Couve | Cabbage

Public housing (1997) Frederick Wiseman excerpt from nostalgist/Supposed aura

« Procura o “drama” enquanto filma? Frederick Wiseman – O primeiro pensamento é: estou a tentar fazer um filme. Um filme tem que ter sequência e estrutura dramática. Não tenho uma noção muito precisa do que constitui drama, mas aposto em conseguir episódios dramáticos. Doutra forma torna-se no filme de Andy Warhol sobre o Empire State Building. Portanto, sim, procuro o drama, apesar de não estar necessariamente à procura de pessoas a baterem umas na outras, disparando umas sobre as outras. Há imenso drama nas experiências comuns. Em Public housing, havia drama naquele velho a ser despejado do seu apartamento pela polícia. Havia imenso drama naquela velha na sua cozinha a cortar uma couve. O que viu nessa cena da couve? Frederick Wiseman – Vi uma mulher sozinha, num apartamento escassamente mobilado, que fora um dia independente. O modo como examinava e cortava a couve – havia um elemento de controlo. A paciência e a resistência sugeriram-me o modo como levava a sua vida. Quando falava ao telefone estava claramente desapontada por alguém que presumi fosse um membro da família não ir aparecer. Li aí toda uma história de relações familiares. Estava desapontada, mas aceitava-o tão estoicamente quanto examinava a couve. Achei isso dramático – não num sentido de shoot-’em-up, antes dramático num sentido de expressão do sentimento. »

« Do you look for "drama" while shooting? Frederick Wiseman – The first thought: I'm trying to make a movie. A movie has to have dramatic sequence and structure. I don't have a very precise definition of what constitutes drama, but I'm gambling that I'm going to get dramatic episodes. Otherwise, it becomes Andy Warhol's movie on the Empire State Building. So, yes, I am looking for drama, though I'm not necessarily looking for people beating each other up, shooting each other. There's a lot of drama in ordinary experiences. In Public Housing, there was drama in that old man being evicted from his apartment by the police. There was a lot of drama in that old woman at her kitchen table peeling a cabbage. What did you see in that cabbage scene? Frederick Wiseman – I saw a woman alone, in a very sparsely furnished apartment, who once was independent. The way she examined and peeled the cabbage – there was an element of control. The patience and endurance suggested to me the way she led her life. When she talked on the phone, she was clearly disappointed that someone I took to be a member of her family was not going to show up. I read into that a whole history of family relationships. She was disappointed, but she accepted it as stoically as she'd examined the cabbage. I found that dramatic – not in a shoot-'em-up sense, but dramatic in a sense of the expression of feeling. » Frederick Wiseman, interviewed by Gerald Peary