hitler 's madman is a 1943 world war ii film about the assassination of nazi reinhard heydrich and the lidice massacre revenge taken by the germans .

the picture was produced by seymour nebenzal for prc and angelus pictures , inc . it starred patricia morison and featured john carradine as heydrich .

the shooting of hitler 's madman took place late in 1942 and early 1943 .

sirk hired german cinematographer eugen schüfftan to shoot the film , but since he was not allowed in the united states at the time , the credit was instead given to jack greenhalgh .

when hitler 's madman was finished , mgm 's louis b. mayer bought the production ( reshoots were made in mgm 's own studios ) , making it one of the few , and possibly the first , film originally from another company to be distributed by mgm .

hitler ' s madman

douglas sirk recreates the assassination of heydrich , hollywood style , in “hitler’s madman” .
hitler ' s madman was originally called hitler ' s hangman but had its title changed to avoid confusion with the previously - released lang film .
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extracto de la película estadounidense hitler ' s madman ( 1943 ) en la que john carradine interpreta al dirigente de las ss reinhardt heydrich .
hitler ' s air force aide bernd freytag von loringhoven told the cameras about the poisoning of hitler ' s beloved alsatian dog ' blondi ' .
actually both did pretty well . hitler ' s madman was a super - cheap b - movie that turned out so well it was picked up by mgm and given a wide release .
starting with charlie chaplin’s “the great dictator , ” “triumph of the will” provided material for anti - nazi satire ; it also figured as an image of the nazi new order in hollywood’s wartime efforts . two examples , “hitler’s children” and “hitler’s madman” ( both quickly made low - budget films from 1943 ) , are available on dvd from warner archive .
hitler in leni riefenstahl’s “triumph of the will” ( 1935 ) , a “documentary” largely staged .
ganz displays a great command of the awkward bavarian - austrian accent which hitler spoke and manages to give a natural edge to hitler ' s notorious outbursts .
' hitler ' s meals were delicious . . . asparagus , bell peppers , . . .
love song : adolf hitler and eva braun . arthur kannberg , hitler ' s butler , revealed how a song called ' blood red roses ' was the favourite of hitler and eva , a record they listened to ' over and over '
according to hitler ' s secretary she hated blondi and was known to kick her under the dining table .
on thursday , germany ' s frankfurter rundschau daily published an interview with niklas frank , the son of hitler ' s former general governor to poland , who tried to explain why so many germans were seduced by hitler .
showing hitler with a permanent stoop , trembling from parkinson ' s disease , ganz plays a deteriorating character , resembling both the breakdown of a human being and the system hitler created .
two historical war films about operation anthropoid , the assassination of nazi leader reinhard heydrich in prague during world war ii ( like hangmen also die and hitler ' s madman , oddly enough ) . the two films were released less than a year apart .
arthur kannberg , hitler ' s butler , revealed how a song called ' blood red roses ' was the favourite of hitler and eva , a record they listened to ' over and over . '
love letters : adolf hitler taking the salute at era in thuringia during a march by his supporters . traudl junge , who was hitler ' s favourite secretary , said he often received love letters from admirers
khloe kardashian shows off neon sign in true ' s nursery . . . as she reveals it ' s kris jenner ' s handwriting
a new film portraying adolf hitler as both a delusional madman and an occasionally softer father figure premiered in germany on thursday . but it has already triggered a furious public debate about whether it ' s the right time to break one of the nation ' s last taboos — showing the nazi leader as a human being .
hitler ' s madman was the first film sirk directed in the united states . sirk was a german , and despite being anti - nazi he worked in the german film industry until shortly before his escape to the west in 1938 . sirk made it to hollywood by 1939 but didn ' t get hired to direct a movie until hitler ' s madman , which was a b - movie shot super - cheap over just seven days . sirk had actually met reinhard heydrich at a party in germany , and was able to give carradine advice on how to play the part .
blatant lies : just before he dies , heydrich tells himmler some hard truths , namely that this is all hitler ' s fault and germany is going to lose . afterwards , himmler calls hitler and says that heydrich ' s last words were
victory is certain ! heil hitler !
after he hangs up himmler mutters
dead men tell no tales .
hitler the human hitler is played by 63 - year - old swiss actor bruno ganz , who critics say is able to produce a photographic resemblance of the austrian - born dictator .
hitler ' s madman is a 1943 film directed by douglas sirk . it is a dramatization of the events surrounding the real life assassination of reinhard heydrich in prague , czechoslovakia in 1942 , and the retaliatory massacre of the entire village of lidice , which cost 1300 lives . it stars john carradine as heydrich .
like “hangmen also die ! ” ( 1943 ) , fritz lang’s film on the same subject , “hitler’s madman” involved significant german émigré talent : it was produced by seymour nebenzal , whose credits included lang’s “m , ” and was directed by the recently arrived douglas sirk . eugen schüfftan , who shot “metropolis , ” worked ( uncredited ) on the cinematography ; edgar g . ulmer ( also uncredited ) was responsible for the sets .
a far better movie , “ hitler’s madman ” evokes a larger nazi atrocity : the destruction of lidice , a czech town where all the male inhabitants were executed in revenge for the assassination of their german overlord reinhard heydrich , a key figure in the nazi hierarchy ( who makes a cameo appearance in “triumph of the will” ) .
“the downfall” portrays the last 12 days in the life of the hitler , and is told from the point of view of traudl junge , one of hitler ' s personal secretaries . it is based in parts on junge ' s biography and also the book ,
the downfall ,
by historian joachim fest .
' he watched as cyanide was slipped into his dog’s mouth . he was emotionless . he only wanted to know if it worked ' : hitler ' s confidantes describe his last days in extraordinary never - before - seen interviews
erich kempka , hitler ' s chauffeur from the earliest days of the nazi movement , scrounged the necessary fuel to burn the bodies in the garden of the reichs chancellery .
hitler ' s madman is based on an all - too - real wartime atrocity . john carradine portrays heydrich , the vicious ss officer put in charge of nazi - occupied czechoslovakia . heydrich is killed by the czech underground , prompting the nazis to plan a horrible retaliation . the gestapo selects the czech village of lidice for annihilation : they kill all the male villagers , throw the women and children into concentration camps , and torch lidice into nonexistence . the victims of nazi tyranny become martyrs to the underground cause , ending the film on a note of triumph . based on a narrative poem by edna st . vincent millay , hitler ' s madman was produced by the
poverty row
prc studio , but was sold to mgm and given a class - a presentation at choice theatres throughout the u . s .
' he also spoke of a ' secret stash ' of treasure of hitler ' s which he hid near to his home at berchtesgaden , but it has never been found .
the film shows very well that hitler was not only crazy . he had a human side , which was likeable at times ,
frank said .
i could have watched bruno ganz as hitler incessantly ,
frank said .
relationship : hitler ( standing third from right ) and va braun ( kneeling far right ) . his butler said ' hitler and eva were very much in love , but perhaps not to the extent that he ever wanted children with her '
jill zarin admits she ' s ready to date again after being spotted with handsome businessman . . . following beloved husband bobby ' s death
it ' s a hat trick for mcqueen ! kate repeats the look she chose for george and charlotte ' s christenings in . . .
as the war continued , and nazi atrocities worsened , bonhoeffer joined others to plot against hitler . but operation valkyrie failed to kill the german ruler ( on july 20 , 1944 ) , and his revenge against those immediately responsible was swift , and fatal . claus von stauffenberg , who’d left a briefcase bomb in hitler’s planning room at wolf’s lair , was executed the day after the bomb exploded .
traudl junge , who was hitler ' s favourite secretary , told the cameras how her boss was receiving love letters from besotted followers right up until his suicide in the berlin bunker in april 1945 .
' as i remembered that the air conditioning system was fuelled by diesel , i personally denied them entrance to the bunker . i relented after heinz linge , hitler ' s valet , vouched for them . this was , of course , the petrol that was to be used to cremate the bodies of hitler and eva braun .
' hitler and eva were very much in love , but perhaps not to the extent that he ever wanted children with her .
there was champagne but hitler didn ' t drink any . he was concerned about getting his last will and testament down . '
hitler ' s madman , a wwii propaganda film , had a complex origin story : filmed shortly after the real events it depicts ( the assassination of senior nazi reinhard heydrich and the subsequent massacre of the czech town of lidice in reprisal ) , the appearance of fritz lang ' s similarly - themed hangmen also die ! caused its release to be delayed and it also suffered a title change from the catchier hitler ' s hangman . on the plus side , the tiny independent production , shot in just a week , was acquired by mgm and given a bigger budget for re - shoots to enhance its production values . but sirk ruefully admitted the new scenes actually weakened the film ' s poverty row sensibility , which gave it a slight documentary flavor which was useful .
yet , the audience is also shown a charming side of hitler , a man who shows moments of kindness toward his female staff .
he had helped to prosecute nazi war criminals and had been given special access to the remnants of hitler ' s court because the us navy believed rumours that the fuehrer had escaped to argentina after the war .
