"YOU CANNOT ALIBI."

Pedro Costa carte blanche selections...

...from this past September 29th, at the Cinemateca Portuguesa on the occasion of their 50th anniversary, (thank you andré):


SO DARK THE NIGHT (1946, Joseph H. Lewis)
THE EXILES (1961, Kent MacKenzie)
BILLIE HOLIDAY SINGS FINE AND MELLOW ('Sound of Jazz' - CBS television broadcast, New York, December 8, 1957)

*****

Here is fruit for the crows to pluck,

For the rain to gather, for the wind to suck,

For the sun to rot, for the trees to drop,

Here is a strange and bitter crop.

-did you die?
-that i don't know.

R.I.P.

("You could see La Punition three or four times" - for Sam Di Iorio)

(English translation of the Open Letter posted yesterday)

Dear Inrocks,

We are the editors of Cahiers du cinéma.

When Le Monde decided to sell les Cahiers, we took the opportunity to develop a project with the editor-in-chief for the purchase of the magazine. That project, born of the desire and the need for critical thinking about cinema, has convinced financial partners, our main shareholder being Thierry Wilhelm - press and internet editor - along with, among others, Paul Otchakovsky-Laurens, a publisher who has always been close to the magazine.

Our project is also that of a huge number of old members of Les Cahiers, like Jean-Luc Godard, Claude Chabrol, Jean Narboni, André S. Labarthe, Jean-Louis Comolli, Louis Skorecki, Luc Moullet…, and longtime companions like Jacques Rancière and Jean Louis Schefer. They, more than twenty-five in total, have indicated their commitment by signing a letter we published in Libération.

This project was initiated several months ago. It has constructed itself in plain view of everyone, and its aims are now well-known: renewing the Cahiers in depth by developing a new complementarity between the magazine and the internet; ensuring the sustainability of the structure in all its activities; guaranteeing continued employment for the salaried staff.

All of this you know. Or rather, no, you pretend not to know it when you maintain your proposal to take over an inside project, announcing among other things further layoffs.

Is it possible that these Inrocks are the same news magazine that displays a leftwing sensibility? Is it possible that you wish to take over a magazine, at this historical moment, that has the will and means to ensure its own future?

We don't believe it. There must be a mistake.

Therefore, do not delay in letting people know it's not true: Les Inrocks don't want to buy Les Cahiers. They are too attached to the plurality of the press and to lively critic debate for that.

Sincerely,
Pierre Alferi, Hervé Aubron, Christophe Beney, Nicole Brenez, Jean Douchet, Laurence Giavarini, Charlotte Garson, Gilles Grand, Bill Krohn, Ludovic Lamant, Elisabeth Lequeret, Arnaud Macé, Philippe Mangeot, Thierry Méranger, Cyril Neyrat, Eugenio Renzi, Antoine Thirion, Axel Zeppenfeld.


LETTRE OUVERTE AUX INROCKUPTIBLES‏

Chers Inrocks,

Nous sommes la rédaction des Cahiers du cinéma. Nous avons voulu saisir l'occasion de la mise en vente du titre par Le Monde pour développer un projet de reprise avec la rédaction en chef. Ce projet, né d'une envie et d'une nécessité critiques, a su convaincre des partenaires financiers : notre actionnaire majoritaire est Thierry Wilhelm – entrepreneur presse et Internet –, aux côtés duquel on compte, entre autres, Paul Otchakovsky-Laurens, éditeur historiquement proche de la revue.

Ce projet est aussi celui d'un grand nombre d'anciens des Cahiers, parmi lesquels Jean-Luc Godard, Claude Chabrol, Jean Narboni, André S. Labarthe, Jean-Louis Comolli, Louis Skorecki, Luc Moullet… ; et de compagnons de route, comme Jacques Rancière ou Jean Louis Schefer. Ceux-ci, plus de vingt-cinq au total, ont marqué leur engagement en signant avec nous une tribune dans Libération.

Ce projet s'est déclaré il y a plusieurs mois. Il a évolué et s'est construit au vu et au su de tous. Ses atouts sont aujourd'hui connus : renouveler en profondeur les Cahiers en développant notamment une complémentarité nouvelle entre la revue et Internet ; assurer la pérennité de la structure dans toutes ses activités ; garantir l'emploi des salariés.

Tout cela, vous ne l'ignorez pas. Ou plutôt si, vous feignez de l'ignorer en maintenant votre candidature au rachat face à un projet maison. Vous annoncez en outre des licenciements.

