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Bazin I On Why We Fight: History, Documentation, and the [Newsreel On Why We Fight: History, Documentation, and the Newsreel (1946) by André Bazin translated and edited by Bert Cardullo War and the apocalypse it brings are at the heart of a decisive new réévaluation of documentary reporting. The reason is that, during a war, facts have an exceptional amplitude and importance. They constitute a colossal mise en scène compared with which that of Caesar and Cleopatra (Gabriel Pascal, J. Arthur Rank; GB, 1945)) or Intolerance (D.W. Griffith, Wark; US, 1916) looks as though it were the set for a small show touring the provinces. But these facts also constitute a real mise en scène, which is used only once. The drama also takes place "for real," for the protagonists have agreed to die at the same time as they are shot by the camera, like enslaved gladiators in the circus arena. Thanks to film, the world is cleverly saving money on the cost of its wars, since the latter are used for two purposes, history and cinema, thus reminding us of those less-than-conscientious producers who shoot a second film on the overpriced set of the first one. In this case, however, the world is right. War, with its harvest of dead bodies, its immense destruction, its countless migrations, its concentration camps, and its atomic bombs, leaves far behind the creative art Allies Trek over NorthAfrican HllIsthat aims at reconstituting it. The craze for war reports seems to me to derive from a series ofpsychological and perhaps also moral exigencies. Nothing suits us better than the unique event, shot on the spot, at the very moment of its creation. Such a theater of operations, when compared with the other one, has the invaluable dramatic superiority ofinventing the play as it spontaneously unfolds. It is a kind oícommedia dell'arte in which the scenario itselfis always being reworked. As far as the technical means are concerned, there is no need to insist on their unerring efficiency. I would simply like to underline the fact that these means reach a cosmic scale and that they needfearonly earthquakes,2 volcanic eruptions, tidal waves, and theApocalypse itself. I say this without irony, because I think that the number one broadcast in the series News from Heaven will certainly be devoted to a lengthy report on the Last Judgment , compared to which the report on the Nuremberg trials will somehow look like the Lumières' Workers Leaving the Factory (France, 1895). IfI were pessimistic, I would add a slightlyFreudianpsychological factor thatI would callthe "Nero complex" and define as the pleasure experienced at the sight of urban destruction . If I were optimistic, I would allude to the aforementioned moral factor and say that the cruelty and violence of war have taught us to respect—almost to make a cult of—actual facts, in comparison with which any reconstitution, even made in good faith, seems dubious, indecent, and sacrilegious. But the war report above all fulfills another need, which explains its extreme popularity. The taste for such documentary news, combined with that for the cinema, reflects nothing if not modern man's will to be there, his need to observe history-inthe -making, not only because of political evolution, but also because of the evolution as well as irremediable intermingling of the technological means of communication and destruction. The days of total war are fatally matched by those of total history . The governments of the world have understood this very well; this is why they try to show us film reports of all their historical acts, such as the signing of treaties or the meetings of the various superpowers. As history is not at all a ballet that is fixed in advance, it is necessary to plant along the way as many cameras as possible so as to be able to film it in the act (in the historical act, of course). Thus nations at war have made provisions for the cinematic equipment of their armies, just as they have made provisions for the truly military equipment of those armies. The camera operator accompanies the bomber on its mission or...

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