This is the long-delayed (begun in 2022) Part II of my 2-part blog about my WWI filmic poem/short documentary, now available to rent at, "Pvt. Ravel's Bolero". I just came across this blog in my drafts folder. Rather than wait for my film companion book (far better and detailed than either of this blogs that the book is based upon), I thought I would just put this out to the world now. The book will be far better...
The film has won over sixty national and international film awards as you can see in the graphic on this page below to get an idea. I have to say, I'm proud of this film, more so when you consider that state of health I was in when I started it, finished it, and began to send it around on the film festival circuit. I couldn't have been happier with the results and accolades I received for it.
This blog will focus on the format and meaning of the film. While I have long been writing a film companion book for it, nearly completed, these past few years have been problematic and interrupted by covid and long covid infections. I'm doing so much better, over that now, but still healing from some of the damages, which I detailed in a book, Suffering "Long Covid".
NOTE: I originally wrote the poem "Ravel's Bolero Flashmob" (those were popular back then still) in January of 2014 and first submitted it that month to a poetry magazine. I am currently writing this blog [in 2020] with news reports on my TV of the illegal invasion of Ukraine by the illiberally "elected" President of Russia, [now war criminal] Vladimir Putin and his propagandized Russia.
Mostly who are unaware of what is being done in their name. Who would be horrified if they did. War, needs to stop. War mongers need to be dealt with, disallowed from their beloved past time and primary method of tyranny: death. How could this, and my upcoming film companion book, not be shaped by the experience of making a war documentary and sending it out into the world right as another war begins?
In my previous Part I to this blog, I covered how it came to by and developed. Here I wish to detail what it means as a film. I studied film since childhood, watching foreign films on PBS, fully unaware of the education I was receiving. Until, studying cinema in college as well as through readings and working on productions over the years.
For background on this film and definitions of "filmic poem", please see Part I:
"AntiWar Film - "Pvt. Ravel's Bolero" (2022) Filmic Poem & Historical Documentary - Part I"
Why do I need to do this? Well, I don't.
On the other hand, I suspect without this some may well miss so much going on in this film. The history of film/cinema and structure of poetry and the filmic poem (known by various names), isn't intimately known by many and so may well miss much of what is built into this film.
If you have read Part I, you will know how this film developed. How the poem was the basis for it and formed its structure. How through the process, the film enhanced the poem which restructured the film in an ever recycling loop, until it was completed.
To save time I will simply begin to explain the film as I see it from this point forward rather than bother about what was originally intended, or what and how things developed, and go on with how they ended up. Much of that is all covered in Part I.
I would like to mention however, that all the photos were originally black and white. I have colorized many of the photos and videos. Artist Marvin Hayes also helped with some of the more difficult photos. Simply making many of these photos and videos clearer, took a great deal of time. The Foley work, adding audio effects also took a lot of time, as all the photos certainly and most of the videos had no sound.
I will divide up the following sections into the same sections of the film:
Title
Foreword
Intro
The Body
Outro
Credits
Post Credits
So, let's have at it, shall we?
The film opens with an onscreen warning suggesting the viewer adjust the sound levels. An audio of rain is presented as loud as the loudest part of the film will be. Why? Because Bolero begins slow and quietly builds until finally it ends in a crescendo of sound and tempo. I found for myself, this kept me having to constantly adjust the volume. Adjusting right at the beginning eliminates having to continuously adjust the sound levels.
Title
The full title of the poem this film is based on, what began this entire project is:
"Pvt. Ravel's Bolero, In "No Man's Land", Verdun, France, 30 June 1916"
"Pvt." being "Private", which was Joseph Maurice Ravel's rank in the French army. The original poem can be read here. It's original version was also published in Anthology of Evil II Vol. I (2020). For this film however, I added for clarity:
"A Poem Wrapped in WWI and the Music Of Maurice Ravel"
Foreword
The first visual we see is of an older Ravel, distinguished, befitting the world's greatest composer at that time and introduces that he is playing the piano version of his "Bolero" underscoring this first part of the film.