' hitler was emotionless . he only wanted to know if it worked and it did . later the propaganda minister ' s wife magda goebbels would use the capsules to murder all her children as they slept . '
one bunker functionary called lorenz said that after hitler and eva married on april 29 1945 ' there was a little party in the bunker .
forever in the spell of evil ,
read the headline of a stern magazine report , which claims that even 60 years later , germans still have to question why they cannot escape from hitler ' s shadow .
gatling good : among karel ' s equipment is a souped - up gatling gun that can fire 300 rounds a minute . it ' s used against heydrich .
new york holocaust survivor ' s $ 40m fortune set to be . . .
remarkable interviews with the circle of confidantes who surrounded adolf hitler in the days before his suicide have been shown for the first time on german television .
they revealed intimate domestic details of hitler ' s favourite tea , the love letters from his admirers and the love song that he and eva braun , the woman he married in the underground hide , listened to over and over again .
' i then helped carry the corpses . while linge and an orderly whom i do not remember were carrying the corpse of adolf hitler , i carried the corpse of eva hitler . i noticed the long black trousers and the black shoes which the fuehrer usually wore with his field - gray uniform jacket .
' i was frozen , ' he said , ' then raised my arm automatically one last time in the ' hitler greeting ' to salute him . '
hermann karnau , an s . s . bodyguard of the fuehrer who escaped the bunker and tried to return to it at the last moment , said ; ' i tried to get back through into the bunker through the emergency exit when i saw about 20 metres away from me the bodies of adolf hitler and eva braun .
ben affleck ' s $ 19m la mansion is surrounded by moving trucks . . . as it ' s revealed girlfriend lindsay shookus plans to spend more time on west coast
– tom ryan’s overview in the “ great directors ” section of senses of cinema .
a hodgepodge of body parts that any four - year - old could have painted .
it dismisses the mural as the dream of a madman . even the soviets , who had sided with the spanish government against franco , react coolly . they favor more overt imagery , believing that only more realistic art can have political or social consequence . yet picasso ' s tour de force would become one of this century ' s most unsettling indictments of war .
hitler was given his beloved dog as a gift and he became so fond of her that she slept in his bedroom in the bunker during his final days .
parachuting near the occupied village of lidice , czech soldier karel vavra . . . recruits saboteurs in the fight against the nazis . determined to end the resistance , reich protector reinhard heydrich . . . murders priests , closes schools and forces the female students to
entertain
german soldiers . incensed by the atrocities , vavra and the partisans plot to assassinate heydrich , an act of reprisal that will ensure lidice ' s fate through the hands of reichsführer himmler . independently produced by german expatriates and powered by sirk ' s distinctive visual style , hitler ' s madman is . . . a superior b - movie that captures the harrowing events that took place in lidice on june 10 , 1942
- - container .
at a time when the mainstream church of his country seemed to turn a blind eye to hitler , dietrich bonhoeffer ( a lutheran pastor ) took a different path . although a pacifist , bonhoeffer decided to actively resist hitler and the perverse effects the third reich had on the laws , and lives , of so many people .
because heydrich had been nicknamed
hangman heydrich .
however , fritz lang ' s film
' diana would be ashamed ' : meghan ' s bitter half - sister . . .
13 reasons why villain justin prentice says he ' s not bothered by social media trolls . . . and that getting attacked online means he ' s doing his job as an actor
' i last saw hitler alive around about 4 . 00pm that day . i believed that the fuehrer had been poisoned by his personal physician dr ludwig stumpfegger . '
– also in senses of cinema , tag gallagher’s essay “ white melodrama : douglas sirk . ”
initially brought to hollywood for a remake that never materialized , he made his american directing debut with hitler’s madman ( 1943 ) and impressed producers with strikingly stylish low budget projects such as summer storm ( 1944 ) and a scandal in paris ( 1946 ) , the latter with george sanders bringing a mix of bemusement , blasã© , and aristocratic poise to the role of suave con man and criminal mastermind vidocq . the cramped but richly sumptuous sets gives the production the look of a half - scale model of paris , and sirk keeps the film bubbling with droll playfulness and continental wit .
hitler ' s adjutant nicholas von below was interviewed , along with his favourite film director leni riefenstahl , the family of his mistress - and wife of 24 hours - eva braun , who committed suicide with him in his bunker , and generals walther wenck and karl koller .
joanna gaines shares husband chip ' s unique birth tradition . . . as he cradles newborn son crew
two films about winston churchill when he was the uk ' s prime minister during world war ii .
bonhoeffer was executed at flossenburg concentration camp in april of 1945 , days before it was liberated by advancing allied troops . it is said that hitler personally gave the order for his execution .
last day : adolf hitler and his wife eva braun pose with their pets . the dictator is holding his favourite dog blondi on a leash . he was to have her poisoned with cyanide
to picasso ' s native soil in a testimony of national reconciliation . in its final journey , picasso ' s apocalyptic vision has served as a banner for a nation on its path toward freedom and democracy .
created by the twentieth century ' s most well - known and least understood artist . but the mural called
“hitler’s children” is framed by miniature versions of the nuremberg congress , with german teenagers clustered around a bonfire consecrating their lives to the führer . lurid yet turgid , the movie is a tale of doomed puppy love , nazi eugenics and sexual sadism . ads featured the image of a freedom - loving american girl ( bonita granville , hollywood’s original nancy drew ) given a ritual flogging by a member of the ss .
parts of the film portray hitler as a psychopath , wandering the corridors of the bunker below the streets of berlin , ignorant to the collapse of his empire and to the suffering population above his head .
hoping for a bold visual protest to franco ' s treachery from spain ' s most eminent artist , colleagues and representatives of the democratic government have come to picasso ' s home in paris to ask him to paint the mural . though his sympathies clearly lie with the new republic , picasso generally avoids politics - and disdains overtly political art .
sirk never denies the overwrought emotions and mawkish sentimentality of these films ; he pours on the exaggeration and irony in equal doses . itâ€™s oddly appropriate that sirkâ€™s popular hits were critically snubbed on their release . that’s not to say that middle class crowds and sobbing housewives saw past the glossy surfaces to see the brechtian engagements with middle class malaise and
is delivered to the spanish pavilion , where the paris exposition is already in progress . located out of the way , and grouped with the pavilions of smaller countries some distance from the eiffel tower , the spanish pavilion stood in the shadow of albert speer ' s monolith to nazi germany . the spanish pavilion ' s main attraction , picasso ' s
pressure point sidney poitier plays a tightly wound prison psychiatrist saddled with bobby darin’s american nazi patient in this 1962 drama produced by stanley kramer , reissued on blu - ray . the times critic bosley crowther praised mr . poitier’s “coolly forceful performance” and noted that , “as was intended , mr . darin’s portrayal should make anyone recoil . ” ( olive films )
he said ; ' i remember with complete sureness that i was called on april 30 by s . s . sturmbannfuehrer guensche while i was in the reich chancellery garage asking me to bring over five cans of petrol to the bunker .
revealed : the four warning signs you could be heading for divorce - including critcising your partner ' s . . .
yes , said bernd eichinger , one of germany ' s top directors , who wrote the screenplay for the movie .
america won world war ii : karel helpfully tells the townsfolk that millions of men
in england and america
are joining up to fight hitler . that business on the eastern front was no big deal , apparently .
riefenstahl’s mass formations of marching members of the hitler youth remind many film historians of the dance numbers choreographed in hollywood by busby berkeley . like berkeley , riefenstahl understood the power of synchronized sound . the music in her film is nearly continuous ; shots showing a sea of nazi banners or a forest of upraised arms are edited to the beat .
the raising of lidice and the almost total slaughter of its inhabitants elicited worldwide revulsion when its story was brazenly touted by hitler’s third reich in june , 1942 . widely - feared ss officer heydrich , a chief architect of hitler’s “final solution , ” was an embarrassingly high - value target to get taken out by opposition guerrillas , so an enraged reich furher adolph hitler and ss chief heinrich himmler believed an overpowering response was needed to quell any potential rising tide of rebellion among the reich’s occupied people . when incorrect gestapo intelligence linked the towns of lidice and lezaky to the british special operations executive - trained czech guerrillas that killed heydrich , reprisals against both towns were sickening in their barbarity : all males over 16 were summarily shot ; the women of lezaky were also killed while the women of lidice were sent to concentration camps where most later died , as were all the children ( 81 of whom were gassed immediately ) . every last animal in the villages was slaughtered , and both towns were completely raised , with lidice’s remains covered in soil and planted with crops , as if it never existed . final death toll : over 1 , 400 people taken in revenge for heydrich’s assassination . it was an atrocity particularly stunning in its heartless calculation , during a time of seemingly daily similar outrages .
examination : life correspondent percy knauth sifting through the dirt & debris in the shallow shell hole where the bodies of hitler and eva braun were thought to have been burned after their suicides , in the garden of the reichstag .
ganz agreed .
if i would not have felt sympathy for the character and would not have managed to make the audience feel sympathy for the creature hitler , then i would have failed in my job as an actor .
a beautiful film that takes beauty as its subject , led by a b actress illuminated in the films of france’s diagonale directors .
number of refugees accepted into the u . s . falls below the rest of the world combined for the first time since 1980
kendall jenner boats in sheer dress . . . after snuggling up to her nba beau ben simmons at khloe kardashian ' s party
la résistance : karel ' s job and what he wants the people of lidice to help him with . hanka and jarmilla do .
iconic movie home where molly ringwald ' s sixteen candles was filmed finally sells for $ 1 . 135 million after two years on market
number of refugees accepted into the u . s . falls below the rest of the world combined for the first time . . .
