CANONIC NARRATION & PARENT-CHILD RELATIONSHIPS

By Fatmir Terziu

Roehampton University
Media, Culture & Politics

The film starts “by stating a disruption” with a long close-up of The Bride, bloody, agonised and beaten face, behind the wheel of a car, explaining her mission, which is to kill Bill

Kill Bill: Volume One is a movie in which the narrative gives attention to the things like parent-child relationships, trust, and the paths we choose to take in our lives. The narrative events are presented in non-chronological order. The camera creates “a narrational omniscience” and introduces us to “unconscious optics” (Bordwell, 1989: 163 & Benjamin, cited in Wright 1989: 78). The characters consist of their characteristics, “a character enters the frame, performs an action, and exits” (Schrader, 1972: 67). Lurking beneath everything is the suggestion of a time and space in which all of this makes sense in the same way that a superhero’s origin story makes sense. This is what Bordwell called “canonic narration” when “film presents psychologically defined individuals who struggle to solve a clear-cut problem…” (Bordwell, 1985: 157). For Barthes “… a single figure can absorb different characters” (Barthes, 1977: 107). It can be said that this film guides us into more meaningful interludes that defy and even subvert all narrative conventions of these genres. This essay aims to analyse and critique how Kill Bill: Volume One achieves its particular affects using some of the narrative fiction strategies. It also intends to examine the codes and conventions of narrative fiction in this film.
Narrative fiction draws in ‘representation’ through acts of ‘identification’, in the opening sequence (Bordwell, 1989: 165). The film starts “by stating a disruption” with a long close-up of The Bride, bloody, agonised and beaten face, behind the wheel of a car, explaining her mission, which is to kill Bill (Ellis, 1992: 68). Then it is the voice of Bill consoling her, his hand with a handkerchief cleaning some of the snot and blood off her face. This whole time, the viewers are on The Bride, her lip trembling, her life, is about to be over. She utters a last minute phrase, and the gun is fired and an explosion of black blood splatters behind her head. Here parametric narration’s temporality is intricate by “story events [that] are buckled into loops” (Bordwell, 1985: 290). For Lothe, narrative attention on one character “will as a rule make the character more important…” (Lothe, 2000: 132). Fabe argued, “…plots tend to focus on a central character, … whose desires motivates the action…” (Fabe, 2004: 67). According to that, the narrative exposes that women are both the heroes and the villains, in this film.
In a sequence after a beautifully composed battle, when the innocent child enters, narrative fiction evokes feelings of wholeness by evoking sadistic desires. Branigan argued, “invisible observation asks the spectator to accept a restriction” (Branigan, 1992: 172). In a classic style, Vernita and The Bride viciously eye each other on opposite sides of a window, through which we see a school bus pull up and a little girl get out, walk up to the door, and enter the house. It is Vernita’s daughter, and the women, coated in blood, sweat, and broken glass, stash their weapons behind their backs and pretend for the kid’s sake to be old girlfriends.

“It’s hard to think of another sequence that combines irony, suspense, dread, comedy, surrealism, violence and swollen faces as much stupefying rest as the one has concocted” (Woods, 2005: 170).

