In the series ‘One Spectator Among Others’ Herman Asselberghs and Gerard-Jan Claes invite various passionate film lovers to elaborate on their viewing practice by email. Filmmakers, artists, critics, researchers, authors, programmers, cinemagoers, TV enthusiasts, Netflixers, YouTubers, torrent users... The series takes off with Herman Asselberghs as guinea pig. He makes films, writes about film, teaches at the film department of LUCA School of Arts/Sint-Lukas Brussels and is co-founder of the artist-run production and distribution platform Auguste Orts.

I have some good news, for everyone: cinema is in crisis. Which is hardly news, in a way, for it has continuously been in crisis throughout its existence. It is not a sign of future danger either – the future is an enigma, and it takes a lot of irresponsibility to speculate about it, to pretend to decipher its mysteries – but rather that of a seismographic sensibility to the stakes of the present. I think there is no other symptom more relevant to an art’s vitality than its constant reappraisal, in accordance with the constant reformulation of our world. The real issue would be to know whether the forces that transform the world are the same forces that transform the arts, how both feed on one another, unless they are contradictory.

André Bazin is sometimes called “the inventor of film criticism”. Entire generations of film critics and filmmakers, especially those associated with the Nouvelle Vague, are indebted to his writings on film. Film opens a “window on the world”, according to Bazin. His writings would also be important for the development of the auteur theory. Bazin: “For those who do not participate in it, the reality of luxury naturally provokes the painful awareness of being banned. Its cinematographic dramatization, on the contrary, equals its realization and the euphoria of possession.”

André Bazin is sometimes called “the inventor of film criticism”. Entire generations of film critics and filmmakers, especially those associated with the Nouvelle Vague, are indebted to his writings on film. Film opens a “window on the world”, according to Bazin. His writings would also be important for the development of the auteur theory. Bazin: “Let us summarize the impressions of this fifth Cannes Film Festival and try to draw some constructive lessons from it. The conclusion is simple: a festival is interesting in proportion to the quality of the films that are presented.”

[Bandwith warning: this article contains a lot of images]
Owing its unity to its variations, Hong Sang-soo’s oeuvre provokes inventory-making more than others. One will find here a collection of some of the running motifs, those called for by memory and those formed as the images were collected. Floating motifs, from plate to plate – drawing, between rigidity and woolliness, between heaven and earth, an art of posture and distance, in which any relationship and resemblance could be mere coincidence. Clinking as pleasantly, we hope, as glasses on a table.

1987. Back to Chicago. During a seminar at the Art Institute, I see Robert Bresson’s Diary of a Country Priest. A turning point. I give up experimental video-art cinema and move on to storytelling. That is when I understand that classic cinema can bring happiness.

Every time an image emerges from the depths, something changes: in size, intensity or movement, or in the relationship it establishes with other images – from other layers. In the course of these changes, the argument, the train of thought, the story of the film develops.

Tonight would have been the opening night of the Courtisane Festival in Ghent. Due to the COVID virus, the organizers of the festival were forced to cancel entirely, including the first part of the Out of the Shadows programme. On the occasion of this programme, Courtisane, Sabzian and KASK School of Arts joined efforts to compile an accompanying publication, focussing on the work of five Arab female film directors: Atteyat Al-Abnoudy, Selma Baccar, Assia Djebar, Jocelyne Saab and Heiny Srour. As the actual release is unclear at the moment, Sabzian publishes a first text from the publication, by the Algerian filmmaker and writer Assia Djebar (1936-2015). “For me, cinema is neither a “job” – in the sense of a career – nor a “vocation” – in the sense of a calling. What is it, then, for me, having made my first film shortly after the age of forty, then a second one shortly after the age of forty-five?”

André Bazin is sometimes called “the inventor of film criticism”. Entire generations of film critics and filmmakers, especially those associated with the Nouvelle Vague, are indebted to his writings on film. Film opens a “window on the world”, according to Bazin. His writings would also be important for the development of the auteur theory. Bazin: “You need to see the ghostly ballet of “rotifers” in a drop of water or the underhand and implacable struggle of white blood cells against bacteria to have an idea of the plastic as well as dramatic possibilities of cinema.”

De neorealistische films leken niet realistischer voor de massa, voor de kleine mensen, voor het dagelijkse leven. De individuen en hun psychologische analyse uit de burgerlijke roman zijn overbodig omdat er geen verhalen meer overtuigend aannemelijk gemaakt hoeven te worden. Maar de oude verhouding is niet zomaar omgekeerd, het documentaire krijgt niet de overhand ten koste van het narratieve. Rossellini vertrouwt niet op het fantastische toeval, de kern van de surrealistische esthetiek, noch laat hij alles over aan de apparatuur zoals later de cinéma vérité deed. Zijn blik en die van de camera worden gecombineerd. Een nieuwe realiteit komt maar in zicht via een nieuwe manier van waarnemen.

Daniel becommentarieert zijn onderwerp: “Met schilderkunst moet je jezelf in de vingers snijden.” Voor hem en Rohmer gaat het erom de kunst tot leven te brengen die niet geschikt is voor musea. Om met een beeld van de film te spreken: vazen zijn er in de eerste plaats om bloemen in te zetten.

Films zoals die van Bresson, die afhankelijk zijn van de kracht van suggestie en dus in extreme mate afhankelijk zijn van het reactievermogen en de reactiebereidheid van de toeschouwer, die een kluwen van verbanden, referenties en krachten verbeelden, laten zich onmogelijk herleiden tot een eenduidige, lineaire en onomkeerbare verhouding tussen oorzaak en gevolg. De vrijheid die Bresson zijn publiek laat, stemt overeen met zijn houding als kunstenaar ten opzichte van de werkelijkheid. Wat hij met de vorm van zijn films vastlegt is slechts reliëf; wat men niet ziet is cruciaal en pas in de stilte en sprakeloosheid achter wat men hoort, komt in de eenzaamheid het eigenlijke drama van deze film boven.