, open and lush in contrast to wymanâ€™s drab , confining house and sterile suburban street . ( rainer werner fassbinder , who appropriated both sirkâ€™s style and use of melodramatic structures , remade heaven as ali : fear eats the soul with the added dimension of race . )
2016 released historical war dramas set in the american 1800 ' s about a revolutionary who starts a revolution against the oppressive southern government .
the story of moshe the beadle , with which night opens , is perhaps the most painful example of the jews’ refusal to believe the depth of nazi evil . it is also a cautionary tale about the danger of refusing to heed firsthand testimony , a tale that explains the urgency behind wiesel’s own account . moshe , who escapes from a nazi massacre and returns to sighet to warn the villagers of the truth about the deportations , is treated as a madman . what is crucial for wiesel is that his own testimony , as a survivor of the holocaust , not be ignored . moshe’s example in this section is a reminder that the cost of ignoring witnesses to evil is a recurrence of that evil .
august wollenhaupt , the barber of hitler , was also interviewed and he described a ' genial , soft spoken man ' who enquired after his family and who always wanted to know what ' the gossip from the man in the street was . '
a colonel holsten who was in the bunker when hitler and eva ended their lives on april 30 1945 told how he saw the bodies being dragged up the narrow stairs to the reich chancellery garden where they were doused in petrol and set aflame .
breaking the fourth wall : this propaganda machine film ends with the spirits of the dead of lidice , still in character , parading by the camera and looking straight at the audience , urging americans to think of them and continue the struggle against hitler .
tcm celebrates the 100th anniversary of a musical legend with three nights of programming devoted to some of leonard bernstein ' s . . . more
brilliant , tedious and irredeemably evil , leni riefenstahl’s “triumph of the will” ( 1935 ) is one of the great conundrums of cinema history .
lauren conrad ' s son liam takes a handful of cake . . . as proud mom ' celebrates one year with our little guy '
' we only knew each other between action and cut ' : robin wright breaks her silence on kevin spacey ' s sexual . . .
picture exclusive : a wintour wedding ! vogue editor - in - chief anna ' s daughter bee shaffer is the picture of . . .
[ criterion releases douglas sirk’s magnificent obsession this week . in celebration , i offer this essay , which was originally published on greencine in 2007 ]
what we are trying to do is give hitler a three - dimensional portrait , because we know from all accounts that he was a very charming man ,
said director oliver hirschbiegel .
a man who managed to seduce a whole people into barbarism .
unfortunately , carradine is in very few scenes . patricia morison , whom sirk admired , is top - billed , but she ' s paired with alan curtis , a mustache in search of an actor . alone , she ' s good ( shiny - eyed , lush - lipped , highly emotive ) , but , frustrated by her co - star ' s burnished wooden performance , she overplays to try and force something out of him . this means she never seems to be reacting to what he ' s actually doing , or listening to what he ' s saying , but to what she wishes he were doing or saying . rarely have i see two actors so badly out of sync : one limpid , the other merely limp .
was finished , mgm mogul louis mayer saw it and liked it so much he bought it for his studio , making it one of the few , if not the first , outside films to be distributed by mgm . at mayer ' s insistence , sirk reshot material in october and november of 1942 though sirk felt that this somewhat compromised the documentary nature of his film . yet , despite the film ' s timely nature and mayer ' s enthusiasm ,
‘s dream factory version of heaven . ( stanwyck and sirk teamed up for one more outing , the underrated b & w melodrama there’s always tomorrow ( 1956 ) a suffocating look at suburban middle class life with fred macmurray in the traditionally female role of the dreamer who sacrifices his dreams for family . )
on april 27th , 1937 , unprecedented atrocities are perpetrated on behalf of franco against the civilian population of a little basque village in northern spain . chosen for bombing practice by hitler ' s burgeoning war machine , the hamlet is pounded with high - explosive and incendiary bombs for over three hours . townspeople are cut down as they run from the crumbling buildings . guernica burns for three days . sixteen hundred civilians are killed or wounded .
i ' m cold . . . so cold . . . : actually , heydrich says
it ' s getting dark
right before he croaks .
is not at all what pablo picasso has in mind when he agrees to paint the centerpiece for the spanish pavilion of the 1937 world ' s fair .
tristan thompson goes house hunting alone as he checks out $ 2m property in la with its own basketball court . . . just minutes from khloe ' s mansion
– bruce reid’s “ all the genre allows , ” an appreciation of douglas sirk written to celebrate a 1999 sirk retrospective in seattle and published in the stranger .
german filmmaker douglas sirk ( né hans detlef sierck ) directed almost 40 films in a career that spanned three decades . a late bloomer known for grand , gorgeously expressive and emotional melodramas in the 1950s , he took a third of his career to hit full stride . the early movies were comedies , glossy adventure stories and war dramas . during his days working in germany the director was heavily censored and when he escaped to the united states in 1937 he found himself stifled once again , “a director in hollywood in my time couldn’t do what he wanted to do , ” he once said . 1942’s vengeful , vehemently anti - nazi “ hitler’s madman ” only really existed because it was seen as patriotic , and films sirk made as late as 1952 , like “ has anyone seen my gal ? ” featuring his broad - shouldered go - to male muse rock hudson , were insubstantial trifles compared to his mature work . that film , lightweight comedy though it is , does still possess hints of commentary on class , status , money and the sickening desire for it all — themes sirk would explore , and quietly explode , in his best work .
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a virtual pariah after the war , riefenstahl was a strenuous advocate for her rehabilitation . her comeback suffered a major setback with susan sontag’s 1975 essay “ fascinating fascism ” — which eviscerated the artist’s whitewashing of her past — but riefenstahl was embraced by many cinéastes . she was honored by the telluride film festival and profiled in vanity fair . the critic john simon called her “one of the supreme artists of the cinema . ” “triumph of the will” was named to anthology film archives’ canon of “essential cinema . ” the shot in which hitler and two associates solemnly walk through the assembled mass is quoted in the ceremony that concludes the 1977 “star wars . ”
inspired by true events , douglas sirk ' s first american film is a powerful tale of the czech resistance in wwii , with john carradine as the vicious nazi commander .
kylie jenner gushes baby stormi is ' changing every week ' and ' has cutest personality ' . . . as new mom admits to binge watching the handmaid ' s tale
arcadia : lidice , a lovely peaceful quiet farming village , as shown in the opening montage that quotes edna st . vincent millay ' s poetic novel the murder of lidice .
, but the film still takes many liberties . possibly justified as it was made barely a year after heydrich ' s assassination and the details still weren ' t well known .
no doubt , “the downfall” has triggered a renewed public debate , not only in germany , but across europe , on what many call
germany ' s biggest trauma . ”
' i recognised that it was hitler from his uniform and his distinctive moustache . i had seen the fuehrer alive that morning sitting in his favourite wicker chair . later in the day , before the suicides , i recalled seeing four men arrive with gasoline cans which they said was for the air conditioning system inside the bunker .
sofia richie , 19 poses in a bikini top just after scott disick ' s ex kourtney kardashian , 39 , did the same . . . and fans call her out for it
khloe kardashian ' anxious but eager ' as she gets back to work for the first time since true ' s birth . . . and her alarm goes off at 4 . 35am
is acclaimed as an artistic masterpiece , taking its rightful place among the great spanish treasures of el greco , goya and velazquez .
a lot of people recognize the painting ,
says art historian patricia failing .
they may not even know that it ' s a picasso , but they recognize the image . it ' s a kind of icon .
in 1973 , pablo picasso , the most influential artist of the twentieth century , dies at the age of ninety - two . and when franco dies in 1975 , spain moves closer to its dream of democracy . on the centenary of picasso ' s birth , october 25th , 1981 , spain ' s new republic carries out the best commemoration possible : the return of
sirk’s body of work was reevaluated by the cahiers du cinema crowd , but there’ve been many others who have helped . rainer werner fassbender was a huge proponent of sirk’s work and remade “all that heaven allows” as “ ali : fear eats the soul . ” in fact , many of his pictures were heavily indebted to sirk’s style including the sumptuously colorful “ lola . ” the echoed influence was then carried down to todd haynes , indebted to both filmmakers , who made a homagistic pastiche of their work with “ far from heaven . ” quentin tarantino was also a fan and there’s an iconic line in “ pulp fiction ” when vincent vega ( john travolta ) orders the douglas sirk steak , which he makes sure is prepared “bloody as hell . ”
mel b ' is unable to pay her back taxes amid ongoing divorce battle with stephen belafonte . . . as it ' s estimated the pair owe up to $ 650k ' to the irs
let’s not forget that many of sirk’s best movies were remakes — and all remakes of 1930s john m . stahl films , including “magnificent obsession , ” “imitation of life” and “ when tomorrow comes ” which sirk made into the now the hard - to - find “ interlude ” ( which has been called an unsung masterpiece by richard brody . ) three other key films in sirk’s oeuvre , aside from “interlude” are “ all i desire ” starring barbara stanwyck , which feels like more of a test run for the sumptuous female - led melodramas he became famous for and “ a time to love and a time to die ” which blended his extravagant style with his penchant for war dramas . also of note is 1949’s “ shockproof ” written by samuel fuller and starring actor and sometime director cornel wilde .
