Light Readings: Film Criticism and Screen Arts

218 Pages·2000·64.66 MB·English

by  Chris Darke

GRAD
808.29
D2145Li
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FILM CRITICISM AND SCREEN ARTS
CHRIS9ARKE
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WALLFLOWER
LONDON
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A Wallflower Paperback
First published in Great Britain in 2000 by
Wallflower Publishing Limrted
16 Chalk Farm Road, Camden Lock. London NW I BAG
www.wallflowerpress.co.uk
Copyright Chris Darke 2000
The moral right of Chris Darke to be identified as the author of this work has been
asserted in accordance with the Copyright Designs and Patents Act of 1988
All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a
retrieval system, or transported in any form or by any means, electronic, mechani
cal, photocopying, recording or otherwise, without the prior permission of both the
copyright owner and the above publisher of this book
A catalogue for this book is available from the British Library
ISBN I 903364 07 8
Book Design by Rob Bowden Design
Printed in Great Britain by
Creative Print and Design Group, (Wales) Ltd.
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This book is dedicated, in memoriam, to Hrvoje Horvatic ( 1958-1997)
and Marc Karlin ( 194 3-1999): film-makers, elders and teachers.
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CONTENTS
vii Acknowledgements
Chapter One
/ 21 st Century Cinema: Confessions of a Freelance Film Critic
8 Wittgenstein
I I Sliver
13 Blue
I 5 Manufacturing Consent: Noam Chomsky and the Media
I 7 Kalifomia
I 9 The Shape of Pain: Interview with Atom Egoyan
25 Suture
28 Dumb & Dumber
30 Intimate with a Stranger
32 Dead Presidents
35 L'Awentura
38 Smoke
41 Blue in the Face
44 Beyond the Oouds
4 7 The Last Supper
50 Where Is My Friend's House?
52 The Eighth Day
54 Loaded
5 6 Surviving Picasso
58 Normal Ufe
60 Pusher
62
Oo.se Up
64 The River
66 Robert Mitchum & Out of the Past
Chapter Two
69 Cinema sans papiers:Writing on French Cinema
76 L627
78 Les Roseaux Sauvages
parts
80 Histoire(s) du dnema I a and I b
82 Madame Bovary
84 Les Enfants du Paradis
8 7 Le Petit Prince a diit
89 Godardville: Alphaville, the nouvelle vague and 1960s Paris
V
94 L'Ombre du doute
96 Lancelot du Lac
98 La Reine Margot
I 00 Un Hussard sur le toit
I 02 L'Appat
I 04 La Separation
106 La Haine
I 09 Les Rendezvous de Paris
I I 2 Nelly et M. Arnaud
I I 5 N'oublie pas que tu vas mourir
I I 9 Chacun cherche son chat
122 Irma Vep
125 Interview with Olivier Assayas
I 2 9 Interview with Jacques Audiard
I 34 Regarde les hommes tomber
I 3 6 Select Hotel
138 Nouvelle Vague
140 Portraits Chinois
a
14 2 Y aura-t-il de la neige N~ef?
I 45 Lucie Aubrac
14 7 Oubbed to Death
I 4 9 Fin aoat de but septembre
I 5 2 Alice et Martin
154 The Young French Cinema
Chapter Three
159 Cinema Exploded: Film,Video and the Gallery
I 6 7 Art and Film: on 'Spellbound' and 'Pandaemonium'
I 7 I Cheryl Donegan
I 73 Daniel Reeves
I 76 Gang Warfare
I 78 Terminal Futures
I 80 Gary Hill: In the Ught of the Other
182 Bill Viola: Landscapes of the Mind
I 85 Feelings Along the Body: Interview with Bill Viola
I 9 I Someone to Watch Over You: on Sophie Calle and Michel Klier
I 9 3 Gnema and Video at War
198 From the Millennial Image-Mill: on found-footage ftlm
201 Asylum
20 4 Profession Reporter: on The Blue Summer
VI
ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS
Thanks to the following who commissioned, edited and, in some cases, talked
through with the author the material collected here: Leslie Felperin, Nick James,
Philip Dodd and Pam Cook at Sight and Sounct. Nick Coleman, Richard Hollidge,
Mark Pappenheim and Chris Maume at The Independent; Gavin Smith at Film
Comment; Amanda Sharp and Matthew Slotover at Frieze; Daniel Etherington
at Artists Newsletter. Gareth Evans and Ben Slater at Entropy; Giles Lane at Coil;
Steven Bode and Mike Jones at Film And Video Umbrella. Thanks also to the staff
at the British Film Institute Library.
For inspiration, support and example above and beyond the call of film-going,
special thanks to Jonathan Romney. Breda Beban, Keith Griffiths, Simon Field,
Sandra Hebron, Helen De Witt, Karen Alexander, Deborah Salter, Sarah Turner,
Peter Playdon and Dominique Hoff at L'.lnstitut Francais. For scholastic guidance,
Ginette Vincendeau and V. F. Perkins at the University ofW arwick. For the
Super-8 days, Pat Magnolo and Nigel Karikari.To a fellow hooligan for meaning,
Jonathan Derbyshire. Also, to Jean, Sarah and Nathalie. And Nina
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