#John berger ways of seeing episode 2 series#
#John berger ways of seeing episode 2 tv#

#John berger ways of seeing episode 2 series#

This was the only film in the series to be directly developed from a pre-existing Berger essay, in this case his provocative introduction to Howard DanielвЂ™s вЂњEncyclopaedia of Themes and Subjects in PaintingвЂќ, in which John looked critically at the tradition and function of European easel painting from roughly the 15th to the 19th century. This was then shown to five feminist writers and friends (identified at the end of the film and including JohnвЂ™s then wife Anya) whose spontaneous and articulate first responses were immediately recorded in a lively filmed conversation, which originally lasted around 50 minutes (and was best at this length), but which we had to edit down to 15 minutes to keep within the designated 30 minute length of the programme. In the first we constructed a short 15вЂ™ film around a new text by John, mainly drawn from various previous things heвЂ™d written, including his soon to be published Booker prize-winning novel вЂњGвЂќ. This second film set out to question the way women had been seen and represented in European paintings, with particular regard to the ways theyвЂ™d been depicted within the tradition of вЂњThe NudeвЂќ. The formal challenge was to turn BenjaminвЂ™s very dense essay into a playful and accessible filmic exploration of the many ways in which the reproduction of paintings and art objects from the past had released them from their original fixed bearings into a fluid world of potential new contexts in which their meanings could be subtly or powerfully changed, according to where and how they could be seen, on postcards or in domestic settings, by what could be written and said about them in countless books and catalogues, by their relationship to other images with which they could be juxtaposed, and by the music that could be played over them in numerous documentaries, including this one! This first film (and indeed its form) was inspired by Walter BenjaminвЂ™s seminal essay вЂњThe Work of Art in the Age of Mechanical ReproductionвЂќ that had recently appeared in an English translation in 1968.

#John berger ways of seeing episode 2 tv#

Ways of SeeingВ was the hugely provocative and influential BAFTA award-winningВ (1972, Best Specialised Series) four part TV series with John Berger that was subsequently turned into the best-selling book thatвЂ™s still in print.В The films, many foreign editions of the book and related memorabilia were featured in Tate BritainвЂ™s exhibition вЂњWays of Seeing- revisitedвЂќ (March-July 2005).