What Makes a Film Tick?: Cinematic Affect, Materiality and Mimetic Innervation

370 Pages·2011·3.91 MB·English

by  Anne Rutherford

4
n
This book offers a close study of how fi lm produces sensory-affect ive o
i
t
experience for the spectator. It argues that we must explore this a
v
affective dimension if we want to understand how cinema takes up er
n
cultural or thematic issues. Examining cinematic affect through n
I
close readings of how affective immersion in cinema works to c
i
engage viewers with history, memory and cultural specifi city, et
m
it deals with both fi ction fi lm and documentary. Taking an i Anne Rutherford
M
international perspective, it includes case studies of Korean
d
detective fi lm, classical Japanese cinema, modern Greek cinema, n
a
independent American cinema, Indian documentary, Australian y What Makes
t
i
tgealredveis Fiorne ndcohc udmoceunmtaernyt, aIrnyd aonnde sAiuasnt rpaolilaitnic Ianld digoecnuoduras mfi lam, .avant- ck?erial a Film Tick?
Tiat
m M
Rutherford draws on the analysis of embodied affect to revise many ilt,
of the foundational concepts of fi lm studies. Drawing on Miriam a Ffec Cinematic Affect, Materiality
Hansen’s readings of Walter Benjamin and Siegfried Kracauer, the s Af
book explores the capacity of fi lm to produce experiences in which kec and Mimetic Innervation
ati
the boundaries between the spectator and the fi lm become porous mma
and the viewer is transported in a heightened way into the fi lm. at e
hn
WCi
•
d
r
o
f
r
e
h
t
u
R
e
n
n
F I L M C U L T U R E S A
Anne Rutherford is a Senior Lecturer in Cinema Studies in
the School of Humanities and Languages at University of Western
Sydney and is an Associate Member of the Centre for Cultural
Research at UWS. She has published numerous critical essays and
interviews on cinematic affect and embodiment, cinematic mate-
riality, mise en scène, fi lm sound and documentary fi lm. She has
also made several short fi lms.
g
n
a
L
ISBN 978-3-0343-0654-6 er
et
P
Peter Lang
www.peterlang.com
4
n
This book offers a close study of how fi lm produces sensory-affect ive o
i
t
experience for the spectator. It argues that we must explore this a
v
affective dimension if we want to understand how cinema takes up er
n
cultural or thematic issues. Examining cinematic affect through n
I
close readings of how affective immersion in cinema works to c
i
engage viewers with history, memory and cultural specifi city, et
m
it deals with both fi ction fi lm and documentary. Taking an i Anne Rutherford
M
international perspective, it includes case studies of Korean
d
detective fi lm, classical Japanese cinema, modern Greek cinema, n
a
independent American cinema, Indian documentary, Australian y What Makes
t
i
tgealredveis Fiorne ndcohc udmoceunmtaernyt, aIrnyd aonnde sAiuasnt rpaolilaitnic Ianld digoecnuoduras mfi lam, .avant- ck?erial a Film Tick?
Tiat
m M
Rutherford draws on the analysis of embodied affect to revise many ilt,
of the foundational concepts of fi lm studies. Drawing on Miriam a Ffec Cinematic Affect, Materiality
Hansen’s readings of Walter Benjamin and Siegfried Kracauer, the s Af
book explores the capacity of fi lm to produce experiences in which kec and Mimetic Innervation
ati
the boundaries between the spectator and the fi lm become porous mma
and the viewer is transported in a heightened way into the fi lm. at e
hn
WCi
•
d
r
o
f
r
e
h
t
u
R
e
n
n
F I L M C U L T U R E S A
Anne Rutherford is a Senior Lecturer in Cinema Studies in
the School of Humanities and Languages at University of Western
Sydney and is an Associate Member of the Centre for Cultural
Research at UWS. She has published numerous critical essays and
interviews on cinematic affect and embodiment, cinematic mate-
riality, mise en scène, fi lm sound and documentary fi lm. She has
also made several short fi lms.
g
n
a
L
r
e
et
P
Peter Lang
www.peterlang.com
What Makes a Film Tick?
F I L M C U L T U R E S
Vol. 4
Edited by
Andrew McGregor & Philippe Met
PETER LANG
Bern · Berlin · Bruxelles · Frankfurt am Main · New York · Oxford · Wien
Anne Rutherford
What Makes a Film Tick?
Cinematic Affect, Materiality and
Mimetic Innervation
PETER LANG
Bern · Berlin · Bruxelles · Frankfurt am Main · New York · Oxford · Wien
Bibliographic information published by die Deutsche Nationalbibliothek
Die Deutsche Nationalbibliothek lists this publication in the Deutsche National-
bibliografie; detailed bibliographic data is available on the Internet
at ‹http://dnb.d-nb.de›.
British Library Cataloguing-in-Publication Data: A catalogue record for this
book is available from The British Library, Great Britain
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Rutherford, Anne
What makes a film tick? : cinematic affect, materiality and mimetic innervation /
Anne Rutherford.
p. cm. – (Film cultures ; v. 4)
Includes bibliographical references and index.
ISBN 978-3-0343-0654-6
1. Motion pictures. 2. Documentary films. I. Title.
PN1994.R85 2011
791.43–dc23
2011022299
Cover Illustration: © by Denis Mareau
ISSN 1663-8972
ISBN 978-3-0343-0654-6
© Peter Lang AG, International Academic Publishers, Bern 2011
Hochfeldstrasse 32, CH-3012 Bern, Switzerland
[email protected], www.peterlang.com, www.peterlang.net
All rights reserved.
All parts of this publication are protected by copyright.
Any utilisation outside the strict limits of the copyright law, without the
permission of the publisher, is forbidden and liable to prosecution.
This applies in particular to reproductions, translations, microfilming, and
storage and processing in electronic retrieval systems.
Printed in Switzerland
Contents
Acknowledgments 7
