Borgman of Alex van Warmerdam, just a perfect anti-Hollywood movie

Borgman of Alex van Warmerdam

“Borgman” is inventive as to how it builds a contemporary modern allegory of political insinuations and compact as to how its concise structure serves both plot and narrative. Alex van Warmerdam, the director and writer of Borgman, did not distinguish allegory from symbolism while talking to his spectators in Athens, yesterday night- and what for, really?-. However, the spectators may see an allegorical value in his film. If Ihab Hassan, the American literary theorist, saw ‘‘Borgman’’, he would feel dizzy where to place it, in Modernism or Postmodernism. This is a definitely witty and cerebral film-making, from which the exceptional interpretation of Hadewych Minis (Marina) illustrates the movie subject better and marks it as one of the best choices of the 19th Athens International Film Festival “Nychtes Premieras” for this year, 2013.

Just from scratch we see people living in land drawers, earth boxes. In a while we observe one deprived man looking for shelter in a rich –in appearance- family; his desire is to find a bathroom and have a shower. He is a stranger but claims to be treated as a guest. After the first and absolute denial of the husband, Richard (Jeroen Perceval) to fulfill the man’s request, followed by strong beating, his wife Marina (Hadewych Minis) starts helping the stranger gradually, in an attempt to feel well with her conduct, even though this man is more or less an invader with her own consent. Here the story comes. The man communicates with animals and he is the forerunner of Camiel Borgman (Jan Bijvoet), the new gardener that will be on duty after a sequence of murders and dead heads in ciment down the water. The plot implies the manifestations of the modern way of life that disregard the essence of nature role, whilst nature has deeper impact on human reaction.

We notice the presence of three during the whole movie but not by chance. The gardener is the husband’s choice and only after his approval, he starts working. It is clear that the number “three” provokes not only our interest in the narrative but also it calls upon to assumptions in a more general context; it stirs participation and brings antithesis. It is of “political” value. However, a close look to Ihab Hassan features’ list of Modernism and Postmodernism could make us consider “Borgman” as a modern film that took advantage of the postmodern features.

I would not say that “Funny Games” of Haneke gave Alex van Warmerdam the inspiration to create his own story. But I could say that this is a very good chance to stay unmoved, excited, and passionate by the film atmosphere without thinking anything that relates to sophisticated assumptions. It is a movie, which surpassed the whole of theories- what we have read and seen already- in order to find a place in culture instead of mixing things together. This is the reason why I loved Borgman. It is compact and inspiring. 

http://www.imdb.com/title/tt1954315/

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ihab_Hassan

also:

www.cinemag.gr - http://www.aiff.gr

L’Interculturel en tant que Charnel

L’Interculturel en tant que Charnel*

Choisissant de voir dans la pratique de la langue française le développement d’une activité interculturelle, on ne peut que constater que le développement parallèle d’une activité psychique où domine la mémoire vue comme un réseau d’amour, de regard éternel. Dans ce cadre, une suite logique est : Je parle-je me souviens-je vois-j’éprouve.

Par rapport à la procédure pédagogique, cette suite logique Je parle-je me souviens-je vois-j’éprouve, est très importante pour que les élèves comprennent qu’ils font part d’un monde plus grand qu’exclusivement grec, plus fascinant que monotone ou univoque. Il n’y a rien du bien neuf à ajouter ici, mais c’est bon de rattraper le temps perdu, c’est-à-dire la mémoire, le désir du futur. La mémoire dont la base est l’interculturel, est plus proche du mélange, de la créativité et de la pensée anthropologique. En fait, « tout progrès culturel est fonction d’une coalition entre les cultures »[1]. Cette maxime de Lévi-Strauss nous encourage à avancer à l’interaction de la culture grecque et française.   

Question purement rhétorique : est-ce que le français signifie que l’occasion d’habiter ce monde entre regard et mémoire n’est pas encore perdue ?

Cette question relancée d’h a b i t e r le français provient du monde contemporain : les priorités d’aujourd’hui par rapport à la technologie et les entreprises multinationales -d’un coté- font les élèves esclaves qui doivent assimiler et apprendre soit plus vite, soit plus complexe. En y regardant, donc, de plus près, on ne peut que remarquer que le français, dans l’entourage scolaire, fonctionne comme une « réhabilitation du mythe par la modernité »[2] : en effet, la possibilité de mettre le français dans l’esprit de la communication scolaire et surtout dans celui de la nécessité humaine, cultive l’imagination des élèves et les aide en ce qui concerne leur vie professionnelle et leurs rapports humains. Je voudrais ici souligner que l’interculturel vu comme « combustible » ou « noyau » du français décrypte sa force réelle. C’est l’esprit de la philosophie, de l’anthropologie qui le perfore.

