Proceedings by Fátima Chinita
Avanca/Cinema 2014. Avanca: Edições Cineclube de Avanca, 2014, pp. 940-948 .
For a long time the allegorical activity was considered dogmatic and equated with artistic fossil... more For a long time the allegorical activity was considered dogmatic and equated with artistic fossilization, archaic religious propensity and lack of creativity. However, Walter Benjamin (1928) and Paul De Man (1969), among other illustrious thinkers, came to its defense, exalting, instead, its cryptic, hybrid and abstract nature, which, incidentally, are the main characteristics of modern art.
“Twin Peaks – Fire Walk with Me” (David Lynch, 1992) is a wonderful object of analysis, despite being one of the most misunderstood films in the history of cinema. The fact that its narrative is a prequel to the cult television series “Twin Peaks” and incorporates many of the characters of that show, explicitly denigrating the moral image of the protagonist, Laura Palmer, brought about an intense rejection by the fans of the series, as well as the indifference of the cinephilic community in general. However, one must go deeper, in order to understand Lynch’s brave accomplishment and its artfulness. Indeed, the opus is a powerful cinematic allegory because it contains a double layer of metaphorical meaning, one of them being explicitly metacinematic. Thus, besides assuming itself as a filmic daimonic allegory, occurring in a spiritual universe of Good versus Evil, the film is also an authorial discourse on cinema itself. More specifically, it is an allegory of spectatorship, according to Robert Stam’s definition, where the existence and crossing over to “another side” duplicates the architecture of movie theatres and the psychic processes involved in film viewing.
Avanca Cinema. Avanca: Edições Cineclube de Avanca, 2012, pp. 665-673.
Between pure documentary and pure fiction there are, more and more, a reasonable number of cinema... more Between pure documentary and pure fiction there are, more and more, a reasonable number of cinematic alternatives that convey a dimension of non-reality. Between the pointedly factual discourse and the irrational belief in an entirely narrative world, there intervenes an informed conviction in a truthful but nonexistent universe, in which the formal enunciation sells an image of objectivity.
In a path that leads us from the forms and contents of reflexive and performative documentaries, according to Bill Nichols, and ends up in fake documentary itself, we will have the opportunity to stress the filmic construction and its inherent narrative purpose, be it a fictional story or the creator himself as character (others would say subject) of the cinematic construct. In a boomerang kind of logic, the more the objects direct us to a referent, the more they restore us a creative/authorial reference and, along with it, the narrative idea that instills it.
In Woody Allen’s case, this storytelling manifests itself in the fake documentary genre, which works as if it is the reality, only to better manifest the sole reality that interests the director: that of the metacinema, or the cinema as self-referencial reality. The practical examples will be derived from the following films: "Take the Money and Run" (1969) and "Husbands and Wives" (1992).
Avanca/Cinema 2013. Avanca: Edições Cineclube de Avanca, 2013, pp. 832-839.
Adopting the concept of metalepsis, as explained by Gérard Genette, I intend to tackle the misceg... more Adopting the concept of metalepsis, as explained by Gérard Genette, I intend to tackle the miscegenation of ontological worlds as practiced in metacinematic films dealing either with the creator or the spectator and made famous with Woody Allen’s film The Purple Rose of Cairo (1985, EUA).
Assuming the existence of two adjoining fictional universes, one of them intrafilmically projected onto a screen and the other positioned in front of it so as to create or observe the other, one realizes that, in fact, they both communicate in a more intense way. That is, they both can cross the barrier that separates them and function, literally, as communicating vessels thrusting themselves onto the other side of fiction.
The use of this screen passage technique – which I call "spilling narrative" – although it takes place inside the film, at an intradiegetic level, cannot be considered a simple comic effect. In actuality, it is a very serious affair, denoting the authorial intervention as a reflexive practice of "écriture" by means of a mise en abyme, according to Lucien Dällenbach. Therefore, the fictional spilling over of worlds which totally blends together both sides of the twice artificial universe of the fabula, represents the emotional and intellectual involvement of the creator with his/her creation and of the spectator with the world watched. Both illustrate the desire of fusion inherent in the acts of creation and reception.
