The Film in History PDF
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THE FILM IN HISTORY Restaging the Past Seeeeeeaeseeeeanes PIERRE SORLIN gag MEER AT please return or renew this item by the last date shown. There may be a charge if you fail to do so. Items can be returned to any Westminster library. Telephone: Enquiries 020 7641 1300 Renewals (24 hour service) 020 7641 1400. Online renewal service available. Web site: www.westminster.gov.uk City of Westminster Digitized by the Internet Archive in 2021 with funding from Kahle/Austin Foundation https://archive.org/details/filminhistoryresOOO0Osorl THE FILM in History Restaging the Past PIERRE SORLIN BASIL BLACKWELL - OXFORD ARIE eSee E& N ‘ie a‘ T ei VU K =<7 Qi LV VU 6 we © Pierre Sorlin 1980 First published 1980 by Basil Blackwell Publisher 5 Alfred Street Oxford OX1 4HB England All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted, in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording or otherwise, without the prior permission of Basil Blackwell Publisher Limited. British Library Cataloguing in Publication Data Sorlin, Pierre The film in history. 1. Historical films—Case studies 2. Birth of a nation I. Title 791.43°7 PN1995.9.H5 ISBN qost-r9s10- |B oz tee a 11 GS er cHX-LS Typeset by Cotswold Typesetting Ltd., Gloucester. Printed in Great Britain by Redwood Burn Ltd., Trowbridge & Esher. Trowbridge & Esher. Contents Foreword Vii Acknowledgements . xill I. PRINCIPLES AND METHODS 1 How to Look at an Historical Film 3 The audiovisual age 5 How films are made 7 Moving, talking newspapers: the newsreels 10 History and historiography 16 What is an ‘historical’ film? 19 Every film has its own ‘history’ 22 Problems of interpretation: from Kracauer to the present 24 Film-making and film analysis 28 History in ‘historical’ films 31 Il. THE EVENTS AS THEY OCCURRED The Reference Periods 41 The beginning of national histories 42 Three traditions 46 The characters and their point of view 50 Timing 35 The nature of evidence 60 The French Revolution 67 Ww Singing La Marseillaise 67 The peasantry in the French Revolution 70 ‘To arms!’ 12 The spectator placement 76 Actors and circumstances 78 The American Civil War 83 The Birth of a Nation 83 Be historical, at any price 86 North and South A war with no cause The war of races The whitewash The Stem family A scandalous film The inherited framework The Italian Risorgimento Nn An example of consonance Unity of opposed behaviours Historical films and politics An ‘objective’ film Blood and suffering Selling off the past Garibaldi questioned More on method Ill. THE HISTORY OF YESTERDAY 6 Escaping the Present 1937: the coming war Tokens of war Portrait of the Germans as automatons The French out of the game 7 The Russian Revolution Signs and filmic expression The bases of the Revolution History rebuilt The film in its ‘context’ Another way towards the Revolution 8 The Italian Resistance in the Second World War Who was guilty? Rome: Open City The sun rises again Class war in the village? Historiography again Conclusion Index. of Films Bibliography Index vi
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