Central Park Jacqueline Onassis Reservoir

In early May cherry blossoms are in full bloom around the reservoir. In addition to the jogging track that hugs around the reservoir, visitors and joggers enjoy the bridle trail, tennis courts, beautiful scenery, a fountain stream, and birds of many species. There is often a wonderful breeze. I have found it blissfully cathartic to walk the bridle path listening to ethereal music such as the Sanctus  or Agnus Dei from Gabriel Fauré's Requiem in D minor, Op. 48. This work focuses on the Roman Catholic Mass for the Dead and utilizes a choir, vocal soloists, orchestra (several versions), and pipe organ. This work can transfix the sensitive listener to new dimensions. The 7th and final movement in D major, "In Paradisum", is exquisitely beautiful and provides closure and peace. One can hardly walk after hearing and experiencing it. Here's a wonderful performance of In Paradisum by the Cambridge Singers, conducted by John Rutter. What's particularly nice about this video is that it scrolls the musical score as you listen -- . Another highly recommended listening that comes to mind by Fauré is his Cantique de Jean Racine, performed by the Cambridge Singers. Here's the text of the two works translated from the original Latin:

In Paradisum

Into paradise may the angels lead you.

In your coming 

may the martyrs receive you,  

and may they guide you

into the holy city, Jerusalem.

May the chorus of angels receive you, 

and with Lazarus, once poor, 

may you have eternal rest. 

Cantique de Jean Racine

Word, equal to the Almighty, our only hope,

Eternal light of the earth and the Heavens;

We break the peaceful night's silence,

Divine Saviour, cast your eyes upon us!

Spread the fire of your mighty grace upon us

May the entire hell flee at the sound of your voice;

Disperse from any slothful soul the drowsiness

Which induces it to forget your laws!

Oh Christ, look with favour upon this faithful people

Which has now gathered to bless you.

Receive its singing, offered to your immortal glory,

And may it leave with the gifts you have bestowed upon it! 

Cherry Blossoms on the Bridle Trail

Fountain Stream on the Reservoir

Flowers Blooming on the Bridle Trail

Tennis Courts with Public Lavatories (Laugh if you will, 

but people want to know this stuff!)

Why American Men Love Westerns -- Illuminated by Robert Warshow

     Larger than life characters played by actors such as Clint Eastwood, Gary Cooper and Henry Fonda in Westerns exemplify male self-determination and independence on many levels.

The Outlaw Josey Wales Theatrical Trailer

     The appeal and success of the American Western in film provide opportunity for introspective analyzing of the American people, and, particularly, the American male. As a member of this group, images are explored from a personal and perhaps, less than dispassionate perspective. In many respects, the Western film form celebrates and defines images of a male dominated world that the American man enjoys identifying with. Warshow provides vocabulary and reasoning that enlightens as he aptly describes the modus operandi of these films.

     The American gangster movie represents a more modern and antisocial cultural form of violence that represents times in America that reflect the industrial revolution. The images portrayed in the Western lend insight into the mind of the indigenous American viewer in the process of being tainted by two world wars, the cold war and the nuclear age. The viewer longs for times like the glorious and romantic 1870’s in the rugged western United States.

     A specific set of images help define the Western movie form as a complete dramatic entity that effectively maintained the interest of the American viewer for many decades.

     It is logical to project the drudgery and cynicism of a typical American factory worker’s whose life style is defined by a set of basic, inhibiting and “traditional” values. The movie viewer yearns for images that depict hero worship, freedom, space, power (guns), and available women who provide guiltless comfort. A vivid chimerical depiction of dominant male and lesser female roles is provided.

     The male audience’s attraction to the image of the Western film woman is powerful. Western women are usually portrayed as bar room entertainers or prostitutes who “understand” the cowboy and the irrelevance of love. By contrast, the eastern American woman’s spirit embodies images that exemplify civilization. Her values are portrayed disparagingly as feminine and consist of manners, virtues, refinement and even Christianity. Western movie women provide affection without guilt and do not require emotional attachment or other constraints associated with the typical marriage arrangement. The images characterized by the Western woman may also appeal to some American women viewers by projecting strength and independence in, albeit a “man’s world.”

