Screening Modernism: European Art Cinema, 1950-1980 (Cinema and Modernity Series)

441 Pages·2008·2.22 MB·English

by  Andras Balint Kovacs

Screening Modernism
Cinema and Modernity A Series Edited by Tom Gunning
Screening Modernism:
European Art Cinema, 1950–1980
andrás bálint kovács
The University of Chicago Press CHICAGO AND LONDON
András Bálint Kovács is professor of fi lm studies at Eotvos University
in Budapest and the director of the Hungarian Institute in Paris.
The University of Chicago Press, Chicago 60637
The University of Chicago Press, Ltd., London
© 2007 by The University of Chicago
All rights reserved. Published 2007
Printed in the United States of America
16 15 14 13 12 11 10 09 08 07 1 2 3 4 5
ISBN–13: 978–0–226–45163–3 (cloth)
ISBN-13: 978–0–226–45165–7 (paper)
ISBN–10: 0–226–45163–1 (cloth)
ISBN-10: 0–226–45165–8 (paper)
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Kovács, András Bálint.
Screening modernism : European art cinema, 1950–1980 / András
Bálint Kovács.
p. cm.
Includes bibliographical references and index.
ISBN-13: 978-0-226-45163-3 (cloth : alk. paper)
ISBN-10: 0-226-45163-1 (cloth : alk. paper) 1. Motion pictures—
Europe—History. 2. Modernism (Aesthetics)—Europe I. Title.
PN1993.5.E8K68 2007
791.43094'09045—dc22
2007013782
(cid:2)(cid:2) The paper used in this publication meets the minimum
requirements of the American National Standard for Information
Sciences—Permanence of Paper for Printed Library Materials,
ANSI Z39.48–1992.
to my father

Contents
Acknowledgments xi
Introduction 1
Part One: What Is the Modern?
1 theorizing modernism 7
Modern 8
Modernism 11
Avant-Garde 14
Cinema and Modernism: The First Encounter 16
The Institution of the Art Film 20
Modernist Art Cinema and the Avant-Garde 27
theories of the classical/modern
2
distinction in the cinema 33
Style Analysts 34
Evolutionists 38
Modern Cinema and Deleuze 40
Modernism as an Unfi nished Project 44
Part Two: The Forms of Modernism
3 modern art cinema: style or movement? 51
4 narration in modern cinema 56
Classical versus Modernist Art Films 61
The Alienation of the Abstract Individual 65
c o n t e n t s
Who Is “the Individual” in Modern Cinema? 67
The Role of Chance 70
Open-Ended Narrative 77
Narrative Trajectory Patterns: Linear, Circular, Spiral 78
5 genre in modern cinema 82
Melodrama and Modernism 84
Excursus: Sartre and the Philosophy of Nothingness 90
A Modern Melodrama: Antonioni’s Eclipse (1962) 96
Other Genres and Recurrent Plot Elements 99
Investigation 99
Wandering/Travel 102
The Mental Journey 103
Closed-Situation Drama 111
Satire/Genre Parody 114
viii The Film Essay 116
6 patterns of modern forms 120
Primary Formation: Continuity and Discontinuity 122
Radical Continuity 128
Imaginary Time in Last Year at Marienbad 130
Radical Discontinuity 131
The Fragmented Form according to Godard 132
Serial Form 136
7 styles modernism 140
Minimalist Styles 140
The Bresson Style 141
Abstract Subjectivity and the “Model” 146
Bresson and His Followers 148
Analytical Minimalism: The Antonioni Style 149
Psychic Landscape? 149
Continuity 153
Antonioni and His Followers 156
Expressive Minimalism 161
8 naturalist styles 168
Post-neorealism 169
Cinéma Vérité 170
The “New Wave” Style 172
9 ornamental styles 175
10 theatrical styles 192
11 modern cinema trends 203
The Family Tree of Modern Cinema 210
c o n t e n t s
Part Three: Appearance and Propagation
of Modernism (1949–1958)
critical reflexivity or the birth
12
of the auteur 217
The Birth of the Auteur 218
Historical Forms of Refl exivity 224
The Emergence of Critical Refl exivity: Bergman’s Prison 227
Refl exivity and Abstraction: Modern Cinema
and the Nouveau Roman 231
13 the return of the theatrical 238
Abstract Drama 241
14 the destabilization of the fabula 244
Voice-Over Narration 245
The Dissolution of Classical Narrative: Film Noir
ix
and Modernism 246
Fabula Alternatives: Hitchcock 248
Alternative Subjective Narration: Rashomon 251
an alternative to the classical form:
15
neorealism and modernism 253
The End of Neorealism 255
Modernism in Story of a Love Affair: Neorealism
Meets Film Noir 256
Rossellini: The “Neorealist Miracle” 260
Part Four: The Short Story of Modern Cinema (1959–1975)
16 the romantic period, 1959–1961 275
Neorealism: The Reference 276
Eastern Europe: From Socialist Realism toward Neorealism 282
Heroism versus Modernism 284
Jerzy Kawalerowicz: The First Modern Polish Auteur 286
The Year 1959 290
Forms of Romantic Modernism 293
Genre and Narration in the Early Years 295
Sound and Image 298
Background and Foreground 300
From Hiroshima to Marienbad: Modernism and
the Cinema of the Elite 303
The Production System of the “New Cinema” 306