David Forgacs on Dirt and Order in Pasolini

Thanks to the King's College of London the BFI hosts a lecture on a topic/director, and so on, with different scholars and professors from all over the world. Back in March I had the pleasure to attend the talk of David Forgacs, Professor of Italian Cultural Studies at the New York University, and author of the BFI Classics on Pier Paolo Pasolini, Michelangelo Antonioni, Roberto Rossellini and Federico Fellini. The talk was lead with the help of visual examples from films' clips, which helped both in terms of textual analysis, and in understanding the changes of context.


I will give you a summary of the main points of the lecture, which will certainly increase your knowledge of Pasolini's work, or, arouse your curiosity in it.
Professor Forgacs introduced the talk by stating the recurrency of two elements in Pasolini's productions: dirt of various kind, material or not, opposed to order, representing symmetry. These two elements could be interpreted as the director's divided self. There are interrelations between the two, concerning the meaning of dirt, especially, which is influenced by the changes in the historical context.

First of all, DIRT, meaning matter out of place, is subject of shifts in meaning and value. In Pasolini's early works dirt is positive element, whereas in the later Pasolini, dirt really becomes "dirty".
There are four types of dirt which can be recognized in his works:

1. Earth and mud
2. Trash
3. Excrement
4. Contamination 

1. The first kind of dirt in strictly connected to the Roman landscape, and to the Italian language, which contains a rich vocabulary of words to define this term. In the landscape of Pasolini's Rome, that of the Borgata, mud is everywhere. In his first novel, Ragazzi di Vita (1955), he plays with the different Italian expressions for dirt. The positivity of dirt is expressed in the children playing in the borgata, their strong connection to earth, and use of mud as a playing tool. In Una vita violenta (1959) he represents the beauty of the landscape spoiled with dirt.

In Accattone (1961), the ambivalence of dirt is reflected in the ambivalence of the main character, torn between sacred and profane, angelic and diabolical, in the ambiguous gesture of self-mortification.
Another famous mud scene is the one in Teorema (1968), experimented by Emelia's character. This scene can have multiple associations. Lastly, Petrolio (published posthumous in 1992), his last and unfinished novel, portrays the capitalist corruption, the end of the borgate, and the predominance of a dirty dirt.

2. Trash, in the early period, is considered a source of vitality. It is another concept which allows the writer/director to play with the numerous Italian words: immondizia, immondezzaio, ecc. This concept is firstly represented as the redemption of rubbish, recycling to make order out of waste.
In his later work though, he talks about "sconfinato immondezzaio", he transfers the term's connotation to people. In his Trilogy of Life (Decameron, Canterbury Tales, Arabian Nights) he represents an insincere eroticism, he defines young people as "immondizia umana". The ultimate level of the negative side of trash is expressed in Salò (1975), turning into aggressiveness and mysanthropy.

3. In Una vita violenta, excrements were represented as comic outcomes in the texts. This completely changes in Salò, in the dark comedy scene of eating shit. He wanted that film to be very difficult to watch. In the end, it became an allegory about consumption.

4. The contamination element started, once again, from the language, the Italian dialects, which Pasolini saw as enrichments of the language, were often used together with high literary language. There was the elevation of the poor characters etc. Ultimately, the contamination became of another kind: in films/documentaries such as Le Mura di Sana'a (1971), he represents the personal struggle against modernization. The deturpation, negative contamination.

Second, the element of ORDER divided into its two connotations:

1. Positive (frontal visual style, openness)
2. Negative (symmetrical, closure, oppression)

1. In the first case, to give some examples, he used close-ups in the middle of the frame, and short-takes. In this stylistic choices he was influenced by Dreyer's The Passion of Joan of Arc (1928) with Maria Falconetti's close-ups.

2. In the second case, the negativity is expressed through an excessive symmetry: through architectural features (archs), for example. The term becomes negative when the films are about entrapment, giving a claustrophobic feeling.
In Salò, for example, there is an opposition between open and close spaces. It is an allegory about the control of body and behavior.

In conclusion, Professor Forgacs stated some general points while answering the audience's questions. Pasolini was very perceptive in his writing about Italy. His advice is to use Pasolini without thinking through Pasolini in relation to everything. He was a conservationist with radical beliefs, he did not follow a linear trajectory. The Libertines in Salò are Pasolini, the projection of his anger.