D’ailleurs, il y en a plus. Choisissant de voir l’Interculturel en tant que Charnel signifie qu’on s’approche du français comme une expérience privilégiée qui ne consiste pas des éléments fragmentaires mais synthétiques. La question dans ce champ est comment les deux pôles- grec et français- vont se rejoindre, se reconnaître.

Réponse pour atteindre le but de notre question: à travers le jeu pédagogique qui est la base de chaque procédure humaine et date d’antan.

Car, puisque l’élève sort de ses clouages, de sa dépendance à l’anglais comme langue principale chez nous, il parcourt des autres itinéraires avec leurs possibilités : donc, le français l’aide à « s’ouvrir au soi d’un autre pôle (et a fortiori à un autre sujet humain)[3] ». Comme Jacob Rogozinski souligne, -en appuyant sa pensée sur Husserl-,   dans le cadre de la synthèse charnelle et du « chiasme », les pôles n’existent plus, quand les impressions singulières forment le chiasme- c’est-à-dire la pluralité et la synergie- en supprimant la monotonie de la singularité. Son point de départ  Husserlien qu’« entre les impressions de chaque pôle, se crée (alors) une communauté de résonance», va plus loin vers la réception des expériences sur et dans le « moi-chair ». On répète ses paroles : « Alors que les micro impressions polaires sont à l’origine de séquences temporelles plus ou moins brèves, de simples phases au sein du flux, l’archi-impression où ces phases s’unifient est à l’origine du flux, lui-même. C’est ainsi que le chiasme charnel se donne le temps. Tant que ma main droite ignorait ma main gauche, mes impressions tactiles duraient aussi longtemps qu’elle parcourait la surface de la table; dès qu’elle atteignait le bord, ces impressions sombraient dans le passé. Mais voilà que les deux mains se révèlent comme deux pôles d’une seule chair (..)»[4].

En guise de conclusion, on peut voir les deux pôles, grec et français, comme deux mains d’une seule chair afin de « prendre congé » du texte scolaire et mettre en place des méthodes pédagogiques dont la base est l’interculturel et à travers le texte pour que les élèves s’engagent et participent : le plaisir est un pari de « subjectivité » à être gagné ! On termine avec la maxime de Rogozinski : « ma subjectivité ne m’est pas donnée d’emblée, se conquiert de haute lutte. (..). Aucun ego n’est jamais sujet. Il n’y a pas de ‘sujet’, il n’y a que des processus de subjectivation »[5].

   

---

[1] Claude Lévi-Strauss Race et histoire, Denoël, réédition 1987, isbn 92-3-202475-6 http://www.anthropomada.com/bibliotheque/LEVI-STRAUSS%20Claude%20-%20Race%20et%20histoire.pdf

[2] Danièle Chauvin « Le livre et le mythe » dans Mythe et Modernité ; Actes du Colloque International Thessalonique 31 octobre- 2 novembre 2002, édition du Laboratoire de Littérature Comparée Thessalonique 2003, p. 187.

[3] Jacob Rogozinski  Le moi et la chair, introduction à l’ego-analyse, les éditions du Cerf, Paris 2006, p. 174.

[4] Jacob Rogozinski  Le moi et la chair, introduction à l’ego-analyse, les éditions du Cerf, Paris 2006, p. 178.

[5] Op, cit. p. 179.

*part du séminaire Créer des itinéraires présenté à I.F.A Athènes, par Photini Papariga et moi, le 6 Septembre 2013 

ROSE QUAY

ROSE QUAY

The city looks quite empty
My first adult years slipped away
But I am waiting there
With a rose swimming in the hands

Who could relieve those feelings in the air?

This city is my face now
Full of hard dreams to bear their brunt
But it is possible for me to travel on
To breed images, points of a memory kit

To invest on the space images grow wild

The sea breeze goes on
But I am still standing with the rose
Unable to find any sense
In the rhythm of a grey life ahead of us

And the faded rose opens its velvet wings

The slippery sky after the rain is singing
It’s time to bounce back
I imagine because I embody my adult air
The city of names whispers my past years

The rose I had doesn’t exist anymore

All the scattered smell belongs to the city eye
To the truth without furniture
 It is something we carry when the skies dark
But we are all ears for the mystery

As we grow, we fade ourselves to keep up with the city

Hasta la Vista: Carpe diem, mi amor!