Est-il possible que ces Inrocks-là soient les mêmes que le news magazine à la sensibilité de gauche affichée ? Est-il possible que vous convoitiez un titre démontrant, en ce moment historique, qu'il a la volonté et les moyens d'assurer par lui-même son avenir ?

Nous n'y croyons pas. Il y a forcément erreur.

N'attendez donc pas pour faire savoir que c'est faux : Les Inrocks ne veulent acheter les Cahiers. Ils sont trop attachés à la pluralité de la presse et à la vivacité du débat critique.

Bien à vous,

Pierre Alferi, Hervé Aubron, Christophe Beney, Nicole Brenez, Jean Douchet, Laurence Giavarini, Charlotte Garson, Gilles Grand, Bill Krohn, Ludovic Lamant, Elisabeth Lequeret, Arnaud Macé, Philippe Mangeot, Thierry Méranger, Cyril Neyrat, Eugenio Renzi, Antoine Thirion, Axel Zeppenfeld.

♬

"Time to prove my love for the land and for the nightingale; For in this age the weapon devours the guitar"
- Mahmoud Darwich

"No age for rhythm..."
- Jacques Tati (Parade)

Found: A musical revue from Tehran, 
going from the continent of cinema (Chaplin)
to the homeland of fiction (Russia),
the coalescence of the willing
the will of the coalescence.
Never coalition forces, forces coalition.
Cinema...

Une catastrophe,
c'est la première
strophe d'un poème
d'amour

***The Viennale Trailer for this year, by Godard

Danke
Dana
Linssen!

Vous n'avez rien contre la jeunesse????

Unsigned dispatch:

In May the media moguls of Le Monde announced that they were putting theCahiers du Cinéma up for sale. At the moment there are really two likely buyers for the magazine:

1. Thierry Wilhelm, an investor in Mediart who wants to see the magazine continue to evolve as it has under Jean-Michel Frodon and Emmanuel Burdeau.

2. Les Inrockuptibles, whose editor was one of the group Frodon and Burdeau replaced ten years ago, Jean-Marc Lalanne. Here is a description of that option that has already appeared in the French press: "According to Frédéric Allary (directeur général of The Inrockuptibles), « the talent of Cahiers should extend to all imagesi». As far as he is concerned a review of the video game Grand Theft Auto IV would be perfectly appropriate. The period Lalanne spent at the Cahiers already exemplified this broadening of the magazine's aims — too broad for some tastes. A wide open approach, open to video games, television and...reality tv. High treason? Perhaps. In any case, Lalanne, according to Allary, is pushing for a complete editorial makeover."

A return to the policies Lalanne advocates would be a return to the days when theCahiers, chasing vainly after the "youth market," interviewed pornographers and video game designers. It would of course entail — this was announced last week — the dismissal of the people who replaced that"forward-looking group": Frodon and Burdeau, as well as at least one indispensable 20-year member of the staff. Grudges die hard in Parisian intellectual circles...

The project of an independent Cahiers, financed by Wilhelm, has the support of 90% of the current staff, as well as a varied roster of old and new collaborators, according to a statement published in Liberation:

PIERRE ALFERI, HERVÉ AUBRON, CHRISTOPHE BENEY, STÉPHANE BOUQUET, NICOLE BRENEZ, JEAN DOUCHET, CHARLOTTE GARSON, LAURENCE GIAVARINI, GILLES GRAND, BILL KROHN, LUDOVIC LAMANT, ELISABETH LEQUERET, ARNAUD MACÉ, PHILIPPE MANGEOT, THIERRY MÉRANGER, CYRIL NEYRAT, JEAN-PIERRE REHM, EUGENIO RENZI, ANTOINE THIRION, AXEL ZEPPENFELD.

Rédacteurs anciens : CÉDRIC ANGER, JACQUES AUMONT, FRANÇOIS BÉGAUDEAU, JACQUES BONTEMPS, CLAUDE CHABROL, MARC CHEVRIE, JEAN-LOUIS COMOLLI, SYLVAIN COUMOUL, MICHEL DELAHAYE, BERNARD EISENSCHITZ, JEAN-PAUL FARGIER, JEAN-ANDRÉ FIESCHI, JEAN-LUC GODARD, PASCAL KANÉ, ANDRÉ S. LABARTHE, JEAN-LOUIS LEUTRAT, SUZANNE LIANDRAT-GUIGUES, LUC MOULLET, JEAN NARBONI, SYLVIE PIERRE, JACQUES RANCIÈRE, FABRICE REVAULT (D’ALLONNES), JEAN LOUIS SCHEFER, BARBET SCHROEDER, LOUIS SKORECKI, XAVIER TRESVAUX, DOMINIQUE VILLAIN.