Note on Spelling, Abbreviations, Names and Reference Styles 10
List of Illustrations 10
Abstract 12
Introduction to this Edition: How to Read this Book 14
Preface 15
Part I: Introduction: A Paradigm Shift in Film Studies
1. ‘A Particular Type of Film Experience’ 25
2. A Paradigm Shift in Film Studies 37
Part II: Affect and the Feature Film
3. Cinema and Embodied Affect 145
4. Precarious Boundaries: Affect, Mise en Scène and the Senses
in Angelopoulos’ Balkans’ Epic 165
5. Nowhere To Hide:
The Tumultuous Materialism of Lee Myung-Se 197
Part III: Affect and Documentary
6. But What Does the Man in the Cowboy Hat Think?
Intercultural Dialogue: Silence, Taboo and Masquerade 219
7. Garin Nugroho: Didong, Cinema and the Embodiment
of Politics in Cultural Form 257
5
8. The Poetics of a Potato:
Documentary that Gets Under the Skin 273
9. “Buddhas Made of Ice and Butter”:
Mimetic Visuality, Transience and the Documentary Image 287
Appendix I
“Not Firing Arrows”: Multiplicity, Heterogeneity and the Future
of Documentary: Interview with Amar Kanwar 311
Appendix II
Negotiating Indigenous Documentary: Storytelling, Audience and
Cultural Sensibility: Interview with Darlene Johnson 323
Bibliography 335
Index 349
6
Acknowledgments
For their support during the final year in which I have written the in-
troductory chapters of this thesis, I am most grateful to my PhD su-
pervisors, Peter Hutchings and Anna Gibbs. Anna Gibbs’ initial en-
thusiastic response to the published essays was crucial in my decision
to go ahead with the PhD by publication, and she was unfailingly
positive and encouraging in the face of many drafts. Her many sugges-
tions and her knack for creative problem solving were invaluable in
shaping the work. Peter Hutchings’ thorough work on every section of
the manuscript and his support and generosity in the final stages of
writing and thesis preparation have made the completion process
much smoother than it might have been.
I have benefited from the assistance of many people in the prepara-
tion of each of the published works included here. In particular, I had
the good fortune to work, on the publication of chapter 3 and chapter
5, with a couple of editors, Richard Candida Smith and Meaghan Mor-
ris, whose generosity and intellectual insight improved the finished
work significantly and gave me a benchmark for what the editorial
collaboration might be.
I am very grateful to Anjali Monteiro and K. P. Jayasankar for
their generous hospitality and advice during my stay in Mumbai in
2003, and for making available the video library and studio resources
of the Unit for Media and Communications at Tata Institute of Social
Sciences. This made it possible for me to view a large range of Indian
documentary films in a very short time. Even among a cohort of imag-
inative and challenging work, Monteiro and Jayasankar’s films stand
out for their wit and innovativeness. I thank them also for providing
the stills included with chapter 8 and I am grateful to Sudhir Pat-
wardhan for kind permission to publish the reproductions of his paint-
ings with that essay. I would also like to thank Amar Kanwar and
Marian Goodman Gallery for the stills included from Amar’s films.
7
Kajri Jain’s insightful analytical comments contributed significant-
ly to chapter 5, and Laleen Jayamanne offered generous detailed criti-
cal readings of chapters 3 and 5. I would like to thank Im Hyun-Ock
for facilitating and translating my interview with Lee Myung-Se and
for sharing her own critical insights on Nowhere To Hide.
The conceptualisation of the later parts of this work—chapters 2, 5,
7 and 9—benefited greatly from a symposium on Cinema and Moder-
nity convened by Miriam Hansen at University of Newcastle in 2005.
Though Miriam had no direct input into the work, or an opportunity to
respond to my readings of her work, I would like to offer it as a tribute
to the profound influence she has had on the development of contem-
porary Cinema Studies.
Many people have contributed invaluable practical support to the
project. I would like to thank Louise Malcolm for transcribing my
interview with Amar Kanwar; Rob Leggo prepared the images in the
introductory chapter for print; Juanita Kwok, Maree Delofski and Pat
Fiske all helped me access films, and Adrienne McKibbens gave me
access to a rare resource on Garin Nugroho’s work.
This book is published with generous financial assistance of the
College of Arts, the Centre for Cultural Research and the School of
Humanities and Languages at University of Western Sydney.
As this PhD was presented as a PhD by Publication, half of the
thesis comprises essays published by peer review. Chapter 3 was orig-
inally published in Senses of Cinema 25 (2003). An earlier version of
this chapter was presented as a conference paper at Cinema and the
Senses conference, University of New South Wales, 1998. Chapter 4
was published in Art And The Performance of Memory: Sounds And
Gestures of Recollection, ed. Richard Candida Smith (New York &
London: Routledge, Memory and Narrative series, 2002); and also in
Senses of Cinema 31 (2004). Chapter 5 was published in Seoul
Searching: Culture and Identity in Contemporary Korean Cinema, ed.
Frances Gateward (New York: SUNY Press, 2007), and an earlier
version of this essay appeared as ‘Arrested Motion: Leaps and Bounds
in the Korean Detective Film’, in Senses of Cinema 7 (2000). Chapter
6 has been published in UTS Review 6:1 (2000). Chapter 7 was pub-
lished in Screening the Past 20 (2006); and an earlier version in Sens-
es of Cinema 17 (2001), under the title, ‘Poetics and Politics in Garin
8