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In Search of the White Castle


14/12/2013
Gerard-Jan Claes

The inhabitants of the old island didnt need anybody. They had to rely
completely on the land and the sea in order to live. The migrant workers, taken
from their homes by a new industry, tourism, build hotels for the guests taken
from their homes by that same industry. Migrant workers, guests and
inhabitants live apart from each other both physically and economically.
The poorest people in the richest country on earth are brought together in a
ghetto by the same arbitrariness of supply and demand that brings together the
migrant workers and the tourists. Because of that same arbitrariness the
migrant workers have a job while the ghetto inhabitants dont.
The factory workers are guest workers within the system of arbitrariness;
imprisoned as long as they can be used and if not, shown the door.
Teenagers from the ghetto, gathered together in a summer camp, show how the
system can be broken. And through all of this the procession against the white
castle gathers momentum. [1]
In his documentary The White Castle, Johan van der Keuken interweaves three worlds: a
community centre in Columbus (Ohio), two factories in the Netherlands and Formentera, the
island off the Spanish coast inundated with tourists. As the second part of his North-South
triptych (Dagboek (Diary, 1972), Het witte kasteel (The White Castle, 1973) and De nieuwe
ijstijd (The New Ice Age (1974)), the film shows the impact of the Western, capitalistic
free-market thinking on the daily life of the social underclass, a social strangling grip which
alienates and isolates people. A conveyor belt which runs the world, according to Van der
Keuken. [2]

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Van der Keuken attempts to break through this system of arbitrariness in The White Castle.
He liberates the labourers and teenagers, even though its short-lived, in a film. His social
commitment in this film is contained within an attack on the language as a conventional
system; he wants to decommission the predetermined language. [3] It follows that, formally,
The White Castle is one of Van der Keukens most radical films. He leaves a spatiotemporal,
anecdotal anchoring in the here and now behind in order to make a film which circles
continually, which moves like a windmill and refuses to anchor itself. Every turn seems to be
the possibility of another film. Every image is a prelude, without a fixed form. This dynamic
surfaces in his entire oeuvre. Out of an image or a sound a whole film can arise. Forms swirl
around him and one of them blossoms into a film. This multiplicity makes it difficult to grab
onto, demarcate or define a film like The White Castle. All images start to interlink.
Everything seems to belong together.
I think its fascinating to build within a free form, but a classical form needs to
underlie it. The paradox is that if you want to make a free composition, you
have to proceed in a stricter way than you would in a conventional film. You
namely have to make it plausible to implicate certain things which dont seem
to have anything to do with each other at a first glance. It is my task to prove
that, for the duration of the film, they do have something to do with one another.
I propose that everything goes with everything, but everything doesnt go with
everything beforehand, but only after modification. Everything only goes with
everything if you think about it carefully.[4]
The White Castle moves forward like a merry-go-round; similar images return, but always in
different relations because of a different framing, a different camera movement or a different
rhythm. Occasionally even the same images resurface in a different correlation. Images are
recycled in one and the same film. Everything is a potential leitmotiv. Van der Keuken
maintains a freedom in watching and doesnt presumptuously portend to know the power of
an image. In fact, he even re-uses images and sounds in various films, thus ensuring that his
oeuvre becomes an auto-referential fabric. Hence Vakantie van de filmer (Filmmakers
Holiday, 1974) a reflection on life and death, on photography and the moving image is
one big exercise in repetition. His images dont seem to cling to or limit themselves to one
film. They dont want anything and yet at the same time want so much. In a certain sense,
theyre autonomous, they dont belong with anything. They seem surrounded by accolades
and its Van der Keuken who brings them to life and connects them in the process of editing.
In Johan van der Keukens work, the edit is more than ever the movement of thought itself,
the thinking that moves the matter. [5] His love for jazz and improvisation can here be felt,
another way to generate or (re)organise material.
In the work of Johan van der Keuken film and life are intertwined. His last film De grote
vakantie (The Summer Holidays, 2002) a film in which the terminally-ill Van der Keuken
looks back on his oeuvre and on his life is the natural consequence of this symbiosis: if I
cant make an image, Im dead. [6] He reworks and reformulates his own aesthetic principles
and shows how they hook into his own personal environment. A web in which everything
merges, returns and in which all dreamt or envisaged films are present too. A film like the
tip of an iceberg. The big mass beneath the water, the unfilmed or unshown material, isnt
visible but is nonetheless tangible and present to the spectator. Van der Keuken burrows,
associates and sometimes a film arises from that, but not necessarily.
Rather than talking about film as a language, Van der Keuken understands it as a condition,
an tat or a state of being, as something which defies easy definition and which can rather
be approached in terms of becoming and movement. Its a space of experience, a way of
standing within the world. Maybe that also explains the appeal of his films. His films are all
spaces in which you can wander, which envelop you, which stick with you and are hard to