Geoffrey Enthoven’s ‘‘Hasta la Vista’’ film sends us the message: Carpe Diem. Life is hard but the moments we share are the important ones. Friendship makes people recognize themselves. So, Philip -Robrecht Vanden Thoren-, Lars- Gilles De Schrijver- and Josef-Tom Audenaert- are not just three young special-needs friends but three “lotus eaters” who want to pursue the dream of being independent with money abroad. After having spent a lot of years on a domestic life with parents, it’s time they discovered something different. It’s time they lost their virginity. So here the subject comes regarding this road movie about the importance of keeping the dreams alive notwithstanding any difficulties let alone different disabilities.

To pursue the dream of traveling- with the exact aim to visit a Spanish brothel- the three friends accept finally to be supported by Claude- Isabelle de Hertogh- who is in between a nurse and a driver for them. As soon as they realize her valuable role, their journey becomes pleasant. It is that moment Joe Dassin’s music comes to the fore. And the moments’ sharing present makes them see how this journey experience is an acquired taste. Claude performs a mother care role for all of them, whereas cityscapes change fast one after another. Dolce Vita is a fact. However, the story does not misinterpret the issue of life and death, even though the sea shootings have successfully created a balanced atmosphere of expectation in the film by setting the target destination from scratch. Sea is the destination but seems also to be the starting-point for the unknown. 

Consequently, it is vital that we become acquainted with the reality of special-needs men. This film illustrates some aspects of their life to make clear that they are people like all other people. Through a sense of humor, three characters are depicted in the modern era of techno vibes where mobiles are everywhere, parents’ fears continue to exist but, however, the majority of people somehow resist on disability. “Hasta La Vista” is an illustrated proof that even difficult life is life and therefore, instead of tilting at windmills, we should start spending our energy on relationships. No wonder why the film gained the audience award of EFA (European Film Academy) in 2012. Good, interesting, special.

In Greece, 4^th of April, AmA films

Vitriol, une pièce sur l’équivoque entre la nature et la culture

Il y a quelques années, j’ai acheté les ‘‘100 définitions du théâtre’’ par Olivier Py, - ed. Les Carnets du Rond-Point (RMB)-. C’est intéressant comme quelques noms écrits deviennent réalité y pénètrent notre vie d’une manière physique. Ce ravissement est celle d’un mythe urbain et quotidien, où on participe. En fait, le mois dernier, j’ai connu Olivier Py à l’ Institut Français d’ Athènes –IFA ou, autrement dit, Inspirer Faire Adorer- à l’occasion de la représentation du théâtre de Vitriol de G. Mavritsakis au Théâtre National d’ Athènes. Avant de cette expérience, quelques définitions du livre m’avaient touchée. Particulièrement : No 91, ‘‘le théâtre est cet amant d’un soir qui dit Oublie-moi et je te serai rendu’’. Et en plus, No 17, ‘‘le théâtre est ce qui nous permet de contempler la mort sans en mourir’’… bien sur, il y en a d’autres, grâce aux lesquelles ce livre est à la fois amusant et bien pensant. Mais je termine avec le No 1: ‘‘Sapiens, Sapiens se plante une épine dans le pied. Il voit que sa douleur n’est pas partagée par ses camarades, alors il invente le théâtre’’.    

