Mikael Opstrup: The documentary Narrative 2

Mikael Opstrup har skrevet en udvidelse af den dokumentarfilmens poetik, som vi tidligere bragt på FILMKOMMENTAREN.DK. Her følger teksten:

DEN DOKUMENTARISKE FORTÆLLING – Skabelsen af dokumentarfilmen, sammenholdt med dokumentarprogrammet og fiktionsfilmen / THE DOCUMENTARY NARRATIVE (English version after the Danish)  

1. Fiktionsfilmen er defineret af historien. Et handlingsforløb som nedfældes i manuskriptet og siden omsættes til film. Instruktørens arbejdsproces er lineær og fiktionsfilmen er dramaturgisk friktionsfri. Der er kun et handlingsforløb. Fiktionsinstruktørens bestræbelse er fortælling.

2. Dokumentarprogrammet er defineret af emnet. En begivenhedsrække, som journalisten gengiver så objektivt som muligt. Selv om objektivitet er en umulighed og skabelsen af programmet dermed modsætningsfyldt, er journalistens bestræbelse entydig og vejen mod det uopnåelige er lineær, som i fiktionsfilmen. Der er kun et handlingsforløb. Journalistens bestræbelse er gengivelse.

3. Dokumentarfilmen er defineret af både et begivenhedsforløb og en fortælling. Begivenhedsforløbet finder sted i den virkelighed dokumentarfilmen beskriver. Fortællingen er instruktørens genfortælling af begivenhedsforløbet. Der er to handlingsforløb og kernen i dokumentarfilmens dramaturgi er modsætningen mellem de to handlingsforløb, det faktuelle og det narrative. Dokumentarinstruktørens bestræbelse er genfortælling.

4. Både fiktionsfilmen og dokumentarprogrammet består ideelt set af to skarpt opdelte forløb: i fiktionsfilmen at skrive et manuskript og derpå omsætte dette til film; i dokumentarprogrammet at indsamle fakta og derpå at ordne disse begivenheder i et program; dokumentarfilmens forløb består ideelt set af en uendelig vekselvirkning mellem at skabe fortællingen, optage begivenhedsforløbet og ændre fortællingen.

5. Således har dokumentarfilmen noget til fælles med både dokumentarprogrammet og fiktionsfilmen. De to dokumentargenrer har den antagonistiske modsætning mellem virkelighed og formidling til fælles; men hvor journalistens bestræbelse vil være at minimere modsætningen, vil dokumentarinstruktørens være at uddybe den.De to filmgenrer har fortællingen til fælles, da der ingen dramaturgisk forskel er på fiktionsfilmen og dokumentarfilmen; men hvor fiktionsinstruktøren selv skaber fortællingens enkeltelementer – scenerne – må dokumentarinstruktøren beslutte, om den ene eller den anden begivenhed er bærer af enkeltscenen i den dokumentariske fortælling.

6. Dokumentarfilmens modsætning mellem det faktuelle og det narrative er antagonistisk i arbejdsmæssig henseende men komplementær i kunstnerisk forstand. Antagonisme er det forhold, at to ting er uforenelige modsætninger. At to modsætninger udelukker hinanden. Komplementaritet er det forhold, at to sider af en sag foruden at udelukke hinanden også kompletterer hinanden. At to modsætninger er hinandens forudsætninger.

7. Skabelsen af en dokumentarfilm er en antagonistisk proces. For instruktøren personligt fordi fortolkningen af virkeligheden kun bliver interessant, hvis den er resultat af en stræben mod objektivitet – velvidende at det er i fortolkningens møde med gengivelsen at dokumentarfilmen bliver til kunst. Og arbejdsmæssigt fordi vi skal formulere en fortælling på et tidspunkt, hvor vi endnu ikke kender det begivenhedsforløb, fortællingen gengiver. Det kan ikke lade sig gøre. Men det lader sig gøre. Det sker ved at transformere den antagonistiske modsætning til en komplementær.

