End of an era.zedz wrote:Last installment!
Thanks for this mammoth series of posts, zedz - when I finally get around to working through the EF discs (well, the film work at least), I'll be stopping by this thread again and again. A great resource.
End of an era.zedz wrote:Last installment!
Is 14 consecutive posts by one person in a thread a record? (Better add the caveat 'over the course of a month' before some hyperactive rival swan dives to glory)foggy eyes wrote:End of an era.zedz wrote:Last installment!
If I had Kluge's time management skills I'm sure maintaining two separate identities on opposite sides of the world would be a breeze.Lemmy Caution wrote:Of course, we're all going to have to go back to re-read and re-assess the whole series of posts when it comes out that zedz really is Alexander Kluge.
Hah! I guess beggars can't be choosers. (And I suppose Franziska at the Filmmuseum knows who I am now - hi, Franziska!)denti alligator wrote:Zedz, did you notice that you have effectively been given the honor of being listed as a "reviewer" at the Edition Filmmuseum page for the Kluge set.
Yes, this was quite a spectacle. Actually, I wasn't really paying attention when the introductory statement about what was about to happen in the actual program was made, so I was actually quite surprised when all the turmoil started somewhere at the 43 minute mark. So much so, that it wasn't exactly clear to me who these people breaking into the discussion actually were. At first, I gathered they were simply part of the audience.zedz wrote:
That Reformzirkus show has to be seen to be believed. Kluge appears alongside an earnest TV host, an earnest trade unionist and an earnest film critic to discuss the merits of Artists under the Big Top after (presumably) its first television screening. The topic is ‘Film and Society’ and the discussion is framed wholly in what-about-the-workers platitudes against which a work as whimsical as that film could not hope to prevail. To give you a hint as to how hopeless Kluge’s situation is, it’s pointed out several times that aesthetics have no place in this discussion of ‘film’. Kluge manages to wrestle the discussion around to a consideration of the role of television in society, and specifically the way in which it constrains debate and the articulation of ideas by imposing rigid forms on discourse (as we’ve seen here). At this point, three-quarters of an hour in, the television show’s editor, completely pissed off that Kluge has ‘violated’ the bounds of discussion he’d hoped his guests would follow, intervenes, calling ‘cut’ and walking on stage to denounce Kluge (who quite sensibly points out that he shouldn’t invite people onto a discussion show if he didn’t want to hear what they have to say). The tirade runs and runs, and so does one of the cameras, and eventually this showdown turns into the show itself. By the hour and a half mark, the crew have emerged from the darkness and joined the debate and they take a vote as to whether the entire programme should be canned, screened only in part, or screened in its entirety, tantrums, breakdowns and all (it’s unanimously for the latter). But here you start to suspect that the programme’s editor, and maybe the crew, have engineered this ‘intervention’ simply to try and disprove by example Kluge’s earlier assertions about the constrained formats of television discourse (in fact, you half wonder whether this might be another of Kluge’s subversions of documentary forms). Kluge seems to be alert to this possibility and notes that this single example proves nothing about television as a mode of discourse, and even in this anarchic example, the discussion is still being mediated and contained by the host and editor of the show. The whole thing, running for more than two hours, is quite a spectacle, and though it sheds little light on Artists under the Big Top, or Kluge’s film practice at the time, it’s fascinating given his later move into television as his preferred mode of expression.
For me, this sequence was the one misstep in an otherwise extraordinary film (for the reasons you already touched upon) and a colossal one to me. In fact, I would actually prefer Yesterday Girl to Vivre Sa Vie if not for that unnecessary, studied bit of pranksterism. Like something out of Chytilova's Daisies...ugh.zedz wrote:Yesterday Girl is full of memorable bits and pieces, but there’s a particular sequence in the middle of the film that’s gob-smacking in its audacity and irreverence and might give you an idea of what you’re in for. In the course of about three minutes, we get the following shots, in sequence:
There are no subtitles for this one and none on all the other Suhrkamp discs as far as i can tell. Maybe this film could be described as a continuance to his first Suhrkamp release Nachrichten aus der ideologischen Antike. For everyone interested in AKs TV work one can only suggest to check out the great DCTP site first. It consists of many many themes & topics that are presented through different videoworks, interviews etcetera.. Its quite similar to the DVD mentioned above but with interactivity. For example today you can check out the topic of 09/11 http://www.dctp.tv/#/der-anschlag-auf-d ... ster-hand/" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;zedz wrote:However, I don't believe these discs include English subtitles…