Jeremy Isaacs: The World at War 7

CAMERAWORK. “The French preserved the ruins of Oradour just as the Germans left it. The local cemetary held the graves of those who died, their names and photographs set in stone. I walked the length of of the village, deserted, and knew I had found the sequence that would start the series. I sent Thames’s best cameraman, Mike Fash, and the director, Hugh Raggett, to see what they could do. Raggett hired a helicopter to skim over and along what had been the main street; Fash and he filmed the square, the ruined church, and a house or two, with a painter’s eye, against the skyline, and in light that froze them in time. It cut together marvellously well. Neal Ascherson wrote words that would give the sense of universal experience I wanted, and justify our title…” (Jeremy Isaacs: Look Me In The Eye, 2006)

Still: Before the war..

Jeremy Isaacs: The World at War 6

NARRATION. “When the day came to record this, Olivier did it very well. Finished, he stood up in the recording booth, respleendent in red braces, and reached for an elegant brown tweed jacket. I joined him in the booth and remarked, pointedly, ‘You do realise, don’t you, that those words at the star of this are, out of the whole twenty-six hours, the very first words the viewer will hear?’ ‘Ah,’ he said, and put the jacket down. ‘I’ll do it again.’

This time we got perfection – with the letter ‘a’ in the phrase ‘Garages and barns’ pronounced more ways than you might think possible, and the ‘a’ in ‘Glâne’ unlike any other ‘a’ you ever heard.

When I listen again to Laurence Oliviers narration, the voice I hear is deft, subtle, strong, compelling. I do not believe it could have been better done…” (Jeremy Isaacs: Look Me In The Eye, 2006) 

Jeremy Isaacs: The World at War 5

SCRIPT. “Down this road on a summer day in 1944 the soldiers came / Nobody lives here now / They stayed only a few hours / When they had gone, a community which had lived for a thousand years was dead / This is Oradour-sur-Glâne, in France / The day the soldiers came, the people were gathered together / The men were taken to garages and barns. The women and children were led down this road / And they were driven into this church / Here they heard the firing as their men were shot / Then they were killed, too / A few weeks later many of those who had  done the killing were themselves dead – in battle / They never rebuilt Oradour / Its ruins are a memorial / Its martyrdom stands for thousand upon thousand of other martyrdoms in Poland, in Russia, in Burma, in China – in a World at War…” (Neal Ascherson: Script for narrator, the very first words in the series)

Litt.: Jeremy Isaacs: Look Me In The Eye, 2006.

Jeremy Isaacs: A World at War

My co-blogger Allan Berg has for weeks followed the re-run of the classic documentary series, A World at War – on Danish television. The series is available in great dvd-editions – buy it as I will do and throw away the vhs editon of a series that also includes the most wonderful commentary text read by Sir Laurence Olivier.

DVD, UK-version http://www.randomhouse.co.uk/worldatwar/about_the_series.html

The “Genocide” chapter is written about by Jeremy Isaacs in this way:

“Hitler´s genocide against the Jews and gypsies, and the mass murder of others, is not a military subject. But I could not leave it out; not just because I’m Jewish, though that counted, but because I could not separate the evil of Nazi racial doctrine – Aryan supremacy, Untermensch subjection – from the Allied cause. Most people in Britain did not realise what Nazi racism in practice meant until the gates of concentration camps at Belsen and Buchenwald were opened by British troops in 1945. Auschwitz, Solibor, Treblinka – death camps – were worse. I wanted a programme that showed the camps in which millions perished, before the series came to the Reich’s nemesis in Berlin. Darlow and Bloomberg’s (afsnittets instruktør og dets forfatter) ‘Genocide’, clear, restrained, compassionate, tackled an almost impossible subject…”

Allan Berg refers to two other classics: Alain Resnais “Nuit et Brouillard” and Claude Lanzmann’s “Shoah”. Also these two are available on dvd:

http://www.amazon.fr/Nuit-brouillard-Michel-Bouquet/dp/B00008IZCD

http://www.amazon.fr/Shoah-4-DVD-Claude-Lanzmann/dp/B00005JM8V/ref=pd_sbs_d_1/403-1042762-9344448

If you pass by France go to any Fnac shop to buy them as I have done.

East Beats West Sneak Preview

This blog has constantly – through my writing – stressed that originality and creativity in documentary filmmaking of today mostly is to be found in the Eastern part of Europe.