My approach will be based on Gabriele Salvatores’ "Happy Family" (2010) and Wojciech Marczewski’s "Escape from the ‘Liberty’ Cinema" (1990).
Avanca/Cinema 2011 Avanca: Edições Cineclube de Avanca, 2011, pp. 745-754 .
The American metacinema, which, by tradition, is narrative but extremely formulaic, favours the s... more The American metacinema, which, by tradition, is narrative but extremely formulaic, favours the story above the telling. No man contributed more to alter this state of affairs than Orson Welles, whose cinematic practice exalted the filmic enunciation and linked it more explicitly to the narrative intentions of the creator, making it obvious that metanarrative is synonymous with metacinema. With "Citizen Kane (1941)", in particular, the cinema was made more disnarrative, as meant by French writer/director Alain Robbe–Grillet, well ahead of Modernism. The fragmented narration, the temporal convolutions, a tendency for paradox and the interpretative obstacles all come together to anticipate the serial practice of David Lynch in his last four features. Structuring the films in segments which constitute different but complementary versions of the same events, Lynch manages to express the director’s enunciation along with the narration of the characters, reinforcing the role of the telling in the midst of the story. In "INLAND EMPIRE" (2006) the use of mise-en-abyme as a way of duplicating stories and tellers further increases the objective and complicates what is clearly the reign of the puzzle or mind-game film. In the footsteps of Welles, Lynch contributed for an outbreak of metanarrative / metacinematic crossover indie films closer to the European aesthetic practice but still very much within the American narrative tradition.
Avanca/Cinema 2014. Avanca: Edições Cineclube de Avanca, 2014, pp. 1096-1104
he demographics of the early 21st century in Europe point to a notorious ageing of the population... more he demographics of the early 21st century in Europe point to a notorious ageing of the population of most countries. Consequently, elderly people tend to be considered a social burden for the national healthcare and social security systems and their desire to participate actively in the civic and cultural activities of their countries is ignored. The first response to demographic ageing should therefore be a change in mentalities, which is what the area of gerontology is all about.
It was in this context that the European Project CINAGE - European Cinema for Active Ageing was created. It is a transnational project, promoted by Portugal, and partnered by UK, Italy and Slovenia, oriented for the creation of a cinema course for elders and directly supported by filmic tools, within an andragogical self-reflexive approach. The modules of this course will be created on the basis of European cinematic examples and the input of focus groups consisting of experts in andragogy, active ageing, cinema and elders. In the end, twelve short films will be produced by senior members of the CINAGE course.
We aim to present the project CINAGE in all its characteristics and thus reveal a way in which cinema can positively contribute to a more active ageing and the maintenance of mental health in later stages of life. It is relevant to consider what films Europe has been lately producing on this subject. We will use some of them to explain and corroborate our point of view and the project itself.
Avanca/Cinema 2015. Avanca: Cineclube de Avanca, 2015, pp. 629-636. , Jul 2015
Jean Cocteau, French cinema auteur avant la lettre, has consecrated his uniqueness to the defense... more Jean Cocteau, French cinema auteur avant la lettre, has consecrated his uniqueness to the defense of the “poet” and the promotion of its artistic ideals, before the French Nouvelle Vague inspired the break away from the filmic tradition and ahead of the eulogistic tendency to consider the director the undisputed creative entity of the filmmaking process.
The Orphic trilogy expresses Cocteau’s cinematic philosophy in action. In other words, it reveals the way by which the creative entity affirms itself as the major filmic enunciator, through an allegorical relationship with vision. Therefore, Cocteau’s self-reflexive metacinema conjoins, in a fertile attunement, the starting point and the ultimate goal, the creation and the reception. Without being exactly a cinema about the cinema, this artistic practice is, nonetheless, very much with the cinema, feeding as it does on its essence.
