Directors Defending their Craft: CBC RetroBites

I love watching interviews with filmmakers, especially directors, since so many of them reveal that distinct discomfort that comes with changing their usual role as "picture maker" and becoming the object of the camera's attention. Luckily for us, the CBC has compiled a fascinating series of videos on YouTube called RetroBites which features an archival treasure trove of past interviews with famous individuals from the world of art and film.

CBC RetroBites is a fascinating glimpse into the Canadian broadcaster's interview archives

I have chosen three of my favourite CBC RetroBites interviews with filmmakers to highlight for this post: 1) Orson Welles defending against the claim of superficiality in his later films; 2) Leni Riefenstahl defending her position working under Hitler; and 3) David Cronenberg discussing a controversial casting decision. I have juxtaposed each interview clip with a relevant scene/trailer from each of the individual director's body of work. Watch and enjoy how these famous directors defend their craft.

Orson Welles CBC Interview (1965) and film clip from The Trial (1962)

Leni Riefenstahl CBC Interview (1965) and film clip from Olympia (1938)





David Cronenberg CBC Interview (1979) and trailer from Rabid (1977)

Further Reading:

Barnett, Vincent L. "Cutting Koerners: Floyd Odlum, the Atlas Corporation and the Dismissal of Orson Welles from RKO." Film History 22.2 (2010): 182-198.

Lowenstein, Adam. "Promises of Violence: David Cronenberg on Globalized Geopolitics." 199-208. Duke University Press, 2009.

Tegel, Susan. "Leni Riefenstahl: Art and Politics." Quarterly Review of Film & Video 23.3 (2006): 185-200. 

Weekly Twitter Round Up| Click and Muse

Marking, marking, marking, marking (did I mention I was marking?). It is midterm time again and the Vancouver rains have indeed arrived as if on cue. The Twitterverse however has continued to buzz all week long providing a much needed diversion. Grab a cup of coffee and check out a few of my favourites, and if you get a chance, take the "Click and Muse" poll (look to the right of your screen, click on the image for some context and then vote and see if others agree with you) concerning the YouTube Play Biennial co-sponsored by the Guggenheim Museum. The last poll concerning Banksy's opening sequence for the Simpsons was almost unanimous with 90% considering it Pop art and loving it!

Where Art Meets Trash And Transforms Life: The photographer Vik Muniz and his 2008 “Pictures of Garbage,”

More than 100 Brillo boxes by Andy Warhol have been declared “copies” by Warhol Authentication Board

My answers to this week's Twitter Q&A are here 

Ubu's first new content since the hack. Marina Abramoviç "Dangerous Games" color, 3 min. 34 sec. (2008):

We are not just Art for Michelangelo to carve, he can't rewrite the agro of my furied heart

Doug Coupland to design Terry Fox memorial 

Art World Relieved As Thieves Steal Pretty Terrible Late Period Renoir Work

For Sale: Successful Ivy League applications—only $19.99. Transparent? Or revolting?

Guest Blog | Jenna Kirouac: Magical Realism in Vancouver and the Salazar Film Collective

Guest Blogger Jenna Kirouac is Avant-Guardian Musings Vancouver Arts Correspondent. To see her previous posts, please click here.

I don’t even remember how I first came across the Salazar Film Collective and their work, but I do remember how impressed I was with the content of the videos, the creative representations of media, and the overall quality of the cinematography.  What’s even better is that the group is based out of Vancouver and much of their work is done right here.

I have posted some of the videos to share with you all and so you can see for yourself (click on each image to link to full video on Vimeo browser).

Salazar Demo Reel 2010

Salazar for Lifetime Collective Clothing Spring/Summer 2011

What do you think of them? Yes I realize that a lot of Salazar’s works are essentially constructed as commercials. The important questions to ask however are:

• What kind of visual worlds do the films construct? (i.e.-what sort of messages do they project?)

• Are the films purely entertaining or do they have any other meanings ascribed to them?

Salazar does a great job of twisting plot within their videos, leaving the viewer thinking about the mysterious endings long after the story is over. My personal favorite is the recent video Salazar produced for the Vancouver based D.J. Babe Rainbow and the title track from his latest album Shaved. The dark mood of the title song is really captured well in the video. Also the imagery evokes a bit of Canadiana without being overt or obnoxious unlike many of the Canadian symbols of identity we are so used to.

Salazar for Babe Rainbow Shaved (2010)

Salazar Film Collective’s website doesn’t give away too much. There isn’t a lengthy manifesto or vision statement, but their page does offer this explanation of their craft:

“Salazar is a small band of directors collaborating to create unique and progressive films. Strongly influenced by distinctive environments and inspired by magical realism we combine visually stunning locations with quietly emotional content.”

