Peter Kubelka: What is Film

PETER KUBELKA: WHAT IS FILM?
8-14 November 2001
London National Film Theatre

“Peter Kubelka is the perfectionist of the film medium” (Stan Brakhage)

A series of four public lectures in which films from Lumière to the present day will be used to celebrate cinema as a cultural phenomenon, whilst defining film as an independent medium and distinguishing it from those arts that existed before it, and the new media (such as television and the internet) that have become dominant in recent years.

Peter Kubelka will demonstrate the unique and indispensable qualities of film through detailed analysis of those works that best represent the essence of the cinema. In this extraordinary series of events, he will expose the mechanics and grammar of film that are otherwise hidden from the public. After viewing the films, the audience will have an opportunity to look over his shoulder in a situation similar to that of seeing the filmmaker at the editing table. Using a projecting Steenbeck, Kubelka will analyse, letter by letter, the language that cinema speaks. He will argue that as each mode of communication induces its own world-view, the vital and autonomous experience of cinema cannot be transferred to other media without loss of content or the understanding of the artist’s original intentions. Film is a tool that is able to create new thoughts and Peter Kubelka will bring forth the hardcore of cinema: those ideas and concepts that cannot be touched by any other art form.

“Kubelka’s cinema is like a piece of crystal, or some other object of nature: it does not look like it was produced by man.” (P. Adams Sitney)

Peter Kubelka is one of the most distinguished figures in the history of 20th century independent filmmaking. His films, made between 1955 and 1977, are an innovative demonstration of cinematic possibilities and now reside in the collections of many world-renowned museums. Moreover, his practice is not only limited to filmmaking: as an artist or theoretician he has also worked in architecture, literature, music, painting and cooking. During his time as co-director of the Austrian Film Museum in Vienna, which he founded in 1964, he has passionately dedicated himself to other artistic practices. His formation of the ensemble Spatium Musicum led to an intensive study of essential music, and his teaching on the topic of food preparation as an art form at the Frankfurt School of Fine Arts led to an extension of his title as Professor of Film to that of Film and Cooking. His design for an ideal cinema auditorium, The Invisible Cinema, has been realised in New York and Vienna. Over the past 40 years he has lectured at museums, universities and institutions throughout the world, and has been awarded the Austrian State Prize for his life’s work.

(Mark Webber)

PETER KUBELKA: WHAT IS FILM?
1: THE FILMMAKERS VIEW: THE EVENT OF CINEMA
2: THE MATERIAL OF FILM: TOOL AND PERSONALITY
3: THE LANGUAGE OF FILM: METAPHORS BETWEEN SOUNDS AND IMAGES
4: THE REAL WORLD: A MYTH CREATED BY CINEMA

Peter Kubelka: What is Film 1

PETER KUBELKA: WHAT IS FILM? 1
Thursday 8 November 2001, at 6:35pm
London National Film Theatre NFT3

THE FILMMAKERS VIEW: THE EVENT OF CINEMA

“Every endeavour to be objective is personal. I begin my analysis of cinema with the analysis of my own work, which contained my position before I was able to put some of it into words.”

Featuring the following works:

Peter Kubelka, Arnulf Rainer, Austria, 1960, 6m
Peter Kubelka, Schwechater, Austria, 1958, 1m
Peter Kubelka, Adebar, Austria, 1957, 1m
Étienne-Jules Marey, La Chronophotographie, France, 1882–1902, photographic slides

The complete list of films in the repertory, and the themes covered, may be subject to spontaneous change during the course of the presentations.

Peter Kubelka: What is Film 2

PETER KUBELKA: WHAT IS FILM? 2
Saturday 10 November 2001, at 4:15pm
London National Film Theatre NFT3

THE MATERIAL OF FILM: TOOL AND PERSONALITY

“Film is a transparent sculpture. The material is servant and teacher. Form cannot be transferred and therefore content cannot be transferred. The event of Cinema is unique.”

Featuring selections from the following works:

Emile Cohl, Le Cerceau Magique, France, 1908, 6m
Len Lye, Free Radicals, USA, 1958, 4m
Stan Brakhage, Mothlight, USA, 1963, 3m
Owen Land (Formerly Known As George Landow), Film in which there Appear Sprocket Holes, Edge Lettering, Dirt Particles, etc., USA, 1965-66, 5m
Karin Hörler, Frisch, Germany, 1987, 2m
Bruce Conner, Valse Triste, USA, 1979, 6m
Frères Lumière, Voltiges, France, 1898, 1m
Frères Lumière, Indochine, Enfants Anamites, France, 1898, 1m
Frères Lumière, La Course en Sacs, France, 1898, 1m
Stan Brakhage, Window Water Baby Moving, USA, 1962, 12m
Paul Sharits, T:O:U:C:H:I:N:G, USA, 1968, 12m

The complete list of films in the repertory, and the themes covered, may be subject to spontaneous change during the course of the presentations.

Peter Kubelka: What is Film 3

PETER KUBELKA: WHAT IS FILM? 3
Monday 12 November 2001, at 6:30pm
London National Film Theatre NFT3

THE LANGUAGE OF FILM: METAPHORS BETWEEN SOUNDS AND IMAGES

“Film articulates in metaphors. Between frames, between frames and contemporaneous sounds, between sounds and other sounds brought together by the maker. I will try to make the atoms of film language audible and visible.”

Featuring selections from the following works:

Fernand Léger, Ballet Mecanique, France, 1923-24, excerpt
Robert Breer, Time Flies, USA, 1997, 5m
Dziga Vertov, Enthusiasm, Russia, 1930, excerpt
Paul Sharits, Word Movie, USA, 1966, 4m
Georges Méliès, Le Magicien, France, 1898, 1m
Peter Kubelka, Unsere Afrikareise, Austria, 1966, 12.5m

The complete list of films in the repertory, and the themes covered, may be subject to spontaneous change during the course of the presentations.

Peter Kubelka: What is Film 4

PETER KUBELKA: WHAT IS FILM? 4
Wednesday 14 November 2001, at 6:30pm
London National Film Theatre NFT3

THE REAL WORLD: A MYTH CREATED BY CINEMA

“Of the world we know only what art has taught us. In the last 100 years cinema has shaped a world, real for us, of which our ancestors could not have dreamed.”

Featuring selections from the following works:

Marie Menken, Go, Go, Go!, USA, 1962-64, 11m
Robert Breer, Eyewash, USA, 1959, 3m
Michael Snow, See You Later / Au Revoir, Canada, 1990, 16m
Fernand Léger, Ballet Mecanique, France, 1923-24, excerpt
Frères Lumière, Demolition D’un Mur, France, 1896, 1m
Georges Kuchar, Hold Me While I’m Naked, USA, 1966, 15m
Georges Kuchar, Wild Night in El Reno, USA, 1977, 6m
Luis Buñuel & Salvador Dalí, L’age D’or, Spain, 1930, excerpt

The complete list of films in the repertory, and the themes covered, may be subject to spontaneous change during the course of the presentations.