Thanks to David Forgacs, for an insightful talk and making we Italians in the audience proud of our culture, richness of language, and epic figures such as Pasolini.

If you are interested have a look at:
http://artbookscinema.blogspot.co.uk/2013/02/london-gay-and-lesbian-film-festival.html

The old Great Gatsby: suggested readings before Baz Luhrmann's film

While waiting to see the new Baz Luhrmann's The Great Gatsby, I have found some nice readings offered by the BFI.

First of all, discoveries from Jack Clayton's archive will become available at the BFI Reuben Library for all film researchers. Meanwhile, this great article offers previews on some extracts from Clayton's work, unforgettable director of 1974 The Great Gatsby starring Robert Redford and Mia Farrow.

http://www.bfi.org.uk/news-opinion/news-bfi/features/third-gatsby

Other interesting quick readings on the subject:

Ten great films set in the roaring 20s
http://www.bfi.org.uk/news-opinion/news-bfi/lists/10-great-films-set-roaring-20s

Focus on Marcel L'Herbier's cinema, the fashion of the roaring 20s
http://www.bfi.org.uk/news-opinion/news-bfi/features/fashion-film-jazz-age-look

My BFI May Calendar

'Lonesome Cowboy' Pierre Lauret on The Searchers
Mon 20 May 18:20 NFT3

"In the latest in our series exploring film through a philosophical lens, Pierre Lauret (Professor of Philosophy at the Lycée Louis-le-Grand in Paris) presents a screening of The Searchers, and then considers the troubling absence of 'home' in John Ford's Western masterpiece through an insightful talk. Lauret identifies a void at the heart of this tale of a Civil War veteran doggedly hunting the Comanches who have kidnapped his niece: where will he return with her upon victory? The Comanches have burnt her home out, and have killed the rest of the family. The hero who protects the family and the community, has no family and no community, just like his charge. He must, in the end, return to the desert, as Ulysses returns to the land of the dead."

BAFTA Masterclass: Film Make-up with Lois Burwell 

Thu 23 May 18:10 NFT3

"Having recently wowed audiences by transforming  in Daniel Day-Lewis Stephen Spielberg's Lincoln, Lois Burwell received her third BAFTA nomination, following those of Braveheart and Saving Private Ryan. Her expertise in her craft has seen her as head of the make-up department on the Fifth Element, Almost Famous, Mission: Impossible, Catch Me If You Can and The Green Mile, to name just a few of her illustrious credits. This will be a rare opportunity for an audience to hear first-hand how some of these iconic looks have been created."

The King of Marvin Gardens

Fri 24 May 

"Nicholson plays David Staebler, a retiring type getting by in Philly by relating wry confessional stories over the radio, until he's suddenly summoned to Atlantic City by his younger brother Jason (Bruce Dern, all gloriously ratty panache). It's not just that Jason needs to get out of jail; he wants a partner for his get-rich-quick scheme in Hawaii. So David lingers on, with Jason, his ragdoll lover (Ellen Burstyn) and her spaced-out stepdaughter, in the fading, maybe dangerous grandeur of a resort whose streets once inspired the Monopoly board... Rafelson's witty, compassionate study of a sibling relationship awkwardly rooted in childhood dreams and adult rivalries is as rich, resonant and unpredictable as a good novel; from its superb opening soliloquy to a quietly affecting coda, the film grips like a vice. Lent terrific support by Julia Anne Robinson, Scatman Crothers and John Ryan, the three leads are magnificent, while Làszlò Kovàcs' camerawork is marvellously evocative of life on, above and under the boardwalk. A killer movie."

Missing Believed Wiped Special: An Evening with John Henshall

Tue 28 May 18:30 NFT1

 

" To celebrate 20 years of the BFI's Missing Believed Wiped initiative we are mounting a series of MissingBelieved Wiped specials throughout 2013, highlighting the most recent finds and revisiting some old favourites. One of the great finds of the last few years has been the sensational footage of David Bowie performing "The Jean Genie" from a 1973 edition of Top of the Pops. The footage was recovered from the collection of John Henshall, a television cameraman and director of photography who had made the special lens used for the Bowie performance. John has had a long career in the TV industry and was found to have hundreds of tapes of rare and missing bits of television within his collection and these are being catalogued by our colleagues at Kaleidoscope, the classic television organisation. Tonight John will join us on stage to share some of those gems with us and regale us with the fascinating - often hilarious - stories behind the productions. Expect more magical moments of missing music, segments of lost dramas, rare pop video footage and other unmissable examples of the flotsam and jetsam of British television."

