Transcription - Death - Episode 3

ENGLISH

 

 

00:00:10:19

You might not have thought about it, but death sneaks in everywhere.

 

 

00:00:25:21

What is wrong with this? This is all I could find.

 

 

00:00:29:07

But you know what, listen. If we’re going to make this movie, we have to do it right. It has to somewhat resemble the original.

 

 

00:00:35:13

But then you have to let me watch it.

 

 

00:00:46:05

I want you to kill everyone over there - and I want you to kill everybody over there.

 

 

00:00:55:07

Death is in the music.

 

 

00:01:09:04

It’s in the movies,

 

 

00:01:14:15

and in art.

 

 

00:01:18:09

There is architecture that is inspired by death,

 

 

00:01:22:19

And cartoons.

 

 

00:01:27:06

There is death in computer games, the most iconic photographs, and in humour.

 

 

00:01:34:00

My relationship with death remains the same. I’m strongly against it.

 

 

00:01:43:06

Ever since man's early history, we have dealt with death in creative ways.

 

 

00:01:50:19

Tonje has lost her mother. Now she is making a film about death for a school project.

 

 

00:02:00:05

And she is not alone. Because death is a big part of art and entertainment

 

 

00:02:07:05

Why did you turn the sound off?

 

 

00:02:09:01

Why is this so? What is so attractive about an unpleasant death, both for the creators and for the audience?

 

 

00:02:36:20

I'm currently working on a self portrait, which means it’s an eternity project, it never gets finished.

 

 

00:02:45:09

It's because I'm changing, and my mood changes, and then the sculpture changes as well.

 

 

00:02:52:13

I don’t know, I have been working on this for over a year. I will probably work on it next year as well. By then I might have lost all my hair, or my hair might have grown back.

 

 

00:03:04:24

I don’t know, after my treatments, hair growth has varied. So, I …

 

 

00:03:12:19

Per Ung is a sculptor. He has cancer and will soon die.

 

 

00:03:27:10

I feel very focused, I feel very present, as if life has in a way been given a condensed dimension.

 

 

00:03:46:07

I look at this as some kind of, not a gift, but as something that has happened to me that is important, and something that I feel is important.

 

 

00:04:02:05

So to me, this is actually affecting me in a positive way. It has a positive effect on my work, as well as my mood.

 

 

00:04:17:03

For the professional artist, it can be a positive thing to stare death straight in the face.

 

 

00:04:24:14

But for everyone else, art can help us live with death.

 

 

00:04:29:18

I think art often can be very therapeutic, and I think, you know, drawing in itself is a very relaxing activity, and I know that a lot of people find just simply sort of taking time to kind of be still and drawing,

 

 

00:04:42:21

and doing that very focused activity in itself is quite kind of meditative almost,

 

 

00:04.48:12

and yeah, I really believe in the power of art, and creativity being able to help people kind of deal with ideas and emotions that maybe they couldn’t, you know, through other ways.

 

 

00:04:58:19

Nikki Raven is one of London's many organizers of life drawing. But at her workshops, the subjects of death and the macabre are paramount.

 

 

00:05:10:17

Art Macabre drawing salons were set up as an alternative to traditional drawing salons, we started to do salons that were a little bit alternative, and use death as a theme.

 

 

00:05:21:24

So each salon we take a different sort of playful theme around death, and we incorporate that into the poses, and the models become characters, and using props and narrative and costume

 

 

00:05:33:14

to hopefully create some inspiring scenes, and yes, people seem to really engage with it and, find it really interesting source of inspiration for their, for their art work.

 

 

00:05:42:06

But yeah, thank you so, so much for coming and supporting Art Macabre. It’s really great to have you here.

 

 

00:05:45:24

I hope you have a brilliant rest of the week whether you’re celebrate day of the dead or Halloween tomorrow.

 

 

00:05:52:08

Artists have always been inspired by death. But one question has always created headaches.

 

 

00:06:00:16

How to represent something no one has ever seen? What does death look like?

 

 

00:06:10:10

We humans have developed a method to express the abstract. We create symbols.

 

 

00:06:20:03

There are many, many symbols of death, and symbols of remembrance and symbols of mourning.

 

 

00:06:29:24

Death is the most obvious constant in human life, and people have always had to deal with it somehow.

 

 

00:06:38:07

Miranda Bruce Mitford is the author of the book Signs and Symbols.

 

 

00:06:43:18

A sign is something quite straight forward. So it may be a street sign. It tells you that you are going in the right direction. It points out to what is inside a shop. It’s quite simple and fundamental.

 

 

00:06:57:23

But a symbol is something much more profound, because it can point to a much higher truth, a deeper truth.

 

 

00:07:05:08

So that if you look at a ladder. If you think of it symbolically, you look at the steps of the ladder which are leading up to a higher understanding. A higher truth or to heaven for example.

