Download (12MB) - University of Salford Institutional Repository
Download (12MB) - University of Salford Institutional Repository Download (12MB) - University of Salford Institutional Repository
Freudian theory of the Oedipus complex, and Bertolucci's shift of orientation towards mainstream film-making. Kolker expresses his views with an initial incisiveness, stating arguments which, however, are sometimes reversed by the author himself. For instance, after positing that Partner was an 'imitation" of Godard in order to 'absorb and expel the father', he affirms that 'there are explanations other than the psychological' which 'clarify the film as Bertolucci's attempt to position himself within contemporary cinema" (Kolker, 1985: 30). He dismisses Bertolucci's earlier work, that of the early to mid 1960s, stating that while 'the young film- makers of France were establishing their own styles' Bertolucci 'lurched about' (Kolker, 1985: 38-39), yet ultimately, returning to Before the Revolution, he recognizes that 'on closer examination there are major elements in the film that set it off from contemporary French and Italian influences, [...] a complexity of intellectual struggle [...] within the film's formal apparatus that goes beyond the mere imitation of Bertolucci's cinematic contemporaries' (Kolker, 1985: 40). The author's observation that with 1900 Bertolucci embraced 'traditional cinematic forms' is reversed by the assertion that the film 'subverts' 'its ostensible use of the classical codes', thereby positioning the film within the realm of 'meta-realism' (Kolker, 1985: 81-82). Kolker's assessment of Partner as 'a strange attempt to end the relationship [with Godard] by turning influence into imitation" (Kolker, 1985: 15) seems abrupt and chronologically simplistic. My study will suggest that Partner exemplifies Bertolucci's attempt to diffuse within Italian cinema 'that rupture of the cinematic grammar' that he praised Godard for, (Ungari, 1982: 177) and that the film also constitutes the peak of his admiration for the French director given its references to Godard's approach to film, while demonstrating Bertolucci's own ability to create an original mise-en-scene. With regard to a particular film that foregrounds the end of the relationship with Godard, my study posits that 18
it is Last Tango in Paris, and in the relevant chapter I will also explain my reservations about some interpretations that condition Kolker's analysis. As regards the use of Verdi's music in The Spider's Stratagem, Kolker's view that it contributes to intensify Bertolucci's way of displaying the 'spectacle of fascism and the spectacle of Athos's production of history' is persuasive, (Kolker, 1985: 124) but less convincing is the connection that he makes between the characters of Verdi's opera Rigoletto and those of Stratagem, notably Rigoletto/Athos senior and Gilda/Athos junior. Rigoletto is a despicable personality, whose ill fate - that of suffering the same abuse that he has helped the Duke to inflict upon courtiers - appears deserved. The eventual pity elicited towards his character derives from the high price he pays, that of the killing of his young, innocent daughter.(l) The case of Athos senior is different, not only because he ultimately offers his own life for the benefit of a cause, but also because the film's ending does not solve the riddle of his actions or establish whether his behaviour betrays the expectations of his offspring, Athos junior; instead it remains shrouded in ambiguity. For the same reason I do not think that TJre Spider's Stratagem features 'in a reverse of the events of the opera, a son who mistakes the identity of his father' (Kolker, 1985: 123). Finally, with regard to Kolker's view that in The Tragedy of a Ridiculous Man terrorism is merely 'the initiating element of the film's discourse' as 'it remains, by and large, outside of that discourse - or buried deep within it' (Kolker, 1985: 166), I will counterpoint that terrorism is the focus of the whole film. However, there is a closer convergence between this volume and Kolker s consideration of La luna more as 'an indication of Bertolucci's momentary loss of formal and narrative control [...] - possibly in reaction to the debacle of 1900 - than as a Freudian exercise' (Kolker, 1985:8). In this context, Kolker's observation that the potential of Bertolucci's work for Freudian interpretation 'has been of great interest to American critics' (Kolker, 1985: 8) 19
