ART HOUSE TV

Greer Kofoed

Sally Cloninger

RC1

11/13/09

Annotated Bibliography

Bergman, Ingmar. Images: My Life in Film. 1st English Language ed. New York: Arcade Publishing, 1990. Print.

Images is Bergman’s poignant recollection of his life and motivation while shooting a number of his films. He includes letters written at the time about production that were never sent, workbook entries from the 1960s and 1970s, and a plentiful number of stills that take the viewer through every range of emotions. It is wonderful to be shown a still and then have the director’s insight on the next page.

Bersani, Leo, and Ulysse Dutoit. Forms of Being: Cinema, Aesthetics, Subjectivity. London: British Film Institute, 2004. Print.

In Forms of Being, three films are discussed: Contempt by Jean-Luc Godard, All About My Mother by Pedro Almodovar, and The Thin Red Line by Terrence Mallick. Chapter one, Forming Couples, summarizes Contempt, but the intention behind all of the actions of the characters is evaluated. The authors also describe the context for what reason certain camera angles are used, or why Camille is in focus instead of Emilia, etc.

Blackwell, Marilyn. Gender and Representation in the Films of Ingmar Bergman. Columbia, SC: Camden House, Inc., 1997. Print.

Blackwell turns a critical eye to Ingmar Bergman’s films. She discusses the presence of themes such as voyeurism, authority, patriarchy, repression of the sexual body, cross-dressing, and gender amorphism in context to Bergman’s religious childhood and upbringing. I drew from chapters four and seven as a means for consideration.

Ford, Hamish. “Ingmar Bergman.” Senses of Cinema (2002): n. pag. Web. 12 Nov 2009.

Ford comments on all stages of Bergman’s career in his shrewd and scholastic essay. I gleaned from the section titled, “Where is Bergman?: the problem of (a) demonic authorship.” Here, Ford brings up that point that when watching Bergman’s most difficult work, we are forced to ask ourselves who and what we are, and how we live with others.

Gervais, Marc. Ingmar Bergman: Magician and Prophet. Canada: McGill-Queen’s University Press, 1999. Print.

Gervais follows Bergman’s films in chronological order, and pauses at times to reflect on changing points in our culture or a key piece of Bergman “magic,” as he calls it. One of these long pauses lingers on The Seventh Seal for an in-depth analysis. I used this work to familiarize myself with the elements of Bergman’s many themes.

Locke, Maryel, and Charles Warren. Jean-Luc Godard’s Hail Mary: Women and the Sacred in Film. Carbondale and Edwardsville: Southern Illinois University Press, 1993. Print.

This is a complete breakdown of Hail Mary. Spiritual themes that deal with the idea of Mary as a woman versus the mother of Christ are discussed. I garnered the most from the shot breakdown starting on page 131; it provided me with a thorough visual synopsis and with a tool that I could use to view subsequent films or television programs.

MacCabe, Colin. Godard: Images, Sounds, Politics. Bloomington, IN: Indiana University Press, 1980. Print.

MacCabe analyses Godard’s films, but the most beneficial portion of the book is the actual interviews conducted between MacCabe and Godard himself. He addresses Godard’s early fascination with Hollywood and then his consequential rejection of it, which branches into the revelation that, in Godard’s opinion, there had been no good movies in the last ten years.

Mauer, Barry. “The Birth of French New Wave Cinema.” Associated Content (2005): n. pag. Web. 7 Nov 2009. <http://www.associatedcontent.com/article/15376/the_birth_of_french_new_wave_cinema.html?cat=40>.

An early history of the French new wave, the author brings the fact to the table that the majority of the directors were critics first, and never stopped acting as such even when they stopped writing.

Neupert, Richard. A History of the French New Wave Cinema. Madison, WI: The University of Wisconsin Press, 2002. Print.

In this very thorough and comprehensive history, Neupert delves into the political beginning of the French new wave, and informs the reader about Cahiers du Cinéma—a magazine from which spawned the core group of critics-turned directors that became inseparable with the new wave—and details the individual works of Claude Chabrol, Francois Truffaut, Jean-Luc Godard, and a myriad of other prominent directors of the genre. He analyses the content of their works, and provides relevant visuals to accompany his points.

Pettigrew, Damien. I’m A Born Liar: A Fellini Lexicon. Harry N. Abrams, Inc., 2003. Print.

Extracted from his previous interviews with Fellini, Pettigrew has compiled an alphabetical series of Fellini’s quotes. Containing subject matter like “the actor’s face,” “hype,” “obscure being,” “puppets,” and “vagabonds and the circus,” there is much to be discovered.  Lexicon also contains 125 luscious color and black and white photos. This was my favorite reference and served as an overall consulted source.

Phillips, Craig. “French New Wave .” GreenCine n. pag. Web. 7 Nov 2009. <http://www.greencine.com/static/primers/fnwave1.jsp>.

This article touches on the subtle differences between the new wave filmmakers (Godard is exceedingly more political in his context than Truffaut, for example), explores the concepts behind the films, and offers a general new wave ‘technique’ section.

Sontag, Susan. Against Interpretation and Other Essays. New York: Farrar, Straus & and Giroux, 1966. Print.

Sontag’s collection of famous essays talk about the perception of art at the time, and how it is valued at being more intellectual than spiritual, and therefore must be losing it’s ritual significance. In Against Interpretation, she references Plato’s mimetic opinion of art; art is not useful, nor true.  Her essay on Godard’s Vivre Sa Vie contributed to my research.

Spigel, Lynn. TV by Design : Modern Art and the Rise of Television. Chicago, IL and London, England: The University of Chicago Press, 2008. Print.

Spigel deftly outlines the crossroads of art and television, doing so by using specific, iconic references from twentieth century culture such as Ernie Kovacs, Jackson Pollock, and Andy Warhol. My main source of reference was chapter six, “One-Minute Movies,” in which Spigel illuminates how commercials became vessels for high-art, and would often have production teams and budgets to rival the latest Fellini film.

Stam, Robert. Reflexivity in Film and Literature. Ann Arbor, MI: UMI Research Press, 1985. Print.

Thoughtful and dense, Stam gives the reader examples of reflexivity from Shakespeare to Hitchcock and Godard. His appendix is particularly useful, and contains a detailed look at the technical aspect of setting up camera shots in order to be successful or convey a desired effect.

Stubbs, John. Federico Fellini as Auteur : Seven Aspects of his Films. Carbondale, IL: Southern Illinois University Press, 2006. Print.

The seven aspects talked about in this book are factors like Fellini’s inspirations, adolescent experiences, and relationship with Carl Jung’s work on dreams, among other things. I found that the section on Jung supplied me with the most food for thought.

Suggested Viewing

8 ½. Federico Fellini, 1963.

“Foggy Road.” YouTube. Web. 8 Nov 2009. <http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IvsEx_SRJpU>.

Jules and Jim. Francois Truffaut, 1962.

La Dolce Vita. Federico Fellini, 1960.

“Miami Go Go.” YouTube. Web. 13 Nov 2009. <http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tbTdVj_VYyo>.

Persona. Ingmar Bergman, 1966.

Pierrot le fou. Jean-Luc Godard, 1965.

The Seventh Seal. Ingmar Bergman, 1957.

Une femme est une femme. Jean-Luc Godard,1961.

“Vintage Dr. Pepper Commercial.” YouTube. Web. 13 Nov 2009. <http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WpByXzdMQfk#movie_player>.