Images Coming to Life: Peter Watkins’ “Edvard Munch” (1974) and Jean-Luc Godard’s “Passion” (1982)
Abstract
The aim of this article is to show how Watkins and Godard reconstruct the creation of paintings from ages past. Mazierska notices that these directors, literally and metaphorically put the painting in motion, using techniques available to the film maker. At the same time as they analyse the paintings, they perform an auto analysis of sorts. Especially for Watkins, the analysis of life and work of Edvard Munch is a medium through which he reaches his own identity and subjectivity, a way of looking at one self as the “other”. Godard's aim is to show the viewer that film consists of images that do not have to form a coherent narrative. The vanguard character of these films is explained by the period of their creation: from mid 70s till early 80s. These two films are a swan song of cinematic modernism, with its roots in the high arts, and conviction that cinema is the rightful heir of fine art.
Keywords:
Peter Watkins, Jean-Luc Godard, painting, modernismReferences
Freud Sigmund, Mourning and Melancholia (1917), w: tenże, On Murder, Mourning and Melancholia, tłum. S. Whiteside, Penguin, London 2005, s. 201-218.
Google Scholar
Gomez Joseph A., „Edvard Munch”: Film Biography as Self-portrait and Exemplum, esej umieszczony w książeczce dołączonej do wydania DVD filmu Petera Watkinsa, Eureka 2007, s. 11-12, 43-44.
DOI: https://doi.org/10.3366/more.2007.43-44.4_1-2.4
Google Scholar
Jameson Frederic, High-Tech Collectives in Late Godard, w: tenże, The Geopolitical Aesthetic: Cinema and Space in the World System, BFI, London 1992, s. 159.
Google Scholar
Metz Christian, Story/Discourse: Notes on Two Kinds of Voyeurism, w: Movies and Methods, red. B. Nichols, University of California Press, Berkeley – Los Angeles – London 1985, s. 546-547.
Google Scholar
Morrey Douglas, Jean-Luc Godard, Manchester University Press, Manchester 2005, s. 144-145.
Google Scholar
Pollock Griselda, Artists Mythologies and Media Genius, Madness and Art History, „Screen” 1980, nr 21.
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1093/screen/21.3.57
Google Scholar
Walker John Albert, Art and Artists on Screen, Manchester University Press, Manchester 1993.
Google Scholar
Watkins Peter, „Edvard Munch”: A Director’s Statement, „Literature/Film Quarterly” 1977, nr 5 (Winter), s. 18.
Google Scholar
Watkins Peter, „Edvard Munch”: A Self-interview, wywiad umieszczony w książeczce dołączonej do wydania DVD filmu Petera Watkinsa, Eureka 2007, s. 48.
Google Scholar
Authors
Ewa Mazierskakwartalnik.filmowy@ispan.pl
University of Central Lancashire United Kingdom
Profesor w departamencie dziennikarstwa i mediów na University of Central Lancashire w Preston w Wielkiej Brytanii. Opublikowała m.in. Słoneczne kino Pedra Almodóvara (2007) oraz po angielsku Roman Polanski: The Cinema of a Cultural Traveller (2007) oraz Masculinities in Polish, Czech and Slovak Cinema (2008). Jest też współredaktorką pracy Relocating Britishness (2004).
Statistics
Abstract views: 23PDF downloads: 9
License
Copyright (c) 2009 Ewa Mazierska
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License.
The author grants the publisher a royalty-free non-exclusive licence (CC BY 4.0) to use the article in Kwartalnik Filmowy, retains full copyright, and agrees to identify the work as first having been published in Kwartalnik Filmowy should it be published or used again (download licence agreement). The journal is published under the CC BY 4.0 licence. By submitting an article, the author agrees to make it available under this licence.
In issues from 105-106 (2019) to 119 (2022) all articles were published under the CC BY-NC-ND 4.0 licence. During this period the authors granted a royalty-free non-exclusive licence (CC BY-ND 4.0) to use their article in „Kwartalnik Filmowy”, retained full copyright, and agreed to identify the work as first having been published in our journal should it be published or used again.
Most read articles by the same author(s)
- Ewa Mazierska, Indiscreet Charm of Series in the Era of Streaming , Kwartalnik Filmowy: No. 97-98 (2017): Wandering Motifs
- Ewa Mazierska, The Meaning(less) of Life in the Early Films of Wojciech Jerzy Has , Kwartalnik Filmowy: No. 77-78 (2012): Polish Myths, Polish Complexes
- Ewa Mazierska, Between Past and Future, Poland and Japan: Heterotopias of “Avalon” , Kwartalnik Filmowy: No. 80 (2012): Film at the Meeting Point of Cultures
- Ewa Mazierska, Direct Cinema in the Lens of Mirosław Przylipiak , Kwartalnik Filmowy: No. 66 (2009): Bad Taste Cinema – Good Taste Cinema
- Ewa Mazierska, Retelling Polish History Through the “Soft Avant-Garde” Films of the Sixties , Kwartalnik Filmowy: No. 70 (2010): Avant-Garde and Film