a supremely artful feature - length recording of the 1934 nazi party congress , commissioned , according its credits , by order of the führer , “triumph of the will” raises a host of moral and aesthetic questions . ( the only real equivalent is d . w . griffith’s white supremacist magnum opus , “the birth of a nation . ” ) is “triumph of the will” a brilliantly innovative documentary ? is it a propaganda masterpiece ? a work of art — or simply , as zero mostel says in “the producers” of his calculated broadway flop , “a love letter to hitler” ?
rialto . for here in one lurid diatribe , mgm ' s assortment of authors have summed up practically every indictment against the nazis that they could crowd into one film . view full article in timesmachine »
the lang film is , i think , superior all round , but the two make interesting companions and sirk ' s is tougher , in a way . lang ' s movie , originally written by brecht , attempts to build in a small victory , as a villainous collaborator is framed for the assassination . sirk ends with the death of lidice and its populace as spirits , calling for the audience to avenge them .
gardner is barbara beaurevel , a poor new orleans beauty , circa 1890 , who inherits a fortune from her grandmother . but the family ' s money may have been earned by less - than - reputable means , which could spell disaster for the newly - respectable barbara . amid opulent sets and lavish costumes , gardner ' s barbara is determined to use the new funds to win the love of married man dr . mark lucas ( mitchum ) . helping in the break - up scheme is her cad cousin paul ( melvyn douglas ) , who ' s been told to woo the doctor ' s wife . but when the wife ( janis carter ) dies , dr . lucas is accused of murder . barbara comes forward at the last minute to clear his name , at the cost of revealing her sordid family background to the town .
“ the tarnished angels ” ( 1957 ) a type of companion piece to “ written on the wind , ” sirk’s antepenultimate film again featured the same producer / screenwriter and the trio of rock hudson , robert stack and dorothy malone . shot in black and white by irving glassberg and based on william faulkner ‘s “ pylon , ” this melodrama exploited the unlikely intersection of aviation and obsessive love in another quadrangle , like ‘wind . ’ “i need this plane like an alcoholic needs his drink , ” roger shumann ( played by stack ) says in his raison d’être soliloquy . hudson stars as burke devlin , a new orleans reporter intrigued by a peculiar gypsy aviation trio making ends meet in the depression - era carnival circuit by racing and pulling off stunts at rural air shows . shumann , a disillusioned wwi vet , cares for nothing but flying . not even his wife laverne ( malone ) a daredevil parachutist , his loyal mechanic jiggs ( jack carson ) or his doting son jack ( christopher olsen ) can penetrate his compulsion to fly — it’s the only thing in life he seems to do right . devlin , selfishly only sees a story at first , but soon becomes enamoured of the loveless laverene and discovers the true nature of this trio’s already blemished history together . while captivating , it’s perhaps not quite as absorbing as sirk’s expressive color pictures of the 1950s . still , it’s artistically ambitious and due for re - evaluation , not to mention a new transfer that highlights its somber and hard - fought mood .
was a test of the public ' s acceptance of mitchum ' s own recent past : the actor had been jailed briefly on marijuana charges in 1949 . studio chiefs and theater owners were anxious about how mitchum would be received by fans , but they shouldn ' t have worried . the prison stint seemed to accentuate mitchum ' s bad - boy persona , and swooning and screaming women greeted the actor at his appearances to promote the movie .
while ava gardner is receiving a wonderful reception , all bedlam breaks loose when mitchum appears on stage . he had to take five encores at the first show ,
one theater manager wrote to hughes .
lang , however , is interested in complexity : when the nazis take hostages and threaten to execute them unless heidrich ' s assassins surrender themselves , a powerful moral conundrum is illuminated . sirk ' s film , with ralph morgan as mouthpiece , actually argues that complexity is a confounding illusion and that everything really does come down to simple questions of right and wrong : a defensible position if you have a figure like heydrich to represent wrong .
' she didn ' t get those from me ' : kylie jenner says daughter stormi has dad travis scott ' s lips . . . as star reveals her breasts are ' three times the size ' post - baby
the nuremberg laws , for example , discriminated against jewish people . before the holocaust began , hitler intimated his intentions when he commented on those laws in september , 1935 : “the third [ law ] is an attempt to regulate by law [ the jewish ] problem , which , should this attempt fail , must then be handed over by law to the national - socialist party for a final solution . ”
wpg begat a series of sequels ( 1929 - 1933 ) in which marines quirt and flagg have post - war adventures , with a new woman in each sequel . this was followed by john ford ' s 1952 remake .
was an effective and timely reaction to the front page news headlines of its day . heydrich ' s death occurred in june 1942 and the film was in theatres a year later . ( sirk claimed to have actually met heydrich during a ufa party in the early 1930s . ) there is also a key scene in the film that references a renowned american poet . shortly after the notorious massacre in lidice , the writer ' s war board asked edna st . vincent millay for a poem about the incident . the resulting work -
the murder of lidice
- appeared as a radio broadcast heard across the country on nbc ' s network and was sent by short - wave to europe .
two films about the same subject could hardly be more different . lost command draws on jean larteguy ' s novel the centurions , about french paratroopers fighting in vietnam and algeria . it ' s unreservedly pro - french , albeit with a token war is hell message added . battle of algiers is a docudrama produced by italian director gillo pontecorvo and sponsored by the algerian government . though intended as algerian propaganda , it provides a relatively even - handed treatment of the conflict .
joining the abwehr ( the german military intelligence organization led by hitler - hating admiral wilhelm canaris ) , bonhoeffer ( and others like him ) got access to vital war information . what better way for people working against the third reich to pass key information to anti - nazi contacts ? but the price of such efforts , if one were suspected as a spy ( and caught ) , was life in a concentration camp ( or worse ) .
one of sirk ' s best players is a real german , johanna hofer ( not even credited ) , wife of the great actor fritz kortner . if the film has a sirkian heartbreak moment , it ' s from her , as she learns of the deaths of her sons on the eastern front , which triggers her defection from the nazi cause . if sirk had a cast as uniformly good as carradine and hofer , he could have made a classic . shortly later , he would . . .
when douglas sirk left germany shortly after the nazis came to power , he was one of that country ' s better - known directors , having made several well - received films with top stars . he arrived in the u . s . late in 1937 and because he was an unknown talent in hollywood , he had to rebuild his career from the ground up , writing screenplays for columbia and making low - budget films for small studios . a good example of the latter is his first american movie ,
challenges our notions of warfare as heroic and exposes it as a brutal act of self - destruction . but it is a hallmark of picasso ' s art that any symbol can hold many , often contradictory meanings , and the precise significance of the imagery in
one of the enduring questions that has tormented the jews of europe who survived the holocaust is whether or not they might have been able to escape the holocaust had they acted more wisely . a shrouded doom hangs behind every word in this first section of night , in which wiesel laments the typical human inability to acknowledge the depth of the cruelty of which humans are capable . the jews of sighet are unable or unwilling to believe in the horrors of hitler’s death camps , even though there are many instances in which they have glimpses of what awaits them . eliezer relates that many jews do not believe that hitler really intends to annihilate them , even though he can trace the steps by which the nazis made life in hungary increasingly unbearable for the jews . furthermore , he painfully details the cruelty with which the jews are treated during their deportation . he even asks his father to move the family to palestine and escape whatever is to come , but his father is unwilling to leave sighet behind . we , as readers whom history has made less naïve than the jews of sighet , sense what is to come , how annihilation draws inexorably closer to the jews , and watch helplessly as the jews fail to see , or refuse to acknowledge , their fate .
der untergang
or
the downfall ,
a film directed by oliver hirschbiegel and produced by bernd eichinger , takes a less historic and more personal approach toward the topic of germany ' s nazi past , one that german filmmakers have hesitated to touch until now .
in this story behind the movie , meet dietrich bonhoeffer and claus von stauffenberg . see the effects of the bomb blast on wolf’s lair , and examine how it appears today . virtually visit the concentration camp at flossenburg , and learn what happened to camp prisoners just before flossenburg was liberated .
catch - 22 , despite an all - star cast , got tepid reviews and flopped . m * a * s * h was a huge success , made robert altman famous , inspired an even more successful tv series , and helped usher in the ' 70s auteur era in general .
production numbers aside , “triumph of the will” is devoted largely to speechifying . while hitler is a star performer , who practiced his histrionic gestures before a mirror , his colleagues are not . so stupefying are their exhortations and oaths of fealty , the movie might have been made as much to lull as to agitate . by the time it ends , after a lugubrious third nighttime rally , with a mass rendition of the nazi anthem “the horst wessel song , ” you expect to see a giant swastika go into a hypnotic spin .
sirk intended his movie to be “almost like a documentary , ” carradine’s cold , self - dramatizing impersonation not least . the filmmaker had once met heydrich at a berlin reception . “carradine was heydrich , ” he told an interviewer , adding , “a lot of nazis behaved like shakespearean actors . ”
the lipsmacking menace of heydrich , much of it sexual , stands in contrast to lubitsch ' s subtler work in to be or not to be , where that other great german cineaste used the idea that his nazis had so over - indulged in cruelty as to be bored by it , to justify laid - back performances that eschewed propaganda cliché . it ' s a more cunning approach , but if we must have leering , beady - eyed nazis , then carradine , gloating over teenage czech students arranged in some kind of horrific sex line - up , is an unbeatable manifestation of human monstrousness .