In using an photo of Ravel from later in life, it sets the stage for Ravel to be reflecting on his past throughout the film, with all that memory offers us in mixed imagery, in desire, in our missed opportunities, and in initially setting the stage for the forthcoming dream.
Intro
Here begins the narration, read by a voice actor Jey Martin, in French. The actors in this film have multiple characters. Atreverse member voice actor Jey speaks in a narrator's voice as a Parisian in more proper French. He later speaks in a different accent to indicate other characters such as Ravel, with his older, first half of the 1900's, Parisian accent, shooting for a slight Basque flavor, as Ravel spent many of his younger years there.
Later in the film, Atreverse member voice actor Brel Martínez shoots for a Parisian accent with more of a working class sound, to mimic Ravel's beloved truck which he named, "Adélaïde".
Underlying the on screen English text read by our narrator in French, are scenes of the war as it builds. French soldiers are seen moving to the battle field. Importantly, facing/heading to the right of screen as later scenes of Germans, show them always facing/moving to the left. This is to orient the viewer throughout the film. Some videos and photos needed to be flipped for the directions to follow this format.
These initial scenes present the beginning of trenches and soldiers populating trench and protected areas. They are standing around, curious, confused, a bit blurry at times as the "fog of war" is nearly upon them and they know it. But not nearly as bad as it soon will be. And they know that too.
NOTE: A few words on blurry or imperfect visual in the film...this film was first constructed with the best imagery possible and some wasn't very good. But it was early in the science of film and, filming in war time is seldom perfect. As the film grew in production, better imagery replaced less relevant or less quality imagery with more fitting elements as sections of film were added to, or layered over. However, while some scenes could have been replaced with better footage, at times they weren't, as it supported the poetic nature of the moment. Thus, opening scenes have a blurry imagery as do some of the ending scenes...even more so. Why? In the beginning, any soldier going INTO war is confused, frightened, disturbed. After the war, in leaving the battlefield, that is replaced with a different kind of "fog" including those elements. A pre- and a post-"fog", if you will. But along with the pain and suffering experienced, along with the disturbing, seemingly senseless loss of friends and compatriots. However in between those beginning and ending "fogs", while then is when the typically referred to "fog of war" truly exists, there is also a clarity required BY war, in order to stay alive. It is in those moments during, before and after war when there is time to think, to consider, to imagine, when the true fog invades one's thoughts and can truly effect it's burden. The "fog of war" during war is frequently an inability to assess and act appropriately, which this other kind of "fog" was what is being presented here in this film through various techniques to invoke in the viewer a sparse sense of what these soldiers experience in their Service.
Our narrator now begins to describe Ravel's entry into the war, drawing an association with author and adventurer, Ernest Hemingway. This comparison offers the viewer a spark to later look into both Ravel and Hemingway, as it opens their association in this, as well as to consider how many others like them may have had similar experiences.
The narration goes on to set up the war and Ravel's situation within it. As well as the dangers surrounding him and the road he frequented with his "camion" (truck) "Adélaïde".
Adélaïde, Ravel's transport into and out of danger, day in and day out. One can assume the close connection and bond he would have experienced during his repetitive travels through such terrifying environments.
The narrator's voice shifts to Ravel's voice, reading a letter he wrote to a friend regarding his situation (on screen, in a script style font supporting that this was a letter to a friend). Men in underlying footage continue preparing their trenches and safe zones among the inevitable battlefield.
The letter's content are then accentuated as a big gun fills the screen and fires, echoing the aforementioned dangers of big guns. Ravel goes on in the letter to introduce his truck, "Adélaïde", while on screen we see a painting of what "she" may very well have looked like.
This first part of the film as Intro, is slow, acclimating the viewing through visuals and narration, into the tenuous world of WWI trench warfare. There is still time now to read what is on screen. There is still time to hear what is being said (even if it is in French).