8. Det betyder, at man hele tiden skal ændre fortællingen efter udviklingen i virkelighedsforløbet. Det vanskelige ligger i at hengive sig til den absolutte stræben, som er forudsætningen for en vellykket og forløst fortælling, velvidende at virkeligheden hele tiden vil ændre fortællingen. Konstant at stræbe mod at strukturere en virkelighedsfremstilling, som må korrigeres af virkeligheden. At kombinere absolut åbenhed med absolut beslutsomhed. At stræbe fuldt og helt mod det uopnåelige. Ja netop at finde styrken til at stræbe, fordi målet for denne stræben, er uopnåeligt.

9. Dette forhold er kernen i arbejdet med den dokumentariske fortælling. At erkende nødvendigheden af at transformere den antagonistiske modsætning mellem virkelighed og fortælling til en kreativ komplementær modsætning, er en bevidsthedsmæssig forudsætning for at skabe dokumentarisk filmkunst. At skabe det fuldendte ved at stræbe mod det umulige.

10. Dokumentarfilmen forløses kunstnerisk, når kun det ene lag – virkeligheden – er synligt som kontinuerlig fortælling. Når genfortællingen ikke fungerer harmonisk, dvs. hvis enkeltelementerne fra virkelighedsforløbet ikke er fuldstændigt sammenfaldende med scenerne i fortællingen, åbenbares dette andet lag – fortællingen – som et postulat. Derved ændres det virkelige begivenhedsforløb fra at udgøre fortællingens elementer til at blive en ny og selvstændig fortælling. Filmen får dermed to uafhængige narrative forløb, hvorved værket falder fra hinanden. Men når instruktørens fortælling går op i en højere enhed med virkeligheden, ophører den med at være til stede i tid og rum og findes blot som dramaturgisk klarhed.

11. Evnen til at arbejde kreativt forløsende med uforenelige modsætninger er en central evne hos dokumentarfilm instruktøren.

 

THE DOCUMENTARY NARRATIVE

The creation of the documentary – compared to the documentary programme and the fiction film.

Mikael Opstrup

1. Fiction is defined by the story. A course of events that is written down in the script and then converted into a film. The directors work process is linear and the fiction film is from a dramaturgic point of view frictionless. Only one course of events exists. The fiction director’s endeavour is storytelling.

2. The documentary programme is defined by the subject. A course of events that the journalist reproduces as objectively as possible. All though objectivity is an impossibility and the creation of the programme thereby antagonistic, the journalist’s effort is unambiguous and the road towards the unattainable is linear as in fiction. Only one course of events exists. The journalist’s endeavour is reproduction.

3. The documentary film is defined by both a course of events and storytelling. The course of events takes place in the reality the documentary describes. The story is the director’s retelling of the event. There are two courses of events and the core of the documentary’s dramaturgy is the contradiction between the two courses of events, the factual and the narrative. The documentary director’s endeavour is retelling.

4. Both the fiction film and the documentary programme exist ideally of two clear-cut developments: In fiction to write a script and there after to transform it into film; in the documentary programme to collect facts and there after to put the events in order in a programme. The documentary film exists ideally of en endless interaction between the creation of the story, recording of the events and changing the story.

5. Hence the documentary has things in common with both the documentary programme and the fiction film. The two documentary genres have the antagonistic contradiction between reality and presentation in common; but where as the journalist’s endeavour is to minimize the contradiction the documentary director’s endeavour is to maximize it. The two film genres has the storytelling in common; but where as the fiction director creates the story’s components – the scenes – himself, the documentary director has to decide if the one or the other event is the bearer of a scene in the documentary story.

6. The documentary film’s contradiction between the factual and the narrative is antagonistic in work-related respect but complementary in artistic respect. Antagonism is the condition that two sides of an issue are inconsistent. That two contradictions exclude each other. Complementarity is the condition that two sides of an issue besides excluding one another at the same time complement one another. That two contradictions presuppose one another.

