Hello Al
meant to post this yesterday--
never thought i would have a chance to see them--
as if anyone has, i wd like to correspond regarding them--
the films last night were shown with a question/comment period between
them--so that "debord canhave the final word" as Keith Sanborn (see blow)
said--
as the second film is a rebuttal of critics of the first --SOCIETY OF
THE SPECTACLE
it is very interseting to see the films as in a sense "the spectacle
of guy debord"--
he has an immense fascination with stalin which is interesting as
the films become in a way the intellectual autobiography of the development
of a cult of personality-- i.e. m. debord's
i am looking fwd to the others in relation with visual
poetry--
i lived in france 1967-8, 69, 70 & wondered if any of you
did also?
"Education is a weapon whose effects depend on who holds it in his hands
and at whom it is aimed."
Josef STALIN quote found in Hallmarks' Great Quotes
of the 20th Century 2
if anyone is interested or has seen these--send a bc letter to david-bc
From: Union Cinema-Theatre <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
To: Union Cinema-Theatre <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
Subject: Films of the Situationist International starts Monday
The UWM Union Theatre presents a unique retrospective of the rebellious
and
highly influential filmmaking of the Situationist International! The event
begins Monday, October 17th and runs until Thursday, October 20th. Here is
the complete list of programming with descriptions for your consideration.
ALL SCREENINGS ARE FREE TO ALL!
Writer, filmmaker, translator and SI archeologist Keith Sanborn will be in
attendance on Monday, October 17 to introduce the evening and provide a
talk-back session after the film.
Monday, October 17 - 7pm
The Society of the Spectacle (La société du spectacle)
Situationist founder Guy Debord's own 1973 adaptation of his 1967 book by
the same name. Enormously influential in France, the film is an
astonishingly sophisticated and coherent response to the experience of May
1968. A filmic essay, based primarily on "detourned," that is pre-existing
and recontextualized, images, including: sequences from Hollywood features,
East Block features, news footage, documentary footage, tv commercials,
pornography, and a vast number of stills, some of which seem to have been
shot explicitly for this film. The film also makes use of intertitles which
include both acknowledged and unacknowledged detourned quotations from
Dante, Hegel, Marx, Meister Eckhart, Shakespeare, Cieszkowski, von
Clausewitz, Pouget and others. While this film is a considerable
achievement
in the domain of cinema, it is not just a film; it is a conscious attempt
to
change the world. English subtitles by Keith Sanborn.
(Guy Debord, France, 90 min., French w/ Eng. St., Film on Video, 1973)
preceded by:
Refutation Of All Judgments Which Have Up To Now Been Brought Whether In
Praise Or Hostile To The Film Called "Society Of The Spectacle"
Debord's response in film to the written critiques which greeted his film
The Society of the Spectacle. (Guy Debord, France, 20 min., French w/ Eng.
St., Film on Video, 1975)
Tuesday, October 18 - 7pm
Venom & Eternity (Traité de bauve et d'éternité)
Poet and founder of the Lettrist Movement, Jean Isidore Isou wrote, scored,
photographed, directed and starred in Venom & Eternity - a self-described
"revolt against cinema." In the film Isou attempts to discuss what was
wrong
with the cinema and goes on to show examples of what he thinks it should
consist of. Featuring an appearance by Jean Cocteau, who, musing as to the
film's future, would ask: "Is VENOM a springboard or is it a void? In fifty
years we'll know the answer...The day will come, perhaps, when Isou's style
will be in fashion." Causing riots and stomp-outs during its initial
screenings in France and the US, the film went on to influence a generation
of avant-garde filmmakers including, most profoundly, a young Stan Brakhage
- declaring Venom & Eternity as a "portal though which every film artist is
going to have to pass." (Jean Isidore Isou, France, 90 min., French w/ Eng.
St., 16mm B&W, 1951)
Wednesday, October 19 - 7pm
Can Dialectics Break Bricks? (La Dialectique peut-elle casser des briques?)
Annouced as "the first entirely détourned film in the history of cinema,"
Viénet and Cohen transformed a typical kung-fu film into an examination of
class and intellectual sectarianism. According to Viénet: "The cinema,
which
is the newest and most serviceable means of expression of our era has been
marking time for 3/4 of a century. By way of review, let us say that it has
in fact become the '7th art' dear to cinephiles, ciné-clubs, PTA's. Let us
state that for our purposes the cycle has come to an end Let us
appropriate the stammerings of this new writing; let us appropriate above
all its most achieved examples, the most modern ones, those which have
escap
