David Jones, artist and poet (1895-1974) begins his PREFACE TO THE ANATHEMATA :
'I have made a heap of all that I could find.' (1) So wrote Nennius, or whoever composed the introductory matter to Historia Brittonum. He speaks of an 'inward wound' which was caused by the fear that certain things dear to him 'should be like smoke dissipated'. Further, he says, 'not trusting my own learning, which is none at all, but partly from writings and monuments of the ancient inhabitants of Britain, partly from the annals of the Romans and the chronicles of the sacred fathers, Isidore, Hieronymous, Prosper, Eusebius and from the histories of the Scots and Saxons although our enemies . . . I have lispingly put together this . . . about past transactions, that [this material] might not be trodden under foot'. (2)
(1) The actual words are coacervavi omne quod inveni, and occur in Prologue 2 to the Historia.
(2) Quoted from the translation of Prologue 1. See The Works of Gildas and Nennius, J.A.Giles, London 1841.
Australian fiction writer Gerald Murnane is tipped to win this year's Nobel Prize for Literature. There’s no better time to watch Philip Tyndall’s little-seen 1989 film about Murnane,
Words And Silk: The Imaginary and Real Worlds of Gerald Murnane, which will screen at MIFF in celebration of its 30th anniversary.
"In the Oxford Companion to Australian Film published in 1999, Philip Tyndall's Words and Silk: The Imaginary and Real Worlds of Gerald Murnane – one of my personal all-time favourite Australian films – does not rate a mention. This is sadly symptomatic of how strange, unique, unclassifiable works tend to go underground rather speedily in Australia."
- Adrian Martin ( here )
Before the renewal of interest in Melbourne-born writer Gerald Murnane that followed a 2018 feature article in The New York Times which dubbed him “the greatest living English-language writer most people have never heard of”, as well as his winning the Prime Minister’s Literary Award for Border Districts, filmmaker Philip Tyndall (someone looks at something, MIFF 1987) created this inventive hybrid film. Divided into two parts, the first details Murnane’s ‘Imaginary’ world, using abstract images, shapes and textures. In contrast, the second section stays in the ‘Real’ world, where Murnane speaks directly to the camera in a more formal way.
Words And Silk: The Imaginary and Real Worlds of Gerald Murnane is at its heart about Murnane's love of writing and horse racing, built around an interwoven mosaic of still imagery, archival footage, dramatic re-creations and talking head, reflecting the film's fine line between fact and fiction. The result is a poetic, vital study of arguably Australia’s greatest living fiction writer – more compelling today than he ever was. Words And Silk: The Imaginary and Real Worlds of Gerald Murnane is a unique and empathetic portrait of the artist and his creative process. Don’t miss this very rare opportunity to see it on the big screen.
"Gerald Murnane, as he presents himself, is like a modest but furiously noble hero from a Straub-Huillet film: he conjures his struggle with language, with words, with truth and with fiction, his way of forming and retaining images in his mind – by setting down (as he so intensely testifies) one sentence after another. This writing is like a thin red line that separates the author from the terror of some unnameable void, or chaos. Words and Silk, in its own relentless progression from frame to frame, word to word, and image to image, joins forces with Murnane's struggle to express and master that void – and it is a spellbinding spectacle."
Theatre of the Actors of Regard
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