 

 

00:07:17:18

Symbolism makes death more palpable. The poppy is the colour of blood. That’s why, in many countries, this flower is used to honour those who have fallen in battle.

 

 

00:07:32:01

Death can be a bird. The vulture doesn’t hunt live animals, but waits until the prey lies dead on the ground.

 

 

00:07:42:11

I don’t think I quite understand the rules.

 

 

00:07:46:23

And as the sand in the hourglass runs down, it reminds us that time is running out.

 

 

00:07:59:08

But there is a symbol of death that is more recognisable than any other.

 

 

00:08:10:09

It is used all over the world, for example as street art.

 

 

00:08:18:24

I first drew Skullphone as an image that I drew very quickly, and when people saw the image that I had drawn they immediately gravitated towards it and,

 

 

00:08:29:03

and encouraged me that I had drawn something that they could identify with.

 

 

00:08:38:04

Skullphone is a street artist from Los Angeles.

 

 

00:08:44:23

He is very productive, and his work has been exhibited in galleries all around the world.

 

 

00:08:51:13

But what has made him famous, is the simple drawing of a skull with a cell phone.

 

 

00:08:59:02

Science has an explanation for why people are intrigued with the skull.

 

 

00:09:03:24

Our brain has an area that makes us able to recognize facial features. Fusiform gyrus.

 

 

00:09:11:17

The subconscious is in constant search of faces or facial features. Two dots can be seen as two eyes. But there are only two dots.

 

 

00:09:23:12

Faces can appear in the sky, on sheep shit, or even in your pint of beer.

 

 

00:09:32:05

Skulls have a face. And looking at it can be a reminder of what awaits us.

 

 

00:09:45:12

In the small town of Sedlec in the Czech Republic, there are sculptures made entirely of skulls and bones.

 

 

00:09:54:16

A visit to the bone chapel is a visit into the world of the dead. And for many, this is inspiring.

 

 

00:10:03:00

I’m ready now, daddy.

 

 

00:10:04:13

It’s an early morning in Sedlec. I am surrounded by thousand of bones...

 

 

00:10:10:14

He normally speaks in a lower voice.

 

 

00:10:14:07

It’s an early morning in Sedlec.

 

 

00:10:16:24

The tradition of bones decoration is quite old. It was typical for the high-medieval, late medieval, and then newly also for the baroque period. It is a kind of memento mori.

 

 

00:10:31:21

Memento mori – remember that you will die.

 

 

00:10:36:09

Chandeliers made from all the bones in the body, family emblems, obelisks, and decorations.

 

 

00:10:46:12

Everything is here to remind us of death.

 

 

00:10:50:05

The Latin term has not only influenced art, it has also been used to frighten people.

 

 

00:10:57:05

Pirates used skulls to create fear, and the chemical industry use it to warn against poison.

 

 

00:11:04:16

But today, the symbol has become so common, that it is no longer scary.

 

 

00:11:11:17

To me it doesn´t represent death so much as a life. It´s a life within my own world.

 

 

00:11:20:06

That which was supposed to scare us, has become alluring. The consequence is that in the EU countries, this ... has been replaced with this ...

 

 

00:11:33:18

The time has come. You will leave this life, accompanied by death itself.

 

 

00:11:41:17 SWEDISH

Who are you?

 

 

00:11:44:03 SWEDISH

I am Death.

 

 

00:11:46:07 SWEDISH

Have you come for me?

 

 

00:11:48:08 SWEDISH

I have long walked by your side.

 

 

00:11:50:14 SWEDISH

So I have noticed.

 

 

00:11:52:19

In this iconic scene from "The Seventh Seal" by Ingmar Bergman, death is a human.

 

 

00:12:01:00

A dark clad, scary man.

 

 

00:12:05:03 SWEDISH

Wait a moment.

 

 

00:12:07:01 SWEDISH

You all say that. But I grant no reprieves.

 

 

00:12:11:09 SWEDISH

You play chess, right?

 

 

00:12:12:22

But does death need to be gloomy, and does it need to be a man?

 

 

00:12:17:20

In the Sandmann comics, everything is turned upside down.

 

 

00:12:22:00

The character of Death in the Sandman-series is not what everyone expects when they think of Death.

 

 

00:12:28:12

She’s this cute, perky little Goth girl with Egyptian eye makeup and Suzie and the Banshees hair, who you probably would like to go hang out with.

 

 

00:12:39:04

Jill Thompson is a world-famous comic book illustrator.

 

 

00:12:43:01

And the winner is Jill Thompson...

 

 

00:12:45:00

She has won several awards and illustrated a number of cartoons where death is a key subject.

 

 

00:12:51:24

The popular Sandman series is one of them. And here, the character called Death is closest to her heart.

