When I started on working on my final part of my Mimesis project, I have started to work on the movie. For me, to be able to become someone else from a film has it's steps of progress. The character that I am going to act is named 'Nana' from Jean-Luc Godard's film 'Vivre Sa Vie'. However knowing the film and the character is not enough for me to build my own perspective of the character. So that I've made research on the term Cinema Vérité which affected The French New Wave. The French New Wave is the cinema movement which Jean-Luc Godard had significant contributions on it.
The term Cinema Vérité was first used by Jean Rouch and Edgar Morin. Jean Rouch is an ethnographic filmmaker. Most of his earlier documentaries were filmed in Africa like; "La Pluie", "The Human Pyramid". Jean Rouch did a film with Edgar Morin who is a sociologist. The film called "Chronicle of a Summer" in 1961. Chronicle of a Summer is the first film that described itself as a work of Cinema Verite. Jean Rouch' s documentaries are often inspired by a specific context. In Human Pyramid which was shot in Africa; the issue of racism seen through the eyes of young black and white students. On the other hand in Chronicle of a Summer; the subject is the parisian society in the after math of algerian war.
Jean Rouch and Edgar Morin' s Chronicle of a Summer was recognized as a landmark in non fiction filmmaking. With the innovative cinematic techniques of Cinema Vérité, Jean Rouch and Edgar Morin was able to catch direct synchronized sound and extreme close-ups. The choice of scenario of Chronicle of a Summer is important in film history because that it depicts the rough, urban streets of Paris during a significant historical moment. There are four significant reasons why Chronicle of a Summer is important in film history is that; it's place in the film history, it's relation to the political history in france, it's contribution to french intellectual history and it's status as a source for charting a history of memory.
The chronicle of a summer was a social experiment of Jean Rouch and Edgar Morin on the Parisian society that they interviewed citizens from very different backgrounds. And in the end of the movie Jean Rouch and Edgar Morin showed the filmed material to the subject and filmed them again as they discussed their reactions to seeing themselves.
There is another term which is related to Cinema Vérité is "Direct Cinema". Both Cinema Vérité and Direct Cinema come from similar roots but they have different philosophies. The main difference is the function of the filmmaker. In Cinema Vérite there is a high level of involvement of filmmaker to the activities in the film. On the other hand in Direct Cinema, filmmakers act is to only observe the subject. Jean Rouch cited that Cinema Vérité; " Does not mean the cinema of truth but the 'truth of cinema'." For Jean Rouch and Edgar Morin the only possible truth was the one which included the filmmaker.
The sociological experiment of Jean Rouch and Edgar Morin with Cinema Vérité profoundly affected the "French New Wave". In French New Wave movement in cinema Jean-Luc Godard, François Truffaut, Eric Rohmer, Jacques Rivette and other's intention was desire to shoot more current social issues and experiment in cinema.
I have always been an admirer of Godard's work. As Jean Rouch and Edgar Morin, he also was interested in sociological contemporary contexts and he was innovative with his camera techniques. In The French Wave movement, Godard and others used fragmented, discontinuous editing and long takes as filming techniques. So that Cinema Vérité and The French New Wave nurtured one another and formed a new way of cinematic language.
In my project 'Mimesis in Cinema', I am highly interested in Godard's films. The reason is that Godard have filmed his subject as if he is combining the two personas of the character in the movie with the person who is acting. In his film 'Vivre Sa Vie' we are able to observe Anna Karina character combined with the character Nana. Spectator is able to observe Nana from Anna Karina' s perspective. So when I decided to take a character from a movie and decided to act her life in mine, Nana from Vivre Sa Vie was the perfect choice. I am going to become Nana, and live her life from my point of view. When I observe Nana, I can relate the character to myself. I took Nana as my idol thus the mimesis I am going to create out of her is going to be my observation of Nana in my own life.
A good survey, as far as tracing the history of the movement is concerned. However, it would probably have been more interesting (both for you as well as the reader) to look at this from a more critical point of view. By this I do not mean for you to just criticize the movement (although that as well). I guess the more correct term is to look at this reflectively, rather than just listing dates and names and broad definitions. What does this really mean? To you and to others? What were its influences? (My guess is that it would be Italian neo-realism, but I am not sure). What was its impact? Why did it die out? Or did it die out? (Not that I know much about this subject, but I have a feeling that a lot of the basic concepts of cinema verite can be found in contemporary video art, for example - so what are the threads there?). What would these basic concepts that managed to live on be? One way to extend this survey in a meaningful way is to look for things that cinema scholars have said about cinema verite, both for and against. This will also help you form a personal opinion, that will help you make sense of why you actually use cinema verite in your own work. Why you would want to become Nana? Just saying that you are interested in Godard's work is not enough I think. You really need to be able to build an argument as to why you are doing this. Why he (or the movement in general) is relevant to you, here and now.
ReplyDeleteAnother thing is the term mimesis and how this relates to both your work as well as how you weave cinema verite together with mimesis. Again, I do not think that you took this as far as it should be taken. What probably needs to happen is for you to dwell a bit on mimesis since the term has a lot of potential. I am just acquainted with the term, however I went and looked for it just now. And one thing I spotted immediately (wikipedia) was that the concept of mimesis is something that figures quite a bit in Coleridge's work who comes up with a rather magical definition that is built upon a contradiction: "that imitation, as opposed to copying, consists either in the interfusion of the SAME throughout the radically DIFFERENT, or the different throughout a base radically the same."
ReplyDeleteOne of the joys of researching something is finding "other" things. And what mimesis seems to lead to is Coleridge who is a fascinating guy. He is the one who coined the term "suspension of disbelief," which I think is a term that could also take you to novel thoughts that are related to mimesis, and even cinema verite
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Suspension_of_disbelief
Something else I found is this:
http://retiary.org/art_theories/theories_of_art.html
Again, could be very interesting to read.
So, basically, what I am trying to suggest to you is to not just stick to a subject narrowly (in a way that just substantiates what you already know), but broaden out from it, see where it takes you, then go back and make novel connections that weren't there when you first started out.