Le Monde, which is just interested in making the best deal possible, might not care about that list of supporters, but anyone who cares about the magazine will recognize the names.

Proposals are being presented to the seller on Monday, September 15. It would be only correct and appropriate for Les Inrockuptibles and Jean-Marc Lalanne to withdraw their proposal, which would engage the magazine on a backward course unrelated to the aims and standards that have made it an important magazine.

thanks for the chew, Manny.
goodbye, Manny.




Manny Farber, 1917-2008

"reunites a family, then walks away..."

a propos of Mubarak, Hannah...

a thousand pardons
das allierte hauptquartier
hat ihre akte
verloren
but I found
your name
in my father’s
papers

do you realize
thirty years
the age of reason
my friend
we’ve seen worse
it’s long
and it’s short

the gray-green moll
poison Ivy kid

it’s true!
the Berlin wall

is long
and it's short
it is still
Marx’s triumph

how's that?

when an idea enters
into the masses
it becomes a material force

you can see it
like that
in any case
that’s all over and done with

what should I
do
oh sorrow
have I dreamed my life
what should I do

____________

__________

_____

___

_

...Laura, Dora, pilgrimages...

Among the ruins of the city of Karame (Jordan), a little girl from the Fatah recites a poem by Mahmoud Darwish: "I shall resist..."

He wrote this for a friend:

"Diary of a Palestinian Wound: For Fadwa Tuqan"

We do not need to be reminded:
Mount Carmel is in us
and on our eyelashes the grass of Galilee.
Do not say: If we could run to her like a river.
Do not say it:
We and our country are one flesh and bone.
Before June we were not fledgeling doves
so our love did not wither in bondage.
Sister, these twenty years
our work was not to write poems
but to be fighting.
The shadow that descends over your eyes
-demon of a God
who came out of the month of June
to wrap around our heads the sun-
his color is martyrdom
the taste of prayer.
How well he kills, how well he resurrects!
The night that began in your eyes-
in my soul it was a long night's end:
Here and now we keep company
on the road of our return
from the age of drought.
And we came to know what makes the voice of the nightingale
a dagger shining in the face of the invaders.
We came to know what makes the silence of the graveyard
a festival...orchards of life.
You sang your poems, I saw the balconies
desert their walls
the city square extending to the midriff of the mountain:
It was not music we heard.
It was not the color of words we saw:
A million heroes were in the room.
This land absorbs the skins of martyrs.
This land promises wheat and stars.
Worship it!
We are its salt and its water.
We are its wound, but a wound that fights.
Sister, there are tears in my throat
and there is fire in my eyes:
I am free.
No more shall I protest at the Sultan's Gate.
All who have died, all who shall die at the Gate of Day
have embraced me, have made of me a weapon.
Ah my intractable wound!
My country is not a suitcase
I am not a traveler
I am the lover and the land is the beloved.
The archaeologist is busy analyzing stones.
In the rubble of legends he searches for his own eyes
to show
that I am a sightless vagrant on the road
with not one letter in civilization's alphabet.
Meanwhile in my own time I plant my trees.
I sing of my love.
It is time for me to exchange the word for the deed
Time to prove my love for the land and for the nightingale:
For in this age the weapon devours the guitar
And in the mirror I have been fading more and more
Since at my back a tree began to grow.

3 September 1945

(...) And so - peace. What danger is that American shopkeeper Truman babbling about as he points to the atomic bomb in his pocket? What is there for him to be afraid of? People are safe. The bomb's in his pocket, and he's got plenty of money. Or maybe he's afraid that we'll get an atomic bomb too, even bigger and more savage, and then we, the masses, will live happily as at the banquet before the last universal plague.

Truman's speech today was historic: God in one hand, the atomic bomb in the other, and a threat on his lips.

The world war is over.

Forty million Soviet citizens, my brothers and sisters, have perished. My eighty-year-old father died from hunger in Kiev, and I myself, severely wounded by my own people, am barely alive.