This dark underworld of assassins is interrupted by simple realities, a child getting off the bus. There is what Bordwell argued “to wring every emotional drop out of fabula situations, the narration employs omniscience” which leads the point that Barthes defines “the narrational level” as “contiguous to the narrative situation…[is created where] the narrative is undone” (Bordwell, 1985: 71 & Barthes, 1977: 117). In such a scene, the action moves forward seamlessly across the cuts from shot to shot, and the motivations and inventions of the characters are revealed directly through speech, gesture and movement.
In the opening scene the screen goes black and then we hear Nancy Sinatra sing over the opening titles. The narrative fiction, which enters in this sequence into this interaction, between rhythm and sound, is “spatial – temporal manipulation of editing” (Bordwell, 1985: 278). For Bellour “this double narrative inflection” moreover has its effects on at least “two of the codic implications of the narrative” (Bellour, 1986: 99). As Eisenstein rightly emphasises that musical and visual images are in fact “not commensurable through narrowly ‘representational’ elements” (Eisenstein, 1970: 163). In this film, the diegetic sound, the speech and other sounds of the story world, dominates the sound mix. Non-diegetic, commutative music plays the role of unobtrusively underscoring the action what Izod argued “the meaning of musical punctuation changes just through its timing alone…” (Izod, 1984: 94).
The moral drama, the choices and the consequences, the dialogues about identity unlike the violence, these are presented in all seriousness in order to get viewers “to distinguish between the parallel syntagma and the bracket syntagma” (Metz, 1986: 47). Benjamin looks in particular to these points for offering “the viewer’s placid contemplation” (Benjamin, cited in Wright 1989: 78). Through dialogue, this film introduces the characters and their obsessions. Dialogue has a “central role in the creation of narrative” and every movement and word is important for the viewer (Izod, 1984: 87). The Bride is confident and the language that she uses fulfils the emptiness of some sequences, while other characters are sometimes in dilemma. In scene action, when The Bride is fighting, narrative through dialogue makes it easier to understand the plot and the action. The first visual contact with Vernita, and later after Nicky, Vernita’s child, disappears, “focalization also intends to more complex experiencing of objects” (Branigan, 1992: 101). This narrative device reflects internally through The Bride to summarise and clear a surrounding situation and so become a reflection of the mission.
The narrative creates suspense in the fragment when Elle is about to kill The Bride in hospital. Elle enters the ward of the hospital dressed like a nurse, fills a syringe with poison and places it in a tray ready to carry it, then puts on a nurse’s hat and shoes. Then she enters in The Bride’s hospital room. As she is about to put the poison in The Bride’s life support the telephone rings. For Barthes the aim of the narrative is not to ‘represent’, it is “to constitute a spectacle still very enigmatic…” (Barthes, 1977: 124). In another scene for The Bride to wake up from the coma a bug, biting her is used as a narrative tool. In such a scene the driving or motive force behind a course of action of narrative is exactly, what Barthes called ‘catalysers’ (Barthes, 1977: 94) which lead Branigan’s theory “a catalyst addresses the spectator’s interest…” (Branigan, 1992: 82). When Vernita offers a coffee when she stops fighting with The Bride and waits for her chance to kill her, the coffee as a pretext has a “polysemic value” and is a kind of “symbolic node grouping several signified; as a functional unit” (Barthes, 1977: 118). According to Barthes “this general distortion is what gives the language of narrative special character” (Barthes, 1977: 119).
Narrative situation is helped by flashbacks to ‘expand screen duration’ (Bordwell, 1985: 84). For Turim “some flashbacks directly involve a quest for the answer to an enigma posed in the beginning of a narrative through a return to the past” (Turim, 1989: 11). The flashback when The Bride describes from her memory the members of the Deadly Viper Assassination Squad are used to explain more about her past, and is an example of this. For Burch it is “…for structuring narrative time…” (Burch, 1973: 62). Similarly, Bordwell describes it as “a second canonic case of temporal manipulation” which is ‘overlapping editing’ (Bordwell, 1985: 84). However, in the opening scene Bill’s footsteps and The Bride’s breathing just add to the use of flashbacks and are what Bordwell argued, “the remaining flashbacks maintain the unpredictability” (Bordwell, 1985: 92). Likewise, Wilson argued “…flashback forces one, in retrospect, to take it as a strict visual equivalent for the murderer’s words…” (Wilson, 1986: 106).
The narrative rules transformation from a bad situation to a good one and “lends itself to summary” (Barthes, 1977: 120). In this film this transformation had two aspects. On the one hand, it evokes regressive states and primitive emotions in us. It does so in part by provoking our anger at the outrageous misdeeds of the villain. The early scenes in which The Bride is recovering from a coma in the hospital include entirely unnecessary revelations about sex crimes committed against her. The criminals who molest The Bride during her comatose state are given some truly despicable and obscene lines to utter, merely to make us hate them and to goad us into cheering when they are destroyed. Then it invites us to enjoy the pleasure of identifying with the hero as she engage in the legitimate symbolic and violence that will stop the villain. In another way it also mobilises our sadism, by inviting us to take what Hayward called “jouissance in the ridicule or mockery” that it directs at characters (Hayward, 2000: 303). “Jouissance is derived from modes of narration that do not provide closure” (Hayward, 2000: 303). For Barthes it is “a pseudo-logical schema” which leads Bordwell’s argument “narrational processes [are] self-conscious to the audience” (Barthes, 1977: 128 & Bordwell, 1985: 322).
Another telling indication of the codes and conventions of this film is the displacement of the scene, strictly defined; a stretch of narrative defined by the traditional unites of time, space and action. When The Bride wakes from her coma four years later, determined to find the man, Bill, and the venomous female assassins who helped take her out, “the viewer … as ‘invisible’” realises she is neither gentle nor apologetic (Willemen, 1986: 211). Then, in the scene, when the girl returns to stare blankly at her dead mother, narrative draws it back into the romantic samurai world and fulfils with the impression that this girl will one day grow up, take up a sword, and seek her revenge. For Burch, the film does work with “structure of aggression” and “nonnormative plastic conception” (Burch, 1973: 42). Bordwell argued that, “in classical narration, style typically encourages the spectator to construct a coherent, consistent time and space…” which leads Wilson’s argument “the narration simultaneously establishes a certain distance” (Bordwell, 1985: 163 & Wilson, 1986: 42).
At last, Kill Bill: Volume One represents an example, similar to many fiction films, in which a narrative structure works in connection with other components of the film to create the complete experience. Splitting the film at the middle does seem to have thrown off the narrative rhythm. When the story slows down for The Bride’s visit to Okinawa, where she hangs out with a sushi-bar operator, the movie stretches out to a degree that might feel more natural. Bordwell explained, “in general, the narration is so constructed that characters and their behaviour produce the necessary story data” (Bordwell, 1985: 161). According to that the narrative is a juxtaposition of events, which are told back to front, with some in order and some out. In this film it can be seen in many scenes. The most related scene is when in a nightclub The Bride kills or maims everyone to complete her revenge.
To sum up, Kill Bill: Volume One is a film with its own narrative style. I have clearly analysed its specific affects using some of the narrative fiction strategies. I have pointed out the codes and conventions of narrative fiction in this film. Further, I have tried to examine these codes and conventions and their role in Kill Bill: Volume One. It can be said that the narrative has reached the understanding of the theme of this film in form, time, and space. In my view, the role of the narrative in this fiction film is the most important factor when it comes to analysing it. It can be seen as a necessary tool. Kill Bill: Volume One would not be as successful as it is, if it was not for the narrative.

