Anthony McCall & Andrew Tyndall - Argument

Argument is a dense and provocative feature-length essay examining one issue of the New York Times magazine to investigate the ideology of news, the language of fashion and the construction of masculinity.

"The twin principles of modernism and marketing: seeing fresh promise in familiar things."

Anthony McCall and Andrew Tyndall's legendary and provocative essay film Argument, first screened at the Edinburgh International Film Festival in 1978, has been almost unseen for the last twenty years. LUX has now made a new High Definition restoration of the film, and its trenchant analysis of media ideology seems more pertinent than ever. Three male voices dissect one edition of the New York Times through a series of locked-off shots, revealing the prejudice and latent content of news and advertisements, reading images as texts and presenting text as an image. Fashion photographs are used as a starting point for a political investigation of news, advertising, and images of masculinity - while at the same time, the filmmakers reflect on their own position and the possibility of radical film practice. Influenced by both the America and European avant-gardes, notably Godard and Hollis Frampton, Argument is stylistically beautiful and relentless in its enquiry.

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