When it comes to films for 2008/2009 there are many pearls to expect. You can witness this at the website mentioned below (of the IDF (Institute of Documentary Film)) where 9 films are presented via a small synopsis and trailers to be watched, normally 3 minutes long.

This initiative is connected to a presentation that was held during the Karlovy Vary film festvival earlier this month. Here is a quote from the organisers text:
 
The presentation offered a selection of feature documentary films in development aimed for theatrical release, slated to open in 2008/2009. The goal of the meeting was to draw the attention of important film professionals attending the only A category festival in the region also on some of the best films in the documentary genre. We believe that the promotion of films from the very initial stages of development is one of the most efficient tools within the overall support. Each year, festival programmers, distributors, buyers and local as well as international journalists are invited to attend the event…

http://web.docuinter.net/en/net_archive.php?id=410 Still: Vit Janecek: Iveta and the Mountain.

Milena Holzknecht: What makes a documentarian?

Food for thought: What makes a documentary filmmaker?

This German text is written by a student from the Zelig Film School for Documentary at the exam in June after one year of the three year long studies. Milena Holzknecht has chosen editing for her further studies:

Ein Dokumentarfilmer sollte neben dem technischen Allround-Wissen vor allem viel soziales (politisches, wirtschaftliches, geschichtliches und kulturelles) Wissen und soziale Neugierde besitzen. Er sollte ein großes Interesse für all das haben, was mit Menschen zu tun hat. Neben dieser grundlegenden Haltung bedarf er einer gewissen Sensibilität für spannende und aktuelle Themen, sowie für interessante Menschen. Daher sollte er die ihn umgebende Wirklichkeit stets aufmerksam beobachten. Findet er eine Geschichte, die er erzählen möchte, sollte er sich seiner künstlerischen Freiheit, aber auch seiner ethischen Verantwortung gegenüber dem Protagonisten bewusst sein. Während der Recherche und der Dreharbeit geht er Beziehungen ein, die den Werdegang des Films beeinflussen können (und sollen!). Wichtig ist, dass er den Faktor „Mensch“ während der ganzen Film-Entstehungszeit nicht unberuecksichtigt lässt. Menschliche Beziehungen spielen auch in der Zusammenarbeit des Filmteams eine Rolle. Konflikte sind oft vorprogrammiert, wenn man an einer gemeinsamen Idee arbeitet. Konflikt- und Teamfaehigkeit ist daher ein Schlagwort, das auch ganz oben auf der Liste eines guten Dokumentarfilmers stehen sollte.

http://www.zeligfilm.it/

Philipp Griess: Documentaries of today

Food for thought: This text is written by a student from the Zelig Film School for Documentary at the exam in June after one year of the three year long studies. Philipp Griess has chosen camera for his further studies.

I do not insist on a clear distinction between fiction and documentary. I do not believe in definitions of art. It helps maybe for analyzing, I don’t believe that it helps for doing films. For me Werner Herzog and his opinions in these discussions are a very important reference. I think the main point of (documentary) filmmaking is still to tell an interesting story, that someone else can identify with. So it is almost always about people, or the fate of someone. Films about people impress me, but in the end the story is bigger than just this one biography. It is what Herzog does in “Grizzly Man” or “White Diamond” and it is the story of the young Danish female pilot (“Smiling in a War Zone”) who flies to Kabul to teach a young girl flying. This is also the films of Michael Moore. And for sure “Darwin’s Nightmare”.

New documentary film is also the set up (dt: Inszenierung) of happenings (“Czech Dream” – great film), of situations (“MegaCities” – the beautiful sequence when the Mexican superman dictates a letter to the world, “The heritage of the world is the Abstruse”) and the creation of pictures like in “Black Sun”, “Working Mans Death”.

Film (like every art form) is very closely connected to the spirit of a time. So especially doc films should be open for graphics, drawings, sounds and music in every style, strange editing (“Ghosts of City Soleil”, “Mondovino”) and any other irritation – if it helps to tell what has to be told.

But the documentary film represents from my point of view still a way to tell things the public doesn’t know about – or does not want to know about. It has to be open for more journalistic/historical approaches (“Terrors Advocate” is a good example, or “The most secret place on earth” about the American hidden war in Cambodia).

June 2008

www.zeligfilm.it Still: It is what Herzog does in “White Diamond”..

