporal heterogeneity of films. I note how the transnational dimensions of historical film production. make-up and props.
This expansion. or kinds of content. Finally. I find examples of informed and critical 'connoisseur' viewers who confound that view through their delight in. 'Documentary' may elicit trust as having a stronger link to the past. 'Selling history'. or certain methods or techniques. 'Documentary'. None of these in isolation. I highlight and question the conventional connection of various filmic techniques with a valued outcome of viewer reflexivity. open and poetic 'voices'. I start my exploration of historical documentary by applying Bill Nichol's typology of poetic. offers a necessary and sufficient criterion for the concept. The topic of propaganda in historical film studies is conventionally limited to explorations of state or state-sponsored articulations of national community during times of war and social upheaval. This leads me to note. we will discover. In this chapter. I note disagreements about the content and methods thought to be synonymous with propaganda. expository. Questioning the reductive treatment of viewer collectors as engaged in a form of nostalgic . for. the making and shaping of histories is formed by agreed ways of viewing the past. our exploration of historical films broadens to encompass merchandise. though. This understanding comes under direct scrutiny in Chapter 7. I make clear. but a study of the forms of historical documentaries endorses that it is. Looking again to historical evidence. though. and wonder at. Furthermore. I argue that perceptions of increasingly permeable boundaries between documentary and fiction are problematic because they also rest on a slight body of historical evidence and philosophical argument. observational. a 'creative treatment of actuality'. reflexive and performative forms and Carl Plantinga's typology of formal. we cannot be sure that this is the case. as John Grierson puts it. or viewer behaviour after viewing. I search for the answer to these two questions by examining the case of 'documentary'. In the process of doing so. its presence is generally confirmed through the analysis of filmmakers' intentions. as I conclude. which has as its focus the concept of propaganda. and offer a critical response to. for example in Nazi Germany or the Soviet Union. participatory. Furthermore. politically disengaged and vulnerable to filmmakers' effects. we will see exposed the persistent treatment of viewers as passive. but in the absence of historical studies. the art of visual histories. At a number of points in this book.Introduction 11 for example. Certain forms of film may in fact foster particular viewer outcomes. the recent expansion in applications of the term to all mass communication practices. an historical musical may be considered 'realistic' in some contexts but not in others. What then are some of the conventions that organise 'realistic' visual histories? How do some visual histories come to be seen as more realistic than others? In Chapter 6. rests upon the characterisation of viewers as the passive or willing recipients of what they see. tie-in products and viewer activities such as costume creation and the composition of fan fiction. The vision of viewers as passive consumers is also called into question in Chapter 8. This does not mean. that 'anything goes'. Like many other scholars.
Cinematic Uses of the Past. Landy. Also offered in the conclusion are some of the key problems and benefits of that shift. 1995. 1958. NJ: Rutgers University Press.). the uneasy dance of the makers. 2003. filmmakers' and other viewers' activities in accordance with the concepts of 'canon' and 'historical canon'. however. promoters.. I also reiterate my argument for the study of historical films on the grounds that they provide an accessible route to key historiographical questions and because they highlight that history does not belong simply to academics.35 In the final part of this book. On the positive side. Carnes. trans. 1991.. a last act in which I reassert the major theme of this work: that films are not a form of history but are history. vol.. Landy. New York: Henry Holt. 5–30. 1971. Problems considered include past and present judgements about preservation value. vol. (ed. N. Minneapolis: University of Minnesota Press. (ed. pp. 1971. The Historical Film: History and Memory in Media. 2004. 1988. material degeneration and accessibility.). Hamilton. 1– Ferro. historians are looking to films as evidence of the past. M. Greene. This opens the way for my critical response to Hayden White's call for 'historiophoty'. L. .12 History Goes to the Movies consumerism. Detroit: Wayne State University Press. 23. (ed. Australian Cultural History. M. no. M. and Ashton. 96(4). New Brunswick. 1– Grindon. 2001.. Furthermore. Past Imperfect: History According to the Movies. Cineaste. I highlight how many adopt and adapt film materials to their own ends and moderate their own. Film and History. Cannadine. I note how film companies have worked within fan networks to realise commercial imperatives. Basingstoke: Palgrave Macmillan. Recommended resources American Historical Review. Philadelphia: Temple University Press. P. vol.). 'At home with the past: initial findings from the survey'. and every October issue thereafter includes a film review section. History and the Media. M. vol. 1– Film Quarterly. Cinema and History. Shadows on the Past: Studies in the Historical Film. P. 1996. I argue that evidence means more than diegeses. To balance this picture of viewer agents. Increasingly. D. 1994. 1961. vol. promoters and viewers of films becomes the cornerstone for my definition of historical films. distributors and scholars 'chafe uncomfortably against fans' resourcefulness'. it is clear from an analysis of their activities that 'canon' does not simply mean conformity with accounts that are taken to be 'true' but also indicates that a work has consistent and valued literary and aesthetic qualities. 1– Cinema Journal. The picture of historical films which thus emerges at the end of this chapter is that of 'an uneasy dance' in which the hopes and aims of filmmakers.
Cooper (ed. The Presence of the Past: Popular Uses of History in American Life.. The Presence of the Past. pp. 23. 1990. in D. Theory. and . Taylor. Rosenstone. 5 R. F.. Warren-Findley.theaha. 338.. Warren-Findley. 1995. Lanham. Rosenzweig and D. no. in D. R. 'Popular art'. Television Culture. Australian Cultural History. New York: Columbia University Press. Thelen. 43–52. Toplin. London: Routledge & Kegan Paul. J. Thelen. 1998. 7 N. 9 See. 2003. 'Popular art'. no. Lawrence: Kansas University Press. Minneapolis: University of Minnesota Press. pp. 2003. New York: Columbia University Press. Malabar. Ashton and P. p. Oxford: Blackwell. 1987. Sanello. M. pp. Change Mummified: Cinema. 1974. Historicity. Revisioning History: Film and the Construction of a New Past. Rosenstone. 1998. 1990. 23. Fiske.latrobe. 10 R. Metz. New York: Harcourt. 4 P. Fla: Krieger. available online at http:// www. Frye. J. Mass. Shusterman. 1. 1997.. 190.. Rosenzweig. J. Oxford: Blackwell. B. 3.au/screening the past Shusterman. vol. available online at http://www. 11 The concepts of 'diegesis' and 'mimesis' were first used by Plato to denote a distinction between 'showing' and 'telling'. Oxford: Blackwell. Australian Cultural History.). Poe.org/perspectives/waves/1999/9905/9905let1. 1992. Reel vs Real: How Hollywood Turns Fact into Fiction. 2003. no. Film Language: A Semiotics of the Cinema. Reel History: In Defence of Hollywood. Cambridge. New York: Oxford University Press. Urbana: University of Illinois Press. 8 M. 97–8. The Journal of Aesthetics and Art Criticism. Md: Taylor Trade.: Harvard University Press. Christian Metz and Gérard Genette have questioned that distinction and introduced the term 'diegesis' to film theory to denote 'telling by showing'. Adorno. P. p. Ashton and P. 'History in new worlds: surveys and results in the United States and Australia'. p. Carroll. 3 P. Rosen. A Companion to Aesthetics. See C. A Companion to Aesthetics. 'History in new worlds: surveys and results in the United States and Australia'.). 13. 1996. trans. 'At home with the past: background and initial findings from the national survey'. Cooper (ed. Visions of the Past: The Challenge of Film to Our Understanding of History. and Thelen. 1997. 'The ontology of mass art'.. 2003. Hamilton. Image as Artefact: The Historical Analysis of Film and Television.E. pp. P. 1965. 5–30.cfm 2 R. New York: Continuum. Toplin. NJ: Princeton University Press. 55(1).. Hamilton. p. 'letter to the editor'. The Film in History. 6 N. Australian Cultural History..). (ed. 189. p. Princeton. History by Hollywood: The Use and Abuse of the American Past. Brace and World. for example. R. 43–52. 1980. The Presence of the Past: Popular Uses of History in American Life. 137. Perspectives. Rosenzweig and D. D. 2001. 'At home with the past'. no. Sorlin. 2002. Screening the Past. See also J.. The Dialectic of Enlightenment. 1986. Horkheimer and T. R. 23. A Natural Perspective: The Development of Shakespearean Comedy and Romance. R. B. 1995..Introduction 13 O'Connor. p. Notes 1 M.edu.
J. 1992. N. trans. Princeton. 1210–27. p. 1988. 'Historiography as cinematography: a prolegomenon to film work for historians'. Gaslight Melodrama: From Victorian London to 1940s Hollywood. Davis. The Romance of Adventure: The Genre of Historical Action Movies. rev. Toplin. Theory. 'History in images/history in words: reflections on the importance of film and television study for an understanding of the past'. p. 93(5). 2001. no. 1988.J.). Historicity. NJ: Rutgers University Press. pp. 1983. Lee. Grindon. 205–15. pp. Rosenstone. 1980. 'Am I a camera? Other reflections on film and history'. Television. Taves. 96. and D.E. in V. New York: Institute for Research in History. L. Mass. Oxford: Oxford University Press. Cartmell. 2001. 1193–9. American Historical Review. M. London: Pluto Press. The Ancient World in the Cinema. pp. 162–9. 1–11. 1995. Screening the Past. Landy. pp.au/ screening the past R. and R. Cambridge. 'Introduction'. 378. pp. Fla: Krieger. See also M. pp. 2002. 'Seeing through movies'. 1995. Minneapolis: University of Minnesota Press. Revisioning History: Film and the Construction of a New Past. An Essay on Metaphysics. The Film in History. Landy. available online at http://www.G. Shadows on the Past: Studies in the Historical Film. 'History in images/history in words: reflections on the possibility of really putting history into film'. J.14 History Goes to the Movies G.E. O'Connor. 1988. NJ: Cornell University Press. Raack. 1988. Lanham. 'The future of the past: film and the beginnings of postmodern history'. Reel History: In Defence of Hollywood. 1997. Md: Taylor Trade. and G. Visions of the Past: The Challenge of Film to Our Idea of History. P. vol. Custen. 'Teaching film and television as interpreters of history'. New Haven. p. NJ: Rutgers University Press. R. vol. 2001.edu. Historians and Filmmakers: Toward Collaboration.E. 18(3). Lewin. Reel v. Oxford: Blackwell. vol. 2003. p. Rosen. Whelehan (eds). p. American Historical Review. Conn. Change Mummified: Cinema. Ithaca. Slaves on Screen: Film and Historical Vision. Collingwood. The Persistence of History: Cinema. Jackson: University Press of Mississippi. vol. B. 1983. Sorlin. N. Real: How Hollywood Turns Faction into Fiction. and the Modern Event. American Historical Review. 8(4). 1994. Bio/Pics: How Hollywood Constructed Public History. Detroit: Wayne State University Press.: Harvard University Press. Genette. NJ: Princeton University Press. Rosenstone. 93(5). American Historical Review. 'Historiography and historiophoty'. Malabar. 161. Retrovisions: Reinventing the Past in Fiction and Film. American Historical Review. Abrash and J. 2001. P. pp.latrobe. New Brunswick. Minneapolis: University of Minnesota Press. 93(5). 93(5). Rosenstone. R. 1173–85. edn. Toplin. Greene. F. 2000. H.B. 1. Cambridge. Cinema and History.-A. 1996. Sobchack (ed. Journal of Contemporary History. p. p. 1980. R. and I. P.B. vol. Sanello. Solomon. 1. R. R. 1186–92. I. vol. trans. Barefoot. ed. Ferro. 44. Cinematic Uses of the Past. in The Historical Film: History and Memory in Media. 'The filmmaker as historian'. Philosophy of the Social Sciences. 93(5). 1988. 1200–9. 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 26 27 . White. 1978. M. 418. O'Connor (ed.Z. pp.: Harvard University Press. Image as Artefact: The Historical Analysis of Film and Television. 1990.). B. London: Continuum. Herlihy. Narrative Discourse: An Essay in Method. 1996. D. Sternberg (eds). Lawrence: University of Kansas Press. G.Q. 2001. 1993. 80. Jarvie. 1998. 1988.: Yale University Press. vol. London: Routledge. Hunter and I. Rosenstone (ed. Philadelphia: Temple University Press. Martin. R.). New Brunswick.C. and R. J. Mass. in J.
30 A. M. Inventing Vietnam: The War in Film and Television.L. Indelible Shadows: Film and the Holocaust. World War II. Bloomington: Indiana University Press. Past Imperfect: History According to the Movies. Tashiro. American Culture and World War II. and T. Pretty Pictures: Production Design and the History Film. Carnes (ed. Kuhn. Bloomington: Indiana University Press. Insdorf. New York: Henry Holt. Picturing the Past: The Rise and Fall of the British Costume Film. Oxford: Oxford University Press. Doherty. Christian. 1999. New York: Columbia University Press. .S. ' "Celebrating the story the way it is": cultural studies. 64–89. p. New Brunswick. Chamber and D. 32. A. Loshitzsky (ed. Vietnam at 24 Frames a Second. I. 9. 49. 35 S. London: British Film Institute. Basingstoke: Palgrave Macmillan. p. 32 A. and S. Murray. Michaud. 2005.). Palgrave Advances in World Histories. 1988. Culbert. J. Gaddis. 1998. Rosenstone. Continuum: Journal of Media and Cultural Studies. New York: Columbia University Press. 1996. Washington Square. Film and History. NJ: Rutgers University Press. Dittmar and G. HughesWarrington (ed. From Hanoi to Hollywood: The Vietnam War in American Film. 31 M. and D. 1990. Screening the Holocaust: Cinema's Images of the Unimaginable. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. 18(1). From Hitler to Heimat: The Return of History as Film. Basinger. New York: Oxford University Press.M. 'Scales'. Cambridge. 2002.).Introduction 15 28 C.P. Projections of War: Hollywood. Anderegg. Austin: University of Texas Press. vol. 33 J. 29 See. in M. 1986. L. Mass. Spielberg's Holocaust. J. 1989. Harper. J. Devine. pp. 1999. 1994. 34 R. Y. Dreaming of Fred and Ginger: Cinema and Cultural Memory. 2002. Avisar. Philadelphia: Temple University Press.). p. 1997. Kaes. Visions of the Past.: Harvard University Press. 2004. 1995. The World War II Combat Film. for example. Austin: University of Texas Press. corporate media and the contested utility of fandom'. The Landscape of History: How Historians Map the Past. 1989. NY: New York University Press. 1991.
Screening the Past and Film and History and into more general professional journals. if Robert Rosenstone and Oliver Stone are to be believed. online forums and television discussions. their views have spilled out over the pages of the specialised journals Historical Journal of Film. The problem begins. Few historical filmmakers have any professional training in history. Radio and Television. Conversely. few historians have any training in visual production. 45 I think many historians come at filmmakers with an attitude and with hostility. Few historians have any direct involvement in. limited—concepts that are used to describe the relationship between history and film. with the distance between historians and historical film production. Oliver Stone. Unpacking the means by which Rosenstone and Stone arrived at their view of historians and filmmakers. Rosenstone argues. Visions of the Past. let alone control over. This will set the scene for an expanded vision of history on film to be articulated in the chapters that follow. It's as though history is their territory. Over the last quarter of a century.1 Words and images. and we don't belong. Cineaste 1996. Thus historians . and if historians are consulted. newspapers. it is only late in the production process. books. 1995. images and words Let's be blunt and admit it: historical films trouble and disturb professional historians. Robert Rosenstone. p. with the former protecting history with the fervour and solemnity of 'chief priests in ancient Egypt protecting the sacred innards' and the latter struggling to produce works that are both engaging and economically viable. p. These opinions are often far from favourable. historical filmmaking. They are called upon after a workable script has emerged and often even after filming has begun. 'Past imperfect'. we will be led towards the common—and as I will argue. 33 It seems that every historian has an opinion about historical films. Historians and historical filmmakers appear to be antagonists.1 The starting point for our investigation into history on film will be this apparent antagonism.
Then there were a group of departments in the middle. which perhaps it would be best not to name. . . Julie Jeffrey has noted that the chief value of historical consultants may lie in their use as promotional 'window dressing': connecting a wellknown historian with a film may lend the latter an air of authenticity and authority. spoke to me often. John Sayles. Nevertheless.3 From the perspective of a consultant like Bill Gammage. she reports. he believes. Money rules historical filmmaking. for example. Finally there were some departments. So my contribution varied. such as Wardrobe. and the Special Effects department. springs from the fear that they will want the work changed in a way that will lessen its box office appeal. asked many and detailed questions. The Art department in particular.2 This resistance towards using historians as anything more than fact checkers. very specifically in the details. to being flat out getting a lift out to the set. these reflections might be the result of practical constraints rather than inherent problems with the idea of putting history on film. but not in the big picture. admitted as much when he wrote: I probably use historians the way most directors use them: I tend to use people who are well versed in historical details. director of Matewan (1987). the picture of historians contributing late and little to film production also appears to be confirmed. In short. Peter Weir [the director]. historical responsibility and the movie industry are incompatible. for there are a few examples where historians have played a significant part in the shaping of a production. we might have good cause to be sceptical about the possibility of historians and filmmakers ever working together. So did some of the departments.5 Adding up all of these examples. from on rare occasions stopping filming.Words and images. . was Howard Jones's impression of his role in the making of Amistad (1997). images and words 17 appear to sit both literally and metaphorically on the edges of production. who was responsible for having me work on the film. maybe the studio will release another version for Alabama'. . You ring people up and ask whether there were phone booths in 1920. leading to the view that history itself is a 'story bin to be plundered' and a pliable commodity: 'if the test audience doesn't like the way the Civil War came out. which considered me in the road and treated me as if I were in the road.4 Finally. some of which I could answer and some of which I couldn't. This. which tended to ask me things when they couldn't think of an answer for themselves. As he writes of his experience as a consultant in Gallipoli (1981): what I did and what I was used for varied greatly according to the person or the department that was talking to me. What if filmmakers and historians worked in partnership before shooting began and if filmmakers were open to the 'big picture' changes of the historian? This need not remain a hypothetical question.
1997). for they open up wider historiographical issues. Two French filmmakers. who helped to bring the remarkable story of Martin Guerre to the big screen. The first problem with mainstream films is that they package history as romance or comedy. a particular situation or problem. and the setting of an increasingly violent parallel world to rights. altered or even left out." the "may-have-beens. we are left with the impression that it has been for the good: the liberation of Europe. Rosenstone has expanded on those comments. in which individuals escape from. Six filmic sins? Davis' comments suggest a shortcoming in film as a medium for communicating history as well as in the practical arrangements that see historians and filmmakers drawn together. the rearing of a child by a good man. In this next section. Even as a frozen Jack (Leonardo di Caprio) is prised off the door by Rose (Kate Winslet) in Titanic. we will draw out just how it is that film falls short as a medium for history. the end of the Holocaust.18 History Goes to the Movies An obvious case that springs to mind is that of Natalie Zemon Davis. and although opinion differs about whether they sought out Davis or the other way around. she thought that it would make a good film. . and a number of papers on the problem of invention in historical films.7 Davis' interest in the uncertainties of the Guerre case led her to write her best-known book. It suggests that there is something limited about film itself rather than just the arrangements for a particular film. 'does a historian find so perfect a narrative structure in the events of the past or one with such dramatic popular appeal'.6 'Rarely'. some form of positive outcome ensues. Each of these problems is worthy of examination. When Davis first read Jean de Coras' 1572 account of the case.8 No matter how apparently tragic the setting. she wrote later. Jenny (Robin Wright) in Forrest Gump (1994) and Donnie (Jake Gyllenhaal) in Donnie Darko (2001) die. or in the case of the latter triumph over." to which the historian has recourse when the evidence is inadequate or perplexing'. Martin Guerre was a sixteenth-century French peasant who left his village for eight years and returned to find that another man—Arnaud du Tilh—had impersonated him and was living with his wife (Bertrande de Rols). had the same idea. by 1980 she had become a consultant to Le Retour de Martin Guerre. Daniel Vigne and Jean Claude Carrière. she wondered if film was capable of handling and conveying 'the uncertainties. The Return of Martin Guerre (1983). Furthermore. for example. Guido (Roberto Benigni) in La Vita è bella (Life is Beautiful. So while. because aspects of the story were compressed. Davis' dissatisfaction with perhaps one of the most optimal of filmmaker/historian partnerships is instructive. Captain Miller (Tom Hanks) in Saving Private Ryan (1998). providing a more systematic appraisal of the six problematic features of 'mainstream' historical films. we know. Davis enjoyed working on the film but soon realised that it 'posed the problem of invention to the historian as surely as it was posed to the wife of Martin Guerre'. the "perhapses.
Films that track the actions of large groups of unnamed individuals. no extensive analysis has been undertaken to test whether comedy and romance do dominate filmic offerings. 1925). Rosenstone argues. the works of world historians show us that analyses at much larger spatial and temporal scales are possible. Who is to say that the producers of written histories. that 'their love will go on'. Oktiabr (October. 1927) and Staroye i Novoye (The General Line. And Rosenstone's point loses further ground when we note that it is not based on any substantial historical survey but on anecdotal impression. we have known that the human subject. a number of critics have seen in the 'band of brothers' focus of recent US combat films an evasion of uncomfortable political and social questions such as why the USA was engaged in Vietnam.9 This point is echoed in the surveys by Brent Toplin. To date. imaginary assemblage that society fosters to elicit subjection to the status quo. 1929) certainly appear to be more unusual.11 At the other end of the spectrum. 'becomes a way of avoiding the often difficult or insoluble social problems pointed out by the film'. 1925). might not be equally enthralled by romance and comedy? Second. Once again. or whether the valuation of comic and romantic plots has waxed and waned over time. it is also possible to study a fragment of an individual's 'self ' or even of their body. not all films. we are unable to judge whether romantic and comedic plots are more prevalent in historical films than in other forms of history making. Louis Althusser. fit this template. the economic. images and words 19 as Celine Dion tells us. we have known that the earth is not the 'centre' of the universe. Men and women are singled out for attention. political or philosophical ego is not the 'centre' of history—and . Bronenosets Potemkin (Battleship Potemkin. for example. we are able to note the absence of historical studies of the representations offered in historical films. However. Rosenstone concedes. Additionally. This particular issue will occupy more of our attention in Chapter 4. like segments of Sergei Eisenstein's Stachka (Strike.Words and images. argues that the human self is nothing more than an ideological. it might be argued that the use of an individual's experiences to represent those of a wider group—as with Molly and Daisy's struggles in Rabbit-Proof Fence (2002) standing for the wider struggles of Aboriginal people in Australia in the 1930s—is problematic. from those of individuals to those of national communities. however. Marcia Landy and David Cannadine. Since Marx. We are not in any position to say whether romance and comedy dominate film offerings in all cultural contexts or in some more than others. Might print historians be equally enamoured of individuals? It is worth taking stock of David Christian's observation that print historians conventionally work with a range of experiences. and that focus.12 He writes: Since Copernicus. mainstream film presents history as the story of individuals. like a number of postmodern thinkers. While this may appear to be a broad spectrum. as with the downbeat messages of Radio Bikini (1987) and JFK (1991). Equally importantly.10 Taking a more specific example.
Montaillou or The Cheese and the Worms than we are from films?16 Third. Closer inspection. and the notion of the creative self that it reifies.14 Similarly for Barthes.20 History Goes to the Movies even . Charles Tashiro and Sue Harper—to take just three examples—all see emotional engagement as sitting outside historical filmmaking. like filmmakers. property ('props') and sets—takes precedence over any consideration of the ideas. beliefs and actions of historical agents. highlights his characterisation of written history as 'usually' associated with the distanced consideration of the emotional experiences of historical agents.13 Human-centred history is at an end for Foucault too: it. the power of music and sound effect—to heighten and intensify the feelings of the audience. anecdotal evidence suggests that historians.19 This is the idea that the 'look' of the past—as presented through costumes. (Written history is. in asking 'To what extent do we wish emotion to become an historical category?' he suggests that it sits outside historical analysis and that 'we' may sit in judgement on its proposed entry. film uses the closeup of the human face. As Rosenstone writes. In reply. . are also prone to using individuals to represent the experiences of a wider group. film often highlights the emotional dimensions of human experiences. film is prone to what Rosenstone calls 'false historicity' and Mark Neely 'accuracy in antiques'. A writer has to be a very good writer to make us feel some emotion while the poorest of filmmakers can easily touch our feelings. we may ask. though. as Rosenstone puts it: 'as long as you get the look right.)17 Rosenstone's comments appear to present a neutral stance on the role of the emotions in history making. Are we any more justified in extrapolating from the experiences of individuals in written microhistories such as The Return of Martin Guerre. can be erased 'like a face drawn in sand at the edge of the sea'. of course.18 Fourth. Here it will suffice to note that Rosenstone is not alone in his stance. for Marcia Landy. . but usually it points to emotion rather than inviting us to experience it. that history has no 'centre' but possesses a structure which has no necessary 'centre' except in ideological misrepresentation. the quick juxtaposition of disparate images.15 So why are historians so interested in the actions of named individuals that are taken to be single 'selves'? Are they inherently suited to historical analysis? Or are they a 'naturalised' myth? Moreover. the individual 'self ' is no more than a myth that has become so much a part of our cultural furniture that it has been 'naturalised'. Furthermore. not devoid of emotion. make-up. Or. have the emotions ever been absent from historical analysis? And what might be wrong with our feelings being engaged when we study the past? I do not want to pre-empt the discussion on the role of the emotions in history making that is set out in Chapter 4. you may freely invent characters and incidents and do whatever you want to the .
a table that can perhaps tell us something about how people understood space. Davis and Rosenstone are clear. . she has noted the tendency for paintings to be used by film designers as mimetic records of the past. the familiar and the worn. as the example of Dogville (2003) demonstrates. the dated and the hand-me-down. . Fifth. vibrations so right. as we will question later—and that not all historical filmmakers are gripped by 'accuracy in antiques'. historical films often narrow down the range of objects used to the new. rather than representations. was about its ability to handle and convey 'the uncertainties'. Yet.Words and images. Made on a soundstage with spaces designated through chalk markings. An example she notes is that of Ermanno Olmi. . History. . Furthermore. . Everyday life is characterised by a variety of objects that gain historical meaning only in connection with their relationship with people. the 'may-have-beens' that historians use when evidence is lacking. . the 'perhapses'. Davis' primary doubt about historical film. so real. director of L'albero degli zoccoli (Tree of Wooden Clogs. . and for projects to use actual locations and their local inhabitants because they are thought to lend film legitimacy. . as with the many props in Marcus Aurelius' tent in Gladiator (2000) that announce its Roman setting but may consequently also present what Davis calls a 'static' view of the past. and therefore not repeatable. . provides viewers with an 'authentic' historical film. . Furthermore. put bluntly. Mark Carnes. [They] bring to the film a weight. completed and simple past. . and history making is collapsed into the activity of getting the details right. inconclusive or contradictory. not reconstructed in a studio. but a table that was built and used by people. the body and social relations. has complained that 20 . but really. the past becomes a warehouse that is plundered for aesthetic rather than historiographical reasons. is not a table. 1978). as Davis argues. In a film about peasants I choose the actors from the peasant world. the artificial tree isn't. This challenge opens up a range of historiographical questions. Maybe there exists an extraordinary actor. The real tree is continually creative. Sets may brim to overflowing with objects. mainstream film is characterised as offering a closed. time. . Thus with the actor. creates . images and words 21 past to make it more interesting'. On this view. we recall from above. Everyday life—past and present—is characterised by a mixture of the new and the fashionable. . provoked by the situations in which the characters find themselves. so that there is little ambiguity about temporal setting. I have always felt in them a bit of cardboard in respect to the great palpitating authenticity of the real character. it is not clear that the table—or any prop—is necessary in historical filmmaking. really a constitution of truth that. who prefers a relationship with reality. Numerous other historical film scholars have echoed Davis' claim.21 None of these things. . for one. Dogville shows us that there is more to history than its 'look'—if indeed any film can be characterised by a seamless 'patina' or look.
mainstream film is perceived as offering. a 'poor information load'. Moreover. commentators see filmic history as nearly always offering audiences a view of history that is more simplistic than the findings of print historians. The final product gleams. One of Oliver Stone's major complaints against historians was that they demanded a tidier story than the one he offered in JFK. Hollywood history sparkles because it is so morally unambiguous. this assumption is yet to be tested. This view rests on two assumptions. and if we are lucky. so devoid of tedious complexity. narrators or contributing 'experts' are controlled within a prescribed range or even edited out. and tested against print and filmic histories.22 Film achieves this by constructing history as a linear story with a clear beginning. It fills irritating gaps in the historical record and polishes dulling ambiguities and complexities. as in the The Cat's Meow (2001).22 History Goes to the Movies Hollywood history is different. 2002) and the historiographically provocative Memento (2000) and The Life and Death of Peter Sellers (2004) give us good reason to doubt the certainty of anything we see. in Simon Schama's terms. their discoveries will filter through to film production. not all filmic histories are so tidy. in practice it presents the past as a single story. The unreliable narrators of the multi-perspective films Rashomon (1950) and Ying Xiong (Hero. .24 Is this complaint. .26 Jarvie's point is rather that film cannot teach us anything new about the past. where initially conflicting accounts of the actions of Captain Karen Walden give way to a single favourable one when vested interests and corruption are exposed. Multiple viewpoints are not unheard of. as Ian Jarvie puts it. visual history is assumed to work best when it offers a limited range of characters. differences of opinion among participants. Multiple points of view and argument are winnowed down so that audiences are not 'alienated'. whereas print histories are normally over two hundred pages long and come complete with bibliographies and sometimes extensive footnotes. 'hewers at the rockface of the archives'.23 While filmic history may. Again. a driving issue and a resolution of one kind or another. persuasive. and . Even in documentary. Nevertheless. documentaries like The Trouble with Merle (2002) foreground the complex.27 They are on the cutting edge of historical research. crisis point and romantic or comedic resolution. Such is the case in Courage Under Fire (1996).25 This is not simply Brent Toplin's point that film scripts fill somewhere between ten and twenty book pages. but they are often managed by being presented as relatively discrete mini-stories that are nested within a large and ultimately resolved narrative. and it sears the imagination. so perfect. . The first is that professional producers of written histories— and for 'professional' here we may read academic—are. As Michelle Arrow has noted. like that against filmic histories. Historical film lags behind breakthrough knowledge. an assumption rather than a tested claim? Sixth. strongly held and often irreconcilable beliefs of historical agents and history makers. announce that history is most often told in multiple whispers. However.
it will suffice to note that the selection of topics is not due solely to the availability of visual evidence. rendering them uncritical consumers. Who would pay to see an historical film. for instance. The online movie database www. Indeed. which presents you with a setting and props that are almost entirely unfamiliar? Who would gain satisfaction from such an experience? One of the primary aims of this book is to challenge the assumption that the answer to this question is a self-evident 'no one'. yellow cloth stars serve as shorthand for a Holocaust setting.28 This assumption appears to be supported by three anecdotal observations.Words and images. The suspicion of some film theorists is that their familiarity reassures and stupefies viewers. events and phenomena have never been represented on film. films made without stills or archival footage—most feature films and documentaries like Claude Lanzmann's Shoah (1985)—would be considered a fiction. the choice of topics in historical films appears to be quite conservative. and see the same material used over and over again. A related anecdotal observation is that filmmakers do literally recycle images. This point will be discussed in more detail in Chapters 5 and 6. to continue with our example. It is possible to watch multiple documentaries on the Second World War. the Holocaust and the Second World War and the total quickly leaps into the tens of thousands. In Chapter 7. with a small number of historical agents. images and words 23 thus if we want to be up to date in our understanding of the past we should concentrate on the efforts of professional historians. events and phenomena dominating representations. then no films could be made on events that happened over two hundred years ago.com. This is not simply due to a lack of archival footage or stills—which are often thought to be essential elements in documentary—because if that were the case. How iconic objects come to signify contexts—even if there are no historical grounds for their usage—is as complex a matter as trying to work out why they are used. for example.29 Similarly. so strong is the perception of visual history as being dominated by representations of the Second World War that it is blamed for high school graduates' apparent lack of knowledge and interest in other historical phenomena. So. The second assumption is that film is characterised by the constant recycling of images. Broaden the search to include the wider concepts of the Third Reich. A film that departs from conventional iconic representations is likely to be judged unconvincing. used time and time again to signify a particular historical setting. it has fostered the satirical treatment of the History Channel as 'The Hitler Channel' in web and television comedy. As a number of the students I have taught admit. lists over a hundred film productions on the life of Adolf Hitler alone.imdb. I hope to show that using the same body of visual . these icons can play an important role in judging whether a film is credible and even 'realistic'.30 Yet countless other historical agents. For the present. as Roland Barthes called them. Similarly—and this is our final observation—in feature films we may see the same 'icons'. 'a textual labyrinth panelled with mirrors'. or as Jacques Derrida puts it. To begin. Furthermore. it is argued.
I want to stress that my account. It remains to be established in historical and cultural studies whether historical film is equivalent to a maze of mirrors. derivative status: its meaning is opaque. It 'rarely beats a good book' and is with few exceptions 'execrable'. intact. in order then to think in terms of derivation. because it rests upon the unquestioned positioning of written history as a solid foundation for history per se. from Plato to Rousseau. the simple before the complex. Walter Ong and Roy Harris have argued that text has become such a 'naturalised' part of our lives that it is hard to think of other ways of expressing ourselves. complication. Words and images Underpinning the six characterisations of mainstream film listed above is the more or less explicit comparison of filmic histories with written histories. Film is given secondary. have proceeded in this way. like that of Rosenstone. to an origin or to a priority thought to be simple.31 Film is not a locus of analysis but a redirection towards the analysis of written history.35 . for instance. as Rosenstone has argued. The creators of written histories therefore claim to have the most intimate ties with meaning.34 In the hierarchical arrangement of written and filmic histories. the pure before the impure. or the privileging of written text over other forms of expression. And this is not just one metaphysical gesture among others. All metaphysicians. Metaphysics and logocentrism describe the desire to identify origins. that which has been the most constant. etc. conceiving good to be before evil. fix points of reference or certify truths. pure. print 'is a transforming and metamorphosing drug that has the power of imposing its assumptions upon every level of consciousness'. accident. They are the enterprise of returning 'strategically'. This comparative relation is hierarchical: to written history are attributed the positive qualities of rigour and access to true meaning. selfidentical. normal.24 History Goes to the Movies evidence and icons does not guarantee uniformity either of representation or of audience reception. the essential before the accidental. This relation may be represented thus: historical meaning ← written history ← filmic history This arrangement is problematic. deterioration.32 Rosenstone's comments reflect the complaints of literary critics about 'graphocentrism'. currently rests at the level of anecdote. the positive before the negative.33 Similarly. the imitated before the imitation. Importantly. mediated and open to perversion. too. 'ideally'. Derrida's challenges to the concepts of 'metaphysics' and 'logocentrism' appear pertinent. it is the metaphysical exigency. most profound and most potent. Descartes to Husserl. standard. For Marshall McLuhan. and to connect with that meaning film must refer back through written histories. etc.
for equating print with 'micro'-concerns takes no account of the efforts of world historians or of historians who blend micro.41 Clashes and misunderstandings about film. it sustains the dichotomy of print history and 'other' history. and the same outcome might be expected when filmic histories are framed as 'other' to the efforts of print historians. and when print is equated with 'professional'. he maintains. who want to illuminate the values.36 In this framework. Moreover.38 Derrida's radical vision sees the hierarchy of written and filmic histories flattened out. it is in the name of logos or truth that the practices of filmic histories are judged. . shares with Rosenstone a dislike of dismissive attitudes towards film and argues for its acceptance as a revival of an ancient 'oral and performative' tradition of history making. they remain more or less in the sway of Derridean metaphysics. for instance. First. proscribed or prescribed. primitive throwback.Words and images. texts bear the traces of and constantly refer to other texts in a parodic circle. for instance. Doherty's explanation is ultimately of limited use.40 While their moves to link film history to an ancient pedigree are admirable. whether it be a transcendental truth or human subjectivity. Thus written histories are as much 'a textual labyrinth panelled with mirrors' as are filmic histories. the dichotomy may be taken as hierarchical. morals and assumptions that shape the world. The application of Erasmus' metaphor to explain the efforts of world historians. Neither are forms or guises of truth telling but merely language games. Similar questions may be raised about Thomas Doherty's use of Erasmus' metaphor of 'foxes' and 'hedgehogs' to carve out a place for film. At best. who seek to master minutiae. for one.39 Yet even as he and other scholars try to forge a new understanding of history. what Derrida seeks to question is whether any mode of representation—books or images—refers to some real meaning external to language.and macromethodologies and interests. it is still all too easy to consider 'oral and performative' filmic history as a limited. Challenges to the hierarchical arrangement of written and filmic histories also run through appraisals of history and film by a number of scholars. metaphysicians establish hierarchies. the dichotomy of visual and written history remains unexamined. Simon Schama. images and words 25 Consistent with the search for origins. Second. despite the anti-teleological stance of current historiography. has done little to draw their works in from the margins of historiography. Placing it a priori and therefore beyond question risks leaving the hierarchy that Schama and Rosenstone seek to dismantle untouched. and 'macrominded' filmic-history 'hedgehogs'.37 However. has put the 'mistake that print is deep. that print actively argues and images passively illustrate' down to 'philistinism' born in the absence of visual education. images are shallow. arise from the crossed purposes of print-history 'foxes'. Schama. relations of domination and subordination and dualisms. the results are doubly unsatisfactory.
1980. 1952. from the multiple screen adaptations of Jane Austen's novel Pride and Prejudice (1940.44 In Rosenstone's other major statement on film.g. a historiographical dichotomy divides the efforts of filmic historians from other historians. provocations. we find a distinction between films that have 'as their central plot documentable events. In Gladiator (2000). is that few films are clearly one or the other. who in Visions of the Past takes great pains to disentangle 'mainstream' or 'standard' films from what he calls 'serious'. . at best they advance understanding by 'personalising. whereas the latter are 'intellectually dense' and use the unique capabilities of the media to create multiple meanings . his twofold distinction remains. creatively interacting with its traces . 1967. Returning to Davis. Maximus) and fictional characters (e. 1958. 2005). to take just one example. historical agents (e. but their efforts mark not the end of dichotomy but its relocation within the field of historical film studies itself. However. which make use of the past 'solely as a setting for romance and adventure' or simply blend archival footage and stills with talking head interviews.43 Standard films tend to confirm what we already know about an event or person. Revisioning History. such as a person's life or a war or revolution' and 'those with a fictional plot but with a historical setting intrinsic to the action'. they are forays. . that this does not mean the use of the medium at its best: that can only come from opposition to 'mainstream' conventions of realism and narrative. insights. but the 'mainstream' is connected more specifically to 'costume dramas' and 'typical documentaries'. though.45 . explorations. raising questions about the very evidence on which our knowledge of the past depends.42 On this view. for Davis views both kinds of film to be 'historical'.g. faction and historical films In the writings of Schama. 'experimental' or 'postmodern' historical films on the grounds that the former 'deliver the past in a highly developed. One feature that unites ostensibly diverse scholarship on historical films is the judgement that some films are more 'historical' than others. Ray (2004). Proximus). we might distinguish the biographical feature about Ray Charles. . Rosenstone and Doherty. period.26 History Goes to the Movies Costume. or in short by working to avoid the six filmic features listed above. hers is a minority view. He makes it clear. We again begin with Rosenstone. . as Rosenstone has pointed out. for example. and emotionalising the past'. 1995. This need not necessarily concern us. Marcus Aurelius) intersect with composites of more than one historical agent (e.g. Other scholars have contested that division. The problem with this arrangement. for they are made to entertain and make profits and cannot represent the past with any density or complexity. Neither of these qualifies as 'new' historical film. polished form that serves to suppress rather than raise questions'.
Words and images, images and words 27 Costume drama occupies no place in Leger Grindon's study of the historical fiction film either, because it presents a past setting detached from contemporary social and political issues. Historical fiction films may include and foreground the activities of particular historical agents or fictional characters, but there is always some link to wider political concerns. So, for example, he sees the lack of a romantic dimension in Lawrence of Arabia (1962) as signifying the barrenness of Western colonialism. What Grindon counts as a social and political issue is never made explicit. However, his selection and analysis of films that connect individuals to wars and revolutions would suggest a concentration on affairs of state and international relations rather than, say, power relations within and across families.46 The 'melodramatic' films that Landy describes also lack a political dimension, but she goes further than Grindon in arguing that they use emotional appeals, the valorisation of individuals and the familiar to help viewers to manage and even avoid the complexities and crises of the present-day world. Melodramatic history, she is clear, is socially pathological because it preserves ideal past worlds instead of creating new ones: that is, it renders viewers socially and politically inactive.47 Tashiro also connects melodrama with affect, but unlike Landy, sees it as only holding sway over viewers when the actions and values of those on screen appear to be close to our own.48 Our catalogue of terms that are used to suggest proximity to but ultimately distinction from 'historical films' so far includes 'costume drama' and 'melodrama'. To this we may now add at least three more: 'faction', 'heritage' and 'period'. 'Faction' is Brent Toplin's choice of term to describe the fusion of fictional characters with historical settings. Faction needs to be distinguished from 'good cinematic history' because the creators of faction tend to focus on the actions of individuals at the expense of major historical events, avoid conflicting perspectives and suggest that people in the past were motivated by values and beliefs like our own. They do so, in Toplin's view, because they believe that they will be held less to account over matters of veracity or accuracy than the makers of 'good' or 'more historically oriented films'.49 'Heritage' film, as Andrew Higson labels it, also denotes an absence of political engagement. In heritage, the past is no more than a look or style, or a mass of material artefacts. If faction belongs to Hollywood, then heritage belongs to 1980s Britain, for it purportedly satisfied viewer and filmmaker demands for an escape from the problematic expansion and re-articulation of British identity that was prompted by immigration from past and present parts of the Empire and now Commonwealth.50 Where faction is 'other' to history because of its blend with fiction and heritage because of its evasion of the political, 'period' film is characterised more by happenstance. Period films are not historical films, Brian McFarlane and Stephen Crofts insist, because they just happen to be set in the past: the personal narratives they advance could just as well be set in the present or in another time. Here we gain the sense of a wasted opportunity to reconstruct and interpret historical events and even to upset viewer understandings of the present.51
28 History Goes to the Movies Finally, there are those who, like Pierre Sorlin, discount films that use historical settings simply as a backdrop for romantic or comedic studies of individuals but do not give them a descriptive label. As with a number of the views described above, they are defined first and foremost by their lack of attention to affairs of state and international relations and by the supposed effect of rendering viewers politically inactive.52 Second, they are identifiable by their lack of historiographical complexity, as measured by their presentation of a tidy and linear comedic or romantic narrative. Taking stock of this twofold definition of the near- but still non-historical film, we might wonder how it was that the boundary was drawn around politics and open, questioning and provocative representations of past phenomena. Acts of boundary drawing are examined at a number of stages in this book, from a discussion on advertising film in the next chapter to a critical response to claims that documentary has lost its boundaries in Chapter 6. These examples will be assembled to support my conclusion that an expanded and more historical embedded notion of 'history on film' is needed. Looking at films that fall foul of the criteria for an 'historical film', it might be tempting to argue that the misogynistic nature of historical film studies has been exposed. After all, we may note that North American, British and Australian 'costume', 'melodrama', 'faction', 'heritage' and 'period' films tend to foreground the activities and experiences of women. In Picnic at Hanging Rock (1975), for instance, the idea of women's history as happening outside time is conveyed explicitly when the imminent disappearance of a group of schoolgirls in the Australian bush is signalled by the stopping of the school mistress's watch (Figure 1.1). And when one of the characters remarks: 'Except for those people down there, we might be the only living creatures in the whole world', the sense of the women's activities being isolated from the kinds of events historical film scholars are interested in is compounded. However, the charge of misogyny is too simplistic, for current definitions of the 'historical film' also exclude many masculine and transgendered practices. Certain types of masculinity are repeatedly portrayed in historical films: for example, the man who leads others through state and international politics, combat or invention. Concentrating solely on the issue of gender is similarly simplistic, because prevailing definitions of 'the historical film' also mask or minimise the contributions of filmmakers who work with forms of presentation other than live action. Few animated or musical films are discussed in historical film scholarship, for instance. And once we acknowledge that some of these forms of presentation are more prevalent in some cultural and historical contexts than others, then we must acknowledge that historical film scholarship is more than gendered: it is also limited in its analysis of media and spatio-temporal contexts. In the next chapter, for example, we will highlight the neglect of Japanese historical anime and 'Bollywood' historical musicals, to take only two examples.
Words and images, images and words 29
Figure 1.1 Are period films outside of time? Picnic at Hanging Rock (©1975, Jim McElroy and Australian Film Commission).
The democratisation of history?
Readers may see my recourse to Derrida and illumination of a limited and limiting definition of 'the historical film' as a contribution to what scholars such as Joyce Appleby, Lynn Hunt and Margaret Jacob dub 'the democratization of history'.53 In Telling the Truth About History, Appleby, Hunt and Jacob frame present-day historiographical pluralism as a product of the evolution of the discipline in the mid-twentieth century towards more inclusive, democratic practices. This shift—prompted in their view by the rise of social history—not only opened the discipline up to women and other formerly excluded groups but also undercut prevailing historiographical assumptions such as the connection of 'objectivity' with neutral truths. As Parker Potter puts it, the democratisation of history does not simply mean a quota-driven expansion of the list of history makers and historical agents; rather, it entails the critical inspection of the assumptions that masked their contributions in the first place.54 After democratisation, new and more nuanced versions of historiographical concepts emerged, as with the understanding of objectivity to be 'the result of the clash of social interests, ideologies, and social conventions within the framework of object-oriented and disciplined knowledgeseeking'.55 Raymond Martin sees Appleby et al. as promoting no more than a 'spruced up and Americanised version of [the] traditional Enlightenment values . . . [of] objectivity, realism, truth, democracy, and optimism'. He is in accord with them, though, in his belief that the fragmentation of the discipline is a recent development, and that it may be a sign of its 'maturity'.56 More dramatically, Peter Novick has opined that history 'as a broad community of
30 History Goes to the Movies discourse, as a community of scholars united by common aims, common standards, and common purposes has ceased to exist'.57 Moreover, countless discussions on postmodernism and the discipline have announced the 'end of History', where the use of the capital 'H' denotes a 'master' or 'meta'narrative that legitimates some ideals and glosses over conflicting views and discontinuities. Traditionally, this has meant the adoption of a masculinist, Eurocentric position: that in this view, events and spaces are named, organised and judged in line with the hopes and ideals of white, male, Western academics. Democratisation is seen as applying not only to the makers of histories but also to their audiences. So, as Emma Lapsansky has argued: No longer writing only for the uniformly educated professional, today's academic historian often seeks to speak to anyone, with any background, who wants to know about the past. . . . This democratisation has increased the number of Americans who can see themselves, their families, and their communities in the narratives they encounter.58 Her observations appear to be confirmed by the appearance of journals and centres for public history and heritage, as well as online discussion forums like H-Net.59 These also seem to suggest a movement away from treating history and print media as synonymous. While there is no doubting the pervasive presence of histories and history makers today, historiographical narratives organised by the concept of 'democratisation' strike me as ahistorical and even triumphalist. To demonstrate conclusively that history is no longer solely the province of white, Western male academics, we need to show that they dominated history making in the past. To convince ourselves that concepts such as 'objectivity' and 'truth' are now more contested, we have to show that they were unquestioned in the past. To congratulate ourselves that history has escaped the shackles of print and embraced other media, we have to show that print histories dominated in the past. Yet if we set out to confirm the opening up of history making, we would not get very far before noting how few historiographical studies there are to guide us. My sense is that history has not become pluralist but has arguably never been anything but pluralist. Women wrote histories long before the twentieth century, African Americans wrote universal histories before and after Hegel, hundreds of thousands of people read Walter Scott's historical novels, and even more encountered the past in stage shows, dioramas, paintings, carvings and dances, magic lantern shows, photographs and silent films.60 Nor can we say with any confidence that history today is simply more pluralist, because we have only begun to chart the extent of history making prior to the midtwentieth century. The narrative of democratisation functions, rather ironically, only because historiography continues to ignore or rank as 'less serious' the histories made by all but a few writers prior to the mid-twentieth century.
61 On what grounds are historians the arbiters of historical activities. we might talk of the distinct concepts. but much remains to be done to expand and re-articulate the histories that history makers tell about themselves. and particular skills and techniques. either simply or in combination'?63 These 'forms of knowledge' are not collections of information but rather 'complex ways of understanding experience' that may be distinguished from one another on the grounds of characteristic concepts and relations of concepts (logical structure). including film? And on what grounds do we place the communications of academic historians above those of other history makers? Is this rightful recognition of training. the narrative of the democratisation of history might well be challenged by a democratisation of historiography. 'professional arrogance'?62 Forms of history. films or theatrical productions.64 On this view. metaphysics persists in the organising concept of 'professional' history. This expectation clearly underpins Toplin's warning that historians 'need to be aware of the dangers of too much tolerance'. Very many do. textbooks. we believe that 'The domain of human knowledge can be seen to be differentiated into a number of logically distinct "forms". which may take the form of children's books. none of which is ultimately reducible in character to any of the others. it is important to note that while we now acknowledge a great many varieties of history making. 'historical' and 'historian'. or as Oliver Stone and Maureen Ames would have it. and that they must stand up for the 'ideals of scholarship' and the 'rules of traditional scholarship'. are passed over in silence. each of the forms of history is related to the others as a greater or lesser instantiation of the concept. That silence supports a notion of history making exploding and fragmenting in the latter half of the twentieth century. that forms of history are not coordinate species equally embodying the essence of the concept but are arranged in a cumulative scale? On his view. or historical practices? When we use the concepts 'history'. skills and techniques of print and filmic historians. then a distinction and even hierarchy between history and other 'not quite history' activities persists. Collingwood would have it. Or is it. why do we also use qualifiers such as 'film' or 'filmmaker'? Is it because. As long as 'professionalisation' remains a dominant theme in histories of the field. truth tests.G. history. But are there forms of history? Derrida's writings on metaphysics give us cause to think carefully about how and why we speak . For every history that is analysed. So too does the expectation that professional historians are the primary arbiters of historical activity.Words and images. and we use prefixes like public history or 'heritage'. This is not to suggest that studies of history making beyond academic contexts before the mid-twentieth century do not exist. Moreover. like Paul Hirst and Michael Oakeshott. as R. We might find in Collingwood's view justification for the belief in a hierarchy between professional and amateur history. hundreds and even thousands of other histories. images and words 31 That is.
). 1995. Cannadine. Change Mummified: Cinema. 2001. 3 Ibid. Gammage. Basingstoke: Palgrave Macmillan. Rosenstone. 'Matewan'. M.C. universal or unchanging reason to talk of one practice as 'more historical' than another. Visions of the Past: The Challenge of Film to Our Understanding of History. Historicity. Rosen. Lawrence: Kansas University Press. Recommended resources Appleby. New York: Henry Holt. I believe that there is no 'history' apart from historical practices.. including our expectations about the structure of its definition.. 1996.. 18. 67–72.. 2001. 1995.. History and the Media. Telling the Truth About History.. p. Landy. Nor. Theory. Hunt. 2 J. in consequence. 2004. New Brunswick. Reel vs Real: How Hollywood Turns Fact into Fiction. 4 B. in an interview with M. Shadows on the Past: Studies in the Historical Fiction Film. 2002. 1984. M. M. pp. Toplin. D. Sanello.. 18–20. Rosenstone.: Harvard University Press. If we value some historical practices over others. F. 'Working on Gallipoli'. Lanham. The Historical Film: History and Memory in Media. are united by and can be traced back to something called 'history'. M. L. B. Australian Film and Television School Conference 2. Past Imperfect: History According to the Movies. New York: W... J. 1994. vol. Minneapolis: University of Minnesota Press. And because our views on what history is are themselves historical.C. Princeton.W. Minneapolis: University of Minnesota Press. In distinction to this view. 1996. (ed. 1996. 1996. J. 'Past imperfect: history according to the movies'. pp. Md: Taylor Trade. Sayles. 22(4). The language of forms implies that the 'historical' activities we engage in are instantiations of. and Jacob.. 2003. The remainder of this book is an invitation to reconsider our assumptions about what history is. R.C. p. Landy. R. History by Hollywood: The Use and Abuse of the American Past. Stone. Norton.). Notes 1 O. is there any logical. Cinematic Uses of the Past. Cambridge. Cineaste.32 History Goes to the Movies of 'history'. Mass. (ed. they are subject to re-evaluation and change. North Ryde. . in M. Revisioning History: Film and the Construction of a New Past. P. Carnes. Reel History: In Defence of Hollywood.. B.). Philadelphia: Temple University Press. New York: Henry Holt. Carnes (ed. 1996. Toplin. NJ: Princeton University Press. 33. Urbana: University of Illinois Press. Carnes. it is because of historical decisions. Sydney: Australian Film and Television School. Past Imperfect: History According to the Movies. NJ: Rutgers University Press. 1996. Grindon..
Visions of the Past. American Historical Review. p. The definitions of romance and comedy are courtesy of H. 152–6. Brewer. and D. Rosenstone.1–46. pp. in D. 77–80. 10 B. 18. pp. 201. See also M. 9 R. pp. 108. Sanello. D. and M. trans. 1988. vol.: Harvard University Press.). and S. Rosenstone. The Yale Review. in M. Foner. See also p. 127. Cannadine (ed. 21 E. Olmi. see. xxiii. 'Historical pleasures: Gainsborough costume melodrama'. F. 4. Historians and the Media. Journal of Economic History. 'Comment'. spring. for example. trans. Landy. 11. Cannadine. Rosenstone. Basingstoke: Palgrave Macmillan. Visions of the Past.Z. Past Imperfect. London: Tavistock.C. Toplin. 1998. p. Historical Journal of Film. 2005. and S. Lanham. 2. Visions of the Past. Radio and Television. J. 11 D. pp. p. 13 L. trans. Visions of the Past.. 8 R. Harper. p. 'A Memorable Decision of the High Court of Tolouse Containing the Prodigious Story of our Time of a Supposed Husband. vol. London: NLB. ' "Any resemblance to persons living or dead": film and the challenge of authenticity'. 59. vol. Rosenstone. p. Mass. Baltimore: Johns Hopkins University Press. Pretty Pictures: Production Design and the History Film. Ringold and J. in an interview with M. p. 46. Davis. Metahistory: The Historical Imagination in Nineteenth-century Europe. pp. Arrow. 86–102. 2002. 'Amistad (1997): Steven Spielberg's "true story" '. p. North. in Past Imperfect: History According to the Movies. pp. 4. p. history no'. The Historical Film: History and Memory in Media. Reel History: In Defense of Hollywood. Rosenstone. London: Paladin. Lawrence: University of Kansas Press. Triquarterly.). Enriched by One Husband and Eleven Fine and Learned Annotations [1572]'. Reel vs Real: How Hollywood Turns Fact into Fiction. Carnes. Lavers. Past Imperfect: History According to the Movies. p. images and words 33 5 J. anon. The Historical Film. 1176. 2001. Jeffrey. unpublished ms. Md: Taylor Trade. B.Z. Rosenstone. 'Ideology and ideological state apparatuses (notes towards an investigation)'. p. 1978. Harper. Austin: University of Texas Press. 1971. 108. de Coras.6. Visions of the Past. 18–25. Althusser. 2005. 16 For this criticism about microhistories. Reel History. 22 M. 'Introduction'. 76(4). 387. Mythologies. p. 1973. Palgrave Advances in World Histories. p. B. 59. Visions of the Past. Lewis. NJ: Rutgers University Press. p. 60. 'Freud and Lacan'.. 13. viii. p. ' "I want to be a TV historian when I grow up!": on being a rewind historian'. Landy. p. in M. 38(1). 20 R. Davis. 14 M. Tashiro. Hughes-Warrington (ed. pp.). Foucault. xiii. Landy (ed. p. 21(1). 'Interview with John Sayles'. History Australia. 66. Cannadine. Christian. in M.). 17 R. p.S. pp. p. trans. 'Past imperfect'. in M.K. in The Historical Film: History and Memory in Media. White. 1996.). p. 2001. 93(5). p. Lenin and Philosophy and Other Essays. Rosenstone. Neely. Carnes (ed. p. 4. 'Scales'. Sayles and E. The Return of Martin Guerre. 2(2). 64–89. Toplin. as quoted in N. 57–8. pp.E. 23 M. New York: Henry Holt. 2004. 1996. R. 1983. The Order of Things. 18. See also J. 4. in Lenin and Philosophy and Other Essays. Basingstoke: Palgrave Macmillan. Cambridge. 15 R. vol. 25 As quoted in R. 1982. 462. New Brunswick. p. 24 O. 2003. 12 L. History and the Media. D. Carnes (ed. p. vol. 2–7. 7 N. A. 'Historical pleasures: Gainsborough costume melodrama'. M. 18 M. p. Arrow. 1987. 9. New York: Henry Holt. . 1973.Words and images. 33. 19 R. 55–6. Stone. Barthes. Althusser. 'Introduction'. Carnes. 6 J. 'Television program yes. 57. p. 'History in images'. C. 1970. 'Introduction'. 'The young Lincoln'.
trans. 'History on TV a mixed blessing. and S. trans. 25 July 2003. B. 'Shifting paradigms in the Australian historical film'. 49 B. 2004.. 1998.C. 24–6. Austin: University of Texas Press. Of Grammatology. 28 February 2003. 21 July 2003. 44 Ibid. London: Althone. Philosophy of the Social Sciences. pp. Higson. D. 'Film and history. 9. Jarvie. Guardian. pp. 37–44. A. 'Writing is a technology that restructures thought'. 1991. pp. The Written Word: Literacy in Transition. Cousins. p. vol. Derrida. 31 I. p. The Chasers' CNNNN series. Ashton. 195. Davis. p. 22 July 2003. 1986.co. 15. S. Tashiro. Rosenstone. p. pp. 113. 1998. 49. 1996. Dissemination. Toplin. 51 B. 8. Aaronovitch. trans. Baumann (ed. say academics'.S. and K. 5(2). Shadows on the Past: Studies in the Historical Fiction Film. New York: McGraw Hill.com. Spivak. 'It's a great big Schama'.. C. 42 N. See also J. 'Any resemblance to persons living or dead'. M. p. and R. p. 46 L. 1969. p. p. p. 38 Ibid. 66. p. The Australian Financial Review. Basingstoke: Palgrave Macmillan. Evanston. Woodward. vol. 175. 161. History and the Media. Sorlin. Magazine of History. Toplin. The Film in History. 16(4). Australian Broadcasting Corporation. Johnson. 34 W. Derrida. pp. See also pp. 'The double session'. 18. 2002. Limited Inc. p. ed. Ill. 94. foxes and hedgehogs'. 195. 114. pp. 40 Ibid. all online at http://www. 11–12. 47 M. Philadelphia: Temple University Press. 378. p. 2002. 193. East–West Film Journal. Margins of Philosophy. NJ: Princeton University Press. 48 C. 14. 1978. 3–5. Ill. G. 35 J. 39 S. Visions of the Past. 118 and 131. 28 J. 116. 92. 19. 'The double session'. 103.: Open Court. p..html 32 R. La Salle. in G. 'Why the film so rarely beats a good book'. online at http://www. . Rosenstone. The Interior Landscape: The Literary Criticism of Marshall McLuhan. Harris. Derrida. p. 2004. The Origin of Writing. Doherty. and C. 236. 41 T. 43 R. 1980. 33 M. 1987. Chicago: University of Chicago Press. 223. 11.34 History Goes to the Movies 26 B. pp. London: Secker & Warburg. Bass. 45 R. p.). Australian Cinema 1970–1985. Guardian. Minneapolis: University of Minnesota Press. hmm'. 52 P. 12 and 44. R11. Pretty Pictures: Production Design and the History Film. p. p. Oxford: Ocford University Press. 24.uk 30 See. vol. 13. 50 A. Reel History. Lawrence: Kansas University Press. Schama. 24. 43. Cinematic Uses of the Past. McLuhan.smh. in D. Sydney Morning Herald. 1987. Guardian. 1976. Crofts. Princeton. Rosenstone. 10. Grindon. 1995. 144.). 1994. Oxford: Oxford University Press. W. 5 October 2002. 51–65 and 200–22. 6. Landy.au/articles/2002/10/04/1033538773406. Reel History: In Defense of Hollywood. 2. Weber. Graff. 208. 1995. . pp. McFarlane. Baltimore: Johns Hopkins University Press. 8. for example. Waving the Flag: Constructing a National Cinema in Britain. 11. 36 J. Ong. 1982. 'Television and the trouble with history'. for example. 'Seeing through the movies'. Derrida. trans. 'Historical Relevance'. 29 See. . Cannadine (ed. Revisioning History: Film and the Construction of a New Past. p. 1986. 1981. 17–24.guardian. 36. 12. 27 Schama offers his criticism of this view in 'Television and the trouble with history'. as quoted in 'History a la Hollywood . 37 J. Derrida.: Northwestern University Press.Z. p. Burns. Oxford: Blackwell. Visions of the Past.
