118

BOOK

REVIEWS

Book Reviews: Janice Kaye

' . ,s aco lytes were fierce go-getters peddling to break

many of PIerson
into the major studios.
b
f industry documents, such as a
Pierson includes anum er ok b akdown of the total gross
ket-by-mar et re
,I
theatre-by-theatre, mar
'11 tment of Just Another Gtr
for She's Gatta Have It, and the prtheclse a d dollar budget. Any text
( 1993)'s hundred- ousan
.
k'
On the I.R. T.
1
'd the director of Cler s
willing to place such spe~ificsb a ondgsIWl~th Navy Seals(1990) will
,
h
"
th t h' father IS 0 sesse
admISSIOn ab dIS 'bed as exceSSIve
. 1y freewheeling. FaIr enoug
,, ,
undoubted,ly e escn , h best indicates the task facing cntICs
but it is thIS all-sorts quahty t a: a trend in filmmaking that seems
f
.
ar like the Hydra of Greek
who want to make an account
'11 ith eac h passlllg ye ~
to grow exponentta y w
t tWl'ce as many in return,
h
ed heads sprou
mythology
t '1mmediately assures his defeat
' Wi1 ose
t sever
1 pproach
aI
mos
,
,
t with this subject dunng
Ferncase s un a era a
Ch' 's work llltersec s
d
IOn
,
b'
though they too are flawe
in this respect;
'
1
h
For
the
tIme
emg,
d
f
11
Lynch sear y p ase. , . ,
d'
b dy the most useful an u y
ks Pierson and HIllIer s stu Ies e~ 0
wor 0'
r
ubJect.
realized treatments of a s Ippery s
Chris Cooling
University of Toronto

,.. ,.. ,..

.
Vo a es of Discovery: The Cinema of
Barry KeIth Gra.nt,
:y g b
d Chicago, University
Frederick WIseman. Ur ana an
of Illinois Press, 1992. 266 pp.

, h's book on distinguished and prolific

In the course of prefaclllg .1 k W'
an Barry Grant points out
t ' t Fredenc
Isem,
American documen ans
I'ter might categorize the
ber of ways a wr
,
that ther.e
are
anum
h
t
roup
them by overarchmg
k '
k He has c osen 0 g
,
filmma er s wor ,
1 '. 1 d theoretical consideratIOn,
themes rather than by chrono ogICa For ~nr'stance Titicut Follies, High
'
b'ect matter, or I
,
formal techmque, or su J
IJ
'I Court and Welfare fall under
School, Law and Order, H~spita, udvem:, Canal Zone and Sinai Field
11 d "A encan Ma ness.
m
,
'th Basic Training, Manoeuvre,
the" chapterca
h' h emight
assocIate
Wi
, h
Mlsswn, w IC one
t the military"-are here grouped WIt
and Missile-these are films abou b' "When Worlds Collide." Grant
Modelsuch
and examples
The Store to
under
gives
showth~0r~ ~~~ferently the analytical approach

