Peter Watkins
Encyclopedia
Peter Watkins is an English
film
and television
director
. He was born in Norbiton
, Surrey
, lived in Sweden
, Canada
and Lithuania
for many years, and now lives in France
. He is one of the pioneers of docudrama
. His movies, pacifist and radical, strongly review the limit of classic documentary and movies. He mainly concentrates his works and ideas around the mass media
and our relation/participation to a movie or television documentary.
Nearly all of Watkins' films have used a combination of dramatic and documentary elements to dissect historical occurrences or possible near future events. The first of these, Culloden
, portrayed the Jacobite uprising of 1745 in a documentary style, as if television reporters were interviewing the participants and accompanying them into battle; a similar device was used in his biographical film Edvard Munch
. La Commune (Paris, 1871)
reenacts the Paris Commune
days using a large cast of French non-actors.
In 2004 he also wrote a book, Media Crisis, an engaged essay about the media crisis, the monoform and, foremost, the lack of debate around the construction of new forms of audiovisual media.
, Watkins began his television and film career as an assistant producer of short TV films and commercials; and in the early 1960s was an assistant editor and director of documentaries
at the BBC
. All of his films have either been documentary or drama presented with documentary techniques, sometimes portraying historical occurrences and sometimes possible near future events as if contemporary reporters and filmmakers were there to interview the participants. Watkins pioneered this technique in his first full-length television film, Culloden, which portrayed the Jacobite
uprising of 1746 in a style similar to the Vietnam War
reporting of the time. In 1965, he won a Jacob's Award for Culloden at the annual presentation ceremony in Dublin.
The scope and formal innovation of Culloden drew immediate critical acclaim for the previously unknown director, and the BBC commissioned him for another ambitious production, the nuclear-war docudrama The War Game
, for The Wednesday Play
series. The production was subsequently released to cinemas and won the 1966 Academy Award for Documentary Feature
, eventually being screened by the BBC on 31 July 1985 after a 20 year ban.
His reputation as a political provocateur was amplified by Punishment Park
, a story of violent political conflict in the United States that coincided with the Kent State Massacre. Opposition to war
is a common theme of his work, but the films' political messages are often ambiguous, usually allowing the main characters to present violently opposing viewpoints which in many cases are improvised by the cast: in Punishment Park, the soldiers and dissidents were played by nonprofessional actors whose political opinions matched those of their characters so well that the director said he feared actual violence would break out on set. He took a similar approach in his Paris Commune
reenactment La Commune
, using newspaper advertisements to recruit conservative actors who would have a genuine antipathy to the Commune rebels. Watkins is also known for political statements about the film and television media, writing extensively about flaws in television news and the dominance of the Hollywood-derived narrative style that he refers to as "the monoform".
After the banning of The War Game and the poor reception of his first non-television feature, Privilege
, Watkins left England and has made all of his subsequent films abroad: The Gladiators in Sweden, Punishment Park in the United States
, Edvard Munch
in Norway
, Resan
(a 14-hour film cycle about the threat of nuclear war) in ten different countries, and La Commune in France
. Freethinker: The Life and Work of Peter Watkins, is a forthcoming biography by Patrick Murphy, a Senior Lecturer in Film and Television at York St John University and Dr John Cook. It is being compiled with Watkins' active help and participation.
England
England is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. It shares land borders with Scotland to the north and Wales to the west; the Irish Sea is to the north west, the Celtic Sea to the south west, with the North Sea to the east and the English Channel to the south separating it from continental...
film
Film
A film, also called a movie or motion picture, is a series of still or moving images. It is produced by recording photographic images with cameras, or by creating images using animation techniques or visual effects...
and television
Television
Television is a telecommunication medium for transmitting and receiving moving images that can be monochrome or colored, with accompanying sound...
director
Television director
A television director directs the activities involved in making a television program and is part of a television crew.-Duties:The duties of a television director vary depending on whether the production is live or recorded to video tape or video server .In both types of productions, the...
