Essential Viewing

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Tom alerted me to this series, wolfed down in one sitting yesterday. Ubu web is fantastic resource (have watched films on Celine, Leonard Cohen and an arresting/uncomfortable TV interview with Lacan so far). The accompanying essay by Momus already goes a fair way towards describing what makes 'Ways of Seeing' so special, but it's perfect example of that kind of BBC paternalism that is also wholly unpatronising - Berger sets his ideas out clearly and the viewer is credited with the ability to understand them. The brilliantly devised second episode, 'Women in Art', sees Berger set out his thesis (and he's always at pains to point at that it's his thesis, encouraging the viewer to respond critically) in the first half and then have a group of women discuss and respond to a viewing of that first half of the programme. It's not just a token gesture, this takes up the rest of the running time of the episode. Episode 4, 'Commercial Art', also felt like the perfect companion to Mad Men. If the BBC still made programmes like this (Momus suggests they never did, that this was a one-off) it might actually deserve the 'lefty' label slapped on it by the Daily Mail.

The only programme I can think of in recent years which has encourage this kind of critical thinking about images is 'Newswipe'/'Screenwipe'. Obviously, the latter are in a more matey vernacular, because that's the only way that people will apparently absorb that kind of information now. 'Ways of Seeing' is not without its period trappings either, but those only enhance its appeal - as Momus puts it

" The Britain we glimpse in the films, already alienated by spooky BBC Radiophonic Workshop music by Delia Derbyshire, is alienated even more by the passing of time. Alienated usefully, in the Brechtian sense; we look at a capitalist society which is like, and unlike, our own."

I was also intrigued by the fact the last episode is in colour whereas the others are in black and white. I tried to imagine this was another audacious move on the part of the programme makers, but it must be down to how these recordings were captured (the series was in colour but eps 1-3 were from a b&w TV?)