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Documentaries, 1952–1972
- University of California Press
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DOCUMENTARIES, 1952–1972 RobertEmmetLong:Were there others in the United States and abroad making documentaries like yours while you were at the USC film school in the early fifties? JamesIvory:Thereweren’tthatmany,perhaps,butenoughtomakeupakind of subgenre. That was a time when people liked to make films about artists andworksofart.Oneoftheattractionswasthattheydidn’tcostmuchmoney tomake.Youhadtochooseathemecarefullyandthenusuallyconcentrateon oneworkofart,andexplainitandanalyzeit.Youraudiencewasinmuseums, schools,andonceinawhileintheaters.Thosewerethedayswhenshortswere still shown along with a feature in art houses. Long: Were there some memorable documentaries being made using artworks as their subject? Ivory: There was one called Image Médiéval, which was very good. It was made from illuminated manuscripts . . . wonderful film. There were others. A terrific film on syphilis I saw that was made by George Stoney, using all kinds of prints and photographs. People would use works of art to tell other kinds of stories. I remember there was an interesting guy in the USC cinema schoolnamedRayWisniewskiwhomadeafilmusingAztecworksofart—all sortsofAztecsculptureandpaintedpotsandsoon.Itwascalled,Ithink,The FeatheredSerpent,aboutthegodQuetzalcoatl.InthemidfiftiesHenri-Georges Clouzotmadeawell-knowndocumentaryaboutPicasso,whichwascalledLe MystèrePicasso and was photographed by Claude Renoir, the grandson of Auguste . It was a period in which that kind of thing was being done, and it was 43 quite a respectable way of working; it was a viable way to begin because, as I say, you didn’t have to spend a lot of money on it. You found an interesting way to shoot the works of art, and you could postulate anything you wanted. You could tell a sort of history, as I did in my Venice film, or describe akindof art,asIdidinTheSwordandtheFlute,orconcentrateonalivingmasterlikePicassoorAlexanderCalder .MorerecentlyPhilipHaashasdonethis,too,concentrating on the contemporary British artists. Long: I’d particularly like to know about the very first film you ever made, the documentary Venice: Theme and Variations. It was your initiation into filmmaking .You’vesaidthatwhenyoubeganthefilmyou“didn’tknowanything about Venetian painting, or the history of Venice as such.” What, then, possessed you to do the film? Ivory: I really, rather selfishly or self-indulgently, I suppose, wanted to go backtoVenice.IwentthereforthefirsttimewhenIwastwenty-two.Istayed onlyfourdays,butIwasabsolutelydumbstruckbythe place—its beauty, its atmosphere, and the sheer idea ofsuchamagicalcityonthewater.WhenIwasbackin Southern California following my Italian trip and enrolledattheUSC filmschool,itkepthauntingme.What a wonderful, fantastic place it was! I schemed to find a reason to go back there. So I concocted the idea of making a film about it, although I couldn’t exactly say what form it would take. Long:Butevenatthebeginningitwastohavesomething to do with painting . . . Ivory: I had seen the many gigantic paintings in Venice, which often told the story of Venice: a kind of allegorical, or even historical, account of the city, its rise and fall . . . not so much its fall but certainly its rise. And having seen these pictures, without any technical expertise to back it up, I had the idea that I could also perhaps tell the story of Venice on film by showingthesegrandpaintingsbyartistslikeVeroneseandTintoretto ,andbylater artists as well. I drew up a proposal for the faculty at the USC film school, and they agreed to accept the film as my master’s thesis. There was no fund 44 d o c u m e n t a r i e s v e n i c e : t h e m e a n d v a r i a t i o n s Veniceasseenbypainters overthecenturies,ending withSaulSteinberg’s drawingsofthemoderncity. 1957.Documentary.16 millimeter;color;28minutes. [3.238.233.189] Project MUSE (2024-03-28 15:15 GMT) to underwrite the making of the documentary, but my father put up the money for it. Long: Was there much money involved in the making of this film? Ivory: Not a lot. I had to buy a tripod and camera (a 16-millimeter Bolex), some film stock, and a light meter. That was about it. I didn’t prepare myself any better than that; I should have, but I didn’t. I went back to Venice for six months, and it was as wonderful as I had remembered. And it was wonderful shooting there, wandering around with my camera. There were places where I needed assistance, such as when I worked in the Accademia Museum—the main picture gallery of Venice. Long: Why was that? Ivory: I was filming some of the paintings I had seen earlier, which had excited me—or inspired me—but I found it practically impossible to do it well without a more elaborate setup. If I panned across a picture, I needed an assistanttofollowfocus .Ididn’thaveanybodylikethat.Ineededpeopletohelp mewiththelighting.Ineededelectricians.Thesepaintingswerevast,andbeingdarktheyswallowedupvastamountsoflight .Irentedsixhugelightsfrom adefunct...