CINEMA AND EXPLORATION 1s mis Title book Le Cinéma au long cous (Fllming in Fer-O8) Lands), Jean Thévenot has traced the development of te fm of exploration trom its successful boginings, around 1928, throvgh the period of its decline, between 1930 and 1940, to is ebicth following World War II. The implications of thit evolution aze ‘wort studying. It was after Woeld War I that i to say in 1920, some tn years ter it was fled by Ponting dusing the heros expedition of Seott to the South Pole, tat With Sco ro the Souh Pole revealed to the fim-going public these polar landacapes which were to consis the major success of series of ins of which Faherty Nanook (1922) is sill the outstanding example. Not long afterwards, very likely beease ofthe sects of the Arctic films, 2 type of produc- tion appeared which we might categorize at “topial and eq tori” The best known are those ied in Africa, and in particular La Croistre Notre by Leon Poitee, Cimbo, and Congorila-the ‘st dating from 1926, and the last two fled between 1923 and 1927, bat only shown publly in 1928. In these fit travel Sain ‘the-grand-manner we already soc what ae the chie values ofthis category: an authentically poste quality which does ant age and is admirably cxemplifed in Nanook. But this porry, especially in 156 Cinema and Exploration ‘ose fms shot in the South Seas, began to take on an exotic quali, From Moana, virtually an ethnographic document, to Tabu, by way of White Shadows, we are aware of the. geval ocnation of & mythology. We see the Western mind as it were ‘aking over a far-off civilization and interpreting it alter its own fashion In French Werature those were the days of Paul Morand, of ‘Mac Orla, and of Blsise Cendrars. The new mytique ofthe ex- ‘ofc, given’ new life by the new media of commenictca, and hich one might reasonably call “instant exotic,” was most typ cally expressed in fl made in tho ealy diye of sound. It fang the whole earth onto the ezeen ia a jigsaw of visual images and sounds and was entded Melodie der Wel. Made by Waliber Rut- ‘mana, it was one ofthe inal successes of a near form. ‘Thenceforward, with a few outstanding exceptions, the exotic film went into a decine characterized by a shameless earch after the spectacular and the seastionl It was not enough merely to ‘non the ion, the lion must fst gobble up the bearers In L’AInique vous parle a Negro gets eaten by a crocoile. In Trader Horn another Negro is charged by a thisoceos. On this occasion the chase appeared to be stged, but the same intention was clearly ere. Thus there came lato existence the myth ofan ALtieelnhab- ited by savages and wild beast, the culmination of which was Tarzan and King Solomon’ Mine. Since World War I we have witnssed a definite retun to docamentary authenticity. The eyele of exoicism reached is climax {in abourity. Today the public demands that what i aes shall be ‘belovable, a faith that canbe testod by the other media of informa ‘ion, namely, radio, books, and the daily press, ‘The rebinh of the film of exploration is basically due to a re- rowed interest in exploration, the mystique of which may very well far out to be someting quite other than the ok exci a8 may be seen for example in Rendez-vous de jul. CIs this new point of departure which gives to the present 185What ts Cinema? ‘expediions their style and thei direction. These derive in the fist place from the character of today’s exploration which is for the ‘most part ether sientiic or antopological, Whi sensationalism is not absolutely excluded it is nevertheless subordinated 0 the objectively documentary purpase of the expedion. The result is ‘hat the sensational is vrtuly eliminate, for itis rarely possible, ‘we shall see, for the camera to be a witnes to the most danger. us moments of an expen, By way of compensation, the psy- ‘chological and human elements move into the foreground. There tre two occasions when this is particularly true. The frst ie when the behavior ofthe members ofthe expeion and their reactions to the tsk in hand eonsitue kind of anthropology of an explorer, the experimental psychology as it were of an adventure. The sec- ond it when the people under study are no Jonge treated as a species of exotic animal, and who perforce must be fully described so that they may be better understood Furthermore the film i no longer the ony, nor even probably the principal instrument for bringing the realities of the expedition before the public. Today it i usually