     From time to time, every individual dreams of freedom from his work and responsibilities. Land and horses generously represent the Westerner’s physical freedom so admired by the American audience. The Western man is a man of leisure and the West is  “where men are men.” While the Westerner is generally unemployed, he always has money and is adept at functioning in his society. He expertly rides horses, plays poker, and is most often seen in a bar with “fallen” women who cavort with him. He generally wears the same clothes that are comfortable and utilitarian.

     Guns constitute the visible moral center of the movie, suggesting continually the possibility of violence. Moral issues are brought to a basic level. A certain image of a man is portrayed with a gun on his thigh —- he looks like a hero and shirks the constant possibility of violence in a self-controlled, relaxed fashion. At the same time, guns represent a source of power over life and death. Appealing to the viewer’s sense of good and evil, the hero only uses his gun for righteous purposes.

     The gun, carried freely in the open, helps to embody the heroic individual whose moral code is that of honor. The hero defends his honor in his quest and represents a code, that at best, exhibits a moral ambiguity that conceals his image and saves him from inanity. The conflict of good and evil is more a personal matter that is settled between two men and less than that of a social consequence or civilization; the Westerner does what he “has to do.” Warshow notes that we still hold real and important the image of personal nobility as exemplified in the Western and its late 19th century setting.

My Darling Clementine - Theatrical Trailer

     Fighting for justice provides opportunity —- the Western man defends his honor which is comprised of harmonious appearances as much as with desirable consequences. The Westerner’s moral code at best exhibits a moral ambiguity that darkens his image and saves him from absurdity. He presents an image of personal nobility that is real for us, the American.

     As the Western film evolved and the American viewer became more sophisticated, the form changed a bit. Warshow describes this change as a violation of the classical form. In the film “High Noon,” social drama is utilized; the hero leaves town as a pathetic rather than a tragic figure. His leaving signifies that the “social drama” has no place for him. The theme song from "High Noon", "Do Not Forsake Me, My Darling" provides one with a sense Gary Cooper's hero mystique. Yielding to the cinematic temptations of the landscape violates the Western form as well. A superficial reconstruction of history, as in “My Darling Clementine,” exemplifies this device. In the “Virginian,” Warshow cites the theme as the limitations of frontier life, not freedom and expansiveness.

Gary Cooper in High Noon

     These changes in the Western reflect a changing American society and viewer. More and more, images of the big city and the industrial society gain importance. Political events shape the society. The gangster movie sets forth the attractions of violence with respect to our higher social attitudes.

Gary Cooper in The Virginian

     Western movies have captured our imaginations for decades. This is due, in part, to the way the problem of violence is given serious orientation in a uniquely American setting. However, I believe that the major cause of success of these films is that they capitalize on a traditional American desire for self-determination.

          

Central Park Conservatory Garden - Manhattan

The Central Park Conservatory Garden is a wonderful way to enjoy nature at its best. Entrance to the garden is at Fifth Ave. and 105th, just a few blocks north from the reservoir and across from the Museum of the City of New York. Entry is free and there are public restrooms and food vendors on Fifth Ave. One can sit quietly on a bench and smell the blossoms while listening to song birds. It's a wonderful place to read, reflect and relax. You'll see couples posing for wedding and other event photographs.  Free tours are provided as well. For hours and other information check out http://www.centralparknyc.org/visit/things-to-see/north-end/conservatory-garden.html. If you visit soon, you'll be able to see the tulips in their full glory. You can sit on benches under the lilac trees. As the season changes, different plants and flowers will bloom. Here are a few scenes from this wonderful oasis in the city.

Popular film according to James Twitchell and Laura Mulvey

        James Twitchell and Laura Mulvey both use Freudian psychology in the extreme when discussing popular film. While Twitchell points out tabooed sexuality in the Frankenstein films, Mulvey, in my opinion, goes too far when she characterizes film as a “projection of a patriarchal order.” The passion of her attack on the industry evokes doubts regarding the efficacy of her arguments or motives. Using Freudian analysis as a political weapon to give credence to what I perceive as a manifestation of her own prejudices verges on absurdity. To state that the function of women in mainstream popular film is characterized by an esoteric and dated Freudian fear of a castration complex is ridiculous. Mulvey’s articulate invective is simply, in my opinion, Sophistry.

