Patience (After Sebald)

Earlier this week I was lucky enough to be invited to a private screening of Grant Gee's latest film, Patience (After Sebald). The film is a reflective essay on the influence of the writings of the novelist and scholar W. G. Sebald but more specifically it is an attempt to follow in Sebald's footsteps, both literally and metaphorically. The film takes as its direct inspiration Sebald's The Rings of Saturn and recreates the journey taken by Sebald within it as he traverses his adopted home county of Suffolk. The film also structures itself along what might be called 'Sebaldian' lines, mimicking the author's famously digressive style of narration. I have to confess to not having read, as yet, any Sebald, although having now seen this wonderful film I intend to rectify this as soon as possible; however, the film 'spoke' to me very powerfully. The places - Southwold, Dunwich, Orford - explored by both Sebald in The Rings of Saturn and Gee in Patience are very familiar to me and I found that the aesthetic beauty of the film, partly shot on 16mm, captured something of the schizophrenia of the Suffolk coast that can function as both summer holiday destination and an impossibly bleak and desolate location. The Rings of Saturn opens by expressing precisely this dual state with Sebald combining the 'carefree' with a growing sense of melancholy: 'In August 1992 when the dog days were drawing to an end, I set off to walk the county of Suffolk, in the hope of dispelling the emptiness that takes hold of me whenever I have completed a long stint of work. And in fact my hope was realised, up to a point; for I have seldom felt so carefree as I did then, walking for hours in the day through the thinly populated countryside, which stretches inland from the coast' (2002).

The passage captures, for me, something of Freud's celebrated essay 'On Transience' (1916), in which the psychoanalyst explores mourning and memory. In this short piece, Freud describes an episode in which a poet and a somewhat reserved friend, thought to be Rainer Maria Rilke and Lou Andreas-Salomé respectively, are unable to enjoy a scene of beauty because ‘it was fated to extinction’. Freud, in his analysis of his friends’ reactions, surmises that ‘[t]he idea that all this beauty was transient was giving these two sensitive minds a foretaste of mourning over its decease’. In a similar fashion Sebald is overcome by a melancholy that bleeds into his initial pleasure: 'in retrospect I became preoccupied not only with the unaccustomed sense of freedom but also with the paralysing horror that had come over me at various times when confronted with the traces of destruction, reaching far back into the past, that were evident even in that remote place'. There is a moment in the film that recounts a scene from The Rings of Saturn in which Sebald loses himself in the scrubland heath that characterises much of the Suffolk countryside. Sebald becomes disoriented and finds himself walking in circles, an irrational sense of terror taking hold as he struggles to find his way of out the suddenly unfamiliar landscape. I recall just such a moment myself, experienced when walking similar terrain - 'Sailor's Path' between Aldeburgh and Snape - as a child. It is one of those cinematic encounters that prompts a certain kind of time travel, transporting one back with breathtaking immediacy to a moment from one's past...

Gee's film weaves together interviews with individuals who knew Sebald whether as colleagues, fellow writers or publishers and constructs a compelling portrait of a fascinating writer. We learn very little about Sebald the man but a great deal about Sebald the author. It is through the Sebaldian text, whether read - beautifully by Jonathan Pryce - or glimpsed on screen that this author is made present to the spectator.

The visibility of the text in the film is reminiscent of Greenaway's experiments in Prospero's Books (1991) and The Pillow Book (1996) but here the written word is far less visually heavy than in Greenaway's almost overly rich and lushly coloured works. The starkness of the black and white film stock and the texture of the grain is compelling and beautiful. Gee spoke at the screening of the importance of place for him in his work and this is evident in the care with which he has sought to capture the desolate beauty of the Suffolk landscape. There is a detachment and an alienation at the heart of these beautiful images that reflects the strange confluence of land, sea and sky that for me at any rate typify this particular coastline.

Whether a Sebaldian or not this is a film that deserves recognition for not only is it a powerful aesthetic statement in its own right, it is also an enchanting portrait of a text, its author and a place, an ultimately uncanny place, that Sebald called home...