accompaniod by & Book or shown during a sves of lectures, stat the Salle Ply, then in 2 few scattered cites throughout France. These wil be flowed by ‘dio and tclevision versions. And all of this for the very good reason that, economics aside, a fn cannot cover every sim of an ‘expedition, not even its principal material aspects. Besides, ths type ‘of fim is conceived as an iustrated Ietare, whee the presence nod the words of the speaker-witness constanly complement and au ‘theta the image on the Sreen. ‘At which point le me cite a film that rns counter to this evlu- tionary trend and furthermore is proot enough that the docu: rmentary-lm-by-recoaseucion i¢ dead. The fl in question fran English Technicolor fm, Sco of the Antrcl, the French tie of hich is L’Aventure sans retour, which retells the story ofthe expe- ion of Captain Seot i 1911 and 1912. Ie i esteniby the very expedition shown in With Sco othe South Pole. 156 Chem and Exploration ‘Let us fit recall the heroic and moving character of thi under. taking. Scott set out to conquer the South Pole with revotionary Dot as yet experimental equipment; a few “csterpilan,” some ponies, and dogs. The machines vere the fist to fet him down, ‘Then by degrees the ponies died of exhaution. By now there were ‘ot eoough dogs to seve the needs of the expedition and the five ‘men on the fal stage [rom thei last camp tothe Pol were obliged to pull their own supply sedges, around tip estimated at approxi ‘mately 1250 miles. They reached their objective only to Sad that ‘Amundsen had planted the Norwegian fag there a few hours be- fore, The retura trp was one long agony; the last three survives, the il for thei lumps exhausted, trze to death in their ont. Three ‘months Inter, their comrades from the base camp found them and were able t reconstruct their Ouysey, thanks to a diary Kept by the leader and to some exposed photographic pts. ‘Tis undertaking of Captain Scott marks peeps the fit, felt ‘unfortunate atempt at 2 modern scent expedition, Sot fied here Amundsen succeded because ho tried to da somthing cut- side the established and well-tried techniques of «polar expedition, Neverticless his unfortunate “caterplls” are the foreramers of the “Weasels” used by Paul-Emile Victor and Liotad. Italo pro- vides the fit example of a practice which i now common, namely, the provision fora cinematic report as an integral part ofthe expe: lion itself. Their cameraman, Ponting, whose fim sas the fest, cover to be sade of a Polar expiition, had his hands fctiten| while reloading without gloves in a temperatare of —30°C. While Ponting did not accompany Scott on the long tek tothe ple, his fim of the voyage south, of the preparations forthe expedition, of lite at the base camp, aad of the tragic ending of the expedition remain at once 2 moving testimony to the adventure, nd the arche- ‘ype fal ms ofthis en. England is understandably provd of Capaia Seott and would saturlly want to pay tbute to him. Yet, for my part I have never seen a more boring and ridiculous undertaking than Scot of the 17What ts Cinema? Antarctic. ere ss fen so lavishly and careully made that it most have cost as much as the original expedition. Consderag the time sat which it was made, 1947-1048, iis also a Teenicolo master- pice. The studio reconstructions revel a mastery of tick Work and ‘studio imitation—but to what porpose? To imitate the inimitable, to reconstruct that Which of its very nature ean only occur once, namely risk, adventure, death, Cettinly the scenario is a0 help. Scott's life sd death are told with an almost pedantic formal. I will not dvel onthe moral of the story, whichis nothing but « Boy Seout moral ried to the dgaty of nations nein. The teal fallue of the fm does aot He thee, but in its out-of-date tect nique, and fortwo reasons. First ofall the fl takes no account ofthe sient information ‘concetning polar exploration which the man inthe strest now has ft his command. He derives this competence from newspaper re- ports, from radio, television, and cinema. ‘To draw a parle in ‘edcitiona tems, one might say of this fm that it ofers scenic {information on # grammat-school level to highschool graduates, ‘This is unfortanat, whea the aim is an educational one. Admitedly ‘Seotts expedition was indeed one rather of exploration ts siete ‘aspect being litle more than tentative, and as it tured oat, uh sucessful, For this very reason the producers should have been ‘oncemed fo explsn at greater length the