Films About Films: Autoreferential Cinema

6. A still from the final shot of “Man with a Movie Camera”, dir. Dziga Vertov, 1929.

7. A still from “Man with a Movie Camera” portraying an audience watching “Man with a Movie Camera”

FILMS ABOUT FILMS:

By Lara Parsons

The emergence of autoreferential cinema

Self-referential cinema is commonly perceived as “Films about film”. In essence, this implies that the director is delving into themes that explore and reference the filmmaking process, either as a featured element of the plot or a meta-narrative device, producing meticulous pieces in which the art of film becomes both the process and the product. In many contemporary mainstream films, we observe the perfectionism that arises when seeking to satiate capitalistic ideologies, wherein a clear narrative is formed to offer escapism to the audience. Conversely, in self-referential films, there is more concern with the medium itself rather than the narrative, to the point where the medium becomes the narrative. Instead of being merely used for audience consumption, self-referentiality therefore turns the film into the catharsis of an artist.

The basis of a self-referential film is that it creates an enigma and resultantly, subjectivity. In many cases, the narrative is built on fragments thrown together in a seemingly random way, thus elevating the post-modern nature of the experimental film. This is especially due to the fact that postmodernism was quickly being picked up in the 1960s following the rejection and deconstruction of modernist techniques and messages–although self-referential films date back to the early 1900s. There is no singular way such films can be interpreted as there is no grand narrative, let alone the sense of a clear narrative altogether, where the films do not force the audience to think a certain way and spur the shift from passive to active consumption. This can be explained by the fact that the belief of objective truth was diminishing with the rise of postmodernism.

Self-referentiality can be formed through various techniques, often using stylistic choices that were previously associated with the imperfection of old films, such as the lines that cut down across the frame due to the nature of old film cameras or the grainy texture and a narrower aspect ratio that is no longer seen in commercial films—-and even the inclusion of “bad” footage. Themes involve self-discovery from a motif of diaries, or simply the passage of time and ongoing life in which a stationary camera is set up to record the surroundings.

This has been highlighted by the MoMA curator of film, writer and art critic Donald Richie:

Unlike the traditional narrative film, which seeks to maintain the illusion that what we are seeing is reality, the self-referential film wants to show that it itself is an illusion… In showing that it is an illusion, however, the self-referential film also suggests another reality—that, for example, of the makers of the self-referential film we are seeing. This reality is presented as a more real reality than that which the ordinary illusion-film offers. All self-referential cinema becomes, then, a search for reality, or for truth.

Richie then goes on to define self-referential films as an illusion in themselves, rather than presenting an illusion. Otherwise said, a sort of direct simulacra of real life. Indeed, he states that it becomes so much an illusion of reality that it slowly begins to be difficult to distinguish whether it is truly an illusion or a hunt for the truth.

A primary example of a self-referential film is Man with a Movie Camera, directed by Dziga Vertov, an early Soviet film director and communist, and edited by his wife, Elizaveta Svilova, using a montage editing method that offers juxtaposition between images and shots laid next to each other [fig. 6, 7]. Each clip itself only lasts between 2 to 4 seconds whereas the typical average of film clips in the early 1900’s were around 11.2 seconds. In total, the film culminates to 80 minutes of silent documentary film in black and white, made in 1929. Vertov was known for experimenting with frame-rates as well as distorting the speed of clips. He also experimented with employing various and seemingly unusual camera angles, positions and special effects to increase the overall visual interest of the film. He wanted to create a new style of cinema that would break from the conventions of theatre and the bourgeois contents and form of Western cinema. He instead focused on film as an art form in which he pondered the lives of workers and civilians, with a specific interest accorded to Ukrainian cities. The appearance of a camera man is a frequent occurrence throughout the film. In fact, it is the only constant presence in the ever shifting mise-en-scene. However, there is no sense of character development, particularly due to the lack of a conventional narrative.

Another notable example includes the film Tom, Tom, The Piper’s Son, directed by Ken Jacobs in 1969, with a total of 90 minutes [fig. 8]. Unlike Vertov’s, Jacobs’ film has various colour sequences and so it presents itself in both black and white and in colour, adding close details to the sets and costumes for an added charm and a decorative quality. Rather than producing an entirely new film, Jacobs intended to create a “didactic” film, as stated by himself, with footage from an early American film entitled the same from 1905. He did this by first presenting the original film, then theatrically re-photographing the original film while it is being projected for 70 minutes with a long shot, after which he provides an analysis of it [fig. 9]. Lastly, he shows the original film in its entirety, lasting around 10 minutes, with the addition of his own brief coda. Overall, the avant-garde film is entirely different from other, more commercial films popular at the time, such as the 1969 Midnight Cowboy, directed by John Schlesinger that had a more contemporary approach to conventional cinema.

8. A still from “Tom, Tom, The Piper’s Son”, dir. Ken Jacobs, 1969.