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Lumière
and Company
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Thirty-nine contemporary filmmakers were asked to make a film with the original camera used by the Lumière brothers: that means black and white, fifty-two seconds at hand-cranked speed, and one continuous take (with only four attempts allowed). There is one compensatory cheat for the benefit of a modern audience: a non-sync soundtrack can be added afterwards. The most fascinating aspect of the project is how these very diverse filmmakers respond to the Lumière legacy. Many (such as Spike Lee and Raymond Depardon) offer playful vignettes about small children. Others (James Ivory, Nadine Trintignant) make modern actuality films in the streets. A few (David Lynch, Andrei Konchalovsky, Abbas Kiarostami) devise stunningly condensed, expressive film-poems. And a surprising number (including Claude Lelouch and Liv Ullmann) take the opportunity to compare the simple cinematic apparatus of the Lumière era to the complicated machinery of today. The gender balance in this project is conspicuously skewed – only three women filmmakers, none of them interviewed – and the ponderous questions of the interviewer produce some predictably silly replies from the filmmakers. Only Jacques Rivette answers the beauty "why do you film?" with dignity: "I can only respond with a long, questioning silence". MORE anthologies: Aria, The Blues, Fallen Angels, Inside Out, Strangers, Tales from the Darkside Vol.1, Wild Palms MORE Lee: A Huey P. Newton Story, Jungle Fever, Malcolm X, The Original Kings of Comedy, Summer of Sam, 25th Hour, Girl 6 MORE Ivory: Le Divorce, The Golden Bowl, Jefferson in Paris, The Remains of the Day, A Soldier's Daughter Never Cries MORE Lynch: Mulholland Drive, Twin Peaks: Fire Walk With Me, The Straight Story, Lost Highway, Inland Empire, Outside / Twin Peaks (2015), Twin Peaks: The Return MORE Konchalovsky: The Inner Circle, Tango & Cash MORE Rivette: Va Savoir, La Belle noiseuse, Out 1: Noli me tangere, The Nun MORE Schatzberg: Jerry Schatzberg: Filmmaker Without a Signature, Filmmaker of Truth, Reunion © Adrian Martin August 1996 |
