Unique Construction

Or I Unique Construction Victor Or Oakland Public Library Unique Construction Robert A. Rosenstone, editor. Revisioning History: Film and the Construction ofa New Past. Princeton University Press, 1995. (255 pages) The historical film has for manyyears been exploited by Hollywood, giving us photoplays that are nothing more than costume dramas with period backgrounds for action. However influenced by the French NewWave in die late 1950s the premise that filmmakers operate under, and the approach they take, have undergone transformation. The fourteen authors in this anthology offer inspiring perspectives on the emergence ofthe New History film. One of the essayists, Sumiko Higashi, defines the New History as a "catch-all category including the social history of groups excluded from access to traditional forms of power," while Thomas Keirstead and Deidre Lynch associate the genre with what the Japanese call "people's history" (minshuushi), a strain ofhistorigraphy that recognizes people as "... articulators ofan otherwise inarticulate popular consciousness." The premise of the New History film is that it replaces the representation ofmajor political figures with insignificant (or infamous) individuals and small communities that are victims of an unsettled era The oppression and the exploitation ofwomen and minorities are subjects for some filmmakers, while others, recognizing that in examining social and political history the vile and the noble must be featured, portray the purposelessness, cowardice or opportunism of the anonymous. Innovative approaches provide another focus. The authors analyzing Radio Bikini and From the Pole to the Equator show how documentary makers eliminate the narrative and create images that will tell the story. Other writers survey postmodern pastiche in feature motion pictures, probing exciting techniques such as the juxtaposition offictional drama with documentary footage (Hiroshima Mon Amour, Memories ofUnderdevelopment, The Moderns); the mix of realistic and surrealistic sequences (Repentance); and the intentional placement of contemporary icons in a historical setting (Walker). Another approach, as discussed by Rudy Koshar (Hitler: A Film From Germany) refrains from re-creations of actual events, but instead places the historical figure in artificial settings. Are the experimental cinematic techniques merely a symbolic rebellion against society? The anthology collectively offers legitimate reasons in defense of these seemingly anarchistic filmmakers. Several examine documentary discourse , agreeing that standard footage without narration is less subjective and more realistic than traditional documentaries . Others, studying dramatic films into which documentary footage has been inserted believe this technique compels viewers to appraise "reality" and "fiction," and then form their own opinions about the protagonist's behavior. Another essay considers the practical and ethical purposes of using surrealistic devices. The author points out that in countries where art was "tongue-tied by authority," filmmakers found surrealism enabled them to evade censorship . In an ironic twist, some directors have seemingly imposed self-censorship, softening painful personal memories with a fantastic imagery of events. The essayists analyzing the same work reach individual conclusions that the film's subconscious anachronisms, graphically creating modern parallels, drives home how much of the past is still with us. And why shouldn't artificiality be present? As Koshar suggests , even the most "realistic" portrait of an historical figure (and, one might add, historical events) cannot escape subjective interpretation. The thirteen titles come from such dissimilar countries as England and Cuba, India and Germany, and embrace ideologies as diverse as postcolonalism and postmodernism, satisfying the editor's intent of creating a work that reflects the "... serious historical film [as] global phenomenon." Although many academics consider history conveyed through film to be not as "real" as the written word, Revisioning History provides ample evidence that the New History film, absent linear narrative, and verisimilitude, present a unique construction of a historical world. 96 I Film & History ...