Roy Ward Baker

It was with great sadness that I learnt today of the death earlier this week of Roy Ward Baker, Honorary Visiting Professor in Film at Roehampton University. Professor Baker died peacefully in his sleep at a London hospital on Tuesday evening. Roy Ward Baker was a British film director of considerable distinction whose career in film and television spanned more than 50 years. He was born in Hornsey in 1916 and began his career as a production runner at Gainsborough Islington Studios in 1934. After spending 1943-1946 in the Army Kinematograph Service directing documentary and training films, he went on to direct 32 films, including The October Man (1946), Inferno (1953), A Night to Remember (1958), Flame In the Streets (1961), Quatermass and the Pit (1967), Dr Jekyll & Sister Hyde (1971), and more than 100 one hour television dramas for seminal series such as The Saint, The Avengers, and Minder. Professor Baker took up his appointment at Roehampton University in 2009 and he made a real impression on students and staff when he came to talk about his experiences of working with some of cinema’s greatest producers, directors and stars, figures such as Alfred Hitchcock, Richard Widmark, Dirk Bogarde and Marilyn Monroe. Through their encounter with Professor Baker students and staff at Roehampton were able to gain a vivid insight into a hugely significant period of cinema and television history. Professor Baker made an especially strong connection with students on the Film programme who were interested to hear about his experiences of directing under the classical studio system and he had promised to come to talk to them again on the art of directing film. He was a witty and entertaining speaker who had a wealth of extraordinary stories to tell; he was also incredibly modest considering his notable achievements.

The last time I saw Professor Baker was when he invited me to lunch at his London club, where he entertained me with anecdotes about bank managers and film stars - he had especially strong views on both, with Dirk Bogarde featuring in a number of them! To spend an afternoon in his company, simply chatting about cinema from the 1930s onwards was an absolute joy. To have had an opportunity to get to know and to spend time with such a generous figure was a real honour and pleasure. A number of obituaries have appeared in today's press, here, here, here, here and here.

Der Untergang/Downfall (Oliver Hirschbiegel 2004)

Downfall has been sitting on my DVD shelves for a number of years now but at well over two and a half hours long I hadn't found the time to watch it. What I had been watching instead, of course, were the innumerable parodies or 'mashups' that pepper YouTube and that appear whenever an apparently minor issue produces an overblown response in the popular press and media. My first encounter with the form was after the Oasis split and I found myself laughing for the entire three or four minutes of the sequence. The juxtaposition of Bruno Ganz's incredible performance as the ranting Hitler with the banality of the Oasis split made the re-edited subtitles work perfectly. In some cases the text isn't sufficiently carefully crafted to carry off the parody but ultimately it is the incongruity of the subtitled subject matter and the enraged Hitler that make these parodies work. The most recent example - and this demonstrates how this type of parody functions - has Hitler complaining that the Vuvuzela is ruining his experience of the World Cup:



Interestingly, there are now self-referential versions that feature subtitles that complain about the removal of the parodies from YouTube, as a result of Constantin Film AG submitting a copyright claim earlier this year (here):



So what about the actual film itself? Well, there is no doubt that Ganz's performance is incredibly powerful. Despite the melodrama evident in the parodies, he produces a sustained portrait of Hitler's final days in his Berlin bunker that keeps the viewer enthralled, horrified and emotionally engaged. Much of the film takes place inside this bunker and the claustrophia and the fear that inhabit it with the personnel effectively trapped within it is almost palpable. The film's account of the capture of Berlin is also carefully managed, revealing the futility of German situation but also the cost of the war in terms of the German people, a people that Hitler is shown to have no concern for other than as an abstract concept. As Peter Bradshaw notes in his review of the film (here), it was criticised for 'humanising' Hitler but while it does indeed do this, it renders him 'in consequence, far more grotesque and sulphurous than any of the dozens of picturesque newsreel documentaries on TV. It restores to him evil's banality, in Hannah Arendt's phrase, and its silliness and cheapness. Any movie which removes the great dictator from the horrors of the camps and places him in a situation which he is history's biggest loser, risks conferring, if not tragedy exactly, then the pathos of a cut-price Götterdämmerung. But Hitler has never looked more noisome, a tatty charlatan' Bradshaw 2005).

So, the film is well worth watching, in all its harrowing grotesqueness but do make sure that you also view at least one of the many parodies that continue to circulate and will no doubt appear for some time to come. I'm waiting for the version that depicts Hitler's reaction to the fact that England are out of the World Cup...