Reference:
Barthes, Roland (1977) Image Music Text London: Fontana Press, pp. 94- 128.
Bellour, Raymond (1986) The Obvious and the Code in Philip Rosen’s ED Narrative, Apparatus, Ideology: A film Theory Reader New York: Columbia University Press, p. 99.
Benjamin, Walter (1989) Quoted in Elizabeth Wright’s ED Postmodern Brecht A Re-Presentation London & New York: Routledge, p. 78.
Bordwell, David (1985) Narration in the Fiction London: Routledge, pp.84- 322.
Bordwell, David (1989) Making, Meaning, Inference, and Rhetoric in the Interpretation of Cinema London: Harvard University Press, p.165.
Branigan, Edward (1992) Narrative Comprehension and Film London & New York: Routledge, p.82-172.
Burch, NoÎl (1973) Theory of Film Practice New York: Praeger, pp. 42-62.
Eisenstein, Sergei (1970) The Film Sense London & New York: Harcourt Brace, p.163.
Ellis, John (1992) Visible Fictious: Cinema Television Video London & New York: Routledge, p. 68.
Fabe, Marilyn (2004) Closely Watched Films: An Introduction to the Art of Narrative Film Technique Berkeley & Los Angeles & London: University of California Press, p. 67.
Hayward, Susan (2000) Cinema Studies: The Key Concepts London Routledge, p. 303.
Izod, John (1984) Reading the Screen Harlow: Longman, pp. 87-115.
Lothe, Jakob (2000) Narrative in Fiction and Film New York: Oxford University Press, p. 132.
Metz, Christian (1986) Problem of Denotation in the Fiction Film in Philip Rosen’s ED Narrative, Apparatus Ideology: A film Theory Reader New York: Columbia University Press, p. 47.
Schrader, Paul (1972) Transcendental Style in Film Ozu, Bresson, Dreyer London & Bekerley: University of California Press, p. 67.
Turim, Maureen (1989) Flashbacks in Film Memory & History London & New York: Routledge, p.11.
Wilson, M. George (1986) Narrative in Light, Studies in Cinematic Point of View Baltimore & London: The Johns Hopkins University Press, p. 106.
Willemen, Paull (1986) Voyeurism, The Look, and Dwoskin in Philip Rosen’s ED Narrative, Apparatus Ideology A film Theory Reader New York: Columbia University Press, p. 211.
Woods, A. Paul (2005) Quentin Tarantino: The Film Geek Files London: Plexus, pp. 170.

POLITICS OF ‘COGNITION’; CHAOS

 

By Fatmir Terziu

Roehampton University

Media, Cultural Studies & Politics

Two facts: HISTORY REPEATS ITSELF?!

When the Parisian students in 1986, during their two weeks protest [26 November-10 December] challenged the authority with their ‘intellectual style’, the new subject was ‘a mechanism’ as a result of ‘material conditions, … towards a constructive articulation of real needs’ which in Antonio Negri’s words is an ‘intellectual subject’ (Negri, 2006:50).

Only ten years after the Parisian protest, in 1996-1997 the pyramidal scheme collapsed in Albania and brought the country into chaos. Chaos, the word in Albanian language sounds the same as in English, but is softer in meaning: ‘Kaos’, which in another way can be related to anarchy and rebellion. The protest was run all over the country and was lead by opposition Socialist Party of Albania during the time.According to Albanian media online, Albanian socialist party is still on this line of political cognition. “Albanian Socialist Party remains same on her decision of people’s protest” (Xhilaga, 25/11/2007:Koha Jone). So it makes again a clear point of how political system and politics of this system works through decision making of political cognition which lead to chaos. So history repeats itself. “French [Parisian] police fought running battles with rioters last night [25/11/2007] in a suburb north of Paris where two youths died after a crash involving a police car” (Mail Foreign Service: Tuesday, November 12 2007, page 2). According to Daily Mail a investigation continues about the accident at the weekend involving “a police car and a motorcycle, driven by two Arab youths aged 15 and 16″ (Page 2). What’s coincidence(!)

Introduction:

All the various modes of knowing: ‘perceiving, imagining, remembering, conceiving, judging and reasoning’ are related to cognition (Drever cited in George, 1962:24). So in politics and political meaning they face some problems. The problems are towards the meaning that they deliver in time and space. These are chiefly philosophical matters, and are not the concern here; at the same time I believe that an awareness of the philosophical problems, especially over the use of language, is a great help in understanding this chain or link between all this various modes of knowing. The very problem of appearance and reality becomes of the first importance in this understanding of the perception related to cognitive politics or politics of ‘cognition’. When the Parisian students in 1986, during their two weeks protest [26 November-10 December] challenged the authority with their ‘intellectual style’, the new subject was ‘a mechanism’ as a result of ‘material conditions, … towards a constructive articulation of real needs’ which in Antonio Negri’s words is an ‘intellectual subject’ (Negri, 2006:50). It was in fact the time that brought the news coverage in a potential way, a subject that was considered as a new identification of ‘ironic’ and ‘glamorous’ in the politics of media representation and the political issue as it was classified. It was really a subject that brought a new identification and new condition of subject interpretation.

Politics and chaos

But rather than the birth of new interpretation, it was a new rehabilitation of communist manifesto with the use and help of modern way of technology and ‘totalitarian mechanisms’ of politics (2006:179). Only ten years after the Parisian protest, in 1996-1997 the pyramidal scheme collapsed in Albania and brought the country into chaos. Chaos, the word in Albanian language sounds the same as in English, but is softer in meaning: ‘Kaos’, which in another way can be related to anarchy and rebellion. The protest was run all over the country and was lead by opposition Socialist Party of Albania during the time. People, irritated and affected by the massive loss of their savings, gathered on the streets, and everywhere there was a collapse in of state. The police came under fire and institutions lost their power. Uncontrolled situations delivered media attention around the world. Students in Vlora, a city in the South of Albania, tried to copy the Parisian protest of 1986. It was in fact a political ‘cognition’, which brought only disaster and blood to the city.

