Abstract
The aim of this text is to analyze three biopics by Martin Scorsese, questioning whether they can function as a source of visual memory/testimonial for the future even if subjectivity interferes in the documentaries montages about Cinema and Theatre, Literature and Music. Regarding the tone and construction of the biopics, we nominated them as “selfie-biopic”, “accomplice-biopic” and “tribute-biopic”. The main corpus of this study includes documentaries in three media: an “accomplicebiopic” about the film and theatre director Elia Kazan, A letter to Elia (2010); a “selfie-biopic”, Public speaking (2010), about the writer Fran Lebowitz; and a “tribute biopic” about Music, George Harrison, living in the material world (2011), portraying the Beatles guitarist. The theoretical frame of reference includes Beatriz Sarlo´s concepts of subjective memory and Julia Kristeva's study of intertexts. Bill Nichols and Fernao Ramos´ concepts are relevant for the definition of modern documentaries as well as Deane Williams´ history of documentary.
Highlights
This study is part of our coauthored research, Denize Araujo as Supervisor and Cynthia Schneider as Post-Doctorate recipient of a PNPD scholarship from UTP- Universidade Tuiuti do Paraná, Brazil
The production of biopics or cinebiographies – documentaries about recognized icons in various areas of knowledge – has been emphasized in the last decade, some biopics have been criticized for inserting information not allowed by family members, as in the case of the singer Amy Winehouse and Grace Kelly, Princess of Monaco
The main objective of this study is to find out whether these biopics can be a source of knowledge or visual memory for the future
Summary
This study is part of our coauthored research, Denize Araujo as Supervisor and Cynthia Schneider as Post-Doctorate recipient of a PNPD scholarship from UTP- Universidade Tuiuti do Paraná, Brazil. He clarifies: “Nonfictional films are those that we evaluate on the basis of their knowledge claims in according to the objective standards appropriate to their subject matter” (Carroll, 1996: 237) These notions may be the origin of Carroll’s Keynote Speech at the Opening of the XX SOCINE-UTP 2016, when he talked about his concept of evaluative heuristic: “my notion of The Evaluative Heuristic better serves our “post medium” moving-imageworld, insofar as it regards each convergence of media as a discrete artwork – as a singularity.”. This film does not constitute a biographical work but portrays only a part of her life, has been pointlessly glamorised and contains important historical inaccuracies as well as scenes of pure fiction (Child, 2013) These examples suggest inaccuracies that cannot be taken as factualities, having received heavy criticism from most film critics, Scorsese biopics can be considered worth of analyses, considering the creation of special formats and tones for each of the protagonists, in a way to reveal their lifestyles
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