<i>The Sergeant</i> (review)

Abstract

Films and Filming Reviews, 1966-1969 Peter Whitehead Between 1966 and 1969, Peter Whitehead wrote a series of reviews for the British film magazine Films and Filming. The magazine had begun in 1954 and would be published monthly up until 1990. At the time of Whitehead's involvement, it was edited by the respected cinema journalist Robin Bean and was noted for publishing the work of critics such as Raymond Durgnat. In his own critical writing, Whitehead places emphasis less on the technical aspects of the films under his consideration than on the extent of their engagement with "truth," "being," and other key philosophical issues. When reading this material, the impression is created that they are compacted essays that use the films as lenses through which to discuss a number of personal concerns. Whitehead's contributions to Films and Filming also consisted of reviews of films by Godard. Apart from the review herein of the collaborative Paris vu par . . . , these have been included under "Dossier: Godard." Reviewed by: Thomas the Imposter Peter Whitehead Thomas the Imposter. Directed by Georges Franju. Produced by Eugene Lepicier. Screenplay by Jean Cocteau, Georges Franju, Michel Worms and Raphael Cluzel from the novel by Jean Cocteau. Director of photography, Marcel Fradetal. Editor, Gilbert Natot. Music, Georges Auric. Art director, Claude Pignot. A Filmel production, distributed by Amanda French. English subtitles. Original title, Thomas l'Imposteur. Cert A. 93 mins. The Princess de Bormes, Emmanuelle Riva; Pesquel-Duport, Jean Servais; Thomas, Fabrice Ronleau; Henriette, Sophie Dares; Doctor Vernes, Michel Vitold; Mme. Valiche, Rosy Varte; Dr. Gentil, Bernard Lavalette; Aunt Thomas, H Dieudonne; The Bishop, J. R. Caussimon; Elderly man at the ball, Andre Melies; The nurse, Edith Scob; Captain Roy, Edouard Dermithe; Narrator, Jean Marais. In 1918 Tristan Tzara wrote, in his introduction to Dada that "we have repudiated all the distinctions between life and poetry; our poetry was a matter of living"—and at about the same time, Alfred Jarry, with this is as his philosophy, identified himself with Pere Ubu until he was indistinguishable from his creation.1 Four years later, Jean Cocteau wrote his novel Thomas l'Imposteur about the First World War in which he describes his young hero's death with these words—"Thomas thought, I will be lost if I do not act as if I'm dead. But in Thomas, fiction and reality had become one." Thomas is a young poet who, instead of writing poetry, lives it. To escape the reality of war and his untenable duty to be a soldier in it, he imagines himself to be someone else, just as in a similar way perhaps, Cocteau himself while serving at the same front with the Marine riflemen, may have dreamed away the time creating his character Thomas. Cocteau gave the rights to Franju to make the film of his novel, saying that he'd sooner be betrayed by him than anyone else. The master has been served very well. One image in Franju's film, however, accidentally creates an experience in which fiction and reality become simultaneous. A terrified horse gallops through the surrealistic ruins of a town, vainly trying to escape the flames of its own burning mane. In the context of the film, the image has tremendous power and works with almost archetypal immediacy. But coincident with this "reading" is a second one, for we suddenly realise that the horse is a real horse and not just a "horse in a film"—it's not a horse acting!—it really is a frightened horse whose terror has been inflicted upon it by a film unit making a film. Whether or not this is justified is another question but, for a second or so, the reality of the film, the illusion, is breached; its reality is transcended by the image. We suffer for the horse both as an imaginary one and a real one. Such a moment is a Cocteau illumination, and for Franju too it would be an experience in which "surrealism" becomes real, when its use is justified. It is not surprising after the unbelievable horrors of the First World War that soon after, poets should speculate on the nature of the tenuous...