{"id":2327283,"date":"2026-03-13T23:18:14","date_gmt":"2026-03-13T23:18:14","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/?p=2327283"},"modified":"2026-03-13T23:18:14","modified_gmt":"2026-03-13T23:18:14","slug":"stanley-schtinter-on-remapping-history-via-cinema","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/stanley-schtinter-on-remapping-history-via-cinema\/","title":{"rendered":"Stanley Schtinter on Remapping History via Cinema"},"content":{"rendered":"

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\n\tHave you ever wondered what the final movies were that such celebrities as Elvis Presley and Kurt Cobain watched before their death? If not, can you at least admit that you\u2019re really curious now? British artist and filmmaker Stanley Schtinter uses this unusual concept as the approach to his film Last Movies, which world premiered at CPH:DOX, the\u00a0Copenhagen International Documentary Film Festival<\/a>, late on Friday.<\/p>\n

\n\tThe documentary, based on his book with the same title and narrated by Jeremy Irons, is featured in the Next:Wave lineup<\/a> of the 23rd edition<\/a> of the Danish festival. Schtinter\u2019s credits on Last Movies not only include that of director, but also that of producer, cinematographer, and editor.<\/p>\n

\n\tThe CPH:DOX website describes the film as providing \u201ca darkly humorous, alternative timeline.\u201d And it notes: \u201cThe humor is pitch black and the level of detail completely overwhelming in \u2026 Last Movies, which takes its simple concept to the point of absurdity, with entertaining and thought-provoking results: What would film history look like if the timeline was determined by the more or less random movies celebrities and cultural figures watched before (and sometimes while) they died?\u201d<\/p>\n

\n\tSchtinter, in an email interview with THR, discussed the idea behind the film, why history can only benefit from a very different approach, the \u201cpig\u2019s trough\u201d of culture, and whether there could be a sequel to Last Movies.<\/p>\n

\n\tWhat inspired or triggered this idea of finding the last movies famous people watched?<\/strong><\/p>\n

\n\tLet\u2019s go with triggered, considering the violence of film language. I was reading about the assassination of former Swedish Prime Minister, Olof Palme, leaving the cinema in Stockholm in 1986. Intense interest persists around his murder because the assassin has never been caught. But my question was: What did Palme watch? This seemed as important a detail as any other.<\/p>\n

\n\tFrom there, I remembered the legend of Ian Curtis of the band Joy Division watching Werner Herzog\u2019s Stroszek in its U.K. television premiere on the night he died, and I began to wonder if the 20th century \u2014 the century of cinema \u2014 could be remapped according to who saw what last. And it can, almost from the inception of the form, with Kafka watching Charlie Chaplin\u2019s The Kid, to the present day, with Jean-Luc Godard watching his own film, Phony Wars. The criteria for a person\u2019s inclusion is that they \u201cgave\u201d themselves to the camera within their lifetime. They consented to being shot.<\/p>\n

\n\tWhere did you turn for your research on people\u2019s last movies?<\/strong><\/p>\n

\n\tMainly the library, studying hundreds and thousands of celebrities and public figures. Books, newspapers. And sometimes, as in the case of Jean-Luc Godard, contact with those who were there with them, who know. Last Movies parasitizes the predatory relationship the dominant screen culture encourages people to have with its stars. Generally, this means someone\u2019s last days and hours were afforded such scrutiny that we know what they watched if they watched something (before they died) and\/or their death was witnessed, as in the case of Palme.<\/p>\n

\n\tThe film indeed feels like a different lens on history itself. What issues do you have with the traditional way of organizing history and where it has brought us?<\/strong><\/p>\n

\n\tIntroducing an organizing principle like this one, one that hasn\u2019t been conceived of or used before, can reveal holes and biases in the established historical narrative. In the beginning was the word; the word is authority. Repetition of an account of an event is all that is required to produce truth. And even if the teller was present at the event recorded, there\u2019s room for ambiguity, argument. The camera has not settled this, the camera lies. There is no absolute truth. But as a \u201cstoryteller,\u201d I have an impulse, if not a responsibility to attempt to move closer to what the truth might be.<\/p>\n

\n\tHistorian Peter Linebaugh describes it as shedding a \u201csatanic light.\u201d This shedding shouldn\u2019t be clogged up with notions of the anti-Christ. It\u2019s about necessarily questioning any power wielded by one person or institution over another. This feels especially pertinent now, given the widespread failure of governments and their aggressive tactics to keep control. Linebaugh encourages history to be re-written from below\u2026 If there\u2019s a truth out there, it is on the street, or in the fields, not in the palace.<\/p>\n

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\t\t\t\t\t\t\"\"<\/p><\/div><\/div>\n

\t\t\t\t\tStanley Schtinter, courtesy of Susu Laroche<\/span><\/p>\n<\/div>\n

\n\tDo you think the last films of famous people tell us anything significant, or is it mostly a different possible narrative? I remember that the film starts with a note that it is \u201ca tribute to chance\u201d?<\/strong><\/p>\n