Frankenstein and the Monster from Hell

Wed 29 May 18:30 NFT1

"When Dr Simon Helder is committed to an asylum after being caught experimentating on stolen cadavers, he finds himself in the company of fellow re-animator Baron Frankenstein, who is physician there. The two join forces to continue their research but Helder gradually realises that a fine line separates the inmates from those apparently in charge. This was Terence Fisher's last film and the final instalment in Hammer's exploration of the Frankenstein story. Here, Peter Cushing's Baron raches his most degenerate, his gaunt yet distinguished appearance giving little inkling of the menace just beneath the surface. To mark the centenary of Cushing's birth, we are showing Hammer's new high-definition restoration of his final portrayal of the character that brought him international fame: Baron Frankenstein." 

The screening will be additionally introduced by Madeline Smith, the film's co-star, and Joyce Broughton, Cushing's secretary for 35 years.     

 

 

 

Festival De Cannes 15th - 26th May 2013

For the 66th year Cannes is getting ready for celebrities, parties, red carpet, and films, films everywhere. This year's selection is incredible, and so are the Jury and the incredible Guest of Honour.
You can find all the information concerning the events on the official website: http://www.festival-cannes.fr/en.html, but if you just want to have a glimpse on the most important events I have selected some of them.

First of all, the incredible Jury: I love film festivals because they are able to put together different tastes, nationalities, languages, and people. Moreover, the selection includes some of the most acclaimed directors/actors of this and last year's, and of all time.

Steven Spielberg: President of Jury

Vidya Balan (Indian actress)
Naomi Kawase (Japanese director)
Nicole Kidman (Australian actress/producer)
Lynne Ramsay (British scriptwriter/director/producer) 

Daniel Auteuil (French actor/director)
Ang Lee (Taiwanese director/producer/scriptwriter)
Cristian Mungiu (Romanian scriptwriter/director/producer)
Christoph Waltz (Austrian Actor)

One of my favourite events is always the projection of a restored classic, this year it's the turn of:

Cleopatra (Joseph L. Mankievicz, 1963) starring the amazing Elizabeth Taylor and Richard Burton.

Visions of Eight film of the Munich Olympic Games (1972).

La Reine Margot (Patrice Chéreau, 1994).

Charulata (Satyajit Ray, 1964).

Sanma No Aji - An Autumn Afternoon ( Yasujirô Ozu, 1962).

Le Joli Mai (Chris Marker and Pierre Lhomme, 1963).

Goha (Jacques Baratier, 1957).

Lucky Luciano (Francesco Rosi, 1973).

Il Deserto dei Tartari - The Desert of the Tartars (Valerio Zurlini, 1976).

The Apprenticeship of Duddy Kravitz (Ted Kotcheff, 1974).

Les Parapluies de Cherbourg - The Umbrellas of Cherbourg (Jacques Demy, 1964).

Hiroshima mon Amour (Alain Resnais, 1959).

Borom Sarret (Ousmane Sembene, 1963).

Manila in the Claws of the Light (Lino Brocka, 1975).

The Last Detail (Hal Ashby, 1973).

The Last Emperor 3D - Le Dernier Empereur (Bernardo Bertolucci, 1987).

Fedora (Billy Wilder, 1978).

Plein Soleil (René Clément, 1960).

La Belle et la Bete - Beauty and the Beast (Jean Cocteau, 1946).

Opium (Arielle Dombasle, 2013).

Two Documentaries will be shown at the Bunuel Theatre:

Con la Pata Quebrada (Diego Galàn, 2013).

A Story of Children & Film (Mark Cousins, 2013).

Last: Shepard & Dark (Treva Wurmfeld, 2013).

Not only these films will be shown not only in the presence of their restorators, but also of the directors still present today. 