As in war, that is soon to change.
All through the film as an establishing point, French & allies are generally viewed moving to the right of screen and therefore toward the Germans. While the Germans as seen generally heading always to the left, toward the French lines.
It should then be noticed that the truck in the painting is headed not "to the front" (going toward the right of screen as previously established), but rather headed to left of screen, as if leaving the battlefield where the French are.
This supports that it is a transport vehicle, loaded down, moving war materiels to the front. Then returning empty, able to travel faster with less weight, only to reload and head right back into the ever monotonous journey, from terror to horror and back again.
From dangers to safety, only to return back into dangers.
A photo of Pvt. Ravel appears on screen in his "camion" uniform with his large fur overcoat as cabs of these trucks are open. Enclosed vehicles are not common place yet in 1916 and war vehicles are still left open for safety purposes to be able to escape easily if need be.
This initial introductory section begins to draw to a close with a painting of an ambulance, as if headed toward the battlefield. A brief history of Maurice Ravel is given in French by our narrator with the on screen text in English.
Years after the war, Ravel is considered the greatest composer in the world. So it is appropriate to have these readings in French. Though Ravel grew up in the Basque region, he lived his adult life in Paris. The on screen text is in English, as it has long been the language of business for the entire world.
A brief note on the paintings in the film. There are a few, but most are by American Capt. Harry Townsend, who was sent by the military to produce paintings of battlefields. An exceptional bit of foresight by those who sent him, as well as others.
From the Smithsonian:
"...spending some time in France and Germany...Townsend came back to America, first to draw war posters, then to join the official artists and return to France in spring 1918. Much of his war work centered on new technologies like warplanes and tanks."
Then with the single on screen word: "Bolero", the Intro wraps up as we fall into the Body of the work, which begins with the opening of the orchestral piece of Ravel's Bolero. The first time it was ever publicly played and recorded."Imagination...especially in war, is a wonderous, if mixed, blessing."
The Body
As Ravel's first public performance of Bolero begins playing, a huge battlefield explosion is seen and heard, blending into the beginning of the music. Then we hear the soft beginning of Bolero.
A French cavalry unit is seen sitting on their horses in some water, preparing to move again toward the front. Toward danger, and death. But hopefully also, to success, and the demise of the Germans' intentions to destroy or take over the world.
A manipulated photo of "No Man's Land" appears. There is an over exaggerated image of a soldier, in shock and pain, staring directly into the camera. It is a startling moment that fades quickly. He is not alone.
Uncomfortable moments of a black screen force the viewer to sit in darkness, with their thoughts, waiting, as the image of No Man's Land remain unmoving on their mind's eye.
A photo of a cemetery of soldiers appears.
Another battlefield explosion appears with yet another trencher soldier's slang definition on screen.
Over black, a letter Ravel penned to a friend, describes his reasons for being in the war, as read aloud in Ravel's "voice" in French (with English text on screen).
Now that we have established a bit about Ravel, about Bolero, about WWI, and Verdun, the poem begins as read by Maurice's companion throughout this war, his truck, "Adélaïde".
She reads the title of the poem (in common French), then begins reading, "Pvt. Ravel's Bolero".
On screen text is in red script font in order to enhance and underscore the death and carnage of the war in the poem. As well as the intimacy of Ravel's story as told by his truck friend, his Adélaïde. "She" who kept him safe, repeatedly taking him into and away from danger.
Another soldier's slang definition appears on screen, as it will continue to do throughout the body of this film.
Multiple times throughout the poem repeats the phrase, "No Man's Land", driving home the intensity and meaning of that place where these soldiers had to stare out from, throughout their war, fearing whatever came to them, always from, "over there". Though at times too, realizing those over there were also soldiers, also men, too. Just as they were.
Multiple photos move by until a panoramic shot of all of Verdun is panned over, establishing the location in its most complete view. While soldier's slang definitions punctuate the view.
