At a filmmaker lunch last year, my very creative friend Don McWilliams told this story. About fifteen years ago, the famous Polish filmmaker Kryzstof Kieslowsky gave a conference at Concordia University. After his presentation, a professor asked him what his greatest sources of cinematic inspiration had been.
His answer: Molière and Dostoyevsky. The professor found this very annoying, and came back to insist that this was a serious question. And Kieslowsky in turn explained that his was a serious answer. “You have to expose yourself to the arts and the world outside of the cinema,” is the way Don remembers his reply.
What brought this anecdote to mind was my visit to the terrific Caravaggio exhibition at the National Gallery in Ottawa. Caravaggio was a rebel, and the way he revolutionized the visual arts at the end of the 16th century has double relevance for documentary filmmakers. In times when the traditional treatment of religious motifs dominated the arts, he brought the turbulent realities of his contemporaries, ordinary folks included into his paintings: tax collectors, disaffected soldiers, prostitutes, street merchants… It was a breakthrough for realism, but a highly creative form of realism.
Caravaggio’s use of and depiction of light was equally revolutionary. One of the filmmakers who has most inspired me, the Swedish documentarian Stefan Jarl, has this to say about Caravaggio’s use of light:
‘Caravaggio is a master of light and shadow. There is a fantastic painting which describes how Jesus asks Matthew to follow him, in which the light from the window illuminates the characters in the shades. It’s one of the most vibrant paintings ever made. Everything he did during his tumultuous and much too short life was of the highest order when it came to lighting. Filmmakers have much to learn from him…’ (My translation, from a book by Cyril Hellman.)
If you have a chance to see the Caravaggio exhibition before it closes, you should!
Thanks to Tobi Elliott for her help with this blog.
