Table Of ContentLiving Dangerously
A Biography of Joris Ivens
In memory of my brother Ad
Living Dangerously
A Biography of loris Ivens
Hans Schoots
Amsterdam University Press
Translation: David Colmer
This is a slightly abridged and revised translation of Gevaarlijk leven. Een bio-
grafie van loris Ivens, (Amsterdam 1995).
The publication of this translation was financially supported by:
The Stichting Prins Bernhard Fonds
Thuiskopiefonds
The Dutch Film Fund
The Foundation for the Production and Translation of Dutch Literature
Cover illustration: Mark Kolthoff, Gemeentearchief Amsterdam
Cover design: Korpershoek Ontwerpen, Amsterdam
Lay-out: JAPES, Amsterdam
Isbn 90 5356 388 1 (paperback)
Isbn 90 5356 433 0 (hardback)
© Amsterdam University Press, Amsterdam, 2000
All rights reserved. Without limiting the rights under copyright reserved
above, no part of this book may be reproduced, stored in or introduced into
a retrieval system, or transmitted, in any form. or by any means (electronic,
mechanical, photocopying, recording, or otherwise), without the written
permission of both the copyright owner and the author of this book
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Contents
Introduction 7
1. The Boss's Son (1898 - 1921) II
2. Ragmop (1921 -1927) 21
3. A Time of Daily Discoveries (1927 - 1929) 3.
•• Exactly How We See It Too, Sir (1929) ••
5. You hear me, Father, Mother, World, Charnel House (1930 - 1931) ,.
6. The Magnetic Mountain (1932) 7.
7. Socialist Realism (1933) 8'
8. Sidetracked (1934 - 1936) '7
9. Land of Opportunity (1936) 110
10. The Spanish Labyrinth (1937) 118
II. Chinese Poker (1938)
"'
12. Ivens's Interbellum (1939 - 1941) 151
Il. Glamour Boy of the Revolution (1941 - 1944) 163
War Under the Palm Trees (1944 - 1945) 17.
".
15. Indonesia Merdeka (1945 - 1946) I ••
I •. Tbe Uncle Behind the Iron Curtain (1947 - 1950) 211
17. Tbe Blue Book (1950 - 1956) 228
18. Breathing Space (1957 - 1960) 250
I •. Cowboy Boots and Guerrilla Cap (1960 - 1964) 2.'
20. A Soc:ialist Scoop (1964 - 1968) 285
21. Sixty-Nine in Silty-Eight (1968 - 1971) ]02
22. The Old Steed Gallops a Thousand Li (1971 - 1978) lO.
ll. An Arduous De-Stalinization (1978 - 1985) ]]8
2 •. Unfavorable Winds (1985 - 1989) ]51
Living Dangerously
•
Acknowledgements 363
Archives and Document Collections 365
People Interviewed 367
Notes 36.
Bibliography 418
Filmography Joris Ivens 43.
Index of Persons 433
Introduction
I first became aware ofJoris Ivens in the late sixties after seeing his Vietnam
films during protest meetings in a cellar at Tilburg University, known in
those days as Karl Marx University. I met Ivens himself in 1986 when I vis-
ited him in Paris several times to interview him for the Dutch weekly De
Groene Amsterdammer. I was fascinated by his attempts to come to terms
with his life story, interwoven as it was with the history of Communism. Af-
ter I sent him my article - 'I Clung Too Long to my Utopias' - he telephoned
and said: 'You've just written up what I said. I'd been hoping you'd bring
some order into it.' It was something he himself had felt unable to do. I had
felt the temptations of totalitarianism myself and had formed a definite
opinion about my own experiences, but how could I know what Joris Ivens
wanted to say?
I began toying with the idea of writing his biography. I had long been in-
terested in the uncomfortable relationship between art and political com-
mitment, and Ivens had spent much of his life on the interface between the
two. A biography of Ivens presented an opportunity to throw light on the
century's great ideological clashes through the story of one individual. At
the same time it would be more than the life story of a fascinating character,
it would be an account of socially committed artists and documentary film-
history in general.
I was dissatisfied with the various books about him that already existed.
There were several good studies of specific aspects of his life and work; the
general accounts went no further than the sixties, and so much was left un-
said. Ivens's own memoirs, Joris Ivens on La memoired'un regard, published in
France in 1982, were the most honest, but also showed most dearly how
much more there was. Early in 1990, I began work on this biography.