 

 

00:12:58:21

She’s everywhere all the time. People are dying everywhere - and she is with you. It’s like the moment you cross over - she is there, you see her.

 

 

00:13:08:09

And I remember the one that really resonated with people, is…. She was at a crib, and she just went and picked up the baby,

 

 

00:13:17:16

and, the baby says, “is that it, that’s all I got?” And then she tells the baby, you got what everybody gets, you get a lifetime.

 

 

00:13:27:02 SWEDISH

The conditions are that I live as long as I resist you. If I win, you set me free.

 

 

00:13:32:23

I think people probably started picturing death as a person because, if you happened to meet with that person, you could argue with them,

 

 

00:13:40:10

Ingmar Bergman had you played chess with Death, to see if you could, you know, if you win, no more death.

 

 

00:13:48:04

When you are writing a story, death as, as a catalyst, is certainly an important story element.

 

 

00:13:58:01

It can affect every character, it can affect a situation, you could affect the reader, it can be a complete shock, a total storyline swerve.

 

 

00:14:11:00

Tonight is the night when you DIE! DIE! DIE!

 

 

00:14:19:17

What are you doing?

 

 

00:14:21:05

Scaring you!

 

 

00:14:23:08

In film, there is a whole genre dedicated to the art of scaring people.

 

 

00:14:30:11

Hello.

 

 

00:14:31:01

It often involves people who are left on earth after their death. Ghosts.

 

 

00:14:40:16

There are ghost movies for teenagers, for kids,

 

 

00:14:46:09 SWEDISH

Pappa Spøke was getting ready to go to work.

 

 

00:14:54:04

And for adults.

 

 

00:15:13:03

Horror movies from Japan have become a huge, international success.

 

 

00:15:25:21 JAPANESE

Until I became a secondary school student of twelve-thirteen years, I thought:

 

 

00:15:29:21 JAPANESE

“Why are there people who make scary movies on purpose?”

 

 

00:15:34:07 JAPANESE

Especially when I watched movies by directors like Sam Raimi.

 

 

00:15:38:03 JAPANESE

“Wooh, I don’t want to watch those twice”, I thought.

 

 

00:15:49:02 JAPANESE

But I liked movies,

 

 

00:15:50:21 JAPANESE

and my friends told me “You look down on horror movies”.

 

 

00:15:53:21 JAPANESE

Therefore I started slowly but surely watching it a bit, and I got used to it.

 

 

00:15:58:05 JAPANESE

But that I would start making it when I became an adult, I did not think that.

 

 

00:16:06:06

Takashi Shimizu is one of Japan's leading directors.

 

 

00:16:11:15

His films "The Grudge I & II" have both American and Japanese versions.

 

 

00:16:29:04 JAPANESE

In The U.S. it so happens that many people, including producers and audiences,

 

 

00:16:38:19 JAPANESE

think that disgusting things that you can see directly in front of you,

 

 

00:16:42:12 JAPANESE

things like blood and such are scary,

 

 

00:16:45:02 JAPANESE

and they want to see and know in what way the character in the movie physically dies.

 

 

00:16:55:05 JAPANESE

But when it comes to Japan,

 

 

00:16:59:09 JAPANESE

it isn’t these kinds of things, but more emphasis on the internal life of the soul.

 

 

00:17:10:09 JAPANESE

and how the mind is pushed towards insanity.

 

 

00:17:12:10 JAPANESE

Japanese people find this more frightening.

 

 

00:17:20:22 JAPANESE

I don’t want to show exactly how they die.

 

 

00:17:25:15 JAPANESE

I want to keep it slightly mysterious and subtle.

 

 

00:17:38:15

The peaceful high-tech country of Japan is world famous for its horror films. In all these films, the fear of dying is central.

 

 

00:17:50:04

Similar to Japan, the Nordic countries are a safe place to live, but in the darkest corners of this society, we find hatred, violence, and the most brutal murder.

 

 

00:18:03:23

Scandinavian crime has become a worldwide success.

 

 

00:18:07:16

The couple who write under the pseudonym Lars Kepler, have been Sweden's best-selling writers for the last three years.

 

 

00:18:16:02

And it all began with their first book, "The Hypnotist"

 

 

00:18:20:04 SWEDISH

Peter Andersson reading “The Hypnotist” by Lars Kepler.

 

 

00:18:25:15 SWEDISH

The police officer who found him among the other bodies at the apartment, thought he was dead. The boy had lost large amounts of blood.

 

 

00:18:36:06 SWEDISH

The Hypnotist begins with a family being found murdered in their home in Tunberg, outside of Stockholm.

 

 

00:18:44:23 SWEDISH

When the police arrive at the scene, they notice that the young son is still alive.

 

 

00:18:51:10 SWEDISH

Hundreds of stab wounds all over his body and is severely traumatized.