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shake off.
Johan van der Keuken is a documentary maker. He goes to work with reality. The White
Castle isnt an abstract contemplation of the capitalistic system. Van der Keuken is in search
of people and places who endure its consequences in concrete terms. But on the other hand
his films also have something speculative about them and there is room for association.
Notice here the importance of the notion of approaching, of never being able to show things
in their complete clarity, but of moving around them. This is whats so exceptional about Van
der Keukens oeuvre. His work has certain similarities to that of the direct cinema movement,
but he forces the viewer to orientate him/herself, to be in search of a larger, political relation.
Van der Keukens form is a dialectics in action, an immediateness which obstinately anchors
itself in an indirectness, in a fragmentary representation, a collage, but always with attention
to a strong structure. A cinma vrit which invalidates itself. The spaces are represented
fragmentarily from the very beginning of the films through details. Everything is immediately
in medias res. The notion of decentralisation is carried through in the form.
I feel that the possibilities of the montage have been enriched by pursuing this
course. Initially the montage distanced itself from meaning and concept and
became a collage. () It then returned to the forming of conceptions. But in
doing so it became a montage which encapsulates the collage and makes
visible a continuous interaction between freedom and collective necessity. A
dialectics which is left-wing in its consequences, but one which retains the
surprise. [7]
This dialectical collage of Van der Keuken brings to mind Walter Benjamins entreaty for a
different historiography. Benjamin believed in a method of montage which juxtaposes
stereoscopic images. Out of this confrontation a world can be exposed which breaks through
the common construct of the conventional historiography a story of progress which doesnt
take into account negative developments and so reinforces the position of the powerful. [8]
With a similar montage strategy Johan van der Keuken shows that the images which arent
taken up and therefore arent distorted by this dominating fiction can also break through it
and reveal another reality. This emancipatory revelation, however, is not free from a utopian
desire. The juxtaposition of images shows a spiritual coherence to which we as viewers must
work towards. In De Poes (The Cat, 1968) Van der Keuken articulates it thus:
The film could be a means for change. To this end it must affect the fixed
patterns of expectation. To this end it must create a dynamic balance of the
forms in which our reality can be described. Art could be a means by which to
set man free. A school for seeing the self and the other more clearly.
Or, in the words of Jean-Marie Straub:
A political film must remind people that we dont live in the best possible world,
far from it, and that the present, denied us in the name of progress, simply
continues and is irreplaceable That human feelings are being plundered in
the same way that the earth is being plundered That the price that people
must pay, whether it be for progress or welfare, is much too high and is
unjustifiable. [9]