Europe’s poorest country, Albania disintegrated into anarchy and armed revolt soon after pyramid investment schemes failed in January 1997. The schemes (actually fronts for laundering money and dealing in weapons) could no longer make payments once the number of investors grew to include the vast majority of Albanians, who had been lured by get-rich-quick promises. Beginning in February thousands of citizens gathered daily, demanding reimbursement by the government, which they suspected of profiting from the schemes. By March 1997, the protests had turned violent in the south, especially around the port city of Vlore (Vlora), where numerous residents armed themselves with weapons looted from army barracks. On March 2 President Sali Berisha (1944-) declared a state of emergency, but rioting and destruction spread throughout the country, gripping the capital, Tirana, for two weeks. Although the government quelled revolts in the north, in mid-March rebels still controlled towns in the south. Fearing the spread of unrest outside Albania’s borders — and alarmed at the third wave of refugees from the country in a decade — the United Nations on March 28 authorized a force of 7,000 to direct relief efforts and to restore order. In elections in June and July 1997, Berisha and his party were voted out of power, and all UN forces left Albania by August 11 (Dictionary of Wars, 7)

But it was not the same situation, not the same control of power, not the same politics and political relations between the protesters and the state. Bogdani reveals that Albanian happenings in 1997 brought more problems in country’s integration. She compares this situation with the facts of Albanian politics in 1991. According to her “Albanian political class is still very primitive”, which can be read as fact that this primitiveness produces political cognition with problems in the politics of the country (Bogdani, 2005: Alb-shkenca). The state was dismissed and the international media exposed the undeclared power loss. So there was a lack of ‘intellectual subject’ and individuals were not able to be part of the control of the situation that conveyed a critical distrust. For Chantal Mouffe “the critical distrust of state and politics is easily explained by the principles of a system whereby the individual must remain terminus a quo and terminus ad quem” [Latin phrase for “limit from which” and “limit to which] (Mouffe, 2005:11).

Beyond perception

It must also be said that the problems of politics of cognition are problems of thinking and understanding and are not really adequately pursued beyond perception. So lets go back to perception to explain this problem. A very common example told by George (1962), about Garden Murphy, an American psychologist, who records a visit to his laboratory one evening, is related to this fact:

“He was worried at the time about the destruction of many of his laboratory rats, and believed that a wild rat was finding its way into the laboratory and causing the deaths. On this evening, when he walked into the laboratory he saw the wild rat on the floor in a corner. He immediately prepared to take action and then, looking again, realised that what he had seen was, in fact, a ball of screwed-up paper” (1962:32).

 

According to George “in perception, when we apprehend an object or event we are often not able to categorise it completely or fully at the first attempt” (George, 1962:195). It implies to Albanian politics of the time. The opposition party was leading the protest of irritated people, from the local point of view and from high level of capital city Tirana, where their offices were, and told the people that ‘the government has taken your money’. Watching from the building and supporting the protest in the street, they created a clear link to perception that leads to misconception and chaos. Politics of that time disturbed the reality and treated the situation in a very political condition, because they found this perception in “the faces of the intellectual proletariat … open and sincere” and because they, the intellectual proletariat, were “an ontological power made visible” in protest (Negri, 2006:51).

Potential politics

So the problem of perception was clear food to politics of cognition. It was opposite have the problem and opposite of ‘this proletarian intellectuality’. Negri’s definition is different: “irony, paradox, and a critical spirit constitute the fabric of utopia; and hope nourishes it” (2006:51). According to Mouffe it can be classified as problem of democratic politics that ‘consists in defusing the potential antagonism that exists in social relations’ (Mouffe, 2005:19). Thus, the problem of misconception leads to exploration of antagonism of political interest among ‘intellectual subject’. Further it created open conflict, that in Mouffe’s definition the conflict “in order to be accepted as legitimate, needs to take a form that does not destroy political association” (2005:20). As Mouffe recommends this “means that some kind of common bond must exist between the parties inconflict, so that they will not treat their opponents as enemies to be eradicated, seeing their demands as illegitimate, which is precisely what happens with antagonistic friend/enemy relation in Albania.

“As soldiers defended public buildings from the wrath of angry protesters, the president of Albania ruled out imposing a state of emergency. President Sali Berisha will not proclaim a “total or partial” state of emergency and has “refused all suggestions” from leaders of the ruling rightist Democratic Party that he should do so, the presidency said in a statement” (CNN, January 27, 1997).

From left point of view

From left point of view this political cognition is in the context “The Proletariat Confronts the Bourgeois State” (Communism, 11). French newspaper Le Monde were among hundreds papers that brought the attention “the atmosphere in Gjirokaster [city in the South part of Albania, birth city of communist dictator Enver Hoxha] is mad. Popular revolt transforms itself into total anarchy, there are no more police, no more State, no more rules. The city is exuding enthusiasm, blossoming, has become excited by rebellion.” (Le Monde – 11/3/1997) According to Communism “The struggle of the proletariat in Albania brought a breath of fresh air to the suffocating atmosphere of social peace which today, still far too often, anaesthetises the reflexes of the proletarian class. By way of acts clearly denouncing the whole of the State structures as their enemy, proletarians in Albania have revived the traditions of struggle by our class, which so many years of the defence of democracy – be it in the name of anti-fascism or anti-communism – had thrown to oblivion. It is so rare today to see examples of rupture from respect for private property, from the settling of conflicts through the courts, etc.. that we are taking the time and the space here to relate what happened in Albania and to develop a chronology in order to define the most important moments in the evolution of the balance of forces between revolution and counter-revolution in the country” (Communism, 11).

Friend/enemy problem

After all in March 1997 was first attempt to bring in a table ‘the antagonistic friend/enemy’ by the President of Albania, which lead the meeting and called an emergency coalition to be created with the presence of all political forces in the country. So these forces played the role not simply as ‘competitors’ but as part of the ‘we/they relation’ (2005:20). It was the clear political attempt that highlighted the ‘task of democracy is to transform antagonism into agonism’ (2005:20). But what lead to another condition of political cognition was Romano Prodi’s intervention [as delegated EU official] in Albanian politics of the time. He travelled in the South of Albania and met rebellion groups of this country, without any official or governmental ‘help’ or ‘association’ in terms of avoiding the political crash. But in fact he himself caused a crash, within its political cognition. According to Mouffe “a democratic society requires a debate about possible alternatives and it must provide political forms of collective identification around clearly differentiated democratic positions” (Mouffe, 2005:31). Two words stroke in my mind when stress collective identity and democratic positions; ‘infiniteness’ that acknowledge the un-directional politics behind the logic and completeness that recounts to collective aim of the political cohesion ‘related to completeness in logic’ (Wikipedia). However the infiniteness problem is polynomial-space complete himself. In the thesaurus it is the state or quality of being infinite: boundlessness, immeasurability, immeasurableness, inexhaustibility, inexhaustibleness, infinity, limitlessness, measurelessness, unboundedness, unlimitedness.