 

 

00:18:56:20 SWEDISH

And they are in a hurry, because if they can question the boy, they might get a lead and maybe find out who the murderer is, so they call for a hypnotist.

 

 

00:19:09:08 SWEDISH

As a parent you have two fears concerning your children. That something will happen to them, or that they themselves will do something unforgivable.

 

 

00:19:20:22 SWEDISH

I think we write about what we ourselves are afraid of.

 

 

00:19:25:18 SWEDISH

You move towards the outer limits of fear in a way. Of your own fear.

 

 

00:19:32:18 SWEDISH

When we wrote The Hypnotist, we had to move in the end, because we had used our own apartment as a model for the apartment where the hypnotist and his family lived.

 

 

00:19:43:16 SWEDISH

So we, I was so scared. I got up every night to check that the door was locked.

 

 

00:19:48:12 SWEDISH

I almost started having, or I actually had obsessive thoughts about someone breaking into our home.

 

 

00:19:58:09

Millions of crime novels are annually released on to the world market. And audiences flock to the theatres to watch horror movies.

 

 

00:20:09:04

The producers behind the films Paranormal Activity use video clips of the audience's reactions in their marketing.

 

 

00:20:19:01

People want death and the fear of death.

 

 

00:20:22:24

The ancient Greeks already knew this 2500 years ago, when they created huge theatres where the audience experienced murder, mass murder, suicide, and tragedies.

 

 

00:20:36:02

But why is this so? What is it that pulls us towards the fear of death?

 

 

00:20:41:06 JAPANESE

In the same way as animals, feeling danger gives us strength.

 

 

00:20:49:04 JAPANESE

We become stronger.

 

 

00:20:52:05 JAPANESE

It is fundamentally a part of humans,

 

 

00:20:54:16 JAPANESE

if we don’t have satisfactory impulses or feel fear,

 

 

00:21:00:19 JAPANESE

then we might get it by going on a roller coaster, or a horror movie.

 

 

00:21:09:08 JAPANESE

This kind of stimulating experience gives the body,

 

 

00:21:10:24 JAPANESE

by experiencing this nervous fear,

 

 

00:21:12:21 JAPANESE

the body can have fun, there is a connection there, right.

 

 

00:21:27:08 SWEDISH

Children love to be tickled, and to be tickled is quite uncomfortable.

 

 

00:21:34:20 SWEDISH

To me, this is something very complex and a total contradiction.

 

 

00:21:39:09 SWEDISH

Because they both want, and don’t want to be tickled. So it is something scary they have started, mom tickle me!

 

 

00:21:46:14

One more time.

Sure?

Yes.

No, no, no!

 

 

00:21:48:19 SWEDISH

And it is kind of like this with our books as well. What we tend to compare it to is a roller coaster,

 

 

00:21:55:17 SWEDISH

you think you are on your way over the edge, but then you are saved every time.

 

 

00:22:06:20 SWEDISH

The police officer who fell asleep was sitting in the staircase, but now a dark puddle of blood is spreading beneath him at the foot of the stairs.

 

 

00:22:15:04

There are many theories about what effect fictional violence and murder have on the audience.

 

 

00:22:21:04

One of them is the stimulus response. The theory that one becomes more violent by seeing, hearing, or reading about murder and violence.

 

 

00:22:31:06

Another theory is catharsis. The philosopher Aristotle believed that the Greek tragedies had a positive effect on the audience. The violence and death they experienced gave the spectators outlet for the negative thoughts.

 

 

00:22:46:19

They reached an emotional climax that cleansed the soul.

 

 

00:22:50:11 SWEDISH

Should we have Christmas dinner at McDonalds? Simone asked.

 

 

00:22:55:01 SWEDISH

In a way I think our books can function as a kind of catharsis. To go into these worst kinds of situations, and to come back out from them, to see that it works out.

 

 

00:23:13:08 SWEDISH

So we say that it goes from this chaos that the crime scene is, the horror, to restoring order again.

 

 

00:23:22:01 SWEDISH

To understand who did it, why, how could it happen, and who will catch the culprit.

 

 

00:23:33:04

In the Middle Ages, there were neither crime novels or horror movies, but scaring people was an important instrument of power.

 

 

00:23:45:02

The church took control over death by using art.

 

 

00:23:53:01

Dan Cruickshank is an art historian and presenter for the BBC. He has a great knowledge of medieval art and its focus on death.

 

 

00:24:03:22

This painting shows the last judgment. The apocalypse, when the truth about the afterlife will be revealed.

 

 

00:24:15:08

At the top, in the centre, is an image of Jesus Christ, sitting on a rainbow in judgment.

 

 

00:24:24:06

Down to the left you can see resurrection in progress. Some people are rising from their graves.

 

 

00:24:32:07

Others are walking hopefully along a path towards Christ, towards judgment.