The films Le Sang d’un poète (“The Blood of a Poet”, 1932), Orphée (“Orpheus”, 1950) and Le Testament d’Orphée, ou ne me demandez pas pourquoi! (“Testament of Orpheus”, 1960) recreate, in allegorical form, the double creative function: the look of the directing entity reflects the gaze of the observer, just as this one always restores the presence of the creator. In short: Cocteau’s films, more than anyone else’s, deliberately reflect its auteur as enunciator.
In the Hollywood metafilm, from the Studio System period to the present day, only a few film dire... more In the Hollywood metafilm, from the Studio System period to the present day, only a few film directors have been tackled on screen. Also, whereas the biopic of Hollywood stars is usually simply a " rags to riches " tale and/or vice-versa, the film director biopic is foremost the evidence of an authorial discourse, although presented with some sentiment. In other words, what moves some filmmakers (especially directors) to approach the life and art of their famous peers is a wish to reflect on the nature of their common medium and on the quality of their own output. This article focuses on two films: " Chaplin " (1992, directed by Richard Attenborough) and " Ed Wood " (1994, directed by Tim Burton). From very early in his cinematic career, Charlie Chaplin was as famous as he was infamous, whereas Ed Wood was never famous and barely infamous. Still, the best and the worst film directors are portrayed in a style not entirely dissimilar to one another in their respective biopics, and in compliance with the rules advocated by Aristotle for tragedy in the " Poetics. " These two films manage to portray, from beginning to end, the essence of the charismatic celebrities they depict. With that aim, they de-mythicize both the men and the medium they worked for, but only in order to re-mythicize the directors and cinema in a new splendour.
Para David Bordwell, o cinema clássico caracteriza-se por uma absoluta linearidade evenemencial, ... more Para David Bordwell, o cinema clássico caracteriza-se por uma absoluta linearidade evenemencial, em que, por causa e efeito, o filme progride até ao seu fim, o qual corresponde ao cumprimento de todos os objectivos do herói. Este sistema orienta o espectador ao longo do percurso de storytelling, permitindo-lhe usufruir da imersão no mundo diegético. É também nesta base que as crianças aprendem o significado do mundo, quando colocam as questões: “Porquê?”/“E depois?”. Mas e se o “depois” viesse “antes”? Nesse caso verificar-se-ia uma sabotagem do resultado e um boicote do entendimento. Contudo, é essa a proposta estética de dois filmes que decidem contar uma história com princípio, meio e fim, mas fazendo-o, em tranches, por ordem inversa à dos eventos: Irréversible (Gaspar Noé, 2002) e 5x2 (François Ozon, 2004).
Centrando-me no filme Irréversible, pretendo provar que esta construção não é um mero jogo lúdico ou um simples artifício criativo, pois o material narrativo é muito pesado e a estratégia tem intuitos ideológicos. A inversão da ordem dos acontecimentos proporciona uma avaliação do filme como discurso autoral sobre a narrativa cinematográfica, em que o realizador/argumentista nos confronta com propósitos dramatúrgicos precisos. A interpretação do filme é inteiramente condicionada pela ordem em que os factos nos são apresentados, aumentando o valor da história narrada, tanto quanto o da narração.
Atas do V Encontro Anual da AIM
Taking as starting points the books "The Address of the Eye: A Phenomenology of Film Experience",... more Taking as starting points the books "The Address of the Eye: A Phenomenology of Film Experience", by Vivian Sobchak, and "Les quatre concepts fondamentaux de la psychanalyse", by Jacques Lacan, this article proposes to look at two well renowned film objects – "Rear Window" (Alfred Hitchcock, 1954, USA) and "Peeping Tom" (Michael Powell, 1960, UK) – in order to equate two forms of perception that, all things considered, come together as one: the perception of the mechanical apparatuses that record and project film and the optical and mental apparatuses that operate on the human filmmakers as well as their intradiegetic protagonists. In fact, these two films not only explore the characteristics and limits of vision and affection in their diegetic world, that is part of the filmmaker’s world itself, but reveals just how much the human lives through the eye and the expression of the machine itself. Film ontology is foremost a matter of (re)production rather than creation.