.a

%. 3;@

119

might have been angled, His other chapter headings are equally
poetic and sometimes evocative of the fiction films he frequently
mentions: The Big Parade, You and Me, The Bad and the Beautiful,
and The Ship Sails On. Because Wiseman has called his films "reality
dreams" or "reality fictions," Grant has been prompted frequently
to observe their similarities to Hollywood fiction films.
Grant has interviewed Wiseman at length, and it is clear that
he has conducted an extremely detailed study of all twenty-four films
he examines. There are other three books devoted to Wiseman,
Thomas Benson and Carolyn Anderson's Reality Fictions: The'Films
of Frederick Wiseman (1989), Thomas R. Atkins' anthology, Frederick
Wiseman (1976), and Liz Ellsworth's bibliography, Frederick
Wiseman: A Guide to References and Resources. Grant is quick to
explain that he means this study to be one of criticism, This is not,
therefore, an examination of the various .theoretical considerations
involved in representing subjects in actuality along the lines of such
studies as Michael Renov's anthology, Theorizing Documentary, Bill
Nichols' Representing Reality, Paul Smith's Discerning the Subject,
or Reda Bensmaia's The BarthesBffect. Rather, Voyages of Discovery
takes an auteurist, aesthetic look at Wiseman's oeuvre, analyzing
each fUm in terms of its thematic and formal treatment of the
individual in a social institution. In fact, his use of theory is
aphoristic ratIter than systemtic and the lack of theoretical
underpinning can be a problem, at least for this reader.
Grant states, "I believe Wiseman's style in fact constitutes a
political cinema in the truest sense. Consistent with his democratic
values, Wiseman refuses to condescend to the viewer by assuming
an authorial superiority." If, by political, he means pertaining to the
state or the government, then yes, Wiseman's work is most often
politicaL But both Wiseman and Grant make the assumption that
liberal humanism speaks for us an, It does not. There are repeated
references to the "people", "human beings", "human subjects",
"the American people", "average folks", "individuals," with hardly
a reference to gender issues. "Man" stands in for everyone. There
is one universal human subject and it is male (a Freudian idea, but
Freud is never mentioned).
Although there are girls and women in Wiseman's films, the
institution he chooses to examine are either all or mostly maledominated. Basic Training is about training male army recruits,
Manoeuvre about military games in Germany, Missile about nuclear
weapons, Essene about a group of monks, Racetrack about horse-

me

120

.B

0 Q K

REV.! E W S

Book Reviews: Janice Kaye

.
Eve~ . the one world
expect .to .be about
racmg.
. which one would
.
women-Model-is ,~kewed toward the male. Although It IS women
who are exploited in. modelling and advertising to af~r greater ~~~en,:
than men, this fact is subsumed under a general dehum.amz~~g
by "bourgeois~' American capitalism. Grant c~lls. modellI~g the
institution that has formalized how people [my ItalIcs] are Violated,
reduced in importance by labels and stereotypes," as though there
were no difference between the way males and females .are treated,
either in the .ads or in the world. l:.lt?ough Grant t~es c~re ,to note
that "feallife and advertising are dIstmctIy separate,. a pomt mtegral
to' women's lives in particular, gender differenc~s. are co-opte~br,
"the aieatory nature of reality and the ineluctabrl~ty of mortalIty.
It is obvious from the films, howexer,that ~hlte. men ru~ the
show:-even the fashion show in The Storej whIch IS the .NeI~an
Marcus department store. They put their names on the c10thmg hnes
mentioned, they run the boardroom, they own the plac~. Gra~t
ob~erves, "So in Model, interestingly, unlike. n:ost .of .W~sen:an ~
oth~r films, there appears to be no gender or raCial dIscnmlllatIOn,
wn'tes G rnt
a ,"0'+
) course the .images of~ the ads tend to feature
wqmen in visually inferior ways, ..but it i~, also true. that. both sexes
are reduced to observed object, to image [emphaSIS mIlle].
.
. Model in fact, opens with a shot containing biIlboardshawklllg
Calvin KI:in jeans for men and Brut cologne-male, right ~rom t~e
start. And male right to the end. In his discussion of WIsem~n s
then-most recent film, Near Death (he has since made Ballet, aI~ed
on PBS stations in June oU995), Grant writes, "[th,e] life-~ffirmlllg
implications of thanatology are asserted by the film s opem,~g ~ho:s
of scullers on a river; like sperm, they move upstream... LIfe IS
male; death is male. The word patriarchy does not appea~.
Grant even compares the NFB's Not a Love Story: A Film About
Pornography to Model and The Store: "Like the scene ... where nude
photographer SuzeRandall carefully pos~s stripper Linda ~ee Tracer
and adds a few drops of 'pussy juice to her vUlv~" III ,Model s
photo session we repeatedly see how, carefully ad~ertIsmg lIIp~e.ry
composes desire." Bonnie Sherr Klein s controve~sIal 198~ f~mlIIlst
film concerns the male pornography industry s explOItatIOn of
women, not just the processes of advertising. It i~ not: film wher.e
"both sexes are reduced to observed object, to Image. Perhaps If
W'seman made a film on pornography it would concentrate on the
of men by women, or the equal exploitation of
and
Wiseman claims to film what he sees mdicates
women..The fact that
.

