Fortnight Publications Ltd.

The Way We WereAuthor(s): Anthony O'KeeffeSource: Fortnight, No. 345 (Dec., 1995), p. 32Published by: Fortnight Publications Ltd.Stable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/25558682 .

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The way we were

Anthony O'Keeffe

Currentdy showing on RTE and recendly screened

on BBC, is the Kenneth Branagh narrated Cinema Eturope. As at histori of Eutropean.i cinemallsl to alte it

provides anil interesting Conlprison withl Martin

Scorcese's Hislort q/. Aneticat (Cinemia, seeni dIuii-incg

the suIilmlimelr onl Channel Fouir anid atgaini, RTE.

To Ibegin wvith Scorcese's was a petrsoniial, happily

opinionated piece, that was as aIccessible as it was

easv to follow, rejoicingr in its chioices as wvell ats the necessary onluIssions. Giie)eia E'ur)l)e, on the otheir

haniiid, triicdl to inlcltt(le everything. From tinpro

nounceable Austrui)Hungariall lightinig cameramileni workinu in Stocklholmii, to inipi orlontiniceable FrallCo Prussian riiit (Iirector-s successfuilly trianslatinig Ger man Expr-essioniismii onto the silverscreen. Anidihilst

tlh-ere's absoluttely nio qutestioni as to which of the tWO

I shall be keeping on tape - I can see myself' turning

to (;4itweia Eu' rol)e to cross i-efel-erece (dates and names

well inito the ne>xt imiillenitimiiii -equally tlher-e is nio

qutestioni ats to which mai(c the miiore conmfortable

Btut the really tellinig (lifferenice between the two

serieis cotill he gleaine(d from their suLb-titles. 7Ikle

Hislory OJ A iwe)irani (Cintema -,A Pervoialj ourrtie, and

(Cileml E'urol)pe-'I'The Otlie- Holli'iood. The siggnificaince of the above becomiies even inore apparenit w!hen one

examiniies tlheXir respective conteints. For, whilst on

the one hand, ELtrope and its cinema were conspictt

oulsvs absent fromn Scorcese's historv of American cinemiia, Hollywood in contrast, suirfacedl not only in every episo(de of its Etiropean couinterpart, andi re

peate(llv at that, it e\vent managed( to wrangle its way

into the ti-tle.

There will never be a United States of Europe. Thank God.

Scorcese's explanation was succinc:t enotigh. There

simply wasn't enotugh time for a history of' every

thing, so he restricte(d himself'solely to the history of'

American cinema. Thiis thouigh, is just a ta(l (lisin

gentuouis, as (inemtla E'urop)e so artf'uilly demonstrated.

Placing artists adn( their wares in a global context is

both informnative ain(l thotight. provoking. To be

shown a clip from Italy's visually stulnniing (Cabitia,

directe(d in 1915-) by - Agnes, be a clear and( find(l me

that t.ape with the clip of (7labinia on it, wouild youi; I

can't for the life of mei remember the n'ame of its

shagging director - is a joy in iself' l tut to then be

(correctly) informed that D.W. (Grifiith sUbsequently stole and openly so, the film's (lesign, lock, stock and(

l)arrel f0or his bIlolemratee (no real need( f'or either itallics or aI capital letter, buit that's another day's

work) gives the film, and otur knowledge of'it a whole newS' diIlmensioni.

Butt Branagh too, wotuld be being disingenuious were he to castigate Scorcese for not having more holistically cross referenced his potted history. There ivs you see, an agenda. Euirope is absent from the

American history for exactly the same reasons that America is ever present in the Euiropean.

Over the past few decades the dominant position that Hollywood enjoys, courtesy of'its linear integra tion of'produtction, distribtution and exhibition, has been not only consolidated, btut expanded uipon. In a word, and very, rotighly, a few decades ago, arotind 60-70% of films screened throtughouit most of' Eu rope were American. Now it's between 90 and 95.

What these series so clearly portray, perfectly ex pressed by their respective titles, is on the one hand a cinema in crisis, and on the other a cinema at peace with itself, comfortable and confident in its position of global (domninance. The Americans don't mention the Eturopeans becauise they don't need to. The

Eturopeans on the other hand, need to constantly

qtualify everything that they do by placing it in rela tion to America. Thuis, the history of' Euiropean cinema is presenteci in relation to the history of'

American cinema. There is even a suggestion that

had those wily Americans not stolen the likes of' Chaplin, Renoir, Muirnaui, Fritz Lang, et aL, we mightn't be in the sorry state we are in today.

Buinkim. The dominance that Hollywood enjoys is base(d very simply on two f. ictors. Firstly they were

able to uise dirt cheap real estate - for uise as a theatre

- as collateral for loans to fniid( film prodtiction and

tultimately distribution. And secondly; they had two hundred an(d fif'ty mlillion En,glish speaking Ameri cans at whom to aim their war-es. EcoInomiics of scale

atn(d linguistic hoimogenieity, it's as sitmiple as that.

There will never be a Unite(l States of Euirope. Thank God. Too maniy languiages, borders, contrast

ing cuisines, an(d centtiuries of history. In a word: too

muich ctulture.

Instea(l of' aping Hollywood, we shotuld be cel

ebratitng precisely that which (livides is. And tal

enlte(d film makers like Kenneth Branagh, rather than narrating a programnme lamneniting the dearth of contemporary Eturopean (inema, so implicit in a

celebration of'its past, shouild be ouit there seeking to

emulate his cuiltuiral past. Metropolis by Fritz Lang, Mutrnau's Sunrise, Eisenstein's Octob)er, and that mag nificent (Cfabhira.

32 FORTNIGHT DECEMBER 1995

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