Lapsansky. 56 R. Cambridge: Polity Press.cfm. L. 35–7. 2. London: Routledge & Kegan Paul. 2000. 1996.historycooperative. Journal of American History. online at http:// www. 1974. 58 E. 289. Appleby. 54 P. Oakeshott.B. 2004. Scott. and O.theaha. 10. Novick. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. 82(2). 'Forum: Raymond Martin.S. 'Past imperfect: history according to the movies'. p. Victorian Photography and Literary Nostalgia. Norton. Experience and its Modes. Joan W. 63 P. in Knowledge and the Curriculum. and B. 64 P. 628. from the Creation of the World to the Present Time. 324 and 328. 55 J.org/ journals/jah/90. See also B. 'Review of Those of Little Note'. New York: W. vol. Hirst.J. pp. Appleby. Jacob. vol. 3. 1995. Martin.4/lapsansky. Society and Sentiment: Genres of Historical Writing in Britain. 2004. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. A History of Reading in the West. Perspectives. Writing Women's History Since the Renaissance. . p. 1933. 61 R.O. p. 1988. 44.H. Groth. 'The forms of knowledge re-visited'. p. Hirst. The Journal of American History. 1999. p. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. 62 M. vol. History and Theory. G. Boston: published by a Committee of Colored Gentlemen.Words and images. 90(4). p. and M. 'The forms of knowledge re-visited'. Telling the Truth About Aboriginal History. 1995.H. 1740–1820. Potter Jr. Phillips. 195. Stone. pp. 1844. 1994. Urbana: University of Illinois Press. 57 P. Cavallo and R. NJ: Princeton University Press. Jacob. 'An honor system for historians?'.B. M. Attwood. M. p. 34(4). June 1999. para. and H. and Cushing Strout on Telling the Truth About History'. Hunt and M. Chartier (eds). online at http://www. 84. 2002. L.h-net/org 60 See.W. Princeton. Light and Truth: Collected from the Bible and Ancient and Modern History.org/perspectives/issues/1999/9909/9909let. Spongberg. 2005. That Noble Dream: The 'Objectivity Question' and the American Historical Profession. Containing the Universal History of the Colored and Indian Race. Telling the Truth about History. 33. online at http://www. History by Hollywood: The Use and Abuse of the American Past. Hunt and M. Telling the Truth about History. 'letter to the editor'. Lewis. pp. Basingstoke: Palgrave Macmillan. 858. Crows Nest: Allen & Unwin. Ames. Toplin.html 59 H-Net. for example. images and words 35 53 J.
This is the chief of many questions uncovered in this chapter. A number of scholars dismiss 'costume'. you will come across terms such as 'science fiction'.2 Genre Cast a look around your local movie rental shop. and more specifically to those associated with production chief Darryl Zanuck. and as we shall see. Yet. given the numerical and cultural extent of film production and reception.1 George Custen limits his study of biographical pictures or 'biopics' to those produced by Hollywood studios. as we saw in the previous chapter. however. and you probably will not find an 'historical' category. Guy Barefoot takes a twofold step. 'comedy'. if not impossible. Similarly. 'melodrama'. 'horror' and 'romance'. Others restrict their attention even further. a number of scholars have assumed the existence of an historical genre and worked to articulate its features and boundaries. and that it can with effort be delineated. In so doing. Brian Taves subdivides the 'historical' genre and selects the smaller unit of 'historical adventure' in a process clearly described in the opening chapter of The Romance of Adventure: . one of the first steps that scholars commonly take to render the concept of 'the historical film' clear and manageable is to restrict their attention to a small range of works. More likely. we will be led back to the wider historiographical question of what 'history' is and how it can be classified. Scholars routinely accept that the genre does exist. as if the features and distinctions between these categories are readily apparent. first identifying the subgenre of 'gaslight melodrama' and then opting to treat works produced in the USA and UK between 1930 and 1950. This chapter focuses on the reasons for the disjunction in these genre classifications and on further unearthing the judgements that favour some 'historical' films over others in academic scholarship. Offering a clear. Robert Rosenstone opens both Revisioning History and Visions of the Past by explaining that his interest lies with the 'new' or 'postmodern' history film that 'foregrounds itself as a construction'. 'period' and 'heritage' films in favour of 'historical' films. or print or online filmographies. consistent and coherent account of 'the historical film' would seem to be a tall order. As we saw in the previous chapter. some of these questions do not at present have solid answers.
. or some combination of these? And who is to judge whether a work belongs to a genre? Is it right to assume.Genre 37 Ask six different individuals—lay person. deals with the valiant fight for freedom and a just form of government. Star Wars is a science fiction . So while. I believe that of these examples only Robin Hood is truly an adventure film. Quo Vadis is a biblical epic . a fourth cites Quo Vadis. 1982) is to Philip Rosen and Robert Rosenstone a 'subtle' and 'well-respected. Taves—in tune with the other scholars mentioned above— sees boundary drawing as not only possible but also necessary in film scholarship. James Bond is a spy. live action or animation. or filmmaker— to name the first adventure film that comes to mind. a motif that is unique to the genre. . to analyse the genre's central tenets. the second champions Star Wars. . that works they label as 'historical films' will be recognised as such by producers.3 A series of examples will demonstrate that many of the presuppositions that historical film scholars hold about the nature and boundaries of their subject matter should not be taken for granted. reception (blockbuster or independent). and to distinguish its borders from other forms with similar elements. critic. scholar. . This is the central theme of adventure. as historical film scholars have done. as with 'chick flick' or 'women's weepie'? In the drawing of boundaries. A primary problem is the nebulous nature of the concept of genre itself: does it. We begin by returning to the observation at the head of this chapter. mythical archetype). and the sixth suggests Robin Hood. distributors and viewers? Furthermore. another replies The Guns of Navarone.2 Questions aside about whether Raiders of the Lost Ark may be excluded by those criteria. It is essential to determine what comprises an adventure film. widescreen or academy ratio. One person mentions Raiders of the Lost Ark. Raiders of the Lost Ark is a fantasy . yet the term still does not enjoy wide currency. . can acts of boundary drawing be disentangled from value judgements? Is calling a work an 'historical film' an act of approval. denote a form of presentation (e. or might it also be used pejoratively. black and white or colour). Since the 1960s. and there will probably be a half-dozen widely divergent answers. cultural origin or diegetic content. . Robin Hood. for instance. Acts of boundary drawing beg many questions. for example.g. The others represent genres that are distinct in their own right. by contrast. the number of academic publications on 'the historical film' has grown steadily. a fifth champions the James Bond movies. . non-Hollywood historical film'. to reviewers and other film theorists it is an . . . fiction. . . set in exotic locales and the historical past. Le Retour de Martin Guerre (The Return of Martin Guerre. it is also presupposed that films belong clearly and permanently to a single genre and that the genre is immune to historical change. The Guns of Navarone is a war movie . ontological status (truth. that perhaps not everyone uses the same labels to describe and classify films.
For example. sets. these posters suggest something for everyone.38 History Goes to the Movies 'historical romance'. for instance. soundtrack and perhaps even an archaic mode of speaking. 'historical'). Advertisements used to promote The Lives of a Bengal Lancer (1935) and Pearl Harbor (2001). on the contrary. as with Ken Burke's labelling of Forrest Gump (1994) as a 'person against the world comedy' and Raiders of the Lost Ark (1981) as an 'adventure'. Catch Me If You Can (2002) and Donnie Darko (2001) demonstrate. The only element that betrays the past setting of the film are the costumes shown in a small inset illustration. it is sometimes difficult to judge on the basis of print advertising alone whether a film has anything other than a contemporary setting. It is important to note. a 'story of love and deception'. 'homebrand' or 'no name' terms (i. promise the 'thrill of a kiss. as Rick Altman notes. as film scholars do. including the term 'historical film'. there is little commercial advantage in employing text that can just as easily be used by competitors or. romance and musical elements (Figure 2. the connections breach the boundaries drawn by historical film scholars. Erhlich's Magic Bullet (1940) as 'another [Life of Emile] Zola!' (1937).3). with its mixture of action.1).5 Film publicity materials make infrequent use of written generic classifications. emphasises the 'modern' nature of its tale set in a time of 'gold and glory' (Figure 2. Sometimes advertising campaigns do imply generic grouping. the joy of combat' in images as well as words (Figure 2. This appeal to 'something for everyone' is even clearer in an advertisement for The Three Musketeers (1939). to speak more commercially. something that might bring them into the cinema. In this respect—the invocation of multiple genres—the advertising for Graustark is akin to that of many other campaigns for works that scholars might label 'historical'. Our conclusions that an advertised film is set in the past are more likely to come from visual and aural information such as costumes.4 Nor is there any guarantee that theorists or reviewers will even tell viewers that a film is set in the past. as much if not more about actor Ben Affleck than it is about costumes. In many more cases. that those elements are generally combined with others that stress contemporary appeal or the presence of other genres. props and a title evoking the Second World War. Adam Knee and Janet Staiger's observation that film publicists have little to gain from tying a work down to a single element. clearly affirms Tom Gunning. Advertising for Graustark (1925). though. as the examples Forrest Gump. Graustark may have an historical setting. Here.2). This example. but it was also promoted as a 'romance' and a story of 'thrills' and 'intrigue'. as with the others I have included. too.e. as with the advertising of The Story of Dr. a poster for The Story of Alexander Graham Bell . a 'heritage film' and even a 'courtroom drama' in the style of Perry Mason (1957–66). Neither of these films is identified with a single genre. Indeed. for example. the connection drawn coincides with Custen's category of biopic.7 Film advertising therefore more commonly draws attention to proprietary or copyrighted elements: Pearl Harbor is.6 Furthermore. publicists tell us loud and clear. comedy.
is advertised as 'Mr and Mrs. though. The Citadel. for many historical scholars have acknowledged the commercial nature of much . text is used to connect a film with previous success. a star or the collaboration of a producer and director. .8 In these cases. Madame Curie (1943). together again!'. Anthony Adverse [and] The Count of Monte Cristo!!'. . The Life of Emile Zola. whether related to a genre. Miniver . For the moment. and Raiders of the Lost Ark is introduced with the tag line 'Indiana Jones—the new hero from the creators of Jaws and Star Wars'. it suffices to note that the functions of generic classifications differ in the texts of scholars and film producers and distributors.1 The contemporary appeal of Graustark (1925) (1939) announces that it 'will rank with these never-to-be-forgotten productions The Story of Louis Pasteur. I will have more to say about the significance of intertextual references in film advertising in Chapter 8. which starred Greer Garson and Walter Pidgeon. This is hardly a surprising point.Genre 39 Figure 2.
40 History Goes to the Movies Figure 2.2a .
what they often neglect to do is to reflect on the functions of their own analyses. I questioned the pejorative appraisal of 'costume' dramas. However. Few historical film scholars overtly style themselves as distanced from the objects they study through the use of words like 'objective' or 'scientific'. Touchstone Pictures) film production. I want to reiterate the cultural stakes involved in dismissing certain works and note that scholastic writing.Genre 41 Figure 2. In this chapter. In the last chapter. no less than advertising. is at least in part concerned with the promotion of certain ideals and assumptions. Consider the preference of scholars for the analysis of films that appear to be singly and unambiguously tied to the 'historical' genre over those . Yet their statements are laden with unexamined judgements concerning the parameters and sources for their studies.2b Multiple categories of viewer for The Lives of a Bengal Lancer (1936) and Pearl Harbor (© 2001.
Another explanation may be found in an assumed dichotomy of generic purity and impurity. Indian films make little sense when . The prodigious output of Indian filmmakers. Masala films were a consequence of producers and directors trying to ensure that every film had a fighting chance to reap good profits—in the absence of studio infrastructure—by incorporating something in the film for everyone. music and dance. and metaphorically to the necessary combination of filmic ingredients that best guarantees high returns on investment. for instance. is not the only reason their works are neglected by historical film scholars. Against the Western 'historical film' is Indian 'masala'.3 Something for everyone? The Three Musketeers (1939) that apparently offer a more mixed classification. tragedy. Each film had a little action and some romance with a touch of comedy. as Priya Jaikumar explains: refers literally to a blend of Indian spices that adds flavour to food. This preference sees not only some films chosen over others within a single national or cultural cinema but also whole cultural cinemas passed over in favour of others. a term that. that is for an historical film as distinct from an historical romance film.42 History Goes to the Movies Figure 2. drama.
however. 'wild west'. theorists of film genre have celebrated the 'ironic' or 'playful' hybridisation that apparently marks the movement from 'classical' to 'postclassical' or even 'postmodern' film in Western culture after the Second World War. and the 'Holocaust comedy' of La Vita è bella (Life is Beautiful. Even after that date.11 The apparent link between Indian and Western film on the grounds of genre mixing is worthy of further consideration by historical film scholars.Genre 43 viewed from the perspective of American film genres. mixing continued to be implied. the advertisement for Aan (Savage Princess. Figure 2. No Indian film is a musical or action film because every mainstream Indian film is a musical and has some action sequences. though. for instance. 'western comedy'. Consider. and it might yet lead us to admit that the reservation of 'conscious'. 1998). the accepted treatment of films as unified by the structure of a single genre—in this case the 'historical film'— masks the level of genre mixing that characterises past and present film production in Western cultures.10 As Staiger and Altman have argued. First. 1997) and Train de vie (Train of Life. distributors. Further historical research on this matter is needed. 'western chase'. 1952.1–2. because of the conjunction of particular genres with political awareness and participation. In another example. In recent years. science fiction comedy and tragicomedy of the Back to the Future films (1985–90) and Donnie Darko. genre mixing continues to be stressed in promotional materials to accentuate marketing opportunities and suggest intertextual references. then perhaps it is one of degree rather than kind.3. Scholarly treatment of the origin. In the last chapter. 'western melodrama' and 'western epic' films were codified into the 'western' genre only after 1910. exhibitors and viewers that films could potentially belong to several categories and that labelling films with a mix of categories was likely to broaden their appeal. 'ironic' or 'playful' genre mixing to our own times stems from an underexamined assumption of progress. Films that Custen labels 'biopics'. we saw a . Similarities across these examples suggest the circulation of transnational visual cultural elements. Publicity materials for historical films made from the 1970s onwards appear to suggest more self-conscious highlighting of genre conflict. If there is any difference between the mixing of genres in classical and postclassical or postmodern film. as with the action comedy of Raiders of the Lost Ark. film production prior to the Second World War was shaped by the perception of producers. for instance.4) dating from the mid-1980s against the examples in Figures 2.9 This distinction along an assumed boundary of relative purity and mixing is problematic for at least two reasons. Altman contends. as with the description of 3 Word Brand (1921) as 'a wild west romance' and The Prairie Wife (1925) as 'a romance of the plains'. As we saw with the example of Pearl Harbor above. were often given double generic classifications in the 1930s such as 'biographical drama' or 'musical biography'. circulation and adaptation of aesthetic vocabularies in historical film production has not been forthcoming.
. . colourful characters from the past reinforce themes of patriotism.4 Genre mixing. writing that in Mumbai films: the commercial [Mumbai] cinema has sought to stay clear of controversy by converting history into pageantry and spectacle and developing a repertoire of characters . intrigue. conflict. political engagement. . . Sumita Chakravarty typifies this view.44 History Goes to the Movies Figure 2. Mumbai style: poster advertising for Aan (1952) from the 1980s number of scholars declare their preference against the mixed offerings of historical romance or costume drama. . A similar preference sees much of Indian cinema dismissed as colourful entertainment that is either at odds with. and their actions are woven into narratives of romance. . or an escape from. who are presented over and over again in forms firmly lodged in the public memory.
experimental and avant-garde animations produced in Europe 'before Mickey' (1898–1930) enjoyed the critical attention of scholars at the time of their release. such as The Return of Martin Guerre? After all. musical and melodrama. for as Ravi Vasudevan has observed. comedy. the association of animation with comedy (a topic we will explore further below) and the use of animation for well-meaning but didactic instructional and promotional films. 1983) and Hotaru no Haku (Grave of the Fireflies. some anime focus on a recognisably historical past.14 But on what grounds do we distinguish entertainment and spectacle from intellectual and social engagement? Why should we assume that entertaining or even spectacular Mumbai films are less likely to foster critical social and political engagement than historical films traditionally favoured by scholars. However. This point is borne out by the paucity of attention that historical film scholars have given to a range of mixed generic offerings. is not universal: for example. or anime as it is usually referred to. comedy and musical Judgements about the relationship between particular historical films and social and political engagement do not run simply along cultural lines. a clock. Barefoot Gen relates the experiences of a boy (Gen) before and after the bombing of Hiroshima. the crew of . promotional materials for the film showing Nathalie Baye and Gérard Depardieu in costume and in an embrace imply 'romance' as well as 'history'. Beneath the scholarly neglect of Indian film. as they do today. Vasan said of his own work Chandralekha (1948).12 This is not a new claim. Mumbai historical films are best summed up as 'pageantry for our peasants'. This is perhaps due to critical disdain for Disney child and family entertainment. or the 'West' and the 'rest'? Peoples with and without historical films? Animation.13 Perhaps.Genre 45 Notions of historical accuracy or attention to detail are subordinated to the larger imaginative sweep of legend and heroic sentiment.15 Furthermore. such as Hadashi no gen (Barefoot Gen. should film be valued for that function alone. and what should be counted as social and political participation? The answers to these questions are not at present clear. Disdain for animation. are there thus vestiges of the venerable antinomy between peoples with and without history. in Japan animation. we will examine each of these mixtures in turn. Intercutting between shots of a calendar. Anime is commonly connected with the genre of science fiction. 1988). is a pervasive cultural form and one that is increasingly seen as an intellectually demanding art. In this section. particularly the combination of history with animation. from the 1920s onwards historical films were seen as 'lower class' because of their use of spectacle. Animation has until recently occupied a marginal place in Western film scholarship. the superiority of a narrow corpus of historical films simply goes without saying. though.S. as the director S. Furthermore.
Barefoot Gen and Grave of the Fireflies can also be read as warnings about the self-inflicted postwar 'feminisation' of Japan: Seita is nurturing. the narrative builds in suspense before the bomb that we know is coming. third. we see Hiroshima glow before both Gen's playmate and the surrounding architecture dissolve before our eyes. food shortages and ill-health. For the moment. Seita and Setsuko are the children of one victim. causes of the war) have similarly been levelled against Edgar Reitz's account of village life in twentieth-century Germany (Heimat. viewers see both grass and Gen's hair growing again.46 History Goes to the Movies the Enola Gay and Gen playing in the street with a friend. sensitive and passive. when Allied bombing claimed an increasingly large number of civilian casualties. The sequences depicting the destruction of Hiroshima are explicit. Rather. yet the film does not dwell on the horrific aftermath.17 It is also important to note that criticisms made about the 'avoidance' of the 'big picture' in these anime (i. The case of comedy films further demonstrates this point. it emphasises Gen. it transplants the Western conflation of animation with children's entertainment. I would like to make it clear that the antinomy between those 'with' and 'without' historical films that shapes film criticism does not simply coincide with notions of a divide between the 'West' and the 'rest' or the 'Occident' and the 'Orient'. and.e. Grave of the Fireflies offers viewers far less cause for hope. In the final scene. a history that sees the setting out of a 'balanced moral calculus' in which the atomic bombings cancel out Pearl Harbor and the colonisation of Korea and parts of China are forgotten. his mother and his adopted brother Ryotaro's resilience in the face of family deaths. When it is dropped. democratic and peace-seeking society. it assumes that the meaning of these films is exhausted through a single interpretation. More attention will be given to this 'small picture' criticism of some combat films in Chapter 4. With their combination of animation and child protagonists (see Figure 2. Opening with the voiceover 'September 21. it becomes clear that a series of murders have been committed in a monastery in order to keep the existence . Most of the story is set in Kobe near the end of the war. As the film progresses. and in the end they succumb to malnutrition. Gen is active in the face of adversity and far from a passive victim.16 This conclusion is historically and methodologically questionable: it neglects the collaborative nature of American– Japanese attempts to replace perceptions of a militaristic past with those of a new. 1945 was the night I died'. it is tempting to read both Barefoot Gen and Grave of the Fireflies as contributions to a metaphorically 'childlike' Japanese 'victim's history'. 1984) and North American combat films set in Vietnam and Somalia. and their inability to find a supportive home with relatives leads them to make a home of their own in an abandoned bomb shelter.5). and she makes a grave for them. As Susan Napier has argued. Setsuko experiences joy and sadness at the short life of the fireflies that Seita catches to please her. it becomes apparent that the two children—like the fireflies—will be unable to survive for long. In that place. Towards the end of the film The Name of the Rose (1986). second.
As T. © 1983. Gen Productions) and Hotaru no Haku (Grave of the Fireflies. © 1988. the different views of comedy in this film and in the book of the same title—as a corrective to fanaticism.5 History through children's eyes? Hadashi no Gen (Barefoot Gen. Akiyuki Nosaka/Shinchosha Co in Japan) of a treatise on comedy by Aristotle secret.Genre 47 Figure 2. intolerance and fear or as demeaning to belief and the dignity of human life—resonate in ancient and modern writings. but in medieval usage. Nelson has shown. Comedy is often treated as if it is synonymous with laughter. as .
Another sees their use of humour as tantamount to trivialisation and a threat to the dignity and memory of those who perished. on the idea of 'Holocaust comedy' and whether The Great Dictator (1940). for instance. these two readings are united in crediting comedy with the ability to—as Cicero put it—mirror the manners of society. La Vita è bella (Life is Beautiful. The assumption that comedy is a form of social diagnosis would seem to be a promising exemplar for the social and political engagement valued by film scholars. for instance. A great deal has been written. have enjoyed the attention of historical film scholars. 1997) and Train de vie (Train of Life. runs through Life is Beautiful. Jakob Heym's concocted radio news reports and humorous story hours bring hope to the ghetto in which he is imprisoned. Recognising these two elements of comedy might lead us to conclude that few historical films are not comedies. it might be argued. Also neglected by historical film scholars are what are commonly labelled .19 In historical and autobiographical works on the Holocaust. a disease of forgetting. though. Jakob the Liar and Train of Life. The Producers (1983). Yet only a small number of works labelled 'comedies'.20 A similar use of humour.48 History Goes to the Movies with the present-day narratological theories of Northrop Frye and Hayden White. Jakob Der Lügner (1974. 1995). One reading of these films sees their lead characters as 'fools'—figures set apart from others on account of their social innocence or even simplicity—playing a role that defies the right or power of the Holocaust to extinguish human personalities. critics may doubt whether Holocaust comedy can represent the horrors of the Third Reich. the village idiot Shlomo masquerades as a German officer to steal a train and rescue the occupants of a shtetl or small Jewish village in Eastern Europe. In the second. Titanic (1997) might be described as a comedy because it ends with the happy reunion of Rose in death with all those who perished the night the ship sank. scholars have tended to concentrate their attention on humorous works treating a small range of historical events. 1998) are or even ought to be funny. not just because it contains a few jokes. 1999). Furthermore. And in the third. Although apparently divided. Put simply. more particularly those associated with laughter. the answer would appear to be negative. we do catch a glimpse of those incarcerated using humour as a survival mechanism. whether past (reading one) or present (reading two). Mutters Courage (My Mother's Courage. for countless scholars have struggled against the larger question of whether it can be represented at all. That it has not been awarded extensive critical attention beyond the bounds of the Holocaust therefore deserves reflection. The Day the Clown Cried (1972). Does the constellation of horrors that crystallised into the terms 'Holocaust' or 'Shoah' permit laughter? At first sight. remade as Jakob the Liar. it also denotes stories that tend towards a harmonic or resolved ending. jokes infuse the game that Guido constructs to explain the camp he and his young son (Giosue) have been sent to.18 On this count. but they also leave unquestioned the assumption that it can represent a current social pathology. In the first.
One of the main points of this chapter and Chapter 4 is to show that the realism of canonical 'historical films' is of a certain form. reflects wider difficulties with an 'odd species of entertainment'. the big production numbers are too over-the-top to be taken seriously. as Selma (Björk) does in Dancer in the Dark (2000). Ben Singer and Steve Neale have pointed out that in early cinema. He writes: The plots seem not only escapist but hackneyed. first. temporal or logical contradiction to understandings of historical realism. Although scholars have celebrated or expressed their disdain for melodrama as an introspective. second. that they are invoked for certain purposes. a form that is not immune to change or question. put bluntly. Familiar paths: genre and ideology I could go on and on.22 Nobody. as with the aim of feminist film criticism to recover and rehabilitate women's activities. the characters lack psychological depth and their passions are corny. recycled from film to film. contemporary classifications do not entail numerical tallying. occasions laughter rather than applause because it breaks with cinematic realism. This same point may be made about melodrama. the term was reserved for stories of action and adventure by working-class men. A key word in relation to the judgement of musicals is 'realism'. that genres are not transhistorical categories that are immune to change and. the hallmark moments in any movie musical. an 'impossible genre' because they contain elements that appear to be in spatial. which along with 'costume' has received mixed valuations. Russell Merritt. but they are not entirely constituted by them. chaste beyond belief. If there is no tally. the convention of a character bursting into a song or breaking into dance with inexplicable orchestral accompaniment.23 This difference of views extends the point just made about realism by showing us. Might their 'non-impossible' acts still justify their consideration as historical works? Unlike the early filmic practice of classifying films as '50 percent talking' or '75 percent silent'. Musicals thus appear to sit firmly outside the boundary of history.Genre 49 'musicals'. as Steven Cohan points out. Or do they? Musicals may include seemingly impossible acts. we expect. bursts into song after committing an act of murder. Most alienating of all. This. And we know that something is awry with Moulin Rouge (2001) when Christian inserts some lyrics from The Sound of Music (1965) into a stage show that is being composed around 1900. there must be some other criteria at work for decisions of exclusion and inclusion. psychological genre for women. carefully cataloguing all the kinds of film that have been neglected by historical film scholars. But I hope that my selection will .21 Musicals are. the Tin Pan Alley songs are out of synch with contemporary musical styles.
live-action presentation of public political events. As we shall discover in Chapter 4. . we thus need to ask what this profile is for. identifiable purpose. the critical examination of which binds this book together.50 History Goes to the Movies suffice to show that decisions of generic classification are bound up with value judgements made in a particular historical context. these expectations are grounded in the often unspoken belief that active interpretation of a film is the hallmark of a free. though. Victor Turner suggests that socially transgressive. Thus Milan Kundera has noted how spontaneous activities can be appropriated by governments that wish to erase inconvenient memories from people's minds and keep them in a state of infancy. they are 'impossible'.24 On this view. the underexamined connection of historical films with a particular concept of 'reality' has unduly limited the range of works that are accorded scholarly and educational examination. like musicals. So when on the basis of extant scholarship we build up a profile of historical films as made by Europeans or independent North American units. Why? This question draws us closer to assumptions about the social functions of film. describing transgressive activity as a safety valve that defuses social pressures and preserves the established order from destruction. be explained by their purported transgression of historical reality. The connection of transgression with the generation of awareness and action informs positive reviews of some of the films I discussed above. presents a contrary view.26 Images of childhood and forgetting also underpin David Denby's appraisal of Life is Beautiful: . Genre is therefore best understood discursively. which are capable of influencing the behaviour of those in mainstream social and political roles . comedy. tenderness and humour can sustain the human spirit under the most oppressive circumstances'. also select particular films over others. just as much as they can serve as instruments of political control'. Mumbai historical films. Film scholars. Perhaps. Scholars—historical and otherwise—have social and political expectations of films. What functions do the pronouncements of historical film scholars serve? The scholarly neglect of cultural cinemas like those of India and generic mixtures involving elements of animation. comedies. as with the description of Life is Beautiful as 'a dazzling exposition of the way in which love. musicals and melodramas—as well as the postmodern films favoured by Rosenstone—may be liberating. and not just historical film scholars. But it is worth noting that the kinds of film discussed above are not passed over simply on the basis of their historical diegeses. . in the direction of radical change. antirealist activities can foster the creation of 'alternative models for living. animations. Writing on play. music and melodrama might. as language addressed by one party to another usually for a specific.25 'Impossible' films might highlight social mores and cause us to reflect on whether they ought to be modified. temporal and logical consistency. contradicting notions of spatial. As I alluded to above in my account of Mumbai historical films. participatory and even creative life. and as connected with serious. Far more scholarship. as I have suggested. from utopias to programs.
Life is Beautiful is a benign form of Holocaust denial. a number of neo-Marxist film scholars have sketched out a similar view. . The enormous worldwide success of Life is Beautiful suggests that the audience is exhausted by the Holocaust. Theodor Adorno and Frank Kermode—their lisible ('readerly') nature encourages 'underreading'. Benigni wants us to believe. The audience's mood is understandable. not only keep the human spirit aloft but save lives. and surely an artist cannot transcend what he never encounters. particularly Chapters 7 and 8. film can be an 'escapist' or 'entertaining' salve that keeps viewers in a state of arrested development. on the other hand. The audience comes away feeling relieved and happy and rewards Benigni for allowing it. 'fools' who show us the meaning of virtue or child narrators.29 'Writerly' texts. . .27 On this view. draw attention to the various rhetorical techniques that produce the illusion of realism and encourage readers to participate in the construction of meaning. Generic texts perform this function because—combining the arguments of Roland Barthes. seeing some or even all films as vehicles of government or industrial ideologies. at last. Framing films in this way. They do not get us to the past. . . . The divided appraisal of films as either emancipatory or stultifying remains to be challenged in later segments of this book. to escape. That is. they prevent us from understanding our present. . Benigni protects the audience as much as Guido protects his son. one shaped by particular assumptions about society. In the end. 'We cannot hope for even a vaguely accurate portrayal of the nub of history in film so long as movies must obey the literary conventions of ordinary plotting'. we are all treated like children. particular genres or genre itself become a means of luring viewers into accepting deceptive beliefs about society and happiness that are non-solutions.Genre 51 Comedy and art. Here I would simply like to note the paradox that scholars' positioning of themselves as apart from—and able to observe—the effect of institutionally produced texts on unsuspecting subjects has led them to describe film genres in a writerly manner. Gould has complained. but artists are supposed to be made of sterner stuff. that it is sick to death of the subject's unending ability to disturb. 'Life is Beautiful' is soothing and anodyne—a hopeful fable of redemption. . Taking their lead from Louis Althusser. Literary and film theorists as well as historical film scholars favour writerly texts on the grounds that they purportedly encourage viewers to become producers rather than consumers of texts. . As Stephen J. These devices mask and cement contemporary social and political assumptions. Closed off from overt view are the reasons why they engage in these boundary-drawing exercises. they make it clear to us that what we are seeing is a construction. women in need of rescue by men.28 Generic texts elicit underreading on the part of viewers through the use of familiar themes and rhetorical devices like happy endings. and arguably. .
Thirteen Days. and in what order or context'. Historians thus work to draw out narrative forms that are implicit 'in the events themselves'. reversed. Even a chronicler must decide when to begin and end an account and what details to include.g. an historical film may represent short-term (e. Chronology is expanded. All but a few historians acknowledge that the accounts they offer of past events are constructions. as the editing techniques of flashback and cross-cutting detailed in the next chapter attest. Perhaps Carla Phillips and William Phillips' evaluation of Columbus (1992) and 1492 (1992) can thus be applied in some degree to all written and filmed histories: These films treat the historical record as mere raw material. as with Carlo Ginzburg's studio of the heretical miller Mennochio in The Cheese and the Worms or about the history of the universe from the Big Bang to the future. For some historians. that histories have to be in Western chronological order. In David Carr's view. to be adapted to the needs of the screenplay. compressed. the narrative shape and emphases of their works are dictated by the phenomena about which they write. conflated or created from whole cloth to serve the director's will. end or scope to any event that happened in the past: an historian may choose to write about a period in the life of one individual. 2001) or long-term events (History of the World Part 1 (1981)). or falsified to suit the dramatic trajectory. emphasising or emplotting historical events. Carr has argued. and in this sense they are authors. life and narrative coincide. or the favouring of particular . Where opinion divides is on the historical status of those constructions. of whom the best known is Hayden White. Keith Jenkins argues that the chief question for historians is not 'What is history?' but 'What is history for?' This second question captures well the shift of twentieth-century historiography towards epistemology. Emphasis might be apparent from the proportion of space given to the representation of a phenomenon. There is no necessary or absolute beginning. 'The facts speak only when the historian calls on them: it is he [sic] who decides to which facts to give the floor. Without this hierarchy of content over form. as with David Christian's Maps of Time. form is ancillary to content. argue instead that the past does not present itself in a shape that is ready packaged for telling. Rather. exclude and emphasise. it is claimed.31 Similarly. for example.52 History Goes to the Movies Images and words In Re-thinking History. Historical personages are revised.30 Many more historians. Different meanings and significance can be bestowed on events through emphasis.33 There is no logical requirement. deified or demonized. form and function of histories.H. bringing with it an emphasis on the relationship between the content. for instance. historians must package it. there is little to stop the activity of writing history from merging with that of writing fiction.32 Nor is there only one necessary or absolute way of ordering. As E.
. We can only construct new practices of history. which he classifies as: Emplotment romance comedy tragedy satire Ideology anarchist conservative radical liberal In romance. Stephen Bann.Genre 53 kinds of evidence (e. as we will note in more depth in Chapter 4. political records) or film technique (e. narrating the past in the hope for a better future. are thus 'not only about events but also about the possible sets of relationships that those events can be demonstrated to figure'.R.34 Ideologically. White advances the idea that histories are characterised by various conventional modes of emplotment (story or plot type). Keith Jenkins and Paul de Mann. Satire is the opposite of romance. The cultured. setbacks are accepted with resignation. events tend towards to a beneficial resolution. Histories are thus ethically and culturally situated. In comedy. educated Europeans—is a shaping force that cannot be ignored. by contrast. Dominick La Capra. gendered and ideological positioning of language—as traditionally refracted through the viewpoints of white. fashioning history as the progressive realisation of the social and political structure that prevails in their time. Lionel Gossman. including 'reality effects'. Some writers. and in tragedy.g.g. Ankersmit. even invert the hierarchy of content over form and conclude that history making is primarily the stylistic fashioning of narratives. Anarchists. Emphasis might also be signalled through the favouring of a particular perspective on events and the exclusion or minimisation of other perspectives. once we expose the assumptions concealed in what we assume is the transparent view of the past delivered through narratives that are saturated with 'reality effects'. Foucault argues. while liberals and radicals are located more towards the centre of White's ideological spectrum. White concludes. conveying the message that the protagonists are ultimately captive in some way. In Metahistory. Robert Berkhofer. Attention to the form of a history will thus tell us more about the person who made it than about the past. as was argued earlier.36 White. Linda Orr. This has led to the assumption that it is better to make history in a non-narrative form or at least to break with certain narrative conventions. conservatives are the most suspicious of change to the status quo. in line with Roland Barthes. along with F. the protagonists achieve release from the situations they find themselves in.35 Histories. are the most socially transcendent. Furthermore. Nancy Partner. Paul Ricoeur and David Harlan. for particular readers and particular ideological purposes. he notes that the nineteenth century set down the association of forms of emplotment with particular ideologies. stresses the importance of rhetorical conventions and linguistic form in the shaping of histories. extensive use of close-ups on a particular individual's face). male. Hans Kellner.
and thus like many film scholars. pondered and disputed. and it sears the imagination. . . Hence Rosenstone's favouring of the 'new' or postmodern historical film. which he sees as opposed to 'Hollywood codes of "realism" '. Nor can a single book or film be used to define history. . Criticisms of the attempts by White and many other film scholars to offer taxonomies of history show us that Jenkins's question 'What is history for?' should be supplemented by another: Where is history located? History is not a physical object that can be easily labelled. It fills irritating gaps in the historical record and polishes dulling ambiguities and complexities. If a different collection of nineteenth-century authors had been used—for instance. Furthermore. But on what grounds are these judgements made? White's argument about the association of modes of emplotment with various ideologies derives in part from the writings of Northrup Frye—the purposes of which White never examines—and from a small sample of nineteenth-century texts by white. or even 'historical film'. is not exhausted by a canon of texts or a single form of emplotment (e. . pluck from the muck of the historical record the most solid bits of evidence. and usually serve them up as books that.54 History Goes to the Movies Nowhere is that opinion voiced more strongly than in relation to historical film. books or films and their rhetorical devices alone do not constitute history. male. in marketing strategies or materials or reader or viewer reception.37 To this we might add White's alignment of comedy with a conservative ideology and likewise all transgressive 'safety valves'. . Put simply. he directs the attention of readers away from the consideration of genre mixing and changes in use.g. can be held and cherished. so devoid of tedious complexity. Hollywood history sparkles because it is so morally unambiguous. progressive. they assume that these aspects of history can be described transparently. Yet historical film scholars and historiographers routinely select one of these aspects and treat it as representative of the whole concept. in the intentions of authors. though encrusted with footnotes and rendolent of musty archives. Postmodern films question the mainstream association of history with linear. emotional and ultimately tidy stories of individuals. . The final product gleams. satire. as with a 'cat' or a 'book'. as distinct from comedy). I repeat a point made earlier in this chapter: acts of boundary drawing raise many questions. Nor does history reside in a process of composition. Mark Carnes has also complained about the tidiness of what he calls 'Hollywood history': Professional historians . devoid of any reflection on the assumptions and purposes imbued in their work. writing by women or Latin American authors—might his arguments about the forms of history change? Stable boundaries are assumed for each of the forms of emplotment. mold them into meanings. Hollywood history is different. so perfect. A less obvious point is that the meaning of 'history'. educated Europeans.
vol. History and Theory.. Cambridge. Taves. 'Is life beautiful? Can the Shoah be funny? Some thoughts on recent and older films'. The Romance of Adventure: The Genre of Historical Action Movies. 2000.. p. Films by Genre: 775 Categories. Dwyer. (ed. London: BFI. 20. J. pp. 1995. 2000. 18.Genre 55 History is not a single object or even a collection of objects. J.. 1993. Baltimore: Johns Hopkins University Press. Visions of the Past: The Challenge of Film to Our Idea of History. Iris.F. in the chapters that follow I will argue for the supplementation of scholars' textual concerns with insights into the promotion and reception of films. Cook.. British Genres: Cinema and Society 1930–1960. London: Continuum. Critical Inquiry. 2001. Princeton. M. Trends and Movements Defined. Napier. 1995. no. Custen. Taves. T. (eds). White. and R. London: BFI. Gaslight Melodrama: From Victorian London to 1940s Hollywood. 1986. The World War II Combat Film: Anatomy of a Genre. 117–31.. Picture.. 1991.. 2000. J.: Harvard University Press. New Brunswick. and Patel. D. G.. Princeton.. 1993. 1998. London: BFI. 2000. Rosenstone (ed. In line with this. Basinger. ' "Those drawn with a very fine camel's hair brush": the origins of film genres'. agreed or contested. Jefferson. 2002.. Nor is it bound up simply with the activities of one group or another. NC: McFarland. Barefoot. 26(2). Bio/Pics: How Hollywood Constructed Public History. R. Gledhill. More than Night: Film Noir and its Contexts. Gunning. as quoted in R. Bratton. Landy. H. pp. D. Film/Genre. B. New York: Columbia University Press.). S. 1993. pp. p. Rosenstone. 1987.J. J.. and Gledhill. The Romance of Adventure: The Genre of Historical Adventure Movies.. with a Filmography for Each. Notes 1 R. Mass. Extending the argument I made in the last chapter. Narremore. pp. New York: Palgrave. Berkeley: University of California Press. Melodrama: Stage. Home is Where the Heart Is: Studies in Melodrama and the Women's Film. 12. Anime: From Akira to Princess Mononoke. R. 'Narrative and the real world: an argument for continuity'. 1992. G. S.. London: Reaktion Books. Lopez. Film/Genre. Metahistory: The Historical Imagination in Nineteenth-century Europe. 279–308.L. Cinema India: The Visual Culture of Hindi Film. Jackson: University Press of Mississippi. 2 B. Screen. Gilman. London: BFI. 1986. NJ: Princeton University Press.. . history is a discursive site where meaning is circulated. 49–61. 3–4. 1994. 1995. p. NJ: Princeton University Press.). NJ: Rutgers University Press. Jackson: University Press of Mississippi. Altman. Revisioning History: Film and the Construction of a New Past. 1973. C. 3. Styles. 25(1). C. Carr.. D. Recommended resources Altman. vol.
Perverse Spectators. 15 See.G. Nelson. p. Bloomington: Indiana University Press. 1945–1993. F. 2001. 143. 1993. 1947–1987. 1998. 50. International Journal of Instructional Media. Film/Genre. Ganti. Cineaste. 20. 83–100. 1993. The Cinema Effect. 2000. Narrative as Counter-memory: A Half-century of Postwar Writings in Germany and Japan. H. no. 1973. 57. 'The "peace dividend" in Japanese cinema: metaphors of a demilitarised nation'. and C. 10 See. Bio/Pics. 204. New York: Palgrave/St Martin's Press. See also M. 169. 19 See. Anatomy of Criticism: Four Essays. Collins (eds). 1984.). Frye. 'Charting relationships in American popular film. S. 25–6. London: Penguin. and R. 2nd edn.E. 173. 1993. in C. 232. p. pp. B. and H. NC: McFarland. J. 1996. Barnouw and S. Altman. 1995. Iris. p. Cambridge. London: Routledge. New York: New York University Press. 139–40. Film/Genre. 342. see M.P.: MIT Press. 2004. pp. 'The politics of cultural address in a "transitional" cinema: a case study of popular Indian cinema'. Journal of Modern History. 24(4). 7 R. 64. Baltimore: Johns Hopkins University Press. p. M. French Films. Gunning. 19. Custen. Jefferson. edn. 13(2). Visions of the Past. Williams (eds). Indian Film. 'Bollywood spectaculars'. Holocaust Representation: Art Within the Limits of History . Perverse Spectators: The Practices of Film Reception. pp. for example. Radner and A.J. 13 R. Cambridge. 4th edn. p. 'Generic change in the cinema'. White. 139–40. Oxford: Oxford University Press. for example. p. Altman. for example.A. p. Part I'. 133. Crafton. 1–2. TimeOut Film Guide. Manchester: Manchester University Press. 17 S. in J. Film Theory Goes to the Movies. 71. New York: Columbia University Press. Bollywood: A Guide Book to Popular Hindi Cinema. Gluck. and J. Manchel.: MIT Press. 1994. Knee. Anime: From Akira to Princess Mononoke. Colonial Nationalism in Asian Cinema. rev. 2004. 242–3. Before Mickey: The Animated Film 1898–1928. p. 609. ' "Those drawn with a very fine camel's hair brush": the origins of film genres'. Iris. Jaikumar. p. 1990. 36. Film/Genre. Albany: State University of New York. 2000. Minneapolis: University of Minnesota Press. Staiger. 158. Collins. 141. 77(3–4). 20. 1980. For reviews and other academic writings. 1957. Altman. 70–98. 1993. See also N. 59. Theory. pp. 1993. New York: Routledge. Burke. Staiger. NJ: Princeton University Press. 59. Krishnaswarmy. National Identity in Indian Popular Cinema. and R. 9 P. pp. and Cinema. p. 'The past in the present'. Film/Genre. London: Routledge. 12 S. 14 As quoted in E. vol. Reinventing Film Studies. 11–12. vol. Comedy: An Introduction to Comedy in Literature. p. 2001. pp. Tachibana. 1997. See also T. 16 See. p. World Literature Today. 1995. for example. 36. Princeton. Gordon (ed. pp. vol. Levinson. Postwar Japan as History. 1995. Vasudevan. Contemporary French Cinema. Austin. Ganti notes the pejorative division of Hindi film from Western film but seeks to address it by noting Indian examples that offer dominant or single genres. 18 T. 67(1). p. pp. G. 4 P. 6 T. Chakravarty. Drama. p. 'A reel witness: Steven Spielberg's representation of the Holocaust in Schindler's List'. Austin: University of Texas Press. 'Genericity in the nineties: eclectic irony and the new sincerity'. 1995. 2003. vol. and R. p. Mass. Dissanayake (ed. Rosen. Rosenstone. Morimoto. 15. C. 170. Peachman. Napier. Mass. 18–26. no. Lang. Collins. and G. 8 For reproductions of these posters.56 History Goes to the Movies 3 R. p. 83.). Glenhill and L. A. Biggs. Change Mummified: Cinema. Cubitt. in A. Altman. Metahistory: The Historical Imagination in Nineteenth-century Europe. Historicity. 5 K. 11 J. Berkeley: University of California Press. in W. p. and D. p. 47. see R. p. pp.
Martin. pp. 99–129. and M. Metahistory..). Wide Angle. 'The frames of comic "freedom" '. Grant (ed. 1996. in U. London: Routledge. 4–5. Past Imperfect. rev. New York: Hill & Wang. Kotzin. Neale. Hollywood Musicals. Camera Obscura. V. S. R. 37. Turner. 29. 53(1). pp. Past Imperfect. in B. and Holocaust Video Testimony 739 and 1678 of the Fortunoff Video Archive for Holocaust Testimonies. 2004. 1974. p.J. Harmondsworth: Penguin. 35. D. Davies. Carnes (ed. New York: Henry Holt. p. vol.D. ed. S/Z. Berkeley: University of California Press. vol.T. as cited in M. p. p. 1990. R. 29.W. 1982. 1993. no. Kundera. R. Denby. Carnes (ed. 96–9. C. 9. 'Narrative and the real world: an argument for continuity'. Phillips and W. Velvet Light Trap. 'Female power in the serial-queen melodrama: the etiology of an anomaly'. and F. Phillips.).H. Cohan (ed.).Genre 57 and Ethics. New York: Columbia University Press. White. Critical Inquiry. 1.). London: Routledge. E.). 'Melo talk: on the meaning and use of the term "melodrama" in the American trade press'. 32. in M. Chicago: University of Chicago Press. D. 16. trans. New York: PAJ Publications. R.V. Ivanov and M. edn. Carr. The New Yorker. pp. 1984. and S. pp. 1997. H. Carnival!. 26(2). pp. M. Jenkins (ed. Carr. S. Rektor (eds). p. B. M. The Book of Laughter and Forgetting. See also U. p. trans. 'In the eye of the beholder'. in W. Viano. Lipman. 66–89. Laughter in Hell: The Use of Humour During the Holocaust. Eco. Der Flusterwitz im dritten Reich: mundliche Dokumente zur Lage der deustchen Wahrend des Nationalsocializmus. H. Rubin. D. 1986. Carnes (ed. 79–97. Mitchell (ed. 63. Baltimore: Johns Hopkins University Press. vol. 'Life is Beautiful'. 26 October 1998.. 9. p. Neale. 5(3). Gilman. Gamm. 11. vol. Eco. 'A clown in the camps'. S. p. 25(1). 'Is life beautiful? Can the Shoah be funny? Some thoughts on recent and older films'. Film Quarterly. Berlin: Mouten de Grouter. On Narrative. 'Questions of genre'. Merritt. p. The Postmodern History Reader. Metahistory. Anatomy of Criticism. 2nd edn. p. 2000. New York: Harper. C. S. 20 21 22 23 24 25 26 27 28 29 30 31 32 33 34 35 36 37 . What is History?. The Film Reader. NJ: Jason Aronson. V. From Ritual to Theatre: The Human Seriousness of Play.). On the connection of comedy with the creation of new social orders. 117–31. Kermode. 'Secrets and narrative sequence'. and the final section of K. 1983.J. 'Melodrama: post-mortem for a phantom genre'. Maps of Time: An Introduction to Big History. Christian. 22(1). 1980. Ibid. 24–31. Munich: List Verlag 1973. Past Imperfect: History According to the Movies. 1999. History and Theory. 1993. Review of Jurassic Park. Showstoppers: Busby Berkeley and the Tradition of Spectacle. 40.G. n. 1991. and A. Jerusalem Report. p. 2002.-J. Barthes. Northvale. as cited in S. 159–83.L. 1999. Gould. 2000. Film Genre Reader. vol.). pp. H. Singer. 1986. White. Ginzburg. 69. The Cheese and the Worms: The Cosmos of a Sixteenth-century Miller. see N. Ibid. and D. in M. 94. Frye. pp. Review of Columbus. J. Tedeschi. pp. Harmondsworth: Penguin. 1981. 15 March 1999. p.
3 Sorlin's view runs parallel to discussions on time and tense in cinema and wider society. Leger Grindon. Exploring various forms of representation in 'The rhetoric of the image'. Film. has written of history in the cinema as an 'address to the present'. Roland Barthes distinguishes the 'having-been-there' of photography with the 'being-there' of film. Photographic images can appear to be identical to what they represent and thus can 'record' or capture the past existence of objects.2 Across reviews of individual or groups of films we find similar sentiments echoed. emplotment.4 Barthes' arguments about film. in turn. and Arthur Lindley argues that filmic depictions of the Middle Ages are a pretext for individuals and cultures to revisit themselves 'as children'. ranging from ethical beliefs to political aspirations. affirm .1 History serves as a signifier of issues contemporary with filming. one that Frank Sanello complains has nurtured 'historical solipsism'. whereas even apparently 'realistic' films transform what is represented through contemporary codes and conventions of narration.3 Pasts. for example. or a belief that we can know only ourselves. Barthes favours photography over film on these grounds. presents. a number of twentieth-century writers assume. Down with Love (2003) What do historical films depict? For Pierre Sorlin. encouraging viewers to accept its 'reality' and to surrender an opportunity for resistance against socio-cultural mores. is a medium of the present tense. the answer to this question is relatively straightforward: the historical film is 'no more than a useful device to speak of the present time'. futures Now. To take just a few examples: Richard Slotkin sees The Charge of the Light Brigade (1936) as a product of contemporary debates about appeasement and rearmament. too. sequencing and perspective. views that I believe do not sufficiently recognise the temporal heterogeneity of film. 1968 Opening title. Linda Salamon contends that historical films offer an acceptable means of exploring evil in a 'contemporary popular-therapeutic culture of "closure" and "healing" '. explaining that the latter masks or 'naturalises' the constructedness of its meaning.
The flip side of this admission. yet as Barthes admits in Camera Lucida. Deleuze contests the claim that film images are always 'in' the present. . is that temporal heterogeneity is also possible in film. however. relationships of time which cannot be seen in the represented object and do not allow themselves to be reduced to the present. . as Philip Rosen notes. For instance. to make visible. For present purposes. rather. Shots and sequences bifurcate. In movement-images. .8 Although Deleuze's writings on films of the time-image are in some ways . Indeed. Yet the range of examples through which he explores this claim is limited: his sole excursion into 'narrative' territory is a single scene in Casanova (directed by Federico Fellini.6 Barthes thus allows for temporal heterogeneity in film. ambiguous and disconcerting. leaving viewers unsure as to what will come next and thus encouraging in them an increased sensitivity to time and conventions of time in the cinema. camera action is not rational or seamless but aberrant. costume and camera action. He writes: The image itself is the system of the relationships between its elements. He writes: 'the cinema participates in this domestication of Photography—at least the fictional cinema'. producing the effect of a seamless durational whole. we should give further consideration to Barthes' characterisation of photography and film as temporally homogeneous. is to make perceptible. much can be said about whether historical films are indexical—able to attest to the past existence of objects—and socially regulatory. In films of the time-image. photographers commonly employ compositional devices that diminish opportunities for asocial or antisocial subjectivity. Each action and shot is the end of one and the beginning of another. clarifying that when he juxtaposes cinema and photography. as Deleuze notes. characters act and react in sequence. Across his writings on cinema. sound. futures 59 contemporary pronouncements about the 'end of history' and the emergence of what Frederic Jameson calls the 'eternal present' in postmodernism. .Pasts. . is an awareness of cinematic time as being akin to the 'dizzying net of divergent. and matches on action are used to connect shots in sometimes quite different locations. presents. More expansive is Gilles Deleuze's account of the ascendancy of films of the 'time-image' after the Second World War. film with the 'presentness' of its reception. convergent and parallel times' in the temporal labyrinth of Jorge Luis Borges' story 'The Garden of Forking Paths'. 1976). Barthes notes as much. The result. Photography is imbued with 'pastness'. he means 'narrative cinema'. Actual—as distinct from ideal—photographs are thus temporally heterogeneous. they are groupings of various temporal relations. What is specific to the image . linear temporal continuity is paramount and is established by character. a set of relationships of time from which the variable present only flows.5 As will be clear from the chapters that follow.7 Films of the 'time-image' differ from those of the 'movement-image' in rendering these relations explicit to the viewer. that is.
This is because the relation of movement-images and time-images is not one of mutual exclusion: just as there is no one film that embodies the time-image. there is little evidence of viewers displaying relentless attention or of them being united in recalling a linear. Here. such as those between a multiplex and a drive-in. Related to. audiences of the 'cinema of attractions' at the beginning of the twentieth century were also offered film loops. there may be works that are ostensibly organised by the movement-image but never fully constrained by that logic. which were then activated. Many viewing settings imply a linear. light levels and the location of entrances and exits fosters fixed. homogeneity or heterogeneity. that can be used to divide. Orson Welles' Citizen Kane (1941) and Alain Resnais' Hiroshima. We will look at that issue further in Chapters 4 and 7. devoted to the discussion of identity and propaganda. irreversible temporality. André Gaudreault and Doane have shown.10 We may associate screening technology with linear and irreversible viewing. often conflicting. Furthermore. though. classify or even rank historical films. That we typically think of this 'random shuffle' mode of viewing as aberrant perhaps reinforces Barthes' connection of images with conventions that serve to rein in socially dispersive and even disruptive subjectivity. there is no clear dichotomy of temporal explicitness or implicitness. it is important to note that by adopting random-shuffle mode.11 Video and now digital (DVD and satellite/cable) viewing technologies offer similar possibilities. Mon Amour (1959)—does not preclude the analysis of a wide range of works. with the latter also affording the viewer the chance to view and re-view isolated 'chapters' or even to play them in random order. but as Tom Gunning. technological temporalities are temporalities of reception.60 History Goes to the Movies taxonomic. works played in 'forward' and 'reverse' sequence and works that started with stills. temporalities. though. In short. his valuation of some works that are also championed by those who would readily divide cinema into 'elite' and 'popular' offerings—for example. the viewer can transform any film—even one that in ascending chapter order is dominated by the logic of the movement-image—into a time-image. the logic of the time-image infuses even the earliest films. he is clear that the exposure of temporality cannot be put down to a particular technique or moment in the filming. Following Mary Ann Doane's lead. I would like to note three: the temporalities of screening technology. even when we take variations in cinema design into account. The placement of the screen in relation to the seats. screening or reception of a work. irreversible moviegoing experience. As will be argued further in Chapters 4 and 7. . Temporal heterogeneity in historical films Cinema is characterised by multiple. relentless attention to the screened work.9 Similarly. editing. respectively. of reception and of diegesis. but not necessarily identical with. no clear division of 'classical' (pre-1945) and 'postclassical' works can be maintained.
real time might be utilised to impress upon viewers the approach of an imminent deadline. Conversely. 1995). wipes. Here. Donnie Darko (2001) and The Life and Death of Peter Sellers. Diegetic phenomena can be repeated. and the resulting disjunction exposes the filmmakers' coding in a timeimage. No attempt was made to conceal the cut. past. with or without a change in the position of the camera. succession signifies its opposite. simultaneity. In more recent films such as Citizen Kane. Running time is rarely the same as diegetic time. for instance. In The Story of the Kelly Gang (1906). This disjunction of running time and diegetic time is present in the earliest of films. and is so common that that use of real time might be considered a 'special effect'. along with forms of punctuation such as fades. temporal expansion can be achieved through the use of overlapping editing. Elliptical editing. . dissolves or irises. allows for the elision of time. In the following sections. editing may be thought of as the creation of ruptures in the spatio-temporal continuity of shots through splicing and the removal of unwanted footage. presents. therefore. time is figurable and malleable. Conversely. diegetic and non-diegetic music and elements of mise en scène. repetition is used to suggest multiple and conflicting viewpoints on the same event and to emphasise phenomena that will probably only become intelligible to viewers towards the end of the film. was secured in the executory apparatus. but the film purports to 'track' the final twenty years of Sellers' life. In the main. that shaping is achieved through the use of editing. as with the use of a jump cut in the 'actuality' Electrocution of an Elephant (1903) to excise the 'uneventful' time in which the subject. for instance. as with some scenes of La Haine (The Hate. Courage Under Fire (1996). I would like to focus on two of these: editing and mise en scène. a series of shots connected by fades suggests the telescoping of Forrest Gump's marathon run across the United States (Forrest Gump. Topsy. as with the prolonged showering of gold coins in the coronation scene of Eisenstein's Ivan Grozni (Ivan the Terrible. may have a running time of 127 minutes. futures 61 Finally. Editing In simple terms.12 The Life and Death of Peter Sellers (2004). but it is unusual for that to be maintained for the duration of running time. the ride of the Kelly gang towards the troopers in the scene depicting the siege of Glen Rowan is repeated from two slightly different points of view (Figure 3. for instance. are invoked and implied in films. 1994). present and future. Rashomon (1950). 1945). Historical films also employ jump shots to explicitly suggest ellipsis. For instance. film colour. including 'actualities' that purport to capture or record current events or phenomena of interest. duration and notions of historicity.Pasts. When we encounter extended sequences of real time. in order to compensate for spatial dislocation. there is the temporality of the diegesis: the ways in which temporal change. we—like the young men of the Paris housing projects at the centre of the diegesis—feel that we have had too long to look and think.1). for instance. In cinema.
62 History Goes to the Movies Figure 3.1a Figure 3.1b .
as the examples of The Battle of Elderbush Gulch (1913). futures 63 Figure 3. Editing does not always imply temporal simultaneity. cross-cutting serves a different function. presents. One of the earliest extant examples of simultaneity can be found in The Life of an American Fireman (1903). In the opening shot of that film. This editing device of cross-cutting is often used in historical films. which show the siege at Glen Rowan and the approach of a party on horseback. rapid switches between action sequences—a cavalry troop riding to settlers in a besieged cabin in the former. Screensound Australia) Editing and the juxtaposition of images can also be used to suggest temporal simultaneity. however. tying together extended biographies of separated twins raised in the Netherlands and Germany during the Second World War. These three characters later meet when the fireman rescues the mother and child from a blaze. In the first two. the use of a balloon insert in the upper right of the frame allows viewers to watch a fireman sleeping and a mother putting her child to bed. © 2000. The relation of shots is not simply that of addition or accumulation. This allows the viewer access to a range of experiences wider than that of any one character or context.13 In De Tweeling. it also serves to evoke anxiety and perhaps even desire.Pasts. Simultaneity might also be found in the switch between scenes in Kelly Gang. and Frank running a message to stop Archie and his comrades going 'over the top' of their trench in the latter—are used to build suspense in last-minute (successful and unsuccessful) rescue attempts. Gallipoli (1981) and De Tweeling (Twin Sisters.1c Diegetic repetition and cross-cutting in The Story of the Kelly Gang (1906. Few historical films offer cross-cutting . for it is not unusual for historical films to be out of chronological order or to represent phenomena in different places and times. 2003) attest.
