14:14, 13 October 2012 - Monoskop

308 Harun Farocki
RH: Sure, but such texts are only written for parties anyway. But you are not
fundamentally criticizing theory-guided observations on film, are you?
HF: Absolutely not, my years in the US have changed my mind. I never cared
much about Fassbinder, not only because he was so far-reaching, but also because
he had no style. As you know, he was influenced by Straub and Brecht,
but broke with the rules of this school. He returned to characters who offered
identification, even though it was mostly via melodramatic exaggeration. Kaja
Silverman and Thomas Elsaesser explain how Fassbinder reveals politics in
love, exploitation in sexuality. These writings have enriched Fassbinder’s
films, not only visually, but also intellectually. I also understood that something
I deemed impossible applies to Fassbinder: he can communicate something
that can’t be found in the ‘language’ of his films, only in his intentions.
His intentions express themselves, just as it is possible to say more in a foreign
language than your actual limitations allow: a lovers’ experience, I think.
RH: In your films you are constantly dealing with film history; sometimes this
is really obvious. Apart from Godard, there are not a lot of people who do this
well. That’s why I would like to establish a connection between your two projects
Der Ausdruck der Hände (The Expression of Hands, 1997) and
Arbeiter verlassen die Fabrik (Workers Leaving the Factory, 1995).
Would you mind explaining your specific techniques of sequencing, material
selection, and association?
HF: In1995, when cinema turned one hundred, I had the idea of taking the
Lumière film, Workers leaving the factory, and looking for examples
throughout film history where workers are seen leaving a factory. Of course,
there are stars like Chaplin and Monroe, but there are also employees and
workers from Siemens in Berlin in 1934 who are leaving to join a Nazi rally.
There was also an East German factory brigade pulling out in uniforms and armoured
cars to arrest agents provocateurs in the forest – one only learns later
that this was just an exercise. The real enemy of the working class cannot be
shown, or it is too dangerous to turn him into a character. I collected scenes
from the US and Europe and from every decade of film history. Doing this, one
can learn a lot about ‘filmic expression’. Firstly, workers can’t be recognised as
such once they have walked out of the factory gate. One moment later and you
can’t distinguish them from other passers-by (see ill. 72). Secondly, it was once
the common belief among communists that economic struggle would turn
into political struggle – the factory gate would be the ideal place to observe
this. But no communist regime ever rose to power or collapsed in this way – if
you disregard the Lenin dockyards in Gdansk. More than anything, it’s a great