A metanarrativa cinematográfica, que começa por radicar num ímpeto fundamentalmente humano — a te... more A metanarrativa cinematográfica, que começa por radicar num ímpeto fundamentalmente humano — a tendência para a efabulação — transforma-se num discurso autoral por via da atenção prestada ao ato enunciativo em si mesmo, eventualmente ligado ao enunciado que o motiva. Ao evidenciar uma atividade de narração que se centra sobre os seus fundamentos narrativos (significado do prefixo “meta”), um filme ficcional enuncia-se a si próprio como artefacto emanado de uma mente criativa (seja ela a do realizador e/ou
do argumentista) e tendo o storytelling como temática. O discurso autoral sobre esta matéria pode, em nossa opinião, dividir-se em três grandes categorias, consoante a participação mais ou menos explícita que nelas tem o “enunciador-mor”, normalmente referido como “autor implícito”: metanarrativas intradiegéticas, quando a voz narrativa é predominantemente das personagens; metanarrativas extradiegéticas, quando a articulação de histórias é organizada de forma assumida pelo próprio autor; narrativas híbridas, quando os filmes são autorreflexivos e dotados de mise en abyme perfeita ou simbiótica, espelhando ao nível da diegese o trabalho enunciativo operado fora dela, no ato constitutivo. Formalmente situado entre o encaixamento e a aporia, o cinema metanarrativo comprova que na arte contemporânea a forma é já parte do seu próprio conteúdo.
O cérebro humano possui a capacidade de efabular e utiliza-a na sua fértil vida psíquica, tanto a... more O cérebro humano possui a capacidade de efabular e utiliza-a na sua fértil vida psíquica, tanto a dormir (em sonhos), como acordado (em fantasias); quer de modo saudável e catártico, quer de modo patológico e compulsivo. Como nem todos os seres humanos são artistas, muitas destas “criações” efabulatórias não são partilhadas nem logram aumentar o espólio cultural das nações. No entanto, alguns dos efabuladores espraiam a sua verve criativa em produções que partilham com outrem. Deste modo a efabulação natural chega à arte, de que o cinema é uma via possível.
As obras cinematográficas de narrativa assumidamente não linear constituem-se como um desafio de reconstrução para o vidente, apelando à sua capacidade de descodificação de um mistério subjacente ao enredo (o ato de storytelling) mais do que à(s) história(s) narrada(s). Inicia-se assim uma interação entre autor e recetor, sendo justamente nesse relacionamento que reside a fruição da obra. Com fortes bases metanarrativas, em que o objetivo discursivo dos filmes enquanto arte reside na exposição das técnicas de construção, com o intuito de realçar o anti ilusionismo e toda a dimensão falsificante da narrativa que Gilles Deleuze (1985), em grande parte, atribui à manipulação do tempo, este artigo propõe fazer o mapeamento temporal do filme "Following", de Christopher Nolan (1998, UK). Assim se pretende enaltecer a estratégia de ambiguidade adotada, ao mesmo tempo que se descobre, por trás de uma aparente dimensão aleatória, uma sólida arquitetura de construção que convida o espetador a tomar parte num jogo narrativo.