Wait. Stop. Let’s take a second and review what magical realism is. No, don’t wiki it. I have saved you the trouble and looked it up in the Oxford English Dictionary online. Magical Realism is “any artistic style in which realistic techniques such as naturalistic detail, narrative, etc., are similarly combined with surreal or dreamlike elements.” To be sure, there is an element of mystery and of the supernatural in Salazar’s work that seems quite fitting to this genre. Through the mundane, ordinary images and objects are given an almost supernatural representation, and Salazar presents the viewer with a new reality (and a new perception of Vancouver).  A good way to think about magical realism is summed up by film historian Gary McMahon in a recent article on the topic in Film International, “The lateral thinking of magical realism expands our perceptions of what on earth reality is about.” 

Focus on Research| How to Begin Researching a Topic PART TWO

In Part One of this post I outlined the ideal sequence for locating sources for a university  research paper, emphasizing the importance of accessing peer-reviewed and verifiable sources of scholarly information ahead of the typical Internet search that so many students erroneously begin with. I want to stress here again that Wikipedia is very useful for a general overview or "taste" of a subject area ahead of scholarly research, but should be used with caution and never replace a solid search effort.

In this post I will discuss more specifically how to identify and focus research on a topic, providing some useful tools to refine and pinpoint your efforts while researching library databases.

Dada is the subject of research and the topic I choose will narrow the research focus

IDENTIFYING A TOPIC

A good topic will fit within the boundaries of the subject and not be too general or too specific. First, make sure to read over the assignment instructions very carefully and highlight the specific areas that your final paper must cover. Note any restrictions or parameters for the paper (for example: topic must be related to Twentieth Century, cannot include artists already discussed in class, must utilize readings discussed in class etc...). Also, make sure to locate the main point/reason that the professor is assigning the paper.  This is a critical step when formulating a topic question that will eventually lead to your thesis or core argument in the paper. With art and film history and most visual culture and performing arts research papers, you will almost always need to consider the relationship between individual producers/artists and their body of work (art objects, films, performances, images etc...). Here it is useful to start thinking about which individual producers/works might interest you.

Using the Dada research example I started with in Part A, you could approach a topic in the following ways once you have a general overview of the subject area you are interested in (more variations exist of course, but make sure to think about how you might proceed as you begin formulating your topic):

1. comparing/contrasting different artists/producers  (i.e. the work of one Dada artist compared to the work of another);
2. consider one body of work on its own (i.e. studying the development of Marcel Duchamp's art over time);
3. consider a larger category of producers/works through their distinguishing features/theories (i.e. studying the readymades/theory of art of Marcel Duchamp as they relate to the category of readymades/theory of art of other artists);
4. consider a common theme/theory/shared concern that is reflected in one area of study (i.e. looking at the theme of the "everyday" as it emerges in the Dada movement)

WRITING A TOPIC QUESTION

Marcel Duchamp, Fountain (1917)

You could pick one work of art (such as Duchamp's Fountain (1917) and think about how it has influenced other related works. The next step in the process is creating a topic question (or questions if you want to test a few ideas) that pose a relevant and important question that can be answered in your paper. At the beginning of the research process, this question will also help guide your efforts towards the right sources and begin to focus your approach. Also, this key step will prevent you from writing a merely descriptive paper that has no clear argument.  In other words, the answer to your topic question will help create your argument/thesis when you begin the writing process.

Sample topic questions based on my Dada example noted above could include:

1. What are the similarities and differences between Marcel Duchamp and Tristan Tzara as Dada practitioners? (here I would likely pick 1-2 works of each to compare and contrast)
2. How did the work of Marcel Duchamp transform from his earlier years living in France to his later works created in the United States? (here I would chose 3-4 works to discuss)
3. How does Marcel Duchamp’s Fountain (1917) influence the work of other artist’s producing readymades in the twentieth century? (here I would pick 3-4 artists and an example of their readymades to compare and contrast)
4. How does the theme of the "everyday" emerge in relationship to the work of Dada artists? (here I would pick 3-4 artists and an example of their art to compare and contrast)

TESTING YOUR TOPIC IN A SEARCH

Once you have your topic question(s) formulated, you can test your topic through library catalogue and journal database searches at the library. Make sure to extract key words for your search. In my example, “Dada”, “Marcel Duchamp” , and “readymade” are obvious first picks.

You could simply begin by entering each of these terms separately into a database to generate materials (remember to use quotations around phrases or names).  If however you are finding too much information and too many sources, narrow your topic by using Boolean Operators such as AND, OR and NOT to fine-tune search results in library catalogues and databases (some special databases also let you refine the search through checking boxes—make sure to look for these functions on your chosen database)

For example:

The Boolean Operator AND narrows a search often producing fewer but more relevant results.

• If I wanted to find information about Dada artworks as they relate to Marcel Duchamp: Dada AND “Marcel Duchamp”

The Boolean Operator OR broadens a search – results contain either term or both terms.