I have kept it as the last thing, because I am still too sad I will miss it, but one of the biggest classics screenings will have a very special Guest of Honour:

Kim Novak is presenting the restored copy of Vertigo 

(Alfred Hitchcock, 1958)

Another remarkable event is The Celebration of the Centenary of Indian Cinema's Birth. India is, then, going to be the special guest country of the Festival.

The Opening Galà will see the screening of Baz Luhrmann's The Great Gatsby, which I am very curious to see.

As for the Official Competition I am excited for:

Joel and Etan Coen's Inside Llewyn Davis

Roman Polanski's Venus in Fur

Paolo Sorrentino's La Grande Bellezza - The Great Beauty

For this film in particular I want to give a special information for those who speak Italian, and for those who don't, but want to know more about it. One of the biggest Italian newspapers' websites: La Repubblica opened a new section called Spettacoli in which I found the script of the film's first scene.
If you have ever been to Rome, if you live there, or far away, and you just want to feel the city I suggest to read it, and get ready for what will be a fresh, thoughtful, and art film by Sorrentino starring the great Toni Servillo.

http://www.repubblica.it/spettacoli/cinema/2013/04/22/news/l_inizio_della_sceneggiatura_di_la_grande_bellezza-57238653/

Seven months of BFI Southbank

Since I live at at five-minute walk from the Southbank, I could spend seven months in the cultural heart of
London. In this second semester, unfortunately, I couldn't go to many events, because of essays, readings and tests which took all my time.
However, I still have all my tickets from the events I attended between September and January. Here's a brief summary of them together with films' and readings' suggestions.

What's a MacGuffin? This was the very first event I attended. Since one of my biggest  interest is screenwriting, I wanted to learn more about writing thriller films. The lecture consisted in a nice pastiche of Hitchcock's clips to analyse how the suspense is built through film form and characters. That suspense that Hitch defined as an exquisite torture for the audience. The MacGuffin object is essentially this: a plot device on which to hang the tension in a film, but that in itself could be anything and nothing. Some of the most famous ones in Hitchcock's filmography are: the lighter in Strangers on a Train, the ring and the newspaper in Shadows of a Doubt, the government secrets in North by Northwest, the first Mrs. De Winter in Rebecca, the uranium in Notorius, the suspected murder in Rear Window, the necklace in Vertigo, the $40.000 cash in an envelope and Arbogast's phone booth call in Psycho, the colour red in Marnie, the reason the birds attack in The Birds. As guest star in the last part of the meeting we had the pleasure to meet David Freeman Hitchcock's last screenwriter,who worked with him on Family Plot (1976), he also wrote a book about this collaboration called: The last days of Alfred Hitchcock.


Creative Collaborations: Edith Head and Alfred Hitchcock, see my old post about it here:
http://artbookscinema.blogspot.it/2013/02/characters-come-first.html

Caesar Must Die:
It's always good to feel proud of your own country, this was my feeling when I saw that both Paolo and Vittorio Taviani's film (also winner of the Golden Bear at the Berlin International Film Festival in 2012) and Marco Bellocchio's
The Sleeping Beauty (La Bella Addormentata) were being presented at the London Film Festival. The film is a splendid homage to Shakespeare, to the richness of the Italian language, and, above all, to humanity.


 
The Art of Frankenweenie:
Tim Burton's Frankenweenie opened the London Film Festival last year, and the director left the stop - motion characters with all their clothes and settings used on the film plus pictures taken during the creation of them to the BFI for one-month free exhibition. It was fantastic, and the young people working there were all Disney Studios' employers who worked on the film and were ready to explain every single step of the creation of a stop-motion feature-length film. The work behind it is unbelievable, to all those who say Tim Burton is "only" a mainstream director etc., please believe me, he is an artist, with his visionary point of view on the world, and he takes care of every moment of his films until everything meets his taste. Read Burton on Burton if you still have doubts.