Political struggle

At last Albania’s political cognition still tried to create a reason or pretext in the country known all around the world as ‘the ex-Stalinists, rechristened ’socialist’. Now ten years later the lessons have been learned, even though the political cognition has again its effect. Paskal Milo, opposition MP, said for the media on Monday, July 9th 2007, that “we going to be prepared for early general election”. According to Reuters, “Albania’s parliament failed to elect a president on Sunday, keeping open the prospect of a snap general election that would set back the country’s European Union hopes. The candidate of the ruling Democratic Party, its deputy-chairman Bamir Topi, received 75 of the 84 votes required, voting commission head, Arjan Madhi (RP) said”. Opposition MPs boycotted the session in protest against the Democrats’ decision not to support a consensus candidate. According toReuters, “this was the third round of voting. If no candidate is elected in five rounds, the country must hold a general election”. So ten years after pyramidal scheme of 1997 collapsed in Albania the situation were again in critical conditions. At last Albania elected a new president of the country, and Mr Bamir Topi received votes from right and left side of Albanian political groups. It brought to new debate, but to a change in the way of finding the solution in terms of avoiding the crisis without political cognition.

Liberal democracy

According to Canetti, ‘modern democracy and the parliamentary system should not be envisaged as a stage in the evolution’. At this point Slavoj Zizek’s ‘liberal democracy’ would be something comfortable in terms of political cognition to avoid the chaos. The fact the chaos in 1997 required an International military force, is clear to this theory of politics and political cognition. It completes this theory with Mouffe’s definition ‘in order to act politically, people need to be able to identify with a collective identity which provides an idea of themselves they can valorise” (2005:25). What is main problem with political cognition is the ‘collective identity’ of politics themselves. According to Albanian media online, Albanian socialist party is still on this line of political cognition. “Albanian Socialist Party remains same on her decision of people’s protest” (Xhilaga, 25/11/2007:Koha Jone). So it makes again a clear point of how political system and politics of this system works through decision making of political cognition which lead to chaos. So history repeats itself. “French [Parisian] police fought running battles with rioters last night [25/11/2007] in a suburb north of Paris where two youths died after a crash involving a police car” (Mail Foreign Service: Tuesday, November 12 2007, page 2). According to Daily Mail a investigation continues about the accident at the weekend involving “a police car and a motorcycle, driven by two Arab youths aged 15 and 16″ (Page 2). What’s coincidence(!)

Myth, identification

Maria Pandolfi in her essay Myths and New Forms of Governance in Contemporary Albania say that the process of transition in the country after 1990s was a struggle to escape from the past, but it was associated with many difficulties related to perception of politics and political battle. For Pandolfi “transitions construct a constellation of often contradictory practices and meanings around the social actors involved: hence, the perception of being lost in a labyrinth which, after the collapse of a political utopia characterised by total social control, may well generate anxiety” (Pandolfi, 2002:206). Furthermore in her words the question ‘Which Albania’ relates to the fact that political cognition has created ‘two rhetorical expressions’ (2002:2060. According to her ‘modernising’ and ‘New Humanism’ as new terms in political cognition has been only a part of a‘package of predetermined interventions developed according to the logic of Western governmentality’ (2002:207).

The past – the shock of the new

So trying to escape from the past in such cognitive way was seemed to be a problem. For Nicola Mai it is the problem of political cognition because ‘today Albania, like all other Eastern European countries, has experienced both the phase of Communism, when the West was either an ideal or an enemy, and that of post-communism, when it was associated with ‘the shock of the new’ (Mai, 2002:216). So this ‘the shock of the new’ in Noel Malcolm’s words is ‘the myth of indifference’ (Malcolm, 2002:84). However for Stephanie Schwandner-Sievers ‘most contributions discussing contemporary society and politics suggest that Enverist totalitarian politics of ideological homogenisation supported by the artificially secured and paranoid isolation of the country, have indeed reproduced archetypal mythical world views of a pre-state society in contemporary Albania” (Schwander-Sievers, 2002:25). Fabian Schmidt goes further in conspiracy theories in Albanian Politics and Media. According to Schmidt ‘the democrats at the time accused the Socialist Party of trying to reintroduce Communism and nationalise economy’ (2002:227).As Albanian history is permitted by myths narratives that often serve political purpose, the politics and political cognition had promised ‘new way’.

ALBANIAN FILM AND DOCUMENTARY: How did film and documentary help create ‘dictatorship” in the years after the Second World War in Albania

 

By Fatmir Terziu

Roehampton University

Media & Cultural Studies

“But stranger things have happened. Not a lot of people know this, but for a good decade from the late 1960s, Albanian films were among the most watched in the world. The reason was simple. That nice Mr Mao deemed them the only foreign fare ideologically safe enough to be shown to hundreds of millions of Chinese in the wake of the Cultural Revolution. Which is why, from time to time, you will come across Chinese directors paying handsome tribute to some “European classic” no one outside Tirana has heard of” (Fiachra Gibbons, Friday March 16, 2007 The Guardian)

