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The art of suffering for the arts

The filmization of Michel Houellebecq's essay on the suffering artist is a strikingly heartfelt cultivation of the romantic artist myth. 




(THIS ARTICLE IS MACHINE TRANSLATED by Google from Norwegian)

"A dead poet does not write – hence the importance of staying alive," says Michel Houellebecq's essay To Stay Alive – A Method, which is a kind of self-help manual for artists on the verge of giving up. And then, more specifically, a guide to not only live with, but also cultivate all the avoidable suffering that the author seems to think that characterizes every artist's mind, rather than using it as a creative impetus.

The Dutch documentary of the same name is a filmization of this essay, in which Iggy Pop conveys passages from the text (including from his own garden in Miami), in addition to his having made the film's music. The legendary rocker himself has a background that surpasses many of his dead and living colleagues in exuberant self-destructiveness, which makes it quite incredible that at the age of 69 he is still alive, still in apparently good shape. In the film, he briefly talks about his experience with both self-harm and mental hospital stays, and something more in-depth about the lyrics to the song "Open Up and Bleed" from his time with the band The Stooges, which he himself touches on much of the same theme as the essay.

Artist profiles. In addition, the film portrays three lesser-known artists with various mental disorders, which may well be considered living examples of the troubled artist as Houellebecq describes in his text. But the film also contains scenes with some characters Houellebecq mentions in the essay, in specific situations that are staged here with actors. Among these is the one-year-old Henri who is neglected by his mother who is on a date, and who, according to the author, gets off to a good start in a life as a poet. And the unshaven fifteen-year-old Michel (based on the author himself?), Who witnesses the girl he likes on the dance floor with another, and who is overwhelmed both by his own grief and by the beauty of the dance and the music being played.

Missed opportunity. The film also draws on a fictional character that does not originate in the essay: the middle-aged artist Vincent, who acts as a link between the staged fiction characters and the documentary artist portraits.

Interestingly enough, this character is played by Houellebecq himself. And when he is approached by Iggy Pop in the house of the author's grandparents towards the end of the film, it could have been an exciting meeting between two different and related artists who are outspoken fans of each other. But unfortunately, this opportunity is largely missed, as Houellebecq should not be himself in the scene.

With its use of fixation elements is To Stay Alive – A Method a so-called hybrid film, which is a trend in documentary film for the time being. But where the setting of the situations described in the essay gives the documentary a richer cinematic expression, the meeting in particular becomes an example of how the fiction and documentary elements in such hybrids can also be at the expense of each other.

Cultivates the artist myth. Houellebecq wrote this essay as early as 1991, three years before his first novel Extension of the combat zone was published. Nevertheless, it bears unmistakable mark on the author's little positive view of the world in general and the people who populate it in particular, while the black-eyed and self-pitying interpretation of the necessity of suffering is not without a certain humor.

But first and foremost, the writer appears as quite fervent in his cultivation of the well-known myth of the artist as an almost martyr-like figure, who must experience grief and pain in order to create art for the rest of humanity. The same fervor can also be found in the film – although you can sometimes see a glimpse in old Iggy's eye as he reproduces passages that All suffering is good. All suffering is useful. All suffering is a universe.

Rock Myths. Of course, the romantic artist myth did not originate with Houellebecq's essay. Already in the 1800th century, the artist was admired for his transcending ability to experience the world more intensely, often associated with mental illness, depression and intoxication. Not least, this latest element has been central to the myth building around rock musicians from the time of Iggy Pop's generation, which broke through the "consciousness-expanding" 1960s. The romanticization of drug and alcohol use also did not subside when artists such as Joplin, Hendrix and Morrison (and later Cobain, Nielsen and Winehouse) actually took their death from it – on the contrary.

And although Houellebecq argues in his text against suicide, this can obviously also have a massive myth-building effect – as the influential post-punk band Joy Division will forever be associated with frontman Ian Curtis' self-selected death.

When Houellebecq is approached by Iggy Pop towards the end of the movie, it could have been an exciting meeting between two artists who are outspoken fans of each other.

Art as therapy. Far and away, pain and suffering have become an expected – not to say required – part of the artist's role, something Houellebecq's text also defies. And possibly one could argue that the artist myth with this has even become a self-fulfilling prophecy.

In any case, it is a well-known phenomenon that artists find inspiration in their own experiences, and the great and dramatic emotions are probably better suited in this way than the more trivial (albeit with one exception in what is called "reality literature"). Or, God forbid, the feeling of satisfaction. And one should also not forget that creating and expressing oneself through art itself can act as therapy.

In other words, the artist myth is not necessarily a myth. And if there is a hint of truth in the old statement that one is made stronger by everything that does not kill one, a little resistance in life can surely come in handy for some each.

naive «feelgood». Yet there is something naive about the film's as well as the essay's whole-hearted embrace of this classic conception of the suffering artist, which is also evident in the slightly puerile subtitle A feel good movie about suffering. An objection that still applies, considering that the documentary and its literary submissions are not without a touch of irony.

For though it is hinted that the portrayed artists in the film have failed to be creative in their darkest and most painful moments, Erik Lieshout and his co-directors do not seem to have fully embraced how totally crippling depression and other mental disorders can be. Instead, this is first and foremost highlighted as relevant experiences, without the film also going particularly deep into how the artists have actually used these experiences in their work. And thus one can get the impression that the film does not take its theme seriously enough, despite the original essay's almost insistent gravestones.

I have no doubt that many aspiring artists have found comfort (and perhaps even utility) in Houellebecq's words that all the accumulated pain can actually be used for something – a familiar and true to say somewhat banal mantra for creative souls, which the film conveys a seductive and sometimes refreshing way. However, I myself am inspired to point out that it can be too much of a hurt, and that one does not automatically become a great artist of wallowing in grief and self-pity. And here I speak of painful experience.

The film will be shown at the European documentary film festival Eurodok at the Cinemateket in Oslo, which will be arranged in the period 29.3–2.4.

Aleksander Huser
Aleksander Huser
Huser is a regular film critic in Ny Tid.

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