Freethinker: The Films and Career of Peter Watkins

自由思想家：彼得·沃特金斯的电影和职业生涯

• 批准号: AH/I002154/1
• 负责人: John Cook
• 金额: $ 6.42万
• 依托单位: Glasgow Caledonian University
• 依托单位国家: 英国
• 项目类别: Fellowship
• 财政年份: 2011
• 资助国家: 英国
• 起止时间: 2011 至 无数据
• 项目状态: 已结题
• 来源: https://gtr.ukri.org/projects?ref=AH%2FI002154%2F1
• 关键词: Freethinker; Films; Career; Peter; Watkins

The 'Freethinker' project concerns the films and career of Peter Watkins (born Norbiton, Surrey, 1935-), British-born director of 'The War Game' (1965), 'Culloden' (1964) and 'Edvard Munch' (1973) amongst other productions. In the past, Watkins has been critically neglected, particularly in his native United Kingdom. Yet spurred on by the recent re-release to critical acclaim of many of his films on DVD, he is now being reassessed by a new generation of film analysts and the public. The 'Freethinker' project comprehensively will examine and assess the films and career of Peter Watkins. It will explore why Watkins was so critically neglected and marginalised in the past and why he is now being reassessed. It will analyse what were the reasons for Watkins' initial breakthrough success with the acclaimed BBC TV film, 'Culloden' (1964) that reconstructed the last land battle to be fought on British soil at Culloden moor in 1746. It will ask why his next film, 'The War Game' (1965), about nuclear war, caused a Cold War incident when it was notoriously banned from TV by the BBC for twenty years. (The film, ironically, would go on to win Watkins an Oscar in Hollywood for Best Documentary in 1967). The 'Freethinker' project will trace Watkins' subsequent, less well known, career following his dramatic decision, in 1968, to quit Britain for a self-imposed exile overseas, partly as a result of 'The War Game'; an international 'exile' that still continues to this day. Drawing on a wealth of internationally gathered research materials, including unprecedented access to Watkins' personal archive, interviews with Watkins himself plus a unique invited opportunity to visit his Paris set to observe shooting of Watkins' last film production, 'La Commune (Paris 1871) (2000), the project will for the first time in a UK context comprehensively assess the development of Watkins' later career overseas. Watkins is one of the few British-born directors who can truly lay claim to being international, having made films in Sweden, Norway, Denmark, France - in all cases in the native language - as well as the USA, Canada and Australia. In many ways, his career overseas and his corresponding artistic development into a globe-trotting director are more interesting than the early work, 'Culloden' and 'The War Game', for which he is still most known in Britain. 'The Freethinker' project will assess Watkins' place in the history of British cinema and television but also in world cinema. With his meticulous documentary reconstructions of events using non-professional actors, first dating from the early 1960s, Watkins is widely seen as a pioneer of the drama documentary / documentary drama. In many ways, his work anticipates later forms of 'reality TV'. The project will consider the extent of Watkins' influence - for example on filmmakers such as Ken Loach who also later began to use a documentary style within his own films. From mock documentaries to contemporary war films and even the Jason Bourne trilogy in Hollywood, all make use of a handheld documentary style to make their dramatic fictions look more authentic and all therefore owe an influence to the techniques which Watkins pioneered in his films in the 1960s. Thus what are the implications of Watkins' style for understanding documentary itself ? Do Watkins' shooting techniques expose that what makes documentaries seem 'true' is as much a product of the style as the content ? Today, Watkins is more or less retired from filmmaking but he continues to be an ardent critic of the media which he sees as contributing to and exarcebating the wider political and social problems of the world today. The project will assess, finally, Watkins' strong criticisms of the media and together with consideration of the history of his filmmaking career, it will ask what are the wider implications of Watkins' work for an understanding of today's media and its role within society?