. He was born in Norbiton
Norbiton
Norbiton is a place in the Royal Borough of Kingston upon Thames, London. It lies approximately east of Kingston upon Thames's town centre, and from Charing Cross. Its main landmarks include Kingston Hospital and Kingsmeadow football stadium, which is currently used for the home matches of both...
, Surrey
Surrey
Surrey is a county in the South East of England and is one of the Home Counties. The county borders Greater London, Kent, East Sussex, West Sussex, Hampshire and Berkshire. The historic county town is Guildford. Surrey County Council sits at Kingston upon Thames, although this has been part of...
, lived in Sweden
Sweden
Sweden , officially the Kingdom of Sweden , is a Nordic country on the Scandinavian Peninsula in Northern Europe. Sweden borders with Norway and Finland and is connected to Denmark by a bridge-tunnel across the Öresund....
, Canada
Canada
Canada is a North American country consisting of ten provinces and three territories. Located in the northern part of the continent, it extends from the Atlantic Ocean in the east to the Pacific Ocean in the west, and northward into the Arctic Ocean...
and Lithuania
Lithuania
Lithuania , officially the Republic of Lithuania is a country in Northern Europe, the biggest of the three Baltic states. It is situated along the southeastern shore of the Baltic Sea, whereby to the west lie Sweden and Denmark...
for many years, and now lives in France
France
The French Republic , The French Republic , The French Republic , (commonly known as France , is a unitary semi-presidential republic in Western Europe with several overseas territories and islands located on other continents and in the Indian, Pacific, and Atlantic oceans. Metropolitan France...
. He is one of the pioneers of docudrama
Docudrama
In film, television programming and staged theatre, docudrama is a documentary-style genre that features dramatized re-enactments of actual historical events. As a neologism, the term is often confused with docufiction....
. His movies, pacifist and radical, strongly review the limit of classic documentary and movies. He mainly concentrates his works and ideas around the mass media
Mass media
Mass media refers collectively to all media technologies which are intended to reach a large audience via mass communication. Broadcast media transmit their information electronically and comprise of television, film and radio, movies, CDs, DVDs and some other gadgets like cameras or video consoles...
and our relation/participation to a movie or television documentary.
Nearly all of Watkins' films have used a combination of dramatic and documentary elements to dissect historical occurrences or possible near future events. The first of these, Culloden
Culloden (film)
Culloden is a 1964 docudrama written and directed by Peter Watkins for BBC TV. It portrays the 1746 Battle of Culloden that resulted in the British Army's destruction of the Jacobite uprising and, in the words of the narrator, "tore apart forever the clan system of the Scottish Highlands"...
, portrayed the Jacobite uprising of 1745 in a documentary style, as if television reporters were interviewing the participants and accompanying them into battle; a similar device was used in his biographical film Edvard Munch
Edvard Munch (film)
Edvard Munch is a 1974 biographical film about the Norwegian Expressionist painter Edvard Munch, written and directed by Peter Watkins. It was originally created as a three-part miniseries co-produced by the Norwegian and Swedish state television networks NRK and SVT, but subsequently gained an...
. La Commune (Paris, 1871)
La Commune (Paris, 1871)
La Commune is a 2000 historical drama film directed by Peter Watkins about the Paris Commune. It is a historical re-enactment in the style of a documentary, and was shot in just 13 days in an abandoned factory on the outskirts of Paris...
reenacts the Paris Commune
Paris Commune
The Paris Commune was a government that briefly ruled Paris from March 18 to May 28, 1871. It existed before the split between anarchists and Marxists had taken place, and it is hailed by both groups as the first assumption of power by the working class during the Industrial Revolution...
days using a large cast of French non-actors.
In 2004 he also wrote a book, Media Crisis, an engaged essay about the media crisis, the monoform and, foremost, the lack of debate around the construction of new forms of audiovisual media.
