Dear Jack,
Thanks very much for writing. I appreciated all your comments.
At the center of my argument in the article you mention is my notion
that the differences between as mainstream a classical Hollywood
filmmaker as Raoul Walsh and the best avant-garde films are not as great
as most imagine. At the same time, I don't much like seeing how far this
list has long veered from the charge to discuss only experimental film.
There are endless lists of and suggestions for mainstream features in
which I have no interest, often in reply to hardly-ever-explained
queries for films featuring swimming pools, or flying geese, or
whatever. Therefore, I will reply to you at greater length offlist.
Yours,
Fred
\On 5/12/2022 3:32 PM, Jack Seibert wrote:
Dear Fred,
Thank you so much for sending these articles out. I've just read /The
Myth of the Avant-Garde Film/, and was cheering along the whole time.
I just discovered your writing a few weeks ago actually, from the
a_film_by archives. I've never found somebody who describes film the
way that I see it as well, primarily as negotiations of space. (And I
enjoy reading back your proving-wrong of other critics who, while they
seem to be thoughtful and nice, just get it all wrong.) So many
critics—even the "good" ones—seem to just trade in plot summaries, to
the degree that it shocks me that they even /enjoy/ something like /El
Dorado/, which to me seems rather boring (or perhaps "tedious" is a
better word) if one isn't attuned to the careful way in which Hawks
describes and juxtaposes the spaces of the film. Sometimes I think the
only good critical work on narrative filmmaking has been by people
like Rivette or Straub who, even if they cannot verbalize, comment on
and reframe earlier directors' uses of space. And what a shock to hear
you also give a director six films, which is about what I've figured
out I need as well. Needless to say, our tastes are almost perfectly
aligned, though I know much less experimental work than you do. On a
recommendation of yours that I found on a_film_by, I've watched some
of Warren Sonbert's films, which have blown me away.
Have you watched much Tsui Hark? Not sure if you're in the mood to
find new work or not. Another filmmaker with a loyal fanbase à la
Hawks, but whose magnificence I have never heard someone get to the
root of. As you point out in /The Myth/, it is often hard to talk
about specifics in writing about topics like this—much easier to point
out repeated themes or something.
Hope you're doing well, and mostly just wanted to say that I
appreciate the writing.
Best,
Jack
On Wed, May 11, 2022 at 10:55 AM Fred Camper <[email protected]> wrote:
I have had three articles related to avant-garde film published
online in the last year. Two are fairly recent, and the third,
/The End of Avant-Garde Film/, is from 1986, and hence way out of
date; in my introduction I explain the ways in which it is not
current but perhaps still of interest. That article caused much
controversy at the time, including many negative replies ("Whose
side are you on," one noted filmmaker, also a friend, asked me).
It also helped inspire the 1989 Experimental Film Congress in
Toronto, which was offered partly as a response, and where I was
the opening speaker.
Another article, /The Myth of the Avant-Garde Film/, tried to
argue for certain commonalities between some avant-garde films and
some of the great films of classical Hollywood. The third,
/Political, Or Not/, is about Eisenstein, Brakhage, and the
problems of "political" filmmaking.
Two of the three were published by a relatively new online arts
journal, /Caesura/, which should be of interest to anyone
interested in the arts.
They are all linked to at the top of the page at
https://fredcamper.com/Film/writingF.html , just under "Writing on
Film."
Fred Camper
Chicago
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