Flashbacks are often used in historical films to 'emphasise the past as a motivational force within the psychology of character' or to signal the therapeutic address of trauma. a flashback is 'an image or a filmic segment that is understood as representing temporal occurrences anterior to those in the images that preceded it'. Early in Titanic (1997). the link between the resolution of trauma and flashback is foregrounded and questioned. which is used to infuse later scenes with a sense of his death as destiny and even apotheosis. at which he was not present.W. a film that moves from the main character's suicide to him sitting peacefully in the same location twenty years earlier.14 In its most common form. flashback is signalled when an older character's memory of the past leads to a cut to a scene or series of scenes representing that past. However. with the female character resisting the integration of a traumatic past that possesses her through flashbacks and her present life in Hiroshima. Wild Strawberries. the conflation of subjective memory with collective memory is even more apparent: a close-up on the eyes of Private Ryan as an old man leads to a sequence showing the D-Day landings at Omaha Beach. the site of a collective trauma. for example. it is perhaps tempting to conclude that Deleuze's description of flashback as 'a closed circuit that goes from the present to the past. The choice of eyes as a signal for flashback is doubly interesting: first. Professor Borg can accept his honorary degree (Smultronstället. they appear to be unchanged or mummified. More common is the foreshadowing of the end of a film in its opening. the film emphasises the extended aftermath of conflict-related trauma. 1985) travels to the past to assure his future existence. and brings us back to the present' is literally and metaphorically true. Taken in screening order. Griffiths' Intolerance (1916)—or extended reverse-order sequences like that in Lee Chang-Dong's Bakha Satang (Peppermint Candy.64 History Goes to the Movies between more than two historical periods—as with D. Figure 3. they are used to signify a large-scale historical event given the subjective mode of a single. Eyes are also used to signal a return to the past in Saving Private Ryan (1998. as with the opening flashforward of Gandhi (1982).15 After telling their stories. ordinary life or to risk the loss of the intensity of her flashbacks . and Ryan can finally weep at the loss of Captain Miller (Saving Private Ryan). fictional individual's remembered experiences. and. 1999). In Hiroshima Mon Amour. the editing device most commentators associate with historical films is that of flashback. for she does not want it to inflect present. Connected with the ideas of trauma and therapy. closer examination of Alain Resnais' Hiroshima Mon Amour (1959) and Terence Davis' Distant Voices. 1957). second. Marty McFly (Back to the Future. Rose (Titanic) and Anna (De Tweeling) can die. As Turim defines it. Forrest Gump can seek out the love of his life.2). a close-up of the eyes of Rose as an old woman serves as a bridge to a very wide shot of the hull of the Titanic just before its maiden voyage.17 She carries her personal trauma—the death of her German soldier lover at the liberation of Nevers—in silence. Still Lives (1988) may lead us to rethink this formulation. Similarly. and here.16 However. compared with the rest of the face.
Still Lives also evokes what Cathy Caruth sees as the latency of trauma: '[the trauma] is not assimilated or experienced fully at the time. presents. The use of flashback in Terence Davis' diptych Distant Voices. Dreamworks SKG) when she expresses them in a form that can be shared.'18 Taking as his departure points the grouping of the main characters as if they are frozen in a photograph. but only belatedly. Davis leads us to flashbacks that . Hers is the double burden of forgetting and remembering.Pasts. To be traumatized is precisely to be possessed by an image or event.2 Eyes as the means of flashback in Saving Private Ryan (© 1998. in its repeated possession of the one who experiences it. futures 65 Figure 3.
. the combination of ill-matched actions and jump cuts to signal flashback enhances the viewer's sense of temporal dislocation.'. Sometimes the use of facial close-ups and voiceover implies that a flashback is the memory of a particular character.3 Tableau as a departure point for flashback in Distant Voices. Jump cut to wide shot of Maisy scrubbing the cellar floor and then tilt up to her father hitting downwards with a broom (implied hitting of Maisy).3). Eileen repeats dialogue while camera pans left to close-up of Tony. . and shot 3 will not be repeated and expanded. Jump cut to wide shot of Tony smashing a window and confronting his father in a series of sequences that will be repeated and expanded later in the film (all in wide shot).g. the family starts moving forward. For instance. voiceover (Maisy) 'I don't. we are unsure as to whose view we share. 6 None of the shots is anchored to specific years or dates by narration. British Film Institute) sometimes return to the tableau. props displaying dates (e. the second tableau of Distant Voices—arranged to mark Eileen's wedding—triggers the following sequence of shots: 1 2 3 4 5 Zoom in to close-up of Eileen. as will be the case for shot 5. In the absence of closed editing 'circuits' and sufficient temporal markers. . Still Lives (© 1988. 'I wish me Dad were here'. Nor do we always know the chronological order of events. but for other scenes. and sometimes not (Figure 3. I bleedin' hated him . right pan to close-up of Maisy. Furthermore. a conspicuous calendar or newspaper front page) or explanatory titles. Jump cut back to tableau. Jump cut to close-up of Tony in tableau asking Eileen if she is ready. Zoom out. dialogue.66 History Goes to the Movies Figure 3. zoom in.
make-up. Deleuze included. There is no ABCD in Distant Voices. it has meant that the relationship of mise en scène and cinematic time remains relatively unexamined by film theorists. 42 minutes and 12 seconds of 'tangent' time made possible by a voice—later identified as Frank—that leads Donnie near the opening of the film to sleepwalk out of his room as the jet engine falls. Donnie works his way back to the past through a wormhole and opens up another future when he allows the jet engine to fall on him. the relation of shots suggests a tissue of painful memories of physical and psychological abuse that reappear and overwhelm. Donnie Darko closes not with the arresting of life with trauma or even death but with the splitting off of another temporal path. Still Lives. the future exists simultaneously with the present when Frank appears to Donnie. Costume. label psychotic. single-shot films as primitive. are 28 days.Pasts. we infer the story order. 6 hours. and his community. he accepts his death with happiness. futures 67 we are unable to apply David Bordwell and Kristen Thompson's advice on making sense of a film out of chronological order: Such reordering does not confuse us because we mentally rearrange the events into the order in which they would logically have to occur: Childhood comes before adulthood. and although these appearances signal predetermination—as with the flashforward in Gandhi—they are not the end of the film. the flashforwards lead Donnie into behaviour which his therapist. Bracketed between the representations of that accident. Set during the 1988 presidential campaign between George Bush and Michael Dukakis. defying linear management and perhaps even arresting the characters in 'still lives'. incites him to engage in more and more destructive acts. Realising that these acts can be erased. Mise en scène and the temporal punctuation of 'spectacle' Film theorists. a menacing Harvey-like figure whom we learn later is from Donnie's future. Donnie Darko has as its beginning and endpoint a jet engine falling on the bedroom of the title character. though. culminating in the death of his girlfriend Gretchen and his fatal shooting of Frank. see the shaping of cinematic time largely in terms of editing. Rather. Frank. So whereas the implied past of flashback offers the potential of recovery through therapy. If story events can be thought of as ABCD. it fosters the perception of early. Many editing devices operate in conjunction with elements of mise en scène. then the plot that uses a flashback presents something like BACD. Second. settings and . despite the anti-teleological stance of contemporary film historiography. In Donnie Darko. First. In that past.19 This selection of emphasis is problematic for two reasons. An interesting twist on the conventional connection of flashback with psychological motivation. trauma and therapy is represented in Donnie Darko. From the plot order. presents.
Indeed. though. brighter and more detailed than daily life. anonymous life that would like to expand itself to the dimensions of cinema life. Still Lives or Snow Falling on Cedars (1999)—can frustrate viewers' attempts to put actions in linear. an ancient subject was called upon to provide the weighty narrative and a familiar. Conversely. 2002) and Forrest Gump.20 Dominated by economic concerns. absorbing spectacle'. movements between times with few differences in costuming—as with Distant Voices.' In the spectacle. help viewers to distinguish flashbacks from cross-cutting between simultaneous or near-simultaneous phenomena. 'when cinematic frontiers were to be crossed. Movie stars are also embodied spectacles 'created by the need we have for them. Spectacle thus serves the economy as a tool of regulation and depoliticisation: it is a 'permanent opium war' that dumbfounds people and distracts them from engaging in creative activities that foster social change. in films where visual differences in costuming between the implied periods are readily apparent. I think that spectacle is not restricted to demonstrations of . Yet it also has the appearance of reality and thus is difficult to detect at work.68 History Goes to the Movies props. There are many examples where elements of mise en scène support the trajectory of the diegesis. in which a final backward dolly shot reveals an enormous. the set and cast are so extravagant that they draw attention to themselves as constructed for the entertainment of the viewer. as with the fashion changes in Russki Kovcheg (Russian Ark. Going even further. media and advertising generate an incessant stream of attention-grabbing and seductive images of plenitude and fulfilment for consumption by the masses. Notions of 'spectacle' in film studies vary widely. flashback can be signalled without other transition devices such as voiceover narration or titles. 'go well beyond the goals of the reality-effect'.24 In fact. chronological order. However. How they do so is through the temporal punctuation of 'spectacle'. Furthermore. everything is bigger. as he puts it. spectacle is conventionally associated with the monumental sets and casts of 'epic' films set in the ancient world. detailed set and the carefully organised actions of scores of extras that. and consumption in relation to money and human labor'. spectacle is the 'excessive parade and accumulation of detail and event' that 'exceeds and transcends the concrete' and that 'tends to be encoded as empirically verifiable and material excess—entailing scale. and not by talent or absence of talent or even by the film industry or advertising. Miserable need. there are also some examples that serve to foreground temporal relations. elements of mise en scène might suggest forward temporal movement in the diegesis with or without editing. but we can gain our bearings through Guy Debord's Society of Spectacle. as Vivian Sobchack puts it. much as editing does in films of the timeimage. Monumental and detailed sets and props can disrupt the temporal flow of the diegesis. In Debord's view. dismal. contemporary life 'presents itself as an intense accumulation of spectacles'. As Solomon remarks. quantification.23 An example cited by Rosen is that of the Tarsus sequence in DeMille's Cleopatra (1934).21 In historical film studies. for instance.22 In these films. A major function of spectacle is thus 'to make history forgotten within culture'.
The impression generated by this label is that of naïve or profit-driven filmmakers pouring actors and scripts into costumes and prop-filled settings in order to evoke a sense of the past. and they probably also know that he is a spectacle that can guarantee sales. we learned that the term 'costume' is often used to denote 'nearly. Yet they still watch on. underestimates the complexity of relations of temporality. When it does so. More will be said about the reception of historical films in the chapters that follow. juggling a spectacle evocative of production and post-production times with the represented time of the diegesis. Far from being stupefied by spectacle. given the prevalence of 'period costuming' in historical film analyses.Pasts. This is because historical film costumes are never exact replications of artefacts. presents. as Jean-Louis Comolli puts it. This is ironic. I want to note that this label has encouraged the unfortunate impression that costume is less worthy of study among historians than other filmic elements. the game is beginning!'25 Viewers know. an impossible task because the designer must also create a wardrobe that will address the contemporary audience in a fashion language that they understand and that is consistent with the movie's tone. and setting and props. Costume and make-up In the Introduction and Chapter 1. As Edward Maeder writes: To translate a painting into an exact replica of period dress. therefore. even those we do not readily call 'epics'. so what do they contribute to the figuration of time? Costumes foreground temporal relations through the spectacle of fashion. though. it generates friction with elements that are more aligned with the diegesis and thus fosters awareness of the temporal artifice of the work. as I hope to show throughout this book. This friction contributes to the unmasking of spectacle but also to the unmasking of the conventions of cinematic time in historical films. the designer could not escape the twentieth-century aesthetic in creating period costume. For the present. but not' historical films. viewers are. and can punctuate—to a lesser or greater degree—all of the elements of mise en scène in historical films. casting and the actions of figures. though. futures 69 scale and detail. as it is inherent in the way each one of us. I would like to develop further the idea of spectacle in historical films as temporal punctuation through an examination of three key elements of mise en scène: costume and make-up. for example. Even if there was no audience. . Costumes are evidently part of what makes historical films 'historical'. a designer must transcend the contemporary aesthetic standard. 'in the position of those impatient gamblers who know the rules of the game and who one asks to remember those rules before playing: quick. In the meantime. This view. representation and reception in a wide range of historical films. that Leonardo Di Caprio is not Jack Dawson in Titanic.
aesthetic. the diegesis and viewers. as with the use of men's tights made from Lastex and Lurex in Bride of Vengeance (1949). beautiful. and Prince and the Pauper (1937) and the various period settings of The Robe (1953). and Sylvester Stallone rarely dons a shirt in Rambo First Blood Part II (1985). and Irene and Irene Sharaff made extensive use of rayon crêpe in Meet Me in St. moral.27 In so doing. as Jane Gaines and Charlotte Herzog argue. for instance. The Virgin Queen (1955). respectively. In Dorothy Vernon of Haddon Hall (1924). elegant in dress varies dramatically for different periods. Travis Banton had Marlene Dietrich appear in trousers in The Scarlet Empress (1934) to accentuate her legs. Louis (1944)—set in 1903–4—because it was one of the few fabrics that could be obtained during the Second World War. costume may foreground a dissonance of times: that of the couturier. but they may also disrupt them by creating an explicit statement for viewers by the designer to be. for instance. Pragmatically. fashion spectacles can flow from contemporary mores about acceptable dress. Mitchell Leisen had to substitute heavy brocaded furnishing fabrics for lighter silk brocades and velvets of the Renaissance that were no longer made. which was thought to give a more form-fitting and appealing look than the woollen hose of the Renaissance.70 History Goes to the Movies designer and nondesigner alike. The Ten Commandments (1956) and The Buccaneer (1958) are united by the 'lift and separate' look of 1950s bra design. Adrian's gowns in Marie Antoinette (1938) bared and emphasised Norma Shearer's shoulders. Fashion spectacles may also serve as redirections to other spectacles. on reality and the selling of history. Land of the Pharaohs (1955). new fabric technologies are foregrounded for aesthetic or erotic reasons. Additionally. is generally evocative of the period during which a film is made. as with Irene. 'admired or acknowledged in spite of the general trajectory of the film'. Conversely. such as the body of a star: for example. The efforts of designers. risqué. but other explanations may also be advanced. financial and pragmatic decisions. as Stella Bruzzi puts it. Diane (1955). and these can be more or less explicit to viewers. Debord would see the spectacle of historical film fashion as symptomatic of a late capitalist consumer economy. one of the features that characterises historical films is the publicised effort of costume and art departments to produce costumes that suggest verisimilitude. . designers have to adapt or even improvise materials or construction techniques because those of the represented time are unavailable. are always an amalgam of historiographical. To take just two examples. though. In other works. for instance. thinks about dress.26 As we shall see in Chapters 5 and 8. Costumes. Paramount and Warner Brothers did not allow the actors to wear codpieces in Bride of Vengeance (despite the form-fitting tights). may be reined in to serve other film elements such as plot or editing. The emphasis on or presentation of male genitalia or breasts. as well as make-up. What is socially acceptable. costumes may become spectacles when they are recycled from or influenced by earlier films.
characters in historical films may. there 'are at least two bodies in competition. 1960). as with the heavily promoted make-up sacrifices made by Bette Davis in The Virgin Queen (partly shaved head). This is because in historical films. Examples with make-up also abound: 1960s frosted lipstick is combined with costumes evoking the eighteenth century in Tom Jones (1963). futures 71 Howard Shoup and Gile Steele's homage to Marie Antoinette in Du Barry Was a Lady (1943) and the overtones of the television program Xena. As was noted in Chapter 1. This is because. false teeth. and makeup never is'. That form of representation. requires a larger suspension of disbelief on the part of viewers than an actor playing a fictional character in an historical film.30 On the one hand there is the body of the actor as spectacle. Charlize Theron in Monster (2003. but plenty of examples can be marshalled to support her claim for the influence of styles contemporary with filming. or they may be fictional figures inflected with actions from historical figures. as Alicia Annas puts it. but the dimensions of representation and thus temporality in acting are more varied than Comolli's twin poles of fictional character and historical character allow. as with the use of late-antiquity woadian body painting in the thirteenth/ fourteenth-century action of Braveheart (1995). one body too much'. unfashionable beards). Kirk Douglas sports a flat-top as the Roman slave Spartacus (Spartacus. Where Annas' conclusion requires refinement. Ethyl Barrymore's hair is marcelled in Rasputin and the Empress (1932).Pasts. For example. Warrior Princess (1995–2001) in Keira Knightley's appearance as Guinevere in King Arthur (2004). Casting and action Actors in costume and make-up are embodied sites of temporal relations and even contestation.28 Hairstyles and make-up can also contribute to the foregrounding of temporal relations in historical films. Nicole Kidman in The Hours (2002. while the style of Claudette Colbert's and Elizabeth Taylor's eye make-up and eyebrows locates Cleopatra (1934) and Cleopatra (1963) firmly in the periods during which they were filmed. like Maximus in Gladiator (2000). Jean-Louis Comolli argues. Comolli concludes. 'while period films feature sets that are routinely authentic. is with cases of make-up derived from periods other than that of the diegesis or filming period. on the other that of a represented historical figure. hairstyles and wigs are rarely authentic. Ostensibly. added weight and blotchy skin make-up) and Heath Ledger and Orlando Bloom in Ned Kelly (2003.29 Annas' conclusion about make-up and hairstyles is a little exaggerated. as with the connection made between the Niland and Sullivan brothers and the fictional Ryans in the . this is right. though. prosthetic nose). and costumes that are occasionally authentic. be composites of more than one historical figure. and Barbra Streisand appears as a nineteenth-century figure with a 'beehive' in On a Clear Day You Can See Forever (1970). presents. or where it supports other spectacles.
Foucault and Corbin have recognised. The same is also true of setting and props. The appearance and movements of bodies. What Barthes neglected to note. Captain Miller's shaking hand—which clearly functions as a contemporary sign for trauma—appears alongside the tipping of unbuckled GI helmets with forefinger and thumb. Beyond Ross Gibson's and Ian Christie's historical reading of space in Australian films and Milcho Manchevski's Before the Rain (1994). Casting decisions add another temporal dimension. the physical appearance of their face. Alternatively. relatively little attention has been directed towards understanding the role they play in the shaping of cinematic time. which has functioned since the 1940s as a sign for North American confidence in combat.31 Casting non-professional actors does not prevent the opening of other time paths. though. In either case. viewers may encounter multiple body and movement times. Cinematic time. are not immune to change.33 Setting and props In any one historical film. In Saving Private Ryan. or their activities as a farmer or blacksmith—are not mummified artefacts of a past time. as the historians Elias. for instance. to take just one example. Taking this baggage into account. is that historical films can carry the signs of multiple movement 'presents'. as Andrei Tarkovsky recognised.34 This is due in part. viewers' knowledge of an actor's previous screen credits is an important part of the 'rules of the game' of historical filmmaking. or Mel Gibson's contribution to the birth of two nations in Gallipoli (1981) and Braveheart before his participation in a third in The Patriot (2000). cinematic time can be imprinted in the body and 'run through the shot'.32 They too can be commodified and become spectacles. For example. Professional actors carry 'baggage'—an acting history—that may open up for some viewers a temporal path quite different to that of the diegesis: it is hard. both films might be read as moments in a star's life. . Despite the immediately perceptible role that settings and props play in historical films. As his examples of the use of pacing back and forth or the drumming of fingers to evoke 'time pressure' and those set out above show. for the features or activities that recommended them for casting— for example.72 History Goes to the Movies promotional film Into the Breach: The Making of Saving Private Ryan (1998). Hitler: The Rise of Evil and The Patriot could be just as suggestive of twentieth-century discourses about the male body and performance and the intersection of war and national identity as they are of the Second World War or the American War of Independence. as we shall see throughout the remainder of this book. to dissociate Robert Carlyle's performance in Hitler: The Rise of Evil (2003) from his role as a male stripper in The Full Monty (1997). we have very little to guide us. can be shaped by bodies and motion. many film theorists are familiar with Barthes' unmasking of sweating faces in Joseph Mankiewicz's Julius Caesar (1953) as a contemporary sign or code for moral torment. Ariès.
motorways and supermarket aisles as endemic in cinema and concludes that they. they continue to support the venerable dichotomy of time and space. Neither of these scenes is . In the former. Spielberg locates the activities of Frank Abagnale Jr. in hotel rooms. The association of spectacle and ancient history continues today. like the time-image. consistent notions of character. The first is seen in the prop-laden tent in which Maximus greets Marcus Aurelius. the second in Commodus' procession into Rome.38 As Solomon has demonstrated. presents. von Trier juxtaposes the use of titles and period costumes with the setting of a studio in which the parameters of a house are marked out with chalk lines. to the assimilation of props and settings with the diminutives of 'costume'. austere sets and props can be special effects in historical films. 'heritage'. has characterised the culture of the 'eternal present' in postmodern cinema as spatial. I believe. the use of generic settings jars with the temporality of the diegesis and with viewer expectations of scale and detail. from the massive Temple of Moloch in the Italian silent film Cabiria (1914) and Belshazzar's court in Intolerance (1916) to the prodigious sets representing the Circus Maximus in Ben Hur (1925 and 1959). Two historical films that draw attention to the artifice of diegetic temporality through the use of any space whatsoever are Lars von Trier's Dogville (2003) and Steven Spielberg's Catch Me If You Can (2002). evidenced in the complaint of 'accuracy in antiques' we encountered in Chapter 1. Unlike her. Any space whatsoever becomes performative through its juxtaposition with the more familiar spectacle of enormous and detailed physical and digital settings and props. futures 73 I believe. we can say that 'any space whatsover' may also function as a temporally punctuating spectacle because it meets Sobchack's criterion of the transcendence of accuracy and specificity. examples abound in the history of films representing the ancient world. 'melodrama' or 'period' films. that transcendence is enabled not through the excessive parade of scale or detail but through the opposite. because despite the historicising tendencies of writers like Foucault. space and plot into crisis. the scale or level of detail in settings and props is so excessive to the task of convincing viewers to engage in the suspension of disbelief that it is apparent that they are constructions. performative austerity. however. In both. for instance.Pasts. and Marc Augé has connected the excess of time and space in 'supermodernity' with the creation in cinema—among other sites—of pockets of 'l'espace quelconque' or 'any space whatsoever' that are not localised in time and space. historiography and film and cultural studies have little to offer on the topic of space and the shaping of time in film. Furthermore. props and costume suggest took place between 1960 and 1969.35 Jameson. and Rosen's examples. In the latter.37 Extending this thinking. with films like Gladiator offering viewers a surfeit of detail and scale. can place linear. which titles. As with real time. In these spectacles. airport lounges and a doctor's waiting room.36 Deleuze views the use of any-space-whatsoever sets such as airport terminals.
This twofold reading of temporal heterogeneity in historical films also applies to written histories. throws into relief the filmic representation of the early modern world through various shades of brown. but never in an entirely seamless way. forms and functions. spectacle dominates. for instance. editing. and they may cross-cut between simultaneous phenomena. can also be read as a stronger understanding of the present's relationship with the past and future. they compress or expand. All historical films. combine elements that work to convince viewers of the verisimilitude of a represented past with those that clearly signal its artifice. various time paths open up. Spectacle can be read as historiographical failure. I have looked to editing and aspects of mise en scène to demonstrate that point. lighting and image. in others. which in no way changes the substance of things'. chroniclers are routinely uneven in the attention they give to phenomena.40 Between and within conflicting or dissonant relations of sound. years or days. though.39 But spectacle.41 Furthermore. they are so extravagant that they draw attention to the efforts of the property and post-production digital effects teams. of vocabulary. 'an affair of imagination.74 History Goes to the Movies needed to convince viewers that the film represents a past time: in fact. and both Fellini and Spielberg use a shift between colour and black to denote two time frames in E La Nave Va (And the Ship Sails On. the division of time into units such as reigns. unavoidable or capricious— . a symptom of a 'weakened existential sense of connection to both the historical past and the future' in which temporal modes are muddled and 'temporal scavenging' serves nostalgia. Both spectacle and any space whatsoever thus work towards the same end: to encourage viewers to see the temporality of the diegesis as artifice. and of rhetoric. 1983) and Schindler's List (1993). Writing history entails figuring time. along with time-image editing. My use of the word 'anachronistic' here is perhaps suggestive of the common treatment of historical films as a suspect and even embarrassing form of filmic and historical expression. Griet's handling of lapis lazuli in Girl with a Pearl Earring (2003). diverge and regroup. The time paths of historical films fragment History into histories and foster awareness of their sometimes coalescing. Even apparently simple chronicles are given shape by decisions about beginning and end dates. sometimes competing. Anachronistic music is used in the final scene of Elizabeth (1998) and throughout Moulin Rouge (2001) to drive home the status of the represented actions as artifice. Images and words In some historical films. Yet the historiographical shaping of time is often characterised as 'artificial'. or as Benedetto Croce puts it. the traces of production are not so apparent.42 The historian's configurations of time are overlay—convenient. but I could just as easily have focused on the use of diegetic and non-diegetic film colour and sound. 'colligation'—the grouping of constellations of events under concepts such as 'Renaissance' or 'Holocaust'—and exclusion.
Rather than simply 'going over with bold stroke lines that have already been sketched'. the works of Gaston Bachelard. as for other writers like Fernand Braudel. Collingwood finds these images of history problematic.G. but he wonders whether historians will take up that challenge. presents. For Collingwood. date-stamped 'tiles' or 'scraps' of evidence. mosaics or webs of 'cut' and 'pasted' evidence. inseparable feature of writing history.Pasts. Foucault thus does not seek the eradication of these concepts from history writing but simply to disturb 'the tranquillity with which they are accepted'. their substitution of historiographical continuity for the temporal continuity of a stream of time is also problematic. the historian's picture of the past is thus in every detail an imaginary picture.43 Presupposed in these judgements is a view of time as a stream or continuous flow. Maurice Mandelbaum and Peter Munz. for they all suggest that the historian puts together only preformed.44 For him. an increasing number of writers have argued for the recognition of multiform temporality and discontinuity in historiography. . . Similar images suggested by R. goes into it not because his imagination passively accepts it.46 The continuity of historical time is thus of less interest to them than the continuity and cohesiveness of the historian's shaping of time. isolating and perhaps even misshaping phenomena. It is difficult. Foucault writes in the introduction to The Archaeology of Knowledge. historians are autonomous agents who construct cohesive narratives through the active use of their minds and imaginations. He writes: Freed from its dependence on fixed points supplied from without. However. Foucault's argument for the unmasking of naturalised historiographical discourses of continuity complements Deleuze's concept of the time-image in film. Both see discontinuity as the means of exposing the artifice of histories . Georges Canguilheim and Michel Foucault—particularly The Archaeology of Knowledge—are seminal. development and evolution that they are little aware that other approaches are possible. precursor. .45 The historian's active thinking about and presentation of events unify a history in their present.47 Historians are so accustomed to the discursive continuities of tradition. the historian can 'advance beyond standard territory' and create new analyses and conceptual frameworks. Among these writers.48 His reason for disturbing that tranquillity is to offer historians—himself included—new options. Whatever goes into it.49 Foucault makes it clear that he is willing to accept the risk of this creativity. the figuration of time is an essential. Collingwood are of histories as compilations. a question he leaves unanswered. for historians to give thought to discontinuity: 'we feel a particular repugnance to conceiving of difference. In recent years. but because it actively demands it. to describing separations and dispersions. futures 75 and the cause of debates and problems rather than celebration. removing. apart from the historian who dips into it. on the other hand. to dissociating the reassuring form of the identical'.
trans. G. 1989. 1962'. whether that is a represented past.76 History Goes to the Movies and of encouraging those who make them to see that their works may contain linear trajectories as well as tangled gardens of 'forking paths'. . a single path. the filmmaker's present (as favoured by Sorlin) or the viewer's present (as favoured by Barthes). change in mise en scène or fissure in periodisation can be a 'bifurcation point'. Nor do they offer a chronological continuum in which a past leads inevitably to the present and the future emerges predictably out of the present. I believe that Foucault's writing requires a similar double extension. New Brunswick. history is as Borges would have it: a garden of tangled. R. Habberjam. Bogue. B. for his pronouncements about the absence of discontinuities in historiographical discourse rest upon the same small selection of historians and histories repeatedly picked over by other writers. 1986. as Debord would have it? Discontinuity can foster in the receivers of history a state of uncertainty. As we shall see in the chapters that follow. I have argued that discontinuities and dissonances are to be found in a wider range of films—early and recent—than that generally valued by historical film scholars.. are the logic of the time-image and discourses of continuity challenges to the creativity of filmmakers and historians alone? What of the receivers of histories? Are they stupefied by spectacle. Rather. Brewster. and Affron. like continuity. Screen. Deleuze.. where the 'now' might mean any one of a number of presents of filming. Deleuze. postproduction or reception. M. London: Routledge. between makers and receivers.. C. Recommended resources Affron. vol. Sets in Motion: Art Direction and Film Narrative. Tomlinson and R. Discipline and Punish and Madness and Civilization? Or may we also find it in moments of spectacle in the works of more neglected writers like Sarah Josepha Hale and Lydia Maria Child? Is discontinuity. London: Athlone Press. NJ: Rutgers University Press. trans. G. twisting. a masculinist.. and in both the praised techniques of editors and the derided spectacles of mise en scène designers. No history is a single tense.-L. 1978. histories are sites where both makers and receivers can accept the challenge of creating enabling discourses of identity and ethical possibilities. H. Is discontinuity heralded only in the ruptures of periodisation favoured by Foucault in The Birth of the Clinic. Every edit. 41–53. Comolli..J. London: Athlone Press. 19(2). Cinema 2: The Time-Image. 2003. Deleuze on Cinema. The makers of Down with Love (2003) therefore have it partly right when they open with the title 'now. Extending Deleuze's writing. Galeta. forking paths. 'Historical fiction: a body too much'. Historical films are thus never just about one time. Tomlinson and B. elitist discourse? Finally. J. pp. trans. Cinema 1: The Movement-image. H. 1995. Whether that declaration marks the end of history in the eternal present or an enhanced understanding of the relations of past and present is a question for us to pursue in the next chapter.
au/screeningthepast/firstrelease/fir598/ALfr3a. NC: Duke University Press. 2001. p. Durham.. New York: Hill & Wang. see also G. Theory. 111. Oxford: Blackwell. p. ' "Looking for Richard" in history: postmodern villainy in Richard III and Scarface'. M. New York: Hill & Wang. J. 1972. Grindon. Journal of Popular Film and Television. Austin: University of Texas Press. Turim. pp.: Harvard University Press. Lindley. 1998. p. Sobchack. R..W. A Discovery of Cinema. Elwood. pp. and T. 54. and R. Screening the Past. Minneapolis: University of Minnesota Press. Foucault. 'The Charge of the Light Brigade'. Harmondsworth: Penguin. 1961..M. Change Mummified: Cinema. Sorlin. 2002. 7 G. Tashiro. Barthes. Flashbacks in Film: Memory and History. Carnes (ed. Barthes. The Film in History. 6 P. 'The garden of forking paths'. 9 G. Heath. p. 1977. trans. and Barker. Lanham. 1980. 1987.latrobe. trans. On the single (present) tense of cinema. 89–90. and F. The Responsibility of Forms. no. New York: Thames & Hudson and the Los Angeles County Museum of Art. p. or the Cultural Logic of Late Capitalism. Barthes. Helsinki: Building Information Ltd. 53. presents. Frame. See also D. Reel vs Real: How Hollywood Turns Fact into Fiction. Journal of Aesthetics and Art Criticism. 1998. 2 L. Sanello. London: Duke University Press. 1996. 272. Salamon. Jameson. Camera Lucida. Slotkin. Elsaesser.N. Cinema 2: The Time-image. 176. in Image Music Text. 111. (eds). 1981. 2001. 1985. Representations. 3. The Archaeology of Knowledge. Early Cinema: Space. Philadelphia: Temple University Press. Barthes. London: Fontana. xiii. 1971. 29. 1990. E. .edu. 120. D. Cinema 2. R. futures 77 Doane. 3–20. Md: Taylor Trade. 21–62. 5 F. p. Theory. Tomlinson and R. Dickinson. Past Imperfect: History According to the Movies. Galeta. ' "Surge and splendor": a phenomenology of the Hollywood historical epic'. The Architecture of Image: Existential Space in Cinema. London: Oxford University Press. Sheridan Smith. online at www. V. The Movies as History: Visions of the Twentieth Century. Rosen. P. 3 R. 1989. London: Athlone Press. Narrative. 1990. vol. C. Howard. M. pp. Howard. Gloucestershire: Sutton. 1997.B. trans. Pretty Pictures: Production Design and the History Film.. 76–9. p. trans. 1.. 28(2). 'Time in film and fiction'. 'The ahistoricism of medieval film'. S. pp. 1991. 2000. xii. Minneapolis: University of Minnesota Press. A. Cambridge. Rodowick. 1994. Mass. 45–6. R. 19. in M. p. Rosen.).. p. 'Rhetoric of the image'. M. p. and R. and ed. 24–49. T. trans. and A. The Emergence of Cinematic Time. Historicity.htm 4 R. in Labyrinths. Postmodernism. A. pp. 43. Thrupp. 2001. 117.. Pallasma.. 41.S. p. Change Mummified: Cinema. 208. vol. New York: Routledge. Deleuze. Hollywood and History: Costume Design in Film. New York: Pantheon Books. 311–16.A. 1995. L. Deleuze. London: BFI.. Historicity. Notes 1 P. Bluestone. Gilles Deleuze's Time Machine. 1998. Shadows on the Past: Studies in the Historical Fiction Film. H. New York: Henry Holt. Camera Lucida: Reflections on Photography. p.Pasts. Maeder. 8 Jorge Luis Borges. 1989. 2003. no.
and film speed can also be varied.S. Undressing Cinema: Clothing and Identity in the Movies. The Ancient World in the Cinema. p. p. 17 M. p. Berkeley: University of California Press. Gaudreault. Solomon. New York: Curtis Books. 'An aesthetic of astonishment: early film and the (in)credulous spectator'. 209. Annas. p. 21 Ibid. 1986.. Howard.. Change Mummified. 95. Author's own emphasis. Maeder. trans. Gaureault. BioPics: How Hollywood Constructed Public History. 1981. for example. The History of . T. Weaver.78 History Goes to the Movies 10 M. 25 J. p. M. Brewster. Bruzzi. p.S.). 91–101. Doane. in E. pp. Hollywood and History: Costume Design in Film. 28 and 30. 1997. trans. R. pp. Representations. pp. trans.A. p. New York: Routledge. 3. Maeder (ed. New Brunswick. 34. 118. Gunning.-L.). Levin. 13. The Emergence of Cinematic Time. Debord. and ed. 1989. in The Mass Ornament: Weimar Essays. 1990. 29 A. 2002.: Harvard University Press. Gunning. Centuries of Childhood. Kracauer. 44. 18 C. 'Hiroshima Mon Amour'. 11 Ibid.: Yale University Press. Rosen. 9.. Fabrications: Costume and the Female Body. 1988. M. in L. 1987. 24 P. Comolli. p. 193. Different cuts of a film may be produced for different times and cultures. 14. 33. pp. Cambridge. Narrative. P. in T. 29. trans. ' "Surge and splendor": a phenomenology of the Hollywood historical epic'. 1. Chierichetti. p. Rosenstone (ed. in T. 15 Ibid. rev. Cambridge. Screen. p.). 'Photography'. Gaines and C. fixed running times. H. London: Routledge. 204. Williams (ed. H. its spectator and the avant-garde'. p. pp. 19(2). A. 1973. pp.F. 'The photogenic formula: hairstyles and makeup in historical films'. Flashbacks in Film: Memory and History. 33. Mass. London: Rebel Press.A. London: BFI. Ariès. Madness and Civilization: A History of Insanity in the Age of Reason. 19 See. 275. Early Cinema: Space. 1895–1908'. 'The cinema of attractions: early film. Princeton. 44. Caruth. NJ: Rutgers University Press. 'Historical fiction: a body too much'. 1991. 36. Ariès. Baldick. Deleuze. p. Turim. p. 192. p. Roth. 192.-L. edn. 48. 1. 1973. 1990. 1983. 210. 2001. Conn. B. NJ: Rutgers University Press. 31 Ibid. 30 J. 16 G. 314. p. New York: Thames & Hudson and Los Angeles County Museum of Art. 1994. London: Routledge. 30. 'Hiroshima Mon Amour: you must remember this'.). Hour of Our Death. R. 'Temporality and narrativity in early cinema. and S. pp. p. London: Athlone Press. 14. Hollywood and History. Maeder. 14 M. 1987. in R. pp. Sobchak. Hollywood and History. vol.Y. 62–3. Doane. 32 P. 44. 'Introduction'. Cinema 2. Frame. NJ: Princeton University Press. Comolli. Foucault. p. 196. 12 It is worth noting that films do not have single. 20 G. 'Historical fiction: a body too much'. 1978. 48(1). 13 M. New Brunswick. Elsaesser (ed. Deleuze. Roth. London: Allen Lane. American Imago. 1995. no. 26 E. T. Society of the Spectacle. trans. G. Hollywood Director: The Career of Mitchell Leisen. pp. vol. 1990. Herzog (eds). Mass. in J. Elsaesser (ed. Custen. Tomlinson and B. 'Showing and telling: image and word in early cinema'. 56–62. Habberjam. 1995. 231. 1995. 1–32. 48.. 22 J. Fell (ed.: Harvard University Press. 53.).). and S. T. trans. 4–7. Early Cinema. p. 27 J. as quoted in M. 45. D. 274–81. London: Jonathan Cape. New Haven. Viewing Positions: Ways of Seeing Film. pp. The Emergence of Cinematic Time. 28 E. and A. Foucault. Revisioning History: Film and the Construction of a New Past. Film Before Griffith. New York: Vintage Books. p. and G. 23 V. Cinema 1: The Movement-Image.
H. Cultural Critique.. Rosen. New York: Pantheon Books. Harmondsworth: Penguin.J. pp.lib. p. pp.H. Christie. 117. R. trans.: Harcourt Brace Jovanovich. Howe. 1972. Braudel. R. 63–77. and D. J. W. A. 42. 1995. 4(2). trans. S.: Wesleyan University Press. [1938] 1967. Foucault. 38. 1978–86. Routledge. 1980. London: Watts. ' "Surge and splendor" '.G. 5. R. Non-places: Introduction to an Anthropology of Supermodernity. Croce. 2000.edu/cgi-local/DHI/dhi-cgi ?id=dv3–58 R. trans. Collingwood. 1986. Gardiner (ed. The Modern Researcher. F. pp. New York: Harper & Row. futures 79 Sexuality. On History. 1992.. Tarkovsky. Australian Cultural Studies: A Reader. pp. K. p. Middletown. [1973]. trans. 38–9. The Idea of History. Calif. p. p. p. Augé. Ibid. Gibson. 1974. Van der Dussen. 1986. Mandelbaum. edn ed. 127–44. P.J. 1993. vol. Ibid.G. Gordon (ed. 245. 3 vols. Corbin. The Principles of History and Other Writings. Graff. Houston: University of Texas Press. and I. 28. trans. Frow and M. 'Inaugural: rough notes'. R. 280. Ibid. New York: Pantheon Books. and M. W. V.Pasts. 165–74. The Problem of Historical Knowledge: An Answer to Relativism. Morris (eds). Dray (eds). L. in C. in P. The Foul and the Fragrant: Odour and the Social Imagination. Rethinking History. Hunter-Blair. New York: Russell and Russell. San Diego. D. 22–7. Jameson. The Shapes of Time: A New Look at the Philosophy of History. vol. 'Camera natura: landscape in Australian feature films'. 1977. See. Deleuze. 1987. 'Periodization in history'. Change Mummified. 1999. The Archaeology of Knowledge. pp. New York. Diacritics. 3. pp. 12. Collingwood. Foucault. The Philosophy of History. Ainslie. 1993. [1919] 1960. Sculpting in Time: Reflections on the Cinema. Oxford: Oxford University Press. 1964. Cinema 1. B.). M. vol. p. M. 1985. Hurley and R. p. 150. A.virginia. rev. 187–93. Bedford/St Martin's Press. Foucault. Oxford: Oxford University Press. The Geopolitical Aesthetic: Cinema and Space in the World System. p. trans. pp. Sheridan Smith. and P. in J.. 1980. anon. NSW: Allen & Unwin. p. An Introduction to Contemporary History. and A. 1989. Conn. Power/Knowledge: Selected Interviews and Other Writings. 1972–1977. Dictionary of Historical Ideas. presents. Barzun and H. pp. New York: Verso. Sobchak. vol. History: Its Theory and Practice. p. J. M. Hutcheon. London. in W. G. Gerhard. 'Questions on geography'. Munz. Van der Dussen and W. and M. online at: http://etext. trans.F. 476–81. St Leonards.M. 'Colligatory concepts in history'. 33 34 35 36 37 38 39 40 41 42 43 44 45 46 47 48 49 . F. 110. 'Landscape and "location": reading filmic space historically'. Barraclough. 2000. 16. McDougall. 25. 108–22. for example. Matthews. G. Chicago: University of Chicago Press. pp. Walsh.). 209–21.. Oxford: Oxford University Press. London: Macmillan. Dunn. 'The politics of postmodernism: parody and history'. 179–207. pp. 'Of other spaces'. The New World History: A Teacher's Companion.
Yet. But I don't want to go to the USA. Lars von Trier. By not doing things where they're meant to be done. let alone the USA. this movie is a memorial to those combat veterans of the Normandy invasion.4 Identity In a sense. 24 July 19981 The film is set in America. the concepts of national cinema and identity have currency. as with Jay Winter's claim that historical film has 'power in projecting national stereotypes and narratives'. or place themselves in. or so I've been told. Leger Grindon has examined changing receptions of La Marseillaise (1937) in France. America is mythological. and a way for me to say thank you to my Dad and to a lot of people like him. or Vivian Sobchack's and Roger Bell's observations that historical films are an 'inscription and interpretation' or 'refashioning' of national experience. Sometimes the conjunction of nation and identity is overtly asserted. Judith Keene has seen in the diegesis of Il Était une Fois un Pays (Underground.2 More commonly. To me. 100 Eyes: The Making of Dancer in the Dark (1998) The concept of identity has a variety of meanings.3 Clearly. Thus. Steven Spielberg. I don't want to go anywhere. 1995) a questioning of assumptions about the official history of the former Yugoslavia. the conceptual frames and methodologies of current historical film scholarship present an unnecessarily limited account of the nature and quality of viewer engagements with film. to take a few examples. you sometimes achieve an added bonus. Sweden. . 'Interview: Saving Private Ryan'. and Richard Howells has highlighted the differences between the British-made A Night to Remember (1958) and the US-made Titanic (1953). though. diegesis and reception in specific national communities. Rochester Democrat and Chronicle. but in historical film studies it is nearly always used to describe the processes by which individuals connect themselves with. the connection of nation and identity is assumed through the restriction of historical film analyses to a consideration of production. So we went to well. It's rather like the USA. as I shall argue in this chapter. socially constructed 'national' categories.
A pivotal expression of that view is Benedict Anderson's Imagined Communities.Identity 81 National identity Contemporary examinations of historical films enunciate a particular view of 'nation'. Studies conclude: .4 Print communication takes centre-stage in his theory. 'goes without saying'. for example. interaction between a system of production and productive relations (capitalism). we are yet to clarify the relations between individual and collective memory and imagining. it has the advantage of decoupling identity from proximity to or participation in events. a technology of communications (print). the combination of Anderson's ideas with concepts of collective memory and banal and explicit representations of nation would seem to offer us a powerful means for explaining the social and cultural significance of historical films. Anderson's theory coheres with Michael Billig's argument for the recognition of 'banal' as well as more explicit visual representations of nationalism. his highlighting of the importance of media in the construction of communities has prompted scholars like J. and the mainspring of that imagining was 'a halffortuitous. While Anderson's theory might be seen to support the logocentric valuation of print criticised in Chapter 1. Yet this approach to historical film studies is undercut by at least three problems. a distinction explained through the example of a flag: 'The metonymic image of banal nationalism is not a flag which is being consciously waved with fervent passion. Desser and G. First. psychological and psychoanalytical methodologies used to study individuals are routinely applied without question to communities.5 Anderson's work appears to fit well. which posits all forms of relation larger than those involving 'face-to-face' contact as imagined and invented. Neurological. but explosive. and in a series of studies of postcolonial states he has identified how documents like maps articulate imagined national stories.7 Finally. whose "cultivation" serves to stabilize and convey that society's self-image'. with explorations of the relations of 'collective' or 'social' memory and nation in historical films. many scholars have noted the increase in visual representations of the Holocaust in the USA. Writing on US-made Vietnam War films. For instance. a nation-state in which only a tiny fraction of the population has had direct experience of the events depicted. Martín-Barbero to argue that an extension of the theory to visual media is appropriate. but in a way that is so habitual that their use.6 Furthermore. for instance. and the fatality of human linguistic diversity'. D. as Roland Barthes would put it. images and rituals specific to each society in each epoch.8 Banal nationalism entails the circulation of symbols of a nation. These terms have been used to describe a 'body of reusable texts. it is the flag unnoticed on the public building'.9 Filmic examples of banal nationalism might include the JFK plate that hangs on a wall in Dancer in the Dark (2000) and the football pools results and shipping forecast that we hear in Distant Voices. Ostensibly. Still Lives (1989). Imagining was the means by which nations were created.
as with Marcia Landy's claim that the 'media's representations of the past are a barometer of the social and cultural life of the last decades of the twentieth century'. as with Howard Harper's valuation of Saving Private Ryan as 'our dominant view of D-Day'.14 Thus identity is in part the ever-shifting historical product of interactions between the producers and viewers of films. Anderson's theory does not require proximity of identity and experience. Describing the diegesis of Rambo or Black Hawk Down does not entitle me to talk about them as a particular community's understanding of past events. visualising. perhaps we should 'keep psychological or psychoanalytical categories at bay and focus.15 Third.13 Second.11 Problematically. Finns and Italians make westerns. a cultural hysteria in which violence must substitute for understanding. As we shall see more fully in Chapter 8. political. Talk of communities as remembering. how do we explain why the flag in the opening titles of Saving Private Ryan went unremarked in some US reviews but became the focal point for criticism in others?16 How can the same symbol be banal and explicit within the same community? Nor does a focus on the internal dimensions of national communities help us to adequately explain why the Danish filmmaker Lars von Trier feels entitled—as one of the quotes that heads this chapter suggests—to imagine America.10 Desser and Studies' argument that US Vietnam War films from the 1980s are expressions of displacement and repression has also been extended to later productions like We Were Soldiers (2002) and other combat films such as Black Hawk Down (2001). we cannot assume that viewers of a film form a cohesive interpretative community and that they will use a text for the same ends. Rambo demonstrates a cultural parallel. and Polish historical films tend to be set outside the borders of that state. Statements about collective memory and imagining require evidence of reception.82 History Goes to the Movies Freud warned that within the context of repression and unconscious acting out. Is that community singular and cohesive? If so. a luxuriating in the symptoms of a desperate ideological repression manifested in the inability to speak of or remember the painful past. share the same limiting emphasis on the interior dimensions of a single kind of community. rather. what is represented is not necessarily the same as what is remembered or imagined. and extensions of it in historical film studies. to take other examples. Anderson's theory. the nation-state. suffering from trauma or being in a state of denial is at best metaphorical. or historical films in general. regardless of whether they concern a single film. and cultural factors at work'. does it explain why most historical films about Ireland are made outside that country. the personal for the political. on the social.12 As Iwona Irwin-Zarecka has advised. but it does not offer us an explanation of why. these analyses assume that collective memory and imagining are simple cohesive aggregates of individual memories or activities of imagination.17 . Nor again. the young and childish tend to 'luxuriate their symptoms'. victimisation for responsibility.
Filmmakers and actors have also moved to and through various locations. drawing together finances. From the first days of 'actuality' screenings. differences in dialogue between the versions of Pearl Harbor (2001) released in the USA and in Japan. first. The second poster shown. Both responses suggest sensitivity towards the representation of Aboriginal history outside the Australian nation-state: can a dimension of identity be a concern for the identifications of others?18 Even when films are not altered. claims to ownership over filmic elements may not result in . leaving as their legacy films that cannot be easily classified as the products of a single national culture. However. production. We begin by looking beyond the nation. this view of Hollywood as threat serves to cloud. and grossly distorting' and by more liberal intellectuals for deleting the historical agents at the centre of the film.Identity 83 To address that question. There are. Luxembourg and the USA and featuring a North American lead. Is the Indian director Shekhar Kapur's Elizabeth (1998) a British film? Is Girl with a Pearl Earring (2003). It is not possible to map the imagined community of a 'nation' on to a clearly defined geopolitical space. resources and personnel from different nations. for instance. the name 'Kip' in The English Patient (1996) might foster laughter among Dutch viewers because of its resemblance to the local word for 'chicken'. Dutch? Is the Finnish western Villin Pohjolan salattu laakso (The Secret Valley of the Wild North. they may be still be viewed in ways not foreseen in the country of production: for example. re-editing or censorship. The absence of single. made with funding from Britain.19 Yet the idea of diasporas is also of limited explanatory power to us.1 shows us. as multiple studies of diasporas confirm. Furthermore. and as Figure 4. Thus a single print may still elicit multiple readings and therefore potentially multiple identifications. we require a better understanding of the kinds of identity on offer to film viewers. whether in terms of dubbing. Cinematic financing. the popular reception of Hollywood films—and those produced in 'Bollywood' and Hong Kong—around the world and. Molly and Daisy. even film posters and tag lines may be changed for export. for historical films are characterised in part by a complex tangle of elements in transnational circulation—ranging from editing and CGI devices to costume styles—elements that cannot be readily traced to particular national sources. films have been made as co-productions. misleading. authoritative prints of films should alert us to the possibility that different prints can elicit different responses. 1963) a contribution to US national cinema? Many historical films are also physically altered for different export markets. the transnational character and appeal of many 'national' historical films. Film scholars routinely acknowledge that film is a transnational phenomenon in their presentation of 'Hollywood history' as an extra-cultural pressure or threat to various national cinemas. distribution and reception have never fitted neatly within the analytic frame of the nation-state. second. made for the North American release of Rabbit-proof Fence (2002). was denounced by a conservative member of the Australian government as 'sensationalising. subtitling.
84 History Goes to the Movies Figure 4. Australian Film Commission) .1 Whose Rabbit-proof Fence? Australian and US promotional posters (© 2002.
can the concepts of diaspora or nation drive home how heterogeneous film production. This form of history is at best moribund and at worst socially crippling. distribution and reception can be within the political boundaries of a single state.23 In the case of Australian filmmaking in the late 1970s. As Mette Hjort and Eric Rentschler have shown.21 On the level of public policy.g. Some governments. historical filmmakers can draw attention to the use of history to shore up prevailing 'mythical' notions of the nation-state. for governments continue to develop defensive strategies designed to protect local cultural activities and values against imported films. Marcia Landy believes that a combination of Friedrich Nietszche's.22 However. Where nation is conjoined with history in film. as with France and South Korea. for example. too. film organisations and filmmakers themselves have repeatedly emphasised their delivery of national films that are deemed to mirror contemporary social and material 'banal' culture.Identity 85 control: a 2. not how to . Through the use of emotional representations (affect) and continuity editing. As these examples demonstrate. Stork (1971) and The Adventures of Barry Mckenzie (1972). as the case of Rabbit-proof Fence highlights. Andrew Higson and Christopher Faulkner have thus underscored that histories of national cinema are histories of contestation. In the United Kingdom. however. for it 'knows only how to preserve life. Judgements vary about what counts as an expression of national culture. on the other hand. imitation and preservation. the concept of national cinema still has some meaning. Danish and German politicians. resistance and negotiation.000-signature petition could not prevent the British rock singer Mick Jagger from playing the lead in Tony Richardson's film about an iconic Australian bushranger. they cement inconsistent. have placed quotas on imported films at different times. Ned Kelly (1970). which are assumed to have an imitative effect (e. Through the use of discontinuous and fragmented narration. a British parliamentary motion could not stop Hollywood 'stealing' an historical example of 'British military daring' in U-571 (2000). and film producers in the USA are increasingly complaining that the search for global profits has meant that 'Our movies no longer reflect our culture'. government and film institute policies also consistently suggest an interest in sponsoring domestic projects that are both commercially viable (often implying international distribution) and that 'express and sustain' a national culture. perceptions of 'nation' do not come readily packaged with an obvious historical dimension. that local linguistic idioms will be swept away by American English) and to promote nation building. more support was given for historical film projects after questions were raised about the use of government funds to support the production of the commercially successful risqué or crude 'Ocker' comedies Alvin Purple (1973). language and identity. Michel Foucault's and Antonio Gramsci's views on the uses of history is of explanatory value. illogical and discrete discourses together and render a past that is worthy of unquestioned respect. nation is more frequently conveyed through a choice of past settings and stories.20 Nor.
oedipal and homosexual 'panic' have been suggested as the framework for . Mia Mask. 1999). my call for the investigation of the uses of history in different cultural contexts should not be read as an invitation to engage solely in the exploration of national cinemas. effeminate and only able to win battles through sheer strength of numbers and dirty tricks.24 Landy's explanation has the appeal of fitting in with the generally pejorative appraisals of the social functions of film canvassed in the last chapter. Why? Identities The simple answer to this question is that national. Mazierska argues. In the last chapter. for instance. professional. Historical films may therefore generate multiple and even divergent positions for identity. I drew upon a range of examples to suggest a counterview: that all historical films are. scholars of historical films routinely overlook popular local cinematic cultures in favour of 'art' productions that are distributed internationally. discontinuous or punctuated. it remains a rhetorical venture if it is not backed up by evidence from specific contexts. Indeed. Discourses of Catholicism and masculinity. Like them. 'inhabit' or fashion multiple identities.27 To take another example. religious. the non-Christian Tatars of the seventeenth century are portrayed as decadent. . though. In the Polish film Ogniem i mieczem (With Fire and Sword.25 Moral. for instance.26 One discourse was thought to conflict and repel another. Yet augmenting our analysis of historical films to encompass their transnational dimensions will still not bear the fruit of a comprehensive account of their social and cultural significance. may foster competing notions of 'self '. the Poles and Ukrainian Cossacks are united in the Catholic faith. as we shall see later in this chapter. . To focus on only 'nation' and identity is to ignore the fact that communication networks operate on an increasingly transnational basis and that cultural expressions are widely exchanged across national borders.86 History Goes to the Movies engender it. public political. to name a few. Landy's view rests upon the unquestioned condemnation of affect. a faith that marks their civilisation. are what offer Poles a link to the historical stories of other nation-states. Furthermore. to a greater or lesser extent. as was noted in Chapter 1. it hinders any resolve to attempt something new'. transnational and even global communities are not the only communities that can be 'imagined'. It is simply not the case that audiences will more readily identify with historical films that enjoy international distribution than with other kinds of historical film. family and gender discourses. discourses may also intertwine and elide. Conversely. has argued that reviewers of Eve's Bayou (1997) were reluctant to call it an African-American film lest that frighten off viewers who were otherwise attracted to the more 'universally appealing' representation of 1960s family life it offered. The various discourses we encounter day to day—including those in historical films—offer us opportunities to imagine. As is perhaps now clear. However. it always undervalues that which is becoming .
scholars have assumed that public national discourses are of greater historiographical significance than familial or more local ones.29 These examples show that historical films offer judgements of inclusion and exclusion. We recall from Chapter 1 the persistent dismissal of 'melodramas' as ahistorical or even anti-historical: as C. The commonplace mixing. In theorising historical film.30 Following on from this. I would like to draw out a point I made earlier about methodology. I have already questioned the appropriateness of psychological and psychoanalytical assessments of film representation. but again. but I would now like to explore whether identity of emotions is possible in film viewing and whether it can contribute to historical understanding.28 And most of the approximately 180 historical films made in Australia show men experiencing death and defeat. we can say that historical film discourses are relational: they are delineated and refined by the process of looking both inward and outward. from Poland. expressions of displacement and repression. discourses may combine. support Godard's observation that cinema is a masculinist discourse that depersonalises and erases women and competing notions of masculinity. and they point to audiences who are unable or unwilling to face up to historical differences or national 'myths'. like Rambo and Black Hawk Down. Tashiro posits the existence of spectators addressed or constructed by films. This relational dimension of identity also allows us to gain some understanding of Lars von Trier's decision to imagine the USA in Dancer in the Dark. Scholars who write on hypothetical or 'implied' viewers look to cues within films—like . First. These hypothetical spectators. difference and otherness. 'melodramas must appear to happen here and now to create an emotional response'. melodramas are.31 On this estimation.S. on the other hand. What is asserted as 'different' and 'other' varies from discourse to discourse. spectators that he assumes are insularly focused on the personal and lured by anti-historical affect. The historical film. his film is at base a statement that the use of capital punishment in the USA is different or 'other' to his own ethical beliefs. as with the representation of the Vietnamese women Phuong in The Quiet American (2002) as a silent. fusion and creolisation of discourses in historical films might explain why—as suggested in the quote that heads this chapter —Steven Spielberg sees Saving Private Ryan as both a public memorial to those who participated in the D-Day landings and a personal thank you to his father. are not to be confused with actual persons who go to cinemas and watch films. 'is fundamentally concerned with the association of the individual and the state and the relationship between personal experience and the extrapersonal forces shaping history'. the USA and Australia. exotic object of colonial fantasy. of asserting sameness. This has led Katherine Biber to argue that death and defeat are diegetic devices that support a view of Australian national identity predicated upon heterosexual hegemony and homosocial collectivity.Identity 87 Oliver Stone's representations of US political events in JFK (1992) and Nixon (1995). The three examples I have cited. though. let us be clear. Tashiro explains.
Consider as an example these two statements of reception concerning Titanic (1997) and Atlantic (1929). though. it means that historical films are analysed as if they were not consumed in particular times and places. However. and vice versa. I can still visualise the scene. these statements are problematic sources for historical film scholars. lighting and costumes to contemporary representations such as Brueghel's paintings. it does not appear to sit well with Ien . are the focal points for viewers. and decline the role that the film proffered. like Alberto Angelini and Elio Pasquali's study of eye movement during film watching. Furthermore. that are thought to encourage viewers to 'guess ahead'.34 In isolation. A way beyond the division of text and context. 'identify' or 'take sides'.32 Tashiro's construction of hypothetical spectators confirms a preference for text-centred analysis in historical film studies: inquiry focused on films and their author-directors. The second is subject to the vicissitudes of memory and perhaps even reduces Atlantic to an epiphenomenon. Many of the nineteen reviews of Le Retour de Martin Guerre (1982) that she has analysed. This might lead us to affirm the judgement expressed in Chapter 1 that the 'history' of many historical films is no more than 'accuracy in antiques'. and more specifically eyes and mouths. . a symptom of some other social discourse rather than a discourse in its own right. for instance. which suggests that faces. lies with the recognition of film texts as entangled in and shaping contexts. the more they would be disappointed by Titanic. Everyone cried.33 My earliest recollection is of a silent film Atlantic. setting.88 History Goes to the Movies point-of-view shots. Staiger's treatment of 'context' as equivalent to the views of contemporary reviewers means that her studies stop short of offering us an account of the 'non-authoritative' audiences that reception scholars have tried to reclaim. Ironically. the more such young women (a) wanted to fantasise Leo as their potential lover. and (b) saw him as quintessentially a 'modern' boy/man. equate authenticity and 'realism' with the correspondence of props. The first is from Martin Barker's study of 'implied' viewers. as Janet Staiger has argued. why did the detailed Civil War and post-Second World War settings of the US remakes of Martin Guerre—Sommersby (1993) and The Majestic (2001)—not guarantee healthy sales? Staiger's analysis is also at odds with the results of non-authoritative reception studies. . . Tashiro's division of text from context weakens the analytical potential of historical film studies. The first might be proved wrong by interviews with film viewers and does not allow for changes in reception over time. The pianist played . as the water rose eventually to cover the sinking passengers as the [Titanic] sank.35 If that were the case. . the second is from Annette Kuhn's ethnographic study of British people's memories of going to the cinema: Many young women will have gone to see Titanic because of the promise of screens-full of Leonardo diCaprio .
. and neither considers the possibility of changes in reception over time. The first day of May has political connotations in Britain. And she's doing. She's looking like him on it. you know.36 In turn. . hairstyles and sets.37 Star identification and selective appropriation and refashioning also emerges as a major theme in Annette Kuhn's interviews with female film viewers in the 1930s. I took a photo of her once. We used to act the films out. . Harper notes that while male viewers of the Gainsborough historical melodramas The Man in Grey (1943) and Madonna of the Seven Moons (1944) berated their salaciousness or cited nostalgia for sexual inequality as excuses for viewing. played by Jeanette MacDonald and Nelson Eddy] that become one as their voices blend in loveswept song'. . is particularly fruitful. DB: . And when he was smiling she was. an MGM musical set at the turn of the twentieth century. . however. but most female respondents were quite choosy about the costume elements they chose to make into clothes they would wear. Sue Harper and Mary Ann Doane. the focus is the 'tender romance of two souls [Marcia and Paul. . because neither has these films as their focus.Identity 89 Ang's much cited study of the Dutch reception of the 1970s soap opera Dallas. Notable exceptions are Annette Kuhn. emotional sincerity and the pleasure of looking at costumes. . . female viewers responded more favourably for reasons of star identification. VE: . And she used to deepen it and draw her hair back. which saw viewers connecting 'authenticity' with depicted emotions. And she was Nelson Eddy because she was blonde and she had a deep wave. DB: Yeah. actually smiling at her. Using a 1943 Ministry of Information survey on cinema audiences. I wish I could find that photo. . . . VE: I used to keep watching her. our Hilda used to sit there absolutely gone and think he [Nelson Eddy] was just singing to her! DB: Well you did! VE: And you know. revelling in 'seeing bold bad men'. Where can we turn to for information on viewer activities of identification? Ironically.38 Kuhn's research on the historical reception of Maytime (1937).39 Kuhn's interviews with viewers Vee Entwistle and Dorris Braithwaite about the film in 1995 also suggest the importance of interpersonal connections: . . as though he was . yeah. like that [demonstrates friend deepening wave]. One respondent saw herself after screening as 'the lovely heroine in a beautiful blue crinoline with a feather in her hair'. he was. few historical film scholars have considered historical reception contexts. Well my friend and I used to act them out. their separation and reunion in death. the results of these two studies cannot be applied with much confidence to historical film studies. Any minute he would come off the screen and she would. who have used structured interviews and questionnaires to understand audience interactions with films in Britain and the USA at particular times. but in Maytime. for example.