Life
After studying acting at the Royal Academy of Dramatic ArtRoyal Academy of Dramatic Art
The Royal Academy of Dramatic Art is a drama school located in London, United Kingdom. It is generally regarded as one of the most renowned drama schools in the world, and is one of the oldest drama schools in the United Kingdom, having been founded in 1904.RADA is an affiliate school of the...
, Watkins began his television and film career as an assistant producer of short TV films and commercials; and in the early 1960s was an assistant editor and director of documentaries
Documentary film
Documentary films constitute a broad category of nonfictional motion pictures intended to document some aspect of reality, primarily for the purposes of instruction or maintaining a historical record...
at the BBC
BBC
The British Broadcasting Corporation is a British public service broadcaster. Its headquarters is at Broadcasting House in the City of Westminster, London. It is the largest broadcaster in the world, with about 23,000 staff...
. All of his films have either been documentary or drama presented with documentary techniques, sometimes portraying historical occurrences and sometimes possible near future events as if contemporary reporters and filmmakers were there to interview the participants. Watkins pioneered this technique in his first full-length television film, Culloden, which portrayed the Jacobite
Jacobitism
Jacobitism was the political movement in Britain dedicated to the restoration of the Stuart kings to the thrones of England, Scotland, later the Kingdom of Great Britain, and the Kingdom of Ireland...
uprising of 1746 in a style similar to the Vietnam War
Vietnam War
The Vietnam War was a Cold War-era military conflict that occurred in Vietnam, Laos, and Cambodia from 1 November 1955 to the fall of Saigon on 30 April 1975. This war followed the First Indochina War and was fought between North Vietnam, supported by its communist allies, and the government of...
reporting of the time. In 1965, he won a Jacob's Award for Culloden at the annual presentation ceremony in Dublin.
The scope and formal innovation of Culloden drew immediate critical acclaim for the previously unknown director, and the BBC commissioned him for another ambitious production, the nuclear-war docudrama The War Game
The War Game
The War Game is a 1965 television documentary-style drama depicting the effects of nuclear war on Britain. Written, directed, and produced by Peter Watkins for the BBC's The Wednesday Play anthology series, it caused dismay within the BBC and in government and was withdrawn from television...
, for The Wednesday Play
The Wednesday Play
The Wednesday Play was an anthology series of British television plays which ran on BBC1 from October 1964 to May 1970. Every week's play was usually written for television, although adaptations from other sources also featured...
series. The production was subsequently released to cinemas and won the 1966 Academy Award for Documentary Feature
Academy Award for Documentary Feature
The Academy Award for Documentary Feature is among the most prestigious awards for documentary films.- Winners and nominees:Following the Academy's practice, films are listed below by the award year...
, eventually being screened by the BBC on 31 July 1985 after a 20 year ban.
His reputation as a political provocateur was amplified by Punishment Park
Punishment Park
Punishment Park is a 1971 film written and directed by Peter Watkins. It is a pseudo documentary of a British and West German film crew following National Guard soldiers and police as they pursue members of a counterculture group across a desert.-Plot:...
, a story of violent political conflict in the United States that coincided with the Kent State Massacre. Opposition to war
War
War is a state of organized, armed, and often prolonged conflict carried on between states, nations, or other parties typified by extreme aggression, social disruption, and usually high mortality. War should be understood as an actual, intentional and widespread armed conflict between political...
is a common theme of his work, but the films' political messages are often ambiguous, usually allowing the main characters to present violently opposing viewpoints which in many cases are improvised by the cast: in Punishment Park, the soldiers and dissidents were played by nonprofessional actors whose political opinions matched those of their characters so well that the director said he feared actual violence would break out on set. He took a similar approach in his Paris Commune
Paris Commune
The Paris Commune was a government that briefly ruled Paris from March 18 to May 28, 1871. It existed before the split between anarchists and Marxists had taken place, and it is hailed by both groups as the first assumption of power by the working class during the Industrial Revolution...
reenactment La Commune
La Commune (Paris, 1871)
La Commune is a 2000 historical drama film directed by Peter Watkins about the Paris Commune. It is a historical re-enactment in the style of a documentary, and was shot in just 13 days in an abandoned factory on the outskirts of Paris...