payhological contort of the adventure. To anyone seving Greenland by Marcel Ichae and Languepin at the cinema across the way, Scolt wold appear an fbsinats fool Admitedly the dict, Chats Frend, took pons in a number of unfortunately heavily didactic scenes to desribe the socal, moral, and tetncal surroundings out of which the expedi- tion was bor, but he does s0 for an Fngland of 1910, What he should have done by way af somo storytelling device or other Was to draw a parallel with our own tines, bociuse this is what the ‘audience wil instinctively do, Secondly, and this most importantly, the prevalence of objective reporting following World War II de- fined once and forall what i is that we require fom such report. 138 Choma and Bsporation tan wih lt oma ad spectrsduon ter see way tos tse for he ee hang tte fc ok teen ‘ke, Pnings ln of th exsiten i ceo ah ee Ty tot Gena tat sw fo shrcoing ot ee ak te deemitaion to mae an xa mp oat fe “he sip sept of Sot and his out emptions at the ph ma dave thc apg ht me ng tha te ene Techl trey Can re “he ete o whch ism pent dering i een snr eet when enone tart male ge isos of Norway snd Swiarad, The ein Sat ee sok fe tough ey muy bet oe woes te ees se oven not he Anas cap lt deny ‘ove tan with whic he ct wel eerste eee JT tad ten in Ctr Treats ean 1 wou have de ny Set nde ome sto th Pony hw oa ster of pliming escenario. Tony facing wane ie Art relief heal te lm vou Ave ten a ing wich itaov comply By comparison, what Marcil Iehac and. Langupin broght ‘nck in Greenand ean be coniered a an example fot of ‘mo conrasting forms asuned by rents of contempury cece tions, of which With Seo! fo the South Pole te ote ns ‘reparatns for P-E. Vicor’ expedon tok ine asoen doses es certin Wkly sks bat ed to ante thom tobe se ‘¥e, Gnematogaphy was added sta supplementary speaal noon Si speaking the sequence ofthe fla ell have ees pad ‘forthe expedition stout a were the dalondny sts ofa amber of the expedition The dtr in tay cane wa fe toe ‘is equipment ashe suf He was thee ay neil ecay an tospeak, slong withthe metorlogsto loi, ‘The fm by Thor Heyer onthe ther andi a example ot 19What 18 Cinema? another kind of zeporting, where the fm is not an integral pat of the expedition. Kon Tiki manages to be the most beau of fs while not being fm at all. Like those most-covered stones that, surviving, allow us to reconstruct buildings and states that 10 longer exist he pictures that are here presented are the remains of ‘mn unfinished creation about whieh one hardy dates to dream. Let ‘me explain. Most people are familar withthe extraordinary adven- tures of a small group of young Norwepan snd Swedish sientts ‘who had decided to prove that, contzry to the general theory, Polynesia might wel have been populated by sea migretions from certain parts of the Peruvian coast. The best way 10 prove theit point was for them to simulate the operation at it might have been ‘aried out thousands of years ago. Our amateur navigators coo- sHructed 2 sort of ralt from the oldest docamentey inforation they could find oa the methods employed by the Indians them selves. The raft, not being provided with aay method of steering. ited ke sam and was eared along by the trade winds to the Polynesian atolls, x dance of approximately 4500 mies. That this fabulous expedition should have succeeded after three sliary ‘months and in the teeth of half a doen storms is something 12 rejoice the spin, and to be inserted among present day miracles, Tt reminds one of Melvile and Conrad. The travellers brought back from their journey a book of the highest intrest and 2 colton of Aelightully humorous drawings. Nevertheles, it was evident ae ready by 1952 that there could be no witness Yo the stature of the enterprise comparable to the movie camera. Iti precily this fect that provides the critic with food for celletion, (Our fads did have a camera. But they were amateurs. Thee knowledge of ow t handle it was no better than yours oF mine Besides they had clearly no intention of puting thir Sim to commeccal use—as certain unhappy facts prove. For example they operated their camera at slat speed, that eto say at 16 frames per second, while sound projection cals for 24 frames per second. The result was that every other frame had to be duplicated and the fl 160 Cinema and Exploration in consequence i more jerky than the projection in provncal cinemas tack in 1910. Furthermore the quality of the fm is not helped by errors of exposure and by the