\n\tWe live in myth, making narratives to try to make sense of the chance that ultimately runs our lives. The last films seen by famous people speak to their lives on and off camera to tell a narrative as real and complete as any other. My first intention with this organizing principle was to arrange a series of film screenings headlined with the person who watched the film just before they died, e.g., Kurt Cobain headlining Jane Campion\u2019s The Piano), so encouraging the imagination of the viewer in seeing what those who see no more last saw. No explanation, no guidance. This was before the writing of the book or the making of the film. It was intended as a technology for rewilding the imagination.<\/p>\n

\n\tHow much is the film based on your book Last Movies, and is there anything new or different you could do with the film?<\/strong><\/p>\n

\n\tFor the editing of the film, I limited myself to footage lifted from the films that were seen by the stars studied (their last and any others I had evidence of them watching in their lives). For the writing, it was a process of reduction. <\/p>\n

\n\tThe most exciting part of the filmmaking process was watching how an almost randomly selected scene from an unrelated film could replace in a parallel, perhaps indirect, and altogether more illuminating way what I had labored over the minutiae of in writing the book. The film seemed to make itself. \u201cThe living can assist the imagination of the dead,\u201d said [William Butler] Yeats. Only about half of the book is covered in it. Maybe I\u2019ll make a sequel? Last Movies: RESURRECTION.<\/p>\n

\n\tYour film gives us a \u201cpop culture\u201d-ish walk through history with various interesting anecdotes and recurring themes, such as JFK, Star Trek, and Nike. It even mentions Donald Trump and how he attempted to buy the famous upright piano from Casablanca.\u00a0Do you see the presence of those names as a reflection of your own interests or of their importance in pop culture iconography itself?<\/strong><\/p>\n

\n\tAgain, chance. I can\u2019t select who is in the project, and clearly, then I can\u2019t select what. Neither the book nor the film reflects a preexisting interest in a specific individual or their work. Inevitably, I will have preferences or biases, but at no point is a value judgment applied to their person or their life\u2019s work. That matters to me. The pig\u2019s trough of the culture in the present time is not the location of my activity.<\/p>\n

\n\tWhat can you share about your work as an artist and filmmaker? Your film and website seem quite status-quo challenging or \u201calternative.\u201d But it feels like you are a proud traditionalist when it comes to movies on the big screen?<\/strong><\/p>\n

\n\tIt\u2019s shameful to have a website, never mind social media. But Google is so greedy and confused that it does seem to be worthwhile having a holding page to summarize the projects you feel work best, and in the way that you\u2019d like to have them presented. My work, or \u201cunwork\u201d as I prefer to have it\u2026 exists. That existence means shared space. It means the travel to and from the venue. The chance encounter. It\u2019s still all out there. Any presence I have on the internet points away from it.<\/p>\n

\n\tIn terms of the technology, beyond the attendant parts of what I\u2019ve mentioned in going to the movies, nothing comes close to watching a film in a cinema. Having a drink in a bar. And vinyl is still the highest fidelity format for music. And words must be printed. I\u2019m not nostalgic, or even really a fetishist for this stuff. But I recognize when and how it is done best, and I cannot compromise for the all-destructive progress myth of the neoliberal dystopia that tries to reduce the breadth and scope of life.<\/p>\n

\n\tI hope you won\u2019t need to think about this for a long time, but any idea what your last movie could be?<\/strong><\/p>\n

\n\tIn Last Movies, there is only one example of someone actually picking a film before ending their life. Unless I am committing suicide, which I hope I never need to think about doing, my last movie might be a surprise if others find out about it, but I will never know. And that is the point. I like The Darling Buds of May. I like Cutter\u2019s Way. And I\u2019d eat scallops from Isla, and I\u2019d drink an Imperial Stout (Sam Smiths), and I\u2019d smoke a cigarette (Manitou 9). And I\u2019d drink an espresso from the Algerian coffee shop in Soho. And I\u2019d feed the baby goats on a high hill in a sunny Switzerland. Alas, chance intervenes as it always has and always will.<\/p>\n

\n\tAny plans yet for your next film? Not that I want to hamster-wheel you!<\/strong><\/p>\n

\n\tMaybe I\u2019ll do the difficult second part of the book that tends to be left out of Wuthering Heights screen adaptations. Certificate U [for \u201cuniversal,\u201d a film rating from the\u00a0British Board of Film Classification]. And in the meantime, the success of Last Movies might mean I\u2019m given the opportunity to undermine any good I have done by lending my singular talent to a string of commercials for the brands aforementioned? I have a big idea for Persia. But it\u2019s hard to know where the camera is to go when a genocide has been live-streamed; when everything is and has been shot.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

\u2018 The preceding article may include information circulated by third parties \u2019 <\/em><\/p>\n

\u2018 Some details of this article were extracted from the following source www.hollywoodreporter.com \u2019 <\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

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