eX~loitation

~e~

121

from what perspective he is seeing. And Grant seems to concur,

acknowledging only that Wiseman has made "one of many possible
films."
Although Grant claims that "any serious analysis of Wiseman's
work must take account of issues of audience address and reception,"
he does so o~ly in the most limited sense, especially in the case of
rece~tion. Varying cultural factors, such as identity politics, would
certallll~ ~ffect ~e reception of documentaries made as far apart as
1967 (Tttlcut FolItes) and 1990 (Near Death). Only in discussing Basic
Training does Grant note the male-centredness of the film, referring
to "masculine violence." But with Missile, he refers once again to
:the.j1U~an potential for violence," with no reference to gender or
ImplIcatIOns of female violence. There are also no references to
homosexuality, even though a described poster in Father Anthony's
office in Essene portrays a naked man and the words, "Because you
are afraid to love, I am alone." Grant takes this to mean, "Without
love.:. we are ~l is~lated and vulnerable, handicapped." This is only
one mterpretatIOn III an all-male environment.
'
Racial and class issues fare better in Grant's analysis, partIy
because they are addressed in the films themselves. The fictional Cool
~orld, which Wiseman produced but did not direct (Shirley Clark
dI~), concerns a 14-year-old black gang leader in Harlem. Although
WIseman does comment on the disenfranchisement of the youths,
even here the racial issues seem to be secondary to issues of juvenile
delinquency and consumerism. Grant quotes Wiseman as saying, "
a
hospital or a high school is as mUch a ghetto as central Harlem."
Huh?
In The Store, two well-dressed young black men try on sunglasses
at the counter, a black woman gets coiffeq in the salon, and a young
black woman aggressively makes her way through a job interview,
as though Neiman Marcus is a happy, interracial upper-class
family-a microcosm of society or, as Wiseman calls it, a "cultural
spoor." Perhaps this is true; perhaps not. But there are no AfricanAmericans, male or female, in positions of authority.
Racetrack is another upper-class world run by white men, where
African Americans and women appear in Supporting roles as
customers and labour. In The Store, both women and men sell
$45,000 sable jackets, diamond-encrusted jewellery and expensive
evening gowns. All these "microcosms" merely reinforce patriarchal
culture with little or no comment. SmaIl wonder that Wiseman has
lost faith in documentaries to effect change in society. But is Essene

122

.!"

