Publication details
Film Advertising Has a Higher Objective than Greed. Film, Art and Business in the Work of Alexander Hackenschmied
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| Year of publication | 2013 |
| Type | Conference abstract |
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| Description | In his essay on an independent cinema from 1930 Alexander Hackenschmied wrote: "Avant-garde film once meant the pure art of cinema, in opposition to 'film art' made for business. Why do we locate a genuine attempt of film art elsewhere than perfect scientific film, perfect travelogue or perfect advertising film?" In this text, without any previous experience in filmmaking, Hackenschmied began to formulate his theoretical conception of film, in which film art and film business appear at once as distinct and interconnected phenomena. This paper focuses on Czech period of Hackenschmied's work and relates it to his more recent projects in order to demonstrate how little importance he attached to the genre, type or function of a film as compared with other aspects, specifically the stylistic innovation and social engagement. The analysis thus switches between Hackenschmied's films as texts and three key contexts: the context of Hackenschmied's reflections on film as art, on film as industry, on the relation between film and business, and on film's marketability; the context of Czech film culture and film industry of the 1930s; the context of international avant-garde movement. For Hackenschmied, avant-garde experiments, scientific films, and advertising films all entailed a responsibility to society, whether this was a responsibility for the education of the eye and aesthetic tastes, or a responsibility for civic, national, and consumer consciousness. In the conclusion to this paper, I explain the specificity of the "harmonious tension" between avant-garde and advertising in Hackenschmied's case, a tension rooted in contemporary conditions of Czech nonfiction film production and finding a characteristic expression in contemporary "omni-purpose films". The overlap of avant-garde and advertising,was only one among many other overlaps with nonfiction genres and functions typical of the underdeveloped Czech production system. |
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