Wings of Desire

After an Easter severely lacking in bunnies and chocolate it is time to catch up on my blogging on the HCJ topics.

In week four we were given the screening of a film entitled Wings Of Desire. I am of the opinion that is a good thing I didn't blog in the immediate aftermath of the initial viewing of this film. On first viewing I found it not to my style or tastes whatsoever. The film seemed to drag without events of real notice and I have concentrating on it a struggle. However, with hindsight I can appreciate the beauty and importance this piece has an example of existential film making.

Put simply, existentialism has two sides to it. One side is that of horrifying angst, questioning the meaning of your very existence. The other side is the much more uplifting outlook of making what you want with your life. Wings of Desire acknowledges both of these arms of existentialism. We hear the refrain that is repeated throughout the film of someone asking themselves, 'why am I here and not there? Why am I me and not him?' This sort of questioning can lead to a terrifying angst-ridden existence, or an uplifting existence with the realisation that you are able to make what you want of your life, without the need to question anything. It conveys a personal liberation that being nothing gives scope to be everything.

The film is set against the backdrop of 1980's Berlin and follows two angels Damiel and Cassiel who float around the city watching different individuals' existence and listening to their inner most thoughts and feelings. In the film Cassiel states that the angels existence is 'to assemble, testify and preserve reality.' The use of the camera in the film adds to existential theme. The camera seems to slowly float around the city alongside with the angels, observing the inhabitants' existence below.

Damiel begins to fall in love with a young circus performer named Marion and longs to renounce his immortal existence for a physical one. He grows tired of merely observing existence, he longs to experience it. With his becoming mortal the camera transforms alongside him. The film had been shot in a monochrome sepia, but when Damiel becomes mortal the camera displays colour. This is clearly metaphorical for the fact that Damiel now sees the world in a different tone, through an entirely different colour scheme, representative of his new-found mortality.

Marion was a lonely soul desperately seeking the existence of love to transform her life into colour and Damiel brings this to her, creating an uplifting ending conveying the positivity of existentialism.

Its To Exist That's Essential

The internet website allaboutphilosophy.org informs me that existentialism is a philosophy centered upon the analysis of existence and the way humans find themselves existing in the world. The notion is that humans exist first and then each individual spends a lifetime changing their essence or nature. Put simply, existentialism is a philosophy concerned with finding self and the meaning of life through free will, choice, and personal responsibility.

Last week in my other subject of English we discussed issues of gender and how society constructs and molds the individual. This and an influential quote from the French writer Simone de Beauvoir is highly relevant to the theme of existentialism. Simone de Beauvoir wrote in her book The Second Sex that, "One is not born a woman, one becomes one." It was her belief in existentialist feminism that the social construction of a woman is paramount to oppression. Beauvoir anticipated that women were moving beyond this constraint and would reach a position where they would take personal responsibilities for their own choices.

This view neatly corresponds with the philosophy of Existentialism. A person is at their best when struggling against their individual nature, with the human free will to discover their self.

Nietzsche's Fight Club

A couple of weeks back I blogged on the impact Nietzsche's work had on Stanley Kubrick's film 2001: A Space Odyssey. Last night, as part of a conscious attempt to view films I really should have seen by now, I watched Fight Club. Once the big twist hit me I discovered the influence our German friend has had on another film. Tyler Durden is the mental creation of the narrator. He is everything he wished he was. Out of the despair and confusion he finds residing in his life, the narrator creates his very own 'Nietzschean Overman'. The super-human that embraces violence with superior will to power.

Interesting to see Friedrich pop up again. I'll be keeping my eye out for him.

Nietzsche's Space Odyssey

Critics have called Stanley Kubrick's film 2001: A Space Odyssey "the first Nietzchean film", stating that its essential thematic influence is derived from Nietzsche's concept of man's evolution from ape to human to super-human.

I first came across the film during a GCSE music class where we were studying the opening chapter, The Dawn of Man in preparation for a task to compose a film score for a fictional scene. My first impression of the opening scenes in 2001: A Space Odyssey was one of incomprehension. At the height of my immaturity I found the howls and foot-stomping of various blokes attired in monkey suits extremely humourous. At no point did it occur to me the significance of the appearance of a geometrically perfect black monolith, nor did I really understand why some monkey was bashing about a load of bones. However, looking at this scene with my (only slightly) maturer manner, I can see the importance of the impact of philosophy and in particular the works of Nietzsche had on the art form.

Director Kubrick has said of the meaning of the film that; "You're free to speculate as you wish about the philosophical and allegorical meaning of the film." However, it is difficult to not include Nietzsche's beliefs as a clear reference point in the film.

Nietzsche's belief in the 'will to power' is clearly evident in the The Dawn of Man. Nietzsche stated that the human race will be superseded by a successor species who will rise due to their superior will to power. This replacing of authority is conveyed in the scene where one of the apes begins to think about the animal bones in front of him and devises how to create a deadly weapon out of them to assist him in further acts of violence towards other apes and to kill animals for food. In this act we can see the first Super-Ape, which is thus, the first human.This process will then continue within the human race, where a Super-Human will emerge. This idea of a Super-Human is a key concept of Nietzsche. He believes this has already happened through the figures of Jesus Christ, Napoleon, Alexander the Great etc. Interesting for Nietzsche is that in these evolutionary surges forward occurs in the personality of the individual.

In 2001: A Space Odyssey the moments of evolutionary advancements are preceded by the appearance of the mysterious black monolith which seems to act as a marker for the different stages in the journey of humankind.

Nietzsche

So another semester beckons with History and Context of Journalism Part Four commencing tomorrow afternoon. The first topic is concerning Frederick Nietzsche.

For Nietzsche the greatest, most powerful, and honest emotion is that of hatred. He was a man who embraced 'ruthlessness, war, and aristocratic pride.' He was of the opinion that evil was good as its end result was the production of 'a great man'. Bertrand Russell writes of Nietzsche in his book History of Western Philosophy that 'he alludes habitually to ordinary human beings as the 'bungled and botched', and sees no objection to their suffering if its necessary for the production of a great man.' Russel cites the example of Napoleon to convey this point. So does this indicate that Nietzsche would be complementary of other 'great men' who have inflicted mass suffering to the 'bungled and botched' such as Hitler and Stalin? Would he be in favour of Tony Blair and George Bush for their implicit responsibility for bringing suffering to the 'bungled and botched' in Iraq and Afghanistan? For Nietzsche 'the misery of a whole nation is of less importance than the suffering of a great individual.'

Chris described in his webcast lecture on Nietzsche how he agreed with him that hatred is the most powerful and honest emotion. Chris used the example of football fans as evidence to convey Nietzsche's belief. I have to agree with Chris on this one. If you conduct a study of football fans terrace chants you are likely to find more references to hatred of the other team rather than the glorification of your own side. This can also be seen through the booing of opposition players. Just because they turn out in different colours, the powerful and honest emotion of hatred comes to the forefront. The hatred for the opposition is the more powerful emotion than the want for your own team to win.

Video Presentation

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ytm8phNytSs