Life and Times with Artaud

1) As everyone has already noted, the scene with Colette and Artaud practising the il etait un roi de thule is perhaps the most obvious allusion to Artaud’s concepts behind the theatre of cruelty. The audience is shown the grueling, physical struggle that Colette must undergo in order to train her voice to reach Artaud’s desired standard. It is the process of rehearsal that we are asked to witness, not its outcome. The audience must endure the exhausting strains of Colette’s voice, and in this way, they suffer with her.

Perhaps another link to Artaud’s Theatre of Cruelty can be seen in Prevel’s struggle. He is continually striving to become a published poet, and looks to Artaud for help. However, that he never appears to achieve this and instead is often called to be resposinble for Artaud, is perhaps evidence of Artaud’s a) rejection of language (especially poetry) and b) again a focus on the process of creating art, rather than the final product art. All art should be a struggle.

2) I’m with Matt on the film’s use of Bob Dylan. I’m not sure Artaud would have embraced this use of popular culture. The film reuses sound, rather than creating a new sound and this doesn’t fit with Artaud’s ideals. Again, in agreement with previous posts, I think that the uses of silences had the greatest impact. Colette’s performance in the theatre was entirely unaccompanied by sound, thus forcing the audience to heighten their other senses to the light and atmosphere unfolding before them. The silence here is also rather frustrating for the audience…they have heard and seen Colette rehearsing for this performance, but they never actually get to hear the final product.

3) I think the Black and White worked really well in this film. The want of colour serves as a reminder that the characters in this film are not fully engaging with the outside world. The colour and imagination exists inside their heads, rather than in reality. This pessimistic view of reality is accentuated by the lack of colour.

4) I really enjoyed the film. And while it wasn’t particularly helpful in cementing my understanding of Artaud, it at least gave me a sense of his existence and the character with whom he was aquainted during his life. So… 4/5 from me.