Beata Dzianowicz: Kites 2

A brief and warm salute to the director of the film from Afghanistan that we sneak-reviewed on this blog almost half a year ago. It will have its international premiere at the prestigious Locarno film festival, see site below. A quote from the press realease of the production company:

The documentary film “Kites” dir. Beata Dzianowicz has been invited to take part in
“Semaine de la Critique 2008” festival in Locarno (Switzerland). The screening will
take place on Wednesday 13.08 at 11 :00 AM (cinema Teatro Kursaal) it will also
be the film’s international premiere. The second screening will take place on Thursday
14.08 at 6:30 PM (L’Altra Sala).

The “Semaine de la Critique” is an independent section, organized by Switzerland’s
National Association of Film Journalists, in cooperation with the director and organizers
of the Locarno Film Festival. It takes place August 6 – 16, 2008.

http://www.pardo.ch/index.jsp  

http://www.filmkommentaren.dk/default.asp?page_id=2

De kongelige på cykel…

… var ét af de filmklip jeg morede mig over ved at bevæge mig rundt på nedenstående hjemmeside. Filmen er 1903 og det er naturligvis Peter Elfelt, der står bag. Her er et klip fra DFI’s egen introduktion til dette fremragende initiativ:

På Danmarks Nationalfilmografis website er det nu muligt at se mere end 50 korte historiske filmklip. Filmene stammer primært fra stumfilmperioden, men enkelte tonefilm er også tilgængelige.

Nationalfilmografien er en omfattende database, der indeholder oplysninger om samtlige danske spillefilm, alle danske stumfilm og godt 500 danske dokumentarfilm. Derudover indeholder Nationalfilmografien nu også et mediegalleri med filmklip, plakater, stumfilmprogrammer, stills fra filmene og portrætbilleder af omkring 450 skuespillere og instruktører.

http://www.dfi.dk/aktuelt/Nyheder/historiskefilm.htm

Jeremy Isaacs: The World at War 4

ET UMULIGT EMNE. Det er eftertankens øjeblik denne tidlige aftentime med dagens afsnit. I aftes det 20. af de 26. Og jeg blev helt stille.. det værste var og er, at jeg jo godt vidste det. Jeg har læst om det, set Resnais og Cayrols Nuit et broullard, set Lanzmanns Shoah, hørt Wiess Die Ermittlung som radiomontage. Men det er mange år siden, og jeg må have lagt låg på, fortrængt den kendsgerning, at selv den mest rystende detalje i fortællingerne om udryddelsen viser sig at være sand. Det er ikke et mareridt, det var og er vågen virkelighed, og det er det hver gang, det fortælles. Når det er vederhæftigt som i aftes. Afsnit 26: Genocide.

Jeremy Isaacs skriver om det: “Hitler´s genocide against the Jews and gypsies, and the mass murder of others, is not a military subject. But I could not leave it out; not just because I’m Jewish, though that counted, but because I could not separate the evil of Nazi racial doctrine – Aryan supremacy, Untermensch subjection – from the Allied cause. Most people in Britain did not realise what Nazi racism in practice meant until the gates of concentration camps at Belsen and Buchenwald were opened by British troops in 1945. Auschwitz, Solibor, Treblinka – death camps – were worse. I wanted a programme that showed the camps in which millions perished, before the series came to the Reich’s nemesis in Berlin. Darlow and Bloomberg’s (afsnittets instruktør og dets forfatter) ‘Genocide’, clear, restrained, compassionate, tackled an almost impossible subject…”

For mig står deres Genocide klart ved siden af Resnais/Cayrols, Lanzmanns og Weiss værker som et monument af uafrystelige videner trods mine forsøg på at skubbe dem væk, disse filmoptagelser.  

Jeremy Isaacs: The World at War 1-26, UK, 1973-1974. DR2 disse dage (ikke i weekenden) kl. 19:15  http://www.dr.dk/dr2/En+verden+i+krig + DVD, UK-version http://www.randomhouse.co.uk/worldatwar/about_the_series.html Litt.: Mark Arnold-Forster: The World at War, 1973. (Bogen som oprindelig fulgte serien). Richard Holmes: The World at War, The Landmark Oral History from the Previously Unpublished Archives, 2007 og Jeremy Isaacs: Look Me In The Eye, 2006, denne bog om hans 40 år som tv-mand, har et kapitel om denne serie.