Film International 2003:6

Editorial I: Stranger Than (Non)Fiction

by Guest Editor Patrik Sjöberg

For the last decade, we have been able to see certain resurgence in the interest people is showing documentary film. Documentaries are being discussed in the media, researched in the world of academics, and, for the last few years, more documentaries have been screened in theatres than in a very long time. However, the bulk of research on documentaries is still investigating its potential, and limitations, in the light of a traditional understanding of, realism, truth, objectivity, and credibility. This, in turn, seems to have polarized the community into one group that affirms the documentary as a conveyer of factuality, and one that draws attention to the illusion of the real as presented through the conventions and rhetoric of documentary. Without necessarily choosing a side in this less than enlightening stalemate, the texts in this issue would like to offer new ways to investigate, and re-investigate, some of the old questions of how the world reaches us through documentaries, and what seems to dictate this process. By viewing films and tendencies from a slightly novel perspective, the texts in this issue, in all their diversity, suggests that much stands to learned from studying the documentary tradition in relation to fiction, rather than holding it up to an understanding of “the real”. Collectively, and individually, these texts would like to invite and provoke new ways of thinking about documentary practice and our relation to them. By way of this discussion, another way to think about the allure of fiction and identification processes in fiction film can also be traced.
Enjoy


Editorial II: Robert Altman section

by Michael tapper

Just by looking at the impressive filmography on page 23 one get a sense of the scope and diversity of Robert Altman’s work during his more than fifty years in American film and TV production. His remarkable career reads like a rollercoaster of ups and downs, huge box-office successes followed by equally spectacular misses, critics either praising his work as masterpieces or dismissing them as contrived duds. It seems that he always strikes a raw nerve in his audience and never plays it safe by just churning out routine products. No wonder Patrick McGilligan chose to call his Altman biography Jumping Off a Cliff.
Still, considering his long career, prolific output, and importance to the American film scene, there have been few in-depth studies of his work. Film International has therefore devoted 30 pages of this issue to the publishing of three essays on Altman’s films. The first and central text, Tom Hopkins’ essay focusing on the often neglected Come Back to the Five and Dime, Jimmy Dean, Jimmy Dean (1982), was written almost 20 years ago but has remained unpublished until now. It is followed by two companion pieces, by Marian Keane and William Rothman respectively.
Hopefully, these texts – on motifs such as, in the words of Tom Hopkins’ essay title, “Love, Death, and the Mirror” – will inspire to further discussions and a much-needed production of new studies on Altman’s remarkable work.

IN THIS ISSUE
3 Editorial I & II

4 STRANGER THAN (NON)FICTION
Four essays on the blurred lines between documentary and fiction.
4 An Amalgamation of Discourses?, by Patrik Sjöberg
10 Television Fantasy, Political Reality, and Pop Culture in Aaron Sorkin’s The West Wing, by Jeannie Rutenberg
16 Kennedy on Film, by Nicholas J. Cull
20 Family Fiction, by Mikael Lindström

22 ROBERT ALTMAN X3
Three essays on recurring motifs in the films of one of America’s most prolific directors.
22 A Filmography
24 Love, Death, and the Mirror, by Tom Hopkins
34 Posthumous Texts, by Marian Keane
50 Matters of Life and Death, by William Rothman

52 BOOK REVIEWS
52 The Cranes Are Flying, by Arthur M. Eckstein
53 Amores Perros, by Eija Niskanen
54 Avant-Garde-Film + The Undercut Reader, by L.G. Andersson
54 French Cinema, by Nam Lee
56 Growing Up With Audrey Hepburn, by Per Vesterlund
57 The Private Life of Henry VIII, by Nicholas J. Cull

58 DVD REVIEWS
58 Night and Fog, by Charlotte Sjöholm
59 The Pornographers, by Eija Niskanen
60 Il Posto + I fidanzati, by Jan Lumholdt

61 FILM REVIEWS
61 Lost in Translation, by Dan Callahan

62 FILM FESTIVALS
Three Festivals, by Jan Lumholdt
62 Venice
64 San Sebastián
65 Vienna


Publicerad: 2004-01-26

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