But I play records and videos and they are both with me again and I feel just as young and in love as I was all those years ago.40 A number of personal connections are hinted at in the interviews. So why have viewer discourses—and the imagined communities they construct— been so neglected? One word stands out in scholars' dismissals of viewers' responses to historical films: 'affect'. who note with her that male viewers tend to focus on childhood experiences and female viewers on experiences during adolescence. public and political communities generally selected for analysis by historical film scholars. a combination of textual and reception analysis offers us the widest view of the identities connected with films. we recall from earlier in this chapter. The remembered and imagined communities of cinemagoers tend to be local. see. These views might also be considered in the wider context of film theory. As such. . Clearly.42 Historical film watching may thus be 'historical' in two senses. has been presented as the 'cement' for monumental. Importantly. to the alignment of the end of the film—in which a youthful Marcia and Paul are reunited in death—to viewer memories that overcome ageing and death. 'going to the pictures is remembered as being less about films and stars than about daily and weekly routines. an obstacle encountered in costume dramas and most commercially successful historical films. these reminiscences show viewers being drawn into the film and drawing the film into their lives. Affect and identification Affect. DB: Now Nelson is gone and so is my husband. . And she was Nelson Eddy. and used to delineate and secure.90 History Goes to the Movies Drew her hair back. . they appear to be a long way from the national. she writes. that is. lovers and youth. Cinemagoing is remembered. . viewers' understandings of their past imagined communities. This is a pattern that Kuhn detects across interviews with 1930s cinemagoers: for 'the majority'. films may—via their representations—engage viewers in an exploration of past activities. familiar and 'everyday'. and Dorris and her friend acting out) and watching a friend connect with a film character (Vee watching Hilda). First. . neighbourhood comings and goings and organising spare time. films may be embedded in. as part of the fabric of everyday life . A number of the historical film theories canvassed in Chapter 1 offer a similarly pejorative view of emotional engagement as an obstacle to historical understanding. from the viewers' substitution of Jeanette MacDonald for themselves (Hilda. preserving and mythical history (Landy) or as the means for avoiding history (Tashiro). Maytime helps to articulate and secure memories of lost friends. Second.' 41 Kuhn's observation is borne out by other studies of filmgoers' experiences. . And I acted Cesar Romero [laughter]. which has until recently neglected the study of emotional response. .
As was made clear in Chapter 2. On this cognitive view. Michel Foucault—whom Landy draws upon—sees a place for continuity as well as discontinuity in historical discourses. because it rests upon the erroneous view of emotions as private mental events that are beyond interpersonal—and thus historical—understanding. may not be borne out by studies of actual. open to historical understanding. That content may not be connected with any physiological state or behavioural expression. there is no characteristic behavioural expression of jealousy as there is for anger.46 Therefore. because it posits a necessary connection between filmic devices and inherent. upset with an examiner or afraid that we left the iron on. the automatic valuation of discontinuity and its supposed effects of rationality and reflexivity must be subject to question. they are open to the same processes of historical inquiry that are used to understand thoughts and beliefs. film theory usually constructs or implies emotional responses on the basis of textual analysis alone. Contrary to this. fetishistic scopophilia.Identity 91 Carl Plantinga has offered a threefold explanation of this neglect. John Wilson and Anthony Kenny. First. masochism or any combination of these. does not withstand scrutiny. argues that emotions are cognitive. third. intentionality furnishes the 'content' of emotions. Furthermore. Emotions are. Emotions have objects: for example. rather than implied.44 Both cultural critics and psychoanalytical theorists clearly distrust the emotions and profess their support for distanced and alienated responses. we are scared of a snake. in principle. an emotion is a particular way of viewing and responding to the world and may or may not be expressed in certain forms of behaviour. film theory has carried over from cultural critics as far back as Plato the assumption that emotional engagement is detrimental to the development of critical judgement and political participation. Furthermore. universal effects. for example. judgements and beliefs: for example. which they assume foster critical and rational thought. Plantinga. for example. film theorists commonly view emotional engagement through the psychoanalytical lenses of desire and pleasure and assume that like them. reception. Emotions are intentional because they must be about something or directed to an object.43 This is problematic. regressive narcissism. This dualism of emotion and rationality. Thus my emotions are not defined by my clenched teeth but rather by my concepts. as I have already argued. Plantinga makes clear. And. emotions involve concepts. So how might that understanding arise from film watching? As we recall from the results of the 'Presence of the Past' and 'Australians and the Past' projects described in . an emotion can be rational because it may guide our reasoning and our identification of courses of action. it is conjoined with perverse or regressive psychic states such as sadistic voyeurism. an awareness of a broken social more can lead to embarrassment or a loss to sadness. as Ronald de Sousa argues. as emotions consist in part of cognition. judgements and beliefs about my situation. Furthermore. echoing Aristotle. Second.45 That is. for example. Landy's association of discontinuity with critical thinking. transvestism.
eh. We can look to the experiences of others via sympathy. many people report a stronger connection with the past when they watch films or television than when they study history or read books. viewers may experience the same emotions as those of screen characters. the conventional orientation towards these concepts is also one of distrust and suspicion. You didn't expect them to come true.49 Like actors. for instance. but in the process they do not relinquish their sense of themselves. . in Chapter 8. Conversely. though. In sum. this view is not borne out by empirical observations of viewer responses.48 When viewers are 'connected' with a filmic representation of the past. . This has led some critics to describe the process of 'entering' the world of a film as a form of identification that entails identity of thought and emotion and the loss of a viewer's separate selfhood. too.92 History Goes to the Movies the Introduction. which display the knowledge that the world that films offer is not of the actual present and lasts only a little while. as with Vee's report of Hilda's smile during a serenade by Nelson Eddy. viewers would have a hard time staying in their seats during combat scenes. Because. that was part of your dreams. as we shall see. therefore. these comments by filmgoer Doreen Lyell would not make any sense: Well I really was immersed in the cinema. And without an awareness of the process of identification. Images and words The study of identification and emotional response has received more attention in historiography than in film studies.47 For many of Kuhn's informants. cinema is attractive because it offers the opportunity of entering. writers like David Hume and Adam Smith argued that identification achieved through 'sympathy' was indispensable to moral and social activities. Smith saw sympathy as working most easily when we consider feelings that we approve of. but ultimately only out of concern for what we can learn about ourselves. In the eighteenth century. look to the experiences of people we know well or consider pain caused by external sources like a blow. Hume saw sympathy as made possible through the overlapping beliefs and sentiments of people. but he noted that it could not be sustained for long before being eroded by jealousy and selfish tendencies. you know. being 'immersed' in or 'lost' in another world. for instance. . Nor would any of the other comments that Kuhn reports. In historiography. Similarly. This is a conclusion that I will reaffirm. neither the involvement of emotions nor reports of viewers being 'lost' in historical films is logically sufficient to support the dismissal of viewer identification as contrary to rational. we may need . the term 'identity' is connected with a varied collection of cognates whose popularity has waxed and waned at various times. However. Without an awareness of the screened events as representations. emotions may be involved. socially empowering thought. through a different angle of inquiry. it seems.
. . by which he means an identity of mental concepts. like migraine. understanding is not a logical process but a largely emotional and intuitive experience through which the practitioner of the human sciences establishes a 'psychological rapport' with the object of his study. Collingwood elucidated a theory of historical 're-enactment' underpinned by a social view of language. Collingwood demonstrates the distinction between these different kinds of identity by citing the examples of a person who thinks 'the angles are equal' for five seconds and a person who thinks .is important here. implies emotional and ethical engagement. An historian and an historical agent.50 The term 'sympathy' continued to be used in historical writings through to the twentieth century. . because it is private to the sufferer. German writers generally opted for the terms einfühlen. Einfühlung or mitfühlen. By steeping himself in the records of the past. may share 'the same' thoughts. the prefixes ein-. Hart's declaration that 'a little imagination helps one to sympathise with the great men of the past'51 or Harold Ritter's conclusion that sympathetic. generates little possibility for sympathy. mit. spatial or temporal identity. Pain due to internal causes. . meaning 're-feel' and 're-live'. a number of writers also dissolved the boundaries between 'sympathy' and 'empathy' by using them interchangeably. meaning literally 'in-feeling' or 'with feeling'. the historian may intuitively enter into a sympathetic relationship with the past and can to some degree reexperience the past and 'rethink' the thoughts of historical personalities.G. Through this process he 'internalises' the past by 'imagining what emotions may have been aroused by the impact of a given situation or event'. alignment is necessary in historical understanding: Unlike explanation. Johann Herder exhorted his readers to 'enter the century.55 The task of disentangling the terms 'sympathy' and 're-live' was taken up in the first half of the twentieth century by R. as seen in A. In Yet Another Philosophy of History.and nach. Across a variety of writings. Re-enactment is conceptual identity but not numerical. the region.B.54 To German writers. he argues. suggesting critical distance on the part of the person contemplating the experience of others. . Wilhelm Dilthey declared a preference for the terms nachfühlen and nacherleben. respectively. for example.53 In distinction. .signalled some important conceptual distinctions. The use of the prefix nach. the entire history— empathise with or "feel oneself into" [sich einfühlen] every part of it'. Einfühlen. Collingwood. on the other hand. and emotional. distinctions that were not carried over into English after Vernon Lee's coining of the term 'empathy' in 1904.Identity 93 to know the causes of and even tone down the feelings of others—as with anger that repulses us—or work harder to contemplate the experiences of strangers. After that time.52 Whereas modern English writers organised their discussions on identification under the concept of 'sympathy'.
As with the example of thinking a theorem and then returning to it. If you close this book on your thumb and I do the same then it is perfectly reasonable for us to say that we have the same pain. even though there was a break and revival in the second case and there may be two or more 'numerically different but specifically identical' thoughts in the first case? Given this. or not? If he says yes. or returning to a bath. we can easily convict him of self-contradiction: for he is assuming that in our mutual discourse we have ideas in common. merely because nothing can happen twice. why not talk of the same thought held by different people at different times?56 Collingwood reinforces this point when he asks: If the objector says that no kind of re-enactment is possible. though.94 History Goes to the Movies 'the angles are equal'. Again. or reading twice out of the same book. Do we not talk of these two individuals thinking the same thought. we are simplify satisfied with sharing another's emotion. they are concepts in language. past and present. if I learn the meaning of the concept of joy from my own experience. In Collingwood's view. To have a concept means to know how a word is used. and this is inconsistent with his thesis. common statements like 'Are you happy?' or 'That looks painful' would make no sense at all. he has admitted all we want.57 Through re-enactment. the same theorem that Newton invented. wanders off that thought and returns to it after three seconds. Furthermore. then a person who has never experienced joy would not be able to use the concept. Thus a concept is not merely formed by experiencing a sensation. we share the same concepts as historical agents. that 'enactment' is conceptual and does not presuppose numerical. whereas sympathy belongs to biography. inn or book. or bathing twice in the same river. All of this tells us that emotions like 'joy' are not private sensations. to be able to follow the rules that govern the use of the word. If emotions are private. spatial or temporal identity. we should ask. just as a blind person would never be able to use the word 'see'. That requires shared or public language. it is still anger. we shall treat his objection with less courtesy: pointing out that he would himself not hesitate to speak of dining twice in the same inn. If I feel anger. so it is with emotions. Conceptual identity allows for the possibility of awareness and critical distance and reflection—we are not taken over or subsumed by the person we identify with—hence Collingwood's use of the prefix 're-' before 'enactment'. the use of which requires us to know grammar. re-enactment belongs to historical inquiry. that awareness and critical distance is absent from 'sympathy'. including emotional ones. which is also built out of malice and materials chosen for gossip and snobbery value. If he says no. In his view. then the feeling subsides and then I feel anger again. A feminist critique could well . Is the binomial theorem as known to him.58 Public language is the means by which we can share the 'same' thoughts and emotions as others. or hearing the same symphony twice. though.
'scientific' and 'universal' stances are really the principles. and it expresses his assumption that too close an engagement between the historian and the materials they study can hinder critical reflection. A good demonstrative case is Eric Hobsbawm's writing on identity and historical studies. arguing that the identification of an historian with a community may lead to the production of scholarship that supports national myths or ends up as 'some version of the opium of the people' or 'dangerous . and I want to reiterate a point made in Chapter 1. 'meta' or . The converse might be true. European. In this chapter. that the alignment of any genre and form of identification with a gender may support rather than question stereotypes and serve to obscure other reasons for critics' responses to genres. sentences of death'. male scholars writ large. Hobsbawm's essay was written during the disintegration of the former Yugoslavia through armed combat. It might be argued. beliefs and hopes of Western.60 This argument for a detached stance invites two criticisms. as with Brendan Bradshaw's complaint that a detached treatment of the Irish Famine has served to obscure the scale of the tragedy involved. Unlike Hobsbawm. I have questioned the dichotomy of thought and emotion. One of the criticisms of postmodern scholars—the second source of threat in Hobsbawm's article—is that 'detached'. there is no single.59 His criticisms are not couched in terms of a gendered dichotomy of reason and emotion but are a response to two 'threats': the public use of history to support political programs and even acts of violence. Hobsbawm makes clear his preference for a scholastic stance of detached 'universalism'. underlying dismissals of biography and costume drama is a common distinction between reason and emotion. This is a reasonably commonplace historiographical assumption. Quinn and R. that Theodore Moody. Like Lars von Trier. it presupposes a necessary and universal connection between historiographical identification and deleterious social outcomes. First. . That is. Dudley Edwards argued for the 'scientific' and detached writing of Irish history. there is the question of whether a detached stance can be achieved. D. and the alignment of rationality with masculinity and emotion and irrationality with femininity. Hobsbawm sees in being an 'insider' the increased risk of deleterious political and ethical outcomes. that the professed identity historian is more honest than those claiming more universal stances. In 'Identity history is not enough'. and postmodernism. We cannot assume that all identity histories are politically divisive and thus unethical.Identity 95 take Collingwood's coupling of sympathy and biography as akin to the conventional dismissal of costume dramas in historical film studies and read both as a masculinist response to emotions and interpersonal relations that are denigrated as feminine. on their view. . postmodern historians do not see it as possible to turn off or step outside one's community allegiances. It was primarily for that reason. historians hold that being an 'outsider' can help you to see that which passes by unnoticed 'inside' a community. echoed across journals and monographs.61 Second. for example. detached. To postmodernists.B. Like some other historians.
1997.. pointing out that thoughts and emotions are united in being cognitive. E. pp.. 'Finding meaning in memory: a methodological critique of collective memory studies'... 1983. vol. T. 1991. ethnicity. while we should be aware of the uses of identity histories—a claim I will follow up in Chapter 7—it makes little sense to condemn identification outright. Imagined Communities: Reflections on the Origin and Spread of Nationalism. 2000. Billig. 1995. Hobsbawm. London: Sage. 266–77. The Invention of Tradition. Babel and Babylon: Spectatorship in American Silent Film. Recommended resources Anderson. Bourdieu. 1991. History and Theory. Hansen. S. in On History. S. London: Verso. M. and so on. Banal Nationalism. As with film viewers. 1987. Harper. Therefore. R.96 History Goes to the Movies god's eye view of historical events. G. London: Continuum. trans. M. Home is Where the Heart Is: Melodrama and the Women's Film.. All these points raise a crucial issue that remains unresolved at the end of this chapter and in historiography more generally: is there a self or single identity that binds together our encounters with the various imagined communities described? That is a question that we now know demands historical as well as discursive investigation. London: Routledge. Gaslight Melodrama: From Victorian London to 1940s Hollywood. edn. . we have seen that discussion about identity in historical film studies is strengthened through the consideration of viewer responses as well as discourse analysis. W. gender. 179–97. Distinction: A Social Critique of the Judgement of Taste.. There is no agreed. We have also questioned the grounds upon which identification has been dismissed as a historiographical process. Hjort. Mass. New York: Free Press. London: BFI.. E. pp. therefore. Hobsbawm. 2001. class. Every historical discourse shapes and is shaped by other discourses that imagine a panoply of communities: political. we have caught sight of the concept in the ways that viewers and historians talk about their connections with communities via discourses like historical films and written texts. B. religious. Barefoot.: Harvard University Press. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. Nice. In this chapter. Cambridge. that it is possible to share 'the same' thoughts and emotions as others and that identification does not guarantee unethical social outcomes.. Furthermore. and Ranger. it can also be used to refer to a potentially unlimited number of other communities. 'Identity history is not enough'. rev. Kansteiner. and Mackenzie. neatly packaged concept of identity in historiography and historical film studies. 1987. While it has been most often connected with 'imagined' nations. P. Mass.. (eds). Cambridge. M.: Harvard University Press. 2002. Cinema and Nation. 41(2). an historian's sense of connection with a community may be complex and ambiguous and may change over the course of a narrative.
Desser and G. 'Notes on spectator emotion and ideological film criticism'. Assman. 17(3). Flanzebaum (ed. p. 1994. online at www. 27(2). 63–8. NY: Transaction. 8 M. 'Film and the matrix of memory'. 231. above and below ground'. London: Verso. Ranger (eds). 2001. London: Sage. 4 B. Sobchack. 'The military and society: reaching and reflecting audiences in fiction and film'. Dreaming of Fred and Ginger: Cinema and Cultural Memory. 1997. Thelen. pp. 'The filmmaker as historian. Sociological Theory. 1991. LaCapra. Banal Nationalism. pp. Film Theory and Philosophy. no. 293. 106(3). Radio and Television.com/mov/s/savsid. 857–64. 1988. Olick. pp. 253–64. Winter. Cambridge. no. A. pp. Plantinga. 'Collective memory and cultural identity'. for example. p. 2001. as explained in Distinction: A Social Critique of the Judgement of Taste. Bloomington: Indiana University Press. vol. Oxford: Oxford University Press. p. trans. Communication. and R. 'Collective memory: the two cultures'. 1994. Imagined Communities: Reflections on the Origin and Spread of Nationalism. Rethinking History.htm 3 L. p. NJ: Cornell University Press. 46.Identity 97 Kuhn. 421–38. pp. 41(2). J.edu.au/screeningthepast/ reviews/rev0301/rbbr12a. pp. 13 I. rev. Trauma. 5 J. Historical Journal of Film. 2001. 1993. and R. 233–53. vol. and J. Kansteiner. New German Critique. Film Quarterly.: Harvard University Press. 42(1). vol. Baltimore: Johns Hopkins University Press. 2001. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. Radical History Review. 1995. 1999. vol. Anderson. Martín-Barbero. 333–48. Studies. J. The Presence of the Past: Popular Uses of History in American Life. . Culture and Hegemony: From the Media to Mediations. History and Theory. see W. New York: Columbia University Press. Screening the Past. 860. Smith (eds). Spielberg's Holocaust: Critical Perspectives on 'Schindler's List'. 'Film and the matrix of memory'.latrobe. 11 M. Grindon. American Quarterly. 1994. 7 See.R. The Americanization of the Holocaust. Representing the Holocaust: History. Hobsbawm and T. pp. pp. 12 On criticisms of collective memory and trauma. Frames of Remembrance: The Dynamics of Collective Memory. 1999. 85. vol. R. Notes 1 Available online at http://www. p.). The Invention of Tradition. H. no. vol. 1987. Howells. 14 H. 'Review of Robert Borgoyne. 3. 10 D. 9–16. Film Nation: Hollywood looks at US History'. 1999. 12. New Brunswick. in R. New York: New York University Press. Theory. Loshitzsky (ed. Philadelphia: Temple University Press. Armed Forces and Society. Class and Identity in Titanic (1953) and A Night to Remember (1958)'. 'Beyond visual aids: American film as American culture'. 372–93. 179–97.rochestergoesout. Young. 1983. and Y. 1997. 'In the combat zone'. emphasis added. 1980. 65. 1995.. Irwin-Zarecka. 132. Bell. 2003. Winter. vol. Harper. 32(3). Allen and M. Mass. pp. 19(4). p. 6 E. edn. 116. Rosenzweig and D. 'Atlantic Crossings: Nation. and D.). p. C. 8. 1998. 2002.html 2 J. V. 'Never having to say you're sorry: Rambo's rewriting of the Vietnam War'. Billig.. 2002. p. 5(2). Shadows on the Past: Studies in the Historical Fiction Film. Nice. American Historical Review. Ithaca. 9 See also Pierre Bourdieu's idea of 'habitus'. vol. London: Sage. 'Finding meaning in memory: a methodological critique of collective memory studies'. See also R.
Playing the Man: New Approaches to Masculinity. J. T. Rockett. 1998. trans. Cineaste. 27–28 November 2004. 167–83. 'Emmet on Film'. Hirschberg. Film and History. R5. Screen. W.). On 'inhabiting' identities.. Hoare and G. ed. vol. pp. Kansteiner. 2–7. Sear and D. 2001. Canadian Journal of Film Studies. 22(1). Untimely Meditations. 3(2). 2000. Distinction. vol. Hannu. pp. 11(3). pp. pp. History and the Media. Historical Journal of Film. Metropolitan section.). Radio and Television. NJ: Rutgers University Press. 1998. 'Introduction'. Foucault. trans. 97(2).O. Oxford: Oxford University Press. M. in J. Hollywood'. J. vol. 2002. 1. London: Tavistock. 21(2). 192–3. p. 'Nietzsche.J. pp. 'Saving Private Ryan'. and C. Bourdieu.). 167–77. Counter-Memory. 'The origin of the French film quota policy controlling the import of American films'.). vol. Australian Humanities Review. Higson. Trudinger (eds). p. D. 260–77. American Historical Review. 160–6. pp. 1999. NSW: Pluto Press. Hughes-D'Aeth. K. Radio and Television. R. pp. Sydney Morning Herald. 63–75. in K. New Brunswick. pp. pp. 18(2).N. vol. McLoone. 1999. pp. Faulkner. 'AHR forum: JFK the movie'. 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 26 27 28 29 .au/AHR E. History and the Media.edu. in Cinema and Nation. Selections from the Prison Notebooks. Nationalism. in D. M. 'Sex. Mazierska. assimilation. For a critical review. drugs and posting bail'. p. 'Losing America'. and E. Griffin. The Weekend Australian Review.Latrobe. Higson. 323–33. anon. 'The belly of the beast: Oliver Stone's Nixon and the American nightmare'.lib. 4–10. E. 'From new German cinema to the post-Wall cinema of consensus'. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. Practice: Selected Essays and Interviews. 75. The Order of Things: An Archaeology of the Human Sciences. ' "Turned out real nice after all": death and masculinity in Australian cinema'. 27–37. pp. Rentschler. K. All discussed in M. 'A deep and continuing use of history'. 39–47. history'. M. Waving the Flag: Constructing a National Cinema in Britain. New York: International Publishers. London: Weidenfeld & Nicolson. 1994. A. 'Finding meaning in memory'. Ithaca. Puttnam. Biber. 16 August 2003. pp. Cannadine (ed. 28–34. 'Eve's Bayou: too good to be a black film?'. S. pp. and P. Cannadine (ed. quote at p. Q. Historical Journal of Film. 2003. Cineaste. 27–43. Mazierska. 2004. vol. 'In the land of noble knights and mute princesses: Polish heritage cinema'. pp. 'Themes of nation' and E. 2000. Gramsci. Smith. and trans. Annandale. 'The uses and disadvantages of history for life'. 1. 1998. Foucault. NY: Cornell University Press. 'The Indians of the north: western traditions and Finnish indians'. 'Has Hollywood stolen our history?'. Doherty. History Ireland. vol. and A.98 History Goes to the Movies and M. 24(1). Sharrett. 23(1–4). vol. 1992. Biber. 139–65. and L. Cineaste. Hollingdale. pp. 500–5. Mask. vol. Basingstoke: Palgrave Macmillan. 'The concept of national cinema'. London: Routledge. 1996. and C. pp. 1995. NJ: Rutgers University Press. 46–9. 1970. M. 1997. 1989.). M. Bouchard (ed. 68–71. pp. 23(4). A. 1988. Landy (ed. Ulff-Moller. F. Hjort. p. in The Historical Film: History and Memory in Media. Logic. pp. 26–7. 1993. pp. Nietszche. Stern (ed. Landy. pp. pp. The Historical Film: History and Memory in Media. 30(4). 419–25. genealogy. p. 113.F. see T. 'Reimagining the nation: themes and issues in Irish cinema'. 103–17. 3–24. 169. in D. in D. 124–40. 'Which rabbit-proof fence? Empathy. Rogin. Gellner. vol. 1978. T. 'In the land of noble knights and mute princesses'. New Brunswick. available online at http:// www. 1991. 24(2–3). vol. M. 'Affective identities: French national cinema and the 1930s'. Tusa. Cineaste. 2001. see M. 102–8.
1983.. 'Movimenti oculari e percezione di sequenze filmiche'. pp. 31 C. 39 Maytime publicity poster. as cited in J. 'Notes on spectator emotion and ideological film criticism'. 5(3). Featherstone (ed. in M.S. .A. see. special issue on horror. Oxford: Oxford University Press. Landy (ed. Global Culture: Nationalism.S. ch. 1985. p. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. p. Kenny. 1. Angelini and E. Eight Hours for What We Will: Workers and Leisure in an Industrial City 1870–1920. 'On cinema and perversion'. Barker with T. New York: Cambridge University Press. 1987. Simmons. 2001. Emotions and Reasons. in R. Staiger. A similar limitation may be seen in Ulf Hedetoft's consideration of the European reception of Saving Private Ryan in 'Contemporary cinema: between cultural globalisation and national interpretation'. 48.). A. Shadows on the Past. Pearson and W. M. Cambridge.Identity 99 30 Z. The Desire to Desire: The Women's Films of the 1940s.: Harvard University Press. 'Depraved spectators and impossible audiences'. 'City lights: immigrant women and the rise of the movies'. 1987. 9 and J. 1972. p. 1988. 2002. Greenspan. 4. Oxford: Oxford University Press. pp. de Sousa. From Babel to Babylon: Spectatorship in American Silent Film. for example. for example. different bat times: mass culture and popular memory'.. Plantinga. p. Allen and M. pp. Dreaming of Fred and Ginger: Cinema and Cultural Memory. p. See also the response to this by Michael Levine. London: Sage. 'Modernity and ambivalence'. Rosensweig. Home is Where the Heart Is and L. in Perverse Spectators: The Practices of Film Reception. 37 S. pp. 33 M. 45–66. Action. vol. 63–71. Film Theory and Philosophy. Kennedy. trans. London: BFI. 1994. Austin: University of Texas Press. 187. Austin. 44 B. 45 Aristotle. 'Securing the fictional narrative as a tale of the historical real: The Return of Martin Guerre'. pp. Signs. 278–97. On Rhetoric. Cheap Amusements: Working Women and Leisure in Turn-of-the-century New York. ch. London: Methuen. 46 R. Spigel.). Bauman. p. S. The Metaphysics of Mind. Film and Philosophy. 38 See also M. Cambridge. Cinema and Nation. 41 Ibid. Mass.A. 2000. 1990. 74–84. Film and Philosophy. 44(1). Bianco e Nero. Dreaming of Fred and Ginger. Lindon. 2000. 191–209. 1991. in R. 32 M. Ewen. Bloomington: Indiana University Press. See also P. in M. pp. For more general accounts of early cinema audiences in the USA. and G. 1991. 1986. pp. Uricchio (eds). 35 J. Mackenzie (eds). 66. Wilson. vol. Emotion and Will.A. pp. 43 C. Globalization and Modernity. K. in A. 'Same bat channel. 7. London: Routledge and BFI. 39–40. 372–7. Peiss. 116. 139. p. Gaut. Emotion and Object. The Rationality of Emotions. and I. Austin. 1983. London: Routledge & Kegan Paul. 100. ch. From Antz to Titanic: Reinventing Film Analysis. Pasquali. Mass. The Many Lives of the Batman. in M. Ang. 36 A. vol. Kenny. 1980. 199. Doane. 211. Kuhn. pp. Film and Philosophy. Harper. 1989. 117–44. Tashiro. 1997. 34 Recollection of Oliver Dewar. From Antz to Titanic. Oxford: Oxford University Press. 'The ontology of perception in cinema'. Pretty Pictures: Production Design and the History Film. 40 Ibid. 1963. Kuhn. 1987. pp. see R. 'Historical pleasures: Gainsborough costume drama'. Philadelphia: Temple University Press. New York: New York University Press. Baker with T. Harper. New York: New York University Press. pp. London: Pluto Press.R. p. and E. as reproduced in A. G. vol. Hansen. Watching Dallas: Soap Opera and Melodramatic Imagination. p. The Historical Film. 76–87. This is an excerpt from her larger study. p. 223.: MIT Press. See also A. 145. See. 205.. 1998. Hjort and S. 206. 52. 3–17. Home is Where the Heart Is: Studies in Melodrama and Women's Film. Smith (eds). 42 Ibid. 1997. 15. 1991. New York: Routledge.
). p. ch.edu/survey/. pp. Lee and C. Language and History. R. B. vol.2.G. Selby-Bigge. and A. p. D. Reynolds. Against Pure Reason: Writings on Religion. 1. 4(3). 7. 1969. Enquiry Concerning the Principles of Morals [1772]. Collingwood. 329–51.B. see R. 1–31. Collingwood. Hume. 2. 1993. Interpreting Irish History. For an expanded treatment of 're-enactment'. Interpreting Irish History: The Debate on Historical Revisionism 1938–1994.2. Collingwood. edn ed. p. The Idea of History. pp.100 History Goes to the Movies and R. A. empathy and Verstehen: a contemporary reappraisal'. §§3. pp.gmu. rev. Westport. 1994. 116.).1. 'Dilthey. Survey results are also available online at http://chnm. in American Historical Review.G. 2. 2003. D. 15. reprinted in C.1. 266–77. Australian Cultural History.G. 'Terra nullius reborn'. W. Bristol: Thoemmes. 1910. and ed. E. 1994. Conn. and M. p. Manne (ed. §§1. in On History. London: Collins.A. New York: Columbia University Press. 26. 2003. Dreaming of Fred and Ginger. 1. 'Outlines of a philosophy of history'. 1998. Religion and Philosophy [1916]. the Historical Imagination and Education. 240. Dublin: Irish Academic Press. 'Understanding'. L. pp. in Dictionary of Concepts in History. 2001. Ibid. D. European Journal of Social Theory. Smith. H. 1993. trans. The Theory of Moral Sentiments [1759]. A similar claim is made about Keith Windschuttle's lack of 'sympathy' and 'empathy' in writing Australian Aboriginal history.4. 1904.1. Some survey results are also available online at http://www.1. 232. Blackrock. Exeter: Imprint Academic.edu.2. Oxford: Oxford University Press. see my 'How Good an Historian Shall I Be?': R.uts. 286. van der Dussen. Harrington. Brady (ed. Herder.G.: Greenwood Press. Hume. Thelen. R. Indianapolis: Liberty. Butterfield. Thorveton. Bradshaw.3.G.3. 2000. Norton. §6.austpast. p.5. 446. Indianapolis: Hackett Publishing. Kuhn. Bunge. 'At home with the past: initial findings from the survey'. pp. vol. 436. V.1–1. A Treatise on Human Nature [1739]. 'Imagination in history'. Irish Historical Studies. p. 1997. Melbourne: Black Agenda Inc.. The translation has been slightly modified to recall the sense that readers might have got before Lee's coining of the English term 'empathy' in 1904.3. ' "Constructive and instrumental": the dilemma of Ireland's first "new historians" '. R. 5–30. Ritter. 39. Solomon. 133. vol. 23. J. and P. See H. New York: Browne. ed. Ashton and P.1. History and Human Relations. pp. vol. 'Nationalism and historical scholarship in modern Ireland'. 1995. 215–33. Hart.au A. Rosenzweig and D. 1. 2003. Collingwood.2. Hobsbawm. Minneapolis: Augsburg Fortress.C. in C. A. Beauty and Ugliness and Other Studies in Psychological Aesthetics.J. Brady. 1951. The Idea of History. 1988–9. The Passions: Emotions and the Meaning of Life.1. Anstruther Thomson. ed. M.). The Presence of the Past: Popular Uses of History in American Life. p. New York: Free Press.. Whitewash. Oxford: Oxford University Press. p. 47 48 49 50 51 52 53 54 55 56 57 58 59 60 61 . pp. 'Yet another philosophy of history' [1774]. Brady (ed. 'Identity history is not enough'.2. Co. in R. Oxford: Oxford University Press. 1975. 191–216. Hamilton. C. 311–29. See also H.
James Cameron. Whatever we make will become the truth. We have a great responsibility. p. the thought that bears the stamp of our age and our geography—breaking up all the ordered surfaces and all the planes with which we are accustomed to tame the wild profusion of existing things and continuing long afterwards to disturb and threaten with collapse our age-old distinction between the Same and the Other. Fakt 116: Certain frogs can come back to life when thawed. they appear trivial and amusing. stop-motion clay animation Harvie Krumpet (2003). and Fakt 1034: Life is like a cigarette. . Smoke it to the butt. Fakt 804: 42 percent of the population can't remember their PIN number. 'Titanic'. there was no violation of historical truth. 65 In the short. .5 Reality To the best of our knowledge. In the wonderment of this taxonomy. . ten intertitles display some of the 'fakts' the protagonist has collected over the course of his twentieth-century life: Fakt 48: Fakts still exist even when they are ignored. They might evoke a response similar to that of Michel Foucault on reading a quote from 'a certain Chinese encyclopedia' in Juan Luis Borges' writing: laughter that shatters all the familiar landmarks of thought—our thought. Fakt 914: Alcohol can cause drunkenness and nudity. Humans do not. Fakt 142: A cigarette is a substitute for your mothers [sic] nipple. Collated in this way. . 15 December 1997. the visual reality that a generation will accept. apart from their explanatory contexts. Fakt 698: The average person uses nineteen miles of dental floss in their lifetime. Fakt 372: The trouble with nude dancing is that not everything stops when the music does. Fakt 586: Love does not conquer all. Fakt 268: There are three times more chickens in the world than humans. Newsweek.
102 History Goes to the Movies the thing we apprehend . . . is the limitation of our own [system of thought], the stark impossibility of [us] thinking that.1 We may laugh at Harvie Krumpet, but does our laughter veil the uncomfortable recognition of the arbitrary constructedness and insularity of his world, and perhaps our own? The aim of this chapter is to navigate between the common scholastic construction of viewers as enthralled by a 'hyperreal' filmic world that renders them passive consumers and the idea of individual viewers constructing filmic reality in idiosyncratic ways. The view advanced here is rather that of reality as constructed by historical communities of viewers, communities in need of further investigation. To what extent, if at all, can historical films capture historical reality? Or is reality something made and controlled by filmmakers, as James Cameron claims in the quote that opens this chapter? The connection of historical reality with film is commonly assumed and rarely discussed. Scholars routinely presume that there is some form of relationship between represented and real times, whether those real times correspond to those of the diegesis or of production. Only a few writers have explicitly articulated an account of realism, and they too presuppose some form of connection between representation and reality. In 'Any resemblance to persons living or dead', for example, Natalie Zemon Davis takes as a given a 'dialogue between present and past' and therefore sees her writing as a contribution to the discussion on how reality and the related notion of 'authenticity' can be 'best achieved'. Reality is to be found, she concludes When films represent values, relations and issues in a period; when they animate props and locations by their connections with historical people . . . when they let the past have its distinctiveness before remaking it to resemble the present . . . suggesting the possibility that there may be a very different way of reporting what happened, and giving some indication of their own truth status, an indication of where knowledge of the past comes from and our relation to it.2 Those outcomes are challenging, but they are achievable. The interrelation of reality and representation is also assumed by Robert Rosenstone, who sees in his own scholarship on historical films the admission that he believes 'in the reality of the signified—which is to say, the world . . . that empirical facts exist and insist[s] that if we let go of that belief then we are no longer historians'.3 Marc Ferro and Pierre Sorlin are more sceptical, but they too believe that historical films are able to offer viewers access to the times in which they are made.4
The belief that cinema is in some way a realistic medium jars against one of the major tenets of postmodernist and poststructuralist film theory, that representation has no stable or reflective relationship with the phenomenal world. Film images are suggestive not of reality but of what Jean Baudrillard calls 'hyperreality'. According to Baudrillard, 'hyperreality' denotes a step in the historical process whereby images have become unshackled from the real. There are four successive phases in societal apprehensions of the image: 'It is the reflection of a basic reality. It masks and perverts a basic reality. It marks the absence of a basic reality. It bears no relation to reality whatever: it is its own pure simulacrum.'5 The last of these is the hyperreal, a state whereby films are not maps, doubles or mirrors of any domain regarded as 'the real' but visions of a world that appears more legitimate, more believable and more valuable than the real. In short, the hyperreal is 'more real than real'.6 Baudrillard is not merely suggesting that images are artificial, because the concept of artificiality implies some reality against which to judge the artifice. His argument is rather that we have lost our ability to make sense of the distinction between reality and artifice. Hyperreality limits our participation in the world to the role of consumers or responders rather than producers or initiators. We no longer acquire goods because of real needs or because we want to use them to achieve social transformation but because of desires that are increasingly defined by commercial images, which keep us one step removed from the reality of our bodies and of the physical and socio-political world. Capital thus defines what we are. Various media make possible the 'mutation' of the real into the hyperreal.7 In film, ironically, this is played out through the heavily promoted aim of perfection of representation, for 'absolute realistic verisimilitude' and the elimination of overtly symbolic content.8 Baudrillard is therefore highly critical of historical films such as Chinatown (1974), Barry Lyndon (1975) and 1900 (1976), which claim to offer only visual historical correspondence 'whose very perfection is disquieting'.9 Many more recent examples of 'disquieting perfection' might be cited: for example, Titanic (1997), the film's production designer Peter Lamont argues, offers viewers: a Titanic as close as possible to the real thing, down to the exact shade of green on the leather chairs in the smoking lounge. The sumptuous sets have made-to-order replicas of the lighting fixtures, the china, the stained-glass windows. . . .10 James Cameron, as the quote that opens this chapter suggests, saw his role as director as one of making a reality that 'a generation will accept'. Reviewers of Saving Private Ryan (1998), too, lauded the 'fanatical' realism of its opening sequence and, like most viewers who saw the film in the United States, I had that impression strengthened by the print and on-screen announcements
104 History Goes to the Movies for a hotline that veterans could call if they found the movie upsetting.11 Steven Spielberg was no stranger to this adulatory reception, as Schindler's List (1993) received presidential endorsements and attracted sponsorship for subsidised, mandatory and commercial free broadcasts in cinemas and on television.12 Visual hyperrealism is also apparent in the promotional materials for Gladiator (2000), from the 30,000 handmade mud bricks of a North African amphitheatre set to Colin Capon's food art: The honeyed butterflies were too fragile; the scorpions didn't look right. But Colin Capon's locusts and cicadas were a triumph. Made of powdered sugar and gelatin, packed in cotton and flown from London to Morocco, where Gladiator was being shot, they appear on the table at Proximo's desert training camp. In costume dramas, the clothes receive the attention. But getting the food right—or at least plausible—is important too. . . . 'There's nothing worse in a historical film', says the Royal Air Force Chef . . . 'than having fruit straight from the supermarket'.13 Even light can be 'got right', as the cinematographer for Eliza Fraser (1976) explains: 'We were dealing with the 1830 period and it had to look totally genuine. . . . Overall, we were trying very hard to get the actual light that would have existed at the time.'14 All these examples and many more appear to be underpinned by the belief that the truth of an historical phenomenon can be realised through the sheer accumulation of contemporary signs of the real. Spielberg's concentrated compilation in the ghetto-clearing scene of Schindler's List of signs of the Holocaust—known to viewers through multiple other films on the Holocaust—epitomises the trajectory towards the hyperreal. Actions, costumes, props and dialogue circulate, impressing upon us through their sheer numbers that we are witnessing the real.15 But what we see is better than the real, a 'hyperreality' that breaks from the real and in which the extermination of memory is achieved: One no longer makes the Jews pass through the crematorium or the gas chamber, but through the sound track and image track, through the universal screen and microprocessor. Forgetting, annihilation, finally achieves its aesthetic dimension in this way. . . .16 Visual hyperreality thus offers us nothing 'except the empty figure of resemblance'.17 The interrelation of visual hyperfidelity and film promotion will be explored in more depth in Chapter 8.
Digital images
Visual hyperreality is advanced not only through the use of detailed props and sets; digital technologies are more often the focus of film theorists' explorations of cinema as a hyperreal medium. Digital technologies are now
commonly used to add to, remove from, substitute for or enhance elements of filmic images. In Forrest Gump (1994), digital processes made it possible to show Gary Sinise as an amputee without having to conceal his limbs through binding or loose costuming. Similar processes are used to delete wires in choreographed fight sequences, as in Wo Hu Zang Long (Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon, 2000), and anachronistic architectural elements, like those in the South Carolina location shot for The Patriot (2000) reproduced in Figure 5.1. Compared with a 'before shot', it is apparent just how extensively an image can be changed. Anachronistic architecture has been removed (left) to make way for a harbour, but so too has a tree (foreground, right), for which no justification was offered on the part of the effects company Centropolis. Similarly, no explanation is offered for the addition of 'synthespians' (digitally generated extras or actors) or the substitution of a blue sky dotted with cumulus clouds for a grey one.18 Were all these changes made for historical reasons? Are there historical grounds for favouring a blue sky over a grey one? Not always, as is clear from Lars von Trier's suggestion that he added blue skies to Dancer in the Dark (2000) simply because it was raining during shooting, and post-production digital technologies 'work just fine'.19 We might raise similar questions about the pink hue to the buildings in the digital images of Rome in Gladiator or the addition of synthespians on deck in Titanic. Digital technologies may 'work just fine' for directors, but their reception among film scholars has not been so warm. Thomas Doherty and J. Robert Craig, for instance, have warned of the ethical problems that might arise from
Figure 5.1 'Before' and 'after': digital alteration of location in The Patriot (© 2000 Centropolis Effects)
in which nothing appears as it seems. the adrenalin indistinguishable from the real rush. but we also want to buy the glasses and the video game. such as being part of a rock band. . whether films are consistently hyperreal. settings. Ironically. sound and bodies—through the use of various technologies and processes. but his attitude to this means of achieving hyperreality is not difficult to discern because his comments on hyperfidelity of detail apply here too. or changing the mouth movements and utterances of a person in a newsreel. We want Neo to prevail. the film The Matrix is itself an object of consumption. Yet modification may be applied . he complains: Digital technologies promise to elevate fantasy worlds above the troublesome everyday world. or are some benign? Is viewer naïvety assumed in the judgement of images? Sean Cubitt does not see the viewers of digital images as necessarily naïve but as accepting consumers. Baudrillard paints a bleak picture of film: our escapist enjoyment enslaves us in a world like that of the Wachowski brothers' The Matrix (1999). lighting. 'could be dangerous in the hands of demagogues working with supposedly "non fiction" material or those addressing naïve audiences of any sort'.20 Can changing the colour of the sky. deprived of truth and justice. Considered through the lens of hyperreality. historical filmmakers modify all sorts of phenomena— objects. into miniaturised infinities bracketed off from the world . . Baudrillard has nothing to say directly on digital images. editing. However. The hyper-clean. Bill and Ted's Excellent Adventure (1988) also serves as an indictment of our times. among the wreckage of modernity. These technologies. Craig argues. we can achieve satisfaction and deny the exploitation. first. Rather than invite to the voyage or the ascent. Beauty there will be more intense. . betrayed by the reality of the world. whether the social and cultural significance of historical films is exhaustively explained by consumerism. and. hypersmooth. I do not dispute that contemporary cultures of film viewing and appreciation are consumerist. Digital technologies belong to a long and varied lineage of special effects that includes make-up. second. poverty and ecological deterioration that mark our consumerist world. third. perfectly executed digital image ends the quest of film for the real and moves us away from the particular and discomforting phenomena of history. At the end of history comes shopping for historical figures and histories that will help us to satisfy our desires. Writing of the 'neobaroque technological film'. miniatures and stop-motion photography. camera lenses.21 In digital historical films. . they cajole us to step inward. be dangerous? Will all changes be unacceptable. Unquestionably. what I do question is. .106 History Goes to the Movies the use of screen technologies that have outpaced the ability of viewers to detect them. whether consumption undercuts agency. emotions more powerful. the artificial worlds of the neobaroque offer us a stronger sense of being than we experience outside.
including Jean-Luc Godard and Walter Benjamin. the digitally 'sweetened' bullet fire of the opening sequence of Saving Private Ryan. for example. cinema is characterised not by the erasure of the real by the hyperreal but by the persistence of a reality anterior to our world. often has a closer link to analogue sources than other film effects. For example. . for example. 'should be ugly every now and again'. . For a small group of theorists. and meanwhile I'm inverting a dog food can'. in the 'making of ' featurette that comes bundled with the DVD version of Troy (2004). Godard advances the idea that cinema is shaped by the 'dream' and logic of a prior world. and thus the relation between the 'before' and 'after' shots of Figure 5. This tug between wanting and not wanting recognition results in a mutual struggle that ends with one subject as master and the other as . that efforts to achieve fidelity are not uniform for all filmic elements. Sound. an analogue sound may accompany an extreme wide shot of a set that has been digitally created. unlike The Matrix. Industrial Light and Magic [the special effects company] using millions of dollars of high-tech digital equipment and computers to come up with the visuals. In Histoire(s) du cinéma. We recall from the last chapter. as one of the sound team for Terminator 2: Judgment Day (1991) wryly observes: 'What's amazing to me is . The mark of a designer may be more apparent in make-up than in props. persuasive artifice. appears together with dialogue that has not been subject to the same level of manipulation and layering. for instance. It is clear that phenomena with varying relationships to analogue sources commonly appear together.22 This differential treatment of sound and vision is evident. as Hegel sees it. which includes some raw sonic material. Historical realities Baudrillard's theory assumes the wholesale substitution of reality by a hyperreal world that shapes and is shaped by consumerist economies. and now I want to consider whether there is any substitution at all. the nineteenth century.Reality 107 by degrees.24 The subject. for instance. That world is one that enshrines the autonomous and self-constituting subject described in Hegel's Phenomenology of Spirit. the chief sound artist makes it clear that all of his materials originated in a dumpster. Some filmic elements are manipulated and enhanced more than others. And this difference of treatment is also apparent in Lars von Trier's commentary on Dancer in the Dark: the digital alteration of skies is something to be pleased about. because we also want to be independent and self-made. This is intolerable.1 is not one of simple mutual exclusion. Whereas the discussion on visual effects focuses on the 'magic' of computer programming and digital effects. I have questioned whether that substitution is wholesale. may not present a seamless. too. he complains. Sound. different sounds may be subject to different treatments. The hyperreality of historical films is not monolithic and thus.23 Moreover. exists only by being recognised by another subject. but the substitution of the 'real sound' of filming by studio-recorded songs is a 'problem'.
In his view. any one of the editing devices and spectacles of mise en scène described in the last chapter might also perform the same function of revealing the logic of the nineteenth century. and together with the other phenomena that the Cumbrians view as wondrous and monstrous are historicised and thus denaturalised to the spectator. we become aware of phenomena as confusing. Looking on from a position of relative safety. pain. We may. the nineteenth century saw the shift from a culture of production to a culture of consumption. Godard holds.25 Mainstream North American cinema. a relation of inequality in which the former depersonalises the latter. who looms as a major influence in Godard's Histoire(s) project. for Benjamin.26 Historical films that spring to mind as meeting that dialectical aim are dual. documentary and fiction film) and from different times or places. his visions are revisited and revealed as flashforwards. When the boy reaches Auckland. Benjamin favours the use of montage and juxtaposition rather than a systematic presentation of evidence in support of a clearly stated . seek to slow time in order to protect ourselves from the embodied senses of fear.or multi-setting films such as Vincent Ward's The Navigator: A Medieval Odyssey (1988). enshrines a master– slave relation through the imposition of an emphatically masculine identity on its version of the autonomous and self-constituting subject. anger or disgust that result from our interactions with phenomena. dangerous and uncontrollable. The Navigator provides a route to historical awareness through the recasting of the familiar as the sublime.2). but shock can and must be worked through. the dream of the nineteenth century is the sovereignty of the autonomous and self-constituting subject. like Captain Millar in Saving Private Ryan or Maximus in Gladiator (Figure 5.29 For Godard. and we see the time. This more positive appraisal of the reality-revealing potential of film—including commercial works produced in North America—characterises the writings of Walter Benjamin. film offers the best route for searching out and facing up to our consumerist milieu. In so doing it depersonalises and erases women. for culture is in a mutual relationship with economy. in which a medieval boy's vision of a cathedral in a celestial city leads him and five other Cumbrian villagers to tunnel through to that city—twentieth-century Auckland—and to restore the cathedral spire in the hope that it will save his village from the encroaching plague.27 It is understandable that Ward's work has been celebrated as 'revisionary'.31 As with Godard.30 Film can be received absentmindedly or be a means of slowing down or even suspending time to avoid the shock effects of urban existence. and in Benjamin's view. and indeed all those that do not fit the vision of masculinity offered.g.and culture-bound nature of our own ways of experiencing the world.28 However. Cinema is implicated in that shift yet still able to expose it. it is commodification. We may seek solace in historical films to protect us from the sublime. All film will remain for him historical— suspended in the dream of the nineteenth century—until its logic is exposed or denaturalised through the use of dialectical images: juxtaposed or superimposed images from different genres (e.108 History Goes to the Movies slave.
including one who will be left on the cutting room floor but will probably be included in the DVD.33 But again.2 The slowing of time as a protection against shock in Gladiator (© 2000. freeze-frame is used by Wilson to identify the Manchester musicians who are playing cameos. spectators . appears as a character and a direct-address narrator who repeatedly undercuts viewer belief in the diegesis as a coherent or accurate account of the British music scene from the 1970s. as was shown in Chapter 3. For André Bazin. 'Suffering is not a star. where the lead. We might cite here 24 Hour Party People (2002). for he sees them as a form of narcotic that dulls our awareness of the logic of commodification that gives them form. however. As Godard affirms.Reality 109 Figure 5. who claims that the incident never happened. nor a devastated landscape'. historical films are never entirely cohesive. Tony Wilson. Godard and Benjamin are united in the belief that film is a form of illusion that deceives viewers. Wilson summons the real Howard Devoto. The foregrounded use of multiple and conflicting accounts of phenomena in Rashomon (1950) and Courage Under Fire (1996) and anachronism in Moulin Rouge (2001) and Walker (1987) also offers the opportunity for one history to interrogate another. nor is it a burned church. Later. as was suggested above. and in their ruptures and inconsistencies we may find awareness and the impetus for social transformation. Dreamworks SKG) thesis.32 He is suspicious of works that claim to show things 'as they really are'. Thus films about one of the great shocks of the twentieth century—the Holocaust—may render it safe through continuity editing or. after we are shown Wilson's wife Lindsay discovering him in the back of a van with a prostitute and her seeking revenge sex with singer Howard Devoto. For instance.34 Baudrillard. contemporary signs of the real.
At the conclusion of this inevitable and necessary 'chemical' action. of conventions (the rule of montage. for didactic or aesthetic reasons. He writes: The same event. For example. say. Photography and cinema simply 'satisfy once and for all and in its very essence. representations or illusions of reality. In Bazin's view. Nor is temporal likeness or cohesiveness required. embalm and preserve is open to the charge of being acultural and ahistorical. an historical painting). come to regard some elements of films as indexical traces.35 Historical reality apart from the intentionality of subjects is not available to us. film offers better access to history than any other art form because it 'mummifies' and transforms reality. satisfaction may be attained through any one or many indexical markers that are taken by viewers as suggestive of phenomena in the world. our obsession with realism'. need not be satisfied only in spatial likeness or cohesiveness. As Philip Rosen explains: 'The spectator is supposed to read pastness in the image.39 Thus his notion of cinema as the locus of an obsession to mummify. can be represented in various ways. Each introduces. which is in turn that of a signifier–referent relation as a production'. Rather.36 There are thus various abstractions.38 Bazin does not explain how viewers.110 History Goes to the Movies know that what they see is a film and actively construct the illusion of filmic reality. his theory does allow for viewer agency and for various admixtures . plane surface). It is a necessary illusion. abstractions that operate more or less corrosively and thus do not permit the original to subsist in its entirety. not only a past as a signified (as in. he reduces all expressions of our cinematic obsession with realism to a defence against death: it is simply the 'last word in the argument with death by means of the form that endures'. Furthermore. yet it is never apart from subjects who seek meaning in it.37 Thus realism is to be found in the satisfaction of a viewer's fixation with it. A film need not be made in real time to be real for viewers. for example). a pile of suitcases at Auschwitz or lipstick on a collar are evocative of events that happened before the present. Bazin believes. Each representation discards or retains various of the qualities that permit us to recognise the object on the screen. the same object. Some indexical markers are traces because they are suggestive of an historical relationship with phenomena. That obsession. and of authentic reality. The same may be true of films that make extensive use of digital technologies. so a film like Harvie Krumpet can be considered more realistic by some viewers than other films that use human actors and historical locations. for the initial reality there has been substituted an illusion of reality composed of a complex of abstraction (black and white. an empty shoe next to a wrecked car. never apart from it. but also a past of the signifier. and reality will never be fully grasped in its concreteness. Importantly. individually and collectively. as for instance a kite attests to the existence of wind. though.