What do I want? What do I need? Work. I want work. And a bit of joy. I will have work, but I will not have joy. I cannot rejoice when the people around me are badly off. I am ashamed, so ashamed, as if it were my fault that people are poor, badly dressed, displaced, and overtired. As if it was I who had tricked them, deceitfully promised them something, sucked their blood out, deprived them of their holidays and rest and gentle natures, and made them unhappy (...). Are they heroes or not? They are heroes. More - they are heroes and martyrs a hundred times over. They choked Germany with their corpses and drowned her with their blood (...).

Alexander Dovzhenko

Diaries 1941-1956.

trans. Marco Carynnyk

As the second invasion of Iraq by the U.S. was beginning in open aggression, and thousands of of 2000-pound U.S.-made bombs were about to fall on Iraqi land and people as part of the "shock and awe" air-war campaign,

Der Standard - March 20th, 2003:





Jean-Marie Straub and Hans Hurch (director of the Viennale) made a Peace Wall commenting on many things, including "the threatening catastrophe" of this war. A continuation of the wall was to follow by Jean-Luc Godard.

On the wall:

a) WHERE DOES YOUR SMILE LIE BURIED?* (literal translation of the graffito in red on gray). Photograph by Deiter Reifarth; the same graffito seen at the beginning of Straub/Huillet's film Von heute auf morgen (1997, FROM TODAY UNTIL TOMORROW)

b) a still-frame from John Ford's THE LONG GRAY LINE (1955)

(Here, two photos of the wall as it appeared in the streets of Vienna. Photo: Viennale)-





and 5 years later...

One moment please... 

à Leningrad, à Madagascar, à Dresen, à Hanoi, à Sarajevo...

INNER CITY BLUES by Charles Burnett

If one has any interest in film as a means of transforming society, one can certainly sympathize with the frustrations of the main character in the novel Bread and Wine by Ignacio Silone. The hero, who is a revolutionary hiding from the police, disguises himself as a priest; the villagers mistake him for a real preist. He attempts to explain that their social condition could be improved, that certain things -- food and shelter and the right to happiness -- belong to everyone, but the villagers can't conceive those things as a part of their reality; that is something to be obtained in heaven. The question is how does one who is dissatisfied with the way things are going set about transforming society? To whom and to what should one direct the message and what will be the spark, the messianic message, to motivate people into altering their habits when reality hasn't made a stir, when the realization of death itself has failed? However, time and again, you find in the testimony of ex-addicts and alcoholics that what made them stop and go cold turkey was that after years of destroying themselves, they looked in the mirror one day and did not recognize the person staring back at them. And having tried to change drug addicts, I was warned that no matter what logic, no matter what emotional appeal I used, it would have no effect on that person until he or she was ready to change; it is when the person has arrived at the conclusion that he or she needs help.

For a film to act as an agent for altering people's behavior in a way that makes a neighborhood safe, another dynamic has to have occurred and it is an ongoing process; a politicization must be taking place. There is a polarization and issues are clear-cut, ambiguity is at a minimum and there is a moral outrage if things don't change. Because the situation in the black community lacks leadership, it lacks direction. The inner cities are virtually infernal regions where the most inhuman behavior manifests itself in the "Rock House", a house where one can buy a cheap high from cocaine; it is like a black hole in space which sucks in the youth. For those of us who still have senses to offend, not to attempt to find a solution will be participating in genocide; the problem of drugs, with babies being born with a drug addiction, is horrendous. When the middle class moved away and over the years a vacuum formed and an isolation, people of daring gained control and the irony is that there was a conspiracy to hide the situation.

Particularly in films that were sounding the alarm and realistically trying to dramatize concerns that were eroding the very foundation that makes a society a society, the response was, 'This makes us look bad'. To bring to light that which troubles us was being uppity, no home training, etc. The middle-class blacks wanted to emphasize the positive and the inner city wanted 'Superfly''; neither had any substance, however, both were detrimental. There is a difference between illusion and inspiration. The difference in concerns clearly marked the direction in which consciously or unconsciously the people who lived on the opposite side of the tracks were going. Surprisingly, politically speaking, there is a large reactionary and/or chauvinistic point of view in the inner city.