We then see a painting of soldiers hiding in tall grasses as others carry wounded. Then a photo of soldiers sitting in the muck and holes they had dug, staring out at us while the music plays on, and the poem continues.
Our poem tells of the tale of Verdun, and of Ravel, of his Adélaïde, and of the fear of trench warfare. It tells of Ravel as if he had been in the trenches as a soldier, a musician, hating the pain, death and fear along with the others. Wishing as they all did for a moment of respite from it all. From the confusion of their hatred as others hated them, either side wishing for the demise of those "Others". While recognizing they too are loved on their side, by their family's back home. If not by one another as soldiers at arms, as that "band of brothers" that only war can hammer into being.
The music, the reading of the poem and the photos continue to underscore one another. Just as they had during the production of this film, each building on and restructuring the other, until we have before us, the finished piece we now have. Drawing us in, pushing us away, educating us on a time and place we have never experienced, and would not want to had we been there.
We now back off from a photo of an immense battlefield expanse that dwarfs the small vehicles we see in it, as we pull back away, revealing just how horrific the scene is. The colors of the explosion are punctuated by the blue of the sky invading, pushing through all the smoke and debris.
An image of Ravel in his uniform is displayed, looking clean, obviously before he entered the battlefield to deliver his supplies and war materiel, day after day.
A long moment of darkness moves the audience into thought, with only another soldier definition of bayonets on screen, as the music draws one's emotions lower and slower...until there is only darkness, for longer than one might wish for.
The horror of flame throwers brightens the screen with a description of what that meant during the war. How the Germans first developed those weapons, but the French found ways to enhance them.
Thoughts of death by flame thrower, seeps in.
Darkness, as a flute rises and Adélaïde continues her tale as the poem continues. She tells of Ravel's imagination conjuring up how he might have played a flute in the trenches, beginning his Bolero. Beginning before he wrote it, before the war ended, drawing in his fellow soldiers, offering them some respite.
A distressed video pans a hillside, probably carved out somewhat by bombs, while soldiers labor and wait, and wait, and labor, waiting on the next nightmare.
We zoom down into an actual photo of the trenches in Verdun from high in the sky as Adélaïde describes Ravel's nervous observation of the enemy trench line, as he plays his song.
For a moment we leave the trenches to visit the sky, as our narrator describes how aerial combat was first developed over the trenches of Verdun. Footage plays from airplanes dropping bombs upon those fields.
We return to the trenches as soldiers continue to carefully observe across No Man's Land. A photo of a lone soldier walks along a wooden walkway through a trench before it is turned into a disgusting working trench of warfare. The solitude and loneliness are there on display for all to see.
Soldiers are seen leaving the trenches on a sortie, across No Man's Land.
Footage of bombs exploding in the fields, as Adélaïde continues a story of another soldier standing up, and joining Ravel's playing, as his music continues, as others join them both.
These soldiers of Ravel's imagination in the poem bravely play on with Ravel's music, becoming their music, standing fearless, as a footage continues to play of soldiers crawling forward across, No Man's Land.
As the poem tells of the music swelling, we see a scene of soldiers standing and running across No Man's Land.
Over another black screen, more soldiers stand with Ravel and play, as we can see them, in our mind, as Ravel might have seen them. Over the black screen, dead rise and play along with Ravel and his comrades, as the fantasy takes a turn into the fantastical and the even more morbid.
We take a moment now to consider a rather horrific photo taken from the narrative film shot during this war, that of "J'accuse" (1919), by director Abel Gance. There is more about that in the Outtakes reel.
We move now into a subplot of the poem of one soldier in the trenches who does not buy into Ravel's fantasy, his truce of them all playing music together, of both sides, of friends with enemies in a moment of shared humanity and of compassion. This soldier is the one of us who hates, who sees the moment as another opportunity to kill. As a free shot at the "enemy".
It is a flip to what happened in 1914 with the first soldier killed after the infamous WWI "Christmas truce".