The kid's are not alright... Eden Lake (James Watkins 2008)

I've finally got around to seeing this compelling but gruelling film, described by The Guardian's Peter Bradshaw as 'seriously bloody horrible' but also as 'the best British horror film in years' (see here for his excellent review). It is one of those rare films that had me literally squirming in my seat in discomfort, exacerbated by the fact that it offers none of the usual palliatives associated with the genre, instead remaining horrifyingly grim right up to the final credits. The film's protagonists Steve (the brilliant Michael Fassbender) and Jenny (Kelly Reilly) escape the city for a camping weekend beside a nostalgically remembered wooded lake (although the fact that it is an ex-quarry signals a note of incipient darkness). They arrive to find that developers are turning it into 'Eden Lake', a gated community of expensive lakeside properties; however, they find a gap in the imposing security fence and drive down to the lakeshore in Steve's 4x4 Jeep. As they relax by the water their idyll is undermined by the presence of a group of rowdy youths whose loud music and aggressive dog provoke Steve into remonstrating with them. This rapidly turns into a confrontation that escalates as the film progresses, setting in motion the chain of events that lead to its bleak denoument. Bradshaw argues that 'the confrontation here isn't about race and not even exclusively about class; it's not about townies and hillbillies, or blacks and whites, or yuppies and chavs. At bottom, it's about older people and the young: a gang of feral children who are as powerful as adults'. I'm not entirely sure that I agree. Yes, there is no doubt that the film is about the power of children but class, as Bradshaw acknowledges, does play an important role here. Steve and Jenny are resolutely middle class while the children (and their parents) are portrayed as wealthy 'chavs' (see Imogen Tyler's article 'Chav Scum: The Politics of Social Class in Contemporary Britain' here). These parents are the ones that we hear being blamed for the behaviour of their children as we listen to a Radio 4 broadcast (itself a marker of class) over the opening credits, as Steve and Jenny drive down to 'Eden Lake'. Jenny, as an infant school teacher is figured as their polar opposite, which of course makes events later in the film all the more powerful and shocking. As Bradshaw notes, Eden Lake is not a film that one can 'claim to like in any normal sense' (it is after all incredibly violent and graphic) but it is a visually accomplished film and it maintains an unremitting level of tension throughout. If you are planing a 'staycation' this summer, camping out in some English beauty spot, then maybe wait until you get back before you see this movie..!

Outpost (Steve Barker 2008 UK)

I watched this low-budget British horror film last night on DVD and rather enjoyed it, despite the occasional plot lapses and inexplicable logic. Set in the depths of an Eastern European war zone the film pits a group of mercenaries, led by DC (Ray Stevenson) and questing 'company' scientist Hunt (Julian Wadham), against a platoon of re-animated (or rather dimension-shifting) Nazi soldiers. The object of Hunt's quest is a device, hidden deep in an SS bunker, that supposedly allows for the merging of the four dimensions of matter (Einstein is checklisted in Hunt's exposition); once the antiquated machine is discovered he duly reports back to his financial masters who prepare to send in a team to recover it. As the mercenaries become aware of the presence of the Nazi soldiers they are slowly picked off until only DC, Hunt, Jordan (Paul Blair) and Prior (Richard Brake) remain. In a sequence reminiscent of David Fincher's Alien 3 (1992), Jordan, Prior and DC lure the Nazi 'zombies' into the range of the machine just as Hunt manages to re-start it. Firing a pulse that works to 'contain' the Nazis within their original dimension they appear to have an opportunity to escape; however, power to the machine fails and with it, apparently, their chance of survival... The strength of this film lies in the atmosphere created in the subterranean space of the bunker, which benefits from the sparing use of digital special effects. The Nazi soldiers are particularly effective given their visual simplicity, the filmmakers relying on showing less rather than more. The performances are all pretty decent although the accents have a tendency to wander somewhat with DC covering a broad range of nationalities. The actors convey the sense of threat and fear effectively with the 'Breather' (Johnny Meres) suitably eerie and chilling. This isn't the most original claustrophobic horror and the debt to movies like Alien (Ridley Scott 1979), The Fog (John Carpenter 1980) and The Keep (Michael Mann 1983) is clear, as is the potential comparison with a film like Neil Marshall's Dog Soldiers (2002) or his more recent The Descent (2005); nonetheless it works. If it is true that horror films have a tendency to reflect the concerns and anxieties of the period in which they are produced, what do these 'threat' films say about the contemporary moment? Certainly, the 'other' appears, as ever in horror, as the more or less invisible and un-knowable, the omnipresent source of danger and terror but are these films, as has been suggested, reflections of a post 9/11 world (as viewed from a Western perspective)? The fear of the dark, the hidden, the unknown, remains, whatever the political context; ultimately, these primordial fears long precede the current 'war on terrror'...