 

 

00:24:42:02

The righteous are passing by St. Peter, who is holding a massive key and they are entering into Paradise, shown here as The New Jerusalem. 

 

 

00:24:55:16

On my right hand side are the damned. Those judged and found wanting, being summoned by the devil blowing his horn and conducted by demons to the very jaws of hell, to eternal suffering, eternal death.

 

 

00:25:17:01

Certainly for the damned, no afterlife.

 

 

00:25:28:16

Imagine the impact this painting would have had on the worshipers sitting here about 600 years ago.

 

 

00:25:36:04

It’s impact on the medieval Christian mind. It’s strategically placed in the middle of the church, just in front of the altar, plain for all to see.

 

 

00:25:48:01

It’s a very striking, frightening image, a powerful piece of visual storytelling.

 

 

00:25:55:04

Of course, it is intended to put the “Fear of God” into all who see it, to remind the living to behave well during this life or suffer terrible consequences after death.

 

 

00:26:12:08

The Doomsday painting was a way to depict the afterlife.

 

 

00:26:16:24

There is another medieval depiction of life after death that continues to inspire us.

 

 

00:26:23:22

Dante's Divine Comedy.

 

 

00:26:27:10

Are you going to play?

 

 

00:26:29:06

There are video games, books, films, paintings, plays, cartoons, music, and architecture that have all found inspiration from Dante.

 

 

00:26:39:11

But how does Dante describe the afterlife?

 

 

00:26:44:0h

The Divine Comedy depicts a journey that Dante made through hell during Easter in the year 1300.

 

 

00:26:51:12

It is the most famous representation of hell within world literature.

 

 

00:26:57:09

At the midpoint on the journey of life, I found myself in a dark forest, where the clear path was lost.

 

 

00:27:06:02

The story begins when 35-year-old Dante is lost in a dark forest, being chased by three beasts who symbolize his sins.

 

 

00:27:17:19

Luckily for him, Vergil turns up, who has been in hell before, and can therefore be his guide and protector through the underworld.

 

 

00:27:28:02

What does hell look like? The journey begins in the dark, hell, inferno, and ends in the light, heaven, paradiso.

 

 

00:27:38:23

And between these two is the Purgatorio, what we call purgatory, a place of purification.

 

 

00:27:46:21

Let us take a look at inferno. It is undoubtedly the place that has affected art and culture the most.

 

 

00:27:56:08

Why don’t we watch a movie instead?

 

 

00:27:58:07

Hell is a dark, smelly, and cruel place. It consists of many concentric circles.

 

 

00:28:06:15

A circle for each sin, and a tailored punishment for each sin. The thieves are chased and bitten by snakes. The gluttonous are lying in smelly mud in a place where it is raining, hailing, and snowing.

 

 

00:28:22:03

No, daddy!

This is not for kids.

It is research.

 

 

00:28:29:00

Inferno, Hell, the darkest of the dark.

 

 

00:28:36:19

Within music, there is an entire genre dedicated to what Dante describes.

 

 

00:28:45:17

Some folk music.

 

 

00:28:56:03

And then…

 

 

00:29:28:14

By the way, the exact same riff in a Metal version.

 

 

00:29:39:06

Ivar Bjørnson is a guitarist for the band Enslaved. For 23 years, their music has been tuned to the dark side of existence.

 

 

00:29:49:16

Metal music is very closely linked to death. Metal- music and metal-mythology, Metal concepts, themes.

 

 

00:29:59:23

So there is a connection between death and sex, for example, and those are the most powerful physical human emotions we are dealing with. And then,

 

 

00:30:09:04

I think that, translating this into music, I’m not really envisioning a somewhat muted ukulele, to put it like that, I’m envisioning massive walls of sound.

 

 

00:30:18:18

Massive sound, powerful, very intense waves of sound, and so forth.

 

 

00:30:24:06

So, yes, I believe that we possibly are trying to mimic some of the most powerful emotions through the music, and then death has to be, at least, one of the top three.

 

 

00:30:44:07

Pull the black lines a little. I think it’s going to be fucking awesome.

 

 

00:30:47:17

One of the first things people are either impressed or appalled by, is perhaps the use of drums.

 

 

00:30:56:20

Two bass drums, often very high tempo, a bit like machine guns. A strong rumbling sound, and the bass of course adds to that.

 

 

00:31:08:16

The guitar is distorted. It could, for the untrained ear, be somewhat difficult to identify the melody, perhaps.

 

 

00:31:17:11

And, then there is the vocal. It sounds like a cat.

 

 

00:31:24:19

Yes, you could say that all the instrumentation and vocal use has, in a sense, the same basis as all other music, but it's taken it a lot further through its means.

 

 

00:31:38:09

Enslaved has a huge fan base, and their music is very popular around the world.

 

 

00:31:46:07

But why do people gravitate towards darkness, discomfort, and death in music?