From the article:
"Accounts suggest that men sang carols and in some cases left their trenches and met in No Man's Land to exchange gifts. There are even claims that a game of football was played...Everyone started to get up and wander over this killing ground. When they went up they started to shake each others hand and they started to exchange gifts."
At some point a gun accidentally discharged on the British side during the truce, harming no one. But a German on the other side mistook it, fire back and killing, as it is believed, 20 year old Scottish rifleman, Walter Sinclair Smith, with the 5th Cameronians Scottish Rifles.
And so Smith was the first to be killed, ending the truce.
We take a moment then for a photo of French soldiers in a taken German trench and another photo of French soldiers sharing food in their trench, in two juxtaposed slices of time of aggression and peace, attack and sustenance.
Footage plays of a big gun firing repeatedly at the German lines, as the poem tells of a German soldier who stands, curious about the music drifting over from the French lines, from those enemy lines, and he climbs toward the lovely music... as an "enemy" takes aim. But is it this German soldier taking aim, another, or the French soldier taking aim at him?
Just who exactly IS the enemy here? It evokes the beliefs in every war, of both sides asking their version of God, to protect them as the righteous ones to defeat their enemies. Enemies of theirs and therefore, of God. The audacity of humankind in its purest form.
The big gun continues firing as the music plays diminutively and Adélaïde holds her silence, for the moment.
The music changes as the big gun stops firing and we switch to a view of the German line watching over No Man's Land. Adélaïde talks now about the enemy and just who the enemy IS in war?
In the poem, in the moment those in the French line, see their comrade aiming to kill during such a moment as music and humanity are building. They are horrified at this, at themselves for understanding him.
There is a mix among those in the trench of those who agree with the marksman, and yet, feel something else, and wonder at how they find his action suddenly so very disconcerting, even horrible. They are confused. They need leadership. If not from within, then from without
Finally, an officer takes action. He smacks the marksman in the head, giving that direction so desired by his men. Bringing about a moral compass for the moment, for all to see. He angers the soldier for ruining his shot. His black mood even more pronounced.
But in looking at his officer, transferring his anger from enemy soldier to fellow officer, he too is now conflicted. In looking at the accusing eyes of his comrades, he finally realizes his chosen position, laid bare there before them all, his humiliation and fear overtaking him. That "fog", that conundrum of war, enshrouding him.
We take a moment as blackness covers the screen until we see a photo of a trench rat hunter and his many catches. We are reminded of the misery of living in a trench during a war.
Only to then see a photo of a German "Dead Man's Hill", death and skeletons of soldiers never buried lying haphazardly about.
Again, a moment of darkness on screen until Adélaïde speaks again. We see s single man in a field of No Man's Land.
Is it Ravel? We revisit the marksman's anger upon his officer for his missed shot, such an easy shot it could have been! But his officer stares at him in utter and total anger for stealing their moment of humanity from them all.
A brief pause as we see a lone figure on No Man's Land, near a trench full of his dead. The more we look, the more we see.
We now see a photo from the other side. Germans filming the French trench lines. It is very blue, so much different than the brownish tints so typically seen in these photos. They seem almost relaxed, a heavy juxtaposition to where we are in the poem and the film.
The French marksman sees the anger among his fellow soldiers, for his attempt to destroy their moment, when they were all so happy to share, the music, the comradery, a magic few moments shattered.
He realizes even better now what he had been about to do and what he had fully missed out on. He lays down his gun. As he relinquishes his gun he relinquishes his anger. We jump to a video of German soldiers rushing out of their trench to the enemy.
No matter if you take your mind off the reality of war, or share a moment of good feelings. War remains. Always. And continues.
We cut to yet another photo of German soldiers observing the French lines. Less blue now, with red, almost brown in it, returning us to the battlefield horrors. In war, one is always under observation.
We cut to an explosions in black and white. Then, to a photo of a field ambulance, reminding us of the results of inattention in war. Or of taking a chance on not being in fighting mode at any and all times.