The commercial film is largely responsible for affecting how one views the world. It reduced the world to one dimension, rendering taboos to superstition, concentrated on the ugly, creating a passion for violence and reflecting racial stereotypes, instilling self-hate, creating confusion rather than offering clarity: to sum up, it was demoralizing. It took years for commercial films to help condition society on how it should respond to reality. In the later films that strove for a reality, the element of redemption disappeared, and as a consequence the need for a moral position was no longer relevant. There was no longer a crossroads for us to face and to offer meaning to our transgressions. The bad guy didn't have to atone for his sins. He could go on enjoying life victimizing innocent people. In essence this cinema is anti-life; it constantly focuses on the worst of human behavior to provide suspense and drama, to entertain. The concerns are generally about a young white male and the rest of society is anathema. Any other art form celebrates life, the beautiful, the ideal, and has a progressive effect -- except American cinema. The situation is such that one is always asked to compromise one's integrity, and if the socially oriented film is finally made, its showing will generally be limited and the very ones that it is made for and about will probably never see it. To make film-making viable you need the support of the community; you have to become a part of its agenda, an aspect of its survival.

A major concern of story-telling should be restoring values, reversing the erosion of all those things that made a better life. One has to be prepared to dig down in the trenches and wage a long battle. The problem is that we are a moral people, and the issue need not be resolved by a pushing and shoving match or taken in blind faith, but should be continuously presented in some aspect of a story, as for example in the negro folklore which was an important cultural necessity that not only provided humor but was a source of symbolic knowledge that allowed one to comprehend life. The issue is not necessarily to lead one to become a saint or a to make the world a paradise but simply to remind us that our acts not only weigh on our souls, but also that by putting them in a narrative we make them human. A good summation on this theme would be in Men in Dark Times by Hannah Arendt, who in her chapter on Lessing states that 'however much we are affected by the things of the world, however deeply they may stir and stimulate us, they become human for us only when we can discuss them with our fellow...We humanize what is going on in the world and in ourselves only by speaking of it and in the course of speaking of it, we learn to be human.' Solidarity and humanity occupy the same space. And nowhere is a common bond more necessary than in the inner city. It seems that the object of all films should be to generate a gense of fraternity, a community; however, for an independent film-maker that is the same as swimming against a raging current.

One of the features of my community is that it does not have a center, does not have an elder statesman, and more important, does not have roots; in essence it is just a wall with graffiti on it. Life is going to work, coming home, making sure every entrance is firmly locked to keep the thugs out, thinking on how to move up in the world or being a member of a street gang standing at neighborhood corners, thinking about nothing and going nowhere. In both cases what is missing is not only the spiritual but mother wit. Even though there is a church on every other corner, it only holds services once a week and it is not a dominant part of the life of the community. It is like a ship that has lost its rudder. It seems that those of us who observe tradition and have a sense of continuity can at least see the horizon. External forces more than internal forces have made the black community what it is today. There has always been the attempt to destroy our consciousness of who we were, to deny the past, and to destroy the family structure; and, since for us each day has not a yesterday or a tomorrow, to make the use of experience a lost art.

Those who live a healthy existence, meaning those who live on the other side of the tracks, gain knowledge through learning, and those who live on my side of the tracks learned about the world through conditioning based on pain and pleasure, and what has developed as a consequence is that man is wolf to man and every night is a full moon. We have always lived in a hostile environment, but not one where parent and offspring turn guns on each other. The inner city is characterized by people with irrational behavior. The perception is that people are dangerous. Everyone is paranoid and rightfully so. It isn't the schizophrenia that is disturbing. It is that multiple personality type, people with two people inside them and more. You can witness them changing character in a breath. How do you place a chair for someone who can't sit still? In trying to find the cure, what person do you address? It is not a matter of informing someone of the truth, the facts, reality; it is only when he finds that he can't live with himself, when he has stopped deluding himself. The way back is redemption.

If film is to aid in this process of redemption, how does it work its magic? It seems that old question of why are we here, and not getting a satisfactory answer, makes man's fate intolerable. I think that it is the little personal things that begin to give a hint of the larger picture. The story has the effect of allowing us to comprehend things we cannot see, namely feeelings and relationships. It may not give you answers but it will allow you to appreciate life and maybe that is the issue, the abiility to find life wonderful and mysterious. If the story is such, film can be a form of experience, and what is essential is to understand that one has to work on how to be good, compassionate. One has to approach it like a job. Until there is a sharing of experiences, every man is an island and the inner city will always be a wasteland.

                                                           Charles Burnett

--text from QUESTIONS OF THIRD CINEMA, ed. Jim Pines and Paul Willeman, 1990, BFI

--image of Dolores Farley and Andy Burnett from SEVERAL FRIENDS (Charles Burnett, 1969).