1965 Richard (Ricky) Leacock
摘要
This chapter concerns itself with one enunciation in which Richard Leacock (1921–2011) passionately expressed his documentarological truth—laying out a cluster of premises that, as a whole, submit a new definiens of Documentary in 1965. The interviewer, filmmaker James Blue, transcribed the interview bearing the extended title “One Man’s Truth. An Interview with Richard Leacock. The Second in A [sic] Series on Cinéma Vérité.” Leacock’s opening words convey a notion that Documentary—and, more particularly, documentary films—is first and foremost a means of human communication. His definiens is divided into four phases, placing unprecedented importance on audience reception. He says that “our films are the audience” and then comments that “We say we are film makers, but in a funny sort of way we are the audience.” For him, the three elements—the creative agency, the observed object, and the perceiving subjects—are, in fact, one: a synergy is being formed. What Georges Méliès began in 1896 emerges once again with Leacock’s first definitional endeavor in 1961 and now completes its circle. In sum, the chapter offers a close reading and a thorough breakdown of this complex Leacockian definitional gesture.