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The baby drinks from the breast of the eating mother. Side bacon hangs from
the roof beams. Wedding portrait above the door, shotgun next to it. Baby cries
for a while, father hugs baby, a little timid in front of the camera. Mule comes
out of the small barn. Sweat stains under armpits in the shirt of father. Little
cart rolling under olive trees. Stowing grain onto cart with neighbours, straw
hats, white greyhound frolics for a moment, grain almost saffron-coloured. A
painting by Millet. Satie piano tune slowed down. [10]
The White Castle turns around in circles, in a centrifugal movement, around a nucleus.
Literally: a donkey walks in circles, a windmill, a waterwheel, the spinning of wool, a
conveyor belt in a factory, queuing in a refectory, the traffic, a tractor, a bus which drives
through the film and the rotating camera movement from the car around the burger joint
White Castle. These are actions which recommence, which repeat themselves, routine acts
which take on a ritual character. Simultaneously a bigger composition takes form, an
unremitting flux which connects the different spaces. The different worlds, geographically cut
off from each other, all undergoing the consequences of social inequality and exploitation,
are inscribed and so connected in a global stream in which one is only able to survive. Its an
economic flux like an unceasing waking state on which you cant get a grasp. A dominant
condition with a logic which seems headstrong and inevitable. A process which paralyses
and doesnt seem to have an end. There is no longer any solid ground. Everything revolves.
Images of curtains, windows and doors. Do the labourer and young people in The White
Castle understand what is happening outside their own life? At the end of the film we see
images of young mothers. Does the circle start over? The nearly symbolic character of the
association of certain images encourages a more intense way of looking. Is it possible to read
this literally? Definitely. But the film runs on and the images come together again in a
different sequence, making it seem like thats not the case after all! Van der Keuken throws a
certain restraint overboard in order to sometimes use seemingly banal contrasts, like, for
example, the opposition of craftsmanship to industrialization: an image of an elderly woman
baking bread is followed by an image of a conveyor belt. The shifting in food production and
consumption is a thread which keeps the whole film together. The Spanish workers cook and
eat together, artisanal bread is baked and black teenagers queue in the refectory.
Furthermore, the title and core of the film the white castle refers to the fast-food burger
chain White Castle. The white castle as an unshakeable fortress.

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Images of people queuing for food and people who work on a conveyor belt keep returning.
For Walter Benjamin a crucial notion is the difference in experience between craftsmanship
and industrial labour. In the continual interaction with objects an unconsciously formed web
of experience namely arises in the act of craftsmanship. The conveyor belt, on the other
hand, becomes a repetition which does not build on anything and doesnt penetrate to the
unconscious level of experience. The new technical machines dont just help the human
being in his/her act of labour, but condition his/her behaviour. Once the most cost-efficient
action has been found, this is mechanically repeated, like an automaton. Its the perpetual
repetition of the new. All movements stand apart from each other. Industrialised labour
excludes every form of true experience. It is replaced by a logic which no longer processes,
but reduces price, which no longer registers but is merely vigilant. [11] [12] Benjamin
assigned film a recuperating capacity to construct new synthetic realities in which the
fragmented images are combined according to a new law. Not only as defence against the
trauma of the industrialization but as a means to restore the capacity to experience, crushed
by the production process. [13]

Van der Keuken also crumbles the audio tape. He interweaves radio adverts, political
speeches, factory noise, department stores and traffic noise. The sound is often piercing and
works disorientating. A constant emission of auditory fragments at top speed. An excess of
stimuli, the industrial sounds act as if part of an offensive, oppressing and disordering
people. While throughout the film different spaces are combined with each other, from the
very beginning the sound is disconnected from the image, thus causing the viewer to
immediately feel spatially detached. Examples of this can be found in the combination of
images of black teenagers with soundscapes from the Netherlands. In the middle of the film,
yet, a new space is opened up by the soundtrack; Van der Keuken makes a contrapuntal

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countermovement by placing song central. The American teenagers sing Donna Donna,
originally a Yiddish song, about a calf that is led to be slaughtered. The voice, always
embodied, becomes an instrument to cultivate collectivism. Together the young people sing
their fate. Finally we hear one of the Spanish labourers sing in front of his friends and we
hear soft humming from a little girl. Singing seems to represent a last stronghold which has
not been incorporated by the system. A hopeful feeling however, tainted by a melancholic
powerlessness.
Van der Keuken also lets a couple of teenagers voice their thoughts. Here too sometimes
seemingly evident statements are put forward. The teenagers try to put into words how they
relate to the economic system. Is anything else possible? In their sincere indignation a
lasting realisation of impotence slumbers.
Im trying to raise the question rather or not we really believe its possible that
people can share equally what we have.

Life is pain and darkness to most people I believe. (...) Just in terms of living. I
mean everyday living, I cannot even do that, hardly... Right now, mostly thinking
about survival.

I like being black. Its the poor that kills me, you know. Because I believe its
more of a economic question. () It really makes you feel ashamed to be from
America today. I mean... we make economic slaves of other countries and we
go in to countries and literally rape them, like they raped the black community
and are still raping the black community.

