An Interview with Marcel Broodthaers by the Film Journal "Trépied"

Author(s): Marcel Broodthaers

Source: October, Vol. 42, Marcel Broodthaers: Writings, Interviews, Photographs (Autumn,
1987), pp. 36-38
Published by: The MIT Press
Stable URL: https://www.jstor.org/stable/778264
Accessed: 17-03-2020 03:33 UTC

JSTOR is a not-for-profit service that helps scholars, researchers, and students discover, use, and build upon a wide
range of content in a trusted digital archive. We use information technology and tools to increase productivity and
facilitate new forms of scholarship. For more information about JSTOR, please contact support@jstor.org.

Your use of the JSTOR archive indicates your acceptance of the Terms & Conditions of Use, available at
https://about.jstor.org/terms

The MIT Press is collaborating with JSTOR to digitize, preserve and extend access to October

This content downloaded from 49.207.51.220 on Tue, 17 Mar 2020 03:33:14 UTC
All use subject to https://about.jstor.org/terms
 An Interview with
Marcel Broodthaers by the
Film Journal Trepied

In 1957 Marcel Broodthaers made La Clef d l'Horloge, an eight minute, 16 mm film

about the work ofKurt Schwitters. In 1967 he made Le Corbeau et le Renard, a seven
minute color film that was shown at Knokke,* although the selection committee had
turned it down.

Trepied: M. Broodthaers, your curriculum vitae shows that film is not your only
activity. Could you tell us then what film means to you?

Broodthaers: Before I answer, I'd like to say that I am not a filmmaker. For me,
film is simply an extension of language. I began with poetry, moved on to
three-dimensional works, finally to film, which combines several artistic ele-
ments. That is, it is writing (poetry), object (something three-dimensional), and
image (film). The great difficulty lies, of course, in finding a harmony among
these three elements.

Trepied: How did you manage to find that harmony in Le Corbeau et le Rena

Broodthaers: I went back to La Fontaine's text and transformed it into what I call
personal writing (poetry). I had my text printed and placed before it various
everyday objects (boots, a telephone, a bottle of milk) which were meant to form
a direct relationship with the printed letters. It was an attempt to deny, as far as
possible, meaning to the word as well as to the image. When I'd finished shoot-
ing, I realized that once the film was projected onto a regular screen, I mean a
plain white canvas, it didn't exactly give me the image I had intended to create.
There was still too much distance between object and text. In order to
integrate text and object, I would have to print on the screen the same typo-
graphic characters I had used in the film. My film is a rebus, something you have
to want to figure out. It's a reading exercise.

* The International Festival of Independent Film, organized by Jacques Ledoux, Director of the
Royal Belgian Film Archive, and held every seven years.

This content downloaded from 49.207.51.220 on Tue, 17 Mar 2020 03:33:14 UTC
All use subject to https://about.jstor.org/terms
 Jr---l

;~~ ~ ~~ : ... ....

. . :.. .... .... ..:

ii i~i:?ii i::iliiiil~iii:bN
::: ::?.,,.. .......r
RBEAU:"'NE,
wx?. W....

.... .....

........... ....

Marcel Broodthaers. Le Courbeau et le Renard.

1967. Printed Projection Screen.

Trepied: So it's not a classic film, or a commercial film, more like an experime
film. Perhaps an "anti-film"?

Broodthaers: Yes and no. An anti-film is still a film, just as an anti-novel can
quite help being both book and writing: my film expands the domain of th
"conventional" film. It wasn't designed primarily or at least exclusively for
movie house. In order to see and be able to understand the total work I wanted
to create, the film must not only be projected onto the printed screen but th
viewer must also possess the text. I suppose you could call my film a kind of p
art. It's a "multiple," the kind of thing that has recently been talked about as
means of assuring widespread distribution of art. That's why it will soon
shown in a gallery, where they have printed more than forty copies of the scre
and the book. It will be sold as a work of art, each example of which will consist of
a film, two screens, and an enormous book. It's an environment.

Trepied: You are clearly not interested in the general public. How do you env
age the artist's role?

This content downloaded from 49.207.51.220 on Tue, 17 Mar 2020 03:33:14 UTC
All use subject to https://about.jstor.org/terms
 38 TREPIED

Broodthae
problem .
come the o
Godard an
function t
matter of
Belgium,
Belgium h
help him e

Trepied: W

Broodthae
country th
be an infl
artistic op

Trepied: W

Broodthaer
Vietnam, b
lately.

Trepied: Do you think there is still any future for film?

Broodthaers: I don't believe in film, nor do I believe in any other art. I don't
believe in the unique artist or the unique work of art. I believe in phenomena,
and in men who put ideas together.

1968

This content downloaded from 49.207.51.220 on Tue, 17 Mar 2020 03:33:14 UTC
All use subject to https://about.jstor.org/terms