Donc, en ce qui concerne la représentation du théâtre de Vitriol de G. Mavritsakis au Théâtre National d’Athènes, je n’avais aucun doute. Py a fait un spectacle de tout. Il a pris un texte tout à fait poétique –et politique quand même- et il l’a présenté par rapport à une réalité bien corporelle y terrestre. C’ est pourquoi on est en face d’une ‘‘surface’’ d’argile, où les acteurs retracent l’histoire. C’est l’histoire d’un garçon qui se trouve en crise, homme de son ombre, esclave d’un fardeau soit personnel que social. Dans cette atmosphère, l’élément de la douche fonctionne positivement créant un nouvel ensemble d’antinomie. Contre le paysage gris y fluide, parallèle de la mémoire axée en ardeur, la douche symbolise la fraîcheur. Elle est un symbole antinomique en relation avec le sujet du titre ‘‘Vitriol’’ qui signifie exactement “Visita interiora terrae rectificando invenies occultum lapidem”. Toute la mise en scène convient à une approche holistique des arts, dans laquelle les acteurs à travers leur rôle deviennent des personnages vivants d’une intervention figurative sur la totalité et l’infini, idées parcourues par la pensée philosophique d’Emmanuel Levinas. C’est Levinas qui soutient l’argument que ‘‘la représentation dans l’œuvre de la relativité occupe le poste d’un fait privilégié’’. Alors, il s’agit d’un privilège ouvert aux spectateurs. On voit des interprétations exceptionnelles en dépit de la difficulté de participer à une telle pièce. C’ est pourquoi je me demande, au nom de la flexibilité et de l’acculturation, comment Vitriol pourrait aller en France afin que les acteurs grecs montrent que la Grèce n’est pas seulement en crise mais en pleine créativité. Grâce à eux, à Mavritsakis, à Py certainement. C’est dur mais lorsque Olivier affirme que ‘‘notre temps est patrimoine plus que culture, mode plus que création, commentaire plus que littérature, image plus que promesse, spéculation plus que désir vrai, sondage plus que désirs’’, une question est soulevée : c’est quoi le plus dur pour un citoyen? La vie ou le théâtre?                       

Detachment, a P.E.T (Possible Education Tomorrow) movie

Apt literature quotes for a starter and a dessert, interesting animated blackboard doodling, modern plot and strong social messages about high school education relating to parallel attitudes embedded in society; except for the brilliant and promising name of Adrien Brody, Tony Kaye’s “Detachment” is a movie that approaches the educational big “Question Mark”. What has to be done in education today? Let’s focus on the detachment value. The answer of the script is clear. Only if the spirit is pervaded by an idea can a teenager proceed to the next chapters of life, with a degree of critical detachment. 

As to the plot, the movie features Adrien Brody as a substitute teacher. However, Henry Barthes is not an ordinary teacher but someone different –by comparison with his colleagues- and endowed with a vision to inspire his class. Thus, he tries to show his students that their life can be altered by making efforts and reading literature such as Camus or Poe so as not to suffer desperately. Although pain is inevitable, considered as the key feature of maturity, the way we experience it can be viewed through a variety of options. In a nutshell, Barthes is the teacher who feels his students and asks them to write compositions instead of being strictly judgmental. His surname is “B a r t h e s” after all… 

So, what is the counterbalance of Brody? If it hadn’t been for any, the movie would have become dreary. So, Erica, the prostitute-street girl (Sami Gayle) taken care by Henry at his home becomes his strong counterbalance. Actually, she symbolizes his agitated soul. As Henry has been beaten by fate and has already undergone personal mishaps so that it is logical to be in a somber mood. Therefore, Erica of the streets is the most interesting person-persona of the present for Henry. Her impact comes in juxtaposition with his bleak past, his mother’s suicide. Anyway, the orange red images of the mother face and her long wavy hair like an autumn on the move create a poetic language of film polysemy that cuts the reality in flashbacks in order to see the expansive concepts of it through memory. 

Relating to the issue of memory, the movie also features Louis Zorich as the aged grandfather of Henry who is about to die in a clinic facing Alzheimer's. So, the school scenes of the movie are interspersed with those taken place in another institutional background, where the notion of the patient could be regarded as the final outcome after having been a life student. By the way, it suffices to remember the “Castle of Usher” as a “state of being”, according to Poe’s excerpt mentioned by Henry. 

In conclusion, this dramatic movie implies on the disaster emerged from the ubiquitous teaching methods at high school level, illustrates the gap of communication between parents and teachers, whereas stresses on the importance of moral support towards students so that they develop their sense of detachment and avoid putting their head in the noose like Tony Kaye’s daughter (Betty Kaye as Meredith) did concerning the script. Interesting approach but it lacks in originality. It is easy to write a script with teachers of a nervous breakdown opposed to the so called Henry’s performance so as to mark him as masterful and different. Would be better-to avoid the banalities- if the movie illustrated more developed relations and reactions. On second thoughts, I think that this reaction made recipe did not help the movie-goers travel in the filmic mood. Of course there is a story, there is aesthetics, but there is a part missing: relations in-between. That’s why the movie is poor in serendipity discoveries...

“Why you and not me”, Greek politics on board.

“Why you and not me”

Due to the latest international developments that have placed Greece in the middle of the global crisis, Greek deputies and politicians come to redefine themselves as persons if need be.

