Inside Stories: Film and Biography
07 November 2007 13:01 Filed in: Conferences
| Screenings
A symposium of the Ludwig Boltzmann Institute for the
History and Theory of
Biography in co-operation with the Institute for Theatre, Film and Media
Studies of the University of Vienna and the Vienna Film Museum.
Date: 23-25 November 2007
Location: Vienna Film Museum, Augustinerstraße 1, 1010 Vienna, Austria
Biography in co-operation with the Institute for Theatre, Film and Media
Studies of the University of Vienna and the Vienna Film Museum.
Date: 23-25 November 2007
Location: Vienna Film Museum, Augustinerstraße 1, 1010 Vienna, Austria
Part of the continuing appeal of biography, whether
written or on screen, is
that it can offer the illusion of a cohesive, unified life-story - or that
it can shatter this illusion by frustrating conventional chronological and
causal expectations. Enlightenment notions of the autonomous, sovereign
subject and the division of human activity into interior and exterior,
private and public spheres are all unavoidably thematised in biography.
Applied to the aesthetics of filmmaking, this has many implications. Popular
since the inception of cinema, biographical films exist in a wide variety of
styles, across a spectrum that ranges from the musical comedy to the
documentary. As a result, attempts to categorise them en bloc either
aesthetically or commercially are necessarily problematic.
Traditionally, most research on the subject has focused on Hollywood
'biopics'. This symposium seeks to widen existing debates in several
directions. With particular, but not exclusive reference to biographical
films made over the last two decades, we propose an analysis of prevailing
narrative structures and aesthetic models, contextualised with reflections
on the social and cultural turns revealed by the vigorous biographical
impulse in cinema. It is a commonplace of biographical research that times
of crisis result in increased interest in biographical approaches to the
interpretation of culture and history. We will consider to what extent the
identity conflicts of recent decades have been worked through in
biographical film. Attempts to portray the creative inner world of artistic
subjects, for example, almost inevitably dramatise the clash, whether
fruitful or destructive, between the individual and society; works of art
can be incorporated into the filmic narrative in a variety of ways. In
biographical films which focus on creative individuals and cultural
production, the problem of how best to negotiate the border between
documentary and fiction is particularly acute, and has to be confronted even
by those closest to the conventions and aims of the mainstream fictional
feature film.
The symposium will be accompanied by screenings of biographical films from
23-26 November 2007 at the Vienna Film Museum. A German-language publication
based on the proceedings of the symposium is scheduled to appear with
Zsolnay (Vienna) in autumn 2008.
Languages: The language of the symposium will be German.
For further information including the full symposium programme, see
http://gtb.lbg.ac.at
that it can offer the illusion of a cohesive, unified life-story - or that
it can shatter this illusion by frustrating conventional chronological and
causal expectations. Enlightenment notions of the autonomous, sovereign
subject and the division of human activity into interior and exterior,
private and public spheres are all unavoidably thematised in biography.
Applied to the aesthetics of filmmaking, this has many implications. Popular
since the inception of cinema, biographical films exist in a wide variety of
styles, across a spectrum that ranges from the musical comedy to the
documentary. As a result, attempts to categorise them en bloc either
aesthetically or commercially are necessarily problematic.
Traditionally, most research on the subject has focused on Hollywood
'biopics'. This symposium seeks to widen existing debates in several
directions. With particular, but not exclusive reference to biographical
films made over the last two decades, we propose an analysis of prevailing
narrative structures and aesthetic models, contextualised with reflections
on the social and cultural turns revealed by the vigorous biographical
impulse in cinema. It is a commonplace of biographical research that times
of crisis result in increased interest in biographical approaches to the
interpretation of culture and history. We will consider to what extent the
identity conflicts of recent decades have been worked through in
biographical film. Attempts to portray the creative inner world of artistic
subjects, for example, almost inevitably dramatise the clash, whether
fruitful or destructive, between the individual and society; works of art
can be incorporated into the filmic narrative in a variety of ways. In
biographical films which focus on creative individuals and cultural
production, the problem of how best to negotiate the border between
documentary and fiction is particularly acute, and has to be confronted even
by those closest to the conventions and aims of the mainstream fictional
feature film.
The symposium will be accompanied by screenings of biographical films from
23-26 November 2007 at the Vienna Film Museum. A German-language publication
based on the proceedings of the symposium is scheduled to appear with
Zsolnay (Vienna) in autumn 2008.
Languages: The language of the symposium will be German.
For further information including the full symposium programme, see
http://gtb.lbg.ac.at
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