A book written with the slogan 'In the footsteps of. . .' was a scarcely tenable
proposition. Joris Ivens filmed in twenty-one countries and on every conti-
nent except Antarctica. Fortunately, all the important archives relating to
the filmmaker are located in Europe, and most of the main characters who
were still alive had settled there.
I was able to establish fairly systematically what kind of documents were
available elsewhere in the world. Institutions in Australia and the Americas
sent me overviews of relevant material. Prominent examples are the FBI in
Washington and the Ernest Hemingway Collection in Boston.
There are several places. where further documentation presumably ex-
ists. First of all, China. Recognizing the central place this country occupied
Living OongerQli5Jy
•
in Ivens's career, I had initially resolved to go there, but the reactions to my
letters and telephone calls were so discouraging that I changed my mind. I
fear that the bureaucracy in such a country is not susceptible to the personal
touch, and after speaking to Santiago Alvarez of Cuba, 1 was doubly con-
vinced that I could expect nothing but official rhetoric. (All Alvarez could
tell me was that Ivens 'was an eagle, looking out over history and the revo-
lutionary struggle with his sharp eyes'.) I took comfort in the knowledge
that I had visited China and Cuba in earlier years and could imagine how
foreign visitors like Joris Ivens had been treated there. Fortunately, quite a
lot of documentation about Ivens's period in China can be found in the ar-
chives of the Europese Stichting Ioris Ivens in Nijmegen, Holland.
Two archives that probably include new information are those of the
KGB and the Stasi. The KGB insisted that it did not possess an Ivens file,
whereas access to the Stasi archives required difficult formalities and a
waiting period of several years. I wish any subsequent Ivens biographers
every success.
This book is based on original documents: letters, notes, diaries, reports
and scenarios. These are suffused with the spirit of the times in which they
were written, and the information they include has not been colored by
memory. Often there were several documents and letters about the same
subject, each able to complement the picture with its own perspective. At a
rough estimate, I would say that I read two thousand letters and worked
through fifteen to twenty thousand pages of other documents, including
many not previously studied. I see the interviews as a supplement, albeit an
essential one. The very fact of meeting someone who has played a role in the
story is a tremendous bonus. There is nothing new about the dangers of in-
terviews as a historical source: all memories are selective and in the least fa-
vorable scenario the interviewer is deliberately misled. I believe that
comparing the information from various sources allowed me to avoid the
worst pitfalls.
Although Ivens undoubtedly lived many years of his life convinced that he
was consistently on the side of freedom, the inverse was often true, and in
his latter years he began to recognize this. My book includes many facts that
will distress his friends and be enthusiastically welcomed by his enemies.
So be it. I would like, however, to take this opportunity to anticipate the dis-
cussion and defend Ivens against the worst excesses of criticism. Ivens was
a hardened Communist, a party man; I believe that no one will be able to
doubt that after reading this book. But does that disqualify him from his title
as Knight in the Order of the Dutch Lion? I prefer to assume that he was dec-
orated for his Significance as a filmmaker. Most of his films from the twen-
Introduction 9
ties and thirties were and still are mileposts in documentary history. From a
cinematic point of view, Ivens's postwar films were no longer so remark-
able, but they remained well-crafted and sometimes spectacular, as was
17TH PARALLEL, filmed in the middle of the Vietnam combat zone when he
was sixty-nine years old. His last film, A TALE OF THE WIND, made with his
wife Marceline Loridan, represented a surprising new turn in his work. His
unflagging enthusiasm for the medium was an inspiration to many film-
makers.
During my research into the historical events, the peaks and troughs of
Ivens's film career, and the turbulence of his private life, I was perhaps most
struck by an anecdote from Jan de Vaal, former director of the Dutch Film
Museum. It was the early sixties and, after many years abroad, Ivens re-
turned for the first time to view the Amsterdam museum's collection of his
films. RAIN, which he had made in 1929, was screened. When the lights went
up, he said: 'The dog was missing: It was a shot of a few seconds, perhaps
less, without any particular significance. Just a dog walking through the pic-
ture. In this story I felt the love and dedication with which Ivens ap-
proached filmmaking.
It is time for more objectivity in our view of this honored and maligned
but indisputably extraordinary figure. This remained my goal as I followed
Ivens through the heights and the depths of the twentieth century.
Those who contributed to the making of this book are listed in the ac-
knowledgement. This English translation is a slightly abridged version of
the Dutch original. Readers seeking more detail on Ivens's bureaucratic
wrangling with the Dutch government should refer to Gevaarlijk leven.
Amsterdam, October 2, 1999