But, what is “need” actually, in terms of politics and regarding the society? Although deputies -such as Marilisa Xenogiannakopoulou-make announcements about their removal from political parties where they used to belong, the problem of personification in politics also encloses its denial. It is very easy to deny your past when there is guarantee to rebuild it under the form of new alliances.   

However, this political game of flames billowed over the prairie has nothing to do with the society itself. Greek citizens -and any citizen on a global level- need politicians who will vote for the lifting of antisocial measures. What deputies may decide for their identity is another chapter of the politics history.

On the other hand, there is no wonder why especially now, some days before the voting of the Memorandum measures promoted as ‘‘inexorable’’ by the Greek government, we observe such political tendencies. It is just a proof for the political system to convince itself that it is still a dynamic network. This is incorrect given that this sort of dynamism should be relevant to the political impact and refer to the functionalism of the measures within the society. 

If there is a keyword about the latter-day problems, that’s “society”. Greeks cannot afford the measures just because some decided to vote their duty. This theatre of the absurd tends to serve more and more a strictly political construction and its language, of which the former PASOK now appears as PASHOCK in our memory. And this linkage makes part of the dialectic between the tragic vision and the ideological vision. Politicians strive for ideology but in reality, they strive towards defending themselves as ‘‘socially’’ defined persons.

According to Alvin Gouldner –i.e. The Dialectic of ideology and Technology, NY Seabury Press 1976 – persons “are human beings socially defined as having certain attributes. A person is a human being believed 1) to be a locus of potency or power, and hence 2) to be morally responsible for his actions”.

Anyway, in the Greek political scene, we observe a great paradox. The notion of the moral responsibility regards the opposition members. The so called Lagarde’s list aroused quarrels among deputies; the lost “stick” and CD of the ex-minister Papaconstantinou also nourish the chaotic character of political narratives instead of offering new leads to the case. So, I wonder what kind of personhood is that…

I wonder how some Greek politicians call upon the future of the European Union to make citizens accept the urgency of the unbearable measures when they cannot fight the tax evaders and when at once, according to book sources of international law, in 2003 they rejected the formulation of the European Constitution. For which reasons, since 1975 –and until today-, hasn’t any text of the European Union been introduced by any government into the Greek Parliament regarding a strict report on the article 28, paragraph 2?

Of course; as legal books write, the Constitution should not be possible to be interpreted in a way that would abolish the rules characterized as “erga omnes”…States or nations must collaborate on different and distant issues. Anyway, apart from this collaboration theory, in reality as Gouldner has claimed, “a society with a pervading sense of the tragic cannot have the same relationship to politics as one with an ideological vision. The ideological vision has slipped free from the limits of which tragedy was so acutely aware”. Thus, both ideological and tragic visions keep up with false consciousness.

Consequently, there is no social need for Greek deputies to “play” the ideological partners in a tragic room. Jean-Jacques Rousseau –i.e. Discours sur les sciences et les arts, Athens 2012 Nissos publications- viewed Athens as a place of elegance and good taste, the country of orators and philosophers. From his critical standpoint, “the elegance of architecture was parallel to that of the language. One could see the marble and the cloth alive in the hands of skilful craftsmen”.

Until today, we have kept this marble tradition in the case of Metro. As citizens, we complied with the rules and we have kept it clean, as long as the authorities stressed on the importance of keeping the metro clean and worthy of respect. Therefore, citizens can follow the authorities’ lead, for they are trained to regard the state as the par excellence subject of law. This is the reason why –on the other hand-citizens are opposed to any unfair treatment within the framework of the conflict between the government and the press about the reporting of the economic crisis.

In conclusion, the unfair removal of the two Greek journalists from the Greek state television shows one aspect of the tragic in the Greek politics. The other one is the personification crisis. We lack in real persons and this does not happen by chance. It happens because now in Greece, after the huge failure of the ex Prime Minister, G. Papandreou, the religious character of the power is definitely over. As a result, new pretenders want to rule, no matter what name they may have. Clergy story is an old one, let alone when charisma and “chrisma”-nomination- have killed one another. But Greece does not need politicians who dwarfed their adversaries to collaborate with them afterwards. As a Mediterranean, European and Balkan country, Greece needs its society and social classes to go on. The Greek politics “on board” under the umbrella of the question “why you and not me?” does not help either the citizens and the society or even the political future of its strong defenders.