rabeequént enlargement to 35mm. But this is by no means the wort of i, In no sease was the making of fm, even as a sidling, an integral pact of the enter. ‘rive, while the shooting conditions were at bad as they could possibly be. What I mean by this that as he lay there cul! up on the edge of the raft at sea level, it was a8 if the cameraman, whoever he chanced to be, and the camera were simpy of pice, NNatraly enough, there could be no tavsing shots, no daly shot, and seareely a chance to get ful shot of the "vessel" from the lide rubber boat bouncing om the waves astm, Finally, and most ian portant of all, whenever someshing of significance occured, the ‘onset of a storm for example, the crew were too busy 10 bother about running a camera. The result was thit our amateur ime ‘makers simply wasted endless rels fing their pet prot and the rations provided by the Ameria armed forces. But when st exci, ing moment arsves, say a whale huring isl at te rfl the foots ‘age is a0 short that you have to proces it ten times over inthe ‘optical printer before you can even spot what is happening ‘Yet somehow Kon Titi is an admirable and overwhelning fm, Why? Because the making of it is 0 totally identiied with the action tha itso imperecly unto; because itis isl an aspect ot he adventure, Those Muid and tenbling images ete as it were the objectvied memory of the actos in the drama. Does the kil Whale, that we ean barely see retracted in the water, intrest us Decaute of the raty of the beat and ofthe glimpes we get of i, slight as iis? Or rather i it Bocas the shot was taken atthe very ‘moment when a capricious movement of the monstor might well ‘have annihilated the raft and sent eamorn and cameraman seven ot ight thousand meters into the deep? The answer is clear. Is ot to much the photograph ofthe whale tat interests uss the photo. raph of the danger. Nevertheless, the fact remains that we caa 161What 1s Cinema? over fel truly sted with just the premature runs of fm thet was never competed. One is thus set dreaming of ti photopraphic ‘splendor of the fs of Flaherty. Think, for example, ofthe shot of the tasking sharks of Man of Aran Soating drowsly on the Tish ‘waters. But if we reflect ite farther we Sad ouretves caught incticably in a clemma, What we see isnot after all ax imperfect 45 all Ua, snd forthe reason that it doesnot flay the conditions ofthe experience it recounts, For a flm in 36mm with operating ‘oom enovgh to make a caberealy edited work it would have been necessary (0 build a diferent kind of rat, and to make it—why ‘ota boat lke any eter. But the fauna ofthe Pace muding at the raft was there precisely because it had all the characteritics of ‘owsam, An engine and propeller would have pat them to flight. A marine paradise instantly destroyed by science! The fact of the mutter 6 thot this kind of film ean actly achieve a more of lets cessful compromise betwen the exigencies ofthe action and the demands of reporting. A. cinematographic witness to an erent is ‘what « man ean seize of ton fim wile atthe same time bing part, ‘of it How muck more moving is this team, snatched from the ‘tempest, than would have been the fauldess and complet report ‘fered by an organized fm, fo it remains true that this fm is not ‘made-up only of what we see—its falta equally witness to ite autbetiiy, "The missing documents are the negative imprint of the expediion—its inscription chiseled devp, tis cqually true that thee are many missing pats of the film Annapurna, by Marcel Icha, especially those out of which the ‘imax should have been bul, namely the final asceat by Hera, Lachemal, and Lionel Teray. But we know why they sre missing, ‘An svlanche snatched the camera from the hands of Herzog. It iso dragged off his gloves, Thereafter We miss the sone of the tree men as they depart from Camp Two, and plenge ito the ist and only ick up the story 36 hours later as they come out of the clouds after being Binded twice and with their limbs froeit- ten, The modern Orphous ofthis ascent to a bell of ice could nat 162 Chena and Exploration reer the camer sit of i atten begs te log Clary the descent, with Herne and Lacenalsaped eure tte tacks of hee Sherpa." Sine the caer is the Ins elle Verona pred tothe ace of human sullen Una Say the writen acount by Hetog i more dled ad. are Gone. Menery i the ns fail eRe ony on ta can repster at any bet, nod sight ip tothe wey ome cath But win ean fo sete ence betwen memy ad hatch nage hat er cal ean? 163