Partindo do conceito de de "disnarrativo" ("dysnarration"), tal como formulado por Alain Robbe-Gr... more Partindo do conceito de de "disnarrativo" ("dysnarration"), tal como formulado por Alain Robbe-Grillet em 1976 e publicado no "Le Monde" de 26 de Fevereiro desse ano, pretendo abordar uma das práticas narrativas mais mistificadoras do cinema moderno e pós-moderno, na qual a história, ao mesmo tempo que se vai contando, se nega a si mesma. O efeito é obtido por recurso a três linhas narrativas ("séries"), as quais se entrecruzam durante o tempo do filme, gerando personagens, locais e situações verdadeiramente "incompossíveis" (ou seja, como defende Deleuze, possíveis em si mesmas mas não quando combinadas umas com as outras). Esta estrutura narrativa ("telestrutura") relança constantemente a história, dotando-a de uma natureza alegórica superior à descritiva (tanto mais que os filmes são enriquecidos por meio de citações artísticas intermediais). O efeito é paradoxal - a de uma história impossível que se vai criando sob os nossos olhos - e o resultado é um autêntico labirinto fílmico. Cabe ao espectador tentar descodificar a obra, tarefa obviamente votada ao malogro por efeito da própria construção. A prática disnarrativa de Alain Robbe-Grillet será exemplificada no filme de 1983, sempre actual devido ao enigma abstracto que o permeia. Refiro-me a "La Belle captive" (FRA).
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Proceedings by Fátima Chinita
“Twin Peaks – Fire Walk with Me” (David Lynch, 1992) is a wonderful object of analysis, despite being one of the most misunderstood films in the history of cinema. The fact that its narrative is a prequel to the cult television series “Twin Peaks” and incorporates many of the characters of that show, explicitly denigrating the moral image of the protagonist, Laura Palmer, brought about an intense rejection by the fans of the series, as well as the indifference of the cinephilic community in general. However, one must go deeper, in order to understand Lynch’s brave accomplishment and its artfulness. Indeed, the opus is a powerful cinematic allegory because it contains a double layer of metaphorical meaning, one of them being explicitly metacinematic. Thus, besides assuming itself as a filmic daimonic allegory, occurring in a spiritual universe of Good versus Evil, the film is also an authorial discourse on cinema itself. More specifically, it is an allegory of spectatorship, according to Robert Stam’s definition, where the existence and crossing over to “another side” duplicates the architecture of movie theatres and the psychic processes involved in film viewing.
In a path that leads us from the forms and contents of reflexive and performative documentaries, according to Bill Nichols, and ends up in fake documentary itself, we will have the opportunity to stress the filmic construction and its inherent narrative purpose, be it a fictional story or the creator himself as character (others would say subject) of the cinematic construct. In a boomerang kind of logic, the more the objects direct us to a referent, the more they restore us a creative/authorial reference and, along with it, the narrative idea that instills it.
In Woody Allen’s case, this storytelling manifests itself in the fake documentary genre, which works as if it is the reality, only to better manifest the sole reality that interests the director: that of the metacinema, or the cinema as self-referencial reality. The practical examples will be derived from the following films: "Take the Money and Run" (1969) and "Husbands and Wives" (1992).
Assuming the existence of two adjoining fictional universes, one of them intrafilmically projected onto a screen and the other positioned in front of it so as to create or observe the other, one realizes that, in fact, they both communicate in a more intense way. That is, they both can cross the barrier that separates them and function, literally, as communicating vessels thrusting themselves onto the other side of fiction.
The use of this screen passage technique – which I call "spilling narrative" – although it takes place inside the film, at an intradiegetic level, cannot be considered a simple comic effect. In actuality, it is a very serious affair, denoting the authorial intervention as a reflexive practice of "écriture" by means of a mise en abyme, according to Lucien Dällenbach. Therefore, the fictional spilling over of worlds which totally blends together both sides of the twice artificial universe of the fabula, represents the emotional and intellectual involvement of the creator with his/her creation and of the spectator with the world watched. Both illustrate the desire of fusion inherent in the acts of creation and reception.
My approach will be based on Gabriele Salvatores’ "Happy Family" (2010) and Wojciech Marczewski’s "Escape from the ‘Liberty’ Cinema" (1990).