44 Fifth.47 Allen's film opens with a cinema audience watching a black . an impoverished form of consciousness? A useful example for exploring the intersections of reality. First. they are 'intentional'. perception and imaging On Bazin's view. the entertainment of images is always accompanied by our awareness of such. Currie's view shifts us away from the more traditional association of imagination with imaging. For instance.41 Third. when I look at a building. are we imaging? If so. on propaganda and selling history. images are a form of consciousness. for instance. Jean-Paul Sartre.45 Finally.43 Fourth. I was to entertain an image of the same building and I do not know the location of a certain gargoyle. Wittgenstein and Ryle would have it.40 Unfortunately. I can be requested to entertain an image but not to see ordinarily. Sixth. images can manifest temporal and spatial characteristics we are unused to with perception: moving images may be slowed down or accelerated at will.42 Similarly. when I have a mental image. repeated or considered in reverse sequence. is this imaging. respectively. not objects of consciousness or pictures 'in the mind'. argues that the attitude we take towards feature films is that of imagination. perception and imaging is. I cannot mistake an image of a bird for an image of a leaf as I might mistake seeing a leaf as a bird.Reality 111 and degrees of reality satisfaction in film. Gilbert Ryle and Ludwig Wittgenstein sketched out what they saw as the key differences between perceptions and images.46 When we watch films. as Psathas has demonstrated. in comparison with perceptions. Cinematic engagement. Writing in the mid-twentieth century. but if. I will explore the ways in which viewers have engaged with films and film technologies as agents and question whether they are to be viewed solely through the lens of consumerism. images are always images of something. Any search for the reality of historical films is thus a search for viewer responses. Second. as Sartre. which can be illuminating in this context. on the other hand. What is the epistemological nature of that engagement? One view promoted by analytical philosophers of film—as distinct from the continental theories considered so far in this chapter—is that cinematic engagement is an act of imagination. filmic reality should not be considered apart from viewer engagement. as in the attribution of attitudes to other people by simulating their hopes and beliefs. and most importantly. In Chapters 7 and 8. Gregory Currie. I cannot crane my head or adjust the way that I look at it to see it more clearly. then my image will not provide me with this new information. we can be mistaken about sensory perceptions in ways that do not apply to images: for example. I can locate a certain feature such as a gargoyle. Woody Allen's The Purple Rose of Cairo (1985). and we might 'see' the front and back of an object at the same time. Reality is not simply a matter to be decided at the level of the whole film: viewers may find some elements of a film more persuasive than others. images are impoverished because we cannot learn anything new from them.
stand further from or closer to the screen and put our glasses on and take them off. Cecilia. Not long after. cars. Cecilia's plight within the diegesis of Purple Rose of Cairo conveys this point. our engagement with film is a conscious one. I do not have the same control when I watch a film. however. what we see on screen is not as open to alteration as our perceptions can be. Furthermore. I can move closer to it. no matter how much we would like to and how many screenings we have attended. taxes and religion. When we look at a film in a cinema. because as an unscripted character she threatens the plot and the continuing realisation of what the characters do at each screening. Ultimately. she cannot reside there. We are aware that we are watching a film and not looking out of a window perceiving phenomena. With perception. not us. change or have a future. These points are demonstrated in Tom Baxter's lack of familiarity with many of the features of our world: his knowledge is limited to the diegesis. prostitution. repeatedly responds 'Me?'. On the other hand. we would be shocked if diegetic phenomena moved into our viewing space. we can identify and locate phenomena. Allen's film highlights the impoverished nature of our perceptual engagement with film. not heeding the complaints of the other screen characters—'you're on the wrong side'. it is apparent that Tom knows nothing beyond what he knows in the film: Cecilia has to tell him about money. I look down. we cannot control the temporal and spatial characteristics of what we see in a film: it is the filmmaker who slows down. if I see something far away. Unlike imaging. putting on my glasses or moving closer to the screen will not tell me what kind of shoes that character is wearing. if a phenomenon is filmed out of focus. the screen character Tom Baxter pauses. . who is concerned that his career will be adversely affected by Tom's actions. while another audience member complains to the similarly startled screen characters 'What's the point of the film if they don't do what they did before?' Then. Like Tom. incredulous. In those interactions. for instance. if I want to see someone's shoes. Cecilia fares better when she later steps through the screen and joins Tom in 'filmic reality' because her repeated viewings have furnished her with knowledge of what will happen in the diegesis. She has also been tricked by stagecraft: the screen champagne is only ginger ale. As with Sartre's experiment in which he altered a window view to match a woman's hallucinations. shakes his head and says to Cecilia. 'we're in the middle of the story' and 'we can't continue with the story'—Tom steps out of the screen and into a series of interactions with Cecilia's world. repeated viewings.112 History Goes to the Movies and white film with the same title as Allen's film. Similarly. accelerates or reverses time. it soon becomes apparent that Tom is unable to age. unlike the actor who plays him on screen (Gil Shepherd). film watching is akin to imaging. or Tom Baxter's greeting to Cecilia. In this way. though. But we cannot see anything more than is depicted: if a film offers only close-ups of a character's head. and there is no place for her character to grow in such artifice. 'you must really love this picture'. who is watching the film. I cannot do anything to see it more clearly. Nor can we change the ending of a film while we are watching it.
and to a lesser extent Humboldt ignores the idealist inflection of their views. temporal and diegetic features of a film after we have seen it through mental images and memories or viewing technologies such as DVD players.G. essentially. things happened'. However. relativism and constructivism. and W. It is clear that our engagement with film cannot be readily assimilated to the activities of either perception or imaging. unvarnished tale of real life'. Film viewing. Collingwood argues. part idiosyncratic. as Chapter 8 will show us. they also held that events could only be understood by gleaning the general truths or ideas that gave them shape. In this modified view.H. R. While they desired factual representations of the past. is heterogeneous: part perceptual. should be subject to the omissions and fabrications of historical agents. What we see is neither entirely beyond our control nor completely within it. we may alter the spatial. Walsh sees colligation as necessary for helping people in the present to better understand the past. that history should be an account of the past 'wie es eigentlich gewesen'. it is held that the historian cannot gain unmediated access to the past: the survival of only fragments of evidence—most the products of humans who always see the world through 'lenses of their own grinding'—and their consideration by an historian who also sees the world through lenses of their own grinding rules that out. many historians take as 'an article of faith' that history is a description. This phrase has often been translated as 'what actually happened' and thus taken as an endorsement of the view that historians should endeavour to be transparent ciphers of the past 'as it really was'. Nor is unmediated access seen as totally desirable: no historian.50 Idealism. as Edward Cheyney puts it. realism is often reduced to a single quotation from Leopold von Ranke. Images and words As with historical film scholars. along with historicism. The more purely and completely he achieves this.52 . indispensable condition of his work and the highest achievement he will be able to attain. analysis or explanation that more or less corresponds to a real past that is no longer present. this treatment of Ranke. historians should still aim to offer a 'plain.48 Classic expressions of this position date from nineteenth-century Germany. the more perfectly has he solved his problem. part social in construction.49 More infamously.51 Nevertheless.Reality 113 Furthermore. Georg Iggers thus translates Ranke's phrase as '[history] wants to show how. such as Wilhelm von Humboldt's declaration that The historian's past is to present what actually happened. A simple presentation is at the same time the primary. like diegeses themselves. fostered the emergence of minimal or 'perspectival' realism at the end of the nineteenth century.
and they assert that the former is anterior and superior. At best. fix points of reference or certify truths. there arises a concern to focus on and lay bare the rhetorical strategies that foster a 'reality effect'. written history is one form of expression among many. They disguise their status as time-bound cultural products and encourage readers to treat them as timeless. on the other hand. They do so in the service of bourgeois ideology. a maze of mirrors. as Keith Jenkins would have it.54 Without beginnings and ends. challenges to the prevailing belief in a relationship between past and present in history gained momentum. the citation of details. quotations or an omniscient narrator. 'Writerly' texts. as was suggested in Chapter 1.or neostructuralists. To Roland Barthes. sees that historians have only been able to claim a privileged status for their writings by denying the unstable qualities of language. For instance. Their works. Historians enshrine a distinction between what is imitated and what imitates. without even readers. but a producer of the text'. draw attention to the various rhetorical techniques they employ to produce the illusion of realism and encourage readers to participate in the construction of meaning. Like other post. history was no more than a discourse of sobriety riddled with reality conventions.53 Jacques Derrida. but its proponents—the white bourgeois Europeans whose interests it most serves—have managed to convince us that it occupies a privileged relationship with reality.55 In the wake of Barthes' and Derrida's challenges to history. too. which seeks to naturalise or render ahistorical the historical. are characterised by a logocentric obsession: the desire to identify origins. that is. What Derrida questions is whether any mode of representation—books or images—refers to some real meaning external to language. a parade of signifiers masquerading as a collection of facts'. texts bear the traces of and constantly refer to other texts in an endless chain of signification that he calls différance. as was argued in Chapter 1. they only give the appearance of . there is nothing more logical or inherently superior about calling something a 'chicken' rather than a 'Huhn'. We enter here. They may also be polysemic. for example. Simply put. Barthes clearly favoured writerly texts. 'fowl' or 'chook'. but the recognition that we are left only with multiple and shifting readings. historical texts are without pasts. Histories are 'readerly' texts: they elicit a more or less passive response on the part of readers through the use of familiar themes and rhetorical devices like footnotes.114 History Goes to the Movies In the latter half of the twentieth century. 'an inscription on the past pretending to be a likeness of it. he challenges the view of linguistic structures such as signifiers (sounds or scriptive symbols or words) as stable and reflective of the mind and reality. capable of being read in multiple ways. Thus poststructuralist history entails not the substitution of the study of historians for history. transparent windows on to reality. Historians do not capture reality. without authors. insisting that 'the goal of literary work (of literature as work) is to make the reader no longer a consumer. whether it be a transcendental truth or human subjectivity.
it is important to note that varying degrees of self-reflexivity and 'reality effect' are found across historical films. In this age of 'reality effects'. Similarly. character or history of any person is coincidental and unintentional. and any resemblance to the names. 2002) Recent archaeological evidence makes statements about the true identity of King Arthur possible (King Arthur. The statement could also be read as a gesture of self-reflexivity or as an attempt to undercut the power of conspiracy theories. 2000) Based on a true story (Boys Don't Cry. falls prey to logocentrism and thus fails to recognise other readings. Our arrival at a view of historical reality as relational and as subject to historical change is bound to generate dismay among some readers. Before we rush to invert the hierarchical relation of words and images identified in Chapter 1. After all.Reality 115 doing so. as Barthes. for the challenge of poststructuralism to history is commonly seen as a stark choice . Many films end with disclaimers. but many also open or are promoted with phrases like these: Everything you are about to see is true (The Last Days.56 This singular reading. Which is more realistic: the combat film Saving Private Ryan. Derrida and Bazin recognise. 1982) You might find some of these more suggestive of reality than others. an exploration of the changing contours of the relationships between history makers and their audiences. Furthermore. as was noted in Chapters 2 and 3. 1998) Never let the truth get in the way of a good story (Chopper. though. Historical film scholars like Davis see statements of this sort simply as disclaimers used to minimise the risk of legal action. combinations of genres in historical films might be more or less suggestive of reality. 1997). 2004) This is a pure and true story (Le Retour de Martin Guerre. the melodrama Pearl Harbor (2001) or the animation Harvie Krumpet? How and why particular histories come to be seen as more realistic than others requires. many Western historical films end with a statement to this effect: The characters and incidents portrayed and the names used herein are fictitious. historical films are punctuated by temporal and emplotment devices that may serve to remind viewers that what they are seeing is not an unmediated view of the past. 1999) Inspired by true events (Windtalkers. the Holocaust comedy La Vita è Bella (Life is Beautiful. though. historical films might be seen to have more of an honest air about them than written histories.
and hard ones became fluid. It is often held that without a foundation. like Munslow. as I suggested above. though. though. Evans and Wittgenstein recognise the combination of these two claims in their transformation of 'foundationalism' into what I will call objective foundationalism. the . Carr. which finds support in the writings of E. historians have sought to secure such a firm foundation by arguing that their writings mirror or correspond to an independent. Carr. is objective foundationalism. I do not see the admission of poststructuralist arguments as tantamount to the embrace of relativism and the beginning of a slippery slope towards nihilism. and that this relation altered with time. a number of commentators. the possibility of historical understanding rests on a correspondence between thought and reality or truth. historical inquiry collapses or is rendered impossible. Furthermore.G.61 They are neither subject only to rapid change due to whim or fashion nor permanent. Richard Evans and. Collingwood. Consequently. have equated the rejection of realism with an anti-foundationalist stance. of the form of empirical propositions. Collingwood. Another option neglected by these two writers. though. 'then history as we have known it collapses altogether.62 As he argues in On Certainty. Ludwig Wittgenstein. they are aware that understandings of 'history' have changed over time.H. As a result of postmodernist and poststructuralist challenges. as we have seen. and when the strains become too great it collapses and is replaced by another. At the same time.59 It is clear that many historians hold that their works rest upon foundational assumptions about what a history is. he writes of the 'forms of life' that ground language and meaning. in that fluid propositions hardened. R.116 History Goes to the Movies between realism and relativism. for instance. a consideration of foundations has come to be seen as an outmoded or ideological activity. constellations of presuppositions provide the foundations for human activities. Lawrence Stone has opined. Stone and Richard Rorty. contrary to Munslow's judgement. Traditionally. too. and many others. including those of historians. Alan Munslow presents the choice as clear: the alternative to realism is 'to adopt Ludwig Wittgenstein's position that language is a set of games each possessing its own rules for constituting truth (see Relativism)'. For Collingwood.58 In disagreement with Stone and Munslow. but also across times. If we acknowledge the tenets of poststructuralists. true past.57 In his Companion to Historical Studies. The mythology may change back into a state of flux. but a river bed: It might be imagined that some propositions. though. The imagery of Wittgenstein's later works suggests a similar view: in Philosophical Investigations. These constellations of presuppositions may vary across cultures. and fact and fiction become indistinguishable from one another'.60 Any constellation is perpetually subject to strains and conflicts. the ground is not bedrock. were hardened and functioned as channels for such empirical propositions as were not hardened but fluid.
which does shift. and partly of sand. or watching any historical film.63 The bed of the river is made partly of hard rock. Carr when he argues that calling a history 'objective' means not that it mirrors the past but that it conforms to socially acceptable ways of viewing the past. To Derrida and Barthes as well as to Baudrillard.H. Wittgenstein. As Fernand Braudel recognised. on the other hand. washing away. A similar view is at work in the writings of E. This is a promising image. If the will and goals of a society change. unchanging standards. But I distinguish between the movement of the waters and the shift of the bed itself. signals our complicity in the perpetuation of a world in which we know little of ourselves. What counts as socially acceptable and thus as objective is that which puts into words the will and goals of the historian's age. let alone paths of social transformation. Godard and Benjamin. Laughing at Harvie Krumpet.65 Absolutism posits absolute or permanent. In this image of our world we see that while some presuppositions are subject to great historical and cultural variation. then what is counted as objective will also change. Carr and Evans turns on whether we consider the conventional nature of histories and their 'reality effects' to be problematic or not. The difference between their views and those of Collingwood.67 Nothing in the writings of Barthes and Derrida suggests an immediate incompatibility with the view of objective foundationalism I have just sketched. how can we know whether history is an instrument of consumerism or masculinity until we. The writings of Collingwood and Wittgenstein point to 'objectivism' rather than to absolutism or extreme relativism. though there is not a sharp distinction of the one from the other. give thought to the engagements of actual rather than hypothetical viewers . allows for objective principles of judgement. like Bazin. being redeposited or carried in the river flow. Richard Evans has noted that what counts as a history and what counts as evidence 'is not determined solely by one historian's perspective. Taking that advice seriously. Yet all the writers canvassed in this chapter promote the view that awareness and transformation can be achieved through historicisation. which appears as unalterable or as subject only to minor alterations.64 That is as much true of the presuppositions that historians hold as those of the historical agents they study. principles. the phenomena of our world evidence different rates of change. others hardly move at all.66 Similarly. but is subject to a wide measure of agreement which transcends the individual'.Reality 117 river-bed of thoughts may shift. standards and concepts that are not decided solely by personal preference or the whim of individuals. presuppositions and concepts. Objectivism. the suspension of the flow of our 'forms of life'—whether through conscious agreement or unconscious acceptance—results in our enslavement in the matrices of consumerism and masculinity. for poststructuralism and realism need not imply the acceptance of all or only rapidly changing assumptions or immutable ones.
Recommended resources Ankersmit. Time. vol. ' "Any resemblance to persons living or dead": film and the challenge of authenticity'. 2.: MIT Press. Zohn. p..: Harvard University Press. 1981. Greene. trans. Rosenstone. Chicago: University of Chicago Press. 3. H. 'History: a retro scenario'. 196–7. Sorlin. Beitchman. Glaser. 476.F. Iluminations. S. trans. What is Cinema?. 1995. Real Emotional Logic: Film and Television Docudrama as Persuasive Practice. Historicity. The Yale Review. trans. 1994.F.. Glaser. 'Saving Private Ryan'. New York: Semiotext(e). trans. Simulations.-L. 11 Anon. 65–75. Ann Arbor: University of Michigan Press. Detroit: Wayne State University Press.. 152(4). H. Foucault. p. 'Titanic'. 1987. Cubitt. Minneapolis: University of Minnesota Press. 3 R. 8 Ibid.. Bann. Foss. 2 N. The Order of Things: An Archaeology of the Human Sciences. Pierson. in Comparative Criticism: A Yearbook.. 10 Anon. 6. The Film in History. 56. Gray. M. New York: Schocken. [1967]. Histoire(s) du cinéma: introduction à une veritable historie du cinéma. S. Bazin. in Simulcra and Simulations. W. p. The Cinema Effect. anon. Lipkin.. J. Eicher. Cinema and History. p. see also .. Benjamin. Theory. vol. Mass. Beitchman. 4 P. H. Foss. trans... P. A. 45.. 'Le discours de l'histoire'. 9 Ibid. P. 7 Ibid. p.N. and Kellner. 27 July 1998. 47. trans. 130(24). P. University Park: Pennsylvania University Press. S. Berkeley: University of California Press. trans. S.. New York: Semiotext(e). Patton and P. trans. 1988. Special Effects: Still in Search of Wonder.. 208. pp. McLaughlin. Davis. Mass. 1983. la seule. 2002. J. Visions of the Past: The Challenge of Film to Our Idea of History. Ann Arbor: University of Michigan Press. 2 vols. xv. Baudrillard. H. 6 J. Arendt. p.. 246. P. [1981] 1994. in Simulcra and Simulations. pp. 'History: a retro scenario'. la vraie. 1999. 1983. p. H. New York: Columbia University Press. 2002. 76(4). vol.. 15 December 1997. Godard. R. Cambridge. A New Philosophy of History. vol. Notes 1 M. J. Change Mummified: Cinema. 55. Baudrillard. 46–7.Z. Ferro. p. p. Munich: ECM Records. S. Rosen. F. 2001. P. ed. The Arcades Project. pp. 1980. 1970. 1999.118 History Goes to the Movies with films? That question will be at the forefront of our thinking in the rest of this book. Simulations.. Patton and P. and M.. N. 5 J. (eds). Barthes. Benjamin. Carbondale: Southern Illinois University Press. Oxford: Blackwell. p. 1969. Cambridge. p. New York: Vintage Books. 1995.. Baudrillard. Baudrillard. Eiland and K. trans. Newsweek. W. trans. 65. pp. 2004. Cambridge.: Harvard University Press. Mass. producer M. 43–8.
Baltimore: Johns Hopkins University Press. Amnésies: fictions du cinema d'après Jean-Luc Godard. A. p. 'Establishing new boundaries for special effects: Robert Zemeckis's Contact and computer-generated imagery'. 44. 83–100. Baudrillard. Berkeley: University of California Press. Cohen. and public memory'. Baudrillard. H. Godard. p.thepatriot. W. G2. vol. history and JFK'. New Brunswick. V. 'The politics of historical interpretation: discipline and de-sublimation'. Cubitt. Bazin. 17 September 1999. Oxford: Oxford University Press. trans. trans. la seule.. 'Director's commentary'. Bazin. ch. S. Benjamin. J. Mass. Craig. L. 82–8. The Cinema Effect. no. Gray. Dancer in the Dark [DVD]. L. la vraie. Histoire(s) du cinéma. Guardian. 322–30. vol. 'Director's commentary'. Doherty. 47.: MIT Press. 'On some motifs in Baudelaire'. p. Munich: ECM Records. Benjamin. Kenny. Journal of Popular Film and Television.. W. popular modernism.V. Sobchack. The Critique of Judgement. p. 5. S. Journal of Modern History. 1998. Histoire(s) du cinéma. Cambridge. Simulations. A. 12. The Cinema Effect. 463. 174–5. 464. trans. vol. p. On Schindler's List. trans. J. H. 2. 'Seamless matching: film. Logan. 9–16. producer M. Phi Kappa Journal.Reality 119 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 26 27 28 29 30 31 32 33 34 35 36 37 E. Cubitt. 'Holocaust'. 97. People Weekly. New York. see M. and B.C. reproduced in M. esp. 2004. Miller. Berkeley: University of California Press. ch. On the sublime. See. in Simulcra and Simulation. 1998. part 3A. 2001. p. W. p. in The Content of the Form: Narrative Discourse and Historical Interpretation. 1969. 162. J. Landy (ed. p. vol. Oxford: Oxford University Press. 'T2: behind the scenes with the terminator 2 sound team'. 1973. see I.L. See also J. 28(4). 'Horror d'oeuvre'. pp. 261. Mass. What is Cinema?. Eiland and K. ' "Surge and splendor": a phenomenology of the Hollywood historical epic'. 1997. part 1A. 58–82. p. Representations.O. 1999. ed. Manchel. Godard. 1967. 27. 254. T. 49. Benjamin. 4. Cinema Papers. What is Cinema?. 5. Benjamin. The Historical Film: History and Memory in Media. Histoire(s) du cinéma: Introduction à une veritable historie du cinéma. J. pp. F. Cambridge. H. J. 266. 103. in Illuminations. 162. no.-L. pp. Mix: Professional Recording and Sound and Music Production. 15. 1970. Arendt. at http://www.R. 'The work of art in the age of mechanical reproduction'. 'What combat does to man: Private Ryan and its critics'. Baudrillard. H. 9 September 1991. 1990. The Cinema Effect. 13. as cited in S. 29. 1998. T. 39.-L. p. 54. Godard. in Illuminations. 2001. 3A. 'Schindler's List is not Shoah: the second commandment. von Trier. 1999. and H. W. 1999. 67(1). 1. 1967. p. 163. McLaughlin. Anon. no. G. 201–17. J. A. pp. p. 1995. Gray. p. 'History: a retro scenario'. The Arcades Project. 247. p. pp. 'Eliza Frazer'. in Illuminations. Paris: P. Meredith. Cubitt.). pp. vol. The Phenomenology of Spirit. for example. H. von Trier. 16–17. Eicher. . 'Theses on philosophy of history'. Ibid. 'Things to do in Hollywood when you're dead'. 'A reel witness: Steven Spielberg's representation of the Holocaust in Schindler's List'.W. pp. Brantu Hansen. p. 77(3). 3 July 2000..com.: Harvard University Press. White. Kant. Zohn. 54(1). Aumont. no. The National Interest. J. pp. 45. vol. trans. Dancer in the Dark [DVD].-L. Centropolis Effects Showcase. Hegel. p. Anon. 13 July 1977. 1989. trans. The Arcades Project. 64. NJ: Rutgers University Press. J. centrespread.F. pp.
B. edn. II. 1972. The Philosophy of History. 56 N. 40 G. L. §§314. xli–xlii. vol. anon. §§96–7. New York: Hill & Wang. Alfred Schulz's 'Sociological Aspect of Literature'. Collingwood. 44 J.H.G. Dissemination.. 1991. pp. trans.M. Lawrence: University of Kansas Press. Past and Present. Oxford: Oxford University Press. p. Re-thinking History. Wittgenstein. Bann. pp.E. 34. no. Ryle. Historians' Fallacies: Toward a Logic of Historical Thought. 39 A. Oxford: Blackwell. R. 725–7. 2000. Munslow. 2. G. 1993. rev. 60 R. p. Martin. ed. 59. 400. 'On multiple realities and the world of film'. 13. on this point in relation to histories.-P. 6(1). Oxford: Blackwell. Barthes. 54 J. 1052. The Concept of Mind. New York: Citadel. Sartre. 131.-P. R. Oxford: Oxford University Press. G. Wittgenstein.G. 41 J. 50 G. [1967].). 1971. 2. Cheyney. 1. trans. 1974. 1132. 105. Sartre. §§89. 3. 23. Amsterdam: Kluwer.-P.E. Anscombe and G. History and Tropology: The Rise and Fall of Metaphor.Z. Image and Mind: Film Philosophy and Cognitive Science.G. 44. 1949.G. 166. p. 47 G. 212–19. 157.M. p. 138. 'History and postmodernism: II'. p. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. 'The double session'. and R.M. The Psychology of Imagination. §§19. §§100–4. von Wright. Remarks on the Psychology of Philosophy. London: Routledge.J. 167–8. trans. vol. The Psychology of Imagination.A. 1992. in The Routledge Companion to Historical Studies. 'Le discours de l'histoire'. trans. vol. 'On the historian's task' [1821]. 653. pp. von Wright. Kopf. History and Theory. Oxford: Blackwell. Philosophical Investigations. pp.-P. p. What Actually Happened. University Park: Pennsylvania University Press. Wittgenstein.120 History Goes to the Movies 38 P. 48n. Gardiner (ed. 1999. 3. p. pp. p. 57. and G. in G. 121. Sartre. vol. see also P. ed. 1971. ed. 256. W. pp. 195. Wittgenstein.. 127–44. rev. p. Johnson. 20. edn. 5. 1981. Stone. p.H. 62 L. Anscombe. 10. p.H. p. Jenkins.E.H. 1927. 1992. The Concept of Mind. van der Dussen. von Moltke (eds). 43 Ibid. 45 Ibid. Law in History and Other Essays. Indianapolis: Bobbs-Merrill. Rosen. 151. G. 63 L. 'Linguistic turn'. Berkeley: University of California Press. p. Iggers and K. p. 1974. Philosophical Investigations. Anscombe. 1994. Davis. Harmondsworth: Penguin. 6. 1973. 476. Miller. pp. pp. Oxford: Oxford University Press. 1.E. 5. G. pp. Iggers. G. 219–35. The Psychology of Imagination. R. ed. ' "Any resemblance to persons living or dead" '. p. 226. Change Mummified. Bazin. Psanthas. §§63–104.. 232. Derrida. 1–3. Anscombe and G. 1980.M. Embree (ed. p. 55 K. 174. 'Introduction'. Oxford: Blackwell. 42 J. §344. ch. 241. trans. W. Nowell-Smith. vol. von Wright. 663. 51 R. ed. 'Colligatory concepts in history'. What is Cinema?. p. 53 R. 52 E. pp. von Humboldt. New York: A. Fischer. vol. 181–243. vol. 2.. Barthes. Rhees and G. The Theory and Practice of History. 46 J. The Idea of History. London: Routledge. . 49 W. 1967. Ryle. 759–60. and L. The Concept of Mind. 60. 194. 4–5. 59 R. in L. An Essay on Metaphysics. pp. Rorty. p. 1981.). 248. Wittgenstein. pp. S/Z. 1998. Remarks on the Psychology of Philosophy. 57 L. Ankersmit. 58 A. in P. 65–75.H. 103. 234–5. 12–13. On Certainty. Ryle. Sartre. London: Routledge & Kegan Paul. Remarks on the Psychology of Philosophy. S. Currie. 70. L. Wittgenstein. Philosophy and the Mirror of Nature. 1953. 61 Ibid. in Comparative Criticism: A Yearbook. London: Athlone Press. 48 D. The Psychology of Imagination. Collingwood. G. 87. see F. 1969. and L. p. Walsh.
rev.H. the Historical Imagination and Education. Matthews. 1986. 2003.Reality 121 64 F. Exeter: Imprint Academic. 67 R. 65 For a more extended discussion on Collingwood's and Wittgenstein's objectivism. Carr. 'The situation of history in 1950'. S. 128. see my 'How Good an Historian Shall I Be?': R. R. 3. 26. Collingwood. What is History?. London: Granta. ed. Harmondsworth: Penguin. Thorveton.W.J. pp. 1989. 66 E. edn. Braudel. in On History. Chicago: University of Chicago Press. 1997. p. In Defence of History. . Davies.G. p. 10–11. ch. Evans. trans.
we might ask what room there is for history in Paul Rotha and Lewis Jacob's definition of documentary as the expression of 'social purpose' or Comolli's contrasting account of it as the 'transparent' treatment of actuality. for approaches to its definition vary considerably across film and historical film studies. he recognised that films. When John Grierson first argued that Robert Flaherty's Moana (1926) had 'documentary' value.1 But not all films. Similarly. for the 'speedy snip-snap' of newsreels or works that simply recorded events were of a 'lower' category than 'documentary proper'. for unmediated representations of the past are neither possible nor. Wanting to exclude works that did not make 'any considerable contribution to the fuller art of documentary'. my parents endorsed the conventional view of documentary as one of the more realistic forms of filmic expression. the only television programs I was permitted to watch were documentaries. Building on the relational and historical view of reality proposed in the previous chapter. he specified that his interest lay with those works that offered 'the creative treatment of actuality'. Grierson's connection of documentary with reality in the 'philosophic sense' reflects the idealist project of wanting to reveal the presuppositions that give shape to human activities.3 Presuppositions shape past and present activities. arguably. the aim of this chapter is to understand how and why historical documentaries elicit such trust. In the microcosm of that childhood spent watching Civilisation (1969) and The World at War (1974). like written 'documents'. Thus although Grierson considered Robert Flaherty to be the 'father of documentary'. they trusted that I would learn something about history from the documentaries I watched.4 Grierson's interest in the filmic addressing of present-day problems appears to leave historical topics outside the definition of documentary.5 .6 Documentary When I was a child. a treatment that could reveal truths 'more real in the philosophic sense' than those offered in either mimetic records or dramatic features. desirable. Our starting point will be with the concept of 'documentary'.2 As Aitken has pointed out. he complained that he wasted his talents on making films about the past. for example. Furthermore. but Grierson's interest was in those connected with present-day social problems. could be a means of education and of proof.
as Plantinga puts it.6 That is. Figure 6. Seeing a film as a documentary depends in part on 'situational cues' or 'indexes' advanced in advertisements. is due in part to conventional practices of definition that focus on the identification of essential characteristics. USC Shoah Foundation) . as Carl Plantinga and Bill Nichols have pointed out.7 This more open.1). invites us to view the work as a documentary through both the direct endorsement of it as such by the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences and indirectly through the tagline—introduced in the last chapter—'Everything you are about to see is true'. for example. but rather a braid of family resemblances'. 'the concept has no essence. shelving decisions and programming.8 The advertisement for The Last Days (1998. just as there may be no one feature or set of features common to all the members of a family. distribution and reception. Furthermore.Documentary 123 The problem of defining documentary. This sets up a different expectation to the one we might form in response to advertising for Figure 6. there may still be a collection of facial characteristics among them that allows a person to be recognised as a member of it nonetheless. rather. synopses. websites. Documentaries do not all share the same qualities. reviews. the organising idea of a 'family resemblance' draws attention to practices and contexts of production. Wittgensteinian view of the concept of documentary better allows for the inclusion of works focusing on historical topics. a family likeness is a family likeness to someone.1 Advertisement for The Last Days (© 1998. Put simply. labels.
and they. Poetic documentary Working to disrupt or to draw attention to cinematic conventions designed to build temporal and spatial continuity and specificity—such as matches on action and a focus on named individuals—poetic documentary makers highlight the aesthetic dimensions of images of past and present phenomena. which bears the tagline 'Never let the truth get in the way of a good story'. unified body of filmic techniques signals that a work is a documentary. Péter Forgác's arrangement and aural and visual manipulation of amateur footage by Nandor Andrasovits—captain of the ship the Queen Elizabeth—of the exodus of Jews to Palestine and the exodus of Bessarabian Germans to Poland in A dunai exodus (The Danube Exodus. Indexing thus also occurs within documentaries. as Nichols has argued. However. Poetic films predate Moana. the trauma around which social reality is structured'.9 Modes and voices: wherein lies history? No single. history and film itself to understand them. an analysis of the history of documentary making reveals a cumulative scale of six constellations of practices or 'modes': poetic. were criticised by . In Sans Soleil (Sunless. Slajov Zizek sees poetic film as turning over social problems that go without saying: 'what emerges via distortions of the accurate representation of reality is the real—that is. 1982). observational. It is only with the addition of visual narrative conventions. expository.10 In poetic film. Rather. Chris Marker uses fragmentary images and personal comments couched in the third person to disturb conventional understandings of both recent political events and the use of memory. Similarly. as Dziga Vertov puts it. Similarly. like Flaherty. 1999) draws us away from conventional historiography and towards moods and minute actions.11 Similarly. the aim is. for example. the regular programming of documentaries on Saturday and Sunday evenings in Australia no doubt helped my parents to decide what I was permitted to watch.12 Poetic fascination with montage as a source for social awareness aligns with Walter Benjamin's remedy for the 'dream' of the nineteenth century outlined in the previous chapter. these situational cues alone may not be enough to convince an audience that what they are seeing is a documentary or—as we shall see—may be used to promote a 'mockdocumentary'. to create a 'fresh perception of the world'. participatory. including the historical world. the cinematic shaping of time and space and avant-garde interests and techniques that filmic document becomes documentary in Grierson's sense of the 'creative treatment of actuality'.124 History Goes to the Movies Chopper (2000). Documentary cinema is often associated with indexing or preserving phenomena and its origins traced to actuality making in the late nineteenth century. reflexive and performative. 'promo-documentary' or 'docudrama'.
and subtitles. their training consisted of performances as Shakespeare's kings and the controlling voice of 'Charlie' in Charlie's Angels (1976. 'Voice of God' narrators generate the impression of seeing and translating images for viewers. expository works would appear to align most with conventional situational and textual cues and indices for 'documentary'. Expository documentary Anecdotally. for they have tended to isolate themselves more and more in private impression and private performance. Expository documentaries are characterised by a heavy dependence on commentary delivered by inter. Grierson saw art alone as not up to the task of drawing people to social and political consciousness and action. suffered greatly from the freedom given to artists in a first uncritical moment of revolutionary enthusiasm. Russian directors.13 In a position parallel to that of new idealists such as R.G. One's impression is that when some of the art and all of the bohemian self-indulgence have been knocked out of them. Collingwood. .Documentary 125 Grierson for offering escapist. In filmic terms. Burns' work is a sequence of close-up shots of photographs (6–12 seconds' . On what grounds is the professional actor chosen over the historian. backward-looking and impractical works that would do little to orient citizens in a nation-state. Those commentaries—usually taking the form of older male voices—deliver what appear to be expert and authoritative arguments and conclusions that are above or at least distinct from the visual and material evidence that is used.15 Lawrence Olivier (The World at War). 1995. Sean Barrett (People's Century. 'talking heads' and voiceover narration. A good case in point is the critically celebrated and popular television series The Civil War (1990). he complained are too bound up—too aesthetically vain—in what they call their 'play films' to contribute to Russia's instructional cinema. the Russian cinema will fulfil its high promise of the late twenties. but they too are often detached from what is presented by virtue of their training and previous film credits. Nor are viewers told who the interviewer is or even what questions prompted the recorded comments. 1995. 2003). .14 Grierson thus set in train the association of documentary with what Nichols calls the 'expository mode'. take place in offices. They have. directed by Ken Burns. to take just three examples. they are rarely shown touching or even looking at the images. materials and places shown to viewers. were not professional historians. 2000. . UK version) and John Forsythe (People's Century. US version). and institutional pedigrees are displayed in subtitles. for instance. Interviews with expert 'talking heads'. indeed. and what does this say about the purposes of documentary? Lauded and trusted documentaries are often dominated by expository conventions.
they float by.g. In their own cornfields and peach orchards. Theodore Moody (The Course of Irish History. we might be tempted to conclude that in expository documentary.or even inter-titles. The narration and commentary by identified and professionally affiliated talking heads (e. Poses and deaths that might have come about for a host of reasons are swept together in a single epic war. 1985) offered what we might call on-screen lectures. though. For example. The images we see are not presented as artefacts that can be held. historians such as A. 'a foreign country' that requires translation by a detached. 2000. 1970. These elements are cemented together by the narration of actor David McCullough. Peacemaking 1919. Figure 6. 1971).16 There is.17 Simon Schama. . as Lowenstahl puts it. Along familiar roads and by waters with old American names.J. the past is. Roberts (The Triumph of the West.. While their demeanour and accoutrements—consider Colin Hughes' pipe in Mister Prime Minister (1966. 2000). remain outside the narrative frame. In the 1960s and 1970s. Did those who fought know that they were making history? Did they see their battle as one of 'American' against 'American'? Were the battles 'epic' for them? Did their poses—in life and death—function as signs of the real at the time they were captured on film? Or did they signify other things? These questions.2)—have been lampooned in television comedies such as Monty Python's Flying Circus (1969) and We Are History (2000). rather. Today we have the choice of Michael Wood walking in the footsteps of Alexander the Great and the Conquistadors (In the Footsteps of Alexander the Great. David Starkey and Niall Ferguson guiding us through the history of Britain and its empire (A History of Britain. photos of unnamed individuals captured in formal poses and after death in unspecified contexts are harnessed to this 'translation' at the beginning of episode 1: Americans slaughtered one another wholesale here in America. They knew they were making history. Men who had never strayed twenty miles from their own front doors found themselves soldiers in great armies fighting epic battles hundreds of miles from home. engaged with or debated. 1966) and J. 'writer'. The Monarchy .126 History Goes to the Movies duration without camera movement. sub. Taylor (Men of Our Time: Mussolini. another form of expository historical documentary in which the interaction between commentary and images is more fluid: that characterised by the use of an on-screen historian commentator. Conquistadors. one in which the participants knew its significance. waiting to be anchored and unlocked by the spoken word. authoritative commentator. 1998. . On the basis of examples like The Civil War.P. like the literal questions put to the talking heads. 12–15 with camera movement) interspersed with colour landscape scans (12–15 seconds) and 'talking head' segments (12–15 seconds). 'historian') work like super.M. translating and explaining the succession of images. . this form of presentation has nonetheless undergone a revival.
patterns of speech and approaches to history were shaped in part by their experiences as students at Cambridge or in the case of Jones and Ferguson. recent presenter-led historical documentaries offer the expert commentary of the expository form. has also been drawn into the expository form to bring medieval history to the small screen (Crusades. A former lampooner. 2004. Moore's dress. clearly encouraging us to trust his connection . Terry Jones. mannerisms and modes of address suggest anything but a polished. Oxford. 1997). Medieval Lives. 1995. particularly in his examination of explanations for the Columbine High School shootings in Bowling for Columbine (2002). In some ways. and Richard Holmes taking us into past battlefields (War Walks 1996. the description of recent presenters as 'telly dons' is appropriate. 2003). Part travelogue and part lecture. university-endorsed take on the past.Documentary 127 Figure 6. Ostensibly. but one that is embodied and that makes contact with the material dimensions of the past on the viewer's behalf. Whether they are less detached or even aloof than off-screen narrators and earlier contributors to the presenter form is an open question. Yet he too functions as an authoritative translator. for their mannerisms. 2004). History thus appears to be embodied in the middle-aged.2 Colin Hughes lectures in Mister Prime Minister (© 1966. but her departure from the norm is not as radical as it might first appear. Oxbridge-educated male authority figure who translates the past for us. an 'everyman' alternative to British 'telly dons' may be found in the figure of Mike Moore. and she offers many of the same mannerisms and patterns of speech as her male counterparts. Australian Broadcasting Corporation) of England. Empire. for she too was educated at Oxford. Bettany Hughes' The Spartans (2002) and Seven Ages of Britain (2003) show us that the translator of history does not have to be male.
generate the impression of 'fly on the wall' observations of historical re-enactments. including requests for repeated actions. the milkman made his deliveries and the President bombed another country whose name we couldn't pronounce. Observational documentary In Nichols' view. the rendering of many of the expository documentaries listed above as either radio serials or audio books would not present too many technical difficulties. As Forgác's A dunai exodus and Alain Resnais' meditation on the Holocaust in Nuit et brouillard (Night and Fog. the varying activities. two boys went bowling at 6am. 1955) highlight. distinct from but ultimately confirming and sustaining the arguments presented. . by comparison. replaced by Moore's belief in a United States in which violence is systemic and even mundane. with little or no commentary. the shaping force of expository documentaries is spoken or written text. 5–9-second stills and movie images of (in the main) unnamed individuals in unspecified contexts is united by Moore's words: It was the morning of April 20th 1999 and it was pretty much like any other morning in America. The opening sequence of Bowling for Columbine.18 Consequently. shares 'expository' features in common with The Civil War. The farmer did his chores. and those arguments do not need to be presented by a professional historian. It reminds us of the constructedness of even the most trusted of 'expository' works. editing and sequencing. Participatory . to take just one example. Images generally play an ancillary role. the controlling logic of the spoken or written word gives way to the recording of phenomena as they happen. A sequence of eight. This impression masks the interventions of the film production team. Participatory documentary Observational documentaries foster the impression that past phenomena can be captured and understood through detached contemplation. As with The Civil War. . Elements of 'reality' television history programs such as The Edwardian Country House (2002) or Outback House (2005). It was a typical day in the United States of America.128 History Goes to the Movies between political and economic practices with many of North America's political. motivations and achievements of the individuals captured on film—and possibilities for debate about them— are leached out. for example. . social and economic woes. and 'companion' books accompany many. And out in a little town in Colorado. the re-editing of observational footage can lead to the reconstruction of historical events. In the observational mode of documentary.
He writes: The worst crime. scale and incomprehensibility of the Holocaust must be achieved through an engagement with the present. for example. A film consecrated to the Holocaust can only be a countermyth. present and future cannot be disentangled. as Nichols argues. Lanzmann steadfastly refuses to provide us with the visual exposition on the Holocaust that filmic—particularly expository—convention has led us to expect. Delofski is a model for all her viewers and encourages them to unravel the many conflicting claims about Oberon's life and identity. secular religiosity in which authenticity becomes tantamount . we realise that the 'trouble' with Merle probably lies with us as viewers wanting to reconcile conflicting truths and beliefs. like Chapter 3 it shows us that past. that our understanding of past phenomena will depend at least in part on the nature of the filmmaker's relationship with the traces of the past.Documentary 129 documentaries. Eschewing the use of historical file and photographic footage. The Holocaust is either legend or present. Oberon became a legend through her appearance in over forty films and her fashioning as a tragically orphaned Tasmanian. Lanzmann instead shows us that our recognition of the banality. In The Trouble with Merle (2002). an inquiry to the present of the Holocaust or at the very least into a past whose scars are still so freshly and vividly inscribed in places and consciences that it gives itself to be seen in an hallucinatory intemporality. Biography opens out to local. Mumbai school tales of 'Queenie' Thompson and painful memories of an unknown stepsister coalesce in the figure of Merle Oberon. Inserting herself in the film as an inquirer rather than as a translator and commentator. The Holocaust cannot be completed. by contrast. that is.19 But Shoah is not simply about the past. Over the course of nine and a half hours. Claude Lanzmann also acts as a mentor and provocateur in Shoah (1985). In Dominick LaCapra's view. that can be committed when it is a question of realising a work dedicated to the Holocaust is to consider the latter as past. It is no case of the order of memory. Lanzmann's engagement with the present slips into identification: The question is whether Lanzmann in his more absolutist gestures tends to confine performativity to acting-out and tends even to give way to a displaced. simultaneously moral and artistic. We expect. Marée Delofski takes us on a filmic journey in which Tasmanian beliefs about a local girl of mixed parentage. closed and moved on from. places and people. and viewers are tugged between identities that have been marginalised and desired. put filmmakers before the lens and show them interacting with and shaping our understanding of objects. national and transnational discourse on race and class. Born Estelle Merle O'Brien Thompson. Questions too have been raised about the nature of Lanzmann's relationship with the people—and more specifically survivors—whom he interviews. At the end of the film.
The nature of the interviewer–subject relationship varies within Shoah as it does in other participatory documentaries. But in combination. thus concealing one's own intrusiveness in asking questions that prod the victim to the point of breakdown. I was sent books on Eichmann's trial. Gelley sees Lanzmann's tenacious questioning as generating a clear division between interviewer and interviewee. because I never thought I'd survive.21 Consider.22 CL: MP: Lifted out of context. And if you're alive. these variations . we might think. not all of Lanzmann's interviews are with survivors. to ignore. this excerpt from Lanzmann's interview with Mordechaï Podchlebnik. but I'm alive. So I must forget. I thank God for what remains. Lanzmann's question to Podchlebnik about his smile might be read as a self-righteous condemnation and an act of victimisation. Surely Podchlebnik has suffered enough. Furthermore. the interviews conducted with survivors. At the time I felt as if I were dead. and I want to live. all four of Lanzmann's questions reinforce the main point of the film: that the Holocaust is not a closed. completed past but something that is lived with. Podchlebnik's attempts to forget. This full identification would allow one not only to act out trauma vicariously in the self as surrogate victim but cause one to insist on having the victim relive traumatising events. Gelley even wonders if Lanzmann's tenacity has the effect of making his interviewees victims twice over. or even directs. and that I can forget. CL: Does he think it is good to think about it? MP: For me it's not good. Additionally. I was a witness. sometimes you cry. cry? Sometimes you smile. And let's not talk about that. They are all a part of Holocaust history. and his smiles cannot be disentangled from the past experiences he relays to us. But I'm only human.20 LaCapra's argument for Lanzmann being fully immersed in and vicariously acting out the trauma of Holocaust survivors is out of tune with the conceptual view of identification that was advanced in the previous chapter. CL: Then why is he talking about it? MP: Because you're insisting on it. and LaCapra offers no comment on whether identification and victimisation are the end result of interviews with participants in or witnesses to practices of removal and murder. Indeed. it's better to smile. one of two known survivors of gassings at Chelmno in Poland: What died in him at Chelmno? Everything died. It is also not evident that Lanzmann is always the focus of. In combination. CL: Why does he smile all the time? MP: What do you want me to do. and I didn't even read them. for example.130 History Goes to the Movies to a movement beyond secondary witnessing to a full identification with the victim.
including their emotional responses. and representation is recognised as political positioning. This serves the aim of highlighting the elision of race and empire at the end of the nineteenth century. to illuminate the concrete and embodied nature of knowledge. Documentary is recognised as representation. This is the case in films like Marlon Fuentes' Bontoc Eulogy (1995). That is.Documentary 131 may serve as 'alienation effects' or ostranenie that make the routine use of interviews in expository documentaries strange to us and deserving of critical attention. Politically reflexive documentaries point to us as viewers and social actors.24 Suspicion also falls upon the ability of documentary to provide direct access to the past or to provide persuasive proof that is educative or edifying.23 For example. Nichols argues: a gap between knowledge and desire. Reflexive documentary In participatory documentaries. the idea of 'documentary' appeared in the 1910s with a response to 'Hollywood fiction'. not to films.25 Performative documentaries Knowledge is situated: the same historical trace can prompt different responses among historians and viewers. Minh-ha's Surname Viet Given Name Nam (1989) gives us cause to think about conventional filmic cues that connote authenticity. In so doing. the 1960s (observational and participatory) and finally the 1980s (reflexive and . they remind us of the subjective qualities of the assumptions that shape society. The actual and the imagined are also mixed. Politically reflexive documentaries foster social and political awareness and open up. attention is also directed to the relationship between on-screen inquirers. These documentaries are thus as much concerned with the problems and limits of representation as they are about historical phenomena themselves. In reflexive documentaries. the attention of viewers is directed towards the relationship between an on-screen inquirer and traces of past phenomena. between what is and what might be. Performative documentaries use the experiences of individuals. in which the filmmaker stages a fantasy where his grandfather escapes from being an item on display in the 1904 World's Fair. 'fictional narratives of imaginary worlds' and an 'absence of "reality'' '. as the agents who can bridge this gap between what exists and the new forms we can make from it. New modes were then added in the 1920s (expository and poetic). Nichols' typology is a cumulative scale of modes. informants and historical traces and the audience itself. the combined use of interviews and unannounced performances of interviews by actors—sometimes with ostensibly the same historical agent—in Jean Godmilow's Far From Poland (1984) and Trinh T.
The social and political assumptions that shape readings of a film as a marginal documentary.28 In the previous chapter. it was seen that for theorists like Benjamin. some fuzziness accompanies the concept as a result of historical and cultural variations in situational and textual cues. as Plantinga has argued. rests upon the problematic assumption that particular film practices can be connected to particular intellectual. on the other hand.132 History Goes to the Movies performative). it is still possible to see in it a teleology that favours the reflexive and performative modes over earlier ones. a new mode of documentary is adopted. but Nichols sees in their chronological unfolding both changing social contexts and the overcoming of technological.29 The definition of nonfiction film thus turns not on a correspondence between reality and representation but on the presence of textual and situational cues that are read by viewers as assertions that the work is about phenomena that 'occur(red) or exist(ed) in the actual world'. for example.31 While practical. All of the modes are united in being 'documentaries'. as a higher specification to a lower.26 While Nichols' later writings steer away from the direct admission that the typology 'gives the impression of .30 Opening the concept of nonfiction or even documentary film to variations in historical and cultural readings renders the task of analysing examples pragmatically difficult. None of the voices is socially preferable. for example. one in which the degree or absence of 'narrational authority' is used to identify the functions or purposes of 'nonfiction' film. technical and intellectual limitations. When that inadequacy is exposed. a more to a less adequate embodiment. open and poetic—'speak' with 'epistemic authority. However. Plantinga's response to this problem is to focus on films whose membership of the concept is more certain. Nonfiction films share the criterion of a worldly assertion. but also in some part opposed to one another. Nichols' teleological formulation of the concept of documentary. the use of montage—and thus the poetic mode of documentary making—was the best means of achieving the desired outcome of awareness of commodification. an evolution toward greater complexity and self-awareness'. However. and that some outcomes ought to be valued above others. we will question the attachment of any mode of filmmaking with a determined social or political outcome. may be just as . . His three filmic 'voices'— formal. later modes do include aspects of earlier ones. Grierson. It follows from this that modes are not only distinct from one another. hesitance or aestheticism'. In the next chapter. each of the modes represents the best embodiment of the concept of documentary until it is revealed as inadequate. as one specification from another. the difficulty with this solution is that it does little to examine why it is that some cues are more readily recognised as indexical than others. Plantinga's response to Nichols takes the form of another typology. and all avow or take the stance that what is represented 'occurs in the actual world'. showed a preference for expository works. Thus the concept of documentary is a cumulative collection of conventions.27 Put more plainly. respectively. social and political outcomes. .
archival footage and 'naturalisatic' sound. dates and primary documents. black and white film and titles identifying locations. As Yosefa Loshitzky sees it.Documentary 133 instructive to us as those for a canonical work.35 These include the use of minimal or no lighting. As Jane Roscoe and Craig Hight see it. The 'Into the Breach' promo-doc that accompanies Saving Private Ryan. Saving Private Ryan (1995) and Band of Brothers (2001). and it is hard to resist the impression that Spielberg's works 'document' historical phenomena. Post-documentary: the appropriation of documentary aesthetics and diversion If recent commentators are to be believed. lighting and make-up techniques. to take just one example. which often come bundled with DVDs. Furthermore. 'documentary' may include works ranging from Making of Gladiator (HBO First Look. like 'mock documentaries'. filmic techniques and situational and textual cues both in and out of documentary making have blurred its boundaries and undermined its status. The handheld shots and desaturated colour used in the opening thirty minutes of Saving Private Ryan and throughout Band of Brothers also have 'the look' of a documentary. including advertising. 2000) to the parodic treatment of the Beatles in The Rutles (1978). are increasingly being used in the fictional realm. documentary is no longer a trusted form of filmmaking. Add contextual cues such as the cinema codes of conduct for screenings of Schindler's List recommending—among other things—that popcorn should not be consumed at screenings. Thus defined. handheld shots. it appears to draw in feature films such as Schindler's List (1995). textual and situational cues often associated with documentary. makes 'a partial or concerted effort to appropriate documentary elements and conventions in order to represent a fictional subject'. and the boundaries of the concept . Still Lives (1989) might be enough to suggest that it is also 'documentary-like'. Schindler's List provides a 'master narrative' about the Holocaust in no small part through its appropriation of documentary conventions and practices.36 The use of desaturated colour in Terence Davis' Distant Voices.34 These elements include interviews but also photographic stills. Put bluntly. is characterised by a mixture of 'talking head' interviews with the cast. Stephen Spielberg and the historian Stephen Ambrose—complete with text titles indicating character or professional affiliation—which all support the conclusion that the film gets its history of the D-Day landings 'just right'.32 Underlying this claim is the belief that the movement of new technologies. This observation appears to be well supported by the apparent proliferation of 'making of ' television specials and promotional documentaries or 'promo-docs'.33 This film. filmmaking has moved into a 'post-documentary' age. for instance. It is also important to establish just who it is that judges a work to be a clear or a marginal documentary.
encourage an active response. However. Jon Dovey for one holds that we can no longer trust works that employ textual and situational cues that were comfortably associated with documentary in times past. If not. documentary serves the 'hyperreal' rather than the 'real' and. Archival footage and reconstruction also merge in JFK. critical or deconstructive. offer space for judgement. reflexivity must mean more than simply the pleasure of knowing that documentaries are representations or even games. in which our hearts. and provide the tools for evaluation and further action—in short. The film or videotape that considers its own processes rather than seals over every gap of a never-seamless discourse is more likely to engender the healthy scepticism that begets knowledge. . the protagonist is often seen in archival film footage that is spliced with colour reconstructions. one that (as the last chapter suggested) brings with it the fear that belief in film as historically indexical might be lost to an incoming tide of relativism. From this ever-widening assortment of works. Plantinga. our minds or our souls are hardly ever touched by anything more demanding than the fate of the latest evictee from the Big Brother house or Survivor's tribal council. Roscoe and Hight and Michael Renov. offering itself as a model. Reflexivity could be the mark of a documentary.37 As Renov writes: The bottom line is that the artwork should encourage inquiry. . including an historical documentary. therefore seek to rein in the boundaries of the genre by arguing that an integral part of a documentary is its encouragement of audience awareness of the work as fictional or as a representation.38 'Docudrama' and 'reality TV' are excluded or denoted as 'marginal forms' on the grounds that their stance towards the phenomena they represent is assertive rather than parodic. it might be argued that documentary is really nothing more than a constellation of 'reality effects'. reduces viewers from creators to consumers. documentary tradition off into some Disneyfied pleasure garden of primary colour delights. In Forrest Gump. Forrest Gump thus presents itself not as a reconstruction of the past but as the archived past remade. not all commentators agree that it is a quality worthy of focus and praise. among others. as was described in the last chapter.39 In his view. and that the combined use of reflexivity.134 History Goes to the Movies might be stretched still further by noting the use of archival footage in features like Forrest Gump (1994) and JFK (1995). humour and simulated game play in present-day works 'threaten' to float the whole . Dovey's complaint . most notably in the splicing of the colour Zapruder home movie of Kennedy's assassination with black and white simulations of it.
promodocs and tele-movie 'docudramas' that replay recent events such as the life and death of Princess Diana (e. Plentiful evidence of viewer engagement may be found in both official and unofficial websites devoted to particular works. too. Méliès. for instance. In short. and vice versa. Charles Chauvel's feature film In the Wake of the Bounty (1933) offers a mixture of scripted and ethnographic file footage. the conventional division in histories of film between 'actual' (typically associated with the Lumière brothers) and 'fantastic' (typically associated with George Méliès) projects masks the long-standing use of techniques associated with fantasy to create documentaries. Diversion documentaries borrow fictional formats. Nor do we have solid grounds to assume that all viewers derive undemanding pleasure from. contemporary historical documentaries. the viewer polls that dot the websites of 'fly on the wall' historical 'reality' programs like Frontier House (2002) simply mark a new form of viewer interaction rather than its advent. Princess in Love. As Flynn also notes. 1996. For instance. and The Life and Death of Princess Diana. or often even linked back to specific historical agents. then. 1992. or act as the stupefied consumers of. As Bernadette Flynn has noted. 1993. where viewers controlled the delivery of historical re-enactments by turning the handle of the mutoscope and by selecting one mutoscope over another. it is enough to establish that viewers cannot be reduced to a single form of response.40 Conversely.41 Conversely. well over a hundred websites offer varied reactions to Michael Moore's works. These include fan fiction sites where Moore appears as a voice of warning in a . particularly from soap operas and gameshows. Charles and Diana: Unhappily Ever After. interactive documentaries have their antecedents in penny arcades. in order to entertain their audiences. In recent years. computer-generated images have commanded more screen space. employed optical effects and re-enactment in The Coronation of Their Majesties Edward VII and Queen Alexandra (1902).42 Arguably.Documentary 135 echoes John Corner's evaluation that diversion is emerging as a 'documentary imperative'. While contemporary pronouncements about a new or crisis state of documentary filmmaking appear to ring true. documentary hybrids are not a new phenomenon. with mock documentaries. While such evidence cannot be treated as representative. This comes at the price of critical political engagement on the part of viewers and the loss of documentary authority. Diana: Her True Story. and as was argued in Chapter 2. 'sobriety' and any claims to a direct relationship between filmic images and their historical referents. as with the dramatic reconstruction of the monastery at Cluny in Crusades (1995). 1998).g. the construction of viewer responses from either a psychoanalytical or a critical perspective serves to paper over differences in the experiences of people of varying histories and historical contexts. for example. they lose much of their force when we take a closer look at both film history and historical rather than hypothetical viewers. documentary has been drawn into fiction. all historical films are arguably hybrids. As has been argued throughout this book.
43 Before we conclude that this is evidence of the conflation of fact and fiction in a 'post-documentary' age. Indeed. As Steve Woolgar and Michael Lynch have demonstrated. their responses resemble those of viewers of reality and fictional programs that do not purport to be set in the past. the concept is associated with a variety of meanings and uses. viewers looked to their own experiences and to other programs with a similar format. Sandra Harding's call for 'strong reflexivity' is not incompatible with the aim of objectivity. In and of itself. open up choices and give voice to those who have been silenced by prevailing conventions. and in some cases it is seen to reinforce rather than challenge conventional practices. She writes: . as well as those of history.45 For example. Others.44 This distinction will occupy more of our attention when we come to discuss viewer concepts like 'canon' again in Chapter 8. range from comments on the physical attractiveness of various participants to a lively discussion on whether historical 'authenticity' is possible or even desirable on television. consumptive stance on the part of viewers. some noted that the revival of nineteenth-century practices might produce results that are far from ethical. reflexivity does not guarantee social emancipation. the program clearly slipped its moorings and wound up as '1861 Big Brother' or simply 'a camping trip in funny clothes'. Furthermore. though.136 History Goes to the Movies lesbian Buffy adventure. for instance. Should we.to nineteenth-century behaviour both interesting and informative about our own times. Viewer responses in the logs for the Australian Broadcasting Corporation's Outback House (2005). Similarly. found the struggle by participants to shift from twenty-first. For some viewers. In this way. it is worth noting that fan fiction excursions with Michael Moore are unusual and that he never appears in more than a cameo role. within the official websites of reality historical documentaries —the sort of programs associated by Dovey with 'Disneyfied pleasure'— one can find little evidence of a singular. Images and words In many present-day theories of documentary. for instance. 'reflexivity' is the hallmark of critical engagement and social emancipation. This is a question we will pick up again in our exploration of the commercial dimensions of historical filmmaking in Chapter 8. Reflexivity is said to throw into relief unquestioned assumptions. as a former US president in a portrait and in a poem about presidential hopeful John Kerry. deny present-day medical attention to an injured participant? To support their claims. fan fiction usages of documentary figures are so unusual that we may even have grounds to conclude that documentary can be distinguished from other forms of history making on reception alone. On the other hand. however. some viewers also supported their claims by reference to oral and written histories such as The Letters of Rachel Henning.
otherwise they immediately turn us to their objectivized side. Additionally.G. In order to see myself more completely. In the vision of theorists like R. A quick glance at the history of history making turns up a number of works that might be considered multivalent or polyphonic.51 His point is that unless we seek to engage others in dialogue. the conjunction of reflexivity with the opening up of many voices—multivalency or polyphony—and the abdication of authority cannot be assumed. We are both engaging in the act of observing. they become objects and we are left with diminished understandings. historians are their own authorities. for example. values and hopes. in the words of Mikhail Bakhtin. they fall silent. monologic texts are not only unethical. culture. objectified images'.Documentary 137 Maximising the objectivity of our accounts requires that the conceptual frameworks within which we work—the assumed and/or chosen ones of our discipline. Akira Kurosawa presents four largely irreconcilable accounts of an event—a rape and a murder—in Rashomon (1950). everything that has meaning and significance'. but it is different for both of us not only because our bodies occupy different spatial positions but also because we regard each other and the world with different life experiences. Collingwood. and historical moment—be subjected to the same critical examination that we bring to bear on whatever else we are studying.50 Thus to think about ourselves and others 'means to talk with them.47 Belief in reflexivity as a virtue is thus undercut a little by a lack of clarity about what it entails.46 Harding's interest in objectivity opens up space between 'strong objectivity' and more sceptical understandings of the concept that identify all practices as representations.48 This vision of history is. The French medieval historian Jean Froissart. I can see things behind your back that you cannot see. subjecting all evidence to critical interpretation. and congeal into finished. 'I' is not a discrete thing but the ever-changing product of inter-subjective communication.49 Bakhtin explains this claim through the example of a person looking at another person. Reflexivity in this sense amounts to an awareness and questioning of belief in a world independent of the mind that constructs it. Readers of Froissart's . they also determine when the people they write about will speak and what they will say.52 Working with a different medium over five hundred years later. we determine who we are according to where we are situated in relation to other persons. beliefs. and you can see things behind my back that I cannot see. three of which may have been written simultaneously. they are also lacking in meaning because dialogical relationships—relationships based on dialogue—permeate 'all human speech and all relationships and manifestations of human life—in general. offers us no less that five versions of the first book of Chronicles. I must take on the vision of others and see myself as they do. In Bakhtin's view. 'monologic': historians not only impose their own interpretative framework on their texts. close up.
In the preface. . closes Davis' Society and Culture in Early Modern France: NZD: LJ: Laurent Joubert. he instructs us to 'hear' the Trump Bold passages in the accent of a working-class eighteenthcentury German Moravian. Nor is there any guarantee that the use of particular textual or filmic conventions will automatically grant a voice to those who have previously been silenced. It is one thing to bring new historical agents into history making. invented exchange between herself. That's not true. for example. Davis appears to embrace the opportunity to give voice to those previously silenced and to question historical methods.138 History Goes to the Movies book and viewers of Kurosawa's film are given little guidance as to how they should judge each of the versions of events. the Trump Bold Italics passages in the Dutch accent of a bewigged colonial governor or his soldier-administrators. It might spring from a desire to foreground the voices of historical agents. Combine this omission with Price's frequent interpretative interventions. an invented confrontation with Laurent Joubert. Likewise. Frustrated with the lack of respect given to early modern Europeans. and we arrive instead at the textual equivalent of a documentary 'voice of . Dutch settlers and colonial officials and present-day Saramakas in Suriname is arguably a cosmetic device. this does not mean that both of these works arose from self-reflection and the determination to bring about social and political change. Intention alone is not enough to make a work polyphonic.and nineteenth-century German Moravian missionaries. Richard Price's use of four typefaces in Alabi's World (1990) to suggest a conversation between himself. I was trying to give the people better health. it is another to allow them to change our understanding of how histories should be made. function as historiographical membranes. You are incurably naïve.53 Here. . Natalie Zemon Davis opens Women on the Margins with a spirited. Your Popular Errors was just an effort to keep the physicians on top. Froissart's rival histories more likely arose from an interest in attracting multiple sponsors and thus financial security. However. however. and the Trump Italics passages in the speech cadences of the elderly. Similarly. These dialogues. you had contempt for the midwives you knew and did not think about how they served the village women. the author of a sixteenth-century book on popular medical errors.54 The absence of any instruction on how to 'hear' Price's voice is surprising. dignified Saramaka men. though. for they enclose a substantial body of argument that Davis directs and delivers in conventional ways. Glikl bas Judah Leib. Alabi's World. I praised the midwife Gervaise who came regularly to public dissections of female corpses at Montpellier. Marie de L'incarnation and Maria Sibylla Merian. eighteenth. some of whose portraits grace . They thus show us that history consists of multiple voices.
The same criticism can be levelled at the 1996 documentary W.56 . Consider his translation of this Saramaka passage: At the pool. what your deepest interests are.B. 'I can't go on'. it should be acknowledged that radical intentions and methodologies do not necessarily produce radical social and political outcomes. which will liberate us both. asking whether the valuing of reflexivity or associated notions like polyphony itself is a radical and sceptical act. The first said. when they become a methodological imperative that is used to downgrade the ideas of those who are unable or unwilling to engage in self-revelation.E. 'Just keep going. 'No way. 'Gwinzu' [an obsolete word for 'man']. 'Gwinzu. you are an unreflexive bastard. The other answered. A work that appears to be multivalent may serve to reinforce conventional historical approaches. I simply can't make it'. When I tjulú you should tjalá'. This is despite the potential for disagreement over Du Bois' views of rival activists Booker T. Gwinzu. The second one answered. If you are unprepared to 'know thyself ' on my theoretical conditions. tying oral history to what appears to be the firmer foundation of archival records and numerical evidence. and sixty-two Indians. also know who you are. the whites are getting close. the second said. and Metisen. and little by little you'll win'. Washington and Marcus Garvey. .55 Price unlocks the meaning of the events for us. As Pels writes: I . Thulani Davis. 'Gwinzu. just keep at it. forty-eight slaves. where you come from. and you'll succeed'. supposedly translating the past for us in a colourless—or in this case accentless—fashion. perhaps the greatest living Saramaka historian. And thus they passed the swamp. why you remain unconscious of what you actually do and why you entangle yourself in performative contradictions. The first said. interests and impulses imputed to them that are thought to explain their resistance. And here we take another step. Du Bois: A Biography in Four Voices. Tebini. described to me in elliptical fashion how they eluded a colonial army that archival records attest included seventeen whites. and I must tutor you in my explanatory theory. . a descendant of Kaasi. Those who do not endorse reflexivity on the terms of the theorist can even have motives. 'Gwinzu. . Theories of reflexivity celebrate historians and historical filmmakers who do not simply show history but also alert us to their acts of showing. These theories become 'vicious'. keep at it and you'll succeed'. Later. Dick Pels argues.Documentary 139 God'. . Given these examples. Toni Cade Bambara and Amiri Baraka coalesce to such an extent that the result is a virtual monologue. 'Gwinzu'. Captain Maáku of Kámpu used to tell us boys. he reins in new voices to match empiricist conventions. The first said. where the views of Wesley Brown. one man said to another. In so doing. knowing myself. .
no. New York: Routledge. and my parents. S. 1993. pp. Basingstoke: Palgrave Macmillan. 225–64. 'Documentary comedy'..R. 'Some principles of documentary'. p. pp.140 History Goes to the Movies Paradoxically. The Documentary Tradition. London: Routledge. Roscoe. Hardy. and B.P. 1998. We trust that it will foster awareness of historical phenomena. 4 J. 142. D. Real Emotional Logic: Film and Television Docudrama as Persuasive Practice. C. History and the Media. K. 15.. p. Media International Incorporating Culture and Policy. in F.. M.-L. 3 I. Grierson on the Movies. New York: E. The Documentary Film Movement: An Anthology. as quoted in C. J. Dutton. Bruzzi. 5 P. Edinburgh: Edinburgh University Press. Nichols. Theorizing Documentary. Grierson. New Documentary: A Critical Introduction. (ed. Grierson.). 4. 2001. . pp. Grierson. Like Grierson. 1997. 2004.). Bloomington: Indiana University Press. it seems that we still expect a great deal from documentary. Nonfiction Film Theory and Criticism.). Historicity.). Aitken. 2000.M. Film and Reform: John Grierson and the Documentary Film. if not of history as representation. pp. 55–66. 2 J. B. Documentary Screens: Nonfiction Film and Television. Rotha. 2002. Faking It: Mock-documentary and the Subversion of Factuality. Jacobs (ed. 1976. Middleton. Plantinga. 60. the call for an awareness of the conditions by which knowledge claims are formed itself becomes an unquestioned premise. p. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. 42. Rhetoric and Representation in Nonfiction Film. 2004. Notes 1 J. p. S. 'Document and documentary: on the persistence of historical concepts'. Plantinga. in R. Comolli. Basingstoke: Palgrave Macmillan. 10.. C. Rhetoric and Representation in Nonfiction Film.N. Barsam (ed. Theory. (ed. Minneapolis: University of Minnesota Press. But is that trust a problem? If the call for reflexivity is unmasked as an unquestioned assumption.). For a 'transparent' view. 1990. Berkeley: University of California Press. Introduction to Documentary. J. might all forms of documentary—not just non-reflexive forms—be seen as fostering social and political enslavement? This question serves as the focus of my next chapter. Plantinga. 1966. Rosen. 'First principles of documentary' [1932]. Manchester: Manchester University Press. Renov. Rhetoric and Representation in Nonfiction Film. in I. 81–5. see J. New York: Hopkinson & Blake. Hardy (ed. 104. and Hight.. ed. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. and L. p. 2001. Nichols. Lipkin. in Change Mummified: Cinema. London: Faber and Faber.. P. 1997.. Grierson on Documentary. 'Flaherty's poetic Moana' [8 February 1926]. 23–5. 6 C. 1981.. 2001. F. p. 2002. Aitken (ed. London: Routledge. Recommended resources Beattie.). Carbondale: Southern Illinois University Press. 1974. Cannadine.