Sigmund Freud

            A dispassionate discourse with Freudian psychology as a vehicle for film interpretation might better serve as an stimulating intellectual exercise for students of psychology. Mulvey’s disquisition is too personal and intimate for this reader to take seriously. Pornography or low quality film might better serve as targets of Mulvey’s psychological reproach. 

            There is a noted flaw in the application of Freudian theory to art. Susanne Langer points out what Cassirer and Barfield noted in their employment of art theory. The application of Freudian psychology to art exhibits a peculiar weakness -- namely that it tends to put good and bad art on a par, making all art a natural self-expressive function like dream and “make-believe” instead of a hard won intellectual advance. ¹

par René François Ghislain Magritte

            One particular Freudian tool proves useful in this study. Freud ascertained a canon in art he describes as the principle of condensation, which he discovered in the course of his dream analysis. This term describes how images are intensified to heighten their emotional quality.² Hence, it is necessary for images in film to be amplified in order for meaning to be projected. I would argue that Mulvey misconstrues the technical elements required to make film viable.

            Mulvey's assumptions are arguable questionable when she states that alternative cinema, which she describes as more ideologically proper, must react against the “obsessions and assumptions” portrayed in mainstream popular film. She describes the popular film industry as monolithic, outworn and oppressive. (oppressive to whom?) She dares filmmakers to break with normal expectations in order to conceive a new language of desire. This language of desire is described as a type of gender neutral look into “dialectics and passionate detachment.” A Freudian analysis of Mulvey’s new “language of desire” would providing for intriguing discourse.

            One example of Mulvey’s film characterizations is particularly fascinating and absurd. In Hitchcock’s “Rear Window,” she describes Jeffries’ viewing of Lisa in the apartment across the way as subconscious erotic domination. He purportedly subjects her to his will sadistically and voyeuristically (did Jimmy Stewart know this?).

            Mulvey makes legitimate points about the subjugation of women as sex objects in cinema but loses credibility with her utilization of extreme Freudian hypothesis. One important aesthetic point she makes is that the visual presence of blatant sexuality actually detracts from the development of story-line. I concur that film makers all too often rely on gratuitous nudity, violence or erotic spectacle to sell their products...this says much about their audience. But clearly, sexual energy invigorates the world and screen alike in a positive way. Art without sexuality could not imitate life and gender neutral film with enervated emotive qualities would be of little human interest.

            Mulvey has not interpreted film in the perspective of a new art form and film as a new art is not yet technically perfected. As with every such novelty, it is exploited before it is technically perfected and flaunted in its most raw state. A flood of meaningless compositions steadily supply the cinematic business; there is usually a tidal wave of rubbish in association with every important advance. The viewer or aesthetic theorist must exercise taste and circumspect discrimination.

            Film as an art form can be examined in a dispassionate, scientific manner. Freudian psychology characterizes film as a dream mode with its primary illusion of virtual history. Cinema is a mode of appearance that invokes memory or makes us believe that we are remembering.³ Conceived as a dream mode, a good moving picture is a good work of art by all standards that apply to art as such. Sergei Eisenstein speaks of good and bad films as, respectively, “vital” and “lifeless; speaks of photographic shots as “elements” which combine into “images,” which are “objectively unpresentable,” but are greater elements compounded of “representations,” whether by montage or symbolic acting or any other means.”⁴ The motion picture is therefore a poetic presentation that like a dream, enthralls and commingles all senses. Many means, including illusion, words and music, are needed to help create the continuity of emotion which holds it together while its visions roam through space and time.

Sergei Eisenstein - the Battleship Potemkin (1925)

            To her credit, Mulvey’s ideas evoke important questions that beg further study. Where and when is sexuality appropriate? When does exploitation begin? How are inappropriate sexuality and exploitation defined? These questions and others have fueled debates on sexual harassment, family values and sexual identity. Mulvey is perhaps herself a manifestation of a frustrated existential society.