It was in this context that the European Project CINAGE - European Cinema for Active Ageing was created. It is a transnational project, promoted by Portugal, and partnered by UK, Italy and Slovenia, oriented for the creation of a cinema course for elders and directly supported by filmic tools, within an andragogical self-reflexive approach. The modules of this course will be created on the basis of European cinematic examples and the input of focus groups consisting of experts in andragogy, active ageing, cinema and elders. In the end, twelve short films will be produced by senior members of the CINAGE course.
We aim to present the project CINAGE in all its characteristics and thus reveal a way in which cinema can positively contribute to a more active ageing and the maintenance of mental health in later stages of life. It is relevant to consider what films Europe has been lately producing on this subject. We will use some of them to explain and corroborate our point of view and the project itself.
The Orphic trilogy expresses Cocteau’s cinematic philosophy in action. In other words, it reveals the way by which the creative entity affirms itself as the major filmic enunciator, through an allegorical relationship with vision. Therefore, Cocteau’s self-reflexive metacinema conjoins, in a fertile attunement, the starting point and the ultimate goal, the creation and the reception. Without being exactly a cinema about the cinema, this artistic practice is, nonetheless, very much with the cinema, feeding as it does on its essence.
The films Le Sang d’un poète (“The Blood of a Poet”, 1932), Orphée (“Orpheus”, 1950) and Le Testament d’Orphée, ou ne me demandez pas pourquoi! (“Testament of Orpheus”, 1960) recreate, in allegorical form, the double creative function: the look of the directing entity reflects the gaze of the observer, just as this one always restores the presence of the creator. In short: Cocteau’s films, more than anyone else’s, deliberately reflect its auteur as enunciator.
Centrando-me no filme Irréversible, pretendo provar que esta construção não é um mero jogo lúdico ou um simples artifício criativo, pois o material narrativo é muito pesado e a estratégia tem intuitos ideológicos. A inversão da ordem dos acontecimentos proporciona uma avaliação do filme como discurso autoral sobre a narrativa cinematográfica, em que o realizador/argumentista nos confronta com propósitos dramatúrgicos precisos. A interpretação do filme é inteiramente condicionada pela ordem em que os factos nos são apresentados, aumentando o valor da história narrada, tanto quanto o da narração.
do argumentista) e tendo o storytelling como temática. O discurso autoral sobre esta matéria pode, em nossa opinião, dividir-se em três grandes categorias, consoante a participação mais ou menos explícita que nelas tem o “enunciador-mor”, normalmente referido como “autor implícito”: metanarrativas intradiegéticas, quando a voz narrativa é predominantemente das personagens; metanarrativas extradiegéticas, quando a articulação de histórias é organizada de forma assumida pelo próprio autor; narrativas híbridas, quando os filmes são autorreflexivos e dotados de mise en abyme perfeita ou simbiótica, espelhando ao nível da diegese o trabalho enunciativo operado fora dela, no ato constitutivo. Formalmente situado entre o encaixamento e a aporia, o cinema metanarrativo comprova que na arte contemporânea a forma é já parte do seu próprio conteúdo.
As obras cinematográficas de narrativa assumidamente não linear constituem-se como um desafio de reconstrução para o vidente, apelando à sua capacidade de descodificação de um mistério subjacente ao enredo (o ato de storytelling) mais do que à(s) história(s) narrada(s). Inicia-se assim uma interação entre autor e recetor, sendo justamente nesse relacionamento que reside a fruição da obra. Com fortes bases metanarrativas, em que o objetivo discursivo dos filmes enquanto arte reside na exposição das técnicas de construção, com o intuito de realçar o anti ilusionismo e toda a dimensão falsificante da narrativa que Gilles Deleuze (1985), em grande parte, atribui à manipulação do tempo, este artigo propõe fazer o mapeamento temporal do filme "Following", de Christopher Nolan (1998, UK). Assim se pretende enaltecer a estratégia de ambiguidade adotada, ao mesmo tempo que se descobre, por trás de uma aparente dimensão aleatória, uma sólida arquitetura de construção que convida o espetador a tomar parte num jogo narrativo.