Watching 'Watchmen'

I have fond memories of reading Alan Moore's Watchmen while working in a popular London bookshop in the late 1980s. In the quiet periods I would surreptitiously pull this graphic novel from beneath the till and speed read a few pages before being required to serve yet another tourist looking for a London guide or an appropriately British literary classic to take home - this in the days before the Internet... So finally, the film adaptation has emerged after 22 years and a number of false starts. I didn't catch the film at the cinema but I have now seen it, tonight, on DVD. I was lucky enough to watch it at a friend's on a 60 inch screen so it was rather more of a 'cinematic' experience than much of my viewing, which tends to happen these days on my 24 inch iMac. So, 20 odd years after the graphic novel and it was clear that my memory had failed me - much of the early action was unfamiliar; perhaps I should have re-read Moore's novel first... The film certainly begins slowly and it has to work hard to set up the characters, the situation, etc. Once it settles and a pattern is established, in particular the relationships between the various protagonists, then the film begins to get going and it becomes the action film that Zack Snyder, it's director, has clearly wanted it to be all along. There are shades of 300 (Snyder 2006) in many of the fight sequences with liberal use of slow-motion footage to allow the audience to linger over the sonic spectacle that is a punch or a kick... Sound effects are significant in the film and are used to both punctuate sequences but also to provide a rhythm to the action itself. The music used in the film is also particularly evident, foregrounded because of its frequent incongruity - sometimes conscious, for comic effect but at other times I'm not sure whether Snyder and his team simply got it wrong. Leonard Cohen's 'Hallelulah' intrudes - for ironic effect, no doubt - and Dylan's 'All Along the Watchtower', the Hendrix version, just had to be in there somewhere..! As the pace picks up so the film becomes familiar as a graphic novel adaptation, pitting heroes against villains in a race to save the world and humanity with it. I won't spoil it for those who haven't seen it but the film does contain some quite striking and unexpected images as it moves towards its denouement, shots that are more reminiscent of 2001: A Space Odyssey (Stanley Kubrick 1968) than other graphic novel films. That said other Moore adaptations such as V for Vendetta (James McTeigue 2005) are also visually exciting. Anyway, I enjoyed this film although at a mammoth 160 minutes it requires a significant investment of time. It has made me want to go back to Moore's graphic novel and I will no doubt watch it again afterwards...

Veteran Film Director Roy Ward Baker visits Roehampton University

After a drinks reception to mark his appointment as an Honorary Visiting Professor at Roehampton University, Roy Ward Baker entertained students and staff with his memories of over sixty years spent working with many of cinema’s most famous actors, actresses, producers and directors. After a screening of his 1952 film Don’t Bother to Knock, professor Baker responded to questions from a fascinated and appreciative audience, describing his recollections of working with screen legends Marilyn Monroe, Richard Widmark and Anne Bancroft, as well as recounting his early career apprenticeship to directors such as Alfred Hitchcock and Carol Reed. Professor Baker clearly enjoyed meeting students on Roehampton’s BA (Hons) Film programme, describing the experience as ‘absolutely wonderful’. For his next seminar, prompted by his conversations with Roehampton’s film students, Professor Baker plans to tackle the subject of directing…

Roy Ward Baker

Roehampton University

CRFAC RESEARCH SEMINAR
Wednesday 25th March 2009

Professor Roy Ward Baker

To inaugurate his appointment as Honorary Visiting Professor of Film, the Centre for Research in Film and Audiovisual Cultures (CRFAC) at Roehampton University is delighted to welcome Roy Ward Baker to a screening and discussion of his 1952 film Don’t Bother to Knock, starring Marilyn Monroe, Richard Widmark and Ann Bancroft.

Roy Ward Baker is a British film director of considerable distinction whose career in film and television spans more than 50 years. Born in Hornsey in 1916, he began his career as a production runner at Gainsborough Islington Studios in 1934. After spending 1943-1946 in the Army Kinematograph Service directing documentary and training films, he went on to direct 32 films, including The October Man (1946), Don’t Bother to Knock (1952), Inferno (1953), A Night to Remember (1958), Flame In the Streets (1961), Quatermass and the Pit (1967), Dr Jekyll & Sister Hyde (1971), and more than 100 one hour television dramas for seminal series such as The Saint, The Avengers, and Minder.

The evening will begin with a drinks reception at 5.00pm in Duchesne Du.001. The screening will start at 5.45pm in Du.004 (Crucible Lecture Theatre) and will be followed by a discussion of the film with Professor Baker.

This event is free; however, booking is essential as numbers are limited. Please email p.sutton@roehampton.ac.uk to confirm your attendance.