 

 

00:31:55:12

I would actually argue that Metal comes from a more solid relationship to death.

 

 

00:32:02:17

That you simply have decided that yes - you will in a way deal with those things and use them for, if not something positive, then at least, something constructive.

 

 

00:32:18:21

Sometimes, you are in need of the destructive, because you might be somewhat stuck.

 

 

00:32:24:23

Or things aren’t very productive, and so on, so instead of using energy to avoid it and suppressing it, then you actually try to feel it.

 

 

00:32:38:17

I think our culture is a kind of sum-zero game, that we need a certain amount of death and destruction, war, and aggression.

 

 

00:32:50:09

It is sort of part of us, as the creatures we are, and when you try to take away religion and mystery, and replace those with reality and plastic,

 

 

00:33:07:13

you have to take it in, one way or another. Sports might do that for you, give you a way to somehow satisfy your war instincts, or tribal affiliation or whatever it is they're doing.

 

 

00:33:19:24

And then maybe Metal music and that kind of extreme art is a way to somehow satisfy the drive towards death.

 

 

00:33:35:07

Mickey Mouse as suicide bomber, massacred people in marble, and a dying zombie with black lungs connected to a respirator.

 

 

00:33:50:01

Its head is actually a mask from “Friday the 13th.”

 

 

00:33:54:20

So that is the question, when is a human a human, people who are in a coma and such, there are so many points that lie within it for me.

 

 

00:34:04:01

For the last three decades the Danish/German artist Christian Lemmerz has questioned our relationship to death.

 

 

00:34:11:24

A wound can be just as beautiful as a rose, or I actually think a rose can be as ugly as a wound.

 

 

00:34:19:20

Perhaps beauty is actually closely connected tmortalityo , because we are conscious of death, beauty can arise, and not the other way around.

 

 

00:34:32:04

Lemmerz's exhibitions provoke, and there is one of his works that specifically creates controversy.

 

 

00:34:40:08

What could be more absurd than to make a traditional figure of Christ on the cross? No one wants to look at it anymore because they have seen it a thousand times before, because the image is old.

 

 

00:34:52:15

And the mission of the arts is in fact to reinvent.

 

 

00:34:59:05

But why does he want us to look at the crucifix in a different way?

 

 

00:35:05:16

And why is the beheaded Jesus more provocative than the crucified Jesus?

 

 

00:35:14:05

In early Christianity, the cross was not used as a symbol of faith.

 

 

00:35:20:07

It was deemed shameful, because the cross was a testament to humiliation and defeat.

 

 

00:35:27:08

But all that changed because of the belief in Jesus' resurrection. The cross became a symbol for victory.

 

 

00:35:36:01

The cross of Christ is the symbol of our life. For the bible says that, by his sufferings on the cross our lord Jesus Christ washed away the sins of mankind, and open a way to eternal life for man.

 

 

00:36:00:02

Today, the cross can be found everywhere. Both with and without Jesus.

 

 

00:36:05:19

And, we might not even consider what it actually is.

 

 

00:36:11:06

I find the cross to be, to be really morbid, to hang a crucified guy around your neck all the time.

 

 

00:36:19:05

Or a cross which has been used as a torturous device in history.

 

 

00:36:27:12

A symbol for one of the most brutal torture methods in fact becomes a symbol for a religion that actually preaches selfless love and those kinds of things.

 

 

00:36:41:06

One can’t imagine a Buddha on the cross for example.

 

 

00:36:46:18

One can imagine that it’s possible if he was hanged, we would have a noose hanging around our neck. Or an electric chair, or a syringe.

 

 

00:36:57:05

Or if we were to be incredibly cruel, we could have a little gas chamber for the Germans. I am from Germany, so that would be fitting.

 

 

00:37:09:20

But why does Lemmerz question death, instead of hiding it away?

 

 

00:37:15:11

Why does he go further with his provocations than other artists?

What is he trying to tell us?

 

 

00:37:23:21

I think there is an incredibly huge fascination within most people surrounding death.

 

 

00:37:28:05

So if you have a traffic victim, most people would say how dreadful, but most people would also have another gaze, it is like a pornographic gaze, to see how much blood is there, how much brain is on the pavement.

 

 

00:37:39:16

So it is a kind of moral, ethical dilemma, because on one hand we should have compassion, but on the other hand you absolutely possess a pornographic gaze. You want to see more.

 

 

00:37:55:12

A 50 year old amateur film clip of a murder stands as an example of this human urge.

 

 

00:38:01:20

Every day, thousands of people watch this movie online, and it does not stop there.

 

 

00:38:09:13

Art critics have compared the film to the work of the most famous artist of all time. Leonardo da Vinci.

 

 

00:38:21:01

Dallas, November the 22nd, 1963. The clothes salesman Abraham Zapruder is standing on a concrete base, holding his camera.

