“The World in its Own Image: Cinema and the Myth of Icarus”
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Cinema and the Myth of Icarus: The World and its Image in André Bazin Blandine Joret, [email protected] Amsterdam School for Cultural Analysis, University of Amsterdam
Transcript of “The World in its Own Image: Cinema and the Myth of Icarus”
Cinema and the Myth of Icarus:
The World and its Image in André Bazin
Blandine Joret, [email protected] Amsterdam School for Cultural Analysis, University of Amsterdam
Documentary Authenticity
Documentary Authenticity
“It’s that their poor state is not experienced as a lack; the huge gaps in these films are in reality a fullness, the fullness of human adventure to which [these images] so fully testify only through their emptiness.”“C’est que leur délabrement n’est pas ressenti comme un manque, les immenses lacunes de ces films sont en réalité un plein, le plein de l’aventure humaine dont elles ne témoignent si pleinement que par leur vide.”
André Bazin. “L’évolution du film d’exploration.” Monde nouveau (1955): 259
Documentary Authenticity
“Because the film is not only composed of what we see. Its imperfections bear witness to its authenticity; the missing documents are the negative imprint of adventure, its inscription in relief.”“Car le film n’est pas constitué seulement par ce qu’on voit. Ses imperfections témoignent de son authenticité, les documents absents sont l’empreinte négative de l’aventure, son inscription en creux.”
André Bazin (1953-1954). “Le cinéma et l’exploration.” Qu’est-ce que le cinéma? Paris: Editions du cerf (2008): 34
Documentary Authenticity
The mechanical shark from Jaws (Stephen Spielberg, 1975)
CGI breakdown of Kon-Tiki (Joachim Rønning, Espen Sandberg, 2012)
Documentary Authenticity“What the film records is the repetition of events that should or could have, in all likelihood, happened the same way in the absence of any camera. This principle of course precludes fantasies like "death struggle with a shark." Not because ultimately the event is inconceivable but because its repetition would be the denial of the danger that imbues the event with pathos. Either the shark is harmless and it is an ignoble comedy, or it is dangerous and the cameraman who continues to film is found guilty of failing to assist a person in danger.”“Ce que le film enregistre c’est la répétition d’événements qui ont dû ou qui ont pu, selon toute vraisemblance, se reproduire de la même façon en l’absence de toute caméra. Ce principe interdit naturellement les fantaisies du genre « lutte à mort avec un requin ». Non qu’à la limite l’événement soit inconcevable mais parce que sa répétition serait la négation du péril qui en fait justement le pathétique. Ou le requin est inoffensif et c’est une ignoble comédie, ou il est dangereux et l’opérateur qui continue de filmer est coupable de ne pas porter secours à une personne en danger.”
André Bazin. “Le monde du silence: Icare sous-marin.” Radio cinéma télévision, 26/02/1956
Ontogenetic Realism“[…] the phrase in Bazin means that the functioning of cameras for both photography and cinema (the "genesis" extends from the mechanical operation of image creation) is known just well enough by the average viewer to credit in his eyes the resulting image as a faithful trace of recorded reality, regardless of its “objective” qualities of ressemblance.” […] la phrase chez Bazin signifie que le fonctionnement de l’appareil photo ou de la caméra (la « genèse » s’étend de l’opération mécanique de construction de l’image) est juste assez connu par le spectateur moyen pour créditer à ses yeux l’image qui en résulte de décalque fidèle de la réalité enregistrée, quelles qui soient ses qualités « objectives » de ressemblance.’
Hervé Joubert-Laurencin. Le sommeil paradoxal: écrits sur André Bazin. Montreuil: Les éditions de l’Oeil (2014): 24.
Ontogenetic Realism
“The image may be out of focus, distorted, devoid of colour and without documentary value; nevertheless, it has been created out of the ontology of the model. It is the model.”
André Bazin (1946). “Ontology of the Photographic Image.” What Is Cinema? Trans. Timothy Barnard. Montreal: Caboose (2009): 8.
Ontogenetic Realism
“The directing myth of the invention of cinema is thus that it will accomplish the dominant myth of every nineteenth-century technology for reproducing reality, from photography to the phonograph: a complete realism, the recreation of the world in its own image.”
André Bazin (1946). “The Myth of Total Cinema.” What Is Cinema? Trans. Timothy Barnard. Montreal: Caboose (2009): 17.
Ontogenetic Realism
Photographic negative of the shroud of Turin by Guiseppe Enrie (1931), as included in Bazin.
Ontogenetic Realism“All art is founded upon human agency [la présence de l’homme], but in photography alone can we celebrate its absence. Photography has an effect upon us of a natural phenomenon, like a flower or a snowflake whose beauty is inseparable from its earthly origin.”
André Bazin (1945). “Ontology of the Photographic Image.” What Is Cinema? Trans. Timothy Barnard. Montreal: Caboose (2009): 7.
Photographic negative of the shroud of Turin by Guiseppe Enrie (1931), as included in Bazin.
The World in its own Image
“Thou shalt not make unto thee any graven image, or any likeness of any thing that is in heaven above, or that is in the earth beneath, or that is in the water under the earth.” (Exodus 20:4)
The World in its own Image
“[...] this magnificence, indeed, is ineffable and […] constitutes the greatest revelation that our little planet has made to man since the heroic age of the terrestrial exploration. We can also observe that for the same reason, underwater films are the only radical innovation in documentary film since the great travel films from the 20s and 30s.”“[…] ces beautés, en effet, sont ineffables et […] elles constituent la plus grande révélation que notre petite planète ait faite à l'homme depuis les temps héroïques de l'exploration terrestre. On peut aussi remarquer que, pour la même raison, les films sous-marins sont la seule nouveauté radicale dans le documentaire depuis les grands films de voyages des années 20 à 30.”