Introduction

Film, documentary and photography have been significant element of propaganda techniques, which help to keep alive ‘dictatorship’ in the years after the Second World War in Albania. It can be said that dictatorship can be found surviving in both new and old forms, in exhibitions, and above all in the cinema, documentary and photography. From the shooting of the first film in Albania ideology and censorship have been in strong relationship with each other. There are many facts that state that the first film was not released for public viewing. Even though the film about the national Albanian hero George Kastrioti, Gjergj Kastrioti Skënderbeu, which was realised as a collaboration with soviet filmmakers didn’t escape from this ideology, it was the first and only Albanian film to win an award in the Canne. A photo that escaped from the communist ideology and censorship now reveals a truth long forgotten.It helps to create a new documentary to highlight the reality. For example, a simple photo kept secret from the communist government, by the Bicaku family from Librazhd, a small town in Albania, now after this family received an award in USA, shows that during the time of the Holocaust, Albanians played an important role by protecting innocent Jewish people. This photo caused a new documentary to be made. John Colson, Aspen Correspondent explores one fact about this new documentary. “It is the main project of a non-profit — Eye Contact Foundation — and has been under way for several years. It already has spawned a book and a DVD that tell the stories of Albanian citizens, mostly Muslims but also Christians, who sheltered and aided Jews fleeing from the Nazis in Germany” (Colson, 24 November 2007:Vail Daily). So, in the years after, among all visual arts, the documentary,the photography and especially the cinema have changed the way of how the relationship between state and culture can be. Albanian filmmakers tried to escape from the old traditions and helped to reshape the history of filmmaking in the country. Within a few years from the invention of documentary, the photography and the cinema, “even in the poor and little Albania the seventh art was joyfully and with no hesitation embraced” (Leskaj, 2006). “But stranger things have happened. Not a lot of people know this, but for a good decade from the late 1960s, Albanian films were among the most watched in the world. The reason was simple. That nice Mr Mao deemed them the only foreign fare ideologically safe enough to be shown to hundreds of millions of Chinese in the wake of the Cultural Revolution. Which is why, from time to time, you will come across Chinese directors paying handsome tribute to some “European classic” no one outside Tirana has heard of” (Fiachra Gibbons, Friday March 16, 2007 The Guardian)

The film documentary

Albanian documentary started gradually with its first cronicles, that showed everyday life and problems of the time, until the documentary started to fulfil its aim as documentary with its all components of filmmaking. According to Pecani, one of the first directors of film documentary in Albania shows that “documentary film is a history, art, culture of people, written in celluloid”(Pecani, interview). Were not few contributors to this genre. I should start with directors, producers, scriptwriters, camerapersons and editors [montagers] and musicians with others that worked with artistic desire to represent that history, art, culture of Albania people in celluloid and to make it lifelong event in the film documentary.

The first documentary in Albania

First film documentary in Albania is Zërat e Trenave (1971) [Trains Voice]. The documentary was realised for television. The director Ylli Pepo and cameraman Engjëll Strazimiri focused two Albanian cities, Durrës and Elbasan, where people wake up early and go to bed with ‘trains’ voice’. In 1971 was shot, and realised in record time another film documentary, Në Prag Të Ngjarjes së Madhe [In the Wake of the Great Event]. The film grabbed the theme of young people’s life and its authors Albert Minga and Fisnik Sina worked with the cameraperson Besnik Derhemi. In 1972 started quickly and with high temp of work shooting a series of documentaries that focuses in Butrint, one of the ancient monuments of Albanian history. It was the first time when documentary moved from propaganda documentary to historical contexts, with slide show links with this propaganda. The series was titled Udhwtim in Buthrotos [Journey to Buthrotos], by the use of Butrint’s original Ilirian ancient name. The director Ylli Pepo called on this series scriptwriter Andon Dede to colaborate with him, and with the help of cameraperson Ilir Kasneci they realised for first time in the history of documentary making in Albania of the time the lessons how to escape from the propaganda that in Albania was at her climax. The propaganda of the time in Albania has affected all art’s fields. For this reason Albanian documentarists Ylli Pepo can be called the father of art-history documentary in the country. The years 1973-1978 continued to focus on the theme of art and these years are called a years of portrait-documentary in Albania.

Call for new theme

The theme of documentary, which tried to escape further from the propaganda of the time, started to expand its aim by focusing on people’s portrait, people that had been famous at the time. The documentary tried to explore historical connotation within the theme. The series of film documentaries called Ngjarje dhe Data (1974) [Events and Dates] were focused only on the portrait of famous historical characters of Albanian nation. Another series called “Përballë Njëri-Tjetrit” (1976) explored portraits of ordinary people. Azis Gjergji is a main contributor to these series as director and producer. Another director that contributed within this theme in series of documentaries called Udhëtim Nëpër Shqipëri (1977) [Traveling in Albania] was Andon Dede. He shot in 15 cities of Albania and realised 15 film documentaries. He realised and another film documentary, slightly different from the first series mixed with historical context Udhëtim në Lashtësi [Walking Through History].

The years 1989; return of propaganda

The film documentary return again its propaganda within the film documentaries shot in the 1980’s. The propaganda that dominated these films started to be main aim of film documentary as political source for communist ideology of the Albanian government of the time. Among director’s that worked and produced documentaries in 1980’s was Marash Hajati, journalist in TV, Mevlan Shanaj, actor, and Bujar Kokonozi. The documentary Komani, Betejë e Madhe [Coman Great Battle] made it propaganda on the theme of ‘Forcat e Veta’, a communist Marxist slogan that focuses on believing that everything can be realised by himself and not need of help from ‘imperialist countries’, as documentary propaganda tries to say to people and ‘working class’. Tërmeti Tundi Malet [The Earthquake Shook the Mountains] was similar to Komani, Betejë e Madhe, and was realised by same authors Hajati, Shanaj and Kokonozi. Spiro Dede realised another documentary within this propaganda, Shoku Ynë Alqi Kondi [Our Friend Alqi Kondi]. In 1980’s a few documentarists used their new ideas to avoid the propaganda. Dhimitër Pecani, with its film documentary Zgjidhja e një Enigme [Solving an Enigma] treated Rembrad’s pictures in Albania, while Zbulime Nënujore [Underwater Findings] realised by the director Xhemal Mato focuses on the findings in Albanian underwater treasure.