 

 

00:38:33:01

He is there to film U.S. President John F. Kennedy’s visit, but what he gathers on film is a moment of death.

 

 

00:38:41:24

Kennedy is shot dead.

 

 

00:38:44:11

This is the most famous footage of a person's death. But can this film be considered as art?

 

 

00:38:51:11

A gentleman just walked in our studio that I are meeting for the first time as well as you, this is WFA TV Dallas Texas. May I have your name please sir?

 

 

00:38:59:10

My name is Abraham Zapruder.

 

 

00:39:01:11

Just hours after the assassination, Zapruder is interviewed on television.

 

 

00:39:05:17

You have the film in your camera.

Yes, I brought it on the studio.

 

 

00:39:08:24

Over the next days, many media organisations attempt to buy his film.

 

 

00:39:13:14

Life Magazine wins the bidding rounds and pays $150,000 for the Zapruder film with copyrights.

 

 

00:39:22:20

Life Magazine owned the camera original film until 1975, when they decided to sell it back to the Abraham Zapruder family, reportedly for one dollar.

 

 

00:39:34:08

The National Archives, concerned about preserving the original film, asked the family if they could store it for them, and of course the family agreed right away.

 

 

00:39:44:00

But US authorities seized the roll of film, and as a result had to pay the Zapruder family. But how much is the original film reel worth?

 

 

00:39:57:03

What I was trying to do was to rebut the government argument that the film wasn´t worth very much.

 

 

00:40:05:02

Part of their approach in the case was to say this was a film, and you can go buy this film for only a few dollars at a camera store.

 

 

00:40:17:16

Robert Bennett was the lawyer for the Zapruder family. He believed that the film could be compared to iconic works of art when it came to determining the price.

 

 

00:40:28:19

Sold.

 

 

00:40:30:06

After long discussions, they concluded that the film should be priced as high as the Codex Leicester by Leonardo Da Vinci.

 

 

00:40:40:07

In the process of telling them why we picked the Codex, why our experts picked it, we drew analogies with famous paintings. Great, great works of art.

 

 

00:40:53:15

When the litigation was over I think we got approximately 17 million dollars. So we were quite pleased with the outcome.

 

 

00:41:04:21

There were many photographers at the scene when Kennedy was shot. But only one captured the moment of death.

 

 

00:41:14:19

The other film copies have never been considered art.

 

 

00:41:19:24

But when it comes to the Zapruder film, the U.S. authorities accepted that a film about a person's death can be compared to a work of Leonardo Da Vinci.

 

 

00:41:32:23

The film doesn’t just document a murder, it has also been given an aesthetic value.

 

 

00:41:41:02

Is this also the case with other documentation of death today?

 

 

00:41:46:20

That there is something aesthetically appealing about it, that pulls us towards it and offends us at the same time?

 

 

00:41:59:12

Making something attractive, something beautiful out of something that repels or scares us, is perhaps a deep-set desire.

 

 

00:42:09:07

Whether you’re a little girl, or a great artist.

 

 

00:42:16:23

The National Gallery in Oslo exhibits paintings by Edvard Munch.

 

 

00:42:22:04

Throughout his life, he focused on the major themes such as jealousy, love, fear, and death.

 

 

00:42:34:07

In the picture "Death in the Sickroom," Munch confronts us with a very simple room and a death scene.

 

 

00:42:41:18

We can sense that this is a terrible moment for this family, who have gathered in the room of the dying.

 

 

00:42:49:13

But we do not see death physically, what we see are the psychological reactions to this event.

 

 

00:42:57:11

In the painting, all focus is on the grief in the room.

 

 

00:43:02:01

A girl who is doubled up in grief, crying. A woman staring straight at us. One who cannot deal with it, and leaves the room. Another who prays beside the dying.

 

 

00:43:16:09

And Munch himself, who slowly turns towards his own sister.

 

 

00:43:21:10

The green colour on the walls is reflected in the faces, and emphasizes the discomfort. But at the same time, the dying person cannot be seen.

 

 

00:43:31:14

The painting allows different interpretations of our relationship to death. Should we hide death? Or should it be seen?

 

 

00:43:40:01

What significance the painting has on the individual will probably vary, that’s how art works. When art meets an audience, new interpretations may occur.

 

 

00:43:54:05

In my imagination, there are powerful polarized elements at work, such as death and life. Heaven and hell. God and the devil.

 

 

00:44:05:21

If you play it like this, then it becomes somewhat boring for Kaizers Orchestra, so we needed more rhythm and pepp. So this is what we did.

 

 

00:44:18:07

Janove Ottesen was the lead singer and songwriter for one of Norway's most famous rock bands, Kaizers Orchestra. And the song "Heartbreaker" is one of their biggest hits.