Ibid. See also D. Zizek (ed. 105. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. Film Theory and Philosophy. Nichols.G. 23(2). p.H. 'Resolution of the council of three' [1923]. 1997. Wittgenstein. 1983. ed. 580–610. pp. 1974.. B. Allen and M. Philosophic Exchange. Rhees and G. trans. C. vol. Oxford: Blackwell. London: Verso. Oxford: Blackwell. New York: Praeger. 130. Introduction to Documentary. p. Recorded in C. History and Theory. 107. for example. 2001. L. 7. R. Critical Inquiry. Anscombe. 1998. Representing Reality. 14. 833–6.E.. In Search of the Trojan War (1985). vol. B. 237. p. as quoted in D. C. 33. 137. J. 1970. 183. The Blue and Brown Books. pp. 'A response to Dominick LaCapra's "Lanzmann's Shoah" '. 173–202. in P. O. 'Summary and survey: 1935'. Nichols. p. in S. 124. 'Introduction: the spectre of ideology'. pp. 359. no. p. Oxford: Oxford University Press. 'Lanzmann's "Shoah": "here there is no why" '. p. Speculum Mentis. Mapping Ideology. Oxford: Oxford University Press. On the use of performed interviews in Far from Poland. 75. Rhetoric and Representation in Nonfiction Film. Bloomington: University of Indiana Press. R. 243. N.). B. B. p. §67. for example.). Plantinga. R. 1997. p. Rhetoric and Representation in Nonfiction Film. pp. Plantinga. p. vol. von Wright. 125. pp. LaCapra. 24(3). vol. LaCapra. in R. 26. on comment s'en debarrasser'. see also Philosophical Investigations. 'Documentary film and the modernist avant-garde'. See also In Search of Shakespeare (2003).A. See. 1992. ed. see also C. Nichols. Introduction to Documentary. Sitney (ed. Carroll. 36(4). B. Nichols. see J. 1985. 5–45. 87. Ibid. Oxford: Blackwell. 37. 109–10. vol. and Philosophical Grammar. pp. 'Notes on spectator emotion and ideological film criticism'. Critical Inquiry. Critical Inquiry. 27(4). in R. Kenny. 101–3. The Past is a Foreign Country. Oxford: Oxford University Press. pp. 17. Introduction to Documentary. 'Evocations of an autonomous art'. Ibid. pp. 1998. Carroll. Nichols. pp. in Grierson on Documentary. 21. Introduction to Documentary. 2001. pp. Gelley. Zizek. p. Lowenthal. New York: Pantheon Books. 24(3). D. 'Fiction. Legacy: The Origins of Civilisation (1991). p. Nichols. In the book.Documentary 141 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 26 27 28 29 30 Introduction to Documentary. Nichols. Grierson. Lanzmann. See. pp. Shapiro. Smith (eds). I have shifted his responses back into the first person to reflect the manner in which they were delivered in the film. Plantinga. A. 'From real to reel: entangled in nonfiction film'. 1958. . pp. 1994. Vertov. Shoah: An Oral History of the Holocaust. G. Rhetoric and Representation in Nonfiction Film. 16. 1924. p. and C. Godmilow and A. 80–101. S. 'De l'holocauste a Holocauste. p. B. Introduction to Documentary. C. pp. Lanzmann.M. 1997. Film Culture Reader. 18. 34. 1985. 26–32. p. Allen and M. 830–2. In Search of Ethelred the Unready (1981) and In Search of William the Conqueror (1981).. 372–7. Mordechaï Podchlebnik's responses are recorded in the third person to note the use of a translator. N. non-fiction and the film of presumptive assertion: a conceptual analysis'. 'How real is the reality in documentary film?'. Collingwood. Smith (eds). 1997. D.-L. Film Theory and Philosophy. Plantinga. B. Rhees. Critical Inquiry.
17(3). Turner (ed. 2004.Corner. Changing Media—Changing Europe Program. Renov (ed. 15. http://www. Gaudreault.). Theory. Renov. 40 J.. 104. Documentary in a Post-documentary Culture. 39 J. Bruzzi.futuramamadhouse. Loshitzky. Flynn. Ambrose is the author of D-Day: June 6 1944: The Climatic Battle of World War II. 38 M. Baxter.E. 1997. Ambrose. Pickering (ed. 2000. Bloomington: University of Indiana Press. 67. Woolgar. London: University Press of Virginia.media/John. lost. Meanings in Texts and Actions: Questioning Paul Ricoeur. 32 S. "docuglitz" and docusoap'. Winston. p.uk/research/changing. 'Some remarks about positionism: a reply to Collins and Yearley'. Lynch. 1988.amazon. 'Holocaust others: Spielberg's Schindler's List versus Lanzmann's Shoah'. 3. Renov.dymphna. Paramount Pictures and Dreamworks. and M.lboro. ed. 'Towards a poetics of documentary'. London: Routledge. draft online at www. 154. 1993. 35 Y. lost: Mekas as essayist'. emphasis reflects the original.ac. Manchester: Manchester University Press. and B.html and http://www. Media International Australia Incorporating Culture and Policy. 2001. Culture and Society.com 34 J. 1992. Unless otherwise indicated. p.net/dawninrome. 50 Ibid. Into the Breach: The Making of Saving Private Ryan. no. Science as Practice and Culture.uk/research/changing. in A. 40. available online at http://www.). pp. in Y. J. in M. pp.com/archives/001152. 1999.abc. Chicago: University of Chicago Press. 47 S.au/tv/ outbackhouse/ 45 S. 'Standpoint epistemology (a feminist version): how social disadvantage creates epistemic advantage'. Knowledge and Reflexivity: New Frontiers in the Sociology of Knowledge.htm. 2000. pp.E.paper.lboro. online at www. London: HarperCollins. 1993. Dovey. Klemm and W.ar/fanfic/the_bot_with_the_golden_chimp. p. London: Routledge.net. See also M. C.edu. in S. in D. Faking It: Mock-documentary and the Subversion of Factuality. p. 12. Documentary in a Post-documentary Culture. p.htm 33 S.). Woolgar (ed. 278–9. Roscoe and C.). 8.).Corner. Minneapolis: University of Minnesota Press. Oxford: Blackwell. Screening the Past. p. 1996. Harding. 90–7. 159. p. 36 J. p.html 44 See the Outback House discussion forums at http://www. 37 Ibid. 327–42. 1984. 2. Schweiker (eds). 1996. p. mudvillegazette. Renov (ed.paper. Loshitzky (ed. vol. 'The cinematograph: a historiographical machine'. no. 48 Ibid. 'Confession and the unbearable lightness of factual'. which is recommended as a companion to the film book at www. 104. 1995.latrobe. London: Sage. pp.. 26–54. Steven Spielberg: The Unauthorised Biography. 'Lost. Problems of Dostoevsky's Poetics.142 History Goes to the Movies 31 Ibid. . Corner. 1999. The Subject of Documentary. Manchester: Manchester University Press. Emerson. 49 M.htm 41 A. 'Against reflexivity as an academic virtue and source of privileged knowledge'. Bakhtin. 46 S. New Documentary: A Critical Introduction. p.html. 51 Ibid.com. 'The primrose path: faking UK television documentary. no.ac. 42 B. in M. Working Paper 1. Media International Australia Incorporating Culture and Policy.au/screeningthepast/firstrelease/fr1199/bwfr8b. Social Theory and Sociology: The Classics and Beyond. pp.media/ John. 2002. Corner. 31. New York: Simon & Schuster. documentary and simulated spaces'.). 28. 68. Spielberg's Holocaust: Critical Perspectives on Schindler's List. pp.. 2002. 'Factual hybridity: games. 43 See http://glamorousrags. Hight. European Science Foundation. p. and trans.. 42–4. 84–9. Theorising Documentary..
1987. 53 N. Culture and Society. . Society and Culture in Early Modern France. Alabi's World. 'Reflexivity: one step up'. Baltimore: Johns Hopkins University Press. 18. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. 55 Ibid. Price. trans. G. Froissart. Pels. p. Theory. 56 D. Davis. vol. Chronicles. 17(3). pp. 54 R. 1990. 1968. and abr.Documentary 143 52 J. 16. xx. 9..Z. p. 267. p. Harmondsworth: Penguin. 2000. Brereton.
After these projects. who asked her to film the 1933 Nuremberg Rally. Furthermore. Tag der Freiheit (Day of Freedom—Our Armed Forces.7 Propaganda 'Propaganda' is a pejorative term. I will offer a critical assessment of each of these criteria and suggest that the view of propaganda as morally reprehensible cannot be sustained if there is a lack of clarity about what it is. and we do not expect those who have their works so labelled to respond positively. 1926). she directed Das blaue Licht (The Blue Light. Riefenstahl made a film about the 1936 Berlin . but in this chapter we approach it head on. 1932). applying it to an historical film implies disapproval. the story of an ostracised mountain girl who dies because her ideals are shattered. She began her movie career as the lead in Arnold Fanck's Bergfilm (mountain or glacier film) Der heilige Berg (The Holy Mountain. Historical films as propaganda Undertake a search for information on historical films and propaganda and two names and contexts will appear again and again: Leni Riefenstahl and Nazi Germany and Sergei Eisenstein and the Soviet Union. In this chapter. Riefenstahl's thoughtful shot compositions and use of close-ups captured the attention of. we will discover. content and consequences. rests upon the characterisation of viewers as the passive or willing recipients of what they see. The result was Seig des Glaubens (Victory of Faith. its definition by theorists of propaganda stresses four criteria: intention. Charges of propaganda are likely to be met with denial. This expansion. I will note the recent expansion in applications of the term from particular historical films produced with state support during times of upheaval and war to all mass communication practices. six years later. As well as its function as a simple term of abuse. 1937). Hélène Bertha Amelie ('Leni') Riefenstahl is best known for the documentaries she directed at the request of Hitler between 1933 and 1938. methods or techniques. 1936). 1935) and Die Kamera fährt mit (The Camera Goes Too. among many others. This is an assumption that we have met and questioned before in this book. 1933) and later Triumph des Willens (Triumph of the Will. Adolf Hitler.
Hindsight telescopes those Hitler years together. In 1938. and a dejected Riefenstahl returned to Germany. Her primary defence of this preposterous and impossible ignorance is that she was always just trying to make art—rather. Even that 'final' decision was appealed against by the French military government. Riefenstahl had to face Allied charges that she was a Nazi or a Nazi sympathizer. 1954). 400 kilometres of film and a variety of pioneering film techniques. Following the end of hostilities in 1945. But these verdicts did not mean she could resume her career as a director. To this day.Propaganda 145 Olympics—Olympia—employing sixty camera operators. the Third Reich-tainted Olympia failed to find a US distributor. and the matter was only closed six months later when the Baden State Commissariat classified Riefenstahl in absentia as a 'fellow traveller'. as is apparent in these two appraisals. the burning of synagogues and the vicious persecution of Jewish shopkeepers in Germany by the Nazis on 9 November. as her final film project. While the response of many who saw the film was positive.1 I read her Memoir during a long stay in a hospital a few years back. made her an obvious target. She was submitted to a US forces 'denazification' program and released 'without prejudice' on 3 June 1945. Tiefland (Lowland. or intention of supporting the practices of the Nazi party with her filmmaking. Her close ties to Hitler and her films. Riefenstahl embarked on a trip to the United States to promote Olympia. . The notion of guilt by association continues to cloud any rational verdict on her moral culpability for promoting Hitler's demonic Reich through her films.2 . was mired by allegations that she had knowingly used gypsies imprisoned in concentration camps for some scenes and that she was Hitler's 'easy girl'.and low-angle. It is clear to me now that motivations can rarely be so neatly apportioned. including slow motion and high. On every page. . subtly and often not very subtly. controversy surrounds Riefenstahl's work. The visit was marked by protests. most notably Triumph of the Will. not the least of which was in response to Kristallnacht. she is rewriting her life to prove that she never had any knowledge of. panoramic and dolly shots. the first by Audrey Salkeld and the second by the historical documentary maker Jean Godmilow: The high profile and privileges she enjoyed in the early Hitler years guaranteed she would prove an embarrassment in a world rigorously purging itself of Nazi taint after the war. but it was not until July 1949 that she was officially 'denazified' by a French tribunal. Knowing where they led makes it almost impossible for us now to view Riefenstahl's work without that perception. Opinion is divided about whether she was an artist or an agent of evil. She was effectively banned for life from her profession. . even though others involved in the production of infinitely more evil films were reabsorbed into the industry. pure art—and that led her to techniques and strategies that critics later claimed to be fascist.
This was in stark contrast to the continuity editing and 'boy meets girl' formula he associated with contemporary 'bourgeois cinema'. Bronenosets Potemkin (Battleship Potemkin. handed down from father to son.6 After working unsuccessfully to produce a film in Hollywood between 1928 and 1932. not political messages. 1928)—all employ montage and focus on either collectives or the activities of individuals within collectives. though. Reading Riefenstahl's Memoir. Nowhere do her claims about persecution appear more strongly than in her written and filmed reflections on Triumph of the Will. Horrible Life of Leni Riefenstahl (1993).4 Eisenstein's hope for the instruction of the masses in the history and theory of their political movement could be realised. in the creation of a 'purely intellectual film'. of becoming an engineer. . for in many places he portrayed his works as helping to define the Soviet state. . Riefenstahl consistently argued that it was not propaganda for four main reasons: first. he believed. conforms to that of Junta in The Blue Light. second. If it had not been for the revolution I would never have broken the tradition. the mainspring of which was 'montage' or the juxtaposition of conflicting shots. He produced two stylised historical films that showed how medieval history could be used to support contemporary political views: in Aleksandr Nevski (Alexander Nevsky. tempos and light levels. and art. 1925). she had the composition of images. 1925) and Oktiabr (October.3 Describing Sergei Eisenstein's films as propaganda appears to be easier. the protagonist battles against internal enemies involved in a conspiracy. Eisenstein returned to the USSR to find a very different political climate under the leadership of Joseph Stalin. 1944). and in Ivan Grozni (Ivan the Terrible I. Her vision of self in that work. in its own turn. . Eisenstein claimed that the October Revolution of 1917 first drew him to film art: The revolution gave me the most precious thing in life—it made an artist out of me. After a near fatal heart attack in 1946. as Ray Müller has pointed out in his documentary The Wonderful. The revolution introduced me to art. an unworldly woman who is persecuted because she is the only one who can (literally or metaphorically) scale the heights. he completed a working print of Ivan Grozni . 1938). brought me to the revolution.5 His three films about the 1905 and February and October 1917 revolutions—Stachka (Strike. at the top of her mind. sounds.146 History Goes to the Movies Salkeld reminds us how easy and problematic it is to judge an historical agent by outcomes. and fourth. it would not have won international awards ('What interest would the directors of the World's Fair and the French Prime Minister have had in honouring Nazi propaganda?'). it is not hard to see why Godmilow accuses her of 'rewriting' her life. there is no commentator in the film 'telling the audience what to believe'. she did not organise the Nuremberg rallies. third. Russian knights valiantly defend their homeland against Teutonic invaders.
for instance. memory is removed from the historical. Vietnam (1987)—a partly fictionalised drama about a disc jockey (Adrian Cronauer. movies and TV programs produce a series of identifications that relentlessly define America as white and middle class. Tran. However. for instance. social and political context that defines it as a process of cultural production that opens rather than closes down history. The conventional treatment of Riefenstahl's and Eisenstein's historical films as propaganda by film scholars reflects the assumed limitation of the concept to state or state-sponsored articulations of national community during times of war and social upheaval. Reduced to vignettes of childhood innocence. Pocahontas' screen image is an exotic . 1958). media and communication theorists have sought to broaden the term to cover the work of all organisations or groups that seek to move recipients to a desired view. is present only as an object of Cronauer's patriarchal gaze. We will have more to say on this opposition of Disney films and history when we come to delineate the criteria for 'propaganda'. Good Morning. historical forgetting. nationalist and even imperialistic histories. adventure and chivalry. too. records. Cronauer's engagement with the Vietnamese is entirely structured by the American popular culture elements of street slang (taught in an English class) and a baseball game.Propaganda 147 II Boyarski Zagorov (Ivan the Terrible II. it is an 'aversion' to history. All Nicholas Reeves' case studies in The Power of Film Propaganda. sexist. for instance. and his sister. is a Vietnamese 'Tonto' who serves Cronauer. and sensuality'. Vietnam is at one with other contemporary US Vietnam combat films that shed the big historical picture in favour of small stories of North American masculine virtue and suffering. As with Desser and Studies' reading of Rambo. manhood. Pedagogy in Disney's texts functions as a history lesson that excludes the subversive elements of memory. racist. Henry Giroux has argued that: The strategies of entertaining escapism.9 Interestingly. and repressive pedagogy in Disney's books. theme parks. only to betray him and Western notions of culture and civility through membership of the Vietcong. has led scholars to warn of the social effects that might result from its purported construction of conservative. Gary Edgerton and Kathy Jackson see in the animated Disney feature Pocahontas (1995) a similar expurgation of political and historical discourses in favour of imperialist romantic fantasy. but poor critical reviews delayed its public release until 1958. fit that bill. For Giroux. It is precisely this pedagogical policing of memory that undercuts its possibility as a form of critical remembrance.8 Giroux sees in Good Morning. Tuan.7 The Disney Corporation's global reach. played by Robin Williams) who is sent to Vietnam in 1965 to boost morale—the expunging of historical. political and ethical discourses in favour of rock 'n' roll nostalgia and the 'narcissistic assertion of whiteness as the singular referent for intelligence. a decade after his death.
1). these ideals are ultimately subordinated to her quest for a 'true path' in love and their realisation with the first white man she sees. 20th Century Fox's Anastasia (1997) fits a related pattern. Disney Enterprises) and 20th Century Fox's Anastasia (© 1998) .1 Synthesising and deconstructing the past: Disney's Pocahontas (© 1995.11 Though not a Disney animation. John Smith.148 History Goes to the Movies synthesis of the physical features of paintings of Pocahontas. Native American consultant Shirley 'Little Dove' Custalow McGowan.10 And although Pocahontas echoes Chief Seattle's arguments for cross-cultural sensitivity and respect for the environment in the song 'Colors of the Wind'. Set in the wake of the Russian Revolution of October 1917 in which. the Filipina model Dyna Taylor and white supermodel Christy Turlington (see Figure 7. to quote Figure 7.
14 Psychoanalytical film theories owe much of their form to a combination of the neo-Marxist writings of Louis Althusser. In Barthes' view. Jean-Pierre Oudart. Before long. This is due to the fear that 'Disney history' may become definitive history—or in Giroux's words 'close down history'—if viewers are too young to have developed critical analytical skills. Family'. Trotsky and the mass action of the collective are purged from the screen in favour of the explanation that the revolution and the death of the Romanovs was due to the machinations of a long-dead. 'since the revolution our lives have been so grey'. For Baudrillard. while others looked to the impact on audiences of the images offered. concerns about indoctrination ought to be extended to all viewers of historical films. Clearly. Lenin. these anxieties were codified in film censorship policies and in the 'direct effects' theory of communication.1). though. cinema peddles the dream and logic of the nineteenth century. irrespective of age and educational attainment. we recall. Anastasia reworks the popular myth of a surviving Romanov child into a romantic travel narrative in which the protagonist declares that she will not be 'complete' until she finds 'Home. Christian Metz. we have caught glimpses of various theorists' characterisations of film as a potential instrument of social regulation. the 'absolute realistic verisimilitude' of 'hyperreal' historical films has dulled our ability to distinguish reality from artifice and reduced us to passive consumers. immigrant and female viewers. Daniel Dayan and Stephen Heath paint a similarly bleak picture of film viewers as either the passive victims of. disassembling Rasputin who resides in a kind of purgatory with a talking bat (see Figure 7. but anxieties about the social impact of film viewing remains.Propaganda 149 one of the songs. one that enshrines either a particular form of masculine identity or a culture of consumption. Throughout this book. Love. Anxieties about the dangers of film may be dated back to the earliest days of production. film 'naturalises' the constructedness of its meaning. Debord sees filmic spectacle as serving the economy as a tool of regulation and depoliticisation.12 In the process. And for Godard and Benjamin. Jacques Lacan's psychoanalytical account of the stages of human development and Julia Kristeva's . the 'illusion' of cinema. encouraging viewers to accept its 'reality' and to surrender an opportunity for resistance against socio-cultural mores. however. this literal and metaphorical deconstruction of the mainsprings of the October revolution serves a very different function to that of Eisenstein's revolution films. The appeal of animated films to children as well as to adults marks them out among film critics as being of special concern. particularly on working-class.13 Film theorists today may not write so openly about morally vulnerable audiences. Some of these anxieties focused on the darkened environments in which films were seen. or vulnerable to. Both these activities shared the view of film as having a potentially narcotic and dangerous effect. Their anxiety stems not from the threat of moral and social disorder. but its opposite: social order. The psychoanalytical film theories of Jean-Louis Baudry. For many more film theorists.
Therefore. Due to this apparent deception of the viewer.15 From the mirror stage onwards. Riefenstahl and Eisenstein share the assumption that propaganda is a particular means of bringing about a state of belief. I will examine and question these criteria under the labels of method. intention and outcome. In the apparent 'transparency' of empiricism.150 History Goes to the Movies semiotics. when infants transfer the visual integrity of their figure reflected in a mirror to an ontological belief that they are unified. 'goes without saying'. Viewer acceptance of those roles is explained by Lacan's 'imaginary' or 'mirror' stage of human development.17 However. This is because deviation can make viewers aware of convention. however. including historical films. and more specifically castration anxiety. cinema can become a tool for social change only through the creation of films. they are characterised by the premise that the illusive reality of cinema deceives viewers about themselves and the societies they live in. and offer them the chance to prise open cracks in that cement through revolutionary activities. alone or in combination. psychoanalytical film theorists identify cinema with the perpetuation of ideology. In the main. The 'empiricist' impression of reality generated by many historical films. even at the cost of social freedom. All knowledge and truth is wrought by the systems of concepts of which they are a part. of the cement that holds society together in its current form. is one of seeing the world in a way that is unmediated. in Barthes' words. individuals are tugged between impressions of themselves as unified selves and fragmented experiences.16 The cinema screen does not reflect. discrete and autonomous selves. but this conception is a product of presuppositions that they do not see because of the assumed transparency of empiricism. desire and selfhood. the presuppositions that cement society together pass unnoticed and serve to suture viewers in specific social roles. Defining propaganda The varying ideas and applications of 'propaganda' described above— ranging from overtly political films to all historical films—seems to affirm Leonard Doob's assertion that a clear-cut definition of the term is not possible. . content. Method Looking first to method. that challenge the cinematic conventions of realism or that employ nonstandard techniques of editing or narration and so on. but projects on to viewers a structure of cognition. impel viewers into seeking and accepting coherence. though. This misunderstanding is sustained by society in order to discourage true social change. underlying these views is a common stock of four conceptual criteria that. Viewers think of themselves as autonomous free agents who are able to discriminate truth from falsehood. as a mirror does. Anxieties. serve to secure a pejorative appraisal of propaganda that.
with voiceover narration. it is not specified whether any use of these methods. performing natives and exotic game animals are paraded before the camera like items to be collected by viewers.Propaganda 151 Beyond that. In two juxtaposed shots filmed in Africa. since we must ask not only 'How is the film presented?' but also 'What ideas and ideals are being presented?'18 Content It might be argued then that it is the content that an historical film presents that determines whether it is propaganda. tinting and out-takes to highlight and critique Comerio's celebration of the dominance of European civilisation over nature and 'natives'. 1987). Furthermore. or only a certain sufficient amount of use.19 Comerio and Gianikian are of course promoting their own message. editing. The filmmakers did not add any new footage. Gianikian and Lucchi use short introductory titles. Working without sound. Eisenstein's work bears this point out. propaganda is capitalist. content. which is composed of filmic travelogues produced by Luca Comerio between 1900 and 1920. corresponds to propaganda. for instance. their opinions diverge. for instance. If psychoanalyst film theorists have difficulty associating his filmic techniques with propaganda. few scholars would agree that it is voiceover alone that determines whether Triumph of the Will or indeed any historical documentary is propaganda. as Reeves and Carl Plantinga have argued. for he used non-continuity editing to raise support for Soviet ideals. An obvious objection to the simple link of propaganda with content is that even in what seem to be hallmark cases (i. narration and verisimilitude variously identified as instruments of propaganda. montage and its opposite continuity editing. and in other sequences lingering shots of war casualities and hunted polar bears drive home the cruelty of European enlightenment. that method of filmmaking is not a sufficient criterion for propaganda. bourgeois propaganda. Similarly. images showing Western imperialism). but that message is unlikely to attract the label of propaganda on the part of theorists. that criticisms about Disney animations and Fox's Anastasia concerned their purported promotion of North American fantasies of whiteness. then. It seems. colonial domination and romantic love. though. What proportion of continuity and verisimilitude is needed to make a film an appendage of bourgeois ideology? How much voiceover is needed? How much montage? Any response to these questions is at worst arbitrary and at best points to other criteria.e. This is a view that informs all but Riefenstahl's account of Triumph of the Will in the above section. there might be ways of treating the content that encourage questions and critical reflection. Why? On its own. they simply used arrangement and emphasis to read Comerio against the grain. An historical film that demonstrates this point is Yervant Gianikian and Angela Ricci Lucchi's Dal Polo All'Equatore (From the Pole to the Equator. seems an insufficient criterion for propaganda. then we have highlighted the point that for them. . We recall. This is the first problem with the method criterion. like method.
intention is far too problematic a concept to function as the basis for propaganda.20 On this view. or (as was argued in Chapter 3) is the very idea of a filmmaker as a single. the production of an animated history often begins with primary or secondary historical sources. too. storyboard.24 In the wake of pronouncements by writers such as Roland Barthes that 'a text is not a line of words releasing a single "theological" meaning (the "message" of the Author-God)' historians have struggled to establish that the subject matter of intellectual history is external to textual analysis. has argued that the heterogeneous process of creating a Disney text undercuts ideological coherence. are we able to discriminate between intentions that are 'the meaning the utterance has for its author at the point of [making] the work' and those that are prior to or even outside of it?22 Or is a film scholar bound to accept all the filmmaker's activities and expressions as in some way connected to their works. Paul Wells. for he clearly stated his aim to use film as an instrument to raise revolutionary awareness. Second. an historical film is propaganda if its maker clearly expresses the aim to shift viewer activities in a favoured direction.21 We recall from Chapter 3. have conceded that historians cannot gain direct access to the intentions of . That is. methodological objection is that historical films are rarely the product of a single individual. historical consultant.25 'Weak' intentionalists like Mark Bevir. Garth Jowett and Victoria O'Donnell. A first. Eisenstein's work seems to best fit this account. That script remains fluid during production as everyone from voice artists to compositors 'works through' the aural and visual personality of characters and puts their results to test audiences. for instance. animation. that the heterogeneous nature of mise en scène. 'wilful' and 'premeditated' shaping of human activities. let alone a single cohesive plan. suspect? This brings us to a third objection to the connection of propaganda with intentions. design. which is often taken as the sole or chief measure of propaganda in theories of communication. even if we are looking to the claims of individual filmmakers like Eisenstein and Riefenstahl. However. casting. compositing and editing teams. for instance. for instance. As with many historical films. one expressed through the literary theory catchphrase of 'there is no "outside" to the text'. as Jean Godmilow and Susan Sontag have done in reading Riefenstahl's images of tropical fish and the Nuba people in Africa as an affirmation of the fascist views that purportedly underpin Triumph of the Will and Olympia?23 On what criteria are we able to regard or disregard a filmmaker's activities? Must we consider a filmmaker's activities as a coherent body.152 History Goes to the Movies Intention This brings us to intention. there is still the question of how we might distinguish intentions from authorial intentions. Aspects of the sources are selected and arranged into a script that is informed by collective suggestion and negotiation between budget. coherent self. editing and scripting in historical films highlights the fact that they are the product of collaboration and negotiation. characterise propaganda as the 'deliberate'.
can we call the work of a filmmaker 'propaganda' if they work within a setting in which certain ideas—like empiricism—are generally accepted as beyond question and they sincerely believe that they are helping viewers to think for themselves? On what grounds are the historian's imputed intentions to be given preference over any historically stated intentions? Intentions alone cannot carry the meaning of 'propaganda'.26 Bevir's and Collingwood's arguments support the conventional treatment of Riefenstahl's statements about Triumph of the Will as deceptive or insincere. for instance. that viewers may seek different stories and imagined communities than those advanced in the public political historical films often favoured by historians and film scholars. is ontologically problematic. In particular. R. it did not achieve a run of more than a week in most German cinemas. Indeed. A good case in point is Battle of the Somme. Hence the intentions of an historical agent are those expressed by a work. in the Soviet Union more viewers went to see Buster Keaton's Our Hospitality (1923) and Douglas Fairbanks' Robin Hood (1923) and The Thief of Bagdad (1924). and that of psychoanalytical film theory in which filmmakers affirm bourgeois ideology.g. Similarly. writing and material evidence). Collingwood. This afterlife shows us that judgements about the use and impact of an historical film need to be considered over time and in historical context. In his introduction to the film. Triumph of the Will has been seen by more viewers since the Second World War as a part of democracy education programs.27 This example affirms the observation I made in Chapter 4.Propaganda 153 historical agents and that they simply 'postulate them as part of their interpretation of the texts before them'. Outcome The appeal to intentions as an explanation for propaganda is further undercut by the simple point that filmmakers can aim to persuade viewers but fail in the task. Battleship Potemkin topped box office earnings in Germany in 1925–6 and was shown in thirty-eight countries outside the Soviet Union. Prime Minister Lloyd George expressed the hope that it would reinforce . insincerity and irrationality to 'make sense' of a work. Bevir and Collingwood are also open to overturning agent statements of intent and invoking notions of deception. So while. But this conventional reading. whose views I canvassed in Chapter 4.G. also holds that the re-enactment of thoughts and emotions is made possible through reading the public language that shapes artefacts (e. Too often. as Reeves has argued. which was seen by around twenty million people in Britain in 1916. there is no guarantee that exhibitors and viewers will receive it in the same way. while Triumph of the Will was awarded the German National Film Prize and gold medals at the Venice Film Festival and the Paris World Exhibition of 1937. conclusions are made about the power of films without evidence to show that they reached and had an impact on their target audiences. Even if an historical film does secure a large audience at the time it is first released.
be linked to a public political context. remembered. and they leap over the parapet. At last they reach the German lines.32 Yet scholars routinely bypass the study of . The screening of Ireland. as the dean of Durham complained in a contemporary letter to The Times that some viewers clearly had 'feasted' their eyes on the 'hideous tragedy' of war. Now the British and German wounded are brought in. California.29 Beyond the boundaries of Reeves' study. about sixteen years of age. This enrages the men to fury. as Terence Qualter has emphasised.30 But sometimes no public political explanation is apparent or even relevant. One boy described a battle sequence in Battle of Ancre in this way: Now the whistle shrills.154 History Goes to the Movies commitment to the war. other examples demonstrate the complex and variable relations of film production. for instance. in which the audience laughed in the 'wrong places'. A screening supported by the Red Cross in the Hague. talked back at the screen and expressed their disdain for its 'artiness' in their preview card comments. as with a preview screening of Orson Welles' The Magnificent Ambersons (1942) in Pomona. others young boys. some seriously. was intercut by slides drawing attention to the number of casualties and the activities of the antiwar league. this synopsis bears almost no relationship to the film itself and is clearly a synthesis of other visual. some slightly. As Reeves has noted. while others used it to work through the loss of friends and family in the conflict. Soon after follow the German prisoners. tap. Sometimes an explanation for the reception of films might. written and oral accounts in circulation and elements of imaginative play that he and his peers might have enjoyed. some vicious looking scoundrels that I should not like to meet on a dark night. as Reeves assumes. and acted upon'.31 A place for wonder? Propaganda. go the German machine guns. understood. and comments written about them show how they were drawn into everyday life. Crack! And their gallant captain falls.28 This seems to have been the case for a number of the children surveyed in 1917 about their wartime film preferences by the National Council of Public Morals. Even exhibitors parted company with Lloyd George's reading of the film. Most of the Germans flee for their lives shouting 'Kamerad! Kamerad!' etc. exhibition and reception. using it to highlight the barbarity and pointlessness of war. Still others might have found the work a welcome source of entertainment. but nothing daunts our soldiers. rat. Some of the audience responded to the film in this way. 'must be seen. Both Battle of the Somme and Battle of Ancre (1917) were ranked in the top four popular films. a Nation (1914)—a film given clearance by the press censor—in Dublin in 1918 was cut short to two days when audiences sang 'rebel' songs and cheered the on-screen killing of British soldiers. tap.
Reports from early North American screenings highlight another important theatrical feature: lectures that connected and stressed the novelty and amazing properties of the images about to be revealed. I had hardly finished speaking when a horse pulling a wagon began to walk towards us. Furthermore. These lectures. like the frozen images. astonished beyond all expression. which he labels the 'cinema of attractions'. curiosity and an appreciation of illusions. struck with amazement. A little surprised. But she also notes that few exhibitors and viewers relied on what was presented in theatres alone. supporting print publications were expected to play an important part in the cultivation of human inquiry and reflection.Propaganda 155 historical audiences. who went on himself to demonstrate mastery of cinematic effects in works like Joan of Arc (1899): A still photograph showing the place Bellecour in Lyon was projected. Rather. 'undemanding' and 'transfixed'. the juxtaposition of moving images with live action undercut the possibility of becoming absorbed in the illusion. The opening of many films with frozen images.33 Gunning has played a leading role in arguing for the recognition of many different and even competing viewing positions in the era of early cinema. As Tom Gunning has provocatively argued: Contemporary film theorists have made careers out of underestimating the basic intelligence and reality-testing abilities of the average film viewer and have no trouble treating previous audiences with similar disdain. settling instead for implied or hypothetical viewers who are characterised variously as 'hypnotised'. served to build viewer expectations about the thrills to come.34 The withholding of moving images heightened suspense and fostered an appreciation of the technological novelty of the cinématographe. for example. followed by other vehicles and then pedestrians. Before this spectacle we sat with gaping mouths. 'deceived'. 'credulous'. I just had time to say to my neighbour: 'They got us all stirred up for projections like this? I've been doing them for over ten years'. The mode of exhibition of many early films undermined a naïve experience of realism and fostered instead a conscious appreciation of them as illusions. in short all the animation of the street. militated against the reading of the images as reality and encouraged instead an appreciation of the novelty of projected motion. This form of reading is at work in a description by George Méliès.35 Michele Pierson has noted how lecturers in nineteenth-century public science and phantasmagoria displays also utilised a combination of conjuring techniques and explanatory narratives to elicit surprise. In periodicals like Scientific American (1845– ) there emerged communicative practices that not only demanded but also rewarded .
which connoted the use of technical literature to produce home-grown displays. she further argues. but there is reason to believe that it was also fostered in performative spaces and performances themselves. the 'taking of delight in having one's expectations met'. But. .39 The consideration of wonder highlights the reductiveness of Benjamin's characterisation of the dream of the nineteenth century as the domination of capital and leads us to question the . Both Pepper and Dircks appreciated the visual literacy of their audience. They did so through literary allusions.37 a library containing periodicals and newspapers. performances themselves could elicit wonder without the external buttress of technical literature. . for it brought a novel twist to the story and to the performance. Pepper and Dircks knew that the selection of Dickens' tale would resonate with the audience. glass sheets and a concealed stage to make an intangible ghostly figure appear and 'touch' an actor on stage. This finding is important to us for three reasons. the ordinary and the extraordinary . Gunning. Connoisseurship was the vehicle for wonder. People thus read about special effects in Scientific American not to make them but to enhance their understanding and aesthetic enjoyment of them. while they acknowledge that practices of appreciation and connoisseurship could be consumerist and politically conservative. The embedding of the illusion within a web of readings and live action depictions of Dickens was an incisive move.156 History Goes to the Movies the attention of the 'connoisseur'. knowing and remembering—also had a part to play in nineteenth-century visual culture. and perhaps also that they were jaded by the contemporary abundance of visual spectacles and optical illusions. In the combination of the two lay the seeds of wonder. Unlike amateurism. Wonder. and a program of twice-daily lectures and pantomimes. was a heterogeneous space in which those who paid the entry fee gained access to hands-on experiments and gadgetry. a phantasmagorical stage adaptation of Charles Dickens' The Haunted Man. The London Polytechnic. an illuminated 'cosmorama' (a form of panorama). Pierson argues.38 In their studies of pre. could foster demanding and utopian thought. which Groth defines not as the meeting of expectations but as 'a differential tension between the known and the unknown. [being] surprised into a new understanding of the familiar'. The centrepiece of Pepper and Dirck's show was an optical illusion that used magic lantern light. they suggest that wonder—the aesthetic. First. The example Groth cites is that of Dr John Pepper and Henry Dirck's 'A Strange Lecture' (1862).and early cinema performances. as Helen Groth has pointed out. given contemporary reports of audiences mouthing the words in time at public readings by or of Dickens. mirrors. Additionally. and coherence and intellectual legitimation to the latter.36 Science periodicals were a source for wonder. Audiences could consult technical literature before and after performances. critical appreciation of different ways of seeing. 'connoisseurship' was a form of technical know-how that would contribute to the aesthetic appreciation of public displays. Pierson and Groth highlight the knowingness of audiences.
and that tradition has continued. where they offered cultural explanations for phenomena in foreign films. most exhibitors eventually replaced player pianos with pianists and organists. in various times and places. While clearly cheaper and less prone to fingering errors than live performers. I believe that a range of non-filmic elements in screening spaces provided more opportunities for audience participation and even rebellion than Gunning credits.40 Benshi are used infrequently at live screenings now. which could be controlled from the projection booth. as with the handwritten 'Please pass your coffee cups to the centre aisle' plastic overlay that always seemed to appear at diegetically inappropriate . music was a staple at screenings. Drawing on Gunning. To stem the flow of complaints and unintended laughter. with film strips jamming. we might reasonably ask whether there was and is a place for wonder in twentieth. and that in the bringing together of written texts and images (even for commercial reasons) the aesthetic desire for new forms of expression may arise. Second. Pierson and Groth connect the reflexive responses of connoisseur audiences with special effects. slowing down or speeding up and even catching fire. Third. Some exhibitors initially opted for mechanical musical technologies like player pianos. we might answer with a qualified yes. We have noted that early cinema included lectures. However. for he sees awareness of the act of looking as in tension with narrative and diegetic realism and cohesion. Groth shows us that intertextuality is not simply a medium of social regulation.Propaganda 157 adequacy of his and other theorists' portrayals of film as simply affirming bourgeois consumer culture. Music has also functioned to foster the conscious appreciation of films as illusions. albeit in modified form. incidents where projection and musical technologies landed out of sync could mean the delivery of ragtime or 'chase' tunes during close-up love scenes. Live directors' commentaries are also sometimes offered at premieres or 'art cinema' screenings of historical films. but they have been replaced in Japan and elsewhere with the director's commentaries that are now a reasonably standard feature on DVDs. Robert Craig and Sean Cubitt— first aired in Chapter 5—that special effects are a powerful means of indoctrinating naïve or even knowing audiences into accepting the views of demagogues or the role of passive consumers.and twenty-first-century responses to historical films. The premiere of Akira Kurosawa's Rashomon (1950) in Japan.41 Projection technologies were also liable to malfunction. drifting after sprocket hole damage. Gunning. for example. included a benshi or lecturer-commentator. J. And projection technologies might also be put to aberrant extra-filmic uses. narration to connect discontinuous images and dialogue in different voices. Benshi were first employed in Japanese film screenings during the time of silent film production. Before the introduction of talking pictures in the 1930s. This was because it allowed exhibitors to both mask the obtrusive sounds of projection technologies and to offer what seemed to be a 'natural' or even 'realistic' aural accompaniment to screen images. This challenges the claims of Thomas Doherty. Buoyed by this broader view of nineteenth-century visual culture.
danced. invented in the 1970s. displayed courtship rituals. reflexive and aesthetically attentive forms of viewing than cinema attendance.158 History Goes to the Movies moments (such as the death of a character) in screenings that I attended in a Hobart cinema in the late 1980s. rather than by a sewn or riveted section. No film screening is ever likely to be identical to the next. In Pierson's view. These various activities demonstrate that neither images nor screening spaces can automatically deliver control over the attention of viewers. viewers have communicated their grievances about various aspects of film productions. For the moment. It is the type of leash preferred by professional trainers. To revisit a point made earlier in this chapter. consisting in a claim of knowledge of the detail superior . Since the earliest days of film production. though.jandjdog. but I am still convinced that those were lobsters and not craw-fish [langoustes] as advertised by the fish wife'. the aesthetic response of wonder has not become an undercurrent—as Gunning argues—but is to be found in new channels such as repeat viewings and DVD special features. ranging from the observation of a viewer who spotted a gas cylinder in the back of one of the chariots in Gladiator (2000) to this comment on the manner of restraining dogs in the opening scene of Titanic (1997): A small one and probably only noticed by dog trainers like me. I would like to explore another communication space that has opened up: the Internet.44 Many more communications of this sort are available for perusal via Movie Mistakes (www. Philip Rosen has named this activity 'Everett's game' in honour of the author of a 1938 letter to Warner Bros about a confusion in The Life of Emile Zola (1937): 'If I am wrong I should much like to know it.com.45 Rosen reads communications like this as moves in a game built on a basic rule: 'that every detail of the film must be gotten "right" or else [the viewer] can assert a victory. You can see the leashes there. fallen asleep. they are on leather leashes made by J&J Dog Supplies.moviemistakes. thrown food and sent mobile phone text messages. J&J's website is www. joined in the songs. Film viewers have read inter. talked back at the screen (as with the three Holocaust survivors I sat behind at a screening of The Last Days (1998)). When the dogs are being brought on board.42 But is this wonder.com). and is distinguished by the 'braid' near the snap. I do not believe that consumerism exhausts the social and cultural significance of contemporary film.and subtitles aloud for illiterate companions. who probably supplied the dogs for the movie. the special features that accompany most DVDs are not just marketing tools but discourses that may allow for more informed.43 As we establish in more depth in the next chapter. or simply capitalism delivering the impression that we have opportunities for interaction and expression? In agreement with Pierson. film watching was—as it continues to be for most people—a social occasion characterised by negotiated receipt.
this would further undermine Doherty. A great many of the 'mistakes' in Movie Mistakes are continuity errors. 'plot holes'. This was evidently recognised by the introduction of seven new categories to the site in 2003: 'factual errors'. Titanic is connected with 172 mistakes. 'plot holes' and 'deliberate "mistakes" '. Playing 'the game' is thus not a simple reaction to publicity rhetoric. that are significant for our purposes.Propaganda 159 to that of the film'. Indy falls to the ground only to get confronted by a cobra rearing its head and hissing. In the scene where the medic gets shot. Briefly you can also see the torch's reflection while he's waving it around. If so. Rosen's explanation for the activities of those who post to forums like Movie Mistakes requires revision and expansion. Consider these two examples. for instance. Craig and Cubitt's assumptions about the social function and impact of special effects. Look carefully and you'll see the reflection of the snake on the safety glass between it and Indy. 'continuity errors'. At first sight. nearly the highest total on the site. Further complicating any account of 'Everett's game' we might construct is the observation that most of the errors identified in Movie Mistakes are not factual. as Pierson and Groth would define it. the first concerning a scene in the VHS version of Raiders of the Lost Ark (1981) and the second Saving Private Ryan (1998): While Indy and Marion are in the Well of Souls. Combine that point with the fact that James Cameron has a strong track record in science fiction film production and made generous use of the same effects technologies in Titanic and it is then worth asking whether special effects and not historical details are the focal point for critical observation. In this shot. 'revealing mistakes'. though. Moreover. whereas Dogville (2003) has attracted only seven postings by a single viewer. 'audio problems' and 'deliberate "mistakes" '. including those for Titanic. which have a higher count of mistakes and which occupy five of the top ten spots in the 'most popular' browser's poll.46 We recall from the examples set out in Chapter 5 that claims to verisimilitude in detail are indeed a feature of publicity materials for historical films. watch carefully as . are science fiction films like Star Wars (1977) and The Matrix (1999). However. he sees the game as being prompted by the claims to knowledge and accuracy in details that have been promoted by the North American makers of historical films since the 1910s. It is the categories of 'visible crew or equipment'. for science fiction films are more often promoted on the basis of their special effects than on verisimilitude. Even more popular with viewers though. there does appear to be a relationship between the degree of emphasis placed on verisimilitude of historical details and viewer point scoring: in Movie Mistakes. suggesting perhaps that repeat viewings can undermine the impression of diegetic coherence. The next shot there is some fog which then reveals the injured medic. watch the shot where Upham brings the bags up to the injured medic. 'visible crew or equipment'. and they encounter the snakes. because they include expressions of wonder.
the focus of 'Everett's game' lies not with studios and their publicity departments but with viewer agents who use spaces like websites to express their views and invite other viewers to see as they do. and the aggregation of diverse mistakes into one site is perhaps akin to the display of items in the shopping arcades described by Benjamin in his account of the 1851 Crystal Palace exhibition in London.47 In both cases. They differ from Everett's letter. like that of a viewer who declared the disguise of Soviet T-34 as US tiger tanks in Saving Private Ryan to be excellent. Perhaps. The examples I have included are more suggestive of viewers who are critically aware of how film art is and might be done. history is theory and theory is ideological and ideology just is material interests. surprise and appreciation among those who do go and look. We cannot therefore explain away Movie Mistakes as picky point scoring about historical details. But within those structures. These lecturers may talk the effects down. And within the profession. Movie Mistakes is hardly representative of Internet users' receptions of historical films. for instance. but they may still elicit suspense. I have suggested. preparing others for the viewing of a scene. If you look near the neck. then. Ideology seeps into every nook and cranny of history'. Images and words It is often assumed by historiographers that professional historians differ from other people in their recognition of the mediated nature of history. rather than up. inviting viewers to take another look—'Look carefully' and 'If you look'—and to adopt a stance of reflexive seeing rather than illusionistic absorption. it masks the bourgeois values that give it shape and projects on to writers and readers ways of thinking and selfhood that they think are the hallmark of autonomy but which really serve to enslave them in a commodity culture as passive consumers. he quickly covers it back up. there is still space for browsers to explore the act of seeing and to engage in aesthetic appreciation. Jenkins further claims. the message posters take the role of special effects connoisseurs. lies with the .160 History Goes to the Movies the cast rips away the medic's shirt. Yet. Jenkins believes.48 History is thus a form of politics. in that their composers have adopted for a moment the mantle of lecturer. you can see the fake stomach vest he is wearing for a split second—when the actor realises he ripped too far up. Emancipation. some practitioners have further recognised the intertwining of history and ideology. Nor is it free from consumerist discourses: postings vie for attention with advertisements. therefore. because there is no unmediated access to a past that can be used to judge between various accounts of it. the ostensible 'transparency' of empirical histories encourages historians and history readers to believe that access to reality is possible. This point is borne out by the category of 'deliberate mistakes' and other posted comments. has argued that 'in the end. Keith Jenkins. In so doing.
in B. Recommended resources Allen. As I hope this chapter has demonstrated. 1990. Cambridge. 1995. L. 'Narrative space'. C. R. Browne. Re-thinking History. We have begun to search for aesthetic expressions of wonder as well as activities of consumption in historical film watching.. pp. pp. J. London: Routledge. historical research demonstrates the inadequacies of monolithic theories of history reception.). Haas and L. 1999. Berkeley: University of California Press.. 1976. 1986. 43–61. in E. 'Cinema and suture'.. Metz. 2003. And like those.). 1982.. Bell. Projecting Illusion: Film Spectatorship and the Impression of Reality. Bloomington: University of Indiana Press. in P. Narrative. The Power of Film Propaganda: Myth or Reality?. but that does not guarantee its acceptance. Special Effects: Still in Search of Wonder. M. K. pp. T. DeCordova. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. New York: Columbia University Press. 1990. Oudart.-P. 1995. Gunning. Bloomington: University of Indiana Press. 2002. Giroux. trans. 'An aesthetic of astonishment: early film and the (in)credulous spectator'. pp. Viewing Positions: Ways of Seeing Film.Propaganda 161 end of 'History' as we know it and the creation of 'histories' that challenge cherished notions of realism by eschewing 'reality effects' like footnotes. in L. 'Ideological effects of the basic cinematographic apparatus' and 'The apparatus: metapsychological approaches to the impression of reality in cinema'. Gender and Culture. Williams (ed. The Imaginary Signifier. S. R. talk of historical agents' intentions and third person address.. Jenkins. Ideology. 1992. .. Refiguring History. Pierson. in Questions of Cinema. Urbana: University of Illinois Press. D.49 As with many other 'postmodernist' theories of history. 114–33. Hanet. Individuals and society may encourage a view of the world. Apparatus. Cahiers du Cinéma 1969–1972: The Politics of Representation. Reeves. Jenkins. ed. Sells (eds). Furthermore. J.. N. H. New York: Cassell. 1995. New York: Columbia University Press. Jenkins' vision of society rests upon two problematic assumptions: 'Historians' and 'History' readers as the consumers of bourgeois ideology.-L. 286–318.. Bloomington: University of Indiana Press. K. 35–47.. Rosen (ed.. Dayan. pp. there might be more to that view of the world than material interests.. 19–75. 1981. Baudry. Jenkins' view springs from many of the same sources that have shaped the film theories described in this chapter. Picture Personalities: The Emergence of the Star System in American Film. and the collapse of ideology into material interests. Heath.A. pp. N. Movies and Methods. 438–50. Mass: Harvard University Press... It is worth asking what opportunities for wonder there are for the readers of histories too. 'Memory and pedagogy in the "Wonderful World of Disney": beyond the politics of innocence'. From Mouse to Mermaid: The Politics of Film.). K. 'The tutor-code of classical cinema'. Nichols (ed. London: Routledge.
Chapel Hill: University of North Carolina Press.: Harvard University Press. and K. London: BFI. 9 Ibid. Metz. D.foxhome. 10 J. Oudart.S. the "White man's Indian". The Imaginary Signifier. and J. 6 S. in B. Tauris. A Memoir. 'The tutor-code of classical cinema'. 90–100. p. 14 J. London: Cassell. Bloomington: University of Indiana Press. Media and the American Mind: From Morse to McLuhan. G. R. Film and History. Mass. Fuller. 139–54. 286–98. 'What becomes a legend most?'. vol. for example. Ind. pp. 209. Haas and L. Journal of Popular Film and Television. 3 The Wonderful.J. Eisenstein. The Power of Film Propaganda. 1990. Czitrom. London: Dobson. pp. pp. in P. New York: Columbia University Press. 'Boundaries of participation: the problem of spectatorship and American film audiences. 1994. 97. Salkeld. 8. p. L. Dayan. Sells (eds). Bloomington.). New York: Knopf. p. 19–75. 45–57. p. Film Form. Welch.: Harvard University Press. Baudry. 1965. 1951.-L. 1992. pp. Apparatus. 'Cinema and suture'. Movies and Methods. London: Faber and Faber. in E. p. D. 1997. 2001. 8 H. Entertainment Weekly. 1999. Berkeley: University of California Press.B. 2002. Cahiers du Cinéma 1969–1972: The Politics of Representation. Propaganda: The Formation of Men's Attitudes. 45. vol. Manchester: Manchester University Press. Heath. 'Redesigning Pocahontas: Disney. p. Rosen (ed. Jowett and V. Mass. 1981. 1995. Wells.-L.-P. 299–318. Eisenstein. Narrative. 39. Tauris. in Questions of Cinema. 51.. American Film and Politics from Reagan to Bush Jr. P. and S. Reeves. Leni Riefenstahl: A Portrait. London: I. Jackson. 1943. Playing in the Dark: Whiteness and the Literary Imagination. 47. D.. Wells (eds). 82.. Riefenstahl.M. directed by Ray Muller. 'How real is the reality in documentary film?'. 20(4). Cambridge. 1905–1930'. 4 S. Eisenstein. 63. 114–19. Cochran. 1990. 1990. 11 G.. 12 Lyrics to the songs in Anastasia are available online at http://www.162 History Goes to the Movies Taylor. Gender and Culture. 17. Beyond the Stars: The Memoirs of Sergei Eisenstein. vii–viii. p. 16 June 1995. Browne (ed. pp. C. 42. O'Donnell. for example. 1999. Propaganda and the German Cinema. p.com/ anastasia 13 See. London: I. 2 J. Godmilow with A. 1986. 7 N. . Ellul. and L. From Mouse to Mermaid: The Politics of Film.: Edinfo. 'Narrative space'.H. 3rd edn. and the marketing of dreams'. Edgerton and K.). Channels of Propaganda. see. xv. p. p. 1997. Bell. vol. 'Ideological effects of the basic cinematographic apparatus' and 'The apparatus: metapsychological approaches to the impression of reality'. 16. Ideology. in N. Bloomington: University of Indiana Press. 36(4). Film Propaganda: Soviet Russia and Nazi Germany. 1995. Eisenstein.B. pp. Sproule.M. 1982. 24(2). p. 438–50. Horrible Life of Leni Riefenstahl (1997). Cambridge. Giroux. trans. K. see T. Propaganda and Persuasion. 7. 1933–1945. J. Hanet. London: Pimlico. pp. Bloomington: University of Indiana Press. pp. Shapiro. 1998.). 5 S. Morrison. 'I wanna be like you-oo-oo': Disnified politics and identity from Mermaid to Mulan' in P. Notes 1 A. History and Theory. 1976. London: Sage. 1996. Film Form. and S. Nichols (ed. Davies and P. On 'Tonto'. pp. J. 'Memory and pedagogy in the "Wonderful World of Disney": beyond the politics of innocence'. For communication theories. The Film Sense. 76–7. pp. p.
48n and 144–6.. Film Theory and Philosophy. T. 40. Ithaca. p. Pribham (ed. 2002. Staiger. pp. 41(2). p. and S. Manchester: Manchester University Press. . de Laurentis. The Logic of the History of Ideas. Baltimore: Johns Hopkins University Press. 360–72. see G. p. Qualter. 1962. 32 T. 20 For an account of these theories. trans. 33–5. Barthes. as quoted in ibid. pp. Wells. 2000. 142–71. Text. 41(2). Deleuze and F. Gross (eds). 26 M. The Political Unconscious. vol. Of Grammatology. pp. Plantinga. 23 J. Perverse Spectators: The Practices of Film Reception. History and Theory. in R. Taylor. Guattari.W. 1999. NJ: Princeton University Press. New Brunswick. O'Donnell. Sontag. 2002. p. Gunning. Sheridan. Schramm. see R. p. New York: Oxford University Press. pp. 'The cult of distration'. 199. quote at p. 'Propaganda'. pp.L.S. 1986. 46. 18 (2). 1997. F. 27 On the reception of Battleship Potemkin and Soviet film styles. pp. 1977. 2002.G. Bevir. 33. Rockett. Gerbner. 1989. London: Verso. 'The mirror stage as formative of the function of the I'. pp. p. no. 17 L. Kracauer. M. 20. NY: Cornell University Press. New York: New York University Press. pp.H. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. pp. p. 1987. Collingwood. Princeton. p. Barnouw. 25 R. 439–61. in R. in L. 'The death of the author'. Jowett and V. 'An aesthetic of astonishment: early film and the (in)credulous spectator'. vol. 29 Ibid. 'On some problems with weak intentionalism for intellectual history'. pp. Female Spectators: Looking at Film and Television. 3.Propaganda 163 15 J. 'Emmet on film'. in American Film and Politics from Reagan to Bush Jr. in P. pp. Ideology. T. Reeves. Heath. A. trans. See. Jourmal of Contemporary History. 34 George Méliès. Derrida. 120. W.). 'The principles of history' and 'Inaugural: rough notes'.H. 146. 115. Lacan. 70–1. pp. 2003. vol. 1980. p.. 1983. 11(3). quote at p. 1977. Brown. Smith (eds). 96. vol. 36–8. International Encyclopedia of Communications. New German Critique. 1999. Williams (ed). and R.). Sipe. Rosen (ed.J. 28 N. and G. Oxford: Oxford University Press. Bevir. xii.. trans. p. p. 1–46. 16 A number of critics have taken issue with the theorisation of film viewers as male or masculine. 1–7. 1996. New York: Anchor. 22 V. for example. 21 P. 375. New York: Columbia University Press. in W. 35 Ibid. Oxford: Oxford University Press. Doob. 1988. Godmilow. 144–8. pp. 1981.). 1995. London: Fontana. Minneapolis: University of Minnesota Press. 30 K. 'Fascinating fascism'. 'How to be an intentionalist'. 377. 73–108. 174–87. Rosenstone (ed. 265–86. Image. 'How real is the reality in documentary film?'. New York: Tavistock. S. Anti-Oedipus: Capitalism and Schizophrenia. 18 C. Spivak. 'Through the looking glass'. and S. G. New York: Random House. The Principles of History and Other Writings in the Philosophy of History. 33 T. 24 J. Propaganda and Psychological Warfare. p. 158. 118–19. 'A "cinema for the millions": Soviet socialist realism and the problem of film comedy'. vol. 'Notes on spectator emotion and ideological film criticism'. Allen and M. G. Dray and W. 1976. Viewing Positions: Ways of Seeing Film. 209–17. The Power of Film Propaganda. 'From the Pole to the Equator: a vision of a wordless past'. 37. NJ: Rutgers University Press. Jameson. ' "I want to be like you-oo-oo": Disnified politics and identity from Mermaid to Mulan'. Worth and L. Apparatus. 97. Propaganda and Persuasion. van der Dussen (eds). in Under the Sign of Saturn. in E. 1983. D. History and Theory. in Ecrits. 31 J. History Ireland. Music. 19 D. Revisioning History: Film and the Construction of a New Past. Narrative.