2001 war / actions films released a little less than a month . each set within the backdrop of a war during the 1990 ' s and centered around american troops who after a mission into hostile territory goes awry must survive the onslaught of the surrounding enemy and try to make it out alive .
the nazis then begin to deport the jews in increments , and eliezer’s family is among the last to leave sighet . they watch as other jews are crowded into the streets in the hot sun , carrying only what fits in packs on their backs . eliezer’s family is first herded into another , smaller ghetto . their former servant , a gentile named martha , visits them and offers to hide them in her village . tragically , they decline the offer . a few days later , the nazis and their henchmen , the hungarian police , herd the last jews remaining in sighet onto cattle cars bound for auschwitz .
from the beginning , picasso chooses not to represent the horror of guernica in realist or romantic terms . key figures - a woman with outstretched arms , a bull , an agonized horse - are refined in sketch after sketch , then transferred to the capacious canvas , which he also reworks several times .
a painting is not thought out and settled in advance ,
said picasso .
while it is being done , it changes as one ' s thoughts change . and when it ' s finished , it goes on changing , according to the state of mind of whoever is looking at it .
still coming to terms ”the downfall” is probably the most controversial of a number of german films in production that deal with the country ' s nazi past . a three - part television series on nazi propaganda minister joseph goebbels and a film called
the goebbels experiment
is to follow later this year .


derrida is a 2002 american documentary film directed by kirby dick and amy ziering kofman about the french philosopher jacques derrida .

it premiered at the 2002 sundance film festival before being released theatrically on october 23 , 2002 .

derrida ( film )

review 2 : shortlist this is a highly original intervention into the film / philosophy area of film studies through practice . the film explores the envoi section of derrida’s the post card through a mix of narrative and documentary film techniques .
academic presentations : many of these were invited screenings and events around the film . highlights included a plenary at ‘derrida today’ in new york and keynote at ‘imagining derrida’ in cambridge
waste of time . as a biography of derrida , or an exposition of his philosophy , this film is a failure .
this website celebrates jacques derrida , both as a man and as an idea .
background love in the post : from plato to derrida , is the fourth fictional film produced from the research project ontological narratives ( 2003 - 2014 ) .
this , tethered to the philosophical questions around audience / address , truly manages to enact the theoretical concerns explored in derrida’s original text , via the practice / experience of watching the film . in addition , the mix of fiction and documentary is breaking new ground , creatively interrogating derrida’s work and performing the production of knowledge within the film itself . just as derrida’s post card is a text about textuality , the film , too operates as a text both about textuality and about adaptation .
research context my research has interrelated contexts that include phenomenology and epistemology , film philosophy , and the role of fictional narrative in film practice - based research .
derrida turns out to be an engaging , provocative and droll fellow before the cameras .
the film features a never before seen interview with derrida , alongside contributions from geoff bennington , j . hillis miller , sam weber , catherine malabou and ellen burt .
this is an extract . the full film is available on demand here : urltoken
love in the post is inspired by the book the post card by jacques derrida . like the book , the film plays with fact and fiction , weaving together the stories of a professor of literature and a film director , alongside insights from critics and philosophers .
safaa fathy was born in minia , egypt in 1958 . she is the director of many films , including ‘d’ailleurs , derrida’ ( 1999 ) . inspired by her film about the renowned french philospoher , she co - wrote ‘tourner les mots’ and ‘au bord d’un film’ with jacques derrida . she has authored many poetry collections in arabic , and has staged a dozen theatre plays .
the film seems more like a trivial passion project than anything worth presenting to . . .
film criticism award ( 2003 ) and the scms dissertation award ( 2012 ) . he wrote
it is precisely in this historical milieu that jacques derrida became the hero of the hour . derrida ' s work really boils down to unwinding the philosophical assumptions that make up any kind of accepted truth .
while being an interesting documentary , the questions that derrida was asked were sometimes irrelevant and even stupid .
the film is available to purchase on dvd and blu - ray and to rent on demand .
i was curious to see derrida , and to hear him respond to questions about his philosophy . i enjoyed the film footage of paris , and the frames that showed him teaching . the inclusion of his wife and other family members in the film made derrida less remote as a person . unfortunately , while i was able to gain some understanding of the thoughts he communicated , i found his concepts and the words he used to explain them , more frustratingly complex then enlightening . i did appreciate that the film i
my major criticism of the film itself , is some of the narrative performances are uneven which makes it more difficult to engage with the narrative elements of the film . however , in the wider context of what the film is attempting to achieve this could be read as a positive , brechtian technique !
upon consideration , it is evident that ' ' derrida ' ' complements the way that the directors , and jacques derrida and bob flanagan , push for insights in whatever manner necessary . the search is what really matters .
this movie certainly will fall short for those seeking loamy discourse about the ramifications of mr . derrida ' s work ; to these people it will seem like , well , a pop - song bowdlerization of a master ' s oeuvre . the directors know that mr . derrida must be introduced to neophytes , who will not have a firm grasp of deconstruction until they see how it is woven into the fabric of the film . ( when ' ' derrida ' ' played at the sundance film festival , audiences thoroughly enjoyed it . )
documentary about french philosopher ( and author of deconstructionism ) jacques derrida , who sparked fierce debate throughout american academia .
' ' derrida , ' ' the adoring and adorable documentary on the philosopher jacques derrida by the filmmakers kirby dick ( ' ' sick : the life and death of bob flanagan , supermasochist ' ' ) and amy ziering kofman , presents mr . derrida , the so - called father of deconstruction , as quick - witted and impish .
love in the post : from plato to derrida
; 2015 . urltoken ( accessed 09 jul 2018 )
educational institutions , film societies , libraries , and non - profit organizations can buy or rent our films .
along the way , we absorb bits and pieces of derrida ' s ideas , but the total is insufficient for the newcomer to come away with any focused understanding of derrida and only seems to fuel the dangerous cult of hero worship .
· derrida is screening at the ica , london , from january 31 . box office : 020 - 7930 3647 .
now , in this context , derrida enters the scene and says that plato is essentially just one reading of reality .
oscar - nominated filmmaker kirby dick explores the teachings of controversial french philosopher jacques derrida in a manner befitting his philosophies .
reisz , matthew , “cinematic deconstruction : derrida gets a close up” . 27 march 2014 , times higher education , urltoken
an interview with writer / director boots riley about his incendiary new film ,
sorry to bother you .
chain camera is a 2001 american documentary film directed by kirby dick about the lives of los angeles high school students .
jacques derrida . fu . . .
this video is no longer available due to a copyright claim by blaq out .
the screenplay and commentary by joanna callaghan and martin mcquillan . alongside the original screenplay , martin mcquillan provides an extended commentary on derrida’s original text , the film and its making . joanna callaghan reflects on her practice as a filmmaker and her engagement with philosophy as a director . the volume concludes with interviews between mcquillan and five leading derrida scholars . published by rowman and littlefield international .
the tomatometer score — based on the opinions of hundreds of film and television critics — is a trusted measurement of critical recommendation for millions of fans . it represents the percentage of professional critic reviews that are positive for a given film or television show .
my films attempt a phenomenological inquiry into the subject matter . they do this through treating film ( process and outcome ) as an entity that can be used , ( ‘readiness to hand’ ) , which has possibilities unique to itself and which acknowledges the subjectivity of the lifeworld in the transformation of text to image . in doing so it opens up to an epistemological consideration of film form through making . the films mobilise certain philosophical reflections ( e . g . the nature of reality , the nature of being ) but also question film philosophically ( e . g . the nature of film ? the being / beingness of film ? ) .
as with fanon , french racism and colonialism may well have been instrumental in directing derrida ' s intellectual life . some of the strongest material in dick and kofman ' s film gives an insight into how derrida ' s formative experiences in algeria - where he was expelled from school by the anti - semitic wartime french government and attacked by former schoolmates - made him especially sensitive to covert meanings in texts .
a drama - documentary inspired by the post card by jacques derrida . theo marks works in a university department that is soon to be closed . his wife sophie , enigmatic and distant is in analysis . filmmaker joanna struggles to complete a film about the post card . these people are set on a collision course prompted by a series of letters that will change their lives . the film features a never before seen interview with derrida , alongside contributions from geoff bennington , j . hillis miller , sam weber , catherine malabou and ellen burt .
derrida is a very controversial figure because a lot of people are simply confused as to what he was about , what he championed , and the importance and legacy of his work . historically , jacques derrida was an algerian jew - french citizen who truly revolutionized the 1960’s intellectual environment .
if you have any doubts about the film , just ask yourself how many other films have you seen about a renown modern philosopher .
notes : [ 1 ] derrida , jacques , la carte postale : de socrate à freud et au - delà . paris : flammarion , 1980 ; derrida , the post card : from socrates to freud and beyond . trans . alan bass . chicago : university of chicago press , 1987 .
criteria the adapting of a philosophical text into a film in order to perform and re - inscribe the philosophical problems presented by that text .
derrida , with his mane of white hair , piercing gaze and pipe clenched between his teeth , may be the most watchable thinker since rodin ' s .