, using newspaper advertisements to recruit conservative actors who would have a genuine antipathy to the Commune rebels. Watkins is also known for political statements about the film and television media, writing extensively about flaws in television news and the dominance of the Hollywood-derived narrative style that he refers to as "the monoform".
After the banning of The War Game and the poor reception of his first non-television feature, Privilege
Privilege (film)
Privilege is a British film directed by Peter Watkins. It was released in 1967 being produced by John Heyman. Story: Johnny Speight. Script: Norman Bogner...
, Watkins left England and has made all of his subsequent films abroad: The Gladiators in Sweden, Punishment Park in the United States
United States
The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...
, Edvard Munch
Edvard Munch (film)
Edvard Munch is a 1974 biographical film about the Norwegian Expressionist painter Edvard Munch, written and directed by Peter Watkins. It was originally created as a three-part miniseries co-produced by the Norwegian and Swedish state television networks NRK and SVT, but subsequently gained an...
in Norway
Norway
Norway , officially the Kingdom of Norway, is a Nordic unitary constitutional monarchy whose territory comprises the western portion of the Scandinavian Peninsula, Jan Mayen, and the Arctic archipelago of Svalbard and Bouvet Island. Norway has a total area of and a population of about 4.9 million...
, Resan
Resan
Resan is a 14 ½ hour film by Peter Watkins, made between the years 1983 and 1985 on several continents, and structured around the theme of nuclear weapons, military spending and poverty. Ordinary people are asked about their awareness of these issues...
(a 14-hour film cycle about the threat of nuclear war) in ten different countries, and La Commune in France
France
The French Republic , The French Republic , The French Republic , (commonly known as France , is a unitary semi-presidential republic in Western Europe with several overseas territories and islands located on other continents and in the Indian, Pacific, and Atlantic oceans. Metropolitan France...
. Freethinker: The Life and Work of Peter Watkins, is a forthcoming biography by Patrick Murphy, a Senior Lecturer in Film and Television at York St John University and Dr John Cook. It is being compiled with Watkins' active help and participation.
by Peter Watkins
- 1956 : The Web - 20 min. - Great Britain - English - black and white
- 1958 : The Field of Red - Great Britain - English - black and white
- 1959 : The Diary of an Unknown Soldier - 20 min. - Great Britain - English - black and white
- 1961 : Forgotten Faces - 17 min. - Great Britain - English - black and white
- 1964 : CullodenCulloden (film)Culloden is a 1964 docudrama written and directed by Peter Watkins for BBC TV. It portrays the 1746 Battle of Culloden that resulted in the British Army's destruction of the Jacobite uprising and, in the words of the narrator, "tore apart forever the clan system of the Scottish Highlands"...
- 69 min. - Great Britain - English - black and white - 1965 : The War GameThe War GameThe War Game is a 1965 television documentary-style drama depicting the effects of nuclear war on Britain. Written, directed, and produced by Peter Watkins for the BBC's The Wednesday Play anthology series, it caused dismay within the BBC and in government and was withdrawn from television...
- 48 min. - Great Britain - English - black and white
Filmed in a documentary fashion and looks at the possible effects of nuclear war on England. Notable for its intense power and imagery. It later won the Academy Award for Best Documentary Feature, as well as the 1967 Best Documentary Feature award in Great Britain. - 1967 : PrivilegePrivilege (film)Privilege is a British film directed by Peter Watkins. It was released in 1967 being produced by John Heyman. Story: Johnny Speight. Script: Norman Bogner...
- 103 min. - Great Britain - English - colour
A performing singer placed in a futuristic totalitarian state, Steven Shorter (Paul JonesPaul Jones (singer)Paul Jones is an English singer, actor, harmonica player, and radio personality and television presenter.-Career:As P. P...