Oetterman. Pierson. 33. Lewiston. Oxford: Oxford University Press. 46. Fuller. 77–8. 121. 47 Mistake 19/30 in Most Popular Mistakes and mistake 5/78 for Saving Private Ryan. pp.H.com 46 P. ch. 'Wonder. in Dreaming of Fred and Ginger: Cinema and Cultural Memory. Kuhn.moviemistakes. 40 J. Minneapolis: University of Minnesota Press. 9.A. pp. 1905–1930'. 38 H. p. Historicity. Japanese Silent Film Narrators. 24(2). 22. Rosen. 2003. vol. Annette Kuhn on cinema courtship rituals: A. 'This loving darkness'. NY: Edwin Mellen.moviemistakes. for example. See also Groth's exploration of the interplay of literary allusion and photography in Victorian Photography and Literary Nostalgia. 41 K. see L. 156. Srinivas. pp. Film and History. p. 44 P. 49 Ibid. 39 M. www. 138–67. 2002. Sydney. Culture and Society.164 History Goes to the Movies 36 M. Jenkins. 41. 2003. Boston: Zone Books. 1990. On social interaction among Indian film viewers. 1997. 156–8. Special Effects: Still in Search of Wonder. London: Routledge. Macquarie University. Re-thinking History. pp. www. memory and nineteenth century phantasmagoria'. 123. 20(4). Pierson. New York: Columbia University Press. see S. 2 December 2004. 2. and M. Jenkins. 45 Mistake 54/172 for Titanic. 2001. Rosen. 42 See. Dym. vol. Gunning. paper presented at Embodied Memory. and their Forgotten Art of Setsumei: A History of Japanese Silent Film. Groth. and see also K. Pierson. Change Mummified. 'An aesthetic of astonishment'. Media. 43 T. . 19. London: Routledge..com 48 K. New York: New York University Press. 2003. Benshi. History: An Interdisciplinary Conference. 164–6. 'The active audience: spectatorship. The Panorama: History of a Mass Medium. Special Effects. social relations and the experience of cinema in India'. Action. Special Effects. 1992. 2002. 'Boundaries of participation: the problem of spectatorship and American film audiences. Theory. pp. 19. pp. Refiguring History. 155–74. Change Mummified: Cinema. 37 On the different forms of panorama. 2002. p. pp.
I traced that criticism to the assumption that films cannot deliver information about the past as effectively as written text.html Historical films commonly invite criticism. in the service of capitalist ideology. Advertisement for 'The Official Titanic Porcelain Portrait Doll'.franklinmint. He explains: Never . Frank Sanelo argues. In Chapter 1. Filmmakers take liberties: they leave out details. .net/odyssey/ jacklives. then we should look no further than one word: money. Complex economic and social issues are puréed into easily digestible bits of information intended for consumption by Hollywood's most sought-after demographic: the lowest common denominator. http://www. promotion and reception. it remains for us to explore the extent to which capitalist ideology shapes practices of historical film production. . Commercial imperatives most often fuel cinematic rewrites of history. It is with Wyatt's .com Jack Lives! I refuse to believe otherwise. If we were to think of the prime reason why visual histories differ from written ones. just those produced in Hollywood. While I have questioned the hierarchical arrangement of written and visual histories and the portrayal of viewers as passive.sparkling-horizon. . Jack Lives Fan Fiction. They do so. a number of theorists further assume. telescope events and offer a pastiche of the past and present.1 But not all historical films are like this. one undercut by Justin Wyatt's account of varying marketing practices in Hollywood. This is a relatively common assumption. avoid competing explanations of the same phenomenon. .8 Selling history Relive the opening scene just as you remember it. two-hour blockbuster that earns $200 million domestic. . let historical truth get in the way of a good. http://www.
And when we screened. which Justin Wyatt sees as constituting a significant portion of US film production.2 High-concept films combine three elements: pre-sold premises. . . was played .166 History Goes to the Movies account of 'high-concept' Hollywood films that we begin our analysis of the relationship between the producers. commercial and cultural practices. live performers and song slides were promoted as special features in films. Given the role of music as a cross-promotional vehicle. for example. and there was a lot of interest in him among girls. the girls were one of the highest-testing groups who enjoyed the movie. Thus. Music is also an important marketing and merchandising element. So. director's or musical director's other projects.3 This strategy appeared to work. are 'narrated as much by their marketing as by their ostensible story'. . High concept and patina High-concept films. The most commonly cited 'pre-sold premise' in film market research and advertising post-1910 is the 'star'. even if they are not all available for purchase.4 With the arrival of recorded music consumer technologies. In the silent era. Film companies tend to secure saturation airplay by commissioning several recordings of a song. the 'theme song' for Titanic. advertising and marketing research campaigns for a number of historical films tap into previous successes through the citation of novels. an analysis that takes us via the concepts of 'patina' and nostalgia' to the twofold conclusion that neither the makers nor the audiences of historical films singlehandedly shape their meaning and that historical film studies require the combined consideration of material. and sheet music. stage shows and a producer's. as the vice president of Paramount makes clear in his description of concept testing for Titanic: In our original concept testing—when we read the concept of the movie over the phone and who was in it—we mentioned Leonardo DiCaprio. new marketing opportunities were sought through the production of soundtrack albums and theme song singles. for example. Annie Proulx' and 'From the Director of Chocolat and The Cider House Rules'. while Celine Dion's recording of 'My Heart Will Go On'. The Shipping News (2001) is billed as 'Based on the Pulitzer Prize winning novel by E. Stars—actors who embody desired values and identities—sell movies. As I noted in Chapter 2. lyric booklets and pianola rolls were offered for sale. promoters and viewers of historical films. Looking at a range of US historical films that have performed well at box offices around the world. for the high rate of repeat viewings by young girls was mostly credited to DiCaprio. the young girls were the highest quadrant in their interest in seeing the film. it is not hard to see what Wyatt means. music and advertising aesthetics. When we tested the first trailers. airplay has often been as much desired as sales.
1 Going back to Titanic with Sony Classical's soundtrack sequel (© 2000. for example. an 'X' on a baseball hat advertises Malcolm X (1992). new or remixed music can be used to signal the imminent release of a film in video or DVD format: the release of Titanic in VHS format. As with corporate communications campaigns. additional performances were achieved in adult contemporary and dance formats through cover versions recorded by Kenny G and Déjà Vu. with film companies tending to favour the release of singles. including merchandise. was preceded by that of a soundtrack sequel.1). Sony Classical BMG) . for example. a neon 'C' announces Chicago (2002) and a pair of hands on a keyboard and an illuminated star of David armband signal the diegesis of Le Pianiste (The Pianist. one commensurate with contemporary consumer goods advertising. Similarly. video clips and soundtracks about a month before a film's release to foster circulation of its title through radio and retail outlets. the first of which was not available for individual purchase. Figure 8. So. Clean. Timing is also considered important. 2002).Selling history 167 largely in chart programs. Film advertising is also structured by a preference for text and images that are concise and transferable to other media. Staggered releases of difference mixes can also maintain airplay. Return to Titanic (1998. film-advertising campaigns are characterised by the economical use of graphics and text. High-concept films are in Wyatt's view also characterised by a particular aesthetic. for example to communicate in the Figure 8. relatively simple images are needed. as was the case with a re-release of the Dion version intercut with audio from the film. for example.
L. Often. Film merchandise is commonly connected with children's films. On a basic level. the longer the owner has enjoyed certain status'. exchanged and sold. comes down to how nifty the mini-mart is. he argues. T. Importantly. so 'perfection' is conveyed instead through a combination of digital design and material 'patina'. 'patina serves as a kind of visual proof of status. The images of historical films. . But production and distribution companies and 'promotional partners' have also used merchandise—both free and for sale—to raise and maintain awareness of historical films. Burger King meal toys. stations reported selling through cases of them before the movie even premiered.5 It should therefore be of little surprise to us to learn that many high-concept film directors like Ridley Scott started their careers making television commercials. a buying decision. a pre-dominance of reflected images. Shell execs decided to offer a premium with purchase. The competition is fierce because consumers have so many choices. posters and booklets have long been collected. Mark Carnes and Robert Rosenstone contend. Chesebrough-Ponds and Shell to promote Anastasia (1997). and a tendency toward settings of high technology and industrial design'. . Stanley's report for Brandweek on the Shell–Fox deal to promote Anastasia provides us with a clear example of the economic significance of tie-in deals for promotional partners. savings and speed. because as Grant McCracken puts it. or what the giveaway is. Patina denotes the value placed on material objects that show evidence both of age and of being maintained with care. To reach the 4–11 year old demographic. even with young audiences: The gas-station category has been through several rounds of aggressive advertising and promotion of late.168 History Goes to the Movies low-density format of print newspapers. Hershey. the materiality of historical films is obvious: movie prints and cells. Wyatt sees the aesthetics of consumer advertising also infusing film production design. with chains spiffing up their stations and looking for more and better ways to reach people with messages that stress convenience. a $2. . The greater the patina on certain objects. are characterised by 'perfect images': 'a set of production techniques composed of extreme back-lighting.6 Opportunities to showcase high-tech industrial design within historical diegeses are obviously limited. . are 'perfect'. More than two million of the premiums were ordered. a minimal (often almost black-and-white) colour scheme. like Disney's campaign to sell Pocahontas (1995) with colouring-in books.99 travel game with five Anastasia-themed figurines. based on a child's influence.8 . . Opening up the patina system to mass consumption through the production of tie-in merchandise allows viewers the chance to buy into desired elements of a film.7 Historical films play upon this perception and fetishise objects to such an extent that their narratives are mediated through objects. moccasins and Barbie-like dolls and Fox's agreements with Burger King. and as an early indicator of acceptance around the property. . High-concept films. Julian Stringer. but in a different sense to Wyatt's definition.
In 1953. Glenby hairstyling studios. Historical films aimed at adult audiences. and you. like Ava Gardner. more commonly promote ancillary tie-ins. Merchandising is even available for R-rated features. with red velvet chairs and themed tester-stands'. though. Viewers of Titanic.2). a company that five years earlier offered consumers six Titanic-inspired lipstick shades and the chance to exchange proof of purchase for a copy of the book Figure 8. MGM encouraged cinema operators to sell scarves with the tag 'Make a wish when you wear one of these attractive scarfs [sic]. Beauticians were even trained to do 'Moulin Rouge makeovers' at counters designed 'to "feel" like "Moulin Rouge". with viewers of Rambo First Blood Part II (1985) able to buy an action doll. for instance. selling 'inspired-by-Moulin' evening gowns and accessories and Christian Dior 'Satine' lipstick. too. might find a "Dream Knight" '. Franklin Mint) . advertisements intercut with footage from Chicago promoted Max Factor's 'Lipfinity' lipstick. Bloomingdale's was the 'alpha point' for a Moulin Rouge (2001) campaign. had the opportunity to purchase replicas of Rose's 'Heart of the Ocean' necklace and a Rose doll from Franklin Mint (Figure 8.Selling history 169 Film-inspired products are not just for children. for example.2 Franklin Mint's Rose doll (© 2000. Images from The Great Gatsby (1974) were used in advertisements for Ballantine's scotch.9 Similarly. Robert Bruce's men's sportswear and DuPont cookware.
3). Selling what? It would be naïve to deny that historical film production and exhibition are shaped at least in part by marketing principles and goals.3 Max Factor's Titanic tie-in (© 2000. and how are they received? Are they simply products that are bought and consumed. However. as Gladiator (2000).170 History Goes to the Movies James Cameron's Titanic (Figure 8. Indeed. and again films set in the ancient world have been used to showcase its capabilities. Max Factor's origins as a producer of stage and film make-up has meant that it has long had both formal and informal opportunities for promotion. the visual locus of film marketing is thought to be CGI. like a pair of jeans or a chocolate bar? As was outlined in Figure 8. Today. the association of the ancient world with wide-angle shots remains. Even after the passing of those technologies. are more likely to rely upon a combination of digital technologies and patina. Other important elements of the marketing-driven aesthetics of historical films are image production and exhibition technologies. film studios sought to differentiate their products from television by conjoining the wide-angle sets of 'swords and sandals' films set in the ancient world with widescreen technologies like Cinerama. In the mid-1950s. Historical films may sell. Troy (2004) and Alexander (2004) attest. but what do they sell. by contrast. CinemaScope and VistaVision. we are unable to conclude that historical films are commercial products without an assessment of how and why they are so. Max Factor Cosmetics) . Features set in the modern world.
. Vivian Sobchack for one sees the combination of stars.12 Nostalgia is predicated on a preference for emotional attachment over intellectual abstraction and distance. conventional treatments of film promotion and exhibition advance a similar conclusion. and yet longing for an impossibly pure context of lived experience as a place of origin. In Wyatt's view. As we shall see in this section. .11 In both Sobchack's and Keller's estimation. I want to rearticulate the chief argument of the previous chapter.10 While Wyatt does not see the lifestyles promised by films as necessarily utopian. a number of commentators portray digital technologies as vehicles for the advancement of late capitalist. In response to these claims. Hostile to history . we recall. a past which has only ideological reality. at bay' and as such is symptomatic of what Susan Stewart calls 'the social disease of nostalgia': A sadness which creates a longing that of necessity is inauthentic because it does not take part in lived experience. that events still exist. Alexandra Keller sees Titanic as exemplifying the formula 'obsessive detail + grand emotion = ideological stupefication'. that there are still stories to tell' and that the human subject or . digital images and object fetishisation in Titanic as supplying viewers with a 'prosthetic' experience such as loss. most notably those of Frederic Jameson and Christopher Lasch. other commentators disagree. an 'authentic emotion' from an 'age of innocence' never personally suffered and untainted by contemporary irony. a face that turns towards a future-past. but not real emotion. . many films 'manipulate the consumer' into buying not just a product but also a lifestyle—often wrapped up with a 'star'—into which the product permits entry. nostalgia wears a distinctly utopian face. Stewart's pejorative appraisal of nostalgia is echoed in other film and cultural studies.13 Jameson reads late capitalist society's preoccupation with a nostalgic past as a desperate attempt to prop up the illusion 'that things still happen. he further argues. .Selling history 171 Chapter 5. since they have no idea that any ideological argument is being made at all. When this lack of anxiety is enhanced by emotional catharsis on an epic scale. and this has the paradoxical effect of buoying up spectators. Similarly. She explains: Titanic's narrative and visual coding are weighted down with an apparently never-ending succession of accurate details. consumerist ideologies. that the nature and impact of historical films cannot be summarised so simply. And like advertisements. . it is particularly easy to sway an audience to a particular ideological position. high-concept films are organised by an aesthetic akin to that used in consumer advertising. allowing them to float with ease through an experience without any attendant historical anxiety. Titanic is a 'protective' device that keeps 'real trauma.
that historical films may elicit different stances towards nostalgia among viewers. he imitates her stage banter. . As Linda Hutcheon has noted. since the past it idealizes stands outside time. Todd Hayne's fusion of potentially nostalgic elements from 1950s melodramas with a hypervisual style in Far from Heaven (2002).172 History Goes to the Movies self is something other than an ideological. these various commentators assume. at the beauty of the music. clearly announces that his work is a re-presentation of other cinematic works. a symptom of an inability or even unwillingness to represent the present?18 The nostalgic inflection of Jameson's work and current studies of nostalgia suggest perhaps that nostalgic practices are not simple and that they are not necessarily problematic. and for that person in high school who loved those songs and who you feel rekindled. at your own intensely serious investment in Joni Mitchell when you were in high school.14 Nostalgia testifies to our inability to make representations of our own current experience. but not in order to condemn the present. for instance. Sobchack's and Keller's criticism of Titanic on the grounds that it fosters emotional engagement is not sufficient to rule it out as 'history'. to take just one example. Is Jameson's call for 'genuine historicity'. But you're also crying. 'an ignited. present. frozen in unchanging perfection. It is less concerned with loss than with our continuing indebtedness to a past the formative influence of which lives on in our patterns of speech. Strictly speaking. imaginary assemblage that society utilises to elicit subjection. as Haynes puts it. our expectations. portraying nostalgia as the evasion of memory and history.15 Lasch has a similarly bleak view. This Haynes likens to John Kelly's performance as the singer Joni Mitchell: He sounds just like Joni Mitchell. It draws hope and comfort from the past in order to enrich the present and to face what comes with good cheer. Nostalgic representations of the past evoke a time irretrievably lost and for that reason timeless and unchanging. he's in drag and looks like a ghoulish version of the little pixie Joni Mitchell from the 1960s.19 This opens up. He writes: Nostalgia appeals to the feeling that the past offered delights no longer obtainable. Memory too may idealize the past. for instance. our gestures. our basic disposition toward the world around us. It sees past. too. cultural theories of nostalgia are often undercut by their protagonists' own nostalgic inclinations. is a pathological affective activity that has as its goal the replacement of the present with a desired past. and future as continuous.16 Nostalgia. You're laughing. electrified distance' between viewers and films and encourages a combined intellectual and emotional response. It is possible. our standards of honour. but you're laughing at yourself.17 Chapter 4 gave us philosophical reasons to doubt whether the emotions can be sequestered from historical understanding. nostalgia does not entail the exercise of memory at all.
commercial appropriation of viewer practices. tieins. second. participate in with your life experiences. homophobia and racism. this claim can be questioned in two ways: first by asking whether viewers simply emulate or adopt what they see and second by asking whether viewer responses to historical films are necessarily escapist. and is that a problematic act? Reception: wonder and collaboration As was argued in the previous two chapters. though. neither one undermining the other. but we do not expect that they have been captured 'as they were or are' and thus dealt with by the filmmaker on our behalf. . the best kind of cinema is not about the real—it's about a distance that you fill in. in Far From Heaven artificial sets and forms of acting collide with the socio-historical prejudices of sexism. close study of viewer interactions with the material and ideational elements of 'high-concept' films—merchandise. Dealing with the first point. There's something about a beautiful surrogate that opens up this wealth of feeling that you wouldn't have with the real thing. visual technologies. not all viewers can be described as passive consumers. Jackie Stacie and J. As we shall also see. If the real Joni Mitchell was up there. are limited because they treat periods of history that he and some of his viewers have experienced. any celebration of viewer agency we might be tempted to engage in must be tempered by the acknowledgement of. you'd be going. Haynes sees viewers as active partners in the making of meaning. These prejudices are no less painful for being represented. however. first. Similarly. Both his film and the examples he offers. your memories. oh god she's older.Selling history 173 There's this freedom to go from one emotion to the next. appropriation and refashioning. a number of studies of film merchandise and tie-ins encourage us to see viewer behaviour as better characterised by the concept of 'adaptation'. Writing on film fashions and female viewers.20 Similarly. Craik have argued for the recognition of 'bottom-up' adaptive processes or. Historical film viewing affords opportunities for wonder but also grounds for commercial collaboration. or outside a viewer's experiences? What can viewers bring to 'fill in' films of that sort? Will they slip simply into accepting a 'prosthetic experience'. for example. and your associations. Merchandise and tie-ins As writers like Sobchack and Jameson suggest. activities of regulation by viewers and. oh she can't hit that same note—you get caught up in all the discrepancies of the real. However. intertextual references and plotlines—reveals activities of poaching. audiences may adopt onscreen and tie-in objects and activities in order to evade the present. What room is there for reflection on investment in historical films that treat events prior to living memory. And to me.
display a detailed knowledge of how costumes are made. Women's memories of adaptations therefore focus more on hats. historical . but some also engage in the critical. 'selective borrowings'. The creator of the 'Titanic on Tour: Costume Photos' website.23 Viewers 'make do'. for instance.4). to achieve the look of a blonde streak or sugar and water to fix curls. draping techniques and designer decisions in support of their decision to 'get to work'. With make-up or hairstyling. whom we might call 'connoisseurs'. can fashion 'inspired by' costumes with the help of a Simplicity paper pattern (Figure 8.24 Similarly.174 History Goes to the Movies put simply.22 Go forward in time sixty years and viewers are still making do. many recalled pretending to be Douglas Fairbanks' character in The Black Pirate (1926) with improvised swords. or they could again make do. magazines like Film Fashionland and Women's Filmfair tried to capitalise on filmgoers' improvisations of fashions they saw on screen by giving away dress patterns and advertising dresses or paper patterns by order. copying screen costumes by order or sewing called for more money or sewing prowess than many filmgoers could muster. At the website 'Titanic Show and Tell'. ugly and detract[ed] from the outfit' and asks other browsers of the 'Costume Dolls' site to tell her whether the running stitch used in that outfit is the same as that for the film costume.25 Whether discussing costumes for dolls or people. 'Jenny-Rose' justifies her decision to remove the gloves that came with the 'boarding outfit' for her Franklin Mint 'Rose' doll on the grounds that they were 'poorly made. is a form of counter-hegemonic production. film was the raw material for imaginative play: for example. Making do. an art of using by poaching. make-up and hairstyling. Film also prompted improvisation on the part of female viewers. as Michel de Certeau has argued. using household products like bleach. Some viewers. for instance. Even so. offers a detailed. 'Helen' tells us that 'I am going to take a more lenient attitude towards accessories than to the dresses themselves: the dresses have to be accurate but it's all right for the accessories to be "in the style of" ' and 'Lexi' suggests the use of sari material to make the 'dinner dress' from the film. the styles of different designers and an appreciation of costumes as an aesthetic effect. so they 'made do'.21 Annette Kuhn has stressed the same point in her study of 1930s filmgoers. For many of the male informants in her study. Viewers of Titanic. . But the Internet also details many cases of viewers ordering or making outfits and engaging in adaptive practices. hair and costume.g. for instance. women could opt to purchase products given prominent advertising space in magazines like Filmfair. . The claims that film costumes make upon viewer attention cannot be understood if we describe them purely in terms of realism or simulation. 'play with' and 'try out' new sewing techniques and Titanic-inspired patterns. for example. contributors to Titanic-related sites display knowledge of designers and the sources for their creations (e. but their memories were focused on their adolescent experiments with make-up. critical pictorial and textual account of fabrics. aesthetic appreciation of film costumes. . Consequently. Few of the women interviewed could afford to emulate what they saw on screen.
film is drawn into everyday life and used to articulate and secure memories of experiences with family. Film viewing is therefore not a straightforward act of escapism.27 Poaching words: fan fiction It is not only the material elements of films that are drawn into the fabric of viewers' lives. it is also clear that the 'moment' is meaningful because of the presence of her boyfriend. Plots can also be used to support fantasies of self-transformation . even when it is clear that they have an emotional investment in the film. to parties. Sarah Berry has argued that consumer film fashion is potentially subversive because it can encourage fantasies of self-transformation. and even to meetings with survivors of the accident. to take just one example. So while. on cruises.26 That may be so. Titanic exhibitions and weddings. As with the reminiscences of the 1930s filmgoers detailed in Chapter 4.4 'Making do': Titanic costumes courtesy of Simplicity (© 2000. friends and lovers. for instance. but it is also important to note that film fashion can be drawn into and transformed by viewer uses.Selling history 175 Figure 8. the description of 'Sabine' wearing her 'dinner dress' costume to a Titanic exhibition as 'the greatest moment of her life' might be read as her buying into a desired persona or even lifestyle. 'Titanic Show and Tell'. Simplicity) designs and fabric types) and do not refrain from judgement. includes a gallery of photographs of costumes made to wear at home.
30 Evidently. 'is just not right': it is 'not canon'. can be part of 'bottom-up' adaptive processes. or even changed to accommodate the author's aims. Words. including historical films. homosociality and even homoeroticism are instantiated in many filmic representations of Nazi masculinity. it might be argued that these viewer-writers display in their compositions an awareness of the contemporary discourses of romantic love and 'home. Slash fiction about the Holocaust. although interestingly not documentaries. But fanzines and the Internet websites have also been used by viewer-writers to garnish wider reception and review. Fan fiction—stories written by viewers that extend and/or alter the diegeses of films—like fan fashion demonstrates that viewers are not the passive recipients of consumerist ideologies. One of the most frequently used words in reviews of fan fiction is 'canon'. 'Gina's' continuation of Anastasia with a Thanksgiving dinner also displays scant regard for the historical setting and events that 'inspired' the film. As with our analysis of Holocaust comedy in Chapter 2. these writers have taken the instruction of promoters like Franklin Mint to relive a film 'just as you remember it' quite literally. Sometimes. a perfect character (who seems to be gendered female) whom moderators of fan fiction sites assume is a stand-in for the author.net. 'Leigh-Anne' concludes.31 However. books.29 As the moderator of one site makes clear. heart and family' that shape Titanic and Anastasia. like fabrics. television programs and films. for contributions to fanzines and Internet archives are open to review. It is also not the case that fan fiction is simply a form of communication in which 'anything goes'.176 History Goes to the Movies and understandings of past and present relationships and rituals. As Caroline Picart and Jason McKahan have argued. is an online archive of around 50. for instance. for example. it is worth exploring why this might be so. Fan fiction can be created for personal use (e. Most commonly. Many of the reviews posted on 'The Thickness of the Rain'. 'Jack lives! I refuse to believe otherwise'. writers posit emotional and sexual encounters between characters of the same gender. for instance. fan fiction exists as a platform for exploring underdeveloped and perhaps even unlikely relationships between characters. FanFiction. some of the 'Titanic Continued' stories see Rose breaking off her engagement with Cal and either marrying Jack on the ship or when they reach New York safely. as with the fantasies played out by the 1930s film viewers interviewed by Kuhn.32 Might these elements also be present in Holocaust films and written histories? And what might our reluctance to connect the Holocaust with sexualities say about our understandings of the nature and functions of history? 'Canon' in this case might be suggestive of an orthodoxy . a diary entry) or shared with a limited peer group. as with 'Amatia's' suggested relationship between Oskar Schindler and Itzhak Stern from Schindler's List in 'Night after Night' and 'The Thickness of the Rain'.g. historical details or setting are incidental to the story.28 Fiction may also posit a relationship between film characters and a 'Mary Sue'. For example. opine that people could be easily offended and even defamed by the story because it concerns 'real people'. In the sub-genre of 'slash'.000 stories that extend or rewrite anime.
What is perhaps more clear in the case of fan fiction. might be read as critical judgement about the historical and stylistic limitations of the film. Hence 'astartea' writes. Viewer-writers can also be 'connoisseurs'. Connoisseurs and sequel makers: computer games and DVD special features In Theodor Adorno's estimation. 'I think this feeling was totally canon in the movie' and 'Khanele' and 'Leigh-Anne' acknowledge the use of a 'good' and 'lovely' writing style. I would like to revisit this dual treatment of viewers as connoisseurs and consumers through a consideration of computer games and DVD special features. . for example. though. In reviews of fan fiction for other historical films. highlighting and sharing perceived aesthetic and historical limitations and qualities in films. the experiences of British troops on D-Day. Canon is thus as much about the style of the truth as it is about the truth itself.34 In the last chapter. I drew upon the writings of Gunning. the struggles families encounter before and after combatants return home and the difference that the addition of a character or a musical number can have upon the diegesis. However. Evidence for that is to be found in records of film viewing—as with Méliès' description—and in critical discussions of effects in print texts such as Scientific American. These efforts are supported by reference not only to film style but also to primary and secondary works on D-Day. . cinema works to produce consumers without giving them any influence upon future productions. defending both a filmmaker's creative work and the historical record from perceived misuse and even disrespect. than in films that make extensive use of special and now digital effects. where the 'real people' are those of the historical record. Nowhere is that clearer. Thus as 'Anonymous' argues. is that viewers engage in regulatory practices. Fan fiction for Ryan explores. we see at least one other major meaning of 'canon' in play. it may be concluded that as with fan fashion. 'canonical' fan fiction cannot be reduced to a discourse on realism or simulation. he argues.33 Bringing all of these elements together. . one in which connections and consistency with an historical record that is larger than the diegesis of a film are evoked. The diverse body of fan fiction connected with Saving Private Ryan.Selling history 177 in which the mediated nature of history and the relationship of history with narrative are either downplayed or denied. a closer look at fan fiction reviews complicates this equation of canon with what might be called an 'empiricist' orthodoxy. 'This is [sic] real people you are dealing with . Pierson and Groth to show that the reception of special effects on stage and on film is shaped by both appreciations of photorealism and aesthetic decisions. The same reviews that dismiss 'The Thickness of the Rain' as wrong or offensive see it as 'canonical' in the sense of displaying a consistency of style and characterisation. you can't twist it into fiction'. In this chapter. to take just one example. not the characters in the film.
As marketing manager Pete Snyder has noted. Games can offer players the opportunity to look to the experience of historical agents and experiences excluded from a film.36 Successful games expand both the collection of characters and their experiences and thus work like a sequel or a parallel story. but gamers don't'. games sales can even outstrip box office and rental returns. there has been a dramatic growth in the production of computer games that are closely tied to the characters. has observed that game producers see little advantage in producing works that are firmly tied to a movie's plot. The same principle might be applied to fan fiction. situations and settings of films. though. he argues. and a date that propelled the nation into the forefront of power upon Earth.37 Pearl Harbor: Zero Hour is not at fault because of its connection with an historical event. Where it differs from fan fiction is in the source of that criterion. and around a quarter of gamers are happy to play a tie-in game before they see the related film. Consequently.35 Clearly. A game should allow you to 'remake' history.178 History Goes to the Movies Contemporary discussions on movie-to-game tie-ins are dominated by considerations of marketing power and thus possibilities for enhanced financial returns. it is not the case that player latitude simply means 'anything goes'. gamers share with fan fiction writers and reviewers regulatory practices and concepts. Furthermore. have little in common with this title. It pushed the U. 'Consumers don't want a rehash of a movie. This game is trying to capitalize on that recognition without delivering anything that is remotely connected with the true world of gaming—a chance to strategize. Games that have faithfully tried to recreate World War II scenarios. Fan fiction is 'canon' if it is .S. rather. counterfactuals— alternative histories that result from pursuing questions of the form 'What if ?'—can be the main result. The review of Pearl Harbor: Ground Zero above does not include the word 'canon'. for example. into World War II. a clear majority of gamers prefer to rent or buy games related to films. And like fan fiction. When this recipe for success is applied to historical films. In some cases. As marketers also recognise. games can have an impact both on box office and rental returns and on the overall financial return of a title. This is not simply to protect gaming revenue when a film does poorly at the box office. and served notice to the rest of the world that you don't mess with this country. but the game is nonetheless measured against the criterion of a 'true' game. Rather. to avenge or stop that initial devastation. gamers are far from passive consumers. That is clearly the expectation communicated in this review of Pearl Harbor: Ground Zero (2001): The attack upon Pearl Harbor was both a horrendous day in United States history. the problem lies with the lack of latitude it gives to players. brought the nation together in a single-mindedness of purpose. to give gamers an opportunity to redraw history. Jim Wilson. for instance. Kids want a rehash. as with the British soldiers written into Saving Private Ryan fan fiction.
there grew up an oral and online culture of telling and finding that could be framed as the search for creative expression within corporate spaces. music videos and trailers are increasingly included as routine items in DVD releases of films. Easter eggs may be hidden to support the promotion of a film. These features can be cast as 'collector's items' and promoted by appealing to viewer desire to establish or support a hierarchy of fandom. like the 'rhino fight' in Gladiator. Language and subtitle options. In addition to their use for credits. The documentary form of the 'Into the Breach' featurette packaged with Saving Private Ryan. barely masks an introspective and circular endorsement of the film and Stephen Ambrose's writings on D-Day. DVD special features have also been viewed primarily through the lenses of promotion and consumption. 'chapter-bychapter' access. though.Selling history 179 consistent with other phenomena in a film or history. though. What makes these claims difficult to sustain is that these features are available to all potential buyers. is 'true' if it offers opportunities for decision making to players. Film distributors have thus embraced other means of appealing to consumer collectors. songs. on the other hand. A game. As they were not formally documented or in some cases even known to software distributors. 'making of ' profiles. but they can deliver both production information and expanded or parallel narratives that might change a viewer's . special commentaries. 'Easter eggs'— undocumented features found through key sequences on a computer keyboard or DVD controls—are a good case in point. the gag reel for Pearl Harbor and Kamahl's performance of 'Danny Boy' in Harvie Krumpet. out-takes. The first Easter eggs were used by computer software engineers to draw attention to their contribution to the generation of an application or system. Easter eggs may still be expressions within and against corporate spaces. gags and excluded footage. but their proliferation in recent releases like Moulin Rouge points to corporate attempts to build affiliation through the appropriation of fan activities and discourses. film stills. we find support for a culture of connoisseurship not through print materials or the London Polytechnic but in the heterogeneous spaces of DVD discs and the Internet. Forms of agency in fashion and fan fiction making are thus not the same as those for gaming. DVD provides an opportunity for more studied and varied forms of viewing than cinemas currently allow. Viewer ability to watch DVDs on a computer monitor made the transfer of the activity of hiding and finding Easter eggs to another medium possible.39 In distinction from their studies of nineteenth-century cultures of connoisseurship. Repeat viewings and close scrutiny of scenes through the use of different speeds of fast forward and rewind may foster connoisseurship and wonder in the sense that Pierson and Groth describe: the understanding and enjoyment of aesthetic decisions and effects. for example. For at least some viewers. cast and crew biographies.38 Much of what is 'special' about a DVD is promotional. Easter eggs now unlock 'behind the scenes' and 'making of ' clips.
180 History Goes to the Movies understanding of a film. As Wyatt has also noticed, bundled music video clips can generate a 'dense textual network' that can expand and even redraw a film's diegesis.40 The film clip for Celine Dion's 'My Heart Will Go On', for instance, rearranges the diegesis of Titanic and allows for viewer construction of a parallel diegesis in which the shipping disaster is even further sidelined. In line with Roland Barthes' claim, it thus appears that 'Rereading is no longer consumption, but play (that play is the return of the different). If then, a deliberate contradiction in terms, we immediately reread the text, it is in order to obtain, as though under the effect of a drug (that of recommencement, of difference), not the real text, but a plural text: the same and new'.41 Over the course of this chapter, a picture of viewer agency and resourcefulness has emerged. Clearly, the meaning of historical films cannot be reduced to the activities of multinationals cynically exploiting emotionally vulnerable audiences in the cause of corporate profit. In saying this, however, I am not offering an unequivocal endorsement of audience studies that champion viewers as either resisters or 'autonomous' agents engaged in 'creative critical work'.42 Rather, the relationship between viewers and film and tie-in producers and distributors is, as Simone Murray suggests, more like 'an uneasy dance' in which corporate desire for maximum circulation of content 'chafes uncomfortably against fans' resourcefulness in eluding the prescribed legal and economic frameworks for the circulation of that content'.43 Three factors complicate conventional accounts of the relationship between film producers and promoters and viewers. First, historical film producers confront a paradox: on the one hand, they want their works to circulate as widely as possible, but on the other, circulation outside the control of the corporate rights holder can mean missed revenue and the possibility of content being 'redrawn'.44 Between the twin historiographical shoals of viewer resistance and passivity lies a relationship in which viewers appropriate media texts to their own ends, but producers also work with viewer practices if they detect means to promote their works. As Murray's study of the Lord of the Rings trilogy has shown, scholars have yet to come to grips with the activities of film producers and promoters who seek out, feed material to and foster hierarchies within viewer communities. New Line's use of a small number of inner-ring fan websites to deliver production information proved effective in both promoting and controlling use of film materials. Their selective non-enforcement of intellectual property rights was not a clear victory for public domain usage, because inner-ring webmasters become non-salaried marketing collaborators and regulators of intellectual property that they saw as 'canon' with J.R.R. Tolkien's endeavours. Cases like this show us the need for the combined consideration of activities of material production, corporate management and marketing strategy and viewer agency in historical film studies. Although Murray assumes that this is a recent trend in film promotion and reception, I believe
Selling history
that historical analysis of promotion and viewer activities will bring many more examples to light. Murray's findings break down any notions we might have of a clear opposition between producers and viewers and of a united group of viewers. A second feature that further complicates our account of the relationship between producers, promoters and viewers is that it is not organised simply around the axis of photorealism and thus issues of deception and consumption. While a number of scholars have talked of film as an ideological apparatus that fosters stupefaction, depoliticisation and consumption rather than production, a number of examples in this chapter have supported Pierson's and Groth's arguments for the recognition of viewer interest in the aesthetic dimensions of films. Albert La Valley has argued that science fiction and fantasy films appear to 'hover between being about the world their special effects imply—i.e. about future technology and its extensions—and about the special effects and the wizardry of the movies themselves'. That is, effects are simultaneously part of the diegesis and a cinematic spectacle. But, as he continues, science fiction film producers and viewers 'demand more realism from their special effects than fantasy does, which permits greater stylisation and whim'.45 Ostensibly, this makes sense, and we would expect the producers and viewers of historical films to demand 'more realism' from both special and routine effects such as CGI, costumes and soundtrack. Still, the history of historical or even science fiction film production and reception cannot be collapsed into photorealism or 'reality effects'. Not all viewers want an historical film in which all the military insignia are right; some also want film craft that offers new vistas on historical phenomena. Science fiction fans and devotees of special effects may not be the only connoisseurs of art, and the 'wonder' Pierson speaks of is thus perhaps not particular to their experiences. Clearly, there is a need for more work on modes of aesthetic engagement and criticism among viewers of historical films. This brings me to a third facet of the producer, promoter and viewer relations, a facet about which we speak with least confidence because of its neglect among scholars. The dominant stream of historical film research proffers decontextualised concepts of domination and agency. I am not complaining simply that models of the relations of producers and viewers are implicitly Western in focus, for the term 'Western' also masks cultural and historical differences that are worthy of study.
Images and words
Histories—visual and written—are complex sites of relation, negotiation and even conflict among producers, promoters and audiences. Traditionally, however, studies of histories have been author- and auteur-(director)oriented. In recent years, however, 'intentionalist' studies have been questioned by literary theorists and historiographers, who have called for greater attention
182 History Goes to the Movies to audiences. As Michel De Certeau argues, textual meaning is impossible without readers: Whether it is a question of newspapers or Proust, the text has a meaning only through its readers; it changes along with them; it is ordered in accord with codes of perception that it does not control. It becomes only a text in its relation to the exteriority of the reader, by an interplay of implications and ruses between two sorts of 'expectation' in combination: the expectation that organises a readable space (a literality), and one that organises a procedure necessary for the actualisation of the work (a reading).46 Similarly, it can be argued that the meaning of historical films is not inscribed and fixed without viewers. Much of what has been written in the burgeoning field of reception studies can inform our understanding of both viewers and readers, including the readers of histories. Jonathon Rose's identification of five assumptions that can hamper the study of readers, for example, provides much for historical film scholars to think about. Scholars often take it for granted, he writes, that first, all literature is political, in the sense that it always influences the political consciousness of the reader; second, the influence of a given text is directly proportional to its circulation; third, 'popular' culture has a much larger following than 'high' culture, and therefore it more accurately reflects the attitudes of the masses; fourth, 'high' culture tends to reinforce acceptance of the existing social and political order (a presumption widely shared by both the left and right); and, fifth, the canon of 'great books' is defined solely by social elites. Common readers either do not recognise that canon, or else they accept it only out of deference to elite opinion.47 Rose's observations are important: we must, for instance, seek evidence for the influence of a film or a book beyond sales and not assume that its influence was solely political. Furthermore, these observations all point to a more fundamental assumption: that readers are passive recipients of whatever authors put into their texts. Rose and Janice Radway have provided us with evidence to the contrary, showing readers responding to texts in fashions that were unintended and using them to their own ends.48 We too have found a number of examples of viewers poaching, appropriating and refashioning historical films and drawing them into their lives. As we have also discovered through our analysis of film, though, viewer activities of regulation and the intertwining of commercial and connoisseur activities have yet to register as themes in historical film studies. Furthermore, there is a shortage of studies on film producer, promoter and viewer relationships in specific historical and cultural contexts.
Selling history
So, too, studies of the relations between the producers, promoters and readers of written histories are in short supply. Keith Jenkins has noted the commercial pressures on historians to produce texts according to the timetables and ideas of market that publishers hold.49 However, we still await the delivery of extensive historical studies on readers' uses of histories, and we are yet to chart the depths of how commercial, material and cultural factors shape our understanding of what 'history' is and what it is for.
Recommended resources
Dika, V., Recycled Culture in Contemporary Art and Film: The Uses of Nostalgia, Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2003. Dwyer, R. and Patel, D., Cinema India: The Visual Culture of Hindi Film, London: Reaktion Books, 2002. Eckert, C., 'The Carole Lombard in Macy's window', in J. Gaines and C. Herzog (eds), Fabrications: Costume and the Female Body, London: Routledge, 1990, pp. 100–21. Fischer, L. and Landy, M. (eds), Stars: The Film Reader, London: Routledge, 2004. Glenhill, C. (ed.), Home is Where the Heart Is: Studies in Melodrama and the Woman's Film, London: BFI, 1987. Jameson, F., Postmodernism, or, the Cultural Logic of Late Capitalism, Durham, NC: Duke University Press, 1991. Kuhn, A., Dreaming of Fred and Ginger: Cinema and Cultural Memory, Washington Square, NY: New York University Press, 2002. Lasch, C., The True and Only Heaven: Progress and its Critics, New York: W.W. Norton, 1991. McCracken, G., Culture and Consumption: New Approaches to the Symbolic Character of Consumer Goods and Activities, Bloomington: University of Indiana Press, 1990. Pierson, M., Special Effects: Still in Search of Wonder, New York: Columbia University Press, 2002. Ricoeur, P., Memory, History, Forgetting, trans. K. Blamey and D. Pellauer, Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 2004. Stacey, J., Star Gazing: Hollywood Cinema and Female Spectatorship, London: Routledge, 1994. Stewart, S., On Longing: Narratives of the Miniature, the Gigantic, the Souvenir, the Collection, Baltimore: Johns Hopkins University Press, 1984. Sweeney, R.C., Coming Next Week: A Pictorial History of Film Advertising, London: Thomas Yoseloff, 1973. Wyatt, J., High Concept: Movies and Marketing in Hollywood, Austin: University of Texas Press, 1994.
1 F. Sanello, Reel vs Real: How Hollywood Turns Fact into Fiction, Lanham, Md: Taylor Trade, 2003, pp. xi–xii. 2 J. Wyatt, High Concept: Movies and Marketing in Hollywood, Austin: University of Texas Press, 1994, p. 20. 3 B. Weinraub, 'Who's lining up at the box office? Lots and lots of girls', New York Times, 23 February 1998, E1, E4.
1990.39523. no. 34. Titanic. Television and Video. 'Bathos and bathysphere: on submersion. High Concept.villagevoice. 1987. On Longing: Narratives of the Miniature. 42(14). 5. pp. the Gigantic. Elsaesser. 3.. 1997. Although a little less critical. Titanic. F. London: Reaktion Books.A.pmalink. NJ: Princeton University Press.org/awards/reggie/2002reggiewinners1. 1984. in K. 92–7. p. 30 October– 5 November 2002. pp.S. online at http://www. Studlar (eds). 2005. See Visions of the Past: The Challenge of Film to our Idea of History. melodrama and Todd Hayne's Far From Heaven'. Williams. pp.). DeFalco. Iowa Journal of Cultural Studies. nostalgia. 'Pumping ana-stations'. Iowa Journal of Cultural Studies. 2005. pp.com/news/0244. 43–69. and the postmodern'. pp. Brooker and W. Sandler and G. Bloomies paint it red with Fox's rouge—Christian Dior and Bloomingdale's Inc. 38(44). Browne (ed. and T. 1992. p.W. Wyatt. p. p. the Souvenir. Titanic: Anatomy of a Blockbuster. Village Voice. see also L. and J. 84–5. 18 L. p. Berkeley: University of California Press. pp. 19–21. Titanic. Cinema India: The Visual Culture of Hindi Film. Visions of the Past: The Challenge of Film to Our Idea of History. 'A double-edged longing: nostalgia. 14(2). Signatures of the Visible. p. p. 19 A. ' "The china had never been used!": on the patina of perfect images in Titanic'. New York: Henry Holt. 1991. McCracken. '2002 Reggie Award Winners'. Sandler and G. in Home is Where the Heart Is: Studies in Melodrama and the Woman's Film. 189–204. NC: Duke University Press. pp. pp. Mass. pp. 1990. Cambridge. 10 J. Keller. 7. 1995. Rosenstone. 15 Ibid. Wyatt. Stanley. and A. Lasch. 2001. Sandler and G. pp. p. 23. pp. 1998. Durham. p.L. 6 M. DeFalco also distinguishes intellectual spectatorship from emotional investment. Refiguring American Film Genres: Theory and History. p. 13 On this point. 'Heaven sent'. Stewart. Lim. Finnigan. Past Imperfect: History According to the Movies. 87. On the sale of song lyrics at Indian film screenings. Southwest Philosophical Studies. New York: Routledge. Brandweek. 17 See also R.lim. Reeves. 11 V. Smith. in N. The True and Only Heaven: Progress and Its Critics. 16 C. High Concept. Jameson. Sobchack. online at http://www. see R. 148.: Harvard University Press. NJ: Rutgers University Press. 5 J. Robert Rosenstone sees the foregrounding of individuals' experiences in historical films as a way of avoiding difficult or insoluble problems suggested by the historical setting. 'Tales of sound and fury: observations on the family melodrama'. and D. 9. vol.184 History Goes to the Movies 4 J. in K. 1997. longing and history in Titanic'. 16. ' "Size does matter": notes on Titanic and James Cameron as blockbuster auteur'. Baltimore: Johns Hopkins University Press. Patel. pp. Problematically. 1991. Dwyer and D. Studlar (eds). Stringer. 1. 'Melodrama revisited'. 101. Postmodernism. 35. 47–8. 8 T. 57. as quoted in D. 1996. 'Introduction'. see also P.S. vol. in K. 42–88. 20 T.S. London: Edward Arnold. New York: W. or the Cultural Logic of Late Capitalism. 5–6. 9 Promotion Marketing Association [USA]. 28. Haynes. R. vol. in K. 1999. p. Carnes (ed. 2002. Brandweek. Sandler and G. Studlar (eds). 'Irony. 7 G. Hutcheon.html. Princeton. London: BFI.). New Brunswick. 'Selling my heart: music and cross-promotion in Titanic'. Studlar (eds). Brooker. p. .asp. no. 12 S. 5. Promote 'Moulin Rouge'. Culture and Consumption: New Approaches to the Symbolic Character of Comsumer Goods and Activities. 32. the Collection. 'Nostalgia and the nostalgic'. On the connection between active engagement by viewers and nostalgia. 59– 60. 'Dior. 26. Bloomington: University of Indiana Press. Postmodern After Images: A Reader in Film. 14 F. 82–3. 205–19.S. Norton. Jameson.
. ' "Celebrating the story the way it is": cultural studies. corporate media and the contested utility of fandom'. 107.com 28 The term 'slash' refers to the forward slash '/' that is used to identify 'male/female' or 'male/male' romances. Popular Culture. Modernity. 'The cultural economy of fandom'. 9. S/Z. Fiske.html 33 Saving Private Ryan Fan Fiction. pp. p. 37 M. Star Gazing: Hollywood Cinema and Female Spectatorship. Hartley.). Craik.S. 29 Titanic Continued. 10.net/odyssey/jacklives.ejumpcut. Rendall. 22 A.geocities. 'Apt Pupil's misogyny. 41. London: Routledge. 1996. 'Digital land grab'. online at http:// www. McKahan. Lewis (ed. 31. in Fabrications: Costume and the Female Body. 2002.com/films/ 33873. http://www. The Adoring Audience: Fan Cultures and Popular Media. Lafferty.com/titanic/ titanictour 25 'Costumed Dolls'. and J. pp. p. 24 Titanic on Tour: Costume Photos. and Frodo Baggins: The Lord of the Rings and modern Hollywood'. 2003. de Certeau. Kuhn. 'The schema of mass culture'. Special Effects: Still in Search of Wonder.com/Hollywood/Academy/ 9204/storypage. pp.htm 38 Easter eggs for Gladiator (regions 2 and 4). 2002. 112–23. London: Routledge. Berry. New York: Columbia University Press. 'The Carole Lombard in Macy's window'. March–April. in J. High Concept.M. 1990. Bernstein (ed. 1989. 52.html?200522 32 C. 42 On fan resistance. 19. no.J. 1991. London: Routledge. see J. Jump Cut.A.org/archive/jc45. 1984. 41 R. 1992. online at http:// pc. Dreaming of Fred and Ginger: Cinema and Cultural Memory. 'Hollywood tie-ins mean greater sales: and bigger branding challenges'. 2 July 2003. 2000. 40 J. pp. pp. 23 M. in L. The Face of Fashion: Cultural Studies in Fashion.Selling history 185 21 J. 1994.fanfiction/net 34 T. 33.com/titanic/showandtell/ dolls. p. Adorno.com/titanic/showandtell/dolls. See also Barbara Klinger. R.com/gzreviews/r18517. 103–5. online at http://www. Pearl Harbor (region 1) and Moulin Rouge (regions 1. 22.G. 100–21. 'Review of Pearl Harbor: Zero Hour'. no. p. vol. 59. 2004.com. Electronic Gaming Business. 2 and 4) are described in 'Hidden DVD Easter Eggs'. London: Edward Arnold. Screen Style: Fashion and Feminity in 1930s Hollywood.html 31 'Warm Thanksgiving Memories'. Popular Reality: Journalism. pp. Miller. 100. pp. 35 P.sensibility. online at http://www.com 26 S. vol. S.com/Paris/Arc/ 1142/storythanks. 185. online at http://www. Continuum: Journal of Media and Cultural Studies. Berkeley: University of California Press. 44 H.sensibility. franchises. The Practice of Everyday Life. 2000. 36 As quoted in K. 54. 43 S. p. Cinema Journal. The Velvet Light Trap. Snyder. Murray. New York: Hill & Wang. Picart and J.2002/picart/index. London: Routledge. 30–49. 28(4). Thompson. 27 Titanic Show and Tell.sparkling-horizon. trans.gamezone. 1994. online at http://www. See also C. Barthes. http://www. 44–6. NY: New York University Press. Homoeroticism and homophobia: sadomasochism and the Holocaust film'. online at http://wwwhiddendvdeasteregges. Pierson. Minneapolis: University of Minnesota Press.sensibility. The Culture Industry. 45.electronicgamingbusiness. 'Digressions at the cinema: reception and mass culture'. 2002. online at http://www. 14 June 2001.html 30 Jack Lives Fan Fiction. Technological Review. trans. Eckert.). Harvie Krumpet (region 4). online at http://www. Jenkins. Wyatt. Stacey. see J.html 39 M. 18(1). On fans as engaged in creative work. 'Fantasy. 46. London: Routledge.geocities. 47. Washington Square. 1974.
186 History Goes to the Movies 45 A. 144. trans. as quoted in M.J. S. Rose. p. Rendell. 170–1. 46 M. Re-thinking History. p. Journal of the History of Ideas. Patriarchy. 53(1). and Popular Literature.S.. pp. Jenkins. 'Traditions of trickery: the role of special effects in the science fiction film'. Reading the Romance: Women. 48 Ibid. Special Effects.S. 22–4. 'Reading as poaching'. vol. de Certeau. 'Rereading the English common reader: a preface to a history of audiences'. 1991. La Valley. p. Shadows of the Magic Lamp: Fantasy and Science Fiction in Film. 1984. 48. 1992. . Carbondale: Southern Illinois University Press. 49 K. Rabkin (eds).F. and J. London: Routledge. 107. 47 J. in G. Pierson. in The Practice of Everyday Life. Radway. 1984. Berkeley: University of California Press. Chapel Hill: University of North Carolina Press. 1985. Slusser and E. pp.
it will eliminate. and emphasise a meaning conveyable by visual means alone. Matuszewski assumes its transparency. On this count. Films are sculpted by techniques.Conclusion Beyond 'historiophoty': film as history Since it permits seeing the past directly. Exactly ninety years earlier. film is not a transparent window on to the past. film minimises the need for historical study altogether. Matuszewski and White both value film as a source for historians. their views appear to diverge.1 In a 1988 paper for The American Historical Review. and these techniques are conventions that have their own histories. White sees a need to train historians to help them to make better use of visual materials in their investigations. We have not on the whole exploited the possibilities of using images as a principal medium of discursive representation. that is to say. whereas for Matuszewski. 'We are inclined'. Hayden White coined the term 'historiophoty'. But he also did so to support his claim that visual evidence needs to be read with 'a lexicon. but beyond that. specify. the need for investigation and study. grammar. Boleslas Matuszewski also argued for the recognition of film as a source of meaning in his pioneering call for the creation of a visual histories repository in Paris. using verbal commentary only diacritically. at least at certain important points.2 Images are not ancillary to words. White's vision of film needing to be read rings true and perhaps helps to support a view that understanding and appreciation . to direct attention to. As I hope this book has shown. He did so in the first instance to recognise that the evidence historians work with now is as much visual as written or oral. he argued: To use pictures primarily as 'illustrations' of the predications made in our verbally written discourse. they can convey meaning in their own right. in a way that suggests the dramatic development of historical film studies over the last century. While White sees the meaning of film as available only through a special form of reading. and syntax' that is 'quite different' from that used for written evidence.
while the latter have a commercial interest in presenting individual films as offering a mixture of genres ('something for everyone'). Extrapolating. a form that he describes in more detail in this excerpt: I do not know enough about film theory to specify more precisely the elements. Writers like Gregory Currie. but distinct from. it might be thought that all forms of historical study are organised by their own distinct methodologies. But cinema is quite another matter. that entailed in historiography. Roland Barthes insisted that still photographs do not and could not predicate—only their titles or captions could do so. sees cinema as 'a new form of expression' for history. have argued that there is no evidence to suggest that film possesses its own linguistic structure. but there are two other problems that I want to focus on here. and Natalie Zemon Davis holds that as long as we appreciate the differences between film and prose. This example alerts . Vestiges of both transparency and a belief in the sufficiency of film as a source connect White. grammatical and syntactical dimensions of spoken or written language. are they signalling the use of particular methodologies? We learned above that White sees 'historiophoty' as a form of reading. White's treatment of the analysis of images as different from that of words echoes the arguments of many other historical film scholars. Here we revisit the idea of historical film studies being distinct from other historical studies. for instance. I noted a gap between the views of historical film scholars and the promoters of films. When historical film scholars mark their efforts off as different from those of other historians. Even if this appeals as a way of indicating the 'seriousness' of historical film studies. 'we can take film seriously as a source of valuable and even innovative historical vision'.5 This is an interesting area of debate. Richard White sees film as a distinct form of historical narrative.4 This form of reading is equivalent to. The transparency referred to here is not just the one between the past and film but also that between film and historical film scholars. but this time from a methodological perspective. sentences. equivalent to the lexical. for instance. or sequences of sentences in spoken or written discourse. The former have shown a persistent interest in identifying films that epitomise an 'historical' genre. we must be wary of the problems to which it gives rise. and other present-day historical film scholars. But the gap between White and Matuszewski is not as big as we might first suppose. you may recall. I argued that claims like these may do little to challenge the hierarchical arrangement of written history over 'other' or 'nearly' histories.188 History Goes to the Movies of film is better in the present than in the past. of a distinctly filmic discourse.3 In Chapter 1. In Chapter 2. Sequences of shots and the use of montage or close-ups can be made to predicate just as effectively as phrases. I alluded to the first above when I suggested that vestiges of transparency remain in historical film studies. with that rallying cry over one hundred years ago. Marc Ferro.
and the friends they share their filmwatching experiences with. historical film scholars have no proprietorial hold over films. As I have argued at a number of points in this book. Just as films are not the privileged property of their producers. Recognising historical film scholars as a varied group of readers highlights the diversity beneath the apparent homogeneity of a single film print. Their methods for reading film. just as viewers respond to the organization and rhetorical disposition of a history book. Thus film alone does not tell us how others—past and present—view it and make use of it. and these conventions are not universal. the physical environment in which they see a film. they also respond to print and online reviews and information about 'stars'. But viewers respond as well to the film's modes of narration. for example. A number of scholars. Yet their solution to this problem. like White. in the main. This point about multiple readers brings us back to the second problem with present-day historical film methodologies: the assumption that the discursive meaning and functions of films can be deduced from their diegeses alone. say. White talks of sequences of shots and the use of montage and close-ups. merchandise. to be sure. Reframing historical film studies and 'the historical film' Recognising the role of context in historical film studies is nothing new. These aspects of the film are necessary. Nor can they singlehandedly inscribe and fix meaning. Davis argues a similar line in her Slaves on Screen (2000): Reviewers of historical films often overlook techniques in favour of a chronological summary of the plot or story line and the overall look of the moving picture in terms of costumes and props.Conclusion 189 us to the important idea that films are read in different ways for different reasons. like those detailed by Hayden White above. Historical film studies is thus historical not simply because we may view a film as representing the past but because our view of it as history is itself historically located. are timebound conventions that have their own functions and histories. regardless of how much effort they have put into outlining and justifying their methodologies. has been to conjoin an analysis of film plot with filmic techniques such as editing and to treat that combination as sufficient. A number of writers have parted company with Matuszewski's view of films as sufficient markers of meaning and now formulate studies that analyse 'the symbiotic relationship between film technologies and industrial relations. in shaping their understanding of a film. have complained about the treatment of films as transparent recordings of reality or as plots.6 Viewers do not respond only to modes of narration or filmic techniques. and their readings are not transparent registrations of filmic reality. Any one of these things may be more important than editing. . yet none of these activities is captured in that viewed film.
viewer costumes. financial and production records. and those networks may be studied using multiple and intertwined methodologies from fields such as historiography. and our difference of opinion may come down to 1988 being too recent a setting for you to count as 'history'. The logical consequence of these points is that the activities of isolating historical films and historical film studies must come under scrutiny. DVD 'special features'. literary and film studies. the facts. legal files.9 Film on its own. and my interest in what it says about relationships in the past may not sit well with your demand that history be about 'events'. filmmakers' intentions and audience reception'. though. but you disagree with my judgement about each for different reasons. My point is a simple but fundamental one: history is in the eye of the viewer. After seeing it. distribution records and mass observation surveys. and the arguments raised in other historical works'. the view of a particular film as historical may persist for a long period. A little over a hundred years after Matuszewski argued for the recognition of film as history. economics. the issues. Films are embedded in extensive networks of relations and products. Robert Rosenstone advanced that what makes a film historical 'is its willingness to engage the discourse of history—that is. I declared my reluctance to offer a definition and argued for the concept to be opened up. and your puzzlement may be due to the apparent lack of distance between the costumes used to represent the 1960s and what people wear today. How we handle disagreements about history is important. shows how much further historical film studies may be expanded. More people may agree about the status of some films than others. I believe that this holistic methodology for studying films should shape our very definition of an historical film.190 History Goes to the Movies marketing and advertising. The film could be Distant Voices. Our response should not be to ignore them or to engage in defensive acts of boundary drawing and retreat but to recognise the value of that discussion for exploring the assumptions that people hold about what history is and what it is for. . The film could be Catch Me if you Can (2002). multitudinous agreement is not the same as homogeneous agreement. film publicity materials. Similarly. and my telling you how much I enjoyed it as an historical film. Still Lives (1989).8 we may now consider merchandise. At the opening of this book. and marketing. websites and online discussion forums. film scripts. You and I might watch a film together. In addition to film company documents. The film could be Donnie Darko (2001). the records of 'amateur' cine clubs.7 The range of evidence I have both drawn upon and pointed to in this work. Here we have three films that I see as historical. but as we recall from the introduction. Moreover. industry trade periodicals. and fan fiction. you may look at me puzzled. inter-office memos. What I mean by 'opening up' should now be clearer but may be clarified further through an example. but that does not mean that it will or ought to be regarded so permanently. aesthetics. Views of history may be debated and are subject to change. fanzines. psychology. computer games. not inscribed on the film itself. It is unlikely that communities in different places will produce a canonical list of 'historical' films.
