Georges Perec's Things: A Story Of The Sixties

In “A Century of Cinema”, Susan Sontag explains how cinema was cherished by those who enjoyed what cinema offered. Cinema was unlike anything else, it was entertainment that had the audience feeling apart of the film. However, as the years went by, the special feeling regarding cinema went away as those who admired cinema wanted to help expand the experience.

“In a world that was theirs it was almost a regulation always to wish for more than you could have.” Such a world had only just arrived during the early nineteen sixties—with a surge in economic output, an increase in the average income, and the commercialization of mass-produced consumer goods—following the Second World War. This was a time during which France, in particular, transitioned from a class-based, limited-consumption culture to a consumer society in which individuals defined their positions and self-worth based on the possessions that they owned. Georges Perec’s novella Things: A story of the Sixties details the rise of this wealthy consumer society and the various industries that made it possible, through the story of a young couple in their twenties striving to attain an idealized life-style, while hoping to somehow escape what they consider to be a bourgeois trap.

Although the best reasons for “going to the movies” are to be entertained and eat popcorn, understanding a film is actually quite complex. Movies are not only a reflection of life, they also have the capability of shaping our norms, values, attitudes, and perception of life. Through the media of film, one can find stories of practically anything imaginable and some things unimaginable. Movie-makers use their art to entertain, to promote political agendas, to educate, and to present life as it is, was, or could be. They can present truth, truth as they interpret it, or simply ignore truth altogether. A movie can be a work of fiction, non-fiction, or anything in-between. A film is an artist’s interpretation. What one takes away from a film depends upon how one interprets what has been seen and heard. Understanding film is indeed difficult.

The role of blinding commercialism in people's lives is to provide comfort in its repetitiveness and thoughtlessness. Commercialism does not encourage deep thought by any means, it prays on the quick impulses of the human mind. Murray points this out when talking to Jack about his students and their dislike of television, “‘Look at the wealth of data concealed in the grid, in the bright packaging, the jingles, the slice-of-life commercials, the products hurtling out of darkness, the coded messages and endless repetitions, like chants, like mantras.’”(51). Murray’s studying the television shows just how much can be learned about humankind from it. Through the use of a simile,

Most pieces of art have a deeper meaning than what is simply expressed on the surface. Through emotions, symbols, and motifs, an artist can portray a unique story; however, despite the use of creative symbols, distinct stories can show a similar theme. Two such examples are the short film Destino by Salvador Dali and Walt Disney and The Great Gatsby by F. Scott Fitzgerald, which share the common theme of “the struggle of obtaining dreams”. Based on what is shown in these works of art, it is a challenge to attain dreams.

When the war started in 1954 no one thought it would go on as long as it had. During the 1960’s the war hit high gear and the government started or restarted the draft for the service. It was during this time the peace symbol came into play with

Films are a large part of our lives here in America where we depend on them to do when we’re bored with nothing to do, or when the snow or rain is falling. We all use movies as a common way to go on dates and be with friends. However, there has become an abundance amount of movies that we can all enjoy throughout our lives. Although not all movies are interesting to all viewers depending on their personality and what they like to watch. I can say for myself that a film that I really enjoy would be “Mean Girls”. In the two thousand four film “Mean Girls” there is a sense of entertainment that helps in combining all the aspects found in a classical film. Classical films having a entertaining and dramatic plot, and a excellent cast.

Elizabeth Gower’s method is more subtle, repurposing the junk material of our contemporary consumer culture through collage, transforming it into a critique of its ephemerality and temporality.

The art capital of the world began in Paris, France where artists were given free reign and creative development to indulge their psyches without fear of odious disparagement that would damage their careers. Paris as a city, as well as an art center, experienced prolific transformations and developments in the nineteenth century that allowed these innovative ideas to prosper. These alterations can be expounded in depth via the economic, technological, and sociological aspects of each. Through the persona and exploration of the well-known writer, artist, and critic, Charles Baudelaire, these innovations can be expatiated and exemplified.

To support this idea, Bordwell illustrates how art cinema motivates its narratives differently, through two principles: realism and authorial expressivity. Firstly he proposes the notion that art films reflect realism in their characters, space, and time. Psychologically complex characters are present in real worlds dealing with true-to-life situations. Art cinema is concerned with the characters ‘reaction’ to these situations, rather than their ‘action’. Thus it bares an element of psychological subjectivity as the characters survey the world they are in, which aids the realisation of the distress of

The romantic idea of the auteur is described by film theoretician, André Bazin, observing the film form as an idealistic phenomenon. Through the personal factor in artistic creation as a standard reference, Bazin primarily refers to an essential literary and romantic conception of the artist as central. He considers the relationship between film aesthetics and reality more important than the director itself and places cinema above paintings. He described paintings as a similar ethical creation to film stating a director ‘can be valued according to its measurements and the celebrity of the signature, the objective quality of the work itself was formerly held in much higher esteem.’ (Bazin, 1967: 250). Bazin contemplates the historical and social aspects that indeed hinder a director’s retribution to their own personalised film, thus en-companying their own ideological judgement upon the world ‘more so in cinema where the sociological and historical cross-currents are countless.’ (Bazin, 1967: 256)

This theme of consumerism is one of the strongest driving forces in the novel, which explains why the role of the television is so important. “TV’s commercial emergence coincides with the ‘golden age’ of Fordism.” (McCarthy 2) The television thrives merely on the ratings that bring about an enlarged group of commercial viewers, and the more viewers, the more money is brought in through commercials and advertising. Although many people believe that they themselves are not influenced by advertising, no one can escape the brief moments of mind-numbing product awareness being drilled into their heads.

Through its depictions of the new age of materialism, Realism eventually became a symbol for the bourgeoisie who had, from humbler origins, recently risen to new positions of power within the Parisian government. Nevertheless, Realist works had begun to gain acceptance in salons only reluctantly; some still scorned their work as “monstrously ugly”.

Benjamin’s death in 1940 at the age of 48, is rumored to be a suicide when the Naza’s took office, but is still a mystery. His ideas and concepts however, would live on for decades to come. Much of what he wrote about when discussing art came essentially after the development of photography and film. In his work, “Art in the Age of Mechanical Reproduction,” Benjamin addresses his perception of the changes in art and the aesthetic experience congruent with societal changes. He writes with concern of how the great artworks are viewed after the introduction of photography and film. His idea of mechanical reproduction changed the art world as society knew it, particularly in how the public views artwork and the value of that work as more and more people are able to own, view and discuss it. This paper will specifically look at aspects of Benjamin’s groundbreaking essay and how educators can relate his ideas to the practices in their art classrooms.

The Society of the Spectacle examines the everyday manifestation of capitalist driven agendas. The book Society of the Spectacle was written around the time that the Vietnam War was going on and in fact it is argued that the world had been overtaken by the notion of spectacle. In the book Debord describes what the spectacle is comprises of through multiple approach and examples that illustrate how the vase outlets in society consumer the public mindset. According to Debord, “The whole Life of those societies in which modern conditions of production prevail presents itself as an immense accumulations of spectacles. All that once was directly lived has become mere representations” (Debord 12). Here Debord is making the connection as to how things are now summed up in society. Things that were once directly lived are now mere representation of what they were in the past. Thus, this leads to the conclusion that the media and other outlets have affected the reality of those living in this world that now is becoming a spectacle of what society wants rather than what the society actually is itself. The society of the spectacle is simply is an equation that equals and blindside solution to what the majority of authority wants the public sector to know.