Realism
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Realism
The Problem with Realist tradition is that it does your thinking for you. Realism or Avant Garde Ð- which is the most effective form of educating the masses?
Realism in relation to film has been questioned in the history of cinema since its beginnings. Debates, however, go back further to when the words Ðfilm and Ðcinema did not exist. Discussions on whether mainstream or avant garde cinema is a closer form of reality are still based on the infamous Lukacs and Brecht debates Ð- two principal theorists of realism within the Marxist tradition. I will be linking ÐDivine Intervention – a modern day experimental film by director Elia Suleiman – to these foundations and verifying that this film meets the Brechtian criteria for a realistic medium of art. The aim for both of these Marxists was that art should go beyond the surface of things – activating amongst the masses resistance against fascism. Despite this common denominator, the differences between Lukacs and Brecht differed greatly.
Lukacs (1885 Ð- 1971) Ð- Hungarian Marxist Philosopher, writer and literary critic Ð- held firmly to the belief that novelists such as Balzac and Stendhal, through their books, promoted an understanding that the knowledge of the 19th century society could be changed by purposeful action. In sequence, he concluded that the 20th century was in need of the same kind of realism in every form of art and not new-fangled ways of breaking from the conservative conventions. Means of such narratives created a hero whose life reflected the current historical events of his time. Realism for Lukacs was a not a style but the basis of literature. He attacked all major avant-garde writers in Western literature who deviated from 19th century Realism. He was the least sympathetic towards new forms of art terming the Avant Garde and Expressionism as fatalistic with their vision of life as opague, fragmentary, chaotic and uncomprehended [sic]. (Lapsley & Westlake 1988:182)
“The goal of art is to provide a picture of reality in which the contradiction between appearance and reality, the particular and the general, the immediate and the conceptual, etc., is so resolved that the two converge into a spontaneous integrity The Universal appears as a quality of the individual and the particular, reality becomes manifest and can be experienced within appearance.” (www.kirjasto.sci.fi)
Theodor Adorno (1903-1969), philosopher, sociologist and part of the ÐFrankfurt School, agreed with Lukacs on these grounds, arguing that art represented a structure of political control and was far from turning into the means of human liberation. He regarded popular art forms as being imposed on the masses, used only to manipulate, regiment and mystify by vehemently stating:
Є The culture industry perpetually cheats its consumers of what it perpetually promisesCinema in particular permits no room for reflection on the part of the audience, imposing itself irresistibly as reality. It might have destroyed the aura, but only at the cost of liquidating truth.” (Lapsley and Westlake 1988:185)
An opposing argument came from Brecht (1898-1956), a German poet, playwright and theatrical reformer whose epic theatre departed from the conventions of theatrical illusion Ð- what would now be termed Avant Garde – and regarded by Lukacs as not believable, leaving the audience behind. Brecht argued that his aim was to develop a form of theatre that would engage the audience – intellectually and emotionally. Characters, such as those in Balzac and Stendhals novels, would no longer be subjected to the inescapable dictates of fate Ð- humanity must not be smeared with tragedy – and that such theatre would expose the exploitative reality of social relations. (Heath 1974:109)
Є…the spectator, instead of being enabled to have an experience, is forced, as it were, to cast his vote.” (Wolin 1982:151)
Benjamin (1892-1940) Ð- along with Brecht – welcomed cinema as destroying the aura Ð- the air of magical authenticity that is attached to high art forms Ð- and that it thereby gave the working class means of self-expression.
ЄContemporary industrial workers and city dwellers, whose perception of the world was so fragmented and accelerated by their conditions of life, could find in film the formal resolution and organisation of their experience. Film was the medium such transformed modes of perception required to act as a guide in the modern world.” (Lapsley & Westlake 1988:184)
When used in relation to films Avant Garde focuses on the