            Mulvey’s arguments contend the intent of the male gaze as designed by the film maker. I wonder if the gaze of a man towards a beautiful woman is the manifestation of a revolting Freudian castration anxiety or fetishistic scopophilia as Mulvey aruges. Contrary to the belief of many radical feminists, perhaps the Washington monument is not a phallocentrist image of male domination over castrated women. The gaze is, rather, simply a gaze. As Freud says, “Sometimes a cigar is just a cigar” in this dreamed reality that projects pure thought, pure dream and pure inner life. ⁵

Washington Monument --- dedicated to the Father of our Country

¹Langer, Susanne K., Feeling and Form: A Theory of Art,  New York: Charles             Scribner’s Sons, Copyright, 1953, p. 240.

²Freud, Sigmund, Interpretation of Dreams, Translated by A. A. Brill, New York:          Macmillan Co., 1913, pps. 20-21.

³ Langer, Susanne K., Feeling and Form: A Theory of Art,  New York: Charles            Scribner’s Sons, Copyright, 1953, p. 412.

⁴Eisenstein, Sergei M., The Film Sense , Translated and edited by Jay Leyda, New York:          Harcourt, Brace & Co., 1942.

⁵Jones, C. G., Contributions to Analytical Psychology, Translated by H. G. and C. F.    Baynes, New York: Harcourt, Brace & Co., 1928, pps. 17-18.

Reflections on Siegfried Kracauer and German film of the early 20th century

    

One of my favorite topics is film, particularly concomitant to music's role in contributing to the medium. Subsequently, I have examined several books on the topic and am intrigued by Kracauer's harsh characterizations of the German people during the early 20th century and the many questions that arise. I have provided a bibliography for those that may wish to delve deeper.

     Upon examination of Kracauer's work, one becomes cognizant of several theoretical ideas: film not only represents a society's mores and personality but has the ability in certain situations to affect society in a profound manner. It can be argued that film is a powerful medium to which is imbued great responsibility; the power of film and the particular psychological make-up of a homogeneous German people provided the unique social chemistry that could precipitate the deeds of the Third Reich.

    From film’s historical beginnings in Germany, the German people are described as having idiosyncratic psychological tendencies that provide for a particular type of significant evolution in film; an evolution marked by extraordinary technical achievements and social stagnation. Attributes of the German people certainly are formed by their experience of defeat in World War I and the German historical penchant for ballads and legends. Kracauer exemplifies this point by describing “traditional German concern with all forms of musical expression,” “salutary indifference of the masses,” and “deep-founded susceptibilities to life [that] enabled them...to enjoy the lovely myth of the English detective.” (Kracauer, pp. 16, 18, 19, 20) These tendencies eventually formed a cinematic theme that “was to become an obsession of the German cinema: a deep and fearful concern with the foundations of the self.” (Kracauer, p. 30) Furthermore, the success of Baldwin’s film “The Student of Prague,” reflected “the profound aversion of all German middle-class strata to relating their mental dilemma to their ambiguous social plight.” (Kracauer, p. 31)

with music by Brahms

Original Soundtrack von Rolf A. Wilhelm

    Upon reflection of German film’s history, theories emerge that describe a society and series of events that led to Hitler and images of horrific proportion. Did the Germans, as dull denizens victimized by arbitrary realizations of Fate, accept the actions of tyranny? Did they have no choice but to accept cataclysm, anarchy or a tyrannical regime? (Kracauer, p. 88) Does the film “Destiny” portray Fate’s manifestation through the acts of tyrants, or in the film “Nibelungen,” through the “anarchical outbursts of ungovernable instincts and passions?” (Kracauer, p. 93) How and why is it that film evolution in Germany so cogently represented a society and events that logically lead to Hitler’s regime? While it may be historical coincidence, the evolution of German cinema remarkably reflects a society able to participate in the Third Reich.

    The German philosopher Max Scheler considered the German populace as a socially stunted middle class with an inferiority complex. He points out that not a single work exists in German literature that penetrates “an articulated social whole after the manner of Balzac or Dickens ... their habit of nurturing the intimately associated sensations of inferiority and isolation was as juvenile as their inclination to revel in dreams of the future.” (Kracauer, p. 33) 

    The characteristics of the German people may be precisely why the government sponsored film company UFA was so successful in influencing public opinion through carefully contrived propaganda in the Hitler era. In fact, German authorities believed that public opinion “could be molded into any pattern they desired.” (Kracauer, p. 37)

Universum Film A.G.