Vigo’s films behoren tot het surrealisme. Niet de Breton-stroming met haar überidealisme, haar amour fou en, ondanks alles, haar paternalisme. Vigo is een van de “vijanden van binnenuit”, Bataille, Artaud, leven-boven-vorm, erotiek, het uitgeholde subject. De vernietiging van de maatschappelijke bovenbouw wordt de basis van elke revolutionaire actie.

Godards camera bewaart een afstand; hij registreert. Godard weigert de kijker via dramaturgische manipulaties een mening op te dringen. De werkelijkheidsaanspraak van zijn kunst berust niet op een zo trouw mogelijke nabootsing van de werkelijkheid, maar manifesteert zich in de erkenning van het fictieve karakter ervan.

Ozu is een zencineast die in de positie van toeschouwer en afwachtende de wereld niet wil veranderen, maar zich vlak en onverschillig maakt als een waterspiegel en gereed is voor de indrukken van de wereld. De camera is bij het draaien steeds een fractie van zijn blik verwijderd: de ruimte geeft een versplinterde indruk.

André Bazin is sometimes called “the inventor of film criticism”. Entire generations of film critics and filmmakers, especially those associated with the Nouvelle Vague, are indebted to his writings on film. Film opens a “window on the world”, according to Bazin. His writings would also be important for the development of the auteur theory. Bazin: “It has always seemed to me that one of the main arguments against the denigrators of the mechanical arts that have invaded modern life lay in the fact that they are both a tremendous means of cultural dissemination and a form of entertainment.”

At the end of Lou n’a pas dit non, Anne-Marie Miéville expressed a wish: “Love will be a relationship that is meant to be between one human being and another, no longer one that flows from man to woman.” In Nous sommes tous encore ici, she tries to understand the meaning, the tremendous power and the frightening limits of this wish, the realization of which she dreams of seeing in our world. In itself and despite everything, the film title establishes a certain confidence which is explained both by renowned philosophers as experts responsible for clearing up the issue and the life of a couple charged with performing its daily demonstration.

André Bazin is sometimes called “the inventor of film criticism”. Entire generations of film critics and filmmakers, especially those associated with the Nouvelle Vague, are indebted to his writings on film. Film opens a “window on the world”, according to Bazin. His writings would also be important for the development of the auteur theory. Bazin: “In a sense, cinema can’t lie, and every film can be considered a social documentary. As long as it satisfies the dream needs of the masses, it becomes its own dream.”

Deze tekst is ontstaan uit een ontmoeting met Boris Lehman en Claire Angelini op 31 augustus 2015. In de loop van een vriendschappelijk onderhoud bespraken ze kwesties van singulariteit, onafhankelijkheid, en kwamen we meer in detail terug op de werkwijze die aan de oorsprong van zijn films ligt. Boris Lehman: “Een film wordt gemaakt op een wandelritme, op een terugdraairitme, want zo kom ik bij mijn onderwerp. (...) En het is pas wanneer de film klaar is, dat alles begint.”

“Dingen (en mensen) filmen die gaan sterven en verdwijnen (of die eeuwig zijn), zelfs het geheugen archiveren (Contretemps, Ceux d’en face) door de herhaling van hetzelfde, door te accumuleren, uit te wissen, te verstrengelen, te weven, dat is de wetenschap en het opgravingstalent van Jean-Daniel, die speelt met zijn beelden als waren het muzieknoten en een soort alfabet bedenkt dat bestaat uit tekens die zowel iets van pictogrammen als van hiërogliefen hebben.”

“Als een regisseur zelf filmt, dat wil zeggen, als hij zelf de camera vasthoudt en toont wat hij ziet, zijn gedachten laat horen, kan hij over het algemeen niet zelf in beeld en op het scherm verschijnen, tenzij hij voor een spiegel staat, maar ik film mezelf vaak bij volmacht, de camera draait zich naar mij. Een dubbele ik dus, achter de camera: auteur en regisseur, en voor de camera: scenarioschrijver en acteur.”

Girl thrives on impersonal voyeurism. Not unlike the scenes in front of the mirror, the scenes with the doctor, psychologist and dance teacher turn the audience into bystanders of a process of certification. When Lara, at the end of her journey, confidently looks into the camera in a Brussels metro station, she also looks us, her “jury”, straight in the eyes. It’s as if she knew all along that someone had been watching in the background. “Here I am,” she seems to say, “now you know what I’ve been through. Now I can come to terms with myself.”

The exercise is new to me. To reread what I have written in another time. Over the past decade, I was occasionally prompted to speak on Wang Bing’s film West of the Tracks (2002), which I don’t just consider a great movie but a cinematographic event that changes the state of things we still call ‘cinema’. In Corps et cadre (Verdier, 2002), I regretted not being able to produce a true critique of this film fleuve (of nine hours). The thing was beyond me; it still is. I then resolved to a different tactical approach. To examine what remained of the film in my memory. A film which is that long, a whole which is that intricate, cut into four segments each lasting more than one hour, two hours, three hours, obviously presents a challenge to the memory of the spectator that I am.

Herman Asselberghs is currently working on a long-term film project at the film department of the LUCA School of Arts, where he has been teaching for two decades. Through the realization of a film essay, he probes the relationship between attention and distraction in the film theatre and the classroom. Throughout the creation process, Sabzian reports on his accompanying reading and writing. On a regular basis, Asselberghs selects an existing text that interests him and that he himself provides with an accompanying text. In the first instalment he focuses on Leaving the Movie Theater [En sortant du cinéma] by Roland Barthes.