I believe. though. with colour fading now well documented in 'Eastmancolor' stocks. screening and discussion technologies is also a problem. scratches. Both cellulose nitrate supports (used from 1890 to approximately 1950) and cellulose acetate plastic 'safety' supports (used from 1950) are prone to chemical degradation. The increasingly rapid obsolescence of production. film may deteriorate as a result of physical damage: for example. Film evidence is fragile. film viewers wrote letters to other viewers in the past. The challenges of historical film research Undertaking research according to this expanded notion of historical film studies is a tall order. Why not? The disjunction between a field that is enormous in theory and the realities of available evidence can be explained in this case by considering the fragility of evidence. You will have noted too that I made use of some portions of a currently abundant body of Internet evidence in Chapters 5 to 8. perforation tears. On this definition. Will historians of the future have access to those viewers' responses? Preservation is not determined solely by the longevity of media. as anyone with home movies in Betamax and now VHS format can appreciate. particularly in warm and humid environments. Historical film studies is thus no longer simply about reading and analysing films. Moreover. Emulsions may also degrade. though. perhaps beyond the time and resource constraints of researchers. filmmakers and viewers do. and this will serve as my working definition. are familiar with problems of selection. More . Preservation studies suggest that black and white films appear to have a longer life. How much of that evidence will be archived and still available ten or even five years from now? Similarly. this definition may be reframed in a way that recognises the location of films in networks of makers and viewers. with poster and handbill dyes fading. is its location in a timebound network of discussions—more or less explicit—on what history is and what it is for. The body of evidence we might look to is in theory huge. it is important to note that there is not a uniform superfluity of evidence available for analysis in practice. Historians. plastics becoming brittle and papers vulnerable to oxygen burning.10 Additionally. now viewers send emails or SMS messages. including rust. water damage. called 'crowsfooting'. Motion picture film consists of emulsions (developed images) that are fixed to a transparent support base. or staining by particles. any film may be historical because it is viewed as offering indexical markers—on-screen phenomena seen as capturing or connected with past phenomena—or because it suggests something about how and why histories are made. does not engage history. decisions of valuation and access arrangements.Conclusion 191 we now see. With a few tweaks. and the inclusion of even some evidence of historical reception would be enough to shift historical film studies away from its transparent stance and almost exclusive focus on diegetic analysis. The materials used for film merchandise may also degrade. What makes a film historical.
it was noted that 50 percent of feature films produced before 1950. home movies. reflects the increased revenues achieved through cable. I cited two surveys that give us good cause to believe that a significant fraction of people come into contact with the past through film. and I hope that this work has suggested not only directions for that research but also some of the things that we might learn. free-to-air and DVD rights. Moreover. In a report submitted to the US Congress in 1993. or because they say something about the features and changing contours of a community. difficult. is a medium that reaches billions around the world. there has been no national inquiry into survival rates for evidence or issues of access. these three factors may slow efforts to expand the parameters of film research. which can make gaining access. to treat films as separate from the viewing communities that give them meaning. In combination. Any difficulties associated with this expanded vision of historical film studies are in my view outweighed by the advantage it brings in foregrounding parallel. Few collection policies explicitly specify an interest in merchandise or viewer responses. Finally. Concerns about piracy and policies of cyclical access and withdrawal—undertaken to sustain market interest in a work—may limit access. accessing films and evidence of film networks can be difficult. preservation is undertaken as a result of economic imperatives: the upgrading of film storage facilities at some production companies. Fears about the loss of nitrate stock have in some cases steered attention away from equally fragile post-1950 safety stock. Some kinds of film have been the focus of stronger preservation efforts than others. kinescopes of early broadcasts and VHS recordings. I want to close by returning to where we started. Libraries and repositories may hold copies of films but not the rights to allow viewers to copy segments. . What we must not take for granted. like historical film scholars. The next step for historical film studies is to use film as an entry point to explore and understand those varied visions of history. is that those viewers have visions of history that are identical to those of historical film scholars. I believe. most films and film products are privately owned and subject to cascading arrangements of rights. instructional films.12 As a reflection of how little attention has been accorded to film-related activities. In the Introduction. though. we will have made a start at re-visioning history. documentaries. Sometimes films are preserved because they are thought to epitomise forms of film art. and independent and avantgarde works. 20 percent of the films made in the 1920s and just 10 percent of the films made before 1910 survive. intersecting and sometimes competing visions of history. arguably. to take just one example. Survival rates for other kinds of film are even lower. are human decisions. have generally been treated with more value than newsreels. Conservators may be reluctant to project films or allow access to materials that are fragile. Conservators have also tended. let alone public screening. for example. actualities.11 In other cases.192 History Goes to the Movies important. Sound features. we now assume. 16mm news film. though. Film. for instance. such as home movies. When we do that. The combined impact of fragility and valuation can be dramatic.
and the National Film Preservation Board (US). Journal of Society of Motion Picture and Television Engineers. pp. Slaves on Screen: Film and Historical Vision. Adelstein. 319–21.W. Frey.: Praeger. p. Davis. Mass. vol. 279–80. no. p. 'Historiography and historiophoty'. vol.ed. Perspectives. 'Does a filmic writing of history exist?'. 8. online at http://www. 2004. Television and Radio. and the National Film Preservation Board (US). Currie. White.Conclusion 193 Recommended resources Billington. Frey. Slaves on Screen. H. 'The scent of distant thunder: Hammer films and history'. Cambridge. White. Radio and Television. Film and History. vol. 'Historiography and historiophoty'. . Screening the Past. and N. 1196. N. Washington: Library of Congress. Simmon. White. 5 G.gov/film/ study. Harper. A. trans.B. 1138–9. 89(2). Philosophical Studies. 1990. J. 'Using Hollywood film stills as historical documents'. R. 1998. Screening the Past.M. 17(4). 1987. J.ed. S. 4 H. 1997.. Notes 1 B. vol. Slaves on Screen: Film and Historical Vision. 16(2). Redefining Film Preservation: A National Plan. Radio and Television. NJ: Rutgers University Press. London: BFI. 'Review of Revisioning History: Film and the Construction of a New Past'. 'History. vol. Harvard University Press. 'Plot synopsis'. online at http://www. the Rugrats. vols 1– Matuszewski. 82. Mass.html Rosenstone. 1987..Z. 1994.B. online at http://www.. 1998. Rosenstone.html 2 H. Nishimura and C. 101(5). For a similar view.loc. Screening the Past: Film and the Representation of History. 'Film reviews'. 2000. 'Film reviews'.F. 1996. 1988. 'Stability of cellulose ester base photographic film: Part II practical storage considerations'. 1992.org/Perspectives/Issues/ 1999/9904/index.cfm. vols 1– Historical Journal of Film. trans. 109–25. Toplin. no.-C. J. pp.historians. B. 93(5). 3 M. p. p. 1988. Historical Journal of Film. American Historical Review. pp. American Historical Review. 6 N. vol. 'A new source of history: the creation of a depository for historical cinematography (Paris 1898)'. 97(4).gov/film/plan.loc. Westport. 1980. 15. see G. April 1999. 1997. see B. White. Barta (ed. and S. 97(4).html Melville. 7 J.Z. pp. 'A new source of history: the creation of a depository for historical cinematography (Paris 1898)'. D. 8 For examples of studies that utilise these kinds of materials..J. p. 10(1). pp.au/screeningthepast/classics/clasjul/mat. Film History: An International Journal. Davis. Custen. Conn.: Harvard University Press. in T. Erbland. online at http://www.latrobe. and world championship wrestling'. 93(5). 1992. Washington: Library of Congress.html British Film Institute. Ferro. New Brunswick. p. 9 R. 'Historiography and historiophoty'. pp. 1.Z. J. vol. vol.au/screeningthepast/classics/clasjul/mat. 1193–4. vol. 1992. online at http://www. American Historical Review. Collecting Policy for Moving Images. 1138. 1992. 1993. Matuszewski. Davis. R. Cambridge. American Historical Review..latrobe. Film Preservation 1993: A Study of the Current State of American Film Preservation. 1.Z.).. Bio/ Pics: How Hollywood Constructed Public History. 10 P. 2000. Historical Journal of Film.H. Horak. Reilly. 1193–4. 93.
194 History Goes to the Movies
pp. 347–53; J.M. Reilly, The IPI Storage Guide for Acetate Film, Rochester, NY: Image Permanence Institute, 1993; and R. Patterson, 'The preservation of color films', American Cinematographer, 1981, vol. 62(2), pp. 694–720 and vol. 62(3), pp. 792–822. 11 See, for example, the collection policies of the British Film Institute, Collecting Policy for Moving Images, London: BFI, 2004; and the National Film Preservation Board (US), National Film Register 1994–2004, online at http://www.loc.gov/film/ study.html 12 See L. Slide, Nitrate Won't Wait: A History of Film Preservation in the United States, Jefferson, NC: McFarland, 1992, p. 5; A. Melville, S. Simmon and the National Film Preservation Board (US), Film Preservation 1993: A Study of the Current State of American Film Preservation, Washington: Library of Congress, 1993, online at http://www.loc.gov/film/study.html; and British Film Institute, Collecting Policy for Moving Images, p. 13.
Academy ratio film Frame shape 1.85 times as wide as it is high (1.85:1), as approved by the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences (US). auteur A term used to credit directors as the primary makers of films. Bergfilm A term used to describe German films set on mountains or glaciers. CGI (computer-generated imagery) The use of digital technologies to add, remove, substitute or enhance elements of film images. close-up A shot in which an object, event or person is seen up close, such as a shot that shows only a person's face. continuity editing Editing that matches actions and temporal relations from shot to shot in as seamless a manner as possible. cross-cutting Alternating shots between two sequences of action that are meant to be read as simultaneous. desaturated colour Leached or subdued emulsion colour. diegesis Events, persons and phenomena, as shown on screen, or within a 'film's world'. discontinuity editing Mismatching of action and temporal relations from shot to shot. dissolve The move between two shots in which the first gradually disappears and the second takes its place. docudrama A term usually applied to television movies that offer depictions of occurrences or people. dolly shot A shot produced with a camera mounted on a wheeled platform ('dolly'). editing The selection and arrangement of shots in a film. elliptical editing The omission of parts of an event or phenomenon, which creates an ellipsis in the film diegesis. emulsion A layer of gelatin and light-sensitive particles that form a photographic image. Emulsion is fixed on a transparent film base. fade The gradual replacement of a shot with a darkened screen. film stock Emulsions fixed to a transparent support base. flashback A shot, scene or sequence of scenes that are understood by
196 History Goes to the Movies viewers as representing temporal occurrences chronologically prior to those in the shots or scenes that preceded them. flashforward A shot, scene or sequence of scenes that are understood by viewers as representing temporal occurrences chronologically after those in the shots or scenes that preceded them. freeze-frame A succession of identical film images that generate the impression of the suspension of action. high angle A shot produced with a camera above and trained below on the event, person or phenomenon filmed. hyperreality Representations of historical reality that acquire more legitimacy than past phenomena themselves. intertitle A card or sheet of plastic that offers printed information that appears between two shots. iris The closing of a shot in a circular or oval manner, as a camera aperture closes. jump cut An elliptical cut that signals the deletion of parts of an event or phenomenon from a film's diegesis. low angle A shot produced with a camera below and trained up on the event, person or phenomenon filmed. match on action An editing cut that splices two different views of the same action together in such a way that viewers understand it as being uninterrupted. merchandise Objects produced for viewers that either advertise film details, are replicas of on-screen objects or are objects produced in a style suggestive of a relationship with a film. mise en scène All of the elements seen on screen, including settings and property ('props'), lighting, costumes, make-up, actors and action. mock documentary (mockumentary) A film that imitates or parodies documentary subjects or filmic techniques. montage The use of editing to suggest discontinuity between shots. panoramic shot A shot in which a camera is pivoted horizontally (also known as 'panning'). promotional documentary ('promo doc') 'Making of ' or 'behind the scenes' featurettes that are either screened on television, bundled with a DVD or available on a film website. slow motion Projection or display of motions at a slower speed than that at which the camera filmed. special features Items other than a film included in a DVD. stop-motion animation Filming a two- or three-dimensional object, stopping the camera, changing something about the object, starting the camera over, and so on. Put together, these suggest the movement of otherwise inanimate objects such as clay models. tie-ins The use of commercial products on screen or the connection of a movie with commercial products. trailer An advertisement for a film, VHS or DVD release.
Glossary 197 wipe The gradual, horizontal replacement of one shot by another. zoom in and out The use of a zoom lens to suggest the increase or decrease in size of represented events, phenomena and persons.
Eisenstein. Percy Main 1900 (1976) directed by Bernardo Bertolucci P. 24 Hour Films Ltd A dunai exodus (The Danube Exodus) (1999) directed by Péter Forgács A History of Britain (2000–2002) directed by Martin Davidson. Dupont. The (1972) directed by Bruce Beresford. Longford Productions Alexander (2004) directed by Oliver Stone.A.E. DreamWorks SKG Anastasia (1997) directed by Don Bluth. Hexagon Productions Amistad (1997) directed by Steven Spielberg. 3 Prod Aleksandr Nevski (Alexander Nevsky) (1938) directed by Sergei M. Rank Organisation Film Productions Ltd Adventures of Barry McKenzie. Warner Bros. Internationale Medien und Film GmbH & Co.Filmography 1492 Conquest of Paradise (1992) directed by Ridley Scott. History Channel A Night to Remember (1958) directed by Roy Ward Baker. Amblin Entertainment . Amblin Entertainment Back to the Future II (1989) directed by Robert Zemeckis.. Produzioni Europée Associate 24 Hour Party People (2002) directed by Michael Winterbottom. Twentieth Century Fox Film Corporation Anthony Adverse (1936) directed by Mervyn LeRoy. Mosfilm Alvin Purple (1973) directed by Tim Burstall.A. Atlantic (1929) directed by E. British International Pictures Back to the Future (1985) directed by Robert Zemeckis.
Nelson Films. The (1913) directed by D. DreamWorks SKG Barry Lyndon (1975) directed by Stanley Kubrick. Black Hawk Down (2001) directed by Ridley Scott. Bakha Satang (Peppermint Candy) (1999) directed by Lee Chang-Dong. Biograph Company Battle of the Somme. British Topical Committee for War Films Before the Rain (1994) directed by Milcho Manchevski. 20th Century Fox Film Corporation Braveheart (1995) directed by Mel Gibson.Filmography 199 Back to the Future III (1990) directed by Robert Zemeckis. Warner Bros Battle of Ancre (1917) directed by Geoffrey Malins and John McDowell. East Film Company Band of Brothers (2001) directed by David Frankel and Tom Hanks. Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer Pictures Corporation Bill and Ted's Excellent Adventure (1988) directed by Stephen Herek. Inc. Iconolatry Productions Inc. The (1916) directed by Geoffrey Malins and John McDowell. Boys Don't Cry (1999) directed by Kimberly Peirce. Inc. First Studio Goskino Buccaneer. Loew's Inc. Ben-Hur: A Tale of the Christ (1925) directed by Fred Niblo. Paramount Pictures Corporation Cabiria (1914) directed by Giovanni Pastrone. Independent Television Service (ITVS) Bowling for Columbine (2002) directed by Michael Moore. British Topical Committee for War Films Battle of Elderbush Gulch.H. PolyGram Filmed Entertainment Ben-Hur (1959) directed by William Wyler. Elton Corporation Bontoc Eulogy (1995) directed by Marlon Fuentes and Bridget Yearian.W. Itala Film . Griffith. Mitchell Leisen Prods Bronenosets Potemkin (Battleship Potemkin) (1925) directed by Sergei Eisenstein. The (1958) directed by Anthony Quinn. Finance CV Bride of Vengeance (1949) directed by Mitchell Leisen. B. Revolution Studios Distribution LLC Black Pirate. Universal City Studios. The (1926) directed by Albert Parker.
20th Century Fox Productions Ltd Conquistadors (2000) directed by David Wallace. Paramount Pictures Cleopatra (1963) directed by Joseph L. RKO Radio Pictures Civil War. The (1990) directed by Ken Burns. Civilisation (1969) directed by Peter Montagnon and Michael Gill. KALIS Productions GmbH & Co. Charles and Diana: Unhappily Ever After (1992) directed by John Power. Long Road Productions Chocolat (2001) directed by Lasse Hallström. British Broadcasting Corporation (BBC) . Mankiewicz. Peel Enterprises. Warner Bros. British Broadcasting Corporation (BBC) Cleopatra (1934) directed by Cecil B. American Documentaries Inc. Christopher Columbus Productions Cider House Rules. The (1938) directed by King Vidor. Chicago (2002) directed by Rob Marshall. Columbia Pictures Industries. Australian Film Finance Corporation Christopher Columbus: The Discovery (1992) directed by John Glen.200 History Goes to the Movies Cat's Meow. Miramax Film Corporation Chopper (2000) directed by Andrew Dominik. DeMille. Cats Gbr Catch Me If You Can (2002) directed by Steven Spielberg. Dreamworks SKG Ceddo (1976) directed by Sembène Ousmane. Konigsberg/Sanitsky Company Charlie's Angels (1976) directed by John Llewellyn Moxey. The (1999) directed by Lasse Hallström. Filmi Doomireev Charge of the Light Brigade. Miramax Film Corporation Citadel. The (1936) directed by Michael Curtiz. Inc. Global Entertainment Productions GmbH & Co. KG Chinatown (1974) directed by Roman Polanski. Spelling-Goldberg Productions Charlie's Angels (2000) directed by McG. The (2001) directed by Peter Bogdanovich. Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer British Studios Citizen Kane (1941) directed by Orson Welles. Movie Charlie's Angels Full Throttle (2003) directed by McG.
Loew's Inc. Zentropa Entertainments ApS Das Blaue Licht (The Blue Light) (1932) directed by Leni Riefenstahl. Mediastream Dritte Film GmbH & Co. Lorimar Television Dancer in the Dark (2000) directed by Lars von Trier. Ufa Der Name Der Rose (The Name of the Rose) (1986) directed by Jean-Jacques Annaud. Pandora.R. Warwick Trading Company Count of Monte Cristo. The (1966) Radio Telefís Èireann Crusades. Mary Pickford Productions Down With Love (2003) directed by Peyton Reed. Loew's Inc. Zweites Deutsches Fernsehen Dallas (1978–1991) directed by David Jacobs. Inc. RAI Radiotelevisione Italiana Edwardian Country House. Lee. BBC Entertainment Dal Polo All'Equatore (From the Pole to the Equator) (1987) directed by Yervant Gianikian. H. Distant Voices. Wall to Wall Television Ltd . The (1934) directed by Rowland V. IdtV Film Der Heilige Berg (The Holy Mountain) (1926) directed by Arnold Fanck. Martin Poll Productions Diane (1955) directed by David Miller. Sokal-Film De Tweeling (Twin Sisters) (2003) directed by Ben Sombogaart. Still Lives (1988) directed by Terence Davis. The (1902) directed by Georges Méliès and Charles Urban. Dorothy Vernon of Haddon Hall (1924) directed by Marshall Neilan. The (2002) Channel 4 Television Corporation. 20th Century Fox Film Corporation Course of Irish History.Filmography 201 Coronation of Edward VII. Zentropa Entertainments ApS Donnie Darko (2001) directed by Richard Kelly. Constantin Film AG Diana: Her True Story (1993) directed by Kevin Connor. The (1995) directed by Alan Ereira and David Wallace. E La Nave Va (And the Ship Sails On) (1983) directed by Federico Fellini. Beteiligungs Du Barry was a Lady (1943) directed by Roy Del Ruth. Reliance Pictures Courage Under Fire (1996) directed by Edward Zwick. British Film Institute Production Board Dogville (2003) directed by Lars von Trier.
The (1940) directed by Charles Chaplin. Paramount Pictures Frontier House (2002) directed by Nicolas Brown and Maro Chermayeff. Instituto Cubano del Arte e Industrias Cinematograficos ICAC Gladiator (2000) directed by Ridley Scott. Imamura Productions. The (1996) directed by Anthony Minghella. Associated R & R Films Gandhi (1982) directed by Richard Attenborough. Newdon Company Guns of Navarone. Inc. The (1974) directed by Jack Clayton. Vulcan Productions Far from Poland (1984) directed by Jill Godmilow. Archer Street (Girl) Ltd Giron (Bay of Pigs) (1974) directed by Maneul Herrera. Edison Manufacturing Company Eliza Fraser (1976) directed by Tim Burstall. Carolina Bank Ltd Girl with a Pearl Earring (2003) directed by Peter Webber. 20th Century Fox Film Corporation Gallipoli (1981) directed by Peter Weir. Shochiku Co. Charles Chaplin Corporation Great Gatsby. DreamWorks LLC Good Morning. Lee Thompson. Tiger Moth Productions Eve's Bayou (1997) directed by Kasi Lemmons. PolyGram Filmed Entertainment. Beach Street Films Forrest Gump (1994) directed by Robert Zemeckis. Open Road Films . The (1961) directed by J. Ltd Electrocution of an Elephant (1903) directed by Thomas Edison. Touchstone Pictures Great Dictator. Public Broadcasting Service (PBS) Full Monty. Hexagon Productions Elizabeth (1998) directed by Shekhar Kapur.202 History Goes to the Movies Eijanaka (1981) directed by Shohei Imamura. Empire (2003) Channel 4 English Patient. Vietnam (1987) directed by Barry Levinson. The (1997) directed by Peter Cattaneo. Trimark Pictures Far from Heaven (2002) directed by Todd Haynes.
J. Il Etait Une Fois Un Pays (Underground) (1995) directed by Emir Kusturica. Warner Bros. Westdeutscher Rundfunk Jakob the Liar (1999) directed by Peter Kassovitz. Ivan Grozni (Ivan the Terrible) (1945) directed by Sergei M. Miramax Films Il Casanova Di Federico Fellini (Casanova) (1976) directed by Federico Fellini. Argos Films History of the World Part I (1981) directed by Mel Brooks. Eisenstein. Kapustan Industries N. Dreamworks SKG Intolerance (1916) directed by D. Brooksfilms Ltd Hitler: The Rise of Evil (2003) directed by Christian Duguay. DEFA-Studio für Spielfilme. Westdeutscher Rundfunk Hiroshima. Global Entertainment Productions GmbH & Co.W. Expeditionary Films Production Into the Breach: 'Saving Private Ryan' (1998) directed by Chris Harty. Gaelic Amusement Co. O'Bourke. Mosfilm Jakob. Studio Ghibli Hours. Mon Amour (1959) directed by Alain Resnais. Star Film JFK (1991) directed by Oliver Stone. der Lügner (1975) directed by Frank Breyer. Deutscher Fernsehfunk. The (2002) directed by Stephen Daldry. Eisenstein. . Griffith. Sender Freies Berlin. Mosfilm Ivan Grozni II Boyarski Zagorov (Ivan The Terrible II) (1958) directed by Sergei M. Melodrama Pictures Heimat (1984) directed by Edgar Reitz.Filmography 203 Hadashi no gen (Barefoot Gen) (1983) directed by Mori Masaki. Wark Producing Corporation Ireland. CiBy 2000 In the Footsteps of Alexander the Great (1998) directed by David Wallace. a Nation (1914) directed by Walter MacNamara and P. Maryland Public Television In the Wake of the Bounty (1933) directed by Charles Chauvel. Filmové Studio Barrandov. Gen Productions Harvie Krumpet (2003) directed by Adam Elliot. Edgar Reitz Film. Alliance Atlantis Communications Hotaru no Haku (Grave of the Fireflies) (1988) directed by Isao Takahata.V. Jeanne d'Arc (Joan of Arc) (1899) directed by Georges Méliès.
Société Française de Production de Cinéma Life and Death of Peter Sellers. Ace Films Productions Le Jour ou le clown pleura (The Day the Clown Cried) (1972) directed by Jerry Lewis. Die (The Wonderful. RP Productions Le Retour de Martin Guerre (1982) directed by Daniel Vigne. Home Box Office Life and Death of Princess Diana. Capitole Films (Paris) Le Marseillaise (1937) directed by Jean Renoir. Touchstone Pictures L'albero delgi zoccoli (Tree of Wooden Clogs) (1978) directed by Ermanno Olmi. Warner Bros. Omega Film GmbH. The (1903) directed by Edwin S. The (2001) directed by Peter Jackson. Porter. Loew's Inc. Without Walls. Zweites Deutsches Fernsehen (ZDF) arte Madame Curie (1943) directed by Mervyn LeRoy. Nomad Films. The (2002) directed by Peter Jackson. The (1998) directed by Jim Moll. Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Ring. Melampo Cinematografica srl (Rome) Land of the Pharaohs (1955) directed by Howard Hawks. Survivors of the Shoah Visual History Foundation Lawrence of Arabia (1962) directed by David Lean. The (1998) MSNBC Television Network Life of an American Fireman. Channel Four Films. Loew's Inc. The (1937) directed by Wilhelm Dieterle. Société de Production et d'Exploitation du film Le Pianiste (The Pianist) (2002) directed by Roman Polanski. The (2004) directed by Stephen Hopkins. The (2003) directed by Peter Jackson. New Line Cinema Lord of the Rings: The Two Towers. Rai La Haine (The Hate) (1995) directed by Mathieu Kassovitz.204 History Goes to the Movies Julius Caesar (1953) directed by Joseph L. Edison Manufacturing Company Life of Emile Zola. King Arthur (2004) directed by Antoine Fuqua. Last Days. Horrible Life of Leni Riefenstahl) (1993) directed by Ray Müller. Productions Lazennec La Vita è bella (Life is Beautiful) (1997) directed by Roberto Benigni. New Line Cinema Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King. Mankiewicz. . Warner Bros. New Line Cinema Macht der Bilder: Leni Riefenstahl.
Leonard. 20th Century Fox Film Corporation Mutters Courage (Mother's Courage) (1995) directed by Michael Verhoeven. Monty Python's Flying Circus (1969–1974) directed by John Howard Davies and Ian MacNaughton. The (1988) directed by Vincent Ward. Van Dyke. The (1999) directed by Andy Wachowski and Larry Wachowski. The (1942) directed by Orson Welles. Gainsborough Pictures Marie Antoinette (1938) directed by W. Warner Bros. British Broadcasting Corporation (BBC) Moulin Rouge (2001) directed by Baz Luhrmann. Arenafilm .S. Louis (1944) directed by Vincente Minnelli. Warner Bros. Maytime (1937) directed by Robert Z. Loew's Inc. Sentana Filmproduktion Navigator: A Medieval Odyssey. Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer Corporation Medieval Lives (2004) directed by Nigel Miller. Gainsborough Pictures Magnificent Ambersons. Famous Players-Lasky Corporation Monarchy of England. Oxford Film and Television Production Meet Me in St. Matewan (1987) directed by John Sayles. Film and Entertainment VIP Medienfonds 2 GmbH & Co. Loew's Inc.Filmography 205 Madonna of the Seven Moons (1944) directed by Arthur Crabtree. BBC Television Centre. Malcolm X (1992) directed by Spike Lee. The (1943) directed by Leslie Arliss. Remember Productions LLC Men of Our Time: Mussolini (1970) narrated by A.J. Cinecom Entertainment Group Matrix. 40 Acres and a Mule Filmworks Man in Grey. ITV Mister Prime Minister (1966) Australian Broadcasting Corporation Moana – A Romance of the Golden Age (1926) directed by Robert Flaherty. Memento (2000) directed by Christopher Nolan. Taylor. The (2004) Channel 4 Television Monster (2003) directed by Patty Jenkins. Mercury Productions Majestic. The (2001) directed by Frank Darabont.P.
Global Entertainment Productions GmbH & Co. Picnic Productions Pocahontas (1995) directed by Michael Gabriel. Schenck Productions Outback House (2005) Produced by Ivo Porum. Peacemaking 1919 (1971) directed by David Mingay. Paisano Productions. Nuit et brouillard (Night and Fog) (1955) directed by Alain Resnais. Kelly Gang Films Pty Ltd Nixon (1995) directed by Oliver Stone. Woodfall Film Productions Ned Kelly (2003) directed by Gregor Jordan. Paramount Pictures Corporation Our Hospitality (1923) directed by Buster Keaton. Zespol Filmowy 'Zodiak' Oktiabr (October) (1928) directed by Sergei M. VPS Pearl Harbor (2001) directed by Michael Bay. Touchstone Pictures People's Century (1995) directed by Angus MacQueen. Leonard. The (2000) directed by Roland Emmerich. Joseph M. The (1995) directed by Angus MacQueen. WGBH Boston Perry Mason (1957–1966) directed by Jack Arnold and Earl Bellamy. Olympia Film Olympische Spiele Fest Der Völker (Olympia) (1938) directed by Leni Riefenstahl. British Broadcasting Corporation (BBC). CBS Television. Australian Broadcasting Corporation Patriot. Walt Disney Pictures Pride and Prejudice (1940) directed by Robert Z.V. Picnic at Hanging Rock (1975) directed by Peter Weir. Cinergi Productions N. TCF Television Productions Inc. British Broadcasting Corporation (BBC) People's Century. Pride and Prejudice (1952) directed by Campbell Logan.206 History Goes to the Movies Ned Kelly (1970) directed by Tony Richardson. Inc. British Broadcasting Corporation (BBC) . Loew's Inc. Olympia Film On a Clear Day You Can See Forever (1970) directed by Vincente Minnelli. Sovkino Olympische Spiele Fest Der Schönheit (Olympia) (1938) directed by Leni Riefenstahl. Eisenstein. Argos Films Ogniem i Mieczem (With Fire and Sword) (1999) directed by Jerry Hoffman.
20th Century Fox Film Corporation Robin Hood (1923) directed by Allan Dwan. Embassy Pictures Corporation Purple Rose of Cairo. Unchain My Heart Louisiana LLC Robe.. Rashomon (1950) directed by Akira Kurosawa. The (1968) directed by Mel Brooks. British Broadcasting Corporation (BBC) Pride and Prejudice (1980) directed by Cyril Coke. Working Title Films Prince and the Pauper. Daiei Rasputin and the Empress (1932) directed by Richard Boleslavsky. Douglas Fairbanks Pictures Corporation Russki Kovcheg (Russian Ark) (2002) directed by Alexsandr Sokurov. The (1953) directed by Henry Koster. Australian Film Finance Corporation Radio Bikini (1987) directed by Robert Stone. British Broadcasting Corporation (BBC). Rabbit-proof Fence (2002) directed by Philip Noyce. Crossroads Raiders of the Lost Ark (1981) directed by Steven Spielberg. A&E Television Networks Inc. The (2002) directed by Philip Noyce. The (1985) directed by Woody Allen. Lucasfilm Rambo First Blood Part II (1985) directed by George Pan Cosmatos. Internationale Medien und Film GmbH & Co. British Broadcasting Corporation (BBC) Pride and Prejudice (1995) directed by Simon Langton. Chestermead Ltd Pride and Prejudice (2005) directed by Joe Wright. Princess in Love (1996) directed by David Greene.Filmography 207 Pride and Prejudice (1958) directed by British Broadcasting Corporation (BBC) Pride and Prejudice (1967) directed by Joan Craft. CBS Television Producers. Carolco Pictures Inc. Hermitage Bridge Studio . Orion Pictures Corporation Quiet American. Warner Bros. Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer Distributing Corporation Ray (2004) directed by Taylor Hackford. The (1937) directed by William Keighley. Loew's Inc. Quo Vadis (1951) directed by Mervyn LeRoy.
Wildfire Television Shipping News. Universal Pictures Company Sommersby (1993) directed by Jon Amiel. The (1934) directed by Josef von Sternberg. The (Dr Erhlich's Magic Bullet) (1940) directed by Wilhelm Dieterle. Warner Bros. The (2001) directed by Lasse Hallström. DreamWorks SKG Scarlet Empress. The (2002) Channel 4 Television Stachka (Strike) (1925) directed by Sergei Eisenstein. Films Aleph Sieg des Glaubens: Der Film vom Reichs-Parteitag der NSDAP (Victory of Faith) (1933) directed by Leni Riefenstahl. Lucasfilm Staroye i Novoye (The General Line) (1929) directed by Sergei Eisenstein. Sans Soleil (Sunless) (1982) directed by Chris Marker. 20th Century Fox Film Corporation Story of Dr. Rutle Corp. The (1939) directed by Irving Cummings. . The (1978) directed by Eric Idle and Gary Weis. Proletkult Star Wars (1977) directed by George Lucas. Erhlich's Magic Bullet.. Broadway Video. Argos Films Saving Private Ryan (1998) directed by Steven Spielberg. Sovkino Stork (1971) directed by Tim Burstall. Paramount Productions Schindler's List (1993) directed by Steven Spielberg. The (1965) directed by Robert Wise. Miramax Film Corporation Shoah (1985) directed by Claude Lanzmann. Tim Burstall & Associates Story of Alexander Graham Bell. Universal Pictures Seven Ages of Britain (2003) directed by Paul Sen.208 History Goes to the Movies Rutles: All you Need is Cash. Universal Pictures Company Spartans. Argyle Enterprises Spartacus (1960) directed by Stanley Kubrick. Reichspropagandaleitung der NSDAP Smultronstallet (Wild Strawberries) (1957) directed by Ingmar Bergman. Regency Enterprises Sound of Music. Svensk Filmindustri Snow Falling on Cedars (1999) directed by Scott Hicks. Above Average Productions Inc.
Filmography 209 Story of Louis Pasteur. Idera Films Tag Der Freiheit Unsere Wehrmacht (Day of Freedom – Our Armed Forces) (1935) directed by Leni Riefenstahl. DeMille. Noe Productions Triumph Des Willens: Das Dokument vom Reichsparteitag 1934 (Triumph of the Will) (1936) directed by Leni Riefenstahl. Paramount Pictures Terminator 2: Judgment Day (1991) directed by James Cameron. Douglas Fairbanks Pictures Corporation Tiefland (Lowland) (1954) directed by Leni Riefenstahl. Warner Bros. Nazionalsozialistische Deutsche Arbeiterpartei Triumph of the West. The (1906) directed by Charles Tait. Film Australia Troy (2004) directed by Wolfgang Petersen. Universal Pictures Company Villin Pohjolan salattu laakso (The Secret Valley of the Wild North) (1963) directed by Aarne Tarkas. Walker Film Productions . Keskus-Elokuva Virgin Queen. J&N Tait. Story of the Kelly Gang. The (1955) directed by Henry Koster. Nazionalsozialistische Deutsche Arbeiterpartei Ten Commandments. Riefenstahl-Film Titanic (1953) directed by Jean Negulesco. 20th Century Fox Film Corporation Titanic (1997) directed by James Cameron. 20th Century Fox Film Corporation Walker (1987) directed by Alex Cox. Woodfall Film Productions Train de vie (Train of Life) (1998) directed by Radu Mihaileanu. Thief of Bagdad. Given Name Nam (1989) directed by Trinh T. Carolco Pictures. The (1956) directed by Cecil B. Johnson and Gibson Surname Viet. Minh-ha. Inc. The (1936) directed by Wilhelm Dieterle. The (1985) ITV Trouble with Merle. 20th Century Fox Film Corporation Tom Jones (1963) directed by Tony Richardson. The (2002) directed by Marée Delofski. Helena Productions Ltd U-571 (2000) directed by Jonathan Mostow. The (1924) directed by Raoul Walsh.
Universal TV Ying Xiong (Hero) (2002) directed by Zhang Yimou. BBC Entertainment We Were Soldiers (2002) directed by Randall Wallace. MCA Television Entertainment Inc. Motion Picture Production GmbH & C Erste KG Windtalkers (2002) directed by John Woo. Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer Wo Hu Zang Long (Crouching Tiger Hidden Dragon) (2000) directed by Ang Lee.. Thames Television Xena: Warrior Princess (1995–2001) directed by John Schulian and Robert G. Elite Group Enterprises . Studios USA Television. Public Broadcasting Service We Are History (2000) directed by Sean Grundy and Alex Walsh-Taylor. Imperial War Museum. Tapert. United China Vision Inc.210 History Goes to the Movies War Walks (1997) British Broadcasting Corporation Television (BBC) WEB DuBois: A Documentary in Four Voices (1996) Directed by Louis Massiah. World at War. Renaissance Pictures. The (1974) directed by Ted Childs and Michael Darlow.
101. 1978) 21 Aleksandr Nevski (Alexander Nevsky. 151. photography and film 58–9. 168–9. 103–7. role in historical film studies 6 Augé. Woody 111–13 Althusser. 149: icons 23. 88–9. Roger 80 Ben Hur (1925 and 1959) 73 Benjamin. Benedict: nation as imagined 81–6 Ang.R. 173–83. 1952) 43–4 Abrash. 149 Altman. readerly and writerly texts 51. Mikhail 137 Band of Brothers (2001) 133 Bann. Barbara 4 Adorno. 64 Bakha Satang (Peppermint Candy. Gaston 74 Back to the Future trilogy 43. Jean-Louis 149 Bazin. 117. reality effect 114. film realism 109–11. 147–9. hypothetical and historical 6. 1938) 146 Alexander (2004) 170 Allen. mythology 81. The (1972) 85 advertisements 6. 117. André 5. 149. 53 Annas. the self 20 Battle of Ancre (1917) 154 Battle of Elderbush Gulch. Walter 10. 51 Adventures of Barry Mackenzie. 156–7 benshi 157 Berkhofer. The (1913) 63 Battle of the Somme (1916) 153–4 Baudrillard. 45–7. 43 Alvin Purple (1973) 85 Ambrose. F. 135–6. Theodor 2. Mark 152–3 . 7. 175–7. 149 Baudry. 45–7 Ankersmit. 10. Michelle 22 Atlantic (1929) 88 audiences: connoisseur 156–61. perception and imaging 111–13. 72. Joyce 29 Arrow. Stephen 133 Amistad (1997) 17 anachronism 74 Anastasia (1997) 148–9. Rick 38. Guy 5. Jean: hyperreality 10. Ien 88–9 Angelini. Stephen 53 Barefoot. mass and multitudinous 3. 107–10. 167–8 L'albero degli zoccoli (Tree of Wooden Clogs. Alicia 71 Appelby. 152 anime 28. Louis 19. 180. 117 Before the Rain (1994) 72 Bell. Robert 53 Bevir. 114. 176 Anderson. fan fiction 6. 37–45. 191–3. 155. 51. 36 Barry Lyndon (1975) 103 Barrymore. 124. 155–61. 117–18. 152.Index 1492 (1992) 52 1900 (1976) 103 24 Hour Party People (2002) 109 3 Word Brand (1921) 43 Aan (Savage Princess. Alberto 88 animation 28. 1999) 64 Bakhtin. Ethel 71 Barthes. 135–6. correspondence about films 158–9. Marc 73 'Australians and the Past' project 1 authenticity 21 Bachelard. Roland 117.
43 Dal Polo All'Equatore (From the Pole to the Equator. The (1958) 70 Burns. 170. David 50–1 . Stephen 27 Crusades (1995) 127. The (1902) 135 costume films 26–9. 38. Sean 106. 1925) 19. 18. 108–10. Gregory 111–13.212 History Goes to the Movies Biber. James 101–3 Canguilheim. 44–5 Bontoc Eulogy (1995) 131 Bordwell. 165–83 copyright 180 Corner. 108 Course of Irish History. David 7. Fernand 74 Braveheart (1995) 71. 188–9 Day the Clown Cried. time in history 74 Columbus (1992) 52 comedy 19. 71 Cohan. 107 Davies. Cathy 65 Casanova (1976) 59 casting 71–2 Cat's Meow. 149 Deleuze. Ken 125–6 Cabiria (1914) 73 Cameron. 125. 146. Katherine 87 Bill and Ted's Excellent Adventure (1988) 106 Billig. 61 Civil War. objectivity and history 116–18. 73 Ceddo 5 Chakravarty. Mark 6. 26. 81. Benedetto 74 Crofts. Robert 72 Carnes. Stella 70 Buccaneer. 188 Custen. Guy 5. 102. 72 Bride of Vengeance (1949) 70 Bronenosets Potemkin (Battleship Potemkin. Steven 49 Colbert. Terence 5 Davis. 19. 21. 73 costumes: times as shown though 68–71 Courage Under Fire (1996) 22. R. 1932) 144 Bloom. 21. J. Das (The Blue Light. 87 Black Pirate. 169 Chinatown (1974) 103 Chopper (2000) 115 Christian. 122 computer games 177–9 computer generated imagery (CGI) 104–7. The (1926) 174 blaue Licht. 46–8 Comolli.G. Claudette 71 Collingwood. 153 Bruzzi. 135 Cubitt. 182 Debord. objectivity in history 116–18 Carroll. 71. 87. 137: forms of history 31. Michel 174. Orlando 71 Bollywood 28. 157 Currie. Robert 105–6 Craik. J.: narrative and history 52. David 19 Carlyle. Jean-Louis 69. The (2001) 22 Catch Me if You Can (2002) 38. Daniel 149 De Certeau. E. Georges 75 Cannadine. 28. 54. 181 Conquistadors (2000) 126 consumerism and commodification 106. 52 Christie. Bette 71 Davis. The (1990) 125–6 Civilisation (1969) 122 Cleopatra (1934 and 1964) 68. Michael 81 biopics 43 Black Hawk Down (2001) 82. Natalie Zemon 5. Ian 72 CinemaScope 170 Cinerama 170 Citizen Kane (1941) 60. Deborah 5 Caruth. 155–61. Noël 2 Cartmell. Sumita 44 Chandralekha (1948) 45 Charge of the Light Brigade. 105. 173 Croce. 42–3. 153. 43. re-enactment in history 93–6. David 67 Bowling for Columbine (2002) 127–8 Boys Don't Cry (1999) 115 Braudel. The (1972) 48 Dayan. Gilles: time-image and movement-image films 59–76 Denby. David 52 Carr. 138. Guy 68.H. 168 Carr. The (1936) 58 Charles and Diana: Unhappily Ever After (1992) 135 Cheyney. 115. Edward 113 Chicago (2002) 167. The (1966) 126 Craig. 1987) 151 Dancer in the Dark (2000) 49. 61. reality in history 113–18. 36. John 135 Coronation of Their Majesties Edward VII and Queen Alexandra.
Bill: as historical consultant 17 Gandhi (1982) 64. 114 Desser. Thomas 25. 81. 63. 90–2 empathy 92–6 Empire (2003) 127 emulsions 191–2 English Patient. 83 emotions 20–1. 108. 150–4 Electrocution of an Elephant (1903) 61 Eliza Fraser (1976) 104 Elizabeth (1998) 74. 73. 105. 110 Dilthey. 117. 26. reflexivity in 131. 89 docudrama 134. The (2002) 128 Eijanaka 5 Eisenstein. Leonardo 69. 114. 104. 134 Foucault. colour 74. 85. as illusionary 107–10. 177–81 E La Nave Va (And the Ship Sails On. Nelson 89–90 Edgerton. Henry 147 Gladiator (2000) 21. 133. 1999) 124. 166 diagesis 3. 71. special features 107. Easter eggs 179. 25. 67 Doob. 110. 127 genre 36–57 Gibson. 152 . John 7 Gaines. 108 Flynn. S. 91. 6. 27. 43. A (The Danube Exodus. 117. Niall 126 Ferro. 102 Diana: Her True Story (1993) 136 Diane (1955) 70 Dickens. 101–2. Northrup 2. 27 fan websites 174. psychoanalytic analysis of 81–2. 159 Doherty. D. 48 Full Monty. 87. 67 gender 28. Christopher 85 Ferguson. Ross 72 Ginzburg. 68. 1983) 74 Eddy. Mel 72 Gibson. 107–10. Kirk 71 Dovey. 72 Gammage. The (1997) 72 Gaddis. 102. 105. 125 flashbacks and flashforwards 64–7. propaganda 146–7. Leonard 150 Dorothy Vernon of Haddon Hall (1924) 70 Douglas. 53. 61. Richard 116–18 Eve's Bayou (1997) 86 213 faction films 26. Robert 122. Jean 137 Frontier House (2002) 135 Frye. history of 155–60. disclaimers in 115. 64–7. Henry 156 disclaimers 115 Disney films 147–9. 61. 72. 152 Distant Voices. 153. 105–6. Jean-Luc 10. Erhlich's Magic Bullet. Bernadette 135 Forrest Gump (1994) 18. 170 Godard. depiction of groups in historical films 19. Charles 156 Dietrich. Jon 134 Down with Love (2003) 76 Dr. Jean 145. as indexical 110. lectures in 155–61. continuity in history 75–6 Froissart.Index Derrida. 31–2. 87. 155–60. 81 Di Caprio. 61. research with 191–3 Film and History 4 Flaherty. 128 DVD 192: chapters 60. 38. 149–50. 157 Donnie Darko (2001) 18. Mary Ann 60. 73. Jacques: language as a maze of mirrors 23. The (1996) 83 Evans. Jane 70 Gallipoli (1981) 17. 188 film: classical and post-classical 60. relativism and 116. Michel 20. Still Lives 5.. objectivity and 116–18. 46. Carlo 52 Girl with a Pearl Earring (2003) 74. 133 Doane. government policy towards and support 85. 85–6. 38. 149 Godmilow. digital effects and 104–7. The Story of (1940) 38 Du Barry was a Lady (1943) 71 dunai exodus. Marlene 70 digital effects 104–7. 134–6 Dogville (2003) 21. metaphysics and logocentrism 24–5. 83 Giroux. Wilhelm 93 Dirck. preservation of 191–3. 149–50. 158. Marc 4. 135 documentary 122–40. Gary 147 editing 61–7 Edwardian Country House. 180 Far from Heaven (2002) 172–3 Far From Poland (1984) 131 Faulkner. 157–9.
157–8. 50–2. Stephen 149 heilige Berg. 171–83. complexity of 4. John 11. 176: comedy in 43. 22–4. Der (The Holy Mountain. 18–24. narratives of 18–21. 108–9. flashbacks and flashforwards 64–7. biopics 43. David 5 Hight. popularity and significance 1. as history 7. as escapist or disempowering 2. 136–9 historiography 3. reflexivity in 131–6. 149–50. 85–7. gender and 28. 68. 21. 115 Hayne. 108. 165–83. 19–20. 27. authenticity of 21. 107. 12. 73 Herlihy. gender and 28. identity and 27. 37–45. 108. 123. Wilhelm von 113 Hunt. reflexivity in 131. focus on individuals in 19–20. democratisation of 29–31. 85–6. promotion of 6. relationship with written histories 5. 125 Grindon. 64–5 Hirst. narratology 52–5 historiophoty 5. 48–9 Horkheimer. aesthetic dimensions of 6. 88–90. 90. The (1974) 169 Grierson. Todd 172–3 Heath. Roy 24 Hart. 52–5. 110 historicity: false 20–1 Histories: democratisation of 29–31. Stephen J. preservation of 191–3. 39 Great Dictator. 12 History of Britain. 27. commercial dimensions of 165–83. emotions and 20–1. 80 Groth. realism and 113–18. 157 Higson. scales of 7–8. Andrew 27. defining 8. icons in 23–4. as showing the present 4. Vietnam (1987) 147 Gossman. Lionel 53 Gould. 135–6. A.B. 31–2. spectacle in 68–74. Leger 5. 155 Hadashi no gen (Barefoot Gen. 136–40. topics of 23. 46–8. 110. sound in 74. 18. 108. 51 Gramsci. filmmakers and historians 16. historiography and 3. 60. 37–8 historical films. editing 61–7. A (2000) 126 History Channel 23 History of the World Part 1 (1981) 52 Hitler: The Rise of Evil (2003) 72 Hjort. costumes and makeup in 68–71. narratives and 52–5. as sites of relation 6. Richard 127 Holocaust films 81. digital effects in 104–7. identification with 92–6. 90–2. 22. polyphonic or multi-valent 22. Antonio 85 Graustark (1925) 38. 1995) 61 Harding. historical consultants 16–18. Colin 126–7 Humboldt. 60. Lynn 29 . 189–91. Sue 20. emotions in 92–6. 80–100. Craig 133. truth of 6. Mon Amour (1959) 60. polyphonic or multi-valent 22. Eric 95–6 Hollywood films 82 Holmes. 122. casting 71–2. 8. 1988) 45–7 Hours. Max 2 Hotaru no Haku (Grave of the Fireflies. 46. Tom 38. 26–9. 127. cultural contexts of 28. 50–2. locations of 21. postmodern 30. as a form of history 7. 177 Gunning. 12. 28. 83–6. David 53 Harper. criticisms about 2. 89 Harris. 156–61. politics and 4. 31–2. animated 28. 36–45. 93 Harvie Krumpet (2003) 101. 104. research 191–3. 152. reception of 6. 58. 147–9. transnational dimensions of 43. identification in 92–6. stock footage in 23. Helen 156–7. 155–61. 60. 102. Mette 85 Hobsbawm. 72. 46. as ideology 159–61. empathy and re-enactment in 92–6. 45. 129–30. 48–9. The (1940) 48 Great Gatsby. documentaries 122–40.214 History Goes to the Movies Good Morning. as propaganda 144–50. 24–6. Bettany 127 Hughes. genres of and genre mixing 36–57. musicals 28. 159–61. realism of 49. 72. Paul 31 historical film studies 4–6. Sandra 136–7 Harlan. Richard 80 Hughes. 49. 101–18. 58–60. 85–6. intention in 152. lectures in 155–61. 74. disclaimers in 115. 25. 45–7. false historicity of 20–1. 45. 1926) 144 Heimat (1984) 46 heritage films 27–9. props and sets in 72–3. 85 Hiroshima. La (The Hate. 110. 1983) 45–7 Haine. 87. The (2002) 71 Howells.
Arthur 58 Lives of a Bengal Lancer. The (1998) 115. Anthony 91 Kermode. 19. Julia 149 Kuhn. Die (The Camera Goes Too. Garth 152 Julius Caesar (1953) 72 Kaes. Howard 17 Jones. Yosefa 133 Lynch. Heath 71 Life and Death of Peter Sellers. Dominick 53. The (1935) 38. Milan 50 La Capra. J. theatre 156–7 imagination and imaging 111–13 In the Footsteps of Alexander the Great (1998) 126 In the Wake of the Bounty (1933) 135 Into the Breach: The Making of Saving Private Ryan (1998) 71–2. The (1998) 135 Life of an American Fireman. Anton 5 Kamera fährt mit. 40 locations in filming 21 London Polytechnic 156 Lord of the Rings trilogy 180–1 Loshitzky. 146 Jackson. 27. 5 Hutcheon. purposes of histories 52. Linda 172 hyperreality 101–7 icons 23 idealism 113 identification 92–6 Iggers. Brian 27 McLuhan. Christopher 171 Last Days. Terry 127 Jowett. The (1943) 89 Manchevski. 91 lantern. Keith: history as ideology 159–61. Adam 38 Knightley. realism in history 114 JFK (1991) 19. 81 masala films 42–3. 1995) 80 illusions. Ian 4. 73. 169–70 Making of Gladiator (2000) 133 Malcolm X (1992) 167 Man in Grey. Edward 69 Magnificent Ambersons. The (1942) 154 Majestic. Julie 17 Jenkins. a Nation (1914) 154 Irwin-Zarecka. 159 Matuszewski. Annette 7. Jeanette 89–90 Madame Curie (1943) 39 Madonna of the Seven Moons (1944) 89 Maeder. 61 Life and Death of Princess Diana. Frederic 59. Kathy 147 Jacob. The (2004) 22. Maurice 74 Mankiewicz. 115 Knee. Priya 42 Jakob Der Lügner (1974) 48 Jameson. 92. George 113 Il Était une Fois un Pays (Underground. Iwona 82 Ivan Grozni (Ivan the Terrible. Nicole 71 King Arthur (2004) 71. 71 Marseillaise. 87. 189 Maytime (1937) 89–90 McCracken. The (2001) 88 makeup and hairstyles 71. Jacques 149–50 Land of the Pharaohs (1955) 70 Landy. 22 Jeffrey. 171–2 Jarvie. Lewis 122 Jacob. 174. magic 156 Lanzmann. Marshall 24 . 22. I. Claude 129–30 Lasch. 44–5 Mask.Q. The (1999) 106. 158 Lawrence of Arabia (1962) 27 Ledger. Grant 168 McFarlane. 179 Intolerance (1916) 64. 73 Ireland. Frank 51 Kidman. Milcho 72 Mandelbaum. 176 Kundera. 1945) 61. 88–90. Mia 86 Matewan (1987) 17 Matrix. Joseph 72 Marie Antoinette (1938) 70. Alexandra 171–2 Kellner. The (1903) 63 Lindley. Boleslas 187. Hans 53 Kenny. 1937) 144 Keene. Mick 85 Jaikumar. Michael 136 MacDonald. 85–6. Margaret 29 Jagger. 134 Joan of Arc (1899) 155 Jones. Judith 80 Keller.Index Hunter. La (1937) 80 Martin. 129–30 Lacan. 133. Raymond 29 Martín-Barbero. Keira 71 215 Kristeva. 20. Marcia 5. 123–4.
72–3 psychoanalysis 81–2. 105–6 Peacemaking 1919 (1971) 126 Pearl Harbor (2001) 38. The (1925) 43 'Presence of the Past project' (US) 1 Price. Steve 49 Ned Kelly (1970) 85 Nelson. 43. Michelle 155–61. Walter 24 Orr. The (1985) 111–13 Qualter. Linda 53 Oudart. The (2002) 87 Raack. 123. The (1986) 46 narrative 52–5 national identity 80–6 Navigator: A Medieval Odyssey. Frederick 85 nitrate film 191–2 Nixon (1995) 87 nostalgia 166–83 Novick.216 History Goes to the Movies Medieval Lives (2004) 127 Meet Me in St. George 135. Russell 49 Metz. T. The (1988) 108 Neale. The (1983) 48 propaganda 144–61: defining 150–61 property ('props') 20–1. 83–5 . Theodore 126 Moore. Richard 138–9 Pride and Prejudice (1940. 2005) 26 Prince and the Pauper (1937) 70 Princess in Love (1996) 136 Producers. 177 Plantinga. 169 Munslow. 47 newsreels 122 Nichols. 4–5 O'Donnell.J. 150–1 Monty Python's Flying Circus (1969) 126 Moody. documentary voices 11. 173–5. 83. The (2004) 126 Monster (2003) montage 108–10. Terence 154 Quiet American. Victoria 152 Oakeshott. 73 Perry Mason (1957–66) 38 Phillips. R. 1955) 128 O'Connor. 74. 168–70. 1958. 41. Bill 11. 108. Peter 74 Murray. 146–7. 1995) 48 Name of the Rose. 123. 166–7 musicals 28. Dick 138 People's Century (1995) 125 Pepper. 1980. 168 Poe. 1952. 73. Jean-Pierre 149 Our Hospitality (1923) 153 Outback House (2005) 128. 87 Purple Rose of Cairo. 155 melodrama 27. 1927) 19. Parker 29 Prairie Wife. Carl 91. John 156 perception 111–13 period films 26–9. Carla 52 Phillips. Elio 88 patina 166–70 Patriot. Simone 180 music: airplay and soundtracks 157–8. Michael 31 Ogniem i mieczem (With Fire and Sword. John E. William 52 Pianiste. Alun 116 Munz. forms of documentary 124–32 Nietzsche. 87 Memento (2000) 22 Men of Our Time: Mussolini (1970) 126 merchandise and tie-ins 6. Michael 127–8. Le (The Pianist. 132–3 Plato 91 Pocahontas (1995) 147–8. 135–6 Moulin Rouge (2000) 49. 1999) 86 Oktiabr (October. 136 Partner. 2002) 167 Picnic at Hanging Rock (1975) 28 Pierson. 180. Christian 149 mise en scène: temporal disruption and 67–74 Mister Prime Minister (1966) 126–7 mock documentary 133 Monarchy of England. 1967. 192 Merritt. 146 Olympia (1936) 145 On a Clear Day You Can See Forever (1970) 71 Ong. Peter 29–30 Nuit et brouillard (Night and Fog. Louis (1944) 70 Méliès. Nancy 53 Pasquali. 178 Pels. Marshall 1–2 polyphony 22. 1995. The (2000) 72. 115. 4 Rabbit-Proof Fence (2002) 19. 49 Mutters Courage (My Mother's Courage. 137–40 postmodernism 30 Potter.
Barbra 71 Stringer. Ben 49 Slotkin. Leni 144–7. Jean-Paul 111–13 Saving Private Ryan (1998) 18. 82. Lawrence 116 Stone.M. 176 science fiction 159. 88–9. The (1906) 61–3 Streisand. 80. 102 sound 74. 80. 68. 72. 104. Sylvester 70 Starkey. Michael 134 Rentschler. 107. 28 Rorty. 1935) 144 Tarkovsky. Linda 58 Salkeld. 54. Janet 38. David 126 Staroye i Novoye (The General Line. The (1953) 70 Roberts. John 17 Scarlet Empress. 171–2 Solomon. 87. Audrey 145 Sanello. 3 silent film 60. 116–18 reality television 128. 64–5. 115 Ricoeur. 39. 134. 81 Surname Viet Given Name Nam (1989) 131 sympathy 92–6 synthespians 105 Tag der Freiheit (Day of Freedom—Our Armed Forces. 165 Sans Soleil (Sunless. Jonathon 182 Rosen. 158 Rosenstone. 1982) 124 Sartre. Susan 152 Sorlin. 1925) 19. Steven 73. Mark 168 Studies. 103–4. 9. 58. Eric 85 Retour de Martin Guerre. Pierre 4. 88 Stallone. The (1939) 38 Story of the Kelly Gang. The (1965) Spartacus (1960) 71 Spartans. Richard 116 Roscoe. 159–60. 1929) 19 stars 68. 37–8. 36.Index Radio Bikini (1987) 19 Radway. 155–61 Singer. 25. Jane 133 Rose. 108. 129–30 Shusterman. 150–4 Ritter. The (1934) 70 Schama. Phillip 5. 18–24. Le (1983) 18. 181 217 Screening the Past 4 Seig des Glaubens (Victory of Faith. 1957) 64 Snow Falling on Cedars (1999) 68 Sobchack. 147. Andrei 72 . Gilbert 111–13 Salamon. 168. 135–6 Reeves. Paul 122 Russki Kovcheg (Russian Ark. 126 Schindler's List (1993) 74. 73. 157–8 Sound of Music. Nicholas 147. 87. 133 Stachka (Strike. 169 Ranke. 61. Paul 53 Riefenstahl. Jackie 173 Staiger. Vivian 68. G. R. 153 reflexivity 131–9 relativism 116–18 Renov. relationship between written and filmic histories 24–6 Rosenzweig. Jon 5. Simon 22. Janice 182 Raiders of the Lost Ark (1981) 38. 73. 37. Robert 5. J. Roy 1 Rotha. 2002) 68 Rutles. Oliver 16. 22 Stork (1971) 85 Story of Alexander Graham Bell. Harold 93 Robe. Richard 58 Smultronstället (Wild Strawberries. 177 Sayles. definition of an historical film 26. 102. 28. Janet 4 Stewart. Norma 70 Shipping News. 82. 146 Stacie. 136. Frank 5. 59. Leopold von 113 Rashomon (1950) 22. 115. 110. 133. 73 Sommersby (1993) 88 Sontag. 43. 159 Rambo First Blood Part II (1985) 70. 68. 190–1. 58. The (1978) 133 Ryle. Susan 171 Stone. The (2001) 166 Shoah (1985) 23. 1933) 144 sets 68–9. 103–4. The (2002) 127 spectacle: temporal punctuation and 68–74 Spielberg. 157 Rasputin and the Empress (1932) 71 Ray (2004) 26 realism 49. 87. criticisms about historical films 16. 107. 126 Robin Hood (1923) 153 romance 19. 43. 133. 166 Sternberg. 72–3 Seven Ages of Britain (2003) 127 Shearer.
H. 48 Trier. 43. 22. 1998) 43. 103. Hidden Dragon. 1997) 127 We Are History (2000) 126 We Were Soldiers (2002) 82 Wells. Hayden: historiophoty 5. Elizabeth 71 technologies. 1936) 144–6.218 History Goes to the Movies Tashiro. Michael 126 Woolgar. W.E. 42 Tiefland (Lowland. Slajov 124 . 2000) 105 wonder 156–61. 116–18. 27. 113 War Walks (1996. 174. The (1955) 70 VistaVision 170 Vita è bella. Victor 50 Tweeling. 1997) 18. 155–61 Ten Commandments. 108 Walsh. Dziga 124 viewers see audiences Villin Pohjolan salattu laakso (The Secret Valley of the Wild North. A. 95 Triumph des Willens (Triumph of the Will. Ludwig 111–13. The (1993) 146 Wood. 115 W. 105. 27. 126 Taylor. Justin 165–70 Xena. 52–5 White. 2002) 22 Zizek. 36 Taylor. Kristen 67 Three Musketeers. Brian 5. Imelda 5 White. Horrible Life of Leni Riefenstahl.J. The (1924) 153 Thirteen Days (2001) 52 Thompson. 153 Triumph of the West. Maureen 64–7 Turner. 20. 12. Richard 188 Wilson. Steve 136 World at War. David 1 Theron. 48. narratology and history 48. 129 Troy (2004) 107. The (1939) 39. The (1974) 122 Wyatt. Paul 152 Westerns 43. Lars von 80. 187–91. 88. Charlize 71 Thief of Bagdad. 1963) 83 Virgin Queen. 123 Wo Hu Zang Long (Crouching Tiger. The (1985) 126 Trouble with Merle. 60. 166–7. 64.P. 82. 1954) 145 Titanic (1997) 18–19. Warrior Princess (1995–2001) 71 Ying Xiong (Hero. Du Bois: A Biography in Four Voices (1996) 139 Walker (1987) 5. 170 Turim. Jay 80 Wittgenstein. 48. La (Life is Beautiful. 64 U-571 (2000) 85 Vasudevan. 169–70. 173–83 Wonderful. Ravi 45 Vertov. Charles 5. De (Twin Sisters. Robert Brent 5. 87 Taves. 82 Whelehan. The (1956) 70 Terminator 2: Judgement Day (1991) 107 Thelen. 50–1. projecting and viewing 6. 2003) 63. 176 Tom Jones (1963) 71 Toplin. The (2002) 22. 19.B. 159. 31 Train de vie (Train of Life. John 91 Windtalkers (2002) 115 Winter.
This action might not be possible to undo. Are you sure you want to continue?
We've moved you to where you read on your other device.
Get the full title to continue listening from where you left off, or restart the preview.

subset: commoncrawl