), is an intense character who sympathizes with the youth of the nation. He becomes very popular, yet realizes that his life is also controlled by the government. In 1978, Patti SmithPatti SmithPatricia Lee "Patti" Smith is an American singer-songwriter, poet and visual artist, who became a highly influential component of the New York City punk rock movement with her 1975 debut album Horses....
recorded one of the film's songs, "Set Me Free" (as "Privilege (Set Me Free)Privilege (Set Me Free)"Privilege " is a song written by Mel London and Mike Leander, and released as a second single from Patti Smith Group 1978 album Easter.- Liner notes :The following is quoted from the album:- External links :*...
") on her album Easter. The recording charted on the Top-100 lists in the UK (#72) and Ireland (#13). - 1969 : Gladiators (The Peace Game) - 69 min. - Sweden - English - colour
Views war as a futuristic sporting event where it seems as if games are being played for a television audience. - 1971 : Punishment ParkPunishment ParkPunishment Park is a 1971 film written and directed by Peter Watkins. It is a pseudo documentary of a British and West German film crew following National Guard soldiers and police as they pursue members of a counterculture group across a desert.-Plot:...
- 88 min. - United States - English - colour
Based on the "siege mentality" of police force during the 1970s. Protesters are given a choice for sentencing, and "Punishment Park" is one of the choices, in which the protesters must endure a three-day long contest in a barren desert without food, while being pursued by armed National Guardsmen. - 1975 : The Seventies People - 127 min. - Denmark - Danish - colour
- 1975 : Fällan - 65 min. - Sweden - Swedish - colour
- 1976 : Edvard MunchEdvard Munch (film)Edvard Munch is a 1974 biographical film about the Norwegian Expressionist painter Edvard Munch, written and directed by Peter Watkins. It was originally created as a three-part miniseries co-produced by the Norwegian and Swedish state television networks NRK and SVT, but subsequently gained an...
- 210 min. - Sweden and Norway - English and Norvegian - colour
Munch's life, emphasising his early years. - 1977 : Eveningland (Aftenlandet) - 109 min. - Denmark - Danish - colour
- 1988 : The JourneyResanResan is a 14 ½ hour film by Peter Watkins, made between the years 1983 and 1985 on several continents, and structured around the theme of nuclear weapons, military spending and poverty. Ordinary people are asked about their awareness of these issues...
(Resan) - 873 min. - Australia, Canada, Denmark, Finland, Italy, Japan, New Zealand, USSR, Sweden, Norway - English, French - black and white, colour - 1994 : The FreethinkerThe FreethinkerThe Freethinker may be:*The Freethinker , the oldest surviving secularist publication in the world, first published in 1881*The Freethinker , a Whig newspaper founded in 1718 by Ambrose Philips and Hugh Boulter...
- 276 min. - Sweden - Swedish - colour - 2000 : La Commune (Paris, 1871)La Commune (Paris, 1871)La Commune is a 2000 historical drama film directed by Peter Watkins about the Paris Commune. It is a historical re-enactment in the style of a documentary, and was shot in just 13 days in an abandoned factory on the outskirts of Paris...
- 375 min. (full-length version) - France - French - black and white
about Peter Watkins
- 2001 : The Universal Clock: The Resistance of Peter Watkins is a 77-minute documentary film about Watkins and the making of La Commune. The film is directed by Geoff Bowie and produced by the National Film Board of CanadaNational Film Board of CanadaThe National Film Board of Canada is Canada's twelve-time Academy Award-winning public film producer and distributor. An agency of the Government of Canada, the NFB produces and distributes documentary, animation, alternative drama and digital media productions...
. The universal clock refers to the synchronisation and the global movement of the televisions in the world, calibrated to be diffused anywhere around the globe, at any time. - 2001 : Peter Watkins - Lituania, Rebond for la Commune and Peter Watkins
External links
- Peter Watkins' official site
- BFI: Peter Watkins
- Peter Watkins—Notes and Questions: (3) Edvard Munch – interview by John Gianvito at Cinema Scope
- Notes on The Media Crisis An essay by Peter Watkins. MACBA, 2010.