[ font = century gothic ]
derrida
is a documentary about the noted philosopher and deconstructionist , jacques derrida . the film follows derrida in his daily life at home in paris and at work lecturing , and also to new york city and south africa to appear on panels . during which , he is constantly commenting on the artificiality of the whole situation of the documentarians trying to capture him looking as natural as possible . ( i imagine all documentaries have footage like this but it almost always ends up on the cutting room floor . ) this gives some insight into derrida ' s thinking , along with readings from some of his works . but it would have been nice to have some talking heads testifying about his influence within his chosen field . [ / font ]
any documentary that ' s worth watching will have a thesis and be a little self - referential , but this film took that a little too far . i thought the film makers cherry picked what they were going to talk about too much . if you want to get to know the man ' s personality , watch this . if you want to know more about derrida ' s philosophy , it ' s probably better to start with a book .
this website is dedicated to the movie based on the life of jacques derrida , the famous french philosopher who championed the philosophy of post - structuralism and postmodernism .
but the film lacks dissenting voices , which is sad given that derrida ' s work is immensely controversial ( there remains a current in british philosophy , for instance , that regards him merely as a successful fraud ) . it is also unfortunate that we hear his work in affectless readings of his texts over ryuichi sakamoto ' s dull incidental music . and it is to varying degrees of edification that the film follows its subject around from lecture hall to apartment .
this is not to say that ' ' derrida ' ' is short on mr . derrida ' s weighty musings on life . gleaning insights about him through his interactions with others may seem like a superficial way into his mind , although it is entirely possible that mr . dick and ms . kofman understand that all they can offer about mr . derrida is a drive - by , a blur of a view that will leave a number of things indistinct . they seem to recognize that this documentary can give only a slice of their perceptions of mr . derrida , and he reminds us that he becomes a different person when the camera is on .
the film itself is fascinating in its use of self - reflexive narrative structure in which the filmmaking process is externalised as part of the narrative . the director is one of the characters and we witness the breakdown of the editing process , the inner workings of the film production office , revealing the labour of the film’s production . at the same time we explore the central characters’ lives and intertwining relationships , centring on the plot device of the discovery of secret love letters – letters which enable the film to examine the nature of communication and reception and how texts circulate independently of authorial intention . perhaps much like this review…
the ballad of narayama
is a japanese film of great beauty and elegant artifice , telling a story of startling cruelty . what a space it opens…
this confirms what derrida wrote years ago in memories for paul de man :
deconstruction is not an operation that supervenes from the outside , afterwards , one fine day . it is always at work within the work .
this must be distressing for film - makers like dick and kofman to realise - from the very beginning , their film was being taken apart from within . but that , it seems , is almost always the case when movie - makers tangle with philosophy .
at the very least , if you don ' t know anything about derrida when you walk into the theater , you won ' t know much more when you leave .
scenes of mr . derrida watching himself on tape , talking about how he met his wife , marguerite ( he is bashful and thoughtful as he ruminates on this experience ) , will probably bring to mind the mirror - within - a - mirror scritti politti song ' ' jacques derrida , ' ' with its querulous sense of propriety . but mr . dick and ms . kofman carefully layer folds of reality . ( later the subject is shown viewing film of himself watching the tape in which he watches the interview . )
the research statement situates the research clearly , giving ample evidence of originality , rigor and significance , and outlining how this practice research project creates new knowledge in the field of film / philosophy and practice / research . the work is situated well both in relation to the filmmaker’s other research ( ontological narratives ) and to the field of film / philosophy ( both from the perspective of a philosophical discussion of film ; commercial films on philosophy and practice - based research projects interrogating filmic and philosophical production ) .
author : joanna callaghan format : drama documentary duration : 1’20” published : february 2016 winner of the british association of film , television and screen studies practice research award 2016 .
in derrida , we see the french deconstructionist making breakfast , choosing a jacket and lighting his pipe . but films about philosophers haven ' t always been so lacking in action , says stuart jeffries
the peer reviews that follow were part of the baftss practice research awards shortlisting process as this volume is published in association with the british association of film , television and screen studies .
these sequences are representative of mr . derrida ' s school of thought , investigating the mind of a philosopher as a working , living biography and font of emotional understanding . at such points , ' ' derrida ' ' adds flesh to the icon , gently highlighting a quality attributable to many intellectuals : vanity . we see glimpses of this as mr . derrida prepares for his day - - he takes as much care in his appearance as he does with his ideas . by applying definition to both sides of the man , the picture realizes a fullness that does not negate the subject .
i admit my own acquaintance with his work begins and ends with terry eagleton ' s astringent summary in the primer literary theory , in which derrida and the post - structuralists get accused of being culpably impotent in the face of political injustice - and indeed derrida is shown being enigmatic and evasive when questioned about his attitude to
forgiveness
at a lecture to an all - white audience at cape town university .
derrida is jewish and says he is very vigilant about anti - semitism ; how this colours his readings of heidegger and paul de man we aren ' t told . but the movie rediscovers derrida as a prose poet ; kofman ' s readings of his work bring out its dreamy , meditative quality . the funniest moment comes when one interviewer catastrophically misjudges derrida ' s interest in pop culture and asks him about irony in seinfeld . she is rewarded with an eloquent , baffled grimace and the reply :
deconstruction does not produce any ' sitcom ' . stop watching your ' sitcom ' ; do your homework and read .
a similar problem , arguably , affected derek jarman ' s occasionally moving 1993 film wittgenstein . at least , the film ' s scriptwriter terry eagleton , then an oxford don , thought so .
my own script ,
he said ,
strikes me as reasonably strong on ideas but short on dramatic action ; jarman ' s , minus my own interpolations , seems to me just the other way round .
but such creative tensions , and potential for disappointment , are likely when someone heroically tries to make a film about philosophy - especially on a laughable £200 , 000 budget .
interesting documentary . as i reject french post - structuralism as a model for american academia , it is worth watching to understand the late derrida ' s background and how he came to question the assumptions of western philosophy .
the last context is the role and use of fictional narrative within practice - based research films . while my research experiments with narrative , it is not experimental film . rather i work with cinematic codes , as opposed to against . the use of fictional narrative is distinct in the field of film practice - based research and opens the research for a different set of considerations as opposed to documentary or experimental practice .
documentaries cannot really do other than supply a fragment of a momentary truth , and ' ' derrida ' ' becomes a part of its deconstructionist subject ' s purview by observing its flaws as a forum and as a form .
note : if you dig into derrida , remember that he evolves , just like dylan . he was no spring chicken , either , when he passed away , so like bob , he ' d been evolving for many years .
directed by kirby dick and amy ziering kofman ; in english and french , with english subtitles ; director of photography , kirsten johnson ; edited by mr . dick and matt clarke ; music by ryuichi sakamoto ; produced by ms . kofman ; released by zeitgeist films . at the film forum , 209 west houston street , west of sixth avenue , south village . running time : 85 minutes . this film is not rated .
derrida marks amy ziering kofman ' s directing debut . she most recently produced the critically acclaimed feature documentary taylor ' s campaign , which followed the race for a seat on the santa monica city council by one of its homeless residents .
marxists and other social critics , understandably , were happy with what derrida did because he called everything into question . it’s as if the whole western philosophical and academic infrastructure was like the emperor in the familiar tale of the emperor’s new clothes .
at times , the personality that comes across in this film reminds me of the personality displayed by bob dylan when he was constantly being hounded to
explain
himself , early on in his career . his take on
forgiveness
tied my brain in knots . but that ' s derrida . he ' s one of the great contemporary game players , one of the best tie - your - brain - in - knots thinkers worth the torture of grappling with .
proposed by these young turks to advocate film authorship could also apply to themselves . they were literally authors , each of them leaving a palpable signature of their own perspective and style between the lines . their writing made them writers .
the audience is quickly burdened with the overbearing zeal of the filmmakers to record this man ' s private life . with little more than quotes and mildly amusing anecdotes to keep viewers awake , the film seems more like a trivial passion project than anything worth presenting to the larger public . by the time the film comes anywhere close to presenting a justification for its investigation of this reclusive and unfortunately uninteresting figure , it is unlikely that anyone will still be invested enough to care .
