1、)原文 The newsreel commentator, the actor, the intellectual, andthe broadcaster: celebrity and personality voices in classic BritishdocumentaryAuthor: Martin StolleryIndependent Researcher, London, UKThis paper explores some hitherto overlooked intersections between British documentary of the 1930s an
2、d 1940s and celebrity culture. It does so through the analysis of voice-over commentary in a range of differentfilms from this period. We might be forgiven for assuming that the relationship between documentary film-making and the field of celebrity culture, broadly defined, is a fairly recent histo
3、rical phenomenon. The examples that spring to mind are documentaries fronted by film-makers who have become celebrities, such as Michael Moore, or numerous recent film and television documentaries about celebrities. Yet the relationship has a much longer, multi faceted history. This history can be t
4、raced at least as far back as the late 1930s, the period during which the British documentary film movement consolidated, diversified and subsequently played an important role within wartime culture. Analysing some points of intersection will shed new light on both fields of research. Strategically,
5、 this analysis also supports an agenda outlined by two contributors to an earlier issue of this journal. David Beer and Ruth Penfbld-Mounce (2010) argue that, although the academic study of celebrity can capitalise upon wider public interest in this topic, it needs to vigorously address perceived do
6、ubts about its value.Historians of 1930s and wartime British documentary have overlooked or underestimated the fact that many of these films incorporated in their commentaries certain types of personality and celebrity voices. One of the main reasons for this oversight is that the standard narrative
7、 of the British documentary film movement is largely conceived in terms of classic films. It emphasises the influence upon the movement of preceding, canonised films, such as Nanook of the North (Robert Flaherty, 1922) and Battleship Potemkin (Sergei Eisenstein, 1926), followed by the movements alle
8、ged influence upon subsequent British feature films, for example some of Ealing Studios* wartime and post-war output. Less attention has been paid to British documentarys relationship with other types of non-fiction film, such as newsreel, or to other media.The lack of close attention to commentary
9、in British documentaries of the 1930s and 1940s is also partly the consequence of what Stella Bruzzi (2006, p. 47) has described as the predominance, until recently, within academic studies, of an oversimplified perception of voice-overs as all in some manner pertaining to the most basic Voice of Go
10、d, model*. Filmmakers typically give careful consideration to which specific voice will most effectively support the truth claims advanced by a particular documentary, and whether it will resonate with audiences affectively as well as intellectually. Simon Frith (1996, pp. 192, 198) has argued, in a
11、 different context, that listeners 4hear voices as physically produced*, and that we use the voice . not just to assess a person, but also, even more systematically, to assess that persons sincerity: the voice and how it is used (as well as words and how they are used) become a measure of someones t
12、ruthfulness. John Grierson would probably have agreed with sociologist Richard Sennetts (2002, p. 4) famous thesis about modem Western cultures obsession with persons at the expense of more impersonal social relations The British documentary movement can be understood as a project designed to use ci
13、nema to encourage audiences to participate in a public sphere primarily governed by rationality and partly removed from personal concerns. Yet Grierson also stressed the importance of emotional engagement, and keenly appreciated the attraction of audiences to film stars. He wrote in 1927,4in the rea
14、lly significant cases, the relation of the star to the public is too intimate to be set down to the wiles of advertisement or the necessities of showmanshipJ (cited in Jarvie and Macmillan 1989, p. 319). Battleship Potemkin, on the other hand, represented one possible alternative to this 4tyranny of
15、 individualism. general audiences . cheered their way through the film because of the pride of class to which it appealed * (p. 320). In his 1934 discussion of documentary commentary, Grierson (p. 216) argued that an intimacy similar to the relationship between public and film star could be achieved
16、 by using anonymous representatives of the working class and/or specific occupational groups to voice commentaries.Cameron (1944, p. 4) did not explicitly endorse personality commentators, and he added a caveat: documentary sound recordists, unlike those in features, needed to have scruples on the score of realism*. Nevertheless, the professional standards he espoused strongly implied that properly t
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