- Page 1 and 2: Emotion and Cognition in the Films
- Page 3 and 4: Contents Acknowledgements 1 Abstrac
- Page 5 and 6: Acknowledgements I am very grateful
- Page 7 and 8: INTRODUCTION Over the past five dec
- Page 9 and 10: moods punctuated by emotional pheno
- Page 11 and 12: comprehensible why a nation that de
- Page 13 and 14: foreground a reception process in w
- Page 15 and 16: LITERATURE REVIEW While this study
- Page 17 and 18: film for 'jealous cinephiles or, mo
- Page 19 and 20: together' (Ungari, 1982: 51). This
- Page 21: Canby implicitly agrees with Cineas
- Page 25 and 26: e attributed to Paul's abolition of
- Page 27 and 28: Petri, who - in 1972 - talking abou
- Page 29 and 30: twofold aim of offering viewers sop
- Page 31 and 32: Maraini, D. (1973) 'Who were you?',
- Page 33 and 34: In discussing different narrative t
- Page 35 and 36: outcomes. The viewer and character
- Page 37 and 38: information to which the character
- Page 39 and 40: emotional state that the individual
- Page 41 and 42: opera houses in Before the Revoluti
- Page 43 and 44: manipulation, Bordwell analyses the
- Page 45 and 46: narrative schema clarifies how we o
- Page 47 and 48: to the point of drawing the spectat
- Page 49 and 50: for granted, in a 'slightly hazardo
- Page 51 and 52: passive emotionalism' (Sterritt, 19
- Page 53 and 54: Godard's approach from Bertolucci's
- Page 55 and 56: characters being stimulated into ta
- Page 57 and 58: apolitical art' in La Chinoise (p.
- Page 59 and 60: SECTION 1; Pessimism and Melancholi
- Page 61 and 62: La commare secca/The Grim Reaper: A
- Page 63 and 64: the film. Several of the suspects a
- Page 65 and 66: to reduce realism in favour of an a
- Page 67 and 68: giant publicity poster for the aper
- Page 69 and 70: mark out the sequence as significan
- Page 71 and 72: emphasizes his youth and simple nat
Freudian theory <strong>of</strong> the Oedipus complex, and Bertolucci's shift <strong>of</strong> orientation towards<br />
mainstream film-making.<br />
Kolker expresses his views with an initial incisiveness, stating arguments which,<br />
however, are sometimes reversed by the author himself. For instance, after positing that<br />
Partner was an 'imitation" <strong>of</strong> Godard in order to 'absorb and expel the father', he affirms that<br />
'there are explanations other than the psychological' which 'clarify the film as Bertolucci's<br />
attempt to position himself within contemporary cinema" (Kolker, 1985: 30). He dismisses<br />
Bertolucci's earlier work, that <strong>of</strong> the early to mid 1960s, stating that while 'the young film-<br />
makers <strong>of</strong> France were establishing their own styles' Bertolucci 'lurched about' (Kolker,<br />
1985: 38-39), yet ultimately, returning to Before the Revolution, he recognizes that 'on closer<br />
examination there are major elements in the film that set it <strong>of</strong>f from contemporary French and<br />
Italian influences, [...] a complexity <strong>of</strong> intellectual struggle [...] within the film's formal<br />
apparatus that goes beyond the mere imitation <strong>of</strong> Bertolucci's cinematic contemporaries'<br />
(Kolker, 1985: 40). The author's observation that with 1900 Bertolucci embraced 'traditional<br />
cinematic forms' is reversed by the assertion that the film 'subverts' 'its ostensible use <strong>of</strong> the<br />
classical codes', thereby positioning the film within the realm <strong>of</strong> 'meta-realism' (Kolker,<br />
1985: 81-82). Kolker's assessment <strong>of</strong> Partner as 'a strange attempt to end the relationship<br />
[with Godard] by turning influence into imitation" (Kolker, 1985: 15) seems abrupt and<br />
chronologically simplistic. My study will suggest that Partner exemplifies Bertolucci's<br />
attempt to diffuse within Italian cinema 'that rupture <strong>of</strong> the cinematic grammar' that he<br />
praised Godard for, (Ungari, 1982: 177) and that the film also constitutes the peak <strong>of</strong> his<br />
admiration for the French director given its references to Godard's approach to film, while<br />
demonstrating Bertolucci's own ability to create an original mise-en-scene. With regard to a<br />
particular film that foregrounds the end <strong>of</strong> the relationship with Godard, my study posits that<br />
18
Change language