The dictator’s figure occupied film documentary

In 1986 a group of TV workers shot a series film documentaries about Albanian dictator Enver Hoxha. The series was called Ditëlindjet e Enverit [Enveri’s Birthdays], and focuses on Enveri’s portrait and its political figure. The series continued after his death in April 1985. These series climaxed the propaganda and realised that the documentary was alienated within communist ideology. The documentary proved that propaganda was dictated and it was not the reality that the documentarists wanted to produce. This sort of documentary configured dictator’s portrait, while for film critics it was waste of time and of creative cultural process in Albania. These series brought ‘cult TV’ as sort of political dominance in Albanian life of the time.

The years of professionalism

“If the years 1980-1990 are the years of consolidation of film documentary in Albania, the 1990’s are called the years of professionalism and experimental research in the field of television documentary in the country” (Pepo, 1996:interview). So in 1991-1992 the director Spartak Pecani with collaboration with Bujar Kokonozi and Nexhati Tafa, realised Jetë Pas Vdekjes [Life after Death]. In 1993 Kokonozi, focused its theme in one of historical figures of Albanian and European acting Aleksander Moisiu. Cizia Zyke and Piro Milkani with the help of Kokonozi produced a most criticised documentary Kanuni [The Kanun]. Media called the documentary ‘good realised’, that brought for the viewers Leke Dukagjini’s constitution, which has been used in Albania as low for hundred years. In the same year Kokonozi and Kosovan artist Migjen Kelmendi realised film documentary called Të Shitur Utopie [Sold Utopie] which explores that communism was only utopi in mind of people. In 1995 Flora Nikolla, Amalia Dhamo and Bujar Kokonozi created Arratisja [Escape]. The year of 1977 created other problems in the documentary filmmaking with its problems and chaos that brought in the country. The drowning of 100 people in the Adriatic, mostly of them women and children, who tried to escape from this chaos in Albania brought another theme to film documentary makers in the country. Një Tokë që Lundron was focused on this theme and was produced by Ervin and Ibrahim Muco and Bujar Kokonozi. The sequences of this film show represented battle of humans with the Adriatic Sea. It was very painful. The documentary had realist attempt of representation.

Documentary aim; Working in the group

Film documentary making is the most complex and most combined work in the group. The directors working together with scriptwriters, camerapersons, editors, runners and other people that contribute to the documentary. The music need to be original and some time it need to be composed for the theme of documentary. This was aim of most documentary makers who started producing their ideas in new era. But most contributed person in the documentary making is cameraman which works close to the director and inspires shots and images that contribute to the documentary. This team work was lead by Ismail Balla, Andon Beqari, Alfred Kasimati, Klajd Sheldia, Mira Mone and other that worked to produce such a good quality of documentaries in the coming years. They were great editors of film documentary history in Albania. Camera work was lead by Beqir Derhemi, Stefan Gajo, Bujar Kokonozi, Pali Kuke, Ilir Kasneci, Engjell Strazimiri, Valter Qarri, Ben Caku, Ben Milo. The music department was most important in the documentarymaking and was the only department full with female professionals, like Leonora Abazi, Suzana Muca, Pranvera Kati and Suzana Gashi. They also helped to enhance the soundtrack in the documentary.

The documentary today

Most of the documentaries made after 1997 are documentary made by Television journalists. This was the fact that so many documentaries were the combination of all modes of documentary. In 1998 the first time a private Television camera entered in Tetova University in FYROM (Macedonia) to produce a documentary about the University, which was in Albanian language and was in battle with authorities in the country. The documentary was scripted, filmed and edited by Fatmir Terziu. Fadil Sulejmani, Dean of the University of the time was main interview in the documentary, among other staff. The documentary was realised with the help of Isa Kreka, Qazim Radoniqi, Hamit Dika and Isa Basha. In producing the documentary helped TV Era, TV Art and some intellectuals. TV Teuta, TV Shijak and Klan, Arberia produce other documentaries. Other documentaries made by independent filmmakers are kept out public eyes aiming international market and festivals.

Part II

FILM CENSORSHIP IN ALBANIA

The first Albanian film started its preparation in 1957. In 1958 Tana was released for viewers, but only for a few months, because Albanian officials of the time called for censorship on it. In one hand it was the start of the history of the film in Albania, in the other hand, it was the start of censorship of Albanian films. No one from the filmmakers was able to create a film with his own idea. The films have to be created ‘in light of Marxist-Leninist’ ideology. Everything was linked with ideologisation of literacy and art in the monist system. Fortunately when some filmmakers escaped from this ideology, their films were released for public viewing, and after they were released, some of them again were banned. The directors tended to create films with advanced theory of filmmaking, but they were under communist control and they did not escaped from the brutality. Examples of films banned from public viewing, or with cut sequences are parts of all the history of filmmaking in Albania until 1990. According to one of the old generation of filmmakers in Albania, Llazar Siliqi, there was no reason why these films were banned, or why some sequences were cut. No one gives any explanation to that. The war was especially on filmmakers and directors that were categorised by officials as people with western domination in their theory or idea of filmmaking. All filmmakers and directors that had tried to liberalise their ideas of filmmaking and were critical with the problems of socialism in their films have been in focus of the dictatorial system.Everything was under control. The Communist Party and Government had appointed controllers, and another group of controllers came from the so-called Ministry of Culture. They were so brutal. They brought disaster to Albanian cinematography, because they were not professionals or related to any part of culture or art. They were only fanatics of the communist system and they were advised to send many filmmakers ‘with Western ideology’ to prison, banning some of them from filmmaking or killing them. “Some of the Albanian filmmakers of that time that were called ‘westerners’ were charged with different charges. Among others are Viktor Stratoberdha, Mit’hat Fagu, Mark Topallaj, and Nuredin Cabej. Some cameramen such are Mandi Koci, Dhimiter Lala, Bardhyl Martiniani and scriptwriters Petro Marko, Vito Koci, Xhevat Alibali, Dionis Bubani and Vangjush Gambeta, did not escaped from these charges. Every cut or film had to be destroyed. A few sequences and films were saved in a film-archive of the only institution of film in Albania called Kinostudio “Shqipëria e Re” (Siliqi, 2004).