7. The creation of a documentary is an antagonistic process. On two levels. Personally for the director because the interpretation of reality only becomes interesting if it is the result of a strive for objectivity – well aware that it is in the interpretation’s encounter with the reproduction the documentary film becomes art. Work related because we have to put forward a story at a time where we do not know the course of events, the story reproduces. This is not possible. But it is done. Done by transforming the antagonistic contradiction into a complementary paradox.

8. This means to constantly modify the narrative one has created because the perception of reality constantly changes the story. The difficulty being the devotedness towards absolute aspiration, which is the essential prerequisite for a successful and released story, well aware that reality constantly will change the story. Constantly striving to organise a presentation of reality that must be corrected by reality.  Combining absolute openness with absolute resolve. Striving body and soul to achieve the unattainable. Actually finding the strength to strive because the very goal one is striving to attain is unattainable.

9. This condition is the essence of working with the documentary story. To realise the necessity of transforming the antagonistic contradiction between reality and storytelling into a creative complementary paradox is a conscious prerequisite for the creation of documentary film art. The creation of the complete by striving towards the unattainable.

10. The documentary film is released artistically, when only one layer – reality – is visible as a continual narrative. When the retelling is not harmonious, i.e. if the single elements from the course of events are not completely convergent with the single scenes in the story, this second layer – the narrative – is revealed as a postulate. Thus the actual sequence of events is reversed from representing the elements of the narrative to becoming a new and autonomous narrative. Thus the film gets two independent courses, by which the work falls apart. But when the director’s work comes together with reality it ceases its presence in time and space and exists only as dramatic clarity.

11. The ability to work creatively releasing with inconsistent contradictions is a key ability of the documentary film director.

Mikael Opstrup is producer, Final Cut Productions. opstrup@final-cut.dk  http://www.final-cut.dk/  Mail private: mikael@opstrup-husum.dk

Festival dei Popoli 2008

It’s festival time. And classics change leadership.  Since 1986 Mario Simondi was the symbol of the documentary festival in Firenze, always searching for the high quality and hosting his guests perfectly. I can witness this as can Allan Berg, my colleague, who was there some years as a juror. Mario has retired, thanks for your contribution.

New people, new ideas: Luciano Barisone is the new director of the Festival dei Popoli. Born in Genoa in 1949, he is a journalist, film critic (Filmcritica, Cineforum, Duellanti, La Rivista del Cinematografo), proponent of Cineclub, and founder of the magazine Panoramiche, of which he is also director. This piece taken from the site, see below, where he also reflects on the status of the documentary today and advertises a policy like this:

What we are interested in doing is not so much to impose limits or boundaries, but rather to observe from year to year where reality cinema is heading, reflecting, through discussion on the underlying phenomena in progress. The 49th edition will therefore be the setting for a round table, which we have decided to entitle Nanook’s Legacy, as a tribute to the “first to be so baptised” and to the legacy with which it has endowed us. Our aim is to gather together critics, scholars, cineastes, producers and cinema propagators and to invite them to analyse and to debate the state of the art, with the aim of arriving not so much at a scientific conclusion but at thoughts which will stimulate further thoughts and future processing.

http://www.festivaldeipopoli.org/index_eng.html

Scottish Film Institute: Latest News

I promoted the possibility of watching short documentaries from the Bridging the Gap series a couple of weeks ago. This very active documentary institute in Scotland also publishes a newsletter that you can subscribe to for free, see site below.

What a pleasure to see the programme that is announced for October and November. Two of the best currrent documentary names will visit Edinburgh: Nicholas Philibert and Andrey Payanov, the latter to show among others his masterpiece “Mosquito Problems and Other Stories”. And there are themes like “music in documentaries” and “trailers” to be studied. Much to be inspired by, and why not “so ein Ding muss ich auch haben”?

http://www.docscene.org/

Still: Andrey Payanov: Mosquito Problems… 

Frederick Wiseman on Festival Tour

Lucky you who have yet to discover the work of Frederick Wiseman. Lucky us who again get the chance to watch them on the big screen. A quote from the site of Wiseman’s Zipporah company:

“… his cameras have observed institutions from a New York City welfare office to Dallas’ Neiman-Marcus department store, all with the same unvarnished, fly-on-the-wall style. Even his titles — HOSPITAL, WELFARE, RACETRACK, THE STORE — are stripped to the bluntly descriptive essentials. Behind Wiseman’s minimalist method, however, is a subtle and perceptive artist. His enduring subject: the way people cope with the stress, dislocation and institutional indifference of American life.” Richard Zoglin, Time.

