European Cinema: Face to Face with Hollywood

566 Pages·2005·8.14 MB·english

by  Thomas Elsaesser

* pb ‘European Cinema’ 10-06-2005 19:00 Pagina 1
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In the face of renewed competition from Holly-
wood since the early 1980s and the challenges
posed to Europe’s national cinemas by the fall
E
of the Wall in 1989, independent filmmaking in U
CCUULLTTUURREE R CCUULLTTUURREE
Europe has begun to re-invent itself. European
O
Cinema: Face to Face with Hollywood re-asses- P
E
ses the different debates and presents a broader IN TRANSITION A IN TRANSITION
framework for understanding the forces at work N

since the 1960s. These include the interface of C
I
“world cinema” and the rise of Asian cinemas, N
E
the importance of the international film festival M
circuit, the role of television, as well as the A

changing aesthetics of auteur cinema. New

audiences have different allegiances, and T
H
new technologies enable networks to re-
O
shape identities, but European cinema still M
A
has an important function in setting criti-
S
cal and creative agendas, even as its eco-
E
nomic and institutional bases are in flux. L
S
A
Thomas Elsaesser is professor of Media E
S
and Culture and Director of Research, Film S
E
and Television Studies at the University of
R
Amsterdam. Among his most recent publi-
cations are Harun Farocki – Working on
the Sight Lines (2004), and Terrorisme,
Mythes et Representations(2005).
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ISBN90-5356-594-9
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EuropeanCinema

European Cinema
Faceto Facewith Hollywood
Thomas Elsaesser
AmsterdamUniversityPress
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Table of Contents
Preface 9
Introduction
EuropeanCinema:ConditionsofImpossibility?[] 
National Cinema: Re-Definitions and New Directions
EuropeanCulture,NationalCinema,theAuteurandHollywood[] 
ImpersoNations:NationalCinema,HistoricalImaginaries[] 
FilmFestivalNetworks:theNewTopographiesofCinemain
Europe[] 
DoubleOccupancyandSmallAdjustments:Space,PlaceandPolicyinthe
NewEuropeanCinemasincethes[] 
Auteurs and Art Cinemas: Modernism and Self-
Reference, Installation Art and Autobiography
IngmarBergman–PersonandPersona:TheMountainofModern
CinemaontheRoadtoMorocco[] 
LateLosey:TimeLostandTimeFound[] 
AroundPaintingandthe“EndofCinema”:AProposJacquesRivette’s
LaBelleNoiseuse[] 
SpellboundbyPeterGreenaway:IntheDark...andIntotheLight[] 
TheBodyasPerceptualSurface:TheFilmsofJohanvanderKeuken[] 
TelevisionandtheAuthor’sCinema:ZDF’sDasKleineFernsehspiel[] 
TouchingBase:SomeGermanWomenDirectorsinthes[] 
6 EuropeanCinema:FacetoFacewithHollywood
Europe-Hollywood-Europe
TwoDecadesinAnotherCountry:HollywoodandtheCinephiles[] 
RaoulRuiz’sHypothèseduTableauVolé[] 
ImagesforSale:The“New”BritishCinema[] 
“IfYouWantaLife”:TheMarathonMan[] 
BritishTelevisioninthesThroughTheLookingGlass[] 
GermanCinemaFacetoFacewithHollywood:LookingintoaTwo-Way
Mirror[] 
Central Europe Looking West
OfRatsandRevolution:DusanMakavejev’sTheSwitchboard
Operator[] 
DefiningDEFA’sHistoricalImaginary:TheFilmsofKonradWolf[] 
UnderWesternEyes:WhatDoesŽižekWant?[] 
OurBalkanistGaze:AboutMemory’sNoMan’sLand[] 
Europe Haunted by History and Empire
IsHistoryanOldMovie?[] 
EdgarReitz’Heimat:Memory,HomeandHollywood[] 
DiscourseandHistory:OneMan’sWar–AnInterviewwith
EdgardoCozarinsky[] 
RendezvouswiththeFrenchRevolution:EttoreScola’s
ThatNightinVarennes[] 
JosephLosey’sTheGo-Between[] 
GamesofLoveandDeath:PeterGreenawayandOtherEnglishmen[] 
Border-Crossings: Filmmaking without a Passport
PeterWollen’sFriendship’sDeath[] 
AndyEngel’sMelancholia[] 
TableofContents
OntheHighSeas:EdgardoCozarinsky’sDutchAdventure[] 
ThirdCinema/WorldCinema:AnInterviewwith
RuyGuerra[] 
RuyGuerra’sErendira[] 
Hyper-,Retro-orCounter-:EuropeanCinemaasThirdCinemaBetween
HollywoodandArtCinema[] 
Conclusion
EuropeanCinemaasWorldCinema:ANewBeginning?[] 
EuropeanCinema:ABriefBibliography
ListofSourcesandPlacesofFirstPublication
Index

Preface
The(West)Europeancinemahas,sincetheendofWorldWarII,haditsidentity
firmly stamped by three features: its leading directors were recognized as au-
teurs,itsstylesandthemesshapedanation’sself-image,anditsnewwavessig-
nified political as well as aesthetic renewal. Ingmar Bergman, Jacques Rivette,
JosephLosey,Peter Greenaway,neo-realism,thenouvellevague,NewGerman
Cinema, the British renaissance – these have been some of the signposts of a
cinemathatderivedlegitimacyfromadualculturallegacy:thatofthethcen-
turynovelandofthethcenturymodernistavant-gardes.Bothpedigreeshave
given Europe’s national cinemas a unique claim to autonomy, but they also
drew boundaries between the work of the auteur-artists, representing the na-
tion,highcultureandrealism,andthemakersofpopularcinema,representing
commerce,mass-entertainmentandconsumption.
These distinguishing features were also identity constructions. They helped
to mask a continuing process of self-definition and self-differentiation across a
half-acknowledged presence, namely of Hollywood, and an unacknowledged
absence, namely of the cinemas of Socialist Europe. Since , such identity
formations through difference, exclusion and otherness, are no longer securely
inplace.Cinematodaycontributestoculturalidentitiesthataremoreinclusive
andprocessual,moremulti-culturalandmulti-ethnic,moredialogicalandinter-
active,abletoembracethe‘newEurope’,thepopularstar-andgenrecinema,as
well as the diaspora cinemas within Europe itself. It has meant re-thinking as
well as un-thinking European cinema. Has it made cinema in Europe an anx-
iousart,seekingsalvationinthepreservationofthe“nationalheritage”?Many
times before, European cinema has shown itself capable of re-invention. This
time, the challenge for films, filmmakers and critics is to be European enough
topreserveEurope’sculturaldiversityandhistoricaldepth,aswellasoutward-
lookingenoughtobetrans-nationalandpartofworldcinema.
The essays brought together in European Cinema: Face to Face with Hollywood
present a cross-section of my writings on these topics over a period of some
thirty-fiveyears.Theyre-examinetheconflictingterminologiesthathavedomi-
natedthediscussion,includingthenotionof“thenation”in“nationalcinema”,
and the idea of the artist as creator of a unique vision, at the heart of the “au-
teur-cinema”. They take a fresh look at the ideological agendas, touching on
politically and formally oppositional practices and they thoroughly examine
Europeancinema’srelationtoHollywood.