perhaps a certain level of serious expectation will exist among audiences because of mr . dick ' s previous documentary , ' ' sick , ' ' which provided an unstinting gaze at what a dying masochist endured . ' ' sick ' ' and ' ' derrida ' ' might suggest that mr . dick ' s primary interest is the dank side of life . viewers might fail to note that ' ' sick ' ' is as much about questioning perceptions of life , feeling and thought as ' ' derrida ' ' is .
the statement is thorough , succinct , and attends well to the requirements of each section . in addition to offering a discussion of the film , its intent , processes and context , it offers useful references to the range of other published work associated with the project such as web - based ‘sketch - books’ and the more traditional monograph . theoretical and artistic context are carefully considered , with a clear statement offered about the overarching research framework being one that brings together phenomenology , epistemology and film philosophy .
indeed , to read andré bazin is more than to follow his film analysis . it is to taste his aesthetic taste , to sense his profound sense of intellectual balance , to feel his personal philosophy , his love for animals , and his devotional attitude to
dick and kofman have set themselves a difficult task . if writing a philosopher ' s biography is indecent , then making a film about a philosopher - be it biopic or documentary - is all but impossible . in film , to be is to do ; in philosophy , to be is , if anything , to think . that is one reason bruce willis will never star in a biopic about immanuel kant , the great german philosopher who led a life so predictable that neighbours set their watches to his morning constitutional .
there is a clear coherence and harmony between both the supporting statement and screenwork – but the film itself ( and this is distinct to so many other pieces of practice - led enquiry ) stands up as an individual and compelling piece of practice - led scholarship .
a portrait of the brilliant and controversial french thinker , jacques derrida , and the themes that haunt and inspire his work . the founder of a school of critical thinking that radically questions the nature of texts , the reader , and the multiple layers of meaning at work in language , derrida ' s work has been a profound influence on analysis of literature , linguistics , philosophy , law and architecture . and although best known for his early work , this last decade has witnessed an outpouring of derridean thought on a broad range of subjects from justice to national identity .
if derrida and postmodern thought interests you , you ' ll love it . i did . groen ' s review nails it : the picture ' s charm lies in the continuing by - play between the filmmakers and their subject , with each side doing its best to deconstruct the other .
along the absorbing way to this conclusion , the film observes its subject through his less than dense and foolishly likable admission of his lack of knowledge about many things . he is a hopeless neophyte on love , but is also a delighted flirt who loves toying with people and ideas .
nope . it’s going somewhere . and the destination is worth any effort the journey may require . this is the kind of film that makes you see other movies through fresh eyes and ask questions that might not normally occur to you during films that try to hide their storytelling seams .
in 1996 , miléna poylo and gilles sacuto created ts productions . in december 2004 , the company was awarded the independent production prize by ifcic , and the duo revelation trophy . ts productions also received seven césars for the feature film ‘séraphine’ ( 2008 ) , directed by martin provost .
a speaker in a “syrian dissident film collective” tells an audience that when movie focuses on misery and blood , it can excite or numb viewers rather than awaken their empathy . he says filmmakers must “find a way to represent horror , to represent death , respecting the golden rule . ” a man in the audience respectfully argues the opposite . the argument remains unresolved , just like every other idea teased out in this unusual film , which is about the things it shows and doesn’t show us , and all the good reasons for showing and not showing , remembering and forgetting .
well , that kid , in the history of western philosophy was derrida . he claimed that plato , for all the certainties that he laid down , is essentially just one person’s view of reality ; that there are many other ways to look at reality ; and he started deconstructing plato to prove his point .
a celebrity follow - around for , arguably , the most important philosopher of the late 20th century . the film is not , in itself , a treasure house of intellectual content . . . you will not come away with a deepened understanding of differance , dissemination , etc . . . . but some nice moments . ( see his response to an interviewer ' s description of seinfeld . ) but he comes off as charming , thoughtful , sometimes wary of being a celebrity , a nice guy . for those of us who value his work , the film is a treat .
ick and ziering kofman ' s documentary about the daily life of deconstructionist philosospher jacques derrida turns out to be very entertaining . the handsome subject himself is engaging and distinctly cinematic , looking decades younger than his 70 - plus years , with a snow - white pompadour that we see being attended to at the hairdresser .
how do you film a beautiful mind ? in the film about john forbes nash junior , played by russell crowe , the inner life of the delusional mathematics genius was shown chiefly through febrile blackboard scrawling . the key problem for director ron howard was that there had to be a visual index to the goings - on in nash ' s head , otherwise his mental beauty would have remained obscure . but howard ' s chosen visual index was so banal that it conveyed little of the riches of his thought . great artistic imagination is clearly required , but that has been lacking in most films about intellectuals .
theo marks works in a university department that is soon to be closed . his wife sophie , enigmatic and distant is in analysis . filmmaker joanna struggles to complete a film about the post card . these people are set on a collision course prompted by a series of letters that will change their lives .
to say that derrida has had a deep - seated , almost insidious impact on my life is no joke . he ' s always lurking in the back of my mind , a kind of undercover commentator , peeping out of my subconscious from beneath a grayish colored canvas tarp , waiting to pop up and insert a comment or two in any given situation .
the work has the potential to be highly impactful to a diverse range of audiences ( encompassing both students and scholars of multiple disciplines – philosophy , film studies , theatre studies , literature etc ) and is undoubtedly highly successful in its aim to provide a compelling argument of how narrative can play a convincing function in developing a coherent vision of a philosophical concept .
outcomes the project is of interest to researchers across the arts and humanities because it concerns itself with the fundamental assumptions of the very idea of ‘practice - based research’ . the central research problematic that guides this work is : how might a creative text perform or produce knowledge as a theoretical counter - signature , rather than merely illustrate pre - existing philosophical ideas . it therefore addresses in an ambituous way a crucial aspect of practice - based research and so the film and the critical commentary that contextualizes it is of benefit not only to those engaged in practice - based film - making but all such researchers whose work addresses this problematic , in fine art , design , performance , music , and so on . [ 2 ] [ 3 ]
online presence & dvd distribution there is a dedicated film website . the project is available on vimeo on demand to rent and this reaches an audience completely removed from academia and philosophy . the dvd is distributed through heraclitus pictures and also available on amazon ( which again reaches a different audience ) . many sales have been to university libraries and to individuals within the academy .
nygren ' s call to action is admirable , but it also epitomizes the most frustrating aspect of his book : it is difficult to determine exactly what it is about . time frames sets out to explore japanese film history , however the work is less productive than it is deconstructive . a reader coming to nygren ' s text seeking to better understand japanese film history as it is generally understood will leave sorely disappointed . nygren not only destabilizes , but destroys even the most basic assumption about the definitions of japan , japanese history , history , cinema , and japanese cinema . the book ' s genealogical approach is counter - intuitive , and it skips between works , time periods , directors , western criticism , and eastern philosophy with gleeful abandon .
if anything , it’s just another voice in the crowd . it’s neither here nor there . it is definitely in no way , shape or form , superior . that’s where we are now , thanks in a large part to derrida because he called into question a lot of the things that a lot of people historically drew a lot of pride and , most importantly , a sense of certainty from .
in a talk at new york university , jacques derrida took up this theme .
classical philosophers usually avoid biography because they believe it ' s indecent . philosophers shouldn ' t speak of themselves , they shouldn ' t present themselves as empirical beings . if we want to break with this classical philosophical action according to which philosophers shouldn ' t present themselves , then we have to be indecent to some extent .
the collage film “cameraperson” is one of the most original , challenging , sometimes infuriating documentaries of recent times . it’s well worth seeing and arguing about , but only if you can give it your full attention and glean the internal logic that went into its construction . once you’ve done that , you will never forget what the movie showed you , or your own guesses about why it showed it to you .
this was big stuff . a lot of the things that you enjoy in the movies , a lot of the things that you see in marketing , and definitely a lot of the current political and social trends in the united states and elsewhere , ranging from same sex marriage , gay rights , abortion rights , the whole nine yards , stems from the tremendous amount of changes aided by , if not unleashed , by derrida and other philosophers of that same period in history .
having troubled the waters of history , nygren turns to derrida and deleuze ' s seemingly radical claim that cinema is language . in order to contextualize this claim in terms of japan , he moves backwards through their arguments by beginning not with film , but with the japanese language . written japanese is a complex conglomeration of kanji ( chinese characters ) , two phonetic syllabaries ( hiragana and katakana ) , arabic numbers , and even latin letters . thinking of written japanese as a language requires a radical rethinking of what constitutes writing and language itself . the study of kanji—chinese characters used in japanese—is
heavily invested with ideological modes of language and abjection , in conflict with grammatological consideration
( 62 ) . this is further complicated by kanji ' s own doubleness in the japanese context : it can be read doubly , as onyomi ( a phonetic reading connected to the character ' s chinese pronunciation ) and as kunyomi ( a native japanese reading ) .
jacques derrida was cutting - edge influential back when i was in school , and he continues to be taught widely in college classes right now . and it ' s not just philosophy courses , either . walk into a college bookstore and stroll the aisles . you can see him being taught in english , history , political science , education classes - - and on and on . an amazing man and an interesting portrait . his comments on biography / autobiography will be with me for a while .
wittgenstein was one of a 12 - part series that tariq ali ' s bandung company developed for channel 4 in the early 1990s . only four scripts were eventually written , but they offer tantalising hints about what might have been . david edgar wrote a script on john locke that peter wollen was going to film ; ali himself wrote spinoza , the apostle of reason ; while howard brenton wrote a script about the life of socrates . whether we should lament the fact that these scripts were never realised on screen remains uncertain .