FIRST PRIZE IN NETHERLANDS-PRISON IN ALBANIA

Viktor Stratoberdha, the assistant director of a film co-produced with Russian filmmakers, Skenderbeu (1953), started to realise his own film in collaboration with scriptwriter Dionis Bubani, and cameramen Mandi Koci and Dhimiter Lala in 1955. The film attempted to focus on some problems of the time and was focused in some criticism of Albanian society of the time. The film was called “Mbi të Metat” (About some Problems). The film was strongly criticised by authorities and was banned from public view. It was a pretext to start charges for ‘rebels’ of communist ideology. Viktor Stratoberdha was banned from filmmaking and was send to work in another city and another field. Later, he got a chance to escape from the communist control and to emigrate from the country. The cameraman Mandi Koci was sends to prison in 1961, when later died after his release. The other cameraman Dhimiter Lala had the same fate as his colleague. He was sent to prison a few months later.The first director of Kinostudio “Shqipëria e Re”, Nesti Zoto, a well known intellectual from Korça in Albania, who spoke openly in 1956 in Communist organisation in Tirana, about the problems in art and cinematography was sent in internment, where he died.In 1961 another film was banned. The film “Njeriu nuk vdes Kurrë”, diploma work of the directors Dhimitër Anagnosti and Viktor Gjika, based in Hernest Hemingway story. Even though the film won a first prize in the World Festival of Cinematographic Schools in Netherlands, it was not seen by the public eyes. In 1963 another director was sent to prison. Xhevat Alibali was charged during the shot of two documentary-films “Rapsodi Kreshnike” and “Roja e Atdheut”, because the films were classified as Western.In 1965, Nuredin Cabej, another director was sent to prison. The reason was because he had studied in Italy and had acted in an Italian film with Albanian theme, “Kavaljerët e Krujës” (1943).The film “Gjurma” (1970) was banned again with the same problems and acussation for the director Kristaq Dhamo and scriptwriter Peci Dado. Later this film was released for public viewing after it was censored dramatically (Siliqi, 2004)….

…to be continued…

50 YERS FROM THE SQUARE PEG

 

By Fatmir Terziu

Roehampton University

Media & Cultural Studies

Sir Norman Wisdom and Oliver Reed together in filmsAround 50 years ago Sir Norman Wisdom was very happy to work together with Oliver Reed, the actor who dead during shooting the Gladiator in Malta. The Square Peg was an 89-minute Rank comedy where Wisdom, a short tall man was a big contrast to Reed. But the play was enjoyable and the laugh they produced was fantastic. Starting off as an extra in films in the late 1950s (Reed had no acting training or theatrical experience). Oliver Reed appeared unaccredited in an early Norman Wisdom classic, “The Square Peg” 1958. And again with Norman Wisdom in another of his classic comedy films, The Bulldog Breed 1960,where Reed played a leader of a gang of teddy boys roughing up Norman in a cinema. Most interesting about his role in this film, was that Reeds scene with Wisdom was played out with another future star of cinema, also in an unaccredited role as a sailor, none other than Michael Caine. Reed and Wisdom did not worked again together, as Reed and Wisdom moved to different genre in cinematography. Reed started his collaboration In Life is a Circus, when he found himself dressed as a cowboy being chased down Windsor High Street by the Crazy Gang. Sir Norman Wisdom was in another similar scene with cowboy scene, when he made a laugh for all.In this British comedy set during WW II, a street labourer bears a remarkable resemblance to a stern Nazi officer. The little street fixer likes to harass the British soldiers and ends up drafted into becoming part of the British army labour regiment where he is supposed to mend military roads. Unfortunately a mix-up occurs and he ends up being parachuted behind Nazi lines and getting captured. Fortunately, he is able to use his resemblance to the high-ranking enemy officer to full advantage and save the lives of several other prisoners. ~ Sandra Brennan, All Movie GuideThe weak story in The Bulldog Breed is an excuse to tie together a long series of funny episodes, slapstick incidents, and absurd situations. What does bring everything into a certain unity is the comic character type created by Norman Wisdom, an inept, likeable loser whose efforts to succeed against all odds somehow bumbles through to final triumph. Playing Norman Puckle in this romp, he is heartbroken after being scorned by an unattainable blond and fails at a suicide attempt, only to end up in the Navy. Bungling most of his work there, he is surprised to discover that he has been chosen by the admiral to be the first man the Navy sends into space. This time, Norman’s losing streak is up against a formidable phalanx of expertise — what could possibly go wrong? ~ Eleanor Mannikka, All Movie Guide.As Sir Norman Wisdom is publicly well known Klown Hero of Albania and Reed is a very respectable figure in the country from his roles in the films with historical context. Reed starred as Athos, terrific performance in another role he was born to play. In three films based on Alexandre Dumas’s novels, first in 1973’s The Three Musketeers, followed by The Four Musketeers in 1974, and fifteen years later with The Return of the Musketeers. All these films of this series has been allowed by dictator to be shown by Albanians during that period. So Reed is another pleased cinematographic figure of Britain that has brought joy and pleasure to people of Albania.Continues…