Ways of Seeing (4 Parts)

Synopsis

Critic John Berger explores the ways in which we look at pictures, with emphasis on the way traditional European oil painting has looked at women and possessions. He shows that aspects of this tradition are continued in the images of modern publicity.
1: How paintings are most frequently seen - in reproduction. Reproduction has destroyed the uniqueness of paintings and the way they are hung, in the sense that paintings can now exist everywhere and nowhere in particular. They come on postcards, in books and on television films. They can be played with and used by anyone for any purpose. Their meaning is no longer constant in that they can be changed by what is shown opposite them, by words put around them, by music played over them. How the images of art can be manipulated and how they can be obscured by the false religiosity and mystification which so often surrounds them.
2: Looks at oil paintings of the nude and asks if there is a difference between being naked and being nude. Is there really much difference between ‘The Judgement of Paris’ and a Miss World Contest? How do the European oil paintings of nudes compare with the images of advertisements which are everywhere? Do they really celebrate women, as we are taught to believe, or do they merely provide titillation for the male voyeur? In the second half of the film Berger asks five women for their comments on the way men see women, or have seen them in the past, and how this influences the way women see themselves today.
3: Do we misunderstand the real meaning of European oil painting because we are normally encouraged to look only at a few exceptional works instead of the hundreds of thousands of unremarkable pictures which make up the main tradition? These average works were first of all objects which could be bought and sold, and they covered the walls of palaces and private houses all over Europe. Oil paintings could render the look of things in a way which made them desirable, in a way which made us want to possess them. Berger argues that this aspect of the tradition still continues today in the modern medium of advertising and publicity.
4: Wherever we look, wherever we walk, whatever we read, we are continually surrounded or confronted by the images of advertising and publicity. How these images are related to the tradition of oil painting, a connection which we fail to see only because we are encouraged to believe that painting is ‘fine art’ whereas publicity is simple commerce. The specific nature of publicity itself, the dreams which it conjures up, the magical transformations which it promises, the types of life which it idealises. How these pictures of life relate to our own lives and to the people and places far away whose lives it so often uses for its own exotic props.*

Language

English

Country

Great Britain

Medium

Video; Videocassette. Standard formats. col. 4 x 30 min.

Year of production

1972

Availability

Sale; 1996 sale: £65.00 (+VAT +p&p) (each) 1996 sale: £160.00 (+VAT +p&p) (series)

Subjects

Art

Keywords

art appreciation; paintings; paintings - European

Credits

Producer

Michael Dibb

Cast

John Berger

Sections

Title

Reproductions

Synopsis

1: How paintings are most frequently seen - in reproduction. Reproduction has destroyed the uniqueness of paintings and the way they are hung, in the sense that paintings can now exist everywhere and nowhere in particular. They come on postcards, in books

Title

Nude or naked?

Synopsis

2: Looks at oil paintings of the nude and asks if there is a difference between being naked and being nude. Is there really much difference between 'The Judgement of Paris' and a Miss World Contest? How do the European oil paintings of nudes compare with

Title

Possessions

Synopsis

3: Do we misunderstand the real meaning of European oil painting because we are normally encouraged to look only at a few exceptional works instead of the hundreds of thousands of unremarkable pictures which make up the main tradition? These average works

Title

Language of advertising, The

Synopsis

4: Wherever we look, wherever we walk, whatever we read, we are continually surrounded or confronted by the images of advertising and publicity. How these images are related to the tradition of oil painting, a connection which we fail to see only because

Production Company

Name

BBC Television

Distributor

Name

BBC Active Video for Learning - now BBC Learning

Contact

Carolina Fernandez Jeremy Wilcox (CF - for educational enquiries JW - channel sales manager)

Email

BBCStudiosLearning@bbc.com

Web

https://www.bbcstudioslearning.com/ External site opens in new window

Phone

+44 (0) 20 8433 1009

Address

BBC Studios Limited
Television Centre
101 Wood Lane
London
W12 7FA
UK

Notes

The BBC Active company has now been absorbed within BBC Learning, a division of BBC Studios. It was originally a joint venture between BBC Worldwide and Pearson Education. Formerly known as ‘BBC Worldwide Learning Studies’ and before that as ‘Videos for Education & Training’