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Tim Cawkwell

~ currently publishing my poetry and verse. Blog entries on film and painting going back to 2014. My main website is www.timcawkwell.co.uk

Tim Cawkwell

Monthly Archives: December 2016

Courtroom drama rules in 2016

31 Saturday Dec 2016

Posted by Tim Cawkwell in courtroom dramas, documentaries

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What were the most arresting films I saw during the year? I have three, not seen in the cinema but on television – and all made for television. What made them striking to me was their tautness. They may have had too much coercive music but I did not notice because they focussed on telling the story efficiently and dramatically. All were about events that happened in real life, and use documentary footage or a documentary style to forge the narrative. All three involved legal enquiries – so they are in the courtroom drama genre.

The first was the documentary about the Hillsborough disaster from 1989 at the football ground of Sheffield Wednesday FC when, as a result of incompetent handling of the football crowds, 96 fans died and 766 were injured. The documentary was simply called Hillsborough and was two hours long. It was first shown in the US in April 2014, but legal reasons only allowed to be shown in the UK on 8th May this year. It was directed and produced by Daniel Gordon, and co-produced by ESPN and the BBC. Its principal focus was on the legal battle to reach a reasonable version of the truth of the event: who was to blame (principally the police) and who was not (principally the fans).

The second was – but I can’t remember the title! It concerned the shooting of a young black male by a policeman in either North Charleston, South Carolina or Charlotte, North Carolina (though I can’t remember which!). It reconstructed the shooting and focused on the subsequent legal trials of the police officer who fired the fatal bullet and the trauma for the families of the victim and of the officer. It was shown on UK television around October this year.

The third was Lawful Killing: Mark Duggan. Duggan had been shot by police officers in the course of arrest for being in possession of a handgun. The shooting occurred in August 2011 and was a contributory cause to the London riots, especially in Tottenham, in the weekend following. The shooting was a dramatised reconstruction and the interviews with those involved were done with actors impersonating the interviewees. Extensive use was made of evidence submitted in the court hearing into the incident. Both in substance and form it had a strongly documentary feel. Directed by Jaimie D’Cruz, produced by Shanty Sooriasegaram. It was first shown on the BBC in December this year.

Sometimes fiction cannot match what real stories can offer, especially in the current style of emotional and visual exaggeration with which fiction is treated. Audiences love courtroom drama, but the fictional one would be hard put to beat the televised courtroom scenes in my second example. But gratifying the viewer like this may make for good television; it does not make for good justice. In the UK, television cameras remain banned from trials, and long may that continue to be the case.

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1971 revisited

19 Monday Dec 2016

Posted by Tim Cawkwell in avant garde, Brakhage, Creation, metaphysical film, spiritual cinema

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Baillie, Belson, Brakhage

sftc-1

In 1971 I made an 8mm film called Sketches for the Creation, drawing on my understanding of the films of Stan Brakhage, Jordan Belson and Bruce Baillie for its inspiration. I was 23 at the time.

This year I had it digitized and have produced a new digital version, slightly reduced in length and with some brushstrokes of sound (nothing coercive, naturally). It is 12 minutes long.

If you are interested in seeing it go to: https://vimeo.com/194487765

http://www.timcawkwell.co.uk

Antonioni: more De Chirico

08 Thursday Dec 2016

Posted by Tim Cawkwell in Antonioni, Italy, metaphysical film

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Antonioni, De Chirico, Deserto Rosso, Nettezza Urbana, Ravenna, Red Desert

I watched Antonioni’s film N.U. (that is,  Nettezza Urbana or Dustmen), one of his short documentaries which he made in 1948. Towards the end comes this image:

nettezza-urbana-rome

And on Tuesday I revisited Deserto Rosso / Red Desert from 1964. Here is what Giuliana sees from the window when she pulls back the curtain following her tortured love-making with Corrado:

deserto-r-ravenna

We are in Ravenna but I cannot identify the round building. I suspect it is well-known – any suggestions, anyone? (Is it the base of the S Apollinare Nuovo campanile? but it doesn’t feel right to me.)

Both images make of the urban landscape something oppressive, although the second one is more subtle about it. Both echo the paintings of Giorgio De Chirico – see previous post.

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Recent Posts

  • RICH MAN, POOR MAN, DEAD MAN – a Covid ode
  • VERSE EPISTLE TO Mr DOMINIC CUMMINGS . . .
  • EMPIRE – WITH CHINESE CHARACTERISTICS
  • yearning for the sixties
  • FILM PORTRAITURE 4: Bob Fleischner Dying

Recent Comments

Sarah Cawkwell on FILM PORTRAITS 2: TACITA …
Antonioni: more De C… on Antonioni’s Metaphysical…
Tim Cawkwell on Ferrara made me (1): Anto…
Donato Totaro on Ferrara made me (1): Anto…
Tim Cawkwell on Ferrara made me (1): Anto…

Archives

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  • October 2014
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Categories

  • Antonioni
  • artists' film
  • avant garde
  • Bible on film
  • biopics
  • Brakhage
  • Bresson
  • British cinema
  • cinema and culture
  • cinema of hyperbole
  • costume narratives
  • courtroom dramas
  • Creation
  • crucifixion films
  • crucifixion on film
  • diary films
  • disaster movies
  • documentaries
  • Doubt
  • film noir
  • film portraiture
  • gangster films
  • God
  • Hitchcock
  • humanism
  • Ireland
  • Italian gardens
  • Italy
  • John Ford
  • Kieslowski reflection
  • Kieslowski reflections
  • literature and film
  • metaphysical film
  • monastery films
  • Nativity
  • nuns on film
  • opera and film
  • painting and photography
  • Pascalian cinema
  • Pasolini
  • poetry & verse
  • Polish history
  • predestination
  • redemption
  • resurrection
  • revivalism
  • Rohmer
  • Russian cinema
  • self-publishing
  • sewer films
  • silent cinema
  • spiritual cinema
  • surrealism
  • talkies
  • Tim's poems 2020
  • time puzzles
  • Topaz
  • travel
  • Uncategorized
  • underground film
  • War
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  • Zweite Heimat

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