Wiseman goes to Europe in this month to introduce some of his films and do masterclasses. First in the festival in Lisbon and after that in Jihlava, Czech Republic. Sites below. Let me give you two quotes from the master himself:

“Documentaries, like theatre pieces, novels or poems are forms of fiction.”

“I try to immerse myself, to the extent I can, in the life of a place of which I have little prior knowledge, and I don’t go in with a thesis I try to prove or disprove. The shooting of the film is the research. My response to that experience is what the final film is about.“

http://www.doclisboa.org/
http://web.docuinter.net/en/index.php
http://www.zipporah.com/ 

Pernille Rose Grønkjær: The Monastery

The best – according to this blog writer – Danish documentary for years, “The Monastery”, is now to be seen or re-seen on French/German cultural channel arte on the following days: 9/10 (22.25), 21/10 (01.20), 24/10 (09.55)

arte has changed the title into “Le Monastère, M. Vig et la nonne”, it will be shown in vo (version originale) and this is how the French introduction looks like, pas mal du tout: “Dans un château en ruine transformé en monastère, l’émouvante rencontre entre un vieux théologien danois et une nonne russe orthodoxe. Un documentaire aux allures de conte, qui nous entraîne avec magie dans un univers mystique.”

Allan Berg has written a long and competent analysis of this film on this site. Search “pernille rose” at the left or go to

http://www.dfi.dk/tidsskriftetfilm/53/themanifold.htm

If you want to buy the film on dvd, go to the site below:

http://www.danishdocumentary.com/

Jørgen Roos in Paris

10 years have passed since the death of Jørgen Roos (1922-98), who for decades was THE Danish documentary and short film director. He was – as Hans Christian Andersen, subject for several films by Roos – a brilliant storyteller, who played with the film language, where he very often made commissioned information films into films of a high artistic quality.

In 1948, as a young cameraman, he helped Carl Th. Dreyer make the 12 minutes long short film thriller, ”They Caught the Ferry”, based on Danish writer Johannes V. Jensen’s short story, for the public traffic authorities. Simple message: drive carefully.

… which was what Jørgen Roos, situated with his camera in a side car of a motor bike,  did not do. Or more precisely what his driver did not do. They drove into a tree and was according to Jørgen Roos, the storyteller, thrown 15 meters into a corn field. The master himself, Carl Th. Dreyer ran to them and put the most important question (!): Did anything happen to the camera?

If you happen to be in Paris, the film is to be watched at Maison du Danemark on Champs-Élysées. Name of exhibition: Collisions (Until 19/10). For other films of Jørgen Roos, contact the Danish Film Institute.

www.maisondudanemark.dk

www.dfi.dk

Still: Jørgen Roos

Julia Kristeva: .. films as a substitute

Kristeva analyses paintings and books but suddenly while reading an essay on Marguerite Duras, I meet  this thought provoking reflection on film language:

“For such silent or precious exaggeration of speech, for its weakness tensed as if on a tightrope above suffering, films come as a substitute. Having recourse to theatrical representation, and especially to the film image, necessarily leads to an uncontrollable wealths of associations, of semantic and sentimental richness or poverty according to the wiewer. If it be true that images do not make up for verbal stylistic awkwardness, they do nevertheless plunge it into the inexpressible – the “nothing” becomes undecidable and silence inspires one to muse.