BOOK

REVIEWS

one of these "spoors?" Grant calls it "a philosophical investigation

of a pragmatic struggle to erect a true community... ," adding, "as
Mamber so aptly puts it, Essene is both Wiseman's 'most specific
and most universal work'," It escapes me howa "true community"
which can be seen as universal or a microcosm when there are no
women, except for Sister Alice, and no children.
There are a few references to nation and American imperialism
with regard to The Canal Zone and Manoeuvre, relating these films
to American ideology and hegemonic culture. American arrogance
and insularity though are reinforced rather than critiqued, Grant also
conflates Canada with the U.S., when he says that Meat, about meat
packing, "inevitably speak to the ethics of our national lifestyle and
implicates all of us" [emphais mine]. There's that "we" again.
Grant has essentially taken Wiseman's "political" position as
his own, which is one of the dangers a critic courts with auteurism.
Grant does claim that his readings do not necessarily correspond to
the filmmaker's intentions. At the end of his analysis of Cool World,
Grant claims, "my purpose here is not to reclaim a neglected film
for classic auteurism, nor to co-opt what some might claim is an
example of black film for a white filmmaker or for liberal, white
criticism." And yet, this is unavoidably the effect of his discussion.
White liberal auteurist criticism is what we have throughout Voyages
of Discovery. When Grant discusses the poetic nature of the films,
he quotes Wordsworth, Shakespeare, Aldous Huxley, E. E. Cummings,
D. H. Lawrence, Kurt Vonnegut, Allen Ginsberg and many other
(male only) writers, and this provides an additional and interesting
aesthetic layer to his cinematic analysis. It is clear that he is an
admirer of Wiseman and other canonized male artists.
Although somewhat limited in critical-theoretical scope, this
carefully researched book is very useful as one of the only books on
a documentary filmmaker. These films, and many others, need to
be analyzed and put into context and many of his .:>bservations and
analyses are insightful. Grant is particularly adept at scene description, giving the viewer an immediately accessible sense of the look
and construction of the film. This is especially important because
Wiseman's films are themselves almost completely inacces'sible.
Wiseman, a lawyer, has complete control over distribution through
his own company, Zipporah Films, and, although an his films have
been aired on PBS, they are not available on video.
Janice Kaye
University of California

Book Reviews: Jeanette Sloniowski

123

Lesley Stern, The Scorsese Connection Indiana Un'

.
Pr . BI
.
.
Iverslty
. ess.. oommgton and Indianapolis, 1995, 257 pp.,
mdex, dIns.
The Scorsese Connection is not a typ' I
'
' .
Ica auteunst study of
Important dIrector. Instead of. treating the direct
th
an
meaning, Stern's book thou h s h
" or as e source of
Scorsese's films almost:whollyg at:e~soa~alalIytl~ In approach, regards
in v
dd
' .
0
USIOns woven (and often
ery 0
ways) WIthIn an archive of movies bu 'd . h
'
~corsese's past or-and no less often-in Stern's Itn~ elt er In
mterpretively from standard treatments like Robert'Kolk ~o Sdeparts
chapter in his A Cinema of Loneliness, 'Kolker sets up cl~:: a~~s:se
of the fIlms on the assumption that th d'
,'yes
I
e Irector exerCIses ranon I
. Ia
contro over processes of selection-construction In Kolle'
app
h S
.
er s partlCll ar
roac, corsese engages in meta-critical t ks f ul
t' d
'.
.
as 0 c tural and
c'
bIne;)a Ie emystlficatlon. In contrast, on page 220 {of a 228
00
Lesley Stern admits what she should have ad . 'd .' pahge
preface,
VIse III t e
This is after all not a book about Scorsese Or rath
"
It is not exclusively about his movies, p~ecisely ::~~:::r,~:;d abo~t.
ar~ not hermetic, they are allusive. If there have been many ;;vles

:n c~:;:~es~:;~::U7to~ threads in this. writing it is beca:s~u~;

unadventurous.
corsese-that IS never automatic or

Stern uses the words "threads" and "d t

"
d"
l Whil t h '
e ours to escnbe her
ty
s e.
e e book IS ostensibly organized into ch
;t::~te:o::asspinI'rglre title, ~nd each apparently initiates a cl:~t:~al~:~;
a s out " mto a large n et work 0 f aSSOCIatIOns
"
cliff,
fli
(146'
'd
erent illS are mentIOned III the index of fli
her intricate web of allusions makes the b k ,illS CIte .) In the end,

~:x:~matic psy~hoanalysis ranging acro~om:U:l:r:n~~;~~~b~:z~~

intentio~r; a van,ety of cultures and periods. Rarely do Scorsese's

is made toc;~; I~to pl;y, ~uch less.into focus. Instead, Scorsese

e ro e a a condUIt through which a culture'

v:~.est fears and obsessions pass into view-or at least into Stern':

abou~h~~:s snot

to sa~l that there is too little in the book directly

corsese 1 ms. In fact, Stern can be very thorough