• If I wanted to find research the Dada movement as it related to more artists: “Marcel Duchamp” OR “Tristan Tzara”  

The Boolean Operator NOT narrows a search – results can contain one term, not the other.

• If I was not interested in Marcel Duchamp for my topic and was getting too many hits on Dada related to Duchamp:  Dada NOT “Marcel Duchamp”

Truncating a search term allows you to search for a range of word endings within one search.

• If I was interested in all variations of the word “Dada” in a search, typing a * after the word Dada (Dada*) will pick up all variations such as “Dadaism” or “Dadaist”

Finally, Phrase (or proximity) searching combines two or more common words together to form a specific and unique search term. Phrase searching allows you to combine words so that your search only produces results where the words are next to each other in the order you have specified.

• The phrase search “Marcel Duchamp readymade” for example, if you are looking for information on that particular category of Duchamp’s work, will produce more relevant results than a search using the same search terms such as: “Marcel Duchamp” AND readymade.

Rethinking Salvador Dali's Engagement with Pop Culture

Screen shot from Dali's appearance on the 1950's game show "What's My Line?"

A Dali concept drawing from 1945 for the Disney cartoon  Destino

Somehow I have never quite understood how the cult of celebrity surrounding Salvador Dali has been able to persist (pardon the pun) for so long. But then again, I have come to Dali via an art historical discourse that has largely been critical of the artist’s blatant commercialism, ambiguous political affiliations, and a sensationalist visual vocabulary that appeals through its facile figurative idioms—imagery that is both misogynistic and in later years perceived as plainly conservative and even strangely traditional. Dali’s work and legacy has also seriously displaced the legacy of the Surrealism art movement's founder Andre Breton, who contemptuously nicknamed Dali  “Avida Dollars” (greedy for dollars) after a falling out between the former friends in 1939. As a result, Dali’s career has been divided by many art historians into what is understood as his productive and avant-garde period (1929-1938), and his neo-traditional and “anti-modern” commercial period (post-1940). 

Screen shot from Hitchcock's Spellbound (1945)

In recent weeks however, Dali has popped up on my radar through discussions with students concerning Dali’s critiques of high modernism and his engagement with the world of popular American filmmaking, television, and advertising following the Second World War. For example, one of my students brought to my attention the short animated cartoon Destino that was a collaborative project initiated between Dali and Walt Disney in 1945. The cartoon project is both fascinating for its look and feel and suggests how experimental Disney actually was during a period of Hollywood film history that saw the avant-garde influence of Europeans popping up in unexpected ways (as in the genre of American film noir). In the same year of the Disney collaboration, Dali also worked with Alfred Hitchcock on the classic psychological thriller Spellbound, which features a long dream sequence that the artist was asked to direct and design. Dali’s final version ran twenty minutes in length and, like the Destino treatment, revels in surrealist imagery and motifs that were far removed from the typical look and feel of a Hollywood film. In the end, Hitchcock was forced to cut the sequence down substantially for fear that audiences would find that part of the film too disturbing, and like the Disney cartoon project which lay dormant for 58 years (until Disney Studios France completed the project and released the work in 2003), there was something still radical, provocative, and potentially threatening about Dali’s inroads into what many art historians routinely dismiss as American popular culture.

Take also for example Dali’s frequent appearances on television in the 1950-60’s (particularly on the popular American game shows, “What’s My Line” and “I’ve Got a Secret.”) Watching Dali "perform" on TV reveals something both subversive and fabulously unrehearsed in that Andy Warhol kind of way. I cannot put my finger on it exactly, but I am starting to think about Dali differently. As Charles Stuckey suggests in a recent and astute reassessment of Dali’s legacy within art historical discourse (see further readings below), we need to rethink Dali’s “self-spoofing” antics and keen sense of “multifaceted truths” co-existing in the world of elite and popular culture. Perhaps Dali was closer to a post-modern sensibility than anyone cares to admit (even if his later paintings were still so terrible).

Here are a series of clips including Dali's dream sequence in Spellbound (juxtaposed to his famous surrealist film Un Chien Andalou (1929) co-produced with Luis Bunuel) and his appearances on "What's My Line?" and "I've Got a Secret." To see a clip from Destino (embedding has been disabled, so I cannot feature it below), click here (and thanks Stephen for the original link!).

Further Reading:

Lubar, Robert S. "Salvador Dali: Modernism's Counter-Muse." Romance Quarterly 46.4 (1999): 230.

Strauss, Marc. "The Painted Jester: Notes on the Visual Arts in Hitchcock's Films." Journal of Popular Film & Television 35.2 (2007): 52-56.

Stuckey, Charles. "The Persistence of Dali." Art in America 93.3 (2005): 113.