Edvard Munch (1976)
Picture:
C+ Sound: C+ Extras: C/B Telefilm: B
NOTE: This title has
been issued in an upgraded edition that you can read more about at this link:
http://www.fulvuedrive-in.com/review/6262/Edvard+Munch+–+Special+Edition+2
As each
DVD of Peter Watkins work is released, two things are clear. He is one of the greatest filmmakers of the
20th Century with work so challenging, intelligent and innovative
that he is also the most censored in a way even worse than Michael Powell after
Peeping Tom and Michael Cimino after
Heaven’s Gate. By the mid-1970s, Watkins teamed up with a
Norwegian TV network to do a long biopic of one of their greatest artists and
the result is the impressive epic Edvard
Munch from 1976.
With a
very large cast of unknowns, Watkins has several things going on at once to
combat what he sees as the oversimplistic mediaization tactic of “Monoform”
which reduces the audience to idiots to have the same reaction over and over
again, which leads to a systematic (Communist, Fascist, etc.) animal control of
people through media. It also purposely
ignores the possibilities of how far you can go with an audience, but when you
are there to take their money and leave them with nothing, why bother? Watkins does bother. The film here continues his documentary-like
approach with a camera that has its hand-held moments, over use of zooming
where needed; voiceover that in this case offers a far more wide-ranging
context to history than usual and blunt showing of the times & lives in a
way that shows that history always affects us.
Without
oversimplifying, Watkins concludes that Munch’s work is so significant because
of the unusually privileged view of life and the world because of the large
family he had, the intellectuals he was meeting, the socio-economic classes he
could see distinctly, the technology not
available to him and the distinctive conclusions about where all this was going
informed his paints to the pint that they are classics and still ahead of their
time. As a matter of fact, that his most
famous canvas The Scream has become a fashion statement comes from the fear
by larger media interests of anyone figuring out what it really means, since
feeling anything is subversive in these days of mass media control, real or
imagined.
To prove
his points, Watkins takes the long road and it bears fruit the way Heaven’s Gate does, though the other
obvious film to consider around the same time is Stanley Kubrick’s Barry Lyndon from a year before. All three take the typical Hollywood epic
structure and personalize them in a way the audience has difficulty finding
entry into at first. Yet, they are all
classics that succeed in making the big statements they are making for the most
part. They all share issues concerned
with individualism in the face of powerful forces trying to hold people down,
of the promise of a better world being spoiled and ruined by man’s inhumanity
to man with the incredible ignorance that takes. In the interview booklet included with the
DVD, Watkins states that the modern equivalent of those forces are afraid
people will think for themselves again and not be vegetables. That “they often disparage the audience,
claiming that people are not interested in large or complex themes, that they
are bored by them. This is an
outrageously elitist and arrogant accusation…” and he is so right.
By going
the long way, Watkins has created one of the greatest artist portraits of all
time, breaking far past Hollywood biopic limits and breaks the myth that long
films have to be boring. It is amazing
how compelling this work is in that the more you watch it, the more you want to
continue to watch. One possibly
unintended item is every time the narrator says Kristiania, the place Munch
(played effectively here by Geir Westby) grew up, it sounds and feels more like
Oceania in George Orwell’s 1984. Add the times his works are attacked and
people are persecuted to the point they go to jail and it may not be such a
coincidence or maybe it is just the miserable side of controlled civilizations
are so darkly predictable. This film is
not, loaded with all kinds of intriguing ideas and loaded with a living record
of an ever-important artist. Audiences
are not “immature” as Watkins points out the media establishment always seems
to like to treat their audience, which in part tries to ignore and undermine
mortality and sexuality. The use of
hijacked religion to these ends is particularly of interest.
This is
why ironically Hollywood is in trouble, with so much other media competing with
them like never before as they see eroding demographics, audiences, franchise
films that shockingly underperform and other problems too numerous to go into
here, he is being vindicated by these troubles.
Without implying anything about ego or fantasy identification, there is
no doubt Watkins and Munch have some common denominators, which is the only way
his film could have been as amazing as it is.
He can see two histories repeating, one of which is successful art and
an ugly oppression, marginalization and trivialization of that art. New Yorker and Project X are doing a
fantastic job of reissuing and reviving Watkins in a way that gives them the
best chance of being seen and appreciated again.
The 1.33
X 1 image is a bit grainy and soft, as shot on 16mm film by Odd Geir Saether,
from a new digital High Definition transfer of a brand new 16mm
interpositive. This looks good considering
how Saether and Watkins purposely picked this look, but it can become difficult
to sit through for a 174 minutes-long work.
However, shooting and color are consistent. The Dolby Digital 2.0 Mono is second
generation because the best soundtracks were destroyed (by NRK, who also
destroyed al the original dubbing machines as well as first-generation
materials in what Watkins called “uncommon”) for what are apparently political
reasons, so Watkins had to reconstruct the soundtrack with 16mm magnetic mono
tracks that were not always in the best shape.
Like the optical work on the restoration of Alfred Hitchcock’s 1954
classic Rear Window, it is a
painstaking reconstruction that pays off, but is not up to what it would have
sounded like if the film arts were more respected. This situation has not changed enough since
then, and in some ways has become worse.
Watkins approved the final result here, which should be interesting to
see in digital HD and new film prints when available for viewing.
Extras
are unusual for this release, because while the DVD itself is limited, the case
contains a remarkable booklet with a Watkins self-interview that is nothing
short of amazing. While the DVD has a
Watkins filmography, the booklet is 24-pages long on high quality paper with
dense text print and some solid stills here and there. It is a must-read as much as this amazing
film is a must-see. The Freethinker is the next Watkins DVD, but be sure to also see War Game/Culloden, The Gladiators and Punishment Park elsewhere on this site.
- Nicholas Sheffo