Im Kwon-Taek in Conversation - Run Far, Fly High:
The South-Korean director is the winner of the Honorary Golden Berlin Bear (2005) and nominated twice for the Golden Bear with Gilsoddeum (1986), and The Taebaek Mountains (1995) at the Berlin International Film Festival. Moreover, he won as Best Director at Cannes Film Festival with Chihwaseon (2002). He is a key figure to learn about the meaning of working in the film industry during a regime in which most of the topics were taboo. His films reflect on Korean society, on Buddhism, culture, Japanese colonial power. One of the reasons of his success is that he improved throughout his career by always trying something new. Extremely interesting to learn about the battle against censorship from a voice that saw and portrayed history in the moving pictures for 50 years. Suggested viewings: Mandala (1981), The Surrogate Woman (1986), Come, Come, Come Upward (1989), General's Son (1990), and Seopyeonje (1993).Here's the conversation: http://www.bfi.org.uk/live/video/1013

BAFTA Screenwriters' Lecture Brian Helgeland: always connected to my interest in screenwriting I wanted to attend this event which is part of a collaboration between the British Academy of Film and Television Arts and the BFI. 2012 was the third year in which those two institutions celebrate the artistic role of screenwriters in films. My lecture was with Brian Helgeland. Celebrated Oscar-winner for his script of L.A. Confidential. He talked about his career, obstacles and success, and about his personal style. For example, he is not concerned with the camera movements in his scripts, but he focuses on the psychology of the characters. He also talked about adaptations and said that you have to admire a book to do it, it's useless to rewrite something you don't even like. One of the most interesting things he said was that he fell out of love with movies after seeing how they are made, and, at that point, he fell in love with making movies. You can find his biography here:
http://www.rottentomatoes.com/celebrity/brian_helgeland/biography.php
If you're interested in the topic you can watch some other screenwriting's lectures here: http://www.bfi.org.uk/live/video/872


Horror Europa with Mark Gatiss: preview for BFI Members of this BBC 4 programme with Mark Gatiss (author of the series A History of Horror, 2010):
  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sFJXeVtHrkE
The screening consisted of his trip around Europe to research the roots of the horror genre in the 20th century: from the castle of Nosferatu and the German Expressionism, to the Italian giallo followed by the Belgian lesbian vampires and the ghosts of the Spanish Civil War to the 70s Italian horrors with De Palma, Dario Argento and Emilio Bava. Full of content and very rich with directors' interviews done for the occasion, visits on film's locations, and a proper narrative behind it exploring less-known films, totally worth watching. To conclude the meeting had a Q&A with Gatiss.

Screen Epiphanies: John Landis introduces 2001: A Space Odissey.
The director of The Blues Brothers and Animal House, films which shaped my childhood and that I rewatch whenever I can plus one my favorite director's masterpieces. Each month the BFI presents the Screen Epiphanies in which a big film director, producer, actor, etc. introduces the film that made them love cinema, and took them into that world. Here is the director's introduction:
http://www.bfi.org.uk/live/video/1016

Stanley Kubrick: A Life in Pictures.
I have always wanted to see this documentary, and I had a very special chance. Introducing it and sitting among us there was nonetheless than Jan Harlan, Kubrick's friend and producer throughout his career. Every time I meet someone who played such a big role in the films I love the most, I feel very honoured, because it motivates me to keep on loving my subject, and hoping for the future. The documentary presents a very personal and well-rounded portrait of Stanley Kubrick, it was directed by Harlan, after the director's death (1999) and released in 2001. It narrates and celebrates his career, his attitude during the films' creation, and his actors talking about him along with his wife, Christiane Kubrick, his daugther, Vivian Kubrick and Jan Harlan (it was such a weird feeling to watch him on the screen and then turn my head and see him sitting there.) Here is the link to the complete documentary: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FR-loS9MHww

 
The Shining: nothing more to add, I love Kubrick, I love Jack Nicholson, and I love love love The Shining, I went to see the director's cut which was released by the BFI for the first time. Just amazing. And, actually, a few days ago, thanks to a classmate's presentation on Swedish cinema, I found out that the sequence of Jack breaking the door with an axe is inspired by a silent horror film: The Phantom Carriage (Victor Sjostrom, 1921). You can find it on Youtube, I watched it and it's awesome, I highly recommend it: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hg7hAwUGQmo

Amour : certainly not a film for everyone, you have to enter the cinema being aware that you are about to watch something psychologically very strong and disturbing. I started crying just at the beginning, because I couldn't think of a better title to express what we see rather than AMOUR. Watch it if you feel ready, but bare in mind that it is not an easy experience, but one that is definitely worth the effort. Absolutely deserved Palme d'Or at the 2012 Cannes Film Festival and the Best Foreign Language Film Oscar plus other four Oscar nominations. Thanks Michael Haneke.