    After WWI, intellectual interests ran high in Germany. In this spirit of zealous Aufbruch (Kracauer, p. 38), prejudices of the German people against the early and primitive cinema evaporated and film was recognized in its evolving role as a potent means of imparting messages to the masses. (Kracauer, p. 38)

    An interesting propensity of the German people is represented by the proliferation of pornography that flourished during a brief time of uncensored film production preceding 1920. This era of feeding one’s prurient tendencies elicited copious box office receipts and eventual sufficient opposition to reinstate national censorship. (Kracauer, p. 47) It is significant to contemplate the feelings of a people conquered during WWI and their compulsion to satisfy emotional needs. Lubitsch’s “historical documentaries” with their positive view of the German military and German history, certainly helped as they “poured balm on the wounds of innumerable Germans suffering because of the humiliating defeat of the fatherland. (Kracauer, p. 53) In a later film, “Mabuse”, the world is described as follows: “Mankind, swept about and trampled down in the wake of war and revolution, takes revenge for years of anguish by indulging in lusts ... and by passively or actively surrendering to crime” (Kracauer, p. 84). Furthermore, Lubitsch’s penchant for the historical war film and its inherent cinematic opportunities provided for significant advances in cinematic technique. Certainly, war films were rich in material replete with vivid military accouterments and emotional impact. These films and others which utilized exotic scenarios may have represented the isolated, embittered and patently censured fatherland and its people.

    Wiene’s film version of the Mayer and Janowitz’ “Caligari” story capitalizes on the German people’s traditional belief in authority while providing a chimerical experience of overthrowing authority. As Kracauer puts so well, “There could be no better configuration of symbols for that uprising against the authoritarian dispositions which apparently occurred under the cover of a behavior rejecting uprising.” (Kracauer, p. 67) As a psychological representation of German middle class predilections, “Caligari” is described as exemplification of “middle class propensities of the Social Democrats interfering with their rational social designs.” (Kracauer, p. 71) Ironically, Dr. Calagari’s masterful use of hypnosis to exert his will provides a specific premonition of Hitler’s tools for psychological domination. Similar fiends and themes are popularized and exemplified in film productions including those analogous to “Dracula,” “Dr. Jekyl and Mr. Hyde,” and “Waxworks.”

    Calagari represents well the social climate of Germany and the collective German soul elucidated by the chaotic condition of the postwar era.  Caligari’s terror and panic, sadism and an “appetite for destruction” continue the imagery. (Kracauer, p. 74) Count Etienne de Beaumont described the film “as fascinating and abstruse as the German soul.” (Kracauer, p. 76)

    Questions arise as to the creation of the German collective soul observed by de Beaumont. What were the forces that created a German populace comprised of a great middle class “where greed and jealousy are supplemented by deep social resentments and inherited moral impulses that have lost vital function” (Kracauer, p. 97). Could it have been the contrived purpose of government film? Why is the decline of the German screen in the late 1920’s explained as a reflection of a widespread inner paralysis rather than a simple financial dilemma? (Kracauer, p. 137). Are the themes and purpose of German films, as assessed in retrospect, depictions leading to a logical Nazi conclusion? Or rather, are these films simply coincidental representations of mankind’s collective psyche harnessed with a sequence of inevitable historical events leading to a manifest destiny. Are the outcomes immune to rational arguments because of a society’s powerful collective desires? (Kracauer, p. 117) Can a society’s cynicism, resignation and disillusionment really allow it to be influenced by a mastermind? (Kracauer, p. 165).

    Clearly, the development of German film techniques set the standard for cinematic production around the world and Hollywood attracted many of the German film craftsmen during the middle 1920’s. Alas, what a curious outcome for an expressive and artistic tool that, whether by design or accident, served as a diabolical Nazi tool to implicate a suffering German people in a gangster government and world war. (Tyler, p. 135) Finally, it may be true that, like printed media, people tend to believe what they see on the screen. (Monaco, p. 173)

Bibliography

Siegfried Kracauer, From Caligari to Hitler: A Psychological History of the German Film, Princeton University Press, Copyright, 1947.

Parker Tyler, Magic and Myth of the Movies, Simon & Schuster, Garland Publishing, Inc., New York and London, Copyright, 1985.

James Monaco, How To Read A Film, Oxford University Press, New York and Oxford, Copyright, 1981.