The directors John Carpenter called “textually inferior”
The movies of John Carpenter are about as direct as they come, whether they be his wonderfully unique and influential takes on the horror, action or science fiction genres. Through the likes of Halloween, The Thing, Escape from New York and Assault of Precinct 13, Carpenter had always received praise.
While so many plaudits have come Carpenter’s way over the years for his contributions to a wide variety of genres, it can easily be said that the director himself has never stopped short of criticising his fellow filmmakers, whether it be his contemporaries or the old master that came before him.
In that light, Carpenter is always good for a fired shot or two, and he once pointed out a number of European filmmakers who he considers to be “textually inferior”. In an interview with the BFI, Carpenter was asked about the New Wave directors and how they tried to expand genre frameworks.
Carpenter admitted that he finds it “difficult to reflect” on such a question. “I have a feeling that Truffaut and Godard, a lot of European filmmakers… whether it’s the system they are working under or… their movies are texturally inferior somehow, there’s something missing in them, just in terms of a visceral approach to a movie.”
The director can’t quite figure out whether the lack of the visceral in the works of Truffaut and Godard is intentional, noting, “And I can’t figure out whether it’s [that], or whether they haven’t the technicians, or what. But there is a distance from the screen to the audience.”
The thing for Carpenter is that he feels that films should be emotional rather than intellectual in the way that Godard and Truffaut portray them. He thinks that the sole reason for visiting a cinema is to get an emotional response from the narrative and visuals, regardless of what that emotion is.
“My whole philosophy of movies is that movies are not intellectual, they are not ideas, that is done in literature and all sorts of other forms,” Carpenter explained. “Movies are emotional; an audience should cry or laugh or get scared. I think the audience should project into the film, into a character, into a situation, and react.”
“I don’t feel you can just sit and analyse the film intellectually because then it has failed,” the director continued. “So in terms of extending the genres, philosophical ideas, I’m not as interested in that as I am in getting the audience to react, really to project into the film, and come away having had an experience.”
Both Jean-Luc Godard and François Truffaut are praised for the way in which their films divulge philosophical themes, but clearly, for Carpenter, that very motive overshadows the unique reason for the cinematic medium in the first place, and it is fair to say that his own films are direct in their approach to action, humour and horror.