André Bazin. “Le monde du silence.” France Observateur, 1/03/1956.
The World in its own Image
Icarus and Cinema“Of course, other examples of the convergence of research could be found in the history of technology and inventions, but we must distinguish those which are, precisely, the product of scientific advances and industrial (or military) needs from those which clearly precede these advances. The ancient myth of Icarus had to wait the internal combustion engine before descending from Plato’s higher world, but this myth has been present in every human being since we began to observe birds.”
André Bazin (1946). “The Myth of Total Cinema.” What Is Cinema? Trans. Timothy Barnard. Montreal: Caboose (2009): 18.
Icarus and Cinema
Icarus and Cinema
“It is the dominant faculty in man, master of error and falsehood, all the more deceptive for not being invariably so; for it would be an infallible criterion of truth if it were infallibly that of lies.[…] I am not speaking of fools, but of the wisest men, amongst whom imagination is best entitled to persuade. Reason may object in vain, it cannot fix the price of things.”
Blaise Pascal (1669). Pensées. Trans. A. J. Krailsheimer. London: The Penguin Group (1995): 79
Icarus and Cinema
“The beauty of Le monde du silence is not only of a pictorial or picturesque kind; it follows from the satisfaction of an immemorial human desire: freedom from gravity. It could be that the dream of Icarus began with his fall into the ocean. The sky was at our feet; it begins to reveal its marvels to us.”“La beauté de ce Monde du silence n’est pas seulement d’ordre picturale ou pittoresque, elle découle de la satisfaction d’un immémorial désir humain : l’affranchissement de la pesanteur. Il se pourrait que le rêve d’Icare ait commencé avec sa chute dans l’océan. Le ciel était à nos pieds; il commence de nous révéler ses merveilles.”
André Bazin. « Le monde du silence: Icare sous-marin.» Radio cinéma télévision, 26/02/1956.
Icarus and Cinema“In the admirable painting of Brueghel, Icarus’ plunge into the water in rustic indifference foreshadows Cousteau and his companions diving off a Mediterranean cliff, ignored the peasant who tills his field, taking them for swimmers. The only thing needed was, first, to be freed from this reversed gravity which is Archimedes' principle; then, to be given ambient pressure by the pressure modifier to not end up in the fleeting and dangerous situation of a diver, but in that of Neptune, master and inhabitant of water. Finally, man flew with his arms!”“Dans l'admirable tableau de Brueghel, Icare tombant à l'eau dans l'indifférence agreste préfigure Cousteau et ses compagnons plongeant au large de quelque falaise méditerranéenne, ignorés du paysan qui gratte son champ en les prenant pour des baigneurs. Il n'était que d'être affranchi d'abord de cette pesanteur à l'envers qu'est le principe d'Archimède, puis d'être accordé par le modificateur de pression à la pression ambiante pour se trouver non plus dans la situation fugace et périlleuse du plongeur, mais dans celle de Neptune, maître et habitant de l'eau. L'homme enfin volait avec ses bras!”
André Bazin. “Le monde du silence.» France observateur, 01/03/1956.
Icarus and Cinema“[...] the painterly frame is oriented from the outside inwards, […] it defines a centripetal space heterogeneous to background that surrounds it.
Despite an apparent similarity with the picture frame, the screen, on the contrary, maintains a fundamentally opposed relationship with the image. The movie screen is not a frame, but a mask; it does not serve to show, but to keep aside, to isolate, to choose.”“[…] le cadre du tableau est orienté de l'extérieur, vers l'intérieur, […] il définit un espace centripète hétérogène au fond qui l'entoure.
Tout au contraire, l'écran, en dépit d'une apparente similitude avec le cadre du tableau, entretient avec l'image des rapports essentiellement opposés. L'écran de cinéma n'est pas un cadre, mais un cache, il ne sert pas à montrer, mais à réserver, à isoler, à choisir.”
André Bazin.“A propos de Van Gogh: L’espace dans la peinture et le cinéma.” Arts 210 (1949).
Today, Icarus
8 1/2 (Federico Fellini, 1963) Andrei Rublev (Andrei Tarkovsky, 1966)
Brazil (Terry Gilliam, 1985) The Stendhal Syndrome (Dario Argento, 1996)
Today, Icarus
“The day will come, no doubt, when we will have lost our enthusiasm for this wealth of unknown images, even though the bathyscaphe promises us many discoveries. It would be our loss! In the meantime, let’s enjoy it.”“Un jour viendra sans doute où nous serons blasés de ces moissons d'images inconnues. Encore que le bathyscaphe nous promette bien des découvertes. Ce sera tant pis pour nos! En attendant, profitons-en.”
André Bazin. “Le monde du silence.” France Observateur 1 Mar. 1956.
Today, Icarus
Gravity (Alfonso Cuarón, 2013)
Today, Icarus
Gravity (Alfonso Cuarón, 2013)
“[…] relief lends itself [...] to an equally concerted and in fact artistic use as ‘flat’ cinema. Let us thus cheerfully take this new and decisive step towards a total cinema.”“[…] le relief se prête […] à un usage aussi concerté et pour tout dire artistique que le cinéma "plat". Franchissons donc allègrement ce pas nouveau et décisif vers un cinéma total.”
André Bazin. “Un nouveau stade du cinéma en relief: Le relief en équations.” Radio cinéma télévision. 20/07/1952: 5.