. serge daney delivers his thrilling insight and ethical fervor in scrupulous but vital sentences unbound to academic formulas , thereby going beyond them . no film critic could be an auteur without the unique sensibility for writing itself . roger ebert’s succinct rhythm with sharp punchlines exemplifies classical lessons on how to write well ; jonathan rosenbaum’s expansive free - association embodies literary modernism in exploring the multilayered core of his topic ; jim hoberman’s rhetorical bravura maximally condenses vast information and pungent criticality in a postmodern style of journalism . the list can go on . . .
one thing that has never been discussed regarding cinematic auteurism is the film critic as auteur . but look back closely . just as the “camera - pen” became a new medium for expressing artistic authenticity in alexander astruc’s view , so the real pen played the same role for him as critic . denouncing dad’s cinema as dead , françois truffaut not only consecrated original directors but also signaled the birth of a fresh , trenchant , passionate criticism by the son’s generation . it only became wittier , more erudite and idiosyncratic in jean - luc godard’s hand .
the many and varied outputs are an example of the fruitful interdisciplinary approach allowing for different entry points into the project from scholars and practitioners engaged in a range of areas . these include theoretical work , particularly in philosophy , cultural studies , literary studies , francophone studies , comparative literature , fine art , film studies and media studies and more generally a wider interdisciplinary audience who are concerned with theoretical issues of performance , adaptation , representation , mediation , interpretation , visuality and textuality . for this wider audience the concerns of the project address key touchstones in contemporary academic inquiry in the arts and humanities .
he ' s like a general contractor overseeing the construction project of my house - life , with me up on the scaffold , counting on him to steady it while i build to higher heights . i look down suddenly , and wouldn ' t you know it : instead of supporting the scaffold , he ' s lighting his pipe . i notice nothing but the dark bowl of that pipe . vertigo sets in . the bowl expands before me , a black and bottomless pit . is this the abyss . the scaffold rumbles and begins to shake apart . derrida puffs thoughtfully at his pipe . i fall headlong into blackness . . . nah , just kidding .
in terms of philosophical content , the films contain subject matter derived from readings of philosophers , which are transformed into fictional stories . these stories centre on or pertain to human beings and linking them is the question of what it means ‘to be’ . the subject matter is transformed through a phenomenological inquiry present both in the human agent ( s ) and also in treating film ( process and outcome ) as an entity that can be used ( in the sense of heidegger’s ‘readiness to hand’ ) , which has possibilities appropriate to itself ( and only to itself ) and which makes apparent the ‘hiddenness’ involved in the ‘ontological difference’ between ‘being’ and ‘beings’ .
for starters , “cameraperson” is an autobiography of sorts—a life in filmed fragments that almost never shows the face of its main character , kirsten johnson , but spends a fair amount of screen time watching her mother succumb to alzheimer’s disease . these heartbreaking moments connect with footage of johnson’s two children . watching them grow up , we might wonder if johnson will one day lose her memory as well , and if these images may one day serve as a substitute for actual , physical memory—the stories that a parent is no longer able to tell a child . we may also notice that the seeming - randomness of this film’s construction is an analogy for how it feels to try to remember a life when one’s mind has been fragmented by disease , or simply by age . maybe the movie is an analogy for how almost anyone’s mind works , even in mint condition : remembrance is not linear , it jumps around .
“the death of the author” could then be reviewed as the death of the critic . in fact , the cinema’s hall of fame has been shining with ever more directors - as - stars , whose authorship has survived all historical backlashes against auteurism and now function as brand name in both the commercial and critical markets of film reception . but the critic as auteur has become an endangered species especially in the digital age . to be a critic means little , when virtually anyone can scoop up widely distributed knowledge about films and expose criticism directly to global viewers in new media outlets , from websites to blogs and now social networks . the “do - it - yourself” spirit is much more realizable in writing than filming , diluting the elitism of institutional criticism and democratizing the monopolized right to express . the ideal of freedom of speech , then , flattens a critic’s authorial voice onto the limitless plane of innumerable voices , which do not need to listen or care about it .
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i ' m not sure you ' ll leave the movie understanding every nuance of ' deconstruction , ' but you ' ll have a real sense of a sophisticated thinker .
exhibits a devotion to its subject that just might drive you to his books and make you wish for tea with the man who wrote them .
the picture ' s charm lies in the continuing by - play between the filmmakers and their subject , with each side doing its best to deconstruct the other .
dense and thoughtful and brimming with ideas that are too complex to be rapidly absorbed .
we are left with a superficial snapshot that , however engaging , is insufficiently enlightening and inviting .
ne day , heidegger was asked about aristotle . what should we make of the greek philosopher ' s life ?
he was born , he thought , he died ,
replied heidegger .
all the rest is pure anecdote .
you can almost sense the shrug in heidegger ' s first sentence , and the contemptuous sneer in the second . philosophers don ' t need biographers - they only confuse the communication of great thinkers ' great thoughts .
among those
pure anecdotes
is hugo ott ' s 1993 biography heidegger : a political life , in which the german existentialist ' s support for the nazis when he was the rector of freiburg university in the early 1930s was dealt with at length . according to heidegger ' s view , such books were an irrelevance to understanding his work , as is the fact that he was a member of the nazi party until it was wound up . the same view would consign whole libraries of philosophical biographies , diaries , memoirs , published letters and films to oblivion , and render a philosopher ' s autobiography an exercise in professional self - betrayal .
there was plenty of visual splendour in the documentaries about sartre , nietzsche and heidegger made by the bbc nearly four years ago . the bbc chose as its subjects the most biographically friendly of philosophers : a syphilitic lunatic , a semi - housetrained nazi and a promiscuous toad lookalike . each had a life that was rich in incident , and each documentary teemed ( respectively ) to footage of boulevard saint germain brasseries , sublime alpine vistas and seemingly primeval bavarian forests . what was lacking , however , was much on the philosophers ' work .
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directed by kirby dick and amy ziering kofman composed by ryuichi sakamoto produced by amy ziering kofman edited by kirby dick and matt clarke associate producer gil kofman camera kirsten johnson sound mark z . danielewski , pascal depres , benoit hillebrandt additional camera richard atkinson , baird bryant , christine burrill , herve cohen , mark z . danielewski , gil kofman , arturo smith , geza sinkovics , chris tetens additional sound alan barker , kip gynn , yuri racin , chris scarfile additional editing gil kofman first assistant editor brian jonason assistant editors mark z . danielewski , adam finberg , annette aryanpour , damien caldwell editing consultant tristan brighty subtitles amy ziering kofman post - production supervisor brian jonason music mixed by ryuichi sakamoto and fernando aponte music recorded at kab studios , nyc music recorded by fernando aponte re - recording mixer mark linden titles mike kahne
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rt @ filmlinc : portraits of audrey hepburn by cecil beaton . love , cecil opens today ! don’t miss q & as and book signings with dir . lisa vreel…
the 1960’s was a very turbulent age for the west . a lot of the hard and fast rules and assumptions that pretty much constituted the western psychology and world view were essentially thrown up in the air .
everything was held to question . even the whole idea of western civilization and its impact on the rest of the world and whether democracy , capitalism , free markets and all the other crucial components that made up and contributed to the success of the west were called into question .
of course , this is due as much to demographic changes as it was to the intellectual ferment and military and economic issues of the time . the big demographic reality that essentially lent a lot of fuel to this inter - generational psychological and spiritual crisis , so to speak , was the baby boomer generation .
after world war ii , a tremendous amount of people were born in the west . this is due to the fact that after the war , people started forming families and a lot of kids were produced in a relatively short period of time .
this age group went on to impact , whether for bad or good , the rest of society in a major way that is almost unprecedented because , in terms of demographics , it ' s fairly rare in history that such a huge population comes of age within a short period of time .
this age group is generally more liberal than the preceding generation . they look at all the creature comforts and settled realities and often uncomfortable compromises that made up the western experience and asked for something better .
collectively , the baby boomer generation asked the older generations , and the western civilization in general , whether it ' s the best they can come up with . to say that they question the very foundation and bedrock assumptions that made up british , american , canadian , australian , french and german societies would be an understatement indeed .
according to his philosophy , there is no such thing as received truth . now , this is quite revolutionary because if you live in a society where there is no accepted truth , then everybody is essentially their own judge , jury and , depending on the circumstance , executioner .