We move into the dance of bombs in a battlefield scene. We jump for a moment to a serene scene of camouflaged train rails. Then back to the dance of bombs as the music continues rising in tempo.
A war poster for the war effort is shown. A woman flies over the battlefield. It suggests we invest money into the war effort. Then, to footage of medics collecting another wounded soldier on the battlefield. Another shot of a war poster. Then footage of observers watching in a field as a smoke grenade explodes before them.
Adélaïde describes how the soldiers in the trench watch Ravel and the men, playing. Even the dead. Yet it has evoked a lightness in them all. Even in the German line.
Footage of flame throwers and their mechanized death in this new form of warfare, is a brief reminder that is always present.
Another big gun fires directly at us, as audience. Adélaïde describes how the music is curing the men's disease of war. How, if only momentarily, all are reminded of their humanity and considerations again of friend and foe. Of how it can become obscured in war. Of how our fellow soldiers are our friends, if not brothers, through these many forged trials of fear and death, and survival.
Another momentary break as civilians are seen moving to the left from the war area away to safety. Reminding us of their suffering, too. An overlay of a postcard reminds us of how death comes in war from all angles, from all sides, and from above us. There is little escape.
After an image of soldiers eating in a bomb crater, we see footage of a massive ammo dump, overlaid with several musical weapons of WWI, built and played by soldiers in the trenches.
A scene of a massive dump of expended big gun shells gives us an idea of just how much ammo was discharged during this, or any war. Our narrator makes this clear in detailing just how much was fired off during WWI, as we continue panning over the footage of the massive ammo dump.
Footage plays of fresh soldiers in a trainyard waving to a packed train of ever more fresh soldiers. All headed to the front among cheers and waving of hands and hats as the tempo of the music continues to rise. We cannot but think of how these men have no idea of the death and mayhem they are about to be inserted into, with little or no escape.
A pair of war posters are seen, asking for donations of money to the war effort.
Cheerfully, a group of Red Cross march by camera on the way to the front. Then a moment of extended blackness, until...we see footage of a German soldier walking toward the camera... as he is blown to dust.
A machine gun fires. Then we see what is being fired at, Germans advancing as they fall and as the music continues to rise.
We return to the previous lone German soldier, just before he is blown to bits, as he is blown up again and yet, not as it had just missed him after all, and he continues approaching carrying a bucket while more bombs barely miss him.
In a new scene at night, soldiers move away into the distance where just over the horizon, massive explosions light up frame, one after another, their sounds so far away they are delayed, out of synch with the visuals. We see the light of the explosions first, then belated, we hear their terrifying retorts.
The music continues rising and we are left in utter blackness, but only for the moment.
The final war poster is displayed and then footage is seen as the "Black Butchers" enter the frame. These are the armillary soldiers. They operate their big gun, loading and raising it into position. The utter devastation of no man's land is seen all about and in the distance. Then the gun fires, stunning reality and finally, it returns downward to its hidden, resting position.
We are now momentarily visited, among the blackness of the screen, with a faint image of "Death incarnate", ever present in war, as a definition appears on screen of "Des totos", the ever present lice and fleas that those in the trenches (and others) had to live with, day in and day out, all through interminable long days and long nights.
The screen goes black again and we are left only with our thoughts, as the music momentarily diminishes in scale and in tempo.
Until it picks up again, as we take an aside from the poem. Footage of a British tank approaching. Our narrator is silent now, as this is about a British oriented weapon rather than a French or more global, allied one.
German soldiers are seen experiencing the utter uselessness of their personal weaponry against this weapon of mass destruction. A German water cooled machine gun fires, as its bullets simply bounce off of the armored vehicle.
From, "The Vickers Blog: Germany":
"The German use of the Vickers MG [originally, .50 caliber] was initially restricted to the single gun purchased above, probably for trials use. However, it's known that they use captured weapons extensively in the Great War. They were converted to fire the German 7.92mm ammunition and were marked with an 'S' to indicate such conversion."
Outro
Post Credits
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