As a collective art, even when the scriptwriter manages to control it, the cinema adds something to the Spartan indications of the author (who ceaselessly protects a sickly secret at the heart of a more and more elusive plot); what it adds are the inevitably spectacular volumes and aggregates of bodies, gestures, actors’ voices, setting, lighting, producers and all those whose task is to show.

If Duras uses the screen in order to burn out its spectacular strength down to the glare of the invisible by engulfing it in elliptical words and allusive sounds, she also uses it for its excess of fascination, which compensates for verbal constriction. As the characters’ seductive power is thus increased, their invisible malady becomes less infectious on the screen because it can be performed: filmed depression appears to be an alien artifice.

We now understand why Duras’ books should not be put into the hands of oversensitive readers. Let them go see the films and the plays; they will encounter the same malady of distress but subdued, wrapped up ina dreamy charm that softens it and also makes it more feigned and made up – a convention. Her books, on the contrary bring us to the verge of madness.”

“A cette exagération silencieuse ou précieuse de la parole, à sa défaillance tendue en corde raide sur souffrance, vient suppléer le cinéma. Recourir à la représentation théâtrale, mais surtout à l’image cinématographique, conduitnécessairement à une profusion immaîtrisable d’associations, de richesses ou de pauvretés sémantiqueset sentimentales au gré du spectateur. S’il est vrai que les images ne réparentpas les maladresses stylistiques verbales, elles les noient cependant dans l’indicible : le “rien” devient indécidable et le silencefait rêver. Art collectif même si la scénariste parvient à le contrôler, le cinéma ajoute aux indications frugales de l’auteur (qui protège sans cesse un secret maladif au creux d’une intrigue de plus en plus insaisissable dans le texte) les volumes et les combinaisons, forcément spectaculaires, des corps, des gestes, des voix des acteurs, des décors, des lumières, des producteurs, de tous ceux dont le métier est de montrer. Si Duras utilise le cinéma pour user jusqu’à l’éblouissement de l’invisible sa force spectaculaire en la submergeant de mots elliptiques et de sons allusifs, elle l’utilise aussi pour son surplus de fascination qui remédie à lacontraction du verbe. en multipliant ainsi le pouvoir de séduction de ses personnages, leur maladie invisible devient à l’écran moins contagieuse à force d’êtrejouable : la dépression filmée apparaît un artifice étranger.

On comprend désormais qu’il ne faut pas donner les livres de Duras aux lecteurs et lectrices fragiles. Qu’ils aillant voir les films et les pièces, ils retrouveront cette même maladie de la douleur mais tamisée, enrobée d’un charme rêveur qui l’adoucit et la rend aussi plus factice et inventée : une convention. Les livres, au contraire, nous font côtoyer la folie.”

Litt.: Julia Kristeva: Black Sun – Depression and Melancholia, 1989. Soleil noir – dépression et mélancolie, 1987.

Louisiana Museum Behind Film on Per Kirkeby

Danish artist Per Kirkeby exhibits more than 100 of his paintings, 50 of his sculptures and works in other genres at Louisiana Museum of Modern Art in Denmark – until 11/1 2009.

My colleague Allan Berg praises below a film on Per Kirkeby, made by Pernille Bech Christensen after idea of Poul Erik Tøjner, the director of the museum.

The film, “Per’s Method”, has English and German subtitles. A quote from the review: The conversation between Per Kirkeby and Poul Erik Tøjner has been transformed into a beautiful, clever and very important film. The two talk about the method of the painting and about all from work, life and biography that has been painted into the works.

The dvd is part of the catalogue of the exhibition.

http://www.louisiana.dk/dk/Menu/Udstillinger/Per+Kirkeby

Pernille Bech Christensen: Pers metode

Per Kirkeby og Poul Erik Tøjner mødtes før åbningen af udstillingen af Kirkebys værker nu og tilbageskuende tre dage i maj. Til en samtale. Deres samtale de tre dage er blevet til en smuk, klog og meget vigtig film. De to taler med hinanden om maleriets metode – som titlen så præcist angiver – og om alt det i arbejdet, i livet og i biografien, som er malet ind i billederne. Hvor det herefter er til stede, men skjult. Samtalen er yderst omhyggelig og særdeles åbenhjertig – men “om nogle ting taler man ikke”, som Kirkeby alvorlig udtrykker det. Der slutter samtalen og filmen.

