Truth
The first two weeks of Canon Fodder have taught me to interrogate what is true and what we accept to be truth from knowledge holders whilst illuminating the flaws in the film Canon.
The sequential viewing of Be Natural: The Untold Story of Alice Guy-Blaché (dir. Pamela B. Green, 2018) and Forgotten Silver (dirs Costa Botes and Peter Jackson, 1995) was to be one of my greatest lessons at university so far. Be Natural cast Alice Guy-Blache into the limelight after her contribution to early cinema, film narrative and her production house Solax were buried under the men that followed her in a tale as old as time. Despite her milestones in film history, she is not on Sight and Sounds ‘Greatest Films of All Time’ list. In parallel, Forgotten Silver seeks to document and uncover the works of Kiwi Colin McKenzie and the technical advancements he made to film and cinema which also became buried (physically and metaphorically) in an effort to preserve his vision of his four hour feature ‘Salone’.
Whilst Guy-Blache’s story was true, Forgotten Silver was fake (TO MY SHOCK AND HORROR). Upon viewing, I accepted both films as truth as I naively onboarded the information I was given – rather than critique it. To me it ultimately highlighted how easily the white male story tellers were able to rewrite history and for their narrative to flourish unchallenged. The Canon, and the greatness it represents, speaks to a history of whiteness and maleness; a knowledge bank passed down through generations of critics, film makers and students accepting history from the lone perspective of white men.
The battle between Vertigo (dir. Alfred Hitchcock, 1958) and Citizen Kane (dir. Orson Welles, 1941) and which one deserves the top spot on the Sight and Sound’s “The Greatest Films of All Time’ list was a contest I did not overly care for. I was underwhelmed at both films’ greatness as I found their subject matter dated. Owen Gleiberman eagerly critiques both films in his article “‘Vertigo’ over ‘Citizen Kane’?’ stating that Citizen Kane may have fallen to the second position on the list due to its inability to relate to more modern audiences stating ‘for a movie to be the greatest of all time, it can’t be a monument. It has to be a movie that you feel close to’ (Gleiberman 2012 para. 4) and I agree. I felt disconnected from the story and confused by the film’s structure. He continues to state (and I paraphrase) that Vertigo’s place on the list was a choice to ‘fanboy… academics’ (Gleiberman 2012 para. ) and thus I reach my main issue with the list, it feels incredibly dated. Even though I am unsure if a films ability for it to ‘age well’ should effect it placement on the list in an academic sense, my personal taste was not too fond of both films.
However I did enjoy the composition of the shots in Citizen Kane and the use of colour in Vertigo, but in my opinion, beauty alone can not put either film on a pedestal. it was mostly the only positive feedback our class gave the films.
L’Avventura (dir. Michelangelo Antonioni, 1960) and Robert Koehler’s “What makes Antonioni’s L’avventura great” opened my eyes to why these films top the list beyond my personal prejudice against old films (that’s too harsh, I’m sorry). Koehler speaks to L’Avventura’s revolutionary nature. The lack of a conclusion, the disappearance of a protagonist and the extended empty shots were appalling – in a fantastic way. Even though I thought the film was slow, I began entranced in the lore of its opening at the Cannes film festival and the dramatic good and bad reactions it conjured.
And whilst I think about the fairness of the list, I am confronted with inner turmoil. Even though Citizen Kane, Vertigo and L’Avventura were not what I consider great on their own but their revolutionary nature is what makes them great. Their ability to invent, shock and wow people, their legacy is their greatness. And yet, Alice Guy-Blache was revolutionary in her technical ability and her narrative style… but where is her spot on the list?
References:
Gleiberman, O (2012), ‘Vertigo’ over ‘Citizen Kane’? Why the new Sight and Sound critics’ poll is full of itself’, Entertainment Weekly <https://ew.com/article/2012/08/07/the-sight-and-sound-poll-is-full-of-it/>
Koehler, R (2012), ‘What Makes Antonioni’s L’avventura Great’, BFI.org.uk<https://www.bfi.org.uk/sight-and-sound/features/l-avventura-michelangelo-antonioni-1960-greatest-films-poll>