 

 

00:44:31:23

You and I are the same, like two drops of water

 

 

If you dare to ask him

 

 

I turn on a song that you used to sing for me

 

 

Until I fell asleep in your lap

 

 

00:44:47:10

This song is about a mother and daughter who are separated from each other, but how it feels as though they exist out there together, and maybe one day, they will meet again. That's really what it's about.

 

 

00:45:04:00

I wonder if you are out there now

 

 

00:45:07:16

The song is mine when I play it at home on the piano, and it’s ours when the band plays it together in the studio, and when we record it.

 

 

00:45:15:06

but once it is out there, it belongs to the audience, and from then on, that song will be interpreted in as many ways as there are people who hear it.

 

 

00:45:29:01

Even though he doesn’t say much, and the memories are few

 

 

There are things he can never take away from me

 

 

As when we ran across the field and hid in the straw

 

 

00:45:43:22

The Summer of 2011. ”Heartbreaker” moves from the concert stage and radio, to a new arena. Funerals.

 

 

00:45:53:02

Tonight, the streets are filled with love.

 

 

00:45:58:23

Norway is in national mourning after the massacre at Utøya. 69 young people were brutally murdered. Several of them were huge Kaizers’ fans.

 

 

00:46:10:02

”Heartbreaker” was song in many ceremonies across the country.

 

 

00:46:16:02

And then, at the one-year anniversary of Utøya. Renate Tårnes, who was there herself, and saw her boyfriend killed, performs her version.

 

 

00:46:30:04

You and I are the same, like two drops of water

 

 

If you dare to ask him

 

 

00:46:40:05

I turn on a song that you used to sing for me

 

 

Until I fell asleep in your lap

 

 

00:46:51:15

I used to see nothing, and all I saw faded away

 

 

But now I see everything you see

 

 

00:47:01:06

I’m wearing your ring on my finger, and the inscription simply says

 

 

That you are my heartbreaker

 

 

00:47:12:06

I wonder if you’re out there right now

 

 

When I think about you, can you feel it?

 

 

Send me a sign, and I’ll let you know

 

 

00:47:26:14

I believe that when Kaizers wrote this song, they had a completely different story in mind than the one I was trying to express that day.

 

 

00:47:40:02

The reason I played that song, was because to me in that song, there is sort of a longing,

 

 

00:47:50:02

A longing to see someone one loves, or have lost.

 

 

00:47:58:12

And, then… I might have made that more visible when I played it.

 

 

00:48:06:21

For me, it’s easier to play a song and thereby tell you how I feel, than it is to just tell you with words.

 

 

00:48:20:02

I think that is how it is for quite a few of us.

 

 

00:48:40:07

Regarding immortality, I’m not creating sculptures so that I will live for generations to come in human consciousness.

 

 

00:48:51:03

That people will come and look at my sculptures. But then again, they will.

 

 

00:48:59:04

Because the sculptures will remain for hundreds of years. At least some of them.

 

 

00:49:04:01

So, in that regard, you have… Prolonged your life in people’s minds.

 

 

00:49:31:10

I consider the disease as a kind of black ocean rising.

 

 

00:49:39:08

Slowly.

 

 

00:49:41:14

And then the waves rise once in a while, and your back hurts a bit. Then you manage to calm down these waves. But the ocean is rising.

 

 

00:49:55:02

It continues to rise.

 

 

00:50:00:23

I have a hard time believing in a life after death, to address the fundamental problem.

 

 

00:50:11:23

You do not know where you are going, but you know what life is. And, suddenly, you leave it.

 

 

00:50:19:08

Suddenly, you can’t hear a Beethoven symphony,

 

 

00:50:22:13

Or see the yellow leaves,

 

 

00:50:26:20

and meet the one you love, and have the most fantastic meal, and smoke that cigar.

 

 

00:50:36:12

And work on your art, and suddenly, it’s over.

 

 

00:50:49:21

Here is NRK News, it’s 8:30am.

 

 

00:50:53:02

One of Norway's most famous sculptors, Per Ung, died last night. He was eighty years old.

 

 

00:51:17:09

It can be hard to find a meaning when it comes to death.

 

 

00:51:24:03

Maybe that’s why we are drawn to death in art.

 

 

00:51:28:04

In music,

 

 

00:51:29:20

In literature,

 

 

00:51:31:14

And in the movies.

 

 

00:51:33:20

To make it easier to deal with death.

 

 

00:51:37:08

Make it harmless, so we can live with it.

 

 

00:51:43:13

Maybe we even need death to be creative.

 

 

00:51:47:02

The next project is Tonje’s, and what is your film about?

 

 

00:51:50:19

About death

 

 

00:51:53:20

Death frightens.

 

 

00:51:58:00

Death makes us happy.

 

 

00:52:04:06

Death fascinates.

 

 

00:52:10:03

Death makes us feel alive.

 

 

END CREDITS