“自由思想者”项目涉及彼得·沃特金斯（生于萨里诺比顿，1935年-）的电影和职业生涯，他是英国出生的导演，曾执导过《战争游戏》（1965年）、《库洛登》（1964年）和《爱德华·蒙克》（1973年）等作品。在过去，沃特金斯一直被严重忽视，特别是在他的祖国英国。然而，最近他的许多电影在DVD上重新发行，受到评论界的好评，他现在正在被新一代的电影分析家和公众重新评估。“自由思想者”项目将全面审查和评估彼得沃特金斯的电影和职业生涯。它将探讨为什么沃特金斯是如此严重的忽视和边缘化在过去，为什么他现在正在重新评估。它将分析沃特金斯最初的突破性成功与著名的英国广播公司电视电影，“库洛登”（1964年），重建最后一次陆地战役将在英国的土地上打在库洛登摩尔在1746年的原因。它会问为什么他的下一部电影，“战争游戏”（1965年），关于核战争，引起了冷战事件时，它是臭名昭著的禁止电视由英国广播公司为20年。(The具有讽刺意味的是，这部电影将继续为沃特金斯赢得1967年好莱坞奥斯卡最佳纪录片奖）。“自由思想者”项目将追溯沃特金斯后来不太为人所知的职业生涯，他在1968年戏剧性地决定离开英国，在海外自我流放，部分原因是“战争游戏”;国际“流亡”至今仍在继续。利用国际上收集的大量研究材料，包括前所未有的访问沃特金斯的个人档案，采访沃特金斯本人加上一个独特的邀请机会，参观他的巴黎设置观察拍摄沃特金斯的最后一部电影制作，“La公社（巴黎1871年）（2000年），该项目将首次在英国的背景下全面评估沃特金斯后来的海外职业生涯的发展。沃特金斯是为数不多的英国出生的导演谁可以真正奠定了国际，在瑞典，挪威，丹麦，法国电影-在所有情况下，在母语-以及美国，加拿大和澳大利亚。在许多方面，他的海外职业生涯和他相应的艺术发展成为一个环球旅行的导演比早期的工作，“库洛登”和"战争游戏“，他仍然是最有名的在英国更有趣。“自由思想者”项目将评估沃特金斯在英国电影和电视史上以及在世界电影史上的地位。凭借他使用非专业演员对事件进行细致的纪录片重建，沃特金斯被广泛视为戏剧纪录片/纪录片戏剧的先驱。在许多方面，他的作品预示着后来的“真人秀电视”形式。该项目将考虑沃特金斯的影响程度-例如对电影制片人，如肯洛奇谁后来也开始使用纪录片风格在他自己的电影。从模拟纪录片到当代战争片，甚至好莱坞的杰森伯恩三部曲，都利用手持纪录片的风格，使他们的戏剧小说看起来更真实，因此都受到沃特金斯在20世纪60年代开创的电影技术的影响。那么，沃特金斯的风格对理解纪录片本身有什么意义呢？沃特金斯的拍摄技巧是否揭示了使纪录片看起来“真实”的东西与内容一样多是风格的产物？今天，沃特金斯或多或少从电影制作中退休，但他仍然是媒体的热心批评者，他认为媒体对当今世界更广泛的政治和社会问题做出了贡献和加剧。最后，该项目将评估沃特金斯对媒体的强烈批评，并考虑他的电影制作生涯的历史，它将询问沃特金斯的工作对理解当今媒体及其在社会中的作用有什么更广泛的影响？

项目成果

Who Banned The War Game ? A Fifty-Year Controversy Reassessed

谁禁止了战争游戏？

• DOI: 10.3366/jbctv.2017.0351
• 发表时间: 2017
• 期刊: Journal of British Cinema and Television
• 影响因子: 0.9
• 作者: Cook J

Documenting the Documentary: Close Readings of Documentary Film and Video

记录纪录片：纪录片和视频的细读

• 发表时间: 2014
• 作者: Nichols, Bill;Grant, Barry Keith;Sloniowski, Jeannette
• 通讯作者: Sloniowski, Jeannette

Small-Gauge Storytelling - Discovering the Amateur Fiction Film

小规格讲故事 - 探索业余小说电影

• DOI: 10.3366/edinburgh/9780748656349.003.0013
• 发表时间: 2013
• 作者: Lury K