Writing History in Film

Historical film has been an important genre since the earliest silent films. The French Revolution, the American Civil War, the conquest of the New World, World War II--all have been repeatedly represented in film. But how do we distinguish between fictionalized spectacle and authentic historical representation? Writing History in Filmsets out the narratological, semiological, rhetorical, and philosophical bases for understanding how film can function as a form of historical interpretation and representation. With case studies and an interdisciplinary approach, William Guynn examines the key issues facing film students and scholars, historians, and anyone interested in how we see our historical past.

William Guynn is a film theorist and professor emeritus of art (cinema) at Sonoma State University

Introduction: Facing the Skepticism of Historians

1

(22)

Historiography: Stories of a Particular Kind

23

(22)

Historical Objectivity and the Historian's Subjectivity

25

(2)

Fictional Stories and Historical Narratives

27

(5)

Four Essential Questions about the Nature of Historic Narrative

32

(13)

Is There a Special Character to the Narrative Statement in History?

32

(3)

Can History Be Distinguished from Fiction from the Position of the Reader?

35

(3)

Can Historical Narrative Be Distinguished from Other Narrative Forms on the Basis of the Materials It Uses?

38

(3)

Can We Distinguish History from Fiction on the Basis of the Role of the Imagination?

41

(4)

Signifying History: What Are Factual Narratives?

45

(52)

Theories of Fiction, Theories of Nonfiction

47

(13)

The Practice of Nonfiction

60

(7)

Signifying History in Film

67

(13)

Case Study: Constructing the King's Body in Roberto Rossellini's The Rise to Power of Louis XIV (1966)

80

(17)

The Question of Pragmatics

81

(3)

The Question of Mimesis

84

(7)

The Vehicle of Expression

91

(6)

The Historical Character

97

(36)

The Problematic of Historical Film and the Imaginary

97

(2)

Narratological Approaches to Character

99

(4)

Historiographical Approaches to Character

103

(3)

Techniques of Representing Historical Actors

106

(3)

Case Study: A History to Save the Republic---Jean Renoir's La Marseillaise (1938)

109

(13)

Case Study: Standing for the Revolution---Mikhail Kalatozov's I Am Cuba (1964)

122

(11)

Refiguring History in Film

133

(32)

The Reality of the Past and Historical Narration

133

(1)

Three Modes for Understanding Historical Mimesis

134

(4)

Under the Sign of the Same

135

(1)

Under the Sign of the Other

136

(2)

Under the Sign of the Analogous

138

(1)

The Rhetoric of Prefiguration

138

(3)

Prefiguration in the Historical Film

141

(6)

Case Study: Weapons of Irony in Esther Shub's The Fall of the Romanov Dynasty (1927)

147

(7)

Case Study: The Degradation of Tragedy in Theo Angelopoulos's The Traveling Players (1974-1975)

154

(11)

Film: A Place of Memory

165

(32)

Film as an Instrument of Public Memory

165

(3)

Defining Collective Memory

168

(5)

Recovering the Psychological Dimension of History

173

(6)

Case Study: Losses of Memory---Ken Burns's The Civil War (1990)

179

(7)

Case Study: Compelling Memory in Rithy Panh's S21---The Khmer Rouge Killing Machine (2003)

186

(11)

Endnotes

197

(8)

Select Bibliography

205

(6)

Index

211

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Writing History in Film

Summary

Author Biography

Table of Contents

Supplemental Materials