When youre talking about changing American policy and American institutions,
youre talking about changing a way of life.

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Throughout the monotonous sound of industry, moments of rebellion and hope nevertheless
surface as well. Through their talking and singing (words and songs) the teenagers try to
break free from the system. An attempt to search for a way out through words. Always a
feeling of hope or is it navet? combined with a realisation of impotence. This search for
ones own position (within the larger picture) is also what The White Castle as a film
continually does: searching for a form, but always with the realisation of its own search, its
own form. The form folds back in on itself and looks itself straight in the eyes. Of course
every film fights against its own form, but the fight is often hidden by a seemingly absent
ideology. The film then has the pretention to step outside the window of its own form.
Arrogantly the film comes to the fore, thereby causing the space, and with the space also the
freedom of the viewer to orientate him/herself, to disappear. The space is no longer
negotiated but is dictatorial and intrusive. Thats whats so beautiful about The White Castle;
its not merely the choosing of the subject which makes the work political. The
independence of the viewer begins at the point where identification ceases, at that point it
turns from amusement into work. [14] This other viewpoint is also political for Van der
Keuken.
By treating these economic and social problems in a composition, Van der Keuken seems to
solve them. The possibility to intervene, to interfere arises. But The White Castle is aware of
its own form. In that respect the film is at odds with our time. Our time is one and all
malapropism but doesnt seem to be aware of this. The White Castle on the other hand is
also one and all fragmentation but is aware of its fragmentation. The White Castle doesnt
have a fixed form, but is allowed the freedom to still form itself within the film. While
everything stands on unsteady ground, it is at the same time intelligently constructed. The
form is not unambiguous, but flows. The film is formed in the process of watching, in the
movement made throughout it. In that way it transcends its own fragmentarization. When
watching these kinds of films a second time around, they yield even more of their beauty and
power, they open themselves up even more. These are films which link and unlink and which
allow you to watch. Every image is necessary - though never intrusive, nor self-evident. A film
searching for itself.

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Text by Gerard-Jan Claes


----------------[1] Johan van der Keuken - Het witte kasteel (1973) (The White Castle, 1973)
[2, 3, 4, 5] Johan van der Keuken - Zien, Kijken, Filmen. Foto's, teksten en interviews (1980)
[6] Johan van der Keuken - De grote vakantie (2000) (The Summer Holidays, 2000)
[7] Johan van der Keuken - Bewogen Beelden. Films (2001)
[8] Walter Benjamin - Over het begrip van de geschiedenis - vertaling: Marcel Martens (1990)
[9] Sickle and Hammer, Cannons, Cannons, Dynamite! - Diagonal Thoughts
[1][10] Johan van der Keuken - Zien, Kijken, Filmen. Foto's, teksten en interviews (1980)
[11] Walter Benjamin - Baudelaire: een dichter in het tijdperk van het hoog-kapitalisme (1979)
[12] Lieven De Cauter - Genealogie van een belevingsmachine: De sleutelwoorden van de
moderne ervaring - Archeologie van de kick. Over moderne ervaringshonger (2009)
[13] Susan Buck Morss - Droomwereld van de massacultuur - in Benjamin Journaal 2 (1994)
[14] Johan van der Keuken - Zien, Kijken, Filmen. Foto's, teksten en interviews (1980)
----------------Translated by Hannah Van Hove. You can find the original text here: Op zoek naar het witte
kasteel [2].

HET WITTE KASTEEL [3]


JOHAN VAN DER KEUKEN [4]
1973 [5]
GERARD-JAN CLAES [6]
Source URL: http://www.sabzian.be/article/in-search-of-the-white-castle
Links:
[1] http://www.diagonalthoughts.com/?p=1832
[2] http://sabzian.be/article/op-zoek-naar-het-witte-kasteel
[3] http://www.sabzian.be/tags/het-witte-kasteel
[4] http://www.sabzian.be/tags/johan-van-der-keuken
[5] http://www.sabzian.be/tags/1973
[6] http://www.sabzian.be/tags/gerard-jan-claes

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