Denne finhed af tøven og tilbageholdenhed hos Tøjner og Bech Christensen er deres films styrke. For det er i dette rum af opmærksom tryghed, at den store maler kommer ud i områder, som supplerer og uddyber alt det, vi ved fra Jesper Jargils film og fra Anne Wivels film, fra alt det, vi har læst i Kirkebys mange bøger. Er der mere at føje til? Kunne man spørge. Filmens svar er overbevisende: der var mere, og der er mere…

Bøje Lomholts to kameraer, et (farve) bevægeligt og et (sort/hvid) fikseret følger omhyggeligt bevægelserne i den balancerede samtale mellem de to, som kender hinanden indgående, og Pernille Bech Christensens klip føjer omhyggeligt lyttende på det eleganteste de forskellige tidspunkter og steder for optagelse den åbenlyst fortsatte talen med hinanden sammen til ét langt ubrudt samvær, hvor klip midt i sætninger ikke afbryder, men fører til uddybning på uddybning af forståelsen af Kirkebys arbejde og metode.

For os her i Randers kan for eksempel et afsnit i filmen om den vandrette bjælke i en række værker føre til, at vi får nye forståelser af alterbilledet i Sct. Mortens Kirke, andre får læsningen af de  billeder, de dagligt omgås, tilsvarende udvidet ved samtalen om at være ”den læsende kunstner” og ”den lærde maler”, som gennem sit værk har skabt en alternativ kulturhistorie. 

Pernille Bech Christensen: Pers metode, 2008. Medvirkende: Per Kirkeby og Poul Erik Tøjner. Manuskript (idé og koncept): Poul Erik Tøjner. Kamera: Bøje Lomholdt. Klip: Pernille Bech Christensen. Producer: Peter Bech. Produktion Glow Film & TV for Louisiana Museum. Distribution: Louisiana Museum of Modern Art, filmen ligger i bogen (kataloget) til udstillingen

Filmografi: Pernille Bech Christensen har klippet blandt mange andre disse film: The Monastery (Pernille Rose Grønkjær, 2006), Efter brylluppet (Susanne Bier, 2006), Things we lost in the fire (Susanne Bier, 2007), Pers Metode (her tillige instruktør, 2008), Hævnen (Susanne Bier, 2010).

Andre film med Per Kirkeby som medvirkende: Per Kirkeby-Vinterbillede af Jesper Jargil (1996), Slottet i Italien af Anne Wivel (2000) og Richard Winthers Hus af Steen Møller Rasmussen (2008). Kan alle lånes på biblioteket.

Still: Per Kirkeby under samtalen. Foto: Peter Bech

(kommentaren er opdateret 9. marts 2011)

Cahiers du Cinema

The world’s most famous film magazine, a piece of film history in itself, founded by André Bazin, influenced directly or indirectly by Francois Truffaut, Eric Rohmer, Claude Chabrol, Jean-Luc Godard and other nouvelle vague people, is in danger again.

The question is – again – money. The majority share holder, the daily newspaper le Monde, wants to sell because of a deficit of more than 600000€ and not more than 26700 copies sold. Cahiers du Cinema has according to Libération, where I read the story yesterday (30th of September), several potential buyers who are interested to continue the magazine’s competent look at the unique films of the world.

More than any other publication the magazine has reflected the changing times and the changing looks at cinema. Back in the beginning of the 70’es, where it came out four times per year, without any photos, without any reference to new films, it was a marxist magazine that wrote about films in a way that for instance Truffaut expressed the opinion that he did not understand what they wrote about his films. At another time, in the mid sixties, the praise of American cinema became